Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: mr. mime, Niantic, Niantic Labs, pokemon, pokemon go

Pokémon GO's Best & Worst Of 2020: Worst New Pokémon Releases

The year 2020 is wrapping up, and it has been a year of major change in Pokémon GO. Trainers have seen the game add both new features and new species, all the while adjusting to the ever-changing situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that followed. Now, let's take a look back at what has been a defining year for Niantic's worldwide mega-hit game and determine the Best and Worst of 2020 in every aspect of Pokémon GO. This time… we're talking about the worst new Pokémon releases of 2020. Let's go!

5. Deerling's Winter Form

Now, rare Pokémon are necessary to make Pokémon GO exciting. If catching an Axew gave you the same feeling as catching a Weedle, Niantic would be doing something wrong. However, after the release of Deerling's Autumn Form as a common wild encounter, their choice to make Deerling's Winter Form so rare during its release and the events after was bizarre.

4. Vanillite

Niantic went hard on our storage for no reason with this one. Vanillite, as a stage one Pokémon, seems about as difficult to catch as a Legendary Pokémon. You shouldn't ever have to think about using a Silver Pinap or a Golden Razz Berry on a stage one species that has a CP under 200, but yet Vanillite is out here just plowing through our item bag. This one is such a weird choice that it feels more like a mistake than anything else.

3. Runerigus

With the release of Galarian Yamask and Runerigus, Niantic failed to accommodate the playing style of all Pokémon GO players in a massive way. Many trainers collect a living dex, which means they keep at least one of each species. The Galarian Yamask research started the Halloween Event with a bit of a downer because, after pages of tasks, trainers were only given one Yamask. Two would be enough, but the single offering of this species which evolves in a highly anticipated research seemed stingy.

2. Galarian Mr. Mime

Niantic fixed the Yamask problem here by giving trainers two Galarian Mr. Mime in the Tap… Tap… Tappity Tap research, allowing them to evolve one to Mr. Rime and keep one as is. However, where they failed here in a major way was charging Pokémon GO trainers a dollar amount in order to encounter this new species. While the items did equal out to a greater worth than the cost of the ticket, it sets a strange precedent for a game that felt otherwise quite generous this year. Remember, the Shiny Celebi research was free. However, this one left players a bit alarmed about the future releases of Pokémon in this way. Niantic would be much better off sticking to Legendary and Mythical Pokémon in the paid Special Researches that aren't part of major events like GO Fest, Safari Zone, and the upcoming Pokémon GO World Tour.

1. Galarian Mr. Mime again

Yeah, this deserves two spots. They really didn't have to do us like that.

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