In preparation for 2012, we’re going to cover some of 2011.  We saw the launch of Pokémon Black and White in English, as well as Pokémon Rumble Blast and some other tantalizing news of new games.  These posts will focus on some of the events we saw in the last year.

In this first article, I’d like to look over the BEST and WORST English names we were forced to deal with for the new Pokémon when Black and White were released on March 4th, 2011 for the first time in English. Those of us who had been following the information since Zorua and Zoroark were first revealed in 2010 had already grown accustomed to some of the Japanese names, but all that would change when we read the leaked list of English names for the fifth generation.  In a highly controversial post, I’ll go over my opinion with what the greatest names were (and also the not-so-great):

The best English names:

•  Hydreigon – Arguably the best name GenV produced. Hydra + drei (German for 3) + dragon
•  Sigilyph – Good combination of Glyph and Sigil… for whatever this Pokémon actually is.
•  Joltik – An adorable and fitting name for one of the cutest Pokémon we’ve seen!
•  Escavalier – Cute play on snail in French (escargot) and cavalier (horse-mounted soldier)
•  Bisharp – Love the play on chess pieces for Pawniard and Bisharp, with the latter being the cooler one of the two

The worst English names:

•  Klinklang - Seriously? The first two stages didn’t have good names and mashing them together certainly didn’t improve upon them
•  Sewaddle - Give me back my Kurumiru! I get the sewing, the swaddling, but it doesn’t roll of the tongue nicely and doesn’t do the cuteness justice
•  Sawsbuck - Yeah, yeah, I get the whole Summer Autumn Winter Spring shtick, but just isn’t a good name.
•  Beheeyem - Givmeeabraek
•  Sawk (& Throh) - It was cute in Gen I to simply misspell existing words (Muk comes to mind), but these two got terrible names

There you go!  Those are my top 5′s regarding the English names.  Go rant and rave in the comments below!  I’m sure you all have some great thoughts to share!

<3 pokejungle