Back in 1999, Pokemon Red and Blue were released for the Nintendo Game Boy and became two of the best selling handheld games of all time, selling over 23 million copies worldwide. This was followed a year later by Pokemon Yellow, which expanded upon the original release and gave exclusive spotlight to Pikachu, everyone’s favourite electric mouse. This new edition of the game sold nearly 9 million copies, surpassing classic Game Boy titles such as The Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening.
In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series original release in Japan, Nintendo have revealed a set of three limited edition 2DS bundles, each including either Pokemon Red, Blue or Yellow pre-installed on the system depending on the colour you choose, a set of exclusive stickers and a code to download an exclusive Home Screen theme for free from the Nintendo eShop. Fans in North America will also receive a similar bundle, but will be offered a New Nintendo 3DS with an exclusive colour dependant faceplate instead.
With save state support and the ability to trade through a local wireless connection between 3DS and 2DS consoles, it is possible that these already astronomonical sales figures will increase even further. Whether this is through older fans revisiting their favourite adventures, or new fans wanting to visit Kanto in it’s original form for the first time, it is fair to say we will many Nintendo fans will be catching them all again very soon.
Are you excited to see Nintendo’s greatest handheld classics return once more? Let us know what you think in the comments below.