Going generation by generation
Gen 1 - Poliwrath! This guy is my favorite gen 1 Pokemon and an absolute beast. He has a very solid stat distribution which allows him to be naturally tanky, and his typing is incredibly useful. He kind of gets overshadowed by the many other water types in Kanto like Blastoise, Gyarados, Lapras, ...
Gen 2 - Forretress. Steel typing is obviously great, but almost everyone looks to the Scizors and Skarmory's of this world. Forretress shares Scizor's incredible typing and is a great utility pokemon, getting entry hazards, thunder wave etc. He's not just a passive wall either, he's got a very respectable attack stat and can hit surprisingly hard with Gyro Ball, Bug Bite, Payback (almost always boosted to 100 due to his slow speed).
Gen 3 - Ninjask. Everyone knows how broken Shedinja is, but Ninjask is incredible too! Speed boost is obviously a great ability, but pair that with swords dance and baton pass and you have a pokemon that can turn any team member into a sweeper. Bug/Flying is on paper not an incredible type, but honestly I found plenty opportunities to safely set up a swords dance, and from there you don't even need Ninjask anymore as you baton pass into your other pokemon. Great support pokemon!
Gen 4 - Drapion has incredible stats and an even better typing. It is bulky, shockingly fast and you can run a very fun sniper set with a scope lens item and moves like Night Slash and Cross Poison to score many destructive critical hits.
Gen 5 - Archeops often gets dismissed because of its ability, but honestly this guy is a main stay on my Unova teams and I swear the ability has never let this thing down. It just destroys everything in its path before Defeatist can even activate. Those STAB acrobatics just sweep through entire enemy teams before you can blink.
Gen 6 - Avalugg unfortunately has one of the worst types in the game. Nevertheless is is still an incredibly underrated pokemon. The sheer physical bulk it has makes anything not super effective essentially just a tiny scratch, and it hits quite hard back.
Gen 7 - Araquanid has one of the most broken abilities and this alone turns it into an underrated beast. Sticky web on top of that? Wow
Gen 8 - Runerigus was a monster on my team. Great typing and stats, and the ability can make you disrupt enemy pokemon that rely on their abilities (huge power pokemon for example). Probably the stupidest evolution method ever though so nobody uses this thing.
Gen 9 - Lokix. What?? The route 2 bug type is a big threat? Yes it is, it hits hard as hell and gets crazy moves including first impression.
Going generation by generation
Gen 1 - Poliwrath! This guy is my favorite gen 1 Pokemon and an absolute beast. He has a very solid stat distribution which allows him to be naturally tanky, and his typing is incredibly useful. He kind of gets overshadowed by the many other water types in Kanto like Blastoise, Gyarados, Lapras, ...
Gen 2 - Forretress. Steel typing is obviously great, but almost everyone looks to the Scizors and Skarmory's of this world. Forretress shares Scizor's incredible typing and is a great utility pokemon, getting entry hazards, thunder wave etc. He's not just a passive wall either, he's got a very respectable attack stat and can hit surprisingly hard with Gyro Ball, Bug Bite, Payback (almost always boosted to 100 due to his slow speed).
Gen 3 - Ninjask. Everyone knows how broken Shedinja is, but Ninjask is incredible too! Speed boost is obviously a great ability, but pair that with swords dance and baton pass and you have a pokemon that can turn any team member into a sweeper. Bug/Flying is on paper not an incredible type, but honestly I found plenty opportunities to safely set up a swords dance, and from there you don't even need Ninjask anymore as you baton pass into your other pokemon. Great support pokemon!
Gen 4 - Drapion has incredible stats and an even better typing. It is bulky, shockingly fast and you can run a very fun sniper set with a scope lens item and moves like Night Slash and Cross Poison to score many destructive critical hits.
Gen 5 - Archeops often gets dismissed because of its ability, but honestly this guy is a main stay on my Unova teams and I swear the ability has never let this thing down. It just destroys everything in its path before Defeatist can even activate. Those STAB acrobatics just sweep through entire enemy teams before you can blink.
Gen 6 - Avalugg unfortunately has one of the worst types in the game. Nevertheless is is still an incredibly underrated pokemon. The sheer physical bulk it has makes anything not super effective essentially just a tiny scratch, and it hits quite hard back.
Gen 7 - Araquanid has one of the most broken abilities and this alone turns it into an underrated beast. Sticky web on top of that? Wow
Gen 8 - Runerigus was a monster on my team. Great typing and stats, and the ability can make you disrupt enemy pokemon that rely on their abilities (huge power pokemon for example). Probably the stupidest evolution method ever though so nobody uses this thing.
Gen 9 - Lokix. What?? The route 2 bug type is a big threat? Yes it is, it hits hard as hell and gets crazy moves including first impression.