Quoted By:
Emboar would probably have been very well received if they had put literally any other Fire starter besides Infernape between it and Blaziken. Blaziken was already stupidly popular, and with Speed Boost and the Mega it just blew Emboar the fuck out. Emboar has the much less cool Reckless, when it would benefit more from Sheer Force.
So already Emboar is facing an uphill battle compared with Blaziken, but then directly before it you had another Fire/Fighting, which was much more versatile than Emboar, and was also a Journey to the West reference, and a more popular one. It was just too unoriginal.
