#408 - Cranidos
Rock
While in the past the Fossil Pokemon of Generation I and III didn't appear till around the end of the PokeDex, in Sinnoh the two Fossil families---Cranidos and Shieldon---appear very early on, and this is no coincidence as Fossils are quite easy to obtain in Diamond and Pearl. One of the neatest new features of Diamond and Pearl was the Sinnoh Underground, a cool little feature that allowed you to explore below Sinnoh alongside (local) friends, with a lot of little features I never got to experience since nobody I knew actually owned the game who lived near me. But beyond this, the best feature about the Underground was all the cool items you could easily dig up including Evolution Stones, Heart Scales, and of course Fossils. Before you obtain the National Dex, there are only two Fossils that can be found, both of them new to Diamond and Pearl: the Skull Fossil, and the Armor Fossil. While in the past games you had to pick between the two, here the Fossil you can find is Version Exclusive, Skull to Diamond and Armor to Pearl, whereas in Platinum the one you get is based on whether your Trainer ID is odd or even. The good news is you can dig up unlimited amounts of your Fossil, and since they're now regular items as opposed to Key Items, you can trade for the other Fossil via Wi-Fi. You first obtain access to the Underground around Gym 2, and the Fossil Revival Machine is located back around Gym 1, so with a little bit of patience and backtracking you can score your own Fossil Pokemon early on and use it for the adventure! And after obtaining the National Dex, you have access to unlimited amount of the classic Gen I/Gen III Fossils! That rocks!
Revived via the Skull Fossil, Cranidos is unique among the Fossil Pokemon as he's the only one who is pure-Rock---which is pretty unique in itself as when he debuted, there were only three pure-Rock Pokemon previously. He's also unique as he has the highest Attack of all unevolved Pokemon at 125, though to balance this out all of his other stats, including Speed, are rather subpar so good luck taking advantage of that. In Diamond and Pearl, he also didn't learn a STAB move till Level 28, and a Special-one at that, so despite the high Attack you might consider passing him over. He's kind of not all that good, though it's still cool to go through the adventure using a dinosaur so do what you like!
So, excluding Generation II, every Generation so far has had a Rock-type Pokemon as its initial "Boss" used by the first Gym Leader---Generation I had Onix, while Generation III had Nosepass. Both Pokemon were similar due to the fact that they were final form Pokemon (at the time of their introduction), yet surprisingly weak all things considered and didn't really have much to stop your due to their low Attack scores, the biggest issue (especially for Onix) was getting through their defenses, and it basically came down to simply using the right Type Pokemon. With Generation IV, though Onix actually is used by the Rock-type Gym Leader Roark his signature Pokemon happens to be Cranidos and thus it serves as the first "Boss". Cranidos I don't remember being too difficult, though unlike Onix and Nosepass his Attack is so high that if you let him get a hit in (he ignores STAB in favor of Headbutt mainly or Pursuit) your Pokemon might possibly faint, so there's a slight challenge here. Add the fact that both Roark's Geodude and Onix know Stealth Rock, it's possible this Gym Leader might take you by surprise. Ironically, the Fire Starter probably has the best luck here---if you take in account the player would have their Starter equal to Roark's Cranidos, Level 14, then Turtwig and Piplup are probably slower than Cranidos and may be killed by it before they get a chance to attack. Chimchar, on the other hand, would've already evolved into Monferno and have learned Mach Punch, making this fight quite laughably easy.
Game Freak finally gave in to the fans when it came to Fossil Pokemon and gave us dinosaur-based Fossil Pokemon, which was pretty hype. Though in retrospect both of the lines aren't exactly the most well-received, when they were first revealed I recall being rather excited for them. Though Game Freak didn't totally give in to fan demand as they still avoided the "big four" dinosaurs---the tyrannosaur, the stegosaurus, the triceratops (well, debatable as we'll see), and the brachiosaurus---and went with some slightly less common, but still recognizable ones. Cranidos for example is based on the pretty well-known pachycephalosaurus, which as I mentioned before is a dinosaur I always wanted to see become a Pokemon as a kid. The pachycephalosaurus is a bipedal omnivore well-known for its dome-like cranium that many scientists believed was used in intra-species combat, two males proving their superiority by ramming their skulls together like modern bighorn sheep and musk oxen, though in recent years this assumption has come under question as some scientists believe that their overall posture and the fossil record does not support such event ever occurring, though the jury is still out. Game Freak didn't let "scientists" get in the way of a cool Pokemon, so Cranidos is all about ramming into shit with its head. Cranidos is kind of cute, but to be honest despite being based on such a cool dinosaur it really never caught my interest, and it seems a lot of folks don't care for it much. Well, sometimes reality doesn't live up to what you imagined it to be like.
Cranidos appeared during the Oreburgh City Arc in Diamond and Pearl under the ownership of Roark, revealed later to be the first Fossil Pokemon ever revived there. One thing Diamond and Pearl did great was the Gym Battles, pretty much every one was appropriately hyped up to and got a decent amount of episodes dedicated to it, and Roark's was probably one of the coolest as we got to see both Paul and Ash take him on. Paul went first, and after easily dispatching Roark's other Pokemon it came down to Chimchar vs. Cranidos, Paul hoping to have Chimchar activate its Blaze here though ultimately it lost. Elekid came in though and finished the job, but it was a tight match. Then it was Ash's turn, who managed to take down Cranidos with the combined power of Pikachu and Turtwig---only to lose the match when Roark's Onix of all things came in and delivered one of the coolest Screech attacks ever, slamming Pikachu into a wall which gave me the chills when it first happened. Before Ash got a chance to fight Roark in a rematch, his Cranidos happened to evolve due to the machinations of Team Rocket...
#409 - Rampardos
Rock
At Level 30, Cranidos evolves into Rampardos which is the lowest a Fossil Pokemon evolves at alongside the other Generation IV Fossil. Like Cranidos, Rampardos is all about that Attack and with a score of 165 he has the strongest non-Mega, non-Legendary Attack in the entire game! When he debuted he was only behind Deoxys Attack Forme, and even today in the post-power creep Generation he comfortably sits as the ninth best attacker, though one imagines a couple Megas from now that'll change. But, as you can imagine, there's a catch as like Cranidos everything else, especially his Speed which is what's the most important stat to him otherwise, is rather subpar so he's not all that great of a Pokemon, though of course for the adventure with the ability to easily choose when to put him in and when to take him out, that powerful Attack is really all you need with the proper planning. In the competitive scene, needless to say he's the ultimate glass cannon he might get a single K.O. in before getting totally wrecked, and that's if he can outspeed the opponent---and as Smogon points out, Generation IV had four priority moves he was weak to in Aqua Jet, Mach Punch, Vacuum Wave, and Bullet Punch, so poor dude had it rough from Day 1. But if you want all that Attack without relying on a Mega or Legendary, knock yourself out.
Rampardos is basically a larger pachycephalosaurus, though its intimidating posture reminds one a bit more of how the T-Rex is often depicted and I imagine that was the intent to make it look tougher. Unfortunately, Game Freak gave it that rather odd Kid 'n Play-styled head that everyone I've ever met seems to dislike, and its somewhat daft expression doesn't help matters either. It's kind of a forgettable Pokemon despite being one of the highest Attackers in the entire series, and for our first Fossil Dinosaur one could say it's even a bit underwhelming in that regard, though the other Generation IV Fossil doesn't fare that much better. I've certainly never been too much of a fan myself, though I've honestly never given this line a shot either during my multiple playthroughs of Sinnoh so maybe I'd enjoy it more if I gave it a shot sometime.
While Ash went up against Roark's Onix with his Pikachu in their first Gym Battle for the final fight, for the rematch Aipom and Pikachu were able to dispatch Geodude and Onix leaving Turtwig up against Cranidos once more, though as mentioned it had evolved into Rampardos meaning that things wouldn't necessarily proceed like they did the first time. Ultimately though, the quick and powerful Turtwig manages to overcome Rampardos once more winning Ash his first Sinnoh Gym Badge---eighteen episodes into the series! Yeah, it was clear from that moment that Diamond and Pearl was gonna be one long ride, though thankfully things stayed pretty hype for most of the run. That wasn't it for Roark's Rampardos though as it'd return later when it came time for Ash to challenge the sixth Gym Leader of Sinnoh, Roark's father Byron.
