Amazing Sprites in Pokémon RBY

I recently did a stream ranking all of the Pokémon sprites from the first generation of Pokémon, and I figured a fun way to follow that up would be to talk about a handful of my favourites!
This is more of a silly lil side video than anything, but I had a lot of fun with it nonetheless, and I'd love to hear if you have any favourites that weren't mentioned here.
#pokemon #rby #gen1
Twitter: / bigyellowsilly
Twitch: / bigyellowyt
Patreon: / thebigyellow
Music Used:
Battle Hub Theme - Street Fighter 6
At Dawn... for Speed Highway - Sonic Adventure
Opus 13 - Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Fun Factory - Bean Dreams
VOD for Stream: • Ranking Every Gen 1 Po...

[@BigYellowSilly]

I know this is a lil different from my usual Pokémon vids but I'm focusing a lot on Street Fighter 6 atm for the next video so I wanted to do more of a silly side thing while I gather my thoughts on that, still had a lot of fun with this regardless so I hope it doesn't feel TOO filler-ish (:

[@mikethegreat4296]

gdlk thumbnail.

[@williamhowells806]

you have just ruined both blastoise and tekken for me permenantly

[@anotherwaterroute]

I would rather watch your filler than 90% of other creators content

[@supremechaosbeing2696]

youtube made a change that in comments on mobile, you always see like the internal youtube channel ID name @ something idfk. but anyway now you are forever branded as BigYellowSilly in youtube comments. you will never escape the silly :3

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

is big yellow a honda main

[@wahoo2782]

Blue Golbat looks like the kinda guy to unironically say "awooga" when seeing someone attractive in public, and whilst i do not endorse his behaviour, I love that he exists

[@JIMMYBOBJUNIOR1]

15:10 slowpoke centipede

[@lvl5Vaporeon]

Tentacruel is literally 50% tenta and 50% cruel in their sprite.

[@Gold_Gamer_100]

Tentacruel is truly blessed. Incredible sprite, and the best in it's respective tier. It's got it all

[@spiciestbirb]

​@@Gold_Gamer_100and its pre evolution is great in 7u

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

Tentacruel decided swag was overrated and chose barbarity

[@videojamiemostlikely9282]

100% reason to remember the name

[@ConnorMcSchrosch]

LL Cruel J incarnate

[@christianbuffum-robbins8904]

I actually love "gamer back" Mewtwo because it really sells the idea that its a genetic monstrosity that shouldn't exist. It looks very alien and freakish.

[@en--9881]

like a lol player

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

​@@en--9881Sam Bankman Fried type sprite

[@slimewizard7350]

He has breathing problems due to irresponsible selective mew breeding.

[@MogusMasterSaikawa22]

but he's also a deigned creature . which is why the first movie design is the best

[@Mewtwo_150]

Broken back or not... Mewtwo will murder you and the entire town of 300 people around you with a single thought. You don't fuck with Gen 1 Mewtwo lol

[@BloodfelX]

Squirtle in Yellow with its arms outstretched upwards really gives the impression of a small child demanding a hug, and it is adorable.

[@Gold_Gamer_100]

Protect the Squirtle at all costs

[@shiruotakuno28]

It wants uppies!

[@WishMakers]

"We're talking about Pokemon here, and Pokemon fans are notorious for killing each other in the streets about whether trash or garbage is better" Yellow always dropping the truth bombs on us even in the most subjective art video of all time interpreting 64x64 at most canvases

[@CommanderWiggins]

The mere mention of the word "dexit" continues to cause virtual fistfights in many places.

[@sayvionwashington1939]

"Yah know, I've always thought Pokemon quality wise is comparable to a hormonal te-" *Procceds to get brutally stabbed by everyone in the room*

[@KazShiro]

Also the mere mention of kanto will be a death sentence from those who grew up with gen 3 to 5

[@christiancinnabars1402]

CommanderWiggins Saying the newest games are either "pretty decent" or "kind of underwhelming" will get three people spawning out of nowhere to jump you in the comment section.

[@KazShiro]

@@christiancinnabars1402Also to add to that. Or saying anything remotely decent, or good about the newest games will have someone jumping on you to either call you a sheep or that you wasted your money or the other person berating them for their hate train mentality.

[@snackerfork]

An extremely important context about the Red + Green sprites that I feel like is not getting talked about much is that the Red and Green sprites WERE the original designs. Sugimori later went and made the art BASED ON the sprites, and from his iterations we got the anime designs that were later officially integrated into Yellow, and that's roughly the Pokemon as we know them today. When it's said that Pikachu was designed by Atusko Nishida, what is meant by that is that she was the *sprite artist* who created Pikachu. The art that she made for Green *is* the original design. That's important for a few reasons. First is that the "weird" or "bad" proportions of those sprites generally only look that way because what you're looking at is the original design without any further iteration - you have to judge them not as representations of the Pokemon as you visualize them now, but as designs. Effectively both the concept art and the final art all in one. Secondly, it means that the sprites of those two games also had to extremely clearly communicate the design WHILE also looking visually interesting. Considering both of those things, it is astonishingly good pixel art - it's not developers not understanding the limitations of the Game Boy, it's them working under those limitations to accomplish several often competing goals. That's something many people don't understand even when recreating and studying the "jank" of Gen 1 sprites because they think it is just "the normal design but bad." A Tumblr user named boxheadpaint does sprite demakes in Gen 1 style and it was really eye opening seeing them talk about it. I'll just quote them here because I think it's better than paraphrasing: "gen 1 sprites arent 'poorly drawn' on purpose or even noticeably low effort, theyre weird varying sprite styles that are still decently 'clean' pixel art, but not only are the art styles theyre drawn in stemmed from working within limitations, to still make a coherent monster design, theyre also technically the original designs and not the sugimori/anime ones we're most familiar with, theyre still recognizable! but theyre very strange early versions like developing newborns, theyre off-model in the sense that the model was refined later, so when you think gen 1 dont think like oh its sillt and drawn in paint in like a minute, but more oh its some kind of familiar thing thats just slightly off and compressed" Another eye opening post was in this reply to that post by the user acyde: "I think an important part of them is that they feel weird because we have the new, more “refined” designs of later gens reworked with Sugimori’s art. To me, that makes 'Gen 1 sprites' actually both easy AND hard to achieve, because you can ONLY do Gen 1-feeling sprites of creatures/characters which already have a defined design. Gen 1 sprites feel wonky despite being (quite objectively) good within their limitations ONLY in comparison to the new art." I think the best example of that here is Charizard. Remove all your context of what Charizard *is* and consider it instead as the original design for one of the starter evolutions and an extension of Charmander. The idea of Charizard as the quintessential 90s idea of badass monster wasn't conceptualized yet, and Charmander and Charmeleon are both much more reptilian in their first designs. Considering that, Charizard looking sillier, friendlier, and overall much less bulky makes sense - the popular perception of the Charmander line came more from Sugimori's art and cover art, which were then even more reinforced in popular culture by the anime. If you keep that in mind when looking at Red and Green sprites, it really changes your view!

[@snackerfork]

On that note all my favorite Red + Green sprites that were not mentioned as being good, with line breaks for readability: Butterfree, Rattata, Sandshrew, both Nido lines, Clefairy, Vulpix Wigglytuff (this is not ironic I love its doofiness) The Oddish line, Paras, Diglett, Meowth, Psyduck, Primeape Arcanine, the Poli line (especially Poliwhirl), Kadabra, the Machop line Tentacool, Rapidash, Magneton, Farfetch'd, Grimer Cloyster, the Gastly line, Onix, Drowzee, Hypno Kingler, Electrode, Exeggcute, Cubone, Lickitung Koffing, Weezing, Rhydon, Tangela, Kangaskhan Seaking, Staryu, Scyther, Pinsir, Tauros Ditto, Jolteon, Omastar, Kabuto, Dragonite, Mew My top five would probably be... Butterfree, Parasect, Tentacruel, Poliwhirl, Nidorino. That's like a third of them! I was going to try to cut this down more for very obvious reasons but the Red + Green sprites are so often mocked and a lot of them are genuinely good, fun, and underrated. I think they deserve more love. I really appreciated the positivity in this video and I really enjoyed the opportunity to look more deeply at these sprites and the work that went into them!

[@blastoiseddr]

This is a lot of fucken words but you're absolutely right

[@Jallorn]

Something to add when we talk about it being first draft: there's not as narrow a design language developed yet either, and so there's a lot of choices that get filtered out later simply because there's no boundary to trap the designers. Rather than designing A Pokemon, they were designing monster concepts that went on to define what it means for something to be A Pokemon. By contrast, later designs especially past gen 2, are very much working within a familiar and defined design language, they were designing Pokemon, and they knew what that meant. There are boundary pushes, sure, but the core design feel is much more anchored and unified.

[@Serious_Kano]

Yellow Parasect gives me massive "Grandma on her summer vacation" vibes. Like the mushroom is her oversized summer hat and she has that "Oh, dear honey, that's wonderful" face.

[@Gingerbreadley]

My guy really calculated the mushroom to bug %. Absolutely hilarious

[@Rdotmop]

Blue Blastoise is just that scene from Kung Fu Panda "You're just a big, fat, turtle!" "I'm not a big fat turtle. I'm *THE* big fat turtle."

[@gladoseon4117]

Mewtwo: “You… can’t faint me!… You’re just a big, fat… turtle!” Blastoise: *catches Mewtwo’s Psychic before it comes out* “I’m not a big, fat turtle. I’m THE big, fat turtle.” *raises index and pinky fingers* Mewtwo: “The staller finger hold…!” Blastoise: “Oh, you know this hold?” Mewtwo: “…You’re bluffing. You’re bluffing! Snorlax didn’t teach you that!” Blastoise: “Yep. I figured it out. Skadoosh.” Mewtwo: *gets frozen*

[@spindash64]

I think part of why the RBY sprites get dunked on so hard is that the GSC Sprite that came out shortly afterwards are genuinely some of the best art direction in the series. Yes, being able to actually use colors rather than monochrome shading is a huge part of that, but those Crystal sprites in particular _look_ the way early fans remember their first Pokémon: simple, yet full of life Given the GB Limitations, the small team, and their complete lack of experience with the system, these games genuinely look great, but when you have to deal with a direct comparison to pastel shaded beauty, you’re gonna be looked at as the middle child who got Bs instead of straight As like their older brother who eventually cracked under the stress once he hit college

[@SnydeX9]

Nailed it.

[@grammysworld5449]

They were trashed at the time.. Especially when pokemon cards started hitting American shelves.. Green sprites were always laughed at

[@blakdeth]

The problem with blue blastoise isn't so much its face. Its face is pretty good. It's the shell. It doesn't look like a turtle shell. It looks like a cabbage. Or like a giant disembodied gloved hand is holding blastoise like an action figure.

[@BigYellowSilly]

very fair point I've never thought about tbh

[@brasilballs]

that and the shading feels rather blobby imo

[@3eve0n]

blue blastoise looks like a fucking balloon.

[@slanax]

It manages to be the roundest sprite in the game, in a game that also has Voltorb in it

[@asierx7047]

Also his arm _bending the wrong way_ is my issue

[@FutureFractal]

The R/B Charizard sprite is really cool to me for kind of an obscure reason: In Gen 1 there's a glitch called the ZZAZZ Glitch that extensively corrupts the game's state, and among other things, it causes any trainer battle to become a battle against a glitch trainer with Red's sprite, nicknamed the "Death Trainer" by glitch fans because the battle is typically unwinnable. The atmosphere of the Death Trainer battle is extremely ominous: when he first appears, the music will slowly fade out, being replaced with a single distorted Pokémon cry, then dead silence for the rest of the battle. He has a full team, but in practice it's generally impossible to get past his first Pokémon: a glitch Pokémon named 'M with Charizard's sprite and stats, commonly known as "Charizard 'M". His Charizard 'M has an _absurd_ amount of HP to the point that it can only be defeated if you wail on it with powerful attacks for over 10 minutes. And the whole time, that R/B Charizard sprite is just staring directly at you, the player. Something about its pose and the fact that you can't see its mouth just really heightens the ominous feeling for me.

[@carnage0685]

Sounds really interesting, but I can't find anything about it : / Think you can give me a link??

[@Onigirli]

@@carnage0685 What do you mean? You can't find what you need googling "ZZAZZ Glitch?"

[@thesuntitan]

I like Geodude’s Red and Blue sprite, he’s like “get in the car, we’re raiding Surge’s gym”

[@boombob3D]

I will now quote this XD

[@MissingnoXpert]

Blue version Sandshrew is a towering achievement of cuteness. I don't know how they got it this right, just this once, but it's actually perfect

[@BigYellowSilly]

one of the absolute best lil fella sprites

[@hiimemily]

no thoughts, head empty

[@nift36]

Quagsire before Quagsire

[@BananaFaceDude56]

The legend lives

[@Nachiebree]

Sandshrew is just a lil guy A little baby My absolute favorite sprite from gen 1

[@davebob4973]

golbat is trying its hardest to scare a small child on halloween who is increasingly unfazed to its attempts

[@Hydro_Aero]

THAT, THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE DOING! 🤣🤣

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

I love how with RGRBY you never know if you're going to get a golden sprite that the artists chugged the dew of the gods before inscribing the soul essence of the pokemon, or half a cardboard box that got left out in the rain and stepped on.

[@TheRenegade191]

My favourite Golbat appearance is the Stadium one. He looks really devious with his wings wrapped around his body, shifting his body weight from the left to the right like he is skulking through a dimly lit street ready to flash an unsuspecting victim. And his attacking animation is basically just that. He knows he's a creep and takes relish in it with the way he wiggles his tongue around.

[@kaiwaiiii4493]

16:10 As a kid the Slowbro Sprite always looked to me like it was hugging / eating a big weird multi layered Shellder cake and just being really happy about it

[@microwavegrilledtomato]

I still picture it like that in my mind and then im kind of disappointed every time i see it and it isnt eating the shellder

[@PlaguevonKarma]

I love how Porygon looked amazing in RG and then just absolutely dropped the ball in RB and Yellow. I have no idea what they were thinking. Glad to see some RG sprite defences! I think they're extremely overhated.

[@BigYellowSilly]

I was nowhere near as familiar with the RG sprites before that stream so finding out just how great some of them were was a really fun experience

[@bluebaron6811]

Yeah, they actually made the limited color pallete look amazing on porygon... And then Yellow happened.

[@alecrutz956]

@@bluebaron6811 it looks so sloppy :( it's like they messed up the proportions on everything.

[@agentblackbird9435]

I don’t like how Yellow Porygon looks like it has a drawn-on smile on its beak

[@jbasher94]

Blue Clefable looks like it just got out of school for the day, saw it’s parents pull up and eagerly wants picked up so it can tell it’s parents about how well it did in arts and crafts that day. It just has this childlike happiness to it.

[@Kumaclaws]

I think what makes the R/B/G sprites more fun is that there’s more experimentation/offputting choices to them, putting more emphasis on the monster half. Like Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff have these massive voids for eyes, it makes them kinda creepy for otherwise cutesy designs.

[@BlackHero20]

Tentacruel is such a badass dude. Legit its in my top 5 favorite gen 1 pokemon. Tentacruel is a cool ass dude and they KNOW they are a cool ass dude. That sprite pretty much just screams "ya, I know im good. What about you?" And I love that so much.

[@thelemonadestandman]

The sprite for Muk in Red and Blue has a shape that reminds me a ton of the The Great Wave off Kanagawa painting. His general body shape I feel is very similar to the large wave, now crashing down on the player's pokemon sprite. The artist did a good job on this sprite, really gives muk a sense of power.

[@Johann55555]

As a kid, the moment I saw Slakoth's sprite in Ruby, it immediately became my most favourite Pokemon of all time. Those half closed eyes, that complete lack of an ellbow, his goddamn mini sprite in the menus. It's just perfect.

[@AkamexAris1023]

Your love for Slakoth is how I feel about Dunsparce. Those tiny little wings so it hops around, it's eyes always look closed, and I absolutely adore the way it raises it's head while screaming in the later gens 😂😂 it's evolution made me love it even more

[@bluebaron6811]

It's cool how sprites/models can make or break people's first impression of a Pokémon. For me, that was Crabrawler. It just looks so lively in SM/USUM, like it was pissed off and ready to punch the ever-living shit out of you.

[@UntoTheBreach24]

4:20 I believe in my heart that this is an expression of "desperate menace." If it's kill or be killed, Blue Exeggutor's middle head has chosen "kill," but isn't 100% happy about it

[@armormodekeeg]

I think what makes the Yellow sprites both generally the highest quality and also frequently the least interesting to examine is that they're much more in line with the designs of the official art and the anime. Yellow was made with that hindsight, where they would be like "yeah, that's what a Charizard looks like" and so it all matches up better. This also means that they tend to lack that sort of design exploration you got in Red/Green and Blue, where the artists were still deciding on which features of the Pokemon should be the most prominent and how they express their personality. Speaking of Charizard, Red/Green Charizard looks like an Earthbound enemy cuz that game has some goofy-ahh sprites lol

[@BigYellowSilly]

This is a really good point, defo kinda sums up why I feel like I have less to say about the Yellow sprites despite clearly feeling like they're the 'best' overall

[@bigarcana5553]

The way Tentacruel stands in his sprite is literally the most thug-gangster ass-shit like holy hell it's so badass‼‼‼‼‼

[@cheds64]

I think the biggest reason that the Gen 1 sprites are overall so great is because they do an amazing job at expressing the personality of each Pokémon, something more appreciated now with the mostly idle poses we see in modern Pokémon sprites, great video as always

[@Sean_Bird]

Shout out to Omastar who is just grooving in all of their Gen 1 sprites.

[@CommanderWiggins]

Omastar and Grimer were just having a good old time in Gen 1

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

I was kinda hoping Omastar would be mentioned because of how silly it looks

[@Rarest26]

The perfect Rain DANCE sweeper

[@Dullstar2XQT]

I really appreciate the Gen 1 sprites. What they lack in quality they make up for in charm, and even the "bad" ones will probably brighten your day with how delightfully derpy they can be.

[@billykidman2091]

Muk is such a cool sprite especially in placement, I remember going into the Cinnabar lab for the first time, and being genuinely terrified the first time this level 40ish fully evolved monster showed up and threatened to wipe me right before the key room that took an hour for me to reach

[@dogsinsuits]

I really like haunter's red and blue sprite because it just looks so devious. Like there is no one more evil than haunter making this specific face, and I really like it, it adds a lot of personality to them.

[@gamezharks]

I'm sorry but the Tentacruel sprite just reminds me of a rantsona. I fucking LOVE Golems stupid raised arms and pogging face he looks like a football hooligan going "hough hough hough hough" at his team.

[@BigYellowSilly]

Yellow Tentacruel also has rantsona vibes but for like goofier videos where they get angry at kids movies or something

[@Glory2Snowstar]

Bats are my favorite animals precisely BECAUSE of how weird and endearing they are, so I shall forever miss Golbat’s OG sprite. My headcanon is that it just flies with the tongue hanging out as it tries licking up bugs. Or spills of blood. Or both. Parasect looks great here too, that thing TRULY looks dead.

[@skinnysnorlax1876]

Parasect is one of those weird little goobers that I am more fond of than I should be. In gen 6 or so, I used him on an ubers double team. Disgusting amount of regen with a surfing kyogre and dry skin

[@theschnozzler]

​@@skinnysnorlax1876banger idea. Too bad it still dies to flying types

[@skinnysnorlax1876]

@@theschnozzler that's why I had heliolisk. Stab choice specs thunder while getting healed by rain and surf, and he goes toe to toe with any flying uber. If not, I had some ice types to smack em down

[@MD-vs9ff]

What's this? Someone else that likes Gen 1 Golbat! You're not alone, brother!

[@theschnozzler]

@@skinnysnorlax1876 dry skin is cool on rain but how did you prevent groudon/sun teams in general from killing some of your mons? Switching kyogre in and out leaves you vulnerabile for a turn

[@teaconnoisseur3]

The funniest part about Arbok’s Yellow sprite is that in Red and Green, a bunch of Pokemon looked straight at the player, with Blue and Yellow changing that. Seeing how Arbok did the reverse, it makes him even more smug

[@Ineedthisplease]

Reminder that blastoise has 78 speed, thats pretty fast for the franchises standards of the time, and heck even now, I like that his yellow sprite shows that he's a lot more agile than what you would expect from a giant turtle.

[@shiruotakuno28]

Probably based on Gamera who is pretty agile for a turtle

[@jouheikisaragi6075]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BLASTOISE IS FASTER THAN DECIDUEYE?

[@sting1167]

Big yellow has been one of my comfort creators for over a year now, and I just realized I haven’t subscribed. It’s indescribable just how safe their content makes me feel. I’ve gotten through some really rough times just binging his content, and I really can’t thank her enough for that. Another fantastic video ❤

[@CommanderWiggins]

Same. I know I can always put on a Big Yellow video and have something comfy to listen to. She perfectly fits that niche of "making extremely enjoyable videos about incredibly obscure stuff you didn't care about at all before". I don't play competitive Pokemon at all, much less RBY competitive, but I absolutely will watch a 20 minute video on the changes in Pinsir's competitive viability in RBY UU.

[@OswaldAurelia]

​@@CommanderWiggins I completely agree. I have negative interest in Lego, but as soon as Yellow starts excitedly talking about Power Miners I'm tuned app the way in

[@Slenderquil]

RG mew has always been an interesting one to me. It's so different from all of its later designs because it was snuck into the game. It also feels very fittingly primal, the hunched back and face bump and looking like a fetus just fit together perfectly. The other sprites of mew are just perfect, but the official is a real monster and I love it. I wonder if there's any official art that references the old design

[@kelly_times]

Honestly its a shame that they revised how Mew looked to make it more cute. R/B Mew is great and all but man R/G Mew is something else

[@Rarest26]

Tentacruel is straight up DJ Octavio from Splatoon in blue, and that's just so perfect. Easily the best gen 1 sprite imo. Also, Haunter. That goes hard.

[@rohanacharya3873]

Absolutely loved this video. Gen 1 sprites are so fun because (I believe) so many were made before the official art. They have so much personality - generally Gen 2 on everything looks the same because we know what the pokemon are "supposed" to look like. Really appreciate you highlighting a lot of the red/green sprites that we might not be used to.

[@thefaz3744]

Gosh can I just say I really appreciate how the sprite always is on-screen while you talk about it btw? Such a great QoL feature, thank you

[@pizzweak580]

Tbh, I think the gen one sprites make the game better. It makes me feel like I'm fighting and catching real monsters

[@RivLabs]

makes you wonder how the games would look today if they leaned more into the "monster" part of the designs past gen 1. Not trying to imply the direction they went was bad in any sense, but it would be fascinating to see!

[@pizzweak580]

@@RivLabs Oh, most certainly!

[@loftilywrongly3483]

My favorite sprites are still the gen 2 sprites (despite me being trash at GSC), but I think I've gained a new appreciation for these gen 1 sprites. I used to just treat the gen 1 sprites like non-finalized versions of the designs, but next time I happen to watch some RBY gameplay I'll try paying more attention to the spriteart.

[@spindash64]

Crystal was arguably a high point for Sprite art and animation. Not THE high point, just A high point. The pastel coloring looks beautiful, all the designs are cleaned up significantly from RBY, _and_ given a proper entrance animation in Crystal specifically, and all the attacks are also quite colorful. Despite the lack of in battle movement, I’d argue that battles in Crystal can often look more likely than in SwSh

[@hokostudios]

On the subject of Parasect sprites, the sprite for Gold and Crystal is basically just a redone version of the Blue sprite that is way better than it has any right to be. Legitimately spooky how good it looks. On other sprites, I think the Blue Meowth just has a lot of character that simply doesn't exist in any of the Meowth sprites after. Like, it has that hint of the maneki-neko inspiration, but it feels like a real animal. Also really like the Red/Green Nidoran F and Nidorino sprites and Blue Nidorina sprite... All just feel very lively.

[@shoogles_]

Listen, I just think the Togekiss watching Doduo taking a shit thing is really funny ok

[@yserareborn]

Here to show love for the Gengar line. R/B in particular really sell these guys as evil spirits.

[@alfredosanchez170]

Haunter is so good in RB!

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

The Green sprites are also fantastic!

[@lvl5Vaporeon]

14:30 Muk looks like he's about to drop the sickest beat in ruby and sapphire.

[@BlueZangoose_]

Tentacruel looks like it’s letting you go first and knows it’s still gonna come out completely unscathed.

[@fireblitz6036]

As a trash enthusiast don't you even DARE insinuate that garbage even comes close

[@theeducatedfool]

Can we take a moment to appreciate how the Gen 1 competitive tiers are so thoroughly defined that every single Mon essentially has its own personality traits now? Like instead of being a limited meta where everybody runs the same three teams, it’s more like everybody is playing with their favorite characters in Smash or something. And I think that’s wonderful.

[@delaneymcdonell5774]

The Red and Green Sprite for Dragonite is just so ridiculous and I absolutely love it to death

[@BigYellowSilly]

Red and Green Dragonite gives me dragon from a 1930s movie vibes

[@GlowingOrangeOoze]

this video made me laugh a lot. Thank you. And thanks for showing love for Blue's tank-ass Blastoise. That sprite singlehandedly saved Blastoise's entire concept for me. Blue's Porygon is kinda messy but it's crazy ambitious. They're trying to convey polygonal edges at a slightly off angle-which is already tricky at this resolution-but THEN they try to fit in glass-like reflections? With 4 colors? Yeah it came out a bit cludgey but they really went for it.

[@bandanadeestan1190]

I miss old sprite work in games. I think this is why I love pixel art as my medium of choice

[@JanusHoW]

The way you talk about many of these sprites being in the middle of an animation makes me want to see at least some of them animated like Gen 5's were. I could see RB Golbat's tongue waggling back and forth; RB Tentacruel bobbing up and down slightly, perhaps pausing to leer a bit; Yellow Slowbro doing a slow head tilt; etc. Man, Gen 5 was peak Pokemon in so many ways.

[@Muistimetalli]

The gen 1 sprite art had so much personality. This was a fun throwback.

[@BasketOfPuppies642]

Blue Slowpoke is the pinnacle of "no thoughts, head empty"

[@NurseValentineSG]

I love the Nidoking sprite in Blue. He just looks like a final boss. Absolutely love the energy he radiates.

[@Philomatt13]

The Japanese Blue Grimer sprite (party Grimer, as I call him) and the disco Omastar from Japanese Blue are two of my top favorite gen 1 sprites.

[@shadowthephoenix1]

It's honestly refreshing to see someone pointing out how charming gen 1's sprites really were instead of "lol ugly lol so bad" there are 100% some stinkers in there but some of them are actually far better than the more modern sprites imo. Though i still think gen 2's sprites are my absolute favorite. Haunter is probably the best gen 1 sprite for how menacing it looks, but i also really like Nidoking, Mewtwo, and that oddly scary Exeggutor to name a few (talking specifically about the r/b sprites, not as familiar with the yellow and green ones personally)

[@KaedeLanyo]

I genuinely have come to kinda love the scuffed fetal mew sprite. I'm a little sad it wasn't mentioned in the video, seeing as it's one of the most infamous. Like yeah, this thing is like, a semi-divine sentient stem-cell, of course it'd look so messed up.

[@ammagon4519]

It looks odd and "unfinished" but I like it lol, part of me wishes Mew should've stayed like this.

[@hyparpax]

red and blue golbat just feels more like a silly dragon quest monster, which actually kind of makes sense

[@kokorikopi]

The thing with Blue Golbat for me is the eyes; there was a particular way Golbat looked in official art around the time; you even showed some of that art, and I think if Blue Golbat had eyes like that it'd be a perfect sprite, because the body is wonderful.

[@kafeis]

I always love to see appreciation for gen 1 things like this, they get such a bad rap because of the small team and comparatively limited resources but I just find them impressive still. Like the rest of the games in a way, some people may find these sprites ugly but I love them nonetheless

[@chainswordcs]

sometimes that "ugly" quality is what makes it appealing, too. i love old pokemon sprites with lots of character and personality, and i'd take even the worst ones any day over the expressionless bland 3D models we've had for the past 10 years (though it's getting better as of late)

[@Dragostorm21]

​@@chainswordcs showdown having 2d versions of newer mons is why it is the best pokémon thing ever

[@FutureFractal]

I'm a bit sad you didn't mention R/B Grimer, it's one of the cutest sprites in all of Gen 1 in my opinion! It just looks so happy c:

[@bigredradish]

you know what blue blastoise looks like to me? he looks like a yakuza clan head. like he gets his own name and title splash screen when you fight him in a sewer tunnel with your shirts off

[@idontcheckmynotifications]

I’ve loved these sprites for like the last decade. The RBY sprite style actually inspired a whole series of drawings I did at one point, where I drew characters from another game aiming for this style. Doing that series of drawings taught me a lot, so honestly, I kinda associate those memories with the sprites. They have such a special place in my heart, even beyond the gen 1 nostalgia. The shading and dynamic poses on them are insanely fun, and it’s a really fun combo with the exaggerated features and more cartoony feel to these sprites. They kinda speak for themselves, and it’s glorious. You can drop stuff like Golbat and Grimer anywhere and it just works. The personality is insane. I can remember so many of them perfectly. I also love the look into early, unpolished Pokémon where they hadn’t settled on the look or pose of a lot of mons and did some weird experiments. And I straight-up prefer the earlier look of some Pokémon like Charizard having a more aggressive face and of course Pikachu. Even though they’re less interesting and usually not quite as good, I think even some of the trainer sprites are really fun. The dramatic shading on Brock’s sprite always stuck with me and I remember a couple of classes having more dynamic poses than usual too.

[@michael-cf8tl]

blue version blastoise looks like he’s chuffing back a fat dart and i love that for him

[@Scrimbly_guy]

Golbat looks like an earthbound enemy and I’m here for it

[@FrogofWarRS]

Not even a gen 1 exclusive deal, but Venusaur, as my absolute all-time favorite Pokemon, is just an infinite source of serotonin for me so they're good in all iterations imo. This isn't to discredit their previous evolutions either because they bring their own flavor of cute and slightly dopey. You labelling Yellow's Bulbasaur as a "Nasty Angry Child" got me howling good.

[@robinscompass5951]

Red and green muk looks like a sixth grader trying to ask their math teacher a question that they know was already answered

[@starlite_music-g1s]

Honestly what I like the most about the Red/Green/Blue sprites is that they look much more like silly Earthbound enemies than the more sanitized squeaky-clean corporatized look they'd get later on

[@sarasaland4709]

“Pokémon fans like to kill each other in the streets on whether trash or garbage is better.” Sounds like discussing the modern games.

[@TheHeteroHero]

I really really enjoy watching or just listening to your videos. Makes me feel really cozy, entertained and I also feel like I am sharing many similar perspectives on things! Keep doing what you are doing, I love your passion! And on an unrelated note- I think You look great in your videos as well!

[@UFereSanyo]

The reason why I subbed is because you love to go at it with the most niche stuff no matter the franchise. That Worms 3D video got my attention and this just keeps proving how worthwhile it is to tune in and see you speak your mind about anything, adore this content.

[@kiracite]

That slowpoke sprite is incredible

[@PoggusAmogus]

YOU'RE incredible

[@jakerockznoodles]

I loved Golbat's sprite even as a kid because it reminded me of a line of toys I loved that were called "Thingz" (the hot water bottle one in particular). Basically they took like household stuff and put a monstrous spin on them.

[@dark_emperor_2nd642]

I'm a huge sucker for RB Haunter. This is what a ghost that rips your soul from your body should look like. Amazing nightmare fuel right there.

[@b6oy1004]

rb golbat is such a legend that he was specifically added back into pokemon snakewood (the hack of all time) what higher praise could you ask for

[@Sherkel]

So glad to see someone still mentioning Snakewood!

[@MishKoz]

I really love Red/Blue Mewtwo. I always saw it as like, it just stepped out of a giant test tube and is getting ready to wreck the Pokemon Mansion. Or how when you encounter it, it's at the bottom of this giant postgame cave and this imposing huge catlike creature is just hunched over, staring at you, about to give you the battle of your life. I also have a soft spot for his giant noggin because I think around gen 3 they slightly redesigned Mewtwo to have less of a big head, and now in the 3D games its head just feels tiny. Compare Stadium/Melee Mewtwo with XY/Smash 4 Mewtwo and you see what I mean. Also they weren't in this video but Red/Green Jolteon and Red/Blue Nidoking might be the best those mons have ever looked.

[@BigYellowSilly]

Defo agree on Jolt and Nidoking, the eeveelutions generally have some of the rougher sprites in RBY I think but a few of them really shine

[@krakentoast]

I remember watching a video about that in 2015 and this really brought me back when times were better! Thank you!

[@CoralReaper707]

Golbat has the greatest blue sprite. Mew has the greatest green sprite.

[@cowboyoctopus2738]

Golbat is excellent but the tongue being vertical kinda scrumbles it a bit

[@CoralReaper707]

Yooo What's up, Cowboy Octopus?

[@cowboyoctopus2738]

​@@CoralReaper707oh wait heyy I had a small feeling it was you

[@AndrewDevourer]

Blue Mew looks like the rehydrated raisin version of green mew

[@a-s-greig]

🤪

[@EdgarCastillo-c6j]

Golbat looks like it's in the middle of his little dance he does in Stadium.

[@DoctorrDude]

your competitive relevance to the tentacruel sprite tangent applies to me about that golbat specifically with the set for Ubers, like thats not the exact fuckin gremlin face someone actually pulling off that shit should make

[@Dudeman1231]

Big Yellow's method of video creation is the method I'd follow. Making hyper-specific videos on subjects that only I feel like I care about is a vibe that is hard to find on here. Helps that the videos are super cozy too. Epic stuff

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

One thing I love is how the backsprites are lower res. I'm guessing that wasn't intentional, but it helps visually indicate that it's the same size as the opponent, just closer

[@HollyBunnySilly]

Didn't really have time to watch this through until now, but thanks for using my silly little Nidoqueen shitpost again at 21:53!

[@BigYellowSilly]

no problem it's such a classic I had to sneak it in there

[@Godfrey-Cornelius]

The way you just dissed despicable me 3 in the Nidoqueen section was peak entertainment

[@stephenchurch1784]

Yellow pikachu looks like a cat when you're trying to explain that they've done something bad 😂

[@superkonijn988]

'Do you have ANY idea how expensive curtains are?!' Pikachu: :3

[@RailfanJunction]

Blue Blastoise has all the confidence of a mafia boss and as someone who grew up repeatedly clicking Hydro Cannon in the FR elite 4 with my first starter blastoise lil 6 year old me identifies with the sheer amount of swagger that sprite has. Also Pokémon needs more "cute adjacent" but fucked up designs like Golbat. Less marketable, sure, but imo menaces like the bat are pretty fucking memorable lol

[@elji-w3k]

14:30 Muk in Ruby and Sapphire looks like it’s about to drop THE sickest beat in the world on you, I’d be intimidated as hell.

[@starwarriorterra8373]

The fumbled bags are really funny to talk about with gen 1 sprites, but when they hit, they *hit*. I wasn't expecting this, but I love it all the same. Edit: R/G Clefable is my spirit animal, I love them

[@Shadowgoo32]

Been really enjoying binging your pokemon content lately and this one might be my favorite next to the Porygon video because its just us using our imaginations as we appreciate old pixel art for 30 minutes. It's pleasant!

[@krosshair450]

Tentacruel's sprite in Blue is so badass, probably my personal favorite out of all the sprites in the Gen 1 games. EDIT: shoutouts to Green Pidgeot for actually looking like a badass bird as well

[@progenjoyer]

a lot of people really do not like golbat's gen 1 sprite but it's definitely my favourite. just look at it, it's absolutely phenomenal

[@renakunisaki]

Green Slowpoke looks confused. Blue looks completely vacant. You can tell there's not a single thought in that head.

[@egon3705]

green beedrill is actually an anatomical clusterfuck - instead of its limbs coming from its thorax, they meet at an "origin point" slightly in front of it - its head is either connected to the thorax at the left cheek or the right arm at the neck - its left leg seems to be partially wrapped around its bottom segment - its segments are slightly misaligned

[@yttrmia]

Surprised and happy to see my comment on Tentacruel being a bouncer was put in the video. Didn't expect my comment from Shaymay's stream to make it in, but I'm grateful to see it resonated well. :) Also, if I had to pick a few favorites from gen 1, it'd probably Vileploom's from Yellow for how manic and psychopathic it looks, Seadra from Blue for looking like a perfect middle form even before Kingdra was officially released, and Electrode in any gen 1 game for having the best shit-eating grins its ever gotten.

[@paleona5820]

This was such a fun watch and I absolutely agree with you on most points here. Especially Blue Golbat for some reason? You really nailed it with the whole, yes, he looks nasty, that’s the point. Just a cool lookin dude. I’d like to mention Blue Sandshrew as one of the absolute top tier cutie sprites. It’s just a little guy sitting there with great anatomy and that signature polite pangolin look. Perfect.

[@pengwino828]

Tentacruel sprite will always be the best sprite in all of pokemon. I also love the yellow clefable sprite. The idea of clefable getting distracted mid sprite and looking off to the side is so in character and hilarious.