Super Metroid: Arrival
Release date: Mar 16, 2016
Author: Jefe962
Download: Arrival v1.11 Patch (5237 downloads)
Genre: Exploration [?]
Game: SM
Difficulty: Vanilla [?]
Average runtime: 2:49
Average collection: 91%
Read Me: [None]
Forum Thread: Arrival forum thread
Rating: Star Star Star Star Star
Awards:
  • Top Hacks 2016: Best Aesthetics
Description
Arrival is Samus's last stand against the Federal Government and the planet SR-319. This is where the Metroids once inhabited, until they became "extinct". Though, as Samus dives deep into the planet to seek safety, she finds that not all is as it seems.

Enemies get Stronger.
The World is Creepier.
Life is Tougher.

--

This is a Hack created by Jefe962. Named Super Metroid Arrival, it includes a Physics overhaul, Strange new Palettes, Different Tilesets, Interesting Chozo Key schematics, and loads more!

--

100% includes:

100 Missiles
20 Super Missiles
30 Power Bombs
6 E-Tanks
4 Chozo Keys (Reserve Tanks)
Beams: Charge, Spazer, Wave, Ice, Plasma - And the all new Spazer/Plasma by JAM! (Not a Separate Item, however.)
Suits: Varia and Gravity
Suit items: Morph, Bombs, Spring Ball, Screw Attack
Boot items: Wall-Jump, Hi-Jump, Speed Booster, Space Jump

--

Credits

JAM - Major changes and fixes
begrimed - Major changes and fixes
Scyzer - patches
Black_Falcon - patches
Jordan5 - Beta testing
Kte - Beta testing
Person701 - Beta testing
Some IRL friends - Beta testng
Everyone - For being a good community and slapping me into shape when I needed to hack!
Screenshots
Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot
Ratings and Reviews
By Vismund Cygnus on May 08, 2015 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
(v 0.4)
I never did write my review for this, did I? Spoilers ahead.
The main problem with Arrival for me is that the flow is just so very, very poor. The bulk of this hack seemed to me to be; collect item, run to the other side of the map, collect item, run to the other side of the map, collect item, repeat until end. There was very little to do between collecting new upgrades, aside from shoot at enemies. Backtracking is fine as long as there's stuff to do along the way. However this hack lacks in having stuff to do between major upgrades. My main gripe being after you collect Super Missiles, and are required to run from one side of the map to the other with absolutely nothing to do in between aside from shoot at enemies. By this stage I was already quite bored, and the overall sluggishness of this section completely killed any momentum this hack had going for it.

I can't recommend this hack in its current state.
By Corruptor on Jun 05, 2015 (Star Star Star Star Star )
77% in 3:01
I enjoyed playing this hack quite a bit, although it's not finished, I'd say it's pretty good. There are some remixes using Super Metroid's sounds, but 2 of 3 are ones I like. I never felt the need to look up a walk through, or maybe I just happened to bomb the right areas to find everything, although I've not gotten all the items, it's not necessary to get all of them to beat it or make it easier. The physics changes weren't great but they weren't bad either honestly, I didn't have much difficulty adjusting to them. There seems to be no required order for anything almost, but obviously some areas will be locked off until the proper upgrade is acquired. Another thing is that no advanced tricks or techniques are required to beat this hack. Good work Jefe962.
Note: My time is bad because I had to do some backtracking to grab the remaining chozo keys+items, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
By Steel Sparkle on Jun 19, 2015 (Star Star Star Star Star )
65% in 1:32
As much as i enjoyed this hack and the great remixes it had.. Sadly the ending was fairly dissapointing but i won't spoil why. Anyways this is a fairly easy hack to play and does not require any advanced skills and i loved the water physics as they have been the only metroid water physics i have liked so all in all i like this hack but the ending is why im rating this 4/5.. Good hack Jefe. I would like to see more in the future.
By RT-55J on Sep 02, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
% in 3:03
Modestly sized full-hack that doesn't wear out it's welcome. Would recommend.

Be Aware: The Golden Torizo fight is no fun at all (skip it).

(Review based on v1.11)
By Foxhound3857 on Oct 24, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
95% in 1:57
Ending was pretty lame, everything else was spot on.

Nice custom music too.
By Aran;Jaeger on Dec 08, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
101% in 2:13
[Watch Video]  
1 more Item technically can be collected without major glitches.
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''.
By Anarchyguitarist on Jul 04, 2017 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 1:50
What I like.

1. Names of Areas.
- looks so cool & Ancient-

2. Colors of places
3.The color palette of the plants, areas.
-looks so Alien, fitting property-

4. Gravity System
-looks similar to AM2R-
-one of best remake games ever made-

5. Some custom textures on Areas
-Great positioning & placing-

6. Background music amazing.
-clever ideas to edit the music-

What I don't like

1. Spam beam
-fits to Arrival but suck when u get spazer
everything is 2 shot too easy-

2. Easy getting items
-I like to run & explore maps and then run hack to find the way to get secret-
Most items getting so fast and easy.
-It would be better to get after each boss-

3. Classic energy system.
-I would like a dark orange or dark purple for energy squares, or each time you get another suit for example Varia,
the whole energy square color should change to dark purple, or dark yellow with classic suit, dark lava with another.
-It is possible with script-

4. Wonderful idea about classic music
-That need some fading in/fading out when u enter to new area the music starts instantly that's wrong.
Need to Remux and add some fade in to get music come slowly when u enter to new place Warlus.

That's all.. I have play most of popular hacks this one getting to my top 5 favorite list!
Great work dude!
By Pixel_Tiger on Jul 19, 2017 (Star Star Star Star Star )
99% in 3:26
I'm very impressed by how much fun this hack was. The graphics were absolutely phenomenal. The music was a very nice and welcome change after so many hacks. I'm kinda sad tho... I'm done :/. This is one of those hacks... you can actually feel passion and love for this hack and super metroid.. not just filling rooms with spikes and what not 5/5

Great hack Jefe!! Hope to see more of those high quality hacks from you!
By TheOrigin on Feb 06, 2018 (Star Star Star Star Star )
84% in 1:52
By albert v. on Jul 05, 2018 (Star Star Star Star Star )
78% in 3:12
very nice hack, i liked, especially for the graphics
By Sapphron on Sep 09, 2018 (Star Star Star Star Star )
101% in 2:13
Honestly beautiful. Nothing was too hard to find, music was great, really liked the physics changes, graphical changes made me feel like I was in the world.
By MetroidNerd#9001 on Nov 21, 2018 (Star Star Star Star Star )
94% in 2:14
This is a fun hack. It looks great and the physics flow pretty well. There are a few annoyances though. There is a bit too much back and forth across the map with little sense of direction, and the hunt for the Chozo Keys is annoying, but it was still fun to play. I recommend playing this.
By Syphon on Nov 06, 2019 (Star Star Star Star Star )
89% in 2:06
A good hack with nice graphics as well and also custom music.

Physics changes were okay but Space Jump was way too hectic.

Like Vismund and MetroidNerd said, the back and forth between areas after getting a major upgrade was annoying.
The final area looked nice but was way too short.
Level design was pretty good.

Difficulty: It's a pretty easy hack. Gold Torizo is annoying fighting normally but you can cheese it by attacking from where it can't reach you.

Recommended.
By Grayfox82 on Jan 25, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
99% in 4:13
Un hack con buena estética, rápido y entretenido. Solo algunos remixes no me agradaron tanto, pero por lo de mas, genial!
By ptoil on Feb 12, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
87% in 2:54
Really awesome hack, loved the environments and music choices
By metasamus on May 19, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
Beautiful and fun hack!
By Moehr on Jun 24, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
91% in 3:15
Nice visuals, laid out well, the few times I felt I needed a save state, the next room ended up being a save zone or energy refill station. Plays fast blind and is a blast. Had an interesting little story going too. Feels very polished.

Time may not be accurate, was in another window and missed it. Last save on Prometheus at 3:05
By benox50 on Oct 18, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
Fun and fast to traverse, not alot of bottlenecks in this one where others hacks can have an hard time with, good for going fast, sweet and short, nice visuals/tiling in general. But blind play was meh for exploration, rooms/hack felt really empty and booring. Reason being not alot of personality nor key elements that you can remember per rooms, not alot of unknown surprises or new or challenges, and I dare say a general feel of lazyness in all the efforts, which lead to repetition
and not alot going on while doing the many back and forth between items. Im hard but I feel it had the potential, is close, just need that extra juice.
By Daniel94Gomes on Nov 08, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
99% in 1:14
I Play The Version 1.11
By Kremit44 on Dec 08, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
96% in 2:25
I found this hack boring and very by the book. Finding items and exploring is very basic and the game has little in the way of environmental puzzles with items essentially just given to the player. It looks good and it's competent with interesting physics and item tweaks, it's just really boring IMO. I thought Nature was unimaginative too but this is a far greater issue here. I feel bad giving it a 3 because it's so impressive in some ways but I honestly don't get how anyone could be too impressed by the game design, it's just run and collect. At least it's quick to get around. It's worth a play but there are much better games rated worse, it's not something I'd rush to experience.
By Kandier on Mar 09, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
91% in 5:33
Version 1.11

This hack gets so boring & tedious in a few hours, it doesn't offer anything really good beyond the visual... at first it was very well, I had that feeling of curiosity and finding various items kept me interested, but after a while everything that goes away, the areas were some confusing & it gets repetitive and annoying, then, the Space Jump is a complete bullshit!, uncontrollable, almost useless & to get it, I used the infinite bomb jump trick, but I don't know if it was the correct or I broke up the sequence, the map screen has some glitches... this hack was a big disappointment for me
By Fercho on Apr 20, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
97% in 2:38
Este hack es bonito estéticamente y además es fácil de jugar no necesitas ninguna técnica especial para pasarlo. Creo que lo que me impide darle más es la fácilidad de los jefes, la zona final y que la ruta que recorres es simple ya que muchas veces tienes que volver por el mismo camino. Aún así pienso que merece 4 orbs.
By therealsusan on May 11, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
93% in 3:00
Completion stats are for the first time I beat it a few months ago.

Just playing it again- your 100% in the description is wrong, I'm sitting on 130 missiles. Have basically everything else, but never found power bombs, except some that were blocked by PB tiles. (Bailing on this playthrough because of it)

Fun hack. Main complaint is the running back and forth between areas. Most of the physics changes were easy to adapt to except for space jump, highly considered turning that off.
By LetsPlayNintendoITA on Jul 01, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
101% in 2:26
[Watch Video]  
Arrival. Is a good hack.
101%ed it and it felt really good.
No real big trick in its sleeves. Except one. You know which one if you played it to completion. But really not that bad. Felt satisfied and the music. MAN the music. <3
Only one thing that stick to me were some of the bosses were literally jokes.
But the rest solid hack. Nice job.
Yea the numbers are wrong on the page. They should be:
%age: 101%
ET: 9
M: 200
SM: 20
PB: 30
CK/RT: 4
By OmegaMalkior on Aug 03, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
88% in 2:08
Loved it from start to finish. Think I played this hack years ago but as soon as I saw it had I think Project Base asets I dove straight into it again. Phantoon was a disappointment but apart from that loved the hack in every other aspect. Gold Torizo was pretty fun, and loved the music EXCEPT that Tourian song in the equivalent of Lower Norfair. Thing really has to go. Apart from that, 5 orbs easy
By badatmetroid on Dec 30, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
94% in 3:09
Fun hack. I like the idea of wall jump being an item instead of a starting mechanic, but I don't know if it made a difference. The overall ambiance was really good and I felt like the areas were very distinct in both appearance and layout. Definitely one of the prettier hacks.
By Zincoshine on Sep 04, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 2:41
Hmmm this hack came really close to getting a recommendation as a meteroidvania but the disappointing design of the last biome proved to be the final straw for me. I cannot recommend this. This was also the last remaining 2016 hack left for me to review. This means that sadly there don't exist any hacks from 2016 that are worth playing unlike 2013 which has B2-TW and 2014 which has Escape II.

The good things:
- Crateria, Brinstar, and maridia are well designed
- The physics and gun changes give the game a nice fact paced zero mission feel

The bad things are:
- lower norfair and tourian are badly designed in terms of gameplay with countless bad choices made throughout with level design, enemy design, and so on.
- The golden chozo boss battle is the worst one I've seen in a hack. Thankfully it is optional. I had to give up on that.
- Title screen fails to mention this is super metroid arrival
- intro was edited but instead of using that as an opportunity to tell the story, the creator saw fit to use it to make the whole hack look like a late 90s anthrox trainer hack.
- No coherent story to speak off. The one on this page doesn't seem to match the events, even the planet name is different.
- the escape sequence is very poorly designed at one point.
By JohnnieEpic on Mar 01, 2023 (Star Star Star Star Star )
98% in 3:17
I really enjoyed this hack, there were a few moments that had me scratching my head on where to go. I think that's because I played it on and off over a week so I forgot about locations I had been to. Areas have a great feel and look to them. I Loved the different music tracks, Kolpruz had like a secret of mana vibe to it for me. Then there was the Golden Torizo...... Bruh! Took me well over 50 attempts but I beat it with 2 energy remaining!!
By Viktor_Kadic on Mar 08, 2023 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 3:12
This is a very well made, but very badly designed hack. The new tiles and palettes are very nice (especially the final area), everything works as intended,and the physics are incredible (I think this might be one of the fastest metroids overall when it comes to movement), theyre extremely satisfying and zooming through the world feels amazing.

The hack is unfortunately not exactly fun to play and explore. Most items are just handed to you with no skill or curiosity demanded of you to find them, theres barely anything to do in most rooms the second time you go through them, and the progression is painfully linear. Most of the gajme is just going to the next only possible place to go, getting the item, and then going back to the other next only possible place to go, and while the areas arent laid out linearly, the item progression and paths that open are completely linear (and not in a fun way like Fusion was).

The difficulty is way lower than the original metroid which didnt bug me as i tend to prefer vanilla difficulty hacks, but if thats something you dont like. And the music is good! There's a couple (as far as i can tell) original tracks which are very nice.
By Zagan on May 28, 2023 (Star Star Star Star Star )
94% in 3:31
Good hack, it has pretty graphics and good physics.
But it is nothing extraordinary, progression is very basic and there are no real challenges or memorable moments.

Play this if you have finished all the 5-stars hacks and want more SM.
By OmegaDragnet9 on Dec 27, 2023 (Star Star Star Star Star )
84% in 2:59
This is my second playthrough, and I really enjoyed most aspects of the hack.

Not entirely certain if Project Base was the platform this was built on, or if it was just that some elements of Project Base were incorporated. Either way, it's in the hack's DNA.

I really love the GFX work throughout the game. There is a lot of heart put into this and it shows.

The custom music is a huge plus for me. If I'm not mistaken, this hack was actually where I was first introduced to some of these tunes.

Warlus and Lolpruz were my favorite areas so far as music, graphics, and level design are concerned.

Before I get into spoilers I'll just say you really need to play this hack.

---------------SPOILERS----------------

My only real criticism is the ending pretty much comes rather abruptly and the pacing at the endgame is weaker for it.

It is a skill issue, but Golden Torizo is obscenely difficult. Without looking up speedruns of the game, I did boot up my save file from a few years ago to find I did collect Charge Beam somewhere. (Maybe the reward from that boss?) Given the choice between this challenge and the end, I opted to head to the final area.

I paid more attention to the Chozo Artifact aspect this time around; the lock and key room was a real cool nod to Redesign. I find this sort of stuff fascinating from a hacking perspective.

Obviously I will be revisiting this hack soon (to end GT and find Charge.)
By Megabrainz 357 on Aug 04, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
93% in 4:32
Before I begin, SPOILERS AHEAD! Stop reading this review if you don't want spoilers.

Okay, I really liked this hack, and was ready to give it 5/5 most of the way through, but as it progressed I found a couple things I didn't like, and they were enough to knock it down to 4/5.

For starters, There was too much back and forth across the entire map. It felt a lot like, "pick up an item, go across the map, get the next item, go back to the other side, etc. Probably about an hour of my run was traveling across the map like this. Kraid was hidden too well. I couldn't find that bomb block, and ultimately had to look up a playthrough of the hack to figure out where it was. There was also a square that claimed to have an item that had no item? In Kolpruz, in the room with the backwards super gate that you have to use a Power Bomb to get underneath, there is another Chozo Statue one map square down with one of the orb enemy things. Maybe I missed it but I repeatedly scoured that room with X-Ray scope and found no sign of anything. It didn't help that this was during my struggle to find Kraid/progession, and I found that aggravating. Also, Space Jump was really janky. I struggled to use it for quite a while and found myself flying everywhere I didn't want to go. One last con: Golden Torizo fight sucks. Skip Golden Torizo and the rising/lowering acid on the ground.

Onto what I DID enjoy: I liked the idea of Wall Jump as an item. It added an interesting twist to the physics of the game, which were already altered. The aesthetics - fantastic. I play on mute sometimes, so I didn't get the music but I'm sure it was great. The atmosphere of the hack felt like a Metroid game should - ominous, like there is always something hiding in the next room. And the graphics were incredible. I liked the looseness of the bosses, and being able to go after them in any order. Sure, options within those areas are limited if you don't have certain items, but you can always make it to the boss. I ended up beating Draygon first, then Ridley, and Kraid last. The Chozo Keys were a fun mechanic to add to the game, also interesting that they were Reserve Tanks. I enjoyed seeing the new areas and taking in the scenery. Machine gun Samus was kind of cool too, I found that it helped in some circumstances but hindered me in others. The exploration was fantastic too, except for the aforementioned back-and-forth across the map for so long. And the ending didn't bug me like it did a lot of people. I actually rather liked it. The Metroids being impervious to Ice Beam was surprising, but I was able to work around it easier than I thought I would. Also, it was intense that the Metroids were marked as bosses! The first one that I tried to freeze but failed grabbed me, and I didn't know what to do, so I died, and when the map for Prometheus X loaded I was shown four bosses throughout, followed by a room with another four bosses in it! I wasn't too surprised that Phantoon was the final boss because he was the only one left heading into Prometheus X, and that fight wasn't too bad (microwave!). The escape was intense for a second, but very doable.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this hack. I recommend it.
By Kriken Empire on Sep 04, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
95% in 2:54
I enjoyed my time with this hack immensely, and that alone should be worth 5 stars, but it comes with some caveats. There are a lot of well hidden paths that aren't always intuitive, and mandatory to find to complete the game. I can see a much different and negative experience playing out because of this. Regardless, a lot of the optional items were in interesting locations and I thought the shortcuts and pathing through zones was extremely clever. I also liked how bosses were usually utilized more like goal posts than major challenges.

This hack joins its brothers in making me ask "where the heck are power bombs"? Getting them was fine, I loved all the teases before acquiring any, but there were one too many power bomb doors/blocks leading up to getting them. I like to call it "exploration debt." I was in too much debt, with too many rooms I had to remember all at once, and at least one important item needed to reach the final area was among them. It halted my momentum going into the finale. A few grey doors left me scratching my head as well. They were never an issue when exploring, but I couldn't tell when/why they opened sometimes.

There are also a few visual bugs. Some minor, but the map glitched out on me halfway through my playthrough and while I could see the map, it was harder to tell where any points of interest were or where I was on the map from then on. Finally, there was a sort of "path split" after a boss in the fire area. On the right was an important item, on the left was a door, but going through that door locked it so you couldn't backtrack for the item. It's basically a trap and you have to reset (getting through the room I think is possible but highly unlikely without the item anyways). Fortunately there's a save right after the boss but before the trap. None of this is a deal breaker but they are annoying.

Click here to rate this hack