Super Metroid: Breach

Super Metroid: Breach
Release date: Dec 25, 2017	Author: Leodox	Download: V1.0 Unheaddered (1516 downloads)
Genre: Exploration [?] Game:	Difficulty: Veteran [?]	Average runtime: 4:07 Average collection: 80%
Read Me: [None]	Forum Thread: Release Thread	Rating:

Description

"WITH THE DEFEAT OF MOTHER
BRAIN, THE PIRATE RESEARCH
STATION ON ZEBES'S SURFACE HAS
BEEN DESTROYED. AND WHILE THE
PLANET REMAINS INTACT, IT
SEEMS AS THOUGH THERE IS NO
LONGER ANY EVIDENCE OF LIFE.
I HAVE BEEN TASKED WITH A
RETURN TRIP TO ZEBES. MY
MISSION IS TO SURVEY THE PLANET
AND SEARCH FOR ANY REMAINING
METROID LIFE. IF METROID LIFE
IS IDENTIFIED, IT IS TO BE
DESTROYED IMMEDIATELY UPON
CONTACT.
THE FEDERATION HAS DETERMINED
METROIDS TO BE OF AN
EXCEPTIONAL RISK. ANY BENEFIT
ASSOCIATED WITH METROID
RESEARCH IS NO LONGER BEING
CONSIDERED. THE GALAXY WILL
NEVER BE AT PEACE, SO LONG AS A
METROID EXISTS... IN
CAPTIVITY, OR OTHERWISE."

Journey back to planet Zebes and explore the planets new scenery and life. You are tasked with the mission of completely eradicating all metroids, after the federation had detected life forms on the planets surface. After the explosion of the planet, it seems not all living things were demolished. In fact, they know you are coming to the planet and the leader of the space pirates, Ridley, has sent his forces out to set up different locks and sealed off areas in order to keep you from entering. Breach into Zebes and stop the plans of mother brain, once again.

Screenshots

Ratings and Reviews

By Nintoaster_81 on Jan 18, 2019 (

)

68% in 5:04

I have huge amount of respect for SM hackers due to the sheer complexity and scope of work, so it makes it difficult for me to be objectively critical of any hack. That being said, I'll do my best to give an honest review of Breach.

The good:

Breach is a full overhaul hack, so you can expect to spend a good amount of time exploring Zebes. By far this hack's strongest point is the ingenuity in its puzzles. There are many progression points that will require the player to think far outside of the conventional "explore and collect" box, and this adds a captivating element to Breach. Most of the rooms are very well laid out, which shows that a lot of thought and planning went into their design. The difficulty of the hack is higher than Vanilla, but not so high that it requires a speedrunner's skill set to complete. The overall balance and progression of Breach felt good, and I didn't find myself stuck or lost more than a few times. Graphically, Breach introduces a decent amount of palette swaps and clever usage of tiles not normally seen in Vanilla.

The less than good:

Breach gives you the impression that the authors were learning as the development of the hack progressed. This is evident when you first explore Crateria, as the whole area has a "novice hacker" feel to it. By the time you reach Lower Norfair, which is incredibly well-designed, you feel as though you've reached the peak of the creative arc. If this was the author's intent, then please disregard everything I've just written. Tying into that, Breach has a number of glitches that you will likely encounter - some obvious, and some not so obvious - mostly to do with scrolling. I encountered two soft locks in my play through of it. Some of the puzzles, while incredibly creative, will probably stump a lot of players due to the obscurity of the solutions. I could also just be dumb. It would have been nice to see some more graphical changes, but that's more of a suggestion than a complaint.

Overall, Breach was a fun experience and showcases some original ideas that I haven't encountered in any other hacks to date. It does feel somewhat unpolished, but that shouldn't be enough of a detriment to steer you away from giving it a play-through.

By Syphon on Dec 20, 2019 (

)

77% in 4:06

This is a pretty solid hack.

The reason I can't give this 4 orbs is mainly lack of polish and some things not being obvious enough. Scrolling errors and some random solid and air tiles in random places.

You have to find 4 switches to open the entrance to Tourian. However they don't look like switches. They look more like those elevator stands. I didn't realize you have to shoot them with Super Missiles to activate them. Nothing suggests that. Because of that I had to backtrack through all areas at the end which was really annoying. Maybe I was just dumb but it should have been more obvious in my opinion.

The map was almost useless and confused me a few times especially when it broke occasionally.

Other than that I enjoyed this hack. Level design was nice and I liked what was done with the bosses. Difficulty is a bit higher than Vanilla but not by much.

Worth a playthrough.

By Aran;Jaeger on Dec 30, 2019 (

)

87% in 2:30

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 Pixel_Tiger on Jun 21, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Hack is ok, got some scrolling issues though. No idea if sequence breaking is a thing here but you can get to places you shouldn't be if you know your way through the game.

Navigating through this hack was a bit meh, as my map decided to reset itself after entering certain rooms or by just reloading the game.... (no clue if it's a Rom issue)

Sadly did NOT complete the run because I got PISSED at the awful 'find-you-way-out-of-tourian' challenge in 2 minutes with changed layout... why do people think this is a GOOD idea? I can't read YOUR MIND, hack creator! (Stop this BS!!!) -2

(To explain my frustration with Tourian: I found my way through tourian escape with less than 10 seconds after BOMBING every corner... no xray... had it been standard 3 minutes, could be OK-ish)

By Sapphron on Dec 27, 2021 (

)

82% in 3:48

What an odd hack. This definitely has some good stuff, but it really looks like quintessential baby's first full hack. The map breaks when reloading/dying and the separation of the map itself is an issue, but it's good to take into account that the hack was made without a map in mind. The map work was done by Schmeman, and he did the best he could with what he had.
The game's kind of buggy and rough around the edges and I believe has a softlock or two, along with having somewhat halfhacky design with rooms that look very very similar to vanilla. My memory of it overall is a bit foggy due to playing it about three weeks ago, but I do remember an issue in Maridia with not knowing how to progress, but I don't think that's an actual big issue. Overall, a big vanilla-style hack marred by a broken/upset map and some weird design choices.
Finished.
...recommend? Iffy about it. Maybe if you've beaten a lot of the hacks on the site already.

By Sickwood on May 18, 2022 (

)

86% in 5:10

If you're not looking for Vitality level polish in every hack you play, then this is a fun, Vanilla-ish full overhaul hack. Kind of akin to hacks like Hidden and Falling with Leodox's usual pastel palettes. Probably my third favorite from Leo behind Chester and Gathering. What I liked most about it was the hidden secrets and exploration. I've played it a few times over the years and still can't get beyond 86% and have no clue if it actually goes up to 100%, but really enjoyed item hunting. First time I played it I ended up doing a lot of suitless Maridia, but is completely unnecessary. The switch system was pretty cool and was a good replacement for waiting at the G4 cutscene forever. The escape timer might get you first time through trying to find the way out of Tourian, but was happy to see Tourian changed up. Recommend for those that like full exploration hacks and don't mind minor non game breaking bugs.

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