A few years ago I wanted to make custom cartridge labels for Pokémon. I started with my own version of the Pokémon logo, which reimagines it with some of its quirks, but not all of them. I make no claim that it’s “better,” because the only goal was to satisfy my own brain, which it does.
You might wonder, “But those aren’t even the right colors.” Hang in there.

The games were initially released in Japan in ’96, but Red and Blue saw their debut in America around the same time as Game Boy Color in ’98. Japan’s cartridges were gray. They never had the color cartridges we got in America. I really love how those colors make the games really stand out and feel more special than all the normal gray cartridges.
Yet, there’s something I prefer about the Japanese key art. There’s a zig-zag color split down the middle, a round emblem with “The Pocket Monster Trainer” circled around the hero Pokémon. The box had a yellow triangle in the corner to denote Super Game Boy functionality.
The Japanese「ポケットモンスター」logo is totally different from than the blue-and-yellow logo we have seared into our brains. Instead, it has a violet color with an outline accent.
The difference between the releases is as much about Japan and the Western world as it is about 1996 and 1998.
So my idea was to make the ideal—in my mind—labels that felt like they had that 1996 Japanese style, with an English logo, on the color cartridges.

Making use of Ken Sugimori illustrations, I recomposed the emblems found on the Japanese box and label art, including the wacky Revue font wrapped around the circle. While the real Japanese labels had solid color backgrounds, I used the zig-zag split from the box design, with the bottom-left yellow corner repurposed as a little Poké Ball, for a small splash of color in that spot, something that can unify all titles. The bottom-right features a small link cable glyph. With a Pokémon logo accented differently per game, applied to a color cartridge shell, this really feels ideal to me.

But of course, I couldn’t stop there, so I made Yellow and the (unreleased) Pink. It’s really a shame we never got the Pink version, because it complements Yellow so well.

But Generation II was also fun and different. Japan finally got color cartridges this time, but not the sparkly gold and silver we got in America. Instead, Gold was housed in a dark blue, and Silver in a dark gray. I like those, so I rounded it out with an ice-blue shell for Crystal. Fun fact: Though Crystal shipped in a sparkly blue translucent Game Boy Color shell, the board inside has the quintessential Game Boy notch, making it able to fit in the old shell shape. I kinda like that.

But! That’s! Not! All! I also have a little wish of one day playing the original Red, Green, and Blue with Generation II color and detail, which is what I’d consider “Super Pokémon.” A little more than Super Game Boy, but not as much as Game Boy Advance. If there ever were “Deluxe” versions of the original three, this is what I wish they’d look like.

Super Pokémon. I can dream.

Ver todos los episodios