The Aron Family

I always liked this little steel/rock critter. With an oversized hockey-mask head on a nubby, baby turtle body, it has that kind of immediately iconic look and feel you often get in the first-stage enemies of a platforming game. The simplicity of those nubby legs is probably my only critique; I feel like the first generation would have bent them just a little and given them some toes. Just a little more believable structure, y'know?

I'm not really big on the direction Aron goes, but I'm also not surprised by it. You can just tell right off the bat that Aron is the darling baby of what's going to be some sort of four-legged beast, and Lairon is quite cool as far as those go, basically this generation's equivalent to good old Rhydon. I want to say I don't like the perfectly straight angles and bands throughout its body, but they fit well with its steel typing, and they're even placed functionally. The way those raised bands on its sides run into its legs feels almost like they're part of its musculature, like they expand and contract to help lift its heavy limbs and keep its steel elements held together without tearing apart its organic components.

Aggron, the final stage, is another of those "kaiju-like" pokemon that would fit in perfecrtly with those of Red and Blue. It goes a little nuts with those metallic bands, but its minimalistic color palette offsets how busy its design might be otherwise, the white armor of its head looks a lot like some kind of awesome skull helmet, and I feel like the whole thing probably groans like bending girdirs as it walks. It's just an entirely badass metal dinosaur with pretty blue eyes and a design that hovers nicely between the organic and inorganic.

Adorably, Aggron is said to stake out a territory, usually forested mountain, and carefully nurture the landscape. It plants trees, hauls soil and fights off anything that threatens the environment. It's just a big old softie.

A fearsome monster like Aggron is a given for a Mega, but this is one of those I'm kind of impartial to. It's a very different take on the creature, feeling more like a regular evolution than a mega one, and I kinda like its more "snapping turtle" sort of posture, but it doesn't feel like it either adds or takes away anything too significant. It's alright.

An adorable first stage, interesting second stage, kickass final form and acceptable Mega make this line solid even if it's not breaking any wildly new territory.

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