Sonic 1 Beta Remake is a Sonic 1 hack created by Mistergambit. The hack has all of the Sonic 1 levels redesigned to look like their prototype counterparts, as seen in various magazine screen shots. This hack also has new objects, such as a functioning Splats, the checkered ball that was scrapped from GHZ, and more. To make it seem more like a genuine prototype, some levels are made to look unfinished.
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Next Level is a overhaul modification of Sonic the Hedgehog developed by MarkeyJester. This time around Sonic explores a new otherworldly zone- for that's exactly what it is! It seems Dr.Robotnik has grown tired of the same shtick and is now trying to conquer the Gust Planet! He has trapped the Animals of the planet in his new models of badnik and has managed to collect a Chaos Emerald! He's used this emerald to power his new machine the Reality Bender! Sonic soon catches on to Dr. Robotnik's scheme and makes his way over to the Gust Planet Zone himself to put a stop to his evil scheme!
Sonic 2 XL is a hack of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive by Captain Bozo and Ranger. Rings are replaced with onion rings, and Sonic becomes fatter after eating them.
Robotnik's Revenge is a hack of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by ColinC10. It is a "boss rush" hack, in which all seventeen bosses from Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are fought in a somewhat arbitrary order over the course of a single level. The game takes place in Death Egg Zone from Sonic 2, and is meant to imply that there is more to the ship than there is in the original game. Time spent completing the boss run is kept and the total time is given at the end of the course, along with a ranking. In Time Attack mode there are infinite lives and rings that can be found in-between battles. In survival mode, there are only 3 lives and no rings.
Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited (Sonic 3 A.I.R.) is an unofficial port of Sonic 3 & Knuckles for Windows PCs. It very closely resembles the original game, but adds features you would only expect from a modern fan game engine - including full support for 16:9 widescreen display, alpha transparency effects, and smooth 360° rotation.
Platform / Adventure / Action / Fantasy
This is a complete hack of Super Mario World. Don't expect any new graphics here; this game is all about the level design. All the levels and worlds are new, and some of the worlds have themes not present in the original game, such as a water world and an ice world.
Super Mario Star Road is a rom hack of Super Mario 64 and can be considered a sequel to that very game. It contains over 120 stars, more than 30 new areas, nearly 50 new tunes, and many other new features.
For the past seven years, SMW Central has held a vanilla level design contest every spring. “Vanilla level design” refers to using only Lunar Magic to create your level - that is, no custom blocks, no custom sprites, and no custom code of any sort. They eventually began allowing people to use custom music, but this is not factored into their score. Once they finished designing their level, they would submit an IPS file, it would get judged + ranked, and that would be the end of it. This year, however, S.N.N. decided to assign resources (secondary exits, Map16 slots, etc) to users with the intention of putting all of their levels into a ROM and essentially creating a full hack out of it. The hack features 82 submitted entries and 4 switch palaces, which makes a grand total of 86 levels for you to beat. All of the levels are open from the start - you can play them in any order you’d like. To help you keep track of your progress, the game autosaves on the world map and beating a level will give you an “M” in the top right corner of the overworld. As a disclaimer, the levels are organized on the overworld by theme, and not by ranking. This means that the quality of the levels might fluctuate dramatically from one to the next (e.g. having a 70th place entry directly before a 12th place entry). The bottom 8 and top 8 each have their own world, however, so it’s easy to distinguish them from the rest.
