Ahem. I would like to point out that ever since Gen 1 there have been crappy and uncreative Pokemon designs. I would like to bring out Exhibit A, for lack of creativity, Rattata, Ekans, Mankey (for the name, not design), and, my personal favorite, Voltorb and Electrode. They literally took a Pokeball, gave it angry eyes, then flipped it upside down. I could go on here, but Voltorb tops them all. For crappy, I bring to the table Golbat, Gloom, Diglett and Dugtrio, Mankey (again), Victreebel and its pre-evos, Magnemite and Magneton, Grimer and Muk are literally made of raw sewage, the list goes on. In fact, many of the original sprites made even the good-looking Pokemon look crappy. Have you seen Charizard's original sprites? Not pretty.
Just to clarify, I'm not defending bad design choices. In fact, that fish is the ugliest designed Pokemon I've ever seen. I'm just saying that you can't lose what you never had. Pokemon designs have always had a few good ones that were outweighed by a lot more bad ones. But nostalgia has vindicated the original 151, and to a lesser extent the Pokemon introduced in Johto and Hoenn, and made it to where now we can't see the bad designs as anything but good. If Trubbish and Garbodor were among the original 151 we would be defending the design as great against all evidence pointing contrary. And if Grimer and Muk were among the Pokemon introduced in Gen 5 we would be pointing our fingers and laughing, holding it up as an example of Game Freak's lack of creativity. Please remove your nostalgia goggles and take a good look at your childhood before you start criticizing the present.
That said, my opinion of the new Pokemon designs. I love all of them except for the fish. I hate that fish. And maybe the Pika-clone. I'm meh about the Pika-clone. Also, I have found my new favorite Bug-type Pokemon. That electric beetle is the coolest looking bug I've ever seen. I honestly don't care what anyone says. Besides that butt-ugly fish, this generation is shaping up to be my favorite one yet.
I'm sorry, but I resent the notion that just because I think the new Pokémon look like the art team is creatively bankrupt at this point, I somehow have "nostalgia goggles" on. If there were any worse way to defend your liking of the new Pokémon, I can't see one.
Nobody was defending the designs of previous generations. Nobody was even saying those generations designs were BETTER. Nope, not even me.
If you want to know what I really think... then I suggest you reread my post without the personal bias of "I love the new Pokémon designs and most Pokémon look like crap".
But, if you would like me to explain my position, I will.
1. Early versions get a pass from me for two reasons. The first reason is that Pokémon didn't exist until Generation 1. There were no Pokeball looking Pokémon until those first games. So, while they look like crap by today's standards, for their time, they were original. The second reason is that early versions of Pokémon had to work with the limitations they had and under the assumption that there probably wouldn't be sequels and there'd be no franchise. Pokémon was created, essentially, as a means to sell the Link Cable accessory for the original Gameboy. So, while I don't like the massive overuse of the color purple in Gen 1, or the vast majority of even the mons in Gen 1, it gets a pass because it was the first in a series that nobody had planned to ever be as massively successful as it turned out to be.
2. The problem with any Gen after Gen 1, is that if you have any "repeat" type Pokémon, your originality in terms of design immediately plummets. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of dogs, caterpillers, bats, generic birds, Pikachu clones and standins, cats, Pokeball themed Pokémon, and inanimate objects as Pokémon. The animal kingdom is quite diverse and fascinating and interesting with lots of cool things to choose from... Same with lore from around the planet about legendary or mythic beasts. So, the more of these "repeats" we get, the less original a design team appears (or variations of already existing Pokémon, for that matter... like the 9000000000000000 dogs across the games which are usually Normal types... or Dark types...) In short, the more Pikachu clones, caterpillers, dogs, and bats you throw into each subsequent game... The less original you gradually become as each new generation releases. It's a problem NOW because of all the generations BEFORE it. The complaints of "unoriginality" wouldn't exist were we in Gen 3 instead of Gen 7 or 8 or whatever the crap it is now.
3. I don't care if a Pokémon looks "ugly". I care that it looks... boring. Or stupid. Or silly. Or nonsensical. I find Haxorus to be about the ugliest Pokémon in existence, but I don't find it to be silly, nonsensical, stupid, or boring. It isn't pleasing to look at, but that's not really my complaint. A "cool" Pokémon in my opinion is anything that doesn't resemble something as moronic as a snowflake... icecream cone... chess piece... jigglypuff... clefairy... a keychain... a candle... a totem pole... a Pikachu knockoff like Dedenne... a garbage heap or pollution slick... a freakin' balloon... a tree stump (okay, a haunted TREE was pretty freakin' cool... the tree stump? pretty freakin' stupid)... a freakin' jack 'o lantern... a stunfisk... a basculin... a freakin' blob Pokémon (why are there so many inanimate blobs of whatever as Pokémon? Ditto, Grimer, Muk, whatever the crap Castform is... whatever the crap that molecule thing is in X and Y... Trubbish and its evolutions...)... why is there a bell, windchime, and keychain as Pokémon? That list is getting larger with each new generation in which they don't take animals and creatures that could potentially be awesome Pokémon and instead look around their office cubicles for things to turn into Pokémon due to creative bankruptcy. What next? A Styrofoam cup Pokémon? A Pokémon that looks like a Dachsen (no, I can't spell that word...)?
4. When I've got more interesting ideas than their design team... it really is time to get rid of the lot of them. Let me just throw some ideas out there for possible interesting Pokémon... What if we had a Snapdragon like Pokémon that was Grass/Dragon? You could probably even make it look particularly terrifying if you designed it right. How about... an actual Firefly type bug (nope, Volbeat and Illumise don't count because they look like beetles instead of fireflies) which is a Fire/Bug type? How about a Hummingbird Pokémon? How about a Dolphin Pokémon? What about a Ghost Pokémon that is an animated skeleton of some sort (could even be the skeleton of other Pokémon... you could even have forms of it you could capture and each might have a different ability based on the skeleton of the previous Pokémon)? A mosquito Pokémon? How about a Dark type that looks like an Iguana? You could go on and on for cool typings for existing animals and stylize them to fit their types. Even if some of those ideas sound silly, at least they're original... and aren't based on like say... a stapler... or a screen squeegee. When you're turning everyday objects you use into Pokémon, you've pretty much given up on ever creating new and original content.
My issue is that more and more Pokémon, as we get into new generations, is looking less and less like they're actually trying to make a cool game with mons you want to collect and use. Heck, the whole premise of my team in Pokémon X and Y is "Pokémon that just look awesome". Anytime you can say "I punched out a bat with a T-Rex" is pretty much instantly awesome. But, if you have to say, "I killed that dragon with an icecream cone"... it sounds... well... stupid instead of awesome.
Honestly, at this point, I am waiting to see if we get like a Stapler or Baseball Bat Pokémon. Or a Pokémon that's somehow a car. Or another Pokémon that's essentially a pile of garbage like dirty laundry or something. I mean, we already have a washing machine... why not a pile of dirty clothes that the washing machine is super effective to?
I want less repetition and silly Pokémon. I'd like more interesting creatures.
