Winter in Gaming – Day 15 // Ice Type Pokémon

I still greatly remember the day after high school that my mum took me and my sister to get copies of Pokémon Red & Blue. I’d been reading about it for ages through coverage in N64 magazine that covered things popular in Japan, and things relating to Game Boy.

The constant exposure to these strange interesting “Pocket Monsters” from Nintendo and the fact it was so seemingly infectious wherever it was to touch down made me adamant I wanted to day 1 be part of the craze when it came to England.

Comparatively Pokémon came so late to Europe, and given how awesome some of the games I had for PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were at the time it seems crazy to think such a primitive looking game captured so many in a world before cellphones.

Coming from the roots of Pokémon in Generation 1. Ice Types started off feeling like a rare specialty. The first game only had 5 Ice Types to speak of and none of those were a solely dedicated Ice Type either. These few ice type Pokémon we did have only started to appear quite late in your adventure too, although if you get a hold of one you’ll have an advantage against Blaine in the Elite Four.

In Gen 1 we only had Dewgong, Cloyster, Jynx, Lapras, and Articuno, making up a mere 3.3% of the Pokédex back when their were only 151. Only Dragon and Ghost were rarer than them (and that was because only one family tree existed for those types. As of the recently released Sun & Moon. Ice Type are now the rarest type in the game. The overall percentage of Ice Types when compared to the currently 802 strong Pokédex has arisen slightly though, but things like Ghost, Dragon and Fairy have had a steadier growth.

Personally if asked to choose. I’d probably have to say Articuno. It’s probably nostalgia helping that decision, plus it’s a legendary bird, and I ended up choosing team Mystic in Pokémon Go too.

I did use Glalie for quite a lot of my original play through of Omega Ruby last generation, so he gets a nod. Abomasnow, and Crabominable get my vote too simply because the idea of Yeti’s is a legend I’ve always found interesting and I like when Pokémon company bring real world legends and stories into Pokémon, which runs opposite to my long sighs when they do something lazy like make an Ice-cream Pokémon.

Pokémon as we all know can and will be enjoyed any season, so if you’re playing Sun & Moon currently, or feel the urge to play one of the many classics, why not set yourself an Ice Pokémon related goal. If you have no real Pokémon games to sink your teeth in then their is always Pokémon Go for you to indulge in. Why not try and shove an Ice type Pokémon on any local gyms you find, or buddy up with one in an effort to get candies and level it up further.

Below is the list as current to December 2016 for the Ice Types. All information below comes from PokémonDB.net so all links and profiles will take you there.