The re-release of Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow (RBY) on the Nintendo 3DS eShop was a popular way for Pokémon fans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. They even brought back the trading and battling aspect into the Virtual Console versions of the games, and furthermore Pokémon Bank will allow you to transfer Pokémon you catch into the upcoming Pokémon Sun and Moon games.

But the re-release has brought about a question amongst some within the fanbase – will we soon see other older Pokémon titles on the virtual Console – say, the second generation games in Gold, Silver and Crystal (GSC)? Achromatic has put together a video exploring this very question.

One way to avoid the aforementioned issue of taking away from the spotlight of RBY is to just wait a while before re-releasing the next set of games. However, if they waited until the anniversary of Gold and Silver to do so, we’d have possibly moved on from the 3DS as the main handheld device, which has proved itself capable of emulating such games.

It’s a fair bet that a lot of fans would love for the second generation games to come onto the eShop sooner rather than later as well. Unlike the third generation games onwards, both RBY and GSC suffer from dead batteries within their cartridges, resulting in wiped save files and an inability to save new games. This issue may have even affected more GSC games than RBY given the second generation’s reliance on keeping time for the day/night features, which were an engaging feature. Through the eShop however, the 3DS could simply keep track of the time instead and alleviate such worries.

That said, it wouldn’t be so simple as just moving the ROM files onto the 3DS’ eShop. For instance, these games would still have to go through the rating board process again, and trading would need to be re-implemented as well, just like with RBY. Crucially, additional work would be required as well in enabling trade compatibility between the second generation games and RBY, just like the old days through the Time Capsule.

There’s also the question of whether you will be able to move second generation Pokémon into Pokémon Sun and Moon as well. This would be a much-loved feature but will also require further work for the developers. One also wonders if they could incorporate an alternative to the Pokémon Mobile System GB, a device which allowed Japanese players to access Celebi through an event in Crystal, but something which was never made possible outside of Japan.

There’s a fair bit to consider. Would you be eager to play the Gold, Silver and Crystal games on the Virtual Console? Let us know in the comments!

Video by Achromatic. Gameplay and images courtesy of The Pokémon Company. Cover image from Nintendolife.com.