The worst Pokemon sprites come from the first games, when the art was still catching up with the ideas. Pokemon Red and Blue reached North America on September 28, 1998. Some of those drawings look nothing like the Pokemon you know, and a few look like they want something from you.
Pokemon Yellow followed on October 18, 1999, with every front sprite redrawn to match Ken Sugimori's artwork of the time. We went through all 151 and kept the 19 that needed the new drawing most. Pokemon Red and Blue are on the left, and Pokemon Yellow is on the right.
Blastoise is a ball with a bad attitude
Blastoise has two water cannons on top of its shell, and good luck finding them here. Red and Blue hunch it into a dark round lump, and the pose is so ominous that you start to wonder what it plans to blast. The whole sprite is hard to read, and from a distance it's a ball with somewhere to be. Yellow stands it up, points both cannons at you and shows off the spikes around the shell.
Raticate needs a dentist
Someone needs to get Raticate to a dentist. The teeth in Red and Blue are bulging out of a mouth that takes up half its head. To be fair to it, Raticate stands on its hind legs and bares its fangs when attacked, so this may be the moment it saw you coming. Yellow turns it to face you, brings the teeth back down to a normal size and finds room for the whiskers.
Jigglypuff had a few before the show
Jigglypuff's whole act is singing a soothing lullaby that sends you to sleep. In Red and Blue it looks like it had a few drinks before going on stage, and that droopy right eye gives it away. Yellow sobers it up. Both eyes are wide open and they match, the tuft on its head curls the right way, and the body looks like the balloon it's meant to be.
Wigglytuff is a knock-off Kirby
A Moon Stone turns Jigglypuff into Wigglytuff, and in Red and Blue that stone seems to have made a knock-off Kirby. The round body and stubby feet do most of the damage, and those wide eyes don't help. Yellow fixes it by giving Wigglytuff a pose. It sits up with its tall ears out, one arm raised, and nobody would mistake it for anything from another game.
Golbat is all tongue
Zubat evolves into Golbat at level 22, and here it comes out as an overzealous Dragon Quest monster. The long tongue is part of the design, since Golbat does show one now and then. This one is wet, it hangs out of a mouth that is most of the sprite, and it's nightmare fuel. Yellow puts the tongue away and spreads the wings wide. You get a bat again.
Mankey was left out in the sun
Mankey is the Pig Monkey Pokemon, which is a lot for anyone to live up to. In Red and Blue it looks like a toy left in the sun too long, soft at every edge. We can't tell if it's blinking or making a heart with its arms. Yellow remembers it's a Fighting type. The fur is back, the fists are up and that face wants a word with you.
Poliwhirl looks like it came from another planet
Poliwhirl's eyes bulge from the top of its head by design. Red and Blue push them so far out that it stops being a tadpole and starts being an alien, and our first instinct is to kill it with fire. It doesn't help that the swirl on its belly is its organs showing through thin skin. Yellow pulls the eyes back in, tidies the swirl and has it raise a gloved fist, which makes it look friendly.
Bellsprout is a zombie plant
Bellsprout is the Flower Pokemon, though this one looks like what a zombie plant would look like. It droops, and those dead eyes follow you around the party screen. Stomp it and don't let it come back. Yellow brings it back to life with a bright head, an open mouth and leaves that look like they've seen water at some point.
Geodude has a hairdo for some reason
Geodude is the Rock Pokemon, so we'd like to know why it looks like it's rocking a hairdo. The swoop on top of the Red and Blue sprite reads like a hairstyle, and the rest of it looks soft enough to squeeze. Yellow gives it weight. It's a proper boulder now, with a heavy brow and two big fists.
Doduo is three circles
Doduo is the Twin Bird Pokemon, and Red and Blue took that to mean two circles with eyes on top of a larger circle. It's just so ugly, and the thin legs make it look like a drawing a child would hand you with pride. Yellow stretches the beaks out and gives it thick legs and a long neck on each head. It finally looks like something that could outrun you.
Exeggutor has three faces, and they're all making one
Exeggutor is already scary, and with that face (wait, no, three faces all pulling expressions at you) it's the kind of nightmare fuel you run away from. Sending it into a battle feels like a lot to ask of anyone. It doesn't calm down once you learn that a head that grows too large just falls off. Yellow turns the hair into proper palm leaves and shrinks the faces. It's a walking coconut tree again.
What is Marowak wearing?
We have questions about what Marowak is wearing. Is it its own face? And what's that on the left? The answer is sadder than you'd want, since its head is the skull it once wore as a mask, and it can't take it off anymore. Red and Blue bend the whole thing into a shape where skull and body blur together. Yellow stands it up straight, gives it a clear bone to hold and draws the skull so it reads as a skull.
Mr. Mime went from weird to creepy
Mr. Mime is an excellent pantomime from birth, which was already weird. In Red and Blue it's downright creepy, with that white face and those hollow eyes staring out from behind the fingers. Yellow can't make Mr. Mime normal, and it doesn't try. It adds red hair and round hands and turns the scare into a clown you could maybe tolerate at a party.
Chansey looks like it just got bad news
Chansey is the Egg Pokemon, and the egg is the only thing that looks fine here. Red and Blue squash its face into the top corner and turn it away from you, with a tiny worried mouth, like someone just told it the news. Yellow rounds the body out, moves the face to the middle and puts the curls on its head where you can see them. Now it looks like a nurse you'd trust.
Porygon is a Donald Duck meme
Porygon is made completely out of programming code, which explains the corners. It doesn't explain the Donald Duck meme in Red and Blue, or what those two round eyes are looking at. Stay away! Yellow turns it side on and folds it into a low, sharp shape with one eye on the road. It looks like the computer program it's meant to be.
Eevee has a beard
Eevee is one of the cutest Pokemon around, and here it looks like a Chihuahua with a beard. Its unstable genetic structure is what lets it mutate, and this sprite seems to have started early. Yellow gives it the big ears, the fluffy collar and the bushy tail you'd expect, and it's the Eevee you'd want on your team again.
Vaporeon is an angry Chihuahua in Victorian clothes
A Water Stone turns Eevee into Vaporeon, and the beard stays in the family. Just like its pre-evolution it looks like an angry Chihuahua, this time in a Victorian outfit with a ruff around its neck. Yellow goes the other way, with long smooth lines, a big fin and a tail you'd expect on a mermaid. You can tell this one lives in the water.
Kabuto is an egg with two dots
Kabuto is revived from a Dome Fossil, and going by Red and Blue the fossil is all you got back. It's an egg with two dots on it and a leg peeking out from underneath. (Was that the front or the back?) Yellow settles that. The dome sits low, two eyes look out from under it and you can see why anyone would want to bring it back.
Mewtwo looks derpy for the strongest thing in Kanto
Mewtwo is one of the most powerful Pokemon there is. Its DNA is almost the same as Mew's, and the rest of its look should be pure menace. In Red and Blue it looks mostly derpy, with its shoulders arched up like it's waiting for a bus in the cold. Yellow gives it back the look of something that knows how strong it is, standing tall with its feet planted.
Everything starts somewhere
We're not knocking anything about Pokemon here. Everything starts somewhere, and these 19 come from a series still working out what its creatures looked like at that size. By the time Pokemon Yellow came around, the designs had been refined and the pixel artists knew a lot more about what they were doing. You can see it in those fronts, which follow Ken Sugimori's artwork, and some of them match how the Pokemon looked in the anime.
