(ThyBlackMan.com) Gaming is a medium that gives way to specific series fandoms expressing their love of a series in different creative ways. One of these ways is the fan game.
What Is A Fan Game?
A fan game is basically a modification—or mod—of a game often using available game assets. The complexity of a fan game can be increased by the community creating assets such as character models and maps.
Often times, it results in a game that is both familiar and new. While you can find fan games via 3D franchises, the majority of these games come from the 2D era of gaming.
Let’s look at five franchises that are fertile for fan games. The majority of these can be played via an emulator but one of the entries—the fourth one—can be played via Steam.
Pokemon
Hands down, this is the best franchise for the fan game. The older Pokemon games left a few unanswered questions and a lot of underutilized lore.
Actually, the lore is underutilized to the point that fans have taken the games and made a slew of lengthy, fresh adventures. Also, you often see a lot of new locations and features—some that the Pokemon franchise should’ve implemented years ago.
A few standouts from the Pokemon fandom include Pokemon Ash Gray, Pokemon Godra, and Pokemon Insurgency.
WWF No Mercy 64
One of my favorite wrestling games of all time, WWF No Mercy 64 dropped in November 2000. While it wasn’t the last time that AKI Corporation would flex its wrestling game muscles, it was the last WWF game by the developer.
Even though Yuke’s did a few games after No Mercy 64 using AKI’s approach, fans were still devoted to WWF No Mercy 64 and it’s often considered the best wrestling game ever.
I mean, by Fire Pro Wrestling and modern WWE games standards, it’s pretty primitive but people still rock it with it to the point of creating classic and modern rosters.
Let’s not forget the extra distance some fans take by redesigning the ring and arena to fit specific shows and promotions. The WCW/nWo Starrcade 64 mod is probably my favorite followed by WCW/nWo Revenge.
Undertale
Besides Pokemon, if you go looking for fan games, Undertale has a number of them. I never invested a lot of time into Undertale but you can’t have a list of the best franchises for a fan game, the game’s fanbase and their creativity can’t be passed over.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
While TMNT doesn’t have a ton of fan games, I always felt that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time was a game that should’ve seen a slew of them.
It’s just about one of the best beat ‘em ups from the SNES/Genesis-era not named Streets of Rage or Final Fight. Now, I said there wasn’t an abundance of fan games but I recommend TMNT: Shell Shocked and TMNT: Rescue-Palooza.
Sonic the Hedgehog
If you’re a Sonic the Hedgehog fan and know your way around emulators then the core Sonic games aren’t the end of your adventures on Mobius. Sega’s flagship franchise has a long, rooted fanbase going back to the early 1990s and there are parts of that fanbase with a ton of creativity.
So much creativity that they’re able to make entirely new adventures using the original games or even other games. Remember, the mechanics of the early Sonic games are simple—just like the early Super Mario games.
However, when fans come in and use RPGs or beat ‘em ups as the genre for a Sonic game then you’ve got my attention. A couple of the games take a twisted turn on the franchise but I recommend the well-known Sonic Mania, Green Hill Paradise – Act 2, and Sonic Chrono Adventure.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.
