The 10 BEST Fan Made Video Game Sequels
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VOICE OVER: Aaron Brown
WRITTEN BY: Aaron Brown
We wish some actual video game sequels were as good as these fan-made ones. For this list, we'll be looking at times that fans took up the challenge of creating a sequel in a beloved franchise after the original teams left the IP behind. Our countdown includes “Pokemon Uranium” (2016), “Resident Evil: The Arklay Chronicles” (2022), “Portal Stories: Mel” (2015) & Portal Reloaded” (2021), and more!
Script written by Aaron Brown
Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re following Thanos’ advice and doing it ourselves as we find 10 fan made video game sequels. For this list, we’ll be looking at times that fans took up the challenge of creating a sequel in a beloved franchise after the original teams left the IP behind. They need not have been released or accepted by the publisher, as long as they build from an already existing property’s narrative. What video game would you make a sequel to if you could? Let us know down in the comments.
Mega Man has had no shortage of adventures over the many years of the blue bomber’s extensive career - over 130 if you can believe it - but what about the many villains he’s faced? Just because they’re “bad guys,” doesn’t mean they’re bad buys. In an alternate reality, Mega Man has disappeared before the events of Mega Man 2 and the original 6 Robot Masters from the first Mega Man game are recruited to stop Dr. Wily’s evil schemes. At the start of every level, players can choose their Robot Master and use their respective powers to navigate each level, such as Ice Man’s ability to freeze water for easier traversal. The original game proved so successful it became a trilogy.
While Nintendo has yet to officially release Mother 3 outside of Japan, some diehard fans are already looking to the future and taking matters into their own hands by creating Mother 4. Naturally, this didn’t sit well with Nintendo so before the lawyers even had a chance to strike, the game’s title dropped the Mother 4 moniker and became Oddity, but it still remains a true successor to the beloved franchise in everything but name. Oddity maintains what fans loved about the Earthbound/Mother series but adds its own twists on the familiar formula such as a day/night cycle that affects the quests available and enemies the group of unlikely heroes will face. The project officially began all the way back in 2008 and while the game still doesn’t have a confirmed release date, fans of the suburbanized RPG with a paranormal twist continue to patiently wait for any future updates.
If you thought Super Smash Bros Ultimate was the, well, ultimate crossover, hold our beer, we’ve got something to show you. With an unprecedented 80 characters, all with their own unique moves and playstyles, Super Smash Bros Crusade is every pop culture icon you could imagine thrown together into an arena to duke it out. Want to see who would win in a fight between Goku and Phoenix Wright? Go for it. Rayman vs Shadow the Hedgehog? No problem. Basically, the game is all of your old playground arguments over who would win thrown together into a video game to settle the dispute once and for all. Along with nearly as many stages from almost all of the characters’ unique franchises, modern games couldn’t even dream of giving players this many options, let alone for free.
As many of us grew up playing the Pokemon franchise, it can be disheartening to see that the series we loved didn’t grow along with us, and in the eyes of many still remains purely a kids video game property. Pokemon Uranium takes a decidedly darker look at the Pokemon universe and introduces not only almost 200 unique and original Pokemon but also a much more mature storyline than Nintendo would ever even consider. With themes of loss and its many stages of grief as well as world ending threat looming just overhead, longtime fans immediately fell in love with this version of Pokemon aimed at the series' older audience. However, because Nintendo feels the need to police anything remotely fun that they didn’t create, Pokemon Uranium was shut down in 2016 after numerous DMCA takedown notices were issued, but not before over a million and a half fans experienced this irradiated Pokemon adventure.
Those of us who grew up in the age before the advent of the internet will undoubtedly remember dying of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. However, like so many properties nowadays, the Trail has become infested with zombies and by adding the shambling corpses to what was primarily designed to be an educational game, developers The Men Who Wear Many Hats inadvertently created one of the best Walking Dead style survival games to date. Adapting the original game’s survival mechanics, players will need to scavenge supplies to upgrade their vehicle to continue on the Organ Trail as well manage their rations and should the need arise, deal with infected party members or risk losing it all. With the addition of co-op and as well as multiple branching paths, the Organ Trail is sure to be a long and bloody road for those brave enough to venture down it.
Although much of Resident Evil’s history can be traced back to the original protagonist's first steps inside the Spencer Mansion, many fans still had lingering questions about what happened even before Rebecca Chambers’ arrival in Resident Evil 0. Well, some truly determined fans set out to answer those many theories about what exactly happened to the Bravo team prior to Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine’s arrival at the Mansion. Forgoing the old tank controls and fixed camera perspective, The Arklay Chronicles plays more like the modern RE2 and 3 remakes as Bravo team investigates the Arklay Mountains and the many secrets revolving around the Spencer Mansion. Currently planned for an episodic release, Episode 1 and 2 are currently available for download and future planned installments promise multiple endings and “plenty of surprises”.
As you’ll see later on our list, even though Valve seems unable to count to 3, it doesn’t mean the fans can’t. Although the ending of Half-Life Alyx offered fans a glimmer of hope for the future of the series, some fans understandably don’t have confidence in Valve to build off this shocking twist ending. Project Borealis aims to fill in the missing planned Episode 3 and finally offer a conclusion to the story arc 15 years in the making. Although little is known about the true plot of Episode 3, speculation is that it would have revolved around the ship known as the Borealis and its ability to travel through time and space and Gordon’s attempts to use it to combat the Combine Empire. Although there is no release date, concept art and development footage are a clear labor of love for the series and nearly indistinguishable from what Valve themselves would have created.
No matter how many times Bethesda is willing to re-release Skyrim onto anything with or without a screen to play it on, there are still those who prefer the older Elder Scrolls titles, particularly Morrowind and its more open “free form” design philosophy. While Skyrim is undeniably a cultural icon and well deserving of all its recognition over the years, Morrowind offered players far more freedom to play the way they chose than the more streamlined future entries. Some dedicated fans of Morrowind are currently updating the beloved classic using the many assets available to the Skyrim modding community to bring the classic Elder Scrolls title up to modern standards with quality-of-life improvements and fully voiced characters for the many dialogue options and NPCs players encounter in their journey. There is currently no release date, and they are still actively recruiting passionate fans for this daunting fan project.
The irradiated wasteland of Fallout is as vast and detailed as the lore it's built around, but throughout 4 mainline games, DLC and a couple spinoffs, we only ever hear mention of how the rest of the world is coping with the nuclear apocalypse. Some ambitious fans of the Fallout franchise are looking to answer some of those burning questions by taking players across the pond and giving them an apocalyptic London to explore in the aftermath of nuclear devastation. Given most of the lore around Vault-tec and its many experiments are based in America, the development team has created nearly everything from the ground up, including their own versions of Vaults, factions, weapons and presumably their own versions of the series’ iconic mutations in one form or another given the FEV never reached England's shores. Development remains ongoing for those loyal fans looking to bring a new wasteland to life.
We’re giving you two entries for the price of one, aren’t you lucky? In Portal Stories: Mel, players control the titular Mel after she finds that she was mistakenly put in cryo-sleep back in the 50s during Aperture Science’s early testing days. With the help of a maintenance core similar to Weatley, Mel escapes the facility and stops GLaDOS’s interim replacement who awakens Chell before shutting down setting up the events of Portal 2. In Portal Reloaded, players need to not only think with Portals but also time itself. The ability to open up a time portal opens up numerous possibilities to solve puzzles by moving objects from the future into their past adding additional levels of lateral thinking to the core game’s already mind-bending puzzles. We can’t help but wonder what other stories might still be taking place in the endless labyrinths of the Aperture Science Facilities.
Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re following Thanos’ advice and doing it ourselves as we find 10 fan made video game sequels. For this list, we’ll be looking at times that fans took up the challenge of creating a sequel in a beloved franchise after the original teams left the IP behind. They need not have been released or accepted by the publisher, as long as they build from an already existing property’s narrative. What video game would you make a sequel to if you could? Let us know down in the comments.
“Mega Man: Day in the Limelight” (2010)
Mega Man has had no shortage of adventures over the many years of the blue bomber’s extensive career - over 130 if you can believe it - but what about the many villains he’s faced? Just because they’re “bad guys,” doesn’t mean they’re bad buys. In an alternate reality, Mega Man has disappeared before the events of Mega Man 2 and the original 6 Robot Masters from the first Mega Man game are recruited to stop Dr. Wily’s evil schemes. At the start of every level, players can choose their Robot Master and use their respective powers to navigate each level, such as Ice Man’s ability to freeze water for easier traversal. The original game proved so successful it became a trilogy.
“Oddity” (TBA)
While Nintendo has yet to officially release Mother 3 outside of Japan, some diehard fans are already looking to the future and taking matters into their own hands by creating Mother 4. Naturally, this didn’t sit well with Nintendo so before the lawyers even had a chance to strike, the game’s title dropped the Mother 4 moniker and became Oddity, but it still remains a true successor to the beloved franchise in everything but name. Oddity maintains what fans loved about the Earthbound/Mother series but adds its own twists on the familiar formula such as a day/night cycle that affects the quests available and enemies the group of unlikely heroes will face. The project officially began all the way back in 2008 and while the game still doesn’t have a confirmed release date, fans of the suburbanized RPG with a paranormal twist continue to patiently wait for any future updates.
“Super Smash Bros Crusade” (2014)
If you thought Super Smash Bros Ultimate was the, well, ultimate crossover, hold our beer, we’ve got something to show you. With an unprecedented 80 characters, all with their own unique moves and playstyles, Super Smash Bros Crusade is every pop culture icon you could imagine thrown together into an arena to duke it out. Want to see who would win in a fight between Goku and Phoenix Wright? Go for it. Rayman vs Shadow the Hedgehog? No problem. Basically, the game is all of your old playground arguments over who would win thrown together into a video game to settle the dispute once and for all. Along with nearly as many stages from almost all of the characters’ unique franchises, modern games couldn’t even dream of giving players this many options, let alone for free.
“Pokemon Uranium” (2016)
As many of us grew up playing the Pokemon franchise, it can be disheartening to see that the series we loved didn’t grow along with us, and in the eyes of many still remains purely a kids video game property. Pokemon Uranium takes a decidedly darker look at the Pokemon universe and introduces not only almost 200 unique and original Pokemon but also a much more mature storyline than Nintendo would ever even consider. With themes of loss and its many stages of grief as well as world ending threat looming just overhead, longtime fans immediately fell in love with this version of Pokemon aimed at the series' older audience. However, because Nintendo feels the need to police anything remotely fun that they didn’t create, Pokemon Uranium was shut down in 2016 after numerous DMCA takedown notices were issued, but not before over a million and a half fans experienced this irradiated Pokemon adventure.
“Organ Trail” (2011)
Those of us who grew up in the age before the advent of the internet will undoubtedly remember dying of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. However, like so many properties nowadays, the Trail has become infested with zombies and by adding the shambling corpses to what was primarily designed to be an educational game, developers The Men Who Wear Many Hats inadvertently created one of the best Walking Dead style survival games to date. Adapting the original game’s survival mechanics, players will need to scavenge supplies to upgrade their vehicle to continue on the Organ Trail as well manage their rations and should the need arise, deal with infected party members or risk losing it all. With the addition of co-op and as well as multiple branching paths, the Organ Trail is sure to be a long and bloody road for those brave enough to venture down it.
“Resident Evil: The Arklay Chronicles” (2022)
Although much of Resident Evil’s history can be traced back to the original protagonist's first steps inside the Spencer Mansion, many fans still had lingering questions about what happened even before Rebecca Chambers’ arrival in Resident Evil 0. Well, some truly determined fans set out to answer those many theories about what exactly happened to the Bravo team prior to Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine’s arrival at the Mansion. Forgoing the old tank controls and fixed camera perspective, The Arklay Chronicles plays more like the modern RE2 and 3 remakes as Bravo team investigates the Arklay Mountains and the many secrets revolving around the Spencer Mansion. Currently planned for an episodic release, Episode 1 and 2 are currently available for download and future planned installments promise multiple endings and “plenty of surprises”.
“Project Borealis” (TBD)
As you’ll see later on our list, even though Valve seems unable to count to 3, it doesn’t mean the fans can’t. Although the ending of Half-Life Alyx offered fans a glimmer of hope for the future of the series, some fans understandably don’t have confidence in Valve to build off this shocking twist ending. Project Borealis aims to fill in the missing planned Episode 3 and finally offer a conclusion to the story arc 15 years in the making. Although little is known about the true plot of Episode 3, speculation is that it would have revolved around the ship known as the Borealis and its ability to travel through time and space and Gordon’s attempts to use it to combat the Combine Empire. Although there is no release date, concept art and development footage are a clear labor of love for the series and nearly indistinguishable from what Valve themselves would have created.
“Skywind” (TBD)
No matter how many times Bethesda is willing to re-release Skyrim onto anything with or without a screen to play it on, there are still those who prefer the older Elder Scrolls titles, particularly Morrowind and its more open “free form” design philosophy. While Skyrim is undeniably a cultural icon and well deserving of all its recognition over the years, Morrowind offered players far more freedom to play the way they chose than the more streamlined future entries. Some dedicated fans of Morrowind are currently updating the beloved classic using the many assets available to the Skyrim modding community to bring the classic Elder Scrolls title up to modern standards with quality-of-life improvements and fully voiced characters for the many dialogue options and NPCs players encounter in their journey. There is currently no release date, and they are still actively recruiting passionate fans for this daunting fan project.
“Fallout London” (2023)
The irradiated wasteland of Fallout is as vast and detailed as the lore it's built around, but throughout 4 mainline games, DLC and a couple spinoffs, we only ever hear mention of how the rest of the world is coping with the nuclear apocalypse. Some ambitious fans of the Fallout franchise are looking to answer some of those burning questions by taking players across the pond and giving them an apocalyptic London to explore in the aftermath of nuclear devastation. Given most of the lore around Vault-tec and its many experiments are based in America, the development team has created nearly everything from the ground up, including their own versions of Vaults, factions, weapons and presumably their own versions of the series’ iconic mutations in one form or another given the FEV never reached England's shores. Development remains ongoing for those loyal fans looking to bring a new wasteland to life.
“Portal Stories: Mel” (2015) & Portal Reloaded” (2021)
We’re giving you two entries for the price of one, aren’t you lucky? In Portal Stories: Mel, players control the titular Mel after she finds that she was mistakenly put in cryo-sleep back in the 50s during Aperture Science’s early testing days. With the help of a maintenance core similar to Weatley, Mel escapes the facility and stops GLaDOS’s interim replacement who awakens Chell before shutting down setting up the events of Portal 2. In Portal Reloaded, players need to not only think with Portals but also time itself. The ability to open up a time portal opens up numerous possibilities to solve puzzles by moving objects from the future into their past adding additional levels of lateral thinking to the core game’s already mind-bending puzzles. We can’t help but wonder what other stories might still be taking place in the endless labyrinths of the Aperture Science Facilities.
