Pokemon Crystal to be net-enhanced

[08.26.00] » Nintendo comes up with a sure-fire way to sell its new GameBoy network adapter.

    While the English-speaking press has been concentrating on the announcements of the Game Cube and GameBoy Advance at Spaceworld, there is a third, lesser publicized piece of hardware being revealed: the Moblie System GB. Simply an adapter allowing a GameBoy Color or GameBoy Advance to be hooked up to the internet via a cellular phone, there is good reason for the lack of enthusiasm for the product when it is put up against the likes of the Game Cube. Given the extreme popularity of mobile phones in Japan, the adapter should prove to be a large hit there. Nintendo, however, wants to make sure that the Mobile System GB flies off the shelf upon release, and what better way than with Pokemon, in the form of the recently announced Pokemon Crystal.

    An update to Pokemon Gold/Silver for the GameBoy Color, Pokemon Crystal will feature not only, in the words of Nintendo themselves, "new mysteries and features," but will also include the ability to trade Pokemon with friends from all over by using the Mobile Adapter GB. Not content to merely trade Pokemon over large distances, Nintendo promises to include the ability to start battles from afar, or continue ones started previously. In addition to the network features, a new unnamed character has been revealed, and the Pokemon themselves have been given additional animations. Finally, Nintendo states that the story itself will be nearly identical to Pokemon Gold/Silver.

    While Nintendo has yet to announce plans to release the Mobile Adapter GB outside of Japan, given the current Pokemon craze, it is under heavy consideration. It would prove to be a difficult item to release, however, due to the wide variety of cell phone technologies that exist in North America and Europe (Japan uses only a few technologies, thus the ease of release there). In addition, with the cell phone market in Japan having already saturated high and junior high schools, and just now beginning to enter into grade schools, the market in Japan is much more suited for the adapter. Whether or not the device is released outside of Japan, true Pokemon freaks can get a jump on their English-speaking brethern when both the Mobile Adapter GB and Pokemon Crystal are released in Japan on December 14 for 5,800 yen each (about $52).