The Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed ports are good versions of the tremendous GBA games that come with some small, but sometimes understandable caveats. With Pokémon Home connection patched in the future, these ports will easily be some of the best Pokémon games on Switch.
On Pokémon Day 2026, Nintendo did not only celebrate the 30th anniversary of their pocket monster brand with the announcement of the new Pokémon game generation. Instead, they gave players an immediate present in the form of Switch ports for two retro Pokémon games. FireRed and LeafGreen’s drops were announced just a few days before for 27 February 2026, the anniversary date on which the Pokémon Presents showcase took place, and they dropped right after the presentation.
FireRed and LeafGreen are GameBoy Advance games from 2004. They are extensive remakes of the first Pokémon games, specifically the Japanese titles Red and Green from 1996 (which came to the USA and Australia as Red and Blue in 1998 and to Europe a year later). Not only are they transporting the former GameBoy games to lovingly pixelated GBA graphics and enhancing the iconic trip through Kanto with various quality of life features from the third Pokémon generation, they are also adding new areas into and after the original main story, as well as Pokémon from the second (Gold/Silver/Crystal) and third (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald) generation. They way FireRed and LeafGreen do that is chosen so that the original game experience persists: Pokémon from the second and third generation are only ‘discovered’ in the game after playing through the main story, collecting a certain amount of Pokémon and then playing an extensive main quest that ties both games to Ruby and Sapphire narratively, in the form of seven new island areas, the Sevii Archipelago. After this quest, not only do the new Pokémon become available in the whole game world, LeafGreen and FireRed also become compatible with Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald for trading.
Or, at least the original GBA versions were compatible. Nintendo’s current ports of both games are not connectable to any other Pokémon service on the Switch, altough the company has announced that they are looking into connecting the games to Pokémon Home. Apart from the obvious financial appeal, this is also probably the reason why both titles are not part of Nintendo’s Online GBA emulation: The rewind and safe state options of that service would mess so heavily with the internal Pokémon economy of breeding and competitive training that an official Pokémon version with emulator features would break Nintendo’s entire Pokémon infrastructure. This is why we will most likely never see Pokémon games in the Nintendo Online service.
Instead, each version of both games is sold for 19,99 euros. And each version in this case does not only mean LeafGreen and FireRed, but every game language version of each of those both games. Like on the GBA cartridge, every game version only features one language – English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Every sale only commits to one language version, buyers do not get access to all five versions (as they would have on the Nintendo Online service). This, again, is likely so the upcoming trading system cannot be abused, because every instance of a game holds unique opportunity for Pokémon breeders and competitive trainers. It is, however, also unfortunate, because it takes away player choice without significant monetary investment.
The Nintendo eShop versions of FireRed and LeafGreen are, quite literally, perfect versions of both games. Perfect, because they are amazing game titles, remakes of some of the best games in the series that are itself counted among the best games in the series. Perfect, because they are running exactly the same as the GBA versions, look the same and sound the same, albeit currently missing their trading and multiplayer battle options. The caveats of price and language are unfortunate, yes. But at the same time, these games are still as great as they have been when they came out 22 years ago, and they are worth their price just from the perspective of game quality. It would be nice if at least there existed a bundle of both versions for a reduced price however, since as usual, the version predetermines which creatures can be caught. This means that in the current form, the Pokédex cannot be completed in any game version, which will leave some players dissatisfied until the trade functionality is added.
Some small caveats do nothing about the fact that FireRed and LeafGreen are still some of the best Pokémon games released to this day. If they are the starting point for digital releases of Emerald and Crystal for example, they are welcome for that as well.
