Pokémon designs are often hit-or-miss, including those in Pokémon Sword and Shield. Most of the games’ new additions to the Pokédex have interesting origins and clever, cute, or cool designs, but Coalossal and Sandaconda land firmly among the series’ lamest Pokémon.
Sword and Shield got off to a rough start when it comes to community opinions of their creature designs, as some found the Sword and Shield starter evolutions weird when they leaked before the games’ release. Most Pokémon players have likely warmed up to Cinderace, Inteleon, and Rillaboom since then, as they function as players’ main companions throughout the games’ adventures. But some of Sword and Shield’s designs don’t share the starter Pokémon’s interesting origins and can’t be saved by familiarity alone. Pincurchin, for example, is essentially a less-cute version of Pokemon Sun and Moon’s Pyukumuku, and Greedent is just a pudgy squirrel.
Coalossal, though, is on another level of lame. The entire Coalossal evolution line doesn’t get many points in the looks department, being basically just animated coal clumped in various shapes. Carkol, the line’s mine cart-like middle stage, is one of the strangest “just an object” Pokémon yet, but it at least has some originality compared to existing creature designs. Coalossal, on the other hand, is just a vaguely furnace-inspired version of Gen 1’s Golem - but even uglier. Luckily for Coalossal, Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Gigantamax mechanic provides a saving grace. Gigantamax Coalossal is much cooler than its smaller counterpart, resembling a cross between Godzilla and a volcano, accented by the menacing orange-hot glow of the Home Alone furnace.
Meanwhile, the Gigantamax mechanic is exactly the thing that does Sandaconda in. Sandaconda itself is actually a fairly interesting Pokémon. It appears to be inspired by double-barreled shotguns, coiling snakes, accordions, and the way large meals create bulges in digesting snakes’ stomachs. It stores sand in the dark pouch around its neck, then contracts its body to shoot a blast of sand out its nose. Its Gigantamax form makes sense in concept, too: A dust-filled tornado is a natural next step for a spiraled, sand-shooting Pokémon. But in execution, it just doesn’t work. With Sword and Shield’s simplistic graphics, the “sand” swirling around Gigantamax Sandaconda’s neck looks more like some kind of solid, rotating appendage with grotesque protrusions jutting out of it. Perhaps Game Freak could have made this work in a 2D sprite, but in a particle effect-less 3D model, it just looks nasty.
There are, of course, many great new designs in Sword and Shield to balance out these ugly ones, and it doesn’t look like Game Freak will stop bringing cool new creatures to the games. The newly announced Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass appears to be adding some awesome Galarian Legendary bird trio regional forms, along with other interesting new Pokémon. Unfortunately, that same inspired design didn’t grace Coalossal and Gigantamax Sandaconda.
Next: Pokemon Sword & Shield’s Expansion DLC Explained
Pokémon Sword and Shield released for the Nintendo Switch on November 15, 2019.
