Ok, Manboo is programmed in
as ‘Manboo 1’ not simply Manboo but I think we can all safely say that this was
either a mistake or some kind of developer shorthand, maybe for a Nidoran
male/female thing or something, I don’t think the Pokémon was actually supposed
to be called Manboo 1.
Anyway these three don’t
seem to make a great deal sense at first when thinking about them as something
that evolves into something else, a fish, a shark and an angler fish don’t even
seem the right order, with a shark being the obvious choice for the final stage
because sharks are the ultimate predator etc but I think I figured it out – the
line is going deeper into the ocean as it evolves, from a floating buoy-like
sunfish to an anchor-shark to a mix of two of the things that dwell in the
deepest parts of the ocean, often below where anchors would normally land,
they’re all combinations of two things found deeper and deeper down.
I can’t say I’m that crazy
about them though, Manboo’s cute but feels lacking somewhere design wise, I
can’t quite put my finger on where but something feels like it should have been
done and it wasn’t. Ikari (the shark) is boring, sorry to say this about a
shark with an anchor for an arse but it is, it’s just the front of a cartoon
shark and an anchor on a chain and no attempt has been made to blend one thing
into the other, to abstract things, to make it look anything other than half an
organic creature stuck to half an inorganic thing. As for Gurotesu? It has
everything about Gen 3’s design style going for it, everything I dislike about
that style, from the face that’s clearly going ‘duuurrr’ to the random bits
stuck on (it’s tail this time) to the overall Aaagh! Real Monsters art style.
That said, because it’s supposed to represent something so weird and alien it’s
a little better use of this style and
it does do a better job of saying ‘deep, deep sea creature’ than Huntail,
mostly because it’s not the colours of a carnival float.
You remember me saying
about how I think all Pokécats are inferior to Meowth and Persian and how it
bugs me? Well Game Freak had the chance to avert that and they threw it away.
What fools. What utter fools. Don’t they realise they exist to please me and me
only?
Rinrin and Luna
Berunrun are easily the closest later Generations have come to equalling the
success of the Gen 1 cats, they’re just perfect little black cat designs, a
cute, rounded little Kitty and a sleek, devious-eyed full-grown cat that looks
absolutely nothing like any cat that may or may not have ever been in Sailor
Moon. I was a little iffy about the seemingly
naturally occurring bells on these when they were first leaked but then
I remembered that Meowth has a seemingly naturally occurring gold coin on its
head so I shouldn’t worry – of the two I prefer Berunrun’s seemingly naturally
occurring bell by the way, the choice of bell just makes it look far more like
the tail ‘spreads’ out into it ala a lion’s rather than the jingle bell that
looks a lot more ‘stuck on’ to Rinrin’s tail.
These two were a perfect
complement to the Meowth AND Houndour lines, I’m guessing they were cut because
either 1) they thought they had a lot of Dark Types or b) they’d already done
cats but neither are good enough as reasons for me, they didn’t have enough
dark types and there’s hundreds of bloody species of cats – a fact Game Freak
have been mining for ideas ever since. Actually that’s a point, including these
would have also meant that Johto would have had its own regional cat, which in
the end it didn’t have, these sort of trends hadn’t developed by that point of
course so it’s no big crime but keeping these two would have solved that
‘oddity’ too!
What fools.
Well this was a surprise!
Well it wasn’t a surprise that this was in the Space World demo, we’ve known
about this design for a good while now and that’s where the surprise originates.
Everyone had just decided this was a beta version of Ledyba or Ledian and sure
enough when the demo was leaked Mitsuboshi was placed after Ledyba. But father
investigation revealed that this ISN’T Ledian, in the demo Ledyba does not
evolve into anything and Mitsuboshi doesn’t evolve from anything (all
evolutionary lines are coded to evolve) and the two have unique moves (later
stages of evolutionary lines that hadn’t been worked on yet have the exact same
moves as their previous stages as placeholders). Mitsuboshi was it’s own thing.
I…I just…I’ve spent so long
thinking of this as ‘a less cute Ledyba’ or a ‘less creative Ledian’
and…and…I’M SORRY MITSUBOSHI! I AM! I LIKED YOU! I ALWAYS LIKED YOU! YOU LOOKED
LIKE SOMETHING FROM A KIDS RIDE AT THE FAIRGROUND OR THE PLEASURE BEACH! YOU
LOOK LIKE A LIVING FIBREGLASS BUG THING AND I ALWAYS WANT TO OWN THE BIG
FIBREGLASS THINGS ON RIDES! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY I DISMISSED YOOOOOU!!
*ehem*
Also Japan calls the spots
on a ladybird stars, hence it having literal stars, a very sensible design
choice.
Also I have this great idea
right, if I had control of a new Pokémon game I’d do this: I’d have a trio
single stage Bug Types, a kind of Legendary Trio but for normal Pokemon, a bit
like the Elemental Monkeys but less shit, one would Mitsuboshi (renamed
Hoshibug or something because its name is far too close to a car company to be
taken seriously by anyone in the West) and the other two would be… Shadybug and
Tricket!
Just me?
Bomushikaa, Bomushikaa, Bomushikaa-ya-ya-ya
There has to be at least
one Kate Bush fan reading this, there has to be.
ANY-waaaaay
Bomushikaa-ya-ya-ya seems to be quite popular but… I dunno, I find it quite
plain and yet, still also confusing. We’re assuming that it’s an orange sealion
balancing a flaming meteorite thing on its nose the way sealions do but I can’t
really tell where it’s face ends and its nose begins, what if that it’s nose?
Did it have a detachable nose that it could pop off like a Head Poppin’ Madball
and bat at its enemies with its tail? I hope so cos I’d like it shitload more
if that was the case!
Hmm, y’know if I had to
pick one of these ‘mons that was held over from Gen 1 this would be the one I’d
choose, it feels very much like a Red & Green sprite does it not? I guess
in that regard it’s not that bad, it would’ve made a good counterpart to Seel
and Dewgong, who also have very simple design and also fail to inspire much of
anything in me.
These two are cool. Pokémon
doesn’t often subvert the whole cute/fearsome thing when it comes to how
animals are generally thought of and portrayed – animals the public
consciousness decides are fearsome or badass will generally be the basis for
fearsome or badass Pokémon, often final stage evolutions (Lanturn, for
instance, being a rare exception) – so it’s interesting to see that they were
going to do it with, of all things, a tiger – generally accepted one of THE
badasses of the animal world. I like it, a subversion every so often is good
for fans and good for showing off the talent of the design team - and it seems
to fit here better than Lanturn, with Lanturn it feels odd, with these it feels
a far better fit; as big and hard as Tiger are they’re still big kitties and
that’s adorable. So we have an adorable little kitten that evolves into a still
adorable but clearly more powerful and formidable Smilodon-tiger mix that looks
like it’s jumping to give you the biggest, happiest hug in hugdom because
you’ve FINALLY come home from work and it missed you. There’s a lovely Gen 1
feel to the style of ‘bigger but’ evolution with Raitora isn’t there? Isn’t
that a nice throwback, even so soon as Gen 2? Not really because helixchamber
are pretty sure that these ARE Gen 1 Pokémon (read here),
two of the cut 40 Gen 1 ‘mons and two of the Gen 1 designs that were carried
over to Gen 2, which means they got cut TWICE! Why would you do that? These are
great, they have that Pikachu/Marril thing going for them, they’re tigers, why
would you reject them twice?
No comments:
Post a Comment