Pokemon may have plenty of cute creatures, but it also has plenty of amazingly cool and badass ones. Some of these badass ones are long-time favorites of fans. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving, and some of them really aren’t that great. Here are a few Pokemon that just don’t live up to their hype.
Braviary
I was pretty disappointed with Braviary when Pokemon Black and White came out. He looked to be one of the coolest Pokemon I’d seen in ages. With an incredible design and a powerful Attack, I was ready to take the world by storm. Unfortunately, what sets Braviary apart from many of his birdlike peers is his sub-par Speed. With a Speed stat of 80, Braviary is significantly slower than all of Pidgeot, Swellow, Staraptor, and Talonflame. While Pidgeot admittedly isn’t the best of that bunch, the other three are all fast and have threatening offensive capabilities. And in all reality, Braviary doesn’t do much to make him worth using above the faster Staraptor. Braviary has pretty decent defenses, but they’re certainly not fantastic. And a debilitating Superpower aside, he gets walled pretty easily by Rock and Steel types, of which there are many. It’s a shame, I really wanted Braviary to live up to that amazingly cool design.
Rhyperior
“From holes in its palms, it fires out Geodude. Its carapace can withstand volcanic eruptions.” Ladies and gentlemen, this is Rhyperior’s Pokedex entry in Pokemon X. Did we get that? Not only can this guy survive volcanic eruptions, but he literally uses other, lesser Pokemon as his own personal ammunition. Rhyperior has a lot of cool things going for it: huge Attack stat, crazy large HP and Defense stats, good offensive typing, and an incredibly diverse movepool. You’d think Rhyperior was some sort of Pokegod. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and Rhyperior is commonly relegated to the lower tiers. While Rock/Ground is a fantastic offensive typing, it is terrible from a defensive perspective. Rhyperior is sorely hurt by Water and Grass type attacks. His terrible Special Defense stat (base 55) doesn’t exactly do him many favors when considering that both Water and Grass attacks (especially Water) typically come from a Special Attacking side. While he has an ability called Solid Rock that reduces damage from super effective moves by 25%, having to rely on this ability to survive those hits is an indicator of just how unfortunate he is. Even if Rhyperior has so many good things going for him, they mean nothing if he can never get the chance to even fire a move off before he is one-shotted. And considering that Special Water moves are some of the most common attacks in the metagame, Rhyperior has a disappointingly tough time living up to his badass potential.
Steelix
With a base Defense stat of 200, there is absolutely no question about what Steelix’s role is: stop physical attackers right in their tracks. It has a fairly forgettable base HP stat of 75, but that massive Defense helps pick up the slack. And as always, being a Steel type works magic for a defensive Pokemon. Together, Steelix should be an incredible wall. Unfortunately, from here on out, things are a little rough for Steelix. Steelix is all of slow, not incredibly powerful, and has pretty bad Special Defense. Let’s remember that Steelix is a Steel/Ground type, which leaves him weak to both Water and Fire, both of which are commonly found as special attacking moves. A low Special Defense stat coupled with a fairly low HP stat leave Steelix pretty laughable in the eyes of Pokemon carrying such moves as Surf or Flamethrower (or, Arceus forbid, Hydro Pump or Fire Blast). And this isn’t even Steelix’s most glaring flaw. Every defensive Pokemon should have a reliable recovery move, of which Steelix has a resounding zero. So while Steelix can take hits on the physical end, he can eventually be worn down without being able to do very much in return. What a shame.
Luxray
When I first saw Luxray, I imagined him as something as an Electric counterpart to Arcanine. Luxray makes this list not because he’s bad, but because he is simply not good enough. Luxray’s greatest asset is his great base 120 Attack. But that’s about it. Everything else is lackluster. Pretty decent Special Attack, but only average defenses and below average Speed (especially for an Electric type). It’s always a shame when you see a good attacking stat coupled with poor Speed.
And then there’s his movepool, which is pretty versatile, but ultimately a bit disappointing. Luxray’s best STAB move (Same Type Attack Bonus, so Luxray, an Electric type, gets a power boost when using an Electric move) is Wild Charge. Wild Charge isn’t bad, but it makes Luxray take recoil damage. And for a move with 90 power, it is odd that it would be one with recoil damage. Not a bad move, but certainly one that leaves much to be desired. Outside of that, Luxray has access to all the elemental fangs, which provide fantastic type coverage. Unfortunately, those moves are pretty underpowered, so don’t expect Luxray to be sweeping with those at his command. Other than that, Luxray gets Crunch, Night Slash, Iron Tail, and Superpower. While none of these moves is bad, they are all a little underwhelming either because they have poor type coverage, are somewhat underpowered, or have serious drawbacks to usage. Poor Luxray, I really wanted him to be great. At best, he is simply okay.
Charizard
Yes yes, arguably one of Pokemon’s most beloved is sadly one of the most underwhelming Pokemon out there. Charizard suffers from the plague of being a Fire type. As cool as they are, Fire types are plagued by a terrible defensive typing that leave them vulnerable to a multitude of different attack types. Most noticeably, Charizard is plagued by a quadruple weakness to the Rock type (thanks to it being half-Flying). And with Stealth Rock running so rampant in the game, this puts Charizard at a particular disadvantage. While Charizard may be more viable in the lower competitive tiers, he is quite lackluster in the overall scheme of things. He has a base 100 Speed stat. While this is not bad per se and is faster than many others, he still fails to outrun a very many other threatening Pokemon such as Garchomp, Infernape, Keldeo, Froslass, and many more. Don’t get me wrong, Charizard isn’t a bad Pokemon, he just isn’t anywhere near as amazing as the fanbase would have you believe. He simply is neither fast enough or powerful enough to truly wreak the havoc he should. His Mega Evolutions help, but still leave him vulnerable to many different things.
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