Super Metroid: Hotlands

Super Metroid: Hotlands
Release date: Dec 27, 2021	Author: MetroidNerd#9001	Download: Version 1.1 [UH] (1329 downloads) (1038 downloads of previous versions)
Genre: Exploration [?] Game:	Difficulty: Veteran [?]	Average runtime: 1:22 Average collection: 77%
Read Me: [None]	Forum Thread: Release Thread	Rating:

Description

Samus has been hired to take out a Space Pirate mining operation on the planet Vulkin, a Class-XIII Wasteland. Due to the planet's uninhabitable nature, the Galactic Federation has no issues with Samus blowing up the entire thing, as is her specialty.

Explore two full areas in this mini-hack, filled with interesting items, 6 custom songs (including 2 original compositions), custom graphics, and lots of custom ASM to create a fresh and interesting playing experience.

This hack was my entry into, as well as the third-place winner of, the Oatsngoats Hacking Contest.

Credits:
Moehr
Caauyjdp
Justanotherpapertoad
Phazon Webb
Sickwood
Toby Fox
Drewseph
Albert V
Shogo Sakai
Scyzer
DC
Amoeba
Person703
Black Falcon
Oi27
Nodever2
Jordan5
Smiley

Screenshots

Ratings and Reviews

By shaktool7 on Dec 27, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Short, sweet and simple. Good custom music, level design (as expected from metroidnerd) and grafix.
Some of the pirate bosses mnerd does feel a bit too claustrophobic for my liking but that's not much of an issue.

By Insomnia Speed on Dec 27, 2021 (

)

84% in 1:53

This is really a neat and well-designed hack. It has new stuff you might not find in other hacks. But i was going to give it a 4-star because it's kind of short. Then I watched oats' playthrough and found i missed something really interesting and unique. i felt that might be the best part of this hack. that's why i gave it a 5-star. there are a bunch of secrets in this hack. some are hidden really well, so explore carefully.

By Sapphron on Dec 27, 2021 (

)

90% in 0:54

Excellent short hack! The music arrangement is really well done along with the custom tracks. Level design is top notch as usual from MetroidNerd, and it's just really fun to play through overall.
Finished.
Recommend.

By Sickwood on Dec 28, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Had the pleasure of being a beta tester for Hotlands. The level of polish from even the initial version was quite astounding. Metroidnerd had the courage to stray away from the usual G4 format, and created a hack that was fun to play, fun to explore, and brought something fresh and new to the most renowned hacked game ever. Its a must play for casuals or veterans and I can see it being a race hack for the ages. Congrats on the hack and winning some cold hard cash.

By Metaquarius on Dec 29, 2021 (

)

46% in 0:43

Here is my hot take on Hotlands: decent mini-hack overall, hampered down by health/ammunition farming concerns. It almost felt like I was doing low% while I did not want to ^^ Gimme charge!

Most bosses are a test of patience where you slowly farm ammo from rinkas and then aim and shoot at static red 1x1 cores while avoiding some hazards (which is not so bad in and of itself). If you enter this room with low health and/or ammo like I did, it quickly becomes a slog and waiting for ammo is not fun neither challenging. Some of these rooms have forced damaged, which means less ammo and more health, thus more waiting. None of these rooms are properly signaled to the player and you can't escape them. For some reason, those mini-bosses don't spawn drops on death so you have to keep farming.

The nail in the coffin was when I was stuck in the pre final boss room with no ammo left, grey pirates only vulnerable to supers and door closed behind me. One red core was blocking my forward path and I had only basic bombs to destroy it... which put me in range of those space pirates. Reset. Ouch last time I saved was before the ninja pirates + red core boss rooms which I really didn't want to do again...

Custom music is okay, didn't like it personally as it felt a bit out of place in my opinion.

By Zhs2 on Dec 31, 2021 (

)

59% in 1:19

Good short-ish gimmick hack. The limited number of upgrades you find were always useful, and the optional ones make some things easier but some other things harder in return. The room based bosses were simple but not frustrating. The single vanilla boss was balanced to match the limited resources of the hack. The creator definitely put Super Metroid's existing resources to good use. I don't know what other hacks were in the contest but I bet this hack definitely deserved placing in the top three. Also, my sister had to tell me the music was stolen from Undertale.

By Kremit44 on Jan 02, 2022 (

)

84% in 1:24

Excellent short hack that I wish had more. I hope the author goes back to this and adds because their is still a ton of room for a full sized hack to come of this. I beat it originally in 52 minutes but realizing I had missed a ton I went back and reloaded my save. Lots of hidden content. Great hack, thanks to all who helped.

By ocesse on Jan 19, 2022 (

)

100% in 1:42

Hotlands is a great hack, overall very good graphics and new music. What I liked the most in the game was the jungle area, the graphics of that area are impressive. And I also appreciate the effort in programming new bosses. Thanks for making it MetroidNerd#9001.
I definitely recommend that you play it, you will like it and you will enjoy it.

By Tundain on Feb 12, 2022 (

)

78% in 1:21

Animals saved

Very nice, I liked the music. The norfair + crateria tileset worked very nice. It might be short, but it's an awesome hack nonetheless!

By KaptenR on Feb 19, 2022 (

)

56% in 1:08

Awesome short sweet hack! It was a bit harder, which I like!
Nice to get some challenge, and not in a frustrating way, it was fun challenge!
I like the custom mini bosses. The hack was nice to look at, no areas that was hard to distinguish from what was what.
Some stuff was really well hidden, I would maybe have made some of it a bit easier to find, the secret grove area etc, since it
was quite some work put in there and upgrades there, a shame to miss that.
I like the new music, but one minus is that it got really annoying after had listening to it for 30+ minutes. It got repetitive.
Still I give the hack 5/5. Play it! :D

By Syphon on Feb 21, 2022 (

)

71% in 0:53

Great short hack with a good amount of secrets and nice custom stuff. Enjoyed it a lot.

5 orbs. Recommended for everyone.

By MetroidMst on Mar 19, 2022 (

)

87% in 1:01

Hotlands isn't sure if it wants to be a hack or a fangame of either Megalovania or Book of Mario, but it does provide some very solid . . .

To continue reading this review, upgrade to a MetConst Premium account today and receive perks such as reading top level hack reviews, one free monthly resource approval, and +V in Discord.

By dagit on Mar 23, 2022 (

)

68% in 1:20

This is a really good hack. It's got a few flaws but I can list them all on one hand. The big two are, there's too much lag in some rooms and there's no warning at the end of the game. I would have gone back and explored more if I had realized I was at the end.

I liked the custom bosses and events. It kind of gave me a metroid 2 vibe in a good way. This is also a hack that definitely rewards exploration. Lots of good things tucked away out of sight.

Overall, I would (and will) recommend this hack to people.

By Zincoshine on Jul 17, 2022 (

)

81% in 2:28

As a super metroid rom hack this is absolutely perfect and any experienced metroid player should play this. However, as a purely metroidvania game this is best left alone. You're going to have to be familiar with advanced techniques to get by and for the majority of metroidvania players this is a nono. The hack goes from being challenging, to being extremely hard, to being almost impossible. It's a bit unfortunate it is this way since the spring ball upgrade would remedy this and make the hack accessible to all instead of just experienced metroid players. Aside from this one issue and some slowdown problems, this really is a truly excellent hack worth 5/5 but I have to deduct an orb for the slowdown issues and the missing spring ball.

By Paragon on Aug 07, 2022 (

)

75% in 3:17

(Video Link to be added later.)

I'll be up front about this: this hack was not meant to be easy. If you're not at least semi-good at playing vanilla Super Metroid, or you're not stubborn with a high frustration tolerance when your skill is at my level, you probably should go play something labeled "Vanilla" or "Beginner".

Now that that's out of the way: I did enjoy this hack. It absolutely challenged me and I died a lot. That's totally okay, that's my skill level and my frustration tolerance is high. The boss battles were different than the norm and definitely a little more puzzle oriented than combat and I thought that was really interesting. The music was fantastic! Easily my favorite part. A couple of the secret passages were a *little* too obscure and could use some graphical adjustment, but I'm also aware they were made apparently easier? I watched MST's play of an earlier build and one of them was significantly easier to spot for me. The rooms these secrets were in were rooms that I knew there had to be a secret in, but all the places I zeroed in on weren't the correct spots and I legitimately found them on *accident*. If they had been only heading towards a missile tank, I wouldn't mention it, but both were pretty significant (without spoiling anything). These two spots (Nerd is aware, since he was watching my stream) just need a little bit of love, in my opinion. But no big deal if he chooses to leave it. But for someone looking to play: trust your instincts about weird dead ends where anything that looks traditionally suspicious isn't doing anything. Finding these secrets is worth it!

Overall, this is a nice, though challenging, little hack and I can see the effort that went into it. Even when I was frustrated, I was still having a good time and didn't feel like I couldn't get past anything without a little bit of trial and error. I will probably play this again to try for 100%.

By RT-55J on Sep 15, 2022 (

)

87% in 1:12

Very workmanlike. The world design is quite competent (though perhaps a bit *too* neatly designed). It has some neat music, events, and other custom stuff, so it's not too hard to recommend. From a casual perspective, the biggest issue is probably that some of the lava pits seem very difficult (if not impossible) to exit without wall-jumping, especially late in the game.

My main gripe with this is the combat design, from a numerical perspective. Enemy population and enemy health both feel tuned a bit too high compared to the resources you're given, when pumping up only one of those numbers would have sufficed. Heaven help the player who misses a beam upgrade.

The Power Rush is an interesting item, but essentially a non-factor. You'll exit its active range after just a couple enemy kills, and the bosses are immune to the charge shots it produces (despite them being what you'd want to use it on the most). Apparently it does double your missile damage, but there isn't any aural/visual feedback to indicate that.

I enjoyed my playthrough, but can't see myself replaying the hack due to the way the combat is balanced.

Review based on version 1.1. Completed deathless.

EDIT: I played this again, and happened to be in a much better mood when doing so. Hack's good y'all.

4/5

By LetsPlayNintendoITA on Oct 01, 2022 (

)

100% in 1:55

An excellent hack with many ideas that brought together a very hot experience. Pun intended.

I love how the different events changed the world around, with more powerful pirates and even different passages opening, lava included ala Metroid 2.

The secret area brought something really interesting that I wanna see in future hacks. Won't say more.

The different "bosses" rooms are a fresh change to hacks.

5 stars for a short hack that felt very good.

Bravo!

By drb on Oct 24, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

Hotlands is a strange one for me, and not in a good way:

- Boss encounters are almost entirely eschewed in favor of cramped rooms with awkwardly placed targets to hit. This deprives the player of the catharsis that comes with overcoming the big bad guys, and replaces it with frustration at being locked into these rooms, forced to grind for ammo if/when they run out from missing the targets, and hampered further by the difficulty in avoiding damage for any length of time, extending the grind. This mechanic is repeated multiple times throughout the game and can be only be somewhat mitigated by meticulously searching out the world's secret pickups, but these tend to feel samey and are overly reliant on mid-air morphing. Heck, there's an entire area (by far the best in the game in terms of aesthetics) hidden by an obscure mid-air morph. The idea that the spring ball would smooth out the experience a bit does have some merit.

- Speaking of pickups, after the very first few there is virtually no pickup-based progression; the pickups that are available are focused almost exclusively on surviving combat. At no point beyond the first few minutes does the player encounter an obstacle that they need to find a new pickup to overcome - the only barrier to progress is the ability to kill bad guys without dying. Granted this is a quick play and I'm not expecting a full loadout, but eliminating pickup-based progression to the extent done here strikes at the core of the franchise's gameplay.

- Music is subjective and I won't deduct orbs for original music that doesn't resonate with me - this would be a two-orb review otherwise - but the original music here feels way out of place. Upbeat, up-tempo compositions and piano-heavy instrumentation actually undermine the atmosphere that the hack's narrative and world design attempt to build... honestly, the melodies would feel more at home in a Sega Genesis space shooter. That's not a bad thing, I love me some space shooters, it just doesn't fit here.

To be fair, it's certainly not all bad. Level design is well done, game scope is good for a quick-play contest hack, and difficulty is fair and consistent aside from the likelihood of forced grinding mentioned above. But ultimately, the nature of the included pickups and the music choices make Hotlands function better as a nonlinear action platformer than an exploration-based Metroid-style game. Maybe that's what the creator was going for, and maybe you'll enjoy it, but I just didn't.

By Lionel Ghardin on Feb 14, 2023 (

)

% in 1:09

Overall it was a nice little hack. Good use of unique music and theming, and I got to say, I loved the complex puzzle system with the doors. It felt like you were always having to think outside the box to find something neat. My one biggest gripe with this hack is that the boss areas were absolutely chaos. It wasn't that much fun to beat a couple of darn near impossible enemies only to find yourself in a boss room that was absolutely brutal. Maybe implementing the Gravity Suit midway to make the acid less lethal or making the blocks two wide instead of one so that a single hit didn't feel like it took half of your energy would've felt more fair. Overall, not a bad hack.

By neen on Feb 25, 2023 (

)

56% in 1:04

very nice short hack. it is well designed in that it's usually telegraphed pretty well to the player if an area is something they should not be in yet and requires another upgrade. i did not find ice beam or the custom item. (looked up youtube playthrough afterwards to know they existed)

By Viktor_Kadic on Mar 04, 2023 (

)

43% in 1:07

Well designed, short hack with some very frustrating glaring issues. The new boss fights are mostly just very annoying and not particularly fun to play at all, having to stand and jump in place and farm missiles to shoot some static blocks in order to progress. The final room before the escape sequence was kinda clever but also just very frustrating. The escape sequence itself is so full of enemies that the game lags to the point of being in full on slow motion while the timer still ticks at normal speed. Its a bit disappointing that theres nowhere to use the power bomb after getting it, as its the last thing you get before the escape sequence. The music is pretty good (Toby Fox???) but it doesn't fit too well, still a very nice addition.

By Wolfric on Mar 14, 2023 (

)

100% in 0:40

I'm giving this romhack a 5 solely on the custom OST. The songs were catchy and good! As for the romhack in itself, despite being short, was quite fun! Favorite area by far though is the area that wasn't mandatory, and I don't know how to feel about that.

Original runtime was 2:10 hours as I got lost plenty of times and had to re-fill my HP a lot more than I ever did with other Metroid games, but it was still a fun experience.

By JohnnieEpic on Apr 06, 2023 (

)

96% in 1:21

This is a great little hack and I really enjoyed how it played out. Every room is nicely detailed and traveling through them there was always something to do and it never felt repetitive, You can see a lot of care and attention to detail went into crafting interesting secrets with good visual cues. Music was awesome too, it really made the atmosphere of the planet unique. Also the way paths forward opened up was great, it helped move you along with out forcing you to with a point of no return.

By ironrusty on May 03, 2023 (

)

% in 1:30

Enjoyed the on-the-rails experience of this hack. Aesthetically, smooth tiling and room designs I've come to expect from MetroidNerd.

By RX-78-2 on May 19, 2023 (

)

93% in 1:12

amazing hack, 10/10 would definitely recommend playing if you have time for a short hack :)

By FPzero on Feb 09, 2024 (

)

68% in 0:59

First completion in 00:59, 68.2%.
100% completion in 1:18.

This is a pretty great hack that shines when you fully commit to its scavenger hunt, and falters a bit when you don't. How easy it is or how well you survive fully depends on how many hidden items you're able to find along the way. While most have some kind of tell to them hinting at their location, not all do. It's very possible to get to the final "fight" or the ninja pirate fight with three super missiles, a couple energy tanks, and maybe 20 missiles and be totally overwhelmed. The hot blocks you need to destroy at various places all take 6 missiles each, so if you haven't been locating extra missile tanks, you'll be stuck farming rinkas. That might even be true if you *have* been finding extras for some of the fights. I found myself having to use a few refill bugs near the end of the hack more than once just to have the energy and resources needed to deal with the final fights.

The hack feels like it should have spring ball or high jump hidden somewhere, because a lot of secrets involve mid-air morph + bomb to access, screw attack needed walljumps, and spazer needs a combo of both to access, all spot that would've been made easier to access with the aforementioned items. In fact, because the game up to those points never seemed to suggest that I needed anything other than basic vanilla techniques and some good grapple abilities on the surface, I nearly skipped spazer and screw attack entirely. I'm very glad I didn't, even if screw attack turned out to be strangely underwhelming this time. I guess when you make special copies of all the main enemies that are invulnerable to the item, that will happen.

However, if you find the secret area, the difficulty is pretty much negated outright because the things you find there make your beam very powerful and can damage what even screw attack can't. While this is a great reward for careful exploration, it does leave the rest of the game strangely frustrating to traverse before that. I never found the secret area in my first playthrough, so I have a good idea of both endgame experiences.

I know this is a lot of complaining but that's just because the hack starts incredibly well. The surface is very fun to explore, items aren't hidden too hard, the frequency of meaningful powerups is high, grapple is used to good effect by making it a weird but effective way to defeat a lot of the enemies there... It's just a great time with lovely tiling that really sells the inhospitable landscape. Tilesets overall are fantastic, especially the one in the secret area--I'm honestly in love with how it looks. Music is fun to listen to and well-ported, though maybe a bit odd as tracks for a Metroid hack.

Overall the hack is genuinely really good and absolutely worth playing. I wish I could rate it higher but the frustrations I was feeling by the end with high resource requirements, some claustrophobic jumps and lots of nearly invincible enemies stuck out too much. If anything, it does make me really excited to play anything else MetroidNerd#9001 makes in the future!

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