I have been a Pokémon fan since I was a young child. I have played most of the games, "Pokémon Go," watched the anime up until season 12, collected the cards, you name it. Pokémon came out in the west a year or so after I was born, so I've always been surrounded by them. Without further ado, here are five of my favorite Pokémon.

Piplup

Piplup

Giphy

Honestly out of all of the starter Pokémon, I think my favorite would be Piplup. I've played "Dimond/Pearl" games many times and I've played with the other starters from those games, but I keep going back to Piplup. This little one is fun, strong, and is very passionate, even after evolving to Prinplup and Empoleon.

Lucario

Lucario

Giphy

I've liked Lucario since the movie "Lucario and the Mystery of Mew," as well as "X" and "Y" when Mega Lucario was introduced. You could first get Lucario in "Dimond" and "Pearl" by getting a Riolu egg and evolving it. You can never go wrong with having a strong Pokémon in your party, who also has a lot of heart.

Gengar

Gengar

Giphy

Gengar can sometimes be perceived as the bad guy, like in "Mystery Dungeons." But there's some lore behind him, about being Clefable's shadow. They're both immune to each other, ghost and normal types of some immunities towards each other. Also, Clefable is the evolved form of Clefairy, who if you remember from Pikachu, was almost Ash's first Pokémon.

There are so many Pokémon both old and new, it's hard to narrow it down. While I haven't played or seen much of the newer ones, I do plan to in the future. Pokémon has been around for a long time, and I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon