Super Metroid: Eleven

Super Metroid: Eleven
Release date: Jun 30, 2024	Author: Metaquarius	Download: Version 1.1, Unheadered (1627 downloads)
Genre: Quick Play [?] Game:	Difficulty: Veteran [?]	Average runtime: 1:54 Average collection: 94%
Read Me: [None]	Forum Thread: [None]	Rating:

Description

2024 Metroid Construction Star Base Contest Hack
Goal : Steal 14 fuel tanks and flee!
Difficulty : Veteran (use of Project Base advanced tech. REQUIRED)
Credits : SMILE 2.5 (kudos to Jathys), Project Base 0.8.1 (kudos to PB team)

Screenshots

Ratings and Reviews

By RT-55J on Jul 05, 2024 (

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97% in 1:18

Once again, Metaquarius uses a contest to offer us some very experimental design that you wouldn't see in a full scale hack or indie dungeon scroller on Steam.

This hack has two of the best twists you will ever see in one of these. No, I will not spoil them, and yes you should absolutely enter this hack without spoilers.

Meta promised pure liquid crushment, and once again he delivers. 11/10

By starlightintheriver on Jul 06, 2024 (

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97% in 2:01

I'm in a very difficult position here. Eleven isn't exactly my kind of hack; the focus is largely on puzzle solving, where you see a fuel tank on the map and try and find your way there, seeing what items in your inventory you can use to grab it. Some of the puzzles have very clever solutions, I was particularly proud of one fuel tank I grabbed in a way that I'm not certain it's intended?

I think what personally doesn't appeal to me about this hack is the lack of a combat focus; the water (sorry, "fuel") heals you, at a rate of about 10 health per second, which means as long as you're in the water you're basically invincible. Combined with some other stuff later in the hack, this means it's basically impossible to die for the most part, even though there are still enemies to fight around every corner. Maybe I'm weird for liking combat in a Metroid game, sorry, not sorry.

By the way, if you're an hour or two in and you're thinking about quitting, don't give up. This hack absolutely entombs the lead like it's King Tut. If you're an hour or so in and thinking about giving up, just trust me and push through it.

Overall, Eleven puts me in a difficult situation where I have to rate a hack that does what it set out to do extremely well, but I just... wasn't a fan of what it set out to do. How am I supposed to rate that?? I ended up deciding that it's so experimental and unique while still maintaining a solid level of polish that I really can't fault it for anything, even if there are a billion things I would change if I were the author.

By Frydi on Jul 06, 2024 (

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90% in 1:41

Eleven is much more than the puzzle hack it appears to be, but saying more would spoil the experience.
Could get all fuel tanks without knowledge about advanced PBase tech, so the difficulty isn't THAT high.

It took me way too long to realize that the fuel (water) heals you and how Flazer beam worked (After the tutorial...). All plot twists were hilarious and I had a great time playing the hack.

6/5 orbs cause anime girl.

By shaktool7 on Jul 08, 2024 (

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86% in 2:04

Some phenomenal twists and turns and compelling design, and I appreciate a slower and more intimately cramped Project Base experience.
I don't feel the PBase tech that was needed was too advanced, and if you're well-versed with vanilla tech even you probably wouldn't need them aside from what you can understand of PBase's nuances yourself. I'm pretty sure I'm exactly the target audience for this hack and I can see why people could bounce off of this, but it does really well what it wants to.

By MetroidNerd#9001 on Jul 09, 2024 (

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96% in 1:33

Definitely an interesting and well put together hack, though not entirely my style. The first half of the hack I found to be rather obnoxious, with a lot of mundane backtracking to find items or switch things on and off. Some of the puzzles are interesting, while others are annoying, and navigation is a bit cumbersome because of the odd assortment of items you have, combined with some of the quirks of Project Base's physics. Even with the warp rooms, I found myself annoyed by the amount of looping around the station I was having to do, trying to figure out how to get to where to go.

A few things about the hack I also found rather unintuitive, mostly the saving system. Health generally isn't a problem, (which makes combat feel pointless at best and annoying at worst, leading me to just tank through enemies) so you won't find yourself dying that much, but only having the ship as a "true" save station is a bit frightful for players who don't understand how the hack's saving system works. I still don't think I fully understand it. A few physics quirks are also pretty unintuitive, like underwater wall jumping giving you more height than regular jumps, or backflips giving like 2–3x as much height as a normal jump. I also didn't realize that the hack gave me Morph to start, which made me think I had softlocked myself pretty early on.

The second half of the hack definitely redeems it. It's a very fun romp with some banger music and some cathartic enemy destruction. My issue with the saving system is worsened by this half, unfortunately, since dying sends you back to the first half on the opposite side of the ship from the access point to get back in, but it's still a really fun time nonetheless and saved the hack from only getting 3 orbs.

By OmegaDragnet9 on Jul 10, 2024 (

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94% in 2:34

This is probably one of the most impressive hacks I've played yet. Obviously wins massive points off style and presentation alone, but the gameplay is very solid as well.

GFX are pretty mind-blowing, especially for a hack only a month and a half in the making. Tiling definitely has its roots in Vanilla but has been given the Metaquarius anime treatment, and that extends to the enemies as well. Best way I can describe the enemies are they look grotesque but beautiful in their own way.

Music is a treat. There aren't a ton of tracks, but what's featured is customized and extremely high quality. Absolutely fits the atmosphere.

Gameplay is quirky and plays by its own rules.

The early game is a bit frustrating. Once you figure out certain expectations (the hack gradually teaches you) then the station begins to open up. Definitely takes the Project Base physics and puts your knowledge of that tech to the test with some of its puzzles.

There is more regarding the FX and some cinematic business I could praise but I'm afraid doing so would spoil it for you.

Absolutely give this a playthrough.

By Onnyks on Jul 12, 2024 (

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100% in 2:11

Contragulations on producing such a well thought out hack in such a short time. I thought I was done with Eleven after collecting about 60% items and having 0% clue where else to go, and was ready to give it 4 orbs. Then I died to a BS Kraid fight and was ready to give it 3 orbs, and then Samus respawned and the hack redeemed those fallen orbs. Kudos on the twist, it was both a mechanically and narratively cool moment. It's interesting how two of the contest hacks came to use a similar source of inspiration; both are good takes, but keeping it a surprise was a smart move.

The room puzzles were fun to solve. It was a bit frustrating to know I overworked some of them in my quest to clear the station before heading back to the ship. Given what became available to players in act 2 many of them would have been trivial, and part of me wonders if the reveal ought to have been put earlier to accommodate this. I'm not mad that I was tricked into thinking it was a challenge hack though, if anything it made the experience more unique. Overthinking puzzles is pretty par for the course in the Metroid series anyway, and when multiple solutions exist for one that turns out to be good design.

It was a relief that the gate switching mechanic wasn't as repetitive of a mechanic as it could have been, your restraint on the number of required trips back to the control room was appreciated.

It might have been nice if Kraid COULD die to 10 minutes of space jumping super shots and midair farming (maybe it takes 11 minutes), but I did see the room cue and decided to try and be a gamer anyway. You fixed both claws to give drops so I feel justified in trying that as a the mode of attack.

The game looked great and sounded fun and played well. 4.5 orbs overall, rounded up for the impressive time scale of its production. Would recommend.

By Kremit44 on Jul 23, 2024 (

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100% in 2:03

One of the best puzzle hacks I've ever played. Traversal could be maybe a tiny bit tedious but nothing I'd complain about as it fits the concept.

By KaptenR on Jul 24, 2024 (

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88% in 1:46

It was an interesting hack, but I don't think it was perfect and cannot give it highest rating.
Still very good. The minus for me is that it was a bit annoying to traverse and search for stuff, it can get annoying,
at least that how it is for me.
I really like the customized graphics, and the other unique stuff. Always nice to see completely new things.
I didn't really understand the story, we are just here to get fuel and leave?
Big plus for the anime girl! That was nice!

By Zhs2 on Aug 04, 2024 (

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97% in 1:39

Metaquarius loves making hacks for speedrunners, not casual players. This one is no exception, although it isn't terrible. You can die at any time to see the gimmick, and casually get stuck if you haven't found the necessary gear to traverse gimmick world. It's just not that fun to wander around cleaning up item dots with necessary speed tricks and no bombs, and you COULD have had bombs with enough gear but you don't know that the first time you play the hack. Heck, the knowledge that there are no speedbooster blocks in the hack is so incredibly gatekept that I would have given up trying to do really ridiculous speed tricks in gimmick world had I not been told I should try bombing anything I previously speedboosted through to destroy. This is not intuitive game design. And on the same subject but as an optional issue, there are items you can't collect without intimate knowledge of Project Base mechanics, which means you're not getting 100% if you're not familiar with them.

By GACKUROTAS on Aug 04, 2024 (

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93% in 2:00

This hack took me two different attempts at playing it before I could form a proper opinion.

First time trying to play it, I was fresh off of a Super Metroid playthrough after not playing the game for years. Still shaking off the rust, still not able to pull off tech like mid-air morphs or CWJs. And completely unfamiliar with Project BASE mechanics. I couldn't get through more than a couple of rooms before I got frustrated and gave up.

Last night I revisited Eleven. This time, I had finished a few romhacks, done a few SM randomizers, and gotten my completion time down to sub-2hr RTA for Super Metroid after about 4-5 runs. I was ready for a more challenging game. Right away I discovered that there is a gimmick to this hack. I'm not gonna spoil it, but it's similar to a gimmick utilized in one section of V I T A L I T Y. Once I figured that out, I was able to access a different part of the map and everything started flowing nicely.

It took me a bit to understand the Project BASE mechanics, but it felt very satisfying when I was able to pull off some of the harder speed booster tricks. It turns out that most of the speed booster / shinespark puzzles can just be solved if you know how to get bombs early, but I wasn't aware at the time. I still think that it's more rewarding to attempt all of those puzzles with speed booster instead.

The puzzles are a nice difficulty, I'd say Veteran is an appropriate category. It was too challenging for me when I was a bit rusty, but the perfect amount of challenge for me now that I've warmed up with some okay-ish speedruns of SM. The new beam weapon that was implemented is cool, and figuring out how it works and where to use it is a nice little puzzle in and of itself. And the underwater (under-fuel?) section with the funky music is cool, kinda reminded me of Dark Aether from MP2.

Artwork and overall visual direction is very good. Plenty of new assets that give this hack a fresh look while still fitting the style of the base game's pixel art. Some of the most impressive spritework isn't seen until closer to the end of this hack, and it looks great.

Definitely give this one a shot if you're up for a short but challenging hack that's very polished. It's absolutely worth it to go in blind and avoid spoilers, as most of the fun in this hack comes from getting stumped and having to come up with creative solutions to navigate the star base.

By thedopefish on Aug 11, 2024 (

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93% in 2:02

Fun, unique hack with some light puzzles, sometimes making use of PB physics. The way Fuel works is cool, and there's an unexpected twist or two.

By Kirarin on Aug 24, 2024 (

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90% in 2:01

Some of the enemy designs and colouring are dope, big grades there. However, they really felt out of place with the hack; didn't mix well the the edited WS sprites. Speaking of it, the layout + music usage was very repetitive, and I found the ambience quite boring. When the bg color and music changes, again, there's a huge disparity considering the sound playing, the enemies on the map and the coloring of the tiles. They didn't mix well together in any point of the hack for me.

It's quite impressive considering this was a challenge hack, and the author pulled off some great stuff with those enemy sprites, a certain "something" and even adding cutscenes in the game, but dropped the ball (for me) with the combo of music + aesthetics + sound effects. The atmosphere really threw me off in this hack.

I interacted with the "certain something" and it looks like it came from a different game. There's a huge conflict of identity in this hack for me. It doesn't know if it wants to be exploration, speedy, solver of puzzles... And it doesn't take itself seriously, after what I seem from that animu stuff. When I realized the hack doesn't take itself serious, why should I?

Also most puzzles and things weren't explained at all. There's hacks that at least try to teach you or make a bit evident new stuff, but not in this one. And good luck if you don't like/know PB mechanics.

It's like I went to eat on a fancy place, the side dish looked delicious, but when I looked at my table, there was all sort of foods for different seasons and the waiter that brought my stuff was a monk singing a Touhou song.

Puzzles are hit or miss for me, and with all the above said, and the puzzles not working for me (they didn't mix well with whatever the hack's theme was supposed to be), my experience was underwhelming. You can see the author is very talented, but it wasn't a good experience for me with this one. Hopefully we see more of Super Duper onwards and less of this.

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