In the Pokémon series' seventh generation we are taken to the island of Alola, for the events of Pokémon Sun and Moon. One of the new things that we got in these games that fans weren't expecting were redesigns of some of our favorite Pokémon from Generation 1.
These redesigns were specific to the Aloan region and could be captured alongside their standard counterparts. These redesigns were built to reflect the new type designations that these Pokémon received, as well as the themes and influences of the region but some of them were better done than others.
10 Best: Meowth
Meowth is probably one of the most famous Pokémon in the entire series, due to the popularity of a certain talking one in the TV series. This might be the reason it is one of the 10 Pokémon to receive an Alolan version. Alolan Meowth takes its new Dark-type designation to heart, having an overall more grey design with features that make the cat Pokémon look less cute and micheavious to looking smugger and more narcissistic.
9 Worst: Raichu
Raichu is the evolved form of Pikachu and in his Alolan Version, he not only retains his electric type but also becomes a psychic type. The thing is that this design seemingly doesn't take in to account either of the types that this version of Raichu belongs to.
The Alolan Raichu looks much softer than its standard counterpart and seemingly takes a lot of inspiration form surfers, being able to surf on its softer tail and having a tan.
8 Best: Muk
This is probably one of the more strange Alolan variations but it somehow works in its own way. The Alolan version of Muk is the adds dark type to the poison type that standard Muks already have. Alolan Muks go in the exact opposite direction in terms of the design philosophy from their standard counterparts. The Alolan Muks are colourful, almost having a rainbow style design and having what looks to be teeth or rocks all over its body, which make its crunch and bite attacks make more sense.
7 Worst: Diglett
The reason that this Diglett is one of the worst Alolan redesigns is that its just so barebones. The evolved version of Alolan Diglett, Alolan Dugtrio, is similarly weird looking but at least they put some effort into it by giving the three heads each different, but equally terrible and weird-looking hairdos that are noticeable and at least took some work to make. The Digletts hair is just three small strands poking out from the top and if you were too far away or had bad enough vision you wouldn't even notice a difference. Oh, and it has a tan and it's dirt is slightly darker but you didn't notice.
6 Best: Sandslash
Sandslash's Alolan variation is a solid example of an Alolan variation done well. It is a fairly popular Pokémon getting a redesign that reflects it's new type designation while still keeping elements from the original, all while still looking good on its own. Alolan Sandshrew is an Ice/Steel-type Pokémon and it reflects that destination fairly well in its design which looks great,even if Sandshrew now being and looking like and Ice-type does kind of make its name irrelevant.
5 Worst: Raticate
Raticate's Alolan redesign on paper checks off most of the boxes that we just listed for Sandshrew, it reflects its new type and it's a new design that is still familiar. The problem is that it really isn't distinct in the slightest from the original Raticate and in fact it made its evolutionary line less colourful as Alolan Rattata is also black.
Before you got some variation, you now just have to black rat Pokémon that look less cool than the original rat Pokémon so why would you catch it.
4 Best: Nine-Tails
Taking a turn back to the good Alolan Redisgns with a Pokémon that kind of needs to look good as a part of its charm or else it just doesn't really work. Nine Tails has always been a pretty Pokémon and that doesn't change with it's Alolan version. In the same vein as Alolan Sandslash, Alolan Ninetails has an ice aesthetic and is now Ice/Fairy type and this new design, while leaning more into the ICe side, still has the grace that you would expect from fairy type Pokémon.
3 Worst: Golem
Golem's Alolan version though is not nice to look at. To be fair Golem isn't a Pokémon known for being pretty but you could at least say that the standard Golem design looks cool, this one is just weird. Alolan Golem is now a Rock/Electric type Pokémon, so that means it now gets produced facial hair and eyebrows, just like the rest of its evolutionary line. They also get this weird reactor on the top of them but you probably wouldn't notice that over the moustache and eyebrows that make them look like a certain Italian plumber.
2 Best: Marowak
Marowak is the perfect example of a simple redesign done right. It isn't just a palette swap to match its new design element and type designation, though that is part of its design, it also adds little touches that are easy to notice. Case and point, its bone is now on fire at both ends, why, who cares it looks cool and fits Alolan Marowaks Fire/Ghost type designation. We also get a darker overall design to reflect the added ghost type and a symbol on its forehead. Overall it's the perfect representation of how you should redesign Pokémon.
1 Worst: Exeggutor
Now that we've talked about the best example of an Alolan redesign we have to talk about the worst. Aloan Exeggutor is just weird to look at. One could argue that it fits with the Alolan theme, with it being based on Hawaii and other tropical islands but you went from a Pokémon that was an egg-plant (get it) to a tree. Its type designation doesn't even make any sense as Alolan Exeggutor is a Grass/Dragon-type which I guess for the designs the first thing they think of when they think of a dragon is a tree, so ok.