Guess who’s hacked, hacked again. TJ’s back, tell a friend. I created a monster… Yeah okay enough of that hilariously bad intro, but it’s true. I’m back with a brand new bag of hacks. A sequel if you will to one of the first articles I wrote for TheGamer: 25 Game Hacks From the 90s You Had No Idea About. Focusing in on the 90s limited my research before, but this time I expanded into Nintendo’s entire library. My goal was to include at least one hack from every console, but I couldn’t find anything interesting for the Game Boy. Plus Nintendo’s home consoles past the SNES are pretty lacking in support. Pure emulation is great all the up to the Wii U and 3DS. Definitely not perfect, but it’s a start.

Point is there are not that many hacks for those later consoles though. That said I still tried to include some variety in my search regarding the NES, SNES, GBA, and DS. On that note I also didn’t want to include more than one hack on any particular game although I did break that twice. Plus you’re going to see quite a bit of Pokémon and Mario on this list so strap yourselves in. As for where you can obtain these hacks? It’s probably against policy to openly share emulation and rom information, so let’s just say I hope you fine people in 2017 know how to use Google. With that out of the way let’s get to the fans!

25 SMB W/ SMB3 GFX Hack (Super Mario Bros.)

Super Mario Bros. was the first smash hit for the NES and it paved the way for Nintendo to become a console giant. Nay, it made video games what they are today. So it’s an important game, no buts about it. However, playing it now isn’t that great graphically and the difficulty is certainly unfair at times. What if I told you you can play the original game, but with the far superior Super Mario Bros. 3 graphics? That’s pretty much what this hack is. Nothing else about the game is changed. The music and secrets are still all in a row, but it looks prettier. Not an insane hack to start out with, but still pretty cool in my opinion. Beats the original version.

24 Rockman 3: The Last Of Mushroom Kingdom (Mega Man 3)

This is like two hacks in one. Technically this is for Mega Man 3, but you can also think of it as a hack for Super Mario Bros. too. It takes Mega Man and places him in a linear set of levels found in the original Mario. There’s no stage end either. You just keep going and going. Sure there are doors you can jump into marked with the levels, but if you just keep going from left to right you’ll finish the game. That’s not exactly true, as the end of each stage is marked with a new robot master in place of a flag. Still, afterwards, there are no cuts. The only weird thing about the game is not being able to hit the Question Blocks. Feels wrong not to.

23 Metroid: Rogue Dawn (Metroid)

Here’s a completely new adventure that uses the engine found inside the original Metroid. It's hard to tell though, as it looks completely different. There’s new music, the graphics look sharper thanks to the all-black aesthetic, and you play the game as Samus without her suit. With that in mind, yes, this is supposed to be a prequel to Metroid before Samus got her awesome suit. Not sure how she can turn into a ball without it, but hey, it’s still great. Now the original game doesn’t hold up that well, but this game does make just enough changes to keep it more modern. Sure, it’s a lot harder and more basic than, say, Super Metroid, but as a fan prequel, it’s pretty good.

22 As Aventuras De Pikachu (BS Zelda)

Japan’s Super Famicom had an add-on called the Satellaview, which was a precursor to our modern digital services. One of the exclusive games on it was a 16-bit remake of The Legend of Zelda called BS Zelda, or Broadcast Satellaview Zelda. The game was meant to be played live with custom music and an announcer guiding players along sort of like a staged play. Suffice it to say BS Zelda and all of the other Satellaview games are hard to emulate, but hackers finally cracked the code for this one. So this version is a hack of a hack as it were, replacing the hero sprite with Pikachu and all of the monsters as familiar Pokémon. That was a rather long-winded explanation, but history is important in the land of emulation.

21 Shadows Of Gotham (Shadow Of The Ninja)

One of the more obscure games for the NES was Natsume’s Shadow of the Ninja. For me, I prefer it to Ninja Gaiden. It’s not as hard, for one, and I just like the general level design and power-ups more. Also, you can play this game co-op. Take that, Ninja Gaiden! That aside, this hack replaces the two playable characters of Hayate and Kaede with Batman and Robin. A pretty obvious switch as the two superheroes are pretty much ninjas anyways! Now, the enemy sprites have also been changed, but the layout of the game has stayed the same. It’s a simple sprite hack, but still pretty interesting for those craving another fantastic game starring the Dark Knight. Oh yes, and it still retains the co-op aspect.

20 Final Fantasy Epic (Gauntlet)

Gauntlet’s NES port isn’t exactly spectacular compared to the original arcade version, but gamers made do at the time. This hack takes those setbacks and improves upon them by making this NES version more iconic, or at the very least a little more special. It replaces the four sprites with Final Fantasy ones like the Black Mage. These sprites, along with the monsters and layouts, are taken from the first three NES games. It doesn’t change the gameplay up any, but it certainly looks more badass to play a dungeon crawler with Final Fantasy heroes even if they are generic classes. Yes, it would have been better with, say, an 8-bit version of Cloud, but as it is Final Fantasy Epic is a neat little romp.

19 Doki Doki Panic FDS Conversion

Another Japanese exclusive add-on on that’s challenging to emulate is the Famicom Disk System. One does not simply play a FDS game on an NES emulator. It’s become easier, yes, but still complicated. That’s why I included this conversion of Doki Doki Panic. What’s that? It’s the game our Super Mario Bros. 2 was derived from. The characters in Doki Doki Panic are based off of mascots from Fuji Television, so bringing the game over here in its pure form would have been confusing. That, and the real Super Mario Bros. 2 was deemed too hard for the West. Eventually, it was decided to convert Doki Doki Panic into Super Mario Bros. 2 and the rest is history. So this is the same game, but with different character sprites.

18 Big Trouble In Little China (Bad Dudes)

Of all the 80s action moves out there, I’m surprised Big Trouble in Little China was never made into a game. I mean, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure got two games for crying out loud! They’re both terrible, by the way. Point is, Big Trouble in Little China would make an excellent beat’em up. There’s nothing cooking right now, but you can experience a facsimile of what could have been with this hack of Bad Dudes on the NES. Your character sprite was remodeled to look more like Kurt Russell. I should say, it tried to look like him. It basically just added an enormous mullet to the hero. A little off-putting honestly, but it’ll have to do for now. I bet WayForward could make a killer game based off of this movie.

17 Freddy VS Jason (Friday the 13th)

Speaking of 80s movies that got turned into a video game. Friday the 13th is one bizarre NES title. Why the kids are fending off lake monsters and zombies is beyond me. I mean, I get rabid wolves in the forest, but why supernatural ghouls and ghosts? For the lore it doesn’t make sense, but most licensed based video games at the time didn’t. You know what does make sense? Replacing the kids with Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Got it, bitch? That’s more of a Scary Terry reference from Rick and Morty, but ah, it’s all the same. Anyway it’s a lot more fun to fight monsters as the nightmare master himself plus it calls back that fantastic cheesy crossover film from the early 2000s.

16 God Of Rygar (Rygar)

Rygar is also a fairly obscure NES game from Tecmo, although the series did try to reboot itself several times during the past two console generations. Anyway it’s based loosely on Greek mythology, like God of War, and you have an awesome shield that’s tethered to your arm by a chain. It’s almost like a more lethal yo-yo. So it’s only natural that a hack exists of this replacing the legendary hero with Kratos and the shield with his Blades of Chaos instead. Not much else changed, but it does make me interested in an actual retro God of War game. After all Kratos did look pretty awesome in the PlayStation versions of Shovel Knight. I’d pay top dollar for Yacht Club Games to make that in a heartbeat.

15 Castlevania: Call Of Chaos (Aria Of Sorrow)

You know, it’s weird that the Castlevania games haven’t let you played as Dracula. There are the Kid Dracula games wherein you’re Alucard as a child, which is close. Technically the reboot franchise of Lords of Shadow lets you play as Dracula, but it’s not quite the same as, say, the games in the original Konami timeline. Well, this hack rectifies that with one of the best Castlevania games around. It replaces Soma Cruz with Dracula himself. It’s about how Dracula lost his memory, powers, and why his castle is overrun with monsters set against him. So the story is different, but the weapons, skills, and map are all the same. Oh right, but you glide instead of walk, which is a brilliant alternative for this hack.

14 Fire Emblem: The Last Promise (Fire Emblem)

Fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advance was the West's first introduction to the series, even though it was actually the seventh mainline entry. That said, when you search for hacks most of them are for this. A lot involve balance fixes to the mechanics, but this one uses the assets in game to create a whole new campaign and story starring a wounded knight trying to gather his forces to rebel against an evil army. You know the drill. If you thought the original game was hard, well, you’re in for a rude awakening because this is even tougher. Since you have to play this emulated it’s a tad easier thanks to save states. Fire Emblem purists would scoff at the very notion though. Right?

13 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Anarchy (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance got a bad rap due to fan expectations. They weren’t happy with the lighter story, or the fact that it was now exclusive to a Nintendo portable either. The biggest complaint was about the Judges though. They implemented laws in battle that changed from mission to mission. For example, if there was a law against using potions and someone used one, well they would get fined. Get enough fines and that character would be sent to jail. Admittedly it was a needlessly complicated system, but I’m a huge defender of this game regardless. So if you were annoyed by these rules this hack, aptly entitled Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Anarchy, strips out the Judge’s laws. That's all it does, which is simple, but effective.

12 DuckTales 2 Two Player Hack

One of the biggest surprises I came across in The Disney Afternoon Collection was a lack of co-op. Two out of the six games included use it and those are both Rescue Rangers games. While fun, I wish they all had some sort of multiplayer mode added. Despite that, the collection is still fantastic. However, if you were disappointed like I was, fear not for there is a hack out there that adds a second player into DuckTales 2. Who becomes player number two? Darkwing Duck, of course. I'd love to see Scrooge and Darkwing team up in that new show, or better yet Kingdom Hearts III, which I previously dreamed about in another article. Just to be clear this hack is for the rom and not the collection.

11 The LJN Defender (Wolverine)

LJN was a rather infamous publisher back in the 8-Bit and 16-Bit era of consoles. They mostly put out licensed based games on movies, which were all mostly garbage. No wait, scratch that. They were all garbage. This hack of one of their “classic” games, Wolverine, is a parody within a parody. The LJN Defender is a popular YouTube personality that got his start by looking at LJN’s catalog. This hack warps him inside a video game that has crossed over sprites and levels from a bunch of LJN games. For example, you're fighting enemies from Friday the 13th and Beetlejuice. It’s a basic action platformer that controls fairly better than Wolverine itself, but it’s not perfect either. I appreciate the humor it was going for though.

10 Double Dragon Chuck Norris Edition

Before the Internet meme community existed, dumb jokes were passed around on the schoolyard. Most of them involved mom jokes, but then it graduated into Chuck Norris-isms. They weren't funny back in the early 2000s and it certainly isn't funny now. For me at least. I never understood the weird obsession with him. I watched Walker, Texas Ranger as a kid earnestly. I thought it was cool. Maybe I'm revealing too much about my sad childhood. Anyway, this simple hack replaces Billy and Jimmy with a sprite of Chuck Norris. No special moves, or anything. Kind of a lazy hack if you ask me, and definitely the worst entry on this list. Regardless, I included it because I know some out there would get a roundhouse kick out of it.

9 Moemon Emerald (Pokémon Emerald)

And now it's time for the creepiest mod on this list. Was Pokémon too drab for you? Were the monster designs lacking something? Wished you could literally capture little girls instead? Well now you can! This hack of Pokémon Emerald transforms all of the monsters into little girls cosplaying as the critters instead. Now as weird as this is to battle little girls against each other I will say the art is fantastic. Someone really went to town on this parody. At least I hope this is a parody and not some weird fetish thing. Oh wait, it probably is isn't it? Well, I'm probably already on some FBI watch list based on some of my more recent articles anyway. One more check isn’t going to kill me.

8 Dungeons Of Hyrule (Bomberman)

The only thing I like about Bomberman is that Nintendo 64 commercial back in the 90s, which basically just changes the lyrics to the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon theme. Still catchy no matter what version you listen to. Anyway admittedly he’s a cool character. He’s basically a ninja that throws nothing but bombs. What’s not to like? It’s just that I don’t like puzzle games. However, this hack made me appreciate Bomberman on some level at least. It replaces everything with The Legend of Zelda’s assets. It’s the exact same game only with Link and classic monsters trying to take you on. There was also a Final Fantasy themed hack I liked a bunch too, Chocobo's Dungeon World, but Dungeons of Hyrule is a bit better.

7 Hyper Rockman Jet Edition (Magical Doropie)

The iOS and Android markets are rampant with terrible bootlegs. It may seem like this started on phones, but it was even present back on the NES. There’s tons of bootlegs I want to discuss, but that’s for another time. Let’s instead look at a game that technically isn’t a bootleg, but is blatantly ripping off another game’s design. That game is The Krion Conquest, or Magical Doropie, as it was known in Japan. If you look at the sprites for the witch, enemies, and overall design of the game then yeah, it becomes obvious. It’s pretty bad. That said, some hacker just put Mega Man in here to sort of make the world right. Doesn’t make the game any better, but it at least looks better.

6 Metroid: Dark Alliance (Blaster Master)

Now this is a rather ingenious hack. Blaster Master had one of the more interesting gameplay mechanics at the time. Part of the game is a 2D sidescroller wherein players in are in a tank and other parts are sort of like a zoomed Zelda perspective. Pretty good game, but this complete overall makes it even better by replacing every asset with that of the original Metroid. It really looks like the game remade with the Blaster Master engine. Cool doesn’t even begin to describe how awesome this game is. If you’re a Metroid fan and need something else to tide you over until September rolls around, check this out along with Rogue Dawn. They’ll both take less than a day to complete. If you’re good that is.