Hakuryuu - Goldeen

Goldeen

Goldeen (トサキント?, Tosakinto), known as the Goldfish Pokémon, is a white fish Pokémon with orange markings on its tail, fins and along the top of its body. Goldeen's tail fin is admired by many for its beauty as it billows very much like a ballroom dress. Goldeen has a large horn on its forehead, which is smaller in females. Goldeen can be seen swimming upstream at a speed of five knots. Goldeen love to frolic and dance in bodies of water and dislike being kept in captivity. A Goldeen in an aquarium will use its powerful horn to smash its way to freedom. To attract mates, Goldeen swim gracefully in the water. Goldeen then lay their eggs in large groups at the tops of rivers. Goldeen are a very common sight in any body of fresh water. It is fished up in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh.

Goldeen first appeared in Pokémon Red and Blue, and have appeared in every main title since, including remakes of Red and Blue titled Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Outside of the main series, Goldeen has appeared in the Pokémon Pinball titles, Pokémon Ranger, the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon titles, Pokémon Trozei!, Pokémon Rumble, Pokémon Snap, and Pokémon Channel. Goldeen also appears in the Super Smash Bros. series, using Splash (even though Magikarp is the only one who can learn splash) when released from a Poké Ball, which has no effect on the battle. On the official blog, Super Smash Bros. lead designer Masahiro Sakurai commented that Goldeen appearing at the most critical of times is in keeping with Murphy's Law.

In the anime, Misty owns a Goldeen that is not really used for battles, but to look for things underwater. It first appeared in Pokémon Emergency! used to distract Team Rocket. Goldeen has also had many other small appearances in the anime, such as one belonging to Gym Leader Juan.

Goldeen's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl has received some criticism. IGN's Pokémon Chick wrote that while she assumed that it was modeled after a goldfish due to its "uninspired name", she felt that its tail more closely resembled a koi. She also wrote that it was a "pretty Pokémon" but also that she has bad stats and is "one of the single most boring ever to be imagined". GamesRadar's Brett Elston summed up Goldeen as rather unremarkable and wrote "What else is there to say? It's a goldfish." Author Loredana Lipperini compared Goldeen to the goldfish from the Disney film Fantasia. Destructoid's Jim Sterling criticized the developers and wrote "if you're just going to slap a horn on a goldfish, why even bother?".