Judge-a-Pokémon Express: Legendary Pure Steel
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Codraroll
Welcome back to Judge-a-Pokémon! This time, we asked our panelists to have a look at the newly unveiled Pokémon, Meltan and its evolution Melmetal. These Pokémon both fall somewhere under the umbrella of Legendary Pokémon and share a pure Steel typing. Having included both of these, it would have been unfair not to put the spotlight on the third Pokémon to fit the description above as well. So click the pictures below to see what our Judge-a-Pokémon panelists think about Meltan, Melmetal, and... Registeel!
| Meltan | Melmetal | Registeel | |||
| Click on the images to reveal everyone's thoughts! | |||||
Kalalokki
Meltan had one of the more brilliant reveals in Pokémon history: a fake leak in Pokémon GO where it appeared as a mystery ??? Pokémon all over the place, even transforming into Ditto when caught. People just love taking part of leaks when it comes to Pokémon, instantly creating a lot more hype, as you feel like you're part of this niche group that knows more than the casual fans. But when it all comes down to it, does it hold up to its hype? Meh, blob of mercury with a hex nut as its head. Next.
lyd
Okay, this Pokémon is great. It's cute and lovely and has a really interesting concept of having a liquid metal as its body, something I really don’t recall any Steel-type attempting to do before. It does take a more simplistic design, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad—on the contrary—sometimes less is more, and Meltan really puts that into spotlight. The way it was revealed was also pretty unique for a Pokémon. While I don’t play GO myself, it was still nice to see all the reports of it and only to know that was actually intended. Good job Game Freak, you nailed this one overall! And I really hope they put this much thought into the other Gen 8 Pokémon.
mellowyellowhd
I really don't like Meltan, it just looks like a bad attempt at Ditto. I didn't really care for its reveal either, unlike others—Professor Oak just randomly remembers the existence of a Pokémon we've never seen before, just like that? The whole thing seemed very lazy to me. I can't be too mad though, they did a fantastic job with its evolution.
Ryota Mitarai
Unlike most Steel-types, Meltan is shown to be quite attached to nature itself, considering that it will come out of the supposed Mystery Box only in nature and not in laboratories and will melt and absorb metal around it due to its instincts. Also, compared to the other Steel-type Pokémon, it has its habitat outside of a cave-like location. This might not seem special at first, but look at most Steel-type Pokémon, and you will see that not many of them are naturally encountered outside of caves, power plants, or undergrounds. There are still rather silly things, like shooting electricity from its eye, that go outside of the boundaries of nature, but a Steel-type Pokémon that is more attached to nature and not found in caves is certainly not a common thing.
GatoDelFuego
Meltan is... ok, for its simplicity. Gray and gold is a good color combination, and it's definitely a unique design (what other Pokémon has had a giant NUT on it?) That's just about all I can say about Meltan. It's really, really basic. The characterization shown in the trailers looks fun, I guess? One look at this Pokémon really tells you everything you could ever think about it.
Pikachu315111
I have mixed feelings about Meltan. Its design is fine, cute even, but I have a problem with its “role.” If Meltan were a normal wild Pokémon like Klink I’d have no problem. But it’s not, it’s a Mythical Pokémon. To me the design just doesn’t fit. Sure, it can evolve into a more intimidating Pokémon, but the explanation behind this evolution makes me wonder why Meltan isn’t like Zygarde’s Cells and Cores. Why should I mess around with Meltan when it’s Melmetal that I want to use? I also have issue with its lore: if it’s an ancient Pokémon, why does it have a modern-day electrical wire for a tail? Same with the box needed to spawn it in GO having LED lights? Why were Ditto transforming into it? Can we have answers, Game Freak?
Pilo
I don’t want to be one of those "lol objectmons suck" kind of guys, since that brand of humor was so worn out by the time Gen 5 released that you could not possibly make a single joke about objectmons that would inspire anything in me besides exasperation and annoyance (that, and I've always prided myself on my appreciation of objectmons, contrarian that I am), but let me break character for a second because Meltan fucking sucks. When I saw the reveal trailer for this 'mon I did a double take because it looked like an unfinished beta model to me. Despite the fact that all of Meltan's design draws inspiration from a single motif, it still ends up being one of the most unfocused, hodgepodge designs I've ever seen. This one gets my vote for ugliest Pokémon ever.
Aurora
I don't like Meltan very much. There are two reasons for this. The first is that, upon beginning to write this entry, I thought I'd be neutral and give it some praise for how cute its giant eye is. Unfortunately, that then made me think of the one-eyed Minions from Despicable Me. I've seen enough dreadful memes with those things in them to automatically be reviled by anything remotely associated with them. The second is that Meltan doesn't have the most inspired design out there. I'm sure this has been said here more often than the word "the" has in the history of spoken English, but come on. Meltan is just a metallic Ditto with a bolt for a head and a vestigial red tail. For something that's meant to be hot, Meltan earns a very icy reception from me.
Conni
When you first saw Meltan, did you feel like its existence was a mistake? For crying out loud, it looks like a liquid metal Ditto with a giant nut on its head and a red tail. Aside from its appearance, though, its relationship with mercury gives this generally lackluster Pokémon something a bit more interesting as opposed to the other sturdy-looking Steel-types. Its ties with science are also notable, seeing that Meltan is able to absorb metals and conducts electricity similarly to mercury in real life, but do us fans care? No, just give us our DPP remake or new generation already. If this Pokémon doesn't have to do with anything except GO, then what a waste of effort.
{Pokemon_Vigilante}
I'm confused as to why we need yet another amorphous Pokémon? I get that there aren't many of them to begin with, but I feel like they could have done so much better by Meltan considering it does carry the weight of being a Mythical Pokémon. I can only say that I hope this mythical little guy is worth all the panic and trouble he'll create in the games. It is cute, but I doubt that will make up for much of anything else that will be wrong with it.
curiosity
I'll admit that I also have mixed feelings on Meltan. While I believe its concept is very interesting, I don't really think it was executed properly, especially considering its Mythical status. Quite frankly, I find Meltan's design to be too simple, even bordering on lazy. I'm sure many others have pointed it out, but honestly, I don't find a blob of liquid metal and a nut with an eye to be awfully creative; it doesn't convey much emotion and it honestly just unnerves me at times. While I believe that Meltan is quite disappointing, I will admit that it the concept of fusion with other cores is a cool concept considering its elemental origins, but I hope it doesn't follow a similar route to Zygarde and require a certain number of specimens to evolve.
Codraroll
I have mixed feelings on Meltan. Its design is pretty neat, I think, a blob of liquid metal with a nut and a wire attached to it. Its single eye, suspended inside the nut, gives it some more expressiveness than one would be able to see in still pictures. Overall, it looks like a DIY soldering project come to life. But why does its lore suggest it is an ancient Pokémon? The design is very industrial and modern, prominently incorporating a hex nut, which is a somewhat recent invention. That clashes a little with its introductory movie, where Meltan is shown on an ancient stone carving. Those are two very distinctly separate visual styles, which makes me suspect Meltan's backstory wasn't given much consideration when it was designed.
Kalalokki
While I think that Meltan was kind of a disappointment overall, Melmetal steps up the game big time. The quirky, playful Meltans have all fused together to create a chunk of badass: huge muscular hex shoulders, intimidating fists ready to smash anything, a massive gold jawline to make any man jealous, and an amorphous body that can stretch and adapt to any foe! T-1000 would be proud if it met this behemoth, and then subsequently bashed to a pulp for trying to take Melmetal's spotlight.
lyd
Well, I don’t even know what to say for this one. Game Freak took a lovely Pokémon, Meltan, and pulled a Zygarde-C on it. Melmetal just looks awful, and is—in my opinion—a complete downgrade from Meltan in a design perspective. Meltan had a minimalistic design, with a more fluid body type to accommodate the idea of liquid metal. But Game Freak just looked at it and thought turning it into a Transformer and completely disregarding their own concept was a good idea; well, they did just do the same thing with Zygarde-C, scrapping their own reference to Norse mythology on the spot. All in all, while I’m not surprised by the direction they took, I’m definitely disappointed, and I’ll hope the rest of Gen 8 can make up for this not-a-Pokémon. Pure Steel, more like pure steal!
mellowyellowhd
Look at this boy. How could you not love him. He is literally Regigigas but steel, so he's cool. He's big daddy Zygarde-C 2.0. And look at that signature move, two hits with a chance to flinch, you just know that thanks to that move in tandem with those biceps that this thing comes in something gets clobbered. I can't wait to ride my iron giant into battle. My only regret is that it isn't called Meltitan.
Ryota Mitarai
Melmetal is most likely following the trend from Generation 7 that introduces evolutionary lines to Legendary Pokémon (albeit Melmetal is actually a Mythical but you probably get me). It will seem pretty weird, but Melmetal, personally, gives me the vibes of a mashup of Baymax and Optimus Prime. This is not necessarily a bad thing for me, considering Melmetal looks relatively powerful (just look at its signature move, double strike with chance to flinch), and I generally prefer powerful Pokémon, but they could have definitely made it less similar to Regigigas.
GatoDelFuego
Ok, NOW we're talking! Melmetal definitely took the unique aspects of Meltan's design and took it to another level. I really love the walking animations of this Pokémon; it reminds me of a gorilla with its permanent hunch and massive shoulders, accented by the repeated hex nut. Where Registeel's wiggly fingers give it a strange, human-like appearance, Melmetal goes the other direction and just has giant hammers for hands, and that's good! Melmetal definitely deserves to be the "teaser" Pokémon of a next generation, but it really requires Meltan to complete its image—it wouldn't work if Meltan didn't exist. So, Melmetal actually makes me appreciate Meltan's design, too! And that's definitive proof that Melmetal's design has worked.
Pikachu315111
Sorry if I was negative with Meltan, I’ll be more positive with Melmetal. Though I disagree with Meltan being its own Pokémon, I got to say I kind of love how Melmetal just looks like Meltan wearing a buffed mech suit. It’s the unchanged, small head that does it. Despite it having a bulkier body, the small head makes it look adorable. Of course that bulky body isn’t for nothing; Double Iron Bash sounds and looks like a cool move. It incorporates Melmetal’s hex nut design in a clever way: it spins around the large nut it’s using as a shoulder to helicopter slap the opponent with its large arms. The only thing that has me concerned goes back to Meltan: in Generation VIII, how will we be evolving Meltan into Melmetal? Will I need dozens of Meltan?
Pilo
What can really be said about Melmetal that hasn’t already been said about Meltan? Of the two I suppose Melmetal is a bit more inspired in its design than its pre-evolution, but the ugly liquid metal aesthetic is still a huge turnoff. At least there’s a bit more going on with Melmetal’s design. Its general body shape also kind of reminds me of Regigigas, which I hardly think is a coincidence given the Pokémon’s ancient origins. All that taken into consideration, I’m definitely eager to find out where Melmetal fits into the ancient Pokémon lore.
Aurora
A typical dachshund probably has longer legs than Melmetal, and that’s after taking into account Melmetal's 8'02" frame. Getting around must be a bit of a trek when you consider that Melmetal also weighs well over 1700 pounds yet has to lug that frame around with those tiny lower limbs. For this reason, I extend my deepest sympathies to Melmetal. This Pokémon doesn't leave as sour a taste in my mouth as its pre-evolution does, partly because its design actually has some flair to it. I can definitely see the Regigigas resemblance, but I guess Melmetal's arms are a lot bigger, it’s not as bulky around the torso, and there's a very different and unique design motif. To be honest, I find Melmetal pretty average, but it's not in the same league as its pre-evolution. It's at least somewhat inspired.
Conni
"Well, at least it wasn't worse than Meltan," is what Pokémon fans would say when they first see Melmetal, but was it really worth it? I mean, cool, it has a new move that has a new mechanic in Pokémon GO, but will it be relevant at all when the new generation or canon game comes out? Melmetal looks a bit more buff and better designed than its pre-evolution, but is that all it has to offer? I certainly hope not; if this whole shtick remains related to Pokémon GO and not to anything more relevant, then sadly no one will care as much, but if it plays into a major plot for the next canon game? Yes please, I mean, who wouldn't want this absolute unit saving the day at Mt. Coronet?
{Pokemon_Vigilante}
Now here's our first look at a Mythical Pokémon that comes by way of evolving Meltan, and it doesn't disappoint!! It's got a rock-solid build and looks menacing to a fault; but it does have a rather basic color scheme, even for a Steel-type. Maybe this mythical powerhouse will have its own unique move or moves that come with it depending on its build. It's safe to say that there will be something unique about Melmetal, because it looks a little too simple to be all we see and nothing more, and I for one can't wait to get a Melmetal!!
lyd
The classic Steel-type legendary has some lessons for Melmetal; for one, it stays loyal to its concept, alluding to the Hebrew golems, while Melmetal is just a knockoff Registeel and a Zygarde-C wannabe. It just doesn’t work like this, Game Freak can’t steal the spotlight from Registeel to cast it onto Melmetal. Registeel is also a lot better looking; the consistent structure of its body-type makes it actually look conceivable and how you would expect a Pokémon to, whereas Melmetal is just a mess really. But I hope Game Freak still gives Registeel and the other Regis the value they deserve; they’re some of the better-designed Legendaries, especially considering the hassle of actually catching them.
Ryota Mitarai
Do you know what's funny? The Arceus event that involved the Azure Flute in Generation 4 was canceled because the developers thought players would find the methods of obtaining Arceus too hard. However, one could think that whoever said that is either drunk or delusional, because we can see pretty well how easy catching Registeel and its brothers is. The methods to obtain Registeel were quite atrocious, and I personally don't think players would have had problems doing the Arceus event after experiencing a challenge that involves reading braille.
GatoDelFuego
Registeel is an awesome design, definitely my favorite of the Golems. Regirock is... a pile of rocks, Regice is... an icicle, but Registeel... is different. The bulbous head is totally unique for a Pokémon design, because it makes Registeel's arms come out of where its ears should be, no classic shoulders. The fingers are so mysteriously human-like, but the lack of a thumb makes it decidedly alien. Their spaghetti-like extrusions remind me of Der Golem itself. Red/grey is also an awesome color combo, especially accented in the eyes. Hexagonal eyes are just too... mechanical that Registeel couldn't be some kind of natural design. Registeel's dex entry mentions that it was "sealed away" by an ancient civilization, containing metal not from planet Earth. What, is it some kind of alien? The mystery of the Legendary Titans is what makes them unique, and Registeel embodies all of that.
Pikachu315111
Registeel feels like the black sheep of the Legendary Titans. Designwise it’s not as straightforward as Regirock and Regice. Instead of being jagged it’s round and smooth, looking more manmade than the other Titans. Its Pokédex description mentions it being made of a metal not of the Pokémon World, enforcing an alien-like design perspective and hinting it's probably made out of a meteor. It’s hollow inside, which is probably why it gets Light Metal as a hidden ability, neat contextually but sadly disappointing in practicality, especially since other Titans get more useful hidden abilities. Finally, Registeel is also the “balanced” member, but this works to its advantage being a pure Steel-type with no weaker defensive stat. Also, its cry makes it sound like a Transformer, which is awesome and gives it bonus points in my book!
curiosity
Registeel has always interested me thanks to its fantastic design and equally as fantastic background. The predominantly spherical design is a unique and honestly subverting design for a Steel-type, forgoing the usual "rough" designs of Steel-types and bringing us something really memorable. And speaking of memorable, many of its in-game events are incredibly interesting and are quite memorable because of that, especially considering the complexity of the puzzles to a child anyways.
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