Horrible Pokemon Designs

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

I personally use ugly Pokemon a lot, and like them for their power and battle prowess. Take Mega Salamence - it's probably the 3rd or 4th best Pokemon in the game, and it kicks ass in Ubers, but I think it has a dumb design. It looks like a freakin' croissant for Arceus' sake. And speaking of Arceus, it looks like a deer stuck in a hula hoop. The genie trio have great brute force as well, but they look so damn similar and lazy. What's up with Landorus' hair? It looks like a mallet.
When we get down to non-legends we have Claydol, which I don't really like anyway considering it's really outclassed and is pretty bad. But look at those eyes and mouths. What the hell. Seismitoad is probably my favourite 5th gen Pokemon, but it looks kinda stupid with that butthead. And don't get me started about Mr. Mime.

 

[Mister Coffee]

Just because a pokemon has an "Ugly Design", does not mean it is a "Bad Design".
A bad design would be a pokemon that is completely out of place from its environment and themes within the game that you are playing it in.
"Garbodor" is not a "Bad Design", it is a pokemon that manifested from the large amount of garbage that is known to be common within the "Unova" region due to large human populations within the region. That's a great design, it makes perfect sense as a pokemon from that area. Yes it is ugly, but that does not make it a bad design.
There are a few pokemon that are in fact bad designs, and it's mostly that they are bad designs because, one evolution is so vastly different or unusual from the original themes of the pokemon design, that it just plain does not make sense.
IMO, "Scizor" is a pokemon of bad design, how did a pokemon that was a master of long extended natural blades protruding from its arms, suddenly turn into giant metallic claws with bolts screwed into them to hold them together? The transition from green to red is strange and hardly makes any sense, it's such a drastic color scheme change. On top of all of this, the differences between the "Scyther" and "Scizor" body shape are so vastly different, that the only way you can really tell that they are from the same evolution line is because they both have human body shapes and their names are similar. "Scizor" is a "bad" pokemon design, yet it is still a powerful, attractive, and useful pokemon.

 

[Nidorina of Time Lord]

There are a few pokemon that are in fact bad designs, and it's mostly that they are bad designs because, one evolution is so vastly different or unusual from the original themes of the pokemon design, that it just plain does not make sense.
IMO, "Scizor" is a pokemon of bad design, how did a pokemon that was a master of long extended natural blades protruding from its arms, suddenly turn into giant metallic claws with bolts screwed into them to hold them together? The transition from red to green is strange and hardly makes any sense, it's such a drastic color scheme change. On top of all of this, the differences between the "Scyther" and "Scizor" body shape are so vastly different, that the only way you can really tell that they are from the same evolution line is because they both have human body shapes and their names are similar. "Scizor" is a "bad" pokemon design, yet it is still a powerful, attractive, and useful pokemon.

This. Never understood how Scizor was any improvement of Scyther.
There's bad and ugly, and they are both opinon.
I think Scraggy is perhaps the ugliest Pokémon in existence, bt it's not inherently bad.
Now Spoink is bad! It DIES if it stops bouncing!

 

[mew_nani]

Just because a pokemon has an "Ugly Design", does not mean it is a "Bad Design".
A bad design would be a pokemon that is completely out of place from its environment and themes within the game that you are playing it in.
"Garbodor" is not a "Bad Design", it is a pokemon that manifested from the large amount of garbage that is known to be common within the "Unova" region due to large human populations within the region. That's a great design, it makes perfect sense as a pokemon from that area. Yes it is ugly, but that does not make it a bad design.
There are a few pokemon that are in fact bad designs, and it's mostly that they are bad designs because, one evolution is so vastly different or unusual from the original themes of the pokemon design, that it just plain does not make sense.
IMO, "Scizor" is a pokemon of bad design, how did a pokemon that was a master of long extended natural blades protruding from its arms, suddenly turn into giant metallic claws with bolts screwed into them to hold them together? The transition from green to red is strange and hardly makes any sense, it's such a drastic color scheme change. On top of all of this, the differences between the "Scyther" and "Scizor" body shape are so vastly different, that the only way you can really tell that they are from the same evolution line is because they both have human body shapes and their names are similar. "Scizor" is a "bad" pokemon design, yet it is still a powerful, attractive, and useful pokemon.

Maybe during the trading process your Scyther fused with the Metal Coat, dousing it in superheated metal, transforming it from a dual-scythe wielding Pokemon to a bug mecha. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but then again neither does a Seadra transforming into a Kingdra by holding a Dragon Scale and being traded even though the thing's already covered in scales, and even drops them occasionally. What's with that?

Back on topic, a lot of the new Mega Evolutions have bad designs. Not in the sense that they're ugly, though some are. They just have designs that make no sense concerning their base form. Why does Alakazam become Buddhist when it mega evolves? It's based somewhat on a kitsune or a fox, why would the designers go in a totally different route? There's a similar problem with Mega Medicham; there's no real reason for it to look like an old sheik when it evolves, and I'm not even gonna go into Mega Charizard Y and it's breathing fire out the back of its mouth constantly like some kind of motorcycle, or Mega Salamence going from a rather regular dragon to a hang glider with seemingly no forelimbs.

Some regular evolutions have this problem to; they just don't adhere well to their pre-evolved forms, and that's where the poor design choices come in. Sure, it makes sense for Trapinch to evolve into Flygon. It makes sense for Charmander to evolve into Charizard, it makes sense for Snivy to evolve into Serperior, and it's perfectly fine for Duskull to evolve into Dusknoir. The previous forms match the evolved ones in design, and you can look at all of them side by side and say "alright, this Chespin looks like it could evolve into Chesnaught." But then you have Rhyhorn which evolves into Rhydon which evolves into... what the heck is that thing? Rhyperior's design doesn't fit its predecessor's designs at all, and it feels somewhat wrong.

And then you have Pokemon that have designs that are either lazy or just plain shouldn't work in the setting they're in. Luvdisc is a heart with eyes. Really? And we have Claydol which is supposed to be based on clay soldiers that's 20 feet away from counting as an eldrich abomination and... and... Diggersby. Just... Diggersby.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

Some regular evolutions have this problem to; they just don't adhere well to their pre-evolved forms, and that's where the poor design choices come in. Sure, it makes sense for Trapinch to evolve into Flygon. It makes sense for Charmander to evolve into Charizard, it makes sense for Snivy to evolve into Serperior, and it's perfectly fine for Duskull to evolve into Dusknoir. The previous forms match the evolved ones in design, and you can look at all of them side by side and say "alright, this Chespin looks like it could evolve into Chesnaught." But then you have Rhyhorn which evolves into Rhydon which evolves into... what the heck is that thing? Rhyperior's design doesn't fit its predecessor's designs at all, and it feels somewhat wrong.

And then you have Pokemon that have designs that are either lazy or just plain shouldn't work in the setting they're in. Luvdisc is a heart with eyes. Really? And we have Claydol which is supposed to be based on clay soldiers that's 20 feet away from counting as an eldrich abomination and... and... Diggersby. Just... Diggersby.

Let me guess, you don't like Dragonite?

And Rhyperior is one of my favourite Pokemon, dunno why so many people hate it.

 

[Mister Coffee]

Let me guess, you don't like Dragonite?

And Rhyperior is one of my favourite Pokemon, dunno why so many people hate it.

There are so many reasons to hate Dragonite, but yes, he is an awkward evolution from the "Serpentine" family of Dragons.

Oh, and it's totally chill that you like Rhyperior... but I mean it's clearly awkward when lined up next to its previous evolutions.

 

[mew_nani]

Let me guess, you don't like Dragonite?

And Rhyperior is one of my favourite Pokemon, dunno why so many people hate it.

Admittedly not the first time I saw it. I remember having this Dragonair, training it to level 55, and seeing it evolve into Dragonite and I hated it so much I reset to the last save point. But I eventually fell in love with the bugger. It's so cute how can I not? Even if it doesn't really match it's pre-evolution it's still a nice little Pokemon, even though it's western design sorta threw me off the first time I evolved a Dragonair.

I think what saved Dragonite from the bad design pile is even though it's styled differently from it's previous two evolutions it's still a nicely designed Pokemon. It's a big friendly plushy dragon, and even if it's a western dragon instead of an eastern one like Dratini and Dragonair it's still very visibly a dragon like it's predecessors. How it managed to shrink so much upon evolution is currently unknown to me, but I still like the thing.

But Rhyperior... it's not only totally different from Rhyhorn and Rhydon, it's also pretty badly designed. It went from being gray to dirt brown, it nonsensically shoots rocks out its palms when Rhydon just rammed stuff with its drill horn... What the heck is this thing even supposed to be? Rhyhorn and Rhydon were based off of a rhinoceros.. but Rhyperior wasn't even based off of that. Dragonite at least looked unmistakably like a dragon; I can look at this thing for half an hour and I still can't make heads or tails of it. Maybe it would have been better if it was just a standalone Pokemon... No offense of course. :(