Yeesh, it's been a while since I last uploaded something here.. and everything in my gallery looks like crap... oh well.

My first Pokémon game ever was Yellow version (on an ancient emulator my older brothers set up on an even more ancient pc). While I loved that game, it always saddened me that you couldn't evolve the Pikachu you get at the beginning, especially since its evolution is my favourite Pokémon of all time. Yes, I know that Pokémon Yellow is supposed to emulate the Pokémon anime, but aside from the Pikachu and occasional team Rocket appearance there really is nothing too similar to the anime in said game. I am also aware that you technically COULD evolve the starter Pikachu by trading, but that would mean losing the lovely feature of having it walk with you in the overworld. So, I decided to edit all of the existing Pikachu sprites in favor of its SUPERIOR RAICHU EVOLUTION. It's not perfect, but I hope it might inspire someone more versed in gameboy ROM hacking than me to make a patch that adds these sprites to the game (and make them function properly). Make it happen, modders! Make my dream come truuueeee~

In addition to just making the critter look more Raichu-like in shape (those ears gave me a lot of trouble), I also tinkered with the colours of its "normal" sprites to make it more in tune with its official colours scheme and to add a bit more contrast (the pot on its head and the inside of its mouth was red, for example). After some consideration, I decided NOT to include the tail in the little portraits (except the ones where you see it from behind), as I think having a big yellow triangle at its side would be visually "overtaking". It worked with the original Pikachu sprites since its tails was white in those and thus "easier" to look at, but here, not so much.

Pikachu, Raichu and the orginal sprites (c) Game Freak, Nintendo, bla bla bla you know this stuff.
This edit (c) me, but feel free to use liberally, credit is not at all needed (but appreciated).