recommend me the best nes homebrews

[choconado]

So, lately I've been spending far too much time playing Legend of Zelda: Outlands, and I've gotten to thinking "Hey, if it weren't for the fact that it's borrowing all the sprites, this could be considered an original homebrew game!" And that got me thinking about the best of the best of romhacking, where it doesn't feel amateur at all. Where the game has a "professional", polished feel to it, that makes it feel "real". Heck, for a few examples such as Mega Man 9 or the Chinese Final Fantasy 7, they've become real, officially marketed games. When I play these hacks I feel like I'm a kid again, sitting at my NES and working out all the tricks and turns of the games.

Anywho, the quagmire that is any web search has lead me to decide to ask you, my fellow tempers, what you think the best NES romhacks are. Bonus points if they're compatible with nesDS. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Deleted-236924]

A rom hack != A homebrew

 

[machomuu]

A rom hack != A homebrew

If you're trying to say "Rom Hack =/= Homebrew", I agree with you.
They're not the same thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew_(video_games)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_hacking
Also, Final Fantasy 7 (NES) is homebrew and Mega Man 9 wan't a hack, it was a whole new game that used the mechanics of Megaman 2 + Megaman 3.

 

[choconado]

alright then, let's hear about the real best homebrews instead of copping a "smarter than thou" attitude. Looking at google, like everyone always suggests one do in this sort of situation reveals very little outside of "hey, this guy decided to make his own cartridges and sell them!" or info on FF7...

Also, sidebar, from what I've seen (don't have a system to play it on) MM9 uses mechanics of 2 and 4, not 3...

 

[DanTheManMS]

If you're into rhythm games, DPad Hero is an excellent homebrew creation.

EDIT: There's also LockJaw by Tepples, a Tetris clone, and I'm fairly certain he created an NES version. See http://www.pineight.com/nes/

EDIT 2: Going back to the world of hacks, there's Super Donkey Kong, though it's not nearly as enjoyable as the actual Super Nintendo version. Terrible collision detection. Still kinda fun though, as an exercise in futility.

 

[choconado]

since we're splitting hairs here, how would you classify something like say, Mario Adventure, where the game mechanics themselves end up being changed? Is that still a hack, or does changing the way the game is played change the definition?

 

[MelodieOctavia]

If the item in question is a derivative of a commercial game, it's a hack. plain and simple.

 

[machomuu]

alright then, let's hear about the real best homebrews instead of copping a "smarter than thou" attitude. Looking at google, like everyone always suggests one do in this sort of situation reveals very little outside of "hey, this guy decided to make his own cartridges and sell them!" or info on FF7...

Also, sidebar, from what I've seen (don't have a system to play it on) MM9 uses mechanics of 2 and 4, not 3...

I'm not trying to seem smarter than you but your asking for two different things and stating them as one. If you're asking for hacks, I'll suggest hacks. If you're asking for homebrew, I'll suggest homebrew.

Also, Megaman 9 uses Rush, who was introduced in Megaman 3, though it uses all of Megaman's control mechanics from Megaman 2.

 

[choconado]

well I say four just from watching videos. I played the hell out of the mega man series when I was a kid (even though I wasn't very good sans game genie) and a lot of the enemy sprites/mechanics seem much more in style to 4.

Regardless, while Google seems to fail me at every turn lately (no matter what I search for anymore) I've found some rather good ones via youtube. For example, I'm really impressed with Battle Kid. Unfortunately, most of the worthwhile ones out there aren't finished yet, let alone ripped. Nomolos for example looks like it'll be a fun platform sword-swinger, but it's far from complete...

And also while we're talking "is it a hack or a brew" what about FF7? It has a few unique features, but a lot of the graphics are borrowed from FF2 and 3, and I'm pretty sure the fight engine is a take-off on 3, leading me to believe it was the core starting spot of the project...