Most Uncreative Pokémon Designs?

Started by PokéMew January 13th, 2015 9:52 AM
  • 5708 views
  • 35 replies

PokéMew

Pokémon Fuchsia

Male
Refresh
Seen October 5th, 2022
Posted April 8th, 2017
484 posts
9.7 Years
Everyone knows that nintendo has gotten super lazy and uncreative in their later years of pokemon. We can all admit that when comparing Gen I Pokémon to Gen VI, Gamefreak put in a lot more thought back then. So what do you guys think some of the most un-creative Pokémon designs Gamefreak has made are? Here are two that I think are terrible:

Garbodor: Who would make a Pokémon that is just, well, garbage... Literally, garabe. A living pile of trash? Just.. no.

Klefki: Creator 1: Ok, what Pokémon are we going to make next...
Creator 2: *Looks at car keys* "I've got it. Car keys!"
Creator 1: :') Its.. Genious.

Really.
Male
Seen February 2nd, 2015
Posted February 2nd, 2015
28 posts
8.3 Years
Ugh I completely agree about Klefki. That Mon's design makes me annoyed.

I personally think a lot of designs from the first gen are really uncreative, but that doesn't mean they don't work. Ditto, Grimer and Muk are literally purple blobs but they're still kinda cool.

I really don't like Chespin's line, Voltorb + Electrode, Klefki as mentioned before, I also really dislike Tepig's line.

Ultimately though I think it comes down to preference, I bet some people like Klefki (grrr....)

Pendraflare

Age 32
Male
Pennsylvania
Seen July 30th, 2021
Posted March 29th, 2021
6,263 posts
9.8 Years
Although I do love my Generation V Pokémon, I have to throw a mention to Foongus and Amoonguss. They're basically the new Voltorb/Electrode in that they look like Poké Balls and can show up in the games appearing to be items.
Azurilland | Twitter | Nuzlocke Forums
May someday resurface in full. We'll see what happens down the road!

KorpiklaaniVodka

KID BUU PAWAA

Age 24
Male
Eastern Europe
Seen September 26th, 2016
Posted September 26th, 2016
3,318 posts
9.9 Years
Dugtrio and Magneton. Do I even need to explain?
PokeCheats | Serebii | AMA | Rock-type Club | Legendary Club #Respect4Rhyperior #Respect4Garbodor #Respect4Tangrowth #FreeGenesect2016 #FreeHoopa-U2016

Palkia

Male
Seen December 16th, 2022
Posted May 30th, 2022
2,304 posts
13.1 Years
Most of Gen V's poorly designed Pokémon suffer from the opposite problem of making designs too complex with clashing colour schemes, but Gen I is a big offender when it comes to sheer laziness.

Voltorb and Electrode have already been mentioned, but I'd like to nominate Exeggcute (they're just eggs with faces) and Seel (literally just a seal) as the laziest Pokémon designs.

Centipede Chan

Age 26
Female
United States
Seen October 14th, 2021
Posted April 4th, 2021
1,069 posts
9.1 Years
Yeah I love Gen 4s legendaries, gen 5s almost everything, and all of gen 6. Gen 3 was a good median between gen 1 and 2. But the original 151 felt mostly too bland or simple.
Seen January 1st, 2023
Posted March 23rd, 2022
3,316 posts
9.2 Years
Most of Gen V's poorly designed Pokémon suffer from the opposite problem of making designs too complex with clashing colour schemes, but Gen I is a big offender when it comes to sheer laziness.

Voltorb and Electrode have already been mentioned, but I'd like to nominate Exeggcute (they're just eggs with faces) and Seel (literally just a seal) as the laziest Pokémon designs.
I dont' really see how seel is uncreative. A lot of Pokemon are just regular animals with a typing.
Age 35
Male
Dream World
Seen December 21st, 2016
Posted October 8th, 2016
1,638 posts
10.8 Years
Seel the laziest? Then Growlithe is also lazy, since it's just a dog! Or Persian, just a cat with a gem on its forehead. Or Charizard, just a dragon.

1st gen had a simplicity that made Pokémon designs very clean. Possibly because of lack of detail of the Game Boy.


Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, the day Pokémon pulled a Dallas and jumped the shark.
Male
BFE, Kentucky
Seen January 18th, 2015
Posted January 13th, 2015
17 posts
8.3 Years
Although it's already been mentioned, I have to say Grimer/Muk. Not only the fact that they're a blob of sludge, but... Grimer's evolution is to take the original blob and make it bigger?

Other than completing my Pokedex, I never did anything with them. Hell, I caught a Grimer, then caught a Muk, and released them both without training.
Writing is like a fart; if you force it, it's probably crap.

... yeah, probably.

PokéMew

Pokémon Fuchsia

Male
Refresh
Seen October 5th, 2022
Posted April 8th, 2017
484 posts
9.7 Years
Most of Gen V's poorly designed Pokémon suffer from the opposite problem of making designs too complex with clashing colour schemes, but Gen I is a big offender when it comes to sheer laziness.

Voltorb and Electrode have already been mentioned, but I'd like to nominate Exeggcute (they're just eggs with faces) and Seel (literally just a seal) as the laziest Pokémon designs.
You make an excellent point there, I totally agree. Gen I does have a way of poor designing, but gen V suffered from over-the-top complex designs. And, in the end, those designs really made them look like junk.

Brendino

The Ruins of Alph
Seen 3 Days Ago
Posted April 6th, 2023
8,567 posts
13.4 Years
I give the first generation Pokemon a pass, since while in retrospect some of them are pretty boring, there was no real benchmarks they could draw off at the time.

One of the Pokemon that came to mind right away was Wingull. It doesn't look like much more than a cartoon sea gull, which is pretty boring. Another one is Litwick, which isn't much more than a candle with a smily face.

The most uncreative Pokemon that I can think of in recent memory though is Roggenrola. It's got a way too obvious pun for a name, and its design is nothing more than a couple basic shapes layered on top of each other. In fact, about a year ago I spent no more than 30 seconds drawing a Roggenrola, just to show how painfully boring it is. I'm not much of an artist, but if I'd taken the time to shade it, it'd be the exact same as the real thing.

Hiatus

Seen 1 Day Ago
Posted July 24th, 2021
12,283 posts
10.8 Years
There are a lot, at least in my eyes, and from top of my head, one of them would have to be Muk.

Although I do like it in terms of design, as it's simple--in general, I enjoy seeing simplicity in Pokémon--but unfortunately, Muk seems to have a... bit too much of it, in a way. If it had a couple of extra body features here and there, I'm sure I would have appreciated it more.

Alongside, I also feel Linoone is slightly un-creative, due to similar reasons as above (it wouldn't have been an issue if it were to carry few more extra features on its body). Few others would be Mighteyna, Biberal, and Electrode family.

skyburial

Orca Hype

Age 32
Male
Colorado
Seen April 17th, 2017
Posted March 15th, 2017
892 posts
8.6 Years
I know that electric mice bring the gripes a lot. On a similar note, GF developed their big rocky horned monster types a little too same-y in the first few gens imo.

The Prism League is opening for its second season and looking for new members! 6v6 Multiformat battles on cartridge are the name of the game. We implore you to join if you enjoy competitive battling in any format.

VGC Poketuber. My Channel

Paired with Polar Dash, the hippest hoofton this side o' Kalos
FC: 0061-2185-6938
IGN: skyburialVGC

Timbjerr

T-o-X-i-C

Age 36
Female
Texas
Seen May 30th, 2022
Posted January 28th, 2016
7,415 posts
19.7 Years
Everyone knows that nintendo has gotten super lazy and uncreative in their later years of pokemon. We can all admit that when comparing Gen I Pokémon to Gen VI, Gamefreak put in a lot more thought back then.
I actually think the design quality has been fairly consistent over the life of the series, with no single pokémon standing out as either terrible or uncreative in design.

If I had to choose a category of pokémon to criticize, it would be the ones that simply copied and pasted from real-world animals with very few if any frills added to them, such as Dewgong or Arbok or Kingler.
Seen February 9th, 2016
Posted March 1st, 2015
8 posts
9.1 Years
I'll choose one per gen:
Gen I: Dugtrio or Magneton. They are... Well, 3 Diglett and 3 Magnemite.
Gen II: Not sure here. All of Gen II Pokémon are very creative.
Gen III: Seedot. It is an acorn. That's it. It's ironic because Shiftry is a Pokémon I really like.
Gen IV: Pachirisu. Two Pikachu copies were enough. We don't need another one.
Gen V: Garbodor. He's just a failed copy of Grimer/Muk.
Gen VI: Klefki or Barbaracle. Some keys and... Well, something.
Male
ADL
Seen November 17th, 2016
Posted January 24th, 2015
62 posts
9.8 Years
I don't believe any are uncreative. The designs and even abilities/moves etc are actually based on quite creative ideas.

Best example from this thread is Klefki. Pagans believed that fairies stole small items like keys and that the fae were mischievous. Born from that comes Klefki, a steel/fairy type set of keys with the most mischievous ability, prankster.

Voltorb and Electrode, who appear around man-made power plants, appear to be the pokemon version of living bombs.

Diglett and Dugtrio - clearly they are moles. Moles pop up their heads up above the ground and rarely seen above the ground hence only seeing Diglett and Dugtrio heads.

Trubbish and Garbodor are the embodiment of land waste. It was never going to be pretty. Just like Koffing and Weezing are the embodiment of air pollution.

A lot of Pokemon are just based off of animals with some quirks to them either in colouring or additional things (like Floatzel's buoy looking thing around its neck, or Seaking's horn)

I have no issue in any design, really.

Entermaid

Non-binary
The States
Seen November 6th, 2016
Posted October 27th, 2016
2,138 posts
10.3 Years
I: Spearow/Fearow (generic)
II: Remoraid/Octillery (forgettable)
III: Regis (not pokemon-like, no faces)
IV: Tangrowth, Licklicky, Heatran (ugly and bulky, without thought)
V: Klink Line, Vanillish/Vanilluxe [not vanilite], Emboar, Heatmore
IV: Klefki
#Team Popplio & Brionne

Lymphy

Female
Australia
Seen October 29th, 2017
Posted October 29th, 2017
31 posts
8.4 Years
I'm going to have to go with Plusle and Minun. It just feels as though on the day they were invented someone said:

"Right! let's take 2 Pichu's, paint one red, the other blue, and call them new Pokemon."

I mean, even their names are generic...
Gotta catch most of them.

Ice

Seen October 16th, 2022
Posted February 3rd, 2020
3,448 posts
8.8 Years
I don't believe any are uncreative. The designs and even abilities/moves etc are actually based on quite creative ideas.

Best example from this thread is Klefki. Pagans believed that fairies stole small items like keys and that the fae were mischievous. Born from that comes Klefki, a steel/fairy type set of keys with the most mischievous ability, prankster.

Voltorb and Electrode, who appear around man-made power plants, appear to be the pokemon version of living bombs.

Diglett and Dugtrio - clearly they are moles. Moles pop up their heads up above the ground and rarely seen above the ground hence only seeing Diglett and Dugtrio heads.

Trubbish and Garbodor are the embodiment of land waste. It was never going to be pretty. Just like Koffing and Weezing are the embodiment of air pollution.

A lot of Pokemon are just based off of animals with some quirks to them either in colouring or additional things (like Floatzel's buoy looking thing around its neck, or Seaking's horn)

I have no issue in any design, really.
Garbodor's design maybe even cleverer then that. His design is a oppsite to tottoro, something that makes that very clear is this blogpost. I used to hate him, but after reading this and the fact that I used him in my playthrough of white made him one of my favorite designs in gen 5.