Sneasel appeared for the first time in the famous Spaceworld 1997 demo, at the very end of the PokГ©mon list (number 246). But the most remarkable fact is, perhaps, that its name and identity were already set from the beginning. In total, between its first appearance until its modern design, which it gained in Crystal, Sneasel went through a whopping eight different versions вЂ“ easily a record. Sneasel is one of the very few PokГ©mon that appears in every single iteration of the list, with a different design in each one. One of them, though, is in a group of its own. Others went through some redesigns but were eventually dropped, and new monsters appeared late into development to take their spots with far more success, which were the ones we discovered when we first played the games. Only a very few select PokГ©mon remained from their very early concepts until the end, mostly with very few changes, such as Chikorita, Marill or Octillery. The very oldest PokГ©mon list features lots of strange concepts that barely look like current-day monsters, most of them disappearing without a trace in the following updates. Since a hacker leaked several demos and development betas of the games, fans have been looking at all the designs that fell by the wayside, like the adorable Kotora and its evolution, or pre-evolutions for Meowth and Vulpix, or even concepts of what would eventually become Leafeon and Lickilicky two generations later. The PokГ©mon list also kept suffering changes. Turns out, the overworld was not the only part of the game Game Freak kept rethinking and redesigning. I have already talked about how the world map went through several revisions before release in this piece, with massive changes and redesigns that hint at how their ideas of what the games were going to be all about kept changing over time. By 1996, when the next generation of games went into production, they already had a success on their belts, and a fully-built engine to work on. Sure, Red and Green took even longer to make, but Game Freak really had no idea what they were doing and werenвЂ™t exactly long on money. What makes them especially interesting, in my opinion, is their curious development, one that went on for a surprisingly long time for a Game Boy sequel built on an existing engine. And not just because of their quality, or all the features they added, most of which have long since become staples in the franchise. PokГ©mon Gold and Silver are some of the most interesting games in the series.

Sneasel is, surprisingly enough, a living fossil that tells us a lot about how Generation II itself was developed, and how the very concept of what being a PokГ©mon meant evolved over time вЂ“ even after the games themselves had hit store shelves. No, this time I want to talk about one of the most interesting facts about this little chilly trickster: that itвЂ™s one of the most complex PokГ©mon to ever be designed. ItвЂ™s an Ice/Dark type introduced in Generation II, but IвЂ™m sure you all know that already.

How several PokГ©mon changed during PokГ©mon Gold and Silver development.

A tale of three Johtos: the evolution of the Gen II maps.

Major discoveries revealed from PokГ©mon Gold and Silver demo.

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