Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light, the game that kicked off the strategy RPG franchise in 1990, is coming to the West for the first time this December.
Nintendo announced a surprise Switch localization of the original Fire Emblem today. Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light will be available on the Nintendo eShop for $5.99 starting December 4. However, like Super Mario Bros. 35 and the Super Mario 3D All-Stars trilogy, it will leave the shop after March 31, 2021, purportedly for the end of the franchise's 30th anniversary.
The Switch version of the game will be the first official chance for Western fans to try the game, and from what we've seen it's a fairly faithful port of Marth's 8-bit journey. That said, it does have a few modern niceties. You can rewind to previous turns if you mess up, for example, and you'll be able to fast forward through friendly and enemy turns if you want to speed things up. Like many other retro Switch ports, Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light will also support save states, letting you create your own checkpoints.
Fire Emblem collectors may be intrigued by the anniversary edition of the game, which will also launch on December 4. It comes with a replica game cartridge based on the Famicom, complete with box art, a cartridge sleeve, and a replica instruction booklet. The cartridge is paired with a Nintendo Power poster which will take you right back to the 1990s, a rather lovely art book, and a fancy 30-year anniversary box to house it all. At $49.99, the anniversary edition is much more expensive than the game itself, but it's loaded with Fire Emblem swag.
For more retro Nintendo, check out the upcoming Super Mario Game & Watch collectible handheld.
