A storm of darkness dominated by glowing Eevee hunters

In case you missed it, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is finally available on Nintendo Switch 2 through its Nintendo Classics program. The GameCube title is now available to enjoy with a subscription, though unfortunately, unlike the FireRed and LeafGreen re-releases, it's not a standalone purchase and there's no Pokemon Home compatibility.

Still, a win is a win, especially considering how many second-hand copies run for Gale of Darkness.

Shadow Lugia and the main character of Pokemon XD: Dark Storm on a purple striped background.

Pokemon was even better when console games were like XD: Gale of Darkness

The odd GameCube Pokemon RPG remains special after 20 years.

Now that the game is officially out, all you can think about is getting a shiny Eevee. Besides, it's not as easy as it sounds, at least compare to how accessible shiny hunting is in the new titles.

Like FireRed and LeafGreen, there's a ton of soft resetting required, meaning you have to reset your game from scratch, hoping that shiny Eevee is finally in your inventory. If not, rinse it and repeat until then.

Up and down the XD Gale of Darkness sub, people have been sharing their shiny trips, detailing how many times it's been taken. One user spent his entire day before his glittering dream came true. That seems par for the course, and die-hard glitter fans won't let go of “Peevee” until they're in possession.

The only unfortunate part about all of this is that none of these Pokemon are transferable. Owning a shiny Eevee is really just for bragging rights because it can't go anywhere.

Pokemon fans have been gripped by shiny fever in recent weeks

XD: Gale of Darkness isn't the only game that shiny hunters refuse to play until their wish is granted. Because on the other hand, FireRed and LeafGreen players are doing the same thing on the Game Boy Advance re-release, soft resetting their game until one of Charmander, Squirtle or Bulbasaur shines.

FireRed and LeafGreen have traditional shiny odds set at 1 in 8,192 Pokémon, or 0.012 percent odds, and until Professor Oak's lab makes a shiny starter, you have to replay the start of the game constantly.

It took one person over 12,000 tries before they got the shiny bulbasaur, which seems a little grim considering the odds, but such is their hand. Elsewhere, players stuck at 1,000 wondered if it was worth continuing.

“After about 2 hours, I realized I wanted to play the game,” said one user on Reddit.

There was even one user who was so stuck in soft reset mode on their game that they held a shiny and soft reset, essentially resetting their odds to zero. There is no doubt that XD: Gale of Darkness has happened to anyone.


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systems

Super grayscale 8 bit logo


issued

October 3, 2005

ESRB

Everyone / Cartoon violence

developer(s)

Genius sonority

Multiplayer

Local multiplayer

prequel(s)

Pokemon Colosseum


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