How to play Pokemon Radical Red on Mac

Game summary

Radical Red is a QoL hack that has many new features, such as: Physical/Special split + Fairy Typing All Pokémon up to Gen 8 obtainable (with some exceptions, see further down) Moves up to Gen 8, including some of the Isle of Armor DLC moves! Updated Pokémon sprites Mega Evolution Abilities up to Gen 8 Important battle items up to Gen 8 Raised level cap to 250, although this won't be super relevant until post game is added Raid Battles Reusable TMs Expanded TM list Additional move tutors EV Training Gear Ability popups during battle Gen 8 Exp Share Hidden Abilities Day and Night DexNav, which allows you to search for Pokemon with hidden abilities and other neat things! Even faster turbo speed (!!!) Abilities like Magma Armor have field effects like recent Gens Destiny Knot, Everstone have updated breeding mechanics ... and more!
First released: Jul 2020

Play Pokemon Radical Red on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Pokemon Radical Red on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

Pokemon Radical Red installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install Pokemon Radical Red like you would on any PC.
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🕹 Editor's notes

Pokemon Radical Red is a fan-made version of the original Pokemon game FireRed. It is a ROM hack, which means that fans of the Pokemon FireRed game hacked it to play on a new device.

The fans have made it possible to play the game on phones and computers. However, you won’t be impressed with Radical Red if you are not used to playing challenging games. Specific sections of the gaming community criticize the difficulty level and new mechanics in the game.

This game has gained a lot of momentum online from gamers that like to challenge themselves. You will find multiple people on streaming platforms giving tips on how to play the game.

Plot

The plot is the same as the original Pokemon game, where there is a couple of children who decide to go and challenge the best Pokemon trainers in the Kanto region. They come across a professor named Oak, who helps them catch their first Pokemon.

The children go far and wide, traveling across the land to battle gym leaders. You will earn a gym badge for every gym leader you defeat. You will also face challenges from Team Rocket in your quest to become the best Pokemon trainer.

New Features

One of the best-added features in Radical Red is the ability for you to challenge a gym leader whom you have already beaten. This is an excellent way to test your other Pokemons’ efficiency against theirs.

The other new feature is replacing the 8th gym leader from the original FireRed version. Radical Red introduces the addition of a female dragon-type leader name Clair. She was initially supposed to feature in the advanced levels of the Pokemon gaming series, but the developer features her in Kanto.

The creator also added new Pokemon characters in Radical Red.

  • Legendary Pokemon
  • Mythicals
  • Ultra beasts

Games like Pokemon Radical Red playable on Mac