I Choose You...Again!

There’s something quite special about the Pokémon franchise. It’s not even my favourite monster series of the mid/late-90s, and I’ve yet to enjoy a generation beyond Gen 1 consistently, but that doesn’t matter. Catching unique creatures, battling with them and leveling them up has worked for over 30 years now. And while the franchise has had solid spin-offs too, nothing compares to the core games. So it’s telling that I’d never played Pokémon FireRed or Pokémon LeafGreen, the first of the generational remakes, until the Switch 2. Having now played them, I’m glad I did.

These games are a (mostly) faithful retelling of the Gen 1 games. You select your character’s name and gender, name your rival, and are sent to Professor Oak’s laboratory for your starter Pokémon. You’re given the choice of a Grass starter (Bulbasaur), a Fire starter (Charmander), or a Water starter (Squirtle), and your rival automatically picks your weakness and challenges you to a battle. From here, Professor Oak tasks you with traversing Kanto to find as many Pokémon as possible. It’s a journey that includes fighting 8 Gym Leaders and battling The Elite Four, the latter of whom test your skills as the ultimate Pokémon trainer.

What starts as a faithful remake of Gen 1, with GBA visuals and minor tweaks, eventually halts for a side-quest in “The Sevii Islands”. These are introduced at Cinnabar Island, becoming compulsory post-game content needed to face Mewtwo. It’s here the game takes becomes a quasi-remake of Gen 2, complete with new Pokémon. This had me confused: sure, it’s nice seeing new areas, but why now? Why halt the main quest for something that only becomes relevant post-game?

I can’t bellyache too much. While The Sevii Islands feel like padding to take advantage of The GBA’s storage capabilities, they add an extra 10-15 hours to the game. The also shook up my muscle memory knowledge of Gen 1, forcing me to consult a guide online for the first time. Considering I know the map of Kanto inside-out, having played Pokémon Yellow for hours on end as a child, that’s a welcome surprise. It wasn’t pleasant looking up Moltres’s new location, or even detouring to Sevii to access Mewtwo, but it was extra content. Plus, it helped provide closure to Team Rocket’s disbandment after defeating Giovanni for the third time, something that’d always felt abrupt.

Moving onto the positives, the remakes’ tweaks make for welcome improvements. Among these include watching your Pokémon’s EXP increase in battle, something introduced in Gen 2. I remember being confused as to when my party would level up, so seeing the progress bar is helpful. It not only saves time checking each Pokémon’s EXP separately, it’s something to look forward to. I honestly can’t go back now.

Another tweak that’s welcome is running. Running wasn’t possible until Gen 3, and acquiring Running Shoes early on almost makes your bicycle redundant. I say “almost” because you still need a bike for a specific section of the over-world, one filled with unique trainers that also has a second Snorlax. Snorlax was always a tough fight, and encountering one with a bike makes it worth it. For the rest of the game, however, I prefer running.

The final tweak that works to these remakes’ advantage involves additional HMs. The original games had five reusable techniques-Flash, Cut, Fly, Surf and Strength-and the remakes add two more, Rock Smash and Waterfall, from Gen 2. They not only compliment a running in-joke about Geodudes hiding behind rocks, they make the time in Sevii worth it. I still think Flash is the most-useless HM, as it’s only necessary in one section, but I guess I can’t have everything…

The remaining tweaks are basically “your mileage may vary” choices. EXP All, which you acquire from an aid of Professor Oak, is now EXP Share, which I suppose makes it feel less cheap, but is a disappointment. Using an item that gives you double the reward money from a battle, assuming the Pokémon equipped gets used, is nice, but it’s not necessary. Even the Quick Claw, which allows your Pokémon to strike first in battle, feels tacked-on once you realize the game almost always prefers type advantage over leveling. Tweaks like these are nice in theory, but not always in practice.

Everything else is aesthetic. The remakes of Gen 1’s tunes are pleasant, and the over-world and battle animations add extra life. I appreciate that the game recaps your progress whenever you turn it on. And the post-game content has new areas to explore, which, like I said earlier, adds additional hours. All of this makes Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen a near-perfect blend of the familiar and the new, which is something veterans of Gen 1 will appreciate. I only wish these remakes of Gen 1 had telegraphed wild encounters, as I hate having the flow of the game interrupted by the 500th fight with a Lvl 9 Zubat. I don’t need to endure that…