10 Shiny Pokémon That Could Use an Update

Let’s just get this out of the way: most Shiny Pokémon suck. Of course, there’s a very good reason for this has little to do with Game Freak themselves (at least before Generation 6), but the fact still remains that a good majority of them are either ugly, disappointing, or both.

There are of course Shinies that are absolutely awesome and arguably better than their regular forms, but the many that do not fit this bill leave something to be desired. That’s why, for this list, I’d like to go over 10 out of the hundreds of bad Shinies out there that I believe are most deserving of a change.

I could not get to all of them and some might disagree, but these Shines to me are the most disappointing, and while Game Freak may never actually change them, I still believe the issue is with worth discussing.

1. Crobat

Let’s get some of the worst ones out of the way first. While Crobat is my personal favorite Pokémon of all time, I can’t lie when I say I find its shiny to be absolutely horrible. Although I’m personally not a big hater of most pink shines, I’m willing to acknowledge when that color just does not work, and Crobat is unfortunately one of those instances. Coupled with that nasty almost puke-green hue under its wings is just, dang. I feel bad cause I love Crobat, but this thing is just ugly.

The easiest solution to this would in my opinion be to make Crobat’s colors more akin to an actual bat, with a black body and a blood-red color under its wings. It’s not the most complex color scheme, but it makes perfect sense. There could be a more unique approach, like giving it the same color scheme as its pre-evolutions or making it a darker shade of blue with black highlights, or black with blue highlights.

I’d stick with the traditional vampire bat approach, but as long as it’s anything but pink and green I’ll be happy.

2. Garchomp

I feel like there are two sides to the bad Shiny spectrum. On one, you have Shinies that are just straight up ugly, and on the other are Shinies that are just disappointing for one reason or another. One of the most common instances of disappointing Shinies are ones that barely change and look almost identical to their non-Shiny counterparts. Garchomp is one of those, and it’s honestly a shame because it could very easily look so much better.

If it wasn’t for Shiny Pokémon sparkling every time they pop in, I have a feeling 99% of people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between regular Garchomp and Shiny Garchomp. The worst part is that for some reason this isn’t retained in its Mega form, and Mega Garchomp has a completely different and unique color scheme compared to the regular Mega, which just makes me even more confused. While I still don’t like the bright magenta color it has, at least it’s not almost identical.

In my opinion, any Pokémon that Mega evolves should just retain whatever colors their regular form had to keep things simple. In Garchomp’s case, I don’t think the vibrant magenta of its Mega form is a good option and would much rather like to see a more “violent” color like red or black with redder highlights, maybe on its many spikes (though that may be pushing it). It doesn’t really matter just don’t make it magenta or almost identical, please.

3. Gengar

Coming off the heels of Garchomp is another Pokémon with the exact same problem: Gengar. Gengar is by far one of the most popular Pokémon out there, and I personally love it to death as well, but man, I can’t sugarcoat it. This Shiny sucks. It’s admittedly a bit easier to notice compared to Garchomp’s, but when say a bit, I mean a bit. It’s still barely anything, and just like with Garchomp, its Mega form is completely different!

But in this case, I think it’s worse because the Shiny color for the Mega is actually perfect, unlike with Garchomp’s, and would honestly work for its regular Shiny colors as well. I suppose you could also go with straight-up black, but I think white works better because it’s more akin to an actual ghost.

Okay, maybe identical Shinies are worse than the ugly ones, cause at least with those you can tell they’re Shiny.

4. Kubfu

Kubfu is the most recent Pokémon on this list, but that doesn’t excuse it. Its Shiny suffers from the same trait of barely changing from the original, but somehow, Kubfu manages to be even worse. Considering that Game Freak had the power to make this Shiny on their own, the fact that the only thing they did to change it is make its mouth orange instead of yellow is so bad it’s almost ridiculous. At least it retains that trait for its evolutions. Great.

The funny thing is that it would have been so easy to make this work, because the colors are already there to work with. The two forms of Urshifu are red and blue, so what are the easiest options for the Shiny? Make Kubfu purple and switch the red and blue colors of Water Style and Darkness Style Urshifu.

There is already fan art that shows this could work, and if they really wanted to they could still keep the orange mouth. Just don’t make that the only thing that changes.

5. Cosmog

Another recent Pokémon on this list seems to once again suffer from the exact problem as the previous one. I’m noticing a pattern here. While the change in this instance is rather cute, it still sucks. Changing the cheeks should only be one part of it, not the entire form, especially when you have so many cosmic colors to choose from!

If Cosmog is based on space and nebulas, perhaps one solution could be to make it like a typical depiction of space: black with white speckles. Or again, since there are literally innumerable colors for stars and nebulas across space, maybe try and give it colors that reference that. Red like the sun, or a mix of white and red like a star, or even just another nebula that is not just blue and purple.

With so many colors across the vastness of space to choose from, it’s incredibly odd that Game Freak only went with… cheeks.

6. Groudon

Green is perhaps the infamous color for a Shiny, mostly because 95% of green Shinies are incredibly ugly. There are some exceptions, but they’re very few and far between, and Groudon is probably the worst example.

Turning its iconic red hue to an almost radioactive green just does not work, and it makes the titan look silly compared to its normal red hue. Its rival Kyogre is a bit better with its purple hue, but Rayquaza trumps both of them with its epic black.

While it makes sense to simply swap Groudon and Kyogre’s colors for their Shinies, it would be better to simply go for a better color altogether, and I’d personally vouch for either gold or orange. Gold mainly because it’s a color, but orange because it still fits with Groudon’s magma motif.

7. Persian

Yet another in the category of “Shiny that barely changes from the original”. I feel like there are a lot of these and we’ve already discussed many examples, but as you can probably see, Persian (and one other we’ll talk about later) is among the worst of the worst.

It barely even qualifies as a change since it’s not even a different color, and is made no easier to distinguish by the fact that Persian is not one of the most common Pokémon in most regions outside of Kanto, so most probably would not never be able to even tell its Shiny just by looking at it. Of course, Shiny Pokémon always sparkle, but part of the magic of finding a Shiny Pokemon is being able to recognize that it is one right away. It helps to build up the satisfaction of knowing what you’re going to get, but if you can’t even tell the difference without the game telling you, that’s a problem.

It’s a very easy fix too: just make it black like a panther. Of course, it’s not really a panther, but that doesn’t really matter too much, especially because it is relatively close to that color and… has a better Shiny.

Wonderful.

8. Regice

We’ve finally come to the king of all sad Shinies. The Regi Trio is one of the coolest legendary groups out there, and for the most part, their Shiny forms are actually pretty good and distinguishable. Then there’s Regice, who at first glance looks so identical that you literally need to squint and lean forward to tell that it’s a slightly darker shade of blue. Yes, I know it sparkles, but I should not have to squint to spot the difference.

Thank God it’s much more noticeable in Pokémon GO, but it’s still bad, and it’s a shame because Game Freak vert easily could change it to reference a concept that just makes sense: black ice. Black ice doesn’t technically exist, but pretty much everyone knows what it is, and it would just make Regice look even more awesome than it already does.

It’s just strange that the other two Regis have such awesome Shinies, and Regice is left with the most mundane and unnoticeable differences out there.

9. Zapdos

Zapdos is one of the classic Legendaries, and as such, it deserves an awesome Shiny to live up to that legacy. Unfortunately, it is somewhat lacking in that department, and its actual Shiny can barely even be considered a noteworthy change. If you’re going to give the Electric Pokémon a Shiny, it has to be something that isn’t just another shade of yellow.

One possible design is to invert its colors and give a mostly black body with yellow wing highlights, which sounds totally awesome. Another could be to do what they did with its Galarian form and make it so that regular Zapdos is red and black.

Regardless, just make it anything other than slightly lighter yellow.

10. Zekrom/Reshiram

While this list is in no particular order, out of all the Shines we’ve discussed so far, Zekrom and Reshiram are probably the most disappointing. Why? Because the solution to their Shiny problem is so obvious it’s almost painful, and it really sucks because Reshiram is my second favorite Legendary behind Lugia.

Their Shinies are not necessarily bad, as they still look really cool, but the problem is that the aesthetic of both Pokémon makes their Shiny forms make even less sense in hindsight. Their motif is black and white, and they’re treated as opposites on a spectrum, so what is one incredibly obvious option for their Shiny forms? Make Reshiram black with red eyes and Zekrom white with blue eyes.

It is such a simple concept, yet it is not the reality, and that just makes these Shinies feel even worse than they honestly are.

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