#56 + #57: Mankey and Primeape

Ok, these names and designs aren't the most inspired ever (people who praise generation one for being the only one with good designs are wrong, by the way, since there are some nice ones in every generation and nostalgia is a powerful thing)...

Mankey... Even the name doesn't really help its cause, but as a first evolution, its stats are promising: 80 attack and 70 speed are encouraging, meaning it can hit hard (harder than Persian, ties with Dugtrio and Golbat and also everyone's beloved Pidgeot). The things that let Mankey down are the defences (35 physical and 45 special coupled with 40 HP) so you won't survive too long if you can't outspeed, yet the poor special attack can be forgiven: you only really need one way to dominate when you have backup.

Hmm... Pigmonkey? Great!

Moving on to the typing and abilities: is this our first pure fighting-type? Wow... Remember that this makes it weak to psychic and flying in particular, as well as fairy, but you can ruin the days of normal, dark and ice, so there is that. There are two main abilities and a hidden ability. Vital spirit: prevents the Pokemon from being put to sleep, and increases the chance of higher level wild encounters when at the head of the party. Anger point: this one got weakened in generation five since it took out activation behind a substitute, but if you get hit by a critical, your attack maximises, that is it goes up +6, like belly drum bestows. Defiant: a decent hidden ability where each stat decrease applied by a foe (including things like intimidate) but not applied by yourself (like if using close combat) or a teammate leads to a +2 in attack, even if it is the attack that is lowered.

As far as moves by level up go, you get a pretty dull list, covering only normal, fighting and dark moves. Early ones on your list will be things like leer, focus energy, covet (temporarily steals a Pokemon's item (unless wild, in which case it is permanent) and hits for 60 base as a normal move), scratch (base 40 normal move with no bonus effects other than sounding a little childish) and low kick (which was changed from having set power, so now it hits harder the heavier the enemy is). At level 9 you get fury swipes (hits 2 to 5 times at base 18), then moving on up to 13 you get karate chop (fighting move with base 50 and sounds cooler than it is). You then get seismic toss: this is a fighting move that doesn't get STAB as it inflicts your level in terms of damage, so at level 17 when you get it, it does 17 HP, whereas at level 100 it is a good way to reliably hurt a tank, and a great way to counter Shuckle.

Before you reach the evolution level of 28, you could pick up screech to drop the foe's speed, or you could go for assurance, which has decent base power of 60 and doubles if the foe has already received damage, even if it's self-inflicted. If you don't evolve for whatever reason, you can pick up swagger, cross chop (fighting, base 100 with high critical chance but very low PP), thrash (base 120 normal move, hitting 2 or 3 times and then confusing the user), punishment (dark-type move that increases in power for every stat increase the foe has), close combat (120 base fighting move that reduces defence and special defence of the user and has low PP) and final gambit (classed as fighting and special, but damages the user by the HP you have remaining). Every move so far mentioned, aside from status moves and final gambit, is a physical move, so the poor special attack really didn't matter. Yay...

Now onto TMs, and since fighting doesn't do anything to ghosts (nor does normal) and you only get a limited choice on dark moves (even though they ruin psychics) then it's worth looking here, especially since you don't hurt flying or fairy either, really. You get a lot of standard moves like toxic, hone claws and bulk up, but you also get access to some special moves, which you really shouldn't take. No matter how enticing hidden power, thunder(bolt), round, overheat and focus blast are, you won't be playing to your strengths. Smack down is a good move, since it's rock type and will knock flying/levitating Pokemon to the ground, making them weak to ground attacks, though the power is a little low at 50. Earthquake is earthquake, dig is dig and brick break is still good and gets STAB. Return is a decent option if your Mankey/Primeape loves you (or frustration if they hate you). Rock tomb, facade, thief all options, as are aerial ace and acrobatics (somehow). Remember that acrobatics doubles in power when you don't have an item, so you could couple it with fling, if you wanted, or just run itemless. Retaliate is great to revenge kill since it doubles in power to 140 if a fellow died the previous turn, and poison jab is great for hammering those pesky fairies. U-turn is a good bug move that gives you a way out. Strengths and power-up punch are options, and there are a number of stat boosts available too.

You get a couple of decent moves by breeding, like night slash and revenge, as well as focus punch f you know you can work it. The tutor is a great place to go, however, with lots of physical moves like ice/fire/thunder punch, dual chop (dragon double hitter at base 40), outrage (base 120 dragon that is basically thrash), gunk shot (120 base poison) and seed bomb (base 80 grass). Nice pickings here.

So you've evolved, let's say. Now you're a Primeape. What do you get? Base 105 attack is pretty nice with base 95 speed, 65 HP with 60 defence and 70 special defence, and now even 60 special attack to ignore. You don't change typing or abilities, though.

It's another ball with legs! What genius design (again)!

The only changes to the level up set are the levels you learn at and the introduction of the forgettable rage upon evolving at level 28. Nothing to see here, folks, but then aside from hyper beam/giga impact, the only other move (and only worthwhile move) added to the TM list is stone edge. The tutor also gives nothing more.

All in all, this could be useful as a sweeper, with some decent, if restricted by type, attacks, three reasonable abilities and a good attack stat with decent speed. If you know what you're doing, this could be a decent curveball. Just don't expect it to beat up on something like a Mega Lucario...

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)