Splash_King
The Scrubbiest of Hunters
All too true. They've milked the series since the first generation (being the anime and all, as well as some rediculously pointless products, like the gold plated pokes you got at Burger King for the 1st movie's release), and they'l continue doing so until the series outright dies, whenver that'l happens.
Also true. The anime got more fail every season, IMO, I stopped watching early in the Gold/Silver season.
Generation 4's pokemon can also look pretty damn stupid if they're standard fare (Bidoof says it all, eh?), just as you said. Not only are they milking the franchise through the anime and products, they're milking it through putting less work in the pokemon themselves.
Not everything is terrible as time goes on, though. When Ruby/Sapphire came around, the game was really refined, it's horizens were broadened, and new, important gameplay mechanics came into being.
The same goes for Diamond/Pearl. The game was completely renovated again as if it was an entire new game, more very important pokemon were made, and everything was expanded apon.
My point being, pokemon became less lovable as time went on, but the games became more solid and advanced. A bittersweet trade off, really. Pokemon today is a competitive battler's dream, after all.
