Pokemon fan stunned by “insane” price of classic games
Pokemon games seemingly age like fine wine as one fan was recently shocked by how expensive physical copies of the classic handheld titles have become.
The Pokemon Company has released, and rereleased, eight generations worth of mainline titles since the franchise was born in 1996. Some generations contain three to four games offering thousands of unique Pokemon encounters.
Despite the first five generations of Pokemon being released with 2D pixel graphics on outdated handhelds, fans of the series love returning to their favorite vintage regions. And players often dream of having their favorite classic Pokemon games ported to newer hardware like the Switch.
Those who have managed to keep their childhood DS and Game Boys safe can still enjoy the early generations of Pokemon, but acquiring a legitimate physical copy of these games comes at a steep price.
Pokemon DS games skyrocket in price
Reddit user EoinNotRoom had a firsthand encounter with how expensive classic Pokemon titles can be when they attempted to buy a copy of Black 2. While they expected the price to jump up a bit from the game’s initial $40 price tag, they were not prepared for their findings.
“€125,” Eoin wrote in a post to the r/pokemon subreddit. “I know old Pokémon games are expensive. But 125?! I was willing to fork out 70 maybe 80 but man. That actually sucks. I was looking forward to playing them too.”
This comes after OP had played the first Gen 5 games and wanted to take a crack at their sequels. They went on to state, “So doubt I’ll be playing them officially at least.”
As expected, the comments were filled with users advocating for piracy since getting a legitimate copy of these games was no longer financially feasible for some Pokemon fans. To which Eoin stated, “I like to keep my team’s in Pokémon Home from every playthrough I do. Guess not this time.”
Gen 5 does tend to be the most expensive physical games with other DS classics like Soul Silver/Heart Gold selling a little less, hovering around $90. Other titles such as X & Y and Ultra Sun/Moon, are still rather affordable costing players no more than $30.
Regardless, players are finding it hard not to pirate older Pokemon titles when physical copies are sold at “insane” prices, and Game Freak hasn’t made them legally available on any virtual market.
