Appropriately enough, considering the term’s relevance to the franchise,Pokemonhas considerably evolved throughout the years. During the series’ early days, also known as the “Pokemania” for the late 90s and early 2000s, the games, anime, and marketing promoted the idea of “catching ‘em all.” They would seldom fail to specify that there were150 Pokemon to catch. Of course, by 1999, most WesternPokemonfans were aware that there were at least 156 creatures, due to Mew’s existence and the early appearances of Togepi, Ho-Oh, Snubbull, Donphan, and Marill.
WhenPokemon’s fourth generation started withDiamondandPearl, the slogan was already abandoned. Not only was catching every Pokemon in the game becoming more convoluted, but there were simply too many Pokemon for the slogan to make any sense by that point. When the Pokemon listed below were introduced, there were almost 500 members of the eponymous group of monsters.
RELATED:Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Fan Points Out Inconsistency With HeartGold and SoulSilver
Pokemon Gen 4: The Starters
Gen 4’s Starter Pokemonseemed very familiar at first. If one were to count Delibird as a penguin-inspired Pokemon, then all the Starters in this generation were conceptual rethreads. Even if Piplup is officially the first Pokemon to be based on penguins, the ideas of turtle and monkey Pokemon were explored a few times beforehand. Nevertheless, these Starters did spice things up.
The Sinnoh trio is the only one of its kind where some of its members counter each other in some way, thanks to secondary types. Torterra being part-Ground helps it counter both Infernape and Empoleon, while Infernape being part-Fighting helps it counter Empoleon. Unfortunately, while Empoleon being part-Steel does not help it in the realm of type advantages, it is at the very least the first Water/Steel type in the series.
The Sinnoh Evolutions
Gen 4 is notorious for having a significant portion of the new Pokemon be related to Pokemon from the first three generations. Usually dubbed “Sinnoh Evolutions” or “Gen 4 Evolutions” by fans, most of these creatures took Pokemon that were unremarkable aside from maybe their design and a few niches, and made them viable in both the main story and multiplayer. This is especially the case for the Sinnoh Evolutions that evolve from Pokemon introduced in Gen 2.
Sinnoh Legendaries and Mythicals
At the time of its release, Gen 4 introduced the highest number of Legendary and Mythical Pokemon in the series. Most of them are part of duos or trios, but there are also more independent Legendaries and Mythicals in the Sinnoh region.
Other Pokemon
These are the remaining Pokemon that were introduced in Gen 4. While some of them became famous over time, likeLucarioand Garchomp, they do not belong to any special categories that warrants separating them from otherwise regular Pokemon.
Pokemon Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearlare available now for Nintendo Switch.
MORE:Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: How To Get The Shiny Charm
