Top 10 Best Pokemon Ever

This last week saw the release of Pokemon Heart gold and Soul Silver, the DS remakes of Gold and Silver versions. You can expect a review of those at some point (spoiler: they’re a remake of my favorite Pokemon games, I’m going to say they’re good). In the meantime, I felt like looking back over my years of Pokemon Mastery and determine what my absolute favorites were. But I couldn’t just do that. Oh no, I had to talk about my least favorites as well. You ready for the Top 10 Best and Worst Pokemon ever? Today’s all about the good side, so check back tomorrow for the follow-up. Ready? Let’s go!

Will the cute Pikachu, as drawn by Miraris, make the list? Let's find out.

The Best of the Best:

We’ll start with the best here, because why wouldn’t we? As an added bonus, I decided the images needed to reflect my feelings about each of my favorites, so I searched through Deviant Art for the best images I could find. You can check out the website to see some truly awesome artwork, and if you like the pictures seen here follow the links to the artist’s page to see more from them.

10. Rhydon:

This dude's a tank, no question.

I’ve got to start with one of the staples from my Blue version party. What made Rhydon so special to me? Well, he’s a rhino Pokemon, so he’s got that going for him. Also, he’s got crazy high defense and some gnarly offense to match it. The best part about him is that he can learn Surf, a water-type move. Even better, he can also learn Thunder, an electric-type move. Basically, he was a great surprise offensive Pokemon and I used him to my advantage.

9. Dialga:

Even if Dialga loses to you, it will travel back in time and kill you when you're an infant.

The new generation didn’t get me as excited as the previous ones, but since I had Diamond version I eventually caught Dialga. Nothing stood out to me about the Pokemon until I realized it had a move called Roar of Time. Sweet! Is it getting a by purely on the awesome attack name? Yes, yes it is.

8. Lugia:

This is pretty much how I remember Lugia from my playthrough.

As I said, Silver version was my favorite, partly because of this Legendary Pokemon from the depths of the ocean. A Psychic/Flying mix, Lugia immediately became one of the corners of my party at all times, mostly because I caught it at level 40, meaning it had room to grow with me. It helped to make me love Silver version more since when I caught Ho-oh at level 70 I felt no need to train or even use the stupid bird. I was all about Lugia at this point.

7. Feraligatr:

Protip: Do not wrestle Feraligatrs. You will not win.

On a whim I picked Totodile as my starter for Silver version, for no other reason than it looked the coolest. I realized it was a Water-type Pokemon, something that I could find anywhere, but I wanted to see what a crocodile-like Pokemon could do. After the needed training and evolving I had a Feraligatr that could devastate more than its share of families. Still, the Elite Four beat it down, until I gave it Ice Punch. Suddenly the powerhouse was unstoppable. Dragon-type Pokemon? Chumps compared to Feraligatr.

6. Tyranitar:

Hooray for perseverance!

Last one from Silver version, I swear. Tyranitar is my example of diligent training eventually paying off down the road. I snagged a Larvitar at some stage and realized that it sucked pretty hard. After beating the game and getting to the stage of the Pokemon game called “Catching Them All,” I finally got around to training the stupid little guy into something better: A Pupitar. Even stupider. I was really worried it wouldn’t evolve into something all that impressive, but the word “pupa” in the name made me hopeful. I wasn’t disappointed. By level 55 I had a tyrannosaurus Pokemon, so how could I be disappointed?

5. Pidgeot:

Protip: Do not wrestle Pidgeots. You will not win.

In the early stages of every Pokemon game you are required to catch what are basically known as “Throw Away” Pokemon since you’ll most likely dump them at the nearest Pokemon Center as soon as you get something worth using in your party. However, as lame as Pidgey was, with enough effort you could train it up to a Pidgeot. For your reward you got a super slick bird Pokemon that could kick everyone’s face in, and it can’t even kick. That’s how cool it was. Didn’t even matter that it had no special attributes to it. It was fast and deadly and that’s all I could ask for from it. Plus, it was with me from the beginning, so how could I say no?

4. Gyarados:

An image like this is terrifying to all sailors that ever lived.

The ultimate case of a waste of space being turned into a monster in battle, Magikarp is about as pitiful as you can get. It can Splash and Tackle, and that’s it. You’d think no one used it at all, but if you can tough it out and swap Magikarp out of battles to earn enough experience to raise it to level 20, congratulations! Now you own a Gyarados, a sea monster of mythic proportions! I didn’t even matter that a solid Electric-type would be devastating to my Gyarados, it knew Hyperbeam, so anyone in my way was a sucka punk and they didn’t stand a chance.

3. Charizard:

Yeah, as if you were going with a Venasaur or something. Don't make me laugh.

My favorite starter was always Charmander. It wasn’t very good against the first two Gym Leaders, but that didn’t matter at all. Once it levels high enough, Charizard rises from the ashes, a fire-breathing dragon with more flare than a TGI Fridays. Once Yellow version allowed Charizard the ability to use Fly, he became even better. And the anime made Charizard better still. The fight between Magmar and Charizard is still the highlight of the entire series, if you ask me. People are still using Charizard to this very day in their parties, so consider that amount of staying power.

2. Mewtwo:

Mewtwo could probably destroy every other Pokemon on this list while simultaneously doing his taxes.

Do you remember when Legendary Pokemon really meant something to the games? Blue and Red version only had four with the three Legendary birds and then Mewtwo, the powerhouse of powerhouses. It was considered incredibly cheap to use Mewtwo in your party anywhere other than just for training, so naturally everyone used Mewtwo in their parties all the time. I’d speculate that Silver and Gold versions had to include Dark-type Pokemon just to counteract the use of Mewtwo as the ultimate destroyer of lives. And Mew? Yeah, Mew sucked. It was all about Mewtwo.

1. Jolteon:

If I had a Jolteon in real life, I'd hug it right now, despite the severe stabbings it'd result in.

Here it is, my favorite Pokemon ever: Jolteon. What’s so special about this Electric-type evolution of Eevee? Well, beyond being a stone-cold badass, not a whole lot. My Jolteon had the amazing ability to always hit with its Thunder attack. It always worked and it always ended its opponent like there was nothing to it. I’d even given it a fighting chance against Rock-types with Double-Kick and the all-powerful Mewtwo with Pin Missile. Granted, Thunder was still the move to use at all times. Jolteon soon became my team’s leader and carried many a group of up-and-coming Pokemon to victory. Forget Pikachu, Jolteon was where it was really at, keeping in mind this opinion comes from my experience with Pokemon Blue version, which you can find fairly cheap these days on Amazon.

Wow, we’re already at an end for that list. I had a tough time sticking to just 10, but I did it. I know for a fact that I left off somebody’s favorite. Did you absolutely hate this list? Or do you also think Jolteon is the greatest invention since electricity? Leave a comment and show your Pokelove.

Want more Pokemon? Check out these articles:

-The Ten Worst Pokemon

-Forget-Me-Nots: My History With the Pokemon Trading Card Game

-The 10 Best Pokemon Moves Ever

-Authentically Awesome Anime: Triple Feature: Pokemon The First Three Movies

-More To Catch: Pokemon Toys

-Chris’ Top Ten Pokemon-Related Achievements