It looks like we won’t have to wait for Pokémon Day 2026 that takes place on February 27, 2026, after all. Nintendo has officially confirmed that Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen are coming to Nintendo Switch. These won’t be part of Nintendo Switch Online. Instead, they’re being sold separately on the Nintendo eShop for $20 apiece. That decision alone is going to divide people.
The good news is that neither are ROMs tossed into an emulator wrapper. This is being positioned as a native Switch port. Local wireless trading and battling will work between Switch consoles, and future compatibility with Pokémon Home has been promised. Mystery Gift Pokémon will also be catchable in-game, which fixes one of the more frustrating limitations from the original releases. And for anyone who missed these back on the Game Boy Advance, this is finally a way to play them without paying ridiculous reseller prices (like me).
However, with the good comes some bad that is sure to frustrate fans of either title.
There’s no online functionality. No global trading. No online battling. And there’s no indication that’s coming later. There’s also no new content. Version exclusives are still split between FireRed and LeafGreen, so you’ll need both copies or rely on Pokémon Home transfers to complete the Pokédex. There’s speculation that Home support could be one-way only, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Language support is another sticking point. There are reportedly no built-in language options, meaning separate versions may need to be purchased for different languages. A physical release has only been confirmed for Japan, and imports may not default to English.
This is going to be a straight port. If you just want FireRed and LeafGreen on modern hardware with local features and eventual Home support, then this is for you. If you were hoping for upgrades, online features, or meaningful additions, sadly, that’s not part of this deal.
