Best Pokémon Emerald ROM Hacks To Play In 2024

Pokémon Emerald ROM hacks are super popular and for good reason. Pokémon games are tons of fun, but sometimes you just want to experience a new challenge and way to play. Thanks to some very talented fans in the Pokémon community, we’re seen some absolute ROM hack masterpieces released in recent years.

Hacks of just about every single Pokémon game you can think of have been released. We recently wrote a list of the best Pokemon Platinum ROM hacks and while some are obviously much better than others, in this article we’ll be diving in and exploring the best Pokémon Emerald ROM hacks that you can play and experience for yourself.

The fact that we can play new versions of a Pokémon game that was originally released back in 2004 is why the internet is one of if not the greatest inventions of all time.

Without further ado, let’s jump and and see which are the best ROM hacks that you need to play.

What Are The Best Pokémon Emerald ROM Hacks?

6. Pokémon Emerald Enhanced

Pokémon Emerald Enhanced at its core is essentially an “open world” Pokémon Emerald hack, but if you dig deeper its so much more than that.

Emerald Enhanced as a game is surprisingly details and well structured compared to some of the other ROM hacks you might see. Just like in the original version of Emerald, you start out at your quaint house in Littleroot and grab your Pokeballs and acquire the Pokedex.

This ROM hack has some various different difficulty and money modes that you can select. After getting through the game’s opening section you’re free to begin your adventure.

Even though the game’s concept of an “open world” Pokémon game is nice, the main standouts in the game have to be the quests and achievements you’ll achieve as you play through it. The majority of the game’s storyline takes place in one long quest that spans almost your entire main playthrough. There are some additional quests of various sizes that you can also take on as well.

In terms of classifying this game as “open world”, the reason it’s often touted as such is because of the open way that players are free to go and take on gyms in any order they wish. Even with this openness, as mentioned previously, the game still has a great structure to it. One example of this is how the game often rewards you as you progress through the main storyline. Choosing to explore off the beaten path can be quite lucrative.

There’s a good balance here of gyms to quests and it helps to keeps the game feeling fresh as you play through it. Emerald Enhanced feels like a modern reimagining of the classic with enough new elements that it’s definitely worth a playthrough.

5. Pokémon CAWPS

Okay, so this rom hack is a bit of a play on words and is pretty silly at its core. It’s a fun game and is worth playing through for a different kind of experience. In Pokémon CAWPS, you play as a police officer (a cop) located in the Hoenn region.

Not only do you get to choose your starter, but the game will also give you another starter right off the bat. Talk about a generous introduction to the game!

The creator of CAWPS is the same developer behind the Pokémon Outlaw FireRed ROM hack. This game stays true to its Gen 3 roots. Give it a shot if you’re looking for a fun experience filled with silly mature themes and goofy dialogue.

4. Pokémon R.O.W.E

Pokémon ROWE is the other open world Emerarld ROM hack that made it onto this list. Just like Emerald Enhanced, ROWE does a great job of giving the player that sense of freedom that often is missing in mainline Pokémon games.

This game takes it a bit farther than Emerald Enhanced and even lets the player choose which town they want to start from, which of nine starter Pokémon they want to start with, various different game version options, and as expected also allows you to play the game in the order you wish.

There are essentially three different main difficulty options. A cool feature about the game is that gym leaders continue to level up and increase in difficulty as you collect badges, ensuring that regardless of the order you decide to tackle them in, none of them will feel overwhelmingly easy. The game also has a cool feature that allows the player to fly to any city on the map thanks to one of the townsfolk that live there.

The creator took the time to redo the look and feel of most cities and routes from the original Pokémon Emerald game you can tell there was a level of importance put towards making them more able to be more explorational. Every single Pokémon from previous games up to Gen 8 is included in ROWE along with some more modern feature improvements as well.

3. Pokémon Theta Emerald EX

Pokémon Theta Emerald EX very much feels like a standard classic Pokémon ROM hack type of game at its core. It is somewhat simple overall and is essentially a more advanced version of the original Pokémon Emerald game.

Theta Emerald EX has every single Pokémon included in it up to Gen 6. There’s also the inclusion of a repel system, one that we’re thankful for. For fans of Mega Evolution, you’ll be happy to hear that it makes a return in this rom hack as well!

This ROM hack’s storyline and core gameplay are quite similar to the original Emerald, with the most notable standout differences being the modern enhancements and quality of life improvements. The game overall feels fair when playing through it, but definitely has a ramped up level of difficulty when compared to the original.

It’s no walk in the park and is a challenging ROM hack to say the least. Pokémon levels are pretty much all higher and you can expect any Pokémon you battle against to be stronger all around.

It holds true to the original game very well and fans of Pokémon Emerald who simply want to take on a more challenging experience will absolutely enjoy this one.

2. Pokémon Emerald Kaizo

Pokémon Emerald Kaizo has undoubtedly made its rise in popularity in recent years. This ROM hack is what you can classify as the ultimate challenge mode for Pokémon Emerald ROFM hacks. It’s essentially known these days as the go to game for Nuzlocke and Hardcore Nuzlocke run players

Every single trainer and Gym Leader in the game’s Pokémon is basically on steroids. They can and will brutally ravage you in battles time and again. It forces you to study their every move and use whatever strategy you have at your disposal. Just when you think you’ve got them figured out, you’ll be hit from the side and left to wonder if this hack is even possible to beat!

On top of the ridiculous Kaizo difficult level in this ROM hack, you also aren’t able to heal your Pokémon while in battle.

This one isn’t for the faint of heart and may take years off your life when you finally manage to play through it. It’s a fantastic game that deserves its praise, but it will truly push you to improve and use strategy to progress.

1. Pokémon Glazed Version

Pokémon Glazed is one of the largest Pokémon Rom Hacks available and is known by many as one of the best Pokémon Rom hacks ever made. The final version that was released contains even more Mega Evolutions.

In the game, after turning 12 and getting your first Pokémon, you meet your starter and a mysterious power causes the Pokémon world and earth to collide. You then discover that a mysterious team can be found around the ancient ruins of Tunod. In this hack, you meet allies in the Johto region, as well as a scarfed Pikachu hell-bent on revenge.

This ROM hack has tons of quality of life improvements over the original. You can choose between five different starter Pokémon you get to choose from are fan favorites from up to Gen 5.

Believe it or not, Pokemon Glazed randomly will still be updated to this day due to how insanely popular it is with fans. That not only shows the dedication to the craft, but the sheer level of love the community has for it.

Summary

By now you should have more than enough Pokémon Emerald ROM hacks to play through. With the difficult level of some of them, it’ll likely be some time before you’re ready to move onto other Gen games. We’ve done our best to include the a variety of the best Emerald hacks for you to choose from.

Time to go get lost in some ROM hack adventures!

By the way, after you work your way through this list of hacks, be sure to check out our list of all the Pokemon Fire Red emulator cheats.