“It's like I've gone and died to Heaven. Also, metroids.”
| Super Metroid: Cristener Homenag 2 | ||
Release date: Feb 04, 2014 |
Author: Juan Dennys
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Genre: Vanilla+ [?] Game: 
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Difficulty: Unknown [?]
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Average runtime:
2:20 Average collection: 89% |
Read Me: [None] |
Forum Thread: [None] |
Rating:
 
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Description
n/a
Screenshots
Ratings and Reviews
Glory
This hack is not even worth facepalming at nor is it worth anyone's time.
1/5. It's hacks like these that give Super Metroid a bad name.
1/5. It's hacks like these that give Super Metroid a bad name.
The sequel to the alleged worst hack ever made. I'm... not quite sure how I'm going to structure this review, because this hack is odd. My best guess is that I highly doubt the author ever actually finished the hack, and just released what they had so far, but I don't know for sure. (Likewise, I wonder if the alleged third part of the series exists or not. There's YouTube videos of a Homenag 4, but it seems to be deliberately bad, so I highly doubt it's by the same guy...).
The first thing to note is that some of the problems of Homenag 1 aren't present here. Samus's palette are unchanged and everything uses stock palettes anyway; the only exceptions are one room in Crateria and one room in Tourian. All enemies and bosses have their original health, and boss rooms are completely unchanged. But this hack isn't vanilla in difficulty; read on.
The best analogy for this hack that I can think of for this is that it's like a Neapolitan ice cream: divided into three parts, each of a different flavor.
The first stripe: From the beginning, the hack seems to be much more oriented around puzzles and techniques; almost a Cliffhanger Lite, but far less difficult. You'll need to be able to mockball (you won't be able to get your first Missile Pack without it). The route continues as normal otherwise. There are spikes, but they're few and easily avoidable: just watch your step and you'll do fine. The other big thing is that many of the rooms have been made bigger. Of particular note is the early Super Missile room, which not only has your first Super Missiles but also is three screens tall or so.
Strange thing about that room: there's invisible respawning Sidehoppers instead of refill bugs. I don't know why they are invisible, but I have seen that kind of glitch in other hacks, so I'm wondering if that's a bug or not...
The adjacent room with three items also has a Cliffhanger-esque lava puzzle, if you dare. (My suggestion is to get two energy tanks).
You'll quickly find that most (not all) of the Missile Packs have been changed to only give 4 Missiles instead of 5. Seems mostly random (the 5-Missile Packs are typically the well-hidden ones), but eh.
There is one enemy that has been changed, and in my opinion it's for the worse: the plants that eat you now no longer eat you — they now just act like spikes, including giving you a spike's worth of damage each touch (so 60 energy without any suits). This is especially annoying right outside Kraid's room, where the floor is made almost entirely of these.
There are also a few rooms in this stretch that have some minor scrolling issues. Nothing too bad.
The Brinstar Map Room seems to crash the game. Not sure if it's an emulator bug (bsnes v080) or not. I didn't try any other Map Rooms as a result.
The second stripe is what happens after Kraid. It's the most different part of the hack from vanilla. It also has the hack's biggest problem, and quite possibly the only truly awful thing about either Homenag.
Kraid gives you Varia Suit, and you can head straight down to Norfair. You'll find that all the routes except the one with the Save Room are now blocked by Power Bomb blocks, so you'll have to head that way. The next room has been changed so you no longer need Speed Booster (you can get it early by doing a Spore Spawn skip, though — Spore Spawn's room is also blocked by Power Bomb blocks). So you keep going, and keep find yourself being blocked by Power Bomb blocks. You're basically routed all the way to Lower Norfair (which you can get in without taking a lava bath, though you may need a single offset bomb jump). The room that used to have the Space Jump Chozo Statue is devoid of acid, but the enemies still can hurt you, so be careful. Next, you get to fight Gold Torizo... who goes down with a single charged shot. Yay! The next few rooms are also needlessly enlarged; the enlarged rooms stop here, though. You'll find the room where you have to Screw Attack through pillars also no longer has acid in it.
From this point on, Lower Norfair is mostly unchanged. If you have Speed Booster, take it off before trying to escape the rising acid room. So it seems you're supposed to go through Lower Norfair, and that it has been made easier in general, right?
Ha.
The game wants you to fight Ridley now, and you **must** fight Ridley in order to get Power Bombs (as all other Power Bomb packs are blocked by Power Bomb blocks or Power Bomb doors). ***If you go out the normal Lower Norfair exit now to stock up, you are permastuck in Green Norfair. All the exits will be blocked by Power Bomb blocks, and you can't get the only other Power Bomb pack in that area. You will also need Power Bombs to get back to Lower Norfair. If you save in Green Norfair, you'll have to delete your game.***
If you collect everything you can possibly get before facing Ridley, you will only have: 5 Energy Tanks, 1 Reserve Tank, 62 Missiles, 10 Super Missiles, Charge Beam, Plasma Beam (which is right in front of Ridley's door), Varia Suit, Morphing Ball, Bombs, Screw Attack, and Speed Booster. And to make matters worse for me, I missed one of the Energy Tanks (the Blue Brinstar one) because I thought I needed Power Bombs for it when in fact I didn't, so I only had 4.
And you would think from the other Lower Norfair changes that Ridley would be made slightly easier, right? Ha, wrong: Ridley is completely untouched.
Needless to say, this is not a pleasant fight. (I'm not sure if it's more pleasant with 5 Energy Tanks, but I'm leaning toward "not by much".)
Oh, and the room before Ridley has been changed, but also for the worse: most platforms are removed, those that are kept have been made to blend into the background, and I think there are spikes on the floor just offscreen. You will likely die here a few times even before you get to Ridley. Not cool. (At least the eye door is gone...)
So if there is any legitimate reason for the Cristener Homenag hacks to claim any sort of awfulness, it's this stuff. Going back to the Neapolitan analogy, it's like someone replaced much of the second stripe with a block of concrete hidden under a thin layer of ice cream.
But let's continue.
The third stripe comprises the entire rest of the game, and sadly, it's the blandest: most of the rooms have been completely unchanged (apart from some item placements), and some rooms only have a few extra blocks here or there. This continues for the rest of the hack, and is the reason why I think this hack might never have been finished: I'm pretty sure the first Homenag had more changes (but I could be wrong)... The only real thing is you'll need Grapple Beam to get to Phantoon, and that's where Plasma Beam used to be (and I think the door is unlocked from the start, but I'm not sure).
Here are some highlights from this third part:
The room right above the Maridia Power Bomb tube no longer has water. It also has Gravity Suit right out in the open.
The Hall of Death in the Wrecked Ship now has a bunch of reappearing grapple blocks thrown in for a challenge that, if done wrong, will result in a permastuck (as you have to deal with the rising platforms).
The Spazer room has a completely new design.
The Shinespark Super Missile room in Crateria has a slightly darker palette than usual. It almost looks like a palette that should be used at the start of the game when Zebes is still asleep. I wonder if it's custom or not...
Tourian is even less changed than it was in Homenag 1. The only real change is the first room, which still has the Speed Booster puzzle at the end, but the blocks are now normal CRE blocks, and not a fake Zebetite like in Homenag 1, and all the blocks are Speed Booster blocks now.
The escape is unmodified this time (except for the changed Crateria rooms, of course); you will have ample time to save the animals now.
Now, if this was the end of the story, I would say that this hack isn't better or worse than Homenag 1; it's just different. But the stuff with Ridley means I would definitely give it 2.5 stars (maybe 2?) if I could. But there is one more thing, which is crazy enough to kinda sorta redeem this hack to some extent.
You'll find a second Reserve Tank as you play.
And then a third, and then a fourth.
And then a fifth.
And then a sixth.
In total, there are **ten** (10) Reserve Tanks to collect. One room even has two. itsblah commented in another IRC channel, saying I shouldn't be turning this into a drinking game, but there's an idea for you.
And yes, this all totally works! It doesn't even break the Pause screen too much: the boilerplate graphics and two digits of the number do overwrite the meter tiles, and one meter tile appears outside the box, but the system doesn't break. (Manual Mode seems to empty Reserve Tanks completely for some reason once you max out on normal Energy, but I'm not 100% sure...)
Ten. Reserve. Tanks.
Homenag 2 should be known for this too. Seriously.
Though by my calculations I picked up 103 items, the game only showed me 96%. Item counts for this:
13 Energy Tanks
10 Reserve Tanks (!)
187 Missiles
50 Super Missiles
50 Power Bombs
all other vanilla items
So yeah, I'd probably give this one a 2.5 too. Maybe one day I'll livestream these two, assuming I can not fail at such tight Ridley fights ever (ha).
The first thing to note is that some of the problems of Homenag 1 aren't present here. Samus's palette are unchanged and everything uses stock palettes anyway; the only exceptions are one room in Crateria and one room in Tourian. All enemies and bosses have their original health, and boss rooms are completely unchanged. But this hack isn't vanilla in difficulty; read on.
The best analogy for this hack that I can think of for this is that it's like a Neapolitan ice cream: divided into three parts, each of a different flavor.
The first stripe: From the beginning, the hack seems to be much more oriented around puzzles and techniques; almost a Cliffhanger Lite, but far less difficult. You'll need to be able to mockball (you won't be able to get your first Missile Pack without it). The route continues as normal otherwise. There are spikes, but they're few and easily avoidable: just watch your step and you'll do fine. The other big thing is that many of the rooms have been made bigger. Of particular note is the early Super Missile room, which not only has your first Super Missiles but also is three screens tall or so.
Strange thing about that room: there's invisible respawning Sidehoppers instead of refill bugs. I don't know why they are invisible, but I have seen that kind of glitch in other hacks, so I'm wondering if that's a bug or not...
The adjacent room with three items also has a Cliffhanger-esque lava puzzle, if you dare. (My suggestion is to get two energy tanks).
You'll quickly find that most (not all) of the Missile Packs have been changed to only give 4 Missiles instead of 5. Seems mostly random (the 5-Missile Packs are typically the well-hidden ones), but eh.
There is one enemy that has been changed, and in my opinion it's for the worse: the plants that eat you now no longer eat you — they now just act like spikes, including giving you a spike's worth of damage each touch (so 60 energy without any suits). This is especially annoying right outside Kraid's room, where the floor is made almost entirely of these.
There are also a few rooms in this stretch that have some minor scrolling issues. Nothing too bad.
The Brinstar Map Room seems to crash the game. Not sure if it's an emulator bug (bsnes v080) or not. I didn't try any other Map Rooms as a result.
The second stripe is what happens after Kraid. It's the most different part of the hack from vanilla. It also has the hack's biggest problem, and quite possibly the only truly awful thing about either Homenag.
Kraid gives you Varia Suit, and you can head straight down to Norfair. You'll find that all the routes except the one with the Save Room are now blocked by Power Bomb blocks, so you'll have to head that way. The next room has been changed so you no longer need Speed Booster (you can get it early by doing a Spore Spawn skip, though — Spore Spawn's room is also blocked by Power Bomb blocks). So you keep going, and keep find yourself being blocked by Power Bomb blocks. You're basically routed all the way to Lower Norfair (which you can get in without taking a lava bath, though you may need a single offset bomb jump). The room that used to have the Space Jump Chozo Statue is devoid of acid, but the enemies still can hurt you, so be careful. Next, you get to fight Gold Torizo... who goes down with a single charged shot. Yay! The next few rooms are also needlessly enlarged; the enlarged rooms stop here, though. You'll find the room where you have to Screw Attack through pillars also no longer has acid in it.
From this point on, Lower Norfair is mostly unchanged. If you have Speed Booster, take it off before trying to escape the rising acid room. So it seems you're supposed to go through Lower Norfair, and that it has been made easier in general, right?
Ha.
The game wants you to fight Ridley now, and you **must** fight Ridley in order to get Power Bombs (as all other Power Bomb packs are blocked by Power Bomb blocks or Power Bomb doors). ***If you go out the normal Lower Norfair exit now to stock up, you are permastuck in Green Norfair. All the exits will be blocked by Power Bomb blocks, and you can't get the only other Power Bomb pack in that area. You will also need Power Bombs to get back to Lower Norfair. If you save in Green Norfair, you'll have to delete your game.***
If you collect everything you can possibly get before facing Ridley, you will only have: 5 Energy Tanks, 1 Reserve Tank, 62 Missiles, 10 Super Missiles, Charge Beam, Plasma Beam (which is right in front of Ridley's door), Varia Suit, Morphing Ball, Bombs, Screw Attack, and Speed Booster. And to make matters worse for me, I missed one of the Energy Tanks (the Blue Brinstar one) because I thought I needed Power Bombs for it when in fact I didn't, so I only had 4.
And you would think from the other Lower Norfair changes that Ridley would be made slightly easier, right? Ha, wrong: Ridley is completely untouched.
Needless to say, this is not a pleasant fight. (I'm not sure if it's more pleasant with 5 Energy Tanks, but I'm leaning toward "not by much".)
Oh, and the room before Ridley has been changed, but also for the worse: most platforms are removed, those that are kept have been made to blend into the background, and I think there are spikes on the floor just offscreen. You will likely die here a few times even before you get to Ridley. Not cool. (At least the eye door is gone...)
So if there is any legitimate reason for the Cristener Homenag hacks to claim any sort of awfulness, it's this stuff. Going back to the Neapolitan analogy, it's like someone replaced much of the second stripe with a block of concrete hidden under a thin layer of ice cream.
But let's continue.
The third stripe comprises the entire rest of the game, and sadly, it's the blandest: most of the rooms have been completely unchanged (apart from some item placements), and some rooms only have a few extra blocks here or there. This continues for the rest of the hack, and is the reason why I think this hack might never have been finished: I'm pretty sure the first Homenag had more changes (but I could be wrong)... The only real thing is you'll need Grapple Beam to get to Phantoon, and that's where Plasma Beam used to be (and I think the door is unlocked from the start, but I'm not sure).
Here are some highlights from this third part:
The room right above the Maridia Power Bomb tube no longer has water. It also has Gravity Suit right out in the open.
The Hall of Death in the Wrecked Ship now has a bunch of reappearing grapple blocks thrown in for a challenge that, if done wrong, will result in a permastuck (as you have to deal with the rising platforms).
The Spazer room has a completely new design.
The Shinespark Super Missile room in Crateria has a slightly darker palette than usual. It almost looks like a palette that should be used at the start of the game when Zebes is still asleep. I wonder if it's custom or not...
Tourian is even less changed than it was in Homenag 1. The only real change is the first room, which still has the Speed Booster puzzle at the end, but the blocks are now normal CRE blocks, and not a fake Zebetite like in Homenag 1, and all the blocks are Speed Booster blocks now.
The escape is unmodified this time (except for the changed Crateria rooms, of course); you will have ample time to save the animals now.
Now, if this was the end of the story, I would say that this hack isn't better or worse than Homenag 1; it's just different. But the stuff with Ridley means I would definitely give it 2.5 stars (maybe 2?) if I could. But there is one more thing, which is crazy enough to kinda sorta redeem this hack to some extent.
You'll find a second Reserve Tank as you play.
And then a third, and then a fourth.
And then a fifth.
And then a sixth.
In total, there are **ten** (10) Reserve Tanks to collect. One room even has two. itsblah commented in another IRC channel, saying I shouldn't be turning this into a drinking game, but there's an idea for you.
And yes, this all totally works! It doesn't even break the Pause screen too much: the boilerplate graphics and two digits of the number do overwrite the meter tiles, and one meter tile appears outside the box, but the system doesn't break. (Manual Mode seems to empty Reserve Tanks completely for some reason once you max out on normal Energy, but I'm not 100% sure...)
Ten. Reserve. Tanks.
Homenag 2 should be known for this too. Seriously.
Though by my calculations I picked up 103 items, the game only showed me 96%. Item counts for this:
13 Energy Tanks
10 Reserve Tanks (!)
187 Missiles
50 Super Missiles
50 Power Bombs
all other vanilla items
So yeah, I'd probably give this one a 2.5 too. Maybe one day I'll livestream these two, assuming I can not fail at such tight Ridley fights ever (ha).
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png)
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''.
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''.
worse than the first. a huge chunk of the rooms are exactly the same. i got so bored that i reverted to an old save to do gt code just to tap out of the true experience. big hopes for number 3
Worse than the first, like most sequels the past 30 years or so. This is literally the definition of half-hack, because after you beat Ridley, almost all the rest of the game is unchanged aside some item placements.
It has less meme potential than the first game. The suits are fixed this time, but the tilings are worse, bland or vanilla. The grapple gimmick is still there, but the Missiles meme is lost (you get them much easier, and they're not gated like the first installment). You can get a bunch of Reserve Tanks, that's pretty much it.
The hack is like 1 1/5 stars, since at least it doesn't have too many one-shot moments or spike hell. It's better than the usual Pedro-tier hacks, but not by much. Not worth your time.
It has less meme potential than the first game. The suits are fixed this time, but the tilings are worse, bland or vanilla. The grapple gimmick is still there, but the Missiles meme is lost (you get them much easier, and they're not gated like the first installment). You can get a bunch of Reserve Tanks, that's pretty much it.
The hack is like 1 1/5 stars, since at least it doesn't have too many one-shot moments or spike hell. It's better than the usual Pedro-tier hacks, but not by much. Not worth your time.
On surface level, there is clearly nothing to say that has been already said about Homenags, ie, this hack is beyond crap and should not even be listed at Metconst, period. The fact its score isn't as low as possible is outrageous.
To give you a little insight, during the time span you meticulously wrote a review for this hack, Pedro could have already released two Super Metroid hacks.
And he doesn't care whatever you are babbling about. Why ? Because he's long gone now.
His goal at the time was to provoke a reaction from the community by flooding us with poorly made hacks with no description nor pictures (which isn't allowed by the rules btw) and outlandish titles.
In reality, Pedro/crimsonsunbird/jailsonmendes/[insert alt name here] only cared about one thing : Cristina.
In the end, the story never told if he ever won her heart but let me get this straight : you can do better than this.
To give you a little insight, during the time span you meticulously wrote a review for this hack, Pedro could have already released two Super Metroid hacks.
And he doesn't care whatever you are babbling about. Why ? Because he's long gone now.
His goal at the time was to provoke a reaction from the community by flooding us with poorly made hacks with no description nor pictures (which isn't allowed by the rules btw) and outlandish titles.
In reality, Pedro/crimsonsunbird/jailsonmendes/[insert alt name here] only cared about one thing : Cristina.
In the end, the story never told if he ever won her heart but let me get this straight : you can do better than this.
I was able to leave the landing area! but that was just about it. The next room is impassable due to the roof being too low. Another unplayable hack.
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