A lot of people love Pokemon fan-made games as well as those ROM hacks. Nintendo can’t pump out a lot of Pokemon games every year. The quality would suffer, and the value of Pokemon would diminish. That’s where these fan-made games and ROM hacks come in to quench the thirst of people that love playing Pokemon.
There are a lot of them out there, and before you read through our list of the best Pokemon rom hacks and fan-made games, you need to know the difference between the two.
The Difference Between Fan Made Pokemon Games and Pokemon ROM Hacks
Fan Made Pokemon Games
Pokemon fan made games, as the name suggests are made by the fans or regular people. The fan made Pokemon game uses the concept of Pokemon, but the game could be entirely different. The game may not be similar to traditional Pokemon games, but they have Pokemon in there. They use various programs like RPG Maker XP and Pokemon Essentials to make the game.
There is also the chance that these games are made only for PC when they have file formats like .exe. Some of them can be flash games or browser games, but that’s not a bad thing.
Pokemon ROM Hacks
Pokemon ROM hacks use the data from an actual Pokemon game. Let’s take Pokemon Emerald, for example. The person making the ROM hack can use the data from that game. This allows them to make an entirely new game using the character sprites, Pokemon sprites, Pokemon moves, music, locations, and more.
You could say that it cuts the programmer’s job in half because all they need to do now is come up with a different story to hash out a new game. The more skilled programmers can edit the sprites and data to make a different looking game.
There are even those that use sprites and HUDs from other Pokemon games. You can have a Pokemon Emerald ROM hack, but it can incorporate sprites from Pokemon Diamond, which is a game from a different system.
Finally, these ROM hacks can be played on different emulators like My Boy, John GBA, Visual Boy Advance, mGBA, VBA-M, OpenEmu, and GBA4iOS. They can’t be played on their own because they are ROMs and not stand-alone games.
Yeah, that’s it! I hope this cleared out the misconception. Just remember, fan-made and rom hacks are two different things. In this post, you will find the list popular fan made Pokemon games.
List of Fan Made Pokemon Games
| Game | Description | Fakemon | Links/Download |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon Uranium | Explore the whole place of Tandor with your chosen Fakemon and collect all 8 Gym badges to complete the game. | Yes | Download Wiki |
| Pokémon Spectrum | More updates and improvements are coming to Pokemon Spectrum, the game has amazing story and gameplay with over 80 Fakemons to catch. | Yes | Download Wiki |
| Pokemon Insurgence | Experience Pokemon in different way with Pokemon Insurgence. Plenty of species to catch and have a chance to collect Mega stones for Mega evolution. | Yes | Download Forums |
| Pokémon Apex | Prevent dark forces in their plans to infiltrate the world. Keep the balance of both worlds to maintain peace. Experience the epic and unique story of Pokemon Apex with its new story, maps, items and a lot more cool features of the game. | No | Link |
| Pokemon Island | Explore Pokemon Island, the meeting for Pokemon trainers who aims to seek Mew, the rarest Pokemon in the island. Join the party and battle with fellow Pokemon trainers. | No | Link |
| Pokemon Sage | Battle cute Fakemon or capture them and add to your team. Level up your species, make them stronger and beat up your opponents. | Yes | Information |
| Pokemon Infinite Fusion | There are 22 801 and counting unique Pokemon fusion sprites with fairy type. The game is based on pokemon.alexonsager.net Pokemon fusion generator. | Fusion | Information |
| Pokemon Phoenix Rising | Phoenix Rising is a unique fan made game focusing the Legendary Pokémon Ho-oh. It has been around for quite some time and still under development. Fans could expect occasional updates and improvements on this game. | No | Download |
| Pokemon Reborn | Pokemon Reborn features 21 starters, 807 Pokemon with brand new effects, music and unique battle scenes. Pokemon Reborn also has customized Shiny Pokemon, online battling and trading which making the game even more interesting. | No | Information |
| Pokemon Solar Light & Lunar Dark | Enter to a unique Pokemon gaming adventure and become a trainer of adorable Fakemons. Explore Rikoto region, obtain all eight badges and go to Pokémon League to defeat Elite Four and the Champion. | Yes | Download |
| Pokémon Empyrean | Fight against mutant Pokemon, encounter fakemons and new eeveelution and choose from 21 starters in Pokemon Empyrean. More information about this game found here. | Yes | Download Patch |
| Pokemon Godra | No need to complete the Pokedex. It's a part of the old story. Experience a real adventure with Pokemon Godra. Do you want to become a Safari Zone Warden, a military or lead the Elite Four? The choice is yours. | No | Download link |
| Pokemon Fire Ash | The game follows the adventures of Ash Ketchum anime with several awesome features like over 50 gym battles, Mega Evolution, Alola Forms, and Ash-Greninja and more.. | No | Download Completed (End of Kalos) Download Uncompleted (Alola episodes) |
| Pokemon Mega Adventure | Encounter all the 721 Pokemon, Mystery Gifts, Mega bracelet and Mega evolution are some of the feature of the game. Definitely worth to check. | No | Download |
| Pokemon Rejuvenation | Aevium region was once a full of abundance region until the catastrophic Storm-9 came and tore the region apart. Defend the region from the evil team Xen and bring back Aevium to where it should be. | No | Download |
| Pokemon Black Cinder | Strange situations happening in Artenia and the peace of the country is currently at stake. You are sent for a mission, to bring back peace to the country. | No | Download |
| Pokemon Floral Tempus | You reside in Rialtra Region, you are finally leaving the Greenleaf Orphanage and start your journey in the region. The crime rate is rapidly increasing and even the police cannot solve the problem. You will meet Team Blight, the gang who is responsible for this. You have to reveal the evil team's secret and work on to bring back the Rialtra region back to peace. | No | Download (Episode 3) Download (Update 3.0.4) |
| Pokemon Dark Rising 3 | The largest of the Dark Rising series has now arrived and is now made by RPG Maker XP and Pokemon Essentials. With Pokemon Dark Rising 3, players can now play the game in four different modes, Normal, Hard, Extreme, and Nuzlocke. | No | Download |
Conclusion
No doubt, the above list of games is amazing! There are plenty of them, but I listed only the best. Have you played any of these fan-made games? And did I explain the difference between fan made and rom hacks correctly? I would love to hear your comments.
On the other hand, if you know a good fan made Pokemon game that you think should be added in the listing above, leave your message in the comment form below.
part mishra
I think that you should also add Pokemon FireAsh, because in this fan game, you can explore all the regions of the core series pokemon games.
PokemonCoders
Thanks for the suggestion, I already added the game.
IoeMCA
I think all the games listed are awesome. But I think Pokemon Gaia should be added. I didn’t see it up there,
PokemonCoders
Hey there IoeMCA, Pokemon Gaia is a Pokemon GBA rom hack (you can find it listed in this page) and not a fan-made RPG Maker XP game that’s why you can’t find it listed here.
Cameron
One problem, just one.
Where is Reborn? Just wondering why it’s not on this list, want to hear your opinion.
PokemonCoders
Hey Cameron, thanks for the heads up. Just checked Reborn and I can say that it is truly an amazing game. I added Pokemon Reborn in the list and if there’s more game you think worth to be added in the list, just post it here.
Vash101
It would be awesome if someone could make the Pokemon Sun & Moon into a GBA platform and would base on Pokemon Emerald.
PokemonCoders
Hey Vash101, thanks for dropping your comment. Rom hack such as Ultra Shiny Gold Sigma has features almost similar to Sun & Moon, though that based on Emerald but I like this game.
Anonymous
Pokemon mega adventure
MyndyShy
Pokemon Moon emerald. exact gameplay as pokemon emerald but with sun and moon starters and pokemon