Ever thought it'd be cool to have your art, writing, or challenge runs featured on PokéCommunity? Click here for info - we'd love to spotlight your work!
Our weekly protagonist poll is now up! Vote for your favorite Trading Card Game 2 protagonist in the poll by clicking here.
Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
I would say Golbat, from Red, if I could interject another game from Gen 1. The thing is horrifying if you see it in battle. The tongue... the horrible tongue....
A lot of them look pretty bad (especially that Exceggutor, dear lord) but what I find fascinating is that Green is a Japanese-only cartridge, so when you take that into account and you think about what Pokemon is supposed to be----monsters that are able to be tamed and used in battle----the ugly sprites make sense. They're very reminiscent of monsters from Japanese folklore and legends, which are not particularly beautiful or anatomically correct. I enjoy the redone/later gen sprites, too, but I'm fascinated by what must have been going through Japanese HQ's mind when they developed these. It's pretty cool to see the similarities between legends in Japanese culture and the original Pokemon sprites.
Ekans' original sprite reminds me of some hybrid of a snake and a duck gone wrong, and I'm not the first and probably won't be the last person to see a Togekiss and a Doduo before realizing it's actually Hitmonchan.
Other than that, the sprites in Green weren't quite as bad as what I remembered them to be. Sure, most of the original Pokemon have had some cosmetic changes to them so they aren't as rough looking, but almost all of them are still recognizable right away.
Exeggutor heads look bigger than his body.
Mew just looks like it was hit by a tractor-trailer and that is the mutilated result.
Farfetch'd is herp a derping
Charizard is on Crystal Meth, just look at those eyes
Snorlax has random stubs for arms
Eevee looks like it wants to kill everything
Ekans has a duck face (Like most girls these days)
Venusaur is Frogger after he got ran over with a Palm tree put on his back
Wow... just wow. I don't know that I've ever seen the sprites for Green!
Aside from Mew, I think the Charmander evolution line is pretty bad, and Machoke is hilarious looking.
There are some I like though -- I actually like Snorlax, and I think Jolteon looks pretty decent. Squirtle's evolution line definitely did the best out of the starters.
Gloom looks like a stoner
Charizard looks like a rip off Dragonite
Ekans is a duck
The female Nidoran is blind
Polywrath looks like a bouncer at a night club
Machoke's legs are out of proportion
Machamp has a beak
Bellsprout is just... terrible
Gollem looks like it just won something
Farfetch'd looks like an army commander
Dewgong looks retarded
Ghastly looks like a MS Paint spray
Gengar looks like it has fur
Hypno looks like a paedophile
Exeggutor looks ill, stupid and suicidal at the same time
Hitmonchan couldn't show that it is a boxer anymore
What is with Scyther's teeth
Moltres looks like a chicken
And mew look like it has no arms.
What about Wigglytuff? His eyes are nowhere close to being the same size. Chansey looks like she just got back from the hair dresser. She's got a brand new bob cut. Omastar's doing a dance and Doduo's doing the cancan. Mewtwo looks pretty cool though. I think they did the best with him.
What I find weird is the fact that Golbat's sprite was OK in this game, however in the English versions of Blue and Red they completely messed up with it.
Hahaha I'mm cracking up at Geodude right now, idk why. Ghastly always looked kinda ugly in these games. But Magneton looks better in this game than RSE.
But why were they this ugly?
Were they the original designs?
Or were they rushed?
Or having a bad spriter?
I know that GF were lacking of money at that time,
but sprite quality = /= budget.
Our hackers here in PC are even able to replace them with Gen II sprites.