How far are you? Seriously, if you have access to LeafGreen, play it instead. The vast majority of the pokemon you get in FireRed is stuff you've already seen in Platinum. LeafGreen gives you:
*Title splash screen looks better
*Easy female Nidoran (for breeding purposes); that is, you can evolve a male nidoran from the in-game trade and don't have to worry about being able to breed from it later
*Staryu line (one of my favorite Gen I Pokemon, just from its Brawl appearance)
*Slowpoke line (again, one of my favs.)
*Sandshrew line (not necessarily a favorite, but one I've wanted to try out for a while now)
*Magmar line for easy egg hatching, although since that's postgame anyway it's not that big a deal.
The only things you miss out on are:
*Skarmory (which you can EASILY get in Platinum postgame)
*Bellossom (which is easy from HGSS)
*Scyther (which isn't that great until Gen IV, anyway)
*Electabuzz (Platinum)
*Qwilfish
I'll post a complete list of version exclusives in a second.
EDIT:
The following Pokémon are only obtainable in one game of this pair. In order to obtain Pokémon exclusive to the other game of this pair, they must be traded either from that game or from another compatible game of Generation III which has that Pokémon available. In addition, several Generation II Pokémon and a majority of Generation III Pokémon must be traded from a Hoenn-based game (Only two Generation III Pokémon, Azurill and Wynaut, can be obtained in FireRed and LeafGreen).
FireRed
023 Ekans
024 Arbok
043 Oddish
044 Gloom
045 Vileplume
182 Bellossom
054 Psyduck
055 Golduck
058 Growlithe
059 Arcanine
090 Shellder
091 Cloyster
123 Scyther
212 Scizor
239 Elekid
125 Electabuzz
194 Wooper
195 Quagsire
198 Murkrow
211 Qwilfish
225 Delibird
227 Skarmory
386 Deoxys Attack Forme
LeafGreen
027 Sandshrew
028 Sandslash
037 Vulpix
038 Ninetales
069 Bellsprout
070 Weepinbell
071 Victreebel
079 Slowpoke
080 Slowbro
199 Slowking
120 Staryu
121 Starmie
240 Magby
126 Magmar
127 Pinsir
298 Azurill
183 Marill
184 Azumarill
200 Misdreavus
215 Sneasel
223 Remoraid
224 Octillery
226 Mantine
386 Deoxys Defense Forme
Don't you need an event to get Zorua/Zoroak as well as Victini?
Also, to get all the pokemon in HGSS (that is, Kanto and Johto pokemon) you'd need both versions.
But if you have wi-fi access all of this doesn't really matter from gen 4 onwards, as you can trade for everything except the 3 unreleased unova pokemon.
True, I'm just doing the same calculations Nintendo is likely doing, to see if there needs to be a remake of Gen III or not. If it seems like there's going to be a remake of R/S/E, then I'll skip them so the experience is new for me, and I'll just skip to HGSS.
