I Played Four Pokemon Demakes. Here's What I Learned. 

As a romhack creator, I think you're missing one of the key points of why people make hacks for the GBA games. It's not so much about nostalgia, the main reason we use the GBA games as a base is a technical one. If you want to make a game with a new region, you're doing it on a Gameboy/GBA. Adding new tilesets is easy. Adding a new terrain map to Gen 5 is buggy and difficult, and doing it on a 3DS/Switch title is downright impossible. The older games are easier to disassemble, which means there's more tools and more knowledge in the community. And thanks to projects like the Emerald Expansion, if I want mechanics like Mega Evolution and Z Moves, it's paradoxically easier to do that in Emerald than it is in the games they came from.

I really wanna see someone just put Pokemon Violet on a Gameboy, simplified routes, sprites and such, its sick.

I think another reason why there are a lot of demakes out there is that it's a good way to cut your teeth on making a more complex romhack. All the creative work is already done, you just have to figure out how to execute it. Before jumping into making a project like Gaia or Unbound, it's good to know what you can actually achieve on the technical side

I remember stumbling upon Unova Red right before an 11 hour flight, so I played it and had a blast with it. Super cool to see someone cover this Demake and I didn't even know there was a challenge mode.

Slaking in Pokémon ancient ruby: 💪🏻 Shedinja in Pokémon ancient ruby: 💀

Similar to Unova Red, you can also try Pokemon Kalos Crystal, which adds all gen 5 and 6 pokemon into Pokemon Crystal

Ancient Ruby is genius. As a huge fan of Pokemon Crystal and its pixelated and expressive art style, I'm stoked for this demake. I wish GF could implement this idea in the future and I'm sure most Pokefan who played since gen 1 would love it due to nostalgia. Would love gen 4-9 in gen 2 style 🤌🏻

One of my personal favorites is actually both a demake and a threequel. Pokemon Black & White 3 Genesis is narratively a third addition to the story of B&W and B2W2, however it's in the style of Gold Silver Crystal. It's a real shame it's not more popular, since I've had a lot of fun with it.

I'm incredibly excited for the coming era of DS hacks that we'll have in the next couple years. The reason the GBA games are so often used is because the source code has been uploaded AND streamlined for incredibly convenient use. I believe the Emerald Expansion was finished in early 2021. Pokemon Platinum's source code is available, and it's on the verge of being streamlined- I give it another year before it's ready. Once it's ready, we'll see so many DS hacks with all kinds of new mechanics, Pokemon, and much more. Great video, btw! Lots of great commentary and a very unique perspective.

One of my personal favorites is Patched Crystal, which brings in the physical special split, enables Celebi, and adds a "link cable" item to evolve the trade to evolve pokemon. Not sure what its categorization is but its my personal go ti

demaking for nostalgia (drake's no) demaking solving performance issues (drake's yes)

I wonder if anybody's made romhacks that just merge versions of the same gen.. Like, combining Gold Silver and Crystal, puttin' all them version exclusives together.

As a player, nostalgia definitely plays a huge role for me. I grew up on gen1, 2, and 3. I just like the 2D pixel art style over the 3D style. So I get really excited about demakes. I wish they got a little more love.

I was really excited when i saw the thumbnail, i thought for a second some demade the entire unova region in red which is what ive always wanted to try

Unova red looks perfect for me, I’m not too fond of huge hacks but this is just a nice touch

You have a really nice way of narrating videos. Wholesome and informative. ☀️

''my favourite garbordor.....'' lol

I enjoyed the essay breakdown of each

The Pokemon ROM hacking community (specifically on Pokecommunity) was my first online community, and I remember back before HGSS were out, there were a huge amount of people making Johto remakes, some of which are still revered today. Nowadays there are similar hacks, but they are demakes of HGSS. My first ever hack was a Platinum demake of Platinum called Shining Platinum which only made it to a very, very short demo, but I had a new plotline involving a special shiny Shinx that Team Galactic were after. I hadn't gotten as far as figuring out why they wanted it though.

really really good video man 🙏

Great video! If you ever played any gen 2 demakes or romhacks in general you might have heard my music arrangements in there somewhere! Personally I just love seeing how a song would sound like under the GameBoy's limitations. Ironically I haven't played a whole lot of demakes, I really have to change that someday ahah

Gen 3 has my fave aesthetic so I'm very glad there's so many hacks from that gen

It would be interesting to make a SV demake into gen 1 if even remotely possible, if not gen 2 mechanics, or work up until it fits. I mean I have ambitions to make entirely new games with the ip, but maybe I can start off with these and work up my programming and art skill to actually make them.

BW3 Genesis is the best demake ive ever played . but it's technically a sequel demake so I guess is in a different category

While not a demake in the traditional sense, one romhack that I've been enjoying is Rangi42's Polished Crystal. It adds a LOT of stuff to the gen 2 engine. It adds abilities, natures, modern EVs/IVs, physical/special split, and the Fairy type. For QoL it adds reusable TMs and running shoes, it doubles the speed of surf, and the obstacles for cut and waterfall stay removed so you don't need to keep HM slaves with you. It also adds unique menu sprites for every Pokemon. It's sort of a demake of HGSS since it adds Lyra and the cliff route west of Olivine City and a few minor things that were introduced in gen 4, but there are enough changes that it's not a direct adaptation. Sometimes characters from later gens will make an appearance and they might battle you. It also rebalances types and stats of some Pokemon (e.g. Noctowl is now a ghost type, Butterfree is psychic, Bellossom is fairy) and moves (Cut is a base 60 steel type, Strength is Fighting) which is an interesting change that still trips me up sometimes. Overall it's a fun hack. I've put a lot of hours into it.

Kanto expansion pack, could be count as demake? Here include new evolutions and regional forms, and cuted Pokemon too.

Emerald Ex isn't a demake, it's an upgrade.... there is a very big difference.... Same with Unova Red.... it's basically just Red version but using Unova Pokemon.... so it's just a mod.... A De-Make is when they try to recreate a game on a lower console.... adding some elements from an newer game doesn't automatically make it a demake.... Ancient Ruby is a De-make.... it's a newer game created on an older system.... same with SwSh Gameboy.... Only half the games you mentioned are demakes.... the 1st 2 are just upgrades or mods to older games....

Yup you described my interest for Pokémon rom hacks very well

If anyone was wanting an “Enhancement” type rom I would recommend Pokemon Emerald Crest and Radical Red! Both give Pokemon up to gen 9 so far and a TON of features

I absolutely need to play Ancient Ruby, Crystal and Sapphire were my first Pokemon games

years ago i saw a collage of pokemon b2/w2 but with the the g/s/c look. i really wanted to play it.

Lowkey hate how most gen 1 demakes do a spriting style of "just make it as bad as possible lmao". The DESIGNS of the gen 1 sprites are kookier than what they ended up solidifying into with the art and later games, but the sprite quality itself was, for the most part, pretty all right. They paid attention to things like shading, highlights, sensible dithering (not just randomly putting it wherever you feel like), etc.

This Is Criminally Underrated.

i think another point to pokemon demakes is accessibility in general, little jimmy doesn't have the money for a modern console/game so having a newer game recreated and with easy access is great, i played pokemon rom hacks and demakes for years because i couldn't get the new games or emulate the DS games

I'm currently working on a Fire Red rom hack just to change all trade evolutions to level up or with an item. Moveset changes, so many Pokemon from that gen learn so few and shitty moves so I wanted to change that. And to make all of the gen 1 and 2 Pokemon more accessible, I'm kinda ignoring gen 3 Pokemon. I've added Fairy type and some fairy moves and just a few new moves like Aqua Jet. Just to make my own experience a bit more fun whenever I'm bored.

We need a Scarlet and Violet Gen 2 demake and Sword and Shield.

Never heard of a demake (the name of such a game). But I really get the idea, live gen 3-4. So playing gen 6+ games in such style would be so nostalgic

I remember having a similar idea to Ancient Ruby where it'd be Emerald backported to Crystal's engine but with some new stuff (Expanded Hoenn dex including some Alolan forms and custom regional variants (Both veing referred to as "Tropical Forms") being the big thing, alongside story beats from ORAS), but I have no clue how to do ROM hacks, so as much as I'd LOVE to make it, that idea will probably remain as just an idea for a very long time. :P (I will say tho, I personally wouldn't consider the first two "demakes," as they just make somewhat small adjustments to the original game (Tho I suppose you could argue EEX being a demake of ORAS, but I'm not 100% sure there))

I've been trying to find a romhack from my childhood similar to Unova Red for like two years now but still can't find it. I know it wasn't Unova Red because it had up to either gen 6 or 7 pokemon (sorry I can't remember which) do you have any idea what that hack may be?

Wait so out of all these you’ve shown, how many of them are completed?

Ancient ruby looks actually badass

Its crazy how much better new pokemon look in demake versions imo. I played the sword and shield remake and it was so much more enjoyable.

Last time I played the sword and shield demake it was unbelievably buggy. Is it fixed now?

I would actually love to have a gbc demake of gen 5 6 7 8 and 9 games. Its just way more comfortable to play casually

I would love a rom hack with all the mons and moves but with gen 1's mechanics. I think it would be an interesting experience.

my first pokemon game was X but my favorite is the originals, idk why or how but, that's just me. Personally im rom hacking a version of blue and adding some of my favorite pokemon not in gen 1. I, for some reason, enjoy the mechanics and weirdness of the first games and have only ended up wanting to play them way more than the new ones every time i go back.

I’d love an X and Y GBA demake so much

I think that your final three points: 1) Nostalgia; 2) Hungry Audience; and 3) Variety are all good. However, it is also lacking in the sense that it is a creative challenge for the passionate people creating demakes. I further disagree that people are only interested in specific generations and that the older games had minimal storylines.

If you liked Unova Ruby, they actually made a sequel, Kalos Crystal.

there's also an argument to be made about the newer pokemon games being less about CATCHING them all, and more about multiplayer interactions, be it trading, or pvp. and, in some cases like white and black, or even D/S/P, the online component is all but defunct. even more modern games like the x and y's friend safari is borderline, if not completely, unusable. and it hurts to go back, and just see that massive part of the game, that was clearly designed to be used, devoid of any interaction, because the servers no longer exist to give it the usability those games were planned to have.

I know it's hard, but I'd love a demake like Ancient Ruby it being Pokemon gen1 to gen3, with the three regions, in gen2 style. Maybe an open world would be enough.

What if make Kanto black? Making region sprites of unova, but Pokedex is kanto pokemon(scissor, rhyperior, sylveon, anihilape and etc. could be get. 151 is too low number for unova region).

Imagine sv in a gen 5 style demake😳🤯

I like the idea of porting all the newer games into Gen V.

good vid!

I am currently enjoying Pokemon Emerald Crest and Pokemon Unbound - both are great.

demakes are for people who use emulators (like me) on our cheap phones lol

I would play the demakes if I could, but I don't know where to find them.

I'd love to find some 3DS demakes of the Switch games, but it's quite harder than GBA so maybe it's not possible. I'd love to try if anyone knows about any though.

Isn't there a rom hack that pokemon devolve, instead of evolving? What's the name of the romhack?

I don't think GF will make another pixel game because their main audience doesn't care about it as much as their older audience does. At least we got these demakes to fill the demand!

Somehow this is my first time hearing about demakes and im flabber gasted lol so sick

Yo where can i find emerald EX?

Nintendo has yet to see the power of demakes and romhacks and start investing in that business instead of shutting it down. These are just what indie games are to triple A titles: games to play between the new releases. Heck, Nintendo's bigger releases are also just like that to Sony and Microsoft's bigger releases.

I played Emerald EX. It was advertised as an enhancement hack, people talk about it like it's an enhancement hack, and I found it by looking for enhancement hacks. What is this even demaking?

bro as an aussie, your kiwi accent makes the word “decade” sound like something else 😂

We need a Pokemon maker game similar to the mario maker game.

Are you Bub Games’s brother?

Yeah

Gen 1 was best so closest they can get to that

What takes the place of Snorlax in Unovan Red?

Is this you Bubgames?

What do you mean "Giga Drain now has 80 BP"? Giga Drain didn't exist!

I like Demakes and ROM Hacks because the newer games suck, and the demakes have more heart and passion put into them than any of the Pokemon Switch titles. There's also official Pokemon games, like HeartGold and SoulSilver, which are close to perfection, but missing those little touches to make them perfect, like infinite TM use, higher NPC and wild Pokemon levels, more Pokemon variety on certain routes, difficulty raising or lowering, and other quality-of-life improvements. A perfect HeartGold ROM hack would make it a perfect Pokemon game, but I also just like the idea of using gen 4 or 5 Pokemon in gen 1 Kanto.

you sound like bubgames wtf

SWORD AND SHIELD BEST GEN!

great video. I love your conclusion. ROMs will always give me a new, fresh way to experience something wholesome and nostaglaic. I wish that Nintendo would incentivise these mods instead of threatening law suits, and choosing to lazy make a business model based on purchasing their production mineral from extremely unethical sources.