For decades now, budding game developers have started their path by creating loving tributes to their favorite franchises, and as long as they’re notNintendofranchises, you’ll see plenty of fan games up and playable to this day.
There are tons of mods, ROM hacks, and full-on separate games all made by people who are certainly not the copyright holders, but make some awesome content regardless of that fact.
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Plenty of these games are rather amateurish, sure, butthere’s a good handful that you wouldn’t bat an eye at if the company that owns the franchise released, whether as a new title or DLC for an existing one.
All of these are free, fun experiences that stick with the core identity, values, and game design of the series they’re taking from, and make for unique experiences that are all well worth checking out.
10Terraria: Calamity Mod
Many of its content additions are wholly different from the base game ofTerraria, but it kinda feels like what the game would be nowadays if it were released as the 1.3 update.
Calamity takes Terraria’s awesome bosses, streamlines the progression, has one of the best soundtracks in any game ever, and essentially doubles the playtime of the game, exceeding it in popularity at times.
This may be one of the mostwell-known and iconic modsto ever exist, if not for DM DOKURO’s superb music, then for the boss fights that throw a million bullet hellish projectiles at you and remain fun to fight.
It’s essentiallya free, massive DLC expansion to Terraria, and it feels like the natural progression for the gameif they were to focus harder on the boss fights and not make you spend 8 years fishing for ice skates.
9Portal: Revolution
Cleaning Up
Valve has been incredibly kind to their fans, letting high-quality, expansive mods for their games live on Steam as free DLC, andPortal: Revolution is a great example, a full game made from a mod of Portal 2.
It’s not Portal 3, it feels more like Portal 2: Episode 2, if that makes sense.It has you revisiting many of the test chambers and ideas from 2, making you explore them in really unique, unconventional ways.
It does fall into a few of the same traps, namely a ton of loading, waiting for dialogue, and a weird obsession with backtracking, but the puzzle designs are so well-thought-through that it feels like Gaben approved it.
Every new asset fitsright into the vibe of Portal 2, and the voice acting is top-notch, feeling like the whole experience would make for a solid side episode of an already incredible game.
8Another Metroid 2 Remake
A Moment of Silence
Unfortunately, one of the best fan games ever made was met by the wrath of Nintendo’s legal team due to the universal praise it received on release, that being AnotherMetroid2 Remake.
It’s a full-on rework and reimagining of Metroid 2 in an environment that isn’t limited by the gray brick it was released on, overhauling everything to make it on par with Super Metroid, and even exceeding it in many ways.
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If this AM2R got dropped on the eShop one day as a $20 release, it’d feel completely worth it. It’s so clean, polished, and frankly, way better than the actualMetroid 2 remake Nintendo ended up droppingon the 3DS.
It’s still got a super-dedicated community,making mods and randomizersfor it to this day, and though you’d need to go through some means that aren’t necessarily above board to acquire it, it’s well worth doing.
WithTetrisbeing one of the most well-known franchises, especially with how simple but exceptional the game design is, you’d probably expect a web version of the game to be official, but Tetr.io is the only thing filling that space.
I’m a little ashamed to admit thatI’ve lost several hours that I could’ve been working because I decided to go on Tetr.io, because not only is it Tetris, but it’s adamn good version of Tetris.
It’s weirdly buttery smooth for a browser game, all the sound and visual effects don’t feel compromised in the slightest, and every time I boot it up I end up getting sucked into Zen mode and can’t escape it in a reasonable timeframe.
And, the best thing of all, if you want to play Tetris in multiplayer, this is the best way you can do it, since it’s essentially a fully complete version of the game for free. It’s wild that the Tetris Company has never tried to replicate this.
6Black Mesa
Straight from the Source
If you know anything about the originalHalf-Life, you know that the remake of the original, Half-Life Source, is a garbage video game no one should ever play, which is why Black Mesa is a great fan remake.
This is genuinely such a phenomenal game that Valve themselves approved the team selling it on Steam for $20, which is something that I don’t think I’ve ever seen happen with a purely fan made game before.
It’s not exactly designed to be a great way to onboard people who have never experienced the series before, though. Black Mesa is primarily a way to replay the original with new gameplay improvements and redone visuals.
That said, it’s a damn great game in its own right. It adds on enough fixes, polish, and reworks to Half-Life to make it feel like it isn’t a 27-year-old PC game, and that’s a Herculean task that deserves all the praise it gets.
5Pokémon Unbound
A Chaotic Concoction
Whether or not you’re nostalgic for GBA and DSPokémon, and regardless of your opinion of modern-day games, you simply must respect the love and effort poured into Pokémon Unbound to make it a lovely mix of both.
It combines the aesthetics, gameplay, and sounds of the classic handheld games, while adding in the character customization and Pokémon roster of the modern titles, all with an original story to keep things fresh.
While modern Pokémon games tend to make the frustrating mechanics a little more streamlined,Unbound takes everything a step further, implementing a great hunting system for catching whatever mon you want, and some trainers to help with EVs and IVs.
It feels like what peoplehave been begging GameFreakto do with the remakes, a pixel art representation of almost every modern Pokémon that feels just as clean and polished as the series used to be.
4Mega Man Maker
Gearing Up
Given that title,Mega ManMaker is likely the exact game you’d picture. It’sa Mario Maker-style fangame, but for Mega Man levels, bringing in most stage elements from across the series for one level builder.
Every mainline Mega Man game gets some time to shine with this game, even ones like 8 or 11 that are in drastically different styles, with their content lovingly ported and remade to a simpler style.
Even if you’re just one of the few million Mega Man fans that got completely left out to dry by Capcomafter Mega Man 11’s success, this game provides and endless number of fanmade levels to run and gun through.
While, like its main inspiration, there is an overwhelming number of auto levels or painfully difficult troll levels, it’s not hard to find some real gems, and plenty of them feel like they’re from an official title.
3Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16-bit
3 and Knuckles, Metal, and Fang
It was incredibly difficult for me to choose a singleSonicfangame for this list, not because of a lack of selection, butbecause all of them are incredible. That said, I decided on Triple Trouble 16-bit.
It takes the original Triple Trouble that was locked in 8-bit form on a handheld that guzzled batteries like no other, and completely remakes every level from the ground up with similar gimmicks and theming.
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The swap mechanic fromSonic Mania’sEncore mode feels like it finally gets used to its full potential,the Genesis-inspired visuals are incredibly well done, and you can play as every character in the story, instead of just Sonic.
This game feels like such a passionate fan work that it rivals Sonic Mania at times, and if that game can be an official title sold for $20 on digital storefronts, I see no reason why Triple Trouble 16-bit couldn’t be.
2Celeste: Strawberry Jam
Massive Level Pack
Unfortunately,Celesteonly ever got one level as DLC, but the Strawberry Jam mod completely takes over the game with a huge collection of high-quality fanmade levels, and an awesome hub world connecting them all.
These level ideas rangefrom stuff you’d expect to see in a platformer, like bouncy cereal blocks or blocks that swap the environment, to a level that makes you wear a blindfold and have a friend or two guide you.
The levels only get more creative, challenging, and rewarding as the mod goes on, with 116 new maps to go through, all of which feel on a similar level of quality as the original game, even in difficulty.
It feels like everymod developer involved got the assignment, making levels that teach you the mechanics and test you on them until you feel like you’ve mastered them, making for something I wish was official DLC.
1Undertale Yellow
The Highest Quality
WhileUndertalewas a mostly complete story,it left a lot of gapsfor the fanbase to try and fill in, and Undertale Yellow is one of the prime examples, a full fangame made based on the yellow soul you barely see in Undertale.
It’sa prequel to Undertale with one of the best stories where you already know what’s going to happen due to your prior context. It’s tragic, but takes time to be as silly and high-energy as the original.
The attack patterns get slightly more challenging than the original, but its nothing you can’t handle if you’ve beaten Undertale, and the music is so incredibly good that Materia Collective’s CEO got pissy about it.
I’ve never seen a fangame get treated like its official media by the fanbase until Undertale Yellow’s release, and given Toby Fox’s vague endorsement of it, it feels like this game should just get an official release sometime.
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