What are peoples favorite ROM Hacks? I personally like vanilla+ experiences but just want to hear what other people appreciate and why.
I’m thinking of Smash Remix for Super Smash Bros. It adds tons of content but keeps the game feeling original.
Also thinking of Maternalbound Redux, an improvement for the USA version of Earthbound
Pacman Championship Edition demake for NES
-
Dawn of Sorrow hack that removes the touch screen glyphs for the boss battles
-
Hack for Probotector/Contra Hard Corps on Sega that restores the 3 hit point system from the original Japanese version
-
Pokemon Emerald Rogue. It’s a Pokemon Roguelite that includes most (all?) Pokemon and mechanics from every game. It is very challenging, but it has tons of customization options. It has a lot of modernization and quality of life changes. It is basically perfection in my opinion
Edit: Base ROM is Pokemon Emerald for GBA
Is that GBA?
Yes, sorry. Original Pokemon Emerald for a base. There is an unofficial patch as well, but I have no experience with it
Ocarina of time hack: Missing Link. The Story takes place between ocarina of time and Majoras Mask. I loved it.
The Secret of Evermore hack enabling a second player to control the dog is quite formidable, if a tad glitchy at times. It elevates a somewhat forgettable single player jRPG to a fun co-op pastime.
There was a genesis version of shadow run where they fixed the bug with melee and to much cyberware and allowed you to choose your race at character creation. They have not been kept up though it did not really work for me in a recent iteration.
Super Mario 64: Beyond the Cursed Mirror - Great 120 star ROM hack. It adds plenty of custom coded content and a Paper Mario-like badge system.
The Paper Parable
https://enneagon.itch.io/the-paper-parable
It’s a fun Stanley Parable inspired romhack of Paper Mario.
Pokemon Red: Rocket Edition is brilliant.
Gran Turismo 2 Plus
I also like stuff which keeps it mostly true to the original and GT2+ is unofficial patches + cut content added back + some new.
The recently released Gran Turismo 4 Spec II is pretty fantastic as well!
Oh yeah I forgot I tried a hack of the A-Spec version. I never got far because I was having issues with the emulator. I’ll give it another shot
I haven’t really played any romhacks besides one. A while ago I played through the Gold Quest for Ocarina of Time. It’s like an upgraded version of Master Quest: remixed dungeons, enemies added in different locations, items have been moved to different locations, and some changes to the world outside of dungeons. Great for anyone that wants a more challenging version of OOT.
I’ve also been watching a friend play through a Pikmin romhack called Bikmin 269. This game is straddling the line between a shitpost and a fever dream. You collect NFTs and Bitcoins, the ground texture is layered images of Shaggy from Scooby Doo, the space ship is a T-posing Luigi, and one type of Pikmin is a “mushroom” that looks suspiciously penis-like… It’s a nightmare in the best possible way
I’ll have to give Gold Quest a look. It seems crazy to think somebody dared to mod such a classic game
Pokemon Unbound is a fun one.
Theres one that saves the original Tetris high scores that we use in an arcade cabinet.
Came here to suggest Unbound too!
I had a great time with Unbound. I also enjoyed playing Eternal X which made Gen 6 actually tolerable to play, although it’s largely the same game as Vanilla X with all Pokemon through Gen 6 catchable and improved difficulty.
Tetris: Rosey Retrospective is legitimately my favorite version of tetris
I’ve been looking for a decent Tetris version. I’ll give that a look. Prior to knowing this I settled for Tetris 2
