The Switch versions now include the Mystic and Aurora Tickets after the Elite 4, with Pokémon Home support and hints at possible Gen 3 ports.
You can now jump into Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen on Nintendo Switch for $20 each, and this time around, you are getting content that used to be locked behind real-world events. The big headline is simple: once you enter the Hall of Fame after beating the Elite 4, the Mystic Ticket and Aurora Ticket are automatically added to your game.
That means Deoxys is finally obtainable without hunting down a decades-old distribution event. On top of that, Lugia and Ho-Oh are also accessible, which originally required special event tickets that most players never had access to on the Game Boy Advance, but are now available on the Switch and Switch 2.
You wouldn’t be able to get to those Pokémon today if you were playing the original cartridges without using outside tools or past event distributions. But those limits don’t apply to Switch. The tickets are built right into the game, and once you finish the main story, they just show up in your bag. It changes how you think about postgame content, especially if you want to collect everything in the system’s ecosystem in a fair way.
There is more good news tied to the re-release. During the latest Pokémon Presents livestream, it was confirmed that Pokémon Home compatibility is arriving later this year. That means you will be able to transfer Pokémon from FireRed and LeafGreen into Pokémon Home and then move them into any compatible modern title.
So if you decide to shiny hunt Lugia or Ho-Oh in these classic games, you will eventually be able to bring those shinies forward into newer entries like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The ability to connect a 2004-era adventure to current-generation titles gives these ports more long-term value than a simple nostalgia trip.
Booting the game up on Switch consoles feels strange in a good way.
You are playing a Game Boy Advance classic with a Switch controller, docked on your TV, and it almost feels like you should not be able to do that. The intro plays out just as you remember. You enter your name, set your rival’s name, and step into Pallet Town. Professor Oak’s grandson is still there, still impatient, and Professor Oak himself still stops you from walking into tall grass without a Pokémon.
In addition to the built-in event tickets and Home support, data mining has revealed another interesting detail. One data miner says that the Switch versions of FireRed and LeafGreen seem to have internal compatibility references for Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. The emulator being used, which is said to be Sloop, can read ROMs for FireRed and LeafGreen as well as other Gen 3 games. It is said that the ROM files were heavily modified and rebuilt, with changes that are easy to see and others that are specific to the emulator.
The key takeaway is not just how the games are running, but what the emulator recognizes. The data suggests that Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald are explicitly acknowledged within the emulator’s framework. That has led to speculation that those games could also be added to Nintendo Switch in the near future. Nothing has been officially confirmed, but the groundwork appears to be present.
Timing-wise, that speculation fits into the broader Pokémon release schedule.
With Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves not arriving until 2027, there is room in late 2026 for additional classic ports. If Nintendo and The Pokémon Company follow the same pattern used for FireRed and LeafGreen, the remaining Gen 3 titles could slot in naturally, rounding out that era on modern hardware.
Back in the game itself, everything plays out just like you remember. The Gen 1 starter trio is intact: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. Your rival predictably chooses the Pokémon that has a type advantage over yours, setting up that familiar early-game tension. The first battle against Squirtle, Charmander, or Bulbasaur still feels like a small milestone, even all these years later.
The mechanics remain unchanged. Growl lowers Attack. Scratch and Tackle trade small chunks of HP. The original shiny odds, roughly 1 in 8,000, are still in place, making shiny hunting your starter a serious commitment if you decide to reset repeatedly. Nothing about the core experience has been modernized beyond the emulation layer and added compatibility features. It is still FireRed and LeafGreen at heart.
What makes this release stand out is not a graphical overhaul or gameplay tweak.
It is the integration. You are playing a faithful recreation of a classic, with built-in event content once nearly impossible to access and a confirmed pathway into Pokémon Home. Add in the possibility of Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald joining the lineup, and the Switch is quietly becoming a hub for the entire Gen 3 era.
For fans, this feels like a correction of history. Content that was once locked behind limited-time distributions is now simply part of the package. For newer players, it is a chance to experience FireRed and LeafGreen in their most complete form, with the ability to carry those Pokémon forward into the present.
The return of Mystic and Aurora Tickets alone is a big change. The games’ relevance even today, beyond nostalgia, is ensured by the Home compatibility. The data also suggests that this could be the start of a larger rollout from Nintendo, which could mean more Gen 3 ports in the future. FireRed and LeafGreen are back on Switch, and they’re more connected than ever.
