A Pokémon FireRed failure that could only happen in 2026

Autosave has dulled my instinct to hit the save button, and eight hours into the newly ported Pokémon FireRed on Nintendo Switch I lost my progress because I never saved. I paid $19.99 for a nostalgic return to Kanto and spent several evenings catching bugs, picked up an early Pikachu, knocked out Brock on my first turn, gambled on buying the Magikarp from the man at the Pokémon Center, and scaled Mt.

Moon — then I closed the game without saving. The problem came when my kid grabbed the Switch 2 for about 30 minutes of Pokémon Z-A and opened a new game, which closed my FireRed session. Opening a new game on Switch will close your current game, so progress is only safe if the game autosaved or you saved manually before switching.

The series itself reflects that evolution: saving was manual for decades until Pokémon Sword and Shield introduced autosave, and modern games’ background saves have dulled older habits.

pokémon firered, nintendo switch, switch 2, autosave, manual save, kanto, pikachu, magikarp, mt. moon, pokémon center