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Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire are the third installments of the Pocket Monsters series of RPG, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 / 2003. In the early screenshots we can see various beta differences:
Wynaut is green instead of blue Shroomish has a different sprite
more evil looking Sharpedo and different HP font hmm weird tornado
female sign should be red
different layout of trees different fisher bottom
the mart has a red roof and the sign should say mart
wow.. never seen a cave that hazy
Also, if you search in the codes of Ruby & Sapphire, you can find music from Generation 2 (Gold, Silver, Crystal). There was also two beta Pokemons: Shellos & Gastrodon. If you’ve played Pokemon Diamond/Pearl you sure know which these are, and they were actually going to be included in Ruby & Sapphire. Shellos & Gastrodon though were not supposed to look like they did in Diamond/Pearl. This how they were going to look like:

Shellos’s beta back sprite

Gastrodon’s beta back sprite
Thanks to FullMetalMC for the contribute!
More infos: Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire beta hacks
Images:
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U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
5 Responses to Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire [GBA - Beta / Unused Sprite]
MPNagem89
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:05 pm
pokemon ruby version was the first pokemon game that i have owned and still own today
Alkaid
November 28th, 2010 at 12:40 am
There’s also one other thing that I find kind of weird, and while I don’t have the proof of pics on me to show here, I don’t think it’s that hard to find it otherwise. Fortunately, Google doesn’t currently hate me and I’ve found a link to a picture someone else posted of the same critter.
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5837/sumo.png
This guy is entirely unknown as far as who (or what) he is. He has no trainer sprite, no pokemon sprite, and only exists as an extra overworld sprite (complete with full sheets of movement sprites for walking) found if you have an overworld editor to use on Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald. Nobody has a clue what this guy is named, and so has many fan nicknames coined up for him, including “Sumo” (as the original host affectionately called it), “big fat yellow guy”, “makuhita’s cousin” etc etc. Again, there is no trainer whatsoever, beta or otherwise, who resembles him, only Makuhita has even the vaguest resemblance to him, and he is still in the game (even during the transition into Emerald I believe), just he is never used anywhere in the final product. He’s also very unusually proportioned for a pokemon overworld, easily towering over other characters if hacked in place in the game.
For those of you curious as to how this guy looks in action, I have also found an accompanying video of someone who hacked their Emerald game to show the guy. Be warned though, of a bit of language and annoying background music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_0h3SveeHo&feature=related
There were also several other elements I stumbled on as far as other Ruby/Sapphire beta stuff, and fortunately Bulbapedia found them as well. You can check out images and video footage found here:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Ruby_and_Sapphire_beta
The only thing I’m surprised they hadn’t added was the yellow man I brought up earlier, which I tried to dig up as much as I could above.
Hope this helps.
monokoma
November 28th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Thanks a lot for the info Alkaid! Really interesting :)
KuronoToriga
July 2nd, 2011 at 2:18 am
“Sumo” was probably used to debug and fix sprite image frames/cycling and as a test sprite before any other overworld people sprites were made.
Nikki
August 31st, 2011 at 5:30 am
You missed beta boxart and it said Gotta Catch ‘Em All in both of the unused boxarts.