IGN's Pokémon Chick wrote that Arbok was a favorite among players looking for a "pure Poison" type and/or players who like Arbok for being an enemy toward Pikachu and Ash Ketchum in the Pokémon anime.
•
Created by Ken Sugimori, Ekans and Arbok first appeared in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise.
•
Ekans and Arbok were two of several different designs conceived by Game Freak's character development team and finalized by Ken Sugimori for the first generation of Pocket Monsters games Red and Green, which were localized outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue.