Color Changes

In the long history of the Pokémon franchise, a number of Pokémon have changed notably in appearance, usually color-wise. This page compiles a list of these changes as far as they've been noteworthy, in numerical order by the National Pokédex.

Here color changes are only counted if they can be called reasonably drastic - something that definitely changes hues or goes from being very light to very dark will be listed, but not changes that could be considered changes but could as well be a matter of the difference between mediums. It will be assumed that parts of the apparent differences in the pre-Yellow sprites are in fact a result of their poor artistic quality and not an actual change in the design of the Pokémon, that all Yellow sprites are colored with at least a hue that is meant to be prominent in the Pokémon's appearance, that G/S/C will try to approximate the two most dominant hues in the Pokémon as closely as possible, and that the tiny overworld sprites and box icons may have colors that are a little off. Hover over any of the images provided to see what they are. Most of them come from GTS Plus's image gallery; the R/B/Y Sugimori art of Caterpie was scanned by myself.

Very drastic changes in the coloration of shiny Pokémon will also be listed.

#001 - Bulbasaur

In the original Sugimori art created for Red and Blue, Bulbasaur had an unmistakably blue body. However, all of its appearances since have shown the body as being green or at most bluish-green, as seen in the FR/LG Sugimori art and the D/P sprite, and in Mystery Dungeon its body was green with no hint of blue.

#002 - Ivysaur

Ivysaur, like Bulbasaur, was clearly blue in the original Red and Blue Sugimori art. It is understandable that its body was green in the R/B/Y and G/S/C sprites, but surprisingly, the R/S sprite shows it as greener than Bulbasaur if anything. In the FR/LG Sugimori art and sprite, however, it goes back to being distinctly blue compared to its pre-evolution, and in D/P, it's again approximately the same slightly bluish-green as Bulbasaur.

#003 - Venusaur

Venusaur, like the rest of its evolution line, was portrayed as distinctly blue in the R/B/Y Sugimori art, but ever since, it has pretty much been growing steadily greener. The FR/LG Sugimori art shows it as being bluish-green, while the FR/LG sprite is green with very little blue in it. Mystery Dungeon, on the other hand, completely turns this evolution around and makes it blatantly blue again.

#005 - Charmeleon (shiny)

Unlike the golden shiny Charmander, a shiny Charmeleon in G/S/C was a kind of faded, almost purplish red/orange. In all subsequent generations, Charmeleon's shiny form has been gold.

#006 - Charizard

Charizard has been through a lot of changes since it was introduced. In the R/B/Y Sugimori art, we see a dragon with a large head and a very bulky jaw and fangs in the lower jaw that overlap the upper. This is the only official artwork of Charizard in which fangs from the lower jaw are seen when its mouth is closed as opposed to ones from the upper, and in all the games as well as the animé, Charizard has a leaner, more forward-narrowing snout and the more visible fangs are in the upper jaw. In the original sprite from the Japanese Red and Green, Charizard had only stubs of the distinctive 'fingers' on its wings. In the Japanese Blue/American Red/Blue as well as in Yellow, on the other hand, Charizard is shown as having larger wings and a considerably shorter tail than on the original Sugimori art. The G/S/C sprites again had small wings but still a short tail. In the FR/LG Sugimori art, as well as in the animé, the inside of Charizard's wings is shown to be greenish as opposed to the blue seen everywhere else. The FR/LG Sugimori art also returns to making its tail long and the lower jaw prominent (even more so than in the original Sugimori art, in fact), and in all sprites from the third generation onwards, Charizard has a long tail.

#006 - Charizard (shiny)

Charizard has had one of the most prominent shiny color changes: in G/S/C, the shiny was a pale lavender with green on the inside of the wings, while in the third generation onwards, the shiny Charizard has been black with the insides of the wings red. In Diamond and Pearl, the black was made to be slightly purplish, perhaps in reference to the original shiny color.

#007 - Squirtle (shiny)

The shiny Squirtle in the third generation had, in addition to the green shell, a much lighter and brighter-colored body than the ordinary Squirtle. In the fourth generation, the shiny Squirtle is instead a softer, more purplish blue than the ordinary Squirtle. Although the difference between the two colors isn't particularly drastic, they are modifying the color of the original Squirtle in two completely different directions.

#008 - Wartortle

Wartortle had always been pictured as the same kind of blue as Squirtle and Blastoise, and this was also true in Ruby and Sapphire. However, when FireRed and LeafGreen came along, the ordinary Wartortle was colored dark purple, and while the Sugimori art was a bit more bluish, it was still much darker and more purple than it had been before. The D/P sprite is only slightly more bluish than the FR/LG one and still definitely more purple than even the FR/LG Sugimori art, so this appears to be a very much intentional and permanent change.

#009 - Blastoise

The design of Blastoise's cannons changed between R/S and FR/LG. Before FR/LG, as is well shown in the R/B/Y Sugimori artwork, the cannons stood out of large round holes in the shell, with bent plates protruding out of the shell on the back end of the holes to protect the cannons. In FR/LG onwards, as well shown in the FR/LG Sugimori artwork, there is shell all the way around the cannons and it is a lot more squared off than previously.

#010 - Caterpie

In the R/B/Y Sugimori art and perhaps the Yellow sprite of Caterpie, it seems to be shown to have 'feet' on at least three segments of its body; in all subsequent art, it is either impossible to see or there are only feet on the top two segments. Additionally, the R/B/Y Sugimori art seems to show it as having multiple smaller circles on its segments rather than the larger one-on-each-side ones that it has had in all other interpretations.

#012 - Butterfree

Butterfree's wings looked considerably different in the R/B/Y Sugimori art than it does now. The large patch on the upper wing with the thick black end lies against the edge of the wing on the R/B/Y art but a bit away from it in the FR/LG art; the two veins that come out of it in the FR/LG art are only one in the R/B/Y art. The shape of the wings has also changed, and while in the FR/LG art the veins on the lower wing all sprout out from the U-shaped vein in the middle, they don't in the R/B/Y art. In the general body shape, however, the two Sugimori artworks are very much alike, and in fact more so than many of the game sprites are like either of them. In the first two generations as well as in the animé, Butterfree had a head smaller than or about the same size as its body while both Sugimori artworks show the head as being bigger than the body. The R/S Butterfree, on the other hand, has a head that seems much larger than its body and is more in line with the Sugimori art in this respect. It also has green feet and mouth, which the FR/LG sprite also does; in D/P, however, they are back to blue.

#013 - Weedle

Weedle was portrayed as yellow in the animé and all the games up to and including Gold and Silver, but in Crystal onwards Weedle was suddenly turned brown and has been brown since. Additionally, Weedle had a lighter underbelly in the games all the way up until the fourth generation.

#016 - Pidgey

The Pidgey sprites in Gold, Silver and Crystal all had light-colored tail feathers, while all later appearances and Sugimori art have shown its tail to be brown. Interestingly, the G/S/C back sprite also had them brown.

Page last modified August 13 2016 at 02:34 UTC

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