Rovaen's Ratings and Reviews
Sort Oldest First or Sort Best First or View Tier List
SM Redesign: Axeil Edition by Drewseph [SM Exploration], rated by Rovaen on Dec 14, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
82% in 14:46
This Review is a rolling review as I've played the hack back when it was the original redesign, and I've played all the major axiel versions to date. Thus this review will compare and contrast to the original, and also be weighted on the fixes implemented all the way up to version 1.52

I heavily suggest you hit the read more button.

I played the original hack when I was a teenager. I'll keep it short and to the point; It was brutal. It was unfair, it had me doing stuff I thought impossible and it forced me to learn some really hard tricks. I am not ashamed to say that I used save states back then, because if I didn't it would have been an experience I'd liken to torture.

Axiel is majorly different. A few of the "reviewers" here complain that nothing has changed, that it's as hard as ever, that it's not easy, etc. They are only right on one account.

It Is Not Easy.

Do not be confused, though this hack is easier, more streamlined, and much more ergonomic and user friendly it is still not an easy hack. That being said I'll let you in on something; I did not need to use save states once while playing this. Be prepared coming into this, you're going to need basic understandings of special techniques such as: MockBall, Shinespark and Shinespark Extension, and Bomb jumping to get certain items. Specifically this hack will need you to understand how to do: Walljumping, Double Bombjump, Grapple Walljump, and horizontal shine sparking. Those last 4 things I listed are the only advanced techniques you need to know how to do to beat this hack. It's not that bad, Especially when you consider that the creator has added Auto Walljumping, Auto Morphing, and Auto Spacejump.

The RomHack starts out reasonably, and it is a moderately challenging start to the game. You're not completely limited in where you can go and what you can do, but the direction you ought to go is pretty laid out. The difficulty starts to ramp up after Kraid, and a lot of paths become open. I never found myself in need of a savestate like I said, but sometimes you just have to accept that, yes, you're going to die. When I came to an area that I felt was to tough i back tracked a little, powered up, and made it through. The enemies and bosses never felt completely unfair, and the trick requirements were reduced from the original. I had fun through and through. I did get pissed off sometimes, and sometimes I did feel completely lost, but I just pushed on and explored just as one would in the original Super Metroid. My only real gripe is at the end in tourian regarding the metroids. That area is not fun, just a chore. All in all this is a great labour of love and a desperately needed redesign of redesign ;)
Thanks Drewseph!

Final note: If you read that idiot Technomagus' review you can discard it. If you've seen the way he plays you'd tear your hair out. I know I did.

This should be your choice of RomHack if:
-You've played Super Metroid in excess of 20 times (assuming you've learned how to do some simple tricks along the way)
-You Speedrun Super Metroid
-You've played 2 or more Super Metroid RomHacks in the vanilla difficulty range, and are looking for a step up in difficulty
-You've made a horrible mistake and played an Expert difficulty hack and weren't even close to prepared.

Do not play, and definitely do not review this hack if:
-You've just beaten Super Metroid for the first time
-You do not know how to walljump, bombjump, or shinespark properly
-You die more than once in the original Super Metroid

You're seriously going to hurt yourself if you try to play this and you're not good enough. Your ego will be battered and bruised, and your time will have been wasted. Do not play if you aren't ready for a challenge well above a normal playthrough of Super Metroid, this is a veteran difficulty RomHack after all.