Pokemon Sun and Moon Starters Unimpressive

In a video put out by Nintendo today, Pokemon fans got their first look at the new starter Pokemon for Sun and Moon which are due out later in 2016. Personally, I’m not a fan of any of them – the look, not the types – but perhaps will be surprised. We have put the video at the bottom of this article. Unfortunetly, these starters look pretty unimpressive to myself, but perhaps I will give one of them a try? What do you think!?

Rowlet

Rowlet can attack without making a sound! It flies silently through the skies, drawing near to its opponent without being noticed, and then lashing out with powerful kicks. It can also attack from a distance using the razor-sharp leaves that form part of its feathers.

CATEGORY	Grass Quill Pokémon
HEIGHT	1’00”
WEIGHT	3.3 lbs.
TYPE	Grass/Flying
ABILITY	Overgrow

Litten

Logical but also passionate, Litten always remains coolheaded and doesn’t show its emotions on the surface.

CATEGORY	Fire Cat Pokémon
HEIGHT	1’04”
WEIGHT	9.5 lbs.
TYPE	Fire
ABILITY	Blaze

Popplio

Popplio’s swimming speed is known to exceed 25 mph. It’s better at moving in the water than on land. Still, when it’s othen land, it takes advantage of the elasticity of its balloons to perform acrobatic stunts and jumps.

Listen, these Pokemon are not terrible, they are just fairly unimpressive. When I look back on past Pokemon titles, I can remember great starters and unimpressive starters, but never a sweep of all three – except perhaps Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow because all those starters were fantastic! Rowlet especially is a bit disappointing as a starter. Sure, he is really cute so I imagine he will be a favorite of many, but he doesn’t give off the “starter” vibe. Even the chick Pokemon Torchic had the fire ability to make him interesting!

As in most cases, the evolved forms of these starters will probably take my breath away, and so I wait for that to be released. Regardless, though, the unimpressivness of the starters should not turn anyone – myself included – off of buying Pokemon Sun or Moon. There are so many Pokemon to put in your top six, so if one of the starting three doesn’t suit your fancy, fill up on others!

The video also shows off a beach side resort complete with beach houses and palm trees, a type of environment we haven’t often seen in past Pokemon titles, at least not in this type of detail. This is perhaps thanks to the improved graphical capability of the 3Ds rather than anything else. The graphics look slightly better than what we saw in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but until the game officially launches we really won’t know. Either way, while I’m not crazy about the starters, I am crazy about this game.

Pokemon Sun and Moon will be available on November 18, 2016.