Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Monday, November 30, 2020
After writing up this post wondering why Jack Wade wasn't featured in any fashion in the GoldenEye 007 video game for Nintendo 64, I started thinking about other characters that were included in the game. Somehow, we have Oddjob and May Day, but no Jack Wade. It seems odd, as he's an actual character in the movie, while the legends characters aren't even from the Pierce Brosnan era (as he had only done one film at that point).
This, in turn, led me down a path of thinking about other characters that could have been included in a similar fashion if they had the cartridge space, the development time and wanted to add more characters.
That is what we'll be discussing here as we discuss more characters that would have been interesting to add into the game's multiplayer system.
Jack Wade
Again, he's already been discussed here. However, for the sake of being complete, I needed to put him on this list. Moving on!
Bond Villains
Dr. No = Put him in the black gloves and the collared shirt, but maybe not the hazmat suit. He's the first true villain of the series (at least in the films) and his inclusion makes perfect sense.
Red Grant or Rosa Klebb = Klebb is the more interesting choice, but they can't really make a shoe-stabbing mechanic for the game specifically for her. Grant is an easier character to model as he's just another stock male figure with a few tweaks.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld = Specifically, the version from You Only Live Twice. I suspect one of the reasons this didn't happen was all the legal nonsense going on with the character and Thunderball/Never Say Never Again that was still prevalent at the time. One problem I do see, though, is that his outfit is very similar to Dr. No and that might be a bit confusing for people, so they might have to pick between the two. Assuming you can't do Blofeld for legal reasons, go with No. If you can do Blofeld, go with him and maybe give No his hazmat suit so people can tell them apart.
Francisco Scaramanga = You've got the Golden Gun in the game! Why is Baron Samedi the one in that level? This guy is a guarantee on this list and I'm happy they added him to The World is Not Enough.
Franz Sanchez = This is my biggest stretch, by far. However, I just love License to Kill so much and since he was the most recent villain before this—as well as one of the more brutal ones—he'd make for a cool evil character to choose.
You might be asking yourself why some people aren't on this list. Obviously, characters like Aristotle Kristatos just aren't popular or memorable enough for anyone to clamor for. Someone like Emilio Largo would be an odd choice to have walking around shooting people. Brad Whitaker isn't memorable enough and clearly, Joe Don Baker isn't allowed to be in the game, for whatever reason, but I was tempted to put Necros in there if not just to have exploding milk bottles.
Others already have characters representing their films. No need for Goldfinger, as we have Oddjob. May Day takes over for Max Zorin. Baron Samedi throws Mr. Big / Kananga out of the mix. Jaws takes care of Karl Stromberg and Hugo Drax.
I gave a lot of thought to adding Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd to the list. However, I ultimately decided against it for a few reasons. That would mean 2 characters filling up spots, which is precious real estate. Plus, while they're memorable, I don't think they have anywhere near the same level of interest that some other characters have. Oddjob is iconic, while Wint and Kidd are footnotes in comparison.
Just for argument's sake, if we were remaking this game today, we'd also have access to characters that came out past GoldenEye's release. Obviously, they never would have included people from Tomorrow Never Dies into the game since they couldn't see the future. However, if we could make this an all-inclusive Bond game of all stars, here are some other villains I think could be included:
Renard = Maybe, if it doesn't mess with balancing issues, he's even harder to kill?
Colonel Moon / Gustav Graves or Zao = Definitely not Mr. Kil. Zao makes for the more interesting visual, so I'd lean more toward him.
Raoul Silva = Very cool former agent.
Mr. Hinx = Giant Dave Bautista makes sense.
Bond Girls
Ideally, there would also be more female characters to choose from. There are only a few in the game (Natalya, Xenia, May Day and the extras). So let's add some more, shall we?
Honey Ryder = White bikini, rather than what she wears at the end of the film.
Jill Masterson or Pussy Galore = Galore makes more sense as she's the more capable of the two and action-oriented, but it would be kind of neat to have a completely gold-covered character representing Jill, wouldn't it?
Fiona Volpe = Badass sexy villain with some action going on. Sign me up. She's awesome. Love her character. You're also not going to find Helga Grandt on this list because she's just a discount Fiona, and because I think you should include...
Aki or Kissy Suzuki = Give us a Japanese character on the list. For my money, Aki is so much better than Kissy Suzuki, but I can see why they'd want to go with her instead.
Mary Goodnight = She's a ditz, but she's also an agent.
Anya Amazova = Agent XXX is a must for this list. Give her the outfit she wears at Stromberg's place.
Dr. Holly Goodhead = Above everyone, Holly is perhaps the absolute best pick for this list. She even could have appeared in the Aztek level, as that was inspired by Moonraker. She's a competent CIA agent who kicks some ass in the film.
Melina Havelock = I'm not big on Melina, but my bias shouldn't disqualify her. In fact, maybe they could have even had a crossbow weapon in the game to replace one of the least interesting guns like the Phantom (which looks cool, but does anyone really ever use it?)
Pam Bouvier = Another obvious pick as she's an agent and gets her hands dirty. Let's go with the short hair design.
The main ones who didn't make the cut for me, but I had in my mind at least temporarily, were Paula Caplan from Thunderball (already have Volpe), Tracy from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Tiffany Case from Diamonds are Forever as well as Bambi and Thumper (just no), Solitaire from Live and Let Die (not a fighter) and Octopussy (just not engaging enough outside her name).
Now, once again, if you could look ahead into the future and add other Bond girls from movies that came out after GoldenEye, some other candidates would be:
Wai Lin = Duh.
Cigar Girl = More eye-catching in her red jumpsuit than Christmas Jones and more action-oriented than Elektra King.
Jinx Johnson = She's an NSA agent. Duh.
Camille Montes = Bolivian agent and definitely on the action side of things. No iconic design and not a beloved film, though.
Eve Moneypenny = Keep her away from shooting James Bond though!
Those are my lists, but who else do you think would make for interesting additions to a James Bond multiplayer lineup? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and tell me which characters you'd pick to play as!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Saturday, November 28, 2020
GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64 is my favorite video game of all time and among the best ever made. Even with some of its technical flaws and how viewing it from a modern perspective makes it look dated, the game holds up as being a masterpiece of its time and still has so much replay value and lessons to teach.
However, we've all praised GoldenEye constantly. Sometimes, it's more interesting to pick apart the minor problems, if not just for a different discussion. That's what I'm going to do here as something recently struck me as quite annoying:
Why is Jack Wade not in the game?
There's this weird thing about GoldenEye (the movie) where Jack Wade comes in to replace Felix Leiter as James Bond's CIA contact ally. It's somewhat understandable, as the last time we saw Felix, his wife was killed and he was fed partially to a shark. He's probably no longer an active agent.
Wade is played by Joe Don Baker, which is odd, since he was one of the primary villains of just TWO films ago, Brad Whitaker. But that's not where the weird stuff ends.
Remember how Bond gets that car from Q with the stinger missiles behind the headlights? Do you remember what he does with it in the film? Nothing. The car chase is actually Bond inside of a tank (which is in the game in not just Streets, but also Runway, replacing the motorcycle, which is odd, especially since the bike was rendered and in the code but not accessible to ride). Bond tosses the keys to the car to Jack and tells him not to push any buttons. Wade laughs, drives off and that's about it.
I think we're missing a level here. They couldn't have created a whole new driving mechanic for a car chase or something, but this game took liberties all over the place with the story. Bond never went to the bunker in Severnaya, for instance. There are two Surface and Bunker levels along with Silo. What is Caverns, exactly?
So while I agree there should have been a Casino level, I think there also should have been a better version of the Jungle/Caverns setup and Wade should have been part of it.
The mission should have been something like Beach. Perhaps it would have involved you setting up some kind of rendezvous with Wade and then passing information along to him so he can get it to the military guys that pop up later.
But even if that couldn't have been practical to add that sort of level, the very least that should have happened was for him to be a multiplayer character. Take a variation of Zukovsky, slim it down a bit, craft Baker's face as close as you can get it, slap on the patterned shirt and light pants, give him his hat and you're good to go.
In a game that has so many characters to pick from, even if they were small parts of the film (helicopter pilot) or not in the movie at all (Siberian Special Forces), Jack Wade is the most glaring omission. He's not even a character like Anna that wouldn't make sense as a playable role. Wade is a CIA agent. He should be able to handle a gun and shoot people and such.
I'm assuming it has to be a likeness rights issue, but I hadn't come across that information when I was playing this as a kid, so it always felt strange. Why would they not be able to lock that down when they could with everyone else, as well as people from previous Bond films? Baron Samedi is in the game with an Egypt level and the Golden Gun and none of that makes any sense, but Jack Wade isn't in the game in the movie he was a big supporting character for?!
Crazy. Toss out your theories and thoughts in the comments below.
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Welcome to the first edition of Fanboys Anonymous GAME PLAN, where we take a film, television show or any kind of inspiration and we try to design a video game concept about it.
For the debut, I wanted to go with something on the simpler side in that we already have a template to work around and just need to adapt it in a different way. I knew just the idea, too.
Even as a casual gamer at best, I really enjoyed the first two Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video games and had always wondered what a DC version of it would be. What characters would you be able to select from? What locations would it span? Which villains would you fight?
Thus, I present to you...
THE DC: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE VIDEO GAME
WHAT IS THE TITLE?
Obviously, the title of the game would simply be DC: Ultimate Alliance, if we were going with a direct equivalent. However, assuming DC were to make a game that's as close as possible to this, but not be able to get the rights or want to deal with any trademark/copyright issues, let's think of something else.
I'll spoil some of the story here and say that this isn't going to have parallel dimensions in it, so I'm not going with Crisis on Infinite Earths as its name. That's the sequel, much like how Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was the Civil War story.
There are a few ideas I think could work, but they should all revolve around either DC Universe or Justice League. Here are some suggestions that all sound quite similar, so you get the idea:
DC Justice League United
DC United: Justice League War
DC: Justice League Crusades
DC: Justice League Crisis War
My favorite of the bunch is probably DC United: Justice League War. I think you could subtitle the follow-ups as DC United: Crisis on Infinite Earths and such. But this title goes with the theme of this first introduction game and story.
WHAT IS THE STORY?
Simplicity is key. That's why Marvel's first Ultimate Alliance game worked so well. It had tons of characters to pick from, lots of locations, a ridiculous amount of cameos and references, but a simple enough "fight the bad guys who are teaming up against the heroes" plot at its core. Even when it got confusing why Galactus was involved with Loki and Dr. Doom and all, it boiled down to just stopping the villains from taking over the universe.
The same should apply here, and we all know who should be behind this whole thing: The Legion of Doom.
Here's the overall pitch of the story in its raw form, without all the specifics:
The story opens with several cities under attack from a White Martian invasion. We play through the beginning level as different heroes, so we see Superman fighting them off in Metropolis, Batman fighting them in Gotham, etc. As this intro level progresses, Martian Manhunter gets everyone together to stop the invasion and they decide to form the Justice League (and there is a "super friends" joke in there, of course).
Cut to one year later, or a time skip somewhere along those lines. We have a group of our "core founding members" who had formed the Justice League: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. They discuss how the White Martian invasion got not only them to form their own super group, but that other unions have been forming. There are bigger factions as well as smaller cells of villains who are now teaming together and such. It's not just the Bat Family anymore, as there is an Injustice League of some villain, they know the government has Project Cadmus and Checkmate as well as so-called Suicide Squad (officially Task Force X), Lex Luthor has created Infinity Inc to form the "Everyman Project", Bruce Wayne's public response is OMAC and Brother Eye spearheaded by Maxwell Lord, etc. They've even been hearing rumblings about a so-called Legion of Doom super group they need to be prepared for.
The Justice League has been doing recruitment procedures over time and has expanded its roster to dozens of different subgroups. For example, Dick Grayson is the leader of the Young Justice group called Teen Titans, because he's not only the most trained and best for the job, but he's able to connect with the youth and maintain their innocence.
Ultimately, what this boils down to is that Lex Luthor is working in coalition with Brainiac, Vandal Savage, Ra's al Ghul and several others as an Illuminati-like group called The Light to create the Legion of Doom and connect all their resources so they can take down the Justice League and control the universe. Darkseid is probably not in this group as he's far too dangerous. But we get a general game out of missions where your team has to investigate different attacks on locations, stolen artifacts/weapons, stop military takeovers, etc, just like Ultimate Alliance, with The Light being extinguished (at least for now) and the universe being saved.
LOCATIONS
Throughout the game, different levels take place on different cities, worlds and major DC landmarks, including, but not limited to:
Hero Bases of Operations:
Watchtower satellite
Hall of Justice
Happy Harbor and Mount Justice / Secret Sanctuary
Titans Tower
Bat Cave
Fortress of Solitude
Flash Museum
Oa / Mogo
The Quiver (I hate the Arrowcave name)
Tower of Fate
Other Locations:
Belle Reve
Blackhawk Island
Midway City
Central City / Keystone City - Iron Heights
Gotham City = the city itself, Ace/Axis Chemicals, Amusement Mile, Arkham Asylum, Blackgate
Nanda Parbat
Metropolis = Daily Planet, Stryker's Island, Suicide Slum
Warworld
Hall of Doom
Star City
Coast City
Peña Duro in Santa Prisca
Slabside Island
Apokolips
Blüdhaven
Amnesty Bay / Atlantis
Fawcett City
Hub City
Ivy Town
Gorilla City
Smallville
Kasnia
Qurac
Corto Maltese
Kahndaq
Markovia
Rheelasia
Themyscira
Source Wall
Kandor
Qward
Rock of Eternity
Phantom Zone
Speed Force dimension
You get the picture.
WEAPONS / ARTIFACTS
Some of the weapons or artifacts that are being stolen throughout the game so the Legion of Doom and other sects can amass power are things like the following:
Book of Destiny
Helmet of Nabu
Kryptonite
Miraclo
Mother Boxes
Phantom Zone Projector
Spear of Destiny
Transportation between levels for the Justice League is done through Zeta Beam or Boom Tube technology.
VILLAINS
You need to have enemies to fight. Not only would there be generic criminals, robots and so forth, there would also be named characters spread out, just like there is in MUA.
Groups:
Brainiac robots (my preference is that Brainiac is the Brain Interactive Construct version, not the green alien)
Checkmate
Court of Owls
Darkseid's forces including parademons, Granny Goodness with the Female Furies, Kalibak, Steppenwolf, etc. Desaad would be in it, but you wouldn't fight him, necessarily.
Fatal Five
Fearsome Five
Flash's Rogues Gallery
Gorilla Grodd and his forces
H.I.V.E.
Injustice League
Intergang with Bruno Mannheim, Morgan Edge, Whisper A'Daire, etc
Joker will have a whole circus of clowns and subordinate types like Rag Doll and Professor Pyg's Dollotrons and such
League of Assassins (I prefer the League of Shadows name, personally)
Legion of Doom
Leviathan (maybe)
Lexcorp robots and Infinity Inc
Manchester Black and The Elite
Manhunters
Nuclear Family (maybe)
OMAC and Brother Eye under Maxwell Lord's control
Roulette's underground fighting group
Royal Flush Gang
Task Force X / Suicide Squad
The Ultimen (manufactured superheroes from Cadmus)
White Martians
Yellow Lantern Corps (as well as possibly the Red Lanterns and so on, but maybe there isn't enough room for them in this game)
Boss Fights:
AMAZO
Bane
Bizarro or Cyborg Superman (no need to have both as a boss fight)
Black Adam
Black Manta with Ocean Master
Black Racer
Brainiac
Brother Eye
Deathstroke
Doomsday
Eclipso
General Zod
Gorilla Grodd
Joker with Harley Quinn
Lex Luthor in his kryptonite suit
Libra
Lobo
Mister Mxyzptlk
Mongul
Nekron and Black Hand
Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins
Reverse Flash / Zoom
Sinestro
Some kind of mystical threat (Morgaine le Fey, Mordru, Klarion, Enchantress, etc)
Starro
Trigon
Vandal Savage
Other Random Villains (not the big boss of a level, but still could be solo or working together):
Atomic Skull
Black Beetle
Black Spider
Blockbuster
Brain and Monsier Mallah
Captain Boomerang
Captain Cold
Cheetah
Chemo
Cheshire
Circe
Clayface
Clock King
Cluemaster
Copperhead
Count Vertigo
Deadshot
Despero
Despero
Doctor Light
Doctor Polaris
Doctor Sivana
Electrocutioner
Evil Star
Felix Faust
Firefly and Firebug
Gentleman Ghost
Giganta
Goldface
Killer Croc
Killer Frost
Killer Moth
King Shark
Livewire
Mad Hatter
Major Force (partnered with General Wade Eiling)
Metallo
Mirror Master
Mr. Freeze
Onomatopoeia (how fun would this be in the game?)
Parasite
Poison Ivy
Prometheus
Psimon
Riddler
Scarecrow maybe teaming with Doctor Destiny
Shade
Silver Banshee
Solomon Grundy
Sportsmaster
T.O. Morrow
Tattooed Man
Terror Twins
The Key
Toyman
Trigger Twins
Turtle (a super easy fight)
Ultra-Humanite and Titano the Super Ape
Weather Wizard
You'd think that would cover everyone, since this list is huge, but I'm still leaving out TONS of people.
PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
In an ideal world, we have TONS of characters to pick from, but not everyone can be chosen. You'll find plenty of names in the next section as cameos instead. Still, I wanted to incorporate as many as I could consider reasonable.
To help keep things organized, I've grouped characters into some different factions. Obviously, Batman belongs in the Bat Family, but since he's a core hero, you want to put him in there above everything else. Keep that in mind and don't think that I'm ignoring their ties to all the different units.
Also, naturally, every character would have a few alternate skins you could download. Superman would have the Electric Superman form, the black suit with the mullet, etc.
Characters in italics are ones that could potentially be cut if there were too many to pick from. Every character not in italics would HAVE to be in the game as far as I'm concerned.
Founding Core:
Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
The Flash (Barry Allen)
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
Aquaman
Martian Manhunter
Batman Family:
Nightwing (blue is default; alt costumes are red version, the feathery blue and yellow outfit and a Robin suit)
Robin (Tim Drake - I'd prefer Damian, but I want DC to let Tim become Flamebird. I don't like the Red Robin name. So let's keep Damian out of this game for now)
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)
Red Hood
Catwoman
Huntress
Batwoman / Orphan / Spoiler (I like Stephanie and Cassandra, but
they're not necessities. To be honest, I don't like Batwoman at all and
think she's a pointlessly derivative lame character).
Justice League's Other Members:
Black Canary
Booster Gold
Captain Atom
Firestorm
Green Arrow
Hawkwoman / Hawkgirl
Hawkman
Plastic Man / Elongated Man
Shazam aka Captain Marvel
Vixen
Zatanna
Green Lantern Corps:
Guy Gardner
Jessica Cruz
John Stewart
Kyle Rayner
Simon Baz
Note: They probably would act all the same and just be different skins of the Hal Jordan character with some slightly different constructs, so it likely wouldn't be too hard to incorporate all of them. Alan Scott is saved for the sequel game.
Outsiders:
Black Lightning
Katana
Metamorpho
Superman Family:
Steel
Superboy (black shirt and jeans is default, 90s look is an alt skin)
Supergirl (Power Girl is an alt skin)
Teen Titans:
Artemis / Tigress
Arsenal (Red Arrow works, but Speedy is a dumb name)
Aqualad / Tempest
Beast Boy
Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
Cyborg
Kid Flash (Wally West) or Impulse (Bart Allen) or my preference, having it be Impulse as a name and design but the Wally West character under the mask - could just be alt skins of Barry, though
Miss Martian (could just be an alt skin of J'onn)
Raven
Starfire
Wonder Girl (could just be alt skins for Diana that are Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark)
I say that's a pretty healthy crop of characters to pick from. The likelihood all of these would be available would be slim, so some would probably have to be cut from the lineup.
SUPPORTING NON-PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
It's impossible to be able to play as every character out there. The game designers couldn't possibly make enough variations for it to be worthwhile, it's too much programming work and it wouldn't be worth it for the smaller characters.
However, that doesn't mean they can't still pop up as NPCs, right? Marvel Ultimate Alliance had cameo characters in supporting roles as people to talk to on missions, interactions at the base of operations and so on. That's what we're doing here.
ARGUS
Adam Strange
Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox
Animal Man
Commissioner Gordon, Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya
Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer
Doom Patrol
Dr. Fate (just too powerful)
Etrigan
Fire and Ice
Green Lantern Corps = Extra members of the GLC including the Guardians
Hawk and Dove = Hank Hall and probably Dawn Granger (I prefer that group with Don having died already)
Justice League Dark = Constantine, Deadman, Swamp Thing, etc
Legion of Super-Heroes
Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen
Marvel Family = Mary Marvel and such
Mera
Mr. Terrific
New Gods = Big Barda, Forager, Highfather, Lightray, Orion, Mister Miracle
Red Tornado Family = Red Tornado, Red Inferno, Red Torpedo and Red Volcano
S.T.A.R. Labs (Emil Hamilton and such)
Spectre
Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E.
Ted Kord
The Atom (too hard to figure out how to incorporate his powers as a playable method)
The Metal Men
The Question
Waverider (only to set up the sequel game as a post-credit tease)
Wildcat (trainer for the tutorial)
WHAT IS DC ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2?
Just for the sake of explaining the thing I teased multiple times, here's a short explanation of the sequel game.
At the very end in a post-credit sequence, Waverider would show up and there would be all sorts of signs pointing toward a multiversal problem with different parallel earths crossing over.
Hypertime would be involved in this. That means we can incorporate some characters we didn't touch on in game #1, such as the Crime Syndicate/Justice Lords, the Anti-Monitor, Gog, Krona, Imperiex, Chronos, Solaris the Tyrant Sun, Superboy Prime with Alexander Luthor, Hal Jordan doing the whole Parallax and Spectre thing, and even Watchmen and Authority, maybe.
The game could include going to different alternate dimensions as well as the past and the future. You could see Jonah Hex in the past during a wild west level. You could team up with the Justice Society of America's Alan Scott and Jay Garrick.
At the end, the Anti-Monitor would be stopped and it would set up a third game, but I'm not sure what would be the best story for that one. After all, the first game isn't even real, let alone the second!
What do you think? What would your pitch be for a DC Ultimate Alliance game? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
I've been watching SilphSpectre's True Power tournament on YouTube and after checking out the most recent episode, Janine vs. Brock, something dawned on me: Janine as a character shouldn't even exist.
Indulge me as I go down this rabbit hole with another edition of FANBOYS FIX IT where I'll address why that problem is an issue and how to remedy the situation with a few tweaks that change as little as possible, while making what I think are the best alterations.
Koga Graduates
As it stands with Generation II, the return to Kanto was one of the biggest selling points. Not only was it interesting to see that the Indigo League was actually on the Johto side, too, but that when you step into the Elite 4 challenge, you're not actually fighting the same group.
It wouldn't have made much sense for you to fight Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, Lance and then Blue, anyway, as Red had beaten Blue. Theoretically, you could have set it up so you beat those 4 and then Red, while Blue goes off and does his Viridian City Gym business, but I think they had a decent idea with Will and Karen and so forth. It still doesn't help that Bruno is a Fighting specialist with his Rock types and all, nor does it make much sense Lance is the champion, but whatever. We're in the interest of changing as little as possible, remember?
So let's say we keep everything the same as far as Koga moving up to the Elite 4 and making the Poison/Psychic/Dark/Fighting quartet happen. I'm cool with that. It's kind of neat to see Koga move up the ranks and fill in the void left by Agatha, especially as she was supposed to be a Ghost-type specialist who actually had all Poison types on her team, anyway.
But with Koga moving up to the Elite 4, who takes his place in running the Fuchsia City gym? It would be too hard to create a whole new area for Gen 2 just to give another location a different gym (unless you went with Pallet Town having a gym now with Red as the leader, but that stops you from having Mount Silver's epic showdown).
Janine is Koga's Clone
Game Freak's response was to have Koga's daughter Janine replace him in what amounted to one of the least interesting scenarios imaginable.
Everything stayed basically the same. Fuchsia City went from having a Poison-type ninja-themed gym to having a Poison-type ninja-themed gym.
Even the Pokemon weren't different. Take a look at their teams:
Koga in Red and Blue:
Koffing (x2)
Weezing
Muk
Koga in Yellow:
Venonat (x3)
Venomoth
Koga in Gold and Silver as Elite 4 Member:
Ariados
Venomoth
Forretress (Bug and Steel??)
Muk
Crobat
Now look at Janine's team:
Ariados
Venomoth
Weezing (x2)
Crobat
Every single Pokemon she has is something Koga has had, and it didn't even need to be that way! She could have had Arbok, Beedrill, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Tentacruel, and Qwilfish. That's a full team of six Poison types that aren't used elsewhere at that point in time.
I think this pretty much means Game Freak didn't have plans to put Koga in the Elite 4 spot. It probably would have been Agatha again, with Koga still operating out of Fuchsia City, and they just decided to put him in there on a whim. Then, out of laziness and not wanting to redo the Fuchsia City gym layout, they just said "eh, it's his daughter, so she inherited everything."
At the very least, giving her different Pokemon should have been done. But it's also a missed opportunity to do something else and that's what I'm suggesting should have happened instead.
Where's the Ground-Type Gym?
Outside of some tweaks to their teams, most Gym Leaders in Kanto didn't change. Brock is still in Pewter, Misty is still in Cerulean, etc. Cinnabar Island was messed up with the volcano, so that gym shifted, but it's still Blaine and he's still a Fire-type specialist. The only ones who really changed were Janine replacing Koga and Blue replacing Giovanni.
By doing so and getting rid of Giovanni, the Earth Badge for the Viridian Gym no longer makes any sense. Of course, it never made sense to begin with, as it's a green leaf or feather, but whatever. Blue isn't a Ground trainer by any means and shouldn't give out that badge. Likewise, without Giovanni in the mix, Ground is the only type that we don't have a Gym Leader or an Elite 4 member representing.
What should happen instead is that Blue should give out a different badge instead of the Earth Badge and a Ground-type Gym Leader should take Koga's place in Fuchsia City.
In regards to Blue, let's give him something that isn't type-specific. My three main suggestions are the Pride Badge (I know, it's in Pokemon Masters), the Honor Badge or the Glory Badge. The idea behind the name is that he's a former champion who used to have a big ego, but learned how to carry himself with the right sense of honor after his defeat as champion. He should instill that knowledge to you as a teacher and you should have pride in defeating a former champion in him.
The design could be something simple. It has no real theme, so you just make it look classy, as if it's something a champion would want to pin on his or her lapel. But you make it green in color, as it's Viridian City, after all, and Blue is technically named Green in the original Japanese games.
In regards to this new Ground-type Gym Leader for Fuchsia City, though, how do we go about that?
I say since the Safari Zone is decommissioned in this game, let's tear it down and have the Ground specialists as the ones responsible for closing it off. They're doing construction in rebuilding that whole place or possibly tearing it down entirely and won't let anyone in there, as it's hazardous.
To make things less confusing, I'd get rid of the Earth Badge entirely. The design just doesn't work as "earth" in any fashion. This also means the Soul Badge has to go, too, since that wouldn't make any sense. Again, it never made sense why Sabrina's Psychic gym has the Marsh Badge while the Poison gym has the Soul Badge, so this at least gets another one of those issues out of the way.
Instead, let's go with the Quake Badge (the next logical step that they would take as evidenced by future games). If not that, maybe the Hazard Badge where it has a hard hat or a construction tape vibe to it. Or maybe the Terra Badge or even the Dust Badge. Hell, you can even still call it the Earth Badge but just change the way it looks so it is brown and looks remotely ground-related.
The character who is the Gym Leader almost doesn't matter. Go with whatever you want. He/she should have Hikers and such in his gym and he/she should look like a construction worker of sorts. Want to go super punny? Make it a woman named Tera.
As far as her team, our options at this point in the series are:
Sandshrew / Sandslash
Nidoqueen
Nidoking
Diglett / Dugtrio
Geodude / Graveler / Golem
Onix / Steelix
Cubone / Marowak
Rhyhorn / Rhydon
Wooper / Quagsire
Gligar
Phanpy / Donphan
Swinub / Piloswine
Larvitar / Pupitar
Onix is a staple for Brock and Bruno, while Steelix is Jasmine's ace, so that line shouldn't show up here again. Blue has a Rhydon on his team, so let's take that out of the equation, too. The same goes for Swinub and Piloswine since Pryce has that covered for his Ice gym. I'd also say since you can't go with Tyranitar, you should skip Larvitar and Pupitar. That still leaves us with plenty of options to pick from.
Sandshrew / Sandslash
Nidoqueen
Nidoking
Diglett / Dugtrio
Geodude / Graveler / Golem
Cubone / Marowak
Wooper / Quagsire
Gligar
Phanpy / Donphan
My ideal situation is to get rid of Forretress on Koga's team and replace that with Nidoking. Then, we can have this Tera character have Nidoqueen along with Sandslash, Dugtrio, Golem and either Quagsire or Donphan.
Why not Gligar or Marowak? Well, Gligar being Ground/Flying and a base-form with no evolutions at that point seems contradictory and less amazing. Marowak also has the Lavender Town stuff on its own and doesn't need more of a focus. I'd certainly have trainers in the gym have those Pokemon, though, so they're still featured as part of this theme.
So that's it. You close off the Safari Zone by having the new Ground Gym Leader doing construction, you feature some of those Pokemon and make sure all the types have a character that represents them, fix the Soul Badge and Earth Badge issue and prevent Koga from being copied and pasted with this Janine character.
What do you think? Is this a good change in retrospect, or do you still prefer the way Game Freak set things up with Janine? Drop a comment below and let me know!
When Generation II of Pokemon came out with Gold and Silver, I remember being astounded at the creation of the Dark and Steel types. Of course this would happen, and with good cause. But I always had thought that a few other types didn't make much sense (why have both Ground and Rock, for instance?) and that some other things could have been created over time.
Then, with the addition of the Fairy type, I was even happier with the type diversity. I still think, to this day, that certain types should be switched as far as effectiveness goes (click here for a restructured Pokemon type effectiveness chart), but the idea of creating new types to fit new concepts of Pokemon is something I find very interesting.
However, I think people are a little too quick at coming up with random types and flooding the market. If you think about it, the series has been around 20+ years and they've only added 3 types. That's not a lot compared to some fan sites out there that have another dozen or so random things they'd like to see—most of which make zero sense.
Magic type is just Psychic. Wood, Magma, Wind and Steam? C'mon now. Those are just Grass, Fire, Flying and Water. Fear type is just Dark. Why is there a Beast type when all Pokemon are beasts and there isn't enough of a distinction between Bug, Dragon, Fairy, etc for something as generic as Beast?
Still, I do think there's room for a few more types to be made and I feel like this could be worth talking about.
What would the type conceptualize as? What Pokemon would be retconned to being that type, similar to how Clefairy became a Fairy and Magnemite was part Steel? Which moves could be granted that typing and what would it be effective and weak to?
For this first edition of what I'm assuming will be a 4 or 5 part series, I wanted to focus on the one type I think would make the most sense to add: the Sound type.
SOUND TYPE CONCEPT
Ghosts are ghosts. Dragons are dragons. When you start getting into the more energy-based things like Fire, it's a little harder to pinpoint, but I think it's still rather self-explanatory.
It's not that these creatures are made of pure sound (although some could be). It's more that sound is their gimmick. They have immunities to sound-based attacks, are able to control sound and vibrations very well, or have concepts that are based on music/sound/etc.
Pokemon already uses Sound as a subcategory of sorts for certain types of attacks. This is just the next natural progression.
SOUND-TYPE BATTLE CHART
I'll admit that I don't think I have all the balancing figured out for this. However, there are plenty of gaps from the current layout of the battle chart with what's effective against other things. Again, look above at the link at the start of this for a better breakdown of how I think things should work with Poison being super effective to Water and so on.
Here's what I could see making sense, though, for the Sound type, but I'm totally down for tweaking if you have any suggestions in the comments!
2x Strong Against
Ice (avalanches can be caused by sound)
Rock (glass shatters)
Steel (good conductor of sound)
Water (sound travels faster in water and amplifies its noise level)
possibly Fighting (solve problems with your words, rather than your fists)
possibly Ghost (prayer)
possibly Psychic (sound can break mental concentration)
1x Strong Against
Normal
Poison
Bug
Fire
Electric
Dragon
Fairy
Sound
0.5x Strong Against
Dark (its quiet at night)
Flying (sound doesn't travel in space)
Grass (natural sound barrier)
Zero Damage Against
Ground (drowns out the sound)
2x Weak to
Electric (disrupts the vibrations)
Ground (drowns out the sound)
1x Weak to
Bug
Dark
Dragon
Fairy
Fire
Flying
Ghost
Grass
Ice
Normal
Psychic
Rock
Sound
Steel
Water
0.5x Resistant to
Fighting (you can't really punch energy)
Poison (why not, right? How do you really poison vibrations?)
Immune to
Nothing
POKEMON WITH THE SOUND TYPE
Igglybuff → Jigglypuff → Wigglytuff = Sound/Fairy
- Its gimmick is singing.
Drowzee → Hypno = Psychic/Sound
- I'm not entirely sold on this, but I think it could work.
Hoothoot → Noctowl = Sound/Flying?
- I'm not entirely sold on this, either, but it could make sense with the hooting and all.
Politoed = Water/Sound
- Its Pokedex entries talk about the noises it makes.
Misdreavus → Mismagius = Ghost/Sound
- Dex entries mention sounds. It's also called the Screech Pokemon.
Whismur → Loudred → Exploud = Sound
- Duh.
Wailmer → Wailord = Water/Sound
- Wail. Duh.
Chingling → Chimecho = Psychic/Sound
- Duh.
Kricketot → Kricketune = Bug/Sound
- Duh.
Bronzor → Bronzong = Psychic/Sound or Steel/Sound (probably Steel)
- Duh. It's a bell.
Chatot = Sound/Flying
- Chat. C'mon now.
Woobat → Swoobat = Sound/Flying I guess
- You might be thinking "Why not Zubat's line?" Well, let's be honest. Zubat could be Poison, Flying, Dark and Sound all at the same time. Let's go with Poison/Flying for Zubat and Sound/Flying for Woobat to differentiate them a bit and not make 2 of the same bat type things both Sound.
Audino = Sound or Sound/Fairy or Sound/Normal
- Duh.
Tympole → Palpitoad → Seismitoad = Water/Sound
- This is all about vibrations. Let's get rid of the Ground and replace it with Water, even though that means we have 3 lines of Water+Sound types already with Politoed and Wailmer. But hey, how many Normal/Flying birds do we have? Just give it lots of Ground moves like Earthquake to go along with it.
Maractus = Grass/Sound
- It's a cactus with maracas. It has to be sound.
Meloetta = Sound/Psychic and Sound/Fighting
- It's all about singing.
Litleo → Pyroar = Fire/Sound
- Since it focuses on the "roar" part of the name, and it's Fire/Normal for some reason, let's replace that Normal type.
Noibat → Noivern = Sound/Dragon
- It's another bat, but it's even more so dedicated to sound. This one is a given.
Oricorio = */Sound instead of */Flying
- It's a dancer. Let's give some more variation to the Sound type and just get rid of Flying for this.
Jangmo-o → Hakamo-o → Kommo-o = Dragon/Sound
- I'm actually not all that into this being another Dragon and Sound type, but it's something worth talking about.
Gossifleur → Eldegoss = Grass/Sound
- No need for it to be Sound, but it's worth talking about.
Toxel → Toxtricity = Electric/Sound or Poison/Sound
- I can see why people would want to keep it Electric/Poison, so I'm not opposed to that. But I could also see a case for there to be Electric/Sound and Poison/Sound variations or something. Maybe different forms?
Obstagoon = Dark/Sound
- It's based off KISS.
+ Arceus, Type: Null and Silvally with the corresponding plates that would allow for them to be the Sound type.
Some people suggest Voltorb. I don't see it being sound-based just because it knows some sound moves. If anything, it should be Steel/Electric since it's a metal ball.
Lapras has certainly been given some musical elements to it, hasn't it? But to me, Lapras should be Ice/Dragon or stay Water/Ice rather than turn into a Water/Sound or Ice/Sound.
As far as new types go, you have countless instruments you could draw inspiration from. There could be a variant of Jynx that is more like a Nordic opera singer. Sound/Flying parrot Pokemon is a guarantee.
SOUND TYPE MOVES
I'm certainly not going to go through hundreds upon hundreds of moves and double check everything. This is more about the theory and concept, rather than some historian breakdown. Nevertheless, I think some moves stand out as obvious picks while some others are certainly within the discussion.
Note: A move like Bug Buzz should stay Bug, shouldn't it? The same goes for Grass Whistle, Metal Sound, etc.
Belch
Boomburst
Chatter
Clanging Scales
Confide
Disarming Voice
Drum Beating
Echoed Voice
Encore
Growl
Heal Bell
Howl
Hyper Voice
Lucky Chant
Noble Roar
Overdrive
Perish Song
Relic Song
Roar
Round
Screech
Sing
Sleep Talk
Snarl
Snore
Sonic Boom
Sparkling Aria
Supersonic
Uproar
Yawn
Based on that criteria, I think Sound could be a solid new type to add to the Pokemon series. What do you think? Got any ideas for the Sound type or any other future types? Drop them in the comments below to keep the discussion going!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Friday, February 28, 2020
A few weeks back, Sonic the Hedgehog surprised most people by being a pretty decent film that also surpassed box office expectations. At this point, being both monetarily and critically well-received, a sequel is guaranteed, if not a third film, too.
Before anything is officially announced about those movies, what do I think should happen and what would I do if I were given the keys to the kingdom and creative control?
Welcome to the first edition of FANBOYS FOLLOW-UP—a segment where I take a film or TV show and expand on where I'd like to see the story go from there. I've wanted to do this many times over the years with things like Kick-Ass 3, Incredibles 3, dating all the way back to one of the first posts on this site with my Ghostbusters III idea. Now, it's officially kicking off with this, because...well...why not?
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
We already know we're getting Tails as the end of the last film showed the little guy. It was a necessity. To make a sequel and not include him would be insane.
The last film ended with Robotnik stranded off-world and Sonic comfortable in his new home in the attic of the Wachowski's. We can't completely ignore the relationship between Sonic and The Donut Lord, Tom, nor push Maddie out of the way or anything like that. They need to do something, and there should be something that gets in the way of Sonic's friendship with Tom. That's what sequels pretty much always do.
Here's my quick pitch, as we don't need to flesh out all the little details:
The government was lenient on everyone, but they're still keeping tabs. They notice that something is happening across the planet that seems extremely reminiscent of Sonic's powers. Banks and technological facilities are being robbed in a split second and there's nothing but a blue streak of energy that they catch on camera. Who else are they going to blame but him? Crazy Carl agrees.
Tom goes to bat for Sonic, that he wouldn't be responsible, but the evidence mounts. Meanwhile, there's been tension brewing because Tails has come from Mobius trying to track him down because things have gotten bad and they could use his help. Creatures from that world are being converted into robots that are taking over. It's definitely Robotnik's fault, as these Badniks need to be stopped.
Immediately, there's a great partnership between Sonic and Tails, which makes Tom jealous. He doesn't really know what those two are up to, which makes him suspicious that Sonic is being a rebellious teenager and actually causing these crimes. But hey, Tom's not Sonic's father, so that creates even more tension. Plus, Maddie is pressuring Tom to have a baby and Sonic feels like he's being cast aside.
Then, they get seemingly full-proof evidence that it's Sonic causing these crimes when video surveillance footage manages to capture a picture of him and it has his shape, size, etc.
Who is the real culprit, though? Well, of course, it's Robotnik. I mean, he's the bad guy and all. But in particular, it's Mecha Sonic (aka Metal Sonic—I know they're all supposed to be different, but they shouldn't be, just like how Mega Man and X should be the same robot with some advancements and not entirely different characters). He should appear in Mark I form (Silver Sonic) but eventually, the blue armor and everything in future tweaks is more than enough to fool everyone.
Mecha Sonic is extremely powerful and able to match Sonic's speed, if not surpass it. That's the biggest physical fight of the whole thing, but there are also Badniks and normal drones that Robotnik pilots. That gives Tails something to do (disable the tech that controls the Badniks) and Tom something to do (fight off the drones) in the final battle.
It ends with Sonic being exonerated, Maddie having her child, Tom and Sonic have reconciled, Sonic has a friend in Tails that is closer to his own kind, they can travel between worlds easier through whatever means Robotnik found his way back, and all is well again.
That is...of course, until the tease at the end. The Knuckles Clan or Echnida Tribe or whatever you want to call them is attacked by another variation of Mecha Sonic and consult their prophecy about how they'd inevitably deal with the blue menace. Their cave paintings or scripture or whatever make it seem like Sonic is destined to destroy them through the Chaos Emeralds, and they won't let that happen.
Bonus points for how this is the #2 film and a ton of things revolve around the concept of two. There are two Sonics (real and robot). Tails has two tails. There are two heroes now from the other world (Sonic and Tails) as well as two villains in this story (Robotnik and Mecha Sonic). A wedge between Sonic/Tails and Tom/Maddie that is eventually patched up with their kid. So on and so forth.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Triple Trouble
As said, this film revolves around the Chaos Emeralds. There's a flashback to when Sonic was a child and that whole attack from the first film that had the echidnas hunting him. Their prophecy isn't clarified yet, as they've interpreted it as basically "Sonic will bring the end of Mobius through the Chaos Emeralds." Remember how in the games, there are those hieroglyphics that play into this idea? I'm copying that.
Robotnik sent Mecha Sonic to frame him again, so they think this is happening now. He offers to help them kill Sonic if he allows them access to the Chaos Emeralds. Since he's proven himself an ally so far and he's a genius from another world, they trust him and his new sidekick, a little purple wolf-like guy named Nack the Weasel (aka Fang the Sniper).
The head of the tribe is Knuckles. You know him. I don't need to go into who he is, and you know where this is going, too.
Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure what I'd do with the Tom and Maddie portion of this story yet, but I didn't want to sleep on this article any longer. Maybe in time, I'll edit this section with an update. But I do know I want Sonic and Tails to be bros and for the baby Wachowski to be something they watch over and for the kid to be in danger at some point in the movie, as well as some kind of tie-in to Chao.
Then, Sonic and Knuckles basically plays out the way you'd expect it. Knuckles is naive enough to trust Robotnik and acts as a primary antagonist along with Nack, who is more of a pest for Tails to deal with. We've got our Badniks in some fashion and possibly Mecha Sonic is back, but just not as featured. I'd rather have an alternative to that, but I don't think it's smart to throw out Shadow or something and I can't think of another enemy worth putting in the mix.
Robotnik uses the Master Emerald and unlocks Perfect Chaos, which is the real prophecy meaning: Sonic is the one to help stop the destruction, not the one who brings it. Knuckles realizes that mistake and joins the team, giving us Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Tom against Robotnik, Nack, the standard drones and the big bad threat of Perfect Chaos.
Sonic has to go Super Sonic to defeat it. He obviously does, because this is a film for kids and not something dark and depressing that ends in the world's destruction or something. Now that Sonic has proven himself totally not the problem, he's more than welcome to hang out on Angel Island and all throughout Mobius and Earth however he pleases.
Unfortunately, there's no natural way for me to figure out how to cram in more characters like Rouge and Cream, but maybe...just maybe...somewhere in there, you could add Amy Rose. If not, and if these movies do well enough that you can make a fourth, have a plot point be that Amy Rose is Sonic's girlfriend and that changes the dynamics of the group. You can have Rouge/Knuckles and Cream/Tails as the other couples and really market that toward the girls in the audience, too. But hey, I'm sticking with Sonic 2 and 3 at this point, and it's better not to get too far ahead of the game...I mean, movie...I mean, game-inspired movie.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY PITCH?
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN IN THESE MOVIES?
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Sunday, November 10, 2019
Welcome to part 3 of my Fanboys Fix It of Pokemon Generation I.
As mentioned before, this was sponsored by Guest Five's donation on Patreon via the Pick Your Poison tier (donate today if you want to request a special feature of your own)
Part 1 was the general setup and information about items, HMs, how Pokemon can evolve and more. Part 2 was the new Pokedex. To wrap things up here in part 3, I'll be talking about all the story elements including how I would reformat the trainers you battle throughout the game.
Some Notes
Unlike the original 8-gym structure, this version requires a badge for all 18 types before you can enter the Indigo Plateau. Some come from Gym Leaders and others from Ace Trainers.
Specialist teams scale with your progress and can be rematched at full strength after you become champion.
The trainer breakdown below is organized alphabetically by type rather than encounter order. When more than six Pokemon are listed, treat them as an option pool rather than one fixed final team.
The Elite 3 use themes instead of types, your stronger rival becomes champion, and Professor Oak is the post-game final boss after completing the Pokedex.
Move Changes
I didn't really have another spot to put this, but for battling purposes, some moves that I didn't mention in part 1 are changed, as they don't make a lot of sense in the context of this rewrite.
There aren't any Dark or Steel moves in Gen 1, nor any real Ghost or Dragon moves, so we need to add more. Just take some from later games and insert them.
We don't need Absorb, Mega Drain and Leech Life (especially not with Giga Drain coming later).
Splash is renamed Flop. It's Hop in Japanese and that's why Pokemon without the Water type can learn it. Splash makes no sense. Nor does Hop, cause fish don't do that, but they do flop, and non-fish can flop.
Confuse Ray is Psychic now because logic.
Dragon Rage shouldn't do 40 all the time. Obviously, as mentioned, there should be more Dragon moves, but even still, that doesn't make sense to me. Dragon Rage should be something like Drill Peck, Wing Attack, Egg Bomb...just something that's strong when it hits. Maybe, it can have a secondary effect, but I'm not sure what.
Why do we have both Self-Destruct and Explosion? They're exactly the same. Explosion should be a Fire move that has a chance to burn the opponent along with the damage and instead of fully fainting the user, it takes out half their HP.
Fury Attack and Fury Swipes are way too similar. Get rid of Fury Swipes.
Glare is Dark, maybe.
Why is Mirror Move a Flying attack? It should be Normal.
Why is Razor Wind a Normal attack? It should be Flying.
Night Shade shouldn't be based on the level.
Rest should be Normal instead of Psychic.
We don't need Spore and Sleep Powder, especially with both being Grass.
Basic Story Progression Changes
You have 2 rivals. One of them (hereby called Blue) picks the starter that is better than you and the other (hereby called Green) picks the worse one because they arrive later than the other two and are perpetually running behind. What a loser. The characters are a girl and a boy by default no matter what you pick for your own gender.
There aren't 8 gyms. Instead, you need a badge for EVERY TYPE in order to get into the Indigo Plateau to challenge for the champion's spot.
These badges are obtained through Gym Leaders as well as Ace Trainers found throughout the region that all specialize in a type.
The Elite 3 (not Elite 4) specialize in "themes" of Pokemon, but not specific types. The champion is random.
Each Ace Trainer or Gym Leader uses a team based on your level as a trainer. The higher you are, the tougher they are. You can revisit them once you've become champion and they'll have their strongest teams, which I'll break down below.
You have to beat your weaker rival before facing the Elite 3, and your stronger rival is the champion. However, they aren't the last fight in the game.
Once you become the champion, you get access to the area where Mewtwo is. Maybe it's Cerulean Cave, or maybe I've created a new spot. I don't know. But now, you can catch the strongest Pokemon in the game.
Once you catch all 200 Pokemon and completed the Pokedex, your final battle is Professor Oak, who uses all level 100 Pokemon. If you beat him, you prove to him that you're worthy of having Mew, which he had all along, as he had saved Mew from the cloning experiments.
Smaller Miscellaneous Story Changes
Bill doesn't give you the S.S. Anne ticket. Instead, he gives you an Eevee. I'm not sure how I'd change it so you get to the S.S. Anne, but...
Why isn't the S.S. Anne where you learn the ability to surf, rather than the cut one? It seems like that's a better spot to come across someone who knows how to navigate water.
Voodoll is in the Lavender Town story in the tower, rather than Cubone. You have to free it from its curse.
Pokemon Mansion isn't a mansion. Why is it a mansion? That makes no sense. Instead, it's a laboratory that is inside a volcano on Cinnabar, which is why they were able to get away with these experiments, much like the lair in a James Bond movie (You Only Live Twice, for the record).
Marsh and Soul are swapped. Marsh is what you get from beating the Grass leader and Soul is from the Psychic leader.
Switch up those repetitive trainers. How many people do you need to fight that just have a Caterpie or something? Instead, let's have more themes or variety. Someone should have a double battle of a Miltank and a Taurox, for instance. Someone has all the Eevee variations. So on and so forth.
Event Pokemon
Aerodactyl - one of the fossils you can pick from
Articuno - Seafoam Island
Eevee - given to you by Bill
Hitmontyke - gifted to you in the Fighting Dojo
Mew - gifted to you by Professor Oak when you beat him
Mewtwo - Unknown Dungeon (not sure where I'd place that in the game)
Moltres - Cinnabar Volcano
Scorpsean - one of the fossils you can pick from
Snorlax - blocking your way to one of the towns; it doesn't matter which
Tangulb - a blockade growth that you have to cut down, like Sudowoodo, maybe
Zapdos - Power Plant
I'd love to make some exclusive to regions like Safari Zone, Viridian Forest and S.S. Anne, but I'm not sure what.
I'd also like to make Porygon, Emimime, Yukiona, Jynx, Voodoll and Ditto events, but they don't have to be. Ditto could just be found in the lab, Voodoll could be found in Lavender and so forth. Porygon, above all, I would like to see as an event, but I don't know where.
The Gym Leader / Ace Trainer Team Breakdown
I haven't fully figured out this concept, but the idea would be that you need a badge for every type, so you need to come across some sort of specialist (or Ace Trainer) that can certify you as being able to beat them.
This changes the structure of the gyms, and I wouldn't want to get rid of those entirely, but I do think it's a little strange for there to just be multiple gyms in every town. Instead, some of these would be random encounters to pass to another location and such.
I don't have all of the ideas set in stone, and you can definitely tell that I don't have all the Pokemon picked for what their original teams would be, or what their final teams would be. However, the concept is that the game isn't as linear as it originally was, and that you can battle them once with a weaker team (depending on the # of badges you have) and then another time with their strongest team, which you can rebattle over and over like the Indigo Plateau.
Battled at Fighting Dojo. I loved that in the original game as some defunct gym that Sabrina had booted out. That's kind of how I wanted to expand on this in my reboot.
Bigglybuff (Normal / Fighting)
Kongbatt → Guorilla → Primeape (Fighting / Normal or Fighting / Dark) * possibly both variants
This guy is either free-roam with no set location that you come across randomly as he's flying around, or, more likely, he's the person you have to battle to get access to the Power Plant, which would have a windmill on it.
He's the one who tells you about the legendary birds.
Butterfree (Bug / Flying)
Pidgey → Pidgeotto → Pidgeot (Flying)
Spearow → Drearow → Fearkrow (Flying / Dark)
Zubat → Golbat → Crobat (Poison / Dark)
Pegasteed (Fairy / Flying)
Fowlott (Flying / Grass)
Dodumbo (Normal / Flying) if that item is a thing
Koffing → Weezing → Choaking (Poison / Flying)
Searpent → Skullkraken (Water / Flying) if that item is a thing
Aerodactyl (Rock / Flying)
Dragonite (Dragon / Flying)
Mr. Fuji Ghost
Parazombi (Bug / Ghost)
Gastly → Haunter → Gengar (Ghost / Dark)
Phantorb or whatever I'm calling the Pokeball thing (Ghost / Steel)
Voodoll (Ghost / Psychic)
Baansheep line (Ghost)
Porygon (Ghost) = reference to "ghost in the machine"
Yukiona (Ice / Ghost) = if that typing, it replaces Parazombi most likely
Erika Grass
Oddish → Gloom → Vileplume (Grass / Dark)
Oddish → Bellsprout → Bellossum (Grass / Fairy)
Parasect (Bug / Grass) -- she tosses it when it stops being Grass and replaces it with Leafeon for her final team
Fowlott (Flying / Grass)
Exeggutor line (Grass / Psychic)
Tangulb → Tangulbush → Tangulweed (Grass)
Leafeon (Grass)
Ace Ground Trainer Ground
Battled at Rock Tunnel.
Armadig → Pangarmy → Armordrillo (Ground / Steel)
Blindig → Shrewlunk → ??? (Ground or Ground / Dark)
Dodumbo (Normal / Ground)
Mukrud (Poison / Ground)
Onix line (Ground / *)
Cubone → Marowak → Kangaskhan (Fighting / Ground)
Tangulweed (Grass / Ground)
Scorpsean (Water / Ground)
Ace Sherpa Ice
This is someone you have to battle to get access to Seafoam Island.
Armordrillo (Ground / Ice)
Narwhale (Water / Ice)
Onix line (Ice / Ground)
Yukiona (Ice / *)
Nessio → Lokness → Loknessaur (Ice / Dragon)
Other options:
Rabbutcher (Dark / Ice)
Aerodactyl (Ice / Flying) if that's in the game
Bill Normal
He's another professor, of sorts, who has worked with Oak. He specializes in Normal type because it's the most foundational category to judge everything off from.
You get Eevee from him, or maybe his assistant and that person has all the variations.
I considered giving him the Voltorb remake, as he's the one who created the storage system and you'd think he'd be into the Pokeball Pokemon, but Ghost / Steel is already covered in other trainers.
Rhynorn → Rhyhorn → Rhydon (Rock / Dragon or Rock / Steel)
Aerodactyl (Rock / Flying or Rock / Dragon)
Silph Co Engineer Steel
Someone you save from Team Rocket that you can battle afterward in Silph Co.
I considered making this person a steelworker and putting them at the Power Plant, but I changed that thing's direction. Plus, it's good to give Silph Co a purpose in the post-game.
I wanted to make this tech-based, but there aren't that many technological Pokemon and even less that fit that bill and are Steel type.
Again, it's the Elite 3, not Elite 4, because I want to have these trainers be representational of the other "types" of Pokemon in that some people view them as cute, some are freaky and some are warriors.
The Elite 3 have no set type they use, just themes based on appearance.
I love the idea of Red, Green and Blue from Let's Go having their own set teams. Originally, I wanted to set up a team layout like that, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it.
Instead, for now, I'll just say that in general, your rivals have this basic kind of layout:
Grass = Venusaur or alternative
Fire = Charizard or alternative
Water = Blastoise or alternative
Psychic / Fighting / Dark / Ghost / Fairy
Electric / Ground / Flying
Normal
For instance, Blue always has either Blastoise or Gyarados, Venusaur or Exeggutor, and so on. In Let's Go, they took this a step further by having Red have Machamp, Blue has Alakazam and Green has Gengar so they form another trio. So on and so forth. I don't know exactly what these picks should be, though. But maybe something like the following....
Blue Male Rival
Venusaur (Grass / Poison) or Exeggution (Grass / Psychic)
Charizard (Fire / Dragon or Flying) or Charriot (Fire / Steel) or Volcanine (Fire) or Magmortar (Fire)
Blastoise (Water / Steel) or Skullkraken (Water / Dragon) or Cloyster (Water / Rock)
Onix third evo (Ground / *)
Electiger (Electric / Fighting)
Lickitung (Normal)
Green Female Rival
Venusaur (Grass / Poison) or Tangulweed (Grass / Ground)
Charizard (Fire / Dragon) or Ninetales (Fire / Fairy)
Blastoise (Water / Steel) or Psyquack (Water / Psychic)
Jynx (Fairy / Dark)
Rushawk (Flying)
Purrsian (Normal)
Final Boss Professor Oak
Reminder, once you've become the champion and you've caught all Pokemon, you can challenge the final boss, which is Professor Oak. If you beat him, he gives you Mew.
Professor Oak Final Team
I kind of wanted to give him Pokemon that were either things I could see old people using, or science themed.
I also figured he could be a good "well-rounded" trainer.
I considered that he could be more on the "legendary" side of things.
Options include:
Mew = After he gives it to you, he replaces it with Alakazam (or maybe Hypno or Emimime)
Raichu or Magneton
Clefable or Dragonite
Bigglybuff
Primeape or Machamp or Heraclash
Volcanine
Poliwave
Phantorb or Porygon
Kangaskhan or Rhydon (reference to how Rhydon was the first Pokemon)
Taurox or Snorlax
My philosophy is that Mew is his big secret all along. He didn't want to give it to anyone he couldn't trust to fulfill all the aspects of being a Pokemon trainer, from being the champion to completing the Pokedex and treating everything with compassion and whatnot. Since you've proven that by also beating him, he gives it to you and replaces it with Alakazam, which is one of Blue's trademarks.
Raichu is a reference to how he's your mentor and he has the mascot's final form. On a similar note, Rhydon would make sense for a reference to being the first Pokemon, but since my Rhydon is a third form and not the true Rhydon, I think Poliwave is better for that spot, as Poliwag was Red's starter in some media. Plus, that gives him Water type coverage.
Tauros has been a go-to for Blue and Red in the past, as well as one that Oak used on his original Gen 1 team. It's a generic Pokemon that is bulky and well-rounded.
Phantorb and Porygon are references to how he's a scientist. Since he's more of a Pokemon expert, Phantorb makes the most sense as the Pokeball gimmick.
Finally, Dragonite is mostly just a power play to show Oak's been around long enough to have come across, caught and trained powerful dragons. If you wanted to, you could replace that with Clefable for being somewhat mythical and it isn't used as much. That way, Dragonite is more of Lance's ace.
That's it! That's the insanity of notes that I have down for how I would be approaching a full-on reboot of the first generation of Pokemon games, if I had the benefit of hindsight and no other people working on this game to keep me from flying off the handle and going into too crazy directions.
This is an insight into how detailed my notes for such random topics can be. Just imagine what I have for my "superhero blueprint" concepts for The Complete Batman Story and so on!
If you'd like to see more of this, be it the rejected ideas of other Pokemon that I had (like a water buffalo named Buffloat), let me know and consider donating to the Patreon to specifically request something like that!
What do you think of these ideas? How would you remake Pokemon Generation I? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
Welcome to part 2 of my Fanboys Fix It of Pokemon Generation I.
As mentioned before, this was sponsored by Guest Five's donation on Patreon via the Pick Your Poison tier (donate today if you want to request a special feature of your own)
For the general setup and information on items, difficulty levels, HM/TMs and more generic stuff, go to part 1. Part 3 will be the story elements.
But this is part 2, which is the most complicated section and the biggest undertaking: the Pokedex.
Some Notes
As I mentioned in part 1, this is all with the benefit of hindsight.
That means in instances where a future evolution happened and they couldn't put it in the logical slot in the Pokedex, we can undo some of that. If you're dead set on "Dragonite must be #149"...well, too bad. That's not happening.
I'm allowing myself the leeway of having 201 Pokemon. Gold, Silver and Crystal were on the same console and they had 251, so I don't think it's that much of a stretch for us to carry that over and just cut it down a bit.
Genders are a thing. That allows more variation in design and slimming down on things like Nidoking/Nidoqueen taking up extra spots.
Different forms are also a thing. You'll see.
Breeding is a thing, like in Generation 2 and onward.
Believe it or not, particularly when you get to how crazy I changed some things, I actually went into this with the goal in mind to change as little as possible. I could have done so much more!!
I did an article in the past about Pokemon with wrong types that some of this is based on, although some of it is different from that.
I'll be breaking down each Pokemon in clusters with all their new information.
Cut Pokemon
Yes, despite how I gave myself an extra 50-100 slots to work with, I ran out of space. I wanted to have a TON more ideas of original things, which I'll probably put in a separate article or something down the line, if you want to hear those ideas.
But even still, the new ideas combined with taking some Pokemon from future generations (for example, it's stupid to have just Magnemite and Magneton without Magnezone on this list) maxed out my numbers and I had to cut a bunch.
Some of these will be explained down below, like why I have no more Eeveelutions. Others, I'll address here:
Venonat + Venomoth = I subscribe to the theory that these two and Butterfree had a crossover, and I just don't see the point. They can be repurposed for the next generation and not look like Butterfree variants.
The Victreebel Trio = There's enough variation in the grass lines as it is, down below, and I wanted to expand on something like Tangela instead. Ultimately, knowing that there will be other games, I'd rather take this line of pitcher plant inspired Pokemon and make this trio part of the next generation's early catch ones, along with Hoppip, Jumpluff and Skiploom, for instance. I REALLY wanted to put those little cotton balls in here, too, by the way.
Slowpoke + Slowbro + Slowking = You're going to hate me for this, but I thought it was necessary. The gimmick of a dumb Water-type Pokemon getting smarter and being part Psychic is already covered with Psyduck. Nobody knows what the hell Slowpoke really is. Is it half salamander, half hermit crab? It's at least partially inspired by sazae, which is a shellfish snail type thing, but it's got way too much going on. I'd rather revisit it another generation when we can play into the Shellder gimmick for an evolution. I even thought about having it be Water/Normal just for something different, and then I realized I would rather free up those 3 spots for more Pokemon.
Dodrio = You'll see.
Electrode = You'll see.
Kabuto or Kabutops, or Omanyte or Omastar = You'll see.
Strap yourselves in. This is going to be a bumpy ride.
You think you only have 200 available to catch in the game, but you can get the 201st through some kind of special event (not under a truck). When you do that, your Pokedex changes to show it as 000 instead of 201, because it's the ancestor.
Mew can either be pure Psychic or it can be Psychic/Fairy, as it's definitely fairy-like. I lean more toward just Psychic, though.
All starters will get a new typing for the third evolution, so my big change is that Bulbasaur and Ivysaur are pure Grass.
I would definitely want to see an Electric form of this in some future game where it's a light bulb and the ivy is a set of electrical wiring.
#004. Charmander Fire➜ #005. Charmeleon Fire➜ #006. Charizard FireFlying OR Fire + Dragon
Charizard would be Fire / Flying by default, but you could make it replace Flying with Dragon if you gave it the evolutionary item that turns things into the Dragon type. I don't have a clear idea of what that would be, so for the purposes of this list, I'll just call it Dragon Scale.
Waspod is basically Kakuna, but with a name change. That's why we got rid of Metapod. It's the honeycomb larva that wraps itself into a comb pod for metamorphosis.
Beedrill was renamed because I like the name Thornet better and I use "drill" for another Pokemon.
I get that Pidgeotto is "pidgey at level 18" and Pidgeot is supposed to be "pidgey jet" but those names are confusing. So many people, myself included, feel like Pidgeotto sounds like it's the step after Pidgeot. So let's just bypass that entirely. Quiccoo is "quick coo" and Rushawk is "rush hawk" to showcase the speed getting better and becoming a bird that is super fast, which I would have reflected in its speed stat (and maybe attack).
There's no need to be Normal with Flying. If you REALLY want it, though, I'm open to changing that.
Let's flesh out the rats to have a full three-tier evolution.
Dark type because rats are gross and all.
I considered giving this a Poison evolution and making it Ratiation.
I also considered the name Rodentures, which is just ridiculous.
#025. Rabbid Normal OR Dark➜ #026. Rabbeast Normal OR Dark➜ #027. Rabbutcher (Normal OR Dark) + ❓
This is actually taking the place of both male and female Nidoran lines. I've condensed 6 into 3.
Why the name change? Well, what is Nidoran and all that? They're a "porcupine needle rabbit gorilla rhino". I thought the more obvious was a rabbit, but that it takes on this monstrous, feral hunter vibe.
As such, I wanted to name it something that lets you know it's an exterminator that will wreck your shit, so we're going with Rabbid for rabbit that is rabid, Rabbeast and Rabbutcher are pretty obvious.
With regards to the typing, this thing is an apex predator. You can give it a bunch of items to change its typing so that it can learn how to hunt better. It can be Dragon, Fighting, Ice, Poison, Rock or Steel along with Normal or Dark. I couldn't decide if it's better as pure Normal or pure Dark at first, but I'd lean more toward pure Dark.
Snake. Kobra/cobra. There are damn near no good snake names that can be spelled backwards without being awkward.
Boa. Adnocana. Relttar. Ksilisab. Nohtyp. Repiv. (They're all terrible).
But there's a cobra called Rinkhals, so that works as Slahknir.
Extra typing can make it either Poison / Dark or Poison / Dragon.
#031. Pichu Electric➜ #032. Pikachu Electric➜ #033. Raichu Electric
You can't mess with the mascot.
Sorry Gorochu fans, that's the type of evolution that I hate, where it's just the prior Pokemon but with some fancy extra unnecessary feathers/wings/whatever.
The idea of a "baby Pikachu" and a "more tough Pikachu" is the perfect balance.
I think I'd rename these, but I don't know what names. Some kind of vampbite thing or something.
No need for Poison / Flying. It'll be redundant with the Koffing line. These are more evil, so they get Dark. Plus, they're in caves, so all that more reason to be Dark.
Very similar to what we have now with Paras, but more fleshed out and with a name change for Parasitic and then eventually, parasitic zombie when it's a husk of its former self.
Instead of staying Bug and Grass, it gets poisoned by the mushroom and then becomes a ghost when it's fully mind-controlled.
Instead of a mole that turns into 3 moles, this is more like another version of the Sandshrew line.
I'm blanking on the names. I like Shrewlunk, which is a spin off a shrew and spelunking. I don't like Blindig, but I like incorporating "blind" in there. The third form should be a mole with the red star on it, but holy shit can we not name this Molestar...
If you don't want it to be Dark type because you think that needs to stay Evil like how the type is in Japan, just make it pure Ground. It's found in caves, so I think it should be Dark.
#060. Luckitty Normal➜ #061. Meowth Normal➜ #062. Purrsian Normal
I could work more on the names to go more with the fortune luck cat thing.
At the very least, Persian should be Purrsian.
If I had more room for another 3 Pokemon, I'd make a counterpart to this that is a black cat named Feraluck or something that is Ghost type and cursed instead of lucky.
I gave strong consideration to making this a Psychic or Fairy type.
This is Growlithe and Arcanine with name changes and a third evo.
The names are puppy with pyre, growl with volcano or lava, and volcano with canine.
I do like the names Growlithe and Arcanine, but I like these better and they're more specific to a fire dog trio.
I desperately wanted to put Houndour, Houndoom and a third evo with three heads that were all Fire / Dark to counterbalance this, but didn't have the room for it. Generation 2!
#072. Poliwag Water➜ #073. Poliwhirl Water➜ #074. Poliwave Water
No Poliwrath. It's too similar to Poliwhirl. Instead, let's have an actual frog.
Alternate names are Poliwade, Poliswirl, Poliswamp, Poliwash, Poliwell...
I don't think Machoke is a good name. Why is it choking something? I'd rather it go from a chump of a weakling to something working its way through the chopping block until it becomes a champion.
I could put more work into the names, but at least I changed Golem.
I was very tempted to make this line able to do the Icy Coat and Metal Coat gimmicks, or to make them pure Rock type that you can add the boxing gloves to. I think the ice blocks and the metal blocks could be variants in future stories/games in cold climates and such.
One, then two, then three. The logical progression. Not one and then three.
You evolve this by having another Magnemite in your party for each evolutionary step and both are holding a magnetizer item or something like that. You have to "release" one of them, in a sense, as they fuse together. Basically, you have to pick one of them to get erased from your file.
#096. Fowlott FlyingGrass 壘
This is Farfetch'd with a name change to play off fowl shallot.
I considered making this Fighting, but there are enough of those. Maybe, if you give it 壘 Boxing Gloves, it gets that type.
#097. Dodumbo Normal + (Ground OR Flying 襁)
Counterpart game exclusive variant to Fowlott.
This is Doduo, but instead of it being 2 heads, it's just one. There's no Dodrio.
It's a dodo that is a dumbo.
Since it's so dumb, it can't fly, which makes it Normal and Ground. Stupid idiot.
Maybe there's an item that can make it Normal / Flying, but I don't know. An item like 襁 Feather Wing or something.
Seel should never be just Seel. At least Spheal is a spherical seal, and Sealeo is a sea lion and all. The same goes for Dewgong being a dumb name. But I don't know what I would rename those two.
The point is that they're taking up that spot with an evolution into a narwhal horned whale thing.
I considered making Narwhale part Fairy, but I figured that could be revisited another time with more of a Popplio type performer sea lion thing rather than a narwhal that has to be Water and Ice.
Maybe some names to think about are to do with tusks, mannatees, maybe Narwail instead of Narwhale, I don't know.
This new form of Muk doesn't have to be part Ground, but since they're always on the ground and picking up dirt and grunge and all, it makes sense to me that by the time they get to the third evo, they're part Ground type.
They never should have been Poison. They should be pure Ghost or, better yet, Ghost and Dark, since they're pretty damn evil.
I always liked Haunter the best out of this crew, but it doesn't make any sense for it to not go from no hands to hands to hands and feet. Gengar's one of the most iconic Pokemon. I'd only want to mess with the typing.
#110. (baby Onix)Ground➜ #111. Onix GroundRock➜ #112. (Onix evo)Ground + (Rock OR Steel OR Ice ❄ OR Dragon )
I can't settle on names. Wyrm would be in there, as that's perfect for an earthworm dragon thing. Pebblix for the baby? Dragrond for ground dragon?
The Sleepir name is based on sleep and tapir and "sleepier". I couldn't think of something for baku. Mesmerem was an idea for mesmerize and REM sleep as a third step after Hypno, though, if you want to pick my brain and get rid of Sleepir and switch things around.
Yeah, I'm stealing Krabrawler from Sun and Moon, giving it a completely different design (as it wouldn't make sense as an evolution of Kingler) and turning this line into an eventual Fighting type. Big deal. Wanna fight about it?
This is Voltorb. Instead of it being an Electric type that looks like a Pokeball, it's a ghost that possesses different Pokeballs.
I can't pick a name. You pick.
Its gimmick is that it can look like ANY of the Pokeballs and it changes its appearance based on the type that you catch it with. It also changes its attributes, so that if you catch it with a Master Ball, it has some crazy good stats, and if you catch it with a Quick Ball, it has higher speed and so forth.
I'm phoning it in with Exeggution, but what other name could we go with? Exeggutive and give it a suit? Exeggcrate for the first form, then Exeggcute and then Exeggutor? I'm scrambled. I mean, I'm not about to suggest the baby form is a bunch of sleepy eggs that haven't fully woken up and hatched yet and could be Eggshausted. We're kind of limited.
The concept would be similar to what we have, but with either the current Exeggutor being a third evo (and there being a middle step between the eggs and the tree) or a third evo gives Exeggutor hands and maybe even pineapple or coconut biceps.
Split evolution with the same attributes and mechanics, basically, although I never quite understood why Lee has higher attack and Chan has higher defense. If anything, I would think it should be that Lee has higher attack and Chan has higher special attack.
Tyrogue is Hitmontyke to keep the Hitmon prefix. If you don't like that name, replace it with anything else like Hitmonkid.
There is a Hitmontop in the next generation, but it's not related to these. Instead, it's named Topoeira and it's its own thing.
#129. Lickitung Normal
In Gen 2, we'll introduce a baby version of this named Liltung.
Lickilicky is a monstrosity, though, in design and in name. A third evo for it would not be that.
C'mon. This is obvious with the names. I did think about Hakking for hacking as a pre-evo form, too.
Since I wanted to give the Zubat line Dark instead of Flying, it's perfect that this can be our Poison / Flying combo. They're poisonous flying gas clouds. Duh.
#133. Rhynorn Rock➜ #134. Rhyhorn Rock➜ #135. Rhydon Rock + (Dragon OR Steel )
Rhyno with no horn is the first thing.
Since this is a dinosaur kind of monster, Dragon Scale can turn it into Rock / Dragon.
Big change, but it makes sense to me. Togepi is the egg, Togetic is a chicken, and Chansey is an egg-shaped chicken with an egg. It's the circle of life.
That means they're part of a pair with the Kangaskhan line, by the way. Both are "motherly" in a sense with an offspring in a pouch.
This plays off the "chicken and the egg" concept.
The names would have to be altered to fit that, but I couldn't think of any yet. You can't just go with Chickegg and say that that's not horrendous.
Baby Tangela is a bulb. It then is a tangled bush (current Tangela), and then it's a tumbleweed, basically, which looks nothing like Tangrowth as that's hideous.
It picks up the Ground type because, well, tumbleweeds roll on the ground.
I thought about Tanguldreads (tangled dreadlocks). I also thought about Tangulwig for twig, and tangled wig of hair.
Kingdra is ugly looking. Seadra is so much cooler, so that design would be the final. There would be a middle evolution between Horsea and Seadra that looks more like it has a saddle to play up the sea horse gimmick. Then, the saddle would turn into the spikes that Seadra has.
I tried to give it another type instead of Psychic to avoid the ducks, but this is all the more reason why we needed to get rid of Slowpoke, cause the Staryu line is too good to mess with, other than its design.
Staryu and Starmie would look the same. Starwei would take the 2 starfish from Starmie and go in the next direction where it would have a second gem in the middle, positioned to where it looks like eyes, instead of a cyclops.
#151. Emimime NormalPsychic
This is Mr. Mime, but since genders make more sense, we're not calling it Mr. The name is like Girafarig in that it's a palindrome for mime backwards.
Normal, not Fairy, because mimes aren't actually doing anything, so everything is normal.
It's counterpart is...
#152. Yukiona Ice + ❓
So this is Jynx, essentially, which is based on the yuki onna, which is a snow woman ghost fairy thing that preys on people.
I don't know what secondary type to give this. It has to be either Ice / Fairy, Ice / Dark, or Ice / Ghost. I don't think Ice / Psychic works as well. My gut tells me Ice / Dark or Ice / Fairy, but it's up for debate.
#153. Jynx FairyDark
Wait, what? I thought you just said you did Jynx. Yeah, well, I did, as #152 is the Nordic opera singer ghost thingy that people think is racist. This is different.
This is a voodoo priest / priestess (depending on the gender variant, obviously). I thought about naming it something based on Baron Samedi but I couldn't think of anything.
It's Fairy and Dark because it's using evil magic.
#154. Voodoll GhostPsychic
A counterpart to Jynx. This is a voodoo doll. Not quite like Banette, as that's a possessed marionette puppet. That concept can still come into a future generation. This is more like the scrapped idea they actually did have with the pin through its heart.
Instead of the Cubone storyline in Lavendar Tower, you'd be dealing with this little guy.
Seax is a term for a knife. I wanted to get this as close to the other names as possible. Originally, I was trying to work with Prune and Praying Mantis for something awful like Pruyntis. Snippor was another, for snipping something instead of cutting. Shearther was another for shearing something.
I think scissors are less intimidating than a scythe, so let's swap those around and make it have bigger stabby things for the final evo.
This is a baby scarab, then Pinsir, then Heracross.
That Weedle name makes me think weed for grass type, but in this case, it's repurposed as "wee beetle" as in "small beetle", similar to the Machump thing.
I don't love the middle evo's name, but it's the best I could do with scarab, battle, beetle, beat like how it's a scarab that beats down its opponents in a battle type of beetle. Is it the best name? Nope. But it's better than Seel.
Heraclash is Heracles for the Hercules beetle, just like Heracross, but instead of a cross, clash is more dominating sounding and works better with Heracles.
#164. Magby Fire➜ #165. Magmar Fire➜ #166. Magmortar Fire
No differences, although Magby should have the spiky head design it originally had.
I like the idea of this being in a bit of a pseudo squad with the Electabuzz and Jynx line, but I've made some changes to that, so it isn't a smooth setup, but it's worth ditching that to make sure this Magmar line is more balanced from the start.
#167. Yakkid Normal➜ #168. Halfncalf Normal➜ #169. Miltank Normal #167. Yakkid Normal➜ #170. Bullvine Normal➜ #171. Taurox Normal
Split evolution.
Yakkid is a baby cow. Alternative name, if you think there are too many "kid" names, would be something based on "veal" because I'm twisted.
Halfncalf is the female version, based on Half-and-Half. Miltank is the same.
Bullvine is bull/bovine. Male version becomes Tauros, as expected, but with a slight name change so it's Taurus Ox and Toro.
The Gyarados name can stick if you're worried about the Skullkraken thing being too harsh, as that's what originally happened, but man, Skullkraken is bad ass sounding.
Of course this is Water / Dragon, the way it should be!
However, if there's that item that makes Dodumbo a Flying type, then maybe I'll allow Water / Flying as a variant.
You can find this in this game's version of Pokemon Mansion in Cinnabar (which isn't a mansion) as that's the location where they tested on cloning Mew.
We're leaning into this that Laampeep was one of the experiments, along with Ditto, Gastly, whatever else you might want to lump in there. But these three sheep are a direct variation of the Electric and Fairy ones, similar to how Gengar and Clefable are shadows.
Immutton is immitate mutton. Clonewe, Dupewe, Forgewe and Shadewe are all clone, dupe, forge and shade ewe, which sounds like "clone you" and such, as well as the latter being "shadow" in a way. Better names than my original ideas of Dollamb, Shammary, but I'm not sure which I like better.
Duolly is Dolly and duo because the sheep now has 2 heads.
This is Lapras, but that name is stupid. Why is it named after Laplace?
Nessio is Nessie and plesiosaur.
Lokness is Loch Ness.
Loknessaur is Loch Ness plesiosaur.
This line is kind of a counterpart to Dragonite.
#184. Ditto Normal
No changes. Love this guy.
I also subscribe to the theory that Ditto is some kind of offshoot of Mew, so we'd even keep them having the same colors and weight and all.
#185. Eevee Normal➜ #186. Vaporeon Water #185. Eevee Normal➜ #187. Jolteon Electric #185. Eevee Normal➜ #188. Flareon Fire #185. Eevee Normal➜ #189. Leafeon Grass
I really think there needs to be an Eeveelution of every type, including normal (named Eeveeon), but I didn't have enough room to have every type here, so I figured we'd stay with the core elements that are represented in the starters.
It bugs me that I can't have room for a Flying type and a Steel type to round out the whole Air and Metal thing, as Grass is standing in for Wood/Earth (otherwise, I'd also need Ground and Rock cause which one is Earth, right?)
But there should be groupings. The next generation should have Psychic, Fairy, Ghost, Dark and Fighting together. Then, one of them should have Rock, Ground, Steel Ice and Poison, maybe. Last would be I guess knocking out Dragon, Bug, Flying and Normal, but I don't see much of a connection point between those other than "the leftovers" unless you played into dragon fly bugs and left Normal out of the mix for another game.
#190. Porygon Normal OR ANY TYPE 里
Porygon is a digital thing. It should have the ability to turn into ANY type, with or without Normal, depending on your preference. I'd go for pure in that it replaces the Normal type, but I can be swayed for the dual-type scenario.
In the next generation, there would be an evolutionary item called Upgrade that would evolve it to Porygon2.0 and then eventually, Porygon3 (stylzed Porygon3)
Consider this a variation of the Ditto concept in a way, as well as having a connection to our new form of Voltorb.
#191. Scorpsean WaterGround
This is the best name I could think of for Kabuto/Kabutops. It's only one Pokemon. Kabuto is lame and Kabutops can be cool, but it looks too much like Scyther. This sea scorpion horseshoe crab eurypterid thing would be from the Kabuto Fossil.
There's only one form of this No Omanyte or Omastar. Save them for another game (and name that Nautylus and make it part Dark, while calling its fossil the Omanyte Fossil).
Ground and Water instead of Rock and Water because I want some variety and they are from the water's surface.
#192. Aerodactyl Rock + (Flying OR Dragon )
This is the new counterpart with the whole "pick a fossil" thing. You don't just get Aerodactyl in both games. You either pick the Ground or Flying fossil, essentially, not two identical Water and Rock ones.
Dragon Scale allows it to be Rock / Dragon as it was originally Dragon / Flying, but it can't get rid of how its still a fossil.
Metal Coat maybe for Steel / Flying? Probably not, but it's a thought. The same for ❄ Icy Coat and Ice / Flying, but I doubt it.
#193. Snorlax Normal
No changes to this guy.
Munchlax would come in a future generation, but look different and have a different name. Then, there would be another evo between the baby and Snorlax. Snorlax itself is the end of the line.
I really wanted to put Skarmory in here or a Psychic / Flying controller, or a Water / Flying legendary, but there's no room.
By the way, Moltres would need to be VERY clearly not a phoenix. Ho-Oh and Moltres seem too similar. Spoiler for Generation 2, but I don't have Ho-Oh as Fire/Flying. I have it as Fire/Psychic to differentiate it. But I think this needs to really hit home that these three are more weather-based with Moltres being warm weather, Articuno being cold weather, and Zapdos being thunderstorms. Maybe their designs should even incorporate clouds and we can get rid of the genies like Landorus.
I would consider renaming Dragonair to something and giving Dragonite the Dragonair name, though. Maybe something like Dracoslyth cause it slithers like a snake? That sounds too complicated and Dragonite is a cool name, so screw it, let's keep it.
#200. Mewtwo Psychic OR PsychicDark
Mewtwo has the potential to be super evil, but it's not an inherently evil creature. In fact, that's kind of part of the point. So there would be an optional item that you could give it to revert it to the Psychic / Dark combo, but it would be pure Psychic otherwise.
I could write another whole 250 into the mix just to get the BASIC ones in the mix. Another article for another time, maybe.
That's it for the Pokedex, but we're not done yet!!! Stay tuned for part 3!
What do you think of these changes? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
