Solution to Who's That Pokémon?

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Answer: NAPOLEON

by DD Liu

In the original Pokémon games, when you first meet Bill, he has accidentally fused himself with a Pokémon while experimenting with his new teleportation system. Pokémon are often a mash-up of two real-world things, and this puzzle plays with the idea that the teleportation system might be used to unfuse Pokémon into their constituent parts.

The image at the end of the puzzle is the classic “Who’s That Pokémon?” silhouette identification game, with silhouettes in alphabetical order. This serves as a word-bank for identifying the rest of the images.

Every time we click on the “Who’s That Pokémon?” button, we get a random image containing an overlapping silhouette of two objects whose portmanteau spells out one of the Pokémon’s names.

GIRAFFE + ARGENTINA = GIRATINA
MACARON + ARTICHOKE = MACHOKE
MARVIN + BEANIE = MAREANIE
INFINITY + DEEDEE = INDEEDEE
SNES + EASEL = SNEASEL
SALAD + FRIZZLE = SALAZZLE
SMOOTHIE + KETCHUM = SMOOCHUM
BREAD + LOOM = BRELOOM
DRACULA + MARTINI = DRATINI
MAGNETO + MITE = MAGNEMITE
FLAMINGO + PINEAPPLE = FLAPPLE
FLOAT + PRETZEL = FLOATZEL
CASHEW + RACCOON = CASCOON
LANCE + SATURN = LANTURN
PANDA + SAUSAGE = PANSAGE
BARBIE + STAGECOACH = BARBOACH
BINOCULARS + TENTACLE = BINACLE
ARMOIRE + WALDO = ARMALDO
LUCY + WARIO = LUCARIO
SWORDFISH + ACROBAT = SWOOBAT

Two Pokémon from the word-bank are missing: Natu and Empoleon. Fuse them to get the answer NAPOLEON, the “foreign” thing that’s jamming the machine.