1999's Pokémon Snap is available for play on Nintendo Switch Online as of June 24 - but not all titles from the Pokémon series's earlier years are easy to get ahold of today, with some getting increasingly expensive to obtain. While the roleplaying game franchise has seen a few remakes and rereleases of its oldest outings across its run, many collectors still seek out Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridges for Pokémon titles like Red, Yellow, and Crystal in their original forms. As a result, there's an active market for classic Pokémon games - and it can be a financially demanding one to enter.
It generally isn't difficult to find reproduction cartridges of any given Pokémon title for cheap, although this is understandable due to the nature of - and issues with - reproductions. Repro cartridges are fan-reconstructed copies of games made to look and play like officially-manufactured ones, usually made with the aid of such means as emulation and ROM flashing; while some Pokémon fans don't mind buying repro cartridges as long as they can play the games they're looking for in some form, others avoid them for ethical reasons. And repros can't always be guaranteed to contain a fully-accurate experience to an officially-manufactured game copy. In addition, for many collectors' purposes in particular, only official merchandise will do.
Pokémon Crystal is typically the most expensive Game Boy Pokémon game, with prices commonly running upwards of $100 on both Amazon and eBay. Its scarcity is the primary reason for this - during its run, it sold the least of any mainline Pokémon game to date, at under 6.4 million copies. By contrast, its fellow Johto outings Pokémon Gold and Silver sold over 20 million copies combined. But the game is also sought after by its own merits. While demand for Crystal was low on its launch due to its status as a light remix of two games that many Pokémon fans already had at the time - the previously mentioned Gold and Silver - its expansion on those games has garnered appreciation in retrospect, especially amongst those nostalgic for Pokémon's earliest days of growth. Crystal adds new subplots and puzzles to Gold and Silver, and it was the first Pokémon game to include the option to play as a female trainer.
New Appreciation Also Marks Up Pokémon Emerald & Colosseum
While not quite as unique methods for acquiring and raising Pokémon.
These prices - and the demand they reflect - stand even though Nintendo has remade Gold and Silver and Ruby and Sapphire since their releases. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver even command high resale prices themselves, as they're well-liked takes on a fan-favorite region. The Nintendo Switch Online release of Pokémon Snap may represent a step in favor of current fans who want to revisit past Pokémon titles with minimal modification - and without too much detriment to their wallets.
