Jynx’s face in the original Pokémon Yellow Version on Game Boy was colored black, but has been changed to purple with the game’s latest release on Virtual Console.
The Human Shape Pokémon Jynx has received its fair share of criticism over the years for a number of reasons — from its origin to its name to its controversial design. But the color of the face for the all-female Pocket Monster has, perhaps, been the target for most of the attention.
Carole B. Weatherford, an African-American author of children’s books, wrote a short piece in 2000 titled “Politically Incorrect Pokémon.” In it, Weatherford portrayed Jynx as an “overweight drag queen”:
“The character Jynx, Pokémon #124, has decidedly human features: jet-black skin, huge pink lips, gaping eyes, a straight blonde mane and a full figure, complete with cleavage and wiggly hips. Put another way, Jynx resembles an overweight drag queen incarnation of Little Black Sambo, a racist stereotype from a children’s book long ago purged from libraries.”
As of today, the original trio of classic Game Boy titles Pokémon Red Version, Pokémon Blue Version, and Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition have re-released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service in North America and Europe.
Players have already acquired Jynx by trading, but she looks different this time around in Pokémon Yellow, as seen in this image taken by gaming website ntower:
Looks like Jynx has been recoloured in Yellow as we expected it to be. Image thanks to @ntower_de pic.twitter.com/Dn8laqdqah
— Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) February 26, 2016
If a simple recoloring change for Jynx’s face doesn’t interest you, perhaps you’ll be more excited to know that you can catch a really strange Pokémon called MissingNo by using a famous glitch.
What are your thoughts on The Pokémon Company’s decision to change the color of Jynx’s face from black to purple? Feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our social media channels.
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I would like to add that yeah, I also got the Missingno, but all the glitches from the originals are still active. I was able to bypass the guy who walks you to the Pewter gym even though I ended up challenging it for experience anyway, and I was able to get Mew and various others with the Mew/Ditto glitch.