Summary
Pokemon Scarlet and Violetare fast approaching their first anniversary, and while Gen 10Pokemongames are most likely to show up in the next few years, it’s quite early for any official announcements regarding the mainline series. Still, Gen 10Pokemongames have plenty of material to draw from, especially if Game Freak wants to achieve something that goes above and beyond what Gen 9 did while also fixing what fans didn’t like about it. A good way to start would be to include more cross-gen evolutions, and Alola has several critters that could use one.
Cross-gen evolutions are a great way for the series to “complete” an evolutionary line’s design while also giving fans of those specific critters an exciting new Pokemon to look forward to.Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Annihilapeand Kingambit orPokemon Legends: Arceus' Kleavor are just some recent examples of great cross-gen evolutions for beloved species, and while Alola is one of the most recent regions, it’s still full of mons that could use a fresh coat of paint to truly shine.
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Ultra Beasts are not included due to their already very high base stats and powerful moves, which makes them more akin to Legendaries than regular Pokemon.
Gumshoos
One of the weakestTotem Pokemon in Gen 7by a huge margin alongside Alolan Raticate, Gumshoos never found its niche inPokemongames to be a great pick. Its Normal-type doesn’t help it, and its stat distribution leaves a bit to be desired. Having it gain a new secondary type and better stats and movepool with a cross-gen evolution would make Gumshoos a big favor. Overall, there’s little reason to use Gumshoos in modern games outside of a story team, and even if that’s ok, it could be much more than it currently is.
Oricorio
Despite Oricorio’s performance inPokemon Scarlet and Violetbeing potentially better than past generations, it’s still a mostly mediocre critter in terms of battle. The fact that there are four different forms of Oricorio is an amazing foundation for what could be a cross-gen evolution inGen 10Pokemongames, as there could either be four different versions of it or straight-up four different evolutions, each with their name, type, and moves. There’s a lot of untapped potential in Oricorio’s design and battle gimmicks, and future games could capitalize on it.
Araquanid
Araquanid’s type combo is not too bad compared to other critters, butBug-type Pokemon could be fixed in Gen 10due to how underwhelming they can be on the offensive side, as much as they can be frail in terms of defenses. The main problem with Araquanid is that it’s meant to be a Special Defense wall without much use for anything else, but even then, its low HP and Defense stats don’t help its case, especially with a move pool that doesn’t make it a good tank. A cross-gen evolution for it could fix a lot of what’s wrong with this Water/Bug mon, and Gen 10 could be the one.
Minior
One of the few Pokemon still missing from the Switch, Minior has often been controversial due to its multiple variants and the fact that it doesn’t even look like a full-blown Pokemon to some. An interesting thing Gen 10Pokemongames could do with Minior is link it to other extraterrestrial lifeforms in the universe, such as Eternatus or Beheeyem, or even Gen 7’s own Ultra Beasts. WithPokemon’s multiverse approach, it wouldn’t be hard to justify something like this, especially with a Minior evolution, which could tie everything together in terms of lore and offer a new take on this from a gameplay perspective - maybe with new Abilities.
