Not all great games are made by the game company, and these fan games are better in both style and quality than the games they are based on.
Fan games used to be something from the far future, but now you can find them everywhere. It can’t be denied that game makers don’t always know what to do with their properties. Because this happens a lot in the business, many fans have turned to game-making software with a basic understanding of the games they love.
Then, they make their own events and add their own ideas about what the game should be like. Most of the time, you’ll find titles that don’t do much to impress, but sometimes you’ll find amazing works of art. In fact, many of these great fan games are a real challenge to the games they are based on.
Residentvania
There have been a lot of amazing remakes of Resident Evil that bring the gameplay and graphics up to date. But there is also Residentvania, which was made by fans and takes the style in a totally different but good direction. It’s a short adventure that was inspired by Castlevania and Resident Evil Village. It tells the story of Ethan’s arrival at Castle Dimitrescu.
The art assets and user interface turn the gothic setting and mood of Resident Evil into a standard Castlevania style. You can see The Duke still sitting in his merchant cart as you learn how to control the game before you go into the house. The enemies are pixelated versions of the ones you’d see in Alcina Dimitrescu’s simple home, and she even makes an appearance.
Rayman Redemption
Rayman, who has hair that looks like a chopper and can fly, is a big name in the world of platform games, just like Mario and Sonic. In Rayman Redemption, he got some new levels and worlds. This fan game is better in every way than the original Ubisoft game, which came out in 1995 for Atari and PS1. This includes the sound, the level design, and the art in the surroundings.
You’ll go back to places you’ve been before, like The Dream Forest and Candy Chateau. You can also now visit Band Land, which has more creative sound design. Platforms are made of new musical instruments like pianos, and Rayman’s fist of rage will be happy to hit trumpet enemies and the returning Mr. Sax.
Love Is Strange
When your Life is Strange, it can be hard to find love. This fan game takes Don’t Nod’s story about a lost student in Arcadia Bay and turns it into a visual novel dating sim that is just as good. At Blackwell Academy, Max Caulfield is still at the center, but she cares more about photography and finding love than about solving riddles.
It’s a cozier game with less supernatural tension and great stories that focus on LGBTQ+ interactions. The 2D models of the well-known figures are true to their original designs and work really well in this new visual novel version. Max can make decisions here about how he wants to get to know Chloe, Victoria, Rachel, or Kate.
Castlevania: Simon’s Destiny
For Castlevania fans, a full reimagining of the Konami classic from a first-person perspective in the style of GZDoom is the coolest thing that could happen. Simon’s Destiny is a fan-made game that brings back the standard gameplay of the first NES Castlevania game. It has retro environments, sprites, and gameplay like Doom.
It has never felt more immersive to throw Simon Belmont’s trusty whip at the memorable candelabras to get some health back or at the famously scary monsters. This version is also much scarier than the original game, which came out in 1986.
MiniDoom 2
While Doom Eternal’s FPS levels have more platforming, MiniDoom 2, which is an update to the original fan-made MiniDoom, is a tribute to the series that only has platforming and is played from a third-person perspective. MiniDoom 2 brings Doom to life in a whole new and exciting way. It keeps the familiar forms of the Doom Slayer and the aliens, but makes them smaller.
It’s hard to believe this is a fan game and not a spin-off from Bethesda and id Software. Everything about the game is just right: the music, the mood, the enemies, and even the chainsaw and weapon wheel. Even though it has a platformer system, it still has the intense, fast-paced movement of crowds.
Pokemon Uranium
Even though there are still a lot of new and old fans who pre-order the next game, many people no longer find the Pokemon series interesting. Some of these problems come from the fact that the same thing keeps happening over and over again.
Then enter Pokemon Uranium. At its heart, it keeps many of the usual parts, but it turns a lot of the series’ tropes on their heads. It goes out of its way to explain a lot of things, like why the main character doesn’t seem to have a father, and it makes a real story that you can care about. There are also completely new Pokemon to catch, as well as new versions of Pokemon that already existed.
Sonic Utopia
These days, Sonic games are hit or miss. You can get a great game like Sonic Mania one year and Sonic and the Black Knight the next. In general, the 2D Sonic games have been pretty good. The 3D Sonic games, on the other hand, have had a lot of problems. Even the popular Sonic Adventure games have some problems.
So, Sonic Utopia comes into play. Even though this game is still a demo with a short length, it does a great job of making the 2D gameplay work in a 3D area. It looks and feels like a classic Sega game. It has branching lines that take you back to the Genesis era, and it feels just like it should.
Donkey Kong Country 4: The Kongs Return
Donkey Kong Country is part of one of the best series of platform games ever made. Period. Rare didn’t make any more Donkey Kong Country games after Donkey Kong Country 3, though. The company was later bought by Microsoft. But people still loved the games a lot, which led to a lot of fan games being made.
Donkey Kong Country 4: The Kongs Return is the best of the bunch.This game is more of a tribute to the original series than a continuation of it, but it’s still amazing. The game looks and feels like the Country games, but it uses gameplay elements and characters from all three games. It’s the best way to show what made that series so good to begin with.
Mushroom Kingdom Fusion
What do you get when you put all of the characters from Super Smash Bros. into a Super Mario Bros. game? Mushroom Kingdom Fusion is what you get, of course. This fan game is a classic 2D platformer, but it throws in bits and pieces of almost every old game it can find along the way. This means that well-known game characters show up on every level.
As you play, you will be able to use more characters and go to different game worlds. At some point, you can even hold guns, which you will use to fight the Halo series’ Flood. The game as a whole is a bit darker than most Mario games, but it’s still a lot of fun and has some great fusion.
Organ Trail
The game Oregon Trail is not easy. Most likely, everyone in your group will die of dysentery before you get where you’re going. Some fans have noticed and chosen to make their own version of the game. Even though Organ Trail isn’t much easier, it has a lot more charm and some interesting design choices.
In the fan game, zombies that eat people are added to the mix. Almost everyone in the station wagon could get sick if one of your people gets bit by one. It’s a strange mix that takes a standard game and gives it an interesting infected twist that makes it worth playing again.
GoldenEye: Source
People often say that GoldenEye 007 is one of the best N64 games for playing with more than one person. Its shooting action kept the game going for hours, and it’s still a popular choice at parties all over the world. But the gear has been old for a long time, and the game is just too old compared to other shooters made today.
Don’t worry, though, because you have a choice. GoldenEye was made by people with great ideas: Source. This game is an exact copy of GoldenEye 007, but it uses the amazing Source engine from Valve. GoldenEye: Source is one of the best fan games ever made because of how well Source games hold up. You can play it for weeks, just like you could on the N64.
Black Mesa
Half-Life is one of the best games that Valve has made, and it was made before the Source engine was finished. Valve thought it was time to make a few changes to their first game after Half-Life 2 came out. They moved the original Half-Life to Source, but it wasn’t much of an improvement. As you might expect, some fans did something.
Black Mesa is the name of the fan project, and it is a full remake of the original Half-Life in the Source engine. This remake turned out to be great, and Valve paid attention to it (and didn’t shut it down). You get to play as Gordon Freeman again, and this time there are some beautiful new settings and multiplayer maps.
Edain Mod
Back when you had to buy games on a disc, most of them were either simulators or real-time plans. Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth was one of the best real-time strategy games on the market. Since that series hasn’t been going on since the Rise of the Witch-King expansion, some of the best LOTR fans have agreed that it should.
The Edain Mod that came out of this takes a great game and almost makes it perfect. Not only does it improve the way Penalty Kick Online game works, but it also adds story elements from The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion, which are all movies and books by Tolkien. The Ring now has a much more useful purpose, and the siege-style gameplay is back to make it feel more like a magical world.
AM2R
The letters AM2R mean “Another Metroid 2 Remake.” This game is a remake by a fan of Metroid 2 for the Game Boy. It uses parts from games for the Game Boy Advance. But because the original handheld version of the game was very simple and only in black and white, many locations, enemies, and their AI had to be updated and reworked from the ground up.
The end product was more colorful and eye-catching, with maps and new places added. This case is interesting because in 2017, Nintendo released a version of the 1991 Game Boy game Metroid called Samus Returns for the 3DS. AMR2 is still easy to play, and new updates are still being added.
