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I was six when my Pokémon journey began. In 2004, I got a Game Boy Advance SP and went to a local toy store with my parents to get two games — I chose Sonic Advance 2 and Pokémon LeafGreen.
I’d play FireRed later, as well as Yellow, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and so on through the series (though I did stop doubling up for most generations from Diamond onwards), but LeafGreen was where it started. So it felt right for me to celebrate the series’ 30th birthday by enjoying the Nintendo Switch rerelease.
It’s everything I remember it being.
Review info
Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: February 27, 2026
The look, the sound, the sense of adventure, it’s all there perfectly recaptured on Nintendo’s latest system, and on Friday, 27th February, from 6pm until 3am, I couldn’t put this game down — I literally fell asleep on the sofa with my Switch 2 controllers in my hands.
When I awoke — at 1pm the next day — I grabbed a glass of water, nestled back into the groove in my couch, and picked up where I left off. I was in my own personal corner of heaven.
I adore this game. It hits the nostalgia sweet spot in a way only a few titles ever hope to be able to, and at the same time, I think it delivers the quintessential Pokémon experience that anyone can enjoy (be they newcomers or longtime fans like me). In fact, if you have yet to experience the phenomenon, this might be an excellent jumping-in point.
I do, however, feel this special release needed something a little more to completely justify itself to returning fans — beyond being simply existing in a way that isn’t a GBA cartridge.
Let’s Go
Remakes of the original Red and Green, which kicked off the series, FireRed and LeafGreen follow the same classic beats of the Kanto region that players first experienced in 1996.
You begin in Pallet Town where in Professor Oak’s Lab you choose one of Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle to be your starting companion before heading off on your adventure to catch and train more Pocket Monsters (aka Pokémon), and defeat eight powerful Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and Kanto’s champion — while also foiling the plans of the evil Team Rocket, and collecting 150 Kanto ‘mons for your PokéDex (Mew isn’t available in the Switch version for now).
There’s a sense of exploration to Kanto that isn’t so present in later titles. While there are hints you can learn by talking to non-player characters (NPCs), there’s not often a clear ‘Go here next’ sign to follow — especially in the middle section of the story, post gym three, where you are much freer to explore the remainder of the map.
This imbues FireRed and LeafGreen with a sense that this is a proper adventure rather than a pre-defined story you’re wandering through the beats of.
There’s something tough about the battles, too, that presents a more engaging challenge than the most recent generations. EXP isn’t shared amongst your whole team in these classics, keeping your party at a more balanced level to your foes, and there isn’t an abundance of Pokémon to choose from to build a perfect team early on, like you can in later entries.
I’m playing through the game as a Nuzlocke — a fan-made challenge based on the Pokémon: Hard Mode web comic by Nick Franco which imposes a few extra rules limiting how many ‘mons you can catch, and forcing you to release any that are defeated in battle — and after Nuzlocking later generations, where the concept of losing two companions to a Rattata in a single fight is inconceivable, I haven’t been entirely respectful of the difficulties LeafGreen can present and faced the consequences.
Hunting for something shiny
You can tell I adore LeafGreen and FireRed as much now as I did the original Game Boy games, but as I’m sitting playing them on my Nintendo Switch 2, I am left wanting more.
Unlike other Game Boy Advance ports on the Switch consoles, these aren’t part of the GBA catalogue you can access via the Switch Online + Expansion Pass membership, which costs $49.99 / £34.99 / AU$59.95 for 12 months. Instead, the games cost $19.99 / £16.99 / AU$30 each.
Best bit
The chiptune music is everything. The eeriness of Lavender Town, the tension of Gym Battles, the bombastic adventure exploring the routes between towns, it always perfectly captures the mood and is easily my favorite thing about these games.
There are some advantages to keeping these games separate from the emulator, such as indefinite offline play and Pokémon Home integration, and some of the Nintendo Classics emulator’s tools (like rewind) could enable exploits the series tends to avoid (though that didn’t stop the return of arbitrary code execution with these Switch ports).
However, if Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are asking us to pay a premium for these entries compared to other GBA games on the Switch system, I would have liked something a little more than a simple rerelease (though I do appreciate the inclusion of event tickets, which you can unlock after defeating the Elite Four).
I’m not asking for much. Maybe a new small area to help with filling out the National Dex, challenge mode options like a randomizer or releasing them as a double pack with Ruby and Sapphire.
Perhaps I’m just spoiled by still having both of the original cartridges in a box under my bed alongside my aged Game Boy Advance, so I can play the originals whenever I want, but given this is the series 30th birthday, an extra splash of special to these launches would have been a cherry on top of what is otherwise a superb return to Kanto.
Should you play Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed?
Play it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Accessibility
Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed don’t have any specific in-built accessibility features, but they don’t need them to be accessible.
The game’s turn-based battles and simpler exploration allow you to play completely at your own pace in a way that should be approachable to almost everyone. You only ever need to be able to press one button at a time, so if you can do that, you can enjoy Pokémon LeafGreen.
How I tested Pokémon LeafGreen / FireRed
I have mostly played Pokémon LeafGreen for this review, and I have been enjoying it on my Nintendo Switch 2. To best mimic my classic GBA experience, I’ve played a lot of this game in handheld mode, though I did also play a lot in docked mode — especially during longer sessions where my Switch’s battery life became a concern.
On my Amazon Fire QLED TV, the classic game actually looked pretty good. I was expecting a blurry mess, but the sprites maintained their handheld charm.
My docked controller of choice is usually my 8BitDo Ultimate 2, though I did use my Joy-Cons a lot in my testing, so I could play a little more lazily on my couch.
First reviewed February-March 2026.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
