Delayed Pokemon Global Link going live April 13

A hotly anticipated online Pokemon feature that was delayed due to the Japan earthquake will be available tomorrow.

The Pokemon Global Link is a website that allows users to register their Pokemon White and Pokemon Black DS games. From there, they can trade the pocket monsters with other players, earn items, and manage their game remotely in a way no other Pokemon title has done before.

The feature was set to launch last month, but Nintendo has to make a last-minute call to push it back after the disaster in Japan crippled resources and made it impossible to go ahead with the otherwise finely targeted release date.

Players are eager to access the site, as it gives them a true, official way to take their Pokemon adventures to the Internet, something they have been yearning for for years.

Previous iterations of Pokemon on the Nintendo DS pioneered online functionality for the series, but it was extremely limited and very cumbersome. This opens up the process in a big way, and in some ways it’s the most online-accessible game Nintendo has ever created.

Since the launch of the original Pokemon titles on Nintendo’s Game Boy system, the franchise has garnered worldwide sales of more than 215 million units.