Best/Worst Pokemon of Each Generation

Now that Pokemon's in its 5th generation, the minds of Game Freak have devised up a grand total of 649 species. However, even though there's a ton of species, only a fraction of them are used commonly on player's teams. Pokemon such as Alakazam, Gengar, and the starter Pokemon are all fan favorites because of how useful they are in battle.

So, this post is to show off which Pokemon I like the best and which I like the worst from each generation.

Generation I

The Best: Slowbro

Slowbro is a beast of a Pokemon. It's got great defense (especially for a water Pokemon), good Sp. Attack, and a healthy dose of HP. The only thing it lacks is a bit of speed, but it makes up for it with it's bulk. In fact, this guy is so badass, that whenever a Shellder clamps down on it's tail, it's latent psychic abilities activate, transforming the mussel into a different form on its tail. Other than its stats, Slowbro has a great movepool of moves that include Psychic, Water, Fire, Ground, Steel, Normal, Ghost, and Ice-type attacks. With great moves and stats, Slowbro is among the top of Generation I!

The Worst: Zubat

I was actually having a little bit of trouble deciding the worst Pokemon of Generation I, since both this and Geodude are both among the lowest. I decided to choose Zubat for the worst Gen I Pokemon, however. Zubats are simply inescapable, since they are in every single dungeon in every game until Black/White. If they are not in a certain cave, then you can count on its evolved form Golbat appearing. During its earlier levels, Zubat's movepool is extremely limited. It starts out learning Leech Life, which in addition to not having high power, doesn't even get a same-type attack bonus multiplier! One type of move it does learn relatively early, though, are moves that confuse the opponent. This definitely helps to train Zubat later, but the main annoyance is when you encounter a wild Zubat that knows Supersonic or Confuse Ray. That's almost always the first move it goes for, so it's likely that it would knock your Pokemon just by them hitting themselves!

Generation II

The Best: Crobat

Even though it's really ironic that Zubat, as the first Pokemon of Crobat's evolution line, was my worst Pokemon of Gen I, Game Freak really cleaned up the line's act with Crobat. When a Golbat evolves into Crobat, its speed stat jumps! Crobat is one of the fastest Pokemon of all time, even counting legendary Pokemon. Its movepool doesn't change very much from evolving from Golbat, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. With Crobat's high speed, it can very efficiently utilize moves in ways that Golbat couldn't. Crobat also simply looks good, as well. It's color scheme is essentially the opposite of Zubat and Golbat, but the blues and purples are a lot deeper and more saturated. Plus, its two pairs of wings really help to make it seem fast and aerodynamic!

The Worst: Unown

While Gen II's new Pokemon brought a lot of new stat sets, movepools, and type combinations to the game, it was also the first generation to introduce the dreaded gimmick Pokemon. Among the worst of these laughable gimmicks, Unown stains the bottom of the barrel. This species provides nothing for the battling gameplay, since all Unowns can learn are Hidden Power. Its stats are pitiful, and its ability Levitate barely provides an advantage for it in battle. The main purpose for this Pokemon was to display the the concept of Individual Values. These hidden stats for every Pokemon are set when each Pokemon are generated. These sets of numbers do a lot starting from Generation II, including determining the Pokemon's gender, shinyness, and determines the growth of a Pokemon's stats. The IVs also determine what form Unown will be as well as what type/power of hidden power it will have. With so many forms, Unown is only good for collectors who want all forms.

Generation III

The Best: Swampert

As the water starter of Generation III, I instantly fell in love with Mudkip/Swampert the moment I laid my eyes on it. Swampert is one badass mo'fo. Even though it is a water-type, Swampert completely resists Electric-type attacks. Take that Gyarados! Speaking of typing, however, Swampert only has one weakness- Grass-types. Although it takes 4x damage from Grass-types, having only one weakness makes your opponent's attacks quite predicable! In terms of its stats, Swampert excels in its HP and Attack stats. It's a really good thing Swampert learns awesome physical attacks, such as Waterfall, Hammer Arm, and the heavenly Earthquake! It's attacks totally let it take advantage of its nice stats, or otherwise allow it to take out a ton of opponents with a type advantage!

The Worst: Luvdisc

Unlike Gen II's worst Pokemon on this list, which is a gimmick Pokemon and barely serves a purpose in the game, Luvdisc is one Pokemon that's even worse. It serves no purpose to expand the game at all, except for adding one more species to the Pokedex list. The problem about Luvdisc is that there is nothing about it that makes it stand out above the other Pokemon. Its main asset is its speed, which has a base stat of 97. Comparing it to other Pokemon, it has pretty good speed, but is beaten by a lot of other Pokemon. Its other stats, however, are pathetic, most comparable to that of a Goldeen. Every single move that Luvdisc learns can be taught to a different Water-type Pokemon, and chances are those other Pokemon will put it to good use.

Generation IV

The Best: Rhyperior

Rock and Ground-type Pokemon always had it hard. They have a x4 weakness to Water and Grass-types, two of the most common types, and are also weak to Ice, Fighting, Ground, and Steel-types. Because of that, Rhyhorn and Rhydon have always suffered in game. All those problems got fixed when Rhyperior was added to the Pokedex. The main characteristic of Rhyperior is its ability Solid Rock. Prior to Gen V, this ability was unique to Rhyperior. Solid Rock is an amazing ability that decreases super-effective damage done to the user. If the damage would normally do x4 damage, the attacks do x3 damage, and if it normally does x2, then the damage now becomes x1.5. Combined with Rhyperior's heavy HP stat and enormous Defense, Rhyperior won't be One Hit KO-ed anymore! It's also got incredible attack, which can destroy a huge number of Pokemon simply because of its power! It's one Pokemon that will certainly pierce the heavens with its drill!

The Worst: Phione

Phione is a pretty similar Pokemon to Luvdisc, in that everything they do is outplayed by other Pokemon. In this case, Phione is beat in every way by its parent Pokemon, Manaphy. Its stats are much lower than Manaphy's and lacks two moves that Manaphy has, Tail Glow, and Heart Swap. Perhaps Game Freak's thoughts were that they wanted to make an event legendary Pokemon accessible to everyone, but ultimately if anyone would want to use Phione in game, then it's much better to try and find a Manaphy.

Generation V

The Best: Galvantula

Although Galvantula is not the first spider Pokemon, it's by far an extremely useful one. Unlike Ariados, Galvantula is a pretty speedy Pokemon. That combined with its high special attack leads it to be a good attacker among both Bug and Electric-types.This Pokemon only has two weaknesses to watch out for, Fire and Rock. That way, it's very easy to predict when Galvantula needs to be switched out. One of its abilities, Compoundeyes, ups the accuracy of its attacks so that they're less likely to miss. Even though that's a good plus, this ability primarily shines when combined with Thunder. Having a 120 base power move that hits more than 90% of the time is certainly useful!

The Worst: Sigilyph

All I can say about this Pokemon is "what was Game Freak thinking?" I have no words to describe how this Pokemon looks like. Is it a winged beach ball with a soda glued atop impaled on a pitchfork? Perhaps it's an Unown A form on top of a moldy, winged demon hamburger. What is this I don't even. Apparently, Sigilyph is the "Avianoid" Pokemon, but that doesn't help to serve any clues as to what Sigilyph actually is. Avianoid means "bird-like" which serves no help as to what this weirdly designed monster is supposed to be. Either way, because of its horrible design, Sigilyph instantly becomes my worst Pokemon from Gen V.

Well, that's it for all the generations. What about you? What are your thoughts about any of these picks? Or, what's your best/worst Pokemon list? Leave it in the comments! Thanks so much for reading!

Also, here's the video for this post: