Game Freak is known for creating Pokemon sprites that are later fleshed out into fully realized creatures in later titles, and some Pokemon fans have wondered what modern of them would look like with the visuals of older titles. One Pokemon fan has decided to create their own Gen 2 sprite demakes of a team of Pokemon from Ruby and Sapphire.
Reddit user Healingmii recently shared a compiled image of various Pokemon sprites they created inspired by the Pokemon Gold and Silver design. Healingmii's fan art includes seven popular Pokemon from Ruby and Sapphire covering a variety of typing and unhindered by the often replicated Hoenn starter Pokemon. Because Pokemon Gold and Silver were the original forays into improving Pokemon sprites with a broader color pallet, Healingmii's Gen 2 sprites are fittingly less blended and brighter in tone.
The Gen 3 Pokemon included in Healingmii's fan art are Gulpin, Pelipper, Salamance, Shuppet, Spheal, Swablu, and Trapinch. Being the larger Pokemon, Pelipper and Salamance take up the majority of Healingmii's fan art, while the rest still accurately represent their proportions in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Though these Pokemon look like they'd fit into Gold and Silver thanks to Healingmii's artistic twist on them, the sprites are noticeably different from their Gen 3 equivalents and aren't animated like they might be if inspired by Pokemon Crystal instead.
Because the Game Boy Advance brought a big technological leap to the Pokemon series, the sprites were refined to be less jagged like the more pixelated Pokemon in Healingmii's fan art. As a result, Healingmii's Gen 2 sprites have a more visibly boxy and abnormal outline to them compared to their true appearances in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Although the Pokemon sprites in Gold and Silver and Ruby and Sapphire were stationary, both duos received sequels that animated the sprites deemed Crystal and Emerald respectively.
Though the colors of Healingmii's Gen 2 Pokemon sprites may stand out more than their Gen 3 counterparts, the details of the Pokemon's design get lost, most notably with Swablu and Shuppet. Several fans of Healingmii's Pokemon fan art would like to see demakes of more recent Pokemon titles, but Game Freak remains dedicated to games for modern hardware. While these Pokemon may not be getting demakes like Healingmii's fan art in any mainline titles, some of these Gen 3 Pokemon may receive regional variants in the upcoming Nintendo Switch Pokemon games.