The best Pokémon ROM hacks in 2026, ranked by who they are for

If you’ve never played a ROM hack, start with Unbound. If you want something else, find your goal in the table and go straight to that entry.

I’ve finished Unbound and SoulGold, and I’m partway through Gaia and Lazarus. The rest I haven’t played, and I’ll say so on each one. If you need help getting a hack running, read how to play a Pokémon ROM hack first.

Pick by what you want

You want	Play	Base
A brand-new region with modern mechanics	Unbound	FireRed (GBA)
Johto with every Mega Evolution and Pokémon from all generations	SoulGold	Emerald (GBA)
To be punished	Radical Red, Run & Bun, or Emerald Kaizo	FireRed / Emerald (GBA)
A roguelike you can finish in an evening	Emerald Rogue	Emerald (GBA)
Fusing any two Pokémon together	Infinite Fusion	PC fan game
A faithful Johto remake	Heart & Soul, or Liquid Crystal	Emerald / FireRed (GBA)
Gen 5 with every Pokémon and real difficulty	Blaze Black 2 Redux / Volt White 2 Redux	Black 2 / White 2 (DS)
Platinum, fixed	Renegade Platinum	Platinum (DS)
Gen 2 on original hardware, modernised	Polished Crystal	Crystal (GBC)

How I ranked them

Finished hacks beat ambitious ones stuck in beta. After that, I asked how well each hack does the one thing it’s for, then how polished it is. Each heading tells you whether I finished it, I’m playing it, or I haven’t played it. I rewrote this order more times than I’d like, and Unbound never moved.

The ranked list

1. Pokémon Unbound (finished)

Play this first. It’s the closest thing to a full new Pokémon game you’ll find on the GBA.

Skeli built it on FireRed. You get Borrius, a new region with 80-plus missions, DexNav, daily raids, character customisation, and Mega Evolution, Z-Moves and Dynamax in battle. The roster is Gen 1 to 7, and Gen 8 shows up through special encounters once you register a Galar Pokémon.

There are four difficulty modes, Vanilla to Insane, with level caps from Difficult up. Insane is built around unfair challenges. It won Hack of the Year in 2019 for graphics, gameplay and fan favourite, and it stays that good all the way to the end.

The postgame sits at 90 percent, with Cube Corp.’s interior missing. The last patch, 2.1.1.1, came out in November 2022. Don’t wait for more updates, it’s done, and I’d start it tonight.

2. Pokémon SoulGold (finished)

Play this if you love Johto and want every modern ‘mon and Megas without leaving the GBA.

It’s built on Emerald with pokeemerald-expansion, using Heart & Soul’s Johto. There’s no Kanto. Instead Johto gets bigger, with new routes, a desert, a pyramid, new mountains and sea areas.

You get 702 dex entries and 118 Mega Evolutions with type-generic Mega Stones, plus new Megas for Typhlosion, Meowscarada and Primarina. Boss legendaries have multiple health bars. There are 121 trophies, Title Defense, level caps per badge, optional level scaling, and Normal or Hard.

I beat v1.2.x including the postgame, and my full review is here. It’s young (first beta July 2026, v1.2.1 on October 21, 2026) and patches land often. Saves only carry forward, and it refuses to run on emulators the author doesn’t support. I still think about the first time a boss legendary dropped a health bar and kept going.

3. Pokémon Radical Red (not played)

This is the challenge hack everyone measures against. If you’ve beaten a few normal hacks and want a real fight, play it.

It’s Kanto on FireRed (CFRU and DPE engine) with Pokémon up to Gen 9 and the DLC, Megas (17 of them custom), Z-Moves, Dynamax raids and DexNav. v4.1 (March 2024) added an optional Hardcore Mode with harder bosses and move restrictions. There’s also a Minimal Grinding Mode with perfect IVs and no EVs.

If you play competitive, there’s a Pokémon Showdown format with Radical Red’s balance changes. It’s still labelled beta, and it won’t run on Eclipse, PizzaBoy or Twilight Menu. Use cheats and nobody will take your bug report. It’s the next hack on my list, and I’ve been putting it off out of pure respect.

4. Pokémon Heart & Soul (not played)

This is HGSS on a GBA, done straight. Play it if you just want Johto the way you remember it.

It’s a full Johto remake on Emerald with the whole Kanto postgame, Kimono Girls and Eusine included. Version 2.0 (August 2026) moved everything to pokeemerald-expansion. 2.0.2 is current, and the team says 2.0 is the last major update.

You get following Pokémon, day and night encounters, HGSS music, 16 gym rematches and Voltorb Flip. The roster is Gen 1 to 3 plus later evolutions, minus the Regis. It’s open source, and SoulGold is built on it.

Don’t expect a challenge. There’s no Mega Evolution, and saves from before 2.0 won’t carry over.

5. Pokémon Emerald Rogue (not played)

Play this if you’ve only got an evening. Nothing else plays like it.

Pokabbie turned Hoenn into a roguelike on the Emerald decomp. Routes and gyms get built at random, trainers get tougher as you go, and a full run takes about 3 to 4 hours. Between runs, a hub holds your permanent upgrades, and a Safari lets you reuse old Pokémon.

The REST system saves without letting you save-scum. There are two builds, Vanilla and EX. EX runs on pokeemerald-expansion with the physical/special split and Fairy type. It also has Megas once you hold the Mega Ring, and Z-Moves, Dynamax and Tera each sit behind their own key item. Vanilla has none of them.

Saves have corrupted moving between major versions (1.3.2a to 2.0.1a). Treat every major update as a fresh start. A whole run in one evening is exactly the kind of thing I keep saving for a rainy weekend.

6. Pokémon Blaze Black 2 Redux / Volt White 2 Redux (not played)

If Black 2 and White 2 are your favourites, this is your excuse to replay them with real resistance.

Drayano60 and AphexCubed remade the original Blaze Black 2 in 2022. All 649 Gen 1 to 5 Pokémon are catchable, every trainer is redone, and the Hoenn gym leaders show up as bonus bosses. Easy, Normal and Challenge are picked in-game.

Want just the trainer changes? The Classic patch leaves the Pokémon data alone. The level caps are only suggestions, so you have to police your own levels.

7. Pokémon Renegade Platinum (not played)

Play this for Sinnoh without the slog.

Drayano’s Renegade Platinum (v1.3.0, April 2019) makes all 493 Pokémon catchable, removes trade evolutions, reworks wild encounters and toughens every boss. You finish on Cynthia, then Arceus as the true final boss. Classic and Complete patches split trainer changes from Pokémon changes, and it’s popular enough to have spin-offs like Following Renegade Platinum.

There are two US Platinum dumps, “3541” and “4997”, and each needs its own patch. Mixing them up is the number one reason it won’t boot.

8. Pokémon Infinite Fusion (not played)

Play this for the fusion gimmick. It’s a PC fan game, not a ROM hack, so you install it on Windows.

Any two Pokémon can fuse, and there are 150,000-plus custom sprites for the combos. It covers all of Kanto, a Johto postgame and the Sevii Islands across 16 badges, with 40-plus sidequests and Classic, Modern and Randomized modes. Version 6.0 has 501 Pokémon including forms, or 251,001 combinations.

Fusions average their stats, so it plays pretty casual. None of the emulator or flashcart advice applies, and the install is over 1 GB.

9. Pokémon Polished Crystal (not played)

Want modern mechanics on a real Game Boy Color? This is the one.

Rangi42 built it from the pokecrystal disassembly. It left beta with 3.0.0 in February 2025 and is on 3.2.3 (December 2025). You get the physical/special split, Fairy type, natures, abilities, reusable TMs, a Battle Tower and Factory, bigger Kanto areas like Cinnabar Volcano, and 391 Pokémon counting forms.

Set battle style is on by default and badge boosts are gone, so it’s a firm vanilla-plus. Purists can grab the “Faithful” build. There’s no Mega Evolution, and the repo had 132 open issues when I looked.

10. Pokémon Sacred Gold / Storm Silver (not played)

Play this if you want HGSS itself, only harder, with all of Gen 4. It’s still the Drayano take on Johto.

Drayano released the pair in 2012 for US HeartGold and SoulSilver. All 493 Pokémon are catchable, almost all of them before your first Elite Four run. Gym leaders and the Elite Four get six Pokémon each, and trade evolutions use items. Complete and Classic patches split the Pokémon edits from the trainer edits.

It hasn’t been touched since v1.05 in June 2012. No Fairy type unless you use an unofficial 1.1 mod, and you need the American version of the game.

11. Pokémon Inclement Emerald (not played)

Play this for Hoenn with teeth, plus the tools to make it fair.

Buffel Saft built it on the pokeemerald decomp, Drayano style. Most non-legendary Pokémon from Gen 1 to 7 are in, with Mega Evolution and custom Megas for Milotic and Flygon. There’s Normal, Hard and Challenge, level caps since v1.3, daily gym and Elite Four rematches, EV and IV NPCs, and a hybrid HM system. The current version is 1.13.

If you want something weirder, the spin-off Elite Redux gives every Pokémon up to three switchable abilities. In Inclement, the Battle Frontier and Trainer Hill are locked off, 1.0 saves don’t work in 2.0 and later, and vanilla cheats break it.

12. Pokémon Lazarus (playing now)

Play this for the art. It’s a new region with a look you won’t find anywhere else.

Nemo622, who made Emerald Seaglass, released Lazarus on Emerald in November 2025 and pushed v2.0 in early 2026. It’s set in Ilios, an Ancient Greece region. Over 400 Pokémon are drawn in Game Boy Color style, with “Mythic” forms like Gryphon Arcanine and custom Megas (v2.0 added six more).

You get temple dungeons, 60-plus sidequests, and level caps you can switch off in 2.0. I’m partway through, so no verdict yet, but I keep stopping just to stare at the sprites. There’s no public thread, and the BPS patch comes through the creator’s shop.

13. Pokémon Gaia (playing now)

Play this if you want something that feels like an official game: a new region with no gimmicks.

Spherical Ice built it on FireRed. It’s set in Orbtus with a picked roster from Gen 1 to 6, Mega Evolution with stones hidden around the map, the physical/special split, Fairy type, Hidden Grottoes and Secret Temples. Eight gyms, a full story, an Elite Four.

Beta 3.2 (November 2018) is the last release. There’s no postgame, v4 never shipped, and saves from 2.5 or earlier won’t load on 3.x. I’m mid-run and will write it up when I’m done.

14. Pokémon Run & Bun (not played)

Only play this if you’ve beaten Radical Red and you keep a damage calc open. Run & Bun is the one my friends dare each other to beat.

dekzeh’s Run & Bun is Hoenn on Emerald, inspired by Emerald Kaizo and Radical Red. New routes and almost 500 custom battles with teams that actually synergise. EVs are gone, an NPC sets your IVs, natures and moves, and the Endless Candy levels you up to the cap, so every bit of effort goes into the fights.

Its ancestor, SinisterHoodedFigure’s Emerald Kaizo (2017), is even worse. No items in battle, six-Pokémon gyms, no physical/special split, and in its author’s words it’s “completely unforgiving to misclicks.” Run & Bun has Megas and Pokémon up to Gen 8. Its level caps are hard: EXP stops at the cap, and only a few limited Rare Candies get you past it.

15. Pokémon Liquid Crystal (not played)

Play this for the Gen 2 story with GBA visuals, as long as you’re fine with a beta.

It remakes Crystal on FireRed v1.0 with Johto, Kanto and a third region, the Orange Islands. There’s a real-time day-and-night cycle with five periods, seasonal weather, Dive, the physical/special split, and higher levels for a small difficulty bump. It won Best Gameplay at Hack of the Year 2010.

It’s been “3.3 Live Beta” for years. The Orange Islands were never finished, and development ended for good in June 2023.

What I left off

Pokémon Clover is finished and a solid difficulty hack. It’s also an all-fakemon parody from 4chan’s /vp/ board, with themes and language not for the faint of heart, so it gets a warning instead of a spot. Leaving a finished hack off the list wasn’t easy for me.

Crystal Clear’s patch only comes through its Discord now. Listings say 2.6.0, but the creator’s site gives no version. I couldn’t find a creator-run page for Quetzal, and Glazed’s original thread is gone.

Want only GBA? Go to the best GBA Pokémon ROM hacks. Want to know how hard each one is? Check ROM hacks by difficulty. Starting Unbound tonight? Read my Unbound review and difficulty pick first.