Pixelation/Way of the Pixel has a forum that deconstructs the artstyles of old videogames, constructively critiquing them and then challenging forum members to use what they've learned in pixelart - members can create new levels in the style of the series, recreate old levels in their own aesthetic, try and add new objects to pre-existing tiles to see how well they match, etc. The main interest of the Pokemon thread seems to be the battle menus. Artists are adapting the format of the menus through changing the iconography, changing the perspective of the battle to side-by-side or first-person, etc etc.

This really interested me! I wanted to do a Shining Force/Golden Sun style of battle screen, allowing full back-view tiles for the monster and trainers. Forum moderator Ryumaru had concerns about my first few mockups, citing the technical trickery of Generation 1 and 2's programming:

"Those screens are beautiful, but unfortunately they probably wouldn't have worked. Both the character and pokemon sprites are utilizing their transparency for a 4th color ( the white background). With your set up, Sprites would have to be added on top to make the white opaque and THAT would probably take up too much memory, be too cumbersome with all the characters and pokemon.

"What you could do, is make a bigger white tree that is behind the sprites at all times."

Now the size limit for a trainer/monster is 56 pixels by 56 pixels, and although I could use some technical trickery of my own to reduce the number of tiles needed for that fourth colour, I decided to forego it - by default, there would be 56*56 white squares on the screen. Which presented the interesting challenge of incorporating those squares into intricate battle backgrounds, working with/around the blank space. And pixelart is nothing if not about working with/around limitations.

The first four screens show a battle introduction, the general menu, the attack menu and some narration for a move. The fifth screen shows off a larger opponent Pokemon to demonstrate the necessity of the 56*56 blank space. The sixth screen conveys the start of a Giovanni battle and demonstrates a different background entirely. The seventh screen shows you the original background and battle menu style that had to be changed for technical reasons. The eighth screen shows a dark cave background and one of my favorite legendary Pokemon.

I changed all the sprites from the original games as well as the menu style, and I'm liking most of the changes - it gives me a strong Shining Force vibe while keeping most of the original Pokemon aesthetic. The two FOCUS ENERGY screenshots have different looks for Pokemon Trainer Red, and I don't have a real preference between the two.

You wouldn't know it from this submission, but I actually changed the Mewtwo sprite from his first mockup incarnation. I initially liked the idea of a semi-shadowy figure with his face obscured, but the weird contrast in lighting and dithering didn't save the picture. If you want to see the initial picture, it's here.

I like the idea of doing a Game Boy Color variation of this mockup in the future, but I can't imagine the amount of effort that would be required to colourise the mockup, keep it within GBC limitations, and still have it be aesthetically appealing.