Metroid: Falling

By MetroidMst on Mar 31, 2015 (

)

87% in 4:16

Falling is one of the more interesting hacks out there. With a very strange path to explore initially and wacky item order, it really stands out compared to a lot of other hacks made in the same mold. (i.e. hacks that are somewhat vanilla, but completely new layout.) Some very fun times are had exploring the world, until you find a boss.

The major downside is that all four major bosses have been given so much extra health and damage that they become more of a chore. They certainly feel like bosses now, but they seem so out of place in this hack.

In spite of that, I still had a really fun time with this hack, and would highly recommend it. Definitely worth a playthrough just for an idea on to do a wacky item progression and pull it off if nothing else.

By Vismund Cygnus on Jul 01, 2015 (

)

No completion stats.

The Good: The wacky layout and item order. The hack is certainly called "falling" for a reason.
The Bad: Overpowered bosses made for the weakest point in the hack. I hope you enjoy slowly grinding down health.
The Ugly: Mid-2000's half-hack tiling needs to be banished.

Overall a fun hack though and a nice change of pace that shows you don't always have to go all out to make your hack an enjoyable ride, if you have a neat concept and the skill to execute it well. I'd recommend it to anyone.

By Dynastyx on Jun 19, 2016 (

)

84% in 3:47

Not going to lie, I used cheats to beat the bosses. There really isn't a reason to buff the boss so much that it's not even challenging, it's just a chore.

At least it's the only downside to this hack. Fun item order and good level design overall!

By Aran;Jaeger on Dec 07, 2016 (

)

101% in 4:52

Animals saved.

Quick Summary of the meaning of my SM hack ratings:
5 orbs: SM hacks within the 80% to 100% (90% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; SM hacks for outstanding wholesome playing experiences and at most minor inconveniences.
4 orbs: SM hacks within the 60% to 80% (70% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Well done SM hacks with noticeable design problems.
3 orbs: SM hacks within the 40% to 60% (50% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Normal decent average SM hacks.
2 orbs: SM hacks within the 20% to 40% (30% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Overall messy, confusing, or punishing SM hacks with some upsides.
1 orb : SM hacks within the 00% to 20% (10% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Ruthlessly unplayable, broken, or barely from the original game changed SM hacks.

Judgement parameters summary:
° Creative ideas and features, polished design, how enjoyable and fun the hack can be, lack of hard to find or cryptic required game elements, the difficulty, and if the hack can be finished without major guides or tools.
° Note that the length of a SM hack will not necessarily contribute to my rating of the SM hack, since instead the averaged out experience over the whole hack will be taken into account to get a relative comparison between SM hacks.
° Besides this, lack of impactful changes from the original SM game also went into the evaluation of SM hacks (otherwise one may consider them among the 3 stars hacks) as follows: Ultimately, for my ratings I consider a situation in which an SM enthusiast that already has, knows about and is familiar with the original game and its prominent mechanics could only choose 1 new SM hack to play and thus would really want to make sure he/she will get a fresh and fantastic experience or journey out of his/her 1 choice.

The goal of all these SM hack ratings is so that rather new players have an overview of the whole spectrum of SM hacks and how to sort them in, in relation to each other, where SM hacks that are rated lower might still be enjoyable for more experienced players.

Finally, sometimes for SM hacks it can be relevant that they may be significantly more enjoyable from a player standpoint at which the player is well practiced and familiarized with Super Metroid's game mechanics in general, and that in particular some of the best SM hacks may not be the outright best first SM hack choices to play otherwise because of this, and for beginner SM hack players this typically steers the best first SM hack choices towards some of the SM hacks that I rated with 4 orbs instead of 5.

Rating for some hacks may be off by 1 Star, but arguably not more, and ratings are not attempted to be provided within the precision of ''half orbs''.

By Sapphron on Sep 09, 2018 (

)

No completion stats.

Bosses are hard, but if you take them on late enough they shouldn't be too much of a problem. The item progression is unlike any other that I've seen so far, it was really creative. The exploration and possibilities for sequence breaks were also great. Highly recommend this hack but watch out for bosses.

By PHOSPHOTiDYL on Mar 29, 2019 (

)

93% in 5:25

Bosses are a challenge.
Needed every etank to take down Ridley.
... and every super missile.
... and every power bomb.

Item progression & level design is tons of fun.

Some fixes for the next playthrough...

Map fix for east crateria.
1A99A6 : 27 4C 27 0C 25 8C 25 CC

Norfair door fix.
2421BD : 41

Thanks for the hack!!

By Syphon on Nov 06, 2019 (

)

92% in 5:36

Just like the sequel hack, Super Metroid: Hidden, the author greatly changes item and path progression. Even more so in this hack than in Hidden. I believe at one point you could decide to go to Draygon, Phantoon or Ridley in any order which was pretty neat.

Difficulty-wise it's slightly harder than Vanilla but not by much with the exception of one major complaint which are the tough bosses. Kraid in particular was absurd.

The hack is worth playing for the unique progression/item order and well-done level design.

By Grayfox82 on Jan 21, 2020 (

)

89% in 5:45

Un hack definitivamente divertido y rejugable un par de veces por al menos. Muy entretenido, el orden de aparición de los ítem es muy novedoso e inesperado. Muy bien acabado y con dificultad muy accesible. Una gran experiencia para un hack con algunos años.

Muy recomendable para todos.

By Insomnia Speed on Feb 23, 2021 (

)

95% in 8:35

An excellent hack. The route design is very unique, and you can explore in many different ways. Kraid and Ridley fights are tough, especially if you don't have enough items. Animals saved.

By Kremit44 on Mar 31, 2021 (

)

98% in 4:59

This is a good hack but it has a couple issues holding it back. I hummed between a 3-4 but decided to go with a 3 as I felt it's flaws set it a notch below his other hack Super Metroid Hidden. Like Hidden it's not overly ambitious but it is well designed with a cohesive theme. The theme of "Falling" is matched with an appropriate and interesting item progression that is both unique and intuitive. It's fun to explore but you'll also likely get lost and have a few moments of confusion. Because of the bosses I'd consider this a difficult hack but it's still no challenge hack by any means as exploration isn't punishing. Even all/most of the secrets should be doable for nearly everyone.

The author does a really good but fair job of hiding items and progression. Although because of this the dichotomy of Crateria can be a real annoyance if missing a key path. I got lost for awhile as I missed the areas containing both Varia and Gravity on first pass. Navigation in a game that thrives on hiding progression IMO should be a little more easily done.

The bosses are an issue at times. Kraid is ridiculous and a test of patience but he isn't mandatory to beat early, although I didn't know that. Draygon is made much easier with Space Jump but he's a test of patience and I found myself risking death just to try and get through the fight faster. Phantoon isn't too bad as long as he doesn't spawn on top of you. Ridley was tough but with Plasma he was arguably the most tolerable of the G4 for me.

The map was janky with Wrecked Ship's map losing progress and Norfair's map not being scrollable all the way to the right. It wasn't a terrible issue but it's certainly notable and annoying.

Other than that though I'd say this hack is largely really fun. It's well designed and although not spectacular it's a fun time. Thanks to the creator and all who helped, I certainly appreciated the effort.

By Sickwood on Nov 23, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Long overdue review, but TN has a talent for creating late 2000s styled, purely Vanilla hacks that are really good. The level design and creative interconnectedness of the areas makes this hack and Hidden seem fresh, despite not having a single custom tile. Most people mention the bosses and they are tough, but it makes for a challenge not normally seen in Vanilla hacks. It was fun taking on Kraid first just for the challenge, despite the reward not being that valuable. I hope TN drops another surprisingly fun Vanilla hack.

By Zhs2 on Jul 20, 2022 (

)

93% in 6:29

Actually a pretty good hack. The only thing that bothers me (and it will bother you too) is that it's one of those hacks where you must traverse specific loops of the world more than once with new items to find more gear, close to Lost World in annoyance of how much you must traverse to get back to certain areas in those loops. It gets slightly better once you have power bombs and speedbooster but not much. Smaller complaints include how absolutely wrecked you can get if touched by any boss, which is part of the hack's challenge - Spore Spawn teaches you this quickly by doing 60s with no suits and it only gets worse from there, but there are ways with items you don't expect to get early to mitigate this difficulty. This balance is actually more superb than you expect. Practically every major item (Wave and Grapple are the exceptions) can be obtained without killing a major boss (for Varia and Speedbooster you must kill a minor boss) so don't feel concerned about needing to find them too soon, just explore the planet deeper. And on that note, I feel like this hack better deserved the title of "Hidden" than the next hack, or maybe "Metroid: Crumbling". (Hidden would just be Legacy 2 instead.) Keep watch for air tiles.

By LetsPlayNintendoITA on Aug 28, 2022 (

)

100% in 5:41

Metroid: Falling... it was long overdue. Started playing it just before Dread and after a long time I finished it just now. This hack was... wild.
The bosses... man it felt like a chore to beat ridley tbh. I didn't think of using PBs too... but man it hit too hard.
Kraid I regret entering it soon as I could. I got the heck out of it as soon as I saw what was happening.
Besides bosses it was very enjoyable.
Weirdly enough, besides the Metroids respawning, Tourian and MB were basicly vanilla. I expected MB to start sprouting new attacks or have insane health after the other bosses but no lol
Still a great hack, just the bosses were a bit unfair. 5 stars.

By Zincoshine on Aug 31, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

This started a lot better than expected, considering how lame TN's later hack would be. Really interesting and original route. This is called falling for a reason... Unfortunately, I can't recommend this and there are 3 reasons why. The first thing is that the plot is the same as super metroid, but it is immediately completely contradicted when ceres station fills up with other metroids for some reason. The second problem is, as others have mentioned, the bosses have been reduced to massive extremely boring bulletsponges. The third is that the creator seems to have a taste for trolling the player with platforming sections that are just needlessly made ridiculously tedious, at least compared to similar sections in the original game. Anyway, there is better stuff out there.

By Love Colored Magic on Nov 03, 2022 (

)

101% in 3:59

Completion stats are from the second playthrough. Got 99% the first time and took quite a bit longer.

At the most superficial level, this is a straight vanilla hack with a new map. Find the four bosses, find the statue room, clear Tourian, win game. No custom graphics, no custom ASM, purely vanilla physics. It does have a number of traits to differentiate it from other vanilla hacks.

First off is that there's a number of long drops as part of the path of progression, hence the name Falling. Second is an unusual item order that remains memorable even after having touched the hack in years. Third is how massively open the hack gets after a bit. Almost the entire map is available without fighting any of the major bosses. So the player is free to explore and hunt for stuff before challenging the four generals. And very few items are gated by the big four so the player can amass quite an arsenal.

It's important to explore for upgrades because boss damage got a major buff. (and their HP but that's not as significant) Not every attack got buffed but contact damage will cleave off over two Energy Tanks with Gravity. They still feel fair assuming enough power but it becomes more important to pay attention to defense. (Thankfully, Ridley's tail still does vanilla damage otherwise he'd be a nightmare.) So there's no shame in retreating if a boss feels overwhelming and coming back later when better equipped. I still put up a decent fight against Kraid semi-underpowered. With 9 E-tanks and Varia, 3 hits meant death. Charged Plasma provided the offense and I feel I could have won with those parameters if I hadn't messed up and smacked into too many of the flying claws near the end.

My first playthrough was very frustrating. After finding Power Bombs, seemed stuck in a loop and with no suit upgrades. And I'd found crumble blocks hinting at areas beyond but was not finding the passages to them. It was a long time over multiple attempts at findin

By GoldenTorizo on Nov 20, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

I would rate this hack 2 1/2 orbs if I could. This hack was absolutely frustrating and tedious. For starters, Falling has no Hi-Jump or Ice Beam which are two crucial powerups needed to properly explore the various rooms. I don't mind that the bosses have more health, but what ruined it for me is that Phantoon can basically one shot you if you don't at least have Gravity Suit, even if you have a lot of E-Tanks. You can barely explore Norfair because Varia is guarded by Botwoon. Because of these glaring issues, this hack reached my Recycle Bin. This is how NOT to make a Veteran level hack. Super Metroid Falling, more like Super Metroid FAILing.

By KPF on Nov 27, 2022 (

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No completion stats.

No. Absolutely NOT.

By caauyjdp on Dec 01, 2022 (

)

92% in 5:46

On one hand, bosses are pain. On the other, they "encourage" avoiding them for as long as possible and exploring instead, which can be really rewarding.
2nd playthrough with knowledge of the map can potentially be really interesting.
Map doesn't save 100% accurately(which seems different from the usual only vanilla squares(not as bad?)). Some one ways can be annoying.
Rounding up a high three orbs to four.

By RX-78-2 on Dec 20, 2022 (

)

97% in 6:17

it's a pretty good hack for the most part. I love hacks that are heavy on exploration and this hack is one of them, with the other being the sequel to this, Hidden.. both Hidden & Falling are heavy on exploration and that's what I like about them the most. I also love the way item/path progression has been changed, it's a fun way to explore the planet while acquiring powerups.. but I only have two problems with this hack; one of them are the bosses. they have been buffed so much that they're honestly a chore now and it'll take almost all of your missiles and supers to defeat them, Kraid & Ridley were the most difficult to me but I still managed to defeat them . I honestly never use murder beam but I had to when I got to Ridley because he had a MASSIVE HP buff and it took me a while to defeat him.. it took all my supers and nearly all my missiles to defeat Kraid... Spo Spo, Croc, Botwoon Phantoon & Draygon were, more or less, different than their vanilla counterparts imo but I do have one thing to say: DON'T GET TOO CLOSE TO PHANTOON OR YOU WILL DIE.. Phantoon can OHKO you if you get too close, regardless of how many e-tanks you have.. but other than that, it's a cool hack that is definitely deserving of a playthrough if you love exploration-heavy hacks but beware of the bosses and don't enter their lair underpowered

6/10
Finished
Would NOT Recommend

By neen on Feb 22, 2023 (

)

84% in 5:13

interesting item progression for subsequent playthroughs should be possible (varia's location was humorous to me as i already had gravity). much like Hidden, this is full of crumble block one-way passages. used g-mode for ridley just because.

By Aeon on Feb 18, 2024 (

)

80% in 7:47

On the Down Side:
The exploration flow for this hack suffers from some very un-intuitive points where you pretty much need to use X-ray to find where to go to obtain some important key items or progression paths. It also suffers a lot from one way paths causing a lot of looping if you want to explore all paths within an area. The bosses and minibosses have inflated health which makes fighting them a chore, especially early on, unless you've managed to collect enough etanks and missiles. In addition, the save stations aren't as close as I'd like causing additional time just to get back to try again. This matters a lot when some bosses and minibosses are difficult enough to need multiple attempts.

On the Up Side:
The hack has a lot of options in sequence breaking and path choices if you look around. It feels good using tricks or spending a bit of time bomb jumping to feel like you're getting items that weren't meant in the normal flow. The different key items earlier on are nice, but do reduce some of the feeling of powering up over the course of the playthrough.

Overall, it's an okay hack, but your mileage may vary based on how much you like doing x-ray scanning of all rooms in an area to find where to go.

Metroid: Falling
Release date: Feb 15, 2015	Author: TN	Download: Version 1.1 [UH] (3543 downloads)
Genre: Exploration [?] Game:	Difficulty: Veteran [?]	Average runtime: 5:37 Average collection: 92%
Read Me: [None]	Forum Thread: Forum Topic	Rating:

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