Character Sheet: The Poliwag Line

POLIWAG/POLIWHIRL/POLIWRATH

Next up, we cover Poliwag, Poliwhirl, and Poliwrath, a line of frog with swirls on their bellies. They also gain fighting, probably because Poliwrath has built up a lot of bulk from swimming. In Gen II, they gain an alternate evolution in Politoed who looks nothing like them and more like a generic Kermit-style frog.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Bubble Beam > Water Gun (II) > Hydro Pump (III)

Side B: Mud Shot > Dynamic Punch (III)

Up B: Rain Dance > Body Slam (II)

Down B: Hypnosis

Final Smash: Ultra Hypnosis

Entrance: Poke Ball.

Taunts: A lot of hopping around, croaking, and drumming its belly.

Kirby Hat: The belly swirl.

Kart: The Poke Ball car

Special Move: Hypnosis

Spirit Battle: On S.S. Anne

Victory Screen: Sitting on lily pads and croaking.

Losing Screen: Fainted.

Color Swaps: Main, shiny, other general colors.

Thanks for reading! Next up, Abra teleported out, so Kadabra takes its place.

Character Sheet: The Growlithe Line

GROWLITHE/ARCANINE

Next up, we have Growlithe and Arcanine, based on fu dogs AKA those lion statue things that sit outside of Chinese restaurants, except the dog version. In Legends: Arceus, they gained a Hisuian variant more specifically based on the statues themselves, gaining a Rock type. We'll only be covering the first two today.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Ember > Flamethrower

Side B: Bite >  Fire Fang

Up B: Flame Wheel

Down B: Retaliate

Final Smash: Flare Blitz

Entrance: Poke Ball.

Taunts: A lot of dog-based cute actions, and maybe the statue pose.

Kirby Hat: Their furry manes

Kart: The Poke Ball car

Special Move: Flame Wheel

Spirit Battle: On Pikachu's Bedroom

Victory Screen: Getting pet by trainers and enjoying it.

Losing Screen: Fainted.

Color Swaps: Main, shiny, other general colors.

Thanks for reading! Next up, Poliwag takes it for a whirl.

Character Sheet: The Mankey Line

MANKEY/PRIMEAPE

Next up, we have our first ever Fighting types, Mankey and Primeape. They are based on monkeys, mostly indeterminate species, who are just extremely angry all the time. In Gen IX, they gained one more evolution, Annihilape, where they got so angry they straight up died, and then their vengeful spirit lingered on. The single best added evolution there could possibly be, but we'll only be covering Mankey and Primeape today.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Fury Swipes > Focus Punch

Side B: Cross Chop

Up B: Seismic Toss

Down B: Low Kick > Outrage

Final Smash: Spirit of Fury

Entrance: Poke Ball.

Taunts: A whole lot of jumping around and throwing a tantrum.

Kirby Hat: The hair and ears.

Kart: The Poke Ball car

Special Move: Outrage

Spirit Battle: On Pokemon Stadium

Victory Screen: Pounding the ground and looking around for someone else to fight.

Losing Screen: Fainted.

Color Swaps: Main, shiny, other general colors.

Thanks for reading! Next up, Growlithe is going to make this legendary.

Character Sheet: The Psyduck Line

PSYDUCK/GOLDUCK

Here's another Pokemon made famous for its role in the anime. Psyduck is a duck constantly clutching its head from its perpetual migraine. Golduck meanwhile has transformed into a kappa (I guess headaches will do that to ducks?) and is one of the fastest swimmers in the game. Neither are Psychic for some reason, despite it being literally in the name.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Water Gun > Hydro Pump

Side B: Confusion > Amnesia

Up B: Tail Whip > Aqua Tail

Down B: Disable

Final Smash: Psychic Explosion

Entrance: Poke Ball.

Taunts: "Psy-yai-yai!" and other groans of pain. More cool poses for Golduck.

Kirby Hat: The hair and beak/The spikes and gem.

Kart: The Poke Ball car

Special Move: Confusion

Spirit Battle: On S.S. Anne

Victory Screen: Looking relieved with a hot water bottle on its head.

Losing Screen: Fainted.

Color Swaps: Main, shiny, other general colors.

Thanks for reading! Next up, Mankey gets angry!

Character Sheet: The Meowth Line

MEOWTH/PERSIAN

Next up, we have a Pokemon made famous by its inclusion in the anime, Meowth and its evolution Persian. Meowth is based on the lucky cat statues you'll see in China shops and such, while Persian is based on Siamese cats. They gained Dark-type regional variants in Alola, as well as a Steel-type variant for Meowth in Galar that evolved instead into Perrserker, based on Nordic vikings. We'll cover them later.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Pay Day

Side B: Scratch > Fury Swipes

Up B: Fake Out

Down B: Bite > Power Gem

Final Smash: Gigantamax Meowth > Hyper Beam

Entrance: Poke Ball.

Taunts: Licking its paw to wipe its face, saying "Meowth, that's right!" for Meowth, other cat things.

Kirby Hat: The ears and coin/gem.

Kart: Based on the Meowth balloon from the Anime

Special Move: Pay Day

Spirit Battle: On Saffron City (possibly with Jessie and James)

Victory Screen: Gold coins raining down from above.

Losing Screen: Fainted. (Or blasting off again)

Color Swaps: Main, shiny, other general colors.

Thanks for reading! Next up, Psyduck powers through the pain!

Character Sheet: The Diglett Line

DIGLETT/DUGTRIO

And now for the ones I'm letting in, even though I'm sure they'll be a headache and a half for the theoretical programmers, unless Pokemon suddenly wants to shatter their almost thirty-year streak and actually show what they look like underneath. Either way, Diglett and Dugtrio are based on moles who are perpetually underground with only their heads sticking up Whack-a-Mole style. In Alola, they gained a variant with Pele's Hair attached to them, giving them Steel type. Then in Paldea, Pokemon introduced convergent evolution lines (unrelated species that just happen to look like other lines) based on garden eels, but I will be covering convergent lines entirely separately from their basis.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Bulldoze > Earth Power

Side B: Scratch > Slash

Up B: Sand Attack > Sandstorm

Gives a shield to obscure the body, maybe?

Down B: Dig

Final Smash: Earthquake

Entrance: Poke Ball.

Taunts: Moving up and down like a Whack-a-Mole, "Dig, Diglett Dig, Diglett Dig, Diglett Dig."

Kirby Hat: Kirby's head sticking out of the ground.

Kart: Burrowing quickly along the track.

Special Move: Dig

Spirit Battle: On Mt. Moon.

Victory Screen: Hundreds of them burrowing together.

Losing Screen: Fainted.

Color Swaps: Main, shiny, other general colors.

Thanks for reading! Next up, Meowth! That's right!

Character Sheet: The Venonat Line

VENONAT/VENOMOTH

Venonat and Venomoth are two Bug-type Pokemon, based on a generic fuzzy cartoon bug and a moth. They are Poison type as well, because moths have dust on their wings or something. I'm not sure, but they do it multiple times with various moths, so it must be a thing. They've never had any add-ons throughout the generations. It's just been them.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Bug Bite > Leech Life

Side B: Supersonic > Psybeam

Up B: Bug Buzz > Air Slash

Down B: Poison Powder

Final Smash: Venomoth Swarm

Entrance: Poke Ball.

Taunts: Shaking around to release poison powder, flapping, so on.

Kirby Hat: The big bug eyes for Venonat, the wings for Venomoth.

Kart: The Poke Ball car.

Special Move: Poison Powder.

Spirit Battle: On Saffron City.

Victory Screen: Fluttering and taking off toward a light.

Losing Screen: Fainted.

Color Swaps: Main, shiny, other general colors.

Thanks for reading! Next up, Diglett tunnels into Smash.