| Metroid Mission Rescue | ||
Release date: Aug 17, 2015 |
Author: Mettyk25jigsaw
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Download: MMR-V2.44-Easy (1411 downloads) Download: MMR-V2.43-Normal (1337 downloads) Download: MMR-V2.3-All Modes (1438 downloads) Download: MMR-Manual (1284 downloads) |
Genre: Exploration [?] Game: 
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Difficulty: Unknown [?]
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Average runtime:
30:28 Average collection: 76% |
Read Me: Readme |
Forum Thread: Forum |
Rating:
  
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Description
IMPERATIVE TO READ---IMPERATIVE TO READ B4 DOWNLOADING V2.0!!!!! If you have already got the swinger/grapple beam and haven't already done this following procedure between version 1.9 to this one, then you must go back to where you got the grapple beam shown in the image file upload and head through to Brinstar's/Messadon's torizo room through the red door in image file...This will activate grapple beam doors to be openable as I had to find a fix to them as Luchere beam could open them without collected or equipped charge beam...Don't worry just by going through this section will make grapple doors openable again...I had to do it this way as I had not enough knowledge about how to fix it any other way...Sorry for any inconvenience...You don't need to worry about doing anything though if you have not yet collected the grapple beam/swinger or b4 starting the game or if you have already done this between v1.9 and this one...
As this is my first hack ever, level design improves as you get further into the game, but overall I think it's pretty good, but make up your own mind...
As the hack is 6 megabytes, it's converted into Exlorom Format. So some emulators are not compatible...For a list of compatible emulators, go to the readme file inside the RAR file...
It is for an unheaded rom...
There is a new hud with different controls, to learn how to use it read this:
To switch between and to beams and Missiles, supers etc. The default buttons are 'y' to switch from beams to missiles, supers etc and vice versa.....And to change between them you press and hold the select button and then right or left to select and then let go once you have the one selected...Also holding down the select button and pressing up or down you can also switch from beams to missiles etc and vice versa...
The hack is a complete full hack and hard mode has exactly 699 rooms, normal has a few less, and easy a few less again...There is 8 worlds on the planet, so you get to explore more
As this is my first hack ever, level design improves as you get further into the game, but overall I think it's pretty good, but make up your own mind...
As the hack is 6 megabytes, it's converted into Exlorom Format. So some emulators are not compatible...For a list of compatible emulators, go to the readme file inside the RAR file...
It is for an unheaded rom...
There is a new hud with different controls, to learn how to use it read this:
To switch between and to beams and Missiles, supers etc. The default buttons are 'y' to switch from beams to missiles, supers etc and vice versa.....And to change between them you press and hold the select button and then right or left to select and then let go once you have the one selected...Also holding down the select button and pressing up or down you can also switch from beams to missiles etc and vice versa...
The hack is a complete full hack and hard mode has exactly 699 rooms, normal has a few less, and easy a few less again...There is 8 worlds on the planet, so you get to explore more
Screenshots
Ratings and Reviews
I have almost finished this great game. It is hard in some places but makes for a great challenge. I recommend this game to anyone.
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png){kind=small}
Proper Item Collection display: 100.0%.
No animals to be saved.
Quick Summary of the meaning of my SM hack ratings:
5 orbs: SM hacks within the 80% to 100% (90% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; SM hacks for outstanding wholesome playing experiences and at most minor inconveniences.
4 orbs: SM hacks within the 60% to 80% (70% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Well done SM hacks with noticeable design problems.
3 orbs: SM hacks within the 40% to 60% (50% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Normal decent average SM hacks.
2 orbs: SM hacks within the 20% to 40% (30% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Overall messy, confusing, or punishing SM hacks with some upsides.
1 orb : SM hacks within the 00% to 20% (10% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Ruthlessly unplayable, broken, or barely from the original game changed SM hacks.
Judgement parameters summary:
° Creative ideas and features, polished design, how enjoyable and fun the hack can be, lack of hard to find or cryptic required game elements, the difficulty, and if the hack can be finished without major guides or tools.
° Note that the length of a SM hack will not necessarily contribute to my rating of the SM hack, since instead the averaged out experience over the whole hack will be taken into account to get a relative comparison between SM hacks.
° Besides this, lack of impactful changes from the original SM game also went into the evaluation of SM hacks (otherwise one may consider them among the 3 stars hacks) as follows: Ultimately, for my ratings I consider a situation in which an SM enthusiast that already has, knows about and is familiar with the original game and its prominent mechanics could only choose 1 new SM hack to play and thus would really want to make sure he/she will get a fresh and fantastic experience or journey out of his/her 1 choice.
The goal of all these SM hack ratings is so that rather new players have an overview of the whole spectrum of SM hacks and how to sort them in, in relation to each other, where SM hacks that are rated lower might still be enjoyable for more experienced players.
Finally, sometimes for SM hacks it can be relevant that they may be significantly more enjoyable from a player standpoint at which the player is well practiced and familiarized with Super Metroid's game mechanics in general, and that in particular some of the best SM hacks may not be the outright best first SM hack choices to play otherwise because of this, and for beginner SM hack players this typically steers the best first SM hack choices towards some of the SM hacks that I rated with 4 orbs instead of 5.
Rating for some hacks may be off by 1 Star, but arguably not more, and ratings are not attempted to be provided within the precision of ''half orbs''.
No animals to be saved.
Quick Summary of the meaning of my SM hack ratings:
5 orbs: SM hacks within the 80% to 100% (90% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; SM hacks for outstanding wholesome playing experiences and at most minor inconveniences.
4 orbs: SM hacks within the 60% to 80% (70% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Well done SM hacks with noticeable design problems.
3 orbs: SM hacks within the 40% to 60% (50% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Normal decent average SM hacks.
2 orbs: SM hacks within the 20% to 40% (30% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Overall messy, confusing, or punishing SM hacks with some upsides.
1 orb : SM hacks within the 00% to 20% (10% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Ruthlessly unplayable, broken, or barely from the original game changed SM hacks.
Judgement parameters summary:
° Creative ideas and features, polished design, how enjoyable and fun the hack can be, lack of hard to find or cryptic required game elements, the difficulty, and if the hack can be finished without major guides or tools.
° Note that the length of a SM hack will not necessarily contribute to my rating of the SM hack, since instead the averaged out experience over the whole hack will be taken into account to get a relative comparison between SM hacks.
° Besides this, lack of impactful changes from the original SM game also went into the evaluation of SM hacks (otherwise one may consider them among the 3 stars hacks) as follows: Ultimately, for my ratings I consider a situation in which an SM enthusiast that already has, knows about and is familiar with the original game and its prominent mechanics could only choose 1 new SM hack to play and thus would really want to make sure he/she will get a fresh and fantastic experience or journey out of his/her 1 choice.
The goal of all these SM hack ratings is so that rather new players have an overview of the whole spectrum of SM hacks and how to sort them in, in relation to each other, where SM hacks that are rated lower might still be enjoyable for more experienced players.
Finally, sometimes for SM hacks it can be relevant that they may be significantly more enjoyable from a player standpoint at which the player is well practiced and familiarized with Super Metroid's game mechanics in general, and that in particular some of the best SM hacks may not be the outright best first SM hack choices to play otherwise because of this, and for beginner SM hack players this typically steers the best first SM hack choices towards some of the SM hacks that I rated with 4 orbs instead of 5.
Rating for some hacks may be off by 1 Star, but arguably not more, and ratings are not attempted to be provided within the precision of ''half orbs''.
NOTE: Newest version is on page 17 of the forum page, v2.5 Easy
[time was in-game]
This hack was probably the most interesting one I've played. I played on v2.45 Easy because I didn't know what to expect in Normal or Hard.
I think people with some patience should give this hack a try/playthrough. It's definitely an interesting ride. I came out of this a different person.
Pros:
-The level design is decent for the most part
-Tons of areas to go, 8 total planets
-699 total rooms (on Hard)
-Hint room that gives the general area for your next major item
-Many items and puzzles
-Challenging, even on Easy Mode
-Ammo/hp pickups were increased (on Easy)
-Special morph ball item combo that works pretty great
-Custom HUD and new item names
-Custom bosses
Cons:
-The massive endgame door hunt
It's about 3 times as obnoxious on Normal or Hard because you have to find 24 of these stupid doors in stupid locations. But hey, at least there's a map.
-Some enemies hit like tanks
-Few permastucks (to be fair, you have to try hard to get stuck)
-A tight heat run, but that can be a plus if you like those
-Progression is extremely convoluted, stuff is hidden behind normal-looking walls and other awesome places
-Suitless underwater is prevalent
-Only one ammo per upgrade
-No bomb jumping or mockballing
-Obnoxious Maridia music
-Almost no sequence breaks, path is extremely linear
-Area names/item names are unpronounceable
-Only 9 e-tanks
-Insane amounts of farming
TL;DR: If you have some patience, give this hack a go. You might regret it but it's an interesting journey through and through.
[time was in-game]
This hack was probably the most interesting one I've played. I played on v2.45 Easy because I didn't know what to expect in Normal or Hard.
I think people with some patience should give this hack a try/playthrough. It's definitely an interesting ride. I came out of this a different person.
Pros:
-The level design is decent for the most part
-Tons of areas to go, 8 total planets
-699 total rooms (on Hard)
-Hint room that gives the general area for your next major item
-Many items and puzzles
-Challenging, even on Easy Mode
-Ammo/hp pickups were increased (on Easy)
-Special morph ball item combo that works pretty great
-Custom HUD and new item names
-Custom bosses
Cons:
-The massive endgame door hunt
It's about 3 times as obnoxious on Normal or Hard because you have to find 24 of these stupid doors in stupid locations. But hey, at least there's a map.
-Some enemies hit like tanks
-Few permastucks (to be fair, you have to try hard to get stuck)
-A tight heat run, but that can be a plus if you like those
-Progression is extremely convoluted, stuff is hidden behind normal-looking walls and other awesome places
-Suitless underwater is prevalent
-Only one ammo per upgrade
-No bomb jumping or mockballing
-Obnoxious Maridia music
-Almost no sequence breaks, path is extremely linear
-Area names/item names are unpronounceable
-Only 9 e-tanks
-Insane amounts of farming
TL;DR: If you have some patience, give this hack a go. You might regret it but it's an interesting journey through and through.
I think I gave this hack enough of a chance. I tried really hard to like it but I can't.
Huge props to the author for the effort to create such a huge world but I had a lot of issues with it.
Now, I was playing the normal version first but enemies being bullet sponges and hitting so hard plus reading some stuff on the forum made me restart on Easy mode.
Anyway, first off, the hack is absolutely hideous. I don't think I have ever seen a worse looking hack than this. That makes exploring already a huge turn off.
Another thing I absolutely hate is when the hack restricts the player movement just because the author designed the game around not being able to be sequence broken.
You get morphlocked in morph passages which means you can't unmorph even if you had the space for it. You can't mockball (There's an item combining speedball with springball) and can only walljump in certain places once you have an item according to the manual. Oh and you can't IBJ. Reminded me a lot of Redesign and why I can't stand that hack. Not being able to walljump in general is fine. Being restricted to where you can and where not is just a way to prevent the player from breaking your hack.
Then, what is this obsession with mazes? There was that suitless underwater maze which was absolutely obnoxious and made me want to quit immediately. Then later, in Wadaria there was a morph maze on a timer with rising water. Hack authors need to stop putting those into a hack. Nobody likes those. Speaking of Wadaria, custom music (I wasn't a fan of that particular track) and the Fusion background felt jarring.
What eventually made me stop playing was the "20 Rachetas" requirement to open a door. You already only get 1 missile per item pickup (I hope you like farming enemies for ammo!) and now you are turning the game into a collectathon and making me explore those hideous looking areas all over again for enough missiles to proceed? That is ridiculous, especially considering stuff is literally hidden behind non-suspicious tiles. Again, you are forcing the player to play the way you intended.
Also, I noticed that the demo of the author's next hack, Blackhawk Indi, has this collectathon design as well. I really hope they reconsider that.
This hack is a chore to play and feels like it tries to be as unfun as possible at times and actively prevents the player from sequence breaking. You are at the whim of the author.
Rating it 2-orbs because I like the concept and there was a lot of effort put into this. The navigation/hint room in particular was a good idea. I also liked the idea of having a doorcap for every weapon. Reading the manual is required to understand sector switches, zones and doorcap colors.
Do not play this unless you are out of hacks to play. Even then, you need to be very tolerant of what this hack throws at you.
Huge props to the author for the effort to create such a huge world but I had a lot of issues with it.
Now, I was playing the normal version first but enemies being bullet sponges and hitting so hard plus reading some stuff on the forum made me restart on Easy mode.
Anyway, first off, the hack is absolutely hideous. I don't think I have ever seen a worse looking hack than this. That makes exploring already a huge turn off.
Another thing I absolutely hate is when the hack restricts the player movement just because the author designed the game around not being able to be sequence broken.
You get morphlocked in morph passages which means you can't unmorph even if you had the space for it. You can't mockball (There's an item combining speedball with springball) and can only walljump in certain places once you have an item according to the manual. Oh and you can't IBJ. Reminded me a lot of Redesign and why I can't stand that hack. Not being able to walljump in general is fine. Being restricted to where you can and where not is just a way to prevent the player from breaking your hack.
Then, what is this obsession with mazes? There was that suitless underwater maze which was absolutely obnoxious and made me want to quit immediately. Then later, in Wadaria there was a morph maze on a timer with rising water. Hack authors need to stop putting those into a hack. Nobody likes those. Speaking of Wadaria, custom music (I wasn't a fan of that particular track) and the Fusion background felt jarring.
What eventually made me stop playing was the "20 Rachetas" requirement to open a door. You already only get 1 missile per item pickup (I hope you like farming enemies for ammo!) and now you are turning the game into a collectathon and making me explore those hideous looking areas all over again for enough missiles to proceed? That is ridiculous, especially considering stuff is literally hidden behind non-suspicious tiles. Again, you are forcing the player to play the way you intended.
Also, I noticed that the demo of the author's next hack, Blackhawk Indi, has this collectathon design as well. I really hope they reconsider that.
This hack is a chore to play and feels like it tries to be as unfun as possible at times and actively prevents the player from sequence breaking. You are at the whim of the author.
Rating it 2-orbs because I like the concept and there was a lot of effort put into this. The navigation/hint room in particular was a good idea. I also liked the idea of having a doorcap for every weapon. Reading the manual is required to understand sector switches, zones and doorcap colors.
Do not play this unless you are out of hacks to play. Even then, you need to be very tolerant of what this hack throws at you.
Guess what. I spent half an hour just to get the basic gears (morph ball & bombs), almost died from spikes and haven't returned to the surface yet. I have seen enough hacks to know where this is going.
Really feeling a 2.5, but I would be generous enough to give this one a 3. I found out about this hack after Rando league, since one of the divisions was named after the hack, and figured I'd give this one a shot. I had no idea what I was expecting, and the hack itself has some neat ideas, albeit being very confusing. The hint room in both Easy and Normal really helps as to keep the player knowing where they're supposed to go the first time around, since this hack is gigantic. I played on the newest version on Easy, which you can find in the forums for the rom hack (I actually had to update midway through because v2.43 has a broken room in Base Zero that I needed to get through to progress).
First things first, this hack will get you lost very quickly, and with little direction beyond the hint room, you will honestly be stumbling around for a majority of it just figuring out where to go (I WOULD RECOMMEND AGAINST PLAYING ON HARD FIRST TIME AROUND, THERE IS NO HINT ROOM). There are some neat editions to the hack and neat mechanics regarding some particular items, but the overall gameplay of the hack is really hurt by the large amount of stumbling around and trial and error the hack can expect of you. The hack isn't too difficult, but part of that was because I played on Easy. This hack is also very long, so expect a days worth or more of total playtime. The endgame door hunt is a general slog, and is a very grueling part of the hack. A lot of minor items are hidden in places where there's no feasible way you could find them unless you got lucky or knew beforehand.
I would not recommend this hack for a newer player, and certainly not as a first hack, but there are a few good things worth playing this hack for. The introduction of being able to run in a ball after collecting spring ball is nice, and there is a unique custom HUD for switching between items fairly quickly. There are also quite a few extra bosses, most being Torizos and Ridleys. Overall, I would definitely recommend giving this one a shot, but do be warned: you WILL get lost, and you may need to step away at some point if it gets frustrating. Play on Easy or Normal the first time around, and follow the hint room well.
First things first, this hack will get you lost very quickly, and with little direction beyond the hint room, you will honestly be stumbling around for a majority of it just figuring out where to go (I WOULD RECOMMEND AGAINST PLAYING ON HARD FIRST TIME AROUND, THERE IS NO HINT ROOM). There are some neat editions to the hack and neat mechanics regarding some particular items, but the overall gameplay of the hack is really hurt by the large amount of stumbling around and trial and error the hack can expect of you. The hack isn't too difficult, but part of that was because I played on Easy. This hack is also very long, so expect a days worth or more of total playtime. The endgame door hunt is a general slog, and is a very grueling part of the hack. A lot of minor items are hidden in places where there's no feasible way you could find them unless you got lucky or knew beforehand.
I would not recommend this hack for a newer player, and certainly not as a first hack, but there are a few good things worth playing this hack for. The introduction of being able to run in a ball after collecting spring ball is nice, and there is a unique custom HUD for switching between items fairly quickly. There are also quite a few extra bosses, most being Torizos and Ridleys. Overall, I would definitely recommend giving this one a shot, but do be warned: you WILL get lost, and you may need to step away at some point if it gets frustrating. Play on Easy or Normal the first time around, and follow the hint room well.
Wow, I can't believe it, it's finally done, what an insanely long journey this has been.
Now, there's a lot of stuff to say about this hack, so let's get to it.
Visually:
the aesthetics were quite boring-looking. The author used a bunch of repetitive tiling (created some patterns, and then proceeded to use them again and again and again...). This was most notable in wadaria, where it's just one tileset and the same, boring design in every single room. The tiles themselves were mostly well-used (read: non-ugly). Although there were a few spots with questionable tiling decisions. A room in Arion skirt comes to mind, and also a lot of rooms in tourian (like seriously, it looked really ugly there). The palettes are in some spots really questionable. a lot of conflicting color near each other. Not an eyesore, but just not nice to look at. Also red crateria was used. Also the missiles/supers looked not so nice imo.
Overall i would say that visually, I wonder how the creator could have made this and thought to himself: "yeah this looks fine".
Level design:
My biggest issue was that slopes are a serious problem here, the creator forgot that ceiling slopes needed an additional slope so you could slide along them. This resulted in the fact that when running around, you constantly bonk your head against a sloped ceiling and lose all your speed, which is pretty annoying. Also there's a lot of rooms with almost no slopes that are annoyingly made, as if to purposely slow you down/annoy you (for example, varia suit room).
Most of the rooms are also just straight up boring, and every once in a while you come across a room which has a challenge in it.
gameplay:
This was not so fun. In the beginning you have almost no ammo due to how limited expansions are, and as you get more ammo, it stays usefull, as the late-game beams are surprisingly weak, so you still end up using your super missiles a lot of the time.
The items themselves are a bit stupidly hidden. There's enough items out there that are in obvious spots, but the rest of them are all located in some random ceiling, floor or wall which is pretty stupid. Also good thing: the new hud wasn't so hard to get used too, i found myself to be able to switch between everything quite easily. except that separate beams are just not fun. having to constantly switch just because you need to destroy that one block here and there was unenjoyable.
On the positive side, there's some fun puzzles and challenges here and there, you just need to keep playing until you find them (there's even some custom content).
I do hate how restricted every mechanic has become to ensure the linearity of the hack.
progression:
a lot of backtracking, although it's really not tedious because you have a warping area. It's extremely linear tho, and even if there's a hint room to somewhat guide you, it took me a while before i even figured out how it worked. the hints themselves give you part of the information, so you still have to figure it out yourself which was nice (but sometimes very confusing, i ended up needing guidance in some spots). the ending gate hunt was also not so welcome, i really just wanted to finish the hack at that point, but i am forced to run around the entire world again, ugh.
Finally, the escape, what the hell was that. A bunch of mazes, some invisible, you need to find a missile that was (once again) hidden in a non-hinted spot, and if you fail to shoot it correctly, you have to reset (unless you're willing to wait a full hour until the timer runs out).
Overall it was not so fun. With the ginormous timer you get it didn't even feel like an escape.
the only positive thing tho was the challenge about keeping the metroid that follows you.
Now all of this does feel pretty negative, but I did somehow kind off enjoyed this hack, simply because it's so satisfying to finally finish it after everything you've been through.
The beginning is very demotivating, but once I pushed myself through it and started making progress it went better and better.
Why do I give this one 3 orbs?
well, there's a lot of downs, and a billion things that could be better. But the sheer size of it, and all the effort that probably went into it do deserve some credit, and once you get trough the early part, it's not so bad, some parts are even actually fun.
Now, there's a lot of stuff to say about this hack, so let's get to it.
Visually:
the aesthetics were quite boring-looking. The author used a bunch of repetitive tiling (created some patterns, and then proceeded to use them again and again and again...). This was most notable in wadaria, where it's just one tileset and the same, boring design in every single room. The tiles themselves were mostly well-used (read: non-ugly). Although there were a few spots with questionable tiling decisions. A room in Arion skirt comes to mind, and also a lot of rooms in tourian (like seriously, it looked really ugly there). The palettes are in some spots really questionable. a lot of conflicting color near each other. Not an eyesore, but just not nice to look at. Also red crateria was used. Also the missiles/supers looked not so nice imo.
Overall i would say that visually, I wonder how the creator could have made this and thought to himself: "yeah this looks fine".
Level design:
My biggest issue was that slopes are a serious problem here, the creator forgot that ceiling slopes needed an additional slope so you could slide along them. This resulted in the fact that when running around, you constantly bonk your head against a sloped ceiling and lose all your speed, which is pretty annoying. Also there's a lot of rooms with almost no slopes that are annoyingly made, as if to purposely slow you down/annoy you (for example, varia suit room).
Most of the rooms are also just straight up boring, and every once in a while you come across a room which has a challenge in it.
gameplay:
This was not so fun. In the beginning you have almost no ammo due to how limited expansions are, and as you get more ammo, it stays usefull, as the late-game beams are surprisingly weak, so you still end up using your super missiles a lot of the time.
The items themselves are a bit stupidly hidden. There's enough items out there that are in obvious spots, but the rest of them are all located in some random ceiling, floor or wall which is pretty stupid. Also good thing: the new hud wasn't so hard to get used too, i found myself to be able to switch between everything quite easily. except that separate beams are just not fun. having to constantly switch just because you need to destroy that one block here and there was unenjoyable.
On the positive side, there's some fun puzzles and challenges here and there, you just need to keep playing until you find them (there's even some custom content).
I do hate how restricted every mechanic has become to ensure the linearity of the hack.
progression:
a lot of backtracking, although it's really not tedious because you have a warping area. It's extremely linear tho, and even if there's a hint room to somewhat guide you, it took me a while before i even figured out how it worked. the hints themselves give you part of the information, so you still have to figure it out yourself which was nice (but sometimes very confusing, i ended up needing guidance in some spots). the ending gate hunt was also not so welcome, i really just wanted to finish the hack at that point, but i am forced to run around the entire world again, ugh.
Finally, the escape, what the hell was that. A bunch of mazes, some invisible, you need to find a missile that was (once again) hidden in a non-hinted spot, and if you fail to shoot it correctly, you have to reset (unless you're willing to wait a full hour until the timer runs out).
Overall it was not so fun. With the ginormous timer you get it didn't even feel like an escape.
the only positive thing tho was the challenge about keeping the metroid that follows you.
Now all of this does feel pretty negative, but I did somehow kind off enjoyed this hack, simply because it's so satisfying to finally finish it after everything you've been through.
The beginning is very demotivating, but once I pushed myself through it and started making progress it went better and better.
Why do I give this one 3 orbs?
well, there's a lot of downs, and a billion things that could be better. But the sheer size of it, and all the effort that probably went into it do deserve some credit, and once you get trough the early part, it's not so bad, some parts are even actually fun.
Having reached Maridia in super metroid axeil I decided to take a break from that and check out this mod. It turns out that this is the second worst super metroid mod I've ever played and it is almost guaranteed to retain that position even after I finish trying out everything I've planned to check out. So... what's wrong with this mod? well imagine Axeil, but much worse level design, unrealistic bizarre tilework, extremely dilute gigantic maps, no teleporters and no QoL map additions in a world that is more than twice as large as axeil... The creator put all of his effort into creating the manual and the size of the mod, leaving little effort into the actual quality of the mod. The only positive thing I can say about this is that at least there is a bare minimum amount of effort towards making the levels look credible. That positive is the only reason why it manages to be better than super metroid escape, The first and worst metroid mod I've ever played.
i am going to have to be honest here and say that this hack really just isnt good. the room layouts are confusing (of what i could even find, as i was barely able to get past getting the morph ball), the map png offered on the forum is basically unreadable (at the author, perhaps try making multiple images made up of stitched screencaps or something, the spreadsheet format is REALLY bad for this format, especially with all the rooms that have multiple sections through multiple doors), and what very little ive been able to actually see has been: unappealing repetitive tiling with no use of smoothened terrain basically at all, basic enemies that are either bullet sponges or need missiles to kill (even on EASY), and missile upgrades that give you ONE single missile per. i would say maybe you should not try to make your first hack be something this gigantic.
Completion stats are in game counters. The real-time was 69 hours (nice). I used gt code so my item collection percentage is inflated.
I really did not enjoy this hack. I do not like the hud changes. I don't like that you can only lay one bomb at a time (unless you use glitches). No IBJ (without glitches). No wall jump 99% of the time. It's very much a hack that removes the things I find fun about super metroid and replaces them with things I don't find fun. And so much beam switching.
It's a big hack with complicated puzzles. So if that's your thing then you might like this, but even still it has a strong tendency to over do things. There's just too much of everything. And basic movement is a bit of a pain so getting around is a slog. Too many "lost woods" style puzzles. Too many "oops now you have to re-enter the area and try again" paths. Even with save states, the escape took me 2 hours and I had to ask for help.
I played it without spoilers for the first 60 hours and then the last 10 hours I got a map from Aran;Jaeger. Frankly I would not have finished it without the spoilers. I was playing normal mode. Using gt code was a blessing and a curse. It made basic navigation easier because of all the quality of life upgrades, but it also made it harder to figure out progression at times because I wasn't being rail roaded by lack of items anymore. Overall though I think it was a net boon in that I was able to finish it faster and with fewer tears than if I hadn't done gt code.
There's neat ideas in places, but the overall experience of playing the hack is one of frustration (at least for me).
I really did not enjoy this hack. I do not like the hud changes. I don't like that you can only lay one bomb at a time (unless you use glitches). No IBJ (without glitches). No wall jump 99% of the time. It's very much a hack that removes the things I find fun about super metroid and replaces them with things I don't find fun. And so much beam switching.
It's a big hack with complicated puzzles. So if that's your thing then you might like this, but even still it has a strong tendency to over do things. There's just too much of everything. And basic movement is a bit of a pain so getting around is a slog. Too many "lost woods" style puzzles. Too many "oops now you have to re-enter the area and try again" paths. Even with save states, the escape took me 2 hours and I had to ask for help.
I played it without spoilers for the first 60 hours and then the last 10 hours I got a map from Aran;Jaeger. Frankly I would not have finished it without the spoilers. I was playing normal mode. Using gt code was a blessing and a curse. It made basic navigation easier because of all the quality of life upgrades, but it also made it harder to figure out progression at times because I wasn't being rail roaded by lack of items anymore. Overall though I think it was a net boon in that I was able to finish it faster and with fewer tears than if I hadn't done gt code.
There's neat ideas in places, but the overall experience of playing the hack is one of frustration (at least for me).
I'm glad I played this hack following the manual (quick read), the map and as Sapphron suggested, reached on the forums for the newest version. The manual clarified issues I might had during the playthrough, very informative.
You can tell there was a lot of effort in this hack, seeing it's huge (I think it's the biggest SM rom hack in the site), 2 additional areas, clear outside information (manual + map) to help in exploring.I enjoyed most of the custom fights, the bosses difficulty was just right, which I love. Most hacks are either super easy or meant as challenge/for speedrunners, not counting the troll hacks.
At first I was wary because the 2 star rating, which I guess it was deserved, seeing there was a lot of permastucks early, tilesets and level design, even the doors looked ugly, but the creator polished most of those. It's good to see the creator received proper feedback and improved on the game, because playing the "finished" product is a much different experience than seeing its current rating and reviews, hence, my grade.
I'll cut the long story short. This is a LONG hack and semi-challenge, like a SMI or Kaizo meant for normal people. You don't have to do IBJ, ice clips, do jank with X-Ray, precise jumps, doesn't have spike hell... But what it does have is, sometimes, floors that are death traps, lot of backtracking, some puzzles are on a time limit, a bit of early "Maridia" suitless... I want to warn people that might think this hack, being classified as Exploration, would have Easy/baby difficulty. It does not.
The hack is linear for the most part, but it was a nice change of pace for me, because I like long hacks and this one had quite some backtracking + teleports. The Easy version having Teleport to all 8 worlds in the first area is a gamechanger and what I adore in metroidvanias/exploration hacks. Makes navigation much easier. Again, on the Easy and I believe Normal versions the hint room is tied to the teleport hubs, which tells where to go next. Combined with the map, I haven't got lost that much. Some puzzles were trial and error with no death traps, so patience was the only required thing.
The hack does have sequence break, since it's quite easy to ice clip and get power bombs in a certain area. This opens an early boss fight, which I recommend against doing it due to sheer difficulty, and you can pretty much skip more than half the game if you get power bombs and know how to navigate "Tourian" the first time you go there, but where's the fun in that? (aside for TAS and speedrunners of course)
As a Metroidvania and long hack, I enjoyed the upgrades being meaningful in this hack. They make navigation quicker/easier and you can open more places in your backtracks. Enemies get much easier to dispatch with other beam upgrades. When you get Supers, PBs, Rinder + Fuser/Quantum and can kill the space pirates you feel you finally got your revenge from seeing those guys so much and not being able to damage them. The usage of the new HUB was intuitive and made easy to switch around weapons. I wish other hacks did that, because having to go to the menu to change beams to open doors it's not fun.
Playing the updated version, and seeing gameplay of older versions, the current one is decent, for the most part, design-wise, where some areas are cool, dope and a few are bland and uninspiring. Wadaria and its theme were great for me, felt very adventurous exploring there. The 3 sections of "Maridia" and "Brinstar" were very distinct for me; the music choices in Wadaria and Maridia were pretty good for me. The atmosphere in "Maridia" was great; I really felt undersea there. I can tell the creator took the criticism and improved the world design.
Now, for the negatives. The game barely has save stations, but I understand due to the game's size; probably there's a limit how much save stations you can use in SM. I just used savestates every big chunk of exploration I did, and, as I said, the game for me is meant to be semi-hard and not casual, so lack of save points was expected.
If you sequence break and get PBs, there's a bunch of places you might get permastuck, so need to be wary when going to places using them. The hell run could use an extra refill or you're given an extra sub tank, because the way it is it's somewhat tight to do the thing. I don't consider myself a pro SM player, so I guess the hell run was mostly in agreement with the overall's hack difficulty.
I saw a bunch of criticism in general regarding the hack's bland areas and level design, even more in Wadaria, but for me the area that suffers with that is Mahagan. All 3 sectors have the same color palette and rooms are similar. Fortunately, it was one of the easier sections of the game to explore, so it doesn't stay with you for too long.
While the hack shines (for me) in most of it, like 80%, the beginning and final sequence seem to be the point where people got annoyed by it or its low point (imo, the escape sequence). The beginning probably will trigger a lot of people due to items/places being quite hidden (I don't mind, since I signed up for exploration), suitless water sections, which people dislike, and overall people expecting a cozy, super easy exploration hack when this thing is somewhat challenging if you're going full blind without using the map + hint room.
The things that made me not give this a 5* is mostly the polish this hack needed in some areas, to make exploration more smooth, graphics prettier, correct slopes, maybe decrease the final door hunt to "Tourian", and its escape sequence. It has an ammo requirement which makes it very annoying on its final room.
In fact, the final boss of the game imo it's not MB, it's the escape sequence. Sometimes it's hard to figure out which entrance/room to take next, that you need to grab hidden missiles to progress, that you should take care of your health... And the final maze was BS for me. I'd scraped it and the escape sequence would be much more tolerable, since it would be still hard, but in accordance with the hack's difficulty, aside needing more clean ups here and there. Seeing the modder only had one beta tester, this really affected the hack. Just see how ugly it was and the jank in the escape sequence. With proper beta testing and cleanup, if this was released nowadays it would be much more acceptable.
Again, if you like exploration hacks that are not braindead easy, give this a chance. I'm glad I played this one instead of 4-5 short/medium Vanilla+ hacks or hacks with pretty custom tilesets and zero substance, only fluff.
4/5 and completed in 23h28 minutes.
You can tell there was a lot of effort in this hack, seeing it's huge (I think it's the biggest SM rom hack in the site), 2 additional areas, clear outside information (manual + map) to help in exploring.I enjoyed most of the custom fights, the bosses difficulty was just right, which I love. Most hacks are either super easy or meant as challenge/for speedrunners, not counting the troll hacks.
At first I was wary because the 2 star rating, which I guess it was deserved, seeing there was a lot of permastucks early, tilesets and level design, even the doors looked ugly, but the creator polished most of those. It's good to see the creator received proper feedback and improved on the game, because playing the "finished" product is a much different experience than seeing its current rating and reviews, hence, my grade.
I'll cut the long story short. This is a LONG hack and semi-challenge, like a SMI or Kaizo meant for normal people. You don't have to do IBJ, ice clips, do jank with X-Ray, precise jumps, doesn't have spike hell... But what it does have is, sometimes, floors that are death traps, lot of backtracking, some puzzles are on a time limit, a bit of early "Maridia" suitless... I want to warn people that might think this hack, being classified as Exploration, would have Easy/baby difficulty. It does not.
The hack is linear for the most part, but it was a nice change of pace for me, because I like long hacks and this one had quite some backtracking + teleports. The Easy version having Teleport to all 8 worlds in the first area is a gamechanger and what I adore in metroidvanias/exploration hacks. Makes navigation much easier. Again, on the Easy and I believe Normal versions the hint room is tied to the teleport hubs, which tells where to go next. Combined with the map, I haven't got lost that much. Some puzzles were trial and error with no death traps, so patience was the only required thing.
The hack does have sequence break, since it's quite easy to ice clip and get power bombs in a certain area. This opens an early boss fight, which I recommend against doing it due to sheer difficulty, and you can pretty much skip more than half the game if you get power bombs and know how to navigate "Tourian" the first time you go there, but where's the fun in that? (aside for TAS and speedrunners of course)
As a Metroidvania and long hack, I enjoyed the upgrades being meaningful in this hack. They make navigation quicker/easier and you can open more places in your backtracks. Enemies get much easier to dispatch with other beam upgrades. When you get Supers, PBs, Rinder + Fuser/Quantum and can kill the space pirates you feel you finally got your revenge from seeing those guys so much and not being able to damage them. The usage of the new HUB was intuitive and made easy to switch around weapons. I wish other hacks did that, because having to go to the menu to change beams to open doors it's not fun.
Playing the updated version, and seeing gameplay of older versions, the current one is decent, for the most part, design-wise, where some areas are cool, dope and a few are bland and uninspiring. Wadaria and its theme were great for me, felt very adventurous exploring there. The 3 sections of "Maridia" and "Brinstar" were very distinct for me; the music choices in Wadaria and Maridia were pretty good for me. The atmosphere in "Maridia" was great; I really felt undersea there. I can tell the creator took the criticism and improved the world design.
Now, for the negatives. The game barely has save stations, but I understand due to the game's size; probably there's a limit how much save stations you can use in SM. I just used savestates every big chunk of exploration I did, and, as I said, the game for me is meant to be semi-hard and not casual, so lack of save points was expected.
If you sequence break and get PBs, there's a bunch of places you might get permastuck, so need to be wary when going to places using them. The hell run could use an extra refill or you're given an extra sub tank, because the way it is it's somewhat tight to do the thing. I don't consider myself a pro SM player, so I guess the hell run was mostly in agreement with the overall's hack difficulty.
I saw a bunch of criticism in general regarding the hack's bland areas and level design, even more in Wadaria, but for me the area that suffers with that is Mahagan. All 3 sectors have the same color palette and rooms are similar. Fortunately, it was one of the easier sections of the game to explore, so it doesn't stay with you for too long.
While the hack shines (for me) in most of it, like 80%, the beginning and final sequence seem to be the point where people got annoyed by it or its low point (imo, the escape sequence). The beginning probably will trigger a lot of people due to items/places being quite hidden (I don't mind, since I signed up for exploration), suitless water sections, which people dislike, and overall people expecting a cozy, super easy exploration hack when this thing is somewhat challenging if you're going full blind without using the map + hint room.
The things that made me not give this a 5* is mostly the polish this hack needed in some areas, to make exploration more smooth, graphics prettier, correct slopes, maybe decrease the final door hunt to "Tourian", and its escape sequence. It has an ammo requirement which makes it very annoying on its final room.
In fact, the final boss of the game imo it's not MB, it's the escape sequence. Sometimes it's hard to figure out which entrance/room to take next, that you need to grab hidden missiles to progress, that you should take care of your health... And the final maze was BS for me. I'd scraped it and the escape sequence would be much more tolerable, since it would be still hard, but in accordance with the hack's difficulty, aside needing more clean ups here and there. Seeing the modder only had one beta tester, this really affected the hack. Just see how ugly it was and the jank in the escape sequence. With proper beta testing and cleanup, if this was released nowadays it would be much more acceptable.
Again, if you like exploration hacks that are not braindead easy, give this a chance. I'm glad I played this one instead of 4-5 short/medium Vanilla+ hacks or hacks with pretty custom tilesets and zero substance, only fluff.
4/5 and completed in 23h28 minutes.
Played on Normal. Some savestates were used, especially in the escape, so the IGT is deflated.
This hack has a huge reputation, being the largest sm hack at the moment, and going into the hack my expectation was that I would be playing a hack with items and progression far apart with the space between filled with boring, similar looking rooms. Although this isn't completely incorrect, while playing the hack I was impressed with the sheer amount of effort that was put into the hack.
This hack is way more complex than I expected. With more variants of door caps for each weapon you can obtain, tons of sector and world switches that teleport you to other parts of the map, and not only doorcaps that unlock the final area, but also activators for those doorcaps, this hack consistently overwhelmed and confused me. But at the same time I was in awe of how, even with all that complexity, the hack's progression still managed to work correctly. At the start of the hack I was referencing the page in the manual that showed each of the doorcap colors. I don't understand why the doorcap colors don't match their corresponding beam's color. The exploration in this hack is honestly pretty great. The hint room is clever, although confusing to understand at first, and with that and a map (I made use of ED's fixed map) I was usually able to figure out where I needed to go next, so there wasn't too much getting stuck until the endgame. Without the map, I definitely would have struggled and would have found less fun in the hack. Seeing how the hack fit together and making sense of its complexity was definitely what gave me the most satisfaction.
Visually, I thought the hack looked alright, definitely better than I was expecting. It's a mixed bag, with areas like Wadaria and Mahagan being rough or boring to look at. Wadaria however is saved by the banging M2 track, and I gotta shout out FLJ's performance using ED's lyrics: https://clips.twitch.tv/UgliestUglyButterflySoonerLater . Still each area generally had its own unique style, and after a while you do start to get a grip of the map. There are a lot of rooms requiring you to go through walls and such, which make it very difficult to navigate as you can't easily tell where Samus or the walls and floors are. And that combined with the mazelike structures of rooms (a big pink room in Messadon definitely comes to mind) can make it very frustrating to play. Speaking of mazes, there are so many of them in this hack: rooms with lots of paths, morphball mazes, series of rooms with up to eight different doors in which only one leads you down the correct path, AND THERES NO INDICATION AT ALL OF WHICH DOOR IS CORRECT. It literally forces you to brute force the correct answer, and without savestates I could easily see it taking up to an hour to get through the whole thing. Moments like these are so insanely stupid, I wouldn't blame anyone for quitting the hack. If you already aren't enjoying the hack, there's nothing further into the hack that's worth sticking through it for. Speaking of which...
The endgame. This was easily the worst part of the hack. After you've followed the progression through the hint room and collected all the major items, you're stuck hunting down 24 doorcaps that unlock the final area, and not only that, you have to find activators for those doorcaps. This leads to a very tedious task of running all over the map to collect each of the doorcaps and then running back to the final area to see which one you are missing next. Even with the map I struggled with this a bit, because although most of the activators are in the same area as their doorcaps, a couple of the areas have their activator in another area. I'm glad this hack at least had the proper patch to make sure the map saves properly. Some hacks don't have that and although it's usually just a bit unfortunate, it would be devastating for this hack and made it near impossible to find progression without the help of an external map.
But anyways, you manage to track down all the doorcaps and gain access to the final area and escape. Metty states that he designed Smachoghr and the escape early on in the hack's development, and it's painfully obvious. Smachoghr is easily the worst area to look at and navigate, with terrible room designs and excessive sector switch use. Then the escape has hidden pathways, hidden items that are required to collect, more mazes, invisible mazes, morph tunnels that are in the bottom/top two tiles of each room, meaning they aren't even on screen, and a janky (albeit actually kinda neat) baby metroid mechanic where you're essentially moving around praying that the metroid breaks the tiles blocking your path. To be fair I don't mind the invisible mazes too much, but it doesn't belong as the required path in an escape sequence. Although having a maze that requires almost ALL of your super missiles and therefore requires you to farm a ton beforehand is just so unnecessary.
The hack was enjoyable to explore and make sense of for the most part, but tourian and the escape really should've been revamped before the hack's release. The custom content is definitely cool, and it's clear that Metty has talent, he just needs more focus. If you're into more of the janky, lower ranked hacks and have a lot of tolerance and patience, this hack is actually a very interesting play, just play at your own risk.
This hack has a huge reputation, being the largest sm hack at the moment, and going into the hack my expectation was that I would be playing a hack with items and progression far apart with the space between filled with boring, similar looking rooms. Although this isn't completely incorrect, while playing the hack I was impressed with the sheer amount of effort that was put into the hack.
This hack is way more complex than I expected. With more variants of door caps for each weapon you can obtain, tons of sector and world switches that teleport you to other parts of the map, and not only doorcaps that unlock the final area, but also activators for those doorcaps, this hack consistently overwhelmed and confused me. But at the same time I was in awe of how, even with all that complexity, the hack's progression still managed to work correctly. At the start of the hack I was referencing the page in the manual that showed each of the doorcap colors. I don't understand why the doorcap colors don't match their corresponding beam's color. The exploration in this hack is honestly pretty great. The hint room is clever, although confusing to understand at first, and with that and a map (I made use of ED's fixed map) I was usually able to figure out where I needed to go next, so there wasn't too much getting stuck until the endgame. Without the map, I definitely would have struggled and would have found less fun in the hack. Seeing how the hack fit together and making sense of its complexity was definitely what gave me the most satisfaction.
Visually, I thought the hack looked alright, definitely better than I was expecting. It's a mixed bag, with areas like Wadaria and Mahagan being rough or boring to look at. Wadaria however is saved by the banging M2 track, and I gotta shout out FLJ's performance using ED's lyrics: https://clips.twitch.tv/UgliestUglyButterflySoonerLater . Still each area generally had its own unique style, and after a while you do start to get a grip of the map. There are a lot of rooms requiring you to go through walls and such, which make it very difficult to navigate as you can't easily tell where Samus or the walls and floors are. And that combined with the mazelike structures of rooms (a big pink room in Messadon definitely comes to mind) can make it very frustrating to play. Speaking of mazes, there are so many of them in this hack: rooms with lots of paths, morphball mazes, series of rooms with up to eight different doors in which only one leads you down the correct path, AND THERES NO INDICATION AT ALL OF WHICH DOOR IS CORRECT. It literally forces you to brute force the correct answer, and without savestates I could easily see it taking up to an hour to get through the whole thing. Moments like these are so insanely stupid, I wouldn't blame anyone for quitting the hack. If you already aren't enjoying the hack, there's nothing further into the hack that's worth sticking through it for. Speaking of which...
The endgame. This was easily the worst part of the hack. After you've followed the progression through the hint room and collected all the major items, you're stuck hunting down 24 doorcaps that unlock the final area, and not only that, you have to find activators for those doorcaps. This leads to a very tedious task of running all over the map to collect each of the doorcaps and then running back to the final area to see which one you are missing next. Even with the map I struggled with this a bit, because although most of the activators are in the same area as their doorcaps, a couple of the areas have their activator in another area. I'm glad this hack at least had the proper patch to make sure the map saves properly. Some hacks don't have that and although it's usually just a bit unfortunate, it would be devastating for this hack and made it near impossible to find progression without the help of an external map.
But anyways, you manage to track down all the doorcaps and gain access to the final area and escape. Metty states that he designed Smachoghr and the escape early on in the hack's development, and it's painfully obvious. Smachoghr is easily the worst area to look at and navigate, with terrible room designs and excessive sector switch use. Then the escape has hidden pathways, hidden items that are required to collect, more mazes, invisible mazes, morph tunnels that are in the bottom/top two tiles of each room, meaning they aren't even on screen, and a janky (albeit actually kinda neat) baby metroid mechanic where you're essentially moving around praying that the metroid breaks the tiles blocking your path. To be fair I don't mind the invisible mazes too much, but it doesn't belong as the required path in an escape sequence. Although having a maze that requires almost ALL of your super missiles and therefore requires you to farm a ton beforehand is just so unnecessary.
The hack was enjoyable to explore and make sense of for the most part, but tourian and the escape really should've been revamped before the hack's release. The custom content is definitely cool, and it's clear that Metty has talent, he just needs more focus. If you're into more of the janky, lower ranked hacks and have a lot of tolerance and patience, this hack is actually a very interesting play, just play at your own risk.
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