Scarlet/Violet model gifs ripped by Twitter user adamsb0303!

And it's officially time for a brand new Generation! So the re-review series is gonna be on hold until we're done talking about Gen 9's new Pokemon, at least for now. Getting ahead of ourselves, Scarlet and Violet may be the best worst game we've ever played, but at least the Pokemon designs are unambiguously pretty kickass this time around! Most of us in the system getting a pretty hefty helping of new favorites to enjoy. A major step-up from Gen 8's lukewarm showing!

A Boss from Shadow the Hedgehog

Paldean Tauros:

As usual when it comes to these Pokemon review series, we're going in Pokedex order, which means hitting up on the new Paldean forms. Except this time there's only four of them. And Tauros is three of those four. Okay then. Like, sure, don't stick in more regional forms than feels like absolutely necessary, but really? Only two Pokemon families get Region forms? Yeesh.

So that's just creating a special case here. We're covering Tauros now, but since the other Paldean regional is related to a new Pokemon, we're just gonna hold off on it until then anyways.

Paldean Tauros comes in 3 "Breeds", this one being the "Combat Breed", and is mono-Fighting type. And given this is the region representing Spain, it seems rather obvious this is meant to call bull-fighting bulls to mind. It has duller, shorter horns but is otherwise black in color, which sure. You did it, that's a new form for Tauros alright.

Shadow the Hedgehog in Bull form

Blaze Breed:

This is where things get a little weird. If you're playing Scarlet, you'll sometimes find the Blaze Breed, which is Fighting/Fire instead. Though the Fire part of its typing is oddly understated, not featuring much other than some red marks and horns that are a bit sharper. Its tails are tied up, if that's your thing.

The odd part comes in with how this "Blaze Breed" may potentially be based on the rather controversial style of bullfighting where they literally set the bull's horns on fire. It feels like not too long ago that we reviewed Shuckle and said they seemingly would rather dodge the subject of animal cruelty with their Pokemon designs but apparently not? I mean, it's so tangential most would probably be none the wiser, but still.

Not like Shadow the Hedgehog all that much

Aqua Breed:

In Violet, you instead get the Aqua Breed, which has blue markings instead of red and a bit more buffalo-esque horns. Like the Blaze Breed, the Aqua Breed seems loosely based on a bullfighting style where it's run down into and eventually swims in the sea. Like, it felt like it was already rather predictable that a Spanish region would get a regional variant of Tauros with bullfighting themes but they go extra hard with it for some reason.

Overall this doesn't make Tauros much more exciting, though. Though it can somehow use its horns to propel itself in the water, and even has its tails spun up into the shape of a motorboat's propellers, which is a funny image. Though ingame, when it swims, all it does is has its horns glow while it spins its tails around. Still a funny image, but it feels like a bit more was promised.

We've always wanted poor forgotten ol' Tauros to be thrown a bone one day to make it relevant again, but this is kinda. Not that exciting, sadly.