ROM hacks I'm playing this week
Remember when the internet was still new, and you could spend hours digging through random websites, stumbling on weird little corners full of esoteric info you couldn’t find anywhere else?
Lately, that’s what RomHacking.net has felt like for me. There are tons of mods and hacks that breathe new life into classic console games we’ve all played a million times. I’ve been on an absolute rampage—patching ROMs and loading them onto my Anbernic SP clone nonstop these past few weeks. Here are a few standouts I’ve been hooked on lately.
Disclaimer: everything linked here is just the patch file. You still need your own original ROM to play any of these.
Castlevania: Symphony of Dissonance
Symphony of the Night on PS1 is, hands down, top tier Castlevania. It’s considered by many to be the game that really kicked off the Metroidvania genre as we know it.
Aria of Sorrow is arguably the best of the three GBA titles. Circle of the Moon holds up well too, but Harmony of Dissonance usually gets the short end of the stick—mostly because of its oversaturated color palette and janky soundtrack.
But honestly it’s one of my favorites. It already feels like a GBA port of Symphony of the Night, and I think that’s exactly what Konami was going for. They just fumbled the execution; too much focus on graphics, not enough on audio.
Symphony of Dissonance bridges that gap. It’s a complete visual overhaul with upgraded music too.
Castlevania: Reaper’s Reckoning
This one’s more than just a visual tweak—you actually play as Death himself, on a quest to reclaim your powers after being trapped in Dracula’s castle.
Your starting weapon is a massive scythe, and it’s overpowered as hell. I’ve found like six different weapons so far, and they’re all less than half the strength of the scythe.
The graphics are refined in the same way as the Symphony of Dissonance hack, but the gameplay feels like an entirely new entry in the series. It’s incredibly well done.
It’s built on Aria of Sorrow, so I definitely recommend playing that first. Then patch it with this and dive in. You’ll notice early on that this one’s less punishing but just as engaging—you’re literally the god of death, trying to escape Dracula’s castle.
Pokémon: Ultra Violet
This isn’t just the most downloaded Pokémon hack of all time—it’s the most downloaded hack on RomHacking.net, period.
It’s a Fire Red mod that lets you catch every Pokémon in the game. No trading required; special evolutions and event Pokémon are all available in a single playthrough.
At the start, instead of picking a default starter from Professor Oak, he takes you down a secret passage into a safari zone where every Pokémon in the game can spawn. You’re given unlimited Safari Balls to catch your dream starter. But here’s the catch—you only get one shot, and you can never go back. So make it count!
Super Mario Land 2 DX
This one’s pretty straightforward—it turns Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins for the original Game Boy into a full-color GBC ROM.
If you’ve ever played the original (emulated or Switch Online even) you probably noticed it lags pretty bad in certain spots. That’s fixed too.
I played this game for the first time back in elementary school and had no idea the goopy stuff in the tree world was supposed to be tree sap. Seeing it in color finally made it click—only took me about 25 years.