Nintendo tugs at the heartstrings of Pokemon fans everywhere this week with a new trailer celebrating the series’ 20th anniversary and the upcoming Virtual Console releases of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow.
All three games will be playable on Nintendo 3DS hardware starting later this month.
Nintendo combines graphics from its monochrome Game Boy classics with modern video editing techniques in this week’s trailer, bridging the 20-year gap between Pokemon‘s initial launch in Japan and the current day. The result is a nostalgia trip for anyone old enough to remember both Pokemon‘s heyday and the recent rise of YouTube video production.
Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow will arrive on the Nintendo 3DS eShop by the end of this month with all of their original content and features intact. All three games boast an expansive quest in which players seek, battle, and capture virtual creatures while on a journey to defeat eight Gym Leaders scattered throughout the Kanto region.
The first-generation Pokemon games challenge players to collect all 151 breeds of Pokemon split between Blue, Red, and Yellow editions. Amateur Pokemon trainers must trade their collected creatures with other players in order to assemble a full set.
While the original Pokemon games enabled player-versus-player battles and trading via the Game Boy’s Link Cable accessory, the 3DS Virtual Console adaptations instead allow trainers to trade and battle their Pokemon using a local wireless connection between two 3DS units.
Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow will also be available in new hardware bundles launching later this month in North America and Europe. Players in the United States will soon be able to pick up New Nintendo 3DS systems with both Pokemon Red and Blue pre-installed, while Pokemon trainers in Europe can look forward to a trio of transparent red, blue, and yellow 2DS consoles, each bundled with an appropriately themed first-generation Pokemon game.
Pokemon Red Version, Blue Version and Yellow Version will hit the Nintendo 3DS eShop worldwide on February 27.
