POKEMON ROM Hacks. [Mild Spoilers Inbound!]

[Darvan Korematsu]

So everyone here on Reborn has experienced the game in one way or another whether through playing, watching, or reading. Obviously Reborn does not have a fan-game monopoly, because of games like Rejuv and Zeta/Omicron.

Well what I wanted to talk about today is Pokemon ROM hacks. In particular, GBA ROMS, because of the nostalgia intensifying. The DS hacks are fine, but I liked the GBA ones more for a few reasons, and I'd like to list a few of my favorite hacks. The top four in particular. What I liked and what I hated.

4. POKEMON - Glazed

This one is well known amongst ROM Pokemon players as a well-crafted hack. Well I say hands down I have to agree.

What stood out:

-5 starters instead of 3

- New character sprites that are well-crafted

- 3 Leagues worth of Gyms and Champions

- A Pikachu in a scarf. (Play the game and you'll see why this Pika is kawaii)

- Poke-2-Engrish translator.

- Pokemon up to Gen 5

- Amazing plot

What sucked:

- Gets kinda repetitive after the first League you defeat.

- Can get all the pseudos by the 3rd gym.

Score: 8/10

3. POKEMON - Flora Sky

If Gen 3 and Gen 4 made love and had a bastard child, this would be said child. It has many aspects of Gens 3 and 4 such as the line-up for the League, the champion, and character sprites.

What stood out:

- Good plot

- Gen 4 starters

- Decent difficulty curve

What sucked:

- Occasionally get lost

(This game is essentially like Gen 3 and 4 meshed together, so again, nothing too special about it, other than I liked it)

Score: 7/10

2. POKEMON - Snakewood

Pokemon. Zombies. Demonically possessed creature. Pokezombies. The Afro Ball. This game is a decent zombie themed game hack. It is more for the laughs than anything, because the plot doesn't start to make sense after a while.

What stood out:

- Zombies in a Pokemon game.

- Starters that one would almost never use.

- The crass randomness.

- Again zombies.

- Afro Ball (aka - best fake Master Ball ever)

What sucked:

I can't even begin on this one. The hilarity definitely outweighs the negatives most of the time, but there's just so many puzzles or battles that will piss you off so badly, and there's Fakemons you can't even catch, and so on, so on.

Score: 7/10

1. POKEMON - Ruby Destiny: Life of Guardians

This one. Just wow. I dunno where to even begin with this one. Totally new region, totally new character sprites (for protags) and nice remixed music. And good Fakemons.

What stood out:

- New plot perspective (Different purpose for your travels)

- Interactive story choices in certain areas.

- New region

- Amazing music remixes

- Recrafted completely

- Good difficulty curve

- Well crafted Fakemons.

- A tutorial stone that helps if you don't know where to go.

What sucked:

- Rare Candy exploit late in game.

- Animation needs some work.

- Some annoying parts in game.

Score: 9/10

So what do you all like in ROMs or which did you like/hate and why?

[BIGJRA]

Of these, Glazed was my favorite. I actually managed to get 386/386 and it was truly a fun experience the whole way through. Before I played Reborn it was my favorite Pokemon fangame, and then my file corrupted . It's got a cool storyline and collecting 'em all didn't feel like too hard of a task.

Snakewood is at its core a fun concept with (some) great Fakemon but I feel that, like you said, it suffers from terrible puzzles and annoyances. In addition to that, although some people find it to be a positive, the story is garbage after the first third or so and hidden secrets throughout are really dumb. Based entirely on references that I had never heard of, this was really a turnoff from replayability to me.

Flora Sky I played once iirc and it was alright, not great but not bad either.

Ruby Destinies LoG is a decent game for the main story. I liked the collection of fakemon, collecting the legendaries was quite fun, decent story, etc. The split pathways thing was great too because I got to start three files (one per starter) and keep a fresh experience each time. The disguisting thing about this game however, is the post game story. Having to fight tons of incarnations of the Uber legendaries at Level 100 just wasn't anywhere near fun at all, and i had to rely on Perish Song Lapras to do the trick. I know beating them is possible, I just didn't have the patience to do it any other way and that made me not want to play the post game more than once.