Pokémon Sword & Shield: 10 Gigantamax Secrets You TOTALLY Missed

Every Pokémon's design is somewhat inspired by something from reality. Sometimes it is a really simple influence like how Voltorb is just a Pokémon based on a Pokéball, but more often than not there are plenty of creature designs that have multiple layers.

One of my favourites is how Decidueye is based off an extinct Hawaiian owl with long legs, as well as deciduous trees which shed their leaves and "die" in winter.

Gigantamax Pokémon were one of the newer gimmicks introduced in Pokémon Sword and Shield. They're similar to Dynamax forms, only the Pokémon that were capable of this new temporary evolution have dramatically altered designs.

Not every Pokémon got one and the bulk of those that did were new creatures. Some old favourites did get new forms too. The one thing they have in common is that each Gigantamax Pokémon form expands upon the inspiration behind their original design.

I've gone through the entire list of available Pokémon that can Gigantamax (as of the Isle of Armor DLC) to find the most interesting designs with fascinating inspirations.

Meowth has had a lot of different forms in recent years, showing the nature of a cat's ability to adapt to its surroundings. This Gigantamax form can only be given to the Kantonian version of Meowth, stretching it out to a rather ridiculous size.

The Longcat meme is the obvious inspiration, but a more fascinating footnote is that this stretched out feline seems like an homage to a sketch in the 1971 Monty Python film, And Now For Something Completely Different.

In the sketch, a bunch of killer cars are terrorising the city streets. The solution is to bring in a giant elongated house cat, who does deal with the problem but at a terrible cost to the city.

Meowth's giant coin also gets a symbol, which ties the design of Meowth ever closer to the original design's inspiration: the Maneki-neko. This is a lucky charm that holds a Koban coin, which was an oval coin used in Japan during the Edo period.