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

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.

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.