10 Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Changes That Quietly Improved the Original Games

1 week ago 11

Published Mar 20, 2026, 2:15 PM EDT

Daniel has been playing games for entirely too many years, with his Steam library currently numbering nearly 750 games and counting. When he's not working or watching anime, he's either playing or thinking about games, constantly on the lookout for fascinating new gameplay styles and stories to experience. Daniel has previously written lists for TheGamer, as well as guides for GamerJournalist, and he currently covers tech topics on SlashGear.

Originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen were the very first remakes of mainline series Pokémon games, specifically of the original Red and Green versions (Red and Blue here in the States). Given there was a nearly-decade-long difference between these releases, it goes without saying that a lot of standards in game design and hardware capabilities had changed, and while the original games were excellent as they were, it’d be a waste not to add at least a few changes and improvements.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Review

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen are on Nintendo Switch, harkening back to an era that fans romanticize, but might not be as fun as they recall.

Obviously, FireRed and LeafGreen had plenty of more overt changes to bring them more in line with the Gen 3 games, such as expanding the Kanto Dex to the National Dex, adding the Sevii Islands to find the new Pokémon, expanding Team Rocket’s role in the post-game, and more. In addition to the major stuff, though, there were lots of smaller changes and additions that helped to refine the original experience, ensuring the youngsters of the time could get that Gen 1 experience without suffering the growing pains.

10 Revamped Music

Put That Sound Chip to Use

Pokemon FireRed LeafGreen Viridian Forest

The Game Boy Advance had more advanced stereo sound than the original Game Boy, not to mention a more diverse soundfont capable of lots of overlapping instrumentals, as opposed to the original’s tendency to interrupt itself with sound effects. All of this led to more elaborate, dynamic music for GBA games, FireRed and LeafGreen included. That said, the original versions’ soundtracks are iconic, so rather than replacing them, they merely revamped them.

FireRed and LeafGreen feature all the same songs and the original Gen 1 titles, from the quiet sounds of Pallet Town to the distinct ramp-up of the wild Pokémon and Trainer encounter themes. All of these songs, however, have been punched up with the GBA’s MIDI capabilities, creating tunes with the same recognizable melodies, but more varied and overlapping instruments. For example, the Pokémon Center theme has a backing track of horns and chimes, while the Viridian Forest has spooky drums and bongos. Even Lavender Town manages to sound creepier, almost like choir music, which is pretty impressive considering the creepy vibes the original Game Boy soundfont could produce.

9 Game Introduction

What am I Doing Here?

You have to understand that, when the original Game Boy first came out, and Pokémon along with it, we had no idea what we were doing. “Tutorials” were not a thing back then, and at least to my recollection, I was the only kid who bothered reading instruction manuals. If this was your first time picking up a Game Boy, just figuring out what buttons did was an undertaking. This is why, in a practice that would become standard going forward, FireRed and LeafGreen added a little tutorial to the start.

FireRed and LeafGreen added an “Introduction” feature, which would help to familiarize you with the game’s buttons and actions, including movement, navigating menus, and so on. It’s a small, seemingly inconsequential detail, but remember, Pokémon games are for kids first and foremost, and kids need a little helping hand sometimes. Whether or not a kid actually bothers to read the tutorial is another matter, but you know what they say about bringing a horse to water.

8 Resume Feature

What Was I Doing, Again?

The tricky thing about playing large-scale JRPGs like Pokémon back in the day was that you needed to play consistently, or you’d forget what you were doing. Red and Blue launched well before things like maps and objectives were a thing, so if you saved your game in an obtuse spot and didn’t pick it up again for a month, odds were good you’d be completely lost. FireRed and LeafGreen remedy this with a handy reminder on boot-up.

Whenever you boot up the game, you get the option to check your current progress by recalling the last four important things that happened in the game’s story. If you just beat a gym, foiled Team Rocket, explored a big cavern, or whatever else, the game will let you know, and help to point you in the right direction for whatever needs to happen next. After beating the Elite Four and entering the post-game, this feature instead tells you the last four interesting things you did, like catching Legendary Pokémon, which is nice for completion’s sake.

7 Item Sprites

See What's In Stock

In the original releases of Red and Blue, the items in your bag were depicted exclusively as words on a list. It wasn’t the most intuitive way to look for a particular item, especially if you were like eight years old and barely literate. This was actually an enduring annoyance for several generations of Pokémon games, made only slightly more bearable by the introduction of separate item pockets in Gen 2. FireRed and LeafGreen were actually the first games in the series to fix this one with the simple addition of item sprites.

Every item in the game, from Potions to Leftovers, had their own unique sprites, all visible next to their description in your bag. Instead of having to read every single item name in the list, you could just see the sprite and go, “oh, that’s what I’m looking for.” Unfortunately, this didn’t apply to items held by Pokémon, so you still needed to check their stats to see what they had with them, but it was a good step in the right direction that later games would build upon.

6 Pickup Modification

Where Did these Berries Come From?

To bring FireRed and LeafGreen in line with their companions in Gen 3, Ruby and Sapphire, the games had multiple gameplay elements and mechanics laid on top of the baseline Gen 1 formula. This includes Pokémon abilities, which we’ll get more into later, but there’s a specific one I want to highlight: the Pickup ability.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen How to Get Dratini

In Ruby and Sapphire, after winning a fight, a Pokémon with Pickup had a chance to acquire a random helpful item. This was changed in FireRed and LeafGreen to solve a particular problem, that being the lack of Berries in the Kanto region. You can’t grow Berries in Kanto or obtain them consistently in any other way, so to even the playing field a bit, every type of Berry was added to Pickup’s probabilities, and with higher percentages than other kinds of items. This way, as long as you had a couple of Pokémon with Pickup in your party, you could get a relatively stable supply of Berries as you traveled.

5 Fixed Move Typing

No More Normal Bites

Pokemon FireRed LeafGreen Charizard Magneton

For those who only got on the Pokémon bandwagon recently, you may not know, but Steel and Dark typing didn’t exist in Gen 1. No sir, they were added in Gen 2, with a lot of moves and Pokémon from Gen 1 given retroactive typing changes. For example, Bite, one of the most well-known Dark-type moves, was originally Normal-type. Alongside individual Pokémon typings, these move typing changes were carried over into FireRed and LeafGreen.

A small variety of moves that changed types between Gen 1 and Gen 2 had those changes reflected in FireRed and LeafGreen, including switching Gust from Normal to Flying, Sand Attack from Normal to Ground, and Karate Chop from Normal to Fighting. Besides helping to diversify the movelist a bit, it was also good for balancing the gameplay. Back in the day, Psychic types were borderline unstoppable, but giving many Pokémon a fighting chance in the form of the now-Dark-type Bite helped to even the odds a bit.

4 Professor Oak’s Assistants

Handing Out Helpful Stuff

In the original Red and Blue games, you would encounter a handful of Professor Oak’s laboratory aides over the course of your journey. Each one would judge the number of caught Pokémon registered to your Dex, and reward you with a handy item if you met their standards. These guys remain in FireRed and LeafGreen, but they’re also used as a convenient way to distribute some handy items that were introduced in Gen 2 and 3.

Several more of Oak’s aides can be found around Kanto, distributing new rewards for progression and PokéDex registrations. For instance, after getting the Boulder Badge from Brock in Pewter City, you can find a new aide near the exit to Route 3 that rewards you with the Running Shoes. Some other new rewards include an Everstone for preventing your Pokémon from evolving, and an Amulet Coin for increasing your prize money. One aide in particular rewards you with the Exp. Share in lieu of the original version’s Exp. All item, which is good, because the Exp. All was kind of terrible.

3 Expanded Movelist

New Moves from Across the Pond

With every subsequent generation of Pokémon games, there are usually at least a few new moves added to the overall movelist, usually to better suit whatever new mechanics are added in that particular generation. With two generations’ worth of games releasing after Red and Blue, there were obviously quite a few new additions to the catalog, all of which were carried over into FireRed and LeafGreen.

In addition to the aforementioned changes to certain moves’ typings, all the new moves introduced in Gen 2 and 3 were added to FireRed and LeafGreen, bringing the grand total of available moves up to 354. This saw the addition of some of my favorite moves in the franchise to the mix, such as Belly Drum, Iron Tail, Encore, and Aerial Ace, and more, all helping every available Pokémon reach their full potential. To properly support this, the TM list was also updated, though some Gen 1 TMs were no longer available as a result. Luckily, move tutors could still teach the old Gen 1 TM moves, so no harm, no foul.

2 Rebattle the Elite Four

Make Them Your Punching Bags

In just about any Pokémon game, battling the Elite Four is supposed to be your crowning achievement, proof positive that you have become a Pokémon Master. This was definitely the case in the original Red and Blue, but only really the first time. After you beat the Elite Four, which is a really cool way to end the game, there isn’t really anyone left in the game who could realistically challenge you. You could fight them again if you wanted, but the outcome would probably be the same.

In FireRed and LeafGreen, however, things got a little more interesting. The first time you beat the Elite Four, plus Blue, things went more or less the same as they originally did. After completing the questline on the Sevii Islands, though, you could return to the Indigo Plateau and fight them once again, this time with higher-leveled Pokémon and a few new additions to their teams from Gen 2. It’s not the hardest fight in the world, but it’s fun to see these top-ranked Trainers we all got used to pulling out a few new tricks for us.

1 Expanded Pokémon Details and Features

Natures, Abilities, Genders, and More

Pokemon FireRed LeafGreen storage system

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, Pokémon went through a lot of nitty-gritty mechanical changes between Gen 1 and Gen 3. The overall adventure and experience is more or less the same in FireRed and LeafGreen, Sevii Islands notwithstanding, but if you look under the hood, you’ll find that all of those changes, additions, and advancements have made the game a more elaborate experience overall.

FireRed and LeafGreen added all the new bits of Pokémon data and quantifiers introduced in Gen 2 and 3. As I mentioned earlier, this primarily includes abilities, the passive effects and modifiers all Pokémon possess, but it also includes stuff like genders and natures. The former provides some dimorphic differences between Pokémon you couldn’t see in the Gen 1 games, like how a female Pikachu has a heart-shaped tail, while the latter adds subtle modifiers to your Pokémon’s stat gains per level. You could still play FireRed and LeafGreen the same way you played Red and Blue, but these additions gave the games a lot more competitive potential, not to mention laying the groundwork for the more in-depth competitive Pokémon scene that would arise later.