Top 20 Coolest Looking Shiny Pokemon

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Top 20 Coolest Looking Shiny Pokémon

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Top 10 Coolest Looking Shiny Pokemon

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the greatest shiny Pokémon to ever grace the RPG franchise. We’ll only be looking at the official shines, no fan designs or unusual anime choices that confused us.

From its debut in the “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet” trailer, this goofy-looking rock crab captured our hearts and minds. After this initial appearance, fans went on a creative rampage in creating the potential shiny version of Klawf’s usual red coloring, with the highlight being a gray aesthetic. However, its official version is far better. The primary color switches to a bright sky blue, with its black hairy bits turning off-white. With the blue shell and the underneath beige color remaining the same, Klawf’s adorable rosy cheeks draw even more attention. Plus, with this attention-grabbing color change, spotting the shiny in the wild is far, far easier.

Whenever Pokémon shinies and the color green are mentioned, immediately, a sense of dread fills fans as it's often one of the hated alternate color schemes for the rare variants. Just look at the radioactive Stantler, Ursaring, and Espeon. Yikes. But when green is used sparingly and well thought out, it can be a smash hit, as with Vikavolt, everyone’s favorite bug/electric type – sorry, Galvantula. The glistening silver body and red mouth complement its green eyes, mandibles, and detailing perfectly, making it look more like a UFO. On paper, this color scheme shouldn’t work. But in practice, it’s awesome.

Black and blue shades on a Pokémon are a fantastic combination. As such, it’s hard to create something as cool for its shiny form. Enter Luxray. All its standard yellow detailing becomes orange, and its blue body changes to yellow. Its black fur also gets slightly lighter. Somehow, it makes the already menacing Luxray look even more intimidating. On top of this, the shiny is a better reflection of its electric typing. What makes it even better is that the whole evolutionary line of Shinx and Luxio follows the same eye-catching alternate coloring, making it more aesthetically pleasing for shiny hunting collectors.

To show the connection between Nidoqueen and Nidoking even more, their respective evolutionary lines had their color palettes swapped for their shinies. As well as being a neat idea, it looks awesome, especially with Gen One’s beloved poison/ground purple Kaiju! From its usual attire, Nidoking’s primary color becomes a crisp blue while its inner ears change to shades of brown. While this steps further away from nodding towards its poison typing, the color change is so good and attention-grabbing that it’s forgivable. Sadly, Nidoqueen ruined the color-swap shiny connection by becoming sickly green and pink instead of purple. Shocking.

When a fire gives off a blue-purple color, that means it’s burning at a much higher temperature. In the world of Pokémon, the usual red-orange flamed creatures have their shiny fire turned blue-purple as a nod to this, like Emboar. But for Gen Five’s Chandelure, its ghostly standard version is already that color. So, the franchise's artists did the opposite thing for its shiny and turned the flaming chandelier's fire red-orange. And. It’s. Awesome. Other color changes include Chandelure’s blue-tinted glass-esque face switched to a more green shade, its black coloring becomes slightly darker, and its eyes go from yellow to a pink color, making it far more likely to put folks in a hypnotic trance, just like its Pokédex states.

2022’s “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet” with its Gen Nine monsters had a host of great alternate coloring for us to sink our shiny-hungry teeth into. And the best of the bunch is the icy terra whale, Cetitan. While its gray inner-body color remains the same, the pink detail changes to orange, while its mostly white coloring becomes black. The orange and black are really complementary to each other. Simply turning a light-colored Pokémon into a more villainous dark for its shiny is ALWAYS a big hit with fans, and Cetitan is another success story. The darker appearance also makes it super easy to spot while traversing over the Glaseado Mountain, which is handy when looking to complete the living shiny Dex.

Arguably, Gen Three was the most difficult edition for fans to agree on, with which is the favorite starter. Everyone has a different opinion, as shown in Pokémon and Google’s 2020 poll. But when it comes to its shiny form, Sceptile stands out well above pink Swampert and slightly darker Blaziken. The tree lizard’s body goes from grassy green to turquoise, its red accents switch to beige, and the bulbs on its back go from yellow to red. Shiny Sceptile looks like, if it were to walk past you, a scent of mint would be in the air. The whole evolutionary line is a triumph in pleasing shiny aesthetics, as both Teecko and Grovyle also nail their rare variants.

When gallant Gallade was introduced in Gen Four with its sharp arms, it quickly became a fan favorite in the franchise. Then, when we saw its shiny, we somehow fell in love even more. While the white remains the same, Gallade’s prominent green changes to an eye-pleasing blue, its red body spikes morph to orange, and its aqua horn and face details become a mysterious gray. The delightful color palette continues for its Mega form, complete with a dashing darker cape. It also makes perfect sense for Gallade to have an awesome shiny, considering it's also one of the de facto leads for shiny hunters with its access to false swipe and hypnosis.

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#12: Ho-Oh

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As one of our writers can attest, they spent nearly a year in “Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon,” soft resetting in a wormhole for a shiny Ho-Oh. “Was it worth it?” we hear you think. Yes, yes, it was. The colorful phoenix has one of the most desirable shiny forms for legendaries of all time, simply by making it less bright. Ho-Oh’s typical gold changes to a cool silver, the green detailing becomes red, and the usual red is subbed for a yellow, including in its eyes, making its awe-inspiring glare a bit more frightening. While Ho-Oh has been a fascination for fans since the original anime’s debut episode, its majestic coloring in its shiny is the icing on the feathery cake.

With ax-esque mandibles, this dragon-type pseudo-legendary Pokémon is already an intimidating sight. But franchise designers wanted to go one step further on the scary scale with Haxorus’s shiny form, and all it took was changing one color. Instead of its yellow-green colored body, it was changed to dark gray. With that one adaptation, the red tips on its claws and mandibles stand out even more and make it look like the beast has just had a fresh meal. “Pokémon Black 2 and White 2” knew it had a shiny mammoth as they featured an in-game event where you could catch the dark Haxorus and add it to your collection, alongside a shiny Dratini or Gible, depending on which version you had.

Fans of the anime will be quick to recognize this winged Pokemon’s shiny form, as the Noctowl that accompanied Ash through the Johto region had this rare color palette. Ash’s Noctowl was actually the first official shiny seen in the series, and remains the only one ever owned by a main character. Its golden body and reddish wings are a notable departure from the original form’s subtle brown coat. However, Ash’s Noctowl had much more going for it than an exclusive color scheme. Its exceptional intelligence aided it well in key battles.

In the anime, Team Plasma creates the “Genesect Army”. The leader is a shiny Genesect, which sports an intimidating red finish to match its incredible power. Living up to its imposing presence, the red Genesect is a ruthless leader who wants to avenge the loss if their homeland. The red juggernaut served as the main villain in the 16h Pokemon movie, where it was able to hold its own with the likes of Mewtwo. Their epic battle shows that this Pokemon not only looks the part, but can also back it up.

Sometimes, the subtle changes can be the most effective. This is definitely the case for the fan-favorite eeveelution’s shiny form. By simply switching Umbreon’s gold rings for a powder blue and changing its eyes to yellow, the creators of Pokemon produced a shiny that is universally loved and sought after. Umbreon’s base form is already amazing on its own. However, the shiny version has a more sleek and mystical presence.

When it comes to shiny Pokemon, the rule of thumb is that if you make it edgier – you make it cooler. Greninja is one of the few lucky enough to get this treatment as he drops the blue look for a much stealthier black. Given the whole ninja-theme, the shiny version kinda looks more fitting for the fastest Water Pokemon in the game. But since it’s base form, Froakie, is a starter Pokemon, getting a shiny version requires endless attempts of restarting the game.

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#6: Mega Gengar

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Gengar has always been an overwhelming fan favorite, even being named as original artist Ken Sugimori’s favorite Pokemon. However, its shiny sprite was always a bit of a disappointment, since its slightly darker color was barely noticeable. This was all forgiven in Generaton VI with the introduction of Mega Pokemon. Owners of shiny Gengar had their jaws hit the floor when first laying eyes on its Mega form, as it now sported a bone chilling white finish. The new look was so popular it even spawned a heap of merchandise.

As is always the case with wrestling, every hero needs a villain. That’s where Hawlucha’s shiny form comes in. It’s black cape and purple mask create a perfect foil to the original form’s bright color scheme. This was further demonstrated in the Pokemon anime, where a shiny Hawlucha was pitted against Ash’s own. It’s nickname in the episode, fittingly was “Dark Hawlucha”. Shiny Hawlucha proves that not all heroes wear capes--but some villains do too.

It’s the master of the Weather Trio that includes Groudon and Kyogre, was voted as Japan’s favorite version mascot in 2012, and was given a completely OP mega evolution in Generation VI. The special treatment doesn’t stop there, as Rayquaza was also given one of the best shiny designs in the franchise. Its distinctive dark grey gives it an awesome mechanical look. Admiring it is fun, but catching one is gonna be a little bit more tricky.

Ask 100 Pokemon players who their first shiny was, and odds are that 95 of them will say Gyarados. Since it served such a pivotal role in Pokemon Gold and Silver, the Red Gyarados in the Lake of Rage was the first exposure to shinies for many. The ability to capture it after the story arch made Red Gyarados so common that owning a regular colored one was soon considered odd. This widespread use of a shiny Gyarados led many gamers to start searching for other shiny Pokemon – and its been a staple in the series ever since.

Although it has always been known for its immense power, Metagross’s design was always a step behind other pseudo-legendary Pokemon such Garchomp and Salamence. However, while other pseudo-legendary shinies typically fall flat, Metagross’ alternate look is downright awe-inspiring. Ditching the muted blue of the original in favor of a striking gold and silver combo gives this metallic quadruped a look that finally matches its strength. Metagross Mania was eventually noticed by the game creators, who featured a shiny Beldum as the first event Pokemon distributed for the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire versions.

Oh, come on. You saw this one coming. The badass black coat and red inner-wings had kids across the world even offering everything they had as trade bait. All of this was in pursuit of the fabled Black Charizard. Eventually, creators added fuel to Shiny Charizard’s hype train, giving the Pokemon’s Mega X form a Black redesign with blue flames. The Pokemon Company’s knack for giving fans what they want is what places Charizard atop the throne of all shiny Pokemon.

What’s the most disappointing shiny Pokémon of all time? Garchomp? Gengar? Ceruledge? Armarouge? Or something else? Let us know below!