During a Nintendo Direct presentation dedicated entirely to Pocket Monster news, it was confirmed that Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver are on their way to the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. The pair of games will be made available for download on the system on September 22, 2017, and will come with all of the updated features present in the Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow games that are currently up for grabs on the handheld's digital marketplace.

For those that aren't aware of what those aforementioned features include, players that own one of the original trio of Pokemon games on 3DS can attest to the newfound abilities found within them – namely, wireless trading and battling, as well as access to Pokemon Bank so that the monsters can be transferred over to some of the more recent installments in the series (i.e. Pokemon Sun and Moon).

This announcement came on the coattails of a handful of other Pokemon updates, the biggest of which was news that Pokken Tournament DX is en route to the Nintendo Switch later this September. That game will include four new and playable monsters that have been available on Japanese arcade machines for several months – as well as the addition of Decidueye as a playable character.

Not content with just these announcements, The Pokemon Company also detailed Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon. These titles are modified versions of the games that arrived last year, and they're set to hit the Nintendo 3DS later this November. Having said that, it's looking to be a rather busy 2017 for Pocket Monster fans of all stripes, but those looking for a nostalgic trip back to the land of Johto will have just that when Gold and Silver versions land in a few months' time.

Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver are set to arrive for download on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on September 22, 2017.