I wish Nintendo cared about Pokémon as much as we do

It’s hard to believe that in the year of our lord, 2024, Nintendo cares that much about Pokémon. Sure, they’re gearing up, with Game Freak, to bring us Pokémon Legends: Z-A next year, but there’s an odd feeling of stagnation around the franchise currently. And perhaps that is because it seems that, beyond merchandising, Nintendo doesn’t care about the franchise.

Why do I think this? When I think about Nintendo as a publisher I think about three franchises; Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon. You could say this is the trifecta of Nintendo, sure they have outliers like Metroid, but the money comes from those three.

Now look at how Nintendo treats each franchise - Mario has spin-off titles like Mario Party Jamboree, and The Legend of Zelda gets remakes like Link’s Awakening, but where is the love for Pokémon?

Have we had any mainline Pokémon games land on Nintendo Switch Online, like all the Zelda and Mario games up to the N64? No, not at all. And I’m not even here to say their inclusion is paramount, for all I care release Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, and Ruby/Sapphire in a special edition box, slap a £70 sticker on it and I’ll buy it day one.

Hell, you could release two of those, with no remastered features, and still charge that much because, aside from emulation or spending a hefty amount of cash, getting access to older Pokémon games is like trying to find teeth in a hen’s mouth.

Perhaps there’s something contractual there, or Nintendo is waiting for some big anniversary before celebrating the series properly. This could very well be the case as the Pokémon franchise will reach its 30th anniversary in 2026 when the Switch 2 is likely to be fully established.

I can’t help but feel the company would be printing money if they started showing love to the older Pokémon games that many of us grew up with. Especially in light of the reception for Scarlet/Violet which, let’s be honest, was less than positive. I’m not the only person saying this, a cursory glance at Reddit shows that fans would happily drop stacks of cash at the feet of Nintendo to play those games officially, and legally.

And this last point makes it even more of a headscratcher. We all know Nintendo is vehemently against emulation, or at least the spreading of ROMs to emulate their games (understandably). However, if they want to curb emulation and people looking to play older games illegally, then ship them yourselves, put a price on them, and just give people what they want.

Of course, this is part of a bigger conversation about the history of games and how they are preserved, but it astonishes me that in the digital world we live in where games can be played in a variety of ways, we can’t get legitimate access to some of Nintendo’s biggest games to date. One of their biggest franchises at that.

I hope that, as we near the release of the Switch 2, the console brings with it a more modern-minded Nintendo, one that listens to its fanbase and gets ahead of the curve once again. The past couple of years have felt very slow for the company and that is maybe due to the pressures of delivering a console to follow perhaps the best Nintendo console of all time. I hope that we get a Nintendo that cares more deeply about the franchises it built and gives players the chance to relive the wonder days of the company through franchises that are equally celebrated.