Who’s feeling old at the moment? Pokémon as a whole has reached thirty years already, and Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed, the remakes of the original games, are twenty-two years old. These remakes even have remakes, and now we have actual ports on the Nintendo Switch. In the words of Paul Rudd, “who saw this coming?” As such, nine year old me is very excited to sit down, and talk to you about Pokémon. And the answer to the first question you asked yourself after reading that is yes, yes I am.

Sorry Goldeen, I’m not into that.

For those too young or maybe just not into Pokémon at the time, Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed were a big deal when they came out. This was nearing the end of the 3rd Generation of Pokémon and they were the last ones to come out on Game Boy Advance. They were also the first GBA games to include wireless connection, like trading and battling your friends, without needing a link cable to connect you together. These are all still prevalent in the Nintendo Switch port, for better or for worse.

One of my biggest issues with these ports is the fact they opted to not include ANY online compatibility. Pokémon Home is coming at some undefined point in the future, but even that isn’t quite the same, nor is it exactly relevant at this time. This means if you don’t know anyone nearby playing these games, or have two Switches and feel like buying both versions, you are completely cut off from finishing the PokéDex as you can’t trade for version exclusive Pokémon, or Pokémon that need to be traded to evolve, like Gengar and Machamp.

This game really is a product of its time.

As for the actual gameplay, these are the exact games people will remember. Travel through Kanto, collect badges, get annoyed because your rival won’t just go away, kill his Raticate, beat Team Rocket, learn the twist about the 8th gym, beat the league, and become champion. Of course, your goal is to build a team that works well together, or doesn’t, I’m not your boss, and that all starts in Pallet Town with your starter. Personally, I tend to go for the grass starters, so I decided to keep it rolling and pick Bulbasaur.

There were some Pokémon I wanted on my team to start, like Ninetails, that just aren’t very helpful later on. One thing that drives me insane is the addition of abilities for Pokémon. My brain kept reverting to what I just simply know, which is earthquake makes Gengar sad, and in the Elite Four that helps a lot. Except with abilities, Gengar has levitate now, meaning the only weaknesses are Ghost, can’t get my own Gengar and that’s the only ghost types in Gen 1, Psychic, can’t get Alakazam so that leaves Hypno, and Dark, which there are none of in Gen 1 and the only dark moves are bite and priority moves which are weak. Basically, these Gengars suck to knock out.

Kabutops is currently questioning his life choices.

Visually, I have one key complaint. I know this is a port of a GBA game, but couldn’t we have either fit the game to the entire screen, like letting us see further left and right, or at least had a border on the game? There’s no reason a game “released” in 2026 should have half the screen left blank, port or not. Maybe I’m just being too particular. I know I’m not the biggest addict of nostalgia, even the music which I do still love doesn’t exactly make me sink into my seat in bliss. The champion theme is still an absolute banger though, that will never change. That’s going to be my wedding song just before I throw a stuffed Pikachu at my wife-to-be, that’s how good it is.

For anyone new to the earlier generations of Pokémon, let me give you a very honest and serious warning. These games are nowhere near as easy. You need fifty Pokémon in your PokéDex to get the Exp Share, it doesn’t give experience to your entire team, and you will be under leveled. Even after battling every trainer, and re-battling some of them, I was still 10+ levels below the champion’s ace. These games can be brutal, and frustrating.

Our final team before moving onto post-game content.

Overall, if you played Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed when they came out, these are literally the exact same games with absolutely no changes to them. If you haven’t, well, welcome to a very different Pokémon experience. Stick around after the credits because these games were making post-game content popular long before the MCU joined in.

Pokémon LeafGreen is available now on Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.