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Pokémon FireRed for Game Boy Advance
Pokémon FireRed for Game Boy Advance is a role-playing game in which you travel through Kanto with a Pokémon team you assemble yourself. Professor Oak lets you choose between Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. You then explore towns, caves and grassy areas, catch wild Pokémon and challenge other trainers. Eight Gym Leaders stand between you and the Pokémon League. Meanwhile, Team Rocket repeatedly crosses your path, from small encounters to major events in the story.
Battles take place in turns. You choose moves, switch Pokémon or use an item, while types and remaining move points matter. A powerful move is not the best choice against every opponent. Outside battles, you add entries to the Pokédex and look for routes that become reachable with new abilities. Later, the adventure also opens parts of the Sevii Islands; further islands and connections with other games require additional progress. The built-in Help and Teachy TV explain the rules.
You play the main adventure alone and save your progress on the cartridge. For local trading or battling, each player needs their own Game Boy Advance and a compatible Pokémon game. You connect the systems with a GBA Game Link cable, or use a Wireless Adapter for each player with games that support it. Those accessories are not included with this loose cartridge. A Nintendo DS or DS Lite does not support these GBA connections. FireRed does not use an internet connection for this.
Region and language
Our Game Boy Advance games are European editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
This copy of Pokémon FireRed is a North American release. The cartridge label reads AGB-BPRE-USA. The in-game text is English.
Manual
With Pokémon FireRed for Game Boy Advance, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Pokémon FireRed
Game Freak developed Pokémon FireRed alongside Pokémon LeafGreen as a new version of the first Pokémon adventures. The games appeared on Game Boy Advance in 2004; Europe received them on 1 October. Kanto, the original choice of starters and the rivalry with Oak’s grandson remained the starting point. The world received new colours and artwork, while battles followed the third Pokémon generation. FireRed is therefore more than the old Game Boy game with a different screen format.
The return to Kanto was expanded with the Sevii Islands. These islands extend the journey beyond the familiar map, with new encounters and tasks. Other additions are closer to everyday play: the Pokédex offers more ways to view information, Help answers questions about the rules and Teachy TV shows examples. When you resume, a short recap reminds you of recent events, making an interrupted journey easier to follow.
Contact between players also received attention. The original Wireless Adapter enabled local communication without a cable between the handhelds. Trading and battles still depended on separate game cartridges and devices; the adapter was not an internet service. FireRed and LeafGreen also retained different wild Pokémon, so exchanging them continued to matter for collecting. The GBA cartridge preserves that 2004 approach, with a self-contained story and optional meetings with other players alongside the main journey.
Similar games for Game Boy Advance
Pokémon LeafGreen uses the same journey through Kanto, the same Gym Leaders and the same main events on Game Boy Advance. The difference mainly concerns which wild Pokémon you can find. Switching versions therefore does not give you a second region or a completely different story. Trading between the two games complements the differences in their collections, while the structure of the adventure remains familiar.
Pokémon Ruby shares the catching, training and selection of moves during turn-based battles on Game Boy Advance. There you travel through Hoenn, with different towns, a different choice of starters and Team Magma as an important opponent. FireRed takes you back to Kanto and rebuilds the familiar first Pokémon journey. Even if you recognise the battle rules, Ruby still asks you to learn new routes and different opponents.
Like Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire is set in Hoenn on Game Boy Advance, but gives Team Aqua and its associated events more prominence. Its similarity to FireRed lies in assembling a team and completing the Pokédex. Sapphire focuses that search on another region and different Pokémon. FireRed centres on Kanto and later adds the Sevii Islands to that journey.
Pokémon Emerald also uses turn-based battles and collecting on Game Boy Advance, but develops Hoenn further and adds the Battle Frontier. Much of its later game centres on battle challenges with special rules. FireRed follows the Kanto journey, with the Pokémon League and the Sevii Islands as important steps. The two share a generation, but have a different world and different goals after the main story.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team lets you play as a Pokémon on Game Boy Advance. You explore dungeons with a rescue team, where each step also lets opponents act. FireRed instead casts you as a trainer who travels between towns and enters separate battles. Both revolve around Pokémon and team choices, but rescue missions and changing dungeons give Mystery Dungeon a very different rhythm.
