Nidoran♀, Nidorina, Nidoqueen

Lil’ Nidoran♀ is another Poison type, and the whole line has a big place in my heart. I definitely prefer the old Red/Blue Sugimori art from when I first saw these little rabbit/porcupine/dinosaur guys so I’m actually just gonna use that cuz it’s way spikier and (in my opinion) way cooler/cuter.

There we gooooooo. What a cute little baby. I wish even this art was spikier, tho. I think I liked the male version of Nidoran better as a kid, but only because his ears are bigger. Girl Nidoran is still a super good design and I usually had both in my party for my early game until I got two moon stones, evolved them all the way, and then would replace them with something less redundant. Which is kinda sad, but just goes to show how much I liked this first evolution stage. The smaller ears make it more reliant on smell, which is cute. She is SUPER toxic, which reminds me of other cute, hyper-poisonous animals like dart frogs. Also Nidoran♀ is the only one in her evolution line that can breed, which is weird?

Of the two middle evolutions, I always preferred Nidorina over Nidorino. Shame she loses her forehead spike, but her jaws get stronger and she has sort of a hyena/pitbull look to her face that’s really endearing. Plus those African painted dog ears are perfect.

Nidoqueen is awesome looking. I love the big kaiju, dinosaur looking gen I mons, and I love that Poison type gets 2 representatives in it. I don’t really understand why it gains ground type, but I guess they have burrows and can cause tremors. She carries her young in between her spines, which is super cute. Again, I wish she was even spikier, but I like the cool defensive build here and how she learns Mega Punch. Also she gets her spike back, but it’s almost more like a rhino nose horn, which is SWEET.

Such a sick looking evolution chain.