The Worst Gen 1 Pokémon 

Onix is so bad that electric type moves work on it.

You're not the first one to be disappointed by Onix, and you won't be the last.

Little me always chose Hitmonchan because "Oooh look at all that elemental coverage!" not knowing that those elements coming from it hit like wet noodles.

It’s such a shame because Onix looks cool AF.

Onix one purpose is to be a first gym challenge and its stats reflect it. Of course it makes no sense that an Oddish has more attack than Onix

My first Pokémon game as a child was yellow version. I caught a Pidgey on route 1 and basically soloed the entire game with it. By the time we reached Victory Road he was a level 100 Pidgeot. I mostly used the moves Gust, Fly, Mirror Move and Sky Attack. It was definitely a struggle looking back but because of this, Pidgeot will always be my favorite Pokémon and have a special place in my heart. ❤

You'd really think that with how much Game Freak slobbers over the Eeveelutions nowadays, they would finally give Flareon an actual move pool.

Great video! Just one thing: Gen1 Sandslash is actually very good. Yeah the speed is a bit low, but thats all you need to worry about. It has high defense, easily tanking the common normal moves. And offensively its great! 100 attack, evolves at 22, you catch it pre 2. gym. Moves area also great! You have autocrit slash at 17 and you get dig in the same town. Later you get rockslide for flying coverage aswell, which is all you really need. You could even swordsdance for extra power.

Flareon's status as hot "garbage" really only started with gen-2. Before that that it was far more offensively viable, when its singular Special stat was what is now only its Special Defense. Even the physical/special split in gen-4 did Flareon no favors due to lack of any strong physical fire moves. It wouldn't be until gen-6 that it finally got access to Flare Blitz, but outside of Special Defense, Flareon is just too fragile to offset the recoil

One of the things folks sleep on with rapidash is the insane speed & agility allows it to spam fire spin, similar to how dragonite can spam wrap

Onix feels like it was added in the game to be the first boss. It can be a tough opponent at the very start of the game if you can’t hit it super effective or on the special side. I remember struggling against brock as a kid in Pokémon yellow, because I didn’t know it’s weakness.

I'm glad Dewgong became an unassailable wall in HGSS. Since Red's pokes all get 100% accurate blizzard, it's an honest-to-goodness boon in that and any other fight where thick fat can help.

I've been saying it for years. Ponyta/Rapidash should've been fire/normal type. They're similar to girafarig (psychic/nornal) and all the normal birds in being animals with an elemental touch to them. Being part normal also allows them to stand out and makes them viable with powerful normal type moves such as stomp and strength (and return in later gens).

You think Gen 1 Hitmonchan is bad? Try Gen 2 Hitmontop: -You can get it in a midgame area, but it's gated behind Waterfall, so you don't have it until the Elite Four. -You need to keep a slot open to get it as a Level 5 Tyrogue. So you have to grind up at a point where your team is about Level 35-40. -Due to how its Level-Up moveset is set up, you do not get the opportunity to learn Rolling Kick as it a Level 1 move. And Tyrogue itself only learns Tackle. The only Fighting-Type STAB Hitmontop can learn is Triple Kick at Level 49, and Rock Smash by TM. Breeding for High Jump Kick seems a bit insane as you already get Hitmonlee on the way. -Also, how you evolve it. You need to *very precisely* manage Tyrogue's stat experience to make sure its ATK and DEF are equal upon evolving (not as hard as for the other two Hitmons) or else you don't get it. -There's a grand total of three Pokémon in the Elite 4 that are weak to Fighting, and sixteen Pokémon that resist it. Ten Pokémon of them can also hit you for super-effective damage. -Return, Curse and Hidden Power are solid moves but just about every Pokémon in GSC gets those, Hitmontop has no unique niche for it. 95 Attack is good but not nearly as impressive as other physical attackers like Gyarados, Ursaring or Machamp. I challenge you to find a Pokémon that's worse in-game than GSC Hitmontop.

Remember us when you become huge. There's a lot of potential in this channel. Don't stop!

9:53 Magmar sitting in the corner like 🥺

I’m surprised you say that Sandslash is terrible when Marowak is right there. It’s stats are strictly worse than Sandslash, and Sandslash has better moves at an earlier level

Nice video, I especially like the editing lol. Anyways, I always find it funny in a sad way that onix's stats were so abysmally low (except for its defense and mediocre speed stat), especially its attack stat. Like even if all other stats were garbage, you'd expect this towring rock snake slamming into you to at least do some pretty big damage, but nope. Onix's attack stat is apparently 5 points lower than oddish (physical attack stat being a base 45) lmao also super nice dog lol

Wish I had known how powerful STAB was back when I was 8. Also there is a very good reason to use some of these "bad" Pokémon: to mix it up when you've played these games for over 20 years

It’s great to see you continue to grow with these videos. The parts where you edited in the world map to show where you could get certain Pokémon was well done! You wrekt Onix, showing the bit from the show was great.

Please do a similar video for the other Generations. This was a fun watch !

A small channel with an actually decent voice? I smell potential

This was great! It's really fun to think about the first game's design and its faults and the pokemon stats and move selections are some of its biggest flaws. A very cozy video - looking forward to more

Seaking. Seaking is the first of the "useless generic fish"

It's quite a shame so many pokemons are locked away until later in the game. Kid me always wished to have more variety during the early game to change teams each playthrough

I can already tell your channel is gonna grow massively over the next 12 months. You deserve it this video was great quality.

It's ok Sandslash, you'll always be a good pokémon to me. 🥲

Yeah, funny thing about fearow, pidgeot and the medium-fast and medium-slow exp groups... medium-slow is actually faster until around level 70 or so. Or, to be more precise, except for the first five levels, it is faster. With that I mean, that it gets to level 6 before medium-fast, and it's not until level 68 that medium-fast finally catches to medium-slow.

> What are you doing with all that speed? Crits.

Great video. A lot of the things in Gen1 movepools just make no sense. For example why can’t the fossils learn Rock slide?

Shocked to see you at 600 subs, I watched the whole video and was going to see which PokeTuber this was. Awesome work! Glad the algorithm sent me your way. Subscribed and can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store next.

Hi there. I just found this channel, and I hope it eventually becomes more popular. I really enjoyed this video. There were two Pokemon in particular that I was quite surprised didn't make the cut for being considered the worst, the first being Marowak. As much as you showed Sandslash being a terrible, outclassed Pokemon, Marowak is a worse Sandslash. To start, let's compare their stats. Sandslash: HP: 75 ATK: 100 DEF: 110 SPC: 55 SPD: 65 BST: 405 Marowak: HP: 60 ATK: 80 DEF: 110 SPC: 50 SPD: 45 BST: 345 Not only can you get Sandshrew earlier than Cubone (Sandshrew can be gotten either just after Brock, or just after Mt. Moon depending on the version, though it's only in Yellow, and Blue Vs Marowak being available only as early as Lavender Tower and only if you have the Silph Scope, and as late as the Safart Zone iirc), but its stats are either equal or superior to, Marowak's. Marowak's only real advantage is getting Fire Blast, and Blizzard via TM, but non-stab off of Base 50 Special isn't exactly the best. The second I was surprised wasn't here is Seaking. For starters, Seaking has the lowest RBY base stat total of any Gen 1 fully evolved Water Type Pokemon (That being 385, which compared to other Water Types is pitiful, but compared to most Pokemon in the generation, isn't actually too shabby). As well, its movepool is sort of bland, only really getting Normal, Water, and Ice type moves. As well, its Special is lower than its Attack, meaning that it gets jipped in terms of being able to use strong moves. On top of that, it is, at least in my opinion, outclassed by Kingler. Kingler is faster, stronger on the physical side, and makes up for its lower Special by having Crabhammer, which thanks to Gen 1, and Kinger's good enough speed, will result in it always critting. On top of that, you have to wait until Fuchsia City to get the Good Rod to even get Goldeen, and even then, it takes until either Level 37 (Goldeen), or Level 39 (Seaking), to get its first Water Type move via level up (That being Waterfall), which itself is a worse version of Surf (And keep in mind. Goldeen can only be caught with the Good Rod at Level 10, so unless you have Ice Beam, Bubblebeam, or heck. Even Water Gun as a TM, good luck trying to raise the Goldeen). Hilariously, I'm using it for my current Pokemon Yellow playthrough. That's about all. If you read through it all the way, thank you very much. Have a good day! :D

This is great stuff. I hope you turn this into a series - I'm looking forward to seeing the other Generations.

I'm glad this video showed up in my recommended, and I'm really looking forward to future videos! One suggestion: when doing stat comparisons between two 'mons, consider using the bar graphs on Bulbapedia or Smogon (personally I think the latter is more aesthetically pleasing) as opposed to just the straightforward Serebii numbers - being able to visualize the stats makes comparisons easier to immediately understand.

Love this kind of material! You got a new subscriber! & Dewgong is one of my all time favorites, I ALWAYS use one. Good or not, I love it's design.

Didn't know Flareon used to have 110 Special... Actually, that's not bad at all for Gen 1 standards.

Awesome video man I love Pidgeot..and always disliked Fearow...this hurts 😂

do this for every gen! I love how informative and fun these are

Thanks for the video, it was great! for me I wasn’t around when gen 1 came out, so I went back to play them on the virtual console, so learning tips like this was actually really helpful, there’s not many good videos on old mechanics and how the games worked in gen 1, so learning stuff like all moves of a type are set physical or special was really helpful to find out, but it just makes me wonder how much more do I not know that could make me better at the game 😭

I loved this video!! Thank you for making it! Feel like your points were really well made and I loved your delivery.

On the Spearow-Pidgey comparison: Medium-Fast EXP is generally worse than Medium-Slow EXP for playthroughs. Medium-Slow levels up much faster at lower levels. It's only at higher levels (around the 40s) when Medium-Fast starts outpacing Medium-Slow, and for playthroughs you're not around that level range that long. On Dewgong: There's an in-game trade Seel in Cinnabar Island that give it bonus EXP. That and the starting level discrepancy between it and Lapras makes Dewgong far more superior.

This is some quality content! I also love how you didn't just take the word of the popular opinion out there, but actually checked and compared different Pokemon to show why they were useful (or not).

Can’t believe you only have three videos, this one is so refined! Glad this blew up, keep up the work my bro.

Just started playing Pokémon red again since like 2000 so this is very helpful. It may be a year old video but you are helping people greatly

Great video. Editing is top notch. Also, the pace is perfect.

If you need positive reception, I loved this video! I’m a huge Pokémon nerd, and I love Pokémon analyses/comparisons. And your analyses were very well thought and supported. :) 10/10

Video got recommended by the algorithm. was surprised that it was such a small channel. The video quality is what you'd expect to see from established RU-vidrs. Good work!

Stumbled across the channel while doing some work. Definitely excited to see more ❤

I'm going to be honest, I'm kind of surprised Wigglytuff wasn't mentioned once. Since you have to raise it from a Jigglypuff, you only have sing until lv. 9 and even then all you get is pound. You can grab the Mega Punch TM in Mt. Moon to kind of patch that up in the short term, but it's coming off a base 70 attack stat. But surely with a base HP of 140, you'll take hits well right? No. Not at all. Your defense is like base 45, which is comparable to Pidgey's base 40. But, Wigglytuff is a normal type and gets access to a ton of special moves. Yeah, and its Special is 50. Both Charmander and Squirtle start with a Special of 50 - and they get STAB special moves and evolve around the time you would catch a Jigglypuff. But maybe you're still doubtful. Surely, since it has such a high HP stat it balances out. From my own experience, it does not. You can take maybe 2 to 3 hits before Wigglytuff goes down, after you use a moon stone on it in Mt. Moon. But the worse part? Clefairy is only a little bit further in, like maybe 10 - 15 mins further in. They're in Mt.Moon and are a much better option. Clefable feels like a legitimate power boost - and has the Special is actually back up its giant movepool. But Wigglytuff? Wigglytuff is just a band-aid to an already terrible pokemon.

Flareon had the second highest attack in gen 1 under dragonite I've surprised quite a few people on pokemon showdown with his finishing hyper beams, you really just gotta save him until you get rid of their ground/rock types because he's completely unless against them

Awesome video! super glad it got recommended. The editing and pacing were great.

The algorithm blessed me with this video and I just wanna say I’m a believer brother, video essays like this are the future, if you make a schedule/give a date on when the next video will be out, easy 10k before the year is over, keep up the great work

Rapidash's speed works super well with gen 1: crits depending on base speed (over 20% chance!), fire spin relying on you outspeeding your opponent (also using the high crit chance with its multihits) and horn drill only working if you outspeed. The issue on those strategies is low accuracy, making the gen 1 horse a gambling machine, but one with a well defined niche!

This might be interesting to revisit considering tradebacks from gen 2. Funnily, the Spearow line gets Quick Attack and Tri Attack while the Pidgey line gets Tackle.😅 Ponyta does get Flamethrower, Low Kick and Double Kick though!

Good shit man, I'm impressed. High quality video, good script, and with less than 600 suns your editing is fantastic. Most people with your sub count are not doing the things you are. That's why your gonna get ahead. I've been watching RU-vid a very long time, and you stand out. just keep chugging, you will make it.

Love the video, hope to see more detailed analysis videos for all gens! (You've earned a subscriber too 👍)

I'm surprised Aerodactyl didn't get a mention. While it has great stats and 130 base speed, which means it has about 1/4 chances of landing a crit... it gets terrible coverage options. It gets no rock type moves in Gen 1, despite rock slide being a tm, it's only stab option is wing attack; like you mentioned, only has 35 power. Well... and I guess sky attack, but it's not living anything to actually be able to use it. You can only get it after reviving it in Cinnabar Island and even after going through all that it's only level 5

Congratulations you got recommended to me on my front page keep up the good work.

Decent analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

Great video! I just love learning how quirky the early Gens of Pokemon were. I grew up playing these versions and never new any of this lol.

Dewgong is always my water type when i play gen 1, i know that lapras and vaporeon are better options but i freaking love that seal

I can see one potentially annoying thing you can do as Rapidash. You can probably use agility and spam fire spin to aggravate your opponent to no end. Sure Moltres can do this better, but I can't see Flareon doing much of anything.

This was a pretty interesting video. +1 sub earned :) Also, you said ponyta was the only fire type that cant learn flamethrower in gen1, but I believe moltres cant either (assuming you left it out cause it's a legendary)

Please make this a series, I'll watch every one. Liked and subbed

Funny thing about Dewgong is I don't remember much about my very first 6-year-old playthrough of Red, but I DO remember loving my Dewgong. It was my MVP against Lance. I probably missed Lapras, but Dewgong has always been one of my favorte Gen 1 Pokemon and I always go out of my way to use it beause of my memories of it, sort of like Pidgey.

Nice video. I would argue the main downside of Flareon is the opportunity cost of the best electric type or a solid mono-water, but yeah even with that factored in there's no reason to pick Rapidash. I used Pidgeot and Hitmonchan in my first run because I preferred their designs and I didn't know much about stats, but Rapidash and Dewgong I'd argue are the worst off by far because even knowing nothing about stats they're so late in the game and sorry if you like rapidash but their designs are quite bland. (Not sorry if you like the seel line, literally why does it exist)

Fun video,glad to get on an up and coming channel! 👍

Great video you've earned my sub keep up the great work

Tangela: you get it too late, has a poor moveset, and it pales in comparison to other Grass-types. Also, the Fossil Pokemon: Kabutops doesn't learn a Rock move, and you're gonna need some TMs in order for it to be viable. But you get it too late, and at level 1! Same with Omastar. Both are terrrrrrible in Gen 1. Good video! Subscribed!

Rapidash is my fav pokemon since the very beginning. What's not to love about a literal flaming unicorn? Excellent design (by gen1 standards) and really subpar everything else

Good video content and quality for a new creator! Subbed.

Great video man, hope to see more quality content soon!

I remember using Sandslash, Flareon and Hitmonchan in leaf green as a kid. Pain

I think the only applicable time I've used Dewgong was through Gale of Darkness XD, since you don't get Lapras until near the end of the game, and you get seel pretty early on. Even then it did a pretty alright job.

Hope your channel skyrockets. You have a lot of potential!

Just found you today. Love this video, keep it up

There were a few Pokémon that didn't get good until gen 4

I would argue the worst fire-type is gen 1 is Magmar. Since it's only in Blue, and it has a 5% chance of showing up. So it would be the hardest to use, since you'd never find one.

Back when I was a kid, and didn't understand stats, I was always confused as to why Hitmonchan couldn't do a lot of a damage with the elemental punches

Fun video. If you’re into competitive at all I’d love to see more videos in this style. Even if not I just enjoyed it

Yo this a banger video

Honestly if you're just playing through the game Dewgong is better as you can get it at a much higher level in Red and Blue. Plus you have the chance to get Vaporeon or Gyarados before Lapras and Jynx or Arcticuno around the same time or slightly after Lapras. Lapras starts at Level 15 thus requires too much grinding to be better ingame than any of the aforementioned Pokemon. Not to mention that the TMs that Lapras wants are two of the most contested ones in RBY.

Very fun video I'd like to see more like this!

11:55 - "Rapidash has the Speed advantage. What are you gonna do with it? 1) Critical hits pretty much every 2 turns. 2) Trap pretty much everything with Fire Spin (with high-crit ratio). Also, in Gen 1, if the first damage from Fire Spin is a crit, they're all crits. It also stacks with Toxic, if you wanna speed up the process, but Hyper Beam is the better finisher. 3) From Gen 1 to Gen 2, X-Accuracy makes every move 100% Accurate, meaning Fire Spin is pretty much a OHKO if you go first, since you'll never miss and the opponent is trapped forever. 4) Point 3 applies to Horn Drill as well.

Funny fact: Onix is my favourite Pokémon 🤣. I also like Dewgong and Rapidash as well xD. I was wondering... Could we please have a second part including Paras, Farfetch'd, Marowak, Beedrill and Lickitung for example?

No love for Magmar.

I Remember throwing my first masterball at an onix back then. I didnt encounter one in my first travel through rock tunnel, so when it showed up for me when I returned lategame I thought it was super rare and strong xD

I like these types of videos. Reviews of gameplay from old games are pretty sick🤷‍♂️

Krabby/Kingler. Similar availability to Dewgong iirc, horrible Special so its water attacks suck, and unless you grind the game corner for Hyper Beam, I think Strength is your best move.

How did you not discuss Lickitung

Great video! I was a little sad to not see Magmar mentioned during the fire pokemon section. How does he stack up against the other fire types?

First time watching one of your video. I like you bro straight to content no bullshit no clickbait. Stay true. Real eyes realize real lies. PS: i Subscribed

I've used Dewgong because of the one you can trade for that gets boosted exp. Just overpower them with big level.

10:51 Moltres also can't learn flamethrower in gen 1

You have a Johnstone vibe. I mean that in a fantastic way. Keep doing what you're doing!

💮🐉💮I should of started with this video haha. But still great stuff! A lot of fun to watch! 💮🐉💮

Far-fetch gets traded 1.5 exp boost And stab gen 1 crit slash One of the best mon

The Charmander line is just so, so bad in Gen 1 if you need something to trash the game with. It can't beat Brock, it can't beat Misty, and oh my god the trouble. Don't pick Charmander. Unless you're playing a remake, where it gets Metal Claw at level 13.

I always used to pick hitmonchan thinking those elemental punches would do something but boy was I wrong

Normally I don't like videos, but picture of dog at the end really changes things. Very clever.