Metroid: Oil Spill

Metroid: Oil Spill
Release date: Aug 01, 2019	Author: Spedimus	Download: Version 1.5 (US, Latest) (4666 downloads) Download: Version 1.3 (US) (1392 downloads)
Genre: Exploration [?] Game:	Difficulty: Veteran [?]	Average runtime: 1:47 Average collection: 50%
Read Me: [None]	Forum Thread: Release Thread	Rating:

Description

Metroid: Oil Spill is a Fusion hack testing the waters and interest in a non linear Fusion.

Story: Samus must infiltrate an suddenly abandoned Oil Freighter that is currently leaking a new and unknown type of oil. She must deploy the auto repair drones from inside the ship and hopefully save the wildlife from catastrophe!

Features:
- 5 Areas inside and outside of the frieghter
- Non linearity
- New palettes and tilesets
- More challenging platforming

Credits:
- Biospark for creating MAGE as well as the stackable beams + single wj patch
- PJBoy for the event++ hex tweak & the intro skip + missile expansion patches
- kkzero for his music fix hex tweak
- Mccad00 for help with the varia suit palette
- MetConst and MagConst for feedback and help!
- Mar99troid for Custom End %
- Thanks to Interdpth for help with Zazabi

1.5 Includes some small fixes outlined in the readme

Screenshots

Ratings and Reviews

By MultiDarkSamuses on Aug 02, 2019 (

)

No completion stats.

Definitely not a hack that someone like myself should play. Credit where it's due, for a challenge hack this works out really well. The puzzles push you to your limit and you really have to know the game well to get through the hack. The biggest issue is Zazabi's room. The platforms and acid together with the lack of morph bombs creates an unbearable level of difficulty. Aside from that, everything I got to see and played through was very well done.

By MetroidNerd#9001 on Aug 02, 2019 (

)

39% in 1:51

There are a lot of good and bad things about this hack. The story is good, and it's well implemented. The new tilesets look amazing. There are also a lot of really good puzzles. Unfortunately, the difficulty is very uninviting. This is the best full Fusion hack I've played, but it is still not outstanding. It takes a certain type of player to enjoy this hack.

The first half of the game is frustrating to get through. Progression is hard to find, and enemies do a lot of damage while having lots of health. Lacking bombs was annoying as it made navigation significantly harder than it needed to be. Especially by the time the path splits when you enter the ventilation area, there are so many places to go that lead nowhere that I stopped playing for a bit. You know your progression is rough when I considered fighting bosses in heated rooms without Varia to be the best option. This could have been fixed if the actual path to Varia was more clear about what you needed to do, as I thought I had just trapped myself in an unwinnable battle.

The second half of the game is much more enjoyable. When the game opens up again after unlocking the ship, I found myself really enjoying running around beating bosses and finding random pickups in rooms I couldn't get to before. I had never even found Speed Booster by the time I stumbled across the end of the game.

There are some glitches in this hack that are a bit annoying, but it's nothing too major. The biggest problem was fighting Zazabi without bombs, and that the oil did too much damage. (The high-damage oil is a problem throughout the hack, not just in that fight.) Some of the morph ball obstacles should have been made out of Screw Attack blocks to make navigation easier towards the end of the game. If the glitches are fixed, and the difficulty is balanced into fairness, I may consider replaying this hack. For now, be warned that playing this hack is a challenge, sometimes unfairly so.

By Multi-Man on Aug 08, 2019 (

)

18% in 1:26

I really enjoyed oil spill a lot. One of my favorite things about it is the non-linearity. My only problem is the Zazabi boss, but other than that, it was a really good hack.

Note: This is a review of Oil Spill 1.1

By caauyjdp on Aug 12, 2019 (

)

48% in 1:56

A really good fusion hack. There's a lot of freedom in terms of where you can get to and what you are able to skip.
"Veteran" difficulty is probably bit of an overstatement. I don't play fusion much and I tend to struggle with bosses in it, and this hack was at about same feel of difficulty when I started. After beating it a couple of times I'd say it might be even a bit easier than vanilla.

By Oi27 on Aug 14, 2019 (

)

11% in 0:50

Nice hack! The nonlinearity was well thought-out; I did a bunch of weird stuff and took some wrong turns; no softlocks, and I was able to finish it without collecting gravity or varia, or most of the items. The oil/acid dealt a lot of damage any time I ran into it, but that wasn't too much thankfully.
Other than that, the level design made for some really cool exploration.

By SN_Ivan on Aug 14, 2019 (

)

% in 1:10

Simply amazing.

Now seriously, a fusion hack where non-linearity is perfectly done? You don't get those often.
The recolors are great and the beams are Pog. This is just brilliant.

By alexman25 on Aug 15, 2019 (

)

39% in 1:40

Without a doubt the best Fusion hack to date. You did good Spedimus, I'm proud of you.

The non-linearity is great, all the palettes and tilesets look amazing, the layout is thought out, and I like all of the area themes.

The only thing I didn't like were a few places were a bit out of my skill level, but that's a personal problem on my end and I won't knock your score for it.

By Cpt.Glitch on Sep 14, 2019 (

)

31% in 1:30

Probably the best fusion hack so far. Level-design is nice and the puzzles for many items were very neat challenges. (Though nearly all of them are obsolete when you get Space Jump). As always, there are things I will complain about. Let's talk about the open hatches in boss rooms. I can imagine why these were left open or why they don't lock, but it allows for players to be knocked out of a boss fight, forcing them to restart it. This happened to me on Nightmare twice, which was VERY annoying. Also, while the double varia-X is neat, I would not have included them because of the graphical bug they cause. It removes polish from an otherwise polished hack. You could have asked me to find a solution for you :P I know asm too bud! Regardless, fun hack. Only really struggled with the bosses I mentioned above in terms of difficulty.

By SnakeLancer on Nov 10, 2019 (

)

27% in 2:10

I have to say I realy enjoyed this! Caught me up with a challenge, hell yeah. Well done! Just for future hacks that have an ending scene, maybe have some half-naked Samus as an ending reward on the screen or som- I M JOKING, lel. Or am I?

By GoldenTorizo on Nov 17, 2019 (

)

33% in 1:27

Easily one of the best Fusion hacks out there alongside Adam, Please. If only I could've got that stupid "Warning! No entry without Authorization!" voice to shut up. After I obtained Wave Beam, the voice just would not shut up.

By Syphon on Nov 18, 2019 (

)

31% in 1:46

It probably wasn't a smart idea to play a Fusion hack when I haven't played Fusion since when it came out but this is a great hack!

Loved the non-linear level design. I wasn't sure at first if it was intended to beat the game after getting Speed Booster but I saw that there were also Screw Attack blocks. I guess you could go back and explore a bit more to get whatever item you missed, in my case Screw Attack or just go and beat the game.

The difficulty was a bit high for me. The bosses and some of those puzzles with crumble blocks for optional items in particular. Like I said though I'm used to Super Metroid and haven't played Fusion in ages so this is on me.

Annoying was the constant "Warning! No entry without authorization!" announcement. It didn't even stop during the credits!

That said, I'm pleasantly surprised that a non-linear Fusion hack exists and hope that more will follow. This hack is fun and I fully recommend it.

By Sapphron on Mar 17, 2020 (

)

100% in 2:30

[version 1.5]
The best Fusion hack that will exist for a long time, I believe. Nonlinearity is executed extremely well, and nothing felt jank like it did in C.L.E.A.N. Station. Beams unfortunately suck, but it's a good thing actually! I used my missiles all the time which is what they're for. Everyone always uses the beams in Fusion instead of those.
The Cargo Hold's tileset was made entirely custom by Sped himself, and it looks great. Other tilesets are recolored/repaletted well. SA-X chases are well-implemented and don't feel shoehorned in at all. Mega-X fight is godly, too. That brings me into another point, the bosses in this hack are excellently balanced to fit their terrain well and don't really discourage you from killing them if you come in with bad upgrades or whatnot.
Overall, excellent hack. I recommend to all.
Max% is 48%, but v1.5 scales it up to 100%.

By Door Ladder on May 04, 2020 (

)

98% in 3:14

The most impressive Fusion romhack I have played to date. Gameplay is sadly not as long as I had hoped (about 50% of the length of Fusion's gameplay) but it still has a lot to offer. Many of the bosses are close together location-wise and are relatively quick to punch through with minimal backtracking involved, though some are much harder to defeat than in vanilla, due to reduced beam strength and increased boss health.

I wanted to 100% this game for fun, but sadly I could not find the last remaining item pickup no matter how hard I looked. I thoroughly searched the entire game map with diffusion missile spam and screw attack on every wall and still could not find it, hence the 98% collection rate.

I've heard about how difficult it is to circumvent Fusion's event scheduling system for making nonlinear hacks with custom non-sequential ability upgrades, so hats off to the developer of this mod for working hard alongside the community to find a good way to overcome it! The non-linearity of the hack is probably the most fun part, especially with the beam upgrades.

One thing I will say is that the Varia suit core-X fight relatively early on into the game is by far the most difficult boss fight I have ever done in any Metroid game. With 4 energy tanks and high jump, I still died at least 20-30 times to this boss over the course of two hours before finally beating it by sheer luck and use of savestates. The idea of having two core-X to fight was admittedly very clever, but the difficulty of that one fight far exceeded everything else I faced in the game by a wide margin.

The speed booster item rooms and the core-X and Yakuza boss fights had me using dozens or hundreds of savestate loads as well, due to their considerable difficulty. Some of the speed booster tricks for items had me going through 4-5 separate rooms across a dozen different boost segments whilst avoiding numerous deviously-placed enemies before finally reaching the item, which was very frustrating to say the least.

Some reviewers mentioned the Zazabi fight being extremely difficult - I found this to be the opposite. It was perhaps the easiest boss fight in the game. The hack must have been patched since their reviews, since Zazabi simply spat me back out immediately every time I was grabbed.

Sapphron mentioned SA-X chases being in the game on his review, which had me very excited when first going into the hack, but I was disappointed to discover this was just referring to simple and static hallway chases from the deformed (and this time totally unkillable) huge final SA-X form, not the regular samus-sized hunting-killing SA-X. I wish more was done with this idea than just that.

Some other strengths of this romhack over some of the others is its fully-developed map, more regular use of save rooms, and its new-player-friendly visual indicators of paths and level design showing areas where you'll be able to later access with potential future upgrades. These are some of the main things that make any 2d metroid game great, and Oil Spill seems to have been designed with the intent of continuing this solid level design choice. Really glad to see that since so many of the 2d metroid romhacks do not seem to do it.

My only real complaints with Oil Spill are the difficulty of locating hidden items/breakable tilepaths without the use of bombs, as well as the ice beam upgrade still being highly linear as an upgrade, being unattainable except in the final few minutes of gameplay in the last boss battle. It would have been much nicer if I could acquire it earlier and then play through the rest of the hack with ice beam. Perhaps in future hacks this can be improved on and sequence-broken as well, including the rest of the base game's ending. It'd be awesome to play through a fusion hack with custom ending cutscenes that are entirely fresh and new.

Overall, this romhack is a fantastic sequence-breaking modification for Fusion's base gameplay template, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. It's more like a slightly-compressed bossrush of vanilla fusion in a new map setting and some new custom sprites (loved the new beam and suit designs by the way!), with the difficulty of some of the bosses ramped up to 11, while others are just as easy to kill as in vanilla.

Thoroughly enjoyed. Would highly recommend to anyone.

By Azagroth on Aug 17, 2020 (

)

60% in 1:54

Really solid hack with some great level design that does allow for really challenging boss fights which are the best and worst part for me. Fighting bosses in the nerfed state actually made me feel like a kid again - I was scared of Nightmare and Yakuza for the first time in over 10 years. On the other hand that is also a part I was not super keen on as I am not one for challenging hacks. Still I have to give credit where credit is due - this is one of the most impressive hacks for a number of reasons and it is a Fusion one at that. I wish to note that my finish items were around 60% on my first run (I only post first run stats, realistically I beat this 3 times as of writing this).

Pros:
- diffifcult;
- non-linear;
- fun areas;
- new SA-X chase;
- Varia looks crisp;
- I really enjoyed how the music was used;
- takes away a key upgrade which makes you reconsider how you approach exploring (to an extent it does not turn it 180)

Cons:
- difficulty - if you are not looking for it look away from this one;
- some tiles were messed up;
- ending is a bit random.

By kkzero on Sep 13, 2020 (

)

52% in 1:42

For version 1.5.
Definitely the best full Fusion hack as of yet. The bosses are definitely kind of a pain given the fewer amount of items/tanks you generally have for them, but thanks to the nonlinearity of the hack, I found myself able to try another one if I was stuck (at least after I got the Varia Suit).
Now, there are some other lesser aspects of the hack, though they're really a result of Fusion being Fusion, and this hack being made before more recent patches like Glitch's item orbs asm or Kazuto's sequence breaking hack. Such aspects include the total lack of bombs (data rooms are weird), as well as the workarounds to hatches in the boss rooms being able to lock (they're hardcoded to the event you're on as well as the sector you're in). Despite this, Spedimus managed to make the hack work through it all, and I'm quite fond of that.
All in all, definitely something to play if Fusion's your thing.

By Contendo on Mar 16, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

(can't remember my stats)

This is such a good hack. By far the best Fusion hack. The only reason Im giving 4 / 5 orbs is that it doesnt feel that polished, which for me is one of the most important categories.
That is probably because fusion is pretty hard to hack and it hopefully gets better soon.

Other than that it felt very refreshing to play an actual fusion hack.
Highly Recommend!!

By Bonemarrowbro on Sep 21, 2021 (

)

39% in 1:40

Really good for my first Fusion Hack I ever tried.
Difficulty kinda blew me away but I just barely got by with pretty cheesy strats, I also wanna express some greatitude for the fact that you gave players multiple options for going through spaces, like hidden missile blocks next to Speedboost blocks etc etc. Lotta the times I had that lovely feeling like I'm subverting the intent of the game with cleverness and that's a big part of what Metroid is about for me.
Fusion is generally my favorite and I was happy to see that you really get the tension and mood of the base game.
Gotta be honest though I'm not a fan of that one room with the pillars hanging from the ceiling that you want me to scale with just walljumps, I wasn't able to get through it thanks to the final pillar collapsing underneath and me rageleaving but it's whatever, not where I was supposed to go anyway.
Also I manage to get Speedbooster kinda early and jump on top of the ship and beat the game without killing Yakuza so that was kinda cool and surprising and fun.

But yeah in the end I found the hack really succesful and fulfilling and I rly wanna see more hacks like this in the future. Thanks for sharing it with everyone.

By Cosmic on Apr 13, 2022 (

)

37% in 1:30

[v1.5] While Oil Spill is certainly the best Fusion hack currently, that doesn't say much when the other Fusion hacks are kaizo. The hack still has a couple of frustrations.

What it does right:
- No ADAM/Forced linear progression
- Boss rooms almost always have a way out if you're underequipped or missing abilities.
- Level design is for the most part quite good. It doesn't just feel like a bunch of random pit and missile blocks or kaizo bullshit hidden paths and doors like other fusion hacks.
- 2 bosses in one room and the SA-X chases were pretty damn neat.

What it does wrong:
- Save and recharge rooms are rare. REALLY rare. Not even near boss rooms that lock you in.
- While vanilla fusion is too linear, this hack goes in the complete opposite direction where it is too non-linear. I only got an upgrade to my missiles and unlocked doors when I completed the main quest. I never fought ridley, nettori or box 1/2. I never got bombs or power bombs.
- Enemies are bullshit. Their stats are unchanged from vanilla and their placement is cheeky to say the least. Space pirates that do 70 damage to you and take 5 missiles to kill... Sidehoppers still immune to beams that can box you in and stunlock you... And the only compensation is still either 10 energy or 2 missile drops... Unless you're a masochist, this isn't okay.
- Environmental hazards (the oil) does absolutely ludicrous damage. Like... straight up 1 damage per frame. Combined with bullshit enemies and no avenue of regen above, you can get softlocked saving at low energy then falling into oil.
- Level design is cheeky at times. Like ledge grabs dipping the tips of your feet into oil causing you massive damage.

All in all I think it has the potential to be good but it has a lot of room for improvement.

Finished.
Recommended if you're looking specifically for a Fusion hack. Otherwise, wait for updates.

By RX-78-2 on Sep 16, 2023 (

)

100% in 2:14

First time ever actually playing a Fusion hack and I gotta say, I actually liked this hack.. I played it before but didn't make it halfway cause it was difficult but I managed to finish it this time and I didn't think I'd enjoy a Fusion hack as much as I enjoyed this one... it was actually fun to play through and I would've gave it 5 orbs cause this is the best Fusion hack I have ever played but the final boss battle with the Omega Metroid really annoyed me, like I usually have little to no trouble defeating it in the original Fusion game but he seemed different or even a tad bit difficult in this hack.. but nevertheless, this is one of the best Fusion hacks imo and I doubt any of the existing Fusion hacks can beat this, I'd definitely recommend this to players who like Fusion and want a challenge and a different change of pace... 8/10

By RT-55J on Apr 13, 2024 (

)

90% in 2:06

This hack is janky and unbalanced, but it has a lot of heart, which counts for a lot.

The hack doesn't quite impress for maybe the first area and a half, but once it starts showing its cards and your kit improves it becomes pretty fun! There are some pretty neat setpieces and cool events, and what appears to be a good amount of routing options.

One of the main issues with this hack is its balance. The overall structure it wants to pull off is similar to what the Junkoids did, with two areas that you could visit in either order and do stuff in, but it doesn't quite pull it off that well. Fusion's bosses (and enemies) scale in health and damage and complexity in a way that makes shuffling the order weird and unpleasant unless careful attention is made to rebalance the numbers, and I don't think this did enough in that regard, if anything. Fighting Yakuza or Nettori with only regular missiles is an exercise in frustration, while fighting a Serris that takes 20 charged plasma shots is just an exercise in tedium. Still, some of the bosses are remixed in genuinely interesting ways.

The level design is also pretty hit or miss. The standard hallways are often just a bit too unadorned, while a lot of the other rooms are a bit too cheeky (if that makes sense). Too many rooms just assume you want to walljump everywhere (ladders are rare and randomly placed), and the unmorph-into-ledge-regrab maneuver is required a few to many times.

The premise and plot are neat, but a bit undercooked. The weird implications of the X in this setting are acknowledged at one point, but never explored since the ending cutscene's text is vanilla. The ending itself comes quite abruptly, and it's easy to miss out on a few bosses depending on how you explore, though given how there are two different ways to access it this seems mostly intended.

Anyhow, the best thing I can say about this hack is that, despite it having some serious jank and rough spots, I had a lot of fun with it. It's definitely not something I'd recommend to everyone, but if you're a weirdo I'd recommend giving it a good try.

3.5/5 (version 1.5)

By justanothermetroid on Aug 15, 2024 (

)

% in 1:24

I do not know why I like this hack so much, but I keep coming back to it. It being a fusion hack is a plus as I simply enjoy just how it plays and there is a lot of novelty to Fusion being rearranged.

I do think the balance is just right for me, missiles are strong enough early to make them useful against the mid game Fusion enemies you are hit with and most bosses are fun and well tuned outside of Nettori just being lame from the layout and the Omega Metroid just feeling off to fight. Another point in the favor of missiles is how they are recovered completely from picking up a tank. I will always enjoy that design of missiles actually being all around useful instead of just dedicated for boss spam.

I like the world design as well, but it definitely feels smaller now that I have played the hack a few times. It does well in presenting obstacles that you need to hunt for abilities to actually pass, but you truly only need so many powers to get what you need. I was trying to avoid some of the easy early upgrades and was still hit with the requirement of High Jump eventually.

I think my favorite area has to be the fire one. The enemies are fairly strong, you have that little gimmick SA-X chase, and you can mess around in the heat rooms if you are brave enough and pickup the Wide Beam early which teases at Ridley being in the area. That message hyped me up to fight the dude even though Ridley is optional.

I will almost definitely come back to this hack again for a replay and I do hope to see some Fusion hacks in the future, whenever that will become easier to do.

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