bad pokemon evolutions

[icycatelf]

Lickilicky could've been so much cooler. I can squeeze past the awkward proportions, but why the gross fleshy head swirl and lack of nostrils!? D: Also, I get what they were going for with the pattern on its torso, but I feel that they could've executed it in a more natural looking way.

Actually, most of the Gen. 4 evos of older Pokémon were pretty disappointing (I only like 6 of the 18).

 

[faf]

i cant bring myself to like exploud orz

While I myself really love Exploud, I could definitely see why it can be unappealing to many others. Whismur has extremely unique eyes which makes it adorable and as it evolves it loses them and becomes more monstrous. I do like it a lot because it's a screaming creature with a cool design imo.

 

[Flowerchild]

Ok so look at Dewott

Adorable little huggable ninja sea otter friend. Possibly the best starter middle evolution of all time imo in that it has its own character and doesnt look like a neglected middle child. What does it turn into?

This fucking dumbass. Why???? It looks nothing like the others, isn't cute, walks on four legs, has a sword / samurai helmet thing for a horn... I honestly would have believed that this was some unrelated water legendary.

People say this kinda thing about Dragonair - Dragonite too but I honestly adore Dragonite (yes even the shiny form) so I'll defend that case. This is just lame.

 

[Sydian]

honestly all the final stages of unova starters i think they are all ugly.......... also a lot of the gen 4 evolutions for older pokemon. yanmega, lickilicky (shudders..........why did they name it that), ambipom, magmortar (its LIPS man wtf), mamoswine...just...awful...hideous...why did they do that

 

[Squirtlenator]

Ok so look at Dewott

Adorable little huggable ninja sea otter friend. Possibly the best starter middle evolution of all time imo in that it has its own character and doesnt look like a neglected middle child. What does it turn into?

This fucking dumbass. Why???? It looks nothing like the others, isn't cute, walks on four legs, has a sword / samurai helmet thing for a horn... I honestly would have believed that this was some unrelated water legendary.

People say this kinda thing about Dragonair - Dragonite too but I honestly adore Dragonite (yes even the shiny form) so I'll defend that case. This is just lame.

Samurott would have looked a lot better if it remained bipedal with the samurai theme. So much wasted potential.

 

[Corveone]

Strictly talking about design:

Ruined
-Hitmonlee
-Blaziken
-Lopunny
-Aromatisse
-Incineroar
-Cinderace
-Inteleon

(Not counting species whose pre-evos already have lazy or ugly designs like Vanilluxe, Klingklang or Dugtrio, because if it's already bad to begin with you're not ruining it)

Saved
-Gyarados/Milotic (Although these two are obviously intentional)
-Mamoswine
-Roserade
-Vespiquen
-Magnezone
-Froslass
-Orbeetle

 

[Bahamut]

I don't really like Alolan Persian and Venusaur. Their pre-evolutions look better than them. I'm also not fond of Slaking, not because of its design, but because of Truant.

 

[Adam Levine]

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.

 

[Lysander]

Not a big fan of Serperior myself, always preferred Servine. And competitively speaking, evolving Dusclops into Dusknoir isn't always the best choice when the Eviolite exists.

 

[Lady Bisharp]

Tangrowth. Tangela is one of my favorite Pokémon, and seeing what my cute weird blue noodle turned into as a kid was... horrifying. I would've actually liked it a lot better if they had kept that unreleased Tangela evolution design they had for gen 2, but no, they had to give it ugly proportions and a dumb design :|

 

[Fairy]

Glalie is pretty meh imho.

 

[Sheep]

Tangrowth. Tangela is one of my favorite Pokémon, and seeing what my cute weird blue noodle turned into as a kid was... horrifying. I would've actually liked it a lot better if they had kept that unreleased Tangela evolution design they had for gen 2, but no, they had to give it ugly proportions and a dumb design :|

I didn't like a lot of the evolutions of existing mons introduced in Sinnoh personally, and this was one of them. :s So I agree there.

Going to add Seismotoad to my list. It looks like a mess, and I feel like they could've done so much better with it.

 

[Makaan]

I know Mr. Mime came first, but anyone who would evolve Mime Jr. is a monster. I suppose this is a case of a line being saved by a new pre-evolution.
I am not a fan of Spritzee, but Aromatisse is the worst design in the franchise.
Crabrawler and Aipom are fine (Crabrawler maybe a bit less so). Ambipom and Crabominable are horrors.
Sunkern is cute. Sunflora is nightmarish.
Lotad is adorable. Lombre and Ludicolo are ugly and a little offensive.
The first stage Unova monkeys are bearable, their second stages not so much.

In terms of saved, Granbull is vastly better than Snubbull, and Hippowdon fixes what I do not like about Hippopotas. The biggest upgrade for me would be Magmar to Magmortar.

 

[Figure]

I think Scizor is a pretty garbage evolution. Don't get me wrong, Scizor is one of my favorite Pokemon, but trade evolutions suck ass and Scyther should just be a single stage Pokemon who should have recieved a buff. I think the design is too good to not be a final evolution and Scyther and Scizor look different enough to where I don't thin Scyther had to evolve into it. From a Dex standpoint I think it works as well. In gen 1 you had Pinsir and Scyther as single stage Pokemon and in gen 2, we could have had Scizor and Heracross.

 

[faf]

I think Scizor is a pretty garbage evolution. Don't get me wrong, Scizor is one of my favorite Pokemon, but trade evolutions suck ass and Scyther should just be a single stage Pokemon who should have recieved a buff. I think the design is too good to not be a final evolution and Scyther and Scizor look different enough to where I don't thin Scyther had to evolve into it. From a Dex standpoint I think it works as well. In gen 1 you had Pinsir and Scyther as single stage Pokemon and in gen 2, we could have had Scizor and Heracross.

I definitely agree with this. I have always preferred Scyther over Scizor and while I don't hate Scizor as much as I used too, I still think your suggestion would be a lot better. I still remember the time I would draw an alternate evolution of Scyther keeping its scythes.

 

[Devalue]

- Drizzile. Why does it have an awkward teenage phase? Brought it back with Inteleon to something decent.
- Liepard. Looked amazing as Purrloin. Turned the white to yellow and added spots. Disliked the new color combination (in those particular shades).
- Alolan Persian. Agrees with earlier statements.
- Shiny Tympole to Seismitoad. (Caught it on the first playthrough of Black.) Turned gold headphones into orange lumps.

 

[Makaan]

In gen 1 you had Pinsir and Scyther as single stage Pokemon and in gen 2, we could have had Scizor and Heracross.

I do feel that they would have had a lot fewer headaches if they had included regional variants early (though that feels unfair to say, as it is definitely a hindsight judgement). I suppose in that world, Scizor would just be Johtonian (Johtoan?) Scyther.

 

[RedDragonThunderzord]

I didn't really like Pikipek's evolutions. This first form was cool, but especially Toucannon didn't really do it for me.

 

[ReKoil]

Incineroar stands out for me.
Loved Litten and Torracat... and then it evolves into that abomination... 😭

 

[Thagnoth]

I'm not going to start listing any I dislike, because I think it'd go on for too long. I'm surprised by your choices, though! I like Boltund, and Magmortar seemed like a glow-up to me.

It's in situations like these that I wish they made it more viable to use under-evolved Pokémon. If you don't know what the evolved form of a Pokémon looks like, there's no in-game way to know you'll dislike its evolved form until you do—if you don't like the evolved form, this means you're stuck with the decision of whether or not to abandon your beloved friend after all your combined hard work! I don't think that they should pre-emptively spoil what your starter's evolved form looks like, but I do think you shouldn't have to ever go through that experience.

They already show that temporary de-evolution is possible using the unique energy of Aeos Island in Pokémon Unite—why not add permanent de-evolution as an option to the core series games? The stats should go back down to what they would have been had you not evolved, and then maybe add a few more unique items like the Eviolite that you can use so it's not destroyed in every battle. It'd probably be difficult to balance those new items (not that they've ever shirked a good balancing session), but I think it'd be worth it. Your under-evolved Pokémon, even with an item, shouldn't be quite as good as its evolved form with an item, but still at least viable in PvE. If it ends up affecting PvP very much, they can just ban those new items (as they have with many items anyway) and people will still use the evolved forms.

Recently I was watching Pokémon Stadium gameplay, and it's interesting to see under-evolved rental Pokémon that are not only viable, but sometimes the better choice—although, that's just because they nerf the evolved forms by giving them worse moves. I also recently saw Clefairy, not Clefable, hold its own weight in Sword and Shield PvP because of Eviolite! So there's definitely multiple ways they could go about fixing this issue, and I'd very much like to see it addressed somehow!