Nintendo Expands Switch Online's GBA Library With Pokémon

I tried a mystery dungeon game before (I forget which one, it was on the DS/3DS though) and...I just got bored of it really quickly. :/

Kind of surprising given the remake. Didn't stop them with Link's Awakening I guess but Pokemon tends to operate under its own rules.

Nearly spat my coffee out before realising what this actually was. Dammit Gamefreak - just release your mainline titles on the NSO already.

…Or Pokemon Pinball - I’d easily take either of the Pokemon Pinball titles.

Guess we won’t be getting the mainline ones anytime soon XD

hoping for that mainline to come soon🤞🏻

What about Rescue Blue Team? You can't have one without the other.

Just what the fan were asking for. 🙄

TPCi is that screwy "be-careful-what-you-wish-for" genie that "grants" wishes without giving you what you really wanted.

Even the two Pinball games would have been preferable to this.

@Lizuka
Yes, I am also very surprised they release this on NSO when the remaster is on Switch.

@Torakaka
Maybe the Switch successor since it is a DS title

Have the sales of the remake slowed to the point where this is allowed by the higher ups?

@Lizuka Based on the demo alone, the remake is trash. They literally took the strategy of preserving your moves out of it! Now you HAVE to use poke'-moves or else you can't attack, and those moves have a limited amount of uses like actual pokemon games...

Can we get the Pokemon Pinballs next?

Greatest Pokemon game of all time! Seriously, I love this game soooooooo much. The remake was disappointment.

It's very interesting that they chose to announce now. Maybe there isn't a Pokemon Presents in August after all and they announce stuff like the TCG release date at Worlds.

I count this as an absolute win.

I’ve never played any game is this spinoff series, but I’ve always been curious about it.

Still waiting on Warioware Twisted

neat! i just hope all of this nso content carries over to whatever system comes next, cause i dont think people will take the drip feed again without a fight LOL

Thought this would get better reception. It's an awesome game.

Can't wait to play!

Makes sense even with the Remake - either you pay $60 for the Remake or pay $60 at least once to rent the original.

Kind of wierd especially because the dx version exists but I'll take it. That said I can't say for certain why we haven't seen the mainline pokemon games yet. Maybe compatability issues with home?

@Ace-Lucario : There were already five Pokemon games added on NSO before this; Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokemon Snap, Pokémon Puzzle League, and Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2.
Mystery Dungeon is the sixth one.

Yo! This is a great surprise.

Loved this game. I remember hearing the remake's main theme for the first time and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. That said, unless you prefer the original soundtrack/art style, I think the biggest advantage this version has is all the cool camp areas where you keep your pokemon. The remake just has boring pc box style menus to select them from, but otherwise is an excellent modernization of an already great game.

Feels a bit weird without Blue Rescue Team but hey it's perfectly fine. Might play this one!

Also I have a feeling they're going to keep the mainline games for the Switch successor so they'll still have some bigger hits left for that when the NSO library carries over.

For Link's Awakening you could at least say it was a vital part of Gameboy so you couldn't avoid adding it despite it risking competing with the remake, but this is a super late GBA game so I have to imagine they've sold very, very few copies of Rescue Team DX the past year or so if they're adding this.

Because I think basically no one is buying the remake again now, I want to state very clearly that Mystery Dungeon is the most underrated Pokemon game and that you should give it a shot, especially if the idea of a Pokemon game with an actual story focused on the Pokemon interests you. It's honestly baffling to me how much people disrespect these games, which make the bold and correct take that Pokemon are more interesting than humans in Pokemon and cut out the middle man as it were and then people give them worse reviews than a lot of AAA games that are genuinely broken (which sadly as of 2 years ago now also includes Pokemon).

Ooh. Will give it a go when I am eventually done with TTYD.

@Samalik I mean I prefer the original for the sprite work but you could easily argue now there's even more strategy involved in the remake since you have to commit to using an expendable resource in order to attack. Whereas in the original your basic attack was so powerful you hardly ever needed to use your limited moves.

For anyone wondering the original and remake essentially swap difficulties. The 2006 game has a difficult main story followed by a much easier post game (outside of level reset dungeons)
On the other hand, the remake and its new mechanics make for an easier main story and a MUCH harder post game.

I'd say it's a good example of a remake that offers a unique experience from the original rather than just replacing it. Worth playing even if it is ugly as ***** lol

Nostalgia 😄 Loved this game as a kid

This looked like Pokémon Ruby from the corner of my eye 😭

Guess who was craving this game for months and just found a copy in a second hand shop yesterday 😆 still good to have it in the service just in case!

Happy they are adding this, but one keeps wondering if the mainline games will ever be part of NSO. It would be so cool to play Ruby/Sapphire on Switch. Those games were part of my summer all those years ago.

Red/Blue witch Pokemon Home access would be amazing.

@ecco6t9 I put so much time in the sequel but barely played the gbc one. I'd love to play them both again.

@kkslider5552000 interesting perspective, I've completely ignored these games (not knowing if they were good or bad) because the spin offs didn't really do it for me, but I'll give this a shot now.

@Sonicka GameFreak doesn't want their games on NSO. They reluctantly allowed them on 3DS VC, but I think they didn't liked those releases much.

I do hope we'll get Pokémon Pinball on NSO. Always loved those games

The remake for Rescue Team is already awesome and available, but its still nice to be able to go back to the original. Not for me though as I don't pay for the NSO Expansion

@FatWormBlowsASparky @traceman : I strongly suspect that if any of the main series games do resurface, that they'll either be for sale individually (as they were on 3DS) or will be subsumed into a separate app as it would likely be too complicated for Home to read/write data via the GB/GBA apps which contain save data for a bunch of other games.

@Sonicka same here almost crapped my pants.
Especially with the red background.
Then i saw dungeon.

Thought this was a remake of the sequel....I mean I love this game, but I have the remake and the original. But cool I guess?

I've heard a lot of good things about this game but never tried it out. Might have to give it a shot when it drops on NSO then.

@sanderev
Where did you hear Game Freak doesn’t want mainline Pokemon games on NSO and 3DS VC? I hope they changed their mind because I really want to play Gen 1-3 on Switch or Switch 2. I don’t understand what Game Freak stands to gain by not at least selling Gen 1-3 on modern consoles.

Ain't this the one with the Remake already? Super Mystery Dungeon I think it was called.

@Zeebor15 It is the one with the remake, but that's Rescue Team DX. Super Mystery Dungeon was a separate game on 3DS

...why would you play this when you got the remake?
Don’t get me wrong this is kinda cool since I never had the GBA mystery dungeon game just the DS version.

This is great news, never expected this game at all.

@sanderev
Game Freak develop main games, but they can't control them, that job (if old main games may be in the NSO, or no), is entirely of the Pokemon company.

Mystery Dungeon?! Aww, I thought it was the main game! Kind of a misleading title

Mainline Pokemon games are definitely not coming to standard NSO app. Game Freak would never allow cloud saves, save states and rewinding features. If they ever come, it would be a separate app or they will just sell them on eShop.

@SillyG that would make sense. I think the Pokémon company would rather make a dedicated make a dedicated app for the mainline series. Annoying? Sure! But it would be convenient.

@Brianst0rm
I wonder why they haven’t released the main games yet on the eshop? They are missing out on tons of sales.

@sanderev if that’s true then The Pokemon Company must have hated making money on the 3DS VC. You have to pay for those titles individually and they were on the higher price tier too.

Still, hopefully they will come to NSO someday in the future. Until then, Delta will have to suffice and fulfill my needs if Nintendo can’t provide it.

@Greatluigi : I'm pretty sure both versions were identical except for the handful of version exclusives and touch screen support.

@Sonicka I am hoping for a collection like the MegaMan Battle Network where you can trade Pokemon within games. Also, some QOL features would be nice (i.e. speed up).

@SakuraHaruka which is owned by GF for 33%. And Nintendo and Creatures Inc. If GF and Creatures refuse from putting Pokémon main line games on NSO it will never happen.

@Sonicka And they made a LOT more money from selling “bad” (according to most commenters on this website) Switch games.

Of all the games to pick, why this one? We already have it on switch as rescue team dx. Strange. It’s a good game but there are so many others that would have been better choices. FireRed/LeafGreen or even Emerald or something… since the batteries in some of these old games that use real time events don’t work anymore on the GBA after all these years.

Well okay I guess.

Nice, but add DS games next so we'll get Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of the Sky.

Literally the cheapest new Poke'mon game ever sold, $9.98 at Target. The cheapest used Poke'mon game ever was Poke'mon Stadium 1 for $1.99 at Half-Price Books.

@Don I really don't know. Maybe they're having issues with connecting to Pokemon Home? The 3DS VC titles had to be connected to Poke Transporter first.

@Kiyata I replaced the batteries of my 3 GBA cartridges not too long ago and it was a bit complicated cause I had to remove the solder and then put it again lol

... Would it have killed them to release a few more NSO games with this release? Not necessarily mad about it, but how bout a few Pokémon games?

@traceman I've thought this for a while, that it's possible they're saving the mainline Pokemon games for a completely separate NSO app. If they will do that then it would be convenient to add a copy of every other Pokemon spinoff on the app, just for convenience's sake.

@Don The major thing about the Pokemon mainline games on 3DS VC is they went to the extra effort of supporting the Game Link cable. Nintendo's barebones GB emulation has otherwise omitted that.
Game Gear games on 3DS allowed two people who owned the game to link their consoles together for multiplayer. I've heard the GB link cable was more technically involved to emulate correctly, yes, but I think Sega just put effort into its emulation as well.
Pokemon was the one game to put their foot down and say it NEEDS the original link cable features supported.

Though Pokemon games on VC also disabled the Suspend/Restore features to avoid abuse of those features for multiplayer purposes.

@Sonicka
with the mainline ones i would love to see them as purchasable games with things like support for bank and other such things added.

While ive generally vocally not been a fan of service-only games (though is preferable at least to cloud since the games are native) i feel like with mainline pokemon i would feel extra strongly about it considering how easy it is to become very attached to your save file.

Just release the mainline games 🙄

@sanderev
Yeah, The Pokemon company is owned inpart by Game Freak, BUT, Pokemon company is the BOSS of Game Freak, yeah, It sounds incongruous, but that's how things are, they created their own "boss" to have control of the franchise in general, so in part, The Pokemon company is autonomous and therefore, does not receive orders from Nintendo or Game Freak, and ALSO, They decide everything about the franchise: Anime, Manga, Toys, Events, when the next main game will come out, as well as the spin-offs and if any of them will come out on NSO.

Ah yes here's another non mainline Pokemon game in fear of losing sales of modern games...not like the Pokemon company makes billions a year or anything

nice I was actually craving recently to play Pokémon Mystery Dungeon again (my last one was one of the ds ones) so I allllmost bought Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX, but I guess Ill just play this instead lol

Ah, the GBA Pokémon game that exactly nobody asked for. 😅

@NTELLIGENTMAN : I picked up a copy for AU$5 at Toys R Us back in the day for my little brother. There were more copies, but I didn't care enough to want to buy a copy for myself.

But I did buy and enjoy the remake, weirdly enough.

I asked the clerk which is the retro Pokemon game every boy wants...

@Solomon_Rambling I don't think they are putting the mainline games on Switch 'cause they are planning on making more 3D remakes of them in the near future like they done with "Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee' and 'Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl.' I am hoping we get 3D remakes of Gold/Silver/Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire so we can explore the Johto and Hoenn regions in 3D.

Bring PokePark 1 and 2 to Switch. The PokePark games are so fun and cute!!

i wish i had switch online now :c

Better than the last two mainline gens.

@kkslider5552000 Everything about the story, premise, art, and music of PMD looks fantastic. I think the main turnoff for people is the snail’s pace, repetitive gameplay. It makes the GameBoy Pokemon RPGs look like speedrunning games.

50 floors of procedurally generated dungeon with the same encounters and tile-by-tile turns is pretty much the opposite of a game to me. I’m envious of people who can find fun in that part because they get rewarded with all the other good stuff.

@swoose I can understand that but as a counterpoint you could equally say PMD is just rapid fire Pokemon battles + movement compared to the embarrassing slow pace of a lot of battles in the main games. There's just a lot more of them.

Also to be fair to PMD, the number of floors per dungeon is not that big outside of endgame/post-game, and sidequests generally involve going to not the final floor of a dungeon and then being given an option to warp out each time you complete one (even when you have multiple to complete in one dungeon at once).

@swoose : "50 floors of procedurally generated dungeon with the same encounters and tile-by-tile turns is pretty much the opposite of a game to me."

So you basically told everyone there that Rogue and the entire Roguelike/Lite genre are not video games.