One of the buzziest games of the summer has been Sonic Mania, a fan-made love letter to retro Sonic games that recaptures the early magic of the series. But how does it rank among the very best video game fan mods and remakes? A little housekeeping before we begin: mods and remakes are two similar but separate concepts. A mod uses the existing assets of a game—or in some cases replaces them completely—to either alter the core experience or create an entirely new game. A remake is just that: an updated, refined version of an older game that doesn't stray quite as far as a mod would. Sometimes there's overlap, sometimes there isn't. The core concept that binds these projects, however, is that they were made by the fans. It won't come as a surprise that the ten games listed here are spun off from some of the greatest games ever made—mods and remakes are gargantuan undertakings, and only the best of the best can inspire fans to spend hundreds of hours remixing and remastering their favorites. This started as a simple top 10, but it quickly became clear that there was just too much to fit into one list. Fan projects, as it turns out, are responsible for some of the biggest successes and most revolutionary moments in modern gaming history. Context is critical for judging these candidates, so I decided to look at the big picture and split this countdown in two. Now, without further ado, let's get to part one of our list. HONORABLE MENTION: POKEMON GLAZED The Pokemon ROM hack world is one of the most active and prolific modding communities out there, and they deserve a shout-out. For the uninitiated, a "ROM" is a file that contains a copy of the data found on a game cartridge—and a "ROM hack" involves rewriting that file and adding on in order to create something new. The amount of Pokemon ROM hacks out there is staggering; seriously, just look at this. Some are straightforward, adding in new storylines, entirely new regions, and made-up Pokemon. And then there are the ones that change nothing except for turning all of the Pokemon into waifus (cringe). It's a crazy subsection of the Pokemon community, and you're guaranteed to find something memorable in each. However, Nintendo isn't exactly friendly when it comes to fan projects. Publisher support—or the lack thereof—is gonna be a common theme in this list, and this isn't the first time we'll be talking about Nintendo. Suffice to say, many of these projects are unfinished, or otherwise complete messes. Thankfully, a select few were able to fly under the radar until (near) completion, and a couple manage to stand out from the rest of the pack. Pokemon Glazed, a hack of Pokemon Emerald, gets the nod here for being one of the most finished and well-rounded of them all. There are two new regions to explore, Turod and Rankor, as well as a remastered version of Johto from Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Pokemon all the way up to Generation V are included, and five starters are available in lieu of the traditional three. Rounding out the package is a completely new story, updated graphics, and clever little additions like an item that allows you to understand Pokemon speech. It's an objectively good game and probably the best of the ROM hacks, but it just misses our list due to a lack of polish and minimal relevance compared to the others games here. 10. SONIC MANIA Sonic Mania is the perfect example of how a fan remake should be handled. The project was fronted by Christian Whitehead, a former Sonic Team employee that worked on porting the earlier 2D games in the series to newer consoles. As any fan of the franchise can tell you, those were the golden days for the blue hedgehog. The third dimension was not a friend to Sonic, and aside from scattered successes like Sonic Adventure 2, every 3D entry in the series has been a massive disappointment—or, in the case of Sonic '06, a catastrophic failure. Still, many stuck around for the long slog through the muck, kept afloat by the nostalgia and longing for an eventual return to form. It's this desire that caused Whitehead and indie developers PagodaWest and Headcannon to begin working on Mania, a remastered version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog that introduced additional playable characters, updated gameplay mechanics, and some brand-new levels to race through. When he showed it to Sega, they did the unthinkable: they threw the full weight of their support behind the project, publishing the game and giving it a full, heavily-marketed, multi-platform release. The game was a smash hit, topping the PC and Switch sales charts upon release, and generating the most positive reception for a Sonic game in over a decade. That's what you should do with your fans' passion project. The game itself is an absolute dream come true for OG Sonic fans. The gameplay is perfectly recreated, the new levels are pretty clever, and the pixel art graphics are to die for. It even goes the full mile, offering things like a CRT filter that gives you the look of playing on Genesis with one of those big, boxy, behemoth TVs from the 90s. It's impressive, but if you aren't a fan of the original Sonic titles—and there are some valid reasons—this won't win you over. The controls are still a little imprecise, and while dying doesn't send you back to the start of the goddamn game, it does kick you back to the beginning of the zone. I know diehards will say "git gud," but almost every level features some choice how-was-I-supposed-to-know-that-and-not-die-there moments. Still, Mania is a nostalgia trip for the ages, and a big victory for fan remakes. 9. BLACK MESA We can't go much further in this list without talking about Valve. Sega did a good thing with Mania, but Valve is the king of fan mods—especially since the company was built on one. In 1996, Valve founder and future Internet meme god Gabe Newell licensed the engine for a little FPS game called Quake and modded the hell out of it. Two years later, he materialized from absolutely nowhere and dropped Half-Life on an unsuspecting and unprepared gaming community. Half-Life is a sci-fi horror masterpiece, one of the most unique first-person shooters, and certainly one of the greatest games ever made. But just to top it off, Valve released their engine with an open-source developer kit and invited the public to make whatever they could think of. In one fell swoop, Valve basically created the modern modding movement. In 2004 Valve released the Source engine, the successor to the original engine Newell built, and to help spread the word they ported the original Half-Life to the new tech and called it Half-Life: Source. Aside from a couple minor tweaks and new physics, the game was a disappointment, with no gameplay changes and minimal graphical upgrades—it even kept most of the original, outdated assets. A small group of fans thought they could do better, and they set to work rebuilding the Half-Life from the ground up, calling their project Black Mesa: Source. So what did Valve do when the fans made clear their intentions to one-up them? Well, they politely asked them to drop Source from the title (it's cleaner), gave them their blessing, and eventually let the team publish on Steam, the official Valve distribution platform. After a long, tortured development period, the first half of Black Mesa was released in 2012. Half-Life is an all-timer, so it was basically a given that Black Mesa would be a good game. Still, the amount of care that went into this remake is incredible. Often times we remember games looking or playing better than they really did--Goldeneye for N64 is probably the best example of this (and funnily enough received its own Source upgrade). With the entire presentation remastered from the ground up, Black Mesa recaptures the feeling of awe and grandeur players felt when they first explored Half-Life's oppressive labs and enormous arenas. More than a decade after development started, the game still isn't quite finished, but Black Mesa deserves to be honored for giving a classic game and its loyal—almost cultish—followers what they deserve. (Hint: you'll hear the words Valve, Half-Life, and Source a few more times before we're done here.) 8. KAIZO MARIO WORLD In 2007, a Japanese modder named T. Takemoto made a ROM hack of Super Mario World. As the story goes, it was made as a challenge for his friend, who was pretty good at Mario games. However, just a quick look at some gameplay from Kaizo Mario World is enough to see that this mod was not made to be beaten by mere mortals. You'd think an impossible game like this would fade into obscurity, but the Internet frequently has other ideas. A video called "Asshole Mario" popped up on YouTube, and suddenly everyone knew about Kaizo Mario. While most laughed at the novelty and absurd cruelty on display, a few masochists decided that they were going to conquer it. But they weren't just gonna beat it—they were gonna do it as fast as possible. Welcome to the speedrunning community, everyone. While everyone else was busy watching Let's Play videos of Kaizo Mario, speedrunners got to work trying to make the game look easy. Eventually, the cream rose to the top, and a guy named dram55 started doing stuff like this: Needless to say, Kaizo Mario has become a staple of the speedrunning community, producing some of the most fast-paced, exciting, and memorable runs of all time. It has spawned several sequels, including Super Dram World, a remixed version named after the god dram55 himself. It's a fixture at Games Done Quick events, an iconic mod, and a crucial part of the movement that eventually inspired Nintendo to publish Super Mario Maker. Seeing is believing, and the only way to truly appreciate the magic of this sadistic mod is to watch it—or, if you're insane, play it—for yourself. 7. TEAM FORTRESS While Valve was busy making Half-Life in 1996, another group called TF Software was busy on their own Quake mod, a team-based shooter they called Team Fortress. It was a success, and Valve predictably took notice. They hired TF Software to port the game to their own engine, and after its release in 1999, Team Fortress Classic became one of the premier PC shooters. It was long ahead of its time, most notably introducing a class-based system, which brought the classic Tank-Healer-DPS trifecta to first person shooters for the first time. However, Team Fortress Classic stands the test of time not only on its own merits, but more importantly for what came after it. Valve immediately got to work on a sequel, and eight long years later they released Team Fortress 2. If the original was considered a hit, then TF2 was a certified phenomenon. Since 2007 it's had one of the most devout fan bases in modern gaming history, thanks in no small part to its high level of polish, colorful characters with big personalities, and going free-to-play in 2011. But the Team Fortress lineage doesn't end there. A few years back, some other obscure company called Blizzard decided they wanted to take a stab at the team- and objective-based FPS genre with their own cast of characters. That game is called Overwatch, one of the most successful video games of all time. And to quote Jeff Kaplan, the lead designer of Overwatch: "Team Fortress 2 is one of my favorite games." Now one of the fastest-growing eSports in the world, it owes its existence to the success of the original Team Fortress, and Valve's investment in its future. 6. SKYWIND The Elder Scrolls series has been around for a long time, and its most successful entry by far is the fifth, 2011's Skyrim. The first "modern" game in the franchise, though, was the third title, Morrowind. Its wide open world and fantastic setting were unmatched at the time, and they let players spend hundreds of hours exploring—and inspired hundreds of mods. Fan creations have been a core part of the Elder Scrolls experience on PC since, with the fourth title, Oblivion, and Skyrim all sporting immense libraries of mods. However, one project stands head and shoulders above the rest, a testament to the community's love for the Elder Scrolls and their willingness to spend thousands of man hours on improving it.
Skywind is part of the TESRenewal, a project dedicated to remaking both Morrowind and Oblivion in the Skyrim engine. These aren't just simple ports, either. Nearly 100 volunteers make up the TESRenewal, and with Bethesda's blessing they've spent the last near-decade developing new art, assets, music, and dialogue for these gigantic, open worlds. It's an astonishing labor of love, a task so immense that none of these games have been finished fully yet. Skywind gets a spot on this list because it's the most complete of the remasters, and truly something to behold. Morrowind has, to put it nicely, not aged well. It's clunky, the graphics are a mess, there is little explanation for the game's systems, and no-brainer features like quest markers are absent. Still, it was one of the first of its kind, and its successes laid the groundwork for Skyrim and the entire open-world genre. It deserves a definitive version and another moment in the sun, and the fans at TESRenewal have dedicated huge portions of their lives to making that a reality. It's hard to overstate just how much blood, sweat, and tears went into these projects, but when fans love something, they'll go to the ends of the Earth for it. Click here for part 2.
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