The Pokémon franchise has been enjoyed by millions of fans around the world, for over two decades.

If you grew up in the heights of late-nineties Pokémania, you probably didn’t just play the game. You collected the cards, used the lunch box with Pikachu’s grinning face on it, watched the show, slept beneath the bedsheets emblazoned with spooky-looking Drowzees and Hypnos (wait, that’s scary, forget we said that)… Pokémon wasn’t just a fandom. It was a way of life, and it still is for many of us.

Looking back at the early days of the franchise is a bittersweet experience, however. Yes, Pokémon Red and Blue blessed us with the original 151 Pokémon, a group that so-called ‘genwunners’ still insist are the only ones worth bothering with. With the benefit of hindsight, though, it’s clear that the early installments were in desperate need of all kinds of quality of life improvements (as we reported over on The Gamer).

It was generation IV that really kicked things into high gear. Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum brought us the (almost) unlimited bag system, which finally saved us from endless Resident Evil-style inventory-wrangling just to grab that Potion. The physical/special split was a real godsend too.

Most importantly, generation IV added a total of 107 new Pokémon to the mix. As always, they proved to be a mixed bag. From Wormadam to Staraptor, from Chatot to Froslass, let’s take a look at the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum Pokémon that are just irredeemable, along with the ones that are surprisingly good if given a chance.

NO ONE SHOULD CATCH: Burmy

 

You’d be forgiven for dismissing Burmy at first glance. Encountering it very early in the game, you’ll see it pop up on your screen for the first time and you’ll probably think, what the heck is this tiny little leafy hunk of uselessness? Excuse me while I don’t nab it for my team right away.

Now, we’re not saying that you should ever judge anything by appearances. All we’re saying is that you’re absolutely darn right on this one. While it’s quite neat that Burmy can adopt different forms depending on where it last battled (and evolve into one of three different forms of Wormadam as a result), it has a rough movepool and stats that are just as bad.

TOTALLY UNDERRATED: Bibarel

No, seriously. Stop that snarky sniggering. You won’t be laughing when a +6 Attack Bibarel with +6 Defense is rampaging through your team, like Godzilla through a delicate china replica of Tokyo.

Yes, Bidoof and Bibarel are notorious as one of the worst things that generation IV brought to the table, but there’s some incredible potential here. Thanks to the Simple ability (which doubles all stat boosts and drops), it just needs a couple of turns of Curse to become more powerful and tanky than something that looks this ridiculous ever has any right to be.

Of course, it isn’t easy to set that up, but in the right situation, Bibarel can be a powerhouse.

NO ONE SHOULD CATCH: Phione

We know what you’re thinking, friends. Technically speaking, it isn’t really possible to ‘catch’ Phione. The polite thing would’ve been not to point that out and embarrass us in front of everybody.

What we’re getting at here is that there’s really no need for Phione to exist. It’s super confusing that it does, in fact. You see, Phione is the result of Manaphy breeding with a Ditto, and nobody knows why this legendary Pokémon can breed in the first place (it’s the only one that can).

If Phione a baby form of Manaphy or something? It doesn’t evolve into one, just keeps those sub-par stats forever.

TOTALLY UNDERRATED: Honchkrow

They don’t call this beast the Big Boss Pokémon for nothing, friends.

Murkrow doesn’t look like much, does it? Its witch-like design is cool, if a little cliché, and it can do some fiendish things with its Prankster ability, but a powerhouse? Absolutely not.

Somewhere around the time, it used that Dusk Stone to evolve, however, it must’ve been binge-watching the Rocky movies or something. A good few training montages later, and Honchkrow was born.

At base 125 Attack, this thing is deceptively strong, and it learns a good mix of high-powered moves to get the job done. Throw in the Moxie ability (which gives it an Attack boost whenever it knocks out a Pokémon), and you’ve got a force of nature that can snowball quickly.

Its Speed is only base 70 and its Sucker Punch can be predictable, but if you can work around this, you’ll see what Honchkrow can really do.

NO ONE SHOULD CATCH: Chatot

Chatot’s a bit of a tough one to place. To be completely fair to the little guy, it’s surprisingly fast and has a reasonably potent Special Attack (base 91 and base 92 respectively). It can knock some heads when it really needs to, particularly when you consider that it has access to powerful moves like Hyper Voice right from the off.

That’s the full extent of its usefulness, though, unless you want to throw in its signature move Chatter (which involved an odd mechanic that gave it a higher chance to Confuse the louder a recording through the microphone was). Outside of that, you’re better off waiting, because a far better music-note-based Pokémon was on the way next generation (Meloetta).

NO ONE SHOULD CATCH: Lumineon

Water-types are the most numerous of all, so it’s no surprise that generation IV added a huge crop of new ones. We’ve already looked at Bibarel and Phione, but there were a lot more besides.

One of which was just about the most average and vanilla Water ‘mon you could possibly imagine: Finneon. Its design isn’t particularly bad (when it evolves into Lumineon, it’s quite graceful-looking), but it’s just… it’s a fish. A fish with middle-of-the-road stats right across the board.

Whichever role you choose from it, there’ll be another Pokémon that can probably do that job better. It’s not easy being a jack-of-all-trades in this franchise, friends.

TOTALLY UNDERRATED: Luxray

Fundamentally, Luxray is very similar to Honchkrow. It boasts around the same level of Attack (base 120 in this case) and is pretty darn useful if you can work around its lackluster Speed (which is base 70, exactly the same as Honchkrow’s).

The trouble is, this Electric-type has no access to STAB priority. Or any priority at all, in fact, unless you want to breed Quick Attack onto it. Which you don’t. That definitely hurts its viability.

Nevertheless, it’s arguably one of the best Pokémon designs of generation IV, and it gets a surprising variety of moves to keep opponents off guard.

NO ONE SHOULD CATCH: Cherubi

As was the case with Burmy, Bidoof and the like, alarm bells should be ringing in your head as soon as you catch sight of this thing. Granted, evolution does wonders for Pokémon, and the most pathetic-looking can become imposing (Magikarp into Gyarados, for instance), but some designs are just irredeemable.

Cherubi looks like the kind of Pokémon that will have to evolve six times just to become as threatening as a napping Weedle. Sadly, it evolves just once, and Cherrim really isn’t up to much either.

It has a totally adorable Sunshine form, which it adopts in the sun, but that’s as far as it goes.

NO ONE SHOULD CATCH: Combee

If Nintendo has taught us anything, it’s that putting super-cute smiley faces on inanimate objects is the way forward. In the Mushroom Kingdom, clouds, hills and just about everything else sport a gleeful grin. It’s adorable and welcoming, and about the most Nintendo thing you’ll ever see.

Game Freak seems to have caught on to that whole concept too. The odd little honeycomb-bee-thing that is Combee has not one, but three happy little faces. Funnily enough, this does not translate to battling prowess.

Vespiquen has reasonably good defensive stats and some interesting moves, but it’s let down by its typing. Only female Combee can evolve, though, leaving the male ones without any of these redeeming qualities.

TOTALLY UNDERRATED: Gastrodon

Gastrodon is a curious case. It’s one of those Pokémon that may not sound like very much on paper, but can perform amazingly well in the right circumstances.

Water/Ground is one of the best typings in the game, being weak only to Grass. It’s a 4x weakness, so it’ll faint if it so much as sees a blade of grass out of a car window (not that it can drive, being a slug, so we shouldn’t really have bothered bringing that up), but with careful use, this thing can be incredibly effective.

With access to Recover, too, it makes a great tank and is especially effective against rain teams (absorbing Water moves with Storm Drain). If they don’t have Ludicolo, they have a problem.