Punished Favorites: Who’s That Pokémon?!

Happy Pokémon Day! Can you believe it’s been 30 years since those first games graced our Game Boys across the globe? 30 years of falling in love with goofy-looking animals and bugs? 30 years since we were introduced to our favorite chonky shock rat?

We’ve already covered our favorite Pokémon games in a previous Punished Favorites, but this time we’re going in a different direction: What are our favorite little (or not so little) pocket monsters?

Over 1,000 Pokémon exist. Picking just a handful of favorites from such a massive list may seem daunting, but we Punished Backloggers never shy away from a challenge (except when it comes to horror games, which I always play on Easy mode with the brightness turned all the way up). In this list, you’ll find the best, strongest, cutest, and chonkiest monsters that have ever come across our little screens.

We all have different reasons for picking our favorites for this list. Some of us want to pay tribute to our most fierce allies. Others discuss our connections to these little monsters as if we were describing a beloved pet. Others just want to share cute stories. Regardless, we all love so many Pokemon dearly, and hope to celebrate 30 years of their existence with proper tributes… especially for the chonky ones.

– Written by Sam Martinelli

Our 13 Favorite Pokémon

• Blastoise
• Buzzwole
• Charmander
• Dragonair
• Espurr
• Fat Pikachu
• Furret
• Meowth
• Quilava
• Sandshrew
• Suicune
• Shedinja
• Tropius

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Blastoise

If there’s one thing about Pokémon that gets me, it’s some good old fashioned nostalgia. And man, does Blastoise pull at those strings. Blue Version was my first Pokémon game, and, at four years old, any sense of agency I had over my starter had not yet developed in my brain. I was taking the blue guy, no questions asked. So, with Squirtle by my side, I undertook the only task I knew: evolve the little dude into the awesome mascot on my game cartridge. Little did I realize how such a simple decision would impact my journey throughout all Pokémon games.

Blastoise was everything a kid wanted in a starter. Huge and intimidating, this turtle Pokémon wasn’t messing around. Sure, I have a soft spot for Charizard and Venusaur as part of the original trio, but they simply don’t hold a candle to my first teammate. On top of that, pairing the dual cannons on Blastoise’s shoulders with his signature move, Hydro Pump, made for an image that turned him into a truly formidable beast. This is a Pokémon that has stood the test of time for a lot of reasons, but none may be bigger than the slam dunk design of him.

Blastoise wasn’t just my first; he also set up a long pattern of picking the water starter for me. There have been a lot of hits over the years (always loved my Feraligatr in Silver Version) but no matter what, I keep coming back to Blastoise every chance I get. It’s funny how such a small decision at such a young age influences more than two decades of gaming for me… but that goes to show just how well Blastoise has stood the test of time. You simply can’t forget your day-ones.

– Written by Mark Bowers

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Buzzwole

I’ve always been a bit detached from enjoying Pokémon for their aesthetic traits. I’m not even a competitive player, either — I’ve just always appreciated Pokémon for their mechanical traits more than anything else, so my favorites over time tended to shift with whatever seemed particularly strong at the time. (My typical naming convention for Pokémon I capture is to assign them a number.) In the beginning, my favorites were starters, then my tastes shifted towards pseudolegendaries or legendaries. 

I do, however, have one exception. Buzzwole. 

Buzzwole is technically what is known as an Ultra Beast, a classification of Pokémon that have traveled to our universe from Ultra Space. Ultra Beasts are like chaos Pokémon: Their designs are significantly more irregular and strange than is typical, and their stat distributions are wildly lopsided. My favorite of this strange, motley, extradimensional crew of beasts is Buzzwole, an absurdly muscular quadrupedal bug bodybuilder.

His stat spread is comically lopsided towards physical prowess: 139 base attack and 139 base defense. His ability, Beast Boost, is powerful for regular, non-competitive gameplay, further snowballing his offense. But more than any of these mechanical quirks, Buzzwole is the rare Pokémon I love for aesthetic reasons. 

Is it mostly because he’s jacked? Yes. But where most muscular Pokémon are just muscular (think Machamp, for example, who is a little too human to be lovable but is also just a Big Dude and not much else), Buzzwole’s specific take on the self-important bodybuilder hits the perfect notes for me. Buzzwole’s flexes and poses in the Pokédex are just incredible. A gloriously punny name, an enjoyable play experience, and a hilariously evocative design make him a 10/10 Pokémon for me. Plus he’s body goals, you know. 

– Written by Kei Isobe

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Charmander

That adorable electric rat will always be the face of Pokémon as a franchise, but Charmander will always be more iconic to yours truly.

It’s not just that I happened to pick Charmander as my starter Pokémon in Pokémon Red when I was a child. It’s not just that Charmander eventually becomes the cool-as-hell Charizard, AKA the most badass-looking monster of the original 151. It’s that when faced with the original three starters for the first time, I picked that little flaming lizard without hesitation. I saw the adorable look on his face paired with that tiny flickering flame at the end of his tail and just knew, right then and there, that there was no other option.

He’s cute, but ferocious. He’s friendly, but a menace to all opponents. His design appears fairly simple, but there’s just enough depth in his glimmering eyes and dorky smile to make me fall in love with him forever. He’s a fighter, a lover, a winner, and someone I’d stand in front of a bus for. He’s everything.

I know that, over time, it’s become somewhat of a stereotype that players who always pick the fire-type at the start of every Pokémon title lack imagination or creativity. That may or may not be true, but I have never once regretted going with fire, because Charmander was (and still is) fire. Sure, picking Charmander put me at a bit of a disadvantage in the early going against rock- and water-type opponents in the first two gyms, but it was worth it to cultivate the Ember-casting hero that defined the opening hours of my Pokémon experience and, as a result, the beginning of my relationship with Pokémon overall.

– Written by Sam Martinelli

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Dragonair

She is beauty, she is grace. When these words were sung in the seminal action-hero-fish-out-of-water comedy film Miss Congeniality released in 2000, I can only assume that they were thinking not about Sandra Bullock, but about Dragonair, #148, who made her debut stateside in Pokémon Red/Blue in 1998. (Side note, I just learned that song featured in the movie was written by a kid when he was five years old. Stunning accomplishment.)

But seriously, Dragonair is so ridiculously chic?! She (or he) floats through the air and sea, able to snap its body back and forth. She even has cute little accessories, the ball of ice at her neck like a choker and an almost snake-like rattle on the tail. But she’s not just good looks — as a Dragon-type (rare in Generation I), she could learn the all powerful Hyper Beam. And prior to Generation III, her evolutionary line was the only one that could learn Outrage, a strong attack fueled by rage at injustice. I remember loving the idea of this delicate reptile being capable of massive power. 

Perhaps it is Dragonair’s evolutionary line that made it stand out to me so much as a kid. In the original 151 Pokémon, most three-stage-evolutions followed a pretty classic formula: adorable beginner baby to  frumpy and awkward middle schooler to monstrous all-powerful final beast. The Dratini-Dragonair-Dragonite started off as usual, but broke the pattern. Dragonair is so obviously beautiful and graceful, and while Dragonite is powerful, he has an undeniably derpy looking face on a squat orange body. (It’s almost like Game Freak thought, Okay, yeah, we’ve got Charizard and he’s cool, but what if we mushed him up like Play-doh?) It was an evolution I never encouraged, preferring to admire Dragonair as she is. 

The Pokédex says it was often called a mirage Pokémon, believed to be a myth. I still can remember cruising back-and-forth on the waters in the Safari Zone, looking for my version of the Loch Ness monster, one that I could raise to become my beautiful, graceful, powerful friend. 

– Written by Amanda Tien

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Espurr

I wasn’t introduced to Pokémon until my mid-teens, so I missed out on the early versions. My first ever console was the Nintendo DS Lite, on which I had one game: The Little Mermaid, because eight-year-old Darcy was obsessed with Ariel, did not know that Pokémon existed, and had not realized that there were, in fact, other DS games out there. In the end, my first contact with the franchise wasn’t even a real Pokémon game, but Pixelmon, which I think a lot of die-hard Pokémon fans would find downright disgraceful.

But Pokémon still has a special, nostalgic place in my heart. It always manages to make me feel so unreasonably attached to the little pixels on my screen, mainly because of how adorable and amazing all the designs are. Ormost of the designs are.

I have a lot of love for a lot of Pokémon (Eevee and its eeveelutions in particular), but Espurr is definitely one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite. Something about that fluffy little guy with his awkward, blank stare just makes me happy. He’s also one of the few Pokémon whose evolutions I like just as much as their original form. I don’t know why so many of them have fallen victim to the ‘starts off cute then becomes ugly and somewhat scary’ curse, but I’m glad Espurr was spared from that fate. Not that I wouldn’t love him even if he wasn’t. 

My appreciation for Espurr doesn’t stop at his appearance. The poor thing has so much psychic power that he’s always struggling not to blast everyone around him into the sky. At the end of the day, he’s just a little guy trying his best to get through the day and not explode, and who can’t relate to that?

– Written by Darcy Maunder

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Fat Pikachu™

My favorite Pokémon is Fat Pikachu.

Yes, you read that correctly. I am talking about the OG Pikachu, who was Squishmallow-shaped before Squishmallows ever entered the zeitgeist. I have literally no evidence of this, but one could probably trace back Squishmallows success back to Fat Pikachu if they really tried hard enough. 

But we don’t have time for that level of investigative journalism. We’re here to talk about Fat Pikachu.

There are many reasons why Fat Pikachu is my favorite Pokémon. He is, admittedly, the first Pokémon I ever met. As a ‘90s kid, the pilot of the Pokémon anime looms large in the imagination, and Fat Pikachu is there— rotund and rascally, a (literal) spark in the eye. His plump physique lulls both Ash and the audience into thinking he is harmless. He is just a mouse Pokémon, he is just adorable, he is just hug-shaped. With such a portly Pokémon in tow, how will Ash become the very best, like no one ever was?!  No wonder Pikachu shocks Ash’s judgmental ass in that episode. He deserved it. 

And that has always been Fat Pikachu’s greatest weapon—everyone underestimates him, until it’s too late. 

Just as Ash fell for Fat Pikachu, so did I! Growing up, I accumulated Fat Pikachu merch, though, of course, he was just Pikachu to me back then, no qualifier needed. He was one of my first-ever Pokémon cards. I got an electronic talking version for Christmas. I won a big version from my local fall carnival–so round I couldn’t get my little arms around him. I had a one-inch-tall Fat Pikachu Pencil Topper. I carried that particular Pikachu in my pencil pouch and pockets for a long time, and cried when my dog ate its tail. But you know what would have looked even more stupid than a tail-less Fat Pikachu astride my pencil in the first grade? Yeah, Skinny Pikachu. That’s just proof that Fat Pikachu is peak design, baby. 

My love for Pikachu even followed me out of Pokémon and into other Nintendo franchises. I’m proud to say I main Pikachu in Super Smash Bros.  I don’t care what anyone says, he is S-tier to me! I love that guy! 

If I were first introduced to sleek, sexy Pikachu, I may have still fallen for him. Pikachu’s overall design is still pretty cute, from the tips of his expressive ears to his iconic thunderbolt-shaped tail, and he remains the main character of the series, arguably more important than Ash Ketchum. But Fat Pikachu is my best friend. And when I think back on my childhood, I wouldn’t want any other Pokémon beside me. Call me a cliché — I would still choose Fat Pikachu again and again and again. 

-Written by Lauryl Fischer

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Furret

Furret is one of those Pokémon I love simply because it’s cute. At one point, me and my mother were just casually chatting about Pokémon Go (She isn’t a big gamer, but she LOVES Pokémon Go), and we somehow came to the conclusion that if one of our cats, Roxy, was a Pokémon, she would absolutely be a Furret. The adorable stripy normal-type Pokémon has quickly become one of my favourites, just because it reminds me of my cat. 

A lot of the time, Pokémon get less cute (but a lot cooler) with each evolution. Take any of the starter Pokémon from any generation. Bulbasaur is adorable, but Venusaur is simply awesome looking. Furret, however, in my opinion anyway, is even cuter than Sentret, its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, Sentret is also adorable, but Furret is unmatched for me, with those tiny little paws. One of the other things that really drew me to Furret, is its shiny variant. I’m a complete sucker for any shiny Pokémon that are pink, and the shiny Furret with its pink and cream coloured stripes, is so simple, but so beautifully designed. 

– Written by Scarlet Hardy

Meowth

I grew up watching the Pokémon anime (1997-present) like many people did. Team Rocket are undoubtedly an iconic part of the show. Amazing character design, hilarious dialogue, and, hello? A CAT. Despite being antagonists, Team Rocket were some of the coolest looking characters in the show, and I loved the dynamic between Jessie, James, and Meowth (and slightly less frequently, Wobuffet). Meowth being able to speak (and therefore having some incredibly funny lines) solidified his presence in my personal Pokémon Hall of Fame. 

Outside of the nostalgia the original Meowth provides for myself and many others, it’s worth taking a look at the multiple possible forms it has. The classic Meowth is awesome and super recognizable, but I also love the Alolan (dark type) and Galarian (steel type) forms. The Alolan form is still incredibly identifiable, sharing a significant amount of its design with the original, the main change just being the color, while the Galarian form is a really interesting change, including a completely different evolution. The original and Alolan Persians are great, the Alolan being almost like a caricature of the standard Persian, but when I see the Perrserker (Galarian Meowth evolution), all I see is Gandalf as a cat, with that giant grey beard. 

– Written by Scarlet Hardy

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Quilava

Sometimes, things are allowed to just be cool. Harrison Ford punching Nazis in the face? Cool. Tony Hawk landing a 900 at 48 years old? Cool. Quilava, the slinky second evolution of the Fire starter line in Johto? Cool.

The Cyndaquil line had the impossible challenge of following up the iconic Charmander line, and met it with aplomb. Cyndaquil itself is an adorable little weasel, with its perfect ass of flame. Typhlosion is intimidating and badass, made even better by its (slightly stoned) Hisuian variant. But child Gary fell in love with the sleek, punk-rock aesthetic of Quilava. The flaming mohawk. The svelt, weaselike body. Quilava looks like a Pokemon designed to be worn like a boa, draped around your shoulders waiting to pounce on your foes.

I have replayed Crystal and SoulSilver many times, and have never picked another starter line. As a kid, I even put off evolving Quilava until level 52, just to spend more time with my plucky little guy. Maybe also to get Flamethrower faster, since Typhlosion doesn’t learn it until level 60, but mostly because just look at him! Quilava has the attitude, the power, and the grace. He looks like a cool teenager, which is everything I wanted to be in 2000. Was I? Well, I have three distinct Quilavas on my desk right now. So you tell me. 

– Written by Gary Wilson

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Sandshrew

I don’t care for Pokémon. I find the games boring, dated, and frustratingly complacent. The cozy monster collecting doesn’t appeal to me and the strategy seems to be either indiscernible or impenetrable, with little middle ground. Does anyone else remember that old RPG Maker game from 20 years ago where the Pokémon went crazy and you had to “deal” with them via your trusty semiautomatic sidearm? That was my ideal Pokémon experience. Don’t google it.

That said… Pokémon cared for me. Pokémon Blue was among the first video games I can recall playing; I think we had it downloaded on a floppy disk (lawfully, probably!). I picked up a Squirtle from Professor Oak and accidentally saved over my older brother’s file. Then I traded the floppy disk away for a CD of the Game Boy Advance Rayman game. Add in Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Stadium and Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros.… yeah, okay, I guess I do get it, actually. Pokémon games walk that high wire act above a bubbling cauldron of nostalgia. They typically seem to give up halfway across and just dive in, though. It’s complicated.

I present all this history to explain why my favorite (and the objective best) Pokémon is Sandshrew. Sandshrew is an armadillo rat made out of pyramid bricks. Back in the OG 151, before Game Freak ran out of ideas and slapped eyes on a tree (go to hell Sudowoodo, you abomination, you grotesque mockery of nature, despicable, pitiable, blight granted some half-baked facsimile of life, may your bark peel and sap boil), Sandshrew evoked a beautiful simplicity of design. It is a sandy shrew. It rolls up in a ball and digs. What more do you need? Ask yourself again: what more do you need? Don’t respond, cretin. Look inward. 

Sandshrew is perfect. It is cute and fun to look at. It fills an ecosystem niche. It premiered in a crazy anime episode where it lifted weights and enjoyed getting whipped, which was weird and we don’t need to think about that. I would like a Sandshrew companion. It wouldn’t set my house on fire or look weirdly human or just kind of freak me out. Sandshrew doesn’t have a gross mouth. It is mysterious, but not unnerving. Sandshrew represents the simplicity and bliss of childhood, when just a bit was enough and the toxicity of nostalgia had not yet infected our society.

Did I used to enjoy playing Pokémon? I guess. What did I know about game design, though? Pokémon was a portal to a novel sort of experience, a whole new world, where pyramid rats could roll around forever. Sandshrew is perfect.

– Written by Ben Rashkovich

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Shedinja

My first experience with Pokémon was me being handed Emerald by a friend for a weekend. I played around, tried things, failed, and leveled up a group of wimps in the first few areas of the game. One was a Nincada. I didn’t feel any particular attachment to Nincada, but I leveled him up nonetheless.

Then, at level 20, he evolved into a Ninjask. For my eight-year-old self, Ninjask was much more in the realm of interest for me. I liked its sleek design, and it looked a lot cooler than the humble cicada larvae he came from. But… I only had five Pokémon.

I looked to the right and saw a pile of discarded, molted skin floating above the ground, a sedentary carcass. You then read into its details: 1 HP, immune to anything that isn’t supereffective (which is admittedly not a short list), not fast, and not super strong but not weak either.

Shedinja began a love for Pokémon evolutions that were just wacky. Alcremie, for instance, is a dance of a Pokémon to evolve. So many different types and conditions that you can explore with, though the end result is a somewhat less unique creature compared to Shedinja. Malamar’s another example, Basculin into Basculegion, and Annihilape punching the world.

Maybe Shedinja doesn’t deserve the top spot anymore, but I can’t stop loving it. Its abilities are so unique (with minor, gimmicky uses even in top-level gameplay, though usually only in relatively toxic metas) and the actual monster’s visual design is so fascinating. Maybe part of my soul did get sucked into its back, and it kept my eight-year-old’s fascination with weird bug things alive nearly 20 years later.

– Written by Jason Toro

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Suicune

Suicine has no business being this cool.

Oh wait, she does. Of course she does. Suicune is the legendary ‘mon featured in the cover art for Pokémon Crystal, which was notably the first game in the series when players could choose to be a female trainer. Suicune oozed powerful feminine energy — look at that smolder! Her icy tendrils waving like perfect hair in the wind! And yes, I know that Suicune can be male. But to me, Suicune felt just like an awesome, strong, mama wolf leading a pack.

As a legendary, Suicune was unique in the game in that she can be met quite early on. As a player, you really can’t believe it that she’s right there, in the grass, outside of a regular cave. You know it’s her; you’ve got the cartridge with her face on it, for goodness’ sake. Depending on luck, trainer skill level, patience, and whether you managed to find a Master Ball yet, you could potentially have this epic ‘mon on your team earlier than in any game before or since.

Suicune makes for an inspiring ally. One of her Pokédex entries reads, “Suicune embodies the compassion of a pure spring of water. It runs across the land with gracefulness.”

I’ve admired Suicune since I was nine years old, though I’m still not really sure how to say her name, so please don’t ask me. (Editor’s note: I believe it’s “SWEE-coon.”)

– Written by Amanda Tien

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Tropius

First, allow me to put on the record: I am aware that I do not have to admit to the following story. I could hold this secret forever, never admitting to my own faults. But I am a bigger man than that, and my love for Tropius deserves the truth.

And I do love Tropius. That big, banana-chinned dinosaur that doesn’t really fit anywhere. Grass/Flying just means they’re an easy target for Ice types. They offer very little in competitive matches, operating almost exclusively as a Tailwind-Leech Seed-Stall Forever option. They have no pre or post evolutions. They just come out the egg a Tropius. Goofy-faced and lumbering. Just Tropius.

But child-Gary made a mistake with Tropius. You see, after a certain time, I exclusively interacted with Pokémon via the Trading Card Game and video games. No more cartoons. By the time Tropius was introduced in Generation 3, I only had the sprites and artwork to work off of in understanding how it looked. At the tender age of 10, I did not understand how Tropius flew. You see, to me, the sprite made it look like the long palm fronds that are clearly wings came off the Tropius’ butt. And you can’t flap with your butt. So they must spin. Like helicopter blades. Which they also kind of look like.

For almost 10 years I believed this. That Tropius traveled via ass-a-copter leaf blades, hanging from the bottom like a banana. Which made sense with the bananas coming off his chin! Imagine my shock, then, when in Pokemon X/Y Tropius is just cruising around on his wings. Coming from his back. Which makes way more sense.

I was 20 years old when I realized this.    

– Written by Gary Wilson

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Who Are Some of Your Favorite Pokémon?

Do you agree with our list? What did we miss? Share in the comments! You can also check out other Punished Favorites lists like the best Nintendo Switch games, the best Nintendo DS games, and the best SNES games.

Plus, check out our podcast episode about Pokémon!