Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Are Standalone Switch Titles Because Nintendo Thinks It Would Be “Fun”

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If you didn’t hear, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are being released on the Nintendo Switch on February 27th, along with a new Pokémon presentation. Many fans noticed, though, that these games – originally for Game Boy Advance – weren’t included with the Nintendo Switch Online classic games service. Instead, players had to purchase each one separately for $20, and they didn’t come with any extra features or updates.

So, I was wondering why Nintendo was doing things differently with these new Pokémon releases, and they actually had a pretty detailed FAQ. Basically, they said it was to celebrate 30 years of Pokémon and they wanted to let us revisit the original Kanto adventures in a special way. They also made it clear these aren’t coming as part of any Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Classics collection, which is a bit of a bummer, but good to know!

Nintendo has no plans to add older games – including the very first Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green versions – to its Nintendo Switch Online service. However, they are still committed to bringing other classic games to the service.

The developers decided to release FireRed and LeafGreen instead of the original Red and Blue games because they believed players would prefer the enhanced versions. These newer games include extra features and improvements to the original adventures.

Because the announcement was unexpected and Nintendo published a detailed FAQ, it’s clear they expected people to worry they were just trying to profit from fans’ fond memories of these games.

It’s been a common complaint about the Pokémon series for some time. Currently, it’s unclear what the future holds and what the next presentation will reveal. One upcoming game is Pokémon Pokopia, a life simulation game developed by Omega Force, set to release on March 5th for the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s been confirmed that the story will take 20 to 40 hours to complete, with even more content planned for after the main story.

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2026-02-20 18:13