Pokemon is about to celebrate yet another anniversary, as the first games in the series launched on the Game Boy back on February 27, 1996. The series has seen countless releases since then, and fans who once played on tiny, monochrome screens are still taking Pokemon on the go, though they now have a full, colorful world to explore in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Pokemon has reached extraordinary heights in the last 29 years, turning into one of the largest gaming IPs, both in size and in the number of creatures there are to catch in its spin-offs and mainline titles.
The number of pocket monsters the series has under its belt has, for some players, been bringing it down for the last few years. What was once the catchy “gotta catch ’em all” tagline has become a colossal endeavor, though services like Pokemon Home do help fans collect, gather, and organize their creatures. There is a rather large missed opportunity that’s appeared as Pokemon has evolved and innovated, though. While it’s easy to think of how the situation with Pokemon Bank keeps creatures from Generations 3 through 7 inaccessible, there are solutions in plain sight that are going unused. Despite the fact that Nintendo Switch Online has room for the titles that started it all, Pokemon is still not on the service.
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Nintendo’s Lack of Pokemon on Nintendo Switch Online’s Retro Games Feels Bizarre
Pokemon Was Almost Expected for Nintendo Switch Online the Moment it Was Possible
Nintendo Switch Online gave players access to just NES and SNES titles during the first two years of its existence, but it was announced that Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games were being added to the service on February 8, 2023. When this was announced, many fans thought that titles such as Pokemon Red and Blue, as well as Ruby and Sapphire, would be perfect for the service. The Game Boy title based on The Pokemon Trading Card Game was added, as was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, but mainline titles are still absent from the service two years later. It’s a bit strange, especially when the 3DS gave players access to Red, Blue, and Yellow on the Virtual Console. There were even special Red Versions and Blue Versions of the handhelds that players could buy, which came with a code to get the title they chose on the eShop.
There is an interesting connection between the 3DS re-release of the original games and their absence from Nintendo Switch Online, though. That connection is that the first-ever Pokemon games were put on the 3DS rather late into the system’s lifecycle. They were released in February 2016 to celebrate Pokemon‘s anniversary, and the 3DS would be officially discontinued four years later in 2020. Now, the Nintendo Switch lacks the mainline Pokemon games it certainly has room to include, but the Switch 2’s life cycle is about to begin. There have already been two years for Nintendo to release the nine mainline Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games onto Nintendo Switch Online, and the opportunities for them to come to the Switch are now dwindling.
Even though the Switch 2 could take NSO’s library with it at launch, it doesn’t make this absence any less confusing. There may be some hang-ups keeping the mainline Pokemon games from reaching the service, such as how their presence might impact Pokemon Home, and considering how long compatibility between Home and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet took to arrive, that could be the case. Whatever the case may be, one positive could be that Pokemon games from Red and Blue to Emerald could be saved for the Switch 2’s potential DS integration. Hopefully these classic games will be made accessible once more, and maybe the announcement of their release will come on a sooner Pokemon Day rather than a later one.
Pokemon
- Created by
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Satoshi Tajiri