Pokemon FireRed Version

"FireRed takes the lead! It's at the finish line! OH CRAP! Where did that turtle come from?! That's gonna lose him the race!!"

Everybody remembers Pokemon Red and Blue back in the year 1998. Gameboy Colors instantly became a hot selling item that year just so people in general could play these sheerly awesome games. Then the Gameboy Color never got a decent game again (sans Pokemon Crystal), so everyone traded them in for a Gameboy Advance in 2001. Getting into the lazy habit of just porting old games from old systems, Nintendo decided to keep this pattern up and attempted to release Metroid again, only with reamed graphics and stuff. Fortunately, one of the members on the team accidentally lost the original data in the company couch so Nintendo had to remake the entire game from scratch. Then when the design was complete, the original was slapped on as a bonus feature. Nintendo then unleashed Metroid Zero Mission onto the world and it quickly became a smash hit.

So what does Metroid: Zero Mission have to do with this game? Simple. The Pokemon side of Nintendo saw what was going on with the original Metroid and saw how popular it became, so they quickly decided it would be awesome if they could do the same thing. Picking up the original Pokemon Red and Blue, mixing it in with all the stuff that made Ruby and Sapphire pretty awesome, throwing in a few extra places to go within the game, and creating some nifty gimmick I have yet to see be used again, Nintendo gives to us Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen (cause it was originally Red and Green in Japan, but they accidentally threw the cartridge in a bucket of blue paint or something. I don't know.).

So what went wrong? How did a friggin' sweet trip down memory lane become a simple trip at the finish line? Simple. Along with remaking the entire game comes the problem of BACK TRACKING. Unfortunately for FireRed, the game took a couple of steps too far back causing it some major problems that don't become apparent until you get far into the game.

Story
No change here for the most part. You're a kid living in Pallet Town (either a boy or a girl with a REALLY short skirt) and suddenly it hits you that instead of playing your NES in your room all day that you would like to become a Pokemon Trainer. So you leave your room with a backpack/bag, tell your mom goodbye, and head out into the wilderness that is your back yard. Unfortunately, you get stopped by some old dude on your way out of town by the name of Professor Oak. Seeing how ambitious you are since you know nothing at all about Pokemon for some reason, he takes you to his lab, where his Grandson (aka your rival) is waiting. He lets you choose from one of his three Pokemon: The grass type Bulbasaur, the fire type Charmander, and the water type Squirtle. You pick one, your rival picks one, you two have a battle, and you then head out looking for adventure, heading on that highway...er...yeah. Same old story from the last few games right? Well then again, this was technically the first game to use it so it's acceptable here.

Gameplay
What would a Pokemon game be without all this stuff right? The gameplay is the same as it always has been, only tweaked so it works with all the new technical stuff introduced in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire. Basic gameplay involves you getting into random encounters in the tall grass fields, kicking the crap out of the wild Pokemon you encounter, then capturing the sucker before it knows what's good for him. Simple enough right? As for your monetary and experience needs, there's a whole world full of trainers out there to place a bet against to be able to keep your Pokeball count up in the 30's or so. Good times are too be had as well when you put in the new wireless adapter that comes with the game and challenge your homies to a match, where anything can happen.

What's new after about eight years?
Putting in some mass changes with all of the past releases (yellow, crystal, ruby/sapphire), Pokemon Red sure has changed a lot. Added to this new series is the Nature system, last seen in Ruby/Sapphire, where your Pokemon can gain stats at a faster rate depending on what its nature is. For example, if your Pokemon has an Adamant nature, it will gain strength faster than a Pokemon with a Hasty nature will get. On the opposite side of the coin, however, your Adamant natured Pokemon will gain special attack stats at a slower pace. Every Pokemon in the game has a different nature, so experiment to see what you get.

As well as the Ruby/Sapphire stat systems coming back, we also get their ability system! This handy little feature makes it so that every Pokemon from the same family (ie: Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard) will have the same ability (some have 2 to get). These abilities add in little features that can turn the battle into your favor. Alakazam's Inner Focus will prevent flinching in battle, which will insure you always get a move in if the enemy does a move that would inflict a flinching status. Some abilities are better than others (prevents sleeping anyone?), but some are just sheer awesome in themselves (Pick up will score you stuff at random, and good stuff at that like super potions). Play around with every Pokemon until you find the Pokemon with abilities that suit your style of play!

Also making a huge comeback from Gold and Silver is the breeding system. Unfortunately in FireRed's case, the breeding system doesn't even come into play until AFTER you beat the game for the first time. This friggin' sucks because now you can't make an uber team at the start of the game, trade them over as eggs, then raise the level 5 Pokemon that you actually WANTED to raise from level 5 throughout the course of the game until after you beat it! THIS is the reason why FireRed loses some major points, because this is a major step back from the last two games. Why the hell can't I trade a Squirtle and Bulbasaur egg over to LeafGreen and start out with all three starters that won't get the crappy extra EXP bonus from trading? This might not sound bad, but when you consider the fact that Pokemon that you receive in a trade will stop listening to you at a certain level (depending on what badges you get), you'll see what I mean. Total bummer here, because that was my favorite feature in all of Gold/Silver/Crystal/Ruby/Sapphire was the ability to start a new game with a fully customized team right from the beginning. Sure you can still get them, but they may not know moves that you want them to learn (I'm looking at you Gastly...damn you for not knowing hypnosis).

Also back is the Move Teacher, who for the price of a few mushrooms (I don't think I want to know what he does with those...) will re teach one of your Pokemon a move that it has forgotten. This won't be a problem for those that raise Pokemon up from level 5 (hence my previous statements on breeding), but this can be hella handy when you get a powerhouse like Mewtwo who comes to you at level 70 and has forgotten Confusion a hell of a long time ago and you want him to know it for some reason (well...crappy example I know, but it could happen).

Taking a hint from the popularity from the Battle Tower in Crystal/Ruby/Sapphire, FireRed also includes one of these smash hit challenge areas. Only this time, instead of getting no prize or a berry as a reward for kickin' everyone's ass, you now get awesome stuff like TM's as a reward. This time the challenge is worth it! You won't gain any experience from these battles, but on the other hand, you won't be losing' any cash either. This brings up another new feature.

Remember how if you got your ass kicked for some reason by the computer that you would lose half of your money? NOT ANYMORE!! FireRed takes money up another step by making it so you don't lose half of your hard earned cash for simply dying in a battle. You now pay up about 1/10th of what you have as a cash prize to your enemy and make it back to the Pokemon Center to revive your Pokemon. Sweet as hell, because now instead of losing and then not having enough dough to buy revives and potions so it won't happen again, you can actually do that now and achieve victory once you get back into action! Hooray!

Also new to the game is the Wireless adapter. This handy dandy little contraption that comes with every copy of LeafGreen and FireRed (well...at least it did. Not sure about now, seeing how you may get it used, or in a new set or something), which will allow for WIRELESS TRADING AND BATTLES! No longer will you and your homeboys have to put one end of a wire into your Gameboy Advance, but rather stick in this bad boy adapter, and join in the Union Room (kind of like a chat room, only for the game or something like that. Think Diablo II's chat rooms). By talking with people in the Union Room, you can set up a chat to tell him/her to meet you outside the room for a battle or trade, or get a quickie 2 on 2 Pokemon match going (provided your Pokemon levels are at 30 and you have only 2 of them on you). The room seems limited in potential though, and hopefully they'll improve upon this in Pokemon Emerald/Pearl/Diamond that are supposedly coming out in the future. It's a shame that this adapter seems to be just a gimmick, because I have yet to see other GBA games take advantage of it. Perhaps in a year or two it'll get better, but I doubt it. We got another Transfer Pak on our hands here.

And with all these new features, it looks like you're getting a whole new game compared to classic Pokemon Red. Good deal.

Graphics
The graphics for FireRed are on par with Ruby/Sapphire. By changing the 2D character sprites from all of the Pokemon that didn't look like what the artists had in mind to their current forms, FireRed succeeds in becoming a way better visual aid to society. Good work Nintendo. As for the other small details like water reflecting' your dude, that's all back. Great eye candy indeed, seeing how my SNES couldn't handle something like that in its first years of life. Everything is just like what it looks like from Ruby and Sapphire, except for the character sprites. I have no problem with what your main character looks like, or your rival, but the characters on the world map kind of look fat compared to their battle sprite. Oh well, can't be helped I guess.

Music and Sound
All of the classic tunes for Red and Blue have been remixed for the better! There are even a couple of Gold and Silver tunes to be discovered late in the game that have also been remixed! Remixes galore in this version of the game! Now for the sounds, they could have worked on it a bit, but hey, all the original cries from all classic 150 Pokemon have been put in with little changed in them at all. Actually, they sound exactly like they did in Pokemon Silver and Gold! Holy crap! Nintendo stumbled across the ‘what isn't broken, don't fix' policy on the sound, but they completely screwed this up on the breeding system. Damn.

Replay it? Hell yeah!
Despite the fact that you can't breed over a specific team in this version of the game, the fact remains that FireRed is still as addictive as it was back in 1998. Hell, its even more long lasting than the short as hell Metroid: Zero Mission, and that's saying something since both are actually better than the game they're remakes of. That and the fact remains that there are over 150 Pokemon for you to capture and raise up, so the countless number of team combinations still remains intact, the way it should be. Sweet deal.

How much this thing cost?
Provided you don't know a place where you can rent GBA games, I'd suggest that you shell out the 25-40 bucks that this game costs and slap it into your GBA as soon as you friggin' can since you'll be missing out on a decent remake. If you enjoyed a Pokemon game before, then this will keep you entertained, especially since half of your favorites are sure to be in this version. If you liked the breeding system, then you're sure to be hella disappointed with this version. There is more than enough stuff to keep you interested in this version for months to come though, especially the nice surprise you will come across when you finish the game completely.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/05