Dear Nintendo, Where Is Golden Sun?

Golden Sun box art red background

Dear Nintendo. How are you? I am well. Or I would be, if I were playing Golden Sun right now. It’s the holiday season, and it’s my first Christmas away from my family in a long time. When I feel lonely, sometimes I like to play games from my childhood. But I just finished playing through Kingdom Hearts – not on the Nintendo Switch, which is a bummer – and in the last year I’ve played through most of the games on the Nintendo Switch Online service. So I’m writing to ask: Where the heck is Golden Sun?

You first announced Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games coming to Nintendo Switch Online in a Nintendo Direct in February. They were released on the same day. During the announcement, you showed a number of games said to be coming to the service “in the future.” One of those games was Golden Sun, my favorite RPG.

When I was young, a friend lent me a copy of their favorite game. It was Golden Sun for the Game Boy Advance. That friend moved away shortly after, and unfortunately I was never able to return the cartridge. I don’t know where it is, these days, having moved dozens of times since then, both to new houses and new states. I like to think that friend is still a Nintendo fan, and has a Switch they adore. Maybe I’ve coincidentally played against them in Mario Kart, or dropped a sign that helped them in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

But you know what they can’t play? Golden Sun. And it’s not even like it’s just the original Golden Sun they’re missing out on. The sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age isn’t on Nintendo Switch Online either, and there hasn’t been a new game in the series in well over a decade — two if you ignore the not-so-great Nintendo DS game.

I can pretend this is just about my friend, but that’s not true, and everyone knows it. I want so desperately to play Golden Sun again. I could go the not-so-legal route, if I wanted, but I want to do the right thing. I want to play Golden Sun, legally, on the best console Nintendo’s ever made. But I can’t, and that’s a huge bummer.

So what’s the big deal with Golden Sun anyway? Well, it’s a wonderful little JRPG, a game so big and expansive and forward-thinking that it had to be split up into two games, hence The Lost Age. It’s a game with depth, with nuance, with fantastic ideas — like the ability to use magic outside of battle, its innovative Djinn system that has you trade between powerful attacks or all-around stat boosts, and fascinating storytelling. Think of the best JRPG you know from the NES, SNES, and Game Boy eras. The Final Fantasies, the Dragon Quests. Golden Sun is better than all of them.

More than me, though, and more than my friend, I just want everyone to experience these games. And hey, Nintendo, you promised it was coming. I know you don’t like to drop everything at once, and that there was no timeframe given for the rollout, but there’s still time in 2023. Still a few precious days where miracles can happen.

Maybe one of those miracles can be Golden Sun on the Nintendo Switch Online service. Maybe.

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