Which Generation was best? (Pokemon Poll)

[equalsign]

There have been plenty of Pokemon modeled after inanimate objects: Voltorb, Geodude, Magnemite, Nosepass (may he rot in the pit), Drifloon, Rotom, and Bronzong are some examples. I don't think Garbodor and Vanilluxe are out of place at all among them.

I personally really liked Generation 5 (the Pokemon, not the games). They used a much wider color palette, and I really appreciated it. Gen 4 was dominated by blue, purple, light blue, light purple, yellow, brown, and green. It was super dull for me.

[Dylan]

There have been plenty of Pokemon modeled after inanimate objects: Voltorb, Geodude, Magnemite, Nosepass (may he rot in the pit), Drifloon, Rotom, and Bronzong are some examples. I don't think Garbodor and Vanilluxe are out of place at all among them.

Hmm, fair point (although I only recognize the gen 1 examples).

[alienjesus]

equalsign got there before me.

Plus, although Eggs are in the realm of biological organisms, Exeggcute becomes a coconut tree upon evolution, so it's not an animal egg. So I guess they're technically seeds, which are still a biological organism. Only, they have...yolk...inside...

Fuck it, lets stop trying to make sense of Pokémon

[Dylan]

Fuck it, lets stop trying to make sense of Pokémon

I'm going to be honest, I'm really disappointed at how hard it is to objectively defend gen 1 Pokemon. Something about later gens just rubs me the wrong the way though, and I really want to put my finger on it. I think it's things like the basis for the new designs (again, we get really far out stuff in gen V like garbage, furniture, ice cream, construction materials, thunder gods, snow flakes, baggy pants, centurion lancer hermit crabs, etc). We definitely had some weird designs in gen 1 (Mr. Mime, Magmar, Megnemite, Jynx, etc), but they just don't stick out to me like all of the new oddballs do. I also think part of it is the use of color in the newer gens, the colors are kind of washed out and there are some semi-frequent color combinations that I just can't stand (red and gray, and especially that red and blue you see on some of them).

I don't totally dislike gen V either though, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the designs I think are pretty good.

[WallCrusher]

Hmm, thought I posted earlier. Ah well.

My favorite is Gen 4. Even though I consider Diamond and Pearl just okay, I thought the series really picked up the pace with Platinum and HGSS, which are my top favorite Pokemon games along with GSC.

[Erik_Twice]

Something about later gens just rubs me the wrong the way though, and I really want to put my finger on it.

Design-wise it seems to me that newer pokemons are less humble, they tend to have more details and are less mundane in concept more than anything else. There are more Jynx equivalents, monsters that make you constantly think about the hand who drew them, the designer, and not the world.

I mean, the problem with a garbage bag or ice cream is that they can't work on the pokemon world. It doesn't make any narrative sense to have something shaped like that, you can't think of them being part of a weird ecosystem. You can see ghosts and to me, Rotom, isn't weird because he's just an electric poltergeist, which fits very well in the fantastic pokemon world while others just don't.

To me, Cofragious is another Jynx:
http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/cofagrigus

Some other designs are a bit overdone, they should be simpler in design:
http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/bisharp

But if you look through the lists, most pokemon are great through all generations, the number of Jynx has mostly stayed constant, so as to speak, and so many more guys are now viable for multiplayer or have some tricks that I can't really complain.

No excuse for Luvdisc, though

[Key-Glyph]

Design-wise it seems to me that newer pokemons are less humble, they tend to have more details and are less mundane in concept more than anything else. There are more Jynx equivalents, monsters that make you constantly think about the hand who drew them, the designer, and not the world.

This! I was struggling to say something about the difference being the emphasis on linework and intricate details, as opposed to big ideas, in setting the pokémon apart, but you nailed it. In particular I consistently had a problem with the final evolution of many Black/White species feeling too busy, too ugly, or too unrelated to the styles that preceded them (or all of the above).

Dwebble is a great example. The first form is very simple with a clever spin: a hermit crab animal living in a rock, not a shell, having as little to do with water as possible. I think that's pretty inspired. But then you get Crustle, which is poorly designed, only related to the preceding form by a conceptual thread, and feels like it's struggling under the weight of its own forced cleverness.

---->

I do like Garbadour, but have to admit its existence does imply a darker industrial/modern dimension to the pokémon world that I dislike, like the freeway over the desert area did.

And also, I loved the Sewaddle plug.

[Erik_Twice]

I think we might agree with this picture:

[Erik_Twice]

That's a problem with many new designs, they aren't focused on the shape. They often have very nice curves but they don't have any personality, they don't tell you about the Pokemon, so as to speak. Sure, Tepig is great, but it's final evolution is just forced and ugly, no living being will have that pattern.

Someone in Smogon compared RBY/GSC sprites with the remakes and found them worse, with too small eyes and poor posing, which is interesting:
http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue4/sprites

But to me, the most telling aspect is the shading. Shading is everywhere now and it ruins practically everything it touches. You have a drawing? Just shade it and it will be twice as good! Just look at modern Disney covers and it's obvious this way of thinking has crept into Pokemon, just like everything else:

Newer Pokemon go after this:
http://www.google.es/imgres?imgurl=http ... g&dur=1193

While the original had the far more charming Sugimori artwork as a concept.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/ ... apsule.png

[Key-Glyph]

Someone in Smogon compared RBY/GSC sprites with the remakes and found them worse, with too small eyes and poor posing, which is interesting:
http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue4/sprites

Oh man, this article is making me laugh so hard.

"The most ridiculous mistake in these sprites is the often the ridiculous and arbitrary shading. It is not hard at all to get right, and they certainly have in the past. Yet, for some reason, Onix everywhere awoke to find themselves balding from their necks upward, while their rocks waist downward retained youthful vigor. Poliwrath's shading is so offensive that I cannot even muster a contrived metaphor to describe the folly. Why Raichu has a random diagonal shadow cutting across nearly half of it is anyone's guess. I suppose they were just high off of the fumes of millions upon millions of dollars from the budget for rehashing a game they already made once and accidentally missed the urgent quality control emails."