Respawning has brought in the experts to definitively answer the most burning Pokemon related questions. For their first week, Team Respawn are tackling who is the best Elite Four member from across the first four generations!

MAGMA

After defeating Koga as a Gym Leader he says that he must hone his skills, and hone his skills he does! The next time we see him is in Gold and Silver and as it turns out he’s climbed the ranks and has become a member of the Elite Four. Koga is the perfect example of showing what Gym Leaders are capable of and can do a lot more than sitting in their gyms waiting for children to one shot sweep them with their starter Pokémon. Koga wanted more, so he went and got more.

Koga travelled to Johto, developed his team and became a better trainer for it. Koga is the only Gym Leader to move up to the Elite Four. Whether he’s the only one to try or the only one to succeed, we’ll likely never know but the accomplishment alone is worth celebrating. Koga shows how bloody tough Poison types can be in battle and the fact there aren’t that many Poison type Gym Leaders is nothing short of criminal. Furthermore Koga is the only Elite Four member to specialise in Poison type. (Agatha is Ghost, fight me) Koga sets the bar, and he sets it high. Also the man is an awesome badass ninja, what’s not to love?

AQUA

Sure, Koga going from Gym Leader to Elite Four is fairly impressive, but what I find more impressive is consistency. So, let’s look at Bruno, the Fighting Pokémon expert who manages to be the ONLY Elite Four member to make two appearances in a row! Sure Dragon fanboy Lance is there too but with his change to Champion it’s easy to argue that he isn’t a real member of the badass Pokémon boyband anymore.

Also, just look at him, he looks like he could wipe out your team even without his signature Onix and Machamp. This dude has been my favourite character design in Pokémon since the first time I played, and to this day still makes me question everything I thought I knew about my sexuality…

PLASMA

For me the best of the best is Agatha, the spooky old Ghost lady from generation one. With not one, but TWO Gengar, her Poison and Ghost combination is sure to have any weak-willed challengers legging it for the door. Very little is known about her, in the games anyway, but as a child you never forget two things from the first Pokémon games. The first is the creepy music in Lavender Town and the second is the horrific grin on Agatha’s sprites face as she sends out her first Gengar and sets to tearing your team to pieces.

If Gengar had been capable of Mega Evolution in the first gen, players wouldn’t have stood a GHOST of a chance at reaching Lance or the ‘true’ Champion, who in my game was called ‘Fartin’.

That’ll do it for this week! Next time we’ll look at the Elite Four’s from generations 5 to 8. Let us know which of us has chosen the best Elite Four member, and who you would have chosen, and Team Respawn will be back!