Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Mamoswine.

Nintendo has been slacking off with many of their Pokemon designs since at least Generation III. Many of the new Pokemon have been made to change the more serious metagame - that is, to balance out types, show off new abilities, and pimp new mechanics.

The problem with this? In a word, Mamoswine:



The Swinub family had been blessed with awesome typing since its debut in Gen II. Ground-Type made it immune to Electric attacks and Sandstorm; Ice-Type made it immune to Hail and good against Dragons, which are getting more and more broken as the generations go on. (Seriously, Nintendo, that's a problem). The icy pigs got even more love with the Physical/Special split, an Ice-Type priority move in Gen IV, and an evolution with amazing stats.

Did it really have to look like a huge pile of suck?

There is nothing wrong with making a mammoth Pokemon evolve from a pig. In fact, that's really creative, given the similarity between an elephant's trunk tip and the front of a pig's snout. Mammoths are one of the better-known mammals of the Ice Age, so it even makes sense to have Mamoswine be an Ice Type that requires Ancientpower to evolve.

Mammoths are one of the most well-known prehistoric mammals ever. Unlike, say, a Cynognathus, everybody knows what they looked like. Mamoswine is not a mammoth.

Where's the trunk? Where's the majesty? Mamoswine could have had an awesome design; instead, it looks like...nothing. If only they had made a shaggy elephant just like they made a shaggy pig way back in the G/S/C days.

Oppose Nintendo's half-assed designs. I miss when they actually CARED how Pokemon looked.