game Pokemon continuity problems

[Bittersweet]

Okay, so there are a couple of well known errors in the games involving Pokemon breeding and evolving.
Here are some examples of ones that I know of:

1. The Nidoran (F) Paradox
As is well known, Nidorina and Nidoqueen cannot breed at all. So where are wild Nidoran(F) coming from in the first place? Are Nidoqueen and Nidorina the only Pokemon that give birth instead of laying eggs?

2. Two for One Eggs
Chansey and Happiny are shown to have an egg in their pouch, even though they may have just hatched from an egg themselves. Where did THOSE eggs come from? Are they not real eggs, just part of their physiology?
The same problem arises from Exeggcute. Five eggs hatch from one. What happens if one of the Exeggcute members leaves the group? Does it die off and the group grows a new one?
And the most well known is Kangaskhan. It is shown with a baby in its pouch even though it may have just hatched itself. This could be solved by removing the baby from the sprites and introducing a pre-evolution stage. "Kanga"?

3. Numbering Problems
I spotted this myself. NidoranM and NidoranF are completely different Pokemon. They evolve into different Pokemon and their evolutions can't even breed with eachother, so they're not in the same evolutionary family.
However, technically, the same can be said for Wormadam. Depending on Burmy's current cloak, it will evolve into either Wormadam PLANT CLOAK (PC), Wormadam SANDY CLOAK (SC), or Wormadam TRASH CLOAK (TC). Each Wormadam learns different moves, they look different, and they have different stats from eachother. And yet, they are all treated as the same species. Even given the same Pokedex number; #413. But, they ARE NOT the same Pokemon. The only thing that's the same about them is their name. NodoranF and NidoranM are also the same only by name and they are given DIFFERENT Dex numbers. So shouldn't each Wormadam have its own Pokedex number? They really should keep numbering methods the same for continuity's sake.
(The same can't be said for Shellos and Gastrodon which are in a similar situation. They are EXACTLY the same regardless of forme. The only difference is looks.)

Will Nintendo ever acknowledge these little kinks? Please comment.

 

[Glitchipedia]

First off, it's not Nintendo's job to acknowledge those errors, it's Game Freak's job.

Second, I think Nintendo and Game Freak are perfectly aware of those little inconsistencies. But that's just what they are: little inconsistencies. They won't make or break the game.

Now, if there was a story-related inconsistency, then it would be a problem. At least for me.

 

[papi17]

the happiny egg is actually a stone

 

[Infinity Mk-II]

NidoranM and NidoranF are completely different Pokemon.

Tauros and Milktank say hi. As for the evolutions not breeding with each other problem, that's an issue that's being kept BECOUSE of continuity.

 

[Bikini Miltank]

As a minor nitpick: To my knowledge, Nidoran F and Nidoran M can both be bred, and if they are, they can produce either. For instance: breeding Nidoran F with Ditto can produce Nidoran F or M. I believe the same is true of Illumise and Volbeat.

Miltank and Tauros, however, do seem to be separate in that regard. Breeding Miltank will always result in another Miltank.

Also, while I was aware of Nidorina and Nidoqueen being unable to breed, I've never heard an explanation for it. Is there one?

While this doesn't count as a continuity problem, I could bring up Azurill's gender-switching problem. I was surprised to see this was actually left in DP rather than being corrected. The explanation I was given was that GF didn't want people to be surprised when their Pal Parked Azurill switched gender. But surely this would happen less often than somebody merely evolving their Azurill, and being equally surprised by the gender switch...

 

[Usagi-Zakura]

I once read about Azurill, where it was suspected that the gender-change may happen because certain marine animals actually DO change their sex during their life time. There are some species of fish where all are born male, but turn female after (I think) 7 years or so, certain amphibians can also change sex.

As for why Nidorans both have different numbers, I suspect this is because they were introduced before most Pokèmon even HAD genders, as the only ones that actually had a gender difference.
Later when GS came around, no one bothered to add every Pokèmon twice if they were actually the same, not even with D/P where there ARE gender differences, but changing Nidoran's number at this point would just mess up the Pokedex.

 

[HappyPumpkin]

Okay, so there are a couple of well known errors in the games involving Pokemon breeding and evolving.
Here are some examples of ones that I know of:

1. The Nidoran (F) Paradox
As is well known, Nidorina and Nidoqueen cannot breed at all. So where are wild Nidoran(F) coming from in the first place? Are Nidoqueen and Nidorina the only Pokemon that give birth instead of laying eggs?

I always thought that Nidorina and Nidoqueen took care of children, and the herd. I presume female Nidoran are the ones that breed, and male Nidoran sometimes breed with other Pokemon of their egg group.

Azurill, now that's the bummer..I'm unsure about that, wouldn't it make more sense for males to evolve into females, for breeding purposes? I suppose it's like those species who change gender, though.
I can't recall much about female animals changing into males to make a real statement though, documentaries usually cover male-to-female changes.

 

[Bikini Miltank]

In Azurill's case, I suspect the gender-changing was entirely due to a programming oversight, since it happens due to the way the games calculate gender ratios. If the creators intended to reference the gender changing observed in nature, why not do it with a fish or frog-like Pokémon, rather than the mammal-like Marill?
On the other hand, if this is a bug, why was it kept? The creators do seem to be very big on keeping things consistent, even when they're apparently detrimental (such as the fact that we're still hearing Gameboy-era cries alongside the DS ones)...

As for the Nidoran thing... I don't think their classification as different Pokémon messes up continuity as much as people think it does. Look at Volbeat and Illumise, or Wormadam and Mothim. They're direct male-female equivalents (you can get one by breeding the other). If Nidoran F and M had separate names, this debate wouldn't exist: One would be considered a female-only line, and the other a male-only line.

Of course, this brings up the topic of exactly how species is defined in the Pokémon universe. In the real world, a species is defined (primarily) as a group that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, but cannot breed with other species. Since Pokémon can breed across species quite happily, this definition would be useless for them. Instead, one would presumably have to define species based on morphology, or body shape. Thus, if male-female equivalents like Nidoran F/Nidoran M, Illumise/Volbeat or Wormadam/Mothim were considered different enough from each other, they'd be regarded as different species. We might even speculate that Nidoran F and M not having unique names is a throwback to an earlier point in the history of Pokémon zoology, when classification was done differently.

 

[dman_dustin]

3. Numbering Problems
I spotted this myself. NidoranM and NidoranF are completely different Pokemon. They evolve into different Pokemon and their evolutions can't even breed with eachother, so they're not in the same evolutionary family.
However, technically, the same can be said for Wormadam. Depending on Burmy's current cloak, it will evolve into either Wormadam PLANT CLOAK (PC), Wormadam SANDY CLOAK (SC), or Wormadam TRASH CLOAK (TC). Each Wormadam learns different moves, they look different, and they have different stats from eachother. And yet, they are all treated as the same species. Even given the same Pokedex number; #413. But, they ARE NOT the same Pokemon. The only thing that's the same about them is their name. NodoranF and NidoranM are also the same only by name and they are given DIFFERENT Dex numbers. So shouldn't each Wormadam have its own Pokedex number? They really should keep numbering methods the same for continuity's sake.

I disagree because no matter what type Wormadam is, or what it learns it's still a Wormadam, however, Nidorina and Nidorino, as you can see are different names. Nidoqueen and Nidoking have different names as well. Now it is because of the gender, but all Wormadam are female regardless of type, so it really doesn't makes sense the steel type Wormadam is a different Pokemon all together than the grass Wormadam. I think evolution is the only factor to take in consideration here. Like Wurmple, it evolves into Cascoon or Silcoon and depending on that evolution evolves into Dustox or Beautifly.

Wormadam is not the same case. The only reason to believe the Wormadam are different to each other is if the Steel type evolves into a different Pokemon than the the Grass type version.