The recent Nintendo Switch 2 re-release of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness on Nintendo Switch Online has been reported to suffer from crashes, but Nintendo recently confirmed that it’s aware of the problem and is looking into it. The Pokemon spin-off was first released in 2005 for the Nintendo GameCube, and was released on the Nintendo Classics online on the Nintendo Switch 2 on March 18, 2026. Its predecessor, Pokemon Colosseum, is also confirmed to be coming to the service at a later date.
Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is a spin-off of the mainline Pokemon series developed by Genius Sonority. The player controls a young boy with the default name of Michael, who lives in the Orre region as he goes on a journey to recapture corrupted “Shadow Pokemon” from the evil Cipher so he can have them “purified.” Like Colosseum, Pokemon XD uniquely uses the double battle format as the default instead of the single battle format that the main games use, and most Pokemon are caught by using the “Snag Machine” to take Shadow Pokemon from other trainers.
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Nintendo Responds to Crash Reports in Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness
Players have reported that Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness has been suffering crashes and save data issues. Even if the player uses the in-game save function multiple times, if the game closes itself due to an error, the entire save file can end up deleted. As spotted by Amiibofan101 on Reddit, Nintendo confirmed on Twitter that it has heard the complaints about Pokemon XD crashing and is investigating. The company did not give a timeline for a solution, asking players for patience and advising they use the “Quick Save” function in the Nintendo Classics pause menu to minimize save data loss.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
The main story of Pokemon XD lasts around 30 hours, so losing so much progress has discouraged many from continuing the game. Losing just an hour or so of game time due to crashes is bad enough, but the save data deletion is a surprising glitch to see in a game that not only didn’t have the issue when it first came out, but that was also originally published by Nintendo. Pokemon games have always had glitches, but not all are as bad as the one found in Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. Hopefully, this means that they’ll also be able to catch any similar issues in Colosseum before it gets its own Nintendo Classics re-release.
Pokemon XD received middling reviews back when it first came out, criticizing its reused content from Colosseum and gameplay pacing. Still, it has a special place in the hearts of many Pokemon fans, and its re-release was also a chance for potential new players to evaluate it with fresh eyes. It and Colosseum were the first Pokemon console games to really try to capture the same “Pokemon adventure” feel as the handheld titles by putting more of a focus on story progression than just being a battle simulator or using completely different gameplay. Players are waiting for this issue to be fixed, and hopefully, this won’t be a problem for any future Pokemon re-releases. But until then, it might just be best to wait on playing Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness.
- Released
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October 3, 2005
- ESRB
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Everyone / Cartoon Violence
- Developer(s)
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Genius Sonority
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
- Multiplayer
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Local Multiplayer
