Mudkipz - Reception

Reception

Kotaku called Mudkip a recognized Pokémon. Mudkip has received many tribute videos on YouTube due to the popular internet meme, "so I herd u liek mudkipz." GameFAQs's sixth and seventh annual character battles featured Mudkip, with him losing in round one against Luigi in 2007, and against Mega Man X in 2008. GamesRadar listed 4chan memes as one of the pieces of "game-culture shit we're sick of constantly hearing about" and used the Mudkipz meme as an example. On April 1, 2008, DeviantART played an April Fool's Day joke on its members, changing all their users avatars to images of Mudkip.

An IGN article opined that "Mudkip isn't anything very special" when considering its later forms and that "he ecology of the Mudkip is similarly bland". GameZone editor "jkdmedia" commented on Mudkip's design, stating that he cannot even describe what it is beyond a "funny-looking water creature". GameSpot's Greg Kasavin wrote that Mudkip "fit in well with the tried-and-true classics like Pikachu, Psyduck, and Koffing". IGN wrote that while Mudkip was unpopular, is the best starter in Ruby and Sapphire due to its advantage over the early gyms and its Ground/Water type combination. GameSpy's Michael Vreeland called Mudkip "bizarre" and "balanced". IGN's Pokémon Chick chose Mudkip as her starter, but was disappointed with how Swampert turned out and argued that other Water types were better. Comics Alliance's Chris Sims wrote that the starter Pokémon found in games after Red and Blue were inferior and cited Mudkip as an example.