Pokemon turns 25 this year. Over the course of the quarter of a century since the release of Red and Green, the series has undergone a variety of artistic changes. The games started with a simple pixel art style and through tweaks and changes have worked their way to a fully realised 3D design. While for some, the new art style is just what they’re looking for, others yearn for things to return to an older, more simple time.
Thankfully, artist Pat Ackerman is on hand. The Brooklyn-based illustrator/pixel artist went through and redesigned all of Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Pokemon and their different forms into an awesome pixel art style. He’s even included the legendaries and new forms from The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra content packs.
The art is reminiscent of the good old days, with each of the Pokemon reimagined using the colour palette from Pokemon Yellow. You can check them all out below.
Finally finished all of generation 8 in Gameboy form! They use the Pokémon Yellow palette. You can see some different versions and almost all Gigantamax forma as well on patspixels on instagram. #pixelart #pixelartist #pokemon #nintendo #NintendoSwitch #pokemon25 #gameboy pic.twitter.com/yr0Sf83Fm2
— Pat Ackerman (@patackart) January 20, 2021
While the images posted on Twitter include all of the Pokemon’s standard forms, it doesn’t include pixel art versions of the new Gigantamax forms. Thankfully, Ackerman has designed those and posted them over on his Instagram page.
As well as his work on Twitter and Instagram, Ackerman has his own website that comes complete with some more of his incredible illustrations, pixel art and design work.
Although it’s unlikely we’ll see another Pokemon game with this art style, The Pokemon Company and Game Freak are planning to celebrate for the series’ 25th anniversary. We recently received a release date for the New Pokemon Snap game and it’s likely the two companies have a lot more planned that’s yet to be revealed. Recent rumours have suggested we may see remakes of Diamond and Pearl. Others, that surfaced in the middle of last year leaned towards Gold and Silver remakes, in the style of the Let’s Go games.
Whatever happens, two things are for certain. Pat Ackerman has done a stellar job of redesigning the eighth generation and we’ll be hearing more about the Pocket Monsters over the course of this year.
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