ROM Hacks that genuinely improve the base game?

[RageBurner]

Interesting... when CE was cancelled, the devs ostensibly made a full run of the game on Youtube in video form, and the difference between the incomplete and almost complete version, according to them, is the kind of color in one of Magus' spells. The most complete version of the game has a yellow glow, the older, incomplete version a green glow. I wonder which one you have.

 

[fake-kun]

Colorization hacks for Game Boy Mega Man games.

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7492/

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/8688/

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/8738/

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7413/

 

[RageBurner]

I don't know which concrete spell, and I'm too lazy to search for it, so...maybe someday I'll find and tell you, sorry??‍

It's okay, just give it a look when you are able. I believe the spell is called Shield, Barrier or something like that. Magus atarts with it.

 

[Iggy's_Hidden_Reverie]

I’ve a good hack for you, Maya Fey.

Dragon Ball Budokai AF might be my preferred way of playing budokai 3 now. I like the B3 soundtrack, but it can be hard to recommend considering it’s plagiarized. And I’m also not against licensed music so I’ve loved basically all the new tracks in budokai AF. I do believe they add atmosphere and helped me uncover new bands I never would’ve heard about otherwise.

Thank you, Big Boss from Metal Gear.

 

[Aeriththeflowergirl]

Dragon Ball Z Legacy of Goku. Makes the game easier and you don't get easily killed by freaking wolves, and not only that your fly gauge refills instead of having to constantly pick up power ups

 

[Ikagura]

- Super Mario Land DX solely because you can have Hard Mode without having to do the full game once.
- Sonic 3D Blast Director's Cut because of the amount of QoL that makes the original obsolete (and you even have access to the original from the main menu!).
- Sonic 3 Complete because they even fixed bugs and inconsistencies (like the Flying Battery Boss in Knuckles' playthrough).
- Bare Knuckles III English Translation since it removed the censoring from the western release (so you have the actual story and original sprites) and isn't as frustratingly hard as SoR 3 was (and no game being cut if you play in easy).

 

[RattlyDKC2]

Super Mario All-Stars brick fix.

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/167/

It fixes the infamous issue where you don't properly rebound off breakable bricks in SMB1 and Lost Levels. It makes those games feel so much better to play, just like the originals.

 

[Ikagura]

Super Mario All-Stars brick fix.

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/167/

It fixes the infamous issue where you don't properly rebound off breakable bricks in SMB1 and Lost Levels. It makes those games feel so much better to play, just like the originals.

I noticed that weird behaviour about these bricks but it didn't bug me too much.

Still neat to have something closer.

 

[Zemus]

Anything that multiplies EXP.

 

[Bakuma1997]

On both sides of the Spectrum:

Improvement patches:
Secret of mana Plus makes the game literally more complete, adding new parts to the story and felling like DLC
Castlevania DoS Defitive Edition has lots of them, so i will only focus in the Elephant in the room...
NO
MORE
SHOEHORNED
TOUCH CONTROLS
Making my favorite Metroidvania even better
And for the final one:
Final Fantasy Hasted+Restored Fix the infamious INT bug that makes mages far less useful than remembered, modernizes the rules (No more missing because a enemy your character chose was already dead and being abvle to buy potions on bulk, for one) also touching up some sprites, also adding a proper title screen

Full Conversions:
Dragoon X Omega: It's merely Dragon quest 1 with a cyberpunk coat of paint, but the sparse lore is sooo good, the sprote conversion also adds to the desolation
Mario The Rainbow Realms: Non-Kaizo hacks with creative level design
Castlevania The Holy Relics: Megaman-esque hack with original story that has been called what Simon Quest must be
Speaking of Megaman: Megaman 4 minus infinity remixesa the IMHO middle sibling of the NES games and turns it into something an actual NES game would desire, new boss patterns and weapons, creative stages, lots of bonus content and Chiptune of other NES games to enjoy, simply quality, per default is the Hard kind of fangame, but it has customizable challenge, so anybody that played Megaman can enjoy it

 

[Ikagura]

NO
MORE
SHOEHORNED
TOUCH CONTROLS

I love when hacks make you bypass gimmicks like this or even the mic.

I would gladly replay Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks with proper pad control.

 

[Aeriththeflowergirl]

Any color hack on GBA

But my favorite color hack is Final Fantasy Adventure on Gameboy.

 

[Ikagura]

Any color hack on GBA

But my favorite color hack is Final Fantasy Adventure on Gameboy.

I wish GBA emulators had contrasts options.

 

[Bakuma1997]

I love when hacks make you bypass gimmicks like this or even the mic.

I would gladly replay Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks with proper pad control.

Both of them are in the Repo prepatched

 

[RetroDKCN]

DX colorizarition hacks and pokémon rebalancing gba hacks are my favorites

R.O.W.E. (Opern World Emerald) got a 2.0 update just today but does it counts? I think of it more as a alternative experience than a improvement since it radically changes the whole game balance

 

[Ikagura]

Both of them are in the Repo prepatched

I should get them asap.

 

[Leon]

Pretty sure it's been said but, sonic 3 complete, merges sonic 3 and sonic and knuckles perfectly without any issues making a more fleshed out version of both games.

 

[RageBurner]

Indeed, it is perfect. It also corrects sprite omissions related to Super/Hyper Sonic that are impossible to ignore.

 

[Ikagura]

Pretty sure it's been said but, sonic 3 complete, merges sonic 3 and sonic and knuckles perfectly without any issues making a more fleshed out version of both games.

I'm still genuinely surprised how they managed to have all of the fixes and additions in a single cartridge.

Sure, AIR is objectively better in many ways (especially regarding modding and wide-screen) but 3 Complete can be played on more devices.

Indeed, it is perfect. It also corrects sprite omissions related to Super/Hyper Sonic that are impossible to ignore.

Personally I didn't care much because they were merely visuals that you don't see often (and to be honest I pardon a visual error over a game breaking glitch) but I appreciate the added efforts.

Even the flames underwater in Angel Island Act 2 got fixed, talk about dedication!

At that point there's no reasons to play the original Sonic 3 (unless you're weird like me and enjoy Sonic Collection on the DS) on the Genesis since you can even apply the romhack in an actual cartridge.

Nowadays it's just tedious to have to plug two cartridges just to have the full game (Sega didn't release that despite the existence of that Sonic Collection featuring Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and Robotnik Mean Bean Machine).

 

[RageBurner]

It's just me, I guess. Visual errors bother me a lot. When Super/Hyper Sonic is in any other position than idle, crouching, running or jumping, the sprite reverts to normal Sonic while retaining just the palette, and I always hated this on the vanilla game.

That said, Complete does fix all this as well as other bugs and integrates both halves of the game better than vanilla does, so there's that, too.

And I agree about Complete being better overall than AIR due to ease of use (same for other decomps for Sonic 1 and 2), since they require extremely specific ROMs that aren't even available anymore thanks to Sega delisting them. I hope this makes decomp authors just realize they need to support a wider range of ROMs, as Sega doesn't care for its fans.

 

[Ikagura]

It's just me, I guess. Visual errors bother me a lot. When Super/Hyper Sonic is in any other position than idle, crouching, running or jumping, the sprite reverts to normal Sonic while retaining just the palette, and I always hated this on the vanilla game.

Oh right, like on a Carnival Night Barrel or any kind of thing that makes him float (thus rotating vertically).

I didn't take too much care on them but it's a neat touch.

That said, Complete does fix all this as well as other bugs and integrates both halves of the game better than vanilla does, so there's that, too.

Even stuff like "intended order" with Flying Battery in the first half or even having the Big Arm final boss integrated back into 3&K are already making it way better than just the full package (while also still being toggle-able so people that want a more "purist" approach for 3&K could still enjoy as if it were just the two cartridges together).

And I agree about Complete being better overall than AIR due to ease of use (same for other decomps for Sonic 1 and 2), since they require extremely specific ROMs that aren't even available anymore thanks to Sega delisting them. I hope this makes decomp authors just realize they need to support a wider range of ROMs, as Sega doesn't care for its fans.

Sonic 1 Forever and Sonic 2 Absolute are gorgeously good. Same goes for Sonic CD Miracle Edition and Restored for fixing and improving every parts of the game.

The only tricky part is to get the mobile phone APK because they assume you legally own them.

AIR is also more versatile thanks to a script engine too.

 

[Mecharocca]

That's easy. Mega Man X 3 Zero Project. To me, that's how the game should have shipped, and I refuse to play vanilla ever again.

Not only does it implement Zero fully, it also corrects huge gameplay flaws with X's buster (the fully charged shot when using armor slows down the game and has bad hithoxes and timing) and the upwards dash (too slow and delayed to be of any real use).

Plus it adds battery saves (bye bye passwords) and NG plus.

This, beat me to it. It's so impressive while playing it you genuinely feel like this is/should have been the original version. I too cannot go back. Played it for the first time this year and was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Mopeybloke]

To add to the user who posted a bunch of JRPGs:

Final Fantasy VI: The GBA Script port, which also comes a bunch of fixes. Play with a more faithful translation as well as mechanics being implemented as intended.
Final Fantasy VII: The port of the "Beacause" retranslation from the PC Reunion mod to the PSX version by Green Goblin. The only caveats for this one are that in the current build, music is screwed up in the Shinra Mansions' basement corridor if you run into Yin/Yang, and the marching minigame was made tighter, but those will be addressed in the next version.
EarthBound: New Controls. There are more extensive de-censoring/improvement mods, but this one is the basics.

 

[dapperley]

I don’t know about “improve”, but there are three mods/hacks of the original Resident Evil trilogy I’ve really being enjoying for a different and more hardcore experience:

• BIORAND: Resident Evil 1-3 Randomizer. Basically takes all three games and throws them into a blender for an almost rougelike experience.
• Resident Evil 2: Origin of Species
• Resident Evil 3: Lord of Necropolis

 

[fandiona]

Is there a place where you share ideas for future hacks? What I would love to see is a version of Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure for Genesis with Babs as the main character. Is possible to replace Buster's sprites, dialogues, etc. with Babs ones? Can someone do it?