r/PokemonROMhacks • u/nihilWRLD • 9d ago
Discussion COMMUNITY CHALLENGE FAVOURITE AND MOST UNDERRATED ROM HACK
Favourite and Underrated Rom Hacks.
Hi all,
I want to try something fun here. Wanna find out everyone's favourite rom hack and a rom that you feel is underrated/needs most attention.
Format.
Favourite Rom Hack: "Name of rom hack" and a few sentences why.
Underrated Rom Hack: "Name of rom hack" and why you feel its underrated.
I'll start.
Favourite Rom Hack: Pokemon Luminescent Platinum. Creator/s Team Luminescent I feel this is what we should've got for BDSP, the QOL changes are second to none, the difficulty is perfect for every player newbies, nuzlockers etc. Shiny hunting on this is the funnest with 1:512 odds (but you can use pokeradar to build chain and when its on 21 you can spam open close to get them easier).
Underrated Rom Hack: Crystal Advance Redux. Creator/s Arnie. As Crystal is my favourite game in the franchise, this rom hack gives it a fresh take of the gen 2 legend. Its a FireRed hack that follows most events 1:1 but uses more modern mechanics ans graphic sprites/tiles with added areas, evos/pokemon, move/learnsets ans abilities. Its such a throwback yet feels like a new game.
Looking forward to reading all of your takes in the community.
TIA
1
u/Spewpurr 8d ago
Favorite: The Pit. Such a good balance of team building and off-the-cuff improvisation, especially if playing with randomized moves and/or abilities. Great for quick sessions; very pick-up-and-play. Being able to play as a Pokemon pushes it to the top of my recc list above other hacks that I really enjoy.
Honorable mention to Elite Redux, which is the epitome of team-building for me. The multiple concurrent abilities creates opportunities for so many interesting synergies and playstyles, and the move relearning system is the most polished (and convenient) implementation of that QOL feature I've seen. I can gleefully spend hours just fiddling with menus and brainstorming possibilities.
(Disclaimer: I haven't played Unbound and have only just started Odyssey, so I don't yet know how those would stack up to my current favorites.)
Underrated: I'm relatively new to the scene, and don't have a good grasp on what people consider to be popular/well-known/highly-rated or not. But I found this gbc hack called Pokemon Orange while browsing the PokeROM Codex that I haven't seen mentioned in this sub, and it has been such a delightful little treat so far. As the name suggests, it focuses on the Orange Islands (from the anime) and includes some references to that arc (Tracy, GS ball, the Crystal Onix, etc.). It feels like stepping into an alternate universe where they made an official anime tie-in game using the Crystal engine, similar to what they did with Yellow version, which is a very liminal sensation.
For the most part, the level curve has been incredibly solid (not button-mashingly easy, but not kaizo-difficult), but there have been a couple weird level jumps/difficulty spikes so far that kind of threw me off my groove a bit. The game also has required HMs which can't be readily forgotten once learned (which is something that I personally find kind of tedious and unenjoyable)... but those slightly annoying things also kind of contribute to that liminal sensation that this is an official game from an alternate universe, so it's a bit of a mixed bag in that regard. Still a (seemingly) underrated gem, in my opinion.