ROM hacks continue pushing boundaries, whether that means cramming 700 custom tracks into a Wii racer, turning a platformer into a first-person shooter, or fusing two RPG franchises into something neither developer ever imagined. This week’s batch spans quality-of-life tweaks, absurd crossovers, and projects ambitious enough to qualify as new games.
The Big Ones
Sonic Megamix Mania v1.0a finally arrived after sitting at 0.9 since 2023, bringing the legendary Genesis ROM hack Sonic Megamix into Sonic Mania Plus with full visual overhauls and three game modes. Classic Mode faithfully recreates the ROM hack’s v4.0b release with upgraded visuals, while Megamix Mode blends original ideas with new additions.
The new Challenge Mode adds 13 distinct acts with obstacle courses, trick sections, and abstract stage gimmicks that feel more experimental than the rest of the package. Six playable characters include the expected trio plus Shadow, Mighty, and Amy, and the whole thing runs natively on PC without emulation.
Mario Kart Wii Deluxe X just hit v10 with over 700 tracks, and packs in custom cups, battle arenas, retro course remixes, and community creations pulled from over a decade of Mario Kart Wii modding. It’s less of a curated experience and more of an everything-bagel approach to content: throw it all in and let players sort it out. Installation requires Riivolution or Dolphin with the Deluxe X distribution, and at this point, the file size probably rivals some AAA releases.
Pokémon Odyssey II: Heroes of Lemuria is officially in development as a Fire Red hack that abandons Gym badges entirely in favor of dungeon crawling, quest completion, and narrative-driven progression inspired by Etrian Odyssey. The original Pokémon Odyssey already fused these two worlds around the World Tree Yggdrasil, introducing eight subclasses (Pugilist, Sovereign, Survivalist, etc.) with unique perks, a new Aether type, and 250 custom Eltrian-form Pokémon wearing things like Robin Hood hats. Developer PacoScarso has confirmed the sequel will expand on this foundation with more story content, though no demos or release windows exist yet.
Half-Life 3
Gordon & Daxter might be the most baffling mod released this month. Built for the OpenGOAL decompiled PC port of Jak & Daxter, it replaces Jak with Gordon Freeman and converts the entire third-person platformer into a first-person shooter: crowbar, pistol, SMG, bunnyhopping, and all. MFO built this thing playable from start to finish, opening up new routing possibilities since you can now bunnyhop across gaps the original traversal mechanics never intended. It’s ridiculous in concept but apparently functional in execution, which raises uncomfortable questions about what else people might start bolting onto decompiled PlayStation 2 games.
NES and Genesis Overhauls
Castlevania 1: Fortified Army by Timaeus completely redesigns the original NES game with new level layouts, reworked enemy and boss behaviors, a lower-pitched soundtrack, and quality-of-life changes like keeping your subweapon and whip power after death. Infinite lives are standard except in Hard Mode, which cranks up damage from Stage 3 onward, reduces heart candles, and strips out helpful items for players who find the base version too forgiving. The visuals skew darker and moodier to match the pitch-shifted audio, leaning into the gothic atmosphere the original hardware could only hint at.
Toy Story Redux on Genesis takes Traveller’s Tales’ rushed movie tie-in and attempts to salvage it with tighter controls, adjusted level design, and balance tweaks aimed at making it less frustrating. The original Genesis version was notoriously uneven compared to its SNES counterpart, so Redux targets the pain points rather than adding new content. It’s a rescue job more than a reimagining, similar to what Final Fight Enhanced did for the Amiga.
In terms of weird ports, a Sega Master System port of the original NES Castlevania is in development on SMS Power forums, aiming to recreate the game as faithfully as possible on hardware that never officially received a mainline entry in the series. Meanwhile, Developer EBonura is building a PlayStation 1 port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time from scratch using the PsyQo SDK and nugget toolchain, targeting authentic PS1 hardware limitations and aesthetics.
Senshi Wars: Beryl’s Revenge is a complete overhaul of Streets of Rage 2 that replaces every character, enemy, and item with Sailor Moon equivalents, turning Sega’s beat-em-up into a Saturday morning anime brawler with air combos, charged special moves, and no continues. Version 1.0 just dropped thanks to PPI_Akiko’s optimization work, which freed up enough ROM space for 120Pythons to add Neptune as a sixth playable senshi, redesign all enemies across Stages 3, 4, 7, and 8, and introduce a new Stage 4 boss.
The update also includes quality-of-life tweaks like proper female KO voice lines, a chibi spawn animation for Neptune, unique voice clips for Venus’s chain attacks, and a character breakdown text file with frame data and movesets. An “Easy Team Edition” patch strips out the challenge entirely, adding character switching via the Z button, five continues, five starting lives, and an XP system that makes you absurdly overpowered by the endgame.
Seasonal Oddities
Circus Retro: Seaside Edition and Kunio-kun no Nekketsu Soccer League: Valentine’s Day Edition both fall into the “holiday hack” category, applying aesthetic reskins and minor tweaks to existing NES games for no reason beyond thematic novelty. The Circus Retro hack swaps in beach and ocean-themed graphics, while the Kunio-kun Valentine’s edition adds hearts, pink palettes, and romance-adjacent imagery to a soccer brawler. There’s also Sonic 1: Valentine’s Day Edition, a Genesis palette swap that drenches the entire game in garish shades of pink, turning Sonic himself into a rosy hedgehog running through love-themed zones.
Whether you’re hunting for 700 Mario Kart tracks, watching Gordon Freeman bunnyhop through a Naughty Dog platformer, or just want to replay Castlevania with less punishing death penalties, this week proved ROM hacks still cover every conceivable niche. Some of these projects rival commercial releases in scope, others are weekend palette swaps with a gimmick, and as long as both exist, I’ll be covering them.
