Project AM2R is, hands down, one of the best fan games made in recent times. And while it's been a while since Nintendo threw a DMCA claim at the project, the community has continued to support the game.

Day of the Tentacle got a new lease of life thanks to Double Fine's remaster. But some fans have opted to go one step further with Return of the Tentacle, a fan-made sequel that's incredibly faithful to the original point-and-click adventure.

The Sonic Amateur Games Expo is a yearly showcase of ROM hacks and fan games. This year's selection was full of gorgeous art, twisty levels, and new takes on the franchise's speedy gameplay. These projects are as artful as anything Sega makes and some are just as massive as any AAA Sonic game.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the most influential mangas of all time. References to it show up in dozens of anime, and Hirohiko Araki, the manga's author, has even shown his work in the Louvre. Despite all these accolades, you've never been able to kiss any of the characters, until now.

For decades, a Pokemon game where players can catch and train monsters, together and online, has been a distant fantasy for fans around the world. The camaraderie and competition so integral to the Pokemon story -- the tale of a young hopeful going out into the world to make friends and self-actualise -- has always felt a little lacking in Pokemon blockbuster single-player games. So, imagine: A free Pokemon game, accessible on PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Xbox, where you can do everything you do in an official Nintendo game, but with your friends.

For decades, Sonic the Hedgehog has inspired an obsessive fandom that's been difficult to separate from the uneven quality of the games. Fans have created impressive art, music, and even games that pay tribute to the series and its characters. Some of these creations are so impressive, that SEGA brought on fans to create the much-hyped Sonic Mania.

Super Smash Flash 2, a fan-made Super Smash Brothers tribute by Mcleod Gaming that features anime characters like Naruto and Goku alongside Nintendo heroes like Mario and Samus, just pushed out a big new beta featuring a ton of new heroes.

Earlier this year, Nintendo showed off a 2D version of Zelda that it used to conceptualise some of the mechanics in Breath of the Wild. It was cool! No surprise, then, that a fan decided to recreate that prototype so that anyone could play it.

Mother 4, the long-awaited fan-made sequel to Mother 3, will be rebranding after several high profile DMCA takedowns of other fan games.

I don't imagine that actually being trapped between dimensions would be super fun if it, you know, happened to you, but it sure looks cool. Case in point: Mega Man 2.5D.

Pokemon Prism is a fan-made ROM hack for Pokemon Crystal. Over the course of eight years, creator Koolboyman and his team crafted a new Pokemon experience, which they hoped to release this Christmas. Nintendo hit them with a cease and desist four days before release. Thanks to a group of pirates, the project still made it to the internet.

The creator of Pokémon Prism, a fan made hack for Pokémon Crystal that was due to release on Christmas, says he's received a cease-and-desist from Nintendo and will have to shut down the project for good.

DoomRL is a free roguelike that uses the Doom setting to offer random, digestible adventures full of super shotguns and cacodemons. Now, a takedown request from ZeniMax threatens to put an end to the project.

The recent controversial take-downs of high-profile yet unofficial Nintendo-related creations paints a picture of an aggressive corporation that punishes fans. But Game Freak, the creators of Pokemon, actually seem remarkably chill about the existence of fan games based on a recent conversation with Kotaku.

I always felt that One-Punch Man's Saitama and his cyborg student Genos were bound by something stronger than fighting together. What I didn't consider is that it's a threesome with one of One-Punch Man's goofiest villains.

A month ago, a Pokemon fan game with nine years of development got shut down by Nintendo. The creators didn't seem particularly sad about it, though: over a million people downloaded the game, and the devs planned to continue supporting it for those people. But now, that's changing.

If Overwatch fan culture is anything to go by, there's only one thing people want to see Overwatch characters do more than fight: date. That's where fan games come in. But with lawyers hiding in bushes and trees, waiting to spring their DMCA traps, making video game characters kiss ain't easy.

Sonic the Hedgehog has always struggled in 3D. From the picky camera of Sonic Adventure to Sonic Unleashed and its odd melee combat, Sega's mascot has never quite gotten it right. Thankfully, fans are here to make it all better with Green Hill Paradise Act 2.

There's something about playing Pokemon Uranium that feels strangely illicit for a game about collecting cute critters. The developers behind the massive fan project took down the 'official' download last weekend to avoid any potential legal action by Nintendo, so the only way for me to play the game was to track down someone else who could send me the file.