Mega Victreebel
If you've been a Victreebel fan since Red and Blue, then you've aged about three decades waiting for your favorite carnivorous plant to receive an alternate evolution, a signature move, literally any attention at all up until now...so is Mega Victreebel worth that wait?
I dunno. Its concept is that it's swollen to bursting with copious amounts of ultra-caustic acid, which is pretty much exactly what its mega should be all about, but to illustrate this visually, it's using its own vine to cinch itself shut like a garbage bag, giving it a huge bloated body and a tiny, goofy looking little head (*which evokes a traditional drinking gourd, thanks for reminding me!).
I don't think Mega Pokemon should really mess too much with the personality of the base Pokemon's face, which in Victreebel's case is one of the coolest of the original 151, and I'm just not a fan of its rim getting squeezed down into those puffy lips. Japanese media seems to find those exact swollen, pinkish fish-lips to be cute and funny, they're all over Mario characters for instance, but I always find them a little off-putting. Yes, Bellsprout and Weepinbel already have them, technically, but they're usually open in a big circle, which is actually cute, rather than like a weird uncanny baby-mouth that's trying not to belch.
It's still nice for Victreebel to get anything at all, though. Maybe I'd like it better if the head at least wasn't SO tiny? It's the combination of the distended baby lips and "inflation fan art" proportions that might be too much. I do want to like it, and I've always been a defender of more comical Pokemon. Since it's still a big pitcher plant, I guess it all evens out into a middle-of-the-road opinion from me personally, and I'll give it a 4/5 just for bringing anything fresh to Victreebel at all.
A Victreebel is a Victreebel, even when it's also whatever this weird business is.
I dunno. Its concept is that it's swollen to bursting with copious amounts of ultra-caustic acid, which is pretty much exactly what its mega should be all about, but to illustrate this visually, it's using its own vine to cinch itself shut like a garbage bag, giving it a huge bloated body and a tiny, goofy looking little head (*which evokes a traditional drinking gourd, thanks for reminding me!).
I don't think Mega Pokemon should really mess too much with the personality of the base Pokemon's face, which in Victreebel's case is one of the coolest of the original 151, and I'm just not a fan of its rim getting squeezed down into those puffy lips. Japanese media seems to find those exact swollen, pinkish fish-lips to be cute and funny, they're all over Mario characters for instance, but I always find them a little off-putting. Yes, Bellsprout and Weepinbel already have them, technically, but they're usually open in a big circle, which is actually cute, rather than like a weird uncanny baby-mouth that's trying not to belch.
It's still nice for Victreebel to get anything at all, though. Maybe I'd like it better if the head at least wasn't SO tiny? It's the combination of the distended baby lips and "inflation fan art" proportions that might be too much. I do want to like it, and I've always been a defender of more comical Pokemon. Since it's still a big pitcher plant, I guess it all evens out into a middle-of-the-road opinion from me personally, and I'll give it a 4/5 just for bringing anything fresh to Victreebel at all.
A Victreebel is a Victreebel, even when it's also whatever this weird business is.
FIRST PREV ARCHIVE NEXT LATEST
