Pokemon Kanto Hit or miss? (Part 3: The review Pokemon Fire Red)

I'm glad to report that I get to be a lot more positive for this last section of the review. While i do still love Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow their glitches and balancing problems can be exhausting to deal with. Pokemon Fire Red however fixes ALMOST EVERYTHING! Pokemon Fired Red is based of the Gen 3 (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald) engine. This means all the glitches, bugs, and balancing problems are fixed in Fire Red/Leaf Green. This also means that Pokemon now have abilities which makes Pokemon like Weezing and Gengar better since they have levitate making them immune to ground attacks which they were previously weak to. Lastly the gen 1 special stat is Split from Gen 2 onward into Special attack and Special Defense which means that Pokemon with high special attack (like Alakazam) no longer have high defense against special attacks which fixes the balance of Psychic types. Finally, the Gen 3 engine means natures now exist. Natures are combinations of one stat getting an increase while another stat gets a decrease (ex: Modest nature decreases physical attack while increasing special attack.) This lets you either push a Pokemon's best stat higher then before or you could use it to cover up a Pokemon weaker stat.

Pokemon Fire Red also adds a new area to the Kanto region called the Sevii Islands. They are introduced after getting the volcano badge from Blaine when Bill shows up outside the gym and invites you to go with him to the islands. There is also an after Pokemon league story section that takes place in the Sevii islands that extends the game's length a tad. As a bonus after getting the national dex by obtaining 60 Pokemon in the Kanto Pokedex the Sevii islands have some Gen 2 pokemon show up (some notable examples are Heracross, Skarmory, Larvitar, and Mantine.) Finally, after doing the Sevii islands content the Elite four has a second round where they have leveled up their teams and revampingthier teams with some from the national dex (for example: Lorelei has a Piloswine from gen two instead of a Slowbro from the first League challenge.)

With all that said here was my team for Fire Red:

There really is only one small issue i have with Fire Red and Leaf Green and its an issue that has was around Pokemon until gen 4. In Gens 1 through 3 there is no Physical special split for moves. What that means is that in gens 1-3 attacks are divided into physical and special by TYPE instead of a case by case basis. This means that thunderPUNCH is a special attack because it's and electric type attack. This is really only a small complaint and it is fixed gen 4 onward. You can also take advantage of that like I did for example as you can see above. Bite is a dark type move which in gens 1-3 is a special move which is why it was on Vaporeon. It let me deal with Pokemon like Alakazam by hitting it with Vaporeon who could take psychic's from it really well.

I did sadly stop Fire Red after the first Elite four run because i had still intended to finish the reviews of Blue and Fire Red during June but as the deadline crept closer I realized that there was no way that it was going to happen. Hopefully all there of the parts together got my point across. I really love Gen 1 but, its bugs and balancing problems take a bit of either getting used to or research to abuse yourself do lower its enjoyment for me and make it hard to recommend to anyone that isn't a Pokemon fan. The remakes however I FULLY recommend to any RPG fan who thinks the premise of gathering a team of monsters to battle for you sounds interesting or fun. Even if not I'd still encourage you give Fire Red a try at least to see if you like them. After all you never really know until you try. Pokemon Blue can be bought on the 3DS E-Store or as a GB cartridge (It'll cost you a lot though) and Fire red is only available as a GBA cartridge (it can be expensive depending on where you find it.)