Every now and then, you might run across a Pokemon of an unusual color- such as a black Charizard or green Marill. Other times the Pokemon might just be a lighter shade of its natural color, such as a pastel yellow Makuhita. When you find Pokemon like this, consider yourself extremely fortunate- you've found a shiny Pokemon.

The odds of finding one of these rare gems is 1 in 8,192. That means that whenever you enter a battle with a Pokemon, it has a 1 in 8,192 chance of being shiny. Not very good odds, needless to say. Shinies can be found in the wild, in eggs, and in the Battle Tower, and are obtainable in all of those save for the Battle Tower. So it's definitely a good idea to snag them when you run across them.

The bad thing about shinies is that there's nothing else unique about them save for their color. They're just for show, having the same stats as their regular-colored counterparts. In the metal generation, they had set IV's, but in the Advance Generation they have the exact same stats as the normal Pokemon.