Ssshhhh! Ssshhhh! Yes, Jack! Hi there. Today, I thought I'd look at some of the best SNES ROM hacks I've played. Now, there's like a thousand of these, so obviously I haven't played all of them. I just wanted to share what I've enjoyed playing. First, I should explain that I'm talking specifically about ROM hacks, not Homebrew games. A ROM hack is a person or a team of people modifying existing content. A Homebrew means the programming code would be entirely original and made from scratch. Also, it's worth pointing out that usually these ROM hacks are made by people who have put well over 200 hours into the original game, so the temptation is to stretch the game's capabilities to their limit and by proxy their own skills. And as a result, the hack can end up way way too difficult, and just not worth the aggravation. Yeah, I get it. A lot of these ROM hacks are made for a niche audience, but hey, if you want a challenge, I'd argue it's tougher to design new platforming levels that match your character's abilities while still being fair, and while still seeming new in keeping the spirit of the original game. That's why I want to start with the hack of Super Mario World called Return to Dinosaur Land. This is a ROM hack that comes reasonably close to capturing the same spirit of Super Mario World while keeping the game fair and balanced. Sure, it starts off pretty easy, but it features multiple exits on certain levels, so the emphasis here is on exploration rather than just surviving some insanely ridiculously designed world that would take like 30 minutes to get through just one level. Don't get me wrong, Return to Dinosaur Land still presents a challenge, especially once you get to the fourth world, but the game remains fair throughout and is one of the best ROM hacks I've played. There's also stuff like a very Super Mario World, which introduces some interesting ideas like bringing in a couple elements from Mario 3 and Yoshi's Island, as well as some new enemies and some interesting new music. It's a pretty decent playthrough. Of course, if you do prefer the statistically difficult ROM hack levels, there's stuff like Super Kaiso World, but personally, I would prefer guys like Proton John to suffer through that kind of stuff. Go check out his channel if you haven't. Of course, you can't do a video about Super Nintendo ROM hacks without talking about Super Metroid, which behind Super Mario World is probably the most hacked SNES game out there. There's two hacks that stand out. One is Metroid Super Zero Mission. This has got to be the best ROM hack on this entire video, and even if you kind of like Super Metroid, you have to play this hack. It's so polished and intuitive, and it impressively has a similar kind of open-ended structure to it that rewards the player for exploration. Some puzzles are really tricky, but never unfair, and they're rarely sloppy or half-assed like you see in most ROM hacks. If you play any one ROM hack in this video, make sure it's this one. It's fantastic. It's as close as we'll ever get to a Super Metroid 2. It's that good. If you're looking for other Super Metroid hacks, there's stuff like Hyper Metroid, which reimagines the story entirely and gives the game a different kind of look. That's pretty cool. This is another well-made hack by someone who knows what they're doing. Here's a small example where you come to a barrier here. You go back and you notice this enemy moving against the ceiling, but it disappears. Hey, there's a new path up here. I know that's super obvious, but I just want to demonstrate that these hacks are made by competent people who know what they're doing for the most part. Hyper Metroid is another example of that. It's buggy here and there. It's certainly not perfect, but I really enjoyed it. Of course, you know there's hacks of Link to the Past out there. One of the most popular and most impressive is the Parallel World's hack, which has a brand new story, design, layout, map, everything. There's even new pieces of music here and there. The problem here though is that Parallel Worlds isn't all that intuitive. You'll find yourself wondering where the hell to go often. And the difficulty here is just brutal. This may not be for casual players, but hardcore Zelda fans will love this one. Plus it's inspiring to see such a thoroughly remade game. Clearly, a lot of work went into Parallel Worlds. The amount of frustration here makes me think this game may not be for everyone. The Link to the Past goddess of wisdom, Romhack, may be a bit easier for casual players because, well, it's more Link to the Past. It's the same basic design and everything is very familiar. It's just there's new puzzles and new layouts. Nothing too fancy here, but it's still pretty solid if this is what you're looking for. But again, like I said earlier, the problem with some of these Romhacks is that they can be very buggy and glitchy, as you can see here. First we have, oh no, more zombies ate my neighbors. And that's exactly what this is. It's more zombies ate my neighbors. It's 55 levels of more of the same great top-down co-op action and the same difficulty you've come to expect from the game. This is essentially an unofficial sequel, so if you want more zombies ate my neighbors, well, here it is. Literally. Of course I have to talk a little about the Chrono Trigger Romhack called Flames of Eternity. Not to be confused with Crimson Echoes, which was made first years ago, but Flames of Eternity is a more complete version intended to bridge the gap between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. It's pretty interesting, the music and artwork are modified a bit here and there, and you start the game after a lot of text, as Megas, by himself on the surface of the planet, after the collapse of the Kingdom of Zeal. Personally, I thought Flames of Eternity was just okay. It's certainly not terrible, but obviously it can't touch the original game. Still, it's a decent enough story using familiar characters, themes, and visuals. But certainly not least, we have the infamous Earthbound Halloween hack made by Toby Fox. Otherwise, known as the guy who later went on to make Undertale. So yeah, if you enjoyed Earthbound and Undertale, well, I'll just say it's interesting and leave it at that. This Romhack is... I'm not even sure what to say, because I don't want to spoil anything. I'll just say it's super messed up. You play as a bounty hunter who has to track down a monster who killed an 8-thous-girl's parents, and you come across all sorts of horrifying stuff. It takes place on a timeline where the 4 Earthbound characters did not succeed. So there you go. This Romhack is very crude, but you gotta check this one out. Okay, so there's 9 Romhacks for you just to get started. So how do you play these games? If you really wanted to, you could buy a hacked reproduction cart with a fancy label and all that, but that's not really necessary. You just need an emulator or a flash cartridge if you insist on playing these games on your original SNES hardware. Romhacking.net is a fantastic resource not only for these Romhacks, but for how to implement them and to get them to work. There's a link in the description that explains how this stuff works in detail. To put it briefly, you just need the original game ROM, a ROMHACK, which can usually be found at romhacking.net and comes with a .ips file format. And a program called the SNES ROM utility to join the two together in either a Header or Headerless format. I've got a link to the program that'll do that in the description as well. Anyway that's all for now. Thank you for watching and have a great rest of your day.