Pokémon Red & Blue were what most people fell in love with and led millions of people to become lifelong fans of the franchise. With the recent release of Pokémon Sword & Shield, the series has seen 8 different generations of mainline Pokémon games and much has changed since those early days in the Kanto region.
Some Pokémon haven’t changed a bit, whereas several Kanto natives have seen changes to both their physical appearance, as well as their typing and strengths. Let’s take a look at 10 specific cases in which a Pokémon has changed from its introduction in Pokémon Red & Blue.
10 Charizard
Despite Charizard never receiving the change in which it’s secondary typing of Flying was traded for the Dragon-type, the fiery fan-favorite has evolved since its introduction in the late 90s. On top of its wings becoming more distinct and the horns on its head defining themselves, it has been the beneficiary of other forms. With every new generation gimmick introduced like Mega Evolutions and Dynamaxing, Charizard gets a new visual design to work alongside the new mechanic. That’s what happens when you’re one of the franchises most popular Pokémon.
9 Koffing
Koffing’s change was much more subtle, but when looking at its overall impact it may be a bit more substantial than fans realize. In Pokémon Red & Blue it’s very clear that the Poison-type displays a skull and crossbones on its body as a way to clearly warn predators and trainers of its toxic abilities. In the years since fans have seen those skull and crossbones turn into a circle above the letter x. It can still communicate as a skull and crossbones, but it’s pretty evident that the change was made to make the creature feel much more family-friendly.
8 Magnemite
Magnemite was often overlooked in the Kanto region as trainers often locked in on a Pikachu as their Electric-type of choice. This was obviously due to the success of the anime, but all hope was not lost for the Magnet Pokémon. In the years since it has both acquired the secondary typing of Steel and also saw a new final form it could aspire to achieve. For being a collection of magnets, screws, and bolts, Magnemite somehow expresses a cute and docile nature that sadly got lost to the sands of time.
7 Mew
These days fans lose their mind over how cute and cat-like Mew is in terms of design. Whether you’re someone who believes it deserves the secondary typing of Fairy, or just love cats, it’s hard not to like Mew’s design.
That wasn’t always the case though as the sprite for Mew in the early days made it feel much more alien-like. Its head was oddly shaped and came across more like a fetus than it did a cat. Its body was also oddly shaped and made it look like even more of a science experiment than its cloned counterpart, Mewtwo.
6 Moltres
The Kanto region is home to many incredible creatures, with some of the most iconic being the 3 elemental legendary birds. Those birds are known as Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, with the last universally being considered as the ugliest design of the 3. People often poke fun at its flaming wings and resemblance to a chicken, but its original sprite in Pokémon Red & Blue was much worse. It looked even more like a chicken and its attachment to the element of fire was all but lost outside of its typing.
5 Mr. Mime
Mr. Mime is the center of modern Pokémon jokes as the weird creature who lives with Ash’s mom in the anime. Most recently it was featured as a secondary character in the Detective Pikachu film as a key witness in the film’s mystery that needed to be solved. It currently has a design that’s pretty human-like by comparison, but in Pokémon Red & Blue its sprite told a different story. On top of being much more clown-like and off-putting, it was also a thicker creature with a lower center of gravity.
4 Eevee
You can’t discuss how Pokémon from the Kanto region have changed over the years without including Eevee in the conversation. Eevee is the poster child for the Pokémon franchise’s focus on evolution and does a good job of expressing the endless possibilities in terms of options trainers have when raising and training their Pokémon.
Since the release of Pokémon Red & Blue, Eevee has seen the addition of 5 new final evolutionary forms featuring the Psychic, Dark, Grass, Ice, and Fairy typings, with more likely on the way.
3 Jynx
Out of all of the Pokémon on this list, Jynx very clearly had the most important and needed change to its design. Originally Jynx wasn’t the purple opera singer people know it as today, but rather was a creature with a racially insensitive pitch-black skin tone. This is something that Japanese anime has been criticized for in the past and this problem most notably occurred in the Dragon Ball Z series. It’s amazing that the original design somehow passed multiple checks and no one understood its problematic coloring.
2 All The Fairy Types
Over the years Pokémon has done a great job at not only adding new types but retroactively going back and updating older Pokémon accordingly. One of the biggest shifts occurred when the Fairy-type was introduced to the franchise. Many of the Normal-type creatures from Pokémon Red & Blue that were very cute and were gifted with the new Fairy-type. Some creatures like Chansey, despite being deserving of the new type, were left high and dry and stuck with simply being Normal-type.
1 Pikachu
Pikachu is the mascot of the entire Pokémon franchise and has been that for the last 20+ years. It didn’t always start as a slim and adorable yellow electrified mouse. Originally, Pikachu’s design and in-game sprite were much chunkier than the design it currently aligns itself with. As Pikachu started to emerge as the franchise mascot, The Pokémon Company felt it was best to slim down the Pokémon to promote a healthier lifestyle among its younger audience. Everyone still has a special place in their heart for the original chunk that was Pikachu.
NEXT: 15 Pokémon (Still) Desperately In Need Of An Evolution
