NES/ROM Hacks

NES

Famicom

Famicom Disk System

ROM Hacks

In this section, we recommend ROM Hacks that we consider worth checking out.

Links to the patches -and NOT to patched ROMs- should be provided in the description whenever possible.

How to play

You will need ROMs of the original games. Sometimes you need a specific version of the said ROM but it's usually told in the readme file. For example you may need to use "awesomegame (U).nes" while it may not work with "awesomegame (U) [b1].nes".

You will also need a ROM patcher such as Lunar IPS.

Of course, you will need the patches that turn the original ROMs into the hacked ones. Links should be provided in the descriptions. Most of them should be avalaible at www.romhacking.net

Finally, run the patched ROMs in your emulator of choice (or put them on your expensive Powerpak to play them on a real console, but that's only if you're a rich bastard). If nothing happens, or if something odd happens, then you probably applied the patch on a wrong version of the ROM of the game.

The ROM Hack List

Game	Title	Genre	Description	Link	Screenshot
Adventure Island 3	Adventure Island 3: The Lost Isles	Platformer	All 8 worlds and 8 levels each have been altered. (with the exception of world 4-4 although most enemies have been changed.)	Link
Adventures of Lolo	Challenging Lolo	Puzzle	You've beat Lolo 1,2 and 3 and you're still asking for more ? .... REALLY ?! Well, your wish has been fullfilled. 50 new levels. It gets really hard.	Link
Adventures of Lolo	The Quest of Lala	Puzzle	This is a level and sprite hack of The Adventures of Lolo for the NES. Based on the PC game “Eggerland: Episode 0 - Quest of Lala”. This hack replaces Lolo with Princess Lala as the player with her own adventures and new levels. (Note: Presumably (?) all 32 levels from Quest of Lala are represented, but since there's 50 levels in Lolo 3, the remaining 18 are filled by unreleased "kopio" levels. Also, some rooms are improvised to suit the games limitations, e.g. no Mirror blocks and no Enemy teleportation bug; Kopio rooms are made fair.)	Link
Adventures of Lolo 2	Challenging Lolo 2	Puzzle	If you've beat the 3 original games and the first hack, and are still begging for more, try this one. 54 new levels. Like the first one, it's HARD.	Link
Castlevania	Castlevania: Blood Moon	Platformer	A hack which changes all the levels, and also gives some good looking art (especially for the monsters). It gets rather difficult past some point.	Link
Castlevania	Castlevania: The Holy Relics	Platformer	An all new Castlevania adventure with New stages, graphics, items, enemies, music and gameplay for Castlevania fans to enjoy. Select from 5 exciting stages before reaching the final showdown with Lord Ghulash, an evil necromancer terrorizing Transylvania in the wake of Dracula’s defeat.	Link
Dragon Warrior	Dragon Quest: Delocalized	RPG	Dragon Quest: Delocalized is a project aimed at giving English speakers the opportunity to play the first Dragon Quest game in a form that looks and reads like the Japanese Famicom version, while still retaining key improvements from the North American release. I recommend applying the included NA gfx patch because IMO those sprites are much better than the original Japanese and also apply this patch to make the game less grindy.	Link
Final Fantasy	Final Fantasy ++	RPG	Final Fantasy ++ is a “re-imagining” of the very first Final Fantasy game. Pretty much EVERYTHING has been redone, EVERYTHING! Graphics, monsters, equipment, spells, maps, towns, class system and there are even some new dungeons. .	Link
Final Fantasy	Final Fantasy ++ World of Chaos	RPG	This is an expansion pack for final fantasy ++. It includes adaptations of various dungeons from FFs 3, 4, 5, & 6, SaGa 2, Dragon Quest 5 along with a couple of new ones. It is is quite harder to beat than FF++ !!!	Link
Kid Icarus	Kid Icarus: Retold	Platformer	This hack has new palettes and graphics ported from the GB version of Kid Icarus, and the very high difficulty of the original game has been lowered.	Link
Mega Man	Mega Man Remastered	Platformer	This is the ultimate Mega Man enhancement patch! Those pointless score balls are removed, you can now save and load your progress, and the select button toggles between obtained weapons.	Link
Mega Man	Mega Man Simplified	Platformer	You think Mega Man is too hard? This hack is for you! Mostly the same game, but with damage ratios skewed against enemies, stage hazards lowered and/or having a way to (mostly) avoid them, and more in-stage items. There's also no knockback from enemies, even in mid-air. Mega now has a higher maximum jump, but with the normal and hop jumps still possible. The cherry on top is that the Magnet Beam can be gotten without Gutsman's Super Arm. Sadly, Mega's invuln frames STILL don't protect him against spikes. The rapid-Select Button trick also still works (and wrecks everything even harder than before) Note: There's also similar hacks for MMs 2, 3, and 4, but the first MM game benefits the most from this treatment.	Link
Mega Man II	Rockman No Constancy	Platformer	A Rockman hack with the typical somewhat bumped up difficulty. However, MANY elements of the game were changed. New graphics, altered bosses and weapons, and all new levels. Most of all, THE SOUNDTRACK, which features many songs from other games and series.	Link
Mega Man III	Rockman 3: Burst Chaser	Platformer	A Rockman hack that changes everything in the game: enemy and boss IA, color palettes, level design, weapons, music, and gameplay. The most notable change of this hack is that Megaman moves and shoots a lot faster!	Link
Mega Man IV	Mega Man IV: Gadget Master	Platformer	The layout of all the stages were changed to give a whole new MMIV. A lot palette colors were changed, but there are no new graphics except at the end, no new bosses and no new weapons. This is exactly why I love this hack: as a consequence it feels new and classic at the same time and it focuses on level design instead of on useless fancy tricks. It was made by Schwa who also made Chaos Control for SMB3.	Link
Mega Man IV	Rockman 4: Minus Infinity	Platformer	If you want to play ONE Mega Man hack, play this one. The most technically impressive Mega Man hack. New weapons, new items, new bosses and enemies behaviour, and even an automatic save system. All the levels and musics were changed. Great level design, challenging while remaining fair. The only problem I had with it was the final bosses (I recommend to save ALL your E-tanks for them) One of the best Mega Man hacks, a must play, you'll be surprised how good it is.	Link
Mega Man IV	Mega Man: Maverick Revenge	Platformer	Changes some levels but not all of them (because it freezes against a boss in the Wily stages and the game "ends" there) Some art was changed, replaced by art from other NES Mega Man games. Not as good as Gadget Master but still worth at least a play through.	Link
Mega Man V	Rockman 5: Endless	Platformer	Like the Endless mode in Mega Man 9, except in Mega Man 5. It mixes already existing rooms with new ones. Some new rooms are unfair (especially those with the lasers) but most of them have a very good design. Requires a ROM of Rockman V and will not work with an US or PAL version.	Link
Metroid	Metroid + Saving	Platformer	It's good old Metroid, but now with saving instead of annoying passwords. Also, an in-game map!	Link
Rush'n Attack	Rush’n Attack G	Platformer	All the levels were changed. Rather difficult.	Link
Super Mario Bros	Extra Mario Bros	Platformer	Mario meets Super Metroid. It's as good as it sounds. The look adds pseudo SNES-sprites and the soundtrack is cool too. Just remember that it runs on SMB1 physics, so jumping and bouncing work kind of weird here.	Link
Super Mario Bros 2	Legend Of The Blob Bros 2	Platformer	This hack offers completely new levels, a new story and a lotof new graphics. It succeeds in offering new cool stuffs (the new sprites for characters and monsters are some of the bests I've seen in Hacks of NES games) while having a smart level design taking into consideration all the things that make the gameplay of SMB2 unique. It's more difficult than the original game at least in the sense that the number of coins is more limited.	Link
Super Mario Bros 3	Chaos Control	Platformer	This one is my favourite SMB3 hack. Like many others it replaces all the levels by new ones, but this one succeeds in retaining a classic feel, a classic level design, while being just challenging enough and while never being unfair. As a consequence, it sure is more difficult than the original game, but it's never too fancy and it's just how it should be: it feels like rediscovering SMB3 again and the replay value is high. It was made by Schwa who also made Gadget Master for Mega Man IV.	Link
Super Mario Bros 3	Mario Adventure	Platformer	Considered to be one of the bests hack of SMB3. All the levels were changed. You can even choose in which world you want to go. A lot of new features, such as a random weather.	Link
Super Mario Bros 3	Super Mario Ultimate	Platformer	This is one of the all time best SMB3 hacks. It features 8 new worlds, over 90 new levels, new graphics, new enemies, save game, difficulty selection, item slot, etc.	Link
Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back	Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back: Easy	Platformer	This hack tones down the difficulty and improves the controls. The first level isn’t slippery anymore, cold water doesn’t kill Tauntaun instantly, Luke can be moved left or right while falling down, and some enemies and bosses have less power and less hitpoints.	Link
Super Pitfall	Super Pitfall: 30th Anniversary Edition	Platformer	Super Pitfall (a loose remake of Pitfall II for the Atari 2600) has a terrible reputation as one of the worst NES games ever. But this ambitious hack turns things around with completely redone graphics and music, and vastly tweaked gameplay.	Link
Swamp Thing	Swamp Thing: Easy	Platformer	Swamp thing is one of the worst games on the NES because of its insane difficulty. This hack makes the gameplay much more forgiving and enjoyable.	Link
Wolverine	Wolverine: Easy Version	Platformer	While not a bad game (and that's saying a lot for an LJN game), Wolverine is just too damn hard to be much fun. This hack fixes just one little detail that happens to be its biggest problem: the lack of recovery time.	Link
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link	Zelda II Redux	Action RPG	This is a major improvement hack for Zelda II that adds loads of new features and improves the difficulty! See the hack page for all of the changes.	Link
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link	Zelda II - Amida's Curse	Action RPG	Zelda II – Amida’s Curse is a brand new Zelda II adventure. The game has been build up from the ground. With a new world, new graphics and an original soundtrack by bentglasstube. The focus of Amida’s Curse lies on exploration above combat. Gameplay has been altered to make this, above all, a fun gaming experience. So, difficulty is lower than the original Zelda II, there are no cheap deaths and grinding isn’t necessary.	Link