Best and Worst Attack Animations

Title says it all. Any Generation.

Personally, I like:

• Fire Blast (HG/SS) - all fire attacks look awesome in Gen IV
• Megahorn (HG/SS) - my favourite move
• Hydro Pump (Gen IV) - looks just how it should
• Thunder Wave (Gen IV) - looks much better than Gen III
• Tri Attack (Gen I) - the best attack animation ever

My least favourite animations are probably:

• Extremespeed (Gen IV) - it's as though they took the Gen III animation and slowed it down. Why?
• Ice Beam (Gen IV) - it seems too thin to be a 95 power attack
• Dragon Claw (Gen IV) - Gen III animation was so much cooler.
• Follow Me (Gen IV) - when you use it, the hand sort of points to the left i.e. at your second Pokemon.
• Drill Peck (Gen IV) - radius seems to wide. Again, better in Gen III
• Solarbeam (Gen IV) - if the energy comes down from the sun then why would the Pokemon take in energy to use the attack? Maybe it's just me.
• EDIT - Double Hit (Gen IV) - why does it hit four times? I just hate double hit in general. The name just sounds like the biggest cop-out since, well, ever (slight exaggeration) "This move hits twice. What should we call it?"

...Aaand they're all from Gen IV. I guess I like Gen I and II too much to criticise their retro animations and Gen III had really good attack animations.

I actually really like gen III's Quick Attack's animation because it was ... quick... and then gen IV's is like 'move around in a circle and attack' and it makes no sense at all.

I make a mess in my pants every time someone uses Aura Sphere.

The worst animation is probably U-turn. It goes UPWARDS, not in a U shape. Yes I'm nit-picky.

GOOD:
- Perish Song in most gens.
- Gen IV Signal Beam.
- Gen IV Egg Bomb. I just like the explosion.

BAD:

- Return in Gen III is really... questionable-looking.
- ...as is Thrash in Gen IV.
- ...and Water Sport in Gen IV, especially when something like Budew uses it.
- Toxic in Gen I. Why is it raining?
- Water Gun in Gen III. It just looks like a blob of water is being thrown on the other Pokemon. No 'gun' aspect at all. Doesn't even look like it'd hurt.

LIEK:
Gen III Tri Attack
Gen IV Roar of Time (Just maybe slow down the start and make the finish more distored timeish)
Gen IV Dragon Pulse
Gen IV Encore
Gen IV Flamthrower
Gen IV Thunder

NO LIEK:
Gen IV Tri Attack
Gen III Ice Beam (Really? Badly drawn crystals in a row?)
Gen IV Ice Beam (Really? That thin)
XD Ice Beam (See Gen IV Ice beam)
Gen IV U-Turn (IT GOES UP!!)
Gen III Bubble/Bubblebeam (SAME ANIMATION!!)
Gen IV Water Gun (A drop of water! IT HURTS SO BAD!!)

I like:
the gen. III flamethrower
The Gen. II animations. All Of them. My favorites being surf and hyper beam
The Gen. III Hydro Pump
The Gen. IV Fire Type moves
The Gen. III solarbeam
The Gen. IV water gun, it was finally an actual spray as opposed to droplets
The Gen. IV Signal Beam

I don't like:
The Gen. IV steel wing, its just stupid
Most of the Gen. III animations
The Gen. IV Ice beam

EDIT!: Actually, I didn't like much of Gen. III to begin with, but I'm warming up to it now.

Actually, I like most Gen. III animations. This was the first game I ever played, and they kind of stuck with me. I didn't like most Gen. IV animations. I didn't like how Fire Blast went around your own Pokemon first, and that the background was all bright. Same for Flamethrower.

I like:
Gen. IV Tri Attack (Very epic)
Gen. I Fire Blast (Still epic)
Gen. IV Extrasensory
Gen. III Fissure

Don't like:
Gen. IV Fly (Looks too much like Sonic the Hedgehog)
Gen. IV Ice Beam (Doesn't even look like it would do much damage)
Gen. IV Wing Attack (Yellow feathers shouldn't come off bats or dragons)

Generation IV's Sky Uppercut... Is a fist doing an Uppercut, and Sky is nonwhere to be seen. Not to mention it's thrown from quite low. I liked it a lot more back in the third generation.

I've always liked the D/P Flash Cannon animation for some reason. Platinum's was worse, though, and I haven't seen the HG/SS version yet so I have no idea if it's even changed.

Don't like D/P/Pt Ice Beam, though, for basically the same reason as everyone else--it's too skinny-looking. If it was exactly the same but about two or three times wider, it'd be okay. Also, Ice Shard and D/P/Pt Extreme Speed both look way too slow to be "always hits first" moves. Extreme Speed just needs the hitting part to be sped up a bit, but Ice Shard needs to be completely re-done... it'd be better if it was just one bigger shard that went flying off really fast at an angle, with all the "cold mist" effect trailing behind it, or something like that. Instead of "cold mist+a bunch of small shards build up really slowly, then fly off at average speed" like it is now.

I can't remember too many others that I really like/dislike at the moment, though.

EDIT: About U-Turn... the Japanese name translates to something along the lines of "Somersault" if I remember right. So the animation isn't really wrong... it's just another one like "Faint Attack" (actually more like a sneak attack) and "Aerial Ace" (based on some sort of samurai slash technique, absolutely nothing to do with flight... I think it's only Flying-type because the original name of the move referenced birds, or something like that)--they're all attacks that were given an English name that doesn't really describe what it actually does. U-Turn is a bit more accurate than the other two, though, since that at least refers to how the Pokémon attacks, then immediately turns and switches out. No clue why it's Bug-type, though.

Favorites: Thunder(Gen III)
Hyper Beam(Gens III and IV(HGSS)) Gen III looks awesome, and HGSS really improved Hyper Beam from Platinum.
Perish Song (all Gens it Appeared in)
Aura Sphere (HGSS) Again, another improvement from Platinum
Luster Purge(Both Gens it Appeared in)
Draco Meteor: Goes without explaining

Hate: Assurance:(gen IV) Why does a pat on the back hurt so much?
Metronome: (gen IV) good move, but why can a pokemon who doesn't have fingers learn it?
Judgement: if the move's type changes, why is it always white?
Mist Ball(gen IV) A real letdown from gen III. Also, Looks more like a flying or water attack.

Worst: Any attack that involves the pokemon rotating into some weird position and them ramming itself at the enemy. Also, the new Lick animation. Made extremely creepy by the fact that you can hear a weird "Nyeeuuggh" sound when it's used.
Best: Spacial Rend, 1st gen Thunder, 2nd gen Quick Attack, and Close combat.

good ones:
perish song, under any circumstances
a lot of gen iii ones, including ice beam and blizzard off the top of my head
magical leaf gen iv i always liked
magma storm

shitty ones:
gen iii razor leaf
a lot of gen iv ones, only ones i can think of off the top of my head are assurance and uproar

Also, if Judgement has meteors going towards the opponent, why do they start at the pokemon, and fly away?

Brock said:

Also, if Judgement has meteors going towards the opponent, why do they start at the pokemon, and fly away?

Click to expand...

My explanation: It's too epic for mortals to comprehend.
Also, the game spells it 'Judgment'.

Because in Soviet Russia YOU hit the Meteors. And Pokemon Games are Soviet. Or not.

They do?

GEN II GHOST-CURSE.

I'm not sure whether to put this as "like" or "dislike" because it scares the hell out of me. The Pokemon DRIVES A NAIL INTO ITS OWN HEAD AAAAAHHH.

Also, Perish Song. I forget which Gen (maybe all, who knows?), but there's a sweet tune and the floaty musical notes, and then it JARS and the battle scene goes dark and the music notes all TWIST and drop to the ground and it is the sound of IMMINENT DEATH.

Those are the most memorable ones for me because they're creepy as all hell.

I like:
Pokemon Stadium 2's Psybeam/Psychic (The noise Psybeam makes... is so satisfying for some reason)
Pokemon Stadium 2's Hyper Beam (Same as Psybeam)
Pokemon Stadium 2's Earthquake
Pokemon Stadium 2's Thunder.
Pokemon Stadium 2's Dragonbreath. (Always thought of it as blueish green.)

And actually, most of Pokemon Stadium 2's attack animations. They're what I think of what I think of an attack.

For main series games:
Gen II's Ice/Thunder/Fire Punch.
Gen III's Absorb (I LOVE the noise it makes. Love love love it.)
Gen II's Fly.
Gen IV's Aura Sphere
Agreed with the person who said that most Fire attacks in Gen IV are awesome.
Gen II's Flame Wheel/Sacred Fire.
Gen III's Overheat
Gen II's Crunch (The screen goes all BLACK and it's just WHOA THAT'S GOTTA HURT like they really crunched through your Pokemon.)
Water Pulse. All Generations.
Dragon Claw. All Generations.
Shadow Ball. All Generations.

Dislike:
Gen III's Razor Leaf, I just don't.
Gen IV's Quick Attack/Extremespeed (I think Gen II's version of both was much better. It's just... rotating like one person said.)
Gen IV's Fly. (What's the deal with the big blue bouncing sphere going up? That makes NO sense to me.)
Cut, All Generations. (It just looks so... boring.)
Gen II, III, IV's Dragonbreath. (In the first ones, it looks like a Fire attack, not a Dragon one. In the second... it's PINK WHAT IS THIS? I always thought Dragonbreath was blueish green!)
Gen III's Psychic (The noise it made annoyed me.)
Gen III's Thunderbolt/Thunder Wave (Just... weren't satisfying for me. Thunderbolt looked kinda lame and so did Thunder Wave)
Gen IV's Strength (The Pokemon shrinks and grows in an annoying way and doesn't even throw a bolder or anything. Why?)

And yeah, that's all I can think of.

One that made it onto my all-time favorites was Gen III Leaf Blade -- totally awesome to me. I was disappointed how they made it an actual sword in Gen IV. Another is Ice Beam, both Gen III and IV. The former has a really icy and powerful feel to it, but the latter has an air of freezing cold and concentration, which I think would hurt the Pokemon more than the actual beam. Another I really like is Gen III Ice Ball; I haven't seen the Gen IV animation, though, so I can't say that I like that one yet.

Some I dislike are the above-mentioned Gen IV Leaf Blade, Submission (I don't get it), and Gunk Shot, which is a physical move but looks special. Grass Knot is misleading in the same way; according to Veekun, it's in the Special class but makes contact...

I also really loved the Gen. III Leaf Blade. This was probably helped by how Ruby was my first game, and Treecko was my starter.

After he learned Leaf Blade, I used it in battle soon. After I saw what it looked like, my reaction was something along the lines of, "Holy crap, that was EPIC."