1st Gen graphical musings

i've been replaying Yellow lately and I find myself really liking the graphics. like, i think they're really simplistic and all but overall I enjoy them quite a bit and I don't really agree with the people who say that the gen 1 games "haven't aged well", whatever that means... and I didn't play Gen 1 until I'd already been a pokemon fan for several years, so I don't just like these graphics because of the nostalgia or anything like that.

anyone feel similarly? how do you feel about the graphics overall

I get what you mean. There is something to the graphics that makes them appealing, but IMO they're lacking in comparison to the GSC ones. On top of that, while the overworld sprites are really nice, the Pok?mon sprites are ranging from 'ehh' to downright ugly. In that sense the graphics have absolutely not aged well.

But it depends on the version you're playing. Yellow's pok?mon sprites are really nice. It's R/B's sprites that are weird, though I don't agree they are all bad. There are some that I really like.

Yellow is a huge step from the scary monsters of Red and Blue. Although, I still do prefer the newer sprites over than the first generation, it still do instill some sense of nostalgia into me. And with that, I knew it aged well.

I like the graphics. There are a few that still creep me out a bit (looking at you, RB Golbat), but the simplicity is fun to look at too. It's neat to see how much they were able to do with only a few shades of gray and a limited number of pixels. Sure, the new games have more complex graphics, but the old games have a certain charm to them as well.

That being said, I started with Red, and I tend to be heavily influenced by nostalgia, so I can't really say how I would feel about them were I to play them for the first time today. But I don't tend to be all that bothered by "simple" graphics in other games, so I doubt I would mind them here.

To me, that Pikachu's tail undergoing Simple Harmonic Motion was the best visual thing in yellow!

[CENTRE] [/CENTRE]

Jokes apart, I feel the same as Rainbow, because I played Yellow, like years after I was into pokemon gaming and I absolutely loved it!

I really like the graphics, but not in a way in which they are good. I like them for their simplistic design. I always get nostalgic looking at the old graphics.

Erm... I can't really say I dislike them, but saying that they look good or nice is a bit too much for me.
I do kinda like how the simplistic sprites on the overworld look, but jeez are they dated. I played Gen 1 years after playing newer ones, just as you have, but I still thought they looked strange. Yes Yellow improved most of the sprites, but even then, some of them still look off. I mean, Ratatta looks so much nicer in Blue than it does in Yellow if you ask me.

In general I don't think that RGBY's visuals have aged well. I mean, yeah I like them, but I like them in the same way I like how the original Zelda game looks. They're iconic, so I can't really say that they look terrible, but they just don't look good.
I think games like GSC and LTTP have visually aged well, but the originals only look decent because they're iconic if you ask me.

jeez i legitimately cannot write anything without it sounding like mindless rambling. whoops

I was surprised at the response I had to trying to replay Blue at one point years ago. Keep in mind that I'm someone who absolutely loves retro games, so extremely pixelated graphics aren't a problem for me. Except...for whatever reason, I just couldn't deal very well with Blue's graphics at that time. They were just too rough for me, I guess. Graphics like Gold and Silver, those are fine. Yellow might be fine as well, I haven't really tried replaying that too much. Just...anything beyond that, I find myself not really liking anymore.

Yeah, as someone who just finished playing Yellow and still has Blue to finish...Yellow's graphics are better than Blue/Red. The colors in Yellow definitely help. Blue and Red are just... I don't even know how to describe what's off about them.

With the Pokemon themselves, the front sprites could be terrifying or strange in how they're done, though Yellow did help quite a few. The back sprites can be the stuff of nightmares, and it takes a lot of imagination to see the Pokemon in some of them.

So I can't see how the graphics can be considered "good." Nostalgic or iconic, as others have said, I can see. But good might be a stretch, especially when it comes to some of the Pokemon themselves.

Kinda forgot to mention this, but one thing that really turns me off with the Gen 1 games' graphics is the absolutely atrocious backsprites. While Yellow improved most of the front sprites for Pokemon, the backsprites remain the terrifying originals.