Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Remakes Add a Swear Filter, Limiting Your Ability to Name Your Rival Something Rude

Everyone loves naming your Pokémon rival something rude, and seeing the game then continually refer to them as “ass” — or worse. Now, however, the series’ new FireRed and LeafGreen re-releases have limited this trend by implementing a swear filter.

Pokémon fans were quick to report that naming your rival (or indeed, yourself) as “Ass”, “Asshole” or “Dick” would simply see your input ignored, and one of the game’s default names used instead.

The addition of a profanity filter is one of the few changes made to Nintendo’s ports of FireRed and LeafGreen, which otherwise simply emulate the classic Game Boy Advance titles as originally presented, for the price of $20 each.

https://twitter.com/RexProfessor/status/2027413778405466394?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Of course, as with every swear filter ever created, people have not taken long to start getting around it. A quick check on social media shows that while “asshole” is banned, naming your rival “azzhole” or indeed “asshat” is still accepted. “Fartass” is also allowed.

All the swear words you’d expect to be caught by the filter seem to be banned on their own, though a few milder curses get through fine. While “ass” is banned, “butt” is not. Neither is “arse,” if you prefer a British spelling.

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen were re-released for Nintendo Switch last Friday, as part of the franchise’s big 30th anniversary celebrations, which also finally cleared up the confusing situation with the games’ link to Pokémon Home.

During the franchise’s annual Pokémon Presents announcement broadcast, fans also got a deeper dive into the promising-looking life sim spinoff Pokémon Pokopia, and a long-awaited first look at Pokémon Winds and Waves, which will kick off the series’ 10th generation. The only downside? These new games won’t arrive for Nintendo Switch 2 until 2027.

Time for some more adventures with Fartass before then?

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social