Though the Pokémon series owes a lot to the original games, many fans consider the second generation of games titled Pokémon Gold & Silver to be the best in the franchise.
The adventure takes place in the Johto region and introduces kids to an entirely new batch of fantastical creatures they're set to bond. Plenty of new favorites were made within the community in this new unexplored region. So take the time to look at and rank the 10 most underrated pokémon of the Johto region, who originally appeared in Pokémon Gold & Silver.
10 Unown
Unown is very much the alphabet soup of pokémon, for better or worse. As a concept they've always been interesting considering they're these foreign creatures who represent a language no one understands.
A normal trainer would simply catch one to fill out their PokéDex, but the diehards go out of their way to get every letter of the alphabet, which is pretty intense. Unown may not be the best choice for trainers who like to battle, but they represent a special and unique aspect of pokémon and how they contribute to the franchise in unorthodox ways.
9 Sentret
Amazingly, Sentret never caught on as a beloved pokémon considering the things it has in common with Totoro from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro. Sentret's biggest knock is that the designers decided to have it evolve into something more ferret-like, instead of fully committing to the chubby raccoon aesthetic.
Sentret on its own is still extremely adorable and makes one of the best choices for a fluffy plush collectible outside of the king of cuddle in Snorlax. Give your Sentret an everstone and just keep it by your side.
8 Magcargo
Young boys will likely never choose a snail as their favorite animal, but if you showed them one that happened to be infused with lava, their opinions may swiftly change. Magcargo is the pokémon that embodies that very description, and helps turn Slugma into something better.
With its big curious yellow eyes, Magcargo falls into that special place where it's so non-traditional in how cute it is. It would be understandable why it's overlooked if it was just a simple fire-type, but this thing also happens to have the dual-typing of rock as well, making it even more formidable.
7 Donphan
Donphan made a quick impression on kids when they first sat in theaters and watched the opening of Pokémon: The First Movie. The idea of a quick and nimble miniature elephant-like boar who sported a trail of armor from snout to tail was a cool sight for pokémon fans.
It never made much sense why it was just ground-type, and that likely played a big part in trainers deciding to go with a different pokémon. In many ways, fans should applaud Donphan for being the inspiration for the devastating move known as rollout, which it was born to perform in battle.
6 Quagsire
It's always fascinating how weirdly designed creatures and characters can quickly be forgotten about, or create diehard niche fanbases who prides themselves on entertaining the weirdest parts of their favorite franchises.
Quagsire is likable simply due to it sharing the same eye shape with Ditto, the universal pokémon clone. Since it often displays a blank expression, Quagsire also tends to come off as a bit of a sociopath. Its bulbous body not only makes it a lot more cuddly, but it also helps it come across a lot more friendly and approachable for a giant salamander.
5 Ampharos
Ampharos is a pokémon who gets forgotten about quite often since it looks so different than its predecessor's in its evolutionary line. Most pokémon fans forget that Mareep doesn't just evolve into the pink sheep Flaffy, but that it has a third form in Ampharos.
Its regular design looks nothing like a sheep and loses all of the wool/hair it once had. That is of course until you Mega Evolve it, which in its Mega form Ampharos gets a full head of beautiful white hair in addition to an immaculate thick tail. The lack of admiration for this electric pokémon is quite shocking.
4 Ursaring
Bears are one of the most beloved species of animals, and it's a shame that more people don't appreciate Ursaring the way they do its predecessor, Teddiursa. The argument often leveraged at fans of Ursaring focuses on the idea that its design is pretty uncreative, as it's pretty much a regular bear with a circle on its chest.
Though that's technically true, there's enough flair with the shoulder detailing where one can argue that it isn't entirely uninspired. Also, what happened in these people's lives that made it so the sheer sight of a cartoon bear didn't bring them immediate joy?
3 Ledian
Ladybugs aren't the type of bug that is universally loved by everyone, so it's understandable why trainers around the world didn't all fall in love with Ledyba from Johto all together.
Its evolution Ledian looked very much like the red Power Ranger, and thus it's a shame more people didn't bring this thing into battle. An entire generation of kids fell in love with both Pokémon and the Power Rangers, so, oddly, a pokémon that brought both of those worlds together quickly became a box-dwelling PokéDex entry. Ledian here's hoping you get a Galarian form.
2 Slowking
In Pokémon: The Movie 2000, kids around the world were introduced to a hyper-intelligent Slowking who was gifted with the ability to communicate with humans. This was quite unsuspected as the creature and its evolutionary line often found themselves as the center of dunce-related ridicule.
Slowking's design is very much inspired by the idea of the aloof ruler, and the collar and crown combo turn a boring Slowpoke design into something truly regal. You don't have to like all Slowking but appreciate the arguably the best talking pokémon outside of Meowth and Mewtwo.
1 Heracross
Heracross isn't only the most underrated pokémon in all of Johto, it also happens to be the one pokémon most deserving of a regional variant. Fans were hoping to see it pop up sporting a new design and possibly a new typing with the reveal of the Galar region, featured in Pokémon Sword & Shield, but alas that never happened.
There's still hope that this tree-dwelling bug and fighting-type Hercules beetle reappears as one of the surprise additions to the Expansion Pass areas set to release for the 8th generation of games. Heracross doesn't deserve to be ignored any longer.