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Pokemon seems to be teasing Mega Malamar for Legends: Z-A in a series of bizarre live-action videos featuring people proclaiming their love for one of X and Y’s strangest ‘mons

Pokemon Legends: Z-A fans are getting hypnotized by the next likely Mega Evolution candidate, a psychic squid amassing an army for its “my friend Malamar” hype: “GREATEST POKEMON OF ALL TIME!”

Pokemon Legends Z-A’s Mega Dragonite leak finally confirmed, and it’s either “so good” or the “worst design for a Mega Evolution Pokemon ever” depending on who you ask

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Pokemon Legends Z-A’s latest Mega evolution revealed in the most kid-friendly found-footage horror way imaginable, just pretend you didn’t see that leak earlier

Mega Dragonite’s goofy wings in Pokemon Legends Z-A start to make sense when you consider one of the wildest theories in Pokemon history: “All the Mega Pokemon are designed after either the letter X or Y”

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Adventure Games

Pokemon Legends: Z-A

New Pokemon Legends Z-A Mega Evolution Malamar will call you dumb and hypnotize you “if it disagrees with an order,” as if having the weirdest evolution method wasn’t enough

Kaan Serin

11 September 2025

Mega Malamar is kinda messed up

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(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

Malamar’s always been a strange pocket monster, but its new Mega Evolution form in Pokemon Legends Z-A takes things up a notch. By that I mean Mega Malamar will hypnotise you if it thinks you gave a dumb order – at least in the game’s lore.

The mass Malamar hysteria hit hard earlier this month when The Pokemon Company started releasing videos depicting people celebrating the Dark/Psychic type in various ways, playing on the whole shtick of Malamar being able to use hypnosis to manipulate people into doing whatever it wants. A Malamar cult, if you will, but cute.

All of the hype finally led to Mega Malamar’s reveal, alongside an official blurb that reveals just how twisted the already-weird Pokemon can become in Mega form. “If it disagrees with an order given to it by a Trainer, it will sometimes respond by hypnotising them, making this an incredibly difficult Pokemon to interact with,” the official website threatens.

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Pokemon seems to be teasing Mega Malamar for Legends: Z-A in a series of bizarre live-action videos featuring people proclaiming their love for one of X and Y’s strangest ‘mons

Pokemon Legends: Z-A fans are getting hypnotized by the next likely Mega Evolution candidate, a psychic squid amassing an army for its “my friend Malamar” hype: “GREATEST POKEMON OF ALL TIME!”

Pokemon Legends Z-A’s Mega Dragonite leak finally confirmed, and it’s either “so good” or the “worst design for a Mega Evolution Pokemon ever” depending on who you ask

Of course, this might be one of those in-universe tidbits that doesn’t translate into interesting in-game stuff. We never actually see Spoink die from heart failure if it stops bouncing despite its Black and White 2 Pokedex entry, for example. In that same vein, your own Mega Malamar may not ever actually turn on you via mind control in Pokemon Legends Z-A (but maybe the implication that it could is enough.)

Still, Malamar is one of the Pokemon with the strangest evolution methods. In Pokemon XY, you need to hold your 3DS upside. On the Switch games, you need to make sure your console-handheld-hybrid is out of the dock and, also, upside down. I like that Legends Z-A is making him a little odder, even if it’s just in a Pokedex entry.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A buffs up one of X and Y’s best ‘mons as it introduces Mega Hawlucha, which might have the RPG’s coolest new form yet.

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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.

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Pokemon seems to be teasing Mega Malamar for Legends: Z-A in a series of bizarre live-action videos featuring people proclaiming their love for one of X and Y’s strangest ‘mons

Pokemon Legends: Z-A fans are getting hypnotized by the next likely Mega Evolution candidate, a psychic squid amassing an army for its “my friend Malamar” hype: “GREATEST POKEMON OF ALL TIME!”

Pokemon Legends Z-A’s Mega Dragonite leak finally confirmed, and it’s either “so good” or the “worst design for a Mega Evolution Pokemon ever” depending on who you ask

Pokemon Legends: Z-A buffs up one of X and Y’s best ‘mons as it introduces Mega Hawlucha, which might have the RPG’s coolest new form yet

Pokemon Legends Z-A’s latest Mega evolution revealed in the most kid-friendly found-footage horror way imaginable, just pretend you didn’t see that leak earlier

Mega Dragonite’s goofy wings in Pokemon Legends Z-A start to make sense when you consider one of the wildest theories in Pokemon history: “All the Mega Pokemon are designed after either the letter X or Y”

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