Nintendo releases the original Fire Emblem game for a limited time!

In a surprise reveal yesterday, Nintendo has announced that it's planning to release the first installment in the Fire Emblem series: "Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light" on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch owners, as a part of Fire Emblem's upcoming 30th Anniversary.

"Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light" is notable for the fact that, while it is the first installment of the series, it never left Japan, barring a remake on the Nintendo DS. In fact, a majority of the games were ever released overseas until 2003's "Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade", which is mostly thanks to 2001's "Super Smash Bros. Melee" including two characters from the series in its playable roster: Marth and Roy.

For this re-release, "Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light" will be officially translated for the first time, allowing Fire Emblem fans to fully enjoy the game's story. In addition, this version of the game comes with extra settings; you can speed up how fast your army and the enemy move on the map, create bookmarks (save points) at any time and reload from them, and use the rewind feature for instances where you mess up and accidentally lead one of your units to their death.

In the game, players control Marth, prince of Altea. One day, the Kingdom of Dolhr launches an attack on Marth's kingdom. Thanks to his sister Elice, he manages to escape to the Kingdom of Talys. With some help from the Altean Knight Jagen, the Talysian Princess Caeda, and many others, Marth embarks on a quest to find and obtain both the Falchion and the Fire Emblem so that he can reclaim his kingdom and rescue his sister from the evil Gharnef and the resurrected Shadow Dragon, Medeus!

The game will be released on the eshop on December 4th for $5.99. A special "Anniversary Edition" of the game will also be released on the same day for $50.00. As well as including a download code for the game, it also comes with an NES-style box, a replica NES Cartridge, a newly translated game manual pulled from the original Japanese release, a fold-out map, and a 200+ page art book.

Regardless of which one you get, the game can only be purchased and downloaded until March 31st, 2021.