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Ice-type Reviews – Generation 3

It’s time we look at Generation 3’s Ice-types. Among the Generations, this one has the least Ice-type families. However, this is the part where Ice-types are beginning to be more creative and more “icy”, so I look forward to reviewing them. That’s all for the intro, so now we begin to look at these wonderful Ice-types.

Snorunt & Glalie

There weren’t any pure Ice-types before, since the ones we reviewed before were all dual-types. It’s high time we have a pure Ice-type, and we got it. At least this is better than the Flying-type, which took five Generations to get a pure one! Generation 3 also has several evolutions that don’t look like they’re related because of how different they look, such as the Pokémon we’re reviewing now.

Snorunt and Glalie are technically the first Ice-types in the Hoenn PokéDex, but they aren’t necessarily the first Ice-types you would catch. That honour goes to Spheal, because of how common it is in Shoal Cave. Instead, Snorunt is only found in the Ice Cave portion of Shoal Cave, a place found deep into the cave, and could only be accessed on a low tide. If your clock stops, you might not even get the chance to encounter Snorunt. However, if you don’t pursue any Ice-types, which is likely considering the obscurity of the location you find Snorunt in, Glalie would indeed be the first new Ice-type you will meet, which Glacia of the Elite Four will use as her lead Pokémon.

Possessing a cloak it perpetually wears, Snorunt doesn’t look like it handles the weather well. In addition to that grin and the pose, it looks like it is shivering. Usually, you never see what Snorunt looks like, but as with certain mysteries in Pokémon such as Musharna’s eyes and Vanillite’s real head, what it contains are only seen in special artwork. Basically, Snorunt’s body, without the cloak, is a simple egg-like head. I say it looks better with that cloak, otherwise it would look too ordinary. That said, certain mysteries are yet to be solved, such as Diglett’s whole body. Snorunt is another Pokémon that loses body parts when it evolves, in which case it loses hands and feet. Don’t worry, because Glalie can float in air, if the anime is of any indication. With big eyes, its grin and a pair of horns, Glalie looks like a demon. Add in red eyes (what the shiny has), it looks restless and more menacing. Glalie has one of my favourite shiny colour variations precisely for those red eyes.

There are several behaviours that indicate that Snorunt is an Ice-type. For one, it lives and loves the cold, so they live in the snowy regions, such as Sinnoh’s Route 216. Another thing is, Snorunt dines on snow and ice. If there isn’t any snow in sight, it will steal away to the caves, which are by its nature, a cooler place. Because of this, it’s no surprise to find one in a cave within a tropical region. Snorunt also seems to like to live with each other, preferring to hang out under giant leaves. At a height of 70cm, the leave has to be really big to accommodate huge numbers. There is a Japanese folklore in the Pokémon world that states that a house would prosper if one is living there. This is based on the Japanese yokai known as “zashiki warashi”, a child-like spirit both its appearance and behaviour who prefers well-maintained (and preferably large) houses, and you guessed it, if it took residence in that house, it is said to bring good fortune to the house.

Hopefully that Snorunt is treated well if it chose to stay, because it might very well go wrong if it evolves, because Glalie is not as harmless. It has strong ice powers, such as freezing the moisture into any shape it wants and straight up controlling the ice. There’s also Glalie’s Ice that never melts for protection (that icy layer looks like a hockey mask), which is possibly what Never-Melt Ice is made of. Glalie’s quite dangerous because there are two things it could do: it could instantly freeze its target into immobility. After that, it will take advantage of their helplessness by eating them. Since its head is really gigantic, it is scary if you think about how it might crunch off someone. Glalie is heavy as a rock, weighing about 256 kg, and so, it looks really headstrong, and certainly not heavy-headed. It’s even said that Glalie’s body is made of stone, so you would think it would be part-Rock or have Rock Head, but nope, that’s not the case. Some things look like they are supposed to have something, but they didn’t, such as how Cofagrigus look like it should be part-Steel for its golden exterior, but it is not.

Snorunt and Glalie’s most well-known appearance has to be the anime during the Hoenn era, for being one of Ash’s Pokémon. Introduced as a mischievous Pokémon that caused some grief to Ash and gang (by stealing Ash’s badge case), it bonded with Ash quite well after Ash saved it from an avalanche, and after defeating it in a battle before catching it. It evolved into a Glalie at one point when mastering the use of Ice Beam. As Glalie, it proved to be one of the best assets for Ash because it proved its worth several times, especially in the Ever Grande Conference. After that League, Glalie won’t be used in other major battles.

In competitive battling, Glalie, and to a lesser extent, Snorunt would normally be a risky Pokemon to use. With Moody, it becomes very powerful if it accrued enough boosts. What Moody basically does is it boosts one stat by two stages and reduces one by one stage every turn, turning it into a really powerful force if left unchecked. Boosts could be easily gathered if you cycle through Substitute and Protect, and if the evasion boost is obtained, that’s even better (for the user). Of the Moody users, Glalie is the fastest and bulkiest, although the Ice-type isn’t doing it a lot of favours in taking hits. As Ice is a great attacking type, Glalie could use it to its advantage by threatening a lot of Pokémon, or it could use Earthquake to threaten others. Taunt is another tool to stop any status coming your way. While Glalie doesn’t look like much, it is really threatening, much like any other user with Moody.

However, Moody is banned in competitive battling for its lack of competitive value, due to its luck factor, but more importantly, the strategy lacks skill and allows more inexperienced players to easily win matches. Because of this, Glalie lost a lot of its viability. For what it has, you could use it in Hail since it has Ice Body for passive healing (or Inner Focus if hail isn’t available). It could be a supporter by providing Spikes and using Taunt on anything attempting to take advantage of Glalie by setting up. Let’s not forget that it learns Explosion, so if it has fully set up, then it could do major damage. Not that Glalie’s been a Pokemon of choice, but what is even worse is the existence of Froslass, because it does everything Glalie do, but better, despite any advantages Glalie has (besides Moody). I will get into this issue in more detail next time when Froslass will be reviewed.

In the end, Glalie is one of the coolest Pokémon around, because of the simplicity of conveyance as a Pokémon not to mess with, considering how there aren’t any other parts and all. Snorunt has its own charms as well, being cute for its small size and some clothing while showing its teeth to make it likeable. They’re not the best battlers in the world, but as far as Ice-types go, there’s something likeable about them for their charms and creepiness.

Spheal, Sealeo & Walrein

Here, we have another set of Pokémon that are also based on pinnipeds, essentially mammals that are fin-footed. Anyway, there is quite a variety among the three members, each representing one of the three groups of pinnipeds. Spheal is an eared seal since it is the only one with visible ears, Sealeo lacks ears much like the earless seals, and Walrein is visibly based on walruses because of its tusks. Initially, we have Seel and Dewgong, both based on sea lions, but in my opinion, this family of pinnipeds are superior in many ways.

Spheal, as its name suggests, is spherical in shape. It puts its rotund body to good use by rolling around, since movement is faster this way than walking. Moreover, their body shape is not suitable for swimming, since its round shape makes it difficult to move around in water. This is the basis for this family’s signature move Ice Ball, which is essentially an Ice-type Rollout, right down to the moves. Despite this, the execution of this move in the anime is more like shooting an ice shard (a move this family cannot learn), rather than charging into a ball like how Rollout is executed. When Spheal are happy, they’ll clap their fins, much like a seal would do. Since they do this during mealtimes too, it could be a noisy session when there are groups of them around. This nature lends a hand to their knowledge of the move Encore.

Interestingly, Spheal is the only one in the family that mentioned fur. It is mentioned that its thick fur to offset the coldness of its surroundings, while Walrein’s blubber is mainly for keeping it warm. It isn’t mentioned whether Sealeo has fur or not to keep it warm, but it is possible that it is in between, with a mixture of fur and blubber as a transition between Spheal and Walrein.

One thing that will always be there in shows with seals is that they will attempt to balance an object on its nose, usually a ball. So the same happens in Pokémon, where Sealeo is the one doing it. Sealeo’s PokéDex mainly mentions its affinity of balancing or rolling things with its nose, especially round things, including its basic form Spheal and any Poké Ball. It even engages in play by spinning a Spheal on its nose. The nose isn’t just to do the balancing act. In fact, it uses it to smell and feel that object for the texture and odours to determine whether it likes it or not. One difference you will notice between Spheal and Sealeo is the whiskers. Sealeo has whiskers resembling a moustache, which is helpful in navigation, especially underwater. Walrein’s whiskers are a lot more pronounced, covering its whole head, which looks like it formed some kind of mask.

Sealeo is also mentioned to be hunters too, as it typically hunts for food five times a day, and it is no pushover either, having the capacity to shatter ice with its flippers. Walrein, on the other hand, is much stronger than Sealeo, being able to break ten tonnes of ice in one blow with its tusks, which includes icebergs. It is not known if Walrein’s tusks are made of ice like Piloswine, so for not being mentioned, it is assumed that this isn’t the case. Much like walruses, it is physically bulky, thanks to its protective blubber. Even its stats reflect on this, having really good defences and possibly Thick Fat. As pinnipeds are sociable animals, these Pokémon would be around together, such as Sealeo living in herds on ice floes and Spheal eating together. Walrein is usually the leader of the bunch for its size, and what a fiercely protective leader it is, battling anything invading its territory even at the cost of its life! Of course, if one goes down, another will step up to the plate, most likely the one with the biggest tusks since that’s how real walruses determine the dominator.

There are a few major appearances by these Pokémon in the anime, mainly in Hoenn for a good reason. Firstly there is an episode where Spheal and Sealeo are introduced for the first time at the Staleport City Museum (“The Spheal of Approval”). Walrein’s main appearances are in battles, in both “Training Wrecks” and “A Judgement Brawl”. Other than that, there would be some short appearances featuring them when there would be icy or watery areas, such as the Deoxys movie. When it comes to celebrity specialists, Glacia has two Sealeo and one Walrein, while Wallace and Juan had a Sealeo in the Gym battle. In Special, Archie used Walrein too, to battle against Maxie’s Camerupt. It is to note that Walrein isn’t a Pokémon Archie used in-game, much like several Gym Leaders there have liberties when it comes to Pokémon choices. Overall their appearances are modest.

In battling, Walrein is best used in Hail. The reason is due to its ability Ice Body. With this ability, Walrein receives extra recovery in Hail, sustaining its life. In fact, if you combine it with Leftovers, you will heal 1/8 of your HP, allowing you to recycle between Substitute and Protect to keep your HP intact. This works well with Toxic, for being able to stall out the opposing Pokémon. In fact, if you set up the right conditions such as putting Toxic Spikes on the opposing side, Walrein could stall the entire team since it is quite bulky. Its offence is no slouch either, so using a Special attack could put pressure on the opponent, especially Blizzard. In fact, you could surprise the opponent by using an offensive Walrein since Walrein is usually known for being a staller. If Hail isn’t available, Thick Fat is the next ability, and you could use Walrein’s nice support movepool to help you out, such as the aforementioned Encore and Yawn. However, you need to remember that Walrein’s defensive typing make it difficult to use, much like most Ice-types. Unfortunately, when the weather abilities’ duration is made temporary in Generation 6, any Hail users lost a lot of significance, limiting Walrein’s viability.

I find these Pokémon fascinating because it got me to be interested in taking a slightly more in-depth look at seals, with things I didn’t even know about them. I also kind of like them as well for their design, because there’s some creativity in it too. Basically, it’s not just normal sea lions, but a sea lion that is a ball so that a quirky behaviour of a sea lion could be shown. Walrein has what looks like a luchadore’s mask, although I don’t understand its purpose. As I have said, these Pokémon are more fascinating than Dewgong, because there is a variation of design behind them, and each member has a bit of difference from the others, compared to the just decent Dewgong.

Regice

The final Ice-type in Hoenn is also a legendary Pokémon. Much like Articuno, Regice is one part of the trio of legendary golems, together with Regirock and Registeel. It is odd that Regice is spelt without two “I”s, considering how the official pronunciation said it like as if there are two of them. As such, I don’t see myself pronouncing Regice as “Rear-guys”. The legendary golems look very sturdy, so they’re known to have some of the best defences around.

One feature about the legendary golems is they look robotic. Their inorganic bodies, stiffness and lack of a real face are factors that made them look unconventional as a Pokémon. Regice is also a very sharp Pokémon. Unlike the other Regis, Regice does not have any curvy places. Instead, it is like as if it is made out of polygons, except the dots on its face. This gives Regice the stiffest look of all the Pokémon, and also the sharpest because its fingers and the tip of its legs are very sharp, which could cause a chilling prick if poked by Regice. There are also four spiky protrusions on Regice’s back, which look like how crystals are formed in caves or within rocks in high pressure. Based on that, it is possible that Regice’s icy body could be grown and repaired naturally. Personally, one of my favourite aspects of Regice is its cry. The robotic bellow sounds something like a car speeding away. I daresay it is better compared to the other Regis.

Regice is a very cold Pokémon. What I meant by “cold” is that it is a naturally freezing Pokémon, having a body of coldness that freezes anything nearby. Regice is another Pokémon that has a body of ice that never melts, making it quite tough since it is made of ice, and it is believed that the ice Regice is made of has lasted for millennia, ever since the Ice age. It should be noted that Regice’s ice body is opaque and not transparent, so there are some things within Regice, meaning that Regice isn’t some ice that magically animates itself (or is it?). Much like other mineral-based Ice-types, it also has control over coldness, being able to control frigid air of -200 degrees Celsius. Regice is known as an Iceberg Pokémon, and because Walrein is able to crack icebergs with its tusks, does that mean Regice is not unbreakable? Actually, despite how I described this, there aren’t any contradictions, since there isn’t anywhere that states that Regice is unbreakable, only that it is impervious to melting.

This Generation gave us something interesting that had never been done before: have trainers with legendary Pokémon. Normally, trainers don’t have legendary Pokémon since they are supposed to be rare, but that all changed when Battle Frontier was introduced. In the Battle Frontier, there are trainers who used legendary Pokémon, such as through the Battle Factory (which you could take for yourself if you won!). But then, this is an article about Regice, so where is it? It is used by Brandon, the Pyramid King Frontier Brain, when you reached the top of the pyramid the third time in a row. He would be using the three Regis, and this is kind of like his trademark Pokémon because this is shown in both the anime and Pokémon Special.

Since Regice is a legendary Pokémon, it’s got an appearance in a movie. In this case, it is Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. Since I didn’t watch the movie, I didn’t know what they do there, but I am guessing that they behave as guardians that attempt to destroy intruders (Do enlighten me on this part, if you can). Another of Regice’s notable appearances is during Ash’s battle with Brandon’s Regice. This battle is between Ash’s Pikachu and that Regice, in the final bout. Regice has the advantage for being a sturdy Pokémon, since it also has Rest too. Not only that, its Ice attacks managed to give Pikachu a hard time not only by attacking directly, but affecting the field as well. Still, Pikachu managed to win by persevering through the tricky situation it was put in. There are certain fans who found the win foul because it portrayed Pikachu as a really powerful force. As for me, I don’t quite care about this because I am not quite bothered with consistencies in the anime, so there’s no comment on that.

Thanks to its nature as an ice that never melts, its Special Defence is its best stat, while its Defence is not too bad. It’s not as high as Chansey or Blissey, but it is still a contender. With that Special Defence, it takes a Special attack well. Thus, it is a good user of Thunder Wave, which could cripple a Pokémon, even a Physical attacker at its entrance. The good thing is Regice’s Ice-type basically discourages Ground-types from entering, putting more risk to the opponent. It’s still important to keep in mind that Regice has four weaknesses as opposed to one resistance, because it is not a good idea to use it as a wall. Regice’s Special Attack is also decent, and its coverage is quite good too. Besides the Ice attacks Ice-types have, Regice learns Electric attacks, giving it great coverage. Adding in Focus Blast rounds this up nicely, as this would grant it perfect neutral coverage. In Generation 3, Explosion’s power is really powerful, and this is a great move to demolish a Special wall. Unfortunately, Regice doesn’t have any instant recovery moves, so had to rely on Rest to restore its HP.

Inorganic Pokémon haven’t always been the most popular or well-liked type of Pokémon among the fans, such as Vanilluxe, Garbodor and of course, the Regis. Pardon me if I say this, but I have an affinity for inorganic Pokémon because they put sentience into something that isn’t alive in the first place and made it work, and that, I feel, is very awesome in my book. This is one reason I esteem the Regis. They may be faceless, but it’s fun to imagine how they feel despite the lack of facial features. I guess I am just weird for liking the inorganic side of Pokémon compared to those based on cats and dogs. There are a number of factors that I like Regice for, compared to the other Regis, so that is my favourite of the bunch. I know I have used this pun before, but in conclusion, Regice is a cool golem.

That’s it for this round of Ice-types. The Generation 3 bunch is a bigger improvement from last time, and that is great news! The bad news is that Ice-types in Hoenn are very sparse you might not know they even exist there! That is also because there aren’t any previous Ice-types to add to the variety, and it looks like this problem will be addressed in Sinnoh. Stay tuned for another round of Ice-types in Generation 4 next time! But first, we will be looking at some selected Ice-type moves (after the TCG art of Generation 3). I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I have writing it.

Thanks for reading.