Pokemon Ash Gray

Most fan games ask you to imagine your own trainer. Pokemon Ash Gray hands you a very specific one: you are Ash Ketchum, and the game is a playable retelling of the anime's first season, built by metapod23 on a FireRed base.

It opens exactly the way fans remember. You stayed up late watching battles on TV, slept through your alarm, and by the time you reach the lab Gary and the other Pallet Town kids have taken every starter. You can go home empty-handed — or accept the stubborn Pikachu that is left. From there the hack walks through the anime's story beats in order, with 116 events plus two movie events.

Instead of free exploration with optional detours, Ash Gray is structured around those episodes. You catch the Pokemon Ash caught, meet the characters he met and make the choices he made, meeting the characters that shaped his journey along the way. Familiar FireRed maps are reused and edited so that Kanto lines up with the show rather than the games.

Ash Gray never reached a final release. The last build from metapod23 is Beta 4.5.3, and the newer betas push the story past the Indigo League into the Orange Islands. Players have played it for more than a decade, but you should go in knowing that the story stops before its intended ending and some bugs remain.

• Play as Ash Ketchum with Pikachu as your only starter
• Story follows the anime's first season episode by episode
• 116 events plus two movie events
• Catch the same Pokemon Ash caught in the show
• Familiar anime characters and story moments recreated in-game
• Kanto maps reworked to match anime locations
• Later betas continue into the Orange Islands
• IPS patch for a clean FireRed ROM

Ash Gray is a nostalgia hack. It has no difficulty modes or level caps, and the fun is in seeing the anime's moments recreated rather than in team building. It is a great first ROM hack for anyone who grew up with the show and wants something lighter than Radical Red or Unbound.

Players who dislike linear games may find it restrictive: because it follows the anime, your team and route are partly decided for you. If you want freedom, a hack with an open structure will suit you better.

Because Ash Gray is unfinished, a few problems come up again and again in community reports. Some players on Beta 4.5 and 4.5.1 hit an Agatha fight in the Pokemon League that does not trigger, and others report the Pokemon League already counting as finished when they try to enter it. A black screen in an Orange Islands Pokemon Center has also been reported on older builds.

The safest approach is to play the latest beta (4.5.3), keep several save files and avoid relying only on save states. If you update from an older beta, patch a clean FireRed ROM with the newer patch and rename your old save to match the new ROM file name.

• Take the Pikachu — it is the only starter, just like in the show.
• Rewatching the early episodes is genuinely useful: many events expect you to know where Ash went next.
• Do not hunt for extra starters; the hack's team follows the show.
• Back up your save before every major story event, especially near the Pokemon League.