Welp, it’s time for the big cheese. The mascot of all Pokémon and most likely one of the most recognisable fictional characters on the entire planet.

However, before that we’ve got to make a little stop at the Day Care to pick up Pikachu’s child: Pichu. The first of a small handful of Baby Pokemon that will be seen mainly throughout early generations, and all things considered easily one of the best ones, Pichu is really just a more diminutive, child-like version of its evolved form. It’s not a particularly necessary design, few baby Pokémon can claim to be, but it’s so adorable I can’t help but love it. The tuftier black fur, smaller tail, and baby-like head to body ratio are all winners for making a simpler Pikachu baby and one of the few baby Pokémon I can really say I adore. I have a particular fondness for Spiky-Eared Pichu: a time travelling Pichu with distinctive spikes of fur on its left ear who can’t evolve that was only ever in HeartGold and SoulSilver. It’s very dear to me, and I was incredibly sad when Spiky-Eared Pichu was arbitrarily absent from Generation 5 (if only I knew what would come in the future) so my Spiky-Eared Pichu is unfortunately lost to time. Pichu may be a simple design but it’s one I care a lot about and think is very effective, despite being tied to a gimmick I find mostly worthless.

Pikachu is of course the big mascot, the big boss of all, and I’m not sure what there is left to say about this humble rare encounter from Viridian Forest that hasn’t already been said but I’ll try anyway. Fundamentally, it’s a masterclass in mascot design and I don’t think anything else (certainly not anything from Generation 1) would hit every aspect of design needed to make the perfect face for the series. It may have been slimmed down from its previously chubbier design over the years, but the art of it evolving over time doesn’t detract from the perfect equilibrium of cute and cool that Pikachu puts on display. It’s a simple little guy but it’s flashy, distinctive, communicates its Electric typing well without being messy or egregious about it, and has such lovable charm that it always puts a smile on my face. I do think it’s quite amusing that Pikachu originally started out as being a very rare Pokemon, spending the first 5 generations of the franchise contained to Viridian Forest and a couple of nature reserves, before becoming practically omnipresent in the wild since the advent of 3D. Did Pikachu’s popularity turn it from an endangered species to an invasive one? It certainly seems to have done that. My only real issues are that it’s not quite as interesting to me as its evolved form and the fact that Raichu is so utterly eclipsed by Pikachu is pretty sad, plus the glut of Pikachu forms in different cosplay outfits and novelty hats in the main series games has gotten to feel more than a little excessive at this point. Nevertheless, while it may seem easy to get bogged down by how ubiquitous Pikachu is, it’s still a fantastic design. Pokemon chose its mascot well and while it’s not excelling into the absolute top tier designs, it’s a design for everyone and I value that a lot.

Gigantamax Pikachu, unfortunately, is just blind nostalgia pandering utterly devoid of anything creatively inspired. The people’s cries for the return of fat Pikachu were answered in a sloppy, tired way that gives off an impression of Gigantamaxes being cheap and tacky, delegitimising what could perhaps have been an interesting mechanic. It’s still Pikachu, it’s still cute, but the Gigantamax form still betrays a lot of Pikachu’s appeal in the way it moves and animates. Pikachu, even when fatter in earlier generations, is still portrayed as swift and agile with dynamic posture. Gigantamax Pikachu loses all of this, and a lot of Pikachu’s core appeal is lost as a lumbering colossus that amounts to little more than a heavily weighted jumbo plushie. A truly unfortunate misstep that loses a lot of Pikachu’s charm and leaves the Gigantamax gimmick as a whole feeling a little hollower.

Fortunately, there are better ways to help your Pikachu become more powerful, specifically in the form of Raichu. By rejecting the nefarious temptations of Pikachu’s exclusive Light Ball item promising phenomenal raw power, we are instead greeted by a really nice evolution. Raichu is bigger and chunkier, turning a slightly darker orange with wildly different ears and a longer, wiry tail. It’s a real shame that Raichu isn’t more popular – hell it’s not even the cover representative for this review when almost every other can expect to use a final evolution – but it is clear why Pikachu is the mascot of the two. Pikachu has the more obvious classic appeal here and various more distinctive features, plus a design just more optimised for making big plushies, but I have to say I like Raichu a fair bit more than its pre-evolution. This is weird because I don’t think a lot of the features on their own are quite as appealing: the tail is cool but less instantly classic or distinctive, a brownish orange doesn’t stand out as much as Pikachu’s vibrant yellow, and the ears feel a little out of place. However, it all comes together for something that works more as a fantastical monster and one I think is so delightful and fantastically cohesive, with a real flash of daredevil charisma in there alongside the classic cuteness. I love Raichu as an ever so slightly more menacing electric mouse that still keeps that cuteness going in new ways and feel it deserves a hell of a lot more love.

Alolan Raichu goes in the opposite direction to Alolan Rattata as far as regional forms are concerned. With Rattata, an Alolan form was an interesting but tame sidegrade to explore an interesting ecological niche. Alolan Raichu goes full tilt into a flashier, more absurd design that isn’t really based on anything grounded but is positively delightful in its wackiness. Our only Electric/Psychic Pokemon ever, Alolan Raichu’s logical explanation for being is simply it ate so many pancakes that it gained psychic powers that it can use to surf on its tail. Aside from adding a tinge of desperate hope for psychokinesis to any Pancake Tuesday, as a spoof on how every other Alolan form is given a reason to actually be different here this is just so much fun. One thing that I particularly love about it is its signature Z-Move Stoked Sparksurfer: while I don’t really like Z-Moves as a competitive mechanic at all, many unique Z-Moves do a phenomenal job of showing a Pokemon’s personality in action and Alolan Raichu is one of the best for that, certainly of more note than either of Pikachu’s Z-Moves. While it arguably loses some of Raichu’s more organic charm and there’s something to love about the original the Alolan just doesn’t really capture, eschewing that for an absolute joy of a design is very worth it.

Now as if this review wasn’t long enough, I want to touch briefly on Gorochu: the forbidden Raichu evolution lost to time. This was something of an urban legend for a long time given a mistranslated in-game trade in Red and Blue but between an interview with Game Freak staff that surprisingly revealed that a horned, fanged beast was meant to be Pikachu’s final form. This is nothing short of fascinating to me but I’m in several minds about it. I love Pichu and wouldn’t want to lose it for this idea, I love Raichu and Alolan Raichu so I wouldn’t want them to be afterthoughts (or in Alolan Raichu’s case likely different or non-existent) but nevertheless the idea of this cut evolution has stolen my heart and if it somehow became real one day, I’d be excited beyond words.

Gigantamax Pikachu Final Verdict: 1/10 – isolated from the rest of the otherwise phenomenal Pikachu family this is a miserable, thoroughly corporate shell of otherwise earnest fan nostalgia

Pikachu Final Verdict: 9/10 – I normally wouldn’t isolate a NFE design but judging Pikachu alone feels appropriate for the mascot. Despite too many gimmick forms, they hit the nail on the head with this one.

Kantonian Final Verdict: 9.5/10 – A fantastic evolution for Pikachu that feels so quintessentially “Generation 1” for aesthetically pleasing monster designs

Alolan Final Verdict: 10/10 – a hysterical design that makes me so incredibly happy and a masterclass in breathing new life into classic Pokemon