938: Tadbulb
938: TadbulbSomething about Tadbulb's design just strangely works. It's clearly inspired by a tadpole, but it's still so oddly detached from a tadpole that it kinda ends up being its own thing, only using the tadpole inspirations as a base to go off of. Even stranger is that it doesn't even swim, rather it's a terrestrial Pokemon that floats just above the ground. And that combination of bizarre features makes Tadbulb by itself a lot of fun.
On top of that, it's obviously meant to be a light bulb, with its main body being the shape of one and having the big light-up cranium that it apparently blinks to alert its pals of danger. Neato!
Personal Score: 7/10
939: Bellibolt
939: BelliboltIts evolution, Bellibolt though... we're a bit more mixed on. On a conceptual level we want to be on board. Like Tadbulb, Bellibolt doesn't look that much like a frog, rather a strictly frog-ESQUE creature. Pokemon needs more of these biologically ambiguous weirdos these days. On top of that, it's based on a plasma ball, which sounds like a genius mix for an electric frog thing!
But the execution leaves quite a bit to be desired. First off, it has this false-face thing going on. It has big, inflated cheek pouches that look like big eyeballs, but aren't actually its eyes, rather an external organ that lights up and happens to have eyespots on it. Its real face is the dot-eyed smiley in the middle, the dot-eyes attempting to resemble nostrils. Except if you've seen Tadbulb, you're well aware of that already. Not to mention it isn't a very convincing false face.
Here, let's borrow Mimikyu for a better example. By now, most people know the dots on its "torso" is Mimikyu's real eyes, and the scribbles on the head of the decoy are merely a facade. That said though, we find ourselves still looking at this scribbly face as Mimikyu's face, before having to remember its eyes are down there. Bellibolt's more of a "once you see it, you can't unsee it" sort of case. It's eternally obvious what its real face is, it's not really fooling anybody.
On top of that, the plasma ball in its belly also feels a little weak. It doesn't really feel like a plasma ball so much as it looks like a flat texture on the surface of its stomach. Having a cool see-through dome around its stomach that becomes electrified for certain moves would be cool, but as it is, it's just not very good-looking.
Bellibolt could've been something cool, but alas. Half a point for a neat idea, at least. Just a shame it's a bit of a waste.
Personal Score: 5.5/10
I find the "false face" gimmick Bellibolt has going on to be very convincing, tbh, especially when you look at its in-game model rather than the official artwork. It's not AS well-hidden as Mimikyu, to be fair, but the fake eyes are so darn big that my eyes can't help but be directed towards them. In fact, from what I've seen, people don't like Bellibolt's design BECAUSE the fake eyes are so distracting to them (which only shows just how effective they really are).
ReplyDeleteYour point about the plasma ball looking like a flat texture is 100% correct, though. That part needed some more touch-ups.
(PS: I will say, though, that if the fake eyes were more like this, they would be even better and probably work on you. https://twitter.com/Grukituki/status/1580998693536210944?s=20&t=Vr5_hMjVltTauE5HlcmU8g)
DeleteThat, and we think having a wider mouth would make the effect more convincing.
DeleteWhen it was first introduced, we THOUGHT the big cheeks were its eyes, but as soon as we saw its "nostrils" blinked, we haven't been able to unsee the smiley face.