Shaking up Pokemon

If you are like me, you are snob when it comes to Pokemon.  You know that the original Pokemon were the best and that no matter what anyone says, it’s not just nostalgia talking.  Lately, “new” Pokemon are just the old ones with slight redesigns or type changes.  Tell me this: what does GameFreak do with all it’s time if they’re just rehashing their old work?  After the break, I’ll expend my point about the recent failing in Pokemon creativity and even offer some new, unique concepts.

In the first generation, Pokemon were interesting.  I still don’t know what Lapras is, or what kind of creature Electabuzz is supposed to be.  Jigglypuff is a singling balloon and Farfetch’d hits people with a leak for some reason.  How did a bunch of eggs get to be psychic?  Mr. Mime… well psychic mimes are a little cliche, but you get the idea.  For the most part, Pokemon were new.  Now?  Beartic is just an ice type version of Ursaring, and Liepard is a dark type Persian.  Bouffalant is EXACTLY a Tauros, Unfezant is a Pidgeot, except now it’s ACTUALLY a pigeon   Garbodor is Muk, Excadrill is Sandslash, Conkeldurr is Machamp; I could go on.  But I won’t.

Instead, I’d like to prove that Pokemon has not run out of unused ideas; that they don’t just have to keep rehashing the same old concepts.  Below are four Pokemon concepts I believe to be unique, which is to say that they lack existing Pokemon corollaries.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed coming up with them.  (All art was a custom commission by my friend Victoria)

Stalkaffe – (grass) – Stage 3 of 5

First, something I’ve been waiting for since the third generation came out: a Pokemon with more than three stages.  Imagine this: there is a new Pokemon game, and you have forced yourself not to look at the new Pokemon before playing.  In one of the first routes, you encounter a small sprout called Shootly.  As it grows, it begins to take the shape of a little bamboo giraffe.  you think you’ve reached its third and thus final form, Stalkaffe.  But then, it starts to evolve again!  imagine your excitement when you find out it has not three, not four, but five stages!  I love this idea because A) there are no giraffe Pokemon.  There are some long necked things, but they’re more like chimeras.  B) Giraffes fight by whipping their necks at each other, which would be an awesome signature move.  And C) I really want GameFreak to get out of this three stage limit.  It’s boring.

Monitox – (poison) – Stage 2 of 3

Next, we have a poison type called Monitox.  Pokemon has a number of poisonous plants and many, many poisonous snakes.  They even have a poisonous fish.  But they’ve never done a poisonous lizard.  Personally I think Gila monsters and komodo dragons are really cool, and I would love to see a similar creature show up in Pokemon.  The color scheme too is very different. So many poison type Pokemon are green or purple that I think the warm orange and reds would really stand out.  Another thing that I would really like about a poison type lizard Pokemon is that the evolved form could be a basilisk.  Not the basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets, because J. K. Rowling made it a snake just for the whole Slytherin thing.  Basilisks were originally multi-legged lizards and incredibly poisonous.  It’s a fitting final form and GameFreak has never done a poison/dragon type pairing before.

Lashrow – (dark) – Stage 2 of 2

Then there are Frightle and its evolved form, Lashrow.  Dark type Pokemon have almost no creatures that are personifications of shadow itself, excluding Darkrai, who is specifically made near impossible to get in the one generation he’s available.  All the rest are some kind of malevolent animal.  Lashrow builds on moves that ensnare enemies with its shadowy tendrils, lower enemy defenses, and prevent the opponent from fighting back.  I also love the pun of giving him a signature move of “clothesline” because of the cloak he has wrapped around himself.  I think that it would be an interesting ability to have his evasion increase at night, blending him into the darkness.  You have to love those day/night cycles, and while pokemon evolution, and wild pokemon appearances have been effected by time of day, they have yet to have abilities that play in at different times of day.

Hemoski – (bug/steel) – Stage 1 of 1

Lastly, I offer Hemoski, a bug/steel type. This type combination has been seen before in Pokemon like Scizor and Forretress, but this is one of the types of bugs I’ve been amazed they haven’t used: mosquitoes.  I think of a Hemoski fighting very much like a Beedrill, using its speed and flight to use hit and run tactics while also using a lot of moves like Leech Life, possibly with its own souped up version.  It may not look like a steel type, owing to the lack of silvery hues, but between its blood and the oxygen it carries, I liked the rusty color a lot.  It’s much darker colored than either steel or bug types typically are, which gives it a fairly unique look. But also I liked the idea of the parallels between the mosquito’s proboscis and a hypodermic needle.  If you imagine a Hemoski being nearly five feet tall, that’s a big needle!

The average new generation of Pokemon adds 125 new species of Pokemon.  Between all the stages of the Pokemon presented here, that’s 11 Pokemon that I hope you agree are new and unique Pokemon.  That doesn’t include a swordfish water type, a banshee ghost type, an elephant normal type, and a series of ditto like creatures made from magma (fire), mercury (poison) and mud (ground) that didn’t make it into my favorite four, as well as a number of evolutions of existing Pokemon.  All in all, I could probably cover a fifth of the new Pokemon for a new generation from the ideas I already have.  Come on GameFreak.  Step it up a notch.

Matthew Bryant, aka Baker Street Holmes, is an avid Pokemon fan, despite the decline in creativity.  He is anxiously awaiting the release of Pokemon X and Y this Fall.  You can follow him on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes or e-mail him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.