Pokémon FireRed is Game Freak’s 2004 remake of the first Pokémon games, rebuilt for the Game Boy Advance. You leave Pallet Town with Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle, earn eight badges across Kanto, break up Team Rocket and challenge the Elite Four, with side trips to the Sevii Islands, an island chain added in the remake. If you own the game, Nagori lets you play it on iPhone and iPad.
What you need
- An iPhone or iPad with iOS 17.6 or later.
- Nagori from the App Store. Your first game is free.
- The game file of your copy of Pokémon FireRed in
.gbaformat, or a.zipor.rarcontaining it.
No BIOS file is needed.
How to play Pokémon FireRed on iPhone
- Install Nagori from the App Store.
- Copy your FireRed
.gbafile to the Files app, in iCloud Drive or On My iPhone. - Open Nagori, tap + and select the file. Nagori keeps its own copy, so you no longer need the original afterwards.
- Find FireRed on the GBA shelf with its box art and press Play.
Controls
FireRed only uses the D-pad and the Game Boy Advance buttons, and the Standard touch layout has all of them, with L and R along the top of the screen. A talks and confirms, B cancels, Start opens the menu, and Select uses a key item you have registered, such as the Bicycle. Once you have the Running Shoes, hold B while you walk to run.
The game’s own Options menu has a Button Mode setting. Set it to L=A and the L button works as a second A button, which is handy for tapping through text.
Fast Forward is the Nagori feature you will use most here. It runs the game at twice the speed, which cuts the time spent grinding levels in tall grass, walking between towns and reading long dialogue. Bind it to a controller button, or open Edit Layout and add the ×2 button to the touch controls in My Layout.
Bluetooth controllers that iOS supports work, including DualSense, DualShock 4 and Xbox controllers. The touch controls hide as soon as one connects, and the left stick works as the D-pad too. Press the left stick to open the pause menu.
Saves: protect your run
On the cartridge, FireRed saves only when you choose Save from the Start menu, and it holds a single save file. Nagori keeps that in-game save automatically and adds a few safety nets:
- Quit any time. Leave the app in the middle of a route and Continue puts you back exactly where you were.
- Save states before big fights. Pause and choose Save before a gym leader, a battle with your rival or the Elite Four. If it goes wrong, Load and try again with a different team. Nagori keeps your last four saves per game.
- Legendary Pokémon. Make a save state before you throw Poké Balls at Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres or Mewtwo. If you knock it out by accident, load and try again.
- iCloud. Save to iCloud stores your progress in your private iCloud, and Load from iCloud picks it up on your iPad.
What doesn’t work without a link cable
On the Game Boy Advance, FireRed connects to other consoles with a link cable or the GBA Wireless Adapter. Nagori plays GBA games for one player and has no link support, so you can’t trade Pokémon, battle a friend or use the Union Room.
That also means Pokémon that only evolve when traded, like Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler and Haunter, stay as they are. Trades with characters in the game still work, because they happen inside your own copy.
Best settings
- Picture Smoothing softens the edges of sprites and text. Turn it off to see the raw pixels of the original 240 × 160 screen.
- Full Screen stretches the picture to fill the display. Leave it off to keep the GBA’s 3:2 shape. Edit Layout can move the touch controls into the black bars at the sides, so they don’t cover the picture.
- Screen Effects → CRT Screen adds scanlines. The GBA had an LCD screen, not a TV, so this one is down to taste.
