What with Nintendo announcing DLC and 200+ more oldies coming back, nows the time to talk about Pokemon! The newest games Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield take place in the Galar region, an area obviously influenced by UK and Celtic history. In it, there are tons of brand new Pokemon, new forms of old Pokemon, and even Gigantamax designs. Honestly, if you're into character designs, this new game is one of the best ones.
But, even if a lot of the new Poke's are pretty great, they can't all be winners, so we're here to run down the 10 designs that we think didn't make the mark. Now, we made our choices based on a combination of both usefulness and design scale, because we think both are equally important. If you're here just to see which ones are statistically the weakest, that's not gonna happen.
10 Barraskewda
We'll start things off with a concept that the Pokemon developers just can't seem to get through their heads. No. More. Fish. Okay? It's not that difficult a concept, yet every new generation we're cursed with 1-4 new forgettable fish Pokemon. The only winners in recent memory are oddballs like Wishiwashi and like Sharpedo. It'd be fine if there was only a couple of them, but there are over 30 different fish or fish-like Pokemon spread across all the games.
And Barraskewda? It's about the middle of the pack. The design isn't awful, but it's in no way memorable. Plus, other than its absurdly high speed, this pure-water Poke has nothing of value stat-wise. Maybe, just maybe it'd be decent with some amazing items. But, we personally don't think this fish is worth the investment.
9 Stonjourner
Yeah, we get it, Stonjourner is a reference to the Stonehenge arches. And while that is a cute homage, it doesn't excuse the poor design. There are different categories of Pokemon designs based on who you ask, but among all of them there's at least a bit more effort put into them than "drawing an arch and adding a smiley-face".
To be fair, Stonjourner has some pretty unique animations and a pure-rock typing that leads to some great STAB-move potential, but that's about it. In competitive, it's outclassed in every way, and in casual play, there's nothing really unique about its moveset. Power Spot is a neat ability for Double battles, but that's all the credit we can give it.
8 Inteleon
Man Sobble had so much design potential. A cute little creature that cries its way to victory is such a charming gimmick, but its Evolutions just don't have nearly the same charm. And, when compared to Rillaboom or Cinderace, Inteleon is lacking in both design and viability. It just doesn't feel like a natural progression of the initial design theme.
7 Eiscue
Now here's a Pokemon with a dorky design and a fantastic ability. Ice Face is Eiscue's bread and butter. Basically, the first physical-type move to hit this cubed penguin will do 0 damage, and it'll transform into Noice form (get it? Nice? No-Ice?). That alone is pretty good, but it regenerates it's ice-form in hail, which makes for some pretty annoying move set potential. Honestly, Eiscue seems like one of the best "competitive" Galar Pokemon, but that design is so lame, so it's off the strong-boys list.
Not because it's a bad idea or anything, it's just a poor execution. Its body looks exactly like a penguin's rather than being similar with a bit of fantasy thrown in, The Ice-Head should've had a bit of transparency, and the head and body design's clash horribly. We love the concept, just not the execution.
6 Blipbug
Let us just say, Orbeetle is an amazing design. Dottler even grew on us too once we learned that its design is based on these Doppler-effect monitoring domes. It seems all 3 of these Pokemon mimic both Ladybug aspects and meteorological ones. Doppler Domes are used in meteorology quite often, and Orbeetle's Gigantamax form is referencing UFOs.
But Blipbug? We've got nothing. Obviously, it's a larva, and the eyes and bowtie scream "bookworm" or "stereotypical nerd" but it doesn't quite land for us. Plus, it doesn't have the same design theme as it's two evolutions. Maybe if this "nerd" had aspects that made it seem like an astrology nerd, we'd be more into the idea.
5 Sandaconda
Boy howdy does Sandaconda have so much potential. In our opinion, Silicobra is like the perfect combination of silly and cool for a Pokemon, while Sandaconda learns a bit too far into silly territory. We get the design mentality, and have it stay coiled up like that is a neat idea, but it just ends up looking awkward for the most part.
But, luckily, that Gigantamax form nails it. Wow, does that look great! So, at the end of the day, we don't hate Sandaconda's design, just wish it uncoiled and recoiled during its animations or something. Plus Sand Spit might be one of the most beneficially annoying abilities we've seen in Pokemon thus far.
4 Duraludon
And speaking of Pokemon that have awesome Gigantamax designs but poor base designs, there's Duraludon. Un-Gigantamax'd, Duraludon suffers from the problem a decent amount of the newer pokemon deal with, it's way too "edgy" or "blocky".
At first glance, Duraludon looks like a hodgepodge of awkward shapes, and taking a closer look doesn't help all too much. But, the Gigantamax form where the UK's Shard Tower theme truly comes into play is where Duraludon makes up for it. And, it's potential isn't too bad either, since it can have either Light Metal or Heavy Metal as an ability, a property unique to only this Pokemon.
3 Rolycoly
Man, Rolycoly just looks awful compared to its evolutions. We had some issues with Blipbug's design thesis and felt it could have been better done, but Rolycoly is just a bad design. The Pokedex says it's supposed to resemble a small piece of coal, but it looks more like multiple pieces.
It's a mess of shapes, much in the same way Roggenrola starts to look with each evolution. Luckily, both Carkol and Coalossal are awesome in every sense of the word.
2 Pincurchin
Similar to how there are a few forgettable fish Pokemon every new Generation, there's also a forgettable "oddball" Pokemon that doesn't evolve from or into anything and has meager stats. Dunsparce is the most memorable one, Stunfisk is another, and this gen it's Pincurchin. Based on a Sea Urchin (obviously), this Pokemon shouldn't be purely-electric.
We could always use more Water-Electric Pokemon since the category only has Washer Rotom and Chinchou line. But, instead, we've got this electric dweeb with the worst speed in the entire line of volt-based Pokemon. And, to make matters even worse, it just looks like Snom's lamer cousin.
1 Eternatus
There really is a sweet spot when it comes to Pokemon designs, a balance between getting too complicated with the design and not complex enough. Ditto's perfectly simple, but Gigalith is a bit too much on the eyes. Eternatus is probably the most overly complicated Pokemon we've seen since the Ultra Beasts and we didn't miss it much. There are just too many shapes!
Plus, with a Stat spread of 690 total, it barely qualifies as a Legendary! Maybe we're exaggerating, but we just don't see the appeal. Zamazenta and Zacian are pretty amazing as far as Legendary designs go and they fit in well with the Canine Trio from the Gold/Silver games. But Eternatus? Eternally lame to look at.