That's....a Pokemon?

/in before anyone starts on about inanimate object Pokemon

If I'm honest about it, there are a lot of Pokemon I dislike or don't think much of design-wise, but I wouldn't label them as uncreative. A lot of Pokemon have very simple designs, but some of the most memorable Pokemon out there are simple; a lot of detail can mean the point of the design can be lost and/or confused and it just turns into a mess.

Having Pokemon look similar is fairly natural, too. There is repetition in nature, after all. There are a lot of species of animal they can draw from, so really I think it's a case of either all Pokemon being creative, or all Pokemon being uncreative, because they're all based off SOMETHING in real life. I'd chose to go with the former, because all art imitates life, and the interpretation of that is always interesting to see. At least for me. Even if I don't like the designs.

The closest I would come to labelling a Pokemon as uncreative are the base formes of the Forces of Nature...they're palette-swaps of a single design. Their Therian formes more than made up for this, but I was not particularly impressed with them in Black/White when literally the only thing about them that varied was their colour and their ring. Variations on a theme I get, but that was just ridiculous...that was like something out of an old-fashioned JRPG where you just get recoloured enemies with more HP or a few different attack moves at later stages in the game. The lake guardians come dangerously close to this as well, and so do a few Alola forms. The only palette swaps Pokemon needs is shiny Pokemon, thank you very much.

The only Pokemon that I would call uncreative is Electrode, who also happens to be my second most hated Pokemon. Voltorb makes sense. Pokeball sprites were used for items you find lying on the ground to conserve space, so they made a mimic Pokemon that looks like a Pokeball. I get it. But Electrode? It's... A Pokeball... That's upside down... Why? For starters, why on Earth does Voltorb NEED an evolution? It's a bomb. That's it. Do we really need "stronger bomb" as a Pokemon? And even if Voltorb needed an evolution, which it doesn't, you have a better design for it built into the game. Make it a freaking Great Ball! Why is Electrode an upside down Pokeball and not a Great Ball? Ugh...

LuminousWarrior said:

Why is Electrode an upside down Pokeball and not a Great Ball? Ugh...

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While I can't answer that, I can type you I realized the two might not be merely based off pok?balls.

Damien.aspiring.fandev said:

I realized voltorb and electrode may not be just designed after pok?balls...
Have you ever seen those spheres meant as aircraft signalation hanged from
time to time onthe high voltage electricity lines? They come in red, white, yellow or
red and white bicolor(in my country anyway)... how could I not realize this earlier?!? >:(
I'll never see those oddballs the same way again...
Just...LOOK!o_O

Spoiler:

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Crabrawler. I find it a cheap copy of Corphish and it's one of the ugliest Pok?mon I've seen. I despise it.

Seel. I'l second Crabrawler sucking though, even though I like it's evolution alright (though I can't remember its name...)

Just any inanimate object Pokemon, not a big fan of them

Pikachu clones. They're so many. Even I love electric type Pokemons, I don't like Pikachu clones so much. I don't blame the design itself, but would be better going with other than electric+the cheeks.

The vanillite line, although the basic is adorable, COME ON GAMEFREAK. An ice cream pokemon, whoever thought of that is as dumb as rocks

*looks at trubish*
Oh, ok. It is... Interesting. I wonder what it will evolve into...
*looks at garbodor*
OH MY GOD GAMEFREAK! Seriously? More trash?

Dunsparce, I don't understand what it's suppose to be... :X

I have no problem with voltorb, I always liked the idea of 'mimic'-like traps in rpgs. But as someone mentioned above, why didn't it evolve into a great ball instead of an upside-down pokeball? 0_o

I find that Magnemite, Magneton, Castform, Combee, Ambipom, Chingling, The Lake Guardians, Victini, The Vanilluxe line, The Swords of Justice, Klefki, the Gumshoos line, and Silvally are the most poorly designed Pokemon. Many of their designs are either too thematically on-the-nose, while others are so ugly that any thematic elements they possessed are lost (wtf Silvally...).

It would be hard to call them uncreative, because they are certainly original. Although, I would call Magneton the most uncreative of them all.