[4] In these games and their sequels, the player assumes the role of a Trainer whose goal is to capture and use the creatures' special abilities to combat other Pokémon.

During this process, the team actively tried to avoid vague design concepts, as they felt this had caused difficulty creating completed Pokémon during the development of Red and Blue.

[7] Delibird is a red and white penguin Pokémon with a tail resembling a gift sack,[8][9] standing at 2 ft 11 in (90 cm) tall.

Due its colour scheme, sack-like tail and gift delivery, Delibird is likely inspired by Santa Claus.

[a] When in battle, using this move leads to Delibird pulling out a present and lobbing it at an opponent, dealing a light, medium or heavy amount of damage at random.

[20] In the same game, a series of shops are spread across the Paldea region called "Delibird Presents", which specializes in selling items for battles and merchandise.

Moreso however he criticized how it appeared to be built around the singular Present move, and that attack's randomness combined with its unreliability further hampered Delibird even in casual gameplay, making it "a poor Pokémon on all fronts".

[20] While describing it as a "cute Santa penguin", GamesRadar+'s Jordan Gerblick nevertheless asserted that Delibird was "the butt of the joke in the Pokémon community".

[30] Friend similarly commented on the contrast between Delibird and Iron Bundle, describing the power gap as "almost comical in its scale".

[31] TheGamer's Joshua Robertson expressed sadness at the community overlooking Delibird, stating that it went against the Pokémon's purpose to spread cheer for Christmas.

[9] Eva Padilla of RPGFan commented on their podcast how unusual and "strange" Delibird was due to its abilities and how much it stood out amongst the game's roster as a result.

[32] In an article for Kotaku, Gita Robinson reported on a player who found a creative use for Delibird in one of the series' recurring minigames, finding that due to its design and gameplay, it was inherently well adapted for such events compared to battling.

[33] Due to the tail's design, it has often led many in the Pokémon community to believe it was just a sack separate from its body, with some exclaiming it took them years to correct the misconception.

[9] Robertson called it a "cute little penguin",[9] but TheGamer's Editor in Chief, Stacey Henley, expressed disgust at the design of Delibird's sack like-tail.