Nintendo is releasing some classic Pokemon games on the Nintendo Switch family of consoles on February 27.
...as standalone games?! Wait, what?! Don't they have a whole Nintendo Switch Online thing? Yes, they sure do! What a load of RIPOFF MERCHANTS, am I right?!
The release of Pokemon FireRed Version and LeafGreen Version - as standalone games at a cost of US$19.99 each - has already been the subject of much back-and-forthing on the Internet, with the usual folks having the usual opinions on it. It's a bit of a mess, but a totally expected one. So, let's talk about this, because honestly, this is kind of a mixed bag. I found that I had a lot more to say about this than I first figured after doing some digging.
To put my biases on the table first: Some of my feelings on this are contingent on information we don't have, but ultimately, I'm still not the target audience because I have other ways of playing these games, so keep that in mind. On the other hand, I hate subscription services of all kind, so if you think I'm ~too forgiving~ to this or whatever, remember that part of that is probably because I'm just glad it's not a subscription.
The biggest complaint I've heard people bring up is the price. Twenty bucks, they say, costs too much. I get why people say this! Nobody likes to pay for anything. Well, guess what, there are already ways you can do this - and not just by making other people pay for it for you. This whole bit aside, there's a surprising amount that goes into this issue. However, here's the short version: If you want a legal way to play FireRed and LeafGreen and care about nothing else, this is a fine price. But first, here are some things that unequivocally suck about this release regardless of price:
Okay, we got that out of the way. Let's talk twenty bucks.
Some people want to pin this down as being a huge ripoff. I don't know that it is, although, yes, compared to just putting it on Switch Online, which many folks already have, it is kinda pricy. On the other hand, you get one very special advantage by buying these games: You own them forever...ish. No, digital goods don't last forever. I mean, no video game lasts forever, and that's even more the case since we stopped using cartridges. But as a rule, digital purchases are in your account forever. You do not inherently own any of the other NSO games, because you lose access to them if you should for any reason stop paying for NSO. To me, this is a big deal. Part of this is because I had a lot of issues when I was younger with hard drives and devices dying, and I effectively lost ownership of some music that I bought on iTunes because they were only allowed to be used on up to five total devices - and like, if your laptop's hard drive eats it, that's a device down. I carried that thing to school throughout my entire time in high school and it definitely got clobbered more times than I like to admit.
But enough dumb stories about my youth. You are paying a hell of a premium to own the game for sure outside of your NSO fees, but I think that's fair.
This is probably a problem for a lot of people because this is more expensive than most eShop games were back in the day, right? And yeah, I agree, that part of things is a little bit slimy pricing-wise. Granted, I think retro games in general are a bit undervalued due to a wide variety of reasons (e.g. Sega releasing bucket-loads of their games in collections at bargain-basement prices makes the price of things like Sonic Origins seem like a genuinely deranged proposition), but let's not swing in the other direction and start saying the absolute lunatics on eBay trying to sell this game for over a hundred bucks are correct. The absolute, absolute max should be the list price at release. And really, that's all I can tell you. Retro game pricing is kind of a weird and diifficult subject on some levels. And also, I'm not the target audience. I don't particularly like FR/LG that much out of Pokemon games and I have more that enough ways to play these games if I want. I think I even still have my LeafGreen cartridge from when I was a child. I also don't have a solution for what I'm discussing anyway.
I had to do some research on this, but: It was originally noted that these will have Pokemon Home compatibility "soon". The page didn't say anything on the matter when I looked, and it appears that info was there, but has since been removed. That, I feel, bodes poorly. Part of me wonders if that might not have worked with NSO and that would help to explain this separate release matter, but now I'm quite worried. I feel like this is a must-have feature in this day and age, and not having it would be a dereliction of duty on Nintendo's part. I know not everyone cares about Home compatibility, but I simply feel this feature is absolutely necessary. If you disagree... that's fine.
The short version of this is that this is probably not the best deal in gaming, I'm not the target audience, and I have certain opinions about going for a more under-the-table method of playing a Nintendo game. But it could have been a lot worse and, regardless of Pokemon Home compatibility, I'd rather these things be pay-once-own-it-forever (or as close as you can get digitally) than a subscription service. That, I think, is the absolute biggest point for me. (Though, if it doesn't have Home compatibility, what the hell are they doing over there.)
That said: it's also very funny to me that the official trailer sets up a very tense sequence for a capture of Mewtwo... using a Master Ball. You know, the thing that's guaranteed to work? Extremely funny. A+ bit. Maybe the trailer is as lazy as this port feels like it might be to me. (I'll be a hell of a lot less mean on this front if it turns out they have the limited-time events for this like they supposedly did with the second-gen games.)