It’s kind of hard to believe that making illegal games was ever profitable, but judging by the amount of work that went into some of these, there must have been some market for it. Either that or some really smart folks just had nothing better to do with their spare time. Either way, we get some interesting gems such as Kart Fighter to check out thanks to their efforts…
Continue reading Rom Hack Roundup: Series Crossovers Part II
Today we’ll look at some of the classic games that were based on Rogue and have since developed into decade-spanning addictions for RPG lovers. Since there are over three decades of roguelikes, you are only seeing my personal recommendations of a massive world of games. There are plenty more you if you dig a little. As you can see some of these have even been ported to iOs and Android. Most of the games are so simple that you can install the entire thing on a USB jump drive, pop it into any random computer you encounter and pick up where you left off.
Continue reading Genre Spotlight: Roguelikes : Classic Style Roguelikes
Imagine if every time you played Legend of Zelda, the dungeons were in different places, the mini-quests changed and even new monsters and weapons appeared. You’d probably be much more apt to replay the game for more than just nostalgic reasons. Personally, I only replay games when so much time has passed that I no longer remember the details.
This is the promise of Roguelikes – a genre of turn-based games that have a lot in common with RPGs. Although they eschew the heavy story elements and everything but the most basic graphics, what they offer in depth of play more than makes up for it. Roguelikes offer infinite replay value can usually be played on almost any machine that can run a terminal and can be very addicting.
Back in the days when mascots were firmly attached to certain systems, we often wondered, what would Sonic look like on the NES, or Mario on a Sega Console? Such questions “sort of” get answered by these ROM hacks. The amount of work that went into these is surprising really, considering there was little or no profit to be made. That said, it sure is interesting to see familiar nostalgic game elements mixed and matched into something new.
In fact, the recent amazing hack Metroid: Rogue Dawn even has a little homage section (I won’t spoil it here) to one of the classics. Here’s a few more to get your nostalgic mash-up fix.
Somari is not actually a ROM hack, but a unlicensed NES game that puts Mario into the world of Sonic the Hedgehog. Apparently it was sold illegally in asian countries as it clearly has stolen art from both Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. Somari is a bit buggy and glitchy, so recently a hacker created the Sonic the Hedgehog for NES Rom Hack based on Somari. It puts our favorite blue Hedgehog back in the mix and corrects lots of sound and physics glitches in the original Somari ROM. It also does a better job of creating those iconic Sonic songs on the NES. It was often argued in the 90’s that Sonic was impossible on the NES, and while the speed does’t quite measure up, the gameplay actually does.
Megaman is the subject of many, many Rom Hacks. And with good reason! Capcom’s 8-bit platformers are some of the best music, controls and gameplay ever seen on the NES. Megaman in the Mushroom Kingdom sends the blue bomber through a variety of stages from Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 and 3. It’s a very high quality ROM and tons of fun. The music is mostly yanked from other NES Megaman games and graphics from all the Mario games. Each Robot’s stage represents a different area from one of the three originals. This is one of the most enjoyable cross-over games I’ve ever played.
There are some more whacky crossovers out there, stay tuned for more.
