10 Harsh Realities Of Playing Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen On Switch

It’s already been quite the year for Pokémon. While many major games are having anniversaries this year, most of them pale in comparison to the festivities going on for the classic Game Freak franchise.

There’s plenty of merchandise to peruse, new game announcements, updates for existing games, and re-releases abound. One such re-release is Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, which come with a few provisos you should know about. It’s been a long time since the release of the original Generation 1 remakes, and not many mechanics have carried over to the current era.

No Online Play

It makes sense to get to the elephant in the room first: the lack of online play. In other words, you cannot trade or battle online in any capacity, as FireRed and LeafGreen do not have direct online functionality of any kind.

There is support for local play, however, so if you have multiple pieces of Switch hardware and multiple copies of the game, you can trade with yourself. It’s not ideal, though, as Pokémon HOME support isn’t available yet. Right out of the gate, one major aspect of the series (multiplayer trading and battling) feels hamstrung.

No Home Support At Launch

The lack of Pokémon HOME support at launch hurts the most. Given that these are ports of games from two decades ago, it’s a bummer to see that they didn’t launch with support for HOME.

Since there are so many iconic Gen 1 characters involved in FireRed and LeafGreen, newcomers will have to miss out on transferring them out of the new re-releases and into other games. Even when HOME support does arrive, there’s a big asterisk.

When Home Does Come, It’s One-Way

Unfortunately, when HOME support arrives this year, transfers from FireRed and LeafGreen will be one-way. In other words, Pokémon you obtain in that pair of games can enter Pokémon HOME, and then be deposited into Scarlet and Violet, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Pokémon Champions, and other games.

If you transfer it out of FireRed and LeafGreen, you’re out of luck. You cannot get them back into these re-releases, and since it’s a one-way transfer, you can’t bring Pokémon into them either. This isn’t necessarily new for HOME, as many wrinkles have happened before (for instance, Pokémon Z-A, released in October 2025, still doesn’t have HOME support), but it’s not a great long-term situation.

One of the biggest points of contention with Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen is the price tag. These Switch editions are $19.99 each, bringing the grand total to $40 for both versions. That’s very steep for a direct Game Boy Advance port without major added functionality.

Fans have pointed out time and time again that Nintendo used to charge anywhere from $6.99 on the Wii U to $9.99 on the 3DS for retro games. While this isn’t necessarily a 1:1 situation, a flat $20 price (or less) for both editions would have been an easier pill to swallow.

Plus, each language version (English, French, Spanish) is a separate SKU, which causes a bit of confusion on the eShop. Make sure you buy the right language if you’re planning on picking them up.

Lack of Nintendo Classics Support

Sadly, FireRed and LeafGreen are also not available on the Switch Online Game Boy Advance app through the Nintendo Classics line. Since these are standalone games available directly on the Nintendo Switch eShop, you cannot utilize your Switch Online subscription to play them.

This approach has an excuse: to get HOME to work properly, it likely needed to be a separate release on the eShop and not through Nintendo Classics. However, Nintendo could have made a concession to Switch Online members by providing them with a non-HOME version of the game, or just delivering it to subscribers wholesale.

Old EXP Share Mechanics

For hardened Pokémon veterans, dealing with the old EXP sharing mechanics is nothing new. But for newer players, the idea of having to earn the EXP share piece of equipment and manually operate it isn’t something that’s been needed for multiple generations.

In the newer games, EXP share automatically divvies up experience as a foundational feature. In earlier generations, you had to manually unlock an item to enable the feature, and it was limited in scope.

This isn’t something I’d necessarily change (players figured things out back in Gen 1 and Gen 3 just fine), but it’s a harsh reality to be aware of if you’ve only played modern Pokémon games.

No Big Quality Of Life Changes

Sadly, in addition to all the provisos listed above, there aren’t many direct upgrades to entice existing FireRed and LeafGreen owners, especially if you aren’t keen on using the HOME connection. There are two main things that were altered in FireRed and LeafGreen:

• After becoming the league champion, you’ll get access to the Mystery Gift Pokémon by default.
• The “roar” glitch has been fixed for the Gen 2 Legendaries in the Sevii Islands endgame.

Other than that, no major quality-of-life upgrades are present. When coupled with the lack of launch support for HOME and no support for online play, it adds up. Folks who already own the games physically aren’t missing out on much.

Most Other Remakes Aren’t On Switch

Fans have asked for the Switch to be the destination for old Pokémon games for years, and so far, The Pokémon Company has not acquiesced. If you’re a newcomer and want to start with these Gen 1 remakes, then move on to the next generation in order; you’re going to have a bit of trouble setting that up without older hardware.

The 3DS, however, made Gen 1 and Gen 2 available on the eShop, and hosted the Gen 3 remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. You could easily play three generations back to back on the same system, which was a huge boon for new Pokémon fans.

The joy of playing through the Gen 1 remakes, followed by the Gen 2 and Gen 3 remakes is fun on the original hardware, but it’s not currently possible on Switch. The only remake currently available on the platform is Gen 4: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (BDSP).

One day, we might see most, if not all, generations of Pokémon games available on the same platform. For now, you’ll have to work with legacy hardware to make that happen.

No Physical Cart Option

In what may be the biggest harsh reality for collectors, there are no physical cart versions of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen for the Switch ports.

Pokémon players (myself included) celebrate physical releases because they’ll be available for decades to come, but this might not be the case for FireRed and LeafGreen‘s Switch ports. Once the eShop is gone, they could be trapped, just like the original Gen 1 and Gen 2 eShop re-releases on 3DS.

This is further exacerbated by the Game Key Cards strategy on Switch 2, which makes many classic and modern games unavailable on physical carts. Even Pokémon Pokopia, which is already being widely celebrated by fans and critics alike, is locked to a Game Key card.

Given Pokémon‘s long and storied history of physical releases that last for years, it feels like a mismatched strategy. The franchise has a long tail, and digital-only drops are incongruent to Game Freak’s prior strategy, which even involved physical versions of DLC expansions on Switch carts for Sword & Shield and Scarlet & Violet.

One Physical SKU Is Japan-Only

Even collectors can’t catch a break outside of Japan. After the broadcast and reveal of the Gen 1 remake Switch re-releases, Nintendo of Japan introduced a region-exclusive bundle that includes a download card for FireRed or LeafGreen,Game Boy Advance replica packaging, and a Poke Ball box with three laser-engraved glass balls featuring the Gen 1 starter trio.

Clocking in at $128 US, it’s not exactly a steal, but it’s still an option for any prospective Pokémon fan who likes collectibles. Given that it sold out in roughly 30 minutes in Japan, it’s clearly in demand.