Nintendo Announces 'Pokémon Sun and Moon' and Updates to Red, Blue, Yellow

This morning on the 20th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red and Green, Nintendo announced during Pokémon Direct the next iterations of its long-running monster RPG franchise, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, set for worldwide release on the Nintendo 3DS in holiday 2016.

For the first time, the game will be available in nine languages: English, Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese (traditional and simplified), allowing players worldwide to compete against each other.

In addition, the three original games released outside Japan, Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow will be available on Nintendo’s eShop tomorrow (February 27). In bringing the games to its modern handheld Nintendo 3DS, the Pokémon players catch and train in the digital versions will be transferrable to the online Pokémon Bank that can then be transferred into the new Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon.

The Direct began with a nostalgic trip back to the original Red and Blue before proceeding to highlight and celebrate the franchise over the last 20 years. The video featured children (and adults) around the world freaking out about catching and training Pokémon. It was slightly unrealistic given that they had kids play with retro GameBoys and GameBoy Colors, but hey, nostalgia is all the rage.