Pokémon Furious Flames is one of those fan-made GBA hacks that actually feels polished—way more than you'd expect from a beta. The starters are wild (a fire-breathing T-Rex? Sure, why not), and the maps have this cool volcanic theme without feeling like every route is just lava tiles slapped everywhere.

First thing you'll notice: battles are faster than vanilla FireRed, and some of the new Pokémon sprites look legit. There's a weird charm to seeing familiar moves with slightly tweaked animations—like Ember actually looks like it hurts now. The difficulty's bumped up just enough that you can't just mash A through every trainer fight, but it's not brutal either.

Still has some jank here and there (beta life), but if you're into ROM hacks that actually try something different, this one's got personality. Just save before major battles—some of the boss fights get creative with their teams.