>>44247876limited color palette and still fairly limited size means they all have the sort of cute, simplified looks people usually want sprites to have
not as brutally limited as gen 1 but not messily drunk on freedom as later gens, that being said every gen's spritework has its merits, gen 2 just has a peak "Pocket Monsters" feel (there are some duds though, looking at you Slowking and Tyranitar)