Attack forme, Defense forme, Speed forme… Deoxys was cool back in the day, eh? I remember the first time I visited Birth Island – I used a GameShark because I obviously couldn’t leave the country to attend an in-person event at seven years old, but shhh – I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ For about three years afterwards, I thought Birth Island was what the Bermuda Triangle looked like. To this day I’m still a bit confused.
But what’s up with Deoxys now? In competitive Pokemon it’s considered Uber, which means it’s out of the running for any standard modes. I can’t remember the last time it was available as an event Pokemon, and it’s never been obtainable in a mainline game otherwise. I think it was in a Mystery Dungeon game, but it didn’t leave the kind of impact ‘mons like Ninetales, Alakazam, Grovyle, and Dusknoir did. In Pokemon Go… look, Pokemon Go could be the game of the century because of how well it understands this uniquely wonderful world. It leans into catching ‘mons more than making them claw-punch one another, and the fact Deoxys’ rep has become so lacking over the last 15 years means that it’s way down the list when it comes to Go’s greats. I don’t think I even have one anymore because, to be honest, I couldn’t give a Ralts about Deoxys.
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I used to like it, mind. I was a big fan of Deoxys Speed as a little kid and regularly used it to beat up my GameShark-less friends in link battles. After a while, I got really into Deoxys Attack because of its ability to hit like a telekinetic truck. When I reached around nine or ten years old, I thought the Big Brain Move was to use Deoxys Defense, although because I used to play Pokemon like an idiot I ended up giving it four physical damage moves anyway, and hacked it to have high speed and attack because, again, I was a moron. Still am, mind, but – and here’s a real zinger for anyone as into the series as me – ‘I may be bad and stupid, but I’m serious about Pokemon.’
That’s where this is all coming from. I play Pokemon all the time – I wrote an entire Pokemon Unite walkthrough already because I am physically incapable of putting the game down and I’ve covered all kinds of cool things about the series over the last couple of weeks, like how Gen 2 is unbreakable and Unite is going to define the series’ future. When I say Pokemon has ruined Deoxys, I’m not being snarky or uneducated. Hell, I’m not even disappointed – Legendaries are pretty boring anyway, and with 898 Pokemon in existence, who cares if one isn’t as cool as it used to be?
It’s just a missed trick, I think. Deoxys’ various designs, unique gimmick, and background could have easily made it one of the most intriguing Pokemon around – it certainly could have been one of the better Legendaries, at the very least. But it’s unobtainable and extremely forgettable, which makes everything about it boring and stagnant. ‘Deoxys is dead and you have killed it!’ is what Nietzsche would say if he was a Pokemon trainer. He’d be right, too. Deoxys’ entire image has been wrecked, and I’m not sure Pokemon will ever be able to make it matter in any meaningful way again.
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