Buckle up because this release is weird. After weeks of speculation, the Pokémon company finally confirmed that two of the GBA’s finest remakes are coming to the Switch 1&2 eShop…and NOT Nintendo Switch Online. This comes as part of the celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary, in 1996 (oh dear lord, I’m also 30. Send help), and will be cause for excitement for some and… notable disdain for those in the community.
Fire Red and Leaf Green are, without a doubt very good remakes of 1996’s Pokémon Red/Blue/Green and were originally released on the Game Boy Advance in 2004, adding modern GBA graphics, additional islands with more Pokémon than the original, and multiple quality of life updates to make these titles some of the most expensive GBA games you could buy in 2026.
As an alternative to owning a GBA and cartridge, this is a release that can be enjoyed on the entire Nintendo Switch family of systems, and without the yearly Nintendo Switch Online fee at the price of… $20 each, so $40 for both. If that’s worth it to you, then go for it! A lot of us might prefer *ahem* alternative ways to play these games, but a 2026 re-release is surely welcome. These titles appear to be unaltered, so expect an untouched experience from the 2004 offering.
You can catch ’em all on 2/27/2026 for $20 each below! Make sure to select between English, French, Italian, Spanish, etc.
And if you want to take a trip down memory lane, be sure to check out Zu’s video where he tries to find the best handheld to play every Pokémon game.
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