Firstly, let's distinguish the difference between homebrew games and hacked games - a homebrew game is the programming of new content for an existing system, mostly using that persons own content and possibly assets from an original game on that particular system.
Homebrews are common on modern consoles i.e. programmers creating emulators to run on a PlayStation 3, Wii, and so forth, but people are still creating new content for the older systems such as the NES, and I personally find most to be very enjoyable, others simply ridiculous. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I'm here to discuss the good and bad of homebrew gaming. FEATURE1
As for a hacked game, this simply means the content within the code has been altered - these alterations can be as simple as changing a sprite in Super Mario Bros. or as diverse as completely changing the gameplay, level design, music, and even cut-scenes. In this post, I'll be looking through various homebrews and hacks to let you know what is actually worth playing and what is best left in a dark corner of the internet.
Worth Playing: Battlekid -
Fortress of Peril (NES Homebrew)
Download HERE
Battlekid - Fortress of Peril definitely reminds me of the earlier Mega Man games -
difficult, ridiculous enemies and a whole lot of fun.
Before starting, the game
allows you to choose from five difficulties, ranging from easy which gives the
privileges of infinite continues and the password feature, on the other
spectrum there's the unfair mode, which offers no help at all - no continues
and no passwords, this mode should only be played if you know the game
completely in and out, I do not so it was normal for me.
As soon as the game begins,
this great 8-bit music plays that get's you instantly pumped to play. When I
first played this, I died. A Lot . It seems
that every enemy or obstacle kills you within 1 hit, there is no health bar,
you have to rely on your memory to get around the patterns of enemies - a lot
of trial and error takes place, but it's actually extremely fun even if you do
find yourself constantly re-starting an area.
I get the impression Sivak
Games intentionally made this homebrew difficult, this could be a homage
to the retro days where video-games did actually require a lot of time and
effort to beat.
Avoid Playing: V.R. Fighter
vs. Taken 2 (MegaDrive/Genesis Homebrew)
Download HERE
On the other hand, we have
V.R. Fighter vs. Taken 2 - one of the strangest games I've ever played, this
homebrew pits Virtua Fighter and Tekken 2 together, but I imagine due to
copyright the game had to be called something different, which explains the strange
name of the game.
The music is actually good,
and so are the graphics - very impressive for the MegaDrive's hardware, but
don't let that fool you, they are the only good things about this game, which
proves once again if the gameplay isn't on par, graphics and other enhancement
mean nothing.
You are able to choose from 12
characters, including fan favourites Heiachi, Kazuya, Akira, and Wolf - you
essentially go through a number of stages like most fighting games, but its the gameplay itself that really lets the game down.
The whole thing feels laggy, each time you go to attack the opponent, its almost a gamble whether your hit will contact them or not as the detection is often very random, giving you an impression that this game is really not fun at all to play and unfairly difficult.
It's a real shame, this could have been one of the greatest homebrews to date, if more time was spent on the fighting itself instead of the visual aids, this game could have been really impressive.
There are plenty of homebrews out there waiting to be discovered, the majority are generally average in the sense they offer little to the gaming community, whilst others are complete gems, which could easily be mistaken for actual retail releases.
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