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

[Bionicle Enthusiast]

There's this PVP Megaman X fan game, where you duke it out with your pals as MMX or Zero, and even Sigma. Shit's rad, but I can't recall the name.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

basically locking you to a very strict progression path with very little in the way of tricks to gain upgrades early.

I'd argue AM2R does the same thing. It hides it a little better, and adds in the Distribution Center for fast travel. But AM2R is a remake after all, so it still uses lava and earthquakes triggered by Metroid kills, puts damaging spikes on heaps of walls to prevent Spiderballing, and uses crumbling blocks as interference for your parkour, as ways to prevent you progressing beyond where the game wants you.

Personally though, I don't care about sequence breaks. I've heard people level the same complaint about linearity at Fusion and Dread and I still don't care because they're fun, since throwing out intended progression is not where I get my jollies.
I also don't see Metroid 2 specifically as that kind of exploration-heavy game: I see it more as a really dark genocidal adventure, one that has a really fucked up ending where we're supposed to be okay with a baby metroid still existing (they are an extremely dangerous bioweapon species that needs to be exterminated).

 

[David Brown]

If you like Pokemon and you aren't a pussy, play Pokemon Radical Red. It's a tough, but fair rom hack with shitloads of QoL additions. It's a fucking hard rom hack, but it gives you a lot of tools to skip all the tedium of making a strong team so you can focus on the brainstorming strats to beat the gym leaders and shit. It has a perfect IV and no EV mode, there are cheat codes to do stuff like 100% catch rate, it has built in randomizers if you want, etc. It basically turns the game into a sort of free form puzzle solving game. It has pokemon from almost every generation and they are distributed very well so each route has at least a couple mons you might want to take, and you won't be starved for type coverage or variety at all.

I will warn you though, the game does fucking cheat here and there. Some cocksucking trainer had a Meganium that would get guaranteed priority Giga Drain NO MATTER FUCKING WHAT basically the game *rarely* lets certain pokemon do some fucking bullshit. I've never even beaten it even on the easy difficulty but I have never had more fun with Pokemon than with this hack. It ruined other hacks for me because most are just so fucking easy there is no point to even putting a good team together because you can sweep everything with 2 or 3 pokemon effortlessly.

If you are interested but suck ass at pokemon like me, I recommend doing a rain team. It's really powerful, has robust type coverage, and has great defensive capability when you need it as well. Don't be ashamed to save state on battles while you learn the opponent's team. Trust me, it won't ruin the challenge. Like I said, to me it's like a hybrid of Pokemon and a puzzle game.

https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/pok%C3%A9mon-radical-red-version-4-1-released-gen-9-dlc-pokemon-character-customization-now-available.437688/

 

[Dysnomia]

What was that Mario World mod where it's like one of those weird Japanese pixel horror games where you just die and die and die and things get really weird and messed up and I think Peach drowned or something? I played it a few years. I really enjoyed it. Well done playable creepypasta

 

[LanceMaster01]

What was that Mario World mod where it's like one of those weird Japanese pixel horror games where you just die and die and die and things get really weird and messed up and I think Peach drowned or something? I played it a few years. I really enjoyed it. Well done playable creepypasta

Oh, Coronation Day (or 'the). Neat little thing, if a bit short. One of two creepypasta hacks to give me legit chills (the other being B3313)

 

[Irregardless]

I've been a huge fan of "Carnivores" mods. For whatever reason this niche 20+ year old computer game has a pretty active modding community.

My favorites have been:

• Carnivores: Phantasmagoria
• Carnivores Far North
• Carnivores Triassic
• Mandibles

Side note, the games take place on a different planet, so canonically the creatures you hunt are not Dinosaurs, they're aliens.

 

[LikeAStone 2.0]

Whoever that nigga was that dropped MUGEN years ago changed a 13-year-old Stone’s life.

 

[Colon capital V]

Pikmin² is the entirety of Pikmin 1 remade inside of Pikmin 2's engine + an entirely new side mode for Louie made by PikHacker and his team.

Reimplements all of the missing enemies from 1 into 2 plus all of the refinements that came with 2. Wonderful mod that arguably makes this the definitive way to play Pikmin 1 now.

Speaking of total conversion/remake mods inside of sequal games, there's gonna be a remake of EarthBound Beginnings/Mother 1 inside of EarthBound's engine dropping sometime this year hopefully.

It is made by a Troon, but from the few that I've seen from this project it looks competently made enough, so long as there's no stupid DEI shit added into a 80s/90s game I will be sure to play it and judge for myself how good it is.

 

[skykiii]

Has the duology of Junkoid and Super Junkoid been mentioned yet? Those are so awesome I legit consider them better than the vanilla games (Metroid and Super Metroid, obviously).

Confusingly, Super Junkoid claims to be "Junkoid 3" but there is no Junkoid 2.

Unfortunately the fangame world is one I haven't dipped my toes in as much as I would like, but I'll try to remember if I've ever run across anything else worth mentioning that isn't an "everyone knows about this" thing.

 

[Helping Friendly Book]

These don’t really fall into ROM hack territory, but since they are similar to Kaizo hacks, I’d like to bring up the Tightened series of mods for GTA III, VC, and SA done by DinosaurBytes.
Tightened’reas (SA) isn’t finished AFAIK right now, but the other two he’s done, Tightened Vice for VC and Tightened Thrice for III, are finished, and are very polished for mods. I highly recommend them for anybody who’s played the games and wants something not only more difficult, but also somewhat new and interesting as well.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

SNESDrunk has an entire playlist of videos where he goes over a bunch of ROM hacks that he has played.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

Has the duology of Junkoid and Super Junkoid been mentioned yet? Those are so awesome I legit consider them better than the vanilla games (Metroid and Super Metroid, obviously).

Confusingly, Super Junkoid claims to be "Junkoid 3" but there is no Junkoid 2.

Unfortunately the fangame world is one I haven't dipped my toes in as much as I would like, but I'll try to remember if I've ever run across anything else worth mentioning that isn't an "everyone knows about this" thing.

The reason for the naming is because Super Metroid’s Japanese title is Metroid III.

 

[Helping Friendly Book]

SNESDrunk has an entire playlist of videos where he goes over a bunch of ROM hacks that he has played.

I’ve seen these, really good videos. I played some of the ROM hacks based on his recommendations.

 

[Back me up!]

If you want a really good fangame that hit right in the nostalgia I highly recommend Day In the Limelight 2. Basically the Robot Master from Mega Man 2 fight their way through the Robot Masters and levels of Mega Man 3. The great part is that each Robot Master has different movement speed, jump height, and of course their own unique which each level having unique challenges that plays to the Robot Master strength.

Its a real trip if you've play Mega Man 2 and 3 growing up.

 

[Guy who lurks]

Megaman X8 16bit

 

[skykiii]

The reason for the naming is because Super Metroid’s Japanese title is Metroid III.

I mean, I get that (the "Metroid 3" text is in the American version too) but its still odd to not even have a Junkoid 2 if he's gonna call one of them Junkoid 3.

Also I would really have loved to see the Junkoid brand of surreal dreamscape applied to Metroid II.

...........

Since the posts above mentioned Mega Man, I guess I'll shout out Mega Man Unlimited, which to me is the real Mega Man 11.

Also GillytheKid and Antdude have both done videos covering fan games and romhacks.

 

[Two Dollars]

Archipelago is one of the craziest things I’ve seen in modding. It’s a “multi-world randomizer” which means it’s a bunch of different randomizers for a bunch of games that all communicate with each other for a cohesive multiplayer experience. Player A gets a star in Mario 64, which doesn’t actually give a star, but instead gives Player B a TM in Pokemon Red. Player B gets a new Pokedex entry, which gives Player C a new recipe in Minecraft. Player C gets an achievement, which unlocks a new ability for Player D in Kirby’s Dream Land 3… and so on. Each randomizer is also customizable per-player, so you can speed up longer games or make short games harder, whatever you want. Here’s an extreme example of customization, Pokemon Red/Blue.

There are a little over 50 “officially” supported games on their site, but probably 200-300 more that are still in development but are completely playable, just not bundled with the main app. This ranges from Adventure on the Atari to modern PC games like Balatro and everything in-between. The community is on Discord, but you can also set everything up yourself.

There’s no upper bound on number of players supported in a single game, so people have made multi-worlds with over a hundred people, all playing different games.

 

[Post Reply]

I mean, I get that (the "Metroid 3" text is in the American version too) but its still odd to not even have a Junkoid 2 if he's gonna call one of them Junkoid 3.

Junkoid III: The Search for Junkoid II.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Pokémon Pisces is great if you want to play a sequel to Pokémon Emerald. Heavily edited Hoenn with new areas, new Pokémon, a new story, and a new type.

 

[Duiker]

I was always a big fan of the Might and Magic series. Might and Magic 6,7 and 8 all use the same engine and are set on the same world (but different continents). Fans have made a merge mod that takes the three games and makes them one. You can choose which game to start and hop between continents, completing all the games plots in any order, and even discover a new metaplot after you've beaten all three. Combine that with some quality of life improvements and its a good change of pace if you've already played any of them before.
MM6-7-8 Merge Mod