#25: Arcanine

Despite not being a legendary Pokémon, Arcanine is classified as... a legendary Pokémon. But only in the way in which Pikachu and Marill are classified as mouse Pokémon, for example. A curious thing, but Arcanine is still a beast of a Pokémon! This fierce doggy looks like you can hug and cuddle it, but its stripes also makes it look like a dangerous tiger of some sort. I absolutely love Arcanine for its design; it's definitely one of the best first generation Pokémon to date, in my opinion. In battles it is always a good Pokémon to use, but the only downside is that it evolves from Growlithe by using a Fire Stone on the latter. Arcanine doesn't learn any more moves after evolution (except ExtremeSpeed at level 34), so if you evolve Growlithe too early you're stuck with an Arcanine with mediocre moves. Sadly, Growlithe learns its best moves at the last levels it can learn moves: Flamethrower, Crunch, Heat Wave, Flare Blitz and even the monstrous dragon-type move Outrage!!! Growlithe does have the attacking moves to pull off some less powerful attacks (like Flame Wheel, Fire Fang, Take Down and Flame Burst), but you'll see it will fall behind compared to the other Pokémon in your team, as it lears it last good move, Flare Blitz, in level 45. (Remember, these level things are based on the latest games, Black and White and Black and White 2.) But it's definitely worth waiting a while and I'd recommend evolving Growlithe in level 43, after it has learned Outrage. Arcanine is speedy, its defenses are good and its attacking stats are even better, so if you hesitate catching a Growlithe for your team: don't. I mean, how cool is it having such an awesome doggy in your team? Exactly.