14. Shinx
I was thrilled when I got Pokémon Diamond for my birthday. Id been looking forward to it for months, cooing with joy over the new female professor and eagerly anticipating playing another instalment of my favourite series all the way through yet again. I had even picked my perfect starter Piplup, the adorable water type who I was sure would carry me through to victory! Except not. I lost the battle with my rival for the first time ever, fresh out of the gate. I stared at my screen for a moment, went huh and tried it again. Probably a fluke I decided, as I won, probably just a random quirk of fate that didnt really mean anything But then I lost the first battle against a trainer, and another battle against a second trainer, and the battle against the initial gym leader despite all his Pokémon being the Rock type and supposedly easy to beat! Something, I thought as I gawped at my screen, was most certainly up. But then, just before I threw the game against the wall and returned to my safe copy of Pokémon Sapphire, came a revelation. Id never really had an Electric Pokémon on my team before, had considered them far too flighty, but Shinx bounded into my life like a breath of fresh air and immediately won my heart. Suddenly I was winning battles instead of hopelessly losing them against every single type! And, more than that, I was winning them in style. Shinx is adorable, but yet again in in a tough way. It has those big eyes that make it incredibly cute, but also has that certain resemblance to a cat that naturally makes you just that little bit cautious. It shares its design with many other electric Pokémon, yellow and blue combined together with black to add that little bit extra, but does something new with it looking innovative and fierce in a way that cant help but be admired. This originality is probably because Shinx is based on a lion cub, a resemblance that continues (though with a little less flair) in its further evolutions. A few Pokémon had been partially based on lions before, but not with as much success as Shinx. Shinx combines the cuteness of a lion cub with the implication that it can and will bite your arm off. It is the perfect mix for a Pokémon that it cute, but also looks like it can fight. And it was this combination that made me continue with Pokémon Diamond, and convinced me to enjoy it about as much as the other games. It is probably still my least favourite generation, in the scheme of things, but Shinx is most definitely a bright spot in it a design that is adorable and fun, but still with the hint of fangs.