Hey there, sorry for the long absence. I took some time away from this for a bit because life got in the way. However I’m hoping to get back on with posting these and maintain some better regularity going forwards. Anyway, without further ado, it’s time to rattle on with the second of the two families of early game Kanto Bug types: the Beedrill family. Starting things off, we have Weedle who is a funky little thing. I don’t think I like it as much as I do Caterpie, but that’s largely because it’s clearly cast as the less pleasant, more aggressive of the two Viridian Forest goobers, so it does what it needs to do. Once again this is a stepping stone and a tutorial to evolution where not much of Weedle ever gets to shine on its own, so naturally by level 7 we’ve already moved on.

Kakuna is another simple cocoon, of course. I actually like this one a bit more than Metapod. The eyes and aggressive yellow and black colour scheme do a good job of conveying a furious creature ready to burst out at any moment. I especially like its Red and Blue sprite where it appears to have the early stages of Beedrill’s stingers emerging. These don’t really fit with the design and were probably best removed but it’s a nice little quirk of early sprite work that I find pretty interesting.

Beedrill, in its base form, is not the main attraction of fully evolving this Pokemon. Beedrill is a solid design for an early game Pokemon that does a good job of appearing immediately threatening in a part of the game when the average Pokemon is barely knee height, but I don’t think it has that timeless appeal of Butterfree or as much distinct about it. Butterfree had a distinct colour scheme but Beedrill is really just a big threatening wasp like creature for RPG monster classics. It does what it’s meant to, but ordinarily wouldn’t stand out.

Fortunately, Beedrill, for a brief respite from its hellish state of being utterly unusable, was given a Mega Evolution. While I don’t think Mega Evolution should really come back any time soon, as there are far more interesting ways to revisit old Pokemon designs in general, Beedrill is one of the few I really miss. Mega Beedrill is not exactly a thematically deep or high concept design, but it is a phenomenal one, nonetheless. It is a Beedrill simply optimised to cause as much destruction as possible, with every limb on its body becoming a stinger, its features becoming more aerodynamic and sleeker, and the most comically min-maxed stats of any Mega Evolution to back it up. I think of all Mega Evolutions it’s the one that reminds me most of the concept of Ultimate Aliens from Ben 10, where the appearances and abilities of aliens are intensely geared towards combat survival above all else through simulating millions of years of evolution under apocalyptic conditions, and this angle makes me really appreciate Mega Beedrill even more. It’s simultaneously hilarious and badass, and the result is that it all comes together to give what I would strongly argue is the best use of Mega Evolution as a gimmick in revitalising old designs. A true masterpiece.

Final Verdict (excluding Mega Beedrill): 5/10 – Stuff to be excited about here, but the real meat and potatoes is locked behind a Mega Stone that likely won’t see the light of day again.

Mega Beedrill Final Verdict: 10/10 – Mega Beedrill is so distinct I feel it needs to be rated somewhat separately here. It’s an incredible rendition of the ultimate Beedrill and one of the few reasons to truly miss Mega Evolutions