Super Metroid: Hydellius | ||
Release date: May 23, 2014 |
Author: TROM
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Genre: Unknown [?] Game: |
Difficulty: Unknown [?]
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Average runtime:
9:48 Average collection: 66% |
Read Me: [None] |
Forum Thread: Forum Thread |
Rating:
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Description
New planet with new enemies, backgrounds, areas.. and more!
You must know wall-jumping and all the basic moves but it's not hard!
New doors called 'twin doors' (because cause they work by 2) look like small colored tower with door on top. Must open the hidden one to free the one that blocks your path! Blue door free blue door, and each area has blue, red, yellow, and green 'twin doors'. They are mentioned on the map with letters (B for blue..)
You must know wall-jumping and all the basic moves but it's not hard!
New doors called 'twin doors' (because cause they work by 2) look like small colored tower with door on top. Must open the hidden one to free the one that blocks your path! Blue door free blue door, and each area has blue, red, yellow, and green 'twin doors'. They are mentioned on the map with letters (B for blue..)
Screenshots
Ratings and Reviews
The twin doors are somewhat interesting but I feel as if they're used to force the player to run around a lot more than they should. I distinctly remember a point where one twin gate was guarding another twin gate.
Areas are kinda cool, I got lost quite a few times.
Oh, and it.. just kinda ends.
Forgive the self-plug, but a complete playthrough (albeit with savestate use and a bunch of idle times) can be seen through the following vids:
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/176535 1
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177525 2
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177526 3
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177528 4
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177529 5
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177530 6
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177531 7
Areas are kinda cool, I got lost quite a few times.
Oh, and it.. just kinda ends.
Forgive the self-plug, but a complete playthrough (albeit with savestate use and a bunch of idle times) can be seen through the following vids:
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/176535 1
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177525 2
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177526 3
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177528 4
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177529 5
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177530 6
http://www.hitbox.tv/video/177531 7
(Version 1.5/Ultimate)
I liked this hack from start to about the finish.. I think there should have been some kind of ending as like Cirno says.. It just kinda ends.. The physics took a while to get used to but it wasn't that bad. The twin door idea was pretty cool in my opinion but could be seen as bad since it forces you to explore around.. this could also lead to items being discovered so i think it balances itself out so you are rewarded even if you don't immediately find the gate.. I really hope to see more stuff in the future Trom. All in all it was a pretty fun hack to play and explore.
I liked this hack from start to about the finish.. I think there should have been some kind of ending as like Cirno says.. It just kinda ends.. The physics took a while to get used to but it wasn't that bad. The twin door idea was pretty cool in my opinion but could be seen as bad since it forces you to explore around.. this could also lead to items being discovered so i think it balances itself out so you are rewarded even if you don't immediately find the gate.. I really hope to see more stuff in the future Trom. All in all it was a pretty fun hack to play and explore.
The Good:
- The twin door idea.
The Bad:
- The constant running around in circles and backtracking from one place to the next just to collect 1 item to reach one other area where you can unlock a gate.
- The physics takes some getting used to.
Overall: Fun and nice looking hack, but it gets very tedious after a while and anyone can get lost if you're not careful.
- The twin door idea.
The Bad:
- The constant running around in circles and backtracking from one place to the next just to collect 1 item to reach one other area where you can unlock a gate.
- The physics takes some getting used to.
Overall: Fun and nice looking hack, but it gets very tedious after a while and anyone can get lost if you're not careful.
This hack was a lot of fun. Here is why:
- Twin doors were good to force exploration each time you found of those or a new upgrade.
- Level design was very good. A lot of backtracking, so you can explore more and more each time you get a new item.
- Kinda hard at times, but feels more rewarding to collect more items and being cautious.
- HUGE map. Easy to get lost, especially in places that change after certain events.
Overall, it's a very well done hack if you like exploration.
- Twin doors were good to force exploration each time you found of those or a new upgrade.
- Level design was very good. A lot of backtracking, so you can explore more and more each time you get a new item.
- Kinda hard at times, but feels more rewarding to collect more items and being cautious.
- HUGE map. Easy to get lost, especially in places that change after certain events.
Overall, it's a very well done hack if you like exploration.
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''.
This was a good one.
Item collection only goes up to 76%.
Twin doors weren't too bad even though the planet was pretty massive. Item progression was cool for some parts and I really liked the heavier physics.
Item collection only goes up to 76%.
Twin doors weren't too bad even though the planet was pretty massive. Item progression was cool for some parts and I really liked the heavier physics.
Really fun game, it's a beautiful new world and its very immersive. Reminds me a lot of the Phazon Hack. The difficulty is just right and there are hidden items everywhere. The beginning is better than the latter end of the game though as the map is huge and there is a lot of backtracking. Sometimes when heading to the next area you need to go, it feels like I'm wandering around and going the wrong way and then I just stumble upon the item I need. This is quite evident early on for how long you have to travel just to get the first missile. I don't really like having this sense of misdirection; the level design makes you feel like you're never going the right way when really you are. Finding the twin locks was also pretty hard too with such a large map. The game just ends abruptly and I wish the little story that there was were more fleshed out. Nevertheless, I highly recommend playing this hack as it will keep you entertained for a quite a while.
This review is about the "Ultimate" version which is downloadable in the forum thread.
Honestly this hack is a bit weird because it actually felt unfinished/rushed and with a lack of polish. The area around Ridley and the final area in particular.
The physics took a bit of time to get used to but it was whatever. IBJ was probably possible but the bomb timer was changed.
The Twin Gate gimmick is the best and the worst thing in this hack at the same time. The backtracking becomes tedious and at the end I just wanted the game to be over. I like the idea but the world was too big for that.
I did like the look of the different areas.
Love the tube doors.
Invisible Grapple blocks are absolutely stupid. Were they just there to give X-Ray a purpose? Still stupid.
Forced damage. Why do I have to tank spikes and acid to proceed? Forced damage is only fine in a heatrun or for optional items.
Ridley is really hard if you don't have enough missiles though I'm also bad at fighting him.
Why did the final area have Maridia music? Weird choice.
The final area... why does the player have to fight these Ninja Pirates that take a million shots to kill? Also why do they look so ugly?
The final boss fight... why can the player skip it when the objective of the mission is to take the serum and the final boss clearly has it?
Why is there no escape timer?
The final area felt honestly rushed and messy. I guess the author lost motivation and just wanted to get it over with?
Really baffling stuff. Also some backgrounds look really bad and lazily done while some look really nice.
Difficulty is hard at times but not too bad.
I almost want to give this 2 orbs but I wasn't really in a good mood anyway so that kinda affected my experience. The overall package makes this a 3-orb hack.
It's worth checking out and also quite fun but there are some questionable design choices and searching for twin gates becomes tedious after a while.
I cautiously recommend it but also say you should play Lost World or Phazon Hack instead if you want a completely new world.
Honestly this hack is a bit weird because it actually felt unfinished/rushed and with a lack of polish. The area around Ridley and the final area in particular.
The physics took a bit of time to get used to but it was whatever. IBJ was probably possible but the bomb timer was changed.
The Twin Gate gimmick is the best and the worst thing in this hack at the same time. The backtracking becomes tedious and at the end I just wanted the game to be over. I like the idea but the world was too big for that.
I did like the look of the different areas.
Love the tube doors.
Invisible Grapple blocks are absolutely stupid. Were they just there to give X-Ray a purpose? Still stupid.
Forced damage. Why do I have to tank spikes and acid to proceed? Forced damage is only fine in a heatrun or for optional items.
Ridley is really hard if you don't have enough missiles though I'm also bad at fighting him.
Why did the final area have Maridia music? Weird choice.
The final area... why does the player have to fight these Ninja Pirates that take a million shots to kill? Also why do they look so ugly?
The final boss fight... why can the player skip it when the objective of the mission is to take the serum and the final boss clearly has it?
Why is there no escape timer?
The final area felt honestly rushed and messy. I guess the author lost motivation and just wanted to get it over with?
Really baffling stuff. Also some backgrounds look really bad and lazily done while some look really nice.
Difficulty is hard at times but not too bad.
I almost want to give this 2 orbs but I wasn't really in a good mood anyway so that kinda affected my experience. The overall package makes this a 3-orb hack.
It's worth checking out and also quite fun but there are some questionable design choices and searching for twin gates becomes tedious after a while.
I cautiously recommend it but also say you should play Lost World or Phazon Hack instead if you want a completely new world.
Hydellius is an interesting hack. TROM once again does some weird visuals that give his hack a style not found elsewhere. The hack starts out with some fresh new map design and some interesting gameplay, and then it happens. You get to an area and things start to get more familiar until it becomes pretty apparent it turned into a partial halfhack.
Now, that in itself isn't bad, it's the level design and locking mechanics that cause the most irritation. Nothing wrong with some tight level design or locking the player in an area. The hack's biggest problem is how it's done. There are a lot of tight and hard to navigate areas, making traversing rooms slow and painful, and then you get locked out and need to do loops, or are just lost and looping all over the place trying to find your progression.
There are good things in this hack, and the locking gate system is something I really am a fan of, but the implementation of it in Hydellius is not great. I like a locking system for the final area. It gives the player a reason to comb the planet after getting fully powered to unlock the final area and proceed to victory. However, the gate system was integrated into the actual progression of the hack, and it's pretty obnoxious at certain points. It does add an element that you may really enjoy though.
Overall, I didn't enjoy the hack as much as I feel I could have. It has too many large looping backtracks for it's own good, and some of the gates are so confusing. It's an adequate hack, but there is no real flow to the hack.
Now, that in itself isn't bad, it's the level design and locking mechanics that cause the most irritation. Nothing wrong with some tight level design or locking the player in an area. The hack's biggest problem is how it's done. There are a lot of tight and hard to navigate areas, making traversing rooms slow and painful, and then you get locked out and need to do loops, or are just lost and looping all over the place trying to find your progression.
There are good things in this hack, and the locking gate system is something I really am a fan of, but the implementation of it in Hydellius is not great. I like a locking system for the final area. It gives the player a reason to comb the planet after getting fully powered to unlock the final area and proceed to victory. However, the gate system was integrated into the actual progression of the hack, and it's pretty obnoxious at certain points. It does add an element that you may really enjoy though.
Overall, I didn't enjoy the hack as much as I feel I could have. It has too many large looping backtracks for it's own good, and some of the gates are so confusing. It's an adequate hack, but there is no real flow to the hack.
Hydellius Ultimate is a hack that I really enjoyed playing, custom gfx, very good level design. The graphics, different enemies and the atmosphere of each area, make it really feel like a very different planet from Zebes. I liked the amount of mini puzzles you have to solve to obtain Items and advance in the game. You can tell that TROM used a lot of time to design the gates system, although sometimes a bit confusing, they give the game a longer duration. I got lost several times and I enjoyed finding the place where I had to go and after 15 hours, I managed to finish it with 66% of Items collected.
Good work, TROM, I recommend this game and I will give it 4 out of 5 orbs.
Good work, TROM, I recommend this game and I will give it 4 out of 5 orbs.
One of my favorite ROM hacks that I've ever played
This is a hack that finds itself struggling to find balance. The description says it's for all but it's for very well seasoned players only I'd suggest, it's not a challenge hack but it requires extensive knowledge of the game in order to have fun. The map is largely based off Vanilla but is very diverse and knowledge of SM's map only helps marginally for progress. I played the ultimate edition available at the forum link posted at the top of the page.
Early on the game is very boring and linear while you traverse long empty rooms to get from point A to point B with very little in the way of player choice. However after you get supers and speed it becomes open and really fun for a large chunk of the hack with many interesting mechanics being utilized for secret hunting. This was where this hack shined. Although I do believe one secret in Sand Pit is either inaccessible or requires Moon dance, I suspect the latter which I think is a little much. The gates are largely fun to hunt and collect although in the end game some gates become more annoying than fun with them padding out the experience. Once you beat Kraid and Draygon progress becomes frustratingly linear with the last 3 items requiring many gate checks and constant back tracking between areas to progress. Finding each of the last 3 items requires finding one each at a time and even once you get them the game forces you to back track multiple times from LN to progress. It would have been great if the playr could find either Screw or Plasma to progress instead of needing to find them in a particular order. The Ridley guards in Tourian are possibly the dumbest thing I've ever encountered in a hack that wants to be a legitimate game. What a waste of time for something completely unfun nor necessary. I didn't mind the different end myself and thought escape was done well enough to be considered a solid part of the hack. The music glitches out when saving the animals and the tension of the escape is lost but it functions just fine apart from that.
All in all this is a good hack but with some real pacing issues and a few moments of jank. At first I thought for sure it was going to be a 3, then in the middle I was having a lot of fun and even thought I could see why one would even give it a 5 but then I hit the brick wall at the end and felt it hurt the experience a lot. By the end I though of even giving it a 3 again but with custom sprites and unique graphical designs in every area to go with a great middle portion I felt a 4 was the best choice. I'd recommend this but only to expert players. Thanks for the creator and all involved for a largely solid hack that despite some annoyances was on the whole rather impressive.
Early on the game is very boring and linear while you traverse long empty rooms to get from point A to point B with very little in the way of player choice. However after you get supers and speed it becomes open and really fun for a large chunk of the hack with many interesting mechanics being utilized for secret hunting. This was where this hack shined. Although I do believe one secret in Sand Pit is either inaccessible or requires Moon dance, I suspect the latter which I think is a little much. The gates are largely fun to hunt and collect although in the end game some gates become more annoying than fun with them padding out the experience. Once you beat Kraid and Draygon progress becomes frustratingly linear with the last 3 items requiring many gate checks and constant back tracking between areas to progress. Finding each of the last 3 items requires finding one each at a time and even once you get them the game forces you to back track multiple times from LN to progress. It would have been great if the playr could find either Screw or Plasma to progress instead of needing to find them in a particular order. The Ridley guards in Tourian are possibly the dumbest thing I've ever encountered in a hack that wants to be a legitimate game. What a waste of time for something completely unfun nor necessary. I didn't mind the different end myself and thought escape was done well enough to be considered a solid part of the hack. The music glitches out when saving the animals and the tension of the escape is lost but it functions just fine apart from that.
All in all this is a good hack but with some real pacing issues and a few moments of jank. At first I thought for sure it was going to be a 3, then in the middle I was having a lot of fun and even thought I could see why one would even give it a 5 but then I hit the brick wall at the end and felt it hurt the experience a lot. By the end I though of even giving it a 3 again but with custom sprites and unique graphical designs in every area to go with a great middle portion I felt a 4 was the best choice. I'd recommend this but only to expert players. Thanks for the creator and all involved for a largely solid hack that despite some annoyances was on the whole rather impressive.
A Trom hack, i played this after lost world, so i knew what kind of stuff to expect (a lot of visible but unreachable supers. I liked this one as well, but the constant running through the entire hack made it a lot less fun. the twin doors were pretty nice, but i feel like they were used too much.
The aesthetics were very nice to look at tho, I liked most of the tilesets (while they were used in a boring way, mainly in mechanical areas).
Lastly, just what was that "final boss"?, just some space pirates to kill? sry but that's straight up more boring than a vanilla mother brain fight
The aesthetics were very nice to look at tho, I liked most of the tilesets (while they were used in a boring way, mainly in mechanical areas).
Lastly, just what was that "final boss"?, just some space pirates to kill? sry but that's straight up more boring than a vanilla mother brain fight
Played version 1.4. I liked this a lot more than Lost World. Lost World had a serial problem with loops and guidance, while this hack does both better somewhat. People mention not liking the twin pillars mechanic but I think, for Trom at least, it's a HUGE step in the right direction of giving the player signs on what to do next. This of course crumbles at the part where you need to do lots of backtracking and exploring to find those twinned pillars once one blocks your way, but nonetheless. There's also too many spots in the hack where you must traverse long hallways of spikes for forced damage (before space jump, even) and I hate, hate, HATE that room with the lowering troll pillar in Norfair that you need to cross too many times to go anywhere important. Like with Lost World, I found myself busting out a map around the point of Wave Beam, though for this hack a map was more of a convenience than an aid against being seriously lost. It's also a lot more fun to use Speedbooster everywhere.
it's an okay hack, it could use some minor improvements in some areas (which is why I gave it 4 orbs and not 5) but other than that, it's pretty good..one of the better full hacks to play though is Lost World,as I'd highly recommend that hack over this one even though both are pretty cool...7/10 not sure if I'd recommend but play at your own risk and beware of the changed physics
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