You know how Sinnoh gave a bunch of Pokémon evolutions? That's great, right?
Well...some of them are hits, and some of them are misses. One of them in particular is a very big miss: Electivire. Now, I don't think its design is atrocious, but there's a lack of direction there; what were they going for? I'm here to talk about Electivire more as an evolution than as a standalone Pokémon.
Let's take a look at Electabuzz's stats.
HP: 55
Attack: 83
Defense: 57
Sp. Attack: 95
Sp. Defense: 85
Speed: 105
Total: 490
Not too good, eh? Its best stat is Speed, followed by Special Attack, and the rest of its stats are pretty middling. 55 HP and 57 Defense means it's not going to survive for long. Hopefully Electivire refines this playstyle and-
HP: 75
Attack: 123
Defense: 67
Sp. Attack: 95
Sp. Defense: 85
Speed: 95
Total: 540
...What the hell happened here? Let's break down everything wrong with Electivire:
1. Electabuzz's best stats are either neglected or nerfed when it evolves. It had a good thing going as a fast special attacker; where did it go wrong?
2. There's barely a stat change at all, and the only stats that have changed for the better are HP, Attack, and Defense. A measly 50-point increase to its stat total is horrible, especially given the requirements to evolve Electabuzz.
3. Physically offensive Electric-types never work, unless they're named Zeraora.
4. Evolving Electabuzz requires a trade and a specific held item, making obtaining an Electivire more trouble than it's worth.
Magmortar has mostly the same problems as Electivire, but at least it's competitively viable in lower tiers, and it actually boosts Magmar's (slightly) superior Special Attack when it evolves, even if it needs to trim its Speed a little in the process.
So, yeah, if we're talking about game design, Electivire is everything that could go wrong with an evolution.