Pokémon purists who really "gotta catch 'em all" will have more collecting to do as the Pokémon library for the 3DS gets a nostalgic upgrade.
The first generation games of the Pokémon series, Pocket Monsters: Red & Green, were first released in Japan in 1996. The series quickly blew up in popularity when it was released in North America, Pokémon Red & Blue with a special edition Pokémon Yellow debuting shortly after.
Twenty years to the day after their launch on Feb. 27, 2016, Nintendo has announced that it will be bringing back the first three games of the Pokémon series to the Nintendo 3DS eShop as digital downloads.
The 20th anniversary of the re-release of the games will retain the familiar look and feel of the originals and will not be remakes as many others had hoped they would be.
"The games remain true to the originals-complete with monochromatic pixel art and 4-bit background music-so you can feel as though you're experiencing these games just as they were back then," stated on the Pokémon official website.
One of the main objectives of the first wave of Pokémon games was to complete the "Pokedex", an in-game rolodex of sorts that contained a total of 150 available Pokémon between the Red and Blue Game Boy cartridges.
In order to "catch 'em all", players have to buy Nintendo's Game Link Cable which connected the two games together and allowed Pokémon to be traded and battled between games. Both Red and Blue were independent of each other but shared the same plot. Though they could still be played separately, players needed to battle and trade among the two to catch all 150 Pokémon .
On the 3DS, the Game Link Cable has been replaced with wireless technology. "To allow you to enjoy that unchanging part of Pokémon gameplay, when these titles appear on the Virtual Console, they will be compatible with wireless communication for the first time ever," Nintendo describes on the Pokémon website.
Nintendo hasn't yet released how much the digital downloads will cost for the first generation Pokémon games on the latest 3DS, but a second time around at catching 'em all might just be well worth it.
Photo: Bryan Ochalla | Flickr
