Let's Sperg Fangames, ROM Hacks, and Mods... Oh My! - The main discussion place for all playable fan projects, most of them made by absolute autists

[LanceMaster01]

I know there's been similar threads in the past, particularly for ROM Hacks. However, I want this topic to be more all-encompassing and also include fangames and PC mods. Can be from any system, though besides translations (which I don't count) most of them reside on Bingtendo/PC stuff.

I guess I'll break the ice by giving out my top 5, I guess. Note that I'm kinda ass at describing things, and this my first actual theead, so please be gentle.

5. Super Mario Bros. X (PC)
This thing has been around for a long time, made by Andrew "Redigit" Spinks of Terraria fame. It (especially the official-ish X2) has a pretty robust level editor that can be compiled into "episodes". It has Lua support as well, and people over the years have made some crazy shit.

4. Daggerfall Unity
I always felt that Daggerfall had a lot of potential, and in some ways, a little ahead of its time, but overambition caused it to crumble into a buggy, empty mess. DFU aims to fix a number of these issues, as well as mod support to help add even more It's now my fave ES because of how much better it feels.

3. Final Fantasy 4 Ultima Plus (SNES)
If there's one thing I really respect about the hack, it's the amount of content the team managed to stuff into such a small space. So many new skills, enemies, bosses, and even playstyle changes. It's got a difficulty bump, too, actually making you think about battles. Some people consider it too bloated and padded, which I can understand, but I personally love it.

2. ZC Quest (Formerly Zelda Classic)(PC)
Like SMBX, this program has been around since forever, since the late 90's IIRC. Originally just a well-made PC port of the original Zelda, it eventually got its own little quest maker that just evolved into being able to create full games. It's pretty limited by today standards, but some dedicated folks have still been able to create some cool stuff. My faves are In the Lost Kingdom of the Banana Blood God, Rite of the Storm, Yuurand, and Link's Quest for the Hookshot 2.

1. Pokémom Clover (GBA)
Yeah, this list probably wouldn't be complete without a Pokey Man, eh. I know there are better made and technically impressive hacks, but being a 4channer myself, it feels like a perfect celebration of the culture filled with many deepcuts and a surprisingly well-crafted roster of Fakemon and a ton of content, even if it's kinda outdated in terms of hacking techniques and QoL. It's actually challenging as well, especially during the post-game.

Spoiler

2.0 never ever.

Welp, that's my list. Any more suggestions or ancedotes are welcome

 

[Billy_Sama!]

I enjoyed the Kuriko mods of Banjo Kazooie and the Aki wrestling mods like WrestleMania X and WCW Saturday Night.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Here is a weird little mod that randomizes FF6 and turns it into more of a boss rush type of game. It can randomize characters, gear, treasure, Espers, all kinds of stuff. The amount of options it gives you are mind boggling. Beating bosses rewards you with rare high level items, and the eventual goal is to beat Kefka. Speed runners can crack out a run in a couple hours, but at a casual rate it should probably take you 3-4 the first time, going down as you start to understand it. I've gone through it a couple times, and it's pretty fun.

Random, unreviewed demo video

 

[Coolio55]

2. ZC Quest (Formerly Zelda Classic)(PC)
Like SMBX, this thing has been around a long time, since the late 90's IIRC. Originally just a well-made PC port of the original Zelda, it eventually got its own little quest maker that just evolved into being able to create full games. It's pretty limited by today standards, but some dedicated folks have still been able to create some cool stuff. My faves are In the Lost Kingdom of the Banana Blood God, Rite of the Storm, Yuurand, and Link's Quest for the Hookshot 2.

Mario's Insane Rampage

Found some more gems while I was looking for it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190727152733/http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/Linksbhd/

https://web.archive.org/web/20190727152728/https://www.angelfire.com/rpg/Linksbhd/index4.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20190727152811/http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/Linksbhd/comic.jpg

 

[Give Them Enough Rope]

"Wow! You are really going to cross this desert by foot? What a crazy idea!
It's going to take roughly 8 hours by foot and the desert is so hot, if you don't keep jumping you will get burned.
At least you have your trusty radio keeping you entertained with the best boomer songs throughout your trip."

 

[Adolf Kitler]

Hell yeah, finally a sperging thread for this.

 

[Spungus]

Something that I haven't seen that much these days are just stupid/silly mods that are still fun. Beng's Laser Demo Nuke Mod is a long-forgotten mod that comes to mind for C&C: Generals. It just makes the three factions beyond broken, yet still has a lot of effort put in to still have fun in the power fantasy (or challenge, if any of them are enemies).

A much well known mod that I love is Hazardous Course 2, which is effectively a Kaizo mod for Half Life 1. It starts out with classic cheap kills but the longer you go the more you can tell that it develops into a really well designed challenge map, and with a ton of secrets.

And to also invoke the Pogeymans from OP, I played Elite Redux a few months back and it has forever corrupted my enjoyment of other hacks with the sheer levels of QoL improvements. It is absolutely a difficulty hack, but removes all grinding, letting you simply focus on tactics and team composition - and as a bonus, includes the 4-ability system from Exceeded Emerald. Also includes built in things like randomizers and difficulty levels. Only thing that I'd say it's lacking is the (apparently planned) Battle Frontier.

 

[I am Jack's dead arm]

Sindacco Chronicles (mod of Liberty City Stories) is pretty good, even with some Eurojank.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

• Pokémon Unbound
• Pokémon Elite Redux
• Pokémon Radical Red
• Pokémon Emerald Imperium
• Pokémon Brown and Prism
• Pokémon Crystal Clear
• Final Fantasy 6: Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition
• Final Fantasy 6: T-Edition (Japanese hack, use fan translation patch)
• Pokémon Vega (Japanese hack, use English patch, there's a minus patch that adds fairy typing and lowers difficulty as well)
• Metroid Planets
• Metroid Rogue Dawn
• The decompilations of Sonic 1, 2, CD, and Mania.
• Sonic 3 AIR
• The Unleashed Recompilation
• Super Mario 64 PC Port
• Ship of Harkinian
• 2 Ship 2 Harkinian
• OpenGOAL
• Tale of Two Wastelands
• Mario Adventure
• Super Mario 3mix
• Koopa Kingdom Escape/Super Mario: Mushroom Mayhem
• Akaneia Build
• Super Mario Sunburn
• Super Mario Eclipse
• Luigi's Mansion Premium Deluxe
• Shadow the Hedgehog Reloaded
• Mario Party 4 Deluxe
• Sonic Riders DX
• Mario Kart Double Dash Extended
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Skies
• CTGP Revolution
• CTGP Nitro
• CTGP-7
• CTGP Deluxe
• Mario Kart 64: Amped Up
• Super Mario Kart - Horizons
• Castlevania ReVamped
• Final Fantasy Renaissance
• Dragon Quest Remix Gold
• Shin Megami Tensei VX (has a fan translation into English)
• Sonic Robo Blast 2
• The PC remakes of the first two Sonic games on Master System
• Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit
• Faces of Evil Remastered and Wand of Gamelon Remastered
• Smash Remix
• Project+
• Brawl- (surprisingly, it still gets updates)
• HewDraw Remix
• Shy Guy Surfing
• Super Surfing Pikachu DX
• Super Mario RPG: Armageddon

 

[General Emílio Médici]

Since you put Daggerfall Unity on this list, would OpenMW also count? It's a attempt to make a open source port of Morrowind. I guess in a similar way so are OpenTTD and OpenRCT2.

 

[mrs thickness]

1. Pokémom Clover (GBA)
Yeah, this list probably wouldn't be complete without a Pokey Man, eh. I know there are better made and technically impressive hacks, but being a 4channer myself, it feels like a perfect celebration of the culture filled with many deepcuts and a surprisingly well-crafted roster of Fakemon and a ton of content, even if it's kinda outdated in terms of hacking techniques and QoL. It's actually challenging as well, especially during the post-game.

It might be the last truly good OC to come from 4chan. Some people say the humor in it is too outdated for when it released, but it's to the game's favor imo. The lack of QoL is starting to age it too as more hacks come out with full custom regions and dexes, but it's still damn good.

Something that I haven't seen that much these days are just stupid/silly mods that are still fun.

Sorry but I've gotta push back on that, though it might be a tendie bias on my part; good shitpost hacks are still everywhere and improving all the time. A while back I played Bikmin 269, which is both incredibly comprehensive and transformative while also looking like this:



The biggest hurdle funny hacks have right now is that romhackers tend to be troonish with bland senses of humor, but I digress. Fire Emblem and Mario 64 especially are always getting new shitpost hacks.

 

[BONECRUSHER]

VCMI is a Heroes of Might and Magic 3 open source engine remake that has mod support. It's pretty great, for a while it looked dead but it started getting updates again. It supports new factions and other crazy stuff, including multiplayer

 

[Lovely Kin]

5. Super Mario Bros. X (PC)
This thing has been around for a long time, made by Andrew "Redigit" Spinks of Terraria fame. It (especially the official-ish X2) has a pretty robust level editor that can be compiled into "episodes". It has Lua support as well, and people over the years have made some crazy shit.

I remember downloading this a long time ago as a kid and thought it was a legitimate Nintendo game Good memories and had lots of fun with it.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

5. Super Mario Bros. X (PC)
This thing has been around for a long time, made by Andrew "Redigit" Spinks of Terraria fame. It (especially the official-ish X2) has a pretty robust level editor that can be compiled into "episodes". It has Lua support as well, and people over the years have made some crazy shit.

I remember downloading this a long time ago as a kid and thought it was a legitimate Nintendo game Good memories and had lots of fun with it.

There's also TheXTech. I played quite a bit of it during my college days.

 

[LanceMaster01]

tbd

I remember downloading this a long time ago as a kid and thought it was a legitimate Nintendo game Good memories and had lots of fun with it.

Tbf, it's original url to get the game was supermariobros.com, so I understand the confusion.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

I've been experimenting with romhacks a tiny bit in the last year, mostly things like English patches for handheld Monster Hunters and The Lion War for Final Fantasy Tactics that backports some PSP stuff into the PS1 version, like cutscenes and the updated translation.

In terms of real serious Total Conversion hacks, I've only really been digging in to Metroid ones so far. I haven't enjoyed many of them to be honest, because a lot feel like they're excuses to try and cram every possible visual effect the SNES was capable of into every room, or they take themselves way too fucking seriously, having intro stories about Samus watching her husband and son be murdered and suffering a stress-induced miscarriage after that.

However, I mentioned Metroid: Subversion recently in another thread and was purposely vague about it there, but I wanna sperg on it a bit more.


Just a warning: average first run even for series veterans is nearly 10 hours.

Spoiler: Wall of sperg, with images

Subversion basically exists for two reasons - to show off what the authors' new SMetroid romhacking tool SMART can do, and to make an actually interesting romhack/fangame. The name is appropriate, because Subversion does subvert a lot of Metroid's comfy tropes and conventions:

The opening sequence is invading a specially outfitted Space Pirate cargo ship, ending with a Ridley who is immune to damage somehow, and throws Samus off the ship so that she freefalls onto the planet below.

Gravity is extremely high here, so the first (non-missile tank) item collected is the Gravity Boots, and the first area explored is the water biome, Oceania.


Subversion's map is a pretty good size, and holy fuck the game feels long. Average TTC on Metroid Construction was like 9h45m last time I looked. That is partly because there's a LOT to explore, but the game does suffer a bit from having to go from one end of the world to the other a few times. The zones are barely interconnected, because Oceania acts as a hexen-like hub you have to retread constantly, but there is some nuance to that.


Subversion has a bunch of new features, like this handy Log screen. It helps out a little with exploration by keeping track of what areas and mechanics you've discovered, and hinting to you how you can progress. There's an area early on blocked by a very confusing barrier - it's invisible, and requires the Dark Visor power-up to become tangible and interactive, but it might confuse the shit out of you to the point you'd think the game was bugged if you didn't think to check the Log for an explanation.


Verdite is the big macguffin this time round, a green crystal that does very interesting things when energy is passed through it.
It creates barriers that hurt you at first, there's a Suit Upgrade that makes you immune, and you even get access to the Hyperbeam by interacting with the Lasers once you can safely do so.

The other ways Subversion fucks with you include things like:
- Ridley remaining immune to almost everything until near the end
- Being forced to progress through damaging icy areas well before you get protection from cold
- Boss fights other than Ridley have been altered, mostly to be much more difficult
- You go back up into orbit at one point, docking with a space station that you crash into the planet. This alters all of Oceania, adding larval Metroids to the zone, a new interior area, and giving access to another zone below the crash site.
- There is at least one huge hidden biome that acts as a sort of hollow knight Path of Pain area, which ive never finished but from reading the forums, either contains the animals you save, and/or some unlocks for NG+.
- Turning the power off and on for the Verdite labs affects Verdite barriers in a couple other areas, and manipulating this is key to some endgame secrets, including an alternate path for doing the Escape Sequence at the end, which is also very long.

I think Subversion is an imperfect but very very fucking good romhack that borders on outright fangame. I haven't exhaustively mentioned everything interesting it does, because frankly I can't remember everything it does at once. Just don't play it as your first proper exposure to Metroid: it relies on you knowing and understanding genre/series conventions to appreciate its subversions, and probably even just to make critical path progress, too.

Next week I'm gonna spin up another run of it to get footage for my next video, looking forward to delving through it again.

 

[Yandex Captcha Solver]

Pokemon Rocket Edition became one of my favorite games. The story is really well done. It gave an amazing view from the other side, learnt about Professor Oak's dark history, and how Team Rocket maybe isn't so bad. I was surprised at how well it was done. There is also a nice difficulty increase since you don't become a rich trainer and rely off stolen Pokemon.

 

[Jason_Cruiser]

Mega Man maker is a fan-made level creator for making levels stylized like the nes mega man games. It's insane how much content exists in this, that it not only includes stages and bosses from 1-6 but also content from the 16-32bit games re-drawn in a 8-bit style. It's very professionally made for what's basically a community run project.

I don't think this thread would be complete without mentioning AM2R, a fan-made remake of the gameboy original metroid 2. I honestly prefer this more than the real remake Nintendo made of on the 3ds. They dumbed down way too much of what made the other ones so good by basically locking you to a very strict progression path with very little in the way of tricks to gain upgrades early. AM2R feels way more natural to play after zero and before super and fusion and understands what makes metroid good unlike samus returns.

 

[Gunty King]

If you play modern smbx just make sure you remove the fag flag first. Hopefully they haven't patched this out yet, been a while since I tried.

 

[CoolDudeXD]

My favorite fangame ever made is super mario bros crossover, it has many playable characters with cool skins and you can go through 3 kinds of mario bros (mario 1, lost levels and mario special). Only issue with it is that it has no native controller support so you have to use something like joy2key and map stuff that way. Definitely give it a try.