Since Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is out...

...time to take a look back at the previous 8 generations. Why? Because the newest generation is UGLY. Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and everyone will differ, but I think there's been a general consensus that the Pokemon design have been going downhill pretty much since Gen 5 and haven't been able to recover.

Now, here are some criteria I'm using to count how many aesthetically pleasing Pokemon have been delivered each generation:

1. Only the final evolution counts. This is because the game incentivizes you to use the final evolution and you will be intentionally handicapping yourself if you don't.

2. Exceptions to rule one: G-max. Where pre-final evolutions can G-max but final evolutions can't. In this case G-max forms will be considered a "final" evolution.

3. Final evolution is based on the generation it's released in. So if the Pokemon gets another final evolution in a later generation, the pre-final evolution still counts for the generation it appears in.

4. Only aesthetics are considered. Game mechanics tend to favor the ugly 'mons.

With that over, let's get down to the breakdown.

Gen 1: 23
Gen 2: 32
Gen 3: 22, Plusle/Minun and Latios/Latias have been consolidated into a single entry due to them being palette swaps of each other
Gen 4: 23
Gen 5: 17
Gen 6: 16 (11 original + 5 Mega-evolutions of previous 'mons)
Gen 7: 20 (16 original + 4 Alolan variants) ¹
Gen 8: 29 (16 original + 3 Galar variants + 3 Hisui variants + 7 G-max of previous 'mons)

¹ I counted Oricori twice. Oricori has 5 forms with different typing and are more than just color palette swaps. As such, I consider them to be acceptably different Pokemon designs. I liked the Baile and Sensu designs while the others left me feeling meh, hence counting Oricori twice.

So, I'm actually a bit surprised, because I always thought I enjoyed Gen 1 Pokemon designs the most, but it seems Gen 2 actually delivered aesthetically the best for me.

In terms of pure original Pokemon design that isn't adding a little extra to or variation upon the already pleasing base design of previous generations (and not to mention some actively made the original 'mon worse, such as Lopunny, Persian, Lucario, Charizard etc.) Gen 6 was the least satisfying, with only 11 generation specific Pokemon that looked good.

Other interesting bits of trivia is that Gen 4 is the only one one where all three of the final evolution starters appealed to me, making the starter choice genuinely difficult. Follow that, Gen 2 had two starters where I liked the final evolution. Gen 3, Gen 6, and Gen 8 have the distinct dishonor of having zero starters with final evolutions that I would want to keep on my end game team.

Interestingly, Gen 4 also had the most number of Legendaries that visually appealed to me (3), while Gen 1-3 had two appealing Legendaries, Gen 5 had one appealing legendary, and Gen 6-8 had no Legendaries that appealed to me despite the increasing amounts of generation specific Legendaries.

Finally, Normal type was predominantly my favorites with fire types dying a slow miserable death as the generations proceeded (5 in gen 1 and basically 1 in each latter generation with a slight uptick in gen 5, but only because of secondary fire-typing). With the introduction of Fairy type in Gen 6, normal dominance gave way to fairy dominance, partly because most of the normal types I liked got a secondary fairy or swapped to fairy type.

My least favorite type is a toss up between steel, dark, rock, ground, poison, and fighting. Like...just why are those types so ugly?

Meanwhile, I think Gen 9 introduced...two (?) final evolutions that I find remotely appealing. Man...Pokemon really need to reassess their designs.