Super Metroid: Hermit Kingdom
Release date: Feb 02, 2017
Author: Kojakt
Download: Version 1.3, Unheadered (2393 downloads)
Genre: Exploration [?]
Game: SM
Difficulty: Vanilla [?]
Average runtime: 2:45
Average collection: 89%
Read Me: [None]
Forum Thread: [None]
Rating: Star Star Star Star Star
Description
Under a new leadership hierarchy, the space pirates have remade themselves as a legitimate, law-abiding organization, and have rebuilt their base on a new Planet Zebes. But, there was a problem... the company they used to build the base was headquartered in North Korea, which violated Galactic Federation regulations. It's up to Samus to destroy the base and, if possible, identify the new leader of the space pirates and collect all 103 upgrades within the compound.

...
Note: Missile counts in screen shots are not accurate

...
This is my first attempt at hacking, and it's been frustrating, but ultimately rewarding. This is a very unpolished hack, but after a lot of help, it functions as intended, with very little that I wasn't able to make to my liking. My main purpose when I decided to create a hack was to make it easy to beat, hard to beat quickly, and most importantly, fun. I'm happy with the results, and I hope it's an enjoyable experience for anyone who plays it. Lastly, I wouldn't have been able to make this without enormous amounts of help from Leodox, as well as lots of help from the devoted and awesome community here at Metroid Construction, some great videos by Shadow and MetroidMST, Grime's Mod Manual, tips from Person, and testing and better box art by GoopQ. Thank you all so much. You've helped me more than most of you will know. Creating a hack was just a pipe dream at one point, so it's a little surreal and really satisfying to have actually made one. With that, I hope you enjoy Super Metroid: Hermit Kingdom.

-Kojakt

Box cover art made using these images. Credit and thanks to their creators:
http://img10.deviantart.net/b340/i/2013/192/2/4/samus_aran___metroid_by_pe_crowd-d6c3s51.png
http://pre09.deviantart.net/c8f2/th/pre/i/2009/295/0/9/zebus_cave_by_orioto.jpg
http://www.metroid-database.com/bestiary/artwork/thm/cro_torizogray_sm_thm.jpg
Screenshots
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Ratings and Reviews
By MetroidMst on Feb 19, 2017 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 0:00
This is a halfhack that throws some unexpected twists at the player, and probably the most creative use of Crocomire in any hack. Also some nice little bits here and there. In the end though, it's not much more than a fairly well done halfhack. The one really interesting thing happens in the early portion of the game, and the back half is quite probably going to be bogged down by searching for one item.

It's a fairly solid hack and decent entry into the Super Metroid hack world though, and for a first hack it definitely shows some nice promise.
By jamablues on May 08, 2017 (Star Star Star Star Star )
102% in 0:00
I love this game because you have to learn how to do some blue suit tricks in order to get 102% you don't have know the hard stuff to complete the game, but it was really fun to learn more and get all the items!
By Aran;Jaeger on Aug 25, 2017 (Star Star Star Star Star )
97% in 2:21
[Watch Video]  
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''.
By Croakomire on Nov 24, 2017 (Star Star Star Star Star )
88% in 3:10
For a halfhack this is quite well done, for a first hack this is quite well done, throw those two factors together and you get a very well done creation, the progression masterfully tells a story of how the hacker's skills developed too, which adds a lot to the experience, would highly recommend, very satisfying speed blocks
By PassivePac-Man on Feb 18, 2018 (Star Star Star Star Star )
92% in 3:09
Good hack. I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's one of the few hacks I couldn't put down.

Some items were hidden very well, however, even some that you need to finish the game. I spent a good hour looking around for a single item that I needed to move forward.

The boss order was creative, as was some of the key item order.
By Syphon on Dec 12, 2019 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 2:42
As someone who is not a big fan of halfhacks this one is pretty decent.

Very interesting boss and item order. Crocomire and SpoSpo locations were really surprising.
There isn't that much to criticize other than well... that it's a halfhack and that Speed Booster was in a location that didn't even cross my mind until I got back to it and the solution to get it isn't that obvious at first.

The game isn't particularly difficult other than finding Speed Booster and some optional Shinespark/Blue Suit challenges. You'll likely find yourself with more Energy Tanks than you will ever need as they get basically thrown at you.

I recommend it.
By Chish on Jul 01, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
Very excellent! The pacing is great and I had a lot of fun. Despite being a half-hack, the method of play feels like a nice change of pace from vanilla. Additionally, I felt the difficulty was well-dialed-in. I really enjoyed a lot of the tricks this hack asked me to perform. The discoveries it enables feel nice.
By caauyjdp on Jul 11, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
90% in 4:48
A bad halfhack.
Lots of one way passages which force you to do a huge loop to get back. Some speedblocks that either mean that you're supposed to have a blue suit/do a short charge into mockball/that it's an exit/that hack is unfinished? One room pretty early on strongly hints that it's there for players to get spike suit, which I didn't learn yet. Maridia without gravity is forced, but there's shit ton of platforms added, so what's the point?
Found one broken door which leads into solid blocks, and one out of bounds.
Ketchup beam was nerfed into nothing?
Hack tosses you into rooms from other areas without even bothering to make them fit current one.
Map doesn't save properly. Has at least 4 etanks more than vanilla which leads to garbled hud gfx.
Got tired of this hack by the time I was done with brinstar.
By Pixel_Tiger on Jun 24, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
93% in 0:00
Decent vanilla half-hack with interesting rooms and routing. Not sure if fighting draygon first is the intended strat... if not, then sequence breaking is with no doubt possible (phantoon or even kraid first is also possible imo).

Tech required to finish the game: boost-mockball / short-charge

Escape offers enough time to get stuck for a bit even with the standard 3-minute mark. Very nice work for a first hack!
By Kremit44 on Dec 12, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
88% in 2:45
Half hack with some interesting mechanics and moments. Largely vanilla rooms rearranged with occasional modifications. It's fun and well made but it's certainly nothing special either. It's a fun casual playthrough with some optional puzzles that cater to experienced Metroid players.
By Sapphron on Feb 13, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
% in 0:39
Really open halfhack with quite a few changes and rearrangements. Quite a bit to do in this hack. Good for Kojakt's first hack, but I do wish there was more.
Finished.
Recommend as a halfhack.

note: This is retroactively reviewed, from February 24, 2019
(stats taken from my speedrun)
By Zhs2 on Oct 13, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
79% in 2:55
How it started: Interesting, what with your first upgrades being ball and power bombs. How it's going: Okay, so I've looped the world twice and have all of the necessary boss killing equipment, now where's the damn speedbooster?

At first we joked about how this wasn't even a halfhack, more like a 2% hack given that the majority of rooms and room connections are largely untouched save to relocate some upgrades into different walls. Later it showed it was actually a 5% hack what with a number of room connections snapped together to create late game gauntlets from unchanged vanilla rooms. No boss healths are different, and due to the order you can collect your equipment they'll all probably be really easy. That's all this hack really is, jumping hurdles on rooms you already know and beating Super Metroid as you know it, room by room. Crocomire was simultaneously the best and worst part of the hack, best for his creative usage of wallbreaking and worst because you have to know how to manage him with only ten missiles. It has some redesigned save rooms too but that's about it, just another version of Super Metroid that barely deviates from Super Metroid. I thought it was fun enough to recommend a playthrough, but it will look boring.
By neen on Sep 18, 2023 (Star Star Star Star Star )
77% in 2:16
some neat puzzles, but nothing too difficult. not terrible but not without some issues, like: there's a room in maridia that traps you in solid tiles if you go thru the door; and there is some map weirdness (maybe just on theme/flavor?).

i'd be interested in another kojakt hack if one exists, this seems mostly like an exercise in learning an editor.

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