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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