Greetings everyone, my name is Syy.
So, we did the Top 10 Best Pokemon of Gen
1, but of course there are two sides to that
coin, which is why today, we’ll be looking
at The Top 10 Worst Pokemon Of Gen 1.
Let’s begin.
Number 10: Poliwrath
So Poliwrath reminds me of one of those “Spot
the difference” puzzles you find in kids
menu coloring mats at restaurants.
Okay, here’s Poliwhirl, and here’s Poliwrath.
Spot the differences!
[Jeopardy music] Honestly, I’m willing to
bet that whatever designer made Poliwrath
was pulling shit out of his ass.
Like, he had a quota of creating 10 new Pokemon
that week, and to get over the limit, he tried
to pass off Poliwhirl again as a evolved form.
Thankfully this line did get fixed in Gen
2 with the introduction of Politoed, who is
a much stronger, more fitting final evolution
for the line, but that’s a low bar.
Kermit the Frog still would’ve been a better
final evolution than what we got!
Number 9: Seel
Seel.
It’s literally just a seal.
It’s not a seal that’s interesting in
anyway, or has ANYTHING unique going on with
it, it’s just a seal.
And not only is it just a seal, it’s no
longer even the best seal Pokemon, because
now we’ve got Spheal and his line, who are
all INFINITELY BETTER.
Seel’s only redeeming quality is that I
think his stupid face is cute.
That’s about it.
And it’s not like it’s an outright offensive
Pokemon or anything, but if I asked you to
list all 151 Gen 1 Pokemon from memory, I
guarantee you’d never remember his existence
in a million years.
Number 8: Dugtrio
DIGLET DIG DIGLET DIG, TRIO TRIO TRIO.
Number 7: Electrode
Now I see Voltorb getting shit on all the
time, but honestly, I really like him!
If you think about it, it’s basically a
Pokemon themed version of the classic RPG
tradition of Mimic chests, and Mimics are
fun!
Well, insofar as a jump scare and likely horrific
death can be said to be fun.
However Voltorb kinda played that basic idea
out, while Electrode really brought nothing
new to the table.
But we already know why Electrode’s bad.
He’s boring - not much more to say than
that.
So instead, let’s go on a far more interesting
tangent about Voltorb.
The other day, I was browsing DeviantArt and
came across a page by a guy named Christopher-Stoll
(link below) who does these really interesting
Pokemon anatomy diagrams, with his own fan-canon
descriptions, but they’re ridiculously cool,
and specifically, his one about Voltorb really
gave the Pokemon a new light in my eyes.
“Voltorbs are created when occupied Pokeballs
malfunction catastrophically and transform
the Pokemon within into a fluctuating mass
of highly energetic semi-conscious flesh.”.
Then below, “The Pokeballs dual Quantum
generators are the source of Voltorbs potent
electrical abilities.
These can be detonated violently at any time.”
And my favorite part, “The mass of organic
matter at the core of a Voltorb is all that
remains of the Pokeballs previous occupant.
Fluctuating wildly, it exists in a perpetual
state of uncertainty and transformation, as
the Pokeballs damaged matter assembler attempts
repeatedly to construct living tissue from
degraded data.”
That’s like, some Lovecraftian shit, and
I love it!
So in conclusion, Voltorb gets a bad rap,
but Electrode does kinda suck.
Number 6: Charizard
[deep breath] Charizard.
[hate] I know, I know I know I know, okay?
Listen, I’m personally on Team Blastoise,
but that has NOTHING to do with my dislike
of Charizard.
So, in what is perhaps a fruitless attempt
to save myself from the avalanche of downvotes
I know I’ll have already accumulated, let’s
list of the things I like about him.
I love Ash’s Charizard from the anime, and
some of the most memorable moments of the
show involved him.
Also design wise, I like the blue on the wings
and how it contrasts with the orange.
...but - [hate] Listen, I’m a dragon purist,
okay?
To me, Dragons are some of the coolest things
ever, but Charizard is just a terrible dragon,
to the point that calling him a Dragon feels
“off” you know?
Like sure he doesn’t have that typing by
default, but sure enough, he’s a fire-breathing
lizard with wings: a dragon.
Now there’s really one simple reason Charizard’s
design is awful.
The fact that he’s bipedal.
I HATE when GameFreak tires to take things
that would look perfectly fine on 4 legs,
and bend their spines back, like they were
bored 4 year-old playing Spore, just so that
they stand on two legs.
Look at him!
It makes him look fat!
Of course, there are far more extreme examples
of how bad this can get than Charizard, (see
Feraligatr) but it still bothers me so much!
I mean, put him on 4 legs and give him the
dragon typing by default, BAM, he’d be my
favorite Gen 1 starter by far, but every time
I look at Charizard now, all I can see is
the lost potential.
Number 5: Mr. Mime
This.
Isn’t.
A Pokemon.
This is a guy.
This is a guy in costume.
You wanna know how I know?
Because in Mr. Mime’s introductory episode
of the anime, Ash literally puts on a Mr.
Mime costume and no one can tell the difference!
The ONLY reason Mr. Mime isn’t lower, is
because it eventually spawned Mime Jr. who
is so ridiculously cute that it almost neutralizes
my hate for its evolution.
Almost.
Number 4: Nidoqueen
Nidoqueen.
They put tits on a Pokemon, what else is there
to say?
Honestly the whole Nidoran male/female dichotomy
was always kinda weird to me, because it was
addressing the idea that males and females
of a species look different, but for this
one line of Pokemon only.
This idea would of course later be revisited
with different forms for the male and female
versions of Pokemon, which was done way better.
That said, at least Nidoking is kinda okay.
His purple color looks alright, so I can at
least see some appeal to him, but Nidoqueen’s
pale blue makes my eyes glaze over from boredom.
And like I said, it’s got tits!
Who seriously thought that was a good idea?
Number 3: Moltres
You know how people like to joke that Pokemon
designs are lazy?
Like, “Hey, you take a cat, and you set
on fire, and it’s a Pokemon!
LOLZ NINTENDO SUX” Now, I would usually
defend them in that, but then I look at Pokemon
like Moltres and kinda have to concede the
point.
It’s a bird that’s just on fire, but OH
NO, IT’S A LEGENDARY, BE AMAZED!
And you just look at Articuno who’s regal
and majestic, and even Zapdos, who I’m not
even the biggest fan of, is still at least
a bit more creative than just a goose that’s
had petrol poured on it.
I mean, a “fire type legendary bird”.
There’s SO MUCH MORE you could do with that
concept than this.
Like, how about a Phoenix?
A bird that’s made entirely of fire?
That’d be way cooler and more interesting
than Chicken Flambe here, who is the worst
legendary of Gen 1 by a country mile.
Number 2: Jynx
So like with Eevee on the previous list, putting
Jynx here makes me a shoe in for the Sun Rising
In The Morning Award, but also just like with
Eevee, it’s here for good reason.
Jynx is just atrocious.
Now, I don’t even wanna get into the race
shit tied into her history, because there
are arguments to be made that that’s not
the case, and frankly I’m not qualified
to discuss that, nor do I care to.
So putting that giant dumpster of other problems
aside, Jynx is still a horrible Pokemon.
Like Nidoqueen, it’s got tits, but somehow
that’s not even the worst of it!
I think the main thing that bothers me about
Jynx, are the bizarre arm bumps she has.
Like...
WHY???
Also, she’s ice type?
What about this design screams ice to you?
That she’s... wearing a long dress like
you might wear if it was cold?
I guess?
Here’s an idea Nintendo.
Remake Jynx as a Ghost/Psychic type, and say
that it’s a wandering soul that’s possessed
the body of a Japanese love doll.
That would at least work with the design,
and somehow would be less creepy than what
we already have.
Number 1: Dragonite
Earlier when we talked about Charizard being
a shity bipedal dragon, my main problem with
it was that I saw so much potential in it
with so little that needed to be changed.
The same however, cannot be said for Dragonite.
He’s like Charizard, but worse in every
possible conceivable way.
Like, even though Charizard has a beer gut,
at least he’s a logical improvement on Charmander
and Charmeleon, and you look at Dratini and
Dragonair who are both FANTASTIC designs,
and you think about all the kinds who put
in a ridiculous amount of time and effort
into leveling up their Dragonair to level
55, the highest level requirement of ANY Gen
1 Pokemon, and when it finally evolves, it
looks like Puff The Magic Dragon’s retarded
cousin.
And sure, he’s strong in the games, but
I look at his dopey face and tiny wings and
beer gut, and then I think about what could
have been, and I can’t help but be majorly
disappointed.
Hey everyone, thanks so much for watching.
If you haven’t already, I recommend watching
the “Top 10 BEST Gen 1 Pokemon” video
as a more positive counterpoint to this video.
Alternatively, if you like reminiscing about
Gen 1 as much as I do, then check out “10
Things You Didn’t Know About Pokemon Red
& Blue” where I guarantee you’ll learn
something new.
Special thanks to my wonderful Patreon patrons...
