Gale of Darkness on Nintendo Switch 2

The most recent Nintendo Switch 2 reissue of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness on Nintendo Switch Online has been reported to suffer from crashes, but Nintendo recently confirmed that they are aware of the issue and are looking into it. The Pokémon by-product first released in 2005 for the Nintendo GameCube and released on Nintendo Classics Online on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 18, 2026. Its predecessor, Pokemon Coliseumis also confirmed to come to the service at a later date.

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is a spin-off of the main line Pokémon 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”. As Colosseum, Pokémon XD uniquely uses the double-battle format by default instead of the single-battle format used by the main games, and most Pokémon are captured by using the “Snag Machine” to take Shadow Pokémon from other trainers.

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

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

Players have reported it Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness has suffered from crashes and problems with saving data. Even if the player uses the in-game save feature multiple times, if the game shuts down by itself due to an error, the entire save file may be deleted. As spotted by Amiibofan101 on Reddit, Nintendo confirmed on Twitter that they have heard the complaints Pokémon XD crashes and investigates. The company did not provide a timeline for a fix, asking players for patience and advising them to use the “Quick Save” feature in the Nintendo Classic's pause menu to minimize loss of save data.

Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.

Light (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

The main story about Pokémon XD lasts around 30 hours, so losing that 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 deletion of save data 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. Pokémon games have always had problems, but not all of them are as bad as the one in Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. Hopefully this means they will also be able to catch similar problems Colosseum before getting its own Nintendo Classics re-release.

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