Today, Nintendo of Europe announced that Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon won't be the only games from the franchise to be releasing for the 3DS during the fall of this year. As a matter of fact, the series' second generation installments, Pokemon Gold and Silver, are getting physical releases in Europe on September 22, 2017 in special shiny packaged versions, but there is a catch when it comes to the boxed editions.

As seen in the tweet below from Nintendo of Europe, while Pokemon Gold and Silver will technically be sold as physical units for 3DS, all that the box will contain is a download code for either of the titles, and not an actual game card. The "physical" releases are set to come out in tandem with the games being launched as Virtual Console titles in the 3DS eShop, which kind of undermines the reasoning behind selling them in tangible packages without anything else other than a download code.

Nevertheless, the two boxes for Pokemon Gold and Silver are almost exact replicas of the games' original packaging when they first came out for Game Boy Color in 2000. The boxes have a shiny finish, and the artwork features each of the titles' de facto mascots, the Legendary Lugia and the Legendary Ho-Oh. As of now, however, the packaged versions of the games have only been announced for Europe, and Nintendo has yet to confirm whether they will eventually be available in North America as well.

Nintendo has confirmed, though, that the updated versions of Pokemon Gold and Silver for 3DS would be compatible for the first time with Pokemon Bank, which is a service for the handheld gaming device that allows players to deposit, store, and manage pocket monsters in private Boxes online. This feature will also allow trainers who have caught Pokemon in the eShop versions of earlier games such as Gold and Silver to transfer them into Sun and Moon should they choose to do so.

All things considered, it will be interesting to see how many Pokemon fans flock to the physical iterations of Gold and Silver instead of simply downloading the titles directly through the eShop on the 3DS. Sure, the boxes and their art look wonderful, but it's a safe bet to make that it will mostly be diehard collectors that scoop up the packages.

Pokemon Gold and Silver are set to release on September 22, 2017 for the Nintendo 3DS.

Source: Nintendo of Europe – Twitter