Oh, the horror! [Sprites of Shame]

Pokemon have had some really cool sprites, but GameFreak's definitely had their share of bad ones as well. Go down one more rung, and you end up with the worst of the worst. The idea for this popped up when I was looking through the Metal and Color generation sprites out of amusement, and my eyes have taken a humongous blow. To refrain from cluttering this thread please only limit to 3 horrible sprites, and try to justify your sprite because some people may love that sprite, and it's only right that you back it up with your personal opinion of sorts. It dosen't have to be from the GB/GBC era, it could be from any era. Also, while this is near impossible, try not to repeat the sprites that others have already featured, but at least don't post a sprite that another user has posted on the same page.

Rules

• Do not post the same sprite that another user has posted on the same page.
• Include your personal opinion on why this sprite is bad.
• State the name of the Pokemon, as well as the generation it's from in the format below.
• Have fun, and you can get sprites from pe2k.com.

Sprites of Shame exhibit is now open for all. Discuss away, and have fun!

Ekans|Pokemon Green



Are you kidding me? GameFreak must've been drunk when they created this thing. It's mouth hardly resembles Ekans, and while the color palette is excusable due to hardware limitations, it's mouth is just glaring and horrible.

Golbat|Pokemon Red/Blue



This looks absolutely horrible. Everything about it is horrible. It's pose, and it's tongue is unusually long and sticking out like it dosen't give a care to the Pokemon world. God. And how do you justify those infant legs?

Chansey|Pokemon Red/Blue



Compare this to the other Chansey sprites. The one and only flaw with this is that it dosen't have a normal body nor does it have normal proportions.

This is a fun idea, but since it's about the sprites from the games, I'll move it over to Pokemon Gaming Central.

Doctor said:

This is a fun idea, but since it's about the sprites from the games, I'll move it over to Pokemon Gaming Central.

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Sure, sorry for the slip up. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was the case a little while after posting the thread, but wasn't able to move threads. xD

This thing is supposed to be mew idk what game freak did but ummmm.... im disgusted

Dedenne1 said:

This thing is supposed to be mew idk what game freak did but ummmm.... im disgusted

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Yeah, despite the hardware limitations, this is a real bad job. It's entire anatomy is screwed up, and when you compare this to the official artwork and sprites it's a league away. Sometimes these sprites really make us appreciate the present day ones, as well as the effort that GF has put into creating original artwork.

Those sprites are creepy..

I think older sprites are hilarious. Someone beat me to the punch, though - my favorite is Mew. Golbat is a close second because of its face. I think hardware limitations might excuse some aspects of the older sprites, however, many of the RBY ones have normal proportions while others... just don't. I think it's pretty funny to think about because I'm sure that most of the sprites went through several people before approval.


The bodies looks fine... but their faces are kinda scary haha. These are from Red and Blue, which in general has pretty nice looking sprites for such old games. However, Pokemon Green..


Several things in each of these sprites just look.. a bit off.

Altairis said:

I think older sprites are hilarious. Someone beat me to the punch, though - my favorite is Mew. Golbat is a close second because of its face. I think hardware limitations might excuse some aspects of the older sprites, however, many of the RBY ones have normal proportions while others... just don't. I think it's pretty funny to think about because I'm sure that most of the sprites went through several people before approval.

The bodies looks fine... but their faces are kinda scary haha. These are from Red and Blue, which in general has pretty nice looking sprites for such old games. However, Pokemon Green..

Several things in each of these sprites just look.. a bit off.

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Well, Pokemon wasn't that big of a hit then if I recall correctly, so maybe they didn't go through enough QCs. xD

It's strange to think how the sprites in Red and Blue were by and large decent, while most of the sprites from Green just looked downright horrible. Wasn't Green supposed to be the Japanese counterpart of Red and Blue? Well, at least we got something better than the original group of people that Nintendo intended to release the game to.

Most of the sprites just have a problem, but the Exeggcutor stands out. How big can those heads get? If I ever caught an Exeggcutor, thank god I'd be seeing the back view. The front view would creep me out entirely. And Dragonite looks more like a house lizard in a costume than a dragon. Well, at least they've improved a whole lot, and perfected most of the sprites. ;)

Man, the Japanese Red and Green had some ugly ass sprites.



I think that looks even worse than the NA Red/Blue Wigglytuff.



Charizard looks kinda off too.


And I swear that there's this one sprite that's really terrible that hasn't been mentioned yet, but I can't remember which one it is.....

Behold, a donkey, I mean Charizard. >.>
Back sprites look even worse than the regular sprite of Gen 1 lol.

Sadly, all Pokémon sprites that I was wanting to post were already added here, haha.

First and foremost, one sprite from old games that I'm not too fond of would be Golbat. I understand that its mouth is meant to be huge, which it is, but what bothers me, though, is that it seems as if it were deformed, making it look hideous in a way. Not only this, but Golbat also has its tongue sticking out, which, if you pay close attention, you would notice as if it were not a part of its actual mouth; rather, something floating by itself in thin air.

Aside from above, I also dislike Moltres' sprite. Its wings seem a lot smaller than its head, which does make it look strange. I know they were limited in terms of dimensions, but I feel that they could have avoided this mistake had they turned its neck and head slightly more small. Due to similar reasons, I also don't like Articuno's.

Yes, Charizard looks like a rip off plush toy than a flying fire lizard that it was depicted to be in the anime. :p

Most back sprites in the era of RBY and even some from GSC were bad, but it was excusable because of hardware limitations. I can't recall liking any of the back sprites for that matter from the metal and color generations.

Golbat is really the one that freaks me out, the tongue was entirely uncalled for. Why the doglike tongue on a bat? It totally dosen't even fit at all. But meh, they've done a good job fixing things up.

Hey Arbok? Where is your mouth?



Vileplume is creepy as all get out in the original games. Just look at the thing! It's... ugh.

D/P/Pt and B/W Mew. Something about the face seems very, very off, and I find that particular shade of pink to be kinda gross.


Literally every first frame Ho-Oh sprite from RS to B2W2, excluding HGSS. Depending on how you count, this is either four or seven games' worth of sprites.

I'm not complaining about the art quality. It's good art. But recycling the same pose for three entire generations is supremely lazy. Surely it can't be that hard to come up with multiple poses. They recycled its back sprite pose from Gen II-IV, too, just to add insult to injury.


Gold Crobat. What a facial expression.

Harmonious Fusion said:

D/P/Pt and B/W Mew. Something about the face seems very, very off, and I find that particular shade of pink to be kinda gross.

Literally every first frame Ho-Oh sprite from RS to B2W2, excluding HGSS. Depending on how you count, this is either four or seven games' worth of sprites.

I'm not complaining about the art quality. It's good art. But recycling the same pose for three entire generations is supremely lazy. Surely it can't be that hard to come up with multiple poses. They recycled its back sprite pose from Gen II-IV, too, just to add insult to injury.

Gold Crobat. What a facial expression.

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Mew's face does seem to be a bit... off, bit other than that it seems fine by and large. While this shade of pink seems a tad too dark for mew, it dosen't seem to be that big of a deal. At least it isn't purple, what could be worse? xD

The Ho-Oh sprites are interesting, it's definitely quite lazy on their part to do the same pose over and over again. While the pose is nice and while I would like new poses every generation, I can't really think of any pose that could replace the current one. A static one with it's wings folded wouldn't look too good...but meh. I'm no spriter, so don't quote me on anything. ;)

The Crobat looks again, hardly lifelike as with most of the other RBY/GSC sprites featured above, and it's face just really makes it look like some sort of semi realistic plush toy.

Don't forget out fat little friend

Harmonious Fusion said:

Literally every first frame Ho-Oh sprite from RS to B2W2, excluding HGSS. Depending on how you count, this is either four or seven games' worth of sprites.

I'm not complaining about the art quality. It's good art. But recycling the same pose for three entire generations is supremely lazy. Surely it can't be that hard to come up with multiple poses. They recycled its back sprite pose from Gen II-IV, too, just to add insult to injury.

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It's kinda funny how it's the exact same sprite, but each gen it just gets bigger.

Musicality said:

Mew's face does seem to be a bit... off, bit other than that it seems fine by and large. While this shade of pink seems a tad too dark for mew, it dosen't seem to be that big of a deal. At least it isn't purple, what could be worse? xD

The Ho-Oh sprites are interesting, it's definitely quite lazy on their part to do the same pose over and over again. While the pose is nice and while I would like new poses every generation, I can't really think of any pose that could replace the current one. A static one with it's wings folded wouldn't look too good...but meh. I'm no spriter, so don't quote me on anything. ;)

The Crobat looks again, hardly lifelike as with most of the other RBY/GSC sprites featured above, and it's face just really makes it look like some sort of semi realistic plush toy.

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To me, that particular shade of pink is, quite literally, mildly stomach-churning in large quantities. I don't like seeing it on other sprites, either.

I'll admit, Ho-Oh is a Pokemon that doesn't really look good in a lot of poses, but I've seen some others that aren't bad. I own a Ho-Oh figurine that has it standing, with its head raised as if in mid-crow. That wouldn't look bad as a sprite.

There is too much detail and zero taste in the actually design, let alone the messy execution of the sprites.



Very glad XY had refined designs, which translated well into the 3d models. It's beyond me that people actually like Kyurem fusions.



The issue I have with tynamo is the odd positioning. It's a complete profile of its body which makes it look disengaged.

Someone beat me to Charizard. It looks like what you'd get if you gave Dragonite a Fire typing. Speaking of Dragonite:

This is Charmeleon's back sprite form the Generation I games. Looks exactly like a Dragonite, in my opinion.

Kadabra's sprite in R/B looks like an Alakazam with a missing spoon and a slightly larger tail. No defining features, like the star on its forehead.

It feels mean of me to kick down the first generation while it's down, but...these are just bad.