Though the Pokémon news cycle can quickly swing from a state of hibernation to a whipped up frenzy of information, one thing remains consistent in the Pokémon Community: the creative talents who put in hours and hours of work to share their work for all to see. As we were all busy raving over whether or not we’d see remakes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl this year, an online group of pixel artists were hard at work creating something special for everyone in the Pokémon Community to enjoy: Johto Redrawn.
The goal of Johto Redrawn was to recreate the Johto region in pixel art using a style reminiscent of the original Pokémon Gold & Silver, but one that would have been impossible for Game Freak to pull off on the Game Boy hardware at the time. The final product is absolutely stunning and has been compiled into an interactive map on the Retro Redrawn website. Each area has unique charms and quirks and it’s a joy to see how each artist has incorporated Pokémon and characters into their environments to give them a sense of liveliness.
Ecruteak City by @zaebucca 
Ilex Forest by @dewndeym 
Mount Silver Peak by @came2slide
A couple of our favourite locations can be found in the gallery above but we really do recommend everyone checks out the full collection, visit the artists personal Twitter accounts listed on the site and follow @PokemonRedrawn on Twitter for future projects!.
This project comes hot on the heels of the announcement of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl and raises the question: would you like to see remakes developed using a more “retro” style, with a level of detail seen in this project? It would certainly be an interesting take on remake and maybe not out of the realm of possibility given the recent, somewhat controversial style of the two latest remakes.
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