The Pokemon design Guide, Nintendo you're doing it wrong.

[Doctor Glocktor]

The flaw with your argument is that more than half of Gen 1 and a LARGE portion of Gen 2 looked like complete shit.

Voltorb? Diglett? Mr. Fucking MIME? Your actually saying THOSE are better then the new ones? Get your head out of your ass and take off the rose-tinted goggles.

 

[starwarsgeek]

When I was playing the first generation as a kid, I never questioned why Magnemite or Porygon were alive. Using this as a frame of reference, not basing the designs on actual animals is not a problem.

 

[Irridium]

The flaw with your argument is that more than half of Gen 1 and a LARGE portion of Gen 2 looked like complete shit.

Voltorb? Diglett? Mr. Fucking MIME? Your actually saying THOSE are better then the new ones? Get your head out of your ass and take off the rose-tinted goggles.

Don't forget Execcutor.
Seriously, what the fuck was that?

OT: The only pokemon I've had a real problem with was this little bastard:

Spoiler

At a glance, whats his type? If you said fire, your WRONG!
Its water. Yes water. The only way to tell is through those tiny fins on his arm. His evolution isn't much better.

That is the only pokemon thats really pissed me off. Its color scheme makes no god damn sense.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Why does everyone keep calling the water starter a seal?

It's a sea otter.

Remember that South Park episode about Atheism when the otter said he was going to crush Cartman's skull on his tummy? Otters crack shells with rocks on their tummy in real life.

They're also masters of making of making surprised faces, apparently.

 

[Doctor Glocktor]

The flaw with your argument is that more than half of Gen 1 and a LARGE portion of Gen 2 looked like complete shit.

Voltorb? Diglett? Mr. Fucking MIME? Your actually saying THOSE are better then the new ones? Get your head out of your ass and take off the rose-tinted goggles.

Don't forget Execcutor.
Seriously, what the fuck was that?

OT: The only pokemon I've had a real problem with was this little bastard:

Spoiler

At a glance, whats his type? If you said fire, your WRONG!
Its water. Yes water. The only way to tell is through those tiny fins on his arm. His evolution isn't much better.

That is the only pokemon thats really pissed me off. Its color scheme makes no god damn sense.

Design Genius, apparently. I can EASILY tell that its a psychic type, due to it being a palm tree. I give it an A+! /OPderp

Also, don't forget Buizels floatie around its neck!

 

[Booze Zombie]

I think this link offers the real reason why us "older folks" don't enjoy Pokemon:
http://nerfnow.com/comic/302

 

[Irridium]

The flaw with your argument is that more than half of Gen 1 and a LARGE portion of Gen 2 looked like complete shit.

Voltorb? Diglett? Mr. Fucking MIME? Your actually saying THOSE are better then the new ones? Get your head out of your ass and take off the rose-tinted goggles.

Don't forget Execcutor.
Seriously, what the fuck was that?

OT: The only pokemon I've had a real problem with was this little bastard:

Spoiler

At a glance, whats his type? If you said fire, your WRONG!
Its water. Yes water. The only way to tell is through those tiny fins on his arm. His evolution isn't much better.

That is the only pokemon thats really pissed me off. Its color scheme makes no god damn sense.

Design Genius, apparently. I can EASILY tell that its a psychic type, due to it being a palm tree. I give it an A+! /OPderp

Also, don't forget Buizels floatie around its neck!

There's also the problem with what moves certain pokemon can learn vs. what they should be able to learn.

Spoiler

But thats a discussion for another day.

 

[Ciran]

You sir, have summed up most of my problem with the new pokemon. Now I will admit that I disagree with some of the things, such as pokemon having to relate to their element. There's not a lot that works with some elements, especially with animals and seeing them adapt some animals to unusual environments/elements was part of the fun to me.
Now I will freely admit that some of the pokemon, even in the original game, sucked, but the ratio of aesthetically pleasing pokemon versus those not pleasing has grown more towards not pleasing as the games have progressed.

 

[2xDouble]

I agree somewhat... but I don't agree with elements needing to be tied in. I mean they should at least look anatomically correct, but the element shouldn't factor in their appearance. Maybe color, but not really their physical appearance.

The only problem I have with the new starters is the water one, and that's because I don't know what the fuck it is.

I think it's supposed to be an otter.

That's what I guess, but from what some people have said, it's a cross between that and a platypus.
It still makes no fucking sense.

It's definitely supposed to be an otter.

Spoiler: take a look

The shell on it's chest is further proof, as otters eat clams on their belly. (check it out, tangential learning! thank you, Extra Credits)

And the grass starter's grass-affiliation isn't painfully and blatantly obvious (other than the fact it's clearly supposed to be a green snake or ground lizard), until you look a little closer at it's tail. See those green things that look like leaves? They're leaves.

I'm not defending the new Pokemons

Spoiler: seriously, wtf is this thing?

...besides the new Gardevoir on DeviantArt.

But I think they're letting nostalgia cloud this (albeit arbitrary) grading scale.

 

[Socken]

About Pokabu's elemental connection..
Fire and pig NOT connected? Bacon, Ham, Roast, etc. This is a semi-food themed generation, Victini looks like a Japanese fruit-snack who's name I can't remember, Reshiram kinda looks like steamed white shrimp in my opinion, Pokabu as I said is like bacon, Rankurusu's like gelatin, you see what I mean?

So they're basically using dishes as inspiration.

That doesn't really make it any better in my book.

Games have used weirder things as inspiration but THEY don't seem to be a problem. The newest Sonic game is using Roy G. Biv, Link's got a fucking BEETLE as an item, InFAMOUS's first game is kind of an allegory to 9/11. Games use messed up things, the previous game used precious gems that each had their own base of duration(Diamonds can withstand almost anything but water, Pearls can handle water but anything else that looks at it funny will shatter it), the game before that took advantage of the engine for the GBA so it could use the concept of weather, the game before that was kinda based around Buddhism, and the very first game's cities were named after Roy G. Biv, but no one was confused by that. Besides,I like the food theme, makes me think the cooking minigames might actually be fun for once.

Sorry, but honestly using something to eat as inspiration for Pokémon is ridiculous in my opinion. And none of the examples you gave seems nearly as absurd.

But hey, to each his own right? If you like it then that's ok, I just don't. At all.