The mysterious Mew is known for many things: it can learn any TM or Tutor move, it's the first mythical Pokemon, it's a playground myth that turned out to be true, it's been featured in a number of movies, and has quite a bit of lore to it. Oh, and it's also known for having a really ugly original sprite that resulted in Pokemon Green getting the stereotype of having terrible sprites. But, did you all know that Mew has a history of revisions across Generations 1-2, moreso than any other Pokemon? Let's start at the beginning, Pokemon Red and Green. Mew was added over Omega in Index 21 to fill space, and was used for easy TM testing. Mew was kept in for release and later used as a promotional, "mirage" Pokemon. During this time, Mew looked like...this. Indeed, Mew embodied the fetus aspect of its design. This little jerboa embryo is often toted as an abomination, a creature that should have never existed. Me? I think it's hilarious and had a more dark tone. But yeah, this thing is what eventually became Mew's design today. The question is...when did it change, and why? The Red and Green Asset Leak contains a prototype Blue JP sprite for Mew, still featuring the little bump on its head and the creepy eyes. This was from Blue Version 1, I believe, given the file name. Given this is only in black and white, I also took it upon myself to colorize it like I did with Gyopin's back sprite. This version has been increased a bit in size so apologies if the scaling looks off. So really, there are two incarnations of Mew's original design. Despite this though, the official RG artwork for Mew does not show this. The very first time Mew received art had it in its revised design, as Ken Sugimori was redesigning Pokemon at this stage. Given Goldeen's horn change, we can deduce that these RG artworks were where the design changes began. However, RB did not always reflect these changes, as we saw with Goldeen's horn as well. Anyway, despite the odd discrepancies in design, when Pokemon Blue JP did the revised sprites in October 1996, we got the Mew we now know and love. No longer was it an odd fetus, it was now more a cat-jerboa-embryo-thing. But...due to the way Generation 1 handled the sprite changes, we still had the back sprite from Red and Green. It seems that when you commanded Mew yourself, you unleashed the horrible blighter to the international audience's poor eyes. How awful! Pokemon Yellow preserved this change as well, meaning Japan had 2 versions with the old Mew, and two with the new. Remember, Blue JP and Yellow were essentially Red and Green sequels in Japan. The international audiences received Blue JP's Mew, as well as Yellow Mew, meaning we never saw the evil fetus in the west until the internet dredged up Green from the depths of the ROM websites. However, prior to Yellow's release, there was one more Mew sprite. This was at Spaceworld 1997. This Mew featured a similar design to Pokemon Red and Blue's, and was used in the demo and the Mew distribution cartridges over there. The screenshot I have here was on a bilibili video, at 32:23. I had this image for comparison on an old article, but it had the wrong date! I've fixed it though. So overall, there are 5 known Mew sprites from Generation 1, not counting back sprites. The Spaceworld Mew, given its use on Generation 1 Distribution Cartridges, can be considered a Generation 1 sprite. If we consider it Gen 2 and count the ones from there, we have 8 Pre-Gen 3 sprites total, more than any Pokemon from that era.
So, while this was more of an info dump article than any real explanation, what do you think? Do you like the unreleased Mew sprites? Lemme know your thoughts!
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Turns out we already did have some content from the Pokemon Gold and Silver Spaceworld Demo! These being from the Game Boy Camera, and the Mew Distribution Cartridge from the same event! So. let's start with the Game Boy Camera. As some of you know, Pokemon Green Sprites were also featured on the device. However, two sprites of previously unknown origin were also on the device. As it turns out, Chansey and Pikachu's sprites were actually from the Spaceworld Build of Pokemon Gold and Silver! They didn't have any color on the Game Boy Camera, but the resemblance is clear. There are no differences here, so it is unknown as to what actually happened here. However, why did they not simply replace all the Pokemon Green or Pokemon Blue JP (AKA Red and Blue Int) Sprites with the ones from Beta GSC? By this point, the redrawing of all the sprites should have been finished. Or was it scrapped and did the rebuild begin? Nobody knows. It appears that they may have wanted familiar sprites for users, but why did Chansey and Pikachu use these sprites? It is quite unusual, no? Now, what about the Mew Distribution Cartridge? Well, we happen to have clear-cut footage of it. We have to thank Porygon for this, as the Electric Soldier Porygon Episode resulted in a huge amount of smear campaigns. One of these campaigns resulted in a 40 Min News Coverage segment which showed the Mew Distribution Cartridge in full! This may be as a result of the footage, but the sprite does appear to have some minor differences. I am not sure whether what was used to bring Mew over was a Spaceworld Prototype or anything, really. Trade Experiments have proven that you CAN use the Prototype to trade with Gen 1 Games, as the trade mechanics are the same. Given the frame here, it can be theorized that a Spaceworld Prototype was used for the Mew Event.
Some trivia for those who didn't read that whole link: you can actually send a Spaceworld Prototype Pokemon from the Gen 1 Games all the way to Gen 7 if you transfer the saves from the Gen 1 cartridges. Another way would be to use a Gen 1 VC and replace the ROM with one of these prototypes and use the trade room feature. Regardless, you can send Spaceworld Pokemon over, as they are virtually the same as any other in Gen 1 terms. So there we go! We did get to see some Spaceworld Content before the ROM even leaked! Incredible! |
About meSo I really, really like researching Prototype Pokemon information. That's about it. I also do things on Smogon, I guess. Archives
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