Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen is a difficult game to evaluate. Re-released on the Nintendo Switch eShop to celebrate Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, this 22-year-old Game Boy Advance remake of the original Pokémon Red & Blue feels like a lacklustre way to celebrate one of the largest media franchises known to man. On the other hand, I’m just happy to have a more convenient way to experience this nostalgic romp through Kanto again, catching personal favourites like Cubone along the way.
Making matters more difficult, FireRed & LeafGreen come as a separate purchase — $19.99 USD / £16.99 — rather than part of the GBA Nintendo Classics emulator which adds suspend saves and filters to many classic titles which are ‘free’ for NSO Expansion Pack subscribers.
Some have speculated that FireRed & LeafGreen are not part of this because Pokémon HOME functionality is coming, allowing you to transfer your Pidgeys and Mr. Mimes into other games. If suspend points were possible, it’d be easy to catch ‘em all, breaking part of what makes this classic title so special and threatening the larger Pokémon ecosystem by, like — I don’t know — farming Master Balls and shiny Eevees.
Regardless, it makes sense that FireRed & LeafGreen were chosen to celebrate 30 years of Pokémon. We’ve visited Kanto many times before, but Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee adopted a Pokémon GO-style catching mechanic and reworked the story into something more modern, while the original Red & Blue have bugs, confusing design choices, and a plodding pace that only the most nostalgia-hungry trainers can withstand.
FireRed & LeafGreen sit happily in the middle of the other Kanto quests. They retain many of the original's classic mechanics while working out kinks like the infamous glitch that saw Psychic-types immune to Ghost-types, among many, many more egregious issues.
What’s more, they introduced late- and post-game areas with the Sevii Islands that include some Generation II and III Pokémon. The final area of these islands also includes the Trainer Tower, which features a bunch of different battle challenges to put your team to the test as a true post-game experience.
All that is here in this Switch re-release, plus access to Birth and Naval Island, home to the legendaries Ho-Oh, Lugia, and Deoxys. These were only accessible via real-world events before, so this all comes together to make this more or less the definitive edition.
If you don’t care about completing the National Pokédex, that is. Currently, it appears you won’t be able to catch ‘em all from other regions because you had to trade from other games — specifically Ruby/Sapphire and Emerald — in the original 2004 release and that simply isn’t possible at the moment.
Regardless, I consider this version definitive for a different reason: playing on my large monitor or handheld on my Switch 2 is far superior to the GBA’s tiny screen or the backwards-compatible DS. Stomping Brock and Misty with my Bulbasaur has never been so easy to see; here, the sprites are crisp despite the upscaling, and I enjoyed looking more closely at some finer details on these simple yet iconic Pokémon sprites.
FireRed & LeafGreen still could’ve looked much better. Many have already decried the black bars that frame and shrink the screen to better match the original aspect ratio. After the first hour or two this stopped bothering me, but I do understand where people are coming from when they cite this as proof that this re-release is lazier than a drowsy Slowpoke. If expanding the field of view wasn't feasible, they could’ve at least added some cutesy frames to toggle between.
A lack of online functionality is also a bummer. Trades are local only, so if I want to evolve my Haunter into a Gengar, I’m out of luck because what Millennial that grew up with Pokémon has friends that live nearby nowadays, am I right?
While the black borders didn’t bother me, the lack of new features did. I would’ve loved to see Game Freak add some kind of challenge or remix to the game, such as reworked Pokémon spawns or NPC trainers with full, competitive teams rather than two Kakuna that only use Harden. A Master Quest, if you will. This would’ve gone a long way toward making the price point more digestible.
That said, playing through LeafGreen again has given me a fresh perspective on how far modern Pokémon games have come. I have been highly critical of the more recent entries, but going back in time to the GBA version of Kanto rewarded me with newfound appreciation for the mechanics in the modern titles, as well as for how things used to be.
You see, FireRed & LeafGreen were released before the Physical and Special Move split, meaning Dark-type attacks like Bite are all Special moves, while Shadow Ball is a Physical move because that’s what all Ghost-type moves nonsensically are.
This creates fun little build challenges for certain Pokémon, such as my Flareon that has a higher Physical Attack stat than Special, despite Fire-type moves being exclusively the latter. It’s not as easy as slapping Flare Blitz on it and calling it a day; instead, I had to grind the slot machines in the Rocket Game Corner not for a Dratini or a Porygon, but rather a Shadow Ball TM that turned my Flareon into a Psychic, Ghost-deleting menace.
Here, there’s no way to sneak up on Pokémon and backstrike them with a Poké Ball for a higher chance of capture. No Alpha or overlevelled Pokémon roam wide-open spaces or are visible on the map. You can’t send Pokémon out to auto-battle, collecting crafting items as they amass experience. You can’t freely learn and remember moves at any time or even withdraw Pokémon whenever you want, and the 151 original Pokémon make the adventure feel cramped compared to the 400+ available in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
I mean none of this as a negative. It’s charming to go back to something so simple and concise as the series continues to explore new mechanics, and it's a great way to remember 30 years of Pokémon.
What’s more, my time with LeafGreen allowed me to appreciate how the series has evolved as a whole because — to be honest — I wouldn’t want a new Pokémon game in this classic, linear style. For that, we now have easy access to FireRed & LeafGreen.
HMs still suck as much as a Bugcatcher’s Caterpie, though.
Conclusion
All told, this FireRed & LeafGreen re-release is undoubtedly a lazy way to celebrate 30 years of Pokémon. For the asking price, Game Freak and The Pokémon Company could’ve included some extra goodies, like a hard mode or online functionality.
Still, this is the most convenient way to experience the charm of the original Kanto adventure, and going back in time to see how much the Pokémon series has grown gave me a newfound appreciation for all the catchin’ I’ve done over three decades, and all that there is to come. Now give us Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, please.
Comments 42
"Best way to play this Kanto classic" I am not sure about that.
PS: Pssssst, one of those options is completely free btw (Its Emulation not the Deck!)
Lackluster emulation from Nintendo as usual lol
I'm actually really glad that they hardly changed anything. I wanted to play a classic, unedited Pokémon game on my Switch for $20, which is why the addition of the word filter is a massive disappointment (I wouldn't have pre-ordered it if they were upfront about its addition). Though I am glad that the Mystery Gift Mythicals are built in.
Not a 10/10 because of the word filter, but I have been enjoying the gameplay when I'm not thinking about the word filter, so I give it an 8/10 score.
No online was the worst one for me. We have to trade Pokemon the same way cavemen did.
Just want to casually inform people here that the Switch release for these games was datamined, and the emulator running these games activates emulator hacks based on which ROM is loaded into it, and it checks for five different ROMs, being FireRed, LeafGreen, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Now why do you suppose it checks for ROMs of games that aren't available on the eShop right now? 🤔
It's a port that comes up a little short.
It's been a soothing experience replaying this. It looks good on the Switch, no complaints. It's nice to have the somewhat pure experience. It's hard to resist speeding up the game when playing on emulators.
It's sufficient for what it is. I'm having fun.
Loving this atm. Only thing that maybe stops it being the “best” way to play these games is lack of ability to trade with RSE/Colo/XD…hopefully this is to come.
But otherwise looks and plays great. And being able to seamlessly swap between handheld and TV is a dream.
As someone who has never played any Pokemon games, outside of Pokemon Snap on the N64, I'm actually pretty excited about this release.
@Zuljaras
I don't think legitimate review websites can reference emulation as an option. I could be wrong, though.
I do wish they updated the text so it wasn't the same as the original. It looks fine on a small GBA screen, but not so great when playing it on my 50" TV.
My main complaint with these games has always been with how they pretend Johto Pokémon don't exist until the post-game. Would it really hurt anything to give us the option to evolve Golbat before the Elite Four? It's also odd that the Dark type exists, but we have no Dark type Pokémon to use for the majority of the game.
@Zuljaras Can you please let us all know where to get a steam deck for $0.
@Zuljaras the Analogue Pocket has an even better screen for these type of games than any of those options. And it can play real carts or sideloaded roms.
@Erigen Same. Not only is it the "caveman" way but as the article mentions you may not have the option to trade with friends. What if I live in a rural area where no one else plays Pokemon. This is true in my case, I live in southern Delaware, which is basically a glorified retirement community in the middle of nowhere. Good luck finding Pokemon fans out here. So I basically have to either buy a second Switch and a copy of the opposite version or else I'm locked out of the opposite version's Pokemon and trade evolutions like Alakazam or Gengar? Yeah no, that's a non-starter in the year 2026. Not supporting this lazy, cash-grabby slop unless they backpedal on no online (which seems unlikely).
I’d love to get one of these because it’s been so long since I played it but the asking price is absurd for something that’s so easily playable by other means.
Also it really does wind me up that I’m paying for a subscription service with GBA games as a main selling point yet they decide to flog some of its defining games separately rather than include them with the sub. Glad to have the option of owning them, I think every game on it should be available to buy as well but at least put them on NSO too.
It's funny that the article calls the port "lazy" as if the people working on it had lofty ambitions but didn't have the energy to make something better (as opposed to this being their vision from the start of the project based on the budget and timeline alloted.)
I don't mean this as a criticism, I just find the word "lazy" in gaming discourse kinda odd, especially considering just how much time and effort goes into making anything game-related. If you asked me to take the Pokemon FireRed mod and add Mystery Gift items, that'd occupy me for a good few months at least.
Online functionality would make this a must-buy for me.
@Nep-Nep-Freak there's a reason the mentioned "master quest" idea is called that, you could basically have the option for the original rom and a significantly more modified one and have them be entirely separate. they wouldn't need to stuff it all into the same thing, for instance.
of course, this is game freak and not nintendo so some higher-up over there loves not cutting good deals. if extra stuff like that was a thing, or the price was bumped down, i would maybe consider biting.
@TripleJump Not to mention it's false, anyway; they did take the time to fix the roar glitch with Entei, Raikou, and Suicide, add censorship so that you can't use naughty words when naming your character/rival or nicknaming your Pokémon, and made it possible to unlock event-exclusive items, which are added to your inventory after beating the Elite Four. Sure, it doesn't change as much as your average ROM hack, but these are very welcome quality of life inclusions.
Who cares if save states make it easier? We're just revisiting old content anyway. They arguably make all the NSO games "easier." Big deal. Let us play them and figure that out for ourselves. Nintendo literally put out "SP" versions of NES games to aid us in hopefully reaching the ends of the games. Completing your Pokédex is a grind. Maybe helping people climb that mountain isn't such a bad thing.
I think that's a fair score but also personally I'm loving having this on the Switch. Definitely some parts of it that have aged - the overall slow pace, Kanto's wonky level structure, not having stuff like Fairy or the physical / special split - but still finding it feels so much nicer revisiting these older games on the Switch than playing the newer ones and really hoping they do similar ports for the gen 4 and 5 games at some point.
Hoping for RSE next so I can then retire & store my cartridges for good, one of my Ruby ones stopped working so been scared to replay Ruby ever since
To be fair, access to Birth and Naval Island will be new content to many if not most even among those who played these back in the day, me included - that along with the legendary beasts glitch fix, the unfortunate censorship and HOME support is certainly more realistic than completely reworking the game to add a "hard mode" and to a lesser extent also online functionality (especially without further rising the price which people are complaining about as is)...
Anyway, personally I'm so looking forward to replaying FireRed on Switch thanks to this rerelease (in Japanese for my channel, most likely as soon as I finish Mario Advance 2) - glad that those here already playing these are having fun and judging by their sales I bet that applies to the general public, too!
$20 for some roms with minimal upgrades is ridiculous. Nintendo really knows their audience and plays on their nostalgia.
It’s crazy that not a single reviewer likes Pokemon on this site.
I mean without pokemon I wouldn’t exist.
The recent datamine found compatibility with Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald so there is a high likelihood they will be released next. I would like to get all the main DS Pokemon games as well on the Switch but I assume the likelihood of that happening is much lower than R/S/E. I assume the original Gen 1 and 2 games will not be released since FR/LG basically are meant to be in place of Gen 1 and if they ever decide to re-release Gen 2 they will just release the DS remake.
I definitely haven't been playing Radical Red on my phone for free instead of this cheap cash in.
@Don They're going to make so much money from this release alone that I think Gen 1+2 will happen down the line.
Gen 4 onwards probably won't happen till a DS Classics line is launched first, especially if the rumours/speculation of an additional screen attachment come to light.
If they do this say, as a new Pokemon Day tradition (Ruby/Sapphire do turn 25 next year after all), that's 3 years of releases till they get round to the DS titles (I would assume the 3rd versions would come a few months after the duo versions of their respective gen.).
Either way, too much money to leave on the table when they've now opened the floodgates.
@kmtrain83 Sure, but it is far from "the best way to play".
@nuke13 I referenced the Deck as an option because I love emulating on it. The free option is to get the games not the device. But you can play it on any cheap emulation handheld or low end PC/Laptop.
@HammerKirby Bingo!
I've played every mainline game. I think Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (in handheld) are the best way to experience Kanto on Switch. FRLG are missing too many modern QOL improvements. I will not be replaying these on Switch any time soon.
It boggles my mind that they didn't do even the most basic tiny remaster. LIke literally all you had to do was make a widescreen version. Gamefreak is the absolute laziest pokemon dev.
"What should we do for the 30th?"
"Literally just sell the rom who cares"
I dunno, man… 7/10 seems low. I’m playing LeafGreen alongside my son playing FireRed and honestly… I don’t know if it’s the father/son thing or what, but I’m enjoying going back to these ones far more than I expected. They hold up far better than I would’ve thought. The online features should be there, there should be something new in the game, but outside that, it’s still honestly a remarkable game. It has such little excess too, so its simplicity is such an interesting thing circa 2026.
And what’s more is that I can compare my nostalgic perspective with the fresh perspective of my son who is hooked on the game. It’s his first RPG and he’s understanding the consequences of picking Charmander as a starter, but he’s also figuring it out. I see him learning the same things I learned by intuition. The game doesn’t exactly tell you what you need to do, what Pokémon you need, but it does let you figure it out. I sort of realized how hand holdy most games are in the series going back to this one. Even the Let’s Go games make things more obvious than these remakes do. It’s such a pure Pokemon experience and rightfully so, as it is basically ground zero, even though it’s a remake.
Is the price high? Perhaps. Should these be on NSO? Probably. But realistically, going back and playing this game sort of puts most games I played in 2025 to shame and I wasn’t expecting to feel that way at all.
@Browt Alana Hughes just gave Pokopia a glowing review.
@somnambulance I think it would be, this is a kinda disappointing release that they should have done more on, but also this game is still amazing and fun.
Mediocre packaging. This game deserved better.
@Browt Pokemon Compnay doesn't like Pokemon. Lazy releases like this tell me that much. We're all sitting here wishing they would care enough about it to spend more than like 2 days to make a worthwile re-release
20€/$ Rom with nothing added. Not even a nice physical.
@slowpoke_tail To be fair, the Johto games pretend Johto Pokémon don't exist as well.
As for the other comments about "Just emulate it", well great news, that's exactly what we're doing!
I prefer to play this the way it was meant to be played on a handheld.
Analogue Pocket is perfect for this era.
The games are what they are, and we all know what they are. Given they've had no updates, reviews should probably reflect the current packaging in the context of 2026 rather than focusing only the content of the games themselves - and this review does that nicely.
The original FRLG were great when they released. They're still better Pokemon remakes than BDSP because they brought Gen 1 fully into Gen 3.
You can love the games themselves. But this packaging? Really disappointing. If it was any other game from 20+ years ago and they just threw up a ROM on the eShop, people would rightly call it out as a "lazy" release. Why should it be any different just because this is Pokemon?
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