Pokemon players are worried about classic games releasing on Switch
After the fumbles of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Pokeplayers are looking at where the monster-catching series goes next. It's become a cause for concern after Palworld showed the cracks in the Pokeverse and what Game Freak could potentially do if it put its mind to it.
Some are worried we'll never reach the highs of HeartGold and SoulSilver, but when it comes to 'classic' Pokemon games, most of us are locked out of playing them on the Nintendo Switch. As of 2024, there are currently only five Pokemon games playable on Switch.
Pokemon fans are worried about classic games on Switch
We've seen a slow rollout of older Nintendo games on Switch thanks to the Switch Online expansion, giving us beloved classics like GoldenEye 007, Super Mario World, and Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately, there's a Poke-shaped hole in our lives.
Aside from Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Trading Card Game, and the Stadium games, there are no classic top-down games available to play. Over on Reddit, one fan claimed that Nintendo has backed itself into a corner by not releasing the classic Pokemon games already.
With emulators everywhere right now, and the likes of Delta turning our iPhones into portable consoles, there's a worry that Nintendo won't be able to sell classic Pokemon games on Switch. Others have claimed that a connection to Pokemon HOME would be a huge selling point.
One fan cheered, "Man if FireRed/leafgreen or emerald has official home support and has the Deoxys mew events built in like Celebi was for crystal that would be amazing." Another added, "Honestly if they release the old games to switch and give all of them the ability to connect to home I would snap that up."
Nintendo needs to remember where the franchise came from
Click to enlargeEven if we get an eventual release of the classics on Switch, you should be rightly worried about how they'll be packaged. Would we get a pricier version of Switch Online like the N64, SEGA, and GBA expansion, or would Nintendo sell these old favourites at a premium?
One sceptic said, "If I was Nintendo I would port all gen 1-3 games into one bundle and sell it for $40-$50 bucks. Then do the same for the DS era and so on," as another added, "They will never, ever release the older games as part of a compilation through NSO or whatever future version of NSO.
"They'll do like they did on the 3DS Virtual Console and release them as individual purchases so i) they can milk as much money out of them as possible."
Nintendo has locked older Pokemon games behind a paywall, and with the closure of the 3DS Online store, the franchise being left in the past. Unless you're using an emulator or dusting off your old Game Boys, there aren't many ways to play. The question is, will Nintendo see the light and bring the Pokeverse back to the forefront of gaming?
