Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow to be re-released for the 3DS Virtual Console

[Codraroll]

So, one of the most anticipated news of yesterday's Nintendo Direct was the reveal of a main series Pokémon game, standalone or in a pair. In a way, we did get that. It's just that these games have been released before, nearly 20 years ago.

Pokémon Red version, Pokémon Blue version and Pokémon Yellow version will be released on the 3DS Virtual Console in February. The European release date is February 27, international release dates are still to be confirmed.

As the accessory Link Cable is - to put it mildly - outdated these days, the games will receive a small update allowing for trading and battle over local wireless connection. Otherwise, the games appear to be identical to their 1998 selves. It is not known whether any of the infamous glitches will be preserved.

The price of the games has not been confirmed either. In Japan, a physical bundle with download codes for all four games (the Japanese will receive Pokémon Green version as well), a map, a fridge magnet and a manual will be sold for 1,389 ¥, which is roughly 11.3 US $, 7.4 GB £, 10.5 EUR or 98.5 NOK. Assuming similar prices elsewhere, the first generation Pokémon games should be affordable on nearly any budget, or at least it will be much cheaper than finding a working GameBoy and legit, working cartridges of the games through other means.

Any thoughts? Wait, that's a silly question, I know you have thoughts. Post them here! and not in the Pokémon Z thread, thank you very much...

 

[D_what]

Pretty cool. I never particularly enjoyed FRLG or RBY, and the gamplay will be slower than I'm used to, but I might pick it up for the trading aspect.

Might anybody have a list of moves that can only be learned by Pokemon in RBY? Like how Phanpy used to be able to learn Water Gun in GSC? Just curious.

 

[Cresselia~~]

Pretty cool. I never particularly enjoyed FRLG or RBY, and the gamplay will be slower than I'm used to, but I might pick it up for the trading aspect.

Might anybody have a list of moves that can only be learned by Pokemon in RBY? Like how Phanpy used to be able to learn Water Gun in GSC? Just curious.

Suppose Bulbapedia has them

I didn't enjoy gen 1 neither.
I'm waiting to see if they support international battles.

 

[DHR-107]

So this is sort of out of the blue and sort of not.

RBY on VC has been wanted for ages, but it makes sense to keep it for the 20th Anniversary, especially if there are some updates/changes to the original games. Adding in Wireless communications seems the best thing to do... Shame they did not however add it for the TCG game though.

It'll certainly be interesting to see if any of the major battle mechanics have been changed/updated/fixed. Or if they have retroactively added/removed anything from the games. Someone mentioned about the Game Corner and stuff, I am wondering if this comes up under "grandfather" clause... Because of the age of the game it gets past some of the laws regarding that sort of content.

Codraroll You're plain wrong if you think the 3 set is going to be less than £15+/15 Euro+. I'd be shocked if they came in under that number to be fair. I would probably end up buying the set (even though there is no point). Mostly to play the older games on a whim, and then reset them. Nuzlocking RBY sounds interesting, but I don't want to get out my GB/N64 to do it!

 

[Silverwhiteblue]

While it seems enjoyable to re-live the glories of the past, like thrills of the pokeflute when waking up snorlax, exploring diglet's cave, going in that horribly long tunel (not mt moon) without flash... i'd still like to see slight modernisation in them, kinda like remakes of certain things. i personally played leafgreen as my first attempt at pokemon so i would have also liked for that to have been designated for more than just japan as well, but alas..
dont get me wrong, first gen is still, and probably will stay my favorite though.

but it will also be slightly hard to re-adapt things that arent in gen 6 (i think grass types could be spored, electric types paralysed, etc, but correct me if im wrong) such as critical hits not relying on speed anymore, no hyper high freeze chances, since i think those were improved to raise the gaming experience's "enjoyability" , so even if those same freezes used to get us hyped before, now they'll probably be labeled as "hax". so yeah, some mechanics really have improved and its a shame not to include them in the remake in my opinion.

 

[Karxrida]

Codraroll the American Direct mentioned that the release date was on the 27th. I believe it's going to be the same date for all regions as part of the celebration.

I mentioned this in the Z thread, but I'll say it again: these games better have minimal alternations and restrict fixes to what's absolutely necessary. Many of the bugs like the Mew Glitch and Missingno. are incredibly famous, and removing them would be destroying a huge part of the games' history and the draw to playing these. If we're getting wireless PVP then the battle mechanics better be totally untouched bar the desync glitch; if it gets modernized then you then there's no point of playing bar admiring the old visuals + music and you should just stick with the remakes.

 

[Kurona]

I'm kind of excited to play Blue again regardless of whether or not the glitches remain. Yeah, sure, I'd like to abuse the mew glitch and the hyper beam glitch... but that's not what's incredibly important to me. While FRLG are better games in my eyes they don't capture the pure nostalgic feeling that the original games do; I still remember naively thinking I could evolve Wartortle with a Water Stone or how I always picked Squirtle because I thought it was the only one not weak to another... memories, mang. No need to be super-serious "glitch or gtfo" about it

Besides, there's still gonna be a ton of differences even if the glitches are removed which I don't think will really happen to a large degree anyway. The Special Stat won't be split; the movepools are completely different; the TMs are completely different; no abilities; we're about as limited as a Fire Emblem game when it comes to items, exp and money compared to FRLG's VS seeker... and that's not even getting into all the incredibly large incredibly obvious differences Yellow has. Show me when you get a Pikachu following you and you get a Squirtle in Vermilion City in FRLG :P

And even besides all that... they're looking to be really cheap and for that price and low data usage to have a classic Pokémon game on your 3DS is pretty enthralling.

 

[D_what]

Glitches or no, I wonder how they'll work Mew into it? If they've incorporated trading I can't see them not having Mew catchable somehow. Whether that's by default, or an event, or a patch, or even by leaving the glitches in, idk.

Maybe it really will be under the truck this time.

 

[jordanthejq12]

Glitches or no, I wonder how they'll work Mew into it? If they've incorporated trading I can't see them not having Mew catchable somehow. Whether that's by default, or an event, or a patch, or even by leaving the glitches in, idk.

Maybe it really will be under the truck this time.

Event, day of release. Watch.

 

[Lutra]

From a competitive RBY standpoint, my dream version would:

• Maintain all battle mechanics
• Add wifi battling/trading with players in friends list
• Add DV checking
• Add a way to obtain mew or official advice for mew glitch.
• Add battle replays that could be posted online.

Also, like what's been said, it would be nice if they fixed the worst of the glitches like desyncs, dig/fly invulnerability and even put in freeze, sleep clauses, but if we wanted it to be the most played RBY sub/infragen, the changes over the international gameboy cartidges have got to end there really.

If they did implement just the necessary changes to leave us with little to debate, it would be wonderful. 1st gen would then have the latest sub/infragen, along with most other gens.

 

[Death Phenomeno]

What I'd like to know is…

Will they be updated to support online battles?

Will they be compatible with Pokémon Bank?

The obvious answer is NO! But I was hoping to hear it from an official source before giving up hope.

 

[HelenTheHero]

I'm very glad we're getting this. I'm not old enough to have been able to play RBY on the Gameboy, and I'm excited to give it a try. This is also great because nonsense like this happens on Amazon as I pointed out in the Z thread.
I'm buying Blue. :D

 

[Cresselia~~]

What I'd like to know is…

Will they be updated to support online battles?

Will they be compatible with Pokémon Bank?

The obvious answer is NO! But I was hoping to hear it from an official source before giving up hope.

I'm really hoping they could have online battles.
Pokemon Bank is a bigger stretch though, because you can't deal with nature and ability.

 

[Lady Vader]

I'm very glad we're getting this. I'm not old enough to have been able to play RBY on the Gameboy, and I'm excited to give it a try. This is also great because nonsense like this happens on Amazon as I pointed out in the Z thread.
I'm buying Blue. :D

That must be mint in box as I didn't spend that much when I got my used copy.

Personally, I want to get the VC games, though I don't think there will be any changes beyond adding the save functions of VC games and the Wireless (no Wi-Fi) trading.
And unless Poké Bank is patched, I don't think we'll be transferring any of these 'Mons onto Generation VI.

 

[lucariomaster2]

I never thought that they would do this, since it would defeat the purpose of the remakes. That said, now that FRLG are now several years old as well, as is the GBA, it sort of makes sense, especially given the 20th anniversary of Pokemon.

But let's be honest for a minute: Do we have fond memories of Gen I for the gameplay, the story, the region, or the original 151? No, not really. We remember it for the glitches. Mew, Missingno., Glitch City... I really hope that Nintendo/GF doesn't remove them when they get rereleased.

 

[Kurona]

But let's be honest for a minute: Do we have fond memories of Gen I for the gameplay, the story, the region, or the original 151? No, not really. We remember it for the glitches. Mew, Missingno., Glitch City... I really hope that Nintendo/GF doesn't remove them when they get rereleased.

... I mean, I'm pretty sure 99% of people who played Red and Blue when they came out remember it for the gameplay, story, region and original 151 rather than the glitches but okay

 

[jordanthejq12]

... I mean, I'm pretty sure 99% of people who played Red and Blue when they came out remember it for the gameplay, story, region and original 151 rather than the glitches but okay

I would have to disagree. Those of us who remember Kanto for the gameplay, story, region, and original 151 got infinitely more of that in 2004 for our GBAs. FRLG can't replicate the glitches (or the soundtrack, though a valiant effort in that department).

Or at least that seems to be the consensus over here.

 

[Kurona]

I would have to disagree. Those of us who remember Kanto for the gameplay, story, region, and original 151 got infinitely more of that in 2004 for our GBAs. FRLG can't replicate the glitches (or the soundtrack, though a valiant effort in that department).

Or at least that seems to be the consensus over here.

Well yeah I won't deny a lot of you will be playing for the glitches; but you've gotta be pretty deluded if you think most purchasers aren't doing it for the nostalgia they felt playing the game when they were 8 or whatever.

 

[Raravian]

The announcement was entirely unexpected for me. I sort of anticipated the possibility of another set of Kanto remakes, seeing as it's the story that has become the most dated since the release of ORAS. But after all this teasing for Pokemon Z, I did not expect this at all. I must say that I would love being able to play the very first Pokemon games. Even though I'm from '93, my first game was actually SoulSilver, which I started playing when I was already 18 y/o. Part of me really feels like it needs to play the original games to understand where the franchise has been coming from. Right now, I only know Kanto from the anime and Ash's travels, which I did watch when I was a 7/something kid. But I never got the chance to play FRLG, nor RBY. So yeah, I'd really love to experience the story and region, and I'm glad they are releasing them again in late February, regardless of how much or how little they alter them ^_^

Also I'm really praying for that Mew event *_*
The last one was released in 2010 I mean c'mon!

 

[Theorymon]

You know if this is like other 3DS VC Games, it should have save states.

Screw off Safari Zone, I'm getting that Chansey!

 

[Ksh13]

I gotta say I'm pretty hyped for this. I wondered when they would bring RBY to VC, and if they ever would. Wireless trading sounds cool, might actually try to complete the Pokedex by trading with my bro to get stuff like Machamp and version exclusives. Idc what happens with the glitches tbh, either option is okay for me, although getting Mew would be sweet. I won't get the nostalgia thrill that so many people will get when playing this though, since my first game was HG.

Also shoutouts to Codraroll for translating prices in the OP to NOK

 

[Xen]

Man, I always thought Red/Blue on the 3DS VC w/ wireless capabilities would be a neat idea ever since the 3DS first came out in 2011. Nice to see it finally happening, just in time for Pokemon's 20th anniversary as well.

Even though my old Red cartridge still works perfectly fine (yay for replacing the internal battery), I'll still pick up one of the games when they're available. It'll be nice having it on the 3DS without sketchy homebrew software, and it sure as hell beats carrying around my senile GBC along with my 3DS.

Also, why should Game Freak fix the glitches? The game-breaking glitches are one of the big reasons why the games are so fun even today. Fixing all the infamous glitches would not only take away that chaotic fun that is Gen I, it would strip the original icons of some of their nostalgia and identity, which will be one of the biggest reasons people will be buying the games. If Game Freak's really that concerned about them, they'd be better off releasing FRLG instead.

You know if this is like other 3DS VC Games, it should have save states.

Screw off Safari Zone, I'm getting that Chansey!

Ooh, that's a good point. Now I can catch and train a Tauros without resorting to Cinnabar's coast. Body Slam shenanigans, here I come!

 

[Mackenzie]

I would love to trade with this classic game!

Wishful thinking... GSC next please ;_;

 

[jordanthejq12]

Now I can catch and train a Tauros without resorting to Cinnabar's coast. Body Slam shenanigans, here I come!

Don't forget, it can't paralyze Normal types.

 

[Lady Vader]

Also, why should Game Freak fix the glitches? The game-breaking glitches are one of the big reasons why the games are so fun even today. Fixing all the infamous glitches would not only take away that chaotic fun that is Gen I, it would strip the original icons of some of their nostalgia and identity, which will be one of the biggest reasons people will be buying the games. If Game Freak's really that concerned about them, they'd be better off releasing FRLG instead.

They are releasing them under the Virtual Console name, which means they will be ports of the originals. The only modification will be the Wireless trading and battling.