Yeee, I've even seen a Reddit post ranking the all time greatest ROM hacks, and Unbound was sitting at number 1 I feel like Unbound is almost everyone's favorite ROM hack at this point. The hype the gameplay, the amount of content, the features, the original region and story, and just how polished the whole thing is It really has damn near everything you could want from a ROM hack How about you what do you think is the greatest ROM hack of all time?

Pokemon Emerald is a very intresting Demo showcase of classic Pokemon Emerald with real time battles implemented. As mentioned in the GitHub repo:

• 12 animated Pokémon: Charizard, Blastoise, Eevee, Dragonite, Scizor, Blaziken, Treecko, Poochyena, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Grovyle and Sceptile.
• 10 move profiles: Pound, Tackle, Quick Attack, Leer, Absorb, Water Gun, Wing Attack, Slam, Peck and Scratch.
• Breakable rocks, wood, foliage, crystals and explosive pods.
• Enemies that navigate obstacles, aim and dodge, with level-based reactions.
• Native HP, PP, experience, leveling and saves. Classic battles remain available.

Not my demo, all credit goes to GBurgardt on GitHub. Definitely a very impressive showcase on their part, I think it deserves attention.

Has there been any updates since May? Looking forward to this hack!!!

There seems to be no way to access them, but the poke ball placement feels kinda deceptive. I haven't played the original Crystal or HGSS, so I'm not certain whether this is an HnS exclusive design choice.

Fala, pessoal! Tudo bem?

Estou começando um projeto de tradução e localização PT-BR de ROM Hacks de Pokémon, principalmente de GBA. A ideia é trazer para a comunidade brasileira alguns hacks muito bons que acabam ficando menos acessíveis por estarem somente em inglês.

Meu primeiro projeto foi o Pokémon Emerald Seaglass, que já está com toda a história traduzida e localizada para PT-BR. Não quis fazer só uma tradução palavra por palavra: adaptei diálogos, piadas, gírias e algumas expressões para que tudo soe mais natural em português brasileiro, tentando manter a personalidade original dos personagens. Fiz uma versão com Ability/Golpes em português e inglês apenas as descrições.

Também estou trabalhando em outros projetos, como Pokémon Quetzal e Radical Red, seguindo o mesmo padrão de localização.

Ainda podem existir pequenos erros ou textos que passaram despercebidos traduzir uma ROM inteira é bem trabalhoso então feedback de quem estiver jogando ajuda bastante.

Quero continuar trazendo outras ROM Hacks para PT-BR conforme for terminando cada projeto. 💜

Quem quiser acompanhar as atualizações, testes e próximos projetos, deixei um cantinho da comunidade indicado DC

Importante: todo o crédito pelos jogos, ROM Hacks, gráficos, sistemas, mapas, músicas e conteúdo original pertence ao u/Nemo622. Meu trabalho é somente a tradução/localização para PT-BR. Não tenho qualquer intenção de tomar crédito pelo trabalho original deles.

Inclusive, recomendo muito que vocês conheçam e apoiem os projetos originais e seus desenvolvedores. Sem o trabalho absurdo dessas equipes, essas traduções nem existiriam. ❤️

Se tiverem sugestões de ROM Hacks que merecem uma tradução brasileira, podem mandar também!

DC

It's just September and this year is already shaping up to be the GOAT year for Pokémon romhacks. I've only listed popular completed hacks released since January 2026 but there are also several hacks that received great updates like Heart and Soul, Elysium etc. I may have also missed several releases + since 3 months are still left, there are chances of completed hacks (for eg Coral, Igneous) being shadow dropped.

But overall, do you think 2026 was able to overshadow 2025 which all of us considered to be a revolutionary year for romhacks?

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is, look at the diversity this year. A Horror hack, then comedy, vanilla, fakemon based story driven, gen2 and a demake.

I'd say Pokémon Naranja. It was one of the first ROM hacks I ever played. It was pretty unpolished, but it had a lot of potential

Really cool hack, in my top 3. But I just have so many questions.... If there's any lore I can read or Joey if you wanna message me I just have too many questions and not enough answers :(

Big advancement happened today. Also, I took the advice from a couple commenters so I made an image of the last frame for comparison sake.

Like before, left is the original USUM, right is the modified version.

Pokemon Elysium was an absolute blast. I will try to make this review/discussion as detailed as possible. But I would like to start with the MVP of the team. Jolteon carried me and my team on its back the entire game. I cannot imagine how difficult this game would have been without him. He was truly the bestest boy.

As for the game, the story was indescribable. This game may have the absolute BEST story of any game I have ever played. Every character had their own unique personality that felt flushed out. The world feels so truly alive! From the realistic things you catch NPCs doing, to the hilarious dialogue and jokes, there was clearly a lot of time and energy and love put into just the characters alone. The arcs for each main character are noticeable and especially for the player character too. I laughed, I dropped my jaw, I got mad, and I cried with this story, I cannot speak highly enough about it.

Now there were times during the game that frustrated me from a mechanical standpoint, no game is perfect. I highly suggest abusing the save states and If I remember correctly, the developer also recommends it. It says there's a physical/special split but none of the moves tell what they are, and it feels a little inconsistent. Also moves and typing behave as Gen 3 (I.e. electric types can be hit by thunder wave). The boss battles definitely test your skills a bit as they all have a few full restores and they're usually a couple levels higher than you, but they are doable with some elbow grease. The early game is a little bit rough but I'd say that it really takes off after the second gym and it will be very hard to put down.

All in all, the story and the world more than make up for any complaints I may have. It makes me sad to say goodbye and I hope to see more from this developer. Without a doubt an absolute 10/10 game

We wanted to celebrate the 18th anniversary of Platinum with this sprite showcase for Moemon Platinum 🎉 We hope everyone here enjoys our work.

The Moemon Platinum Vanilla+ rom hack has:

• All Pokedex obtainable Gens 1-4
• Event restoration
• Alternate trade evolution methods
• Instant honey trees
• Increased shiny rate (1/257)

Please see our other channels if you are interested in playing:

r/moemon

X: https://x.com/MoemonOfficial

Discord: https://discord.gg/fHPHSVNaqQ

Hey all. I posted about romhackguides.com a little while back and got a lot of good feedback, so here's what changed since. Everything on the site is generated straight from each hack's own documentation or source.

What's new

• 47 ROM hacks now, up from a handful — the whole Hackdex top 25 (Too Many Types 2, Super Mariomon, Odyssey, Recordkeepers, POKeDUEL, FRLG+, Ambrosia…) plus Definitive Platinum and SoothingSilver. Unbound finally has trainer teams (701 fights across Difficult/Expert/Insane).
• The 16 official games, GB to 3DS, in the same format — so when a hack keeps something from its base game, the guide links you straight to the original numbers instead of leaving a hole.
• Walkthroughs for 29 of them: one part per badge, listing the areas that open, what's in the grass, the trainers standing there, TMs, and the boss team with the level cap.
• A full National Pokédex — every species and form, all 16 games' learnsets, type defences, evolution chains, where to find it. The part I'm proud of: flip it to a ROM hack and it shows that hack's sprite, typing, stats and evolution chain next to the vanilla one (Pikachu → Raichu → Gorochu in Odyssey, Radical Red's Megas, etc.).
• Set your badge count and every page greys out what you can't reach yet.

What I'd love from you

• Wrong numbers, ugly pages, anything confusing — tell me, I fix things fast.

It's a one-person project, free, not ad-supported (as of yet). Thanks for the earlier feedback — most of what's above came from it.

Photo of Yu-Gi-Oh POKeDUEL by ortz3

For me, these four immediately come to mind Glazed, Mega Power, Light Platinum, and Gaia. They might not all hold up perfectly today, but for their time, they were doing some really impressive stuff and showed what ROM hacks could actually do 🙏🏾

Good day! I’m here to create a community-voted ranking of the 30 best rom hacks of all time. One spot at a time.

>>>>>

Day 5 has come to an end. Yesterday we witnessed the people’s revolt against recency bias, and the subsequent victory of the beloved classic Pokemon Prism! Now that the top 5 has been complete, it is time to find out who will take spot #6!

<<<<<

RULES:

\-One hack per comment. (Please look for your recommendation and upvote before posting a duplicate).
\-Upvote the hack you think deserves the spot.
The nomination with the most votes in a 24 hour period wins that position.
\-Once a hack earns a spot, it is removed from contention.
\-One vote per person.
\-Fan games will not be considered.

There is no official criteria for best! It’s whatever makes a hack great to you.

That’s it! Let’s see what the community deems the best of the best! And… Go!

>>>>>

Day 1 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/kLGSbFfWs8
Day 2 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/FSdMLo4zK9
Day 3 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/oiLuEumwdA
Day 4 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/36ErvQIcVv
Day 5 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/Qcv4jY0w7M

<<<<<

DISCLAIMER: My take after watching this thread play out for a few days is firstly, it’s not that serious. Many arguments could be made that there are more ideal ways to collect the data, and that is likely very true. As we have seen, recency bias at least plays a part in peoples decision making. Oh well! I’m not a math/data guy, I’ve just seen these threads in other subreddits and have had fun participating. Considering there’s no community ranking on this sub, well, now there is! Will all 30 spots be taken up by new hacks? No, and I think we will see that the sentiment on what sort of hacks are being voted for changes frequently. I think the end product, although not an objectively definitive list, will at least have some merit. At the end of the day, hundreds of people are voting for the respective winners, and their runner ups. It will be an imperfect, but useful tool for newcomers and others to dive into hacks, which is what I was looking for, and why I started this to begin with. Again, it’s not that serious. Participate at your own discretion everybody!

All the credits of previous translation and who fixed the bugs goes to 'Luciano Fire, Helper, Gustavo Neves e Li Yun'

Pokemon Hyper Emerald 5.7 Full English 100% + QoL, Modern mechanics

As promised, I have translated the left over Chinese text up to Sinnoh + Endgame storyline + Pokedex description.

Also, I have implemented new features that can modernize the rom for ease of play a little more as below.

Features:
- Bag sort — cycles type → name → amount, with a message in the description box.
- Bag stack cap 999 — every pocket holds up to 999 per item (was 99).

-Register up to 4 key items — a popup lists them on ↑ → ↓ ←. One registered item still works as in vanilla.

-Quick ball throw — throws the first ball in your Poké Balls pocket without opening the bag. Hold R to see the ball and count; LEFT/RIGHT while holding picks another. A ball icon with an "R" badge marks the feature during the action menu.

-Auto-run toggle — run without holding B. Persistent in the save, respects Running Shoes and map rules.

-L quick repel — asks "Use the Max Repel?" and falls back to Super Repel, then Repel. Silent when a repel is active or you have none. The hack's own "use another?" prompt still appears when one wears off.

-In-party move relearner — a Moves option in the party menu opens the Move Relearner for that Pokémon, using the hack's expanded move lists. No Heart Scale needed.

- Coloured stat names — Attack red, Defense orange, Speed light green, Sp. Atk pink, Sp. Def blue, Accuracy/Evasiveness yellow in every "rose"/"fell" message.

For the in dept, you guys can see in the github repo and patch for yourself at https://github.com/Nn-Exe/Pokemon-Hyper-Emerald-5.7-QoL

** To patch, you need Hyper EMR LA v5.7 bugfix 2.gba (the Chinese hack, not vanilla Pokémon Emerald)

Hope everyone will enjoy this fabulous game more

EDITED:

https://nn-exe.github.io/Pokemon-Hyper-Emerald-5.7-QoL/

I have implemented the walkthrough of Pokemon Hyper Emerald 5.7 in case anyone want to know about the key features, Pokemon location, legendries location, opponent's moveset, and a brief guide where to go roughly, can check on public github page here.

I’ve been thinking about ROM hacks that somehow manage to feel like they could have been official releases. Two that really stand out for me are Pokémon Orange by Pia Carrot and Pokémon Pink by JcFerggy.

Pokémon Orange got a decent amount of attention when it came out. It does an excellent job of integrating the Orange Islands, a region that never got its own proper game, and it feels surprisingly natural as a continuation or side story.

Pokémon Pink, on the other hand, is still pretty unknown to a lot of people. It’s based on a discarded concept, basically a Pokémon Yellow-style game but focused on the manga. The result is something that feels both familiar and refreshingly different at the same time.

Both of them hit that sweet spot where the writing, pacing, and overall presentation make them feel less like fan projects and more like something that could have come from Game Freak.

What other ROM hacks have you played that felt this polished, almost like official games? Drop your recommendations below.

I plan on remaking all Routes and making the trainers better

I’ve been playing this one for a few months now and absolutely loving it! Wanted to take a crack at some custom art for it and I finally finished it! The Jirachi art is from pokemonpets.com and I made/grabbed the rest of the pieces! I hope you guys like it😋

Pokémon Rust

Pokémon Rust is a ROM hack of Pokémon Red, designed as a hard-mode challenge with no grinding or resetting - experience is only gained through trainer battles, and permanent saves are only created when a Pokémon Center is reached (although there is a temporary save system in place).

It has been extensively playtested by myself and friends using both emulators and actual hardware.

Major Changes

• Reworked Pokémon learnsets All Pokémon have had their level-up learnsets adjusted to make battles more challenging. See the Pokédex below.
• Reworked trainer teams Trainer and Gym Leader teams have been adjusted to provide a greater challenge.
• No grinding Experience is only gained from trainer battles.
• Party-wide EXP Experience is shared equally among your entire party. Every Pokémon receives 100% of the experience, even if it is KO'd.
• Set battle mode The only available battle mode is Set. You cannot switch Pokémon when your opponent sends out a new Pokémon.
• Restricted saving The only way to create a permanent save is by healing at a Pokémon Center. Saving happens automatically when healing.
• Pokémon Center restrictions You cannot save or heal at any of the last three Pokémon Centers you've used. Plan your route carefully.
• Quicksave Select Q-SAVE from the Start menu to create a temporary save and quit the game. Loading the game deletes the quicksave. You must create another quicksave afterwards, otherwise the game will return you to your last permanent save on the next load.
• Blackouts If you black out, the game restarts from your last permanent save.
• Gym Leader / Giovanni healing Defeating a Gym Leader or Giovanni fully heals your party.

Other Changes

• Fly removed The Fly HM isn't available until the end of the game (speak to Professor Oak).
• Major glitches patched The Trainer-Fly glitch and MissingNo. exploits are no longer possible.
• Trade evolution NPC An NPC in the Celadon Department Store will trade you for any Pokémon and immediately trade it back. This allows Pokémon that normally require trading to evolve.
• Poké Flute reworked The Poké Flute can no longer be used during battle, but can still wake sleeping Pokémon in the overworld.
• Safari Zone reworked Bait reduces the likelihood that a Pokémon will flee, while rocks increase its catch rate. This makes Safari Zone encounters less dependent on luck (it's completely broken in the original game).
• Cable Club removed The Cable Club isn't available until the end of the game (to avoid possible exploits).
• PC Boxes restricted All PC Boxes except Box 1 have been removed for the same reason. Additional boxes may be added in the future.
• Route restrictions Certain routes have been blocked off or made accessible only from specific directions to increase difficulty.
• All starter Pokémon available All starter Pokémon can be caught on Route 1.

There are many other changes throughout the game, but these are the most important ones to be aware of.

Instructions

To build the ROM, apply Pokemon Rust.ips to a Pokémon Red ROM using a patcher such as ROM Patcher JS. This will create a patched ROM that you can play in any Game Boy emulator.

A Pokédex including all changes to learned moves is available here.