The fact that the winning one would become downloadable probably skewed the results: I'm sure most people voted for the powerful Pokémon they'd want to get their hands on.

They should of said the most popular would be available only after the poll ended.

I know a lot of people who figured out how to vote for Arceus on the hope that it would come out below level 100. No dice on that, sadly.

So, if you eliminate the top three characters, then Pikachu and Meowth would be THE most popular characters. That would make sense as Pikachu is seen EVERYWHERE, and has represented the franchise since the days of Red and Blue. Meowth is mainly popular because of his cartoon appearance. He is one of the rare Pokemon outside of legendaries that can speak in the cartoon universe. Doing so it has allow Meowth to have an unique personality among the Pokemon. I mean, every time Meowth appears in a game it is usually the speaking version rather than the strict Pokemon version.

In third place was Deoxys, the shape shifting legendary Pokemon introduced in Ruby and Pearl.

Do I really need to point it out?

Pap64 doesn't care about Pokemon.

...Am I missing something with those last two comments?

Yes. King Bowser Koopa was quoting a line from the article, which contains a slight mistake. The line says that Deoxys was introduced in Ruby and Pearl, which are games from different generations. It should read either "Ruby and Sapphire" or 'Diamond and Pearl."

Perhaps that says more about Pokemon than it does about Pap64...

Japanese gamers aren't dumb, knowing that they would get to download the Pokemon skewered the results since most people would not vote for a Pokemon that is easily gotten. Most people would vote for event-only Pokemon. Of coarse Japan has had many chances for every legendary Pokemon, we rarely ever get them.

I fixed the mistake. Thanks for pointing it out.