Ranking the Pokemon: #97- Nidorino

Nidorino just looks like something I don't want to touch. He's all spikey, angry, and probably slimy, too. It's also frustrating because he has fairly good stats, with everything being at least above average, and solid Attack and Speed. But, once again, it's that type that kills him. You can probably guess by his color (and my general disdain in the last sentence) that he's a Poison type. He's also ahead of his time by being, along with his female companion Nidorina (and all of the other Nido-lutions), the first "gendered" Pokes. So I can say "he" with Nidorino and not be sexist. Excellent. He's also slightly behind Nidorina because if I remember correctly the female evolution is like a little bit better. But if not we'll just say it's because of "ladies first."

Anyway, Nidorino's nice stats mostly go to waste on its horrible level-up moves, so you may as well go ahead and evolve it as soon as possible. Which you can do in no time at all, since all you need is a Moon Stone and 'rino turns to 'king like it ain't no thing. Then you can use TMs to teach it a ton of sweet moves, and you have yourself a nice little special or physical sweeper. As it stands, though, Nidorino can still learn some good Special moves via TM (Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, etc.) but...it learns Double Kick naturally as its final, "super duper" move at Level 50. Double Kick give Nidorino a fighting chance (because it's a Fighting type move, get it?) against...I don't even know what, because it's terrible. It would be like me kicking an elephant twice. You get over the fact that you're attacking twice by realizing it's not doing much damage either time, and you're going to get demolished soon after.

Battling Grade: C-

Previously: #98- Machop