The well-known Esports Extras variant, as we know it from Pokemon Red & Blue, was much more colorful than it is today.
The Pokemon series is now more than 25 years old and has made the leap from 2D to 3D in that time. But over the years, the pocket monsters have not only become rounder and more plastic, but also, above all, less colourful. Now, a Pokemon artist reveals what today’s Pokemon forms would look like if they hadn’t lost their Pokemon Red & Blue-era coloring.
Pokemon lost color when 3D jumping
Pokemon artist Serentix regularly creates videos in which he recolors Pokemon and makes comparisons between normal and shiny forms. In one of his latest video series, he shows the differences between 2D sprites and 3D shapes.
It is noticeable that the Pokemon have lost some color intensity during the 3D jump. A prominent example is Gengar, which used to be a strong purple hue and is now just a dark purple Pokemon. The former variant immediately catches the eye in comparison to the more boring 3D shape:
But Serentix transposes Gengar with a color filter that shows what it would look like today with Game Boy-era hues. And here you can see that the colors are much brighter and the difference to its shiny version is also clearer.
With other Pokemon like Porenta and Camerupt, it just looks like a gray haze has been placed over the Pokemon in question. The Pokemon Kecleon is known for its color-changing ability, but again, the new 3D form looks like a faded aging chameleon compared to the 2D variant.
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Pokemon fan finds even more points of criticism
In other videos, Serentix uncovers other features that he doesn’t like about the new 3D shapes. The Electric Pokemon Zapplarang from Pokemon Black and White not only got a less saturated color palette, but also different animations.
With other Pokemon like Felilou, it doesn’t necessarily matter that the Pokemon has lost color. The Pokemon fan finds it much worse that the Pokemon suddenly stands on two legs. Already with Pokemon crimson/crimson it became clear that the number of legs is very important to the fan community.
There is no known reason why the Pokemon development team toned down the color saturation. Maybe the flashy Pokemon seemed too exaggerated in contrast to the Pokemon game world. But until we find out the reason, we can probably look forward to more comparison videos from Serentix.
Which color variants do you like better for the Pokemon shown? Are there things that bother you about the 3D shapes?
