The Pokémon fan-game scene, on cartridge
Pokémon has one of the largest modding communities in gaming. Since the early 2000s fans have been rebuilding the official games from the inside: new regions, new monsters, harder battles, entire anime-inspired story arcs. Some projects take years and reach a polish that rivals commercial work.
We collect 46 of the best-known Pokémon fan games and ROM hacks here, each one a handmade physical cartridge for Game Boy, Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance. All are unofficial and none is affiliated with Nintendo, Game Freak or The Pokémon Company.
The main flavours
- Story overhauls that replace the plot and map with a new region
- Difficulty hacks, often called Kaizo (the Japanese word for "modification"), that rebalance every trainer battle
- Anime and franchise recreations, such as journeys that follow the Orange Islands or Team Rocket's point of view
- Demakes, which squeeze a later generation into Game Boy hardware
- Creepypasta-style horror hacks inspired by online legends
How to choose
New to hacks? Start from the base game you love: Game Boy Color hacks reshape the Gold and Silver era, and Game Boy Advance hacks usually build on FireRed or Emerald.
