#mega falinks

Mega Skarmory - I adore the idea of it turning from silver to gold as a homage to its debut games (and maybe the overseas exclusives swap) and that they gave it those immense sharp talons that remind me so much of the Jacana bird.

Mega Barbaracle - Really, really cool design. The new silhouette has already won many people over to this otherwise not widely liked Pokémon. The added Fighting type it swapped its Water subtype for makes a lot of sense with its additional extremities.

Mega Pyroar - Unfortunately this one is the major miss for me. I like the idea of combining the male and females manes to form an even lager mane that is also a fiery kanji as well as its stockier body, but in execution it looks more unwieldy and barely different than anything interesting. The new shiny is cool but that's about it.

Mega Scolipede - As a huge Scolipede fan? This one is a winner. The extremely imposing horns make it look extra threatening and the whirlipede-like body armor gives it the appearance of a knight and a steed combined into one. Extremely cool decision.

Mega Scrafty - Its shed skin evolving into a huge body covering hood is very nice and matches its demeanor to a tee. It takes its base form concept of molting into its new body and cranks it up a notch. I do like it a lot.

Mega Starmie - This one is what I said about Feraligatr's being divisive but about ten times more. On its face, the fact that it just grows legs sounds super disappointing but I'm not gonna lie... I think many will be won over by its animations, which they tailored to memetic potential and ran with them to make it an expressive if still very goofy on purpose Mega. I do appreciate the creepy dex entry about it maybe mimicking humanoid bodies to supplant us, too. Also it does the pose for the starman enemy line from Earthbound so that's a bonus in my book.

Mega Falinks - Falinks was always a pretty cool idea, but making them into a megazord-like formation for its Mega is even more so in my opinion. Mark me down as a fan.

Mega Drampa - Another one of my underrated faves gets a super cool Mega. I love the idea that the energy of Mega Evolution rejuvenated its body into its younger self when it was in its prime. The dark, stormy clouds look is amazing, my only complaint is that they didn't swap its Normal type for an Electric subtype, which would have been more fitting.

Mega Floette - It honestly figured that Eternal Flower Floette would get its own Mega and it doesn't disappoint even if it is a very simple design. I love the huge flower and how it seems sentient, as well as how Floette climbs its attached stem for its animations.

Mega Zygarde - I do like it overall, having that HUGE cannon attached to it makes a threatening presence even if its role is that of a protector. The more humanoid body honestly reminds me of an alien bodysuit, which is cool but I do think Complete Form Zygarde is a tad cooler in my eyes, still.

Mega Falinks is great. Regular Falinks is an army of Little Guys(TM), so stacking them up to form what's effectively a mecha in the ultimate display of teamwork makes logical sense and is a super fun concept. The sword-and-sheild motif also fits well with the Greek soldier idea.

Now, if Mega Falinks was just a regular Falinks but stacked, that wouldn't be super exciting. However, there are a lot of good subtle changes here; the brass and two main troopers are larger while three other troopers are smaller, the left-arm trooper has a spiked crest that forms a sword, the right-arm trooper has an extra-big shield and is all black, the leg troopers have a single crest, and the brass has a larger crest as well as extra dots around its main eyes. These are great subtle touches that really punch up the design while still making it feel distinctly like Falinks.

And finally, the last thing that makes this design work is the personality. The expressions on all of the Falinks are great, with the brass and two main troopers looking angry while the leg troopers are just happy to be here, and the visual of the middle trooper struggling under the weight of the others? Absolutely perfect (and hilarious). Even better is that during animations, the legs also start straining under the weight of moving all of the others (it's also neat that the mega formation moves with the leg trooper's, uh, legs, instead of walking normally).