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Home / Entertainment

Haunted sandcastles and sexy lizards: the five weirdest Pokémon from the brand new game

By Ethan Sills
NZ Herald·
25 Nov, 2016 01:30 AM4 mins to read

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Bewear, left, Salazzle and Palossand are amongst the strangest additions to the world of Pokémon.

Bewear, left, Salazzle and Palossand are amongst the strangest additions to the world of Pokémon.

For many fans out there, their knowledge of the many Pokémon that now populate our world stops at the original 151. Try bringing up any Pokémon after Mewtwo to most people and you'll be greeted with blank faces.

But over 20 years the franchise has added nearly 700 more characters to its cast of electric mice and fire breathing dragons. Last week, Pokémon Sun and Moon, the seventh instalment in the main franchise, added 80 additional Pokémon to the series, as well as 18 variants of the original monsters updated for the new region, Alola.

As the games have now been out for a week, we feel it's time to highlight some of the weirdest new Pokémon for you to get your heads around.

Salazzle, the female power Pokémon

Ever since the games began, GameFreak has always put in a few Pokémon each round to appeal to a female audience, most notably Clefairy and Jigglypuff. For the first time in 20 years, they've made a female Pokémon that has all the control.

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Salazzle, a female only Pokemon that creates a 'reverse Harem'.
Salazzle, a female only Pokemon that creates a 'reverse Harem'.

Salazzle is female only, evolving from Salandit which can be both genders. But as there are no male Salazzle, the actual PokeDex entry describes how the females create a 'reverse Harem of male Salandit it lives with'.

As they still try and pretend this is a kids game, the entry doesn't go into many more details, but all us adults out there know what Salazzle is getting up to with its friends.

Palossand, the 'WTF were they thinking?' Pokémon

Palossand, a haunted sandcastle that is much scarier than the goofy design suggests.
Palossand, a haunted sandcastle that is much scarier than the goofy design suggests.

Ghosts are a fairly dodgy part of the Pokémon world, with lots of vague implications around them being dead Pokémon brought back to life for a lesser plain of existence. But there has never been one as dodgy as Palossand.

While it may look pretty stupid - it is essentially a haunted sand castle, after all - Pokémon.com wrote a detailed explanation about just how evil it is.

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According to the site, Palossand will use mind control on humans to help build the sandcastle shape, and it can create vortexes to eat other Pokémon before using their life force for creating its offspring.

Bewear, left, Salazzle and Palossand are amongst the strangest additions to the world of Pokémon.
Bewear, left, Salazzle and Palossand are amongst the strangest additions to the world of Pokémon.

Have fun going to sleep tonight after that mental image.

Alolan Exeggutor, the internet's new favourite Pokémon

The Alolan version of Exeggutor has earned plenty of fans online
The Alolan version of Exeggutor has earned plenty of fans online

Plenty of the original Pokémon are still fondly remembered today, but Exeggutor is not one of them. A walking palm tree that evolved from some eggs, there wasn't much special about it.

That was until early August, when Nintendo unveiled the new 36-foot tall variant, and the internet exploded. Pokémon has long been a favourite of Twitter and Tumblr, but these games in particular have captured people's imaginations, and none moreso than Exeggutor. A giant sentient, goofy-faced walking palm tree that's also a Dragon and attacks by falling over. Really, what isn't there to love.

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Bewear, the Stranger Danger Pokémon

Bewear, a stuffed toy inspired Pokemon that loves to hug
Bewear, a stuffed toy inspired Pokemon that loves to hug

Another reasonably creepy entry when you start to think about it. Firstly, the name Bewear is enough to make you a tad weary of its intentions. It is described as looking friendly but being incredibly dangerous and that it should not be approached, and that it is known for hugging with "incredible force" and refusing to let go. Considering that Bewear and its pre-evolution, Stufful, are meant to be based on soft toys, you have to stop and wonder who thought a killer hugs Pokémon was an appropriate addition.

Alolan Dugtrio, the Von Trapp Family Pokémon

They added blonde wigs to Dugtrio. That is really nothing else we can say.

How this changes fan theories about what exactly Dugtrio is hiding under the dirt, that's for the internet to decide.

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