ROM Hacking Awards 2025 Winners
A couple of months ago, I gathered this subreddit's opinions on the best hacks of 2025 in several categories, and I'm happy to announce the winners for each category today. All of the winners are in the slideshow above, but if you want to maintain the suspense, you can start here. Any nominee with a Hackdex link will be linked to so you can easily play the game yourself. So, without further ado...
Best Story
This is the hack that was voted as doing the best job of diverging from the typical defeat-eight-gyms-elite-four-and-champion structure of the mainline games and took you on a journey you remembered long after the credits rolled. The nominees for Best Story are...
Pokémon Dreamstone Mysteries
And the winner is...
Pokémon Odyssey!
Best Graphics
This is the hack that was voted as having the best visual experience, the hack that always gave you something new and interesting to look at whether it's through new tilesets, UI, battle screens, or all of the above? This is the hack that, regardless of its story and gameplay, could keep you coming back for the art alone. The nominees for Best Graphics are...
Pokémon Lazarus
And the winner is...
Pokémon Lazarus!
Best Pokédex
The thing that made many people fall in love with Pokémon and continue going back to it for the last 30 years is the Pokémon themselves, and one of the major decisions that most ROM hack developers have to make is which of the Pokémon to include, as there are over a thousand of them now. This is the hack that was voted as having the best selection of Pokemon, making the experience of catching them all as enjoyable as possible, whether through regional variants, Fakemon, or just a rock-solid lineup of established favorites that fit the game perfectly. The nominees for Best Pokédex are...
Pokémon Dreamstone Mysteries
Pokémon Pisces
Pokémon Lazarus
Pokémon Odyssey
And the winner is...
Pokémon Odyssey!
Best Difficulty
The Pokémon games aren't known for being especially challenging, which is what draws a lot of people to ROM hacks in the first place. This is the hack that was voted as having the best difficulty, giving you the challenge the official games have mostly lacked? This doesn't necessarily mean what you think the hardest hack was, though it could certainly be that, or the hack that you thought was most fair in its challenges while continuing to keep you on your toes. The nominees for Best Difficulty are...
Pokémon Odyssey
Pokémon Dreamstone Mysteries
And the winner is...
Emerald Imperium!
Most Anticipated Hack
This is the currently progressing ROM hack voters are most excited for. Though only final releases were eligible to be nominated in the other categories, any hack that had been announced and was known to still be in progress was eligible for this category. The nominees for Most Anticipated Hack are...
Pokémon Ghost Grey
Pokémon Odyssey 2
Pokémon Auora Crystal
Pokemon Coral
And the winner is...
Pokemon Ghost Grey!
Hack of the Year
Finally, the hack that was voted as being the best all-around hack of 2025. Even if it didn't stand above the others in terms of story, graphics, or difficulty, it was strong enough in every aspect to separate itself as the year's best hack to the people who nominated it. The nominees for 2025's Hack of the Year award are...
Pokémon Lazarus
Pokémon Pisces
Pokémon Odyssey
Super Mariomon
And the winner is...
Pokémon Odyssey! Thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all of the nominees and winners! 2025 was definitely a great year for ROM hacks, and hopefully we get many more years like it going forward!