Off the Shelf Media

There is a lot of excitement about Nintendo’s announcement to releasePokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen on the Switch store on February 27, 2026. These games are some of the most iconic role-playing games (RPGs) ever made, and are a large part of the reason Pokémon is still the powerhouse that it is today. This era was the peak of the franchise when the Pokémon were new, exciting, unique, and had personalities to them. 

As they continued to try to iterate on these ideas and make new Pokémon, it’s safe to say they got lazy and came up with some terrible creations as the generations went on. I combed through all 1025 officially recognized Pokémon species so you don’t have to, to bring you the worst of the worst. While some are single Pokémon, there are entire evolutionary chains that are horrid and worth calling out. 

Varoom and Revaroom 

A steel/poison Pokémon that is quite literally a car engine. The final form, Revaroom, is just a full-blown car, which is just insane to me. What happened to the creative animal spin-offs like Pikachu and Pidgey? You may be looking at this Pokémon too and saying, surely this is the last and only vehicle Pokémon they have created, and you would be wrong! 

Dreepy, Drakloak, and Dragapult

How about an entire evolution where it’s a dragon with the head of a stealth bomber? It’s undeniably based on the United States B2 aircraft, and it is insane to me that they needed three unique Pokémon to cover this idea. While it isn’t the worst Pokémon, and a dragon/ghost combo is interesting for gameplay, it’s just crazy to me that a weapon of war like a modern-day plane is the jumping-off point for a Pokémon evolution. 

Sandygast and Palossand

I think for this pair, the Pokémon designers were just at the beach looking for inspiration. They saw sand and a shovel, and decided, “That could be two unique Pokémon if I try hard enough”. 

The result is sentient piles of sand that inexplicably have shovels in them as living creatures. It’s one of the more bizarre combos in the entire series. Not to mention the second being literally named a “pal of sand”. At least Sandygast is interesting, whereas its evolution is surely one of the laziest in the series. 

Klefki

This one is literally described as a “Key Ring Pokemon.” What are we even doing at this point? I am supposed to believe that a piece of metal holding keys can take down a Blastoise in combat? This is one of the more famously bad Pokémon because, at its core, it’s just an inanimate object that they gave life to. 

Are the keys arms, legs, or just nothing? This Pokémon makes me almost as mad as the next trio, which is by far the worst trio in the entire franchise. 

Vanillite, Vanillish, and Vaniluxe

Imagine rolling up to take on a legendary Pokémon or the Elite Four bosses with an actual ice cream cone. And not just one, but three versions that essentially just add an extra scoop with each evolution. Even the naming convention is just three spins of vanilla ice cream, and this has to be the worst idea for an evolution they have ever had. 

Pokémon used to have creative evolutions where each level-up felt like a big change and gave the monster a new personality and style. Charmander to Charmelon to Charizard was iconic, and now we have frozen desserts that are expected to do battle. 

The key factor in a lot of these Pokémon is that they are from the later generations, where they ran out of ideas. They could not match the height of the core games, where each Pokémon was incredible, and even if you didn’t want them in your starting party, you felt the need to catch each and every one of them. 

With the release of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, I know that the peak of the franchise is going to be back and accessible on modern platforms, which is something every fan should be looking forward to. The game will surely be a success as long as they don’t bring in any of these modern monstrosities with the update, and force me to beat Team Rocket with a set of keys and a few ice cream cones.