A fictional species from the Pokémon franchise that made its debut in the 2010/2011 Nintendo DS video games Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version as Pokémon species #498, serving as the
Fire-type starter Pokémon for the Unova region.
It is basically a
Fire Pig Pokémon whose name is a portmanteau of either "tepid" (as in "lukewarm") and "
pig" or "temperature" and "
pig".
When it was originally announced in Japan, it had a rather mixed reception amongst Pokémon fans. Some of the more positive reactions toward this Pokémon'
s official art mention its smiling face which looks similar to the awesome face. Before its official international/
English name was announced, it had several different
fan-given nicknames, with the most prominent being "Pignite", "Pignition", and "Hamferno". Later on, several fans were disappointed when it was revealed that both its evolutions were
Fire-Fighting types, a type combination that's already been done before on the evolutions of the previous two
Fire-type starters, Torchic (which evolves into Combusken and Blaziken) and Chimchar (which evolves into Monferno and Infernape).