Hero of Lime said:
Please tell us great Poke Guru, what is a Pokemon supposed to look like? I guess we've been playing some knock off games all these years since the great days of 6 eggs, and regular looking seals, rats, and birds. Don't forget that Pokeball that evolves by flipping over, man I miss those days...
i know you probably want to protect what i assume is your favorite franchise, so ill try not to make you angry.
first, let me just say that gen 1 is not perfect. there are some profoundly stupid pokemon from each generation. gen 1 has mr mime and jynx, which are totally ridiculous. porygon doesnt really make any sense in the world. voltorb and electrode are incredibly uninspired, and they are kind of in the same boat as porygon, in that they dont seem natural like the majority of the other pokemon. magnemite and magneton, as well. staryu and starmie would make more sense if they were organic, instead of whatever the hell they are made out of. and ditto really seems strange when looking at every other pokemon. and as you mentioned, eggsegcute is pretty silly.
then there are the pokemon that fit into the world, but there is a flaw with their design... like hitmonchan and his naturally occuring boxing gloves, or blastoises cannons, or the whole kangaskan baby inception thing. still, despite the first gens flaws, the designs were not overly complex. neither were the designs in the second and third gen, for the most part.
to give you an example, lets look at the main legendaries for each set of games, starting with gold and silver...
Gold & Silver: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Gold_and_Silver_Versions alright, obviously they are birds. thats keeping with the whole "inspired by reality" theme that pokemon is supposed to have. the designs are a bit more complex, which is appropriate, considering they are legendary pokemon... but they are not too over-the-top
now lets look at Ruby & Sapphire: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ruby_and_Sapphire okay, things are getting a bit more complex. clearly, Kyogre is supposed to resemble some sort of manta ray, but i have no idea what the hell Groudon is. the design for the pokemon in gen 3 is mostly fine, up until you get to the legendaries. things start to get off-the-wall at that point, and they start to look pretty unlike the rest of the pokemon found in that generation.
moving on to Diamond & Pearl: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Diamond_and_Pearl_Versions we have offically stepped into Yu-Gi-Oh territory, here. i cant even begin to guess at what these legendaries are supposed to resemble, but thats probably because they might not resemble anything. the issue with that is that it isnt keeping to the tradition of what pokemon are supposed to be, which are fantastical creatures inspired by things that are found in the real world. ill be honest, the designs for gen 4 in general caused me to drop off from the series. some of them are okay, at best, but the majority of the pokemon in this generation look as though they should have been either slightly redesigned or rejected entirely.
okay, now Black & White: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Black_and_White_Versions again, i dont even know what to say. the other legendaries are similarly baffling, especially Landorus/Tornadus/whateverus...
and finally, X & Y: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/X_%26_Y well, one of them is definitely a deer, but holy hell is that a complex design. you know, part of what makes the simpler designs so great is that kids can actually draw them.
all i can say is, i dont mean to upset you or anyone. i like pokemon, but i really dont like the direction theyve taken when it comes to artistic design. in my opinion, they nailed it with gen 2, with the exception of maybe two or three stand outs. i cannot for the life of me figure out why they felt the need to add smoochum to the series. jynx was bad enough alone. and the Unknown are pretty random. overall, though, that generations pokemon were really well designed
