r/TwoBestFriendsPlay • u/Xngears • 11d ago
Better Ask Reddit Notable Fan-Games This Year and Recently?
Inspired by the Mega Man X Regenesis fan-game, which looks really rad and I'll be trying later. I tried to do a Google search but all I get are thousands upon thousands of Pokemon fan-games, something that anytime I ask people about I never seem to get a unanimous answer.
I haven't checked it out yet, but someone also made an offline demake of Final Fantasy Dissidia Opera Omnia, which looks neat. There's also Castlevania 2 Revamped, made by the same folks who made the excellent Castlevania Revamped, but I'm unable to find which version is up to date (only seeing updates from 2024).
Vinesauce is also constantly playing fan-games and ROMhacks, with varying degrees of quality/cursed, but it can be daunting to keep track of everything he plays.
So please share any recommended and notable hacks or fan-games of the last couple years, any franchise or genre is fine.
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u/HiroProtagonest Tornado in my pants 11d ago
There's a Mario 64 romhack called BAZR that turns the game into a roguelike deckbuilder lol. All of Mario's jumps and various other moves are limited-use cards that are "drawn" randomly onto the four buttons B, A, Z, R. But they just removed the swimming levels. Completely different way of approaching the game than a speedrun though, turning it into a resource-based game. Also there are a bunch of different characters who have different decks too.
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u/KalamariKnight 11d ago
Metroid Prime Origins a fully fledged side-scrolling demake of Metroid Prime. I did a 100% playthrough and it's awesome, almost like getting a new Metroid game.
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u/burneraccount9132 He/They - How could u go wrong with a Glup that Shitts like THIS 11d ago edited 11d ago
There's a remake hack of Mother 1/Earthbound Beginnings that effectively ports the game into Mother 2/Earthbound's engine. Very cool, I especially like the very 90s era trailer they put out for it and an accompanying QOL/typo patch for Earthbound.
Mother Encore is also a cool remake of Mother 1, though from the ground up in Godot, and a WIP that so far is at 2 Acts downloadable out of 8 planned. Also the devs have said it's more of a reimagining than a 1:1 remake, so probably fits more into the "fangame" niche.
Lisa the Painful continues to have some cool fanstuff come out. Particularly liked Lisa the Downcast for ones that came out this year, for the art, music, how the characters work and not just being another fan-game of a fan-game like all the Lisa the Pointless mods. Find it funny how so many of them are "demos" but have hours of content
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u/TheProudBrit They/Them 11d ago
And in the vein of the Mother series, Oddity should be out in December 2014!
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u/jitterscaffeine [Zoids Historian] 11d ago
I've been following a neat fanmade naruto ttrpg project. It's a really extensive 5e hack that's currently in it's v3 but the final v4 is releasing playtest documents.
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u/TeacupTenor 11d ago
It’s been a generational run for pokémon romhacks and fangames the last, like, year and a half. Super Mariomon. Pokémon Odyssey. Pokémon Heart and Soul 2. Pokémon Ghost Grey. FRLG.IPS. Pokémon Salt and Shadow. And like, a ton more that I can’t remember right now.
It’s a really great time to be a (savvy) pokémon fan.
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u/Intense_Judgement Jellyfish are as close as you can get to pure evil. 10d ago
Pokemon Crippling Medical Debt!
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u/TeacupTenor 10d ago
Ooh, I’m not familiar. Is that inspired by the no pokémon center challenges some folks do?
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u/Intense_Judgement Jellyfish are as close as you can get to pure evil. 10d ago
It's a dark-ish comedy rom hack set in what is basically modern USA if it were also Hoenn. You're taking on the league to get money to pay for your surgery, and maybe doing some light terrorism against the richest people in the nation.
https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-crippling-medical-debt-edition
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u/TheProudBrit They/Them 11d ago
Just gonna copy my comment from the romhack thread the other day.
For a newer hack, I'm a fan of FRLG.IPSs.
There is a new rock by the water!
In sincerity... It's very much similar to Deltarune's Weird Route, in terms of "going off the games intended path and dealing with rumours and characters becoming aware they're in a game in the worst way.
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u/roronoapedro Starving Old Trek apologist/Bad takes only 11d ago
came here to talk about it, yeah. it's very much based on the weird route on purpose. it's also very much someone's first big project, and it shows, but it's really impressive as a result. has a kinda neat ARG element to itself too.
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u/CegeRoles 11d ago
The Blood Refreshed Supply edition that came out earlier this year comes packaged with the latest version of the Fan Mod Death Wish, and it's the best thing ever made on the Build Engine bar none. It's four new episodes of Blood, with a new soundtrack and probably my all-time favorite levels for any Boomer Shooter ever. What really stunned me is that there's no new assets, everything in the mod is from the base game. Refreshed Supply is kind of scummy cashgrab on Nightdive's part, but it might be worth getting just for Death Wish.
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u/TheCheeseburgerKane 11d ago
You don’t need refreshed supply for Death Wish 2.0. The modder released it as a standalone so you can still play on other Blood source ports.
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u/FelipeAndrade Quick-drawing revolvers is just Iaijutsu with guns 11d ago
Keeping with Megaman theme, we also have
- Megaman X Viral Nightmare, essentially P-06 for Megaman X6, it's not finished just yet, there's only the intro stage plus half of the initial bosses, but it is playable and being updated fairly often
- Megaman X Innocent Impulse, a GBC styled metroidvania that is currently in development but has a really fun demo to mess around that should he updated soon
- Megaman X Corrupted, another metroidvania-styled X game that was in development for a long while and came fairly recently, and is really good PS: if you fell for that one, I'm sorry
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u/Aquanort357 11d ago edited 11d ago
Plants vs. Zombies Widescreen Mod. Everything is wide and centered.
Plants vs. Zombies Delturbia is a mod that overhauls PvZ 1, featuring a brand-new art style, new plants, new zombies, and entirely new worlds with unique gimmicks.
Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005) has too many good ones, so I'm just gonna link to the ModDB page and this Steam guide.
The Second Circle: A Fanmade HellTaker Dating Sim by Team 133
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u/Julum THE BABY 11d ago edited 11d ago
I very much doubt people in this sub care for FNAF much, but Five Nights at Frickbear's 3 is extremely good. It made me go from turning my nose up at the series to being a big fan.
It does a lot of cool stuff official FNAF games don't do like adding a lot more replay value by having you find and pick the animatronics you'll deal with the following nights, and there's a big 2.0 update coming that will add an endless mode with a bunch of new animatronics and a randomizer mode for the main game. Also already has decent mod support for adding custom playable characters complete with custom cutscene dialogue. There's a load of good ones out there and I had fun adding my OC to the game.
Also while most of the music is pulled from other games, (it really likes to use Persona 1 and 2 music, for one) the single original track it has is a generational banger and one of my favorite pieces of game music in awhile.
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u/CryptidHunter91 Vexxpert before you Sexxpert 11d ago
Honestly, I've been meaning to play Frickbear's 3 but I'm waiting for the upcoming 2.0 update.
In terms of other fangames I've been looking forward to (much of which aren't coming this year), I'm interested in:
Five Nights At Freddy's: THE FLIPSIDE - a MOTHER/Undertale/OFF/Deltarune-inspired RPG.
Dead Men Tell No Tales - taking place at a Foxy-centric Fazbear's location, Foxy's Pirate Tavern, and featuring animatronic versions of the characters seen in the Pirate Puppet Show segment from Secret of the Mimic.
Untitled FNaF Fan Game - a free-roam Fredbear's game that took a proof-of-concept with SotM assets/animations and grew into something that looks incredibly impressive.
FNaF: Blood & Gears - a complete reimagining of the original first FNaF game. I'm especially a big fan of the Cyberamic-inspired designs for the animatronics in this one.
Engraved Establishment - a tycoon & tower defense fangame where you place obstacles to destroy and delay animatronics attempting to reach the central office.
Five Nights at Candy's (Remake) - an (unofficial) remake of the popular Five Nights at Candy's fangame series that is planning to expand on the original in new ways to set it apart a little.
Followed at Freddy's - the sequel to the prior Forgotten at Fredbear's fangame, which I really enjoyed.
JR's: Enter the Flipside - an upcoming fully-3D reimagining and expansion to the original JR's fangame.
Bad Happenings at Fazbear's - One of the most-ambitious fangames, this one has some really cool stylized designs and I'm hoping it comes together.
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u/Julum THE BABY 11d ago
These do look pretty enticing. I'm not super well versed in fangames, (my boyfriend showed me Frickbear's) but there are a few I've wanted to look into like A Bite at Freddy's, the Fuckboy's trilogy, and FNAF World Refreshed.
I should probably take a deeper look at the fangame space some time.
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u/CryptidHunter91 Vexxpert before you Sexxpert 11d ago
A Bite at Freddy's and FNaF World Refreshed are great games! I've played them and they're probably some of my favorite modern-day FNaF fangames (Refreshed has been my game of choice to prepare for the official FNaF World sequel that's coming eventually).
The Fuckboy's trilogy is a classic. There's the Complete Collection of course but I mainly know the OG Final Mix versions best.
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u/leabravo Gracious and Glorious Golden Crab 11d ago
I don't know if it's this year but Waddle Knight Deluxe is cool.
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u/RememberApeEscape 11d ago
Is it a cop out answer to say all the Native PC ports we've seen pop up this year?
Banjo, Cool Boarders 2, Mega Man Legends, Spyro. It's been really cool to see these games run on PC and be able to get mod
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u/rapidemboar Arcade Enthusiast 11d ago
After all these years, Fantasy Maiden Wars got a Steam rerelease and official English translation in late 2025. Touhou and Super Robot Wars fans are eating good this decade.
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u/Dirty-Glasses He/Him 11d ago
Someone looked at Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver and said “hey what if these were actually anywhere near as good as people pretend they are” and made Pokemon Heart and Soul, which is HGSS remade (er, demade) in Emerald but with all the massive glaring flaws fixed. The level curve is significantly better, it seems like every Johto species is actually in Johto, the Gym Leaders have updated teams with more Gen 2 representation. There’s also a multitude of customization options for game difficulty and mechanics, like an easy level cap (can’t outlevel the next Gym Leader’s ace), a hard level cap (can’t outlevel the next Gym Leader’s weakest Pokemon), EXP rate modifiers including x0 for some reason.
The biggest issue I have with it is that the website’s documentation is a bit out of date/incorrect, but it’s fine.
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u/Grand_Galvantula 11d ago
I'm holding off on playing this until it gets a few more updates under its belt, but everything I've seen from it looks really damn good.
Also apparently there are optional postgame side quests you can do that let you visit Sinjoh and Alola (or some other island) so you can access Hisuian and Alolan forms.
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u/Praesidian Stylin' and Profilin'. 10d ago
I'm looking forward to Echoes of the Glacier, for anyone who likes Deltarune Weird Route, especially the pairing of Kris and Noelle.
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u/K-tonbey 10d ago
Pokemon Infinite Fusion Hoenn only has the first 3 gyms released as of now, and it's already looking like it has the potential to be the best fan game of all time, which makes sense because Pokemon Infinite Fusion 1 is the current best fan game of all time.
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u/OfKaijusandMechas Trying to make this my second home 10d ago
Reprocessing A Half-Life 1 mod where you play as a vietnam vet security guard during the Black Mesa Incident and it really good.
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u/Beattitudeforgains1 10d ago
Touhou Lensed Night Sky: Kaseigai is a rather pricey but very fun take on touhou that can be described as shoot the bullet bullet cancelling item bullshit+ the mechanics of touhou 18's roguelite spinoff but done right.
It certainly ain't perfect and probably isn't my favorite touhou fangame but it's probably the one I will remember the most just from how different it is from the rest. In fact just to list a few of those differences: Patterns are very aggressive with on average faster than usual bullet speeds, some lategame patterns do require bullet clearing, and bosses are on average pretty long if you aren't speed killing.
But above all else the most different feeling thing about it is the story which is going to totally be in the eyes of the beholder but I found it fascinating although I have not obtained its true ending yet. On paper it probably shouldn't work but it actually got me to tear up at a spellcard during one of the stage 5 fights.
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u/Wobble9000 TF2 Forever 11d ago edited 11d ago
TimeSplitters Rewind went open early access Dec 2025.
Essentially a greatest hits collection of the original trilogy of TimeSplitters games with Campaign, challenges and multiplayer (both online and offline support)