When the first games in thePokemonseries,Red, Green,andBluewere released in 1996, many people were very intrigued with the looks, abilities, and moves of the original 150 monsters. Now, over two decades later, thePokemonfranchise is still going strong and has greatly increased that original number to a whopping 800+. While theoriginal Pokemonwill always hold a special place in many people’s memories, the massive amounts of new Pokemon have greatly contributed to the games and the metagame.
One of thePokemonfranchise’s strongest suits is the visual dev and sheer amount of creativity that goes into creating unique worlds inspired by real-life people, animals, objects, and places. The original regions, Kanto and Johto, drew much of their inspiration from Japan itself, but recent generations have gone global, likePokemon SunandMoon’s Hawaii-inspired region of Alola and the clear British themes inPokemon SwordandShield.Likewise, the Pokemon themselves have a wide variety of inspirations and designs.
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SomePokemon are based on common animals, while others are based on creatures from mythology, or even plants and inanimate objects. One particularly unique category is the food-inspired Pokemon, which is one of the more out-there sources for the monsters to be based on. Some of these Pokemon have very visually compelling designs, so it’s worth taking a look and seeing what ones players might want to catch and add to their Pokedexes and even their teams.
Slurpuff and Swirlix
Both thesePokemon were Fairy-typesintroduced in the sixth generation, meaning that they were some of the vanguards of their type. They’re clearly based on cream and sweet foods, which is made explicit by the fact that the item it uses to evolve is a treat called the Whipped Dream. Slurpuff’s Pokedex entry says that its acute sense of smell is useful for a broad variety of uses, from scoping out an area, to helping the ill, to assisting pastry chefs in creating delightful meals. That could imply that pastry chefs drew inspiration from the Pokemon to make their sweets, although of course, other regions that have neither of these Pokemon also have sweet food. Swirlix is said to only eat sugar (and a lot of it), which would certainly be a challenge for trainers if players needed to feed their monsters.
Milcery and Alcremie
These Pokemon are also sweet-inspired, and Milcery has a unique evolution where it evolves if the trainer is holding a Sweet and strikes a pose. Milcery looks like a splash of milk, but Alcremie has nine forms that occur with a combination of poses and the times they were made, making this a Pokemon with an unusually high amount of forms. Adding onaccessories to Alcremiecan also change its topping, resulting in a whopping 63 combinations possible with just the one Pokemon.
Vanillite, Vannillish, Vannilluxe
Dessert seems to be a popular theme for food-inspired Pokemon, and this ice cream-themed evolutionary line is no exception. Unlike Alcremie and Swirlix, these Pokemon are Ice-types, which makes sense given the “ice” part of ice cream and the fact that they were introduced in Unova pre-Fairy-type. The line is known for creating snow with its frigid powers, and its name is clearly a reference to vanilla, a popular ice cream flavor. The other part of its name might come from both cone sizes (lite and deluxe) and the word “delicious,” however, this isn’t a treat trainers want to eat.
Sinistea and Polteageist
These Ghost-types are both fairly new Pokemon, having been introduced inPokemon SwordandShield,and while Polteageist does have two forms, they’re not as well-known.Polteageist’s secret formis the Antique Form, which looks nearly the same but includes a mark of authenticity on the bottom of the Pokemon. This is in comparison to the Phony Form, which is much more common, and requires a Cracked Pot as opposed to a Chipped Pot if players want their Sinistea to evolve into a Polteageist.
While dessert is a more common inspiration for food-themed Pokemon, that’s not the only inspiration, and arguably some plant-inspired Pokemon like Applin fall into the food camp as well. It’ll be interesting to see what other foods make it into the well of inspiration forfuture Pokemon games.
