Pokémon has been releasing new and exciting games, movies, and merchandise for more than two decades. In that time fans have seen numerous generations introduce hundreds of new pokémon of varying types, sizes, and inspirations.
Many of these new creatures have become fan favorites, but there’s more than a handful of designs that left trainers scratching their heads as the lack of creativity or originality was quite evident. Let’s now look at and rank the least creative Pokémon designs ever.
Updated by Brianna Albert on November 1st, 2020: Pokémon has always been known to have great designs, but some have been deemed lackluster. This is perhaps because as the years have continued, it has become harder to create a unique design in place of the beginning ones.
Despite fans loving the series and the Pokémon who are released along with them, some designs are outright cookie cutter and not that inspiring at all. From the newest additions in the Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC to the newest designs in the base game, here are 15 of the most ill-inspired Pokémon designs.
15 Glastrier
Glastrier is the newest Pokémon introduced in the Pokémon Sword and Shield Crowd Tundra DLC. There have been several Pokémon that borrow their design from horses, from Rapidash to Mudsdale.
It’s a bit of wonder why there has been another iteration of a horse, but at least this time it’s an ice-type. The design may look fairly cool, but inventive it most definitely is not.
14 Zubat
Many early Pokémon fans will most likely remember Zubat as a nuisance, as this bat Pokémon used to infest caves so thoroughly they would need to use repels to make them go away for good.
Zubat is a batーand that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less, as there isn’t much to think about for its design. Even the name directs fans to think of its real-life counterpart, sans the eyes.
13 Torchic
No matter how cute this Pokémon may be, it’s tough to call Torchic’s design unique. Classified as a “Chick Pokémon,” Torchic is exactly what is written on the tinー a tiny chick.
Torchic’s design isn’t at all eye-catching, instead of relying on cuteness to make people fall in love with it. Although Torchic is a beloved Generation III starter Pokémon, it’s safe to say that “unique” is far from a fitting term here.
12 Swirlix
Swirlix is a Pokémon first introduced in Generation VI when Pokémon X and Y were released.
The designers barely had to try to capture what exactly this fairy-type Pokémon would look like, as it is classified as the “cotton candy” Pokémon. Despite having a cuteness factor along with Torchic, it feels like a relatively lazy design when compared to many others.
11 Pumpkaboo
Pumpkaboo is a clever name, but the design is not. This “pumpkin Pokémon” introduced in Generation VI looks like a hairball stuck inside a pumpkin. This dual typed ghost and grass-type Pokémon has a clear-cut design that probably won’t remain in fans’ memories very long.
10 Stunky
Outside of Flower from the movie Bambi, skunks have always been quite offputting and disgusting to humans. The problem with the Skunk Pokémon Stunky isn’t that it’s ugly, it’s that it doesn’t resemble a skunk. Skunky’s face and body very much communicate the overall design of a cat or badger and the eyes and nose look way too much like an owl. It’s evolution Skuntank resembles a feline even more than it does despite it having a long tail that’s almost identical to that of a real skunk’s.
9 Inteleon
Pokémon Sword and Shield introduced trainers to the Galar region, a place heavily influenced by the United Kingdom. Despite many of the newer pokémon being well-received by fans, there’s a large contingency of people who believe this is the worst set of final starter evolutions in the history of Pokémon.
Inteleon leads this group as the final form of Sobble and a weirdly odd espionage version of the title character from the animated film Rango. It also resembles the villain from Monsters Inc., Randall which makes it even more unnerving and untrustworthy.
8 Magmar
In all honesty, this spot was a toss-up between Magmar and Magmortar, but after taking some time to look over both designs the choice was quite apparent. Magmortar sports an uglier face than its previous form, but it also happens to have a little flare to its design by way of its mortar cannons.
Magby is the only saving grace of this evolutionary line of hideous bipedal flame humanoids. Oddly enough Magmar’s face makes it look like either an idiot or the biggest sociopath in the world of Pokémon.
7 Luvdisc
Luvdisc is a poorly designed water-type pokémon whose design is only made worse by the fact that it doesn’t evolve into anything. It’s simply a pink-colored fish that’s shaped like a heart. There’s nothing special about it, and considering it’s both pink and its shape is based on a heart you’d assume it’d be a lot more adorable than it is.
This pokémon is a ripe candidate for either an evolution or a new regional variant form. Hopefully, this dud of a design gets some tender love and care in the future in literally any capacity.
6 Klefki
Whenever you hear conversations about Pokémon from people who haven’t stuck with the series they’ll often point to pokémon like Trubbish or Klefki as examples for why GameFreak ran out of ideas. The trash pokémon makes sense as it can be explained that the bacteria evolved into a sentient creature.
Klefki, on the other hand, is a living pair of keys, which would only make sense if it possessed the keys and was ghost-type. Inanimate objects can make sense as living pokémon, but Klefki designers didn’t even try.
5 Magneton
Pokémon is a series focused on evolution and growth. That’s why Magneton is so bad because it’s simply three Magnemite’s stuck together. The worst part is that it’s a level evolution, the design would be much more forgivable if the way you evolved a Magnemite into a Magneton was by leveling up a Magnemite with two others in your party of six.
This would add appropriate context to the design and make it much more understandable. Instead, we’re left with three magnets superglued together.
4 Gossifleur
At this point in the franchise, it seems that the most-tread ground when it comes to Pokémon designs are tiny flower pokémon, electric rodents, and boring fish. The problem with Gossifleur isn’t that its design is bad, in many ways it’s pretty well-crafted, but it just feels so similar to older Pokémon from previous generations.
It’s final evolution Eldegoss feels a little more unique, but the idea of capturing another grass-type that’s a small adorable flower isn’t something that excites fans in 2019 and beyond.
3 Dedenne
Ever since Pikachu exploded onto the scene and became the face of Pokémon, GameFreak has tried to introduce an electric rodent of some sort in every new generation of games. It’s unclear if they’re paying homage to Pikachu, or are simply trying to recapture lightning in a bottle.
Dedenne is arguably the most similar to Pikachu out of all of the false clones and suffers most because of it. It has no evolutions and even the most dedicated Pokémon fans forget about its existence due to it being such an obvious and uninspired Pikachu knockoff.
2 Jynx
From the beginning, Jynx has always felt like a pokémon that shouldn’t exist. Before sporting the purple skin that makes it look like Grimace from McDonald’s doing drag, Jynx had black skin that made the design come off as racist.
Considering the creature is ice-type it seems the intention was to make it look like a Scandinavian opera singer, but that never really came through. Jynx just feels like a pokémon design concept that was greenlit but never had the care and attention to detail put behind it.
1 Klink
The reason Klink is considered the least creative design in many Pokémon fans’ eyes should be quite obvious once it’s seen. People often throw shade at certain Pokémon from the Kanto generation for having bad designs that are masked by nostalgic love.
Klink happens to be a variation of Magneton, one of those Kanto Pokémon that’s often considered to have a poor design. Klink follows suit and is simply a couple of gears that add additional gears as it evolves. What a weird and uninteresting design that only goes downhill as it evolves.
NEXT: Pokémon: 10 Gen 1 Designs Fans Let Pass By Due To Nostalgia
