Gale of Darkness on Nintendo Switch 2

Last Nintendo Switch 2 reissue Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness on Nintendo Switch Online has been reported to suffer from crashes, but Nintendo recently confirmed that it is aware of the issue and is looking into it. The Pokemon spin-off was first released in 2005 for the Nintendo GameCube and was released on Nintendo Classics Online on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 18, 2026. Its predecessor, Pokemon Colosseumit is also confirmed that he will come into service at a later date.

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is a spin-off of the main series 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 embarks on a journey to reclaim the damaged “Shadow Pokémon” from the evil Cipher so that he can have them “purified”. Like Colosseum, Pokémon XD it uniquely uses a double battle format as the default instead of the single battle format used by the main games, and most Pokémon are caught using the “Snag Machine” to take Shadow Pokémon from other trainers.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen's Lorelei in front of the trainer card background

PSA: You can't completely beat Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen because of your trainer card

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen present some unique challenges associated with your trainer card and are virtually impossible to complete.

Nintendo responds to reports of a crash in Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

Players reported it Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness it suffers from crashes and data storage issues. Even if the player uses the in-game save feature multiple times, if the game closes itself due to an error, the entire save file may be deleted. As noted by Amiibofan101 on Reddit, Nintendo confirmed on Twitter that it heard complaints about Pokemon XD crashes and investigates. The company did not provide a timeline for a fix, asking players to be patient and recommending that they use the “Quick Save” feature in the Nintendo Classics pause menu to minimize the loss of save data.

Arrange the covers in the correct US release order.

Easy (5) Medium (7) Hard (10)

Main story about Pokemon XD it lasts around 30 hours, so the loss of such progress has deterred many from continuing the game. Losing just an hour of game time due to crashes is bad enough, but having your save data deleted is a surprising glitch to see in a game that not only didn't have the problem when it first came out, but was also originally published by Nintendo. Pokemon games have always had bugs, but not all of them are as bad as the one found in Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. Hopefully this means they will also be able to catch any similar issues Colosseum before getting its own Nintendo Classics reissue.

Pokémon XD when it first came out, it received mediocre reviews and criticized its reused content Colosseum and pace of play. Still, it holds a special place in many people's hearts Pokemon fans, and its re-release was also a chance for potential new players to evaluate it with fresh eyes. That and Colosseum they were the first Pokemon console games to really try to capture the same “Pokémon adventure” feel as the handheld titles by focusing more on story development than just being a battle simulator or using a completely different game. Players are waiting for this issue to be fixed and hopefully it won't be an issue in the future Pokemon reissue. But until then, it might be best to wait to play Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness.