Nintendo Holds Pokémon Colosseum After Star Fox Jumps Ahead

Nintendo still lists Pokémon Colosseum as the only upcoming GameCube title on Switch 2. Star Fox Adventures joined Nintendo Switch Online on September 9, 2026, the same day a Direct put it there. Colosseum has sat in that upcoming slot since the April 2, 2025 showcase that first promised GameCube games on the service.

The hold is not a broken emulator queue. Super Mario Sunshine, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, and a game that was never in that first Direct have all shipped, while Colosseum still has no date.

One Line Left on Nintendo’s Catalog

Nintendo’s own GameCube Nintendo Classics product page is the cleanest status board in this story. The live list now includes Star Fox Adventures, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, F-ZERO GX, SOULCALIBUR II, Super Mario Strikers, Chibi-Robo, Luigi’s Mansion, Wario World, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, and Super Mario Sunshine. Under upcoming games, the page names a single cell: Pokémon Colosseum, the only upcoming GameCube title.

THE GAMECUBE APP RIGHT NOW

• Live library: 11 GameCube games are listed as included, with Star Fox Adventures already in that set.
• Still upcoming: Pokémon Colosseum is the only title Nintendo still files under coming later.
• Where it plays: The app is exclusive to Switch 2 and needs Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
• Install size: Nintendo lists the GameCube Nintendo Classics app at 13 GB.

That catalog is also the rebuttal to the idea that GameCube work has stalled. Nintendo is still adding discs. It is just not adding this one.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Confirmed holdout: Nintendo still presents Colosseum as a future GameCube Nintendo Classics game, not as a cancelled one.
• Same-day drop: Star Fox Adventures went live on September 9, 2026, after Nintendo showed it in that day’s Direct.
• Transfer lock: When XD arrived, Nintendo warned that Game Boy Advance Pokémon cannot move into that NSO copy.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A date: Nintendo has not published a day, month, or even a season for Colosseum.
• Pokémon HOME: Nothing official says the NSO copy will talk to HOME.
• Bonus encounters: Extra mythical Pokémon or a rebuilt GBA link layer have not been announced.

Fans keep filling those blanks because Nintendo will not. The page does not.

Star Fox Jumped the Queue on Direct Day

The September 9, 2026 Direct is the tell. Nintendo used a 45-minute Switch 2 show to put Star Fox Adventures on the GameCube app later that day. The same broadcast spent Pokémon time on Pokopia Expansion Pass Part 2, due later in 2026, and did not attach a window to Colosseum.

Nintendo of America posted the Star Fox add during the show, with the game landing the same afternoon for Expansion Pack members on Switch 2.

Star Fox Adventures is landing on Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics later today!

Alongside his pal Tricky, Fox explores a planet populated by dinosaurs, but who knows what they might uncover? #NintendoDirect pic.twitter.com/iie3IPeKlT

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 9, 2026

Star Fox Adventures was not part of the original GameCube tease. Rare’s 2002 dinosaur adventure sat outside that first trailer, then walked in ahead of the last promised Pokémon RPG. Some players guessed at that kind of jump as far back as June, when Sunshine and Colosseum were the two names still missing from the first Direct, and one common hope was that Star Fox might be allowed to cut the line. It did.

If the bottleneck were capturing GameCube discs for the app, a title that was never on the launch poster would not be the one Nintendo timed to a Direct. The machine that adds these games still works. Colosseum is being reserved.

The Original 10, Minus Colosseum

The April 2, 2025 Switch 2 Direct put three GameCube games on day one and showed seven more for later. Nintendo of America’s own clip of that April Direct that showed Colosseum is still the source of the promise. Wind Waker, SOULCALIBUR II, and F-ZERO GX launched with the app on June 5, 2025. The other seven were Super Mario Sunshine, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Super Mario Strikers, Chibi-Robo, Luigi’s Mansion, and Pokémon Colosseum.

THE FIRST DIRECT LIST, AS IT SHIPPED

Nine of those ten are playable. Nintendo also added Wario World, which was not in that first trailer, and then Star Fox Adventures. The live count of 11 is the original roster minus Colosseum, plus two extras. Colosseum is the leftover name from the first pitch, not a random deep cut.

By May, Switch 2 owners had already lived through a 13-month Colosseum delay on Switch 2 with no new date attached. Sunshine later got a proper window, July 31 for an August 13 add. Colosseum never did.

Gale of Darkness Already Closed the Transfer Door

Genius Sonority built both Orre games. XD is the sequel, set in the same desert region, and it reached Nintendo Switch Online first. Nintendo’s March 17, 2026 news post, with the game live the next day, built in the limitation that still hangs over Colosseum.

Please note that you will not be able to transfer Pokémon from Game Boy Advance titles to this title.

Nintendo, GameCube Nintendo Classics update, March 17, 2026

That sentence is the whole argument against waiting for a deluxe Colosseum. The original GameCube discs talked to Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen over a GBA cable. Purified Shadow Pokémon could leave Orre. Rental teams and battle modes could pull in handheld monsters. The NSO copy of XD does not do that work, and Nintendo said so in the no Game Boy Advance transfers notice rather than leaving fans to discover it in a menu.

Hopes for Pokémon HOME on Colosseum run into the same wall. XD already shipped as a closed box: the story, the snagging, the purification, and none of the old handheld plumbing. There is no public patch adding HOME to that version. A later Colosseum drop that magically restores a 2004 cable feature would be a break from the one Orre game Nintendo has already issued on this app.

The official Pokémon account still marked the North American anniversary on March 22, 2026, with a short video and no NSO date. XD had been live for four days. The franchise was willing to celebrate the 2004 disc. It was not willing, on that day, to ship it.

Who Still Pays While the Date Stays Blank

GameCube Nintendo Classics sits behind Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, and it does not run on original Switch hardware. Nintendo’s support table lists an individual Expansion Pack at Expansion Pack costs $49.99 a year in the United States, with a family plan at $79.99. The basic individual plan, which does not include GameCube, is $19.99 a year.

That extra $30 is the price of Wind Waker, Path of Radiance, XD, Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, and the rest of the 11. It is also the price of waiting on Colosseum. Nintendo can keep the Orre original in the upcoming column indefinitely, and the membership still renews. Physical copies of the 2004 disc remain a collector chase, which is the other market Nintendo is slowly replacing, disc by disc, except this disc.

Local and online play on the app go up to four players in games that support it, with suspend points, button remaps, a CRT-style filter, and a wireless GameCube controller sold to members. Those are the features Colosseum will inherit when it finally appears. They are already in the app. They are not why this one game is late.

Pokémon Has No Mainline Game Left in 2026

The calendar around Colosseum is thin in a way Nintendo can use. Pokémon Legends: Z-A is already out. The next mainline game, Winds and Waves, is slated for 2027. In between sit paid 30th-anniversary ports of FireRed and LeafGreen, which Nintendo kept off Switch Online, plus Pokopia downloadable content that the September Direct chose to show instead of an Orre date.

THE POKÉMON GAP COLOSSEUM CAN FILL

1. April 2, 2025: Nintendo teases Colosseum and XD for GameCube Nintendo Classics on Switch 2.
2. June 5, 2025: The GameCube app launches without either Orre game.
3. March 18, 2026: XD arrives, with GBA transfers turned off.
4. March 22, 2026: Pokémon marks Colosseum’s North American anniversary and does not date the NSO copy.
5. August 13, 2026: Super Mario Sunshine, the other long Direct holdout, goes live.
6. September 9, 2026: A Direct ships Star Fox Adventures the same day and still does not date Colosseum.

A fall 2026 Colosseum add would sit in that hole without asking Game Freak for a new RPG. Game Freak’s first TGS booth this year left Pokémon off the floor, which fits a studio calendar pointed at 2027 for the next mainline game. Nintendo can still drop an Orre title into NSO on a quiet Tuesday, the way it dropped Sunshine, or it can save the name for a Direct that needs a Pokémon beat. It has done the second thing with Star Fox. It has not done either thing with Colosseum.

Don’t Expect Pokémon Home on Day One

When the upcoming cell finally turns into a live tile, the honest preview is the XD copy members already have, not the 2004 box in a glass case. Genius Sonority’s first Orre game, out in Japan on November 21, 2003, then North America on March 22, 2004, and Europe on May 14, 2004, is a double-battle RPG about snagging Shadow Pokémon as Wes, a former Team Snagem thief, with Rui reading their hearts. That campaign does not need a GBA cable to make sense. The extras did.

WHAT AN NSO COLOSSEUM IS LIKELY TO BE

• The campaign: Snag, purify, and double-battle through Orre, with suspend points and the sharper image Nintendo already advertises for the app.
• The missing cable: No GBA link to Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, or LeafGreen, matching the XD notice Nintendo already posted.
• The missing cloud: No promised path into Pokémon HOME, which XD also lacks.
• The hardware gate: Switch 2 only, Expansion Pack required, up to four players in modes that support it.

People still ask for extra Shadow Pokémon, a Jirachi encounter, or some HOME hook that would make the wait look like work. XD did not get those gifts, and it is the same developer, the same region, and the same app. The longer Colosseum stays in the upcoming row, the easier it is to invent a richer port behind the delay. Nintendo’s last Orre release argues the other way.

The Australian catalog still has one upcoming cell, and that cell still says Pokémon Colosseum. Star Fox Adventures is already in the included grid. The date next to Colosseum is still blank.