Over the series' 25 years in the gaming world, Pokemon has evolved with its times as the hardware used to play them becomes more technologically advanced and the graphical capabilities of each new system grows more powerful. However, the classic Pokemon titles, first released in 1998 on the Game Boy, are often the most fondly remembered for fans of the mega-popular monster-catching franchise with many fans striving to recapture the magic of the game's formative years through the series' iconic sprites.
Meltan and Melmetal are a pair of mythical Pokemon first released in Nintendo and Niantic's mobile game Pokemon GO in 2018. The Steel Pokemon became the first Pokemon to premiere in one of the franchise's plethora of spinoffs and are a unique pair of creatures who can only be obtained through GO or the Pokemon Let's Go games. One fan took the pair's connection to the game's roots a step further, reimagining the legendary evolution line in the style of Pokemon Red and Blue.
Reddit user Hooooooooooooooooman transformed the pint-sized Meltan and its towering evolution into sprites that wouldn't look out of place on the screen of a Game Boy Color. The shading of the pixelized representations of the mythical creatures matches the style of the classic Pokemon titles while staying close enough to the originals to be easily recognizable at a glance. The coloring of the sprite even maintains a color palette that would be easily re-creatable with the limited capabilities of Game Boy graphics.
Stunning tributes to Pokemon's early years like these are nothing new for the long-running franchise. The pixelated style of the classic Pokemon titles has always been a fan favorite for many of the most creative Pokemon trainers out there. Fans constantly bring their own fresh takes on the style of the Game Boy games with creations that can range from full color re-creations of classic Pokemon sprites to re-imagining characters from other franchises in the Pokemon style.
With each passing year, Pokemon's popularity continues to grow and attract new creative fans into the monster-catching RPG that has become an icon of the gaming industry. Along with these new fans come newer generations of talented and creative Pokemon fans that continue to create stunning odes to their beloved franchise while adding their own personal style. Some talented fans even take their love for the classic era of Pokemon a step further, with fans from all over the world creating a plethora of Pokemon fan games based on the style of the Game Boy Pokemon games. The time of pixelated Pokemon may have passed for the franchise's newest installments, but the series' most dedicated fans will surely keep the look and feel of the game's origins alive for years to come.