Pokémon: The Leola Project is one of those fan-made GBA hacks that actually feels polished—way more than you'd expect from a beta. You start off in this tropical region with new starters (I went with the fire-type fox, no regrets), and right away there's this cool day/night cycle that changes what Pokémon appear. The sprites are crisp, and some of the new evolutions they've added look legit.

First thing I noticed? The dialogue doesn’t feel like placeholder text—whoever made this clearly put effort into the writing. Also, wild encounters aren’t just the usual early-game bugs and birds; you’ll run into some weird regional variants within like 10 minutes. Still a few rough edges (one gym leader’s puzzle froze on me), but for a beta, it’s surprisingly playable. If you’re into ROM hacks, this one’s got enough fresh stuff to feel worth your time.