Impossible
Release date: Dec 27, 2006
Author: Saturn
Download: Version 1.5 [UH] (1856 downloads)
Download: Version 1.5 [H] (1316 downloads)
Genre: Challenge [?]
Game: SM
Difficulty: Expert [?]
Average runtime: 5:09
Average collection: 93%
Read Me: [None]
Forum Thread: [None]
Rating: Star Star Star Star Star
Description
Feel the Limit!

This hack will bring Super Metroid (and even general video-gaming) into a absolute, never experienced before, new level of difficulty. Everybody who thinks Super Metroid is easy, will find the perfect solution with this hack. Most rooms are designed to be harder to pass, the entire route is changed to make you feel like literally going through hell, and the Bosses are so hard, that you will only get a minimal chance to win! This hack will rather crush you hopelessly down, or make you a absolute master in Super Metroid! It will require you to execute all the hardest possible moves in order to pass different rooms, such as:

- Very fast Wall-Jumping skills
- Mid-Air Morph Bomb Jumping and Diagonal Bomb Jumping
- Bomb Jumping with Mid-Air Demorph + Shooting + continuing BJ
- Very flat Mockball or Speed Mockball
- Short Charge
- Very fast reflexes in all different situations
- and much more.

Furthermore you will require much knowledge of general moves such as crouch-jump with slipping over a high platform, and of course the acting of bosses or various enemies. Although this hack is designed to be on the absolute limit between 'Possible and Impossible', as the name already says, I beta-tested everything in the game to make sure that everything is possible to execute in realtime. It will just require insane amount of skill, which without alot of practise only the absolute experts would have. If somebody indeed manages to beat this hack, there is still a challenge left. Try to get 100% of all items! Some secret rooms will be extremely hard to find. Those who can reach both goals, deserve without a doubt a honor for being one of the best and most creative Super Metroid players of all time!

Of course without the help of some people I never could make this hack:

I want to thank Kejardon, he helped me so many times and gave me countless of useful codes to fix various glitches or change different enemy-AI's to make them more aggressive and st
Screenshots
Screenshot Screenshot
Ratings and Reviews
By squishy_ichigo on Apr 11, 2015 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
By Vismund Cygnus on Apr 20, 2015 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
By Aran;Jaeger on Dec 08, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
100% in 5:44
[Watch Video]  
Animals 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''.
By Sapphron on Jul 10, 2019 (Star Star Star Star Star )
93% in 4:11
This hack is a reaaal challenge.
There are spikes placed in strategic spots, there are (almost)zero opportunities for sequence breaks, hellruns to Ridley and suitless all the way through Maridia, gates blocking almost every path, buffed enemies, buffed bosses, a hellish Mother Brain 2 & 3 fight and a super difficult escape (if you don't know what do to right away)
12 hours rta, 141 deaths. Savestateless.
If you are looking for a challenge that will take you forever and frustrate you to no end, this is the hack for you.
And by the way, most items are hidden so well you can't find them without watching the 100% playthrough.
By Grayfox82 on Jan 01, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
92% in 4:37
I hate and love this hack.
By Megabrainz 357 on Apr 28, 2023 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
Very difficult. Lots of spikes, but they’re not thrown around all crazy like. It’s a little much for my liking.
By ClaireDiviner on Mar 13, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
88% in 6:05
[Watch Video]  
The very first true challenge hack on the site. Yeah, there were hacks, like Ultimate Challenge 1 and 2, Super Hard Metroid, and Super T-Metroid, but this one feels far more fleshed out, with the challenges really thought through in how one progresses through the game. I did enjoy the challenges and routing, for sure, but this game is not without its issues, as I'll go over first.

My biggest issue, more than anything, is the location of some items. There are many places that are way too obtuse to figure out, like grabbing the Missile in Aqueduct, for example. The player absolutely cannot and will not know about how to get said Missile, and there's no way to cheese it either. Damning still is that X-Ray Scope (oh, I'll get to that) doesn't reveal anything either. The player has to somehow know there's a hidden crumbling Grapple Block on the right side of the door leading to Botwoon Hallway, literally right below the loading zone. One must time a jump with Spring Ball as the Grapple Block crumbles, as it does reform, and must do so without hitting the loading zone. HOW THE HELL IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?! IT'S BULLSHIT! Literally, one is forced to look at the hack in an editor, like SMILE in order to know that it's there; there is no universe, no timeline where a player accidentally stumbles upon this intended little path to the Missiles. There are plenty of obtuse instances of items being this well hidden for no reason. The X-Ray Scope does reveal most things otherwise.

Speaking of X-Ray Scope, the location is just plain mean spirited. While there's a non-zero chance the path to the Aqueduct Missile can be accidentally found, there is literally no way anyone could have found X-Ray Scope on their own. This one hard-requires either prior knowledge, or opening the game in an editor to see where it is. It's found in Three Musketeers' Room, and requires a Crystal Flash into the wall between the right side, and FrankerZ Missiles, but in a very specific stretch of tiles, as there's a hidden path within. Immediately from there, one must navigate in Morph Ball in a crawl space above, and ceiling bomb jump across a 1-tile gap, or else one will fall through to the main area below, with no way back up, except another Crystal Flash. Once across said 1-tile gap, the X-Ray Scope is to the far right of that section.

I understand why the X-Ray Scope was placed in such a stupidly cryptic manner, and while I don't like or agree with the choice, I can respect it. I learned, while playing this game, that the hack's author, Saturn, is a known TASer, and knew just how powerful a tool the X-Ray Scope can be in the hands of those who know how to really use it beyond the devs' intended function. If the X-Ray Scope was acquired earlier, or more easily, one can cheese parts of the game, including the acquisition of the Gravity Suit MUCH earlier than intended. I agree with Saturn's motive, just not the method.

The one saving grace, however, is that ALL hard-required items are pretty straightforward. From my experience, only the truly esoteric and cryptic items are optional, including the X-Ray Scope, and isn't needed to progress through the game. Granted, sticking to ONLY the required items will make life harder, as one will have less resources, like ammo and energy for later bosses and areas - oh, I'll get to that too!

The areas are hard, but it's to be expected. Norfair's "Oops! All Hell Runs!" was a bitch to do, but was still fun in its challenge. Definitely NOT for everyone, but anyone who plays this game should know what to expect. The bosses are also hard as well, though to some detriment. Phantoon was alright for the most part. Kraid was annoyingly bulky, and hit harder than usual, but nothing too bad. Draygon, on the other hand, was WAY too stupid. For starters, it hit like a truck; I don't even know if the damage was buffed from it or the surrounding turrets, but they all hit stupidly hard all the same. To add to this, Draygon's health has been significantly buffed, and the turrets are impossible to destroy. This makes the fight less about skill, and more about RNG. If the game decides "Here's a dick," you can't do anything about it; you have to take it and start again. The only saving grace is that the save point is, like, right there... which cannot be said about Ridley.

Ridley has also been buffed significantly in health. Either that, or his resistance to Super Missiles were increased. Either way, the fight isn't easy, since you'll be in a hell run throughout, meaning the fight with Ridley is a DPS race. That itself isn't a problem. What is, however, is the fact that the closest save is in the Red Kihunter Shaft, meaning every death results in a tedious trek back to Ridley, and an even more tedious health/ammo grind, using the wasps in the Lower Norfair Farming Room before Ridley. They could have placed an energy and Missile refill in there or something, to mitigate the tedium.

Mother Brain is a major pain in the ass. Everything she throws at you does an illegal amount of damage, and her health has been heavily buffed. So knowing how to deal with all of her attacks, especially her bombs, are important. Also, health management is equally important, as you need to put yourself within range for MB's rainbow beam to initiate the Baby cutscene, or else you die to Mother Brain's projectiles during her taunting phase. The escape after that gives you only 1 minute, with very little room for error. Tourian Escape Room 3 is easily the worst part of it, requiring not only a shinespark, but weaving through a Morph crawl space before shinesparking to the top-right door. One can mess that up once, and still have just barely enough time to escape, so not all is lost. I am 100% convinced, unless I see proof to the contrary, that the animals are impossible to save successfully.

Overall, I still enjoyed everything else in the game, most especially the routing, what with where the game places Varia. Once that is acquired, A, you're pretty much at the end game, and B, there's a genuine feeling of accomplishment. Draygon and Ridley does sour the experience quite a bit, but what's good in this game is pretty damn good in terms of testing one's skill. That said, I can't give this more than a 3/5, because of Draygon and Ridley made to be more aggravating than challenging, and the way in which this game hides most of the item pickups. Still, I liked it more than anything.

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