Summary
What I liked
What could be improved
Gameplay & mechanics
Presentation & audio
Who this is for
Practical notes
Verdict
If you want, I can:
I believe you're referring to a ROM hack or fan-made modification of Pokémon FireRed titled “1636 - Pokemon Fire Red Squirrels” (or similar). However, after checking multiple reputable ROM databases, hack repositories (like PokeCommunity, Romhacking.net), and archives of numbered releases (e.g., No-Intro, GoodSets), no official or widely known hack exists under that exact name and number.
Here’s a complete breakdown of what I can verify and what you might be confusing it with:
Let’s get the technical details out of the way. "Squirrels" is not a fan-made game with a new story or region. It is a pirated bootleg copy of the official Pokémon FireRed.
Back in the mid-2000s, standard copy protection on GBA games made it difficult for flashcarts and early emulators to run official ROMs cleanly. Piracy groups "dumped" (copied) the game from the cartridge and cracked the copy protection. The "Squirrels" version refers to the specific release by a piracy group that, for reasons known only to them, decided to stamp their logo—a squirrel—onto the game’s intro sequence. 1636 Pokemon Fire Red Squirrels
For nearly two decades, Pokémon Fire Red has been considered a solved game. Every item mapped, every glitch documented, every Pokédex entry dissected. But a recent deep-dive by dataminers into the game’s unused asset tables has uncovered something bizarre: a reference to 1636 — and a cluster of scrapped “squirrel” Pokémon that never made it to Kanto.
If you are playing a vanilla Pokemon Fire Red (unmodified cartridge or official Virtual Console), you will never see squirrels or the number 1636. However, if you are playing a specific ROM hack, follow these steps reported by fans:
Disclaimer: This is a fan-made glitch guide for a specific ROM hack, not an official Nintendo feature.