A week before Pokemon Day, FireRed and LeafGreen get a surprise reveal for Nintendo Switch, and they'll be launching next week on the series' anniversary

Zoomed-in, cropped box art for Pokemon FireRed shows Charizard roaring. — (Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are officially arriving on the Nintendo Switch (and consequently Switch 2) next week, it's been confirmed, making for a huge surprise ahead of the now-revealed Pokemon Presents on the franchise's 30th anniversary.

The two GBA remakes – first released in 2004 – are arriving as standalone download purchases on the eShop, so they won't be coming as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service via the catalog of classic games included for subscribers. They're already available to pre-order, and come in at $19.99/£16.99 each.

[UK] Pokémon FireRed Version and Pokémon LeafGreen Version on Nintendo Switch 🔥🍃 - YouTube

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Per the eShop listings, "you can also visit the Pokemon Wireless Club to trade, battle, and chat with other players via local wireless," so multiplayer is definitely possible in local play, but no online compatibility is mentioned.

Exciting as the news is, it also raises a big question – why has The Pokemon Company decided to reveal this as an early announcement rather than in the Pokemon Presents stream itself? No information has been given about what we can expect from the big day's news, but personally, I'm more intrigued than ever if FireRed and LeafGreen apparently didn't make the cut.

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I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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