Nintendo will put their characters online in a specially developed RPG for cellphones.

Coming this April, Nintendo Co. LTD (the Japanese branch of Nintendo) will publish an online version of Pokémon (Pocket Monsters X) that will work with the new cellular phone adapter for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Using this device, Japanese gamers will be able to connect their Game Boys to their cell phones, enabling them to play certain games networked without any wires. The networkable Pokémon title will allow gamers to trade and battle Pokémon from remote parts of Japan without being connected by a link-cable. The cell-phone connection will also enable the gamers to download updates to the Pokémon game, as well as new creatures that Nintendo has added to the line-up. Approximately 60% of teens in Japan have access to a cellphone, so Nintendo are rightly tapping the market with their handheld games.

It hasn't been announced which version of Pokémon will be launched with network capabilities, but chances are good that it will be a modified version of Pokémon Gold and Silver. This is the first of many steps in taking Game Boy titles online, as the company prepare to launch the Game Boy Advance this August in Japan. The Game Boy Advance will already have the cellphone connection built into the unit. It will also be compatible with games that are made networkable through the Game Boy cellphone adapter, as well as every existing Game Boy and Game Boy Color game out on the market.

Nintendo have not announced a US release for this new version of Pokémon, nor has it announced its cellular phone, network strategy for the US - the cellphone market in the US is not as strong as it is in Japan. Still, the Game Boy Advance is planned from the start to connect to a multi-user network, so it's only a matter of time before it's announced. The Game Boy Advance should ship in the US by the end of 2000.


Courtesy of IGN.com