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StarTopic Nintendo Fangames |ST| Fans Do What Nintendon't

MondoMega

MondoMega

Puffball Enthusiast
Pronouns
She/They
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Nothing can really beat the enginuity and creativity of fans; so inspired by popular works that they put together their own fan creations; artwork, stories, films and... games. Fangames have been around on the internet for years; from flash games running in a browser, to rom hacks editing existing games for fresh and new experiences, full desktop experiences; and Nintendo fans have produced one of the greatest fangame communities out there!

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I feel it's best to set out a few guidelines for discussion in this thread; just so things can get off to a right start. Please read these before sharing anything!

1) This thread is focused on the discussion of fangames, but disucssion of ROM hacks and modifications is very much allowed; I see them as being of the same ilk.

2) When it comes to ROM hacks and modications, I ask that you don't link to any original unpatched ROMs / ISOs, or sites you can download them from. Just a natural precaution I feel I need to state in advance.

3) I realise the title of the thread is "Nintendo Fangames", but please feel free to post about games based on non-Nintendo IPs too! Frankly, it'll be inavoidable in the long run; the Sonic fan community alone rivals the whole Nintendo fangame space; it's truly incredible how dedicated they are to the series.

4) If you happen to be working on your own fan project, I don't at all mind if you promote it here. Share screenshots, a video or a demo; ask users for feedback; whatever you want.

5) I'm well aware that there are a portion of Nintendo fans who have a high and mighty atitude when it comes to fanworks of this nature. So please, if you're only coming here to say something like "and... reported to Nintendo, lol!" please think again about posting anything at all. This is a positive thread meant to discuss creativity and talent, not mock their efforts because you believe their fan works are hurting the bottom line of a billion dollar corporation in any way. News flash: they aren't, not even close.

I'd like discussion to be fairly open-ended; despite these rules being here, I don't think they'll prove to be all that limiting. Share something you've played recently, talk about your all-time favourites, ask for recommendations from certain series or genres; it's pratically open season even if you follow what i've said above.

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I want to dedicate this section of the OP to a few personal recommendations. If you're new to the world of fangames, I think these are some great ones to look out for; a lot of older classics, but some up and coming works too. Adding rom hacks / modifications into the mix would expand the size of the list tenfold, so i'm keeping it to a simple... for now. I plan to expand this section more in the future now, but for now i'm simply going with five that immediately come to mind!

Super Mario Bros. X

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First released in 2009, Super Mario Bros. X is one of the most well-known Mario fangames out there. The game is already a blast with local co-op and a built-in campaign of 60 levels; but through a large selection of user-created content (still being created today!) the game can be expanded even further. A sequel / successor, Super Mario Bros. X2, is also currently in development, with beta builds available now already delivering a lot more features to improve and expand the original. I'd say both are absolutely worth checking out!

Another Metroid 2 Remake

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It's practically impossible for you to have avoided this one if you're a Nintendo fan; but despite all the drama surrounding its takedown and the release of an official Metroid 2 remake in the form of Samus Returns... it still holds up! AM2R is a very different take on the same source material (Metroid II: Return of Samus), one that I believe can stand alongside Samus Returns instead of one replacing the other.

Super Mario Flashback

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A gorgeous tribute to 2D and 3D Mario alike. Super Mario Flashback is still in its early days, with only a brief demo containing four stages from the game's first world available; but it already shows incredible promise. A lot of love and attention has went into the great pixel art and responsive controls that mix 3D Mario moves into a 2D environment; and the available stages are very well designed and feature a lot of remixed classic Mario elements.

Sonic Robo Blast 2 / Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

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Here's a fun one to wrap your head around: a Sonic fangame created with a heavily modified Doom engine, and a racing spin-off based on that same modified engine. That's Sonic Robo Blast 2 and Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart from a technical standpoint! The former is a full 3D Sonic adventure inspired by the classic titles; with multiple playable characters, multiplayer modes and additional unlockable content. SRB2 is also one of the longest-running fangames out there; in active development since 1998 and still recieving updates with new and enhanced content! SRB2K is a Mario Kart-inspired kart racer with a wide variety of characters, items and courses available. Both feature online multiplayer, and can be expanded further thanks to a large and active modding community that create new characters and stages regularly.

Super Smash Flash 2

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Most would likely recognise this one as "the Smash fangame with Goku in it", but I see it as "the Smash fangame with Chibi-Robo in it", and that should hopefully sell you on it more. Speaking seriously though, Super Smash Flash 2 is great fun; definitely one of the best Smash fangames around (far from being the only one though; shout-outs to Crusade as well), especially in regards to gameplay and mechanics, it feels great to play, a nice middle-ground between Melee and modern Smash titles.


I'll be reserving a few posts below this one. I have some ideas for expanding the OP in the future and i'll need the extra space to do it :)
 
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That is already a great OP on what will probably be a great thread. Cheers. I’ve mostly dabbled in Pokemon romhacks but I’d love recs for other stuff.
 
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Power Bomberman

Dominated my friends and I's life for awhile very recently, with us playing that and Super Bomberman R Online a ton. Just insane variety and amazing gameplay if you're a Bomberman fan at all. It even has working online. Also, it has Wario!

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Fantastic thread, OP! Hopefully one day, Nintendo gets their head out of their asses and realize that fan projects exist out of admiration and respect for their IPs.
 
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I was never interested in fangames, but the fuss around AM2R combined with the fact that Metroid 2 was a formative game for me as a kid made me check it out, about three months ago.

I guess I should be astonished at how high quality AM2R is - it's incredibly polished - but what I'm really astonished at is how AM2R "feels" like Metroid 2 in every way, while Samus Returns doesn't at all. It's the damnedest thing. And that's not to say that Samus Returns is bad. It just never at any stage reminded me of the game I grew up playing. AM2R did at almost all times.

So yeah, my mind is far more open to fangames post-AM2R.

I've always wanted to try a pokemon romhack, but never knew where to start. Anyone have any recommendations? I'd be looking for something that's completely finished, with a good level of difficulty and some non-linearity as a bonus. I'm sure some frustrated pokemon fans out there have made (or tried to make) the game the rest of us want Game Freak to do.
 
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I remember playing AM2R a few years ago. It was pretty good other than softlocking after beating the final boss.

I don't play many fangames/ROM hacks, but I'm looking to try Pokemon Brown and Prism at some point, as well giving Crystal Clear another chance.
 
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Great ST and thank you for making this!

I haven't played these yet but I've heard good things about them:

Mother Cognitive Dissonance - A fan game interquel between Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound which I believe was highly regarded among the Starmen.net community:



Psycho Waluigi - Waluigi gets his own game, and it's apparently good? I remember this was feature in an issue of Nintendo Force which is actually what made me start paying attention to fan games in general.


(I think that's a fan-made trailer, there doesn't seem to be an official one)

Nintendo adjacent ones worth calling out:

Abobo's Big Adventure - Abobo smash puny games!



Mega Man Unlimited - A well regarded Mega Man fan game



Mega Man Rock n Roll - Another Mega Man fan game with Roll as a playable character
 
Super Mario Eclipse is a project I'm following that will hopefully* (huge grain of salt) be what Mario Sunshine should have been.

From the developers:
"Super Mario Eclipse is part beta restoration, part enhancement, part original mod, and all fan service. With dozens upon dozens of new missions, fully custom worlds, challenging secret courses, and an interconnected Isle Delfino to boot, this is the Super Mario Sunshine experience you always wanted- and then some! Isle Delfino is hiding all new secrets just waiting to be uncovered, and with multiple playable characters by your side, there's nothing you can't do. Presenting an all-new expanded story, crazy new gimmicks, exciting new moves and abilities, and references to your favorite Gamecube era Mario Games, get ready for the collaborative efforts of the entire Sunshine modding community to finally come together and bring you something special! This Super Mario Sunshine mod is sure to Eclipse the rest!"
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Here are some recommendations:

Sonic Utopia


Card Sagas Wars


Project+
 
I don't know if this is in poor taste or fits the theme of 'good' games (seriously, a lot of these picks are excellent) but...

I made Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon Remastered lol




Can't believe it's already been a year since my shitpost hit the internet. Time flies! I technically didn't intend for this to be a 'fangame' per se, but I sort of realized that two days after it blew up on the internet and took it down (I guess sometimes I can be a bit clueless... to be fair, I made these, so that's evidence enough). The fan patched version is still out there for anyone who feels like experiencing these classics.
 
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Great thread! Fan games are really a treasure, and it's great seeing the passion Nintendo fans put into them. After all, where would we be without Kaizo Mario? And even Toby Fox started with Earthbound ROM hacks. Without fan games, we might not have Undertale or Deltarune!
 
Clov said:
Great thread! Fan games are really a treasure, and it's great seeing the passion Nintendo fans put into them. After all, where would we be without Kaizo Mario? And even Toby Fox started with Earthbound ROM hacks. Without fan games, we might not have Undertale or Deltarune!
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You joke, but look at how far Kaizo Mario World has gone! Created by one guy as a challenge for his friend; ‘Kaizo’ has become a whole genre of fan works beyond Super Mario World. If it didn’t mean acknowledging the existence of ROM hacks, ‘Kaizo’ would probably be a level tag in Mario Maker 2; people make a ton of those stages!
 
MondoMega said:
You joke, but look at how far Kaizo Mario World has gone! Created by one guy as a challenge for his friend; ‘Kaizo’ has become a whole genre of fan works beyond Super Mario World. If it didn’t mean acknowledging the existence of ROM hacks, ‘Kaizo’ would probably be a level tag in Mario Maker 2; people make a ton of those stages!
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No joke! You know me.

I used to love watching people attempt stupidly impossible Mario levels. I can't help but wonder if these Kaizo Mario levels ended up being a big influence for Mario Maker... without Kaizo, there's a good chance we'd never get to see Arino take on ridiculous fan-made stages in the Game Center CX live specials!
 
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Few thoughts on Pokemon romhacks:

Drayanos's difficulty hacks are generally excellent if you're looking for a vanilla-ish experience with higher difficulty, more available mons and some QoL. Renegade Platinum even has fairy type and I think is a fine alternative to BDSP if you're a challenge seeker.

Crystal Clear is an open-world hack that lets you go anywhere in Kanto and Johto and take on the gyms in any order. Gyms and trainers scale based on your matches and you can rematch completed gyms and set the difficulty up to the number of badges you have. That does mean that grinding gyms is more efficient than exploring which is kinda unbalanced, but it's still a really cool concept.

Pokemon Prism is infamous, but also really solid with an interesting new region, a bunch of cool features and some Gen1/2 mons swapped out for newer ones (with excellent gen2 spritework and animations). It lives up to the hype.

Fool's Gold is an interesting concept - Gen 2 but all 251 mons are essentially a new regional forme with altered typings and such. The designs are very hit and miss and honestly I think many are flat-out awful or miss the basic design principles of regional formes, but it's still cool.

I want to check out Radical Red and Inclement Emerald, which are packed with features and mons but I believe are also designed to be extremely challenging, possibly more than I would want from a Pokemon game.
 
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Glad to see Sonic Utopia is still alive, the demo is basically a nostalgia overdose from a parallel universe where Sega doesn't suck.
 
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I'm thinking about getting into Pokemon fanhacks since I have the means to dump all generations of Nintendo handhelds now, including the Switch (I have a GB Operator for dumping gens 1-3, a homebrewed 3DS for 4-7, and a spare launch Switch that I'm going to install homebrew on for 8), so I can legally patch my dumped roms. Any recommendations? My favorite era of Pokemon is gens 2-4.

I think I'll look into everything Zellia listed.
 
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Anyone ever got into the RPG Maker scene? I remember picking-up RPG Maker 2000 years ago and having an absolute blast navigating how to make a game. Eventually found dedicated websites showcasing other people's creations and I just started playing those. The only game that I can recall clearly was something called "The Way", which was released over 5 or 6 parts. I think at the time it was pretty ambitious relative to other RPG Maker games.
 
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Are there any Generation 4+ Pokemon hacks that do Pokemon replacements? It feels like most of the Pokemon hacks since then only do data hacking, whether it's a movepool change, a stat change or AI team changes. Pokemon hacks that replace Pokemon tend to either be Generation 1 or the Gen 1 remakes in Generation 3. I guess replacing Pokemon is seen as too much trouble in Gen 4+ games, and maybe those who want to have brand new Pokemon would prefer to skip it altogether and do fan games instead. Even then I don't think there are any fan games that do 3D or animated Pokemon, likely because of the effort required.

So again, are there any Pokemon hacks that replace the Pokemon with new ones for Generation 4+ games?

Thank you for reading.
 
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I'll list a few of my favorites....

Newer Super Mario Bros Wii




Had a blast playing through this. All unique levels and content. Definitely best in single player, but it can be done in multiplayer, too! It'll definitely keep you busy and leave you wanting more! There is a sort-of remake of this being worked on right now called Newer Super Mario Bros Wii DELUXE, but it's still got a way to go before it's finished. Would definitely recommend checking out Newer Super Mario Bros DS, too!

Smash Remix




This is a full on expansion of Smash 64. Not only do you have access to regional variants of characters, you can also play as all Polygon Fighter forms and bosses like Metal Mario and Giant DK. There's also a bunch of new characters and bosses as well, and there are a bunch of new modes and stages, too! You can play it on real hardware, too, if you have an Expansion Pak!

Return to Yoshi's Island 64




This one is cheating a bit since it isn't fully out yet, but there is a demo! It's the latest of Kaze's really cool Super Mario 64 full game hacks, and it's looking to be incredible when it's done. This game will also run on real hardware if you have an Everdrive!
 
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Ooooh fan games! I love fan games.

I’d like to talk about a fan game I made once. Not really as a promotion post since the project got canned. But it would be fun to talk about it and show a bit of it.

So in 2018, I started working on a cyberpunk Zelda game called Sheikah’s Curse. It had Zelda as a playable protagonist, took place in a high-tech version of Hyrule, and also featured Hilda and the Lorule kingdom. I worked a lot on it and in 2019, I had a lot of proof-of-concept screenshots ready that I showed off to friends. In 2020, I had an half-hour long playable demo, featuring a chunk of the story and combat and puzzle mechanics. The game was entirely made in unity.

I never really had any plans on some kind of wide public download a lá AM2R. What I wanted to do was rather publish a full playthrough of the game on my channel, and share that instead. But this summer I, for more than one reason, decided to cancel the entire thing.

Here’s some of the proof-of-concept screenshots:

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Overview of Sheikah Metropolis.

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Overview of Hyrule Field

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Inside the Metropolis

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Hilda & Zelda

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Lorule Kingdom

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Zelda playing guitar
 
Been meaning to play a few randomizers, if they count for this. Stuff like FFIV Enterprise and Super Mario RPG's randomizer.
 
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I liked the Pokémon Map Randomizer that came out recently. At this time it's only for Emerald, but Platinum is coming this weekend, and I think FRLG is next on the list afterward. Pairs well with the UPR.

Pokémon Fire Red Team Rocket Edition is a fun time, and I've played through some of Clover with a buddy. Might take a stab at Crystal Clear some time down the line.
 
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Irene said:
So in 2018, I started working on a cyberpunk Zelda game called Sheikah’s Curse. It had Zelda as a playable protagonist, took place in a high-tech version of Hyrule, and also featured Hilda and the Lorule kingdom. I worked a lot on it and in 2019, I had a lot of proof-of-concept screenshots ready that I showed off to friends. In 2020, I had an half-hour long playable demo, featuring a chunk of the story and combat and puzzle mechanics. The game was entirely made in unity.

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Overview of Sheikah Metropolis.

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Overview of Hyrule Field

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Inside the Metropolis

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Hilda & Zelda

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Lorule Kingdom

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Zelda playing guitar
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This looks cool!
 
I kind of play fangames a bit obsessively, so I have an absolute trove of recommendations, but I'll try and stick to the ones I've enjoyed most recently (as well as shouting out related ones) and go by the photo limit per post to limit myself. (Edited to clean up image layout and match the OP better)

Nintendo Fan Works
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Project M EX Remix is the best Brawl mod, full-stop, sorry not sorry. It juggles Project M gameplay, Brawl EX's ability to add new roster slots, Legacy XP's newcomers, Project+'s costume expansions, Sm4sh and Ult backports, and the Remix team's dedication in making good ass new movesets and trying to keep things balanced. Its feature list, like its roster, is insane and includes stuff like L-Loading and stagelist expansion. Check it tf out. The Brawl Vault's linked album and video do a better job of showing it off than a couple pics do.

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Super Mario 64: Lost Impact, Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time, and Super Mario 64 Land are the crème de la crème of Mario 64 hacks. You've probably heard of Kaze Emanuar specifically because of one of these, if not possibly for one of his minihacks or meme hacks. Each pushes the 64 to its limits and does things one could never even dream of happening on that hardware, and they're all worth playing in anticipation for his future works like Return to Yoshi's Island 64.

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Sonic Boll is an interesting one. Listen, I don't know why this game is called that; it sounds like a meme and makes me think of Sanic Ball or something. But don't be fooled; this thing is quality, okay? Although they don't have equal billing in the title, this is basically a Sonic-in-Mario crossover platformer that stans have begged to get since before the first Olympics game. You can play as Sonic and friends, Mario and friends, or The Kid from IWBTG, all with different movesets. The game also offers a variety of skins for each moveset, with the ability to load up your own via mods. You can also choose between different graphical styles like 8-bit or 16-bit, load up different level packs, or load up mods for both of those as well. There is a dev blog, but it doesn't have the most recent version (2.0) for some reason, nor has it been updated recently at all. Instead, Gamebanana is where that is.

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The Legend of Zelda: Mystery of Solarus DX, The Legend of Zelda: Book of Mudora, and The Legend of Zelda: Return of the Hylian SE are a trio of games that all share an engine. The Solarus Engine was made to simultaneously make Mystery of Solarus, a fanmade sequel to ALTTP with faithful Zelda gameplay, happen, as well as allow others to make their own titles. Book of Mudora and Return of the Hylian SE are two such examples of that. Since they all share an engine, they play like you'd expect ALTTP to play on PC, but with some new twists and items. Each also demonstrates competent design and do pretty much everything Zelda should, with their own unique stories as well.
There's also a Zelda's Adventure CDi remake in Solarus that was in progress, at least for a time. Damn you Dopply for making me really want that one last CDi Zelda game to get a good playable port, and Hotel Mario too while we're at it lmao

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The Legend of Zelda: Oni Link Begins, The Legend of Zelda: Time to Triumph, The Legend of Zelda: Navi's Quest, and The Legend of Zelda: Picross are four out of five of Vincent Jouillat's Zelda games. The remaining one, and the first, is actually Return of the Hylian, mentioned above! Return of the Hylian was first created in the engine this pentalogy uses, but got a remaster in Solarus; there's an Oni Link Begins remaster in progress as well. Still, the original engine is perfectly serviceable, and there's no reason the remaining four games can't be enjoyed as they are in the meantime! You can find more on the Vincent Jouillat Zeldas in the sidebar here.

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The Legend of Zelda: Trident of Power is a fairly recent one, and it gets updates to this day. It's made in RPG Maker, like the Pokemon fangames below, but it's an action RPG. It plays with item and combat like the 2D topdown Zelda's always do. It's another one where it's better to let the gameplay speak for itself to decide if you're interested. Here is the game page.

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Zelda Classic is Mario Maker for Zelda before Mario Maker ever existed. It started as a simple 16-bit remake of the original NES Zelda, using the BS-X Satellaview graphics, then the quest-making tools were released with the public. There is so much this engine can do, and many of the quests available transform the engine into something entirely unrecognizable. It's better to leave you all to go explore what's out there than try to sell it further. My favorite repository for ZC quests is PureZC.

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The Legend of Zelda: The Missing Link, Zelda 64: Dawn & Dusk, and The Legend of Zelda: Master of Time are to Zelda on the Nintendo 64 what the Mario hacks listed above are to Super Mario 64. The Missing Link, also made by 64-hack-god Kaze Emanuar, got a bit of infamy for a bit, since it got a lot of publicity and Nintendo took down the GitHub page (but none of the actual download links Kaze provided). As its reviews on its RHDN page will tell you, it's not as long as Ocarina or Majora, but it bridges the two perfectly and may as well be canon for all its professional-level quality. Meanwhile, Dawn & Dusk was created to run on 64DD (hence the name). While it tells an original story separate from Ocarina and Majora, it's a fantastic piece of hacking prowess and is beautiful to play. Lastly, Master of Time is meant to be the third entry in the trilogy it makes with Ocarina and Majora, and while it arguably is not as professional-level as the other two, it's still extremely good and worth investigating for yourself.

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Relics of Hyrule is a Zelda-themed Skyrim mod. Remember that time Skyrim on Switch had a couple of Zelda items? Relics has been around since before the Switch port, and rather than try to turn Skyrim into a Zelda fangame outright, this mod goes wild in another direction. "Relics of Hyrule adds items from Zelda to vanilla Skyrim locations, but I link them to the world as though they have always been in Skyrim, through lore and secrets. My goal is to make the mod lore-friendly, despite being inherently lore-breaking. It's designed such that you find the relics by playing Skyrim. There are no quests that guide you, only rumors and forgotten myths (unless you read the Information Guide, of course)... In short, Relics of Hyrule is a large mod that adds scores of new weapons, spells, enchantments, enemies, NPCs, dungeons, and experiences that are (hopefully) balanced with the base Skyrim game and integrated into its locations, while connecting Zelda lore to Elder Scrolls lore as a bit of fun that gained a little too much momentum. The mod has been actively expanding and evolving since August 2013 and will continue to grow in the future." Just look at the screenshots and videos, I implore you. Its project page is here.

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Hyrule Conquest is a total conversion mod for 0 AD. The epic, full-Zelda-timeline-spanning story it tells through its Hyrule Hystoria mode used to be conveyed in the mod Hyrule: Total War, which used to be the Gerudo Wars, which was a sequel to the surprisingly good RPG Maker fangame The Legend of Zelda: Time's Menagerie (check that one out too), which itself was a sequel to the way-less-good RPG Maker fangame The Legend of Zelda: The Fallen Sage. This game's cinematics are unreal. Seriously, just start here on the Hyrule Conquest wiki and go wild.

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Pokémon Zeta and Omicron and Pokémon Insurgence are a trilogy of games by TheSuzerain. Unlike the romhacks recommended so far, these are made in RPG Maker, and that means there's way more freedom to do neat stuff without the limitations of the GBA hardware or the difficulty of making changes to later generation games beyond difficulty. Zeta and Omicron are the original pair of sister versions, so I recommend looking them up to decide which is your speed. Insurgence is a separate, standalone game with a different (and rather edgy) story instead of a third version like Emerald or Platinum. Though dated, it's still worth reading up on and checking out here.

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Pokémon Bushido, like the above trilogy, is an RPGM fangame instead of a hack of an existing game. It boasts Gen-4 styled graphics on a single screen, Pokémon from as recent as Sword and Shield, and QOL features from recent games. It also boasts a complete storyline offering 10-15 hours of playtime, battle animations and mid-battle dialogue, Shadow Pokémon, theme-appropriate "Katanas" instead of HMs, and increased performance features including a dedicated speed-up key. Game page link here.

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Pokémon Parallax is another RPGM fangame. You get the idea by now: made for PC instead of a romhack, has original features and is very unique. This one is story-heavy and less like a traditional Pokemon game, as it centers Agent Looker on a covert special operations mission. There's of course your traditional Pokemon battling, but there's also fun stealth missions and intrigue as Looker tries to infiltrate the Masque. The game page can explain what makes it worthwhile better than I can.

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Prime 2D is most famous for demonstrating that Metroid fangamers can't catch a break. As rife and well-alive as the series' romhacking community is, original games have a habit of being incredibly well made, attracting unwanted media attention, and getting the hammer. Team SCU did their best to keep things ambiguous by releasing the demo on April 1st and not actually calling it Metroid, but it wasn't meant to last. It's a shame, as what was released is super well made, plays like a dream, has an awesome mouse aiming system with gorgeous handmade spritework all-throughout, and even has a full artifact hunt for easter eggs. I can't link it in good conscience, but it's out there. The soundtrack hits too.

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Metroid Planets is a three-in-one fangame. One is the original NES Metroid, one is Planet Novus which is a fangame with new areas, items and bosses in the same engine, and the last is a random generation map that pulls from a built-in Mario Maker style room creator. It runs on NES Metroid, but native to PC and better, with smoother movement, more animation frames, tasteful particle physics, a minimap and timer, and more, all made by someone who obviously loves the original game. The shit even has online multiplayer. It can be grabbed from its forum development thread here.
 
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oop not me double posting to get to all the third party stuff lmao
(Edited to clean up image layout and match the OP better)

Nintendo-Adjacent Fan Works
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Sonic the Hedgehog: Before the Sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog: After the Sequel, and Sonic Chrono Adventure compose LakeFeperd's Sonic fangame trilogy (or quadrilogy if you count Before the Sequel Aftermath, a minigame that became Chrono Adventure). All three are generally incredibly well regarded. BtS and AtS are a pair of interquels, as indicated by the name, that seek to fill in the story gaps between Sonic's classic trilogy like where the seventh Chaos Emerald came from, how Tails got involved, and how Sonic first discovered his Super form, all while providing fun, classic gameplay. Chrono Adventure, on the other hand, is more of an original story and uses what LakeFeperd calls a "Metronic" structure, like the obscure Tails' Adventure. There are a couple remastered versions of the first two, like BTS Plus, ATS DX, and ATS DX Omega, floating around as well, but not all of the modified versions are made by LakeFeperd and not all the changes are for the best, so it's probably good to do a bit of homework and decide for yourself what you'd rather play. All three games serve as the blueprint for the Spark the Electric Jester series of actual commercially sold indie games, which are also fantastic and worth looking into.

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Sonic World DX is one of the few Sonic fangames that is modern, playable, and good. While World DX is still in development, there's fun to be had with it, and the original Sonic World has a great deal of content at that. Like SRB2, a lot of the fun for it comes from all the community-made content, including the metric fuckton of characters and levels people have made. There's no story, nor plans for one; you just play single player stages, get emblems, and unlock more characters. There's also a Chao Garden! Dev blog here.

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Sonic 3D in 2D takes the plot setting and level theming of the often-forgotten Sonic 3D Blast and translates it to a style of game that matches its predecessors. It's a simple concept, but it's an awesome game, is fully playable, and it brings a ton of new content to the table. Even though the original 3D Blast got a director's cut hack from the original programmer, which is a very cool and rare occurence in gaming, this reimagining is arguably the better game to play for a traditional Sonic fan. Game page here.

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Sonic Robo Blast 2: The Mystic Realm, Sonic Robo Blast 2: Persona, and Metroid Vanguard are all mods for the popular SRB2, and they're easily the top three available in my book. Mystic Realm is a level pack that started in 2006 and has followed SRB2 through all of its versions and updates ever since; it's now being made by the public community instead of solo, and it's as good as ever. SRB2Persona brings Tartarus from Persona 3 into SRB2 (which itself is a Doom mod, remember), and even boasts multiplayer support. It's rapidly ascending to SRB2Kart levels of infamy and community participation, and has already spawned plenty of character mods for itself. Lastly, Metroid Vanguard is notable for merging Metroid Prime's first person view with 2D metroid style movement and upgrades (including Speed Booster!!!), and a couple original maps and dialogue blurbs, all in SRB2's world. It's a fantastic time. Check them all out on the SRB2 community add-ons forum.

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Sonic Smackdown, Sonic Time Twisted, Sonic SMS Remake, Sonic 2 SMS Remake, and Sonic 3 A.I.R. are all some more worthwhile Sonic fangames with a ton of love and polish put into them. I don't intend on typing up large blurbs for them, but if any of them catch your eye, by all means take a look.

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Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue is a prequel to Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, wherein you control a Jack Frost with the mind of a human. It's a 2D platformer with gorgeous spritework and effects. It was officially supported by Atlus and released on their website as part of the marketing campaign for Strange Journey Redux on 3DS, so it's got a wiki entry and everything. There's a fanpatch to translate it to English, and the small team behind it, called ladybug, would go on to develop Touhou: Luna Nights, a commercially sold Metroidvania, then codevelop Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth with indie dev team WSS and publisher Playism.

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"Rayman Redemption is a reimagination of the original Rayman game from 1995. It features a lot of new content, including new worlds, levels, minigames and other stuff to collect and complete." I really do not have much of anything useful to add here; that about sums it up. Rayman 1 has always been a kind of jank game, and every version of it has its own problems. Rayman Redemption solves that, and there's also a level maker using its engine. I can't recommend it enough.

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Mega Man: Wily Tower NES, Rockman 7 FC and Rockman 8 FC are 8-bit demakes of previously 16-bit exclusive content. Wily Tower, as the name suggests, is a fairly recent demake of the Wily Tower content from Mega Man: The Wily Wars. It features all of the original content from that game, without the arguable bloat that is the prerequisite of completing Mega Man 1-3 to get to it. Features include recreations of all original graphics, music and stages, the items of all three prior games plus the two new weapons from MM1's PSP remake, and numerous new goodies as listed on the game page here. It has everything but a final boss, thus is playable start-to-finish. Meanwhile, Rockman 7 FC and 8 FC are by a different developer and were created solely to bring 7 and 8 in line with the NES saga, since the official Mega Man 9 and 10 returned to the retro style. There are mods for them out there too.

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Street Fighter X Mega Man is a prime example of the rarity that is an officially-endorsed fangame. It's one that everyone with an interest in fangames, or either series, probably knows about already. Capcom supported its development, then released it officially as part of the Mega Man 25th anniversary. It's rather forgotten by now, and it hasn't gotten a console port or anything like it deserves, but Capcom still has the download page available.

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Marvel: Infinity War is a side-scrolling beat-em-up compilation by ZVitor that still sees updates periodically. The game features a bombastic story mode spanning the Infinity War classic plotline, as well as multiple full fledged remakes of the SNES games that inspired it, including Acclaim's Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage, Mindscape's Captain America and the Avengers, and Capcom's X-Men Mutant Apocalypse and Marvel: War of the Gems. The game's menu also promises additional goodies upon finishing the main game, including a boss rush mode, a remake Marvel: First Alliance (ZVitor's first Marvel game), and an original mini-game in Deadpool's Crazy ****ing World. ZVitor's GameJolt page hasn't seen updates in a bit, but it has Infinity War as well as a cornucopia of other SNES-era style projects, including the first two Marvel games Infinity War is a followup to, and some Justice League, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat goodness.

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Star Wars: Force Combat is a love-letter to many classic games, including the Super Star Wars platformers, hits like Knights of the Old Republic, The Force Unleashed, and the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series, and traditional fighters like Mortal Kombat. Basically, it imagines what a Star Wars fighting game would be like if Masters of Teras Kasi was good, and had a roster spanning both canon and Legends. It includes a solid roster, hidden battles, a Movie Tower mode based on Mortal Kombat with fights following the progression of each movie in the saga, and continued updates to this day. Star Wars has no shortage of robust fan content either, as the TSLRCM or The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod is a famous fix for Knights of the Old Republic II, which was notoriously left in a rather unfinished state. TSLRCM has received the official stamp of approval from the original developers and has robust Steam integration, which is really as good as it gets for a mod. Meanwhile, Movie Duels and Movie Battles II are two mods for Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy that really do the same thing but in different ways. Both mods bring characters, maps and loads of content from not just the big screen, but other video games and expanded universe content, into the JK3 engine. Both also receive regular updates, are up-to-date with all nine movies, and have robust communities with active matchmaking.

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IFSCL (Interfaces Fictionnelles Simulées de Code Lyoko), or Simulated Fictional Interfaces of Code Lyoko, is an absolute beast of a fanwork, and is like nothing else in this thread. I could try to make a stretch to keep it Nintendo-adjacent by citing Get Ready to Virtualize and Fall of XANA on DS and Quest for Infinity on Wii, but let's be honest, this one isn't; it's based on an early 2000s French cartoon, after all. Even so, the amount of sheer effort and quality going into this thing is unreal, and I have to mention it. IFSCL has evolved with eleven years of steady work from a simple idle game based on the Supercomputer interface to a near-official continuation, with a story mode in progress featuring incredible cinematic 3D cutscenes and plenty of trailers available to show it. It's as close to official as such a thing gets, and even features full reprisals from voice actors from both the English and French dubs of the original series. Nintendo or not, that much passion and dedication is absolutely worth a shout-out. Read up here or whatever if you're interested.

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Portal Reloaded, as well as its predecessors Portal Prelude, Portal Stories: Mel and Portal Stories: VR, are all, of course, Portal mods. Though not Nintendo-adjacent either, I still think most will be more interested in them than IFSCL anyway. While you've probably heard of them already, or at least this year's Reloaded, they can't go without mention in a thread about fangames and mods. The uninitiated are still probably aware that Reloaded is the mod for Portal 2 from this year that adds a third portal, but if you haven't heard of it at all, then let the trailer speak for itself.

 
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JKMaxx said:
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"Rayman Redemption is a reimagination of the original Rayman game from 1995. It features a lot of new content, including new worlds, levels, minigames and other stuff to collect and complete." Not really much useful to add here. Great job was done here, there's also a level maker using its engine.
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Just wanted to reply to wholeheartedly recommend this one. Was a fantastic way to re-experience Rayman 1! It also features an infinite lives option, which is handy particularly as you're getting used to how the game plays! Loved the extra content, and there was so much care and love put into the package!
 
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I hope Sega hires fans who worked on 3D Sonic games like Project Hero and Utopia to work on Sonic Frontiers. They have to get the physics right.
 
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Went back and edited my posts to match the image formatting in the OP better, increase readability, and move some around between the two so everything is sorted nice and logically by series

also added full sections and images for the hacks/mods/games i briefly mentioned, and added Zelda Classic and some Star Wars stuff
 
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If ROM hacks count, on the adjacent to Nintendo news, Final Fantasy VI T-Edition has had an English release! I'm going to check it out after playing through the FFVI Pixel Remaster (When it comes out 😅)

 
I know it's only a flash game that essentially exists as a proof of concept, but Super Mario Bros x Tetris crossover game on Newgrounds (cleverly titled Tuper Tario Tros.) was wildly fascinating to me back in uni and the reason I got as close as I did with one of my friends. Unfortunately rendered unplayable since Adobe killed Flash, but there exist Chrome extensions to make it playable again, and I honestly cannot recommend it enough.

 
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I thought this was too cool to keep contained to a single post here, so I made a seperate thread:

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Super Mario Odyssey Local and Online Multiplayer Modification(s) in development

Currently there are two Super Mario Odyssey multiplayer mods in development; one just recently announced for four-player single screen 3D World-style local co-op; and another focused on online play with multiple gamemodes via a peer-to-peer connection. You can see a breif demonstrating of the...
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After sword and Shield released I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and make a proof of concept ... I spent a few months on it ultimately got burned out and then Arceus was announced and it really took the wind out of my sails. BUT
I made this and in my mind I have a TON of crazy things I would try if I were in charge at gamefreak/pokemon company...


Additional thoughts
I'd like to have an upgradeable pokedex scan function. (you could scan footprints and sort of track pokemon)
attempt gyms in any order
Regional events that happen in game (think like the rift in fortnite... but many different events maybe tied to legendaries that have a chance of happening in your local server region)
I'd like to make every pokemon meaningful and useful and viable in your party. (think pre evolutions with skills they only have in unevolved state)
I'd like gyms to be a place of training rather than a weird puzzle.
I'd have moves be something learned and easily toggled in a menu once unlocked
Pokemon live in a habitat and naturally interact with one another... and just SEEing a pokemon will be an exciting experience... though they would be in the open world, it would feel natural and wonderous when you see one.
(Like you find a caterpie climbing a tree... a Pidgeotto swooping down to catch one and take it away...)
 
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This thread definitely needs a bump.

I'll recommend Super Pokémon Eevee Edition which was recently completed after a very long period of development (well over ten years I believe). Uses an ATB system and straight up has Final Fantasy music. Story is related to the fact that there was a soft reboot of Pokémon between Gen 2 & 3 in which you couldn't transfer Pokémon from 2 to 3. It was a big deal back then although it's rarely talked about now.

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