Catch Jirachi at your local GameStop on February 27

by Griffin McElroy on Feb 23rd 2010 3:00AM

Is your elite Pokémon fighting force lacking a certain adorability factor? Starting this coming Saturday, February 27, GameStop will have the perfect remedy to your problem -- the retailer will offer a free download of the legendary Psychic/Steel-type Jirachi for anyone who treks to the store with a copy of Pokémon Pearl, Diamond or Platinum in tow. The promotion will run until March 13 -- the day before HeartGold and SoulSilver hit store shelves.

As an added bonus, trainers who have Jirachi in their collection will have access to a special training route on HeartGold and SoulSilver's bundled accessory, the Pokéwalker. That might just be enough to give us the courage required to suffer the judgmental looks of our local GameStop's customers and employees.

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Tags: download, DS, game-freak, gamestop, jirachi, nintendo, pokemon, pokemon-heart-gold, pokewalker, rpg

Reader Comments (61)

Time to get another Jirachi!

i await the day when some one does a 10 year documentary of the dark side of Pokemon collectors...

It'd be extremely interesting to see how the family of collectors suffer at the hands of elusive pokemon. I remember when pokemon red and blue had only been out for a year or so, and Toys R Us had the chance to win a Mew. I was probably only 10 at the time, and I was waiting there at 5 am in the freezing cold with my family, 6 year old sister included (who was going to try to get Mew on my Blue cart? My dad? Ha!). And did I get a Mew? No!

And we won't even mention some of the things I did for pokemon cards...The elementary school playground was a dark place in late 90's.

I waited in a line thousands of people deep in order to get Mew and some special (surf?) Pikachu from a mall. It was winter, and the line began outside (probably 10 degrees outside) and my parents definitely hadn't dressed with the idea that they'd be waiting outside in the cold. When we finally got in there, they were also holding a tournament, which I made my parents sit through.

The moral of the story is that parenting is a bitch

(also that I can't sleep)

Not gonna lie back in the day I knew people who got blowjobs for shiny charizard, and that was just the card game. :(

And to think I kept my holo charizard.......

@yomachaser

Don't even bring up the holo Charizard card. That was the one card that I desperately wanted, but could never get.

Also, do they not make Gameshark's anymore? I never had one, but my friend did, so he'd use it to get a mew, then just trade it to me. I had several level 100 Mews that I'd use on my allstar team, along with my surfing pikachu. Just to piss people off.

I had a first ed Charizard at one point, but by the time I sold it, I don't think it was worth nearly as much as it was during the heydey when parents were killing themselves trying to get one for their kids.

Literally the only Pokemon card I have left is the Ancient Mew card I got with the book that accompanied the premiere of the first Pokemon movie. If I sold it I might get...I don't know...ten bucks. The same could be said of that Charizard card that probably fetched 300+ dollars back in the day. I may buy a random assortment of Pokemon cards some day, just so I can show my kids how futile and pointless such things eventually turn out to be.

Let that be a lesson to you kids out there: rarity has nothing to do with it, and assumed rarity along with demand are all that matter. (The internet didn't really exist in those days, so you couldn't go to ebay and find out that there were a hundred first ed charizards for sale for ten bucks each)

No Shiny Pidgey, no deal.

Sweet been wanting one for a while hell yeah

I wonder if this is happening at Canadian Gamestop's as well...

Heh... NOPE.
I've actually emailed the Pokemon Company about it recently, and they basically said that they didn't want to bother, which is just GREAT for people that live anywhere besides the US and Japan.

How do you get this download? Would I have to talk to an employee?

Normally they setup a wireless access point type thingy that broadcasts within the store. When you turn on the game you will see a new selection below the continue game, new game, etc selection (I forget what it says). That will put the "prize" into your existing game. From there, start up your normal game and go to one of the blue pokestores and talk to the man in green, he will give you your present.

Note: You will have to have recieved the national pokedex to be able to claim any gifted item.

yup
but if you go and can't find a signal just ask one of the employees and they'll turn it on for you =]

So what if the customers and employees judge you?

SCREW THEM, YOU HAVE A JIRACHI.

I just stand outside the store looking nonchalant like I'm waiting for someone while sneakily collecting pokemon. I just can't face their judging eyes.

Then walk into any grouping of Pokemon fans older than 16 and tell me about the looks of pure hatred they give you when you tell them you hacked to get a Jirachi.

Their reaction is more likely to be "You did WHAT? Dude, that's awesome!"

That's the reaction my level 100 Magikarp gets, anyway.

Sweet, glad to see Nintendo giving these things to other stores besides Toys R Us. I used to have to drive an extra 20 minutes just to get me some events.Hope its stats are better than wishmakers.

Well at least it's better than Gamestop offering to give gamers a, "Pikachu colored Pichu."

Yeah I don't get it either.

Well... It's essentially a shiny Pichu, but it also unlocks an in-game event.

When you trade the Pikachu colored Pichu into HG and SS, it unlocks the spiky-eared Pichu.

You can get a Pikachu with special ears if you get the Pichu from GameStop.

I am either going to try to get this from the parking lot or I will have to travel to the next nearest gamestop. I am sorry but I am not letting the buck tooth balding 40 year old man that owns our gamestop know that I play Pokemon. I must be cooler than him...

Realistically you'd be showing him you're cooler than him by not caring that pokemon is nerdy. It's that "who gives a shit?" attitude that everybody loves.

You can get a level 100 Magikarp completely legitly.
You can catch them in Resort Area with the Super Rod.

I definitely got a dirty look from a Gamestop employee when I proceeded to walk in, whip out my DS, download the Pichu, and walk out. The next day I came in to look at their games (had ten minutes to kill, otherwise I wouldn't have been anywhere near the hell-hole that is my local Gamestop) and the same employee asked me why I didn't browse the day before. After explaining the Pichu thing, he told me that they only have that promo to get people in the store to buy games and that I shouldn't waste their time by taking advantage of the freebie and not giving them any business. I told him he wouldn't have to worry about soliciting my business anymore and walked out.

True story.

Can't wait to have a similar exchange next week when I pick up my Jirachi XDD

holy crap, what a douche!
I'm lucky enough to go to a gamestop where all the employees are nice

The Gamestop employees shot me a dirty look when I just walked in and got myself my Pikachu colored pichu. They also asked me 3 times if I needed help finding something.

I honestly dont know why the hell they care, its not like they get a pay bonus every time sombody walks in there with their DS in hand AND buys somthing.

ther paychecks are still the same and not every nerd who walks in has a wallet bursting with cash and even if they did, its not stealing, its called a promo, and they dont and shouldnt come with strings, ever.

still, its sooo funny to be rude in return to them when you are in another state or county, one of the funniest things ever to happen in this guys life.

I work there, dude's a dick and should get fired. That said, I got my Pichu before a shift. :P

They judge you because they are unfortunate enough to work at gamestop. They need to feel better about themselves somehow.

Jirachi is the only legendary Pokemon I don't have, so I'll be suffering the slings and arrows with ya, bud.

@Sonos

It does reach, i just pulled up in my car whipped out my ds and dled pichu, it was a gamestop that wasnt in a mall and and i parker right infront.

How did you get Arceus?

Not in my experience. I tried but, alas, had to trek inside the place to get the download to work.

@ Archon:
they had an even at toys r us a couple weeks (months?) ago. Level 100 Arceus!

@ Archon

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_event_Pok%C3%A9mon_in_2009#Toys_.22R.22_Us_Arceus

I park my car outside and download from the comfort of my vehicle. Signal strength probably varies from shop to shop depending on how the building was made (hint: if the walls are filled with chicken wire, you're going inside that Faraday cage).

is this in Canada too?
i know the pichu wasn't and I was ANGRY >:C

I diddnt know about pichu at all, do they still hve him up until they put jerachi in its place or what? oh, or is it at toys r us?

To my knowledge the promo has ended.

it ended the 14th
thats why you gotta check pokemon sites once in a while =p

dang, figures. I keep checkin em for gard like this but every time i forget and stop, thats when they unveil em.

@Jackakania

I, in no way, support being rude in return. Their behavior will catch up to them when twenty years down the line they're still working minimum wage working retail.

Besides, there's plenty of honest folks working at stores like Gamestop who deserve to work in a non-hostile environment and I don't want to contribute to animosity between vendor and customer.

Thing is, it depends on where they keep it. It's just a DS with a distribution cart in it.

Reply fail. My apologies.

Double reply fail. That apology intended for my post below.

No one would say it's awesome, we'd all just tell him to get out. I'm not telling you to hack it, I'm just telling you to not tell anyone you did. Although I'm willing to bet they'd find out one way or another because most casuals blow at hacking legit looking pokemon.

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Catch Jirachi at your local GameStop on February 27

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