My 10 favourite and least favourite Pokémon

Hey, Gamers! A long time ago, I wrote a list about the best Pokémon as someone who has never finished a full Pokémon game. Since then… I’ve fallen in love with the franchise. My favourite Pokémon weren’t even on the list. It was mainly judged my cuteness, Josh’s opinion, and general popularity. I promise you, for this list, the only one of those things that apply is cuteness. Even then, there’s a whole lot of cute Pokémon that didn’t make this list. There are over a thousand Pokémon now, after all.
A few things I wanted to clarify here: If a Pokémon is included is a baby or the first stage of an evolution line, that implies the full line deserves the spot. I specifically only chose Pokémon that I liked the full lines of because if I like the full lines to put them on this list, they have to be solid. I also don’t dislike any regional variants (although some are questionable), so they’re included too. This is obviously especially the case if I mention a regional variant in the explanation.
Also, I’ve added my top 10 least favourite Pokémon because I thought it would be funny to talk about.
I think it would be funnier if you read the original list first, which is why I’m including the link here and not at the end of the post like normal.

Top 10 best Pokemon, judged by someone who has never played through a full Pokemon game

Without any further comments, let’s get into my top 10 favourite and least favourite Pokémon!

Favourite:

10) Diglett.
For those who have been following me for a while, you’ll know that I got into Pokémon through the anime and playing Let’s Go Eevee. I kid you not, Diglett carried my team with Dig. There was basically no problem that Dig couldn’t solve. I actually traded to get an Alolan Diglett, but I don’t think that added to it much other than the act that it was levelling up significantly faster than most of the Pokémon I trained. Diglett holds a special place in my heart because of its strength during my first ever full playthrough of a Pokémon game, and because of that… I have not used Diglett since. I know Diglett isn’t a particularly good Pokémon now, and I don’t ever want bad memories associated with it by using it and it being useless.

9) Zorua.
My first experience with Zorua was the anime movie Zoroark: Master of Illusions. I am going to be completely open with you guys and say the only time I have actually used Zorua was Legends Arceus… when I was mainly using another Pokémon so ‘used’ is a loose term here. I love the lore and design of Zorua. I love that it disguises itself as other Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet. I think I love the idea of it more than it itself, though. I never manage to make it fit on my team and if it was higher on this list, I probably would.

8) Impidimp.  
Impidimp is very special to me for a very personal reason. The games it came out in – Sword and Shield – are meant to be based on England (as a Welsh person, I hate when people say the UK or Britain because there’s so much cool Welsh, Scottish and Irish mythology and heritage that got left out and would have made the games so much cooler). In particular, the Impidimp is based on the Lincoln Imp. At the time the games came out and even when I got into Pokémon a while later, Josh and I were living in Lincoln. It was and will forever be such a special place to us. We’ve both used this evolution line and called them Lincoln because… it felt wrong not to. Even though I knew Josh’s was called Lincoln… what else was I going to call it? Imp? Castle? Cathedral?

7) Riolu
I don’t know why I always get excited when I see a Riolu or Lucario. It genuinely just fills me with joy. Unlike most, I love this type of evolution criteria. I loved having my little Riolu follow me around (or… try to follow me around) in Shining Pearl. Finding an Alpha Lucario filled me with so much adrenaline… it- I just love it, okay? I don’t have the words to explain why. It’s cute and a fighting type, I guess.

6) Pawmi
Pawmi came very close to dethroning another electric type on this list, which was shocking because at one point, that Pokémon was my ultimate favourite (because I thought Eevee was everyone’s favourite so I needed to pick another and I wanted to pick a non-starter Pokémon to be my favourite because I didn’t think they counted). I love the design, the move pool, the evolution criteria (I know, another one that’s not very liked by the general community). This is a solid Pokémon line. My Pawchi (that was its nickname) was the first Pokémon on my Violet file to reach Level 100, and it was no where close to my other Pokémon who were around level 70 at the time.

5) Chimchar
Okay, this is an exception to the whole Josh has not influenced this list thing. Chimchar is Josh’s favourite starter. I always pick the water starters. I ended up with Piplup when playing Shining Pearl. I know that Chimchar is the best. I think the Gen 4 starters are interesting in the sense of not many people think Piplup is useful or good; everyone thinks Turtwig is cute and useful; everyone knows that Chimchar is ultimately going to be the best choice. There are so many perks to picking Chimchar in Sinnoh that it would be a bit silly to not ignore its clear superiority over the other starters (again, I used Piplup and will pretty much always pick Piplup). I think that with most Pokémon on the previous list, the only opinion I cared about was Josh’s. With Chimchar, it’s not the same. It’s more… I appreciate the usefulness, practicality and popularity of the Pokémon while recognising that it holds a special place in Josh’s heart. Plus, and not to be that guy but, Chimchar is cute. The Legends Arceus quest about Chimchar made it out to be so cheeky and I just found that adorable.

4) Shinx
Oof, getting into the serious ones now. The Shinx line was ‘the other electric type’ that I spoke about earlier. Luxray was the first Pokémon that I ever got to Level 100. I wouldn’t say it carried my Shining Pearl and Legends Arceus teams, but it worked hand in hand with the next Pokémon I want to talk about. Shinx is so cute and it genuinely fills me with joy whenever I find one in the early routes of Sinnoh. I was so sad in my first Nuzlocke because for Route 202 I believe, I fainted it so I just couldn’t get it. Luckily, I got one on one of the following routes. Electric is obviously a solid type, and Luxray feels like the peak of it to me. The only thing I don’t love about this Pokémon is its shiny, but even then, I would still hunt for it and I would still be overjoyed if I got one.

3) Gible

I love this Pokémon so much I sometimes get emotional just thinking about it. This entire line is amazing. The design, the moves, the strength- I love this Pokémon line. Garchomp is, without any exaggeration, the singular Pokémon I have wanted to use on every single one of my teams. I had to fight with myself for Gen 9 because I wanted to use Pokémon that I had never used before… but I found a baby Gible and it was so cute and my team needed a ground type. I think, in my head, ground types are the one thing I need on my team every time because I’m so scared of coming up against a super strong electric type that I can’t defeat. It’s like a really specific scenario that I have in my head, but it’s there and controls me. I used Diglett a lot during my first playthrough, but Garchomp hits different. Like, if Garchomp was a Taylor Swift album, it would be Speak Now. That’s how good it is. Yes, I’m excited about Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), but if you haven’t listened to Speak Now yet, wait until July. Duh. Anyway, Garchomp is wonderful and very practical. I think out of all the Pokémon in this list, Garchomp is the one that’s most likely to be on my team at any given time.

2) Eevee

Eevee was my favourite Pokémon before I knew what Pokémon was. I felt personally connected to the entire line as I felt like it was… symbolic of a condition I have. I loved my Eevee during Let’s Go Eevee, and I even used a Gigantamax one in Sword. My favourite Eeveelutions switch between Espeon, Umbreon and Sylveon. I love the design of all of them, but in particular I feel like Leafeon and Glaceon have very cool designs. They’re all super cute, too. I managed to both catch them all and evolve them all from Eevee in Legends Arceus, which made me feel really good.

1) Squirtle.

If you’ve known me for the past two years, you would’ve seen this coming when you read the title. Squirtle is so special to me. It started with the anime, and then I got my Squirtle in Let’s Go Eevee. Josh traded me a Squirtle so I could get one before finishing the game in Shining Pearl. It killed me to not have a Squirtle in Legends Arceus (but I had Garchomp to rely on sooo it ended up working okay in the end). I got a Gigantamax Squirtle in Pokémon Sword which I swapped for my starter Pokémon (RIP Sobby) as soon as I got it. Like, this entire line makes me so happy. The design, the cuteness, the… The Squirtle Squad. The Squirtle Squad isn’t the only reason I like Squirtle, but it is a big part of it. Can you blame me? They’re so cute and funny and cheeky and wonderful and I just can’t with them. I feel like Squirtle always have so much personality and I just- I love them so much, okay?

Least Favourite-

10) Chewtle
I don’t hate this Pokémon; I just find it a little annoying during the early routes of Sword. I think the first time I tried to play Sword, I didn’t quite understand Pokémon yet, so I just got bombarded by a lot of Chewtle and it’s left a sour taste in my mouth since then.

9) Paras
Legends Arceus.

8) Buizel
I think this stems from it being one of the first times I came across a Pokémon that I couldn’t use due to the starter I picked. Like, I know it’s petty new player stuff… but I still hold that grudge and can’t seem to shake it.

7) Yanma
Don’t like bugs; this feels like the most annoying one. I hated it in New Pokémon Snap because it makes an annoying noise, and it hurts my ears and ruins my shots.

6) Nosepass
If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I have been trying to play through Pokémon Emerald (“trying” being the keyword) for about a year now. Lately I’ve decided that in my new game, I would train up a Ralts. It took me so long. I went marching into the gym as soon as it knew confusion with full faith that my Mudbro would wipe out the entire team. After healing like three times, Nosepass fainted my Mudbro. I think I had revives, but that wasn’t the point. It was so annoying because everything else went down in one single hit and this one stupid Pokémon was being stubborn. So, yeah, this is a new one but I’m still annoyed.

5) Heatran
It took me literal months to catch this stupid Pokémon. Real life months.

4) Wingull
This might stem from my fear of birds IRL, but it just fills me with rage whenever I see it.

3) Sharpedo
This Pokémon has no right being so fast and so mad at the same time.

2) Lickitung
I hate tongues. They’re wet and throb and are so gross.

1) Steelix
Josh says my hatred of Steelix is irrational, and that makes sense because I don’t know why I hate this Pokémon so much. I’m fine with Onix, so it’s not Sturdy. It’s just so stupid. It genuinely makes my jaw clench just thinking about it. I just hate it with every fibre of my being. I want to get a huge fire and just watch it melt. I really, really hate Steelix, and I don’t know why. Like, I genuinely have no clue and that makes me more mad. I wish I had a good reason for my obvious overreaction but I don’t. I can’t stand either the thought or sight of this awful abomination.

But that’s it for this post, Gamers! What are your favourite and least favourite Pokémon? Let me know in the comments section, and don’t forget to give this post a ‘like’ if you liked it. Follow this blog for more informal gaming content and check out my socials to stay updated when I’m not posting. See you next post!

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