Nintendo just brought Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon Stadium 2 to the Switch

Pokémon fans of a certain age have cause for celebration. No, the Pokémon Red / Blue games are not getting a full remake, and no, they’re also not getting ported to the Switch. Instead, announced during today’s Pokémon Presents event, Pokémon Stadium 2 and Pokémon Trading Card Game are coming to Nintendo Switch Online.

Pokémon Trading Card Game was released on the Game Boy Color in 2000 and was the first video game-ification of Pokémon’s paper trading card game (better known as Pokémon TCG). There were 226 cards in Pokémon Trading Card Game that were from the first three sets of the real-life TCG, including cards exclusive to the game. Back in the day, you could play against your friends using the Game Boy link cable. But if you wanna play Pokémon TCG with your friends now, there’s an online version of the TCG called Pokémon Trading Card Game Live that just launched in June of this year.

Nintendo is also bringing Pokémon Stadium 2 to Nintendo Switch Online. The Pokémon Stadium games strip away all of the roleplaying and story elements of the mainline Pokémon games, leaving just the battles. Players participate in poké-battle after poké-battle, defeating gym leaders, winning champion cups, and unlocking progressively more difficult fights.

When players want to take a break, Pokémon Stadium 2 also offers cute Mario Party-esque minigames you can play with your partner ’mons. I remember when I played PS2 (no, not that one), I didn’t much care for the fighting. I only wanted to play the minigames.

During today’s presentation, Nintendo revealed that the two classic games would be available on the subscription service after the showcase ended, making the games available… right now.