With Nintendo Switch Online now having Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games, and Pokemon Day fast approaching (27th February), it's got a lot of people speculating — will Gen 1, 2, and 3 make the jump to NSO?
YouTuber and content creator Austin John Plays is one such person who's been pushing those ideas forward, and over the weekend, he posted a video looking and the possibility of Pokémon trading in the generation 1 remakes, Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen. Contacted by his friend MelonSpeedruns, who has tested these games (along with the original Red & Blue and Yellow on the Game Boy) on NSO, Melon says that the games "run flawlessly" and — not only that — but you can trade Pokémon on NSO with another player.
Using a Nintendo Switch emulator to try this out, Melon shared the footage with Austin John (starting at 3:00) which shows FireRed running on NSO on two different screens. The one on the left opens up Multiplayer, while the screen on the right joins. Both reboot the game and talk to the lady at the Viridian City Pokemon Center to initiate a trade.
It's all pretty flawless, almost exactly like we remember on the GBA — the music even cuts out while the game is loading the Communication Room up. Both screens then select a Pokémon to trade and that's that! MelonSpeedruns has also shared footage of the same process in Pokémon Red, too (at 04:54).