Highlights
- Mega Evolution, introduced in Pokemon X and Y, allows Trainers to evolve Pokemon further, boosting their stats and giving them a new appearance.
- While Mega Evolution hasn't appeared in recent games, it remains popular in the community, with some creating their own Mega designs including Mega Swanna and Mega Luxray by a Pokemon fan known as CycloneToya.
- Other battle features like Z-moves, Dynamax, and Terastallization have been introduced in newer Pokemon games, each with their own unique mechanics and lore.
Many fans of the Pokemon franchise continue to create Mega forms even years after they were introduced, with one artistic member of the community sharing some of their own awesome Mega designs featuring Swanna and Luxray. Mega Evolution represents one of the most popular battle features ever introduced throughout the lengthy series of Pokemon games, and while it hasn't been seen since the Gen 7 titles, its common presence in community discussion keeps it relevant even today.
Fans who have only dipped their toes into the franchise via some of the newer titles such as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet may be more used to the Terastal phenomenon instead, but Mega Evolution provides a totally different method of empowering Pokemon. First introduced in Pokemon X and Y, Mega Evolution allows Trainers to evolve a Pokemon even further beyond what is normally considered their final evolutionary stage. Not only does this phenomenon significantly boost a Pokemon's stats in battle, it also gives them an awesome new appearance while they're temporarily Mega Evolved. Achieving Mega Evolution requires two primary items: a Key Stone held by a Trainer, and a certain Mega Stone held by a Pokemon.
Although Mega Evolution has been totally absent from the core-series Pokemon games since the Gen 7 games, the countless awesome Mega Pokemon designs have been inspiring community artists to design new ones for years. A couple of fantastic examples come from the talented Pokemon fan known as CycloneToya on Reddit, who recently shared some stunning designs on the site featuring their own ideas of what a Mega Swanna and Mega Luxray would look like. There are a total of 48 unique Mega Evolutions at present, and while quite a few different Pokemon are capable of taking advantage of the feature, there are still hundreds of Pokemon species left without an official Mega Form, giving artists plenty to work with.
Mega Evolution has long been considered by many fans to be the best battle "gimmick" ever introduced to the series, though it nonetheless has some competition. The introduction of new, similar battle features seem to have become a core aspect of newer Pokemon releases, with the Gen 7 games featuring Z-moves, Gen 8 introducing the Dynamax phenomenon, and the latest Gen 9 games showing off Terastallization. Though each of these gimmicks are vastly different and all functionally unique, Gen 8's Gigantamax Pokemon are often considered somewhat similar to Mega Evolution due to Gigantamax Pokemon also featuring whole new forms.
Not only do these battle features often prove crucial in turning the tide in a tough battle, the lore associated with them is also tied deeply into each game's main story. Many of the strange phenomenon that enable these battle features are exclusive to certain regions for one reason or another, though Mega Evolution is so far the only one to have been observed in multiple regions - leaving many fans hopeful that it will reappear in some future Pokemon titles.