Super Metroid: MINI
Release date: May 30, 2015
Author: Mr. Hiryu
Download: Version 2.2 [UH] (2422 downloads)
Genre: Unknown [?]
Game: SM
Difficulty: Vanilla [?]
Average runtime: 2:26
Average collection: 89%
Read Me: [None]
Forum Thread: Release Thread
Rating: Star Star Star Star Star
Other Links: Version 1.4 [UH]
Description
Super Metroid MINI is a mini-hack made by Mr. Hiryu released in December, 28th 2009. For those who don't know, Mr. Hiryu is the author of SM Exercice and Paddle. And this time around isn't different as tiling is often weird. Latest update on his website is v1.4 but still riddled with problems and particularily, wrong door transitions which makes the game unbeatable.

While looking into SMILE for a fix, I discovered plenty of unused room design he made but unaccessible during normal gameplay. So I spent a whole week editing the hack and it's twice bigger now ! -not sure it should be called "MINI" anymore! ;) Some rooms were partially or completely remade cuz serious garbage (landing site...) There's a lot more items to collect too. The hack is not hard, wall-jumping is required in some places though. Besides, you can break into Lower Norfair or Wrecked Ship early if you want some challenge, the hack is very open once you get Supers.

Gameplay changes :
- Spin jump restart
- Speedboost in morph ball form (requires SpringBall & Speedbooster)
- No shinespark draining
- Enlarged X-ray scope vision
- Faster elevators
- Faster beam rate
- Keep momentum after landing

Remaining issues :
- Map icons and items dots are wrong
- A few backgrounds are broken
- Many tiling errors...

Credits :
- Sky Scrolling fix (PJBoy)
- Zero Mission morph ball (Crys)
- "Floating spin" (Mr. Shylph)
- Mr. Hiryu for obvious reason
- Metaquarius for fixing lotsa stuff

Screenshots
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Ratings and Reviews
By GoldenTorizo on Oct 09, 2015 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 1:47
Let me be the first one to say this: This hack kicked ass. What I really loved about this hack was the orchestrations of the music. The reorchestrated music sounded sexy. For most the songs in the hack, I sat there saying, "Man, sometimes I wish the music were like this.". This hack was simply amazing.
It's too bad I could never find Spazer anywhere.
By MetroidMst on Oct 25, 2015 (Star Star Star Star Star )
86% in 2:01
This is not a hack that looks like fun. It is full of tiling errors, silly music, and weirdisms all over the place. It looks like it should be a disaster from the beginning. Instead, it actually turned out to be a fun and interesting experience.

MINI is a somewhat linear hack that opens up a lot once you get a little bit in. There are various possibilities of advancing and finding different items next. There really isn't that much difficulty either, making this a pretty good hack to try out early.

Now, this does have some issues. The tiling? Generally atrocious. Hidden items? Yes, but one you absolutely need is probably hidden a little too well for the average player. I don't particularly have an issue with it, but some people will undoubtedly miss it and spend an hour or so looking around for it at some point.

There definitely are some issues, but overall this hack is really fun to play and definitely worth a look.
By Jordan5 on May 05, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 1:59
While this hack isn't the prettiest to look at, it is definitely a lot of fun to play. At a point not far into the hack, the whole place becomes pretty open and you can go where you like which means you can either take a relatively easy route or go to a more difficult area and pick up some great items - the flexibility and freedom make it fun and rewarding to just get a little lost and wander around.

The music is quite interesting - some areas are great (Maridia, Lower Norfair, the statue room) while others aren't so wonderful. Still more interesting than looking at the tiling, though.

So if you have a few hours to spare then I would definitely recommend picking this up (as long as you can walljump comfortably). Just try to avoid the couple permastucks dotted around.
By Jet3rd on Oct 26, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
74% in 3:09
Really loved this hack! IT was very enjoyable! Perfect for speedrunning and tassing alike. It can definitely e completed way faster then i did. Even on first play. Music was really cool. But didnt get tp listen to most of it. Love the new walljump physics. Palletes were not bad not super good. Weird tiling errors and i found one perma stuck (which sucked) but otherwise super thrilling experience. P.S dont clear wrecked ship first, its hard and you still cant get gravity :(
By Aran;Jaeger on Dec 07, 2016 (Star Star Star Star Star )
100% in 2:21
[Watch Video]  
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 Syphon on Oct 26, 2019 (Star Star Star Star Star )
87% in 2:10
This was a fun hack. I liked the redone music. Graphically it's not really a looker and I found one permastuck in Maridia but the level design was well done. I had no issues finding any major item.

One thing I'm not sure why exactly it happened but Space Jump suddenly stopped working for me once I got to Lower Norfair and it never worked afterwards.

In any case this is worth playing.
By Door Ladder on May 17, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
Downloaded this hack to play since all the reviews here have been so positive. I was really looking forward to enjoying this, but I was sadly very let down. The hack's difficulty being listed as Vanilla is complete nonsense. This one is extremely hard, far more difficult than vanilla SM.

Saying this as respectfully as I can, it feels like a bad Chinese Fusion hack. Most of the rooms are filled with some combination of spikes, heat, lava, or forced damage from undodgeable enemies when entering new rooms. Most enemies have massively buffed health and do huge amounts of damage. There are no energy tank expansions to be spoken of in the early game at all, at least none that I could find aside from a single reserve tank. Save rooms are very rare. Hellruns through congested heated rooms filled with spikes and dozens of enemies are forced and unskippable. I died at least 50 times while playing this hack over the course of about 2 hours and could not make it through the first couple rooms of upper Norfair on first visit, not even using savestates.

Between the bad tiling errors, the constant traps, unskippable heated rooms and forced damage, I don't see how this is even possible to beat by anyone other than an expert speedrunner. But for more casual players like me, it is nothing but tedious, cruel, and unenjoyable.

Did not finish.
Do not recommend.
By Metaquarius on Jun 27, 2020 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
This hack isn't that hard, it's just stupid.
I had more fun fixing this than playing but eh, at least, it looks better than Mission Rescue, right?
By Kremit44 on Aug 01, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
92% in 2:53
It's not bad but it's certainly not great. Some real jank is present throughout the hack and areas are fairly unimaginative with many being very similar in layout to vanilla. It's ugly in some areas and interesting in others. Get the secret pre Draygon before going into fight him as it's inaccessible after, I thought I'd get Space Jump to make it less of a pain with the sand pit and ended up SOL. It's not bad though, thanks to the author and those who helped it was decent enough to be worth a play but it's not something I'd consider even a top 50 hack or anything.
By KPF on Feb 25, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
This 2.2 version is FUCKING BULLSHIT. The door to Morph Bombs is locked with NO WAY to open it. And on the thread page, when you try to access it, you get (404 - page not found).
I WONDER WHY.
Wait.
No I don't.
This hack just sucks is all.

You really DON"T need to make any more hack because YOUR hacks are NOT FUN TO PLAY AT ALL!!!!!!
By Zincoshine on Aug 10, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
This is just slightly better than exercise, but the highly janky and hacky tilework ensures this gets only 1/5. There's no motivation to explore such an unrealistic janky world.
By Zhs2 on Sep 22, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
88% in 2:38
Don't let that Zincoshine rain cloud put you off, there is one absolutely amazing reason that you should play this hack (version 2.2, provided by the person(s) who fixed up its issues here on Metconst I'm sure): the edits to the music make it sound like it came straight out of Super Metroid: The Movie: The Game: The Official Soundtrack. I've had these songs on my iPod for weeks now.

Okay, but seriously, this is a not-bad hack for which the music is bad in some places (looking at you Awake Crateria and Lower Norfair), great in others (I wish more hacks made a simple tweak like the major sample for the Wrecked Ship, it sounded so badass). It wasn't hard to navigate, but the level design suffers greatly from one simple failing: no interconnectivity. The only ways to get into each area are the required elevators, and woe be to the one who needs to backtrack through the whole hack to get any items they missed. It's not like the main path is annoying or filled with spikes, and the hack is semi-mini so it's not a great issue, but quite literally the only shortcut is the one door that unlocks after Crocomire is defeated, and your path to power bombs is only longer backtracking if you did not grab them right after collecting super missiles (which I'm sure most players wouldn't do.) I also didn't find ice beam anywhere, which necessitates the player knowing that they should be killing Metroids with power bombs. Not that there was more than two rooms of Metroids, but still... Overall I call this worth a playthrough. Seriously, the music edits are worth at least one listen. Just imagine the credits music being conducted by an orchestra...
By Sickwood on Oct 17, 2022 (Star Star Star Star Star )
100% in 2:58
I tried playing this hack a couple years ago and got stuck very early on. Come to find out, the room right next to the landing site to the left has a couple different room states. It seems like one room state is supposed to trigger after getting bombs, but basically in order to advance and unlock a grey door, you must encounter the room state with orange pirates and copious rippers, if you do not, and encounter grey pirates and Geemers, the door will not unlock under any circumstances. Not knowing this, I had looked all over the place and went as far as I could in WS, saved a couple times, and then quit. I tried it again and same result, but luckily decided to wipe out my save file and try again. This time I got the 'orange pirate' state and was finally on my way. Just an FYI for any others that may encounter this, as I literally just walked into the room and got the wrong room state. Besides that, this is a pretty fun hack, although I was surprised that it starts to turn half-hacky at certain parts, most notably in Kraid's area and upper Norfair. Good music, fun exploration, and interesting location for Tourian. Didn't like the wonky wall-jumps and strange version of respin, but it allows you to pull off some semi-sequence breaks here and there.

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