Nintendo has announced the belated arrival of Pokémon Crystal to the Nintendo eShop on January 26, 2018. It will be available for the Nintendo 3DS for $9.99.
Unlike the Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby 3D remakes, Crystal is the original 2001 Game Boy Color game, ported to 3DS. It was the third game of the second generation of Pokémon titles, Gold and Silver. Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver were released earlier this year on the Nintendo eShop.
There’s no good reason why Nintendo would delay releasing Crystal by several months after Gold and Silver other than the obvious: they wanted you to purchase Gold/Silver first. The third game in a generation is generally considered the definitive edition.
Like Gold and Silver’s re-release, Crystal will feature online trading and battling, as well as compatibility with the Pokémon Bank app. The app allows you to trade Pokémon between games and generations. For example, you can capture Pokémon in Crystal and import them into the newly released Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
Pokémon Crystal was the first game in the series to let you choose to play as either a boy or a girl. The fancy animated sprites also required the more advanced Game Boy Color over the Game Boy.
Pokémon Crystal will be available on the Nintendo eShop on January 26, 2018.
