10 Reasons Why Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Remakes Are a Huge Upgrade

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen first launched in 2004, being remakes of Pokémon Red & Blue, but with all the enhancements of the Game Boy Advance hardware, as well as a ton of gameplay updates from the Gen 2 & 3 eras.

At the time, there was a question about whether Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen were even necessary. Sure, the lack of backward compatibility meant that the Gen 1 & 2 Pokémon couldn't be brought forward, but surely these 'Mons could have been included in Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire.

What Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen represented was a chance for Game Freak to have a do-over, as it's no secret that Pokémon Red & Blue had a ton of technical issues, as well as a distinct lack of content outside the multiplayer.

Now that Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen have been released on the Nintendo Switch in 2026, fans have a chance to look at them with fresh eyes, especially after the debacle that has been the past few mainline games. Are Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen worthy remakes of the Gen 1 titles, or are they just the first in a long line of cash grabs?

10 Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Finally Added a Girl Protagonist for Kanto

Green Left The Manga

One reason Pokémon was so successful in the early days is that it was one of the few kid-friendly franchises that appealed to both boys and girls. Before Pokémon, kids' franchises were usually action and cars for boys, and dolls and decorating for girls.

Even from the start, Pokémon had a huge female audience, but in Pokémon Red & Blue, the only playable character option was for a guy. This was true even in Pokémon Gold & Silver, and there wouldn't be a female protagonist until Pokémon Crystal.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen marked the first time that players could go through the Kanto region as a girl, with Leaf finally being a playable option. A few decades later, and she'd also be chosen as the female Pokémon Trainer skin in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Sure, there were mods for Pokémon Red & Blue that allowed for female playable characters, but Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen finally made it official, fulfilling the dreams of many people who wanted to experience Kanto as a protagonist who better represented them.

9 Steel/Dark-Type Finally Balanced the Game

The Age of Psychic-Type Dominance Was Over

Pokémon Red & Blue were notoriously unbalanced games, with Psychic-type Pokémon far outstripping everything else in competitive battles. This was also true of the story mode, where a single Kadabra could carry the party through to the end.

Pokémon Gold & Silver made changes to better balance things out by introducing the Dark and Steel-type Pokémon. Not only did these have a huge advantage against Psychic-types, but they helped bolster previously overlooked types, like Fighting.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen retconned the events of the first game by making Dark and Steel-type Pokémon a part of the canon Kanto region. While players won't get to use them much outside of the Magnemite line, what's there can be used against the Psychic-types of the region.

Giving Bite the Dark-type is especially useful as an anti-Psychic counter, as it not only dealt a ton of damage, but had a chance of making them flinch.

8 Breeding Finally Made the Eeveelutions Less of a Pain

Shame About Espeon & Umbreon

Breeding and the concept of Pokémon gender weren't introduced until Pokémon Gold & Silver. This meant that it was extremely difficult to acquire certain Pokémon without a lot of restarting.

Anyone who wanted to complete the Pokédex, ideally, needed a friend with a fresh copy of the game, who could trade them the other starter Pokémon, as well as two more Eevee for their Eeveelutions.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen make it a lot easier for players to casually fill out these missing spots in the Pokédex, as breeding facilities can be found in the post-game on the Sevii Islands.

Once the daycare is unlocked, players can breed their starters and Eevee and trade them with players, meaning no one has to keep restarting their game to get everything.

7 Recap Feature Should Be a Standard in All RPGs

Not Everyone Can Speedrun Kanto

RPGs can be long experiences, and players can waste many hours of their lives just reaching the end point. Anyone who has attempted to get caught up in something like Final Fantasy 14 will know just how grueling it can be to keep going.

The problem with long games is that life can get in the way, so players sometimes have to put down the controller and step away for a while. When they return, chances are, they'll have forgotten key elements of the story.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen aren't exactly the most deeply rich story-driven experiences, but the game still makes the effort to do a recap of the most recent events every time the player loads a save, which they can skip if they so choose.

The recap feature is a fantastic idea, and frankly, it should be standard in most RPGs. It's very easy to drop off from a game because the player forgot what to do next after a break, but there's no excuse when it's the Gen 1 remakes.

6 Charmander Players Didn't Suffer as Much

No More Grinding for Butterfree

Pokémon Red & Blue had an unofficial difficulty setting in the form of the Starters. Bulbasaur was easy mode, because it'd thrash the first two Gyms, and Squirtle was normal mode, because it'd beat Brock, but was neutral against Misty.

Charmander players had to struggle to survive, as not only were they useless against Brock, but Misty's Water-types would obliterate it. This meant relying on wild Pokémon to get through the game.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen made things a lot easier for Charmander players. Not only did it get Metal Claw at level 13, but Mankey was moved to the Route by the Indigo League, giving players weapons to use against Brock.

These changes make playing Charmander less of a drag, as there's far less grinding involved at the start of the game, at a time when there are few options for gaining experience points.

5 Trainers Can Be Fought Again

Time to Send Youngster Joey to the Shadow Realm

A big issue with Pokémon Red & Blue is that it's easy to run out of single-player content. The only trainers who could be fought again were the Elite Four and the Champion, meaning everyone else could only be faced once in battle.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen changed everything with the introduction of the Vs. Seeker. This device lets players replay matches against trainers they have previously defeated.

Not only does the Vs. Seeker provides more options for level grinding, but it ensures that there are more opponents in the world than just the top five trainers in the region.

It's just a shame that the player doesn't acquire the Vs. Seeker earlier in the game, as it would have made any grinding for the Brock and Misty fights a lot easier.

4 The Surf Softlock Was Finally Removed

What Monster Releases Their Water-Type Pokémon?

Pokémon Red & Blue had one of the most obscure softlocks in video game history, one that most players would have never thought was even possible.

When the player reaches Cinnabar Island, if they release all of the HM-using Pokémon from their party, spend all of their money, have no Poké Balls left, and didn't pick up the Fishing Rods, then they were stuck, as they couldn't use Surf/Fly to leave, and couldn't acquire any more.

The Gen 3 games finally prevented this softlock from occurring. It became impossible to release the last Pokémon in the party that could use HM moves, meaning players could never lose their travel options.

The Cinnabar Island softlock was damn near impossible for the casual player to pull off, but clearly some kids in the world did, and it took Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen for Game Freak to put in a failsafe.

3 The Old Internet Rumors Sort of Came True

MissingNo Continues to Not Exist

A big part of the allure of Pokémon Red & Blue was the urban legends that sprang up around the game, due to them launching at a time when the Internet was becoming more commonplace. These were helped by the existence of Mew, an actual secret Pokémon no one could acquire through regular means.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen may not have featured the PokéGods or made any of the creepypastas come true, but it did have some nods to the urban legends.

Possibly the most famous urban legend involved finding Mew under the truck near the S.S. Anne. While there's no Pokémon under there in the remakes, they did include a Lava Cookie as a reference for everyone who went searching.

Many of Pokémon Red & Blue's urban legends involved beating the Elite Four a certain number of times to unlock something. This finally came true in Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen, as beating the Elite Four would add a new plush to Lorelei's house. Unfortunately, the player needs to beat them twenty-five times per doll, so they have a lot of grinding ahead of them.

2 Kanto Finally Has a Post-Game

There's More Than Just Mewtwo in the World

In Pokémon Red & Blue, once the player defeated the Champion, the only things left to do were visiting the Cerulean Cave to catch Mewtwo, and completing the Pokédex. There were also competitive battles for those so inclined.

The lack of any kind of significant post-game was frustrating for fans, as it was easy to run out of things to do in this exciting world of Pokémon.

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen finally gave Kanto fans what they wanted, via the Sevii Islands, a brand-new map full of locations that fully opened up after completing the game.

There was also the National Pokédex, which allowed Johto Pokémon to appear in the region. This meant that there were far more Pokémon to collect this time around, meaning players could spend way more time in Kanto than ever before.

1 The Nintendo Switch Version Is Definitive

Thanks to the Legendary Beasts

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen were released on the Game Boy Advance, but they had issues at launch that the developers couldn't foresee. This was also in the era before games could be patched via downloading updates, meaning bugs were stuck there.

The Nintendo Switch & Switch 2 versions of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen are the definitive versions of the game, as they're not just ROMs thrown into an emulator: they're dedicated releases made for the new hardware.

In practise, there haven't been many changes, but easily the most annoying glitch from the originals is now fixed. See, in Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen, one of the three Legendary Beasts from Pokémon Gold & Silver is unleashed into the wild. However, Entei and Raikou know Roar, and if they use it, they won't appear on the map again.

The Nintendo Switch iteration of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen finally fixes this glitch, as well as giving players access to the Event-exclusive Mystic and Aurora Tickets, giving them access to Deoxys and either Ho-Oh or Lugia, meaning players aren't missing out on content, or at least they won't be when Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire are released on the new hardware.