Dataminers Discover Switch FireRed/LeafGreen Sloop Backend Can Run GBA ROMs

Dataminers diving into the Nintendo Switch releases of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen say the emulator backend packed with those releases can also boot Game Boy Advance ROMs for Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, a discovery that would hint at possible plans to bring more GBA Pokémon titles to Switch hardware. The claim first circulated in a rapid-fire datamine push following the Switch eShop releases and was summarized in a short social post on February 27, 2026: “According to a dataminer, the Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen releases from today internally also have compatibility for Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, meaning those could be coming in the future. pic.twitter.com/MvdB0sJS7N” — Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) February 27, 2026.

The person behind the technical breakdown identifies themselves as LuigiBlood, also referred to in some posts as Yakumono/LuigiBlood, and explicitly names the emulator: “the emulator in question is Sloop, the same emulator Nintendo uses for the Game Boy Advance games featured in the Nintendo Classics library.” LuigiBlood adds that the included ROMs are not straight dumps but “heavily modified and rebuilt.” Those two details together tie the FireRed/LeafGreen Switch builds to Nintendo’s existing Game Boy Advance emulation stack while signaling significant internal changes to the files.

The dataminer thread also cataloged gameplay and UI changes observed in the builds being probed. Per the datamine, “profanity is now banned when naming your in-game character/rival and, according to one player who has somehow already made it to the end of the game, the inclusion of the Aurora Ticket and Mystic Ticket limited-time distribution items. You can shiny-hunt Deoxys, but you can no longer call your arch-nemesis ASSCLOWN. Nintendo giveth, and Nintendo taketh away.” Those in-game notes combine a reported content filter, added distribution items, and a specific endgame mechanic—Deoxys shiny-hunting—that a player apparently verified in a near-release playthrough.

The discovery came fast. One report noted that “The Nintendo Switch ports of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen have officially been out for just a few hours, which may as well be a few months as far as dataminers are concerned. In the past two hours alone, the internet has been doing its best to speedrun all of the secrets hidden within the ROMs for FireRed and LeafGreen.” That speed of community reverse engineering is why references to Sloop and to additional ROM compatibility surfaced publicly within hours of release.

Community reaction has ranged from excitement about official rereleases to technical skepticism about broader GBA support. One commenter observing emulator limitations wrote, “I mean, it probably could be technically done with a feature to rotate the screen (and needing to add gyro buttons) but such necessary additions to its emulator are thing I wouldn't trust Nintendo's emu devs to have a commitment to achieve. M2 maybe.” Broader emulation context continues to surface in parallel discussions, with other posts pointing out real-world handheld alternatives and the Steam Deck’s mixed performance on modern Pokémon ports.

None of the dataminer material includes an official confirmation from Nintendo or The Pokémon Company, and the Sloop identification and Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald compatibility remain claims from LuigiBlood/Yakumono’s probing. If verified, the files would create a clear technical path to additional GBA Pokémon eShop releases; until Nintendo issues a statement or the datamine is reproduced with public file-level evidence, treat the compatibility as unconfirmed.