Gamefreak. Makers of Pokémon. A titan of the gaming industry since 1996. Their first game Pocket Monsters: Blue Version released in Japan in '96 and featured over 150 completely unique monster designs. And as time went on and the series of games became increasingly more popular, the amount of content increased as well.

The Pokémon franchise is one built on its pure quantity of content.

That's not to say that they don't also have quality designs. It's just that in comparison to the 807 Pokémon currently in existence, it's obvious numbers are crucial to their overall plan. And along with those hundreds of Pokémon, there's an almost equal amount of moves they can perform. Each Pokémon only has access to four moves at a time (ssshh ignore Z-moves). If you're struggling to figure out which four moves would work best for your favorite little Pocket Monster I don't blame you, there's over 700 to choose from. Granted there's no single Pokémon that can use all 728 moves (though Mew might come close) but still, guaranteed decision anxiety! When you take into consideration physical moves, special moves, abnormal status moves, stat changing moves, and pure power moves. It's harder than you'd think to only pick four. It gets a bit easier when you scroll down the list though because there are some obvious winners and some even more obvious losers. Some moves are just purely awful, Gamefreak must have had a plan when designing them, but I don't know what it is. In any case, to help you out, I've got your list of 15 Pokémon Moves That Are Way Too Overpowered (And 15 That Barely Leave a Scratch)

30 Overpowered: Substitute

First things first, in a game where the primary objective is to knock your opponents Hit Points to 0, Substitute is amazing.

Substitute is a move that well, substitutes your Pokémon for a little green dinosaur doll.

Creating this brave little plus costs 25% of your current HP, which then becomes the HP for the doll. The Substitute takes all the hits for you until it's ready to burst, then your Pokémon switches back in. It's a move with tons of applications that can be used again as soon as it runs out, making your opponent extremely annoyed. Godspeed little dinosaur.

29 Too Weak: Splash

Here we have the longest running joke since the first Pokemon. Magikarp, use Splash attack!

It's essentially a placeholder move Gamefreak gave Magikarp to show how useless it is.

The whole gimmick with Magikarp is that it's awful until it evolves into Gyarados. And what other way to make it awful than to give it only one useless move. Granted, that was back in Generation 1, and Magikarps nowadays can learn to do more complicated things, such as bouncing or flailing around. Overall in the massive pool of Pokémon moves, Splash barely even makes a well, splash.

28 Overpowered: Moonlight & Wish

There's a couple of different healing moves on this list and for good reason.

Healing moves in Pokémon are always innately powerful, depending on how much or how fast they heal.

You have moves like Leech Life that heal for almost nothing, as well as moves like Rest that heal you completely with some consequences. Moonlight is one of the best among these, depending on the situation. Normally it heals about 25% of your Pokémon's HP, but at night that's doubled. 50% of your HP back immediately is incredibly useful, the only problem is how few Pokémon can actually learn it.

27 Too Weak: Wrap

You'd think that a move that completely immobilizes the enemy would be more useful, but you'd be wrong.

Wrap is a move introduced all the way back in Generation 1. It's a normal type, physical move, that has a power of 15.

Wrap stops the target from switching out and does damage every turn for anywhere from 1-5 turns. All of that sounds strong but Wrap is the worst possible variant. There are a number of other moves that do the same thing only much better.

26 Overpowered: Stealth Rock

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Stealth Rock is our first example of an "entry hazard" move. They're moves that focus on punishing your opponent for having a Pokémon faint or switching one in.

Stealth Rock is one of the more blunt ones, essentially hitting your opponent with stones as they switch in.

But what makes it so overpowered? It's the fact that it does a set portion of your opponent's max HP, based on how weak they are to Rock-Type moves. I mean, a Pokémon that's 4x weak to rock loses half of their HP. Insanely strong in a setting where every hit point counts.

25 Too Weak: Teleport

Teleport debuted in the Pokémon Cartoon in the 90's where the Pokémon Abra was shown to always teleport away from confrontations. It was the same for Red and Blue, Abra's were hard to catch because they would always immediately teleport away.

Essentially that's all the move does, it teleports you...away.

For random encounters, this is ever so slightly useful but since you can't run away from trainer battles Teleport serves little purpose. Plus, as more games came out, so did more ways to escape random battles. Meaning Teleport is even more unnecessary than it already was.

24 Overpowered: Spikes/Toxic Spikes

Here we arrive at the most annoying of the entry hazard moves, Spikes.

Spikes and it's counterpart Toxic Spikes, are two moves that I'm convinced were made only to aggravate people.

Essentially, you can throw down up to 3 stacks of Spikes, and whenever a new Pokémon switches in, they'll do damage. With Toxic Spikes, instead of doing more damage depending on the number of spikes, you instead contract more poison. Both of these moves are absolutely infuriating to fight against because most of the time your opponent also has a move that forces you're Pokémon to switch. Help me.

23 Too Weak: Memento

Memento isn't just a cult classic movie, it's also an absolutely mediocre Pokémon move. Anyone familiar with Pokémon most likely knows of the moves Self-destruct or Explosion.

These moves cause the user to faint, but also (mostly) knock out their opponent in the blast. Memento is similar, it knocks out its user.

But, in exchange, the opposing Pokémon loses two stages of their Special Attack and Attack stats. And while that's a pretty big debuff, it's not worth sacrificing 1 of your 6 Pokémon. This is apparently a move for people who don't care about one specific Pokémon on their team.

22 Overpowered: High Jump Kick

High Jump Kick is my absolute favorite move in Pokémon.

It was introduced in Generation 1 as Hitmonlee's signature move.

It's insanely strong with a power of 100 and it even has an accuracy of 90%. So what's the catch? Well, the thing is, doing a high jump kick is really tough. If you do happen to fall within the 10% margin of error, then you're taking a big chunk of damage. Your Pokémon will then crash and burn, taking a percentage of the damage you would have done. It's a double-edged sword, that's absolutely worth the risk.

21 Too Weak: Razor Wind

Razor Wind is the first two-stage move on this list.

On the first turn, nothing happens. But on the second turn, Razor Wind actually goes off for a whopping 80 base damage.

With 80 power and 100% accuracy, why is this move considered "bad"? Well, it's the worst among the two-stage moves, that's why. If you're going to use a move that takes two entire turns to use, there are tons of better choices. I didn't want the worst half of this list to be moves with only low base damage after all.

20 Overpowered: Earthquake

Earthquake is the most dependable move in the Pokémon games.

Anyone who has played a Pokémon title all the way to the Hall of Fame has used Earthquake.

It's the most well rounded, strong, and aesthetically pleasing ground type move. Earthquake is all hundreds homie, 100 power, and 100% accuracy. It's also a physical based move, and it has a ton of PP. Lastly, a HUGE amount of Pokémon can learn it. All of these factors combined make Earthquake the most used Pokémon move to date. Quick tip, use it on an opponent who likes to use Dig. You're welcome.

19 Too Weak: Frustration

The Friendship subsystem introduced in Generation II is one of the more kid-friendly aspects. Essentially as you take better care of your Pokémon, they love you more and perform better. There's a move called Return, that does more damage, the more your Pokémon loves you.

The counterpart to that is Frustration. Your Pokémon hates you? Perfect, use Frustration.

Problem is, it's insanely hard to keep a Pokémon at max hatred. Alternatively, it's incredibly easy to keep it at max friendship. Frustration is a move that was created before gaining your Pokémon's love was as easy as petting them a couple times.

18 Overpowered: Outrage

The Dragon-type in Pokémon is pretty overpowered. Up until Fairy-type was introduced it was only weak to either itself or to ice.

Dragon moves tend to pack a lot of both power and flair, and Outrage is a prime example.

Outrage was originally the trademark move of the Dratini evolutionary line. I'm sure faithful fans remember when Lance the Elite Four Champion had three Dragonite's that all spammed Outrage. Tons of fun, let me tell you. The only downside is that after using it your Pokémon becomes confused, but that's a pretty light punishment.

17 Too Weak: Present

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Poor little Delibird. Delibird is a Pokémon that was introduced in Generation II and is obviously a combination of a penguin and classic Santa Claus iconography.

They're adorable little birds that have genuinely great designs. Their trademark move was, obviously, Present.

Present, unfortunately, just like Delibird, is all spectacle and no bite. It either does damage or heals your opponent, which is already bad. If that wasn't enough, if it manages to hit, the damage is randomly chosen between 40, 80, and 120. I'm sorry, but having RNG in your move is a surefire way to end up on this list.

16 Overpowered: Softboiled

So we've already talked about the best practical healing moves, but now lets talk about the peak of healing.

There are a couple of healing moves that are specific to one certain Pokémon, or can only be learned by a handful.

Softboiled being the best variation of it. It's a move that's only learned during leveling by Chansey or Blissey. It heals the user a flat 50% of their Max HP, and can be used outside of battle. This essentially turns Chansey into a walking Poke-center and really makes this move overpowered for time-saving purpose

15 Too Weak: Synchronise

You've probably never heard of the move Synchronoise. You might have heard of the ability Synchronize, which is actually pretty decent, but the move is pretty obscure. It's a move that came about during Generation V and has a pretty niche ability.

It can only damage Pokémon of the same type as the user.

For example, Chatot is using it in the picture above, and it only hits Beware because they're both Normal-type Pokémon. Well, what's the problem? Well if we're ranking the best and worst moves, one that can only hit 2 types out of 16, gets ranked pretty low.

14 Overpowered: Scald

Man Ducklett is really styling in that picture. You know why? It's not the sunglasses, it's cause it's using Scald.

Scald is a water type move that does it all.

Your Pokémon frozen? Use Scald. Want a water-type move that can inflict burns? Scald. Want a move with 100% accuracy that hits hard? Oh hey look it's Scald. Scald is the end all be all mid-damage water type move. It's the flamethrower of water moves. Get that lame old water gun out of here. Hyrdo Cannon? What so I can miss? Nah, give me Scald instead.

13 Too Weak: Grudge

Hey, you know whats petty? Grudges. Who needs them? Certainly not my Pokémon.

Grudge is a move introduced in Gen III and it's even lamer than Memento.

If you use Grudge then faint, the move that caused you to faint will lose all it's remaining PP and will no longer be usable. It's basically Disable, but your Pokémon faint's as a bonus. I can't for the life of me understand why someone would want this in their moveset. Just use Disable! Or if you want to get an enemy's move out of the picture, just beat the enemy. Problem solved.

12 Overpowered: Hidden Power

Hidden Power is on this list thanks to its pure utility. There's a playstyle for Pokémon called being a "sweeper". It means all four of your moves are of a different type. That way you can be prepared to target the weaknesses of as many Pokémon as possible.

Hidden Power gives a lot of Pokémon who don't have access to moves of a certain type, a chance.

IV's are the individual values of a Pokémon, to save time, they're specific to that ONE Pokémon. And the type of damage Hidden Power does is tied to that IV. Bam, instant utility.

11 Too Weak: Fury Attack

Fury Attack is just as bad as Fury Swipes since they're essentially the same move.

It's a multi-strike move, meaning it can hit a certain number of times in the same turn.

The amount of times it hits is based on chance and as you know that instantly means it's an unreliable move. That, in conjunction with its poor power, makes it among the worst of the multi-hit attacks. Just use double slap instead, it's better, and slapping your opponent is way more insulting anyway.