10 Pokémon That NEED Evolutions

The new generation of Pokémon is inching ever closer, and with that comes a lot of speculation. The titles, the themes, what new Pokémon we’ll get, whether we’ll get a new type for the first time since Fairy and, perhaps most interesting, whether any existing Pokémon will get evolutions.

Evolutions have crossed generations before, sometimes injecting new life into a forgettable ‘mon or else making a fairly weak one better equipped for battle. While basic stats are important here (there’s no suggestion that juggernauts like MewTwo need a buff), they aren’t the only things taken into consideration.

As well as a Pokémon’s use in battling, things like their standing in the franchise as a whole and their design aesthetics all come into it. For example, Pikachu is fairly weak but so iconic that there’s no real need to suggest Raichu gets an upgrade because a lot of trainers keep them as Pika anyway. Likewise, Absol and Lapras are so well designed, that even as single stage ‘mons, they don’t need anything else to help them stand out.

Finally, this is about bonafide evolutions, rather than just giving them a Mega, because let’s face it; every Pokémon could use a Mega.

Hawlucha kicks the list off because it’s not so much that Hawlucha ‘badly’ needs an evolution so much as the game badly needs more Hawlucha in it. The Mexican wrestler design is so imaginative and gave them so much room to grow... but they just didn’t take it. As a standalone ‘mon, Hawlucha is all they do with this brilliant idea.

Stat wise, it’s fairly strong but again, there’s more to this than just the numbers. Not only would it be great to see more of this line with a similar design, Hawlucha is the only dual Fighting Flying type in the entire Dex, so it would be nice to see this expanded on.

Fighting being weak to Flying has always been one of the more nonsensical matchups (then again, it is rather hard to punch a bird), and with its unique typing Hawlucha draws a bit of focus to this.

All things considered, with the opportunity to do more with an interesting type blend, a creative theme and a great starting point, it would be a shame if that potential was wasted.