All Pokémon generations are equally good

A very common thing in the Pokémon fan base is people constantly saying that the Pokémon in the newer generations, especially Generation 5 are terrible and that Game Freak is running out of ideas, while praising Generation 1 and saying how superior those Pokémon are. Of course, everyone can have opinions. If someone just says they don’t like them, it is fine, but most of the time people just start to point out the flaws and then you’re messing with the facts. The facts that basically all of these flaws are present in their “superior” Generation 1. This wouldn’t really be that much of a deal for me if it wasn’t for those countless posts, videos etc. about how Generation 5 sucks and how everything past the original 151 is crap. Let’s take a look at those common “flaws” and compare them to Gen 1 pokes with the same treats. And while I do call them flaws here, I actually don’t consider them as flaws myself.

Too similar to real-life animals and too simple

People say that Pokémon like Minccino are just basically the same as their real-life counterparts and too simple in design. Let’s look at Gen 1: Rattata is just a purple rat and Seel is literally just a seal. And speaking of “too simple” designs: Voltorb, Gastly and Electrode are just balls with eyes. Many people also complain about every generation having a Pikachu rip-off. I get that they are all electric rodents, but why is that a problem? In fact, I like all of those “Pikachu rip-offs” more than the actual Pikachu.

Based on inanimate objects

A lamp Pokémon? They’re basing Pokémon on objects now? Out of ideas!!

This is one of the biggest problems people have with Gen 5. It’s funny, because it’s also one of the easiest one to point out in Gen 1. Voltorb and Electrode are pokéballs with eyes, Weezing and Koffing are living smoke balls, Geodude is a rock with arms, Grimer and Muk are piles of sludge, Exeggcute is/are eggs.

Uncreative designs        

One of the most hated Pokémon is Vanillite and its evolutions, an ice-cream like Pokémon. Personally, I kinda like it because it’s cute. People say that it’s uncreative and running out of ideas. First of all, who are you to decide whether someone’s creation is creative of not? And if you really think all of those designs aren’t creative, you obviously just looked at the designs and never read the actual descriptions, because most of the pokemon have a clear reasoning behind them not to mention that many of the designs that some people call lack of imagination are actually based on different mythical creatures from different cultures. In fact, generation 5 takes many new inspirations. And according to your definition of uncreative design so are tons of Generation 1 Pokemon such as previously mentioned spherical Pokemon, sludge Pokemon and even ditto who is just a random slime shape with a face.

Dumb evolutions

Not much to say here. Dugtrio and Magneton. Nothing else needs to be said here. Just please explain how those two are more creative than two ice-creams and two swords. And I didn’t even mention eggs evolving into a palm tree.

Garbodor

This one isn’t about comparing, but rather to defend one of the most hated Pokémon. People who are bashing Garbodor probably didn’t read Trubbish’s flavor text.

“The combination of garbage bags and industrial waste caused the chemical reaction that created this Pokémon.”

Trubbish and Garbodor are Pokémon created because of the waste humans caused and it’s obviously not gonna be pretty. Calling Garbodor a non-creative idea isn’t right, because it is obvious what the inspiration is; that humans’ waste created mutations like this.

Too many legendaries

While I do understand why people say that there’s too many legendaries in newer generations (they might feel less special), there’s no reason to not have many of them. There are countless different legends in real-life and most of Pokémon legends have a good legend behind them.

And also, most people don’t know that there’s legendary and mythical Pokémon. Mythical are super-rare Pokémon rather than Pokémon of legends.

What I don’t like is how people say that Mewtwo is the “best legendary”, because to be honest… Can it even be counted as a legendary? It is not a Pokémon from legends. It is a human-made clone of a legendary Pokémon Mew, so technically it is just a very strong Pokémon…

Hated just because they’re not Gen 1

There’re actually many Pokemon that are commonly disliked for no reason whatsoever. Genwunners just take a look at them and say that they suck. This was a very common thing when Gen 5 pokemon were being revealed. I can’t even find any Gen 1 counterparts as I don’t get what people’s problem is with them. Seriously, this category is more of less every other Gen 5 creature that isn’t in the categories above. This attitude in my opinion just shows how nostalgia blinded some people are. They simply consider Gen 1 the only good one because that’s what they grew up with and ignore the fact that the new ones aren’t much different.

Conclusion:

Game Freak are not running out of ideas as many people say. Most accusations people make about newer gens were present in the highly praised Generation 1. I am not saying that you should like all the generations, but you should at least take off your nostalgia goggles and accept the newer things and respect Game Freak for all those amazing creations and games.  Will this convince any genwunners? Of course not, they’re going to keep saying their crap and I’m going to keep seeing them as not “true fans”. It’s just fun to find all those similarities between all those generations.