“Where dreams are born, crushed, and converted to base16”
| Super Metroid: Magaluf | ||
Release date: Sep 02, 2014 |
Author: Jordan5
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Genre: Quick Play [?] Game: 
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Difficulty: Vanilla [?]
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Average runtime:
0:31 Average collection: 55% |
Read Me: [None] |
Forum Thread: [None] |
Rating:
 
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Description
Story:
Samus takes a break from bounty hunting for a girls holiday to Magaluf #Shagaluf #BitchesOnTour.
Unfortunately before she arrives, she realises that she has forgotten to pack suncream and so goes on an epic adventure trying to find some.
Samus takes a break from bounty hunting for a girls holiday to Magaluf #Shagaluf #BitchesOnTour.
Unfortunately before she arrives, she realises that she has forgotten to pack suncream and so goes on an epic adventure trying to find some.
Screenshots
Ratings and Reviews
The quest to get the suncream and proceed with vacation. That is about the most depth Samus has received in a hack's story ever. Besides that, with a clever little twist, it makes some sense where you take heat damage in direct sunlight. (Better get them creams!)
Otherwise, the hack is a very linear and straightforward experience, with the usual stuff you would expect. Some hidden items, a boss or two, and a suncream-filled ending. The Justin Bailey patch was a worthy addition due to the subject matter as well.
Otherwise, the hack is a very linear and straightforward experience, with the usual stuff you would expect. Some hidden items, a boss or two, and a suncream-filled ending. The Justin Bailey patch was a worthy addition due to the subject matter as well.
Has a few interesting mechanics and the use of the Justin Bailey patch was a nice touch. I feel like this hack was fine for the competition setting but tends to fall short as an "actual hack". Still, it only takes about 20 minutes tops so still worth playing.
Pretty solid minihack. It's relaxing and easy.
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png)
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''.
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''.
I don't know what's wrong with everybody else who reviewed this hack. It's like we played two completely different games. Allow me to give you an actual review (critique, I'll be honest) of Super Metroid Magaluf. I put it into chapters. It's long and detailed, but that's how you know you can trust it.
"Suncream:"
So as soon as you leave the cave you start in, you begin slowly taking damage like it's Metroid Prime 2 all over again. One could argue this is to convey to the player that you are in a hostile environment and the tension is high, as would fit the theme of most Metroid games, especially Prime 2. However, that's not what this hack is going for at all. Look at that second picture. Does that look like a hostile, tense environment to you? Because that's where you'll be as your energy slowly drains from under you. What's really supposed to happen is you'll go through the game trying to get out of these areas and get back into caves or underwater (I'll get into that liquid nightmare in a bit) as quickly as you can so you'll be safe from the outside environment and then when you finally acquire the "Suncream," (which spellcheck is telling me is not a word) you can bask in the glow of the bright blue sky without having to worry for your health. But this is short lived. It happens only at the end of the game when you've beaten both bosses and are ready to go back to your ship. This makes sense because that was the point of her mission, to acquire "Suncream," so ideally, she'd just get it and leave, but it's not a figurative objective, it's a tangible upgrade. Essentially, it's a new suit that makes you invulnerable to the atmosphere, like the varia suit. The thing is that you don't get to enjoy the benefits of having this upgrade for more than 20 seconds because that's how much time you'll spend outside on your way to your ship. Also it doesn't change the color of her skin at all, it changes the color of her bathing suit, which, I didn't know was how sunscree- forgive me -"Suncream" worked.
The End of the World:
Anyway, you cross from one cave to another, through an overhead door, and suddenly there's an alarm and the world starts shaking?! The world starts a countdown to self-destruct while your ship is in view? Oh man, well I guess the countdown must be very low or something's gonna get in my way so I better hurr- oh. There is no countdown. I can just casually stand around until I feel like mustering up the strength in my quads to jump onto the ship and leave... Was that supposed to be climactic or intense? What triggered it anyway? It wasn't taking the Suncream because that was in a completely different area and nothing happened. So, what happened? Couldn't think of a good way to end the adventure? In other Metroid games, the idea was that the player accomplished his/her objective and it was time to go. Something triggered the destruction of the planet, be it a boss, like Ridley in Super Metroid, or the death of the final boss, like Mother Brain or Emperor Ing. However, in Magaluf, nothing triggered it, it just happened, just because.
Just Drown Already:
Now that we've gotten what goes on outside of the caves out of the way- wait a minute. That's right...Liquid! Metroid games have always known how to handle water in a way that makes it NOT unbearable. I'll go into more detail on the poor item placement and poor pacing in a bit, but part of that resulted in shoving all the pain from grapple beam swinging and water movement into ONE. ROOM. And a large one, at that. This large outdoor area is made of three things: a broken grapple ceiling, a seafloor, and annoying platforms, all bundled nicely in the toxic environment, still slowly killing you whenever you're not underwater, just in case you forgot. The ceiling is broken up into grapple block sections. Some are fairly sized, about six blocks. Some of them are not, about 2 blocks. You can't see far in front of you and your grapple beam can't reach very far either, so if you reach for a grapple block or try to land on a platform AND MISS, that sucks. Have fun trudging through the water at a turtle's speed all the way back to the left end of the room and climbing all the way back up to the top to try it again. And again. This is where I spent most of my time until I memorized the grapple block and platform layout. Good luck.
This Became A Game About Checking Rooms:
Okay, now that we're out of the woods, or out of the sun, I should say, we can get into- not the worst part (that was definitely the water area) -but the most disappointing part of this hack. This hack features poor item placement and poor pacing which go hand-in-hand to make my disappointment immeasurable and my day ruined. These go together because, similar to the grapple-water section or a drunk couple, things were just shoved together. It seems there were just too many things Jordan5 wanted to have in the world without enough world to have them in. The best example of this is right after a save point, where you'll meet a series of doors. The first set is a set of two along the right wall. Then, a little later, a set of three on the floor. If you pick the right doors, they'll take you on a path to fight Botwoon. However, you'll be killed and sent back to the last save station because you tried to fight him without any suit, beam, or energy upgrades. Then you'll meet that first pair of doors again. Pick the other one this time. You know what you'll find? An energy tank. Your first one, most likely. But wait, for some reason, in this game, each one counts for two (like I said, just shoved together. That's why there are only two or three collectible in the entire game). This means that if you passed this door, you missed not one, but TWO energy tanks, which, unless you manage to somehow avoid him the entire fight, you almost definitely will not survive without. But you still have no suit upgrades and you won't have any until you acquire the Suncream at the end. You also have no beam upgrades... What do you think are beyond the other two doors in that set of three I mentioned earlier? Literally nothing but the wave beam and the charge beam. No path beyond, just the beams. You're SUPPOSED to go fight Botwoon, but if you'd like, and this is completely optional by the way, so don't feel obligated to do so, you COULD go out of your way to acquire your only chances of surviving...I mean, if you want, I guess. Is this what we're passing off as exploration now? Not exploring a cool area, overcoming a challenge, or deciphering a puzzle to get an optional item that'll make the game more enjoyable, no, choosing the correct sequence of doors by chance to hopefully get to the barren, empty rooms housing required items? Whose bad idea of a joke is this? Oh, and you know what defeating him yields? A cute little super missile tank. That would be pretty good since super missiles are required for progression...if it was your first one...and it isn't...because the path to get this far required that you pass a green door, which require super missiles to open... Do you get it now? And that's not the only offence either.
Samus Doesn't Need Suncream to go Swimming:
Since you can't see very far ahead of you in that great, big grapple-water area, you'll try to get across using the platforms, but the ones you can actually reach without the grapple beam lead to nowhere. They're just there to catch you if you fall off the upper platforms which are only reachable if you swing from the grapple blocks with the grapple beam (not that those tiny platforms will catch you if you fall anyway, and even if they do, they'll hold you for less than a second before falling themselves. Expect to go for a swim and a climb if you ever fall.) If you find yourself in this area without the grapple beam, turn around. Go get it. You won't be getting anywhere without it. And this won't be your only time backtracking, so get comfortable with it.
"You Used Me and Threw Me Away When You Were Done:"
There's also this beyond stupid area that requires you to use the morph ball to access. There's a hole along the way. If you fall, you have to go back around and try again. It's not a steep drop, but you cannot get back up that way, no matter how many times you try to jump or bomb your way back up. You know why? Because there's more gravity in that one miniscule area to keep you from getting up, almost like an invisible wall. The gap is too large to roll over at any speed, and the ceiling comes down low enough so it practically scrapes your morph ball. Your only hope, and this isn't optional, you have to do this, is to put a bomb maybe a millimeter from the edge, move a millimeter closer, and time your movement just perfectly so you'll move just when the bomb goes off and it'll launch you to the other side. It's the only way. I tried everything else. Beyond this area is a single item. Then you turn right around and forget the whole ordeal ever happened. I thought, "there's no way it's that complicated. Maybe I just need the spring ball." But I couldn't find it because it was in the stupidest place imaginable: the foot of the statue holding the bomb upgrade (another example of things just being shoved together). Then I came back and tried to use it, but like I said, the ceiling is so low, you won't get any height to go anywhere. I thought, "maybe you're supposed to fall in and use the spring ball to jump back out. I tried bomb jumping, but maybe my timing was just bad." But even the spring ball wouldn't get me high enough, but only in that area. It maintains its normal vertical range everywhere else. Just. That. Area. Of course, that is the ONLY area you would need to traverse vertically with the morph ball. Might as well not even have the spring ball. So it's an item with stupidly obscure placement and next to no actual use. Wonderful. And the only difference between the spring ball and the speed booster is that the speed booster isn't found in a stupidly obscure location...still equally useless, as it's acquired at the end of the game. What a delight.
Look, I didn't wake up thinking "I can't wait to trash someone's Metroid hack." I really wanted to get through the annoying parts so I could enjoy the hack for what it was. But the annoying parts ARE what it was. The annoying parts ARE the hack. Whether I was cursing item placement in a cave, trying to drown underwater, or being burned alive without that "Suncream" outside, I just wanted it to be over. It's not a bad game, it just fails at everything...it...tries to...do. Hmm. I guess it is a bad game. Well, this critique comes from a place of love: love for Metroid and love for the work of dedicated fans willing to put their time and effort into making a Metroid of their own. I hope this gives you an idea of what to expect from this hack, and I hope it gives you, Jordan5, a solid blueprint, should you try to reconstruct your hack or make a new one... No hard feelings.
"Suncream:"
So as soon as you leave the cave you start in, you begin slowly taking damage like it's Metroid Prime 2 all over again. One could argue this is to convey to the player that you are in a hostile environment and the tension is high, as would fit the theme of most Metroid games, especially Prime 2. However, that's not what this hack is going for at all. Look at that second picture. Does that look like a hostile, tense environment to you? Because that's where you'll be as your energy slowly drains from under you. What's really supposed to happen is you'll go through the game trying to get out of these areas and get back into caves or underwater (I'll get into that liquid nightmare in a bit) as quickly as you can so you'll be safe from the outside environment and then when you finally acquire the "Suncream," (which spellcheck is telling me is not a word) you can bask in the glow of the bright blue sky without having to worry for your health. But this is short lived. It happens only at the end of the game when you've beaten both bosses and are ready to go back to your ship. This makes sense because that was the point of her mission, to acquire "Suncream," so ideally, she'd just get it and leave, but it's not a figurative objective, it's a tangible upgrade. Essentially, it's a new suit that makes you invulnerable to the atmosphere, like the varia suit. The thing is that you don't get to enjoy the benefits of having this upgrade for more than 20 seconds because that's how much time you'll spend outside on your way to your ship. Also it doesn't change the color of her skin at all, it changes the color of her bathing suit, which, I didn't know was how sunscree- forgive me -"Suncream" worked.
The End of the World:
Anyway, you cross from one cave to another, through an overhead door, and suddenly there's an alarm and the world starts shaking?! The world starts a countdown to self-destruct while your ship is in view? Oh man, well I guess the countdown must be very low or something's gonna get in my way so I better hurr- oh. There is no countdown. I can just casually stand around until I feel like mustering up the strength in my quads to jump onto the ship and leave... Was that supposed to be climactic or intense? What triggered it anyway? It wasn't taking the Suncream because that was in a completely different area and nothing happened. So, what happened? Couldn't think of a good way to end the adventure? In other Metroid games, the idea was that the player accomplished his/her objective and it was time to go. Something triggered the destruction of the planet, be it a boss, like Ridley in Super Metroid, or the death of the final boss, like Mother Brain or Emperor Ing. However, in Magaluf, nothing triggered it, it just happened, just because.
Just Drown Already:
Now that we've gotten what goes on outside of the caves out of the way- wait a minute. That's right...Liquid! Metroid games have always known how to handle water in a way that makes it NOT unbearable. I'll go into more detail on the poor item placement and poor pacing in a bit, but part of that resulted in shoving all the pain from grapple beam swinging and water movement into ONE. ROOM. And a large one, at that. This large outdoor area is made of three things: a broken grapple ceiling, a seafloor, and annoying platforms, all bundled nicely in the toxic environment, still slowly killing you whenever you're not underwater, just in case you forgot. The ceiling is broken up into grapple block sections. Some are fairly sized, about six blocks. Some of them are not, about 2 blocks. You can't see far in front of you and your grapple beam can't reach very far either, so if you reach for a grapple block or try to land on a platform AND MISS, that sucks. Have fun trudging through the water at a turtle's speed all the way back to the left end of the room and climbing all the way back up to the top to try it again. And again. This is where I spent most of my time until I memorized the grapple block and platform layout. Good luck.
This Became A Game About Checking Rooms:
Okay, now that we're out of the woods, or out of the sun, I should say, we can get into- not the worst part (that was definitely the water area) -but the most disappointing part of this hack. This hack features poor item placement and poor pacing which go hand-in-hand to make my disappointment immeasurable and my day ruined. These go together because, similar to the grapple-water section or a drunk couple, things were just shoved together. It seems there were just too many things Jordan5 wanted to have in the world without enough world to have them in. The best example of this is right after a save point, where you'll meet a series of doors. The first set is a set of two along the right wall. Then, a little later, a set of three on the floor. If you pick the right doors, they'll take you on a path to fight Botwoon. However, you'll be killed and sent back to the last save station because you tried to fight him without any suit, beam, or energy upgrades. Then you'll meet that first pair of doors again. Pick the other one this time. You know what you'll find? An energy tank. Your first one, most likely. But wait, for some reason, in this game, each one counts for two (like I said, just shoved together. That's why there are only two or three collectible in the entire game). This means that if you passed this door, you missed not one, but TWO energy tanks, which, unless you manage to somehow avoid him the entire fight, you almost definitely will not survive without. But you still have no suit upgrades and you won't have any until you acquire the Suncream at the end. You also have no beam upgrades... What do you think are beyond the other two doors in that set of three I mentioned earlier? Literally nothing but the wave beam and the charge beam. No path beyond, just the beams. You're SUPPOSED to go fight Botwoon, but if you'd like, and this is completely optional by the way, so don't feel obligated to do so, you COULD go out of your way to acquire your only chances of surviving...I mean, if you want, I guess. Is this what we're passing off as exploration now? Not exploring a cool area, overcoming a challenge, or deciphering a puzzle to get an optional item that'll make the game more enjoyable, no, choosing the correct sequence of doors by chance to hopefully get to the barren, empty rooms housing required items? Whose bad idea of a joke is this? Oh, and you know what defeating him yields? A cute little super missile tank. That would be pretty good since super missiles are required for progression...if it was your first one...and it isn't...because the path to get this far required that you pass a green door, which require super missiles to open... Do you get it now? And that's not the only offence either.
Samus Doesn't Need Suncream to go Swimming:
Since you can't see very far ahead of you in that great, big grapple-water area, you'll try to get across using the platforms, but the ones you can actually reach without the grapple beam lead to nowhere. They're just there to catch you if you fall off the upper platforms which are only reachable if you swing from the grapple blocks with the grapple beam (not that those tiny platforms will catch you if you fall anyway, and even if they do, they'll hold you for less than a second before falling themselves. Expect to go for a swim and a climb if you ever fall.) If you find yourself in this area without the grapple beam, turn around. Go get it. You won't be getting anywhere without it. And this won't be your only time backtracking, so get comfortable with it.
"You Used Me and Threw Me Away When You Were Done:"
There's also this beyond stupid area that requires you to use the morph ball to access. There's a hole along the way. If you fall, you have to go back around and try again. It's not a steep drop, but you cannot get back up that way, no matter how many times you try to jump or bomb your way back up. You know why? Because there's more gravity in that one miniscule area to keep you from getting up, almost like an invisible wall. The gap is too large to roll over at any speed, and the ceiling comes down low enough so it practically scrapes your morph ball. Your only hope, and this isn't optional, you have to do this, is to put a bomb maybe a millimeter from the edge, move a millimeter closer, and time your movement just perfectly so you'll move just when the bomb goes off and it'll launch you to the other side. It's the only way. I tried everything else. Beyond this area is a single item. Then you turn right around and forget the whole ordeal ever happened. I thought, "there's no way it's that complicated. Maybe I just need the spring ball." But I couldn't find it because it was in the stupidest place imaginable: the foot of the statue holding the bomb upgrade (another example of things just being shoved together). Then I came back and tried to use it, but like I said, the ceiling is so low, you won't get any height to go anywhere. I thought, "maybe you're supposed to fall in and use the spring ball to jump back out. I tried bomb jumping, but maybe my timing was just bad." But even the spring ball wouldn't get me high enough, but only in that area. It maintains its normal vertical range everywhere else. Just. That. Area. Of course, that is the ONLY area you would need to traverse vertically with the morph ball. Might as well not even have the spring ball. So it's an item with stupidly obscure placement and next to no actual use. Wonderful. And the only difference between the spring ball and the speed booster is that the speed booster isn't found in a stupidly obscure location...still equally useless, as it's acquired at the end of the game. What a delight.
Look, I didn't wake up thinking "I can't wait to trash someone's Metroid hack." I really wanted to get through the annoying parts so I could enjoy the hack for what it was. But the annoying parts ARE what it was. The annoying parts ARE the hack. Whether I was cursing item placement in a cave, trying to drown underwater, or being burned alive without that "Suncream" outside, I just wanted it to be over. It's not a bad game, it just fails at everything...it...tries to...do. Hmm. I guess it is a bad game. Well, this critique comes from a place of love: love for Metroid and love for the work of dedicated fans willing to put their time and effort into making a Metroid of their own. I hope this gives you an idea of what to expect from this hack, and I hope it gives you, Jordan5, a solid blueprint, should you try to reconstruct your hack or make a new one... No hard feelings.
Fun hack. Location of one of the beams was "weird", and has some broken scrolling sky, but that doesn't matter much. Could live without a grapple section tho
Grapple section sucked like caauy said, but the rest of the hack was pretty neat. Really short too, with one tileset for almost the whole game really.
Pretty decent for a short hack though, not much here to challenge you.
Finished.
Recommend.
retroactively rated
Pretty decent for a short hack though, not much here to challenge you.
Finished.
Recommend.
retroactively rated
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