Generation 2 is one of my favorite in the long running franchise. This isn’t a facts based list, it is more opinionated in nature so you’re list my vary. Now, to keep it from being obvious I will exclude starters and legendaries. Here we go!

#5 Gligar- Okay, this is my shameless pick (admittedly, some of these are.). The Pokemon anime has influenced my love for certain Pokemons. This is no doubt one of those times. Gligarman was an awesome part of the anime mimicking Batman. In Gen 4, Gligar would get an evolution which makes him even more awesome. In all honesty, there are plenty of worthy Pokemon for this spot such as Steelix, Donphan, Slowking, but I got to go with my homeboy here. (Even if he wasn’t great in this generation, he got better as the game series evolved.

#4 Crobat- My second favorite Pokemon in the series is admittedly not the coolest Pokemon from this generation. I went through a phase (If you ask my mom anyway) of liking poison Pokemons. During this time Pokemons like Arbok and Weezing soared up my favorites list, but the Pokemon who moved the highest was Crobat. He has a very sleek design, he single handily saved one of the worst evolution lines in Pokemon. He becomes really sweet in Gen 4 when his movepool catches up to his design. He is one of the fastest Pokemons in the game too which is nice bonus!

#3 Heracross/Scizor- Yes, I could have these guys as separate entries and avoided the who Gligar entry, but I tend to wrap up these early Bug Pokemons at times like these. I never used Scizor but his design was incredible. I found him to have the better design over Heracross but there’s a few reasons I like Heracross better. For starters, Ash had a Heracross in the anime. Again this is always a plus (except it made me dislike Charizard haha). Secondly, Heracross was easier and earlier to obtain. Heracross could be found near the start of the game by headbutting trees. For Scizor, you needed a Scyther and then trade that Scyther to a friend while it held a metal coat. (and who has friends, amirite?). Though I prefer Heracross, I’ll give the edge here to Scizor.

#2 Tyranitar- When you remove starters and legendaries, I thought for sure this would be #1. He is the pseudo legendary for the generation one of the few pseudos, if not the only one, that isn’t Dragon type. He was used to show off the power of the newly introduced Dark type. It follows the traditional Pseudo evolution line design. Adorable baby form, begrudgingly horribly designed middle stage, and finally a kick butt ultimate form. Removing personal bias, Tyranitar my be the best designed Pokemon in the generation, but he’s my number #2

Let’s breakdown the honorable mentions! I already name dropped Slowking, Skarmory and Steelix. Ampharos is another great Pokemon. Then there’s Donphan, Ursaring, Sneasal, Espeon, Umbreon and Hitmontop. This generation only introduced about 100 new Pokemons but they made it count. There were a few duds like Dunsparce, Jumpluff and Qwilfish along the way. But the cream of the crop sure did rise to the occasion!

#1 Houndoom- Odds are, you did not guess this. But Dark types were rolling in this generation (as I also like Murkrow.). Houndoom combined two awesome types in dark and fire. Dogs are by far my favorite animal so I do tend to like the dog based Pokemons (I love Snubbull too). I actually like his design more than Arcanine who is another epic dog Pokemon. Of course he would go on to get better moves in later games and even a mega which was awesome. I am fully aware this is a bias pick but I think, under these restrictions, Houndoom could make a lot of people’s top 5 coolest designed Pokemon of this generation.

So there you have it. Certainly some favoritism thrown in there as I’m sure Steelix would probably make a lot of people’s list. Gen 2 has really cool looking Pokemons. Be sure to let me know your favorites down in the comments below!