Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen come to Nintendo Switch later this week. The move will likely pull in some younger Pokemon fans, but let’s be honest, it’s largely something Nintendo is doing for those of us who played the originals more than 20 years ago. That’s probably for the best, as even though they will be simple ports that are more or less identical to the original games, they carry a higher ESRB rating.
FireRed & LeafGreen’s Switch Ports Are Rated E10+
That much has been confirmed by FireRed & LeafGreen’s respective store pages. Instead of being rated E for Everyone, which was the case for the originals on GBA, ESRB has given the Switch ports an E10+ rating. That means the ratings board recommends that children under the age of ten don’t play these ports, although I’m sure they will.
It also technically means that if you’re under 10, you can play the originals, but you shouldn’t play the ports, even though they’re the same games.
As for what it is in FireRed & LeafGreen that’s caused ratings change after all these years, Rocket Game Corner is, at least partly, to blame. Located in Celadon City, Rocket Game Corner has been a staple of the Kanto region. It’s where players can go to gamble and increase how much cash they have, and in Pokemon Blue, you could even buy a Pikachu there for 620 coins.
FireRed & LeafGreen’s listings note that part of the reason the ports have been given a higher rating than the original game is due to “simulated gambling”, implying that Rocket Game Corner will be a part of the games, unchanged from how it appeared in the originals. However, there is another potential reason why the ports are E10+ while the originals were just E, and that’s because when the original versions launched on GBA, the E10+ rating didn’t exist.
ESRB Didn’t Have An E10+ Option In 2004
E10+ wasn’t added to the ESRB’s list of potential options until 2005, the year after FireRed & LeafGreen were released. It gave developers a new target to aim for when they were working on games that were never going to qualify for an E rating, but having them labeled T for Teen would potentially isolate an entire demographic. That 10 to 12 age range, which is filled with young gamers.
That said, it seems unlikely that even had LeafGreen & FireRed originally launched under the E10+ era, that it would have been slapped with a higher rating. Pretty much every Pokemon game has been given an E for Everyone, as I imagine that’s a box Game Freak intentionally tries to check. There have only been four exceptions throughout Pokemon history, two of which are the recently released Legends games, which means FireRed & LeafGreen will be breathing rarified, E10+ air when they come to Switch this Friday.
- Released
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September 7, 2004
- ESRB
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e
