Animation is an important part of any video game. Weather it be as photo-realistic as The Last of Us 2 or as stylish as Persona 5, the effort and time developers put into the character animations is something fans seem to appreciate. Over the years though, some fans of the Pokemon franchise have shown dissatisfaction with the attack animation produced by Game Freak within later generations.
From Generations 1-5, the Pokemon franchise maintained a sprite-based art style with 3D Pokemon titles being limited to rare home console games. While the sprite-based Pokemon would attack with simplistic animations, 3D games such as Pokemon Stadium and its sequel featured far more extravagant attacks. Once the mainline Pokemon titles became fully 3D in Generation 6, some fans may have been expecting the animations to be of Stadium's quality and were left disappointed.
A user on Reddit by the name of MortonShekelstorm recent posted a video directly comparing the animations in Pokemon Stadium to Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. The video in question showcases two different Pokemon performing the move Mega Kick in Pokemon Stadium. Kabutops flings itself forward using its scythe-arms to perform the kick while Snorlax throws its entire weight into the Mega Kick, flying into a drop-kick animation.
The video continues displaying a Pikachu performing Double Kick which sees it hop twice while a foot symbol appears on the opponent. MortonShekelstorm would caption their post "Why are people okay with this?" questioning Pokemon fans' willingness to accept the current attack animations and look of modern Pokemon. It should be noted that it wasn't Game Freak who developed Pokemon Stadium but, instead it was HAL Laboratory, developer of the Kirby franchise.
What may be the reason some Pokemon fans have grown resentful towards the current animations in Pokemon games is due to the comparison to titles from the past. Pokemon Stadium released for the Nintendo 64 and features smooth animations full of life despite its other outdated elements. In comparison, modern Pokemon titles feature stiff and limited movement in battle. Though, HAL Laboratory may have devoted more time to animation than Game Freak since Pokemon Stadium was a battle simulator and not a full RPG.
Pokemon fans continue to debate the quality of animations in the mainline games and with possible Pokemon Scarlet and Violet leaks depicting the attack motions of the newer creatures, only time will tell if Pokemon audiences will be satisfied.