Pokémon FireRed and
LeafGreen are
enhanced remakeA video game remake is an updated re-released version of a previous video game. Typically, a remake shares essentially the same title, gameplay, and story elements of the original game, but also improves on technical aspects such as graphics, sound, and the user interface.-Definition and history:A...
s of the 1996 original
Pocket Monsters Red and GreenPokémon Red and Pokémon Blue are the first installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They were first released in Japan in 1996 and later released in North America, Europe and Australia over the following three...
video games. The new titles were developed by
Game Freakis a Japanese video game developer that currently creates games exclusively for Nintendo. It has developed the Pokémon series of role-playing games and several other games....
and published by
Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
for the
Game Boy AdvanceThe Game Boy Advance is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color...
and have compatibility with the
Game Boy Advance Wireless AdapterThe Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter is an accessory for the Game Boy Advance, and was released by Nintendo in 2004. It provides an alternative to the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable but does not enjoy the same popularity due to a number of issues...
, which originally came bundled with the games.
FireRed and
LeafGreen were first released in Japan in January 2004 and released to North America and Europe in September and October respectively. Nearly two years after their original release, Nintendo re-marketed them as
Player's ChoicePlayer's Choice is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Player's Choice titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...
titles.
FireRed and
LeafGreen are members of the
Pokémon series of
role-playing gamesA console role-playing game is a video game genre that has its origin rooted in video game consoles and includes game mechanics and, frequently, settings derived from those of traditional role-playing games...
. As in previous games, the player controls the
player characterA player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
from an
overhead perspectiveTop-down perspective, also sometimes referred to as bird's-eye view, overhead view or helicopter view, is a camera angle used in video games that shows the player and the area around them from above. It was often used in 2D role playing video games, wargames and construction and management...
, and participates in turn-based combat encounters. However, new features such as a contextual help menu and a new region the player may access have also been added. Throughout the games, the player captures and raises Pokémon for use in battle.
The games received mostly positive reviews, obtaining an aggregate score of 81 percent on
MetacriticMetacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Most critics praised the fact that the games introduced new features while still maintaining the traditional gameplay of the series. Reception of the graphics and audio was more mixed, with some reviewers complaining that they were too simplistic and not much of an improvement over the previous games,
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphireand are the third installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing games, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The games were first released in Japan in late 2002 and later released to the rest of the world in 2003 . Pokémon Emerald, a special edition...
.
FireRed and
LeafGreen were commercial successes, selling a total of around 12 million copies worldwide.
Gameplay
As with all
Pokémon role-playing games released for
handheld consolesA handheld game console is a lightweight, portable device with a built-in screen, games controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are run on machines of small size allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place...
,
FireRed and
LeafGreen are in third-person, overhead perspective. The main screen is an
overworldIn video games, the term overworld refers to a top-down view or a third-person perspective of the fictional world within the game. The world map often contains varied terrain and a collection of towns and other locations...
, in which the player navigates the protagonist. Here a menu interface may be accessed, in which the player may configure his or her Pokémon, items, and gameplay settings. When the player
encounters a wild PokémonA random encounter is a feature commonly used in hack and slash role-playing games and computer and video games whereby encounters with non-player character enemies or other dangers occur sporadically and at random...
or is challenged by a trainer, the screen switches to a turn-based battle screen that displays the player's Pokémon and the engaged Pokémon. During battle, the player may select a move for his or her Pokémon to perform, use an item, switch his or her active Pokémon, or attempt to flee. All Pokémon have hit points (HP); when a Pokémon's HP is reduced to zero, it faints and can no longer battle until it is revived. Once an enemy Pokémon faints, all of the player's Pokémon involved in the battle receive a certain amount of
experience pointAn experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s (EXP). After accumulating enough EXP, a Pokémon may level up.
Capturing Pokémon is another essential element of the gameplay. During battle with a wild Pokémon, the player may throw a Poké Ball at it. If the Pokémon is successfully caught, it will come under the ownership of the player. Factors in the success rate of capture include the HP of the target Pokémon and the type of Poké Ball used: the lower the target's HP and the stronger the Poké Ball, the higher the success rate of capture.
While
FireRed and
LeafGreen are remakes of
Red and
Blue, they contain usability enhancements such as a contextual tutorial feature which allows players to look up data at any point in the game. Additionally, when continuing a
saved gameA saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
, players are shown the last four actions they performed, allowing them to remember what they were doing.
The games support linked communications via the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable through which connected players may trade or battle. Players may also connect with
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphireand are the third installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing games, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The games were first released in Japan in late 2002 and later released to the rest of the world in 2003 . Pokémon Emerald, a special edition...
, and
Pokémon Colosseumis the first Nintendo GameCube incarnation of the Pokémon video game franchise. It incorporates elements of both the main handheld games in the series as well as the Pokémon Stadium games. It is also notable for having a considerably darker storyline than most other Pokémon games...
, which allows them to obtain over 350 Pokémon.
FireRed and
LeafGreen also have the ability to connect to the
Nintendo GameCubeThe is Nintendo's fourth home video game console with Wii being fifth, and is part of the sixth generation console era. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to Nintendo's Wii....
and interact with
Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire and
Pokémon Colosseumis the first Nintendo GameCube incarnation of the Pokémon video game franchise. It incorporates elements of both the main handheld games in the series as well as the Pokémon Stadium games. It is also notable for having a considerably darker storyline than most other Pokémon games...
. In
Box the player may organize and view his or her collected Pokémon, and in
Colosseum Pokémon may be used for battle or transferred over to the GameCube.
FireRed and
LeafGreen are also the first games in the series to be made compatible with the
Game Boy Advance Wireless AdapterThe Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter is an accessory for the Game Boy Advance, and was released by Nintendo in 2004. It provides an alternative to the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable but does not enjoy the same popularity due to a number of issues...
, which comes prepackaged with the games. The adapter can be plugged into the link port of a Game Boy Advance system and allows players within a radius to wirelessly interact with each other. In addition, as many as 30 players at a time may join a special room called the "Union Room" where they can trade, battle, or chat. Nintendo set up "JoySpots" at Japanese retail locations for this purpose.
Setting
Pokémon FireRed and
LeafGreen take place mostly in the fictional region of Kanto. This is one distinct region of many in the Pokémon world, which includes varied geographical habitats for the Pokémon species, human-populated towns and cities, and routes between locations. Some areas are only accessible once the player acquires a special item or one of the player's Pokémon learns a special ability. Near the end of the plot, the protagonist is able to venture to the Sevii Islands, a new area not available in the original
Red or
Blue games. It consists of an
archipelagoAn archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago is directly derived from the Greek arkhon and pelagos...
of seven islands that contain Pokémon normally exclusive to the Johto region.
Synopsis
The silent protagonist of
FireRed and
LeafGreen is a child who lives in a small town. After players start a journey and venture alone into deep grass, a voice warns them to stop. Professor Oak, a famous Pokémon researcher, explains to the player such grass is often the habitat of wild Pokémon, and encountering them alone can be very dangerous. He takes the player to his laboratory where the player meets Oak's grandson, another aspiring
Pokémon TrainerIn the Pokémon franchise, a is a person who captures wild Pokémon with Poké Balls, raises them, and trains them to battle other trainers' Pokémon. The main character in each incarnation of the Pokémon games is an aspiring young Trainer...
. The player and the rival are both instructed to select a starter Pokémon for their travels. The rival then challenges the player to a Pokémon battle with their newly obtained Pokémon, and continues to battle the player at certain points throughout the games.
After reaching the next city, the player is asked to deliver a parcel to Professor Oak. Upon returning to his laboratory, the player is presented with a Pokédex, a high-tech encyclopedia that record the entries of any Pokémon that are encountered. Oak asks the player to fulfill his dream of compiling a comprehensive list of every Pokémon in the game.
While visiting the region's cities, the player encounters special establishments called Gyms. Inside these buildings are Gym Leaders, each of whom the player must defeat in a Pokémon battle to obtain a Gym Badge. Once a total of eight badges are acquired, the player is given permission to enter the Pokémon League, which consists of the best Pokémon trainers in the region. There the player battles the Elite Four. Also throughout the game, the player has to fight against the forces of Team Rocket, a criminal organization that abuses Pokémon. It devises numerous plans, all of which the player must foil, for stealing rare Pokémon.
Development
FireRed and
LeafGreen were first announced in September 2003 as upcoming remakes of the original
Pocket Monsters Red and GreenPokémon Red and Pokémon Blue are the first installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They were first released in Japan in 1996 and later released in North America, Europe and Australia over the following three...
games that were released in Japan in 1996.
Game directorA video game director is a person who is in charge of significant creative aspects of a video game. This title is not widely used in the video game industry, and is absent from most titles produced for western audiences...
Junichi Masudais a Japanese video game composer and director, best known for his music to the Pokémon series of games. He was also the main composer for the soundtrack of Pulseman, another Game Freak title for the Sega Mega Drive...
stated the new titles would be developed around the idea of simplicity, as the game engine was a slightly modified version of the one used in
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphireand are the third installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing games, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The games were first released in Japan in late 2002 and later released to the rest of the world in 2003 . Pokémon Emerald, a special edition...
. As a result,
FireRed and
LeafGreen were made fully
backward compatibleIn technology, for example in telecommunications and computing, a device or technology is said to be backwards compatible if it allows input generated by older devices...
with
Ruby and
Sapphire, allowing players to trade Pokémon between games.
FireRed and LeafGreens connectivity with the
Game Boy Advance Wireless AdapterThe Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter is an accessory for the Game Boy Advance, and was released by Nintendo in 2004. It provides an alternative to the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable but does not enjoy the same popularity due to a number of issues...
was heralded by Nintendo president
Satoru Iwatais the fourth president and CEO of Nintendo, succeeding the long-standing previous president of the company, Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002. He was responsible in great part for defining Nintendo's strategy both before and during the release of its GameCube video game console in 2001, a vision which...
as being able "[t]o enhance head-to-head battles, exchange of information, and communication with others." An enhanced interface was created for the game to increase usability for new players, as well as a contextual in-game help system that could aid lost or confused players during their journey. President of
The Pokémon Companyis an affiliate of Nintendo set up as a marketing and licensing front for the highly successful Pokémon franchise. The video games, Pokémon Trading Card Game and licensed toys are still being made by third and second party companies such as TOMY. The company is headquartered in the Roppongi Hills...
Tsunekazu Ishiharam noted "[w]e don't feel that this a remake at all. We feel that this is a new game, with wireless technology", referring to the bundled wireless adapter.
The music used in the titles was derived from the original games, and arranged by Go Ichinose. Masuda and Ichinose decided not to change the reused music from the basic background sounds used in the originals, and instead updated them by adding additional sounds. A two-disc set of the music entitled GBA Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Super Complete
was released, with the first disc featuring all the music used normally in-game, while the second disc featured bonus tracks based on and inspired by the music in the games. Among these are two vocal tracks.
The initial Japanese production run for FireRed
and LeafGreen
was limited to half a million copies, despite the success of Pokémon Ruby
and Sapphire
. IGNIGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games...
speculated that Nintendo was expecting less demand for the new games, or that it was limited by the production of the bundled wireless adapter. The North American versions of FireRed
and LeafGreen
were first indirectly announced at DICED.I.C.E. Summit is an annual multi-day gathering of video game executives held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Established in 2002 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the conference is host to the annual Entertainment Software Association's Interactive Achievement Awards...
in 2004. Although the original games were released as Red
and Blue in North America, the remakes retained the Japanese names of "Red" and "Green". Masuda noted this as a choice on his part, stating the leaf represented a peaceful icon, in contrast to the alternative of water which he saw as suggesting conflict with the icon of fire used by the other game.
Reception
During its first week of release in Japan, FireRed
and LeafGreen
sold a combined total of 885,039 copies, which was less than the amount sold by Pokémon Ruby
and Sapphire
and are the third installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing games, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The games were first released in Japan in late 2002 and later released to the rest of the world in 2003 . Pokémon Emerald, a special edition...
in that time period, but IGNIGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games...
reasoned that the smaller sales were due to the new titles being remakes. In the first half of August before FireRed
and LeafGreen
were released in the U.S., the games received over 150,000 pre-orderA pre-order is an order placed for an item which has not yet been released. The idea for pre-orders came when people found it hard to get popular items in stores due to their popularity. Companies were then given the idea to allow people to reserve their own personal copy, before the release, ...
s, over twice the amount that Ruby
and Sapphire
received. Nintendo's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communication George HarrisonGeorge Harrison was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communication at Nintendo of America when he left at the end of December 2007.-Education:...
remarked, "This pre-sell indicates more than twice the player interest!" Over one million copies of FireRed
and LeafGreen were sold in the US less than one month after their release in that region. As of March 31, 2008, the games had sold 11.82 million copies worldwide. The games later entered Nintendo's
Player's ChoicePlayer's Choice is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Player's Choice titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...
line in North America, and were re-marketed with a significantly lower retail price. However, unlike the original release, the Player's Choice edition games did not include a bundled
Wireless AdapterThe Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter is an accessory for the Game Boy Advance, and was released by Nintendo in 2004. It provides an alternative to the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable but does not enjoy the same popularity due to a number of issues...
.
Reviews of FireRed
and LeafGreen
were mostly positive, and the games currently hold an aggregate score of 81 percent on MetaCriticMetacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Craig Harris of IGNIGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games...
gave the games an "Outstanding" 9.0/10 rating and praised the creators of the games for creating a game that "works extremely well for the handheld market. It doesn't have quite the same variety as Ruby
/Sapphire, but it's still incredibly satisfying." Harris was less positive about the games' graphics, which he thought were "limited" and "basic".
GameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which purchased...
's Greg Kasavin, who gave the games 8.4 out of 10, commented that "though Pokémon could probably use a few new twists after all these years, FireRed and LeafGreen are great role-playing games on their own merits, filled with lots more content and more challenges than last year's Ruby and Sapphire, and offering up plenty of addictive gameplay that can be a lot of fun for players of all ages." Unlike Harris, Kasavin praised the games' graphics for their "colorful good looks and the endearing character designs that the series is known for."
Game InformerGame Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles...
rated the games a "Very Good" 8/10 for being "a lot of fun", yet they saw the graphics as "utterly unremarkable" when compared to other handheld games.
GameSpyGameSpy, also known as GameSpy Industries, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current company...
reviewer Phil Theobald, who awarded the games four out of five stars, and said, "Before I knew it, I was hooked all over again. The engrossingly simple gameplay combined with the more-strategic-than-they-first-appear battles was just too much to resist. And yeah, the "gotta catch 'em all" gimmick is still effective, not to mention necessary to build a well balanced party. There's just something about tracking down, capturing, and training all those Pokémon that really draw you into the game's world." He justified the games' graphics by comparing them to the "ugly" original Red
and Blue
versions. Additional praise was given to the new features such as the contextual tutorial, and flashbacks when loading a saved game, as well as the games' multiplayer capabilities via the Wireless adapter. Nintendo PowerNintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #240 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US....
, which gave the games a 4.5 out of 5 average, stated "[t]here's a great game hiding under all the Pikachu cuteness, and you have to play it for only a bit to find yourself addicted."
External links
Pokémon FireRed
and LeafGreen