Worst Pokemon Sprites?

Throughout the years, Pokemon has had some pretty nifty sprites. However, some sprites were just down right ugly. In your opinions, what are the ugliest Pokemon sprites to come out of Gamefreak? This can be from any Pokemon game. Also, while discussing sprites, we are not talking about Pokemon designs but the sprite work itself.
 

Codraroll

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Mankey's sprite from Red/Blue isn't much to cheer for either:

The entire concept of "joints" is simply forgotten in this sprite. Its legs have no knees, and the arms appear to curve at a constant rate without the need for elbows. Its tail also feels awkwardly long, considering that it's supposed to be attached to the middle of its back. Also, the pose.

And who can forget Golbat?

What was up with those eyes? If you don't notice, they are wider than its body, and also placed at slightly different levels. And the sideways tongue? Or the body randomly leaning to its right? Or even the feet? This is one messed-up sprite.

Then there's another Victory Road frequenter, Machoke.

Here we have all sorts of issues. The eyes are mismatched, and gives Machoke a face like a stoned frog. Its right leg is obviously bigger than its left. Considering how much better Machoke was drawn in Yellow, with the exact same software and hardware limitation, this sprite is a seriously poor piece of work.

Vileplume is also... interesting:

Official art has always portrayed it as purple or blue, with a kettle-shaped body covered by a large flower. However, this image seems to suggest a long stem between the top of its face and the underside of the flower, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see both the face and the flower in that perspective. Also, it's inexplicably black. Well, that being said, no later sprites did Vileplume justice either. If you look at its Yellow sprite, it's shown that the flower starts pretty much right above the eyes, as if it was wearing a large hat. All later games, however, show the flower from a top-side angle, but also its entire face. The FRLG sprite seems to be the closest one to the concept from the official art, the rest take huge liberties regarding the top of face - bottom of flower distance.


Last, and finally not one from R/B: Raikou from Gold/Silver.

For the record, this is the official artwork of Raikou. Notice anything missing? Yep, that's right, half of its face. The fangs are missing, the white face cover (which must be really impractical when Raikou is eating, but oh well. At least it can open its mouth, unlike Kyurem) is missing, and the white fur encircles the face, instead of disappearing underneath its black "cap". Also, the fur on its back is orange instead of purple, and its claws are too (they should be white). I know G/S sprites could only contain two colours besides black and white, but there doesn't even need to be any orange on Raikou for it to look right. At least not compared to the required amount of purple.

Either, this sprite portrayed a beta design for Raikou, indicating a communications screwup somewhere along the line, or somebody did not show up sober to work one morning. Despite Gold/Silver being launched in Europe almost a year and a half after they were in Japan, and Korea got them another year later, the mistake was not fixed in international versions of the games. I think that makes Raikou's G/S sprite the worst ever in Pokémon history.
 
I do agree that all those sprites are pretty god awful. And I never understood how they could mess up Raikou that badly.
When I get off mobile, I'll go through sprites and discuss my feelings on the ugly ones.
 
Vileplume is also... interesting:

Official art has always portrayed it as purple or blue, with a kettle-shaped body covered by a large flower. However, this image seems to suggest a long stem between the top of its face and the underside of the flower, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see both the face and the flower in that perspective. Also, it's inexplicably black. Well, that being said, no later sprites did Vileplume justice either. If you look at its Yellow sprite, it's shown that the flower starts pretty much right above the eyes, as if it was wearing a large hat. All later games, however, show the flower from a top-side angle, but also its entire face. The FRLG sprite seems to be the closest one to the concept from the official art, the rest take huge liberties regarding the top of face - bottom of flower distance.
<-Red/Green Vileplume
It seems like it just changed the position of its arms from Red/Green to Red/Blue:P

Now let's talk about back sprites. I'll start with Venusaur.

Who does not remember Gen 1 Venusaur? The flower's position seems to change from its front sprite:
/
/

And its body seems to be smaller in the back sprite, too. Now let's travel in time to gen 5...

I don't really like this angle... It didn't really get better in gen 6, but its mega evolution at least got a flower on its butt.
 

Codraroll

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Speaking of Venusaur, I've never really understood how it's able to move. Its hind legs don't appear to support the movements required for it to walk properly. Knees at 45-degree angles in relation to its body, and no butt cheeks, meaning it can't move its hind legs independently. It has quasi-human legs for a body shape that's not human at all. I suppose it could hop like a toad, but it doesn't make for very graceful movement.

Several Pokémon have this same problem of mismatched anatomy, but I guess that's a topic for another thread.
 
Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green:
Well, there's Hitmonchan's sprite that looks like a Togekiss watching a constipated Doduo try to poop:


Charizard looks derpy as hell:


What's wrong with Wigglytuff's eyes?


AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!


Marowak has an inflatable bone!


While Articuno looked a little weird, poor Moltres got it worse:

Makes Stealth Rocks seem like a blessing, doesn't it?

Mew. Need I say more?:


It's not all bad for Red and Green, though:

Hell yeah.

Pokémon Blue (and international Red):
What's wrong with Koffing. I mean, just compare the Red and Green sprite to the Blue sprite:

Red and Green

Blue Version
How did they screw it up????

If Bulbasaur can't walk on it's hind legs, neither can Ivysaur:


Lay off the PokéPuffs and Poffins, Blastoise.


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This is just terrible:


My only problem with this one is the Shellder is somehow in front of Slowbro. Otherwise, it's not bad:


There's nothing wrong with this one. I just want to make a Community joke:

"Pop pop!"

This is what you would see in your closet as a kid:


Wow, they made Mr. Mime creepier! (He also needs to lay off the Poképuffs)


"Paint me like one of your Kalosian Pokémon."

(Sorry, joke was too good)

Stop making Moltres look bad!


Starting with Yellow, there really isn't anything horrible. I mean, they finally got Moltres right:
 
Thank you, I'll never be able to unsee that now.

I actually like Charizard's sprite here, it's cute.



There is no excuse for this guy though. I find the weird shape of its chest really disturbing.
There's really no excuse for any of them, honestly. Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Pokémon Trading Card Game all show it is possible to have sprites that really look like the Pokémon and have it show on the original Game Boy (Gold, Silver, and TCG were designed to be played on the monochrome Game Boy as well as the Game Boy Color, so they do in fact count).
 
I think the first generation had these kind of sprits coz they were literally monsters at that time, and they dont gave a fuck about cuteness or stuff

But in counterpart, yellow's sprites are surprisingly good for the time they were released.
 
Here's another Red and Green sprite that is terrible:

What is wrong with the mouth on that Ekans?

I think the first generation had these kind of sprits coz they were literally monsters at that time, and they dont gave a fuck about cuteness or stuff
They didn't give a fuck about cuteness? Did you forget about Pikachu?

That's its original sprite from Red and Green. Fucking. Adorable.
Also, there is a difference between looking monstrous and just having a crappy sprite.
 
Here's another Red and Green sprite that is terrible:
They didn't give a fuck about cuteness? Did you forget about Pikachu?

That's its original sprite from Red and Green. Fucking. Adorable.
Also, there is a difference between looking monstrous and just having a crappy sprite.
Well, some pokemon could be a little cute, but this isnt the most adorable mouse in the world...
 

Hulavuta

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Hmm, how did we get this far without mentioning Farfetch'd?



I get a real World War II Looney Toons Nazi vibe from this guy...like he's about to punish me with that stick. Good thing the only Farfetch'd you get is through a trade...you'd never see it unless you're battling your friend and he wants to scare the shit out of you.
 
Well, after seeing that Delibird, I've decided to check out Gen II's sprites.

Pokémon Gold:
This isn't bad, I just noticed something:

Abra's left eye is open.

Not as bad as Red, Blue, or Green, but still not as good as Yellow:

Ugh.

Meganium's neck and head feels a bit off:


Pichu seems a little chubbier than I remember:


"I have a mild headache and I don't like it."


"I'll get you if it's the last thing I do!!!!"


Like as been said before, Raikou is missing it's mustache and fangs:


Not very majestic:


Pokémon Silver:
OK, this isn't bad at all. In fact, it might be my favorite sprite of my favorite Kanto starter:


"Ugh, this headache's gotten a little worse!"


Still not very majestic:


Pokémon Crystal:
Well, Crystal's sprites come from Gold and Silver, except they are animated. None of the animations are bad, so there really isn't anything to put here.
Well, there is one:
"This headache's so bad, I'm gonna air guitar!"


They did fix Raikou, though:


And made this piece of awesome:

I don't think either Haunter or Gengar have a bad sprite.

Honestly starting with Ruby and Sapphire, the system was more powerful and had a larger screen, allowing for much improved sprites, which got better in Diamond and Pearl. The resolution dropped for Black and White, but that was so they could have fully animated sprites for over 600 different Pokémon, and that's before you take in consideration different forms, gender differences, back sprites, and shinies of all of the above. Plus the eyes closing for when they are put to sleep. And now we don't even have sprites, but fully 3D models that look like the anime's been ported to my 3DS and it is simply fantastic.
 
This is probably going to get me flamed by some of the Gen 3 horde, but I don't really like many gen 3 sprites. Namely, Ruby & Sapphire. I loathe Suicune's Hoenn sprite.
 
Gen3 had a lot of lame sprites. No interesting poses or anything, all the Pokemon just looked dead behind the eyes. Kinda like plushies. Not necessarily bad, just not exciting in the slightest. Gen2's were magnificent. Example...


Super cute. Look how lazy he is, rolling onto his back. He doesn't even wanna fight!

Vs.


What happened to Slowpoke's neck? Why is it's tail so thick?

They at least rectified it's neck/tail in FRLG but in turn made Slowpoke look he had visited the taxidermist.
 

DHR-107

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Mankey's sprite from Red/Blue isn't much to cheer for either:

The entire concept of "joints" is simply forgotten in this sprite. Its legs have no knees, and the arms appear to curve at a constant rate without the need for elbows. Its tail also feels awkwardly long, considering that it's supposed to be attached to the middle of its back. Also, the pose.
Until Mankey appeared in the Anime... I didnt even realise he had *arms*. I thought it was really big ears.

Who does not remember Gen 1 Venusaur? The flower's position seems to change from its front sprite:
You mean run over Venusaur? Yeah I never got this sprite either... Thankgod I didn't play Green. In defence of green (which someone linked the whole sprite sheet of earlier), I still think it had some of the best Eeveelution sprites out there, especially Jolteons.

Back to awful sprites, most have already been said. Wigglytuff and Poliwraths are exceptionally bad, Poliwhirls Green sprite is not much better.
 

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