Pokemon Fan Art Imagines Unova Region Starters as Gen 1 Pokemon

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A Pokemon artist created fan art showing what the starter Pokemon from the Unova region might have looked like in the original Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow games. The artwork, designed as sprites in the classic game style, closely resembles the work of Ken Sugimori, the original character designer for the Pokemon series, making it feel very authentic.

The Pokemon series has evolved significantly since its beginnings, now boasting over a thousand different Pokemon, many distinct regions to explore, and new gameplay features like Mega Evolution and Gigantamax. Despite its continued success, many fans feel nostalgic for the original Pokemon games. Some appreciate the older art style, while others miss the classic pixelated sprites, and this fanart captures that feeling of nostalgia for longtime players.

Pokemon Art Gives a Glimpse of Unova Starters in Gen 1 Style

A Pokémon artist named octoberoclock recently imagined what the Unova starter Pokémon – Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott – would have looked like if they’d been introduced in the very first generation of games. They created watercolor-style artwork of each Pokémon, along with designs for how their in-battle sprites might have appeared.

According to octoberoclock’s interpretation, Snivy already resembles a snake at this stage, resting on its belly and without arms or legs. Instead, it has a long, vine-like tongue that reflects its Grass-type, and its tail has a more noticeable leaf shape at the end. The artist reasoned that since Snivy loses its limbs when it evolves into Serperior, it made sense for it to be a snake from the beginning—you can’t miss what you never had. Tepig’s overall shape remains similar to the original design, but its tail and the red sphere at the end are much larger, its ears are shorter and wider, and it now has claws on its feet. Its design closely resembles a real piglet. Oshawott, however, has changed significantly. While still standing on two legs, it has larger webbed feet, more prominent ears, and a less rounded head, making it look more like the sea otters that inspired it.

Pokemon Fans Love What-If Art

People in the comments are loving the new artwork! Many said they actually prefer these redesigned Pokémon to the official versions, and some would even pick different starter Pokémon if these were the designs. A popular request was for the artist to continue and reimagine all the original Gen 1 starters. Luckily, this artist has done similar work before, having already created Gen 1-style versions of the starters from Pokémon X and Y and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. While some fans worry about fan art potentially conflicting with official designs (since Pokémon has removed designs similar to fan creations in the past), reimagining Pokémon in older styles like this is unlikely to cause any issues.

Although the original art style from the first Pokémon games probably won’t reappear officially, many talented fans are creating artwork inspired by it. These creative fans also come up with incredibly unique and imaginative art, sometimes even reimagining Pokémon as things like gummy worms! With over 1,000 Pokémon and more than 100 games released so far, there’s plenty of material for artists like octoberoclock to work with.

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2026-01-17 10:04