Posts Tagged ‘leaf’

9 Mar

From Fire: A 30th Anniversary Pokémon Replay

Posted by vagrantesque in Games. Tagged: , , , , , .

Pokémon stops for no man.

In a move that is still rather ambiguous in the extent of its planning, The Pokémon Company saw fit this Pokémon Day to re-release Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green in an official digital capacity on the Nintendo Switch. I don’t generally like to replay videogames, but the main series Pokémon titles are a pretty reliable exception given how different they can feel each time depending on the player’s team composition. I did, however, replay Leaf Green on cartridge barely 18 months ago in conjunction with my first Game Boy Micro experience, so I wondered just how much I’d really get out of doing it all again so soon.

For about ten seconds, of course.

Pokémon’s extensive 30th anniversary festivities, the excitement of a few nostalgic friends, a lack of specific experience with Fire Red Version, the promise of screenshots without janky camera glare, a deflating 2027 release window for the upcoming Gen 10 Pokémon games, and a dense approaching block of binge-worthy television content to play in the background all added up to a purchase and playthrough that, let’s be quite real, was always inevitable.

And so I give you Vagrant Rant’s historic fifth Pokémon replay post: a dive into Pokémon Fire Red Version on the Nintendo Switch, and quite possibly my most enjoyable Kanto region playthrough ever.

A Surprising Fit

The Nintendo Switch port of Fire Red divided opinion when it slipped onto the Nintendo eShop a week out from the 30th anniversary Pokemon Presents showcase: some amplified voices bemoaned the lack of the game’s inclusion in the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack service, which already includes plenty of classic Game Boy Advance Games; others celebrated in the opposite direction, welcoming a one-time purchase that requires no further commitment.

Fans have speculated for years as to how the retro Pokémon titles would eventually hit the Switch family, and there were always pros and cons to both approaches. An NSO inclusion would mean restore points that’d make shiny/nature/IV resets an absolute dream and guarantee forced online support; conversely, a standalone release would allow for potential Pokémon Home transfers and maybe even built-in mythical Pokémon events previously locked away on cartridge.

As it turns out, we got the latter, and both advantageous boxes on that side of the equation – which were by no means guaranteed – have thankfully been checked. There are also no ugly grey-gradient bars on either side of the screen, and Start/Select have been automatically re-mapped to both Plus/Minus and X/Y. But for me at least, a standalone port – especially one listed online without an explicit Switch 2 logo – raised further questions about image quality.

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31 Jul

Revisiting My “Favourite” Pokemon Game After Two Decades on a Console For Ants

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, GBA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Life can be pretty predictable at times, but often it just has a funny way about it. This site may have already enjoyed a slightly more-active-than-usual 2024, but following the traditional post-June hype season lull it was probably going to stay pretty quiet for a few months as per tradition. But suddenly, there is something else to write about.

You see, long after I had given up hope of playing a working Game Boy Micro – let alone owning one – a deal too good to refuse came across my entirely metaphorical desk out of nowhere a couple of months back. I am now, at long last, in possession of a tiny baby handheld console I didn’t even register as existing until long after Nintendo had stopped manufacturing it. And with a barely-believable GBM comes the question “What do I even play on this thing?”

A minor excavation campaign revealed some potential candidates: Advance Wars feels like it was made for this machine, and it’s been a real long time since I played through Final Fantasy Tactics Advance – with no sign it’s coming to Nintendo Switch anytime soon either. But would you look at that, Pokemon Leaf Green just so happens to turn 20 this year, and for a decent chunk of my life I told people it was my favourite Pokemon title. Across multiple forms of public transport and various hotels and other locations, I’ve been working my way through a long-overdue playthrough; let’s see how it holds up then, shall we?

But first:

It’s So Tiny!

The Game Boy Micro feels so miniscule in 2024 that it’s barely believable. The thing is a quarter of the size of my phone, which was already the smallest device capable of playing games in my life. Picking up the tiny AyaNeo Air Pro after a session with the Micro makes it feel bulky and cumbersome, to say nothing of the even larger Switch OLED. Of course back when it came out it was competing with a fleet of already-small dedicated Game Boy handhelds, but let’s not understate things here: even compared to those, this one is an almost cartoonish miniature.

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