3rd Gen Mightyena's Crunch Cut-off?

[Incinermyn]

I noticed this a while ago, but it hadn't really been a major issue (in terms of accessible moves) until now. The Pokémon Mightyena used to be able to learn one of my favorite moves, Crunch, by leveling up in all of the third generation games. However, in Generation IV and beyond, it inexplicably lost this move and could only learn it as Poochyena by leveling up or by breeding. My question is why was it only naturally learnable in Gen III and not others? Crunch is generally a good move, even though I'm aware that Mightyena isn't exactly a prime choice as far as competitive battling goes. The move that suddenly replaced it (Sucker Punch) isn't exactly a good replacement to me since it ONLY works when your opponent uses an attack move against you (which, if you can't predict when they're going to use an attack move, makes it a total waste of time). I find this extremely annoying, and I would like straight answer if anyone knows it.

 

[Altair1]

He receives Crunch again in Gen VI at Lv.65 but it is kinda odd how they removed it for two Gens, you'd have to raise a Poochyena to Lv.53...

 

[Anvils Alive]

I haven't raised a Poochyena that far, but yeah, I agree. Why did GameFreak not bother to look at this in RSE through BW2?

 

[Incinermyn]

He receives Crunch again in Gen VI at Lv.65 but it is kinda odd how they removed it for two Gens, you'd have to raise a Poochyena to Lv.53...

I didn't know that. I thought I had to breed it into Poochyena still if I wanted to avoid having to level it up so much just for that move. But, I still find the inconsistency a little awkward, given how it's a hyena Pokémon that didn't know how to use the move Crunch for the duration of two whole generations while its pre-evo did.

 

[Altair1]

I didn't know that. I thought I had to breed it into Poochyena still if I wanted to avoid having to level it up so much just for that move. But, I still find the inconsistency a little awkward, given how it's a hyena Pokémon that didn't know how to use the move Crunch for the duration of two whole generations while its pre-evo did.

Perhaps an overlooked mistake I guess? ... This reminds me, if you wanted Spore on Breloom, you'd have to train up a Shroomish way past it's evolution level so it can learn it.

 

[Aashutosh Kumar]

Umm one Reason maybe that they Forgot and Bypass this Move for Mygthiana and Just made Poochyanna learn it!

 

[Puddle]

This is funny because regardless how the heck does a hyena sucker punch something.

 

[Incinermyn]

Well, I think that, like Trainer_Altair said, it was probably just an oversight and they forgot to add Crunch into Mightyena's moveset for two gens.

 

[AluminiumOxide]

Yeah that's true. Nintendo shouldn't remove Crunch in GEN iv. I mean Poocheyana is good but not strong enough. So it will be really better if Mighteyana also get that chance to use Crunch. Maybe they wanted a way little different. So maybe thats why they altered it.

 

[fenyx4]

I noticed this a while ago, but it hadn't really been a major issue (in terms of accessible moves) until now. The Pokémon Mightyena used to be able to learn one of my favorite moves, Crunch, by leveling up in all of the third generation games. However, in Generation IV and beyond, it inexplicably lost this move and could only learn it as Poochyena by leveling up or by breeding. My question is why was it only naturally learnable in Gen III and not others? Crunch is generally a good move, even though I'm aware that Mightyena isn't exactly a prime choice as far as competitive battling goes. The move that suddenly replaced it (Sucker Punch) isn't exactly a good replacement to me since it ONLY works when your opponent uses an attack move against you (which, if you can't predict when they're going to use an attack move, makes it a total waste of time). I find this extremely annoying, and I would like straight answer if anyone knows it.

I know! I noticed this a while back (in Mightyena's Generation 4 learnset on Bulbapedia, Crunch is strictly listed along the lines of "a move learned by a prior Pokemon stage/evolution".

Well, I think that, like Trainer_Altair said, it was probably just an oversight and they forgot to add Crunch into Mightyena's moveset for two gens.

I'm hoping that this was an oversight between Generations 3 and 6 (but to have overlooked it for nine games straight? Really?), because I don't know why Game Freak would intentionally let Mightyena learn the weaker Bite but not Crunch (as opposed to Poochyena)... Mightyena's jaws/teeth should be stronger than Poochyena's, anyway.. >_>

A similar thing happens with the Trapinch line it seems; Trapinch, Vibrava, and Flygon could all learn Crunch naturally in Generation 3, but now only Trapinch can learn it in Generations 4, 5, and 6, to my knowledge... Maybe it was another oversight by Game Freak or they're trying to emphasize Trapinch's jaw strength (as in, Trapinch's jaws are more developed than its evolutions, so it can 'bite/crunch' things better...?) I'm hoping that this issue gets rectified in future games (along with any other Pokemon with similar issues)... Maybe it's sensible that a pre-evolution know a particular move instead of an evolution (for example, the cocoon/pupae-based Pokemon knowing Harden as opposed to their Lepidopteran evolutions), but since Generation 6 allowed forgotten Egg moves to be remembered even by fully-evolved Pokemon, I don't think there should be any more "moves that can only be learned by a prior Pokemon stage" (and fully-evolved evolutionary-stone Pokemon frequently encountered this problem before Generation 6) for any given line... :/

 

[Lost Lore]

I had noticed this myself... and was completely perplexed about it. There was really no reason to remove Crunch from its level up learnset whatsoever, especially if its pre-evolution still learns it. And it's a hyena, it's obviously going to use its teeth...

This is funny because regardless how the heck does a hyena sucker punch something.

This is something that's based entirely on the fact that Sucker Punch is not a literal punch at all, but I don't really feel like explaining it right now. Something to do with it only being a punch in (English) name, and being something else entirely in the Japanese version. That's also why things like Electrode can learn it. Idek, Sucker Punch was a really stupid name for it.