My favorite Pokemon type is the Dark-type. Yes, I also happen to love Shadow the Hedgehog and went through a phase where I thought ninja were the coolest thing ever - why do you ask?
The allure of the Dark-type is both in its mystery and how it flirts with the edge of the typical Pokemon rules. Pokemon battles are supposed to be a fair fight in the name of friendship and good sportsmanship. Dark-types spit on that by using attacks like Beat Up, which has all members of the user's team gang up on the foe. Or Parting Shot, where the user hurls stat-reducing insults at the foe while running away. When Pokemon Gold & Silver added the type back in the year 2000, little wannabe edgelord me was ready to play dirty. There was just one problem: the game doesn't let you catch any Dark-types until the endgame.
Dark-Types: Answering The Mewtwo Problem
Pokemon Gold & Silver take players to the Johto region, a land steeped in legends and new discoveries. The most advertised new discoveries were 100 fresh Pokemon for the PokeDex, and two types that would change how we battled. The Steel-type was focused more on Defense thanks to its resistance to the Psychic-type and outright negation of Poison-type attacks. Dark-type was a bit more aggressive and had a speedster in Sneasel, but also had the crucial immunity to Psychic-type moves. You see, Psychic-type Pokemon were kind of a big deal.
Mewtwo was the undisputed king of first generation Pokemon battles. Its speed and power were unmatched, and literally nothing had resistance to its Psychic-type attacks. Anyone that watched the cartoon saw Ash Ketchum also struggle against Psychic types when he fought Gym Leader Sabrina, and his solution was to recruit a Ghost-type. Those that tried to copy Ash ran into a snag, however, in that the only Gen I ghosts were also part Poison-type. Poison is weak to Psychic. So that MVP Gengar would kneel before Mewtwo's power like everything else.
Naturally, every kid abused Mewtwo's power. My own battles with friends always wound up Mewtwo vs. Mewtwo. We hurled Psychic attacks at each other, hoping for a lucky critical hit to be the decider. So when Gold & Silver promised to balance Mewtwo by adding a whole type to counter it, I was all in. It wasn't just about the Dark-type cool factor - I was already planning how Sneasel would be the ace of my team.
Where Did All The Dark-Types Go?
So it was that I picked up my copy of Pokemon Silver, slipped it into my Game Boy Color, and started my Johto journey. I picked Cyndaquil for a starter, but soon I would find my Sneasel... or so I thought.
I was surprised to find that the first leg of my quest was light on new Pokemon altogether. Pidgey still swarmed me on the first routes, and there was entire tower dedicated to Bellsprout. Confused but undaunted, I decided to wait until night. Another new mechanic of Gold & Silver was a working clock. The PM hours would change the environment, and different Pokemon would come out. Dark-types had to come out in the dark, right? Nope, at least not in Johto. All I got were Hoothoot and the occasional Gastly.
I would eventually learn that you can't find any Dark-types in the wild in Johto. You have to traverse the whole region, get all eight gym badges, and beat the Elite Four. Then you unlock the Gen I Kanto region to explore. It's there, in the post-game, that all the new Dark-type Pokemon appear.
The disappointments kept coming, as none of these Dark-types are viable additions to your team when you first encounter them. Murkrow and Houndour come in the level 15 range, after you've already bested the level 40-50 Elite Four challenge. Sneasel comes in way later at level 40, and by then you're gearing up to fight Red and his level 81 Pikachu. The worst offender is Larvitar, who spawns in the last dungeon at level 15 and gains experience at a slower rate. Those looking forward to using the mighty Tyranitar were in for both a shock and a grind.
As an adult who writes about games (and still loves Shadow the Hedgehog), I can now tell that this was the point. Tyranitar is a "pseudo-Legendary" on par with the likes of Dragonite and Garchomp. Its power is your reward for putting in the time to find Larvitar and raise it up. The developers also probably wanted to give players something to do once they beat the story. Still, that doesn't quite explain why Murkrow and Houndour don't show up earlier. They're underpowered by the time they appear, and aspiring Dark-type trainers like myself would have appreciated them. And since Pokemon is supposed to be for kids, it helps to cater to that impatience a little.
Shoutout To Umbreon
There is one sort of exception to all this: Umbreon. Eevee got a Dark-type evolution in Gold & Silver, and it's one of the most popular Pokemon of all time. An Eevee could be found in Johto if the player was willing to backtrack. After meeting Bill in Ekruteak City, you can go back to Goldenrod (home of the infamous Whitney) to see him again. Bill will then give the player a low-level Eevee. With enough friendship, level grinding, and timing, Eevee can evolve into Umbreon and be your team's resident Dark-type. While I missed out on this in my laser-focused quest to find Sneasel, Umbreon later became a core part of my Eevee team.
I still look fondly back on my time with Pokemon Gold & Silver. They built on the thrill of discovery created by the first games and made me a fan for life. The day/night cycle blew my mind as a game mechanic, and destroying Joey's "top percentile" Rattata never got old. I would gladly give Nintendo money for a "Let's Go!" version of Gold & Silver. Just please let me do it with Sneasel at my side this time.