[Interesting Trope] Attempts at fanservice/virality that failed not because they were hated, but because nobody noticed them or cared at all.

[u/mp3help]

1) Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2) Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

[u/ElementalNinjas96]

People say Zeraora is a flopped industry plant when Poliwhirl exists. Back in Gen 1, it was damn near everywhere, even being Red's Starter in the Adventures Manga, since it was Satoshi Tajiri (the creator of Pokémon)'s favorite. But ever since Gen 3, Poliwhirl hasn't gotten anything new.

[u/Striking-Kiwi-9470 → u/ElementalNinjas96]

Maybe they shouldnt have made him Mediocre Water Type #16 in game. His evolution being weak to psychic, an already overpowered type in Gen 1, didn't help.

[u/NickelStickman → u/Striking-Kiwi-9470]

You also don’t get Poliwhirl/wag until fairly late into the game, which to be fair is a problem with Kanto water types in general. The only water types before waking up Snorlax are Gyarados, Blastoise and Vaporeon, all of which did become popular for probably unrelated reasons 

[u/OpeningHappy9692 → u/NickelStickman]

All of which are a pain in their own way, too. Gyarados needs you to level up the weakest mon in the game, Blastoise is a starter so if you chose Charmander or Bulbasaur you're out of luck there, and Vaporeon requires your one Eevee.

[u/ZigzagoonBros → u/NickelStickman]

Availability can make or break a Pokemon's popularity. If they put the fisherman that gives you the Old Rod in Viridian City instaed of Vermillion, and made Poliwag an Old Rod fishing encounter as common as Magikarp, I'm sure at least Charmander mains would've grown more attached to the Polis since not many players have the patience to raise a Magikarp in the early game.

[u/periah250 → u/NickelStickman]

Hey guys, did you know that in terms of male human and female Pokémon breeding, Vaporeon is the most compatible Pokémon for humans? Not only are they in the field egg group, which is mostly comprised of mammals, Vaporeon are an average of 3”03’ tall and 63.9 pounds,

[u/Testosteronomicon → u/periah250]

Hey guys, did you know that in terms of ____ _____ ___ ______ Pokémon ________, Vaporeon is the most co__o___l_ _______ ___ ______?

[u/IllEvent5465 → u/Testosteronomicon]

Hey guys, did you know that in terms of ____ _____ ___ _____ Pokémon ______, Vaporeon is ___ _____ ____a____ Pokémon

[u/ElementalNinjas96 → u/periah250]

NO

[u/Striking-Kiwi-9470 → u/periah250]

I resent you.

[u/SalvationArbys → u/Striking-Kiwi-9470]

Also such a strange choice to try and push a middle evolution in popularity. If you’re playing Gen 1 there’s basically no benefit to not evolving ‘whirl immediately, unless you’re pushing for amnesia at level 41.

He also gets barely any relevance outside of a couple minor trainer battles. Chuck has wrath in general 2 I guess, but by that time poliwhirl wasn’t exactly getting on the cover of Time magazine anymore.

[u/mj6373 → u/SalvationArbys]

I realize it wasn't the case to begin with so it's not the same thing, but this is a funny comment in light of Pokémon's overwhelmingly most successful mascot being a middle evolution.

[u/ElementalNinjas96 → u/mj6373]

What being Ash's Starter does to a mf

[u/mj6373 → u/ElementalNinjas96]

... Come to think, they also tried to make Jigglypuff (Edit: Clefairy) a franchise icon with one of the manga, didn't they? And then gave it a pre-evo in gen 2?

It's starting to look like getting a middle evolution as franchise mascot was a conspiracy the whole way.

[u/Autrah_Fang → u/mj6373]

I think it was Clefairy that they tried to make a franchise icon, but Jigglypuff did end up more iconic due to its recurring appearance in the anime lol

[u/ElementalNinjas96 → u/Autrah_Fang]

They initially wanted Ash's Starter to be Clefairy, but IIRC, they later found that boys like Pikachu more. Something like that.

[u/mj6373 → u/Autrah_Fang]

Oh, you're right, I mixed them up!

Point stands since they introduced Cleffa at the same time, tho.

[u/Autrah_Fang → u/mj6373]

Oh don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to disprove your point! Just a minor correction :)

And I totally get how you could get them mixed up. After all, Clefairy and Jigglypuff check a lot of very similar boxes: Pink gen 1 normal type with a 2 stage line that got a baby in gen 2 and turned into a fairy in gen 6 lmao (only, Jigglypuff stayed part normal)

[u/SalvationArbys → u/mj6373]

Shit you’re right.

[u/Common_Wrongdoer3251 → u/Striking-Kiwi-9470]

I think the move Hypnosis being so inaccurate really hurts a few early 'mons. Poliwhirl's belly looks like a hypnotist spiral, and Hypno is also based off the Hypnosis approach, but having... what, 55% accuracy? And then the potential for the enemy to wake up a turn later? Barely makes it worth using, because it can miss so often.

In a perfect world, you could run a Poliwrath with Hypnosis, Bulk Up, Wake-Up Slap, and Drain Punch or whatever. Hypno could be a little Dream Eater. They need an item or ability that boosts the accuracy of Hypnosis by 10% or something. Let my bois put people to sleep.

[u/Blue_Moon_Lake → u/Striking-Kiwi-9470]

It's also damn ugly.

If they made it cute or cool, it may have worked despite being mediocre.

That's why Greninja worked, because it was cool.

His evolution being weak to psychic, an already overpowered type in Gen 1, didn't help.

Wasn't pokemon single typed in blue/red?
I think dual types were only added in gold/silver.

So it would have only become weak to psychic in gen2.
Psychic was indeed busted in gen1 never being weak against anything except an other psychic, and only being weak to bug attacks.

At least gen2 fixed a lot of the imbalance with the new dark/steel types, dual types, and reworked type strengths and weaknesses.

[u/Sir__Kibbles → u/Blue_Moon_Lake]

Dual types existed in gen 1.

[u/Striking-Kiwi-9470 → u/Blue_Moon_Lake]

Dual types were very much a thing in Gen 1. There's an absurd number of poison type because of this. Bulbasaur is grass/poison, Charizard is Fire/Flying, etc.

Psychic technically had a weakness but the only Bug move that did damage was Pin Missile and everything that learned it either wasn't a bug type or was part poison. Plus it was a crap attack. Ghost has the same problem: only one ghost attack, it sucks, and all the ghosts were part poison.

Gen 1 was not well balanced at all and they've never really fixed it over the years, choosing the Balance By Power Creep method instead.

[u/BlackerDoom → u/ElementalNinjas96]

I remember really liking Poliwag and Whirl when I was a kid

It wasn’t my favorite mind you, but I found it’s boxing gloves endearing and his little intestinal spiral oddly hypnotic

But then I evolved it into Poliwrath and ended up hating it for reasons I’m not sure about now.

Politoed is cute n all but having to have friends and a Kings rock to trade and evolve him was an impossibility for me.

[u/Budsygus → u/BlackerDoom]

I hated Polywhirl because he evolved into himself only angry and with a backwards swirl.

I remember getting him in Gen 1, looking up his evolution in my guide, saying "What's the point?" and sticking him in a PC box forever.

[u/MC_Minnow → u/BlackerDoom]

I’ve never heard it referred to as an intestinal spiral before, but I honestly kinda love the sound of it.

[u/BlackerDoom → u/MC_Minnow]

It’s in the lore and some pokedex entries
It’s based on how some frogs have visible intestines

[u/FourOpenEyes → u/ElementalNinjas96]

I've still got the old 23 carat gold plated Polywhirl card from the burger king promotion! Even then I was kinda disappointed it wasn't one of the other ones hahaha. Pikachu, Charizard MEWTWO... at least it wasn't Jigglypuff!

[u/i-dont-speel-no-good → u/ElementalNinjas96]

I’m pretty sure it was because poliwhirl was one of the creators favorites or something

[u/ElementalNinjas96 → u/i-dont-speel-no-good]

Yeah, I... already said that?

[u/i-dont-speel-no-good → u/ElementalNinjas96]

I’ll be frank with you I saw the picture and didn’t read your entire post