Super Hard Metroid

Super Hard Metroid
Release date: Jul 27, 2005	Author: Crocomire	Download: Version 1.0 [UH] (408 downloads) Download: Version 1.0 [H] (344 downloads)
Genre: Challenge [?] Game:	Difficulty: Veteran [?]	Average runtime: 3:52 Average collection: 82%
Read Me: [None]	Forum Thread: [None]	Rating:

Description

Info
SHM Concept and Enemy Editing: Crocomire - Adam Rowan-Kelly SHM Terrain Editing: 62C514A6 - Matt Allaire
Contact
Crocomire: yoshi723@hotmail.com
62C514A6: fftechbeta@gmail.com
Storyline / Description
Super Hard Metroid was envisioned originally by Crocomire to possess enemies that were much more difficult than normal to kill. Later, 62C514A6 joined in developing the hack, and he took the terrain to a new level -- literally. SHM's terrain and enemies work together in ways that you have never seen before. Not only must you contend with super hard enemies, but you must also face the challenge of simply navigating without slipping and killing yourself.
Additional Description Notes
The item / progression order of SHM is unchanged from the original Super Metroid.
Known Bugs
After defeating Spore Spawn, you fall down a long hall to get the first Super Missile. The camera does not track Samus properly going down, this is intentional. Do not report this a as a bug.
Occasionally, you might get trapped under a slope. Please be sure you can't escpe before sending a bug report.
Sending Bug Reports
Please send all found bugs to fftechbeta@gmail.com in the following format: (You can copy this form if you want)
Screen Name:
Date:
SHM Version:
Bug Area:
Bug Description:
Screenshot of bug:

Screenshots

Ratings and Reviews

By Aran;Jaeger on Dec 08, 2016 (

)

98% in 4:27

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 Apr 27, 2020 (

)

52% in 2:41

UGHHHHHH
This is a really bad hack. It's basically just a spikefest with unchanged item locations, frustrating permastucks, etc.
Don't play this.
Finished.
Do not recommend.
also! this is a PAL region hack, first of its kind.

By kkzero on Mar 23, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Yup, just another one of those old tedious "challenge" hacks, with the totally ingenious feature of Spikes(TM). Played a bit of it and stopped because it's just that. Nothing interesting about this one.

By Megabrainz 357 on Apr 28, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

Everything there is to say has already been said. It’s spikes and crumble blocks and softlocks. No.

By ClaireDiviner on Feb 27, 2024 (

)

97% in 4:28

I really wanted to like this hack, because the truth is, I low-key enjoy challenge hacks with spikes, provided the spike placements aren't stupid. For the most part, that's what I feel we have with this hack. The routing is also interesting, and replacing the water in Moat with lava was an interesting choice, among many others. However, there are several things that prevent me from giving it more than a 2/5:

- The biggest issue for me are the troll traps, whereby you fall through a crumble block, and end up irreversibly trapped in a pit of spikes; sometimes these are the result of picking the wrong path forward. Shit, like this, is the kind of amateurish design shitty Mario Maker level creators do with the thought that it's "challenging". It isn't a challenge, it's tedious and stupid. There are other trial and error hacks, like Super Mega Metroid X-2, and Kaizo Possible, but they have the decency to implement an instant respawn. A hack like this shouldn't have such trolls, espeicially for players who happen to have not saved in a while. When I think "challenge", I picture an obstacle that's transparent to the player, so that said player uses their skill to get through it, and not because of blind chance.

- Some of the items appear to be impossible to obtain. Specifically the E-Tank in the Big Pink Water Speedway, and the Power Bombs in the top-right corner of Landing Site. The former is just blocked off, with no discernible way to reach it (X-Ray Scope reveals nothing here either); the latter crashes the game upon using Power Bombs to open the door to the room housing the Power Bombs. There's one other item that is too obtuse to obtain, and that's the Main Street Missiles; the speed block reforms, trapping the player in, forcing a softlock. The only way to get it is for the player to have the forethought to use Blue Suit obtained from Draygon, or with speed keep, using X-Ray Scope for turning (and I'm not sure if that method is realistically feasible.

- Another major issue that many hacks released since this seem to have, is that the Baby Metroid's sound effect is different, for some weird reason. On its own, it's no big deal, but when Samus is grabbed, and drained to 1 health, the game's audio goes ape shit, and soft-crashes the game, causing a hard crash upon loading the next room. This hard-forces the player to have to Baby skip, which would be fine, if the game wasn't being run on the PAL version (oh, we'll get to that).

- Finally, this game runs on the PAL version. Even if you apply this patch to an NTSC version rom, the PAL version's quirks will overwrite. I've never played the PAL version before (only ever hearing about it), but from what I've played, it really messes with the muscle memory, and physics that the vast majority of Super Metroid players know. Speed Booster is different, item fanfares are longer, beam and missile cooldown is longer, the list goes on; it runs slower than NTSC, at (from what I was told) 50 FPS. Why you chose to go with PAL is beyond me, especially when your previous hacks are the standard NTSC.

Despite everything listed, I didn't hate the hack. What I liked in it, like the actual challenges, I did like (even Ridley's room that amounts to "Oops! All Spikes!"). However, the issues I did have with the game REALLY hurt it, to the point where I'm giving it a 2/5, instead of a 3 or 4.

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