Pokemon Fans Say Their Older Games Are Dying
Someone call Nurse Joy and let's get ourselves to the Pokemon Center, stat. A glossy revamp of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl is all well and good, but for us retro gamers, there's nothing quite like booting up your original copy and playing it like Game Freak intended all those years ago. We're sure most of you have a collection of Red and Blue for the Game Boy, Black and White on the DS, and Sun and Moon on the 3DS. Be warned though, some of your legacy titles might not play like they used to.
This time, it's fan-favourites Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that are apparently being put to sleep by Jigglypuff. Released in 2014, these souped-up remakes of the Game Boy Advance Ruby and Sapphire were a big hit that made the most out of the Nintendo 3DS' graphical capabilities. On the whole, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were praised as a bold reinvention of the Hoenn region, the introduction of online capabilities, and taking us into this 3D world.
Considering Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire sold over 3 million copies in the first three days and had the biggest launch ever for the series in the United Kingdom, a lot of us bought the games. As of 2020, nearly 14.5 million copies have been sold worldwide. But what's going on with these beloved games?
Are older copies of Pokemon games dying?
Posting on ResetEra, someone in Germany said a growing number of Pokefans are reporting issues with their Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. They explained the small size of the community in the country and how "there are six known cases to us of Pokémon ORAS games just refusing to start up". Worse than this, they said that among tested cartridges, there's a failure rate of about 50%. Considering some use the Pokemon Home cloud service to transfer Pokemon from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire to later games, it's more than just a problem playing older games.
The debate spilt over onto Reddit, where others echoed the OP's thoughts. Comment sections on both forums soon started to fill. One disgruntled player said their copy hasn't worked "since Spring 2020", while another in Italy claimed their Alpha Sapphire hasn't worked since 2019 - citing a "widespread issue". Then again, there are others in Europe that say their versions of the game runs just fine. It seems that the issue might not be confined to just classic Pokemon games. There were also plenty of complaints that Persona Q (also from 2014) faces a similar problem.
Why could older copies of Pokemon games be dying?
While we're stumped as to exactly what the problem is, it's been noted by French game preservationist @Zetsuboushitta that Nintendo's move from MaskRom cartridges to FlashRom cartridges could be the root cause. They claim that FlashRoms are only designed to last between 5 to 15 years, whereas MaskRoms can last anywhere from 30 to 50 years. Remembering that Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are now nearly seven years old, it's pushing copies into the danger zone.
These figures have been disputed, but another popular theory is that it could be a soldering problem that might explain the Pokemon problems and Persona Q. It means you could fix it yourselves if you're willing to put the work instead of chucking your cartridges out. Before your Pokemon are destined to be just more ghosts haunting Lavender Town, a few have reported a workaround (of sorts) by removing and replacing the cartridge or updating your 3DS firmware. Still, there are a lot who are having no luck at all. Cue crying Squirtle!
Images via Game Freak | The Pokemon Company
