So, that sure was a Pokémon announcement, huh?
Nintendo announced today that they will be rereleasing Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen from the Gameboy Advance on the Switch, not on NSO or NSO Expansion, but as standalone downloadable apps for $20 a piece, pre-orders open now.
Long story short, this is one of the most egregious cash-grabs Nintendo’s pulled in the era of unprecedented Nintendo cash-grabs. Nintendo has always been subject to corporate greed, exploitation of artists and employees, and anti-consumer practices. The current era of gaming is absolutely pushing them to do some of their worst, with rising prices, plateauing quality, and failing consumer care. Nintendo does not care about you or me, and they haven't for a long time now. The Switch, the Switch 2, and their last couple years of software releases has been more of an indicator of this than ever before. Selling a 22-year-old game for $20 on a console that already has a subscription-based emulator app that serves the exact platform these games run on, is abhorrent. Nintendo is blatantly moving the goalposts for how they rerelease retro content on the Switch, changing it from "Retro emulations can be played with an equivalent Nintendo Switch Online subscription" to "...unless we think we can get away with it, in which case you have to pay the full price of the game to download it on its own". There's no extras, no physical release, no notable advantages, and as a matter of fact, I think Nintendo is marketing the digital store page in an intentionally misleading way?
If you visit the Nintendo store listing for Pokémon FireRed, you can see that the description lists the following:
This digital exclusive contains the Sevii islands, where even more Pokémon await. You can also visit the Pokémon Wireless Club to trade, battle, and chat with other players via local wireless**!
This is poor wording at best, and intentionally misleading at worst. The way this is written implies that the Sevii Islands are exclusive to this digital release; they're not. It also seems to suggest that the Pokémon Wireless Club is exclusive to this release; it's not. Both of these features are present in the original Gameboy Advance release. If what Nintendo means to say is that features like link gameplay are possible in the Switch release, then they need to update this description, especially considering that it doesn't explain why they seem to say the same thing about the Sevii Islands. Bizarre.
Putting that aside, there's nothing of note to write about these releases. They apparently will allow multiplayer via local wireless, but make no mention of online. There's also no mention of Pokémon Home support, which is something fans have come to expect after Pokémon Bank support in the 3DS Virtual Consoles. Overall this is a ridiculously low-effort release that capitalizes on the most dedicated of Nintendo and Pokémon fans, weaponizing their childhood and their nostalgia in order to make more money, instead of including these games in their pre-existing service that was promised to be the way that Nintendo releases their retro games, including for the Gameboy Advance. This digital release isn't doing anything that emulators haven't been doing since the game's release in 2004, and doesn't offer any of the advantages of a remake or a traditional Virtual Console release. It's an emulated version of the original game, but it's not even a proper emulator with tools or features, it's just the game. Barest of bare bones.
This was absolutely a breaking point for me. With the Switch 2 announcement and release, I was already in a very Nintendo-critical frame of mind, and after Pokémon Scarlet and Violet I was pretty Pokémon-critical, too. My girlfriend and I had to really debate about whether or not we would play Legends Z-A first hand, and we ended up buying what was actually a pretty great game. That was a short-lived bit of Nintendo happiness, however, as it was quickly followed up by the ridiculously-priced Mario Galaxy collection that broke her heart and was immensely disappointing. This was her childhood game, being rereleased and exploited for cheap profit, and her childhood weaponized for marketing. It sucks. It feels awful. I suppose it was simply my turn. LeafGreen was one of my first Pokémon games (alongside Ruby) and was my childhood Pokémon game. I love it dearly, and to see it weaponized like this, my nostalgia turned into a price tag, it hurts a lot coming from a game company and a franchise that I've enjoyed for years. I know it's merely the latest in a long string of anti-consumer practices from Nintendo, but it felt like the last straw for me personally. I'm done.
I'm done being a corporate footstool, finding excuses to gloss over the problem just so I can play The Same Game Again over and over and over. Emulation is more accessible than ever, and more often than not a better way to play Nintendo games than official means. Meanwhile Nintendo is the most greedy game company of the active Big Three, which is a tough title to pull away from Microsoft, and it hurts more and more every time they mistreat their fans. I’m tired of it, and I'm done putting up with it. I’d rather teach someone how to download roms, run emulators, etc. than pay any amount of money for behavior like this. Call me crazy, but I don’t like being the footstool to a corporation like Nintendo, and I'm tired of making excuses for it.
Just stop. Nintendo doesn’t need us to suck up to them as “the least evil company of the day”, especially when they aren’t. The nature of capitalism does not mean you have to forgive a company’s evil actions just because they happen to be less evil today. It means you have to stand against them as a matter of self-respect and respect for your fellow humans. These companies think you below them, worth extorting money from in exchange for the bare minimum of effort. They don’t need us sucking their dicks to garner favor. There’s a reason Nintendo fans get so much flak online, and why so many spaces will patently say “fuck Nintendo”. There’s a very good reason, and every day it gets harder for Nintendo fans like myself to ignore it.
I don’t think I can continue to support Nintendo. Maybe it’s because I love Pokémon, or because FireRed and LeafGreen are so near and dear to my heart, but being directly targeted by something like this disgusts me, and if it doesn’t disgust you then you've drank too much corporate Kool-aid. I don’t think there’s a way that I can feel comfortable supporting Nintendo, not for the foreseeable future. Their behavior just continues to decay, and while some things get better, it feels like two or more other things always get worse. It’s ridiculous. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being used. I’m tired of following behind a mega-corporation and hoping for table scraps. I’m done. I’ll continue to play older games, and continue to work with hacks and homebrew and roms and emulation. As for the current gen… there’s no way I’m supporting Nintendo. I can’t. Not like this.
Don't buy these games. There's absolutely zero reason to buy these games, especially for that price point, when so many options exist. Any handheld released since 2004 is capable of running these GBA games, some with link features as well. You can run FireRed on your smartphone, you can play LeafGreen on a PlayStation Portable, it's ridiculous to pay $20 to access the original game with no added benefits whatsoever. Instead, I'm going to include some emulator and rom site resources below, as well as some ways that you can play the Gen 3 Pokémon games with the link features Nintendo seems to advertising. You don't have to cave to nostalgia pandering and corporate extortion. You have all the power.
First, some rom sites. You can download most any game you want from these sites, including the Pokémon games in question.
And some emulators you can use to run GBA games, including link support.
- visualboyadvance-m is the emulator I used forever ago, it features network-based link cable emulation where two systems can connect with one of them acting as the server and the other connecting as a client. You'll have to do your own research about the deeper specifics of setting this up, but I remember VBA-M being a very simple emulator to understand and use. It also has a fork that runs on GameCube, Wii, and WiiU.
- mGBA is also a very good GBA emulator that a lot of people use, though based on my research the link features are current only between two windows running on the same computer, not between devices. This is also true of the 3DS port, which currently does not feature any link cable emulation, but I wasn't able to verify whether the Switch and PSVita ports do or do not support local wireless. Venture into that on your own if you wish, good emulator either way.
Closing thoughts, this sucks. I know it does. It doesn't feel good to be mistreated by a company like this, especially one that positions itself so close to the fans. Pokémon especially is a beloved franchise to many, myself included. However, there's nothing wrong with saying "fuck this" and refusing to be the footstool. Stand up for yourself, for your fellow fans, and don't cave to corporate profit margins and anti-consumerism. Fuck this. Play the games you want to play; don't capitulate to these money-hungry corporations that want to extort your childhood memories from you. Stand up. Take charge of things. You have all the power.
~ Alex Amelia Pine
