Pokémon masters rejoice! The re-release of the original Pokémon titles are straight ports.
I recently had the delight of having some extended hands-on time with Red, Blue, and Yellow, and can report that these classics play the way you’d expect them to. All three games are almost identical to their original launches, excluding a couple of tweaks to accommodate the wireless capabilities of their new hardware.
Trading and battling will no longer require the pesky, often tangled, link cable.  Unfortunately, the wireless features only work locally, so you won’t be able to link-up with others outside of your vicinity–at least not yet. You also won’t be able to transfer Pokémon between games on the same handheld. It’s a shame; I was really hoping these games would be compatible with the Pokémon Bank app, especially since the special 20th anniversary Pokémon 3DS will include both Blue and Red. It seems odd to include both versions when they can’t communicate with each other on the same hardware.
That being said, the wireless link worked flawlessly on the units provided to us.
As for the now-infamous glitches like rare candy duplication, you’ll be able to manipulate the games the way you were able to with the originals because they are straight ports. The only glitch that might prove difficult is duplicating Pokémon, since it requires you to pull out the link cable at the right moment when trading with friends. As I’ve already mentioned, you won’t be tethering with friends in the same manner.
The standard Virtual Console save-anytime feature will also be disabled since it can be exploited to multiply your creatures. There’s also no word on whether you’ll be able to somehow print out the certificate of completion once you’ve caught ’em all.
You can nab these re-releases on February 26 at 9 p.m. on the West Coast, Februrary 27 at midnight in the East.
Are you guys excited about these games hitting the Virtual Console? Does all of this new information make you more excited? Will you catch em’ all? Does Gary stand a chance? Let us know in the comments below.
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Image: Nintendo
