“Quit playing Minecraft and get back to hacking”
| Phazon Hack | ||
Release date: Jun 20, 2011 |
Author: A_red_monk_called_Key
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Download: Version 0.4 (Patch 2 of 2) (2784 downloads) Download: Version 0.4 (Patch 1 of 2) (1926 downloads) Download: Version 0.3 [UH] (9108 downloads) |
Genre: Exploration [?] Game: 
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Difficulty: Veteran [?]
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Average runtime:
9:29 Average collection: 78% |
Read Me: [None] |
Forum Thread: Forum Thread |
Rating:
 
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Awards:
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Description
Super Metroid Phazon is a full hack of Super Metroid.
This hack has new rooms, items, enemies, and new graphics.
This hack has new rooms, items, enemies, and new graphics.
Screenshots
Ratings and Reviews
This is a huge hack. My first playthrough went 9:16. New enemies, graphics, and items make this hack very unique. My only issue is the insane amount of damage certain enemies do early on and even later in the hack. There on no major physic changes, and item collection is fairly linear. There is the secret and devastating Phazon beam though.
You thought Revolution EX was bad about needing to shoot enemies repeatedly until they die? This hack is going to knock you into next week, buddy. Still, it's not bad at all - the graphics are stylish (and obviously Photoshopped), the progression chain is clear-cut, and there's fun to be had even if you have to expend all of your ammo to have it! Definitely a good hack for veteran players.
Super Metroid Phazon Hack is like if Ice Metal tried to be serious, and tried to be Redesign.
An endless supply of new graphics and new levels sounds awesome in its own right, but phazon hack spreads itself too thin in terms of content and is really just an over-sized hack with muddled quality in every area.
The graphics are either ripped or obviously imported from photoshop with no evidence of an artful hand in any of the areas, with frequently dull palettes that do no justice.
New features, like the navigation room, seem innovative, but really just end up being make-up measures for the oversized, directionless world that you simply can't navigate yourself.
Samus's movement and physics are no different, which is fine, but feels clunky and irritating when considering the hacks open source contemporaries, like Project Base. It feels like there's no reason to not at least have spinjump restart.
All of the weapons are so obnoxiously weak, it makes ice and wave beam on redesign look like plasma beam in the original.
The enemies are frequently indestructible and do trillions of damage per hit, making later game navigation frustrating bullshit.
Finally, permastucks. Stupid ones, too, like red gates leading to one-way areas, or cages made out of respawning speedbooster blocks. It's like they were intentional.
When I think about it, the only good quality about this hack is that it's done. Lots of other hacks have managed this, and they didn't receive their good rating simply for that.
Others enjoy it, but I hate this hack. Don't play it. There are much better ways of spending your time right here on the hacks page.
An endless supply of new graphics and new levels sounds awesome in its own right, but phazon hack spreads itself too thin in terms of content and is really just an over-sized hack with muddled quality in every area.
The graphics are either ripped or obviously imported from photoshop with no evidence of an artful hand in any of the areas, with frequently dull palettes that do no justice.
New features, like the navigation room, seem innovative, but really just end up being make-up measures for the oversized, directionless world that you simply can't navigate yourself.
Samus's movement and physics are no different, which is fine, but feels clunky and irritating when considering the hacks open source contemporaries, like Project Base. It feels like there's no reason to not at least have spinjump restart.
All of the weapons are so obnoxiously weak, it makes ice and wave beam on redesign look like plasma beam in the original.
The enemies are frequently indestructible and do trillions of damage per hit, making later game navigation frustrating bullshit.
Finally, permastucks. Stupid ones, too, like red gates leading to one-way areas, or cages made out of respawning speedbooster blocks. It's like they were intentional.
When I think about it, the only good quality about this hack is that it's done. Lots of other hacks have managed this, and they didn't receive their good rating simply for that.
Others enjoy it, but I hate this hack. Don't play it. There are much better ways of spending your time right here on the hacks page.
The first and most obvious things you notice about this hack are that just about every sort of graphical object has been touched in some way, which is impressive in itself no matter how it was done. You are offered a massive world to explore, and to help guide you there are some boards scattered about in specific areas. The thing I enjoyed most about the boards are that they showed the area and general location of the next item, but nothing else. It gives you a general sense of direction, but without holding your hand.
There are reasons to knock this hack though. Once again, a hack completely disregards Beams being useful. Enemies go from taking a crap ton of shots to destroy, to slightly less than a crap ton of shots to destroy. Ice Beam is once again made completely useless by actually weakening the beam combo overall. Beams don't feel like rewards, which is a shame because they should feel like some of the biggest in whatever hack they're in. The one saving factor here is that you don't have to pause to change your beams around to damage enemies. (Not that it would matter.)
In any case, this is still a hack worth playing. There is a lot of area to explore through, and plenty of new things to keep your interest throughout.
There are reasons to knock this hack though. Once again, a hack completely disregards Beams being useful. Enemies go from taking a crap ton of shots to destroy, to slightly less than a crap ton of shots to destroy. Ice Beam is once again made completely useless by actually weakening the beam combo overall. Beams don't feel like rewards, which is a shame because they should feel like some of the biggest in whatever hack they're in. The one saving factor here is that you don't have to pause to change your beams around to damage enemies. (Not that it would matter.)
In any case, this is still a hack worth playing. There is a lot of area to explore through, and plenty of new things to keep your interest throughout.
I enjoyed my time with this hack. The complete graphical overhaul kept me interested, and I wanted to keep playing more and more just to see what was done with the next areas, bosses, and items. It does have issues with lack of direction at times, and some enemies take too many shots to kill and break the flow. The final area is a bit too long, and the ending has some potential but is anti-climactic. The promise of a lot of new custom things is what made it worth playing for me.
It's a complete graphical overhaul and uses areas that aren't the standard Super Metroid ones, which is already a huge bonus in my book.
This game looks amazing. I love the GFX choices and how it is a huge reference to the prime series. I loved and enjoyed this hack through and through and love the reward for those who are of the collecting type :3
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png)
No animals to be saved.
All 50 Phazon Particles collected.
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''.
All 50 Phazon Particles collected.
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''.
Great graphics and gameplay, but I have no idea where I'm going
This hack gets a gold star for being unique. It has a different feel than most of the other ones. I played through half of it before I realized I wasn't on the most recent version, and converting over the latest one was... interesting. But at least the map fills out now and remembers the rooms you've been in.
Ok, lets see...
This hack was somewhat frustrating at the beginning but that was my own fault. I just got this hack without reading the forums and didn't navigate through the planet with the help of the MAPS the hack does provide!
The difficulty is average and you don't really need to know that many tricks. The only downside many people already mentioned is that it takes some time to beat fierce enemies like 'pirates' and so on. Most of the time you will flee - looking for a safe corner and shoot enemies from there. Getting hit by everything else than small enemies is like getting hit by a truck. YOU WON'T SURVIVE several hits.
I liked the design and tiles and it had some nice details. Another thing that I want to point out, like others said, is that having the full beam combo is not the best option to deal damage. As soon as I didn't need DARK BEAM, I deactivated it for the sake of dealing SOME damage!
Last thing I want to critizise is... WHY ARE YOU NOT ABLE TO SCROLL THROUGH THE WHOLE MAP? (Got stuck for a significant amount of time finding my way to the end....)
This hack was somewhat frustrating at the beginning but that was my own fault. I just got this hack without reading the forums and didn't navigate through the planet with the help of the MAPS the hack does provide!
The difficulty is average and you don't really need to know that many tricks. The only downside many people already mentioned is that it takes some time to beat fierce enemies like 'pirates' and so on. Most of the time you will flee - looking for a safe corner and shoot enemies from there. Getting hit by everything else than small enemies is like getting hit by a truck. YOU WON'T SURVIVE several hits.
I liked the design and tiles and it had some nice details. Another thing that I want to point out, like others said, is that having the full beam combo is not the best option to deal damage. As soon as I didn't need DARK BEAM, I deactivated it for the sake of dealing SOME damage!
Last thing I want to critizise is... WHY ARE YOU NOT ABLE TO SCROLL THROUGH THE WHOLE MAP? (Got stuck for a significant amount of time finding my way to the end....)
this hack is certainly one of the best that ive seen thus far. it is super difficult for most anyone who doesn't know what to expect out of it, but a few hours in this game will change how u play and how u take it. this hack is incredible and completely beatable, despite its ridiculous difficulty. I will tell u that, if u plan to play for 100%, u better check places u swear u thought u checked. that said, please try to enjoy this hack and give some love to the creators of it, they deserve it :)
Wonderful hack. Been playing it for years.
However there's always been a problem when playing on psp w/snes9xtyl.
012B48 to C2 fixes the equipment screen freeze bug.
No idea how every other emulator runs the WDM opcode...
However there's always been a problem when playing on psp w/snes9xtyl.
012B48 to C2 fixes the equipment screen freeze bug.
No idea how every other emulator runs the WDM opcode...
I have not finished this hack, not because it's that hard, but because I got bored some time into it. I may return to finish it at some point in the future, and perhaps add to this review at this time, but I think I've played enough to review.
This is one of those epic, complete hacks that radically changes the look and feel of the game. It's like a whole new game...and there is some really remarkable stuff about it that makes me say "WOW". That said, in the end it wasn't as fun to play as some other, less remarkable hacks.
I'll hit the pros and cons:
PROS:
+ Graphics. The look-and-feel is amazing...it feels like a completely different world. Some rooms just had me saying "wow" at how well-crafted they were. It's a lot more StarWars-esque than Metroid. The author of this hack clearly got the "world building" element of this...it has a consistent vibe or feel throughout the game, and it's richly developed. Each area of the game feels totally different from the others, and totally different from the original game. Seeing and exploring the world was what made me most interested.
+ Relatively accessible difficulty level. This is marked as "Veteran" but I find it much easier than, say, Eris, which I thought was a beautifully-crafted world but unplayably difficult.
+ Some great creative changes to bosses. Each boss somehow feels radically different from the original, even if it's super clear which boss each was derived from.
+ Great change to item order, leading to a very different feel for how the game progresses.
+ Original beam system. Some people complain about the way the beams work (activate many different ones and the result is weaker) but I like this -- in my opinion it fixes something that was broken or a weak point about the original super metroid, which is that the beams compound to become stronger so it usually makes sense to have them all turned on. This game makes you think and carefully choose which one(s) to have turned on -- turning them all on makes it weaker. Overall I think this leads for a MUCH better gameplay...it's more interesting and more fun, a richer experience.
CONS:
- My first pro was the graphics, so it's appropriate that my first con is also the graphics. Some graphics, particular tiles just look bad...sloppy, amateurish, blocky. There are areas where I feel like I'm playing an 8-bit game on a 16-bit platform.
- World is VAST and empty. Emphasis on the EMPTY. A huge portion of the time I spent playing this hack, I was just wandering around empty rooms...many had no enemies, no features worth mentioning, no secrets or items, nothing to do other than walk (or jump or climb) through them. VERY large roooms...WAAAY too big. This is true right from the start of the game and it doesn't seem to show much sign of slowing down for quite a ways into the game.
- Other users have complained about the game closing off areas to you that were previously accessible. Maybe the particular way this played out for me, it didn't bother me as much (I'm pretty thorough at exploring the first time around), but, even though I turned out okay (I think this was perhaps luck), I also don't like this aspect of the game.
That's it. But that second con is SOOOO bad that it docks it 2 stars for me. Seriously...I feel like this hack is so amazing and all the strong points of the hack are under-utilized by the mostly-empty, boring world which you will find yourself traversing over and over again figuring out where to go.
To point to other hacks that I think have elements that could be used to improve this one, Hyper Metroid also has a HUGE world but somehow makes it feel more connected and easily-traversible than Phazon hack did. Eris also manages to have an extensive world, but it's very dense and richly-packed with interesting features (although IMHO way too difficult.) I think Phazon hack could be improved by either making the world more compact and/or easier to traverse, or just making it richer and more interesting.
This is one of those epic, complete hacks that radically changes the look and feel of the game. It's like a whole new game...and there is some really remarkable stuff about it that makes me say "WOW". That said, in the end it wasn't as fun to play as some other, less remarkable hacks.
I'll hit the pros and cons:
PROS:
+ Graphics. The look-and-feel is amazing...it feels like a completely different world. Some rooms just had me saying "wow" at how well-crafted they were. It's a lot more StarWars-esque than Metroid. The author of this hack clearly got the "world building" element of this...it has a consistent vibe or feel throughout the game, and it's richly developed. Each area of the game feels totally different from the others, and totally different from the original game. Seeing and exploring the world was what made me most interested.
+ Relatively accessible difficulty level. This is marked as "Veteran" but I find it much easier than, say, Eris, which I thought was a beautifully-crafted world but unplayably difficult.
+ Some great creative changes to bosses. Each boss somehow feels radically different from the original, even if it's super clear which boss each was derived from.
+ Great change to item order, leading to a very different feel for how the game progresses.
+ Original beam system. Some people complain about the way the beams work (activate many different ones and the result is weaker) but I like this -- in my opinion it fixes something that was broken or a weak point about the original super metroid, which is that the beams compound to become stronger so it usually makes sense to have them all turned on. This game makes you think and carefully choose which one(s) to have turned on -- turning them all on makes it weaker. Overall I think this leads for a MUCH better gameplay...it's more interesting and more fun, a richer experience.
CONS:
- My first pro was the graphics, so it's appropriate that my first con is also the graphics. Some graphics, particular tiles just look bad...sloppy, amateurish, blocky. There are areas where I feel like I'm playing an 8-bit game on a 16-bit platform.
- World is VAST and empty. Emphasis on the EMPTY. A huge portion of the time I spent playing this hack, I was just wandering around empty rooms...many had no enemies, no features worth mentioning, no secrets or items, nothing to do other than walk (or jump or climb) through them. VERY large roooms...WAAAY too big. This is true right from the start of the game and it doesn't seem to show much sign of slowing down for quite a ways into the game.
- Other users have complained about the game closing off areas to you that were previously accessible. Maybe the particular way this played out for me, it didn't bother me as much (I'm pretty thorough at exploring the first time around), but, even though I turned out okay (I think this was perhaps luck), I also don't like this aspect of the game.
That's it. But that second con is SOOOO bad that it docks it 2 stars for me. Seriously...I feel like this hack is so amazing and all the strong points of the hack are under-utilized by the mostly-empty, boring world which you will find yourself traversing over and over again figuring out where to go.
To point to other hacks that I think have elements that could be used to improve this one, Hyper Metroid also has a HUGE world but somehow makes it feel more connected and easily-traversible than Phazon hack did. Eris also manages to have an extensive world, but it's very dense and richly-packed with interesting features (although IMHO way too difficult.) I think Phazon hack could be improved by either making the world more compact and/or easier to traverse, or just making it richer and more interesting.
A certain necessary item took forever and the beam combination quirk was kinda cool. I felt lost for a really long time. But that's good.
I will say, this has the worst Tourian I've gone through. Went on for way too long and there was nothing special. Also a fight can just be skipped if you're observant enough.
I will say, this has the worst Tourian I've gone through. Went on for way too long and there was nothing special. Also a fight can just be skipped if you're observant enough.
I finished the Hack, I was really interested in it as soon as I started since it looked amazing and new. I like how the monsters look like as well as the level design
Yet I still do not know what the Phazon particles did, and at the 6 hours mark, I started to get bored and frustrated, since the map was really big and I could not find any way to go for like 2 hours
Thus, even though I really like the Hack at the end the only thing I wanted to do was to finish it
so that is why it gave it 3 starts
Yet I still do not know what the Phazon particles did, and at the 6 hours mark, I started to get bored and frustrated, since the map was really big and I could not find any way to go for like 2 hours
Thus, even though I really like the Hack at the end the only thing I wanted to do was to finish it
so that is why it gave it 3 starts
"0.3 Review"
Now this hack is definitely special. I remember playing this as one of my first hacks ever in 2013 but never finishing it until now.
Red Monkey, the author, claims on the forum thread that "Super metroid Phazon Hack is a full hack for people new to Super metroid hacks."
While this hack is not super difficult I would not recommend it to a new player. Exploration difficulty is much higher than in vanilla. You get hints via navigation rooms but you will likely still search a while for the next major item. It also took me a while to figure out that certain doors can be opened with Grapple Beam.
Beam upgrades are extremely weak unless you use different combinations (read: disable Dark Beam) which makes it bearable but enemies still feel like sponges. They also deal a lot of damage especially late game. As a result you often find yourself forced to use Super and Phazon missiles which aren't that easy to refill.
The last area felt a little disappointing for taking 9 items to access.
Also, the game froze 2 times on me in the Phazon Mines for some reason.
That said this is definitely a good and unique hack. You can see the effort that went into this with remade graphics and you really feel that this is a different world and not Zebes.
I do recommend this hack as it absolutely is worth playing. Despite weak upgrades and a disappointing final area, the rest is good enough to rate it 4-orbs.
Now this hack is definitely special. I remember playing this as one of my first hacks ever in 2013 but never finishing it until now.
Red Monkey, the author, claims on the forum thread that "Super metroid Phazon Hack is a full hack for people new to Super metroid hacks."
While this hack is not super difficult I would not recommend it to a new player. Exploration difficulty is much higher than in vanilla. You get hints via navigation rooms but you will likely still search a while for the next major item. It also took me a while to figure out that certain doors can be opened with Grapple Beam.
Beam upgrades are extremely weak unless you use different combinations (read: disable Dark Beam) which makes it bearable but enemies still feel like sponges. They also deal a lot of damage especially late game. As a result you often find yourself forced to use Super and Phazon missiles which aren't that easy to refill.
The last area felt a little disappointing for taking 9 items to access.
Also, the game froze 2 times on me in the Phazon Mines for some reason.
That said this is definitely a good and unique hack. You can see the effort that went into this with remade graphics and you really feel that this is a different world and not Zebes.
I do recommend this hack as it absolutely is worth playing. Despite weak upgrades and a disappointing final area, the rest is good enough to rate it 4-orbs.
For 0.3 (spoilers)
Too bad this hack wasnt that fun, I would give a 4 if the enemies were less tanky and that the map was better designed.
It really feel like few planing was done for the whole map layout and how progression go, getting lost but for too long need to use a guided playthrough. I was young, I was bad, didnt understood where the dots were, but I still think it got too big of an explorable map.
I only remember liking the event where the volcano awake, that was really memorable and the blue phazon cavern at the end.
Those were high points, rest is really forgettable though. Too big and empty, quantity over quality, cant kill even the basic enemies fast enough, missiles felt useless which are even "supers" in this and that doesn't resonate with joy.
I mostly forgot, this uses full custom graphic, its crazy on that level, I approve of the effort. However after seeing Albert and Ted custom graphics and other great pixel art modifications, this still looks like my first fangame graphic in some parts, it looks okay. Where everything metal looks like plastic and flat in a way that doesnt use the full colors range. Also alot of random filler patterns and photoshop bevels shaded squares that makes it looks worse than SM vanilla. Caverns look better, but some spots too dark to see samus proper though.
But man its all custom, all, and still decent looking, not great but decent. Also custom graphic for bosses and the bigs ones too yo!
Too bad this hack wasnt that fun, I would give a 4 if the enemies were less tanky and that the map was better designed.
It really feel like few planing was done for the whole map layout and how progression go, getting lost but for too long need to use a guided playthrough. I was young, I was bad, didnt understood where the dots were, but I still think it got too big of an explorable map.
I only remember liking the event where the volcano awake, that was really memorable and the blue phazon cavern at the end.
Those were high points, rest is really forgettable though. Too big and empty, quantity over quality, cant kill even the basic enemies fast enough, missiles felt useless which are even "supers" in this and that doesn't resonate with joy.
I mostly forgot, this uses full custom graphic, its crazy on that level, I approve of the effort. However after seeing Albert and Ted custom graphics and other great pixel art modifications, this still looks like my first fangame graphic in some parts, it looks okay. Where everything metal looks like plastic and flat in a way that doesnt use the full colors range. Also alot of random filler patterns and photoshop bevels shaded squares that makes it looks worse than SM vanilla. Caverns look better, but some spots too dark to see samus proper though.
But man its all custom, all, and still decent looking, not great but decent. Also custom graphic for bosses and the bigs ones too yo!
This is for the hidden 0.4 version, also now known as "Alternate M: Episode Phazon" (I still have no idea why he/she didn't post the update in the main site lol). Spoiler free, first game file.
I really was a fan of this hack when 0.3 came out, too bad I wasn't good at exploration and got lost trying to find the remaining Valkyrie Keys. I decided to give the newer version another shot and boy, the changes make this game considerably better. I was blown away right from the game intro to the new mechanics implemented right away. Really foreshadows what are going to your obstacles in later parts of the game and whatnot.
The map is enormous as always (and I think bigger than before, but I digress...) and there are quite some buffed enemies along the way (I realized that they're stronger than some bosses!), and it's pretty much the two main reasons why it can't really get that glorious 4.5 to even the sweet 5 orb hack (yes, not stars); alongside the beam combos that trade strength and power with speed, of which I think is a bit unnecesary, but I guess it wants to give you another way of treating beams (like individual weapons that get "heavier"(?) rather than simple upgrades).
What I thought quite questionable were the last two bosses and the reserve tank system. The fact that you really don't get that energy in decimals, but rather in sexagesimals (might be hexadecimals though but idk); and that max% is 98 (according to some people), must've been fixed (if it even is possible). Also, keeping the Space Jump counter is something I don't really like, but I kinda got used to falling 3 room tall pits...
Other than that and a couple of bugs, this is a quite solid hack! With a bit of challenge nonetheless. I'll try and hunt those damned Phazon particles later, I need to play other hacks.
I really was a fan of this hack when 0.3 came out, too bad I wasn't good at exploration and got lost trying to find the remaining Valkyrie Keys. I decided to give the newer version another shot and boy, the changes make this game considerably better. I was blown away right from the game intro to the new mechanics implemented right away. Really foreshadows what are going to your obstacles in later parts of the game and whatnot.
The map is enormous as always (and I think bigger than before, but I digress...) and there are quite some buffed enemies along the way (I realized that they're stronger than some bosses!), and it's pretty much the two main reasons why it can't really get that glorious 4.5 to even the sweet 5 orb hack (yes, not stars); alongside the beam combos that trade strength and power with speed, of which I think is a bit unnecesary, but I guess it wants to give you another way of treating beams (like individual weapons that get "heavier"(?) rather than simple upgrades).
What I thought quite questionable were the last two bosses and the reserve tank system. The fact that you really don't get that energy in decimals, but rather in sexagesimals (might be hexadecimals though but idk); and that max% is 98 (according to some people), must've been fixed (if it even is possible). Also, keeping the Space Jump counter is something I don't really like, but I kinda got used to falling 3 room tall pits...
Other than that and a couple of bugs, this is a quite solid hack! With a bit of challenge nonetheless. I'll try and hunt those damned Phazon particles later, I need to play other hacks.
It's a great hack and worth your time but only if you've played the best full hacks already. The graphics are completely redone and that's pretty cool even if they aren't spectacular. The scope of this hack makes it a 4 for me even though I feel it's perhaps being generous. It's just that not many hacks manage to feel like a whole new game, and that to me is worth a whole lot.
I appreciate the effort that went into it but it suffers from a couple very annoying issues. The enemies are tedious to kill at times and hit too hard, especially the Pirates and Golden Torizo reskin bosses, the last of which I spent a good amount of time trying to kill only to realize there was a "twist". Thankfully they can be cheesed, but the first one I feel would have been next to impossible otherwise. I dealt with a few glitches and was glad I had rewind enabled, which I strongly recommend given this hacks other big issue. The room sizes and tedium inflicted if you make a mistake in navigation/platforming. It's very easy to get lost, and I shamefully admit to looking up a video once on where to go as I didn't want to waste any more of my time trying to figure it out. The scope is great at times but when you're looking for the ONE door to advance it can be irritating. Also the map was broken for the largest area of the game and I felt it was necessary to use a map I found on the internet for the last part of it, as it was getting too frustrating without a working map. This spoiled a couple secrets but honestly at that point I didn't mind saving some time. The phazon particles aren't too bad to find most of the time but a few lacked reasonable tell's that they may be there. The last area was very tedious to play through and I wish the grey pirates didn't exist as they were just annoying to kill. The Ridley boss glitched out my first time through the ending sequence and knowing something must be wrong I used rewind to go back and spawn him in as the game just skipped his room for me. Having the Phazon beam it was an easy fight but at that point I felt it was nice to experience the full game. I actually wish the Phazon Beam could be toggled off as it may of been nice to experience some challenge with the last few boss fights.
All that said it's few issues are only dampen, not ruin, an otherwise solid hack. I feel it could easily be better and I hope future revisions are able to alleviate some of these issues. Just rebalancing the damage given/taken would go a long way, although a more compact map in some area's really would be nice. Played Version 0.3, couldn't find the mentioned above 0.4 at first but I've got it now and am interested in giving it a try soon. I look forward to the future hacks this creator is working on as this really was an impressive experience despite it's flaws.
I appreciate the effort that went into it but it suffers from a couple very annoying issues. The enemies are tedious to kill at times and hit too hard, especially the Pirates and Golden Torizo reskin bosses, the last of which I spent a good amount of time trying to kill only to realize there was a "twist". Thankfully they can be cheesed, but the first one I feel would have been next to impossible otherwise. I dealt with a few glitches and was glad I had rewind enabled, which I strongly recommend given this hacks other big issue. The room sizes and tedium inflicted if you make a mistake in navigation/platforming. It's very easy to get lost, and I shamefully admit to looking up a video once on where to go as I didn't want to waste any more of my time trying to figure it out. The scope is great at times but when you're looking for the ONE door to advance it can be irritating. Also the map was broken for the largest area of the game and I felt it was necessary to use a map I found on the internet for the last part of it, as it was getting too frustrating without a working map. This spoiled a couple secrets but honestly at that point I didn't mind saving some time. The phazon particles aren't too bad to find most of the time but a few lacked reasonable tell's that they may be there. The last area was very tedious to play through and I wish the grey pirates didn't exist as they were just annoying to kill. The Ridley boss glitched out my first time through the ending sequence and knowing something must be wrong I used rewind to go back and spawn him in as the game just skipped his room for me. Having the Phazon beam it was an easy fight but at that point I felt it was nice to experience the full game. I actually wish the Phazon Beam could be toggled off as it may of been nice to experience some challenge with the last few boss fights.
All that said it's few issues are only dampen, not ruin, an otherwise solid hack. I feel it could easily be better and I hope future revisions are able to alleviate some of these issues. Just rebalancing the damage given/taken would go a long way, although a more compact map in some area's really would be nice. Played Version 0.3, couldn't find the mentioned above 0.4 at first but I've got it now and am interested in giving it a try soon. I look forward to the future hacks this creator is working on as this really was an impressive experience despite it's flaws.
Way too many damage,map that don't scroll all the way through,annoying level design and enemy placements,not really that fun,i gave up after getting light beam. No item detector making you lost in try to get 100%. Why the missile upgrades and power bomb upgrades only give 2? If some of these issues get fixed in 0.4,the rate will be higher.
Phazon Hack 0.3
It's not as good as it appaers, for now... the level & enemy designs are great, the exploration factor is great too, but... Energy Recharge Blue Sphere is bad idea, it's annoying to wait, it's better the classic Energy Recharge Station, the X-Ray Scope doesn't show some hidden paths, it has some wrong enemy & platforms placements, Dark & Light Beams are too slow, weak & almost useless, the Warp Zone is confused & tedious, isn't possible see the entire map screen on Tetrafuse Zone & isn't accesible on Warp Zone, it doesn't show the item locations & has some graphical glitches where some parts that you already visited have disappeared, if the map screen were like Hyper Metroid or Super Metroid: Escape II would be fantastic!, there's bugs that freeze the game sometimes, the Space Jump is trash!, I had many problems with it, I continuously fell down in open areas, it's necessary the Re-spin & the ending is very hurried on, two bosses continuous?, one after another isn't good & the WORST SHIT is the mockball trick, it's not required to finish the game, but is required for the 100% completion, nobody needs this trick, with the wall jump trick is enough.
For now, Phazon Hack 0.3 is an average hack, but it has potential!, great potential to become one of the best hacks of this site!, A_red_monk_called_Key we need the version 1.0!, all complete, optimized & finished without silly tricks that damage the game's fluidity
It's not as good as it appaers, for now... the level & enemy designs are great, the exploration factor is great too, but... Energy Recharge Blue Sphere is bad idea, it's annoying to wait, it's better the classic Energy Recharge Station, the X-Ray Scope doesn't show some hidden paths, it has some wrong enemy & platforms placements, Dark & Light Beams are too slow, weak & almost useless, the Warp Zone is confused & tedious, isn't possible see the entire map screen on Tetrafuse Zone & isn't accesible on Warp Zone, it doesn't show the item locations & has some graphical glitches where some parts that you already visited have disappeared, if the map screen were like Hyper Metroid or Super Metroid: Escape II would be fantastic!, there's bugs that freeze the game sometimes, the Space Jump is trash!, I had many problems with it, I continuously fell down in open areas, it's necessary the Re-spin & the ending is very hurried on, two bosses continuous?, one after another isn't good & the WORST SHIT is the mockball trick, it's not required to finish the game, but is required for the 100% completion, nobody needs this trick, with the wall jump trick is enough.
For now, Phazon Hack 0.3 is an average hack, but it has potential!, great potential to become one of the best hacks of this site!, A_red_monk_called_Key we need the version 1.0!, all complete, optimized & finished without silly tricks that damage the game's fluidity
still waiting for full release :)
Beat 0.3 a while back and just completed 0.4 again now. Always love how complete this hack is while just being a beta version. But please, make dark/light beam fire quicker and space jump have a wider window to jump in the air. And add respin. That Ridley fight was insane had it not been for me patching re-spin myself. Apart from that, true masterpiece. You will get lost, but every time you vastly explore you'll always find some level of progression. Would've loved a timer in the ending.
Oh, and loved that double white duo, but GOD DAMN would I have loved to refill before entering and since my last save was so far back I had to work my ass to beat them.
Beat 0.3 a while back and just completed 0.4 again now. Always love how complete this hack is while just being a beta version. But please, make dark/light beam fire quicker and space jump have a wider window to jump in the air. And add respin. That Ridley fight was insane had it not been for me patching re-spin myself. Apart from that, true masterpiece. You will get lost, but every time you vastly explore you'll always find some level of progression. Would've loved a timer in the ending.
Oh, and loved that double white duo, but GOD DAMN would I have loved to refill before entering and since my last save was so far back I had to work my ass to beat them.
(V0.4.2) After an embarassing mistake with installation, I played through Timeline 1. It was mostly good, but the upgrades were all weakened pretty bad. SMs and PBs only give 2 per tank, in a game where your beam is basically only for doors and freezing with Dark Beam. Map gets confusing at the end of the game, where you board the Valkyrie XI. The bosses were creatively designed, but almost everything in the game can 5-shot you, even at 1499 HP. Phazon Beam was the only way I was able to beat the game quickly enough to escape the planet's explosion, and that took at least 6 hours of searching to find all 50 particles. Timeline 1 Rating: 60%
Timeline 2 is different, with the Light/Dark World aesthetic of Prime 2. The item locations change, the map itself has subtle differences between worlds, and the game is overall twice as hard, because you have double the ground to cover. I still haven't finished Timeline 2, due to encountering some game-breaking softlock glitches, where you enter a boss room, but it doesn't spawn, and you're locked in until you kill an unspawned boss. Shields and Beams are just as weak as TL1. Power-ups change little, as you get so few overall ammo. Ranking: 60%
Timeline 3: Completely non-functional, doesn't load up past the intro cutscene explaining the story. Rating: 0%
This game has enormous potential, but because the dev is basically trying to make 3 games in 1, it's gotten spread so thin that it's clearly broken in certain places. That said, it's also clearly unfinished, and it's not even V0.5 yet. We may be pleasantly surprised by the next update.
120/300 points Overall Rating: 40%
Timeline 2 is different, with the Light/Dark World aesthetic of Prime 2. The item locations change, the map itself has subtle differences between worlds, and the game is overall twice as hard, because you have double the ground to cover. I still haven't finished Timeline 2, due to encountering some game-breaking softlock glitches, where you enter a boss room, but it doesn't spawn, and you're locked in until you kill an unspawned boss. Shields and Beams are just as weak as TL1. Power-ups change little, as you get so few overall ammo. Ranking: 60%
Timeline 3: Completely non-functional, doesn't load up past the intro cutscene explaining the story. Rating: 0%
This game has enormous potential, but because the dev is basically trying to make 3 games in 1, it's gotten spread so thin that it's clearly broken in certain places. That said, it's also clearly unfinished, and it's not even V0.5 yet. We may be pleasantly surprised by the next update.
120/300 points Overall Rating: 40%
In addition to being glitch-gated, this unfinished metroidvania is listed under the wrong category. Instead of being listed under "incomplete" it is instead listed under "exploration" (should be called "metroidvania" instead IMHO). This is quite serious since the mod in its current state is not stable and will crash at certain points. I'll change the rating to 3/5 if the mod is moved to the correct category, until then 2/5 orbs.
Clear stats are from after playing Phazon Hack 0.3 twice so I'm already mostly familiar with the progression.
Short review: If you have completed version 0.3 recently, there isn't really enough different to warrant playing through 0.4 unless you really enjoyed it.
Since I'm going to make a comparison anyways, might as well as cover some of the changes. Compared to 0.3, 0.4 fixes some permastuck situations and a few bugs from the previous version. Some rooms are redesigned too so they're less annoying. The hint rooms for Phazon Particles are much easier to locate; no more finding passages invisible to X-ray to find them. Some exploits from 0.3 are gone and there's a new key system where different beams are needed to open certain doors ala Metroid Prime. There are a couple of minor bugs (such as a power bomb door being recolored into a metal door) that weren't in the previous version but on the whole, this is a more polished release.
So what to expect if you're new to Phazon Hack. First, the world is big. This is both a strength and a weakness. There's a lot to explore and lots of items to find but can feel slow to crisscross the map and can get overwhelming. To ease things a bit, there are navigation rooms that indicate the direction of the next major upgrade. A Warp Zone also opens up at some point which cuts down on travel time between regions. And the changed graphics really do make it feel like a different world. The tilework gives a unique feel and most of the enemy roster has different appearances to better fit the new world. The quality of the enemy sprite changes does vary quite a bit, ranging from so-so to clever but I don't remember anything that sank below mediocre.
It's littered with references to other Metroid games, mostly Prime. From the fact you're controlling Dark Samus, to the renames of some of the items, and even some references in the environment and the enemy resprites.
Physics and movement are mostly vanilla though beam damage has been a great deal. It's worth experimenting with different combos to find one that suits your playing style due to sometimes big differences in firing rate and damage output. Enemy behavior is nearly entirely vanilla (other than the few times it isn't) so the strategies that serve you with dealing with enemies normally will still apply when you recognize which enemy the new ones are replacing. It generally doesn't require any advanced movement skills to complete the game which makes it more surprising the few times walljumping is required to advance.
The item order is rather unique. In particular, Bombs show rather late in the sequence so observation and paying attention to the environment is more important to find hidden items and passages.
There's a key hunt to enter the final area. It's not that difficult to find the keys; they're not locked behind particularly tricky to find secrets. There's also the optional Phazon Particle hunt. There are 50 scattered throughout the world. There is a reward for finding them all but as there doesn't appear to be much difference between finding 2 or finding 43, they will probably not be a factor for the first time playing this hack. There are hint rooms which will indicate how many are in each region and which ones have been found but that's all the ingame help provided. And you need to find them. (as mentioned, it's much easier to find them now)
And a couple of exploration tips for a less troublesome journey.
Energy recharge stations work much slower (something like 5 Energy a second) and energy drops are unchanged from vanilla. So other than finding a new Energy Tank, recharging your energy stock if it's depleted is going to be slow. So if you don't want to spend ages farming energy, don't run around recklessly taking damage from easily avoided hazards. Enemy damage is often higher to so it improves the pacing if you're paying more attention to not getting hit by easily avoided patterns.
It's rarely necessary to fight tanky enemies. With the beam damage revisions, some enemies can really take a beating and/or lots of ammo to kill. Often, with a little extra effort, one can avoid dealing with them entirely. While it is sometimes desirable to fight a tanky foe (enemy locked door, for one), I find looking for ways to avoid them preferable.
In the end, various little annoyances add up to lean me towards giving this 4 orbs rather than 5. Most have already been mentioned but there's also a late boss which takes shot after shot without stopping which can prevent a player from finishing the hack at all. There also a doorcap that changed colors from 0.3 but is opened the same way which threw me off. (and it's needed for one of the keys) It's still a higher quality hack and there's a lot of effort put into it but I'm not as inclined to recommend it unless one is already at the skill level to deal with its pacing.
There is an alternate world on file 2 but this review has already become massive so I'll hold off on that for now.
Short review: If you have completed version 0.3 recently, there isn't really enough different to warrant playing through 0.4 unless you really enjoyed it.
Since I'm going to make a comparison anyways, might as well as cover some of the changes. Compared to 0.3, 0.4 fixes some permastuck situations and a few bugs from the previous version. Some rooms are redesigned too so they're less annoying. The hint rooms for Phazon Particles are much easier to locate; no more finding passages invisible to X-ray to find them. Some exploits from 0.3 are gone and there's a new key system where different beams are needed to open certain doors ala Metroid Prime. There are a couple of minor bugs (such as a power bomb door being recolored into a metal door) that weren't in the previous version but on the whole, this is a more polished release.
So what to expect if you're new to Phazon Hack. First, the world is big. This is both a strength and a weakness. There's a lot to explore and lots of items to find but can feel slow to crisscross the map and can get overwhelming. To ease things a bit, there are navigation rooms that indicate the direction of the next major upgrade. A Warp Zone also opens up at some point which cuts down on travel time between regions. And the changed graphics really do make it feel like a different world. The tilework gives a unique feel and most of the enemy roster has different appearances to better fit the new world. The quality of the enemy sprite changes does vary quite a bit, ranging from so-so to clever but I don't remember anything that sank below mediocre.
It's littered with references to other Metroid games, mostly Prime. From the fact you're controlling Dark Samus, to the renames of some of the items, and even some references in the environment and the enemy resprites.
Physics and movement are mostly vanilla though beam damage has been a great deal. It's worth experimenting with different combos to find one that suits your playing style due to sometimes big differences in firing rate and damage output. Enemy behavior is nearly entirely vanilla (other than the few times it isn't) so the strategies that serve you with dealing with enemies normally will still apply when you recognize which enemy the new ones are replacing. It generally doesn't require any advanced movement skills to complete the game which makes it more surprising the few times walljumping is required to advance.
The item order is rather unique. In particular, Bombs show rather late in the sequence so observation and paying attention to the environment is more important to find hidden items and passages.
There's a key hunt to enter the final area. It's not that difficult to find the keys; they're not locked behind particularly tricky to find secrets. There's also the optional Phazon Particle hunt. There are 50 scattered throughout the world. There is a reward for finding them all but as there doesn't appear to be much difference between finding 2 or finding 43, they will probably not be a factor for the first time playing this hack. There are hint rooms which will indicate how many are in each region and which ones have been found but that's all the ingame help provided. And you need to find them. (as mentioned, it's much easier to find them now)
And a couple of exploration tips for a less troublesome journey.
Energy recharge stations work much slower (something like 5 Energy a second) and energy drops are unchanged from vanilla. So other than finding a new Energy Tank, recharging your energy stock if it's depleted is going to be slow. So if you don't want to spend ages farming energy, don't run around recklessly taking damage from easily avoided hazards. Enemy damage is often higher to so it improves the pacing if you're paying more attention to not getting hit by easily avoided patterns.
It's rarely necessary to fight tanky enemies. With the beam damage revisions, some enemies can really take a beating and/or lots of ammo to kill. Often, with a little extra effort, one can avoid dealing with them entirely. While it is sometimes desirable to fight a tanky foe (enemy locked door, for one), I find looking for ways to avoid them preferable.
In the end, various little annoyances add up to lean me towards giving this 4 orbs rather than 5. Most have already been mentioned but there's also a late boss which takes shot after shot without stopping which can prevent a player from finishing the hack at all. There also a doorcap that changed colors from 0.3 but is opened the same way which threw me off. (and it's needed for one of the keys) It's still a higher quality hack and there's a lot of effort put into it but I'm not as inclined to recommend it unless one is already at the skill level to deal with its pacing.
There is an alternate world on file 2 but this review has already become massive so I'll hold off on that for now.
Let's start at the beginning... Phazon 0.3 is in my all-time top tier; a five-orb classic from the golden age of SM hacking. Deep exploration, unique progression, and some of the most original, immersive world design this side of DMan – though game flow and difficulty leans more towards Eris than Vitality. A bit dated but definitely still relevant on its own. So, does 0.4 smooth off the rough edges of an aging hack and bring it into the modern era? Well… not exactly.
The main game is in first save file and does offer some welcome additions – new intro text fleshes out the experience and fits well with the game itself, Phazon Particle tracking boards have been placed adjacent to navigation booths for easier access and tracking, and updated tilesets give the feel of playing an HD remaster at times. But beyond these changes, experienced players will likely find it very samey compared to 0.3. The new door frequency system generally aligns with key progression items from the previous version and doesn’t change much in terms of access, aside from the reworked warp area. Worse, it adds another (and potentially confusing) layer to the door mechanics – we now have doors that require the usual consumable ammo, light/dark beam equips, and frequency additions – and many of these have overlapping colors. In the end it causes more problems than it solves. Some minor audio & visual bugs are present as well, nothing game-breaking but enough to be an annoyance at times. In total, 0.4 File 1 is probably more accessible to newcomers to the series than 0.3, but veterans of the older version may not see much of a reason to migrate.
Universe B is, sadly, not beatable. Even if you manage to find all of the keys – without the luxury of an accurate hint system, and some are placed rather randomly – and gather enough expansions for the 120+ missile ammo check door, the final area is incomplete with garbled tiles in both layers and a dead-end softlock right before the final bosses. It’s a shame too, as the main part of the game is quite enjoyable: The light world/dark world mechanic does an excellent job of evoking Echoes (right down to needing safe spots from the persistent environment damage), and the frequency system is much better-suited for this file as it keeps the explorable world from getting too big in light of the altered progression. Veteran 0.3 players and/or fans of deep exploration may still get some mileage out of it, with the realization that there won’t be a credit roll.
The verdict? Five orbs for 0.3, and I'm extremely glad that it's still available for download after the update. Three for 0.4 due to bugs, an incomplete second quest, and the fact that the beatable file really doesn’t do much to modernize the game as a whole. Hopefully this isn’t the end of Episode Phazon – it would be a shame if this amazing series goes out on a sour note.
The main game is in first save file and does offer some welcome additions – new intro text fleshes out the experience and fits well with the game itself, Phazon Particle tracking boards have been placed adjacent to navigation booths for easier access and tracking, and updated tilesets give the feel of playing an HD remaster at times. But beyond these changes, experienced players will likely find it very samey compared to 0.3. The new door frequency system generally aligns with key progression items from the previous version and doesn’t change much in terms of access, aside from the reworked warp area. Worse, it adds another (and potentially confusing) layer to the door mechanics – we now have doors that require the usual consumable ammo, light/dark beam equips, and frequency additions – and many of these have overlapping colors. In the end it causes more problems than it solves. Some minor audio & visual bugs are present as well, nothing game-breaking but enough to be an annoyance at times. In total, 0.4 File 1 is probably more accessible to newcomers to the series than 0.3, but veterans of the older version may not see much of a reason to migrate.
Universe B is, sadly, not beatable. Even if you manage to find all of the keys – without the luxury of an accurate hint system, and some are placed rather randomly – and gather enough expansions for the 120+ missile ammo check door, the final area is incomplete with garbled tiles in both layers and a dead-end softlock right before the final bosses. It’s a shame too, as the main part of the game is quite enjoyable: The light world/dark world mechanic does an excellent job of evoking Echoes (right down to needing safe spots from the persistent environment damage), and the frequency system is much better-suited for this file as it keeps the explorable world from getting too big in light of the altered progression. Veteran 0.3 players and/or fans of deep exploration may still get some mileage out of it, with the realization that there won’t be a credit roll.
The verdict? Five orbs for 0.3, and I'm extremely glad that it's still available for download after the update. Three for 0.4 due to bugs, an incomplete second quest, and the fact that the beatable file really doesn’t do much to modernize the game as a whole. Hopefully this isn’t the end of Episode Phazon – it would be a shame if this amazing series goes out on a sour note.
I played the original release of Phazon Hack back in 2012, but stopped playing SM hacks for many years; just getting back into it now. I hadn't remembered any of the playthrough done all those years ago, so today's playthrough was for all intents and purposes a blind one. Played Phazon v0.3 today and here are my thoughts:
CONS
- Enemies often take an unreasonable amount of hits to kill. Yes this hack is meant to be challenging, but there isn't much fun in sitting there for 10 minutes pounding the fire button just to get past one pirate. The problem is partially rectified by using a turbo button with spazer/wave combo, but even then it can take a crazy long time to kill some foes. Add to that some enemies are also immune to speed booster AND screw attack. I'm not talking about bosses here, I'm talking about pirates and some other basic enemies in some areas.
- Lack of navigational resources available to the player for the size of the world that the player is required to navigate. A number of times I spent a disturbing amount of time retracing my steps trying to figure out what to do next. Worst case of this, the search for power bombs had me very frustrated, basically spending almost 2 hours scouring the entire world before finally tapping out and looking at a video guide. Turns out I needed the space jump which was hidden in a spot I'd never think of going to.
- Lack of resource-replenish stations. The original game at least had Samus' ship where you could go for a full restoration of all your energy and weapons. No such station in this hack. Best you get is a couple of missile refill stations, and a few energy chargers which take half an hour to get you back to full energy. The creativity is a nice touch and everything, but why take all day to refill the energy?
- Dark Metroid warp area is counterintuitive and requires player to remember which paths go where.
- Map feature is glitched in some areas.
- No counters provided to help the player keep track of number of keys & particles already collected and how many are still out there. While the map in Valkryie provides some data, it would be nice to have access to this data in a clearer, more intuitive way, and throughout the game instead of only at the end.
- Game freezes permanently if you use X ray scope in the map room in Valkryie. Also, the game doesn't let you use X ray in the Phazon Mine Temple.
- Ridley exit door is positioned wrong - you can just skip the fight.
PROS
- The hack is very visually pleasing. The graphics look great. The tiles, backgrouds, sprites, pallettes all looked great to me. Not sure why some are complaining about the tiles... everything looked great to me!
- Inventive boss fights, including resprites of all bosses! The only fight I didn't enjoy was crocomire/train thingy... no difference from the 'fight' in the original game. Cool resprite though!
- Relatively early access to X ray scope combined with player-friendly tiles indicating where a hidden path is likely to be, for example blocks typically look crumbled (compared to normal blocks) when they can be shot to clear them. This is a welcome change from some other hacks that require you to bomb every tile in the game in search for hidden paths!
- BIG world with LOTS of paths going in various directions makes for many hours of fun navigation and gameplay! This hack had me glued all day long!
It's clear that a ton of work went into this project and I thank Red Monkey for making this hack. I'm giving it 5 orbs despite its drawbacks; this hack is easily one of the most fun and addictive I've ever played!
CONS
- Enemies often take an unreasonable amount of hits to kill. Yes this hack is meant to be challenging, but there isn't much fun in sitting there for 10 minutes pounding the fire button just to get past one pirate. The problem is partially rectified by using a turbo button with spazer/wave combo, but even then it can take a crazy long time to kill some foes. Add to that some enemies are also immune to speed booster AND screw attack. I'm not talking about bosses here, I'm talking about pirates and some other basic enemies in some areas.
- Lack of navigational resources available to the player for the size of the world that the player is required to navigate. A number of times I spent a disturbing amount of time retracing my steps trying to figure out what to do next. Worst case of this, the search for power bombs had me very frustrated, basically spending almost 2 hours scouring the entire world before finally tapping out and looking at a video guide. Turns out I needed the space jump which was hidden in a spot I'd never think of going to.
- Lack of resource-replenish stations. The original game at least had Samus' ship where you could go for a full restoration of all your energy and weapons. No such station in this hack. Best you get is a couple of missile refill stations, and a few energy chargers which take half an hour to get you back to full energy. The creativity is a nice touch and everything, but why take all day to refill the energy?
- Dark Metroid warp area is counterintuitive and requires player to remember which paths go where.
- Map feature is glitched in some areas.
- No counters provided to help the player keep track of number of keys & particles already collected and how many are still out there. While the map in Valkryie provides some data, it would be nice to have access to this data in a clearer, more intuitive way, and throughout the game instead of only at the end.
- Game freezes permanently if you use X ray scope in the map room in Valkryie. Also, the game doesn't let you use X ray in the Phazon Mine Temple.
- Ridley exit door is positioned wrong - you can just skip the fight.
PROS
- The hack is very visually pleasing. The graphics look great. The tiles, backgrouds, sprites, pallettes all looked great to me. Not sure why some are complaining about the tiles... everything looked great to me!
- Inventive boss fights, including resprites of all bosses! The only fight I didn't enjoy was crocomire/train thingy... no difference from the 'fight' in the original game. Cool resprite though!
- Relatively early access to X ray scope combined with player-friendly tiles indicating where a hidden path is likely to be, for example blocks typically look crumbled (compared to normal blocks) when they can be shot to clear them. This is a welcome change from some other hacks that require you to bomb every tile in the game in search for hidden paths!
- BIG world with LOTS of paths going in various directions makes for many hours of fun navigation and gameplay! This hack had me glued all day long!
It's clear that a ton of work went into this project and I thank Red Monkey for making this hack. I'm giving it 5 orbs despite its drawbacks; this hack is easily one of the most fun and addictive I've ever played!
Very interesting hack you can play as dark samus and it plays the same as normal samus with the difference that theres "phazon machines" in some places that heal you if you stay there its pretty unique for that mechanic the hack is hard also the map is very different but its good and the bosses are of super metroid but with "skins" and are a bit different to fight
For the time it came out, pretty amazing, but has some flaws. Beginning starts slow, middle is great, and end slows down again. Enemies have too much health, a ongoing complaint from many reviews. Maps are HUGE, good and bad depending on how you like it. End game requires keys ala prime style, which isnt too bad BUT 2 of them for me were a pain to find. ALSO, you better know how to crystal flash for the ending. just sayin.
I gave this hack a chance to open up and I liked it, even though there were some artifacts. It was cool to think and look for objects, a way forward. This hack taught me something and I had a great time.
While I did choose to score this hack with 5 orbs, I have a fair mixture of praise as well as some criticism. (Most of the criticism is levied towards changes introduced in 0.4. The 5 orbs reflect the overall experience across 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4.)
End of the day this is one of the best hacks that has ever graced our community and is a testament to how far ROM hacking has progressed.
I have had the unique privilege of experiencing 0.2. 0.3, and 0.4. Today marks the completion of my 0.4 playthrough that has stretched across roughly 2 years (off and on. We can blame Subversion for part of that.)
I encourage everybody to play this revision as well as the 0.3 campaign; I believe it is currently the most stable. (0.2 you'll have to search out on the forums. It's different enough that it also warrants a playthrough.)
Where Phazon Hack excels is in the graphics. 0.4 there is really no vanilla asset that hasn't been overhauled. Even the enemies don't resemble what they were in Super. There is a tremendous amount of creativity at play and it should be praised for that.
Next strongest category is level design and map design. Every region is unique and serves the hack's lore.
Are all rooms masterpieces? Many are yes, but there are lot of places, especially in Tetrafuse, where there is too much empty space. That being said, most rooms everywhere were fun to explore and get lost in.
SPOILERS:
Bosses were excellent, especially the final two in the escape. This was the first time I killed Phazon Ridley and it was a great fight.
There was one fight I thought needs to be rebalanced; it is the Twin Torizo battle in the Phazon Mines. It is also closely related to the general HP of enemies and how beam experimentation comes into play.
The Twin Torizo battle, there was a version of it in 0.3 and I don't remember it being so frustrating to finish.
In 0.4, I ended up having to cheese the fight. Even then it took 5-10 minutes of me mashing the fire button repeatedly. This boss has been needlessly buffed beyond any of the other ones in the game.
Maybe it's a problematic design. Maybe it's a skill issue on my part. I don't know. This can be a sore point of contention for many players trying this hack for the first time.
A point I see many people criticize is enemies can be ammo sponges at certain parts of the game, and if you have the wrong beam combo this effect can be augmented. My rationale is that's the rules of the game and it comes with the territory.
The Valkyrie Gear Hunt. This adds another element of exploration to the game. Sometimes I'm fond of this and sometimes it feels like it can drag out a campaign. I see this as more of a plus than a minus. There's only one per area (instead of 3 per area in Redesign. The Phazon Particle hunt is entirely optional if you're not interested in it.)
The physics are basically Vanilla, and the game is no worse for it. I thought it could benefit from respin and using the fixed space jump we encounter in hacks like Project Base.
0.4 has some very interesting and ambitious ideas being tested out that are unique to each save file. As far as I know, only the File slot 1 is completable. Even still, I'm quite intrigued by whatever ASM wizardry is at play.
End of the day this is one of the best hacks that has ever graced our community and is a testament to how far ROM hacking has progressed.
I have had the unique privilege of experiencing 0.2. 0.3, and 0.4. Today marks the completion of my 0.4 playthrough that has stretched across roughly 2 years (off and on. We can blame Subversion for part of that.)
I encourage everybody to play this revision as well as the 0.3 campaign; I believe it is currently the most stable. (0.2 you'll have to search out on the forums. It's different enough that it also warrants a playthrough.)
Where Phazon Hack excels is in the graphics. 0.4 there is really no vanilla asset that hasn't been overhauled. Even the enemies don't resemble what they were in Super. There is a tremendous amount of creativity at play and it should be praised for that.
Next strongest category is level design and map design. Every region is unique and serves the hack's lore.
Are all rooms masterpieces? Many are yes, but there are lot of places, especially in Tetrafuse, where there is too much empty space. That being said, most rooms everywhere were fun to explore and get lost in.
SPOILERS:
Bosses were excellent, especially the final two in the escape. This was the first time I killed Phazon Ridley and it was a great fight.
There was one fight I thought needs to be rebalanced; it is the Twin Torizo battle in the Phazon Mines. It is also closely related to the general HP of enemies and how beam experimentation comes into play.
The Twin Torizo battle, there was a version of it in 0.3 and I don't remember it being so frustrating to finish.
In 0.4, I ended up having to cheese the fight. Even then it took 5-10 minutes of me mashing the fire button repeatedly. This boss has been needlessly buffed beyond any of the other ones in the game.
Maybe it's a problematic design. Maybe it's a skill issue on my part. I don't know. This can be a sore point of contention for many players trying this hack for the first time.
A point I see many people criticize is enemies can be ammo sponges at certain parts of the game, and if you have the wrong beam combo this effect can be augmented. My rationale is that's the rules of the game and it comes with the territory.
The Valkyrie Gear Hunt. This adds another element of exploration to the game. Sometimes I'm fond of this and sometimes it feels like it can drag out a campaign. I see this as more of a plus than a minus. There's only one per area (instead of 3 per area in Redesign. The Phazon Particle hunt is entirely optional if you're not interested in it.)
The physics are basically Vanilla, and the game is no worse for it. I thought it could benefit from respin and using the fixed space jump we encounter in hacks like Project Base.
0.4 has some very interesting and ambitious ideas being tested out that are unique to each save file. As far as I know, only the File slot 1 is completable. Even still, I'm quite intrigued by whatever ASM wizardry is at play.
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