As of this February, Pokemon will be 20 years old. The games that everyone thought would be a fad became one of the highest selling, most enduring franchises of all time, and it continues to sell Nintendo handhelds to this day.
For its 20th anniversary, Nintendo will be doing something special- it will be offering special edition Nintendo 3DS units that are themed after the classic games, and which will come with Virtual Console versions of Pokemon Red and Blue pre-installed, as well as a special, exclusive menu theme.
Europe gets red, blue, and yellow colored translucent Nintendo 2DS systems, that each correspond to the Pokemon game of that color, and which are a throwback to the classic Gameboy Color systems that Pokemon originally launched on; North America, on the other hand, gets special edition New Nintendo 3DS systems (the smaller sized ones), which come with limited and exclusive Pokemon Red and Pokemon Bluefaceplates, featuring concept art from the original game.
It’s really something, and I really want them for myself. Unfortunately, I already have three Nintendo 3DS systems, so this would be overkill at this point.
Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow launch on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, with support for wireless trading, next month. Nintendo will be airing a special Super Bowl commercial to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary in North America.