Metroid Reborn A Call to Valor
Release date: Dec 20, 2020
Author: David Turnblom
Download: Download Slow Velocity (320 downloads)
Download: Download Fast Velocity (310 downloads)
Genre: Exploration [?]
Game: M1
Difficulty: Unknown [?]
Average runtime: 3:05
Average collection: 95%
Read Me: [None]
Forum Thread: Forum Thread
Rating: Pending
Description
This is both an Exploration and an improvement hack, with features such as beam stacking, weapon and enemy damage tables, and items added after boss defeats, in addition to a very new map. I believe it is harder than vanilla Metroid, but more rewarding, despite the lack of a functioning Tourian (the data is all there, but has problems that I don't have time to learn how to fix).

See my Forum thread for more information about this hack.

After some recent problems during testing, I've slowed Samus down a little and created a second ips with the slower speed. It's still faster than the original, but the door transition problems I was having with the original have now been fixed.
Screenshots
Screenshot Screenshot
Ratings and Reviews
By drr3member on Jan 10, 2021 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
This is very much a vanilla hack, as there are no palette changes that I could see and quite a few rooms are either unchanged or changed slightly.

As far as I'm concerned, the velocity increase is completely unnecessary and makes the game experience very annoying. Trying to execute precise platforming while Samus is zooming back and forth is ridiculous, coupled with the fact that this hack doesn't fix and even includes more of the issues present in vanilla Nestroid. Enemy spam is everywhere, enemies fly into doors and into your face right when you enter rooms, and the room design is uninspired. There was a strange door glitch in Kraid where I entered the right door in a shaft, and the door I came out was two rooms to the left...??

There are also invisible floors and walls in some rooms. I'm puzzled by this because instead of using transparent blocks you can use regular blocks and make it so the environment blocks the player instead of an invisible wall that removes all immersion into the game.

Also if Tourian doesn't work and I can't beat the game then why play? Collecting the items did not feel rewarding because all the rooms look the same, so there's no point in doing that either.

In conclusion, this hack is mediocre. It's playable.

Did not finish.
By RT-55J on Feb 06, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
95% in 3:05
This is a very bizarre hack for 2020, essentially coming from an alternate universe where Editroid and it's ability to expand the rom did not exist. Instead, according to the forum thread, the author chose to optimize the level data for space in order to fit more data in the game (something SnowBro once gave a detail suggestion for in the help files to MetEdit). Even if the end result doesn't meet modern ideas of polish, it is still quite interesting to me.

Area palettes and screens look very vanilla, and the data optimization did not lead to as much of an increase in room variety as once would hope (many 3x1 rooms are practically identical), but having mapped the whole game out by hand during my playthrough I can say that I enjoyed the map layout (even if there were some questionable decisions). Samus's increased speed (even in the "slow" patch), did a lot to remove the feeling of monotony for me.

In addition to the usual QoL features people add to hacks these days (Wave+Ice, respawning with full health), this hack has some features that I wish were present in other hacks such as contact damage being decided by the enemy rather than the area, and bombs propelling you slightly higher. It also has some easier to miss features, such as the map properly wrapping around vertically and horizontally, which makes the overall layout for the world a bit more interesting than normal.

Ridley and Kraid each give you a new custom ability immediately upon defeating them (in addition to the usual missiles), and they are hilariously overpowered in the context of the game.

Regarding, the "invisible walls and floors" the previous review mentioned, I only encountered them in one place (and I explored the entire map), and to me they made sense in context.

The game ends at what would be the Tourian elevator, which leads directly to the credits instead.

Overall, this isn't the best hack, but it has a lot of heart even if it looks rather plain.

3.5/5 -- Recommended if you enjoy making your own maps as you play, and can do some bomb-unmorph tricks to get yourself out of a couple weird situations that the author didn't seem to anticipate.

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