Pokemon Design Inconsistencies

Apparently the Jynx one was a deliberate effort cause the original design resembled the racist "blackface" too much, and some folks found it offensive and actually complained about it.

One inconsistency I've always noticed was that the Red/Blue sprite of Koffing has the skull and cross-bones symbol above it's eyes, where in the anime and everywhere else it is always depicted on the bottom. The weird thing is, in the Japanese Red and Green the spite isn't like this. It's not that the whole Pokémon is upside down either, because the downward fangs are clearly there.

(Japanese)

 

Yes, Jynx was intentional because Game Freak and Nintendo were accused of racism.
And Arbok's designs are different depending on the region it was caught in, I think it might be said in a Pokédex entry somewhere.

In B/R, Kakuna had litte arms, but after Yellow, they didn't

 

Not really an inconsistency, but I was always amazed by the way they changed dragonite from the terrifying monster seen in red:




To an adorable dudley the dragon that looks like every 5 year old's imaginary friend in G/S:


I remember it pissing me off at the time because Dragonite was my favorite Pokémon, and if jynx was changed because of racist connotations I'm surprised they introduced scrafty. I mean a fighting type hoodlum Pokémon, and they give him the dark type? ??

 

Hah now that you mention it I could see how it could be construed that way. I guess it's just vague enough to not draw attention.

 

Sandslash's ears were changed to yellow spikes.
The number of spikes on Tyranitar's back, and bone structure of the face.

 

Similar to the thing with Koffing, the Red and Blue sprite for Cloyster has the shape of the shell switched to be opening vertically rather than horizontally. Every other game including the original Japanese Red and Green had the horizontally opening shell.

(R/
(Japanese)

 

<strong class='bbc'>Automatic generated message</strong><br />This topic has been closed by a moderator.<br /> <br /><strong class='bbc'>Reason:</strong> Inactive thread<br /> <br />If you disagree with this action, please report this post and a moderator or administrator will reconsider it.<br /> <br />Kind regards,<br />Lake Valor Staff

 

<strong class='bbc'>Automatic generated message</strong><br />This topic has been closed by a moderator.<br /> <br /><strong class='bbc'>Reason:</strong> Inactive thread<br /> <br />If you disagree with this action, please report this post and a moderator or administrator will reconsider it.<br /> <br />Kind regards,<br />Lake Valor Staff