Pokémon FireRed Version and Pokémon LeafGreen Version are 2004 remakes of the 1996 role-playing video games Pokémon Red and Green. They were created by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. FireRed and LeafGreen were first released in Japan in January 2004 and in North America in September 2004 and in Europe in October 2004. The games are part of the third generation of the Pokémon video game series and were the first enhanced remakes of previous games in the franchise.

In these games, the player controls their character from above and participates in turn-based battles. Throughout the games, the player captures and trains Pokémon for use in battle. Based in the Kanto Region, new features include a help menu that appears when needed and a new area called the Sevii Islands, which the player can visit after beating the Elite Four and the Pokémon League Champion. The games work with the Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter, which was included with the games.

The games received mostly good reviews, with an overall score of 81 percent on Metacritic. Most critics praised the games for adding new features while keeping the traditional gameplay of the series. Some reviewers thought the graphics and audio were too simple and not better than earlier games like Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. FireRed and LeafGreen sold about 12 million copies worldwide. About two years after their original release, Nintendo sold them again as Player's Choice titles. The games were released digitally for the Nintendo Switch on February 27, 2026, to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary.

Gameplay

FireRed and LeafGreen are Pokémon role-playing games played on handheld consoles. Like most similar games, they use a third-person, overhead view. The main screen shows an overworld map where the player controls the protagonist. A menu can be accessed here to manage Pokémon, items, and game settings. When encountering a wild Pokémon or facing a trainer, the screen changes to a turn-based battle view that shows the player’s Pokémon and the opponent’s Pokémon. During battles, the player can choose moves, use items, switch Pokémon, or try to flee (only in wild battles). Each move has power points (PP), which decrease by 1 each time it is used. When a move’s PP reaches zero, it can no longer be used. All Pokémon have hit points (HP); if a Pokémon’s HP drops to zero, it faints and cannot battle until revived. When an opponent’s Pokémon faints, the player’s Pokémon earn experience points (EXP). Once enough EXP is collected, a Pokémon levels up.

Capturing Pokémon is a key part of the game. During a battle with a wild Pokémon, the player can throw a Poké Ball. If successful, the Pokémon joins the player’s team. The chance of catching a Pokémon depends on its remaining HP and the type of Poké Ball used: lower HP and stronger Poké Balls increase the success rate.

FireRed and LeafGreen are remakes of Red and Green (Green was only released in Japan, while the international version was called Blue). They include improvements like a tutorial feature that lets players access game data by pressing the select button. When resuming a saved game, the last four actions are shown to help players remember their progress.

The games support the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable, allowing players to trade or battle with others. They can also connect with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, as well as Pokémon Colosseum, to collect over 350 Pokémon. FireRed and LeafGreen can link with the GameCube to use Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire, where players can organize their Pokémon. In Colosseum, Pokémon can be used in battles. These games are the first in the series to work with the Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter, which comes with the games. The adapter connects to the Game Boy Advance system and lets players interact wirelessly within 30–50 feet (9.1–15.2 meters). Up to 30 players can join a special area called the "Union Room" to trade, battle, or chat. Nintendo set up "JoySpots" at Japanese retail stores to support this feature.

Plot

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen takes place mainly in the fictional Kanto region. This is one of many different regions in the Pokémon world, which includes a variety of habitats for Pokémon, towns and cities where people live, and paths that connect different areas. Some places can only be reached after players find a special item or when one of their Pokémon learns a special skill. Near the end of the story, the main character can travel to the Sevii Islands, a new area not found in the original Red and Blue games. The Sevii Islands, inspired by the Izu Islands, are a group of seven islands. They are home to Pokémon typically found in the Johto region and include special tasks to complete after finishing the game. Once these tasks are done, players can trade with Ruby and Sapphire to obtain Pokémon unique to the Hoenn region.

The main character in FireRed and LeafGreen is a child who lives in Pallet Town, a small town in Kanto. After starting their journey and entering tall grass, a voice warns them to stop. Professor Samuel Oak, a well-known Pokémon researcher, explains that wild Pokémon often live in tall grass and that meeting them alone can be dangerous. He takes the player to his laboratory, where they meet Oak’s grandson, another young trainer who wants to become a Pokémon expert. Both the player and their rival are told to choose a Starter Pokémon to use during their journey. The rival then challenges the player to a battle with their new Pokémon and continues to fight them at key points in the game.

After reaching the next city, the player is asked to deliver a package to Professor Oak. When they return to the laboratory, they receive a Pokédex, a high-tech tool that records information about every Pokémon they catch. Oak then asks the player to help complete his goal of creating a full list of all Pokémon in the game.

As the player visits cities in the region, they encounter special buildings called Pokémon Gyms. Inside these gyms are Gym Leaders, who must be defeated in battles to earn Gym Badges. After collecting eight badges, the player is allowed to enter the Pokémon League on the Indigo Plateau, where the best trainers in Kanto compete. There, the player battles the Elite Four and their rival, who is the Pokémon League Champion. Throughout the game, the player also fights Team Rocket, a group that illegally uses Pokémon. The player must stop Team Rocket’s plans to steal rare Pokémon, including defeating their leader, Giovanni.

After defeating the Elite Four for the first time, one of the members, Lorelei, disappears. Once the player gains access to the Sevii Islands, they find Lorelei in her home and convince her to return with them. The player then stops Team Rocket’s plans multiple times, retrieves two items—the Ruby and the Sapphire—and places them in a main computer on One Island. After this, the player can trade Pokémon with Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Colosseum, and XD.

Development

FireRed and LeafGreen were first announced in September 2003 as remakes of the original Pocket Monsters Red and Green games, which were released in Japan in 1996. Junichi Masuda, the game director, said the new titles were designed with simplicity in mind. The game engine used for FireRed and LeafGreen was a slightly modified version of the one from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. Because of this, FireRed and LeafGreen were fully backward compatible with Ruby and Sapphire, allowing players to trade Pokémon between the games.

The ability of FireRed and LeafGreen to connect with the Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter was praised by Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, who said it could improve head-to-head battles, information sharing, and communication with others. The game included an improved interface to help new players, as well as a help system to guide players who were lost or confused. Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company, said, “We don’t consider this a remake at all. We see this as a new game with wireless technology,” referring to the included wireless adapter.

FireRed and LeafGreen were produced in Japan in limited quantities, with only 500,000 copies made, even though Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were successful. IGN suggested Nintendo may have expected lower demand for the new games or faced production limits due to the wireless adapter. The North American versions of FireRed and LeafGreen were indirectly announced at DICE in 2004. Although the original games were called Red and Blue in North America, the remakes kept the Japanese names, “Red” and “Green.” Masuda explained that the leaf symbolized peace, while water might have suggested conflict with the fire icon used in the other game.

The music in FireRed and LeafGreen was based on the classic game consoles and arranged by Go Ichinose. Masuda and Ichinose decided not to change the original music from Red and Blue but updated it by adding new sounds. Some songs include key changes compared to the original soundtrack, and others, like the Trainer Battle music, were rewritten in MIDI format for the Game Boy Advance, with pitch bends between notes. A two-disc music collection called GBA Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Super Complete was released. The first disc included all the music used in the game, while the second disc featured bonus tracks inspired by the game’s soundtrack, including two vocal songs.

Reception

Reviews of FireRed and LeafGreen were mostly positive, and the games currently have an average score of 81 percent on Metacritic. Jon Minife of The New Zealand Herald praised the game for fixing the connection problems that Ruby and Sapphire had, which might encourage older players to return to Pokémon. Craig Harris of IGN gave the games an "Outstanding" 9.0/10 rating and said the creators made a game that works well for handheld devices. He noted that the games do not have the same variety as Ruby and Sapphire but are still very satisfying. Harris was less happy with the graphics, calling them "limited" and "basic." Greg Kasavin of GameSpot gave the games 8.4 out of 10 and said that even though Pokémon might need new ideas, FireRed and LeafGreen are great games on their own. He mentioned they have more content and challenges than Ruby and Sapphire and offer fun gameplay for players of all ages. Unlike Harris, Kasavin praised the graphics for being colorful and having the familiar character designs the series is known for. GameSpot later named LeafGreen the best Game Boy Advance game of September 2004. Game Informer gave the games a "Very Good" 8/10 rating, saying they are "a lot of fun," but they called the graphics "unremarkable" compared to other handheld games.

Phil Theobald of GameSpy gave the games four out of five stars and said he became hooked again because of the simple but engaging gameplay and the strategic battles. He said the "gotta catch 'em all" feature is still effective and important for building a strong team. He compared the graphics to the original Red and Blue versions, calling them less "ugly." He also praised new features, such as tutorials that appear when needed, flashbacks when loading saved games, and multiplayer options using the Wireless Adapter.

During the first week of release in Japan, FireRed and LeafGreen sold a total of 885,039 copies, which was fewer than the sales of Ruby and Sapphire at the same time. IGN explained that the lower sales were because the games were remakes. By August, in the United States, the games had more than 150,000 pre-orders, which was more than double the pre-orders for Ruby and Sapphire. Less than a month after their release in the U.S., over one million copies of FireRed and LeafGreen were sold. The games were added to Nintendo's Player's Choice line in North America on October 2, 2006, with the price lowered to $19.99. However, these editions did not include a Wireless Adapter. As of March 31, 2008, the games had sold 11.82 million copies worldwide. By October 2013, FireRed and LeafGreen had sold 12 million copies worldwide.

Nintendo Switch release

To mark the 30th anniversary of the original Pocket Monsters Red and Green games in Japan, Nintendo released FireRed and LeafGreen for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 systems on February 27, 2026, following the Pokémon Presents presentation. Players can purchase the games digitally through the Nintendo eShop. Some people criticized the release for being expensive and for not including online features. In Japan, a "Special Edition" physical version is available, which includes replicas of the original FireRed and LeafGreen Game Boy Advance boxes. This edition includes a download code for the games, three laser-engraved glass Poké Balls featuring Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur, each with red, blue, and green light-up stands, and a display case. The rerelease includes the Aurora Ticket and Mystic Ticket items, which were previously given out during special events and allowed players to catch the mythical Pokémon Deoxys and legendary Pokémon Lugia and Ho-Oh. Trading between players in this version is limited to local wireless connections. It is possible that players may be able to transfer Pokémon from FireRed and LeafGreen to Pokémon Home in the future, but the exact timing is unknown.