Gen II of Pokémon is pretty widely known for having some really great additions, from the legendaries to the starters, who at this point are pretty much fan favorites. That being said, not every Pokémon species introduced can be as cool as Chikorita, Cyndaquil, or Totodile. There are definitely a few who don’t quite measure up, which is a point to bring up when anyone starts talking about declining Pokémon quality.
With so many Pokémon introduced over the years, there’s really no way for anyone to keep track of all of them, and here are some that pretty much everyone forgets when trying to name a whole Gen from memory.
10 Sunkern
Sunkern, despite their pretty unremarkable appearance and the fact that pretty much no one cites this one as their favorite Pokémon, has actually had a few appearances in the anime, in addition to showing up in a few of the movies. The Pokémon looks like a little seed and evolves into the pretty equally unremarkable Sunflora when it’s introduced to a sunstone.
9 Yanma
Yanma is a flying/bug type, just like a lot of the catalog of Pokémon in general. It evolves into Yanmega under weirdly specific conditions, when you level it up after it learns the move “Ancient Power.” The Pokémon is essentially some modification of a dragonfly, and the only real notable time that Yanma has shown up in the lore is when Jessie has one in The Thief That Keeps On Thieving. A few other people have them occasionally in the anime, but not really any more often than other Pokémon.
8 Quilfish
Quilfish is a water/poison type, who is known for basically nothing and has no other forms. It doesn’t evolve from anything or evolve into anything. It’s most likely inspired by a pufferfish, which explains the typing.
The Pokémon appears to be pretty much just a real-life pufferfish, albeit cartoony and with a strange paddle-like tail. There are really only two major appearances of the Pokémon in the show, both of them happening near the release of the Gen II games.
7 Stantler
Stantler is another Pokémon on the list with no evolutions, nor does it evolve from anything. It’s pretty much just a stag, although it’s pretty ridiculous looking and nowhere near as noble as a stag. There’s really no hint as to what the weird growth on its rear is supposed to be, although it’s implied that its antlers are very valuable to Pokémon hunters. The fact that it’s been hunted so heavily might be a reason for its rarity.
6 Corsola
A water and rock type, Corsola pretty much what the name implies, a lil bit of sentient coral. Corsola most likely experienced a resurgence in popularity only recently, when for some reason, Game Freak decided to give it a Galarian form that has an evolution, in which case its typing is different, becoming a ghost-type Pokémon and having the evolutionary form of Cursola, an even bigger, even spookier version of Corsola.
5 Sudowoodo
The only thing that Sudowoodo really has going for him is the fact that fans find him extremely goofy. Sudowoodo evolves from Bonsly, and the only real interaction the player has with this Pokémon is when they encounter him blocking a road in the original Gen II games, the remakes, and Pokémon Emerald.
Sudowoodo, despite looking like a tree, is actually a tricky rock-type Pokémon who evolved that way as a means of having the element of surprise on its side.
4 Girafarig
Girafarig again has no prior evolutionary forms, or any following this form. Girafarig is a psychic and normal type Pokémon, given the designation of being the Long Neck Pokémon. Girafarig is like some weird hybrid between a giraffe and an okapi. At first, Girafarig appears to be fairly normal, but upon further inspection, it’s revealed that its tail has a head, which acts as a diversion while it’s eating in the wild.
3 Swinub
Swinub has a couple of forms which die-hard Gen II fans are no doubt familiar with, and on top of that, some of them are actually pretty beefy in the Pokémon trading card game.
Swinub is known as The Pig Pokémon, despite the fact that its later forms, Piloswine and Mamoswine, resemble some sort of mammoth-like pachyderm rather than any kind of pig.
2 Remoraid
It doesn’t really make any sense that this Pokémon is so radically different from the Pokémon that it evolves into. Maybe they were thinking along the lines of a polyp growing into a jellyfish, but that’s definitely not how octopuses work. Remoraid is a fish, that generally forms a symbiotic relationship with bigger aquatic Pokémon like Mantine, so the fact that it somehow manages to turn into the much more easily recognizable Octillery really doesn’t check out.
1 Tyrogue
Tyrogue is a really strange addition to the series, and functions almost as something of a retcon, since in Generation I there already existed the Pokémon that Tyrogue evolves into, aside from Hitmontop. Tyrogue was introduced in Gen II, presumably to explain how it is that Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee were so similar in Gen I with absolutely no relationship to each other. Instead of just going about their business, Game Freak decided to give the two Pokémon a common ancestor. That being said, this tree makes up some of the best Fighting-Types.
NEXT: Pokémon: The Best Gen II Pokémon With The Lowest Encounter Rate
