Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are coming to Nintendo Switch next week to celebrate the series 30th anniversary. And while The Pokémon Company and Nintendo have already answered a number of questions about the releases that probably shouldn’t have been necessary to ask to begin with, there’s one question we still don’t know the answer to: Will these games be compatible with Pokémon Home?
For the non-Pokénerds out there, Pokémon Home is a cloud-based, paid subscription service that allows users to store Pokémon from various games, as well as move them between certain compatible games. The service has been directly compatible with every new Pokémon game on the Nintendo Switch, as well as Pokémon GO, and it also works with Pokémon Bank, a similar program that existed on the 3DS. The explanations and rules are a bit convoluted, but essentially, it’s only through Bank and Home that Pokémon from older games such as Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal (in their Virtual Console on Nintendo 3DS incarnations) can be brought forward to modern games.
As a result, with some finagling, Pokémon fans can essentially bring a beloved monster from any mainline Pokémon game they’ve ever played (except the original Game Boy cartridges for Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal) to Pokemon Home and, if it’s compatible, transfer it for use into a modern game and continue their adventures. It’s been a cool way for collectors to track their PokéDexes, and for long-time fans to keep beloved monsters from their childhoods by their side as adults.
The original FireRed and LeafGreen are compatible with Home in this way too, though the process is, as suggested above, a bit complicated. In order to get Pokemon OUT of FireRed and LeafGreen into Home, you first have to use the Pal Park feature to transfer them to Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum using a Nintendo DS system. Then, you have to use the Poke Transfer Lab (which requires two Nintendo DS systems) to move them from that game to Pokémon Black, White, Black 2, or White 2. From there, you can move them into Pokémon Bank on a Nintendo 3DS, and then from Bank they can be transferred to Home. It’s convoluted, but it’s possible.
