Beta Pocket Monsters Blue (Aka Red & Blue) Sprites

[Toaker]

I found an interesting image while looking for Pokemon beta info. I happen to come across a scan from Corocoro back from 1996 that talks about the then upcoming Japanese Pocket Monsters Blue (Red & Blue internationally). Notice that some of the Sprites from blue are diffrent from the final version.20120601163639.jpg

Red and Green Sprites are on the left and Blue Sprites on the right
pay close attention to Ditto's sprite in peticular

[Winter02]

That Ditto sprite looks very odd, its design is completely different from how it was in the final game (as well as in all other games).
Seems like some others like Mewtwo and Rhydon had different beta sprites, but their design looks normal.

[Ciccone]

Ditto's beta sprite made it look too much like Grimer and Muk in my opinion; I'm glad it was changed. And I actually prefer the beta Mewtwo sprite over the final version. It looks like it has its arms crossed, although I can't be sure since the image is small.

[Palamon]

Ditto's beta sprite looks nothing like Ditto. Thank goodness that's not the one they used. I like the Clefairy beta sprite better than the other Clefairy sprite oh and that Psyduck beta sprite is weird. All the other ones are alright but I'm glad they didn't make it to the final cut.

[Toaker]

Also it seems that Red and Green were intended to be released on Dec 21 1995, which explains the 1995 copyright datepokemonred-a.jpg

[pacman000]

That's cool; I wish there was more info on Red/Green/Blue's pre-release versions.

[Kutie Pie]

Sucks the image is too small, I wanna look at the sprites more. A couple of them are pretty cool, especially the beta Mewtwo sprite, oh yeaaaah. Shows he's serious unlike that caveman look he had going on in R/B where he was all hunched over. The Ditto beta sprite looks very interesting, however. Doesn't look too much like Grimer/Muk to me, I think leaving a trail of some gelatinous ooze makes sense for Ditto.

That's a scary Clefairy up there in the corner, by the way. Also looks like it got censored by the number 3, there.

[Shymain]

It looks like for many Pkmn, they were planning to make version-exclusive sprites. And the second Pikachu looks like the one in Lost Silver... Without the eyes and smile...