3DS Pokémon and Audino getting praised on the same day?? Am I dreaming?? Is this real??
The 3DS games were fine for the most part, personally I believe they were a downgrade from Gen V in terms of story and overall content though the visuals never bothered me (I'm more willing to overlook the growing pains in that regard). Though I do feel is also began GF's start of trying to cut corners to get the games released. Still, they are important games in terms of finally jumping the games to the 3D space and, for better or worse, them starting their experimental phase with the super mechanics (first being the Mega Evos which are still my favorite ones) and later introduction of Regional Variants.
As for Audino, I've always liked it, and not just because Gen 5 is my favorite Gen (and not because they're very easy to farm for exp). I feel they pull off the "nurse assistant" theme better than Chansey (though Chansey was more shoe-in to the role, with them later making Blissey to have more of a nurse outfit); they just look like they would be more versatile than the ovular Chansey/Blissey and that's before going into their natural ability to sense someone's wellbeing with their stethoscope ear extensions (and this fact becomes somewhat heartwarming when you learn the reason Audino was made was solely because, since Gen V only had new Pokemon, they didn't want to leave Nurse Joy without a definitive assistant).
Going beyond design and "role" as exp farmer, if you're into tanky Pokemon I feel Audino is a decent one (CASUALLY, I know, it's not that high in competitive tier, but I'm curious how would it do in a casual playthrough). Good HP, decent defenses, I guess has enough offense to not be completely helpless, and low Speed is par for the course (infact would probably have done better with less Speed and moved some of those points to making its defenses higher; maybe also move some points from Attack over to Special Attack). Of course I just right there described Mega Audino, a surprise Mega Pokemon. Bit disappointed it was the only Gen V Mega, but I don't feel it was wasted. I think they were trying to make Audino just that bit more comparable to the Chansey family who are super over specialized (which is what makes them good competitive Pokemon, at least higher than base Audino). But I like Audino is a mixed tank. Also gets access to the coveted Regenerator Ability which the Chansey family wish they had (too bad they gave Mega Audino its other Ability, Healer; once again trying to make it more like the Chansey family though I think they prefer having Natural Cure so MA having Regenerator would have been the comparable Ability). Klutz is also an interesting Hidden Ability, odd it doesn't learn Bestow by Level-up (or get Trick or Switcheroo at all) though if you can breed a Klutz Audino with Bestow (and teach it Knock Off) could have fun passing around a Flame or Toxic Orb.
Alright, I know what you're thinking. "Those are pretty faint praises". And yeah, I guess. Honestly one thing that cemented Audino in my mind as a fun Pokemon is one of the cooler scenes they did in the anime. Gen V was still when they gave Normal-types TON of elemental coverage to make-up having a STAB that couldn't do Super Effective damage. In BW035 "Where Did You Go, Audino?", Team Rocket kidnap a whole bunch of Audino using a hypnotizing sound wave in order to use them to build a super radar system. Anyway, Ash & co. (plus an Officer Jenny and two rival kids also investigating the missing Audino; the episode is mostly about them trying to be the most helpful solving the case plus Cilan also playing detective) get involve and are able to free the Audino from the sound waves. What do the Audino do next?
They unleash 7 different elemental attacks (
according to Serebii, starting at the top and going clockwise: Charge Beam, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Solar Beam, Thunderbolt, & Hyper Beam)! Now this was at a time they were making the Rocket Trio more "formidable" so they didn't blast off, but the Audino wrecked the lab good. Overall it was just fun to see all the Audino using different attacks, especially with how it was presented (if you'll like to see it
here's a site, Pokeflix, with the episode, the above scene happens at the near end of the episode, I'd say the 19:23 mark).
