Key Takeaways:
- Pokemon: Wishes of Tomorrow is a new fan-made GBA ROM hack based on Pokemon Emerald, developed by flatfootlabs and available to play for free right now.
- The game features 60 Shadow Pokemon using the classic Snag mechanic from Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness — steal them from enemy trainers and purify them.
- Shadow Pokemon in Wishes of Tomorrow hit harder and defend worse, and can enter a Hyper Mode state during battle.
- Players can also Mega Evolve their Shadow Pokemon, combining both mechanics for the first time in a fan game.
- The game includes a brand new region called Shin-Tokyo, Pokemon from Generations 1–10, a Quest Journal, following Pokemon, a built-in randomizer, Battle Frontier, and post-game content.
- Main story runtime is 4–8 hours, with additional post-game content on top.
- On the official front, Pokemon Winds and Waves (Generation 10) are confirmed for a 2027 Switch 2 exclusive launch, with starters Browt, Pombon, and Gecqua already revealed.
Fan-made Pokemon games have been on a serious run lately, and the latest one turning heads combines two of the most beloved features the franchise ever produced — and puts them together in a way nobody’s officially done before. Pokemon: Wishes of Tomorrow is out now, free to play, and it’s already generating a lot of buzz in the Pokemon ROM hack community for good reason.
What Is Pokemon: Wishes of Tomorrow?
Wishes of Tomorrow is a ROM hack of Pokemon Emerald for the Game Boy Advance, created by a developer known as flatfootlabs. The premise centers on Jirachi — the Mythical Pokemon known as the Undying Wish — awakening from its thousand-year slumber to grant a single wish. You’re not the only one racing toward that power. A mysterious faction led by a gold-masked Oni emerges from the shadows, determined to claim Jirachi’s wish for their own sinister purposes, and your journey takes you through a brand new region called Shin-Tokyo.
The game is structured across three acts plus a post-game, with the main story running roughly 4–8 hours depending on pace. The full source code is hosted openly on GitHub, and it can be played directly in a modern web browser via the HackDex project hub or downloaded and run on any GBA emulator. It’s completely free.
Shadow Pokemon Are Back — 60 of Them
The biggest headline feature is the return of the Shadow Pokemon mechanic, which first appeared in the GameCube cult classics Pokemon Colosseum (2003) and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (2005). In those games, Shadow Pokemon were corrupted creatures whose hearts had been “artificially closed” by the criminal syndicate Cipher, turning them into pure battle machines. The player used a device called the Snag Machine to steal Shadow Pokemon from enemy trainers mid-battle, then worked to purify them and reopen their hearts.
Wishes of Tomorrow brings that system back in full. The game features 60 Shadow Pokemon to hunt down, each one carrying a Shadow Log tracker to monitor your progress. Shadow Pokemon in this fan game hit harder, defend worse, and can snap into a Hyper Mode state during battle — making them powerful but unpredictable. The Snag Machine and purification mechanics carry over from the GameCube originals, giving Colosseum fans the closest thing to a proper successor those games have had in a very long time. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness also arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 via Nintendo Classics in March 2026, so the timing for a Shadow Pokemon revival couldn’t be better.
Mega Evolutions Are Here Too — Including Shadow Mega Evolutions
Shadow Pokemon alone would have been enough to make Wishes of Tomorrow stand out, but flatfootlabs went further. The game also brings back Mega Evolutions, first introduced in Pokemon X and Y (2013) and expanded in Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (2014). All Mega Stones can be found in the world or purchased from a dedicated shop, making Mega Evolution genuinely accessible throughout the run rather than a late-game unlock.
The twist that’s really got people talking: players can Mega Evolve their Shadow Pokemon. It’s a combination that has never appeared in any official game and doesn’t exist anywhere else in the fan game space at this level of execution. Shadow-Megas hit differently — literally, since Shadow Pokemon already come with boosted offensive stats — and the visual of a corrupted, darkened Mega Evolution has understandably gone viral in Pokemon communities.
Mega Evolutions are having a genuine resurgence in official Pokemon games as well right now. Pokemon Legends: Z-A made Mega Evolution a core mechanic, which fits given its Lumiose City setting in the Kalos region where Mega Evolution originated. The competitive title Pokemon Champions also has a strong Mega Evolution focus. Wishes of Tomorrow is tapping into that exact momentum at exactly the right time.
Everything Else in Wishes of Tomorrow
The feature set goes well beyond Shadow Pokemon and Megas. The game includes:
- Pokemon from Generations 1–10, with custom Emerald-style sprites created for newer Pokemon that never had GBA sprites before
- A brand new region — Shin-Tokyo — with hand-crafted routes, towns, and environments built in Porymap
- A Quest Journal to track active objectives, replacing the need to remember what you were doing
- Following Pokemon, so your partner walks alongside you in the overworld
- A built-in randomizer covering base forms from Generations 1–9 for replayability
- A Battle Frontier for post-game challenge content
- HM improvements and running shoes from the start for modern quality-of-life convenience
- Pro-level trainer battles featuring fan-favorite teams from the original games
- Built-in cheats accessible from the options menu
It’s worth noting that the game uses some AI-assisted content — NPC portraits are AI-generated caricatures of the developer’s friends, hand-edited in Aseprite, and some dialogue was AI-drafted then edited by hand. The developer is transparent about this in the game’s listing. Players who prefer to avoid AI-generated NPC portraits can toggle them off in the options menu.
What’s Coming Officially: Pokemon Winds and Waves in 2027
While fan games like Wishes of Tomorrow are keeping Pokemon fans busy right now, the biggest official Pokemon news on the horizon is Pokemon Winds and Pokemon Waves — the Generation 10 mainline games, announced by The Pokemon Company and Nintendo on Pokemon Day (February 27, 2026) to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary.
Winds and Waves are confirmed as Nintendo Switch 2 exclusives launching in 2027, and they represent the main series’ first games built specifically for Switch 2 hardware. The games take place in a tropical island region with a Hawaii-like aesthetic, featuring multiple biomes including beaches, jungles, mountains, volcanic areas, and what appears to be underwater exploration. Three new starters have been revealed: Browt (Grass-type, a green bird), Pombon (Fire-type, an orange Pomeranian puppy), and Gecqua (Water-type, a blue gecko). A 2027 worldwide simultaneous launch is confirmed.
Much about Winds and Waves remains unconfirmed — a more detailed reveal is expected around Pokemon Day 2027 (February 27). Fans should mark that date on the calendar if they want to catch the next big batch of Generation 10 news.
In the meantime, fan games like Pokemon: Wishes of Tomorrow are proof that the Pokemon community knows exactly what it wants — and how to build it themselves when the official games don’t deliver. Whether you’re in it for the Shadow Pokemon nostalgia, the Mega Evolution action, or just the novelty of combining both into one game, Wishes of Tomorrow is worth a look. It’s free, it’s short enough to finish in an evening, and it’s doing something genuinely new with a 20-year-old mechanic.
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