“Don't learn from these docs! Bug people on IRC instead.”
| gossamer | ||
Release date: Feb 27, 2024 |
Author: neen
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Genre: Exploration [?] Game: 
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Difficulty: Veteran [?]
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Average runtime:
4:45 Average collection: 87% |
Read Me: [None] |
Forum Thread: Forum thread |
Rating:
  
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Description
gossamer is a full hack of super metroid by neen
play testing by:
Digital Mantra
caauyjdp
RT-55J
see included readme for full credits
1.02: changed tiling in some confounding areas. readme now includes a description of the special fx option
1.01: fixed collision errors on two tiles which made obtaining a super pack more confounding than intended
play testing by:
Digital Mantra
caauyjdp
RT-55J
see included readme for full credits
1.02: changed tiling in some confounding areas. readme now includes a description of the special fx option
1.01: fixed collision errors on two tiles which made obtaining a super pack more confounding than intended
Screenshots
Ratings and Reviews
There is something deeply unpleasant about playing this hack and you become aware of it as soon as you start playing. It honestly reminds me of some ancient half-hacks I played 15+ years ago, which is not really a flattering comparison.
-First, the physics are changed but not for the better. Your jump height is so low that getting High Jump simply makes it so that you can now jump as high as you would in vanilla without high jump. But the physics are also heavy like Redesign
-Second, half this entire hack takes place underwater, and you will be suitless for much of it. I will say it's at least interesting that your jumps underwater are way higher than out of water, but it does mean that once you find Gravity Suit all the platforms in underwater areas aren't as reachable any longer.
-Third, rooms are large but rarely smooth to traverse. There are plenty of little nubs, ledges, and outcroppings to jump over that make simply running across rooms a chore. The altered physics make this part more annoying too, since you're constantly having to jump more due to high gravity and low jump height. Forget about speed boosting much, the only times you'll be able to do so are when you need to shinespark somewhere. On the other hand, if you have a clear area to actually build a speed boost, you probably need it somewhere nearby.
-Fourth, the whole hack is so dark to look at. Every area aside from Ship is dimly lit or built out of dark foregrounds that can obscure your path.
-Fifth, on top of dark palettes, many rooms also have various FX applied to give strange palette warp effects, transparent overlaid tiles, or some combination of the two. Voiddragon is probably one of the worst looking areas I have ever seen in a romhack, looking straight like the game has bugged out. I assume you were going for some kind of dream-like, highly alien, or even "Samus's brain is unravelling" aesthetic but it just looks like pixelated garbage to me.
And this is all before we get to the actual progression. It's really weird and the hack makes no effort to tell the player what it expects of them in terms of skill requirements. Early on you'll be going back and forth between Slumberland and Mladicia slowly trying to eke out any manner of progress. If you're playing with an assumption that no major skills are required since the hack description doesn't say anything and there's no readme, you'll quickly find that progress after speed booster is pretty much impossible without one-wall wall jumps and some short charges to get into Ship. Once I realized there was an unspoken skill requirement in the hack, I started walljumping everywhere because it seemed like the hack wanted me to do it. I know it's generally always considered optional in hacks but I have no idea how to get Spazer without doing a shinespark drop where you stop a run on a corner and fall through while still being able to break speed booster blocks. Maybe that *was* the intention. Space Jump seems to require damage boosting, Wave beam is accessible very early but only if you do an Alcatraz-like mid-air morph, Power Bombs are well-hidden in a room that felt like I accidentally stumbled upon a random PB pickup, not the first one, and Charge Beam is possibly the latest I've ever seen in a hack. Energy tanks are at a premium here, and if I hadn't solved a kill-room puzzle using Shinesparks on other-wise invincible pirates I would've had only 3 E-tanks going into the final fight.
The hack feels very uneven, like its main focus was on providing a weird visual experience. And yeah, that's a neat idea, but actually traversing the world and finding upgrades should be fun too. Half the weird alien rooms have nothing in them either, instead just being purely visual as you run through them. I hate to rate the hack so low but I just didn't enjoy my time with it very much. I stuck with it to see if it would be better by the end and I can't say that it really was.
-First, the physics are changed but not for the better. Your jump height is so low that getting High Jump simply makes it so that you can now jump as high as you would in vanilla without high jump. But the physics are also heavy like Redesign
-Second, half this entire hack takes place underwater, and you will be suitless for much of it. I will say it's at least interesting that your jumps underwater are way higher than out of water, but it does mean that once you find Gravity Suit all the platforms in underwater areas aren't as reachable any longer.
-Third, rooms are large but rarely smooth to traverse. There are plenty of little nubs, ledges, and outcroppings to jump over that make simply running across rooms a chore. The altered physics make this part more annoying too, since you're constantly having to jump more due to high gravity and low jump height. Forget about speed boosting much, the only times you'll be able to do so are when you need to shinespark somewhere. On the other hand, if you have a clear area to actually build a speed boost, you probably need it somewhere nearby.
-Fourth, the whole hack is so dark to look at. Every area aside from Ship is dimly lit or built out of dark foregrounds that can obscure your path.
-Fifth, on top of dark palettes, many rooms also have various FX applied to give strange palette warp effects, transparent overlaid tiles, or some combination of the two. Voiddragon is probably one of the worst looking areas I have ever seen in a romhack, looking straight like the game has bugged out. I assume you were going for some kind of dream-like, highly alien, or even "Samus's brain is unravelling" aesthetic but it just looks like pixelated garbage to me.
And this is all before we get to the actual progression. It's really weird and the hack makes no effort to tell the player what it expects of them in terms of skill requirements. Early on you'll be going back and forth between Slumberland and Mladicia slowly trying to eke out any manner of progress. If you're playing with an assumption that no major skills are required since the hack description doesn't say anything and there's no readme, you'll quickly find that progress after speed booster is pretty much impossible without one-wall wall jumps and some short charges to get into Ship. Once I realized there was an unspoken skill requirement in the hack, I started walljumping everywhere because it seemed like the hack wanted me to do it. I know it's generally always considered optional in hacks but I have no idea how to get Spazer without doing a shinespark drop where you stop a run on a corner and fall through while still being able to break speed booster blocks. Maybe that *was* the intention. Space Jump seems to require damage boosting, Wave beam is accessible very early but only if you do an Alcatraz-like mid-air morph, Power Bombs are well-hidden in a room that felt like I accidentally stumbled upon a random PB pickup, not the first one, and Charge Beam is possibly the latest I've ever seen in a hack. Energy tanks are at a premium here, and if I hadn't solved a kill-room puzzle using Shinesparks on other-wise invincible pirates I would've had only 3 E-tanks going into the final fight.
The hack feels very uneven, like its main focus was on providing a weird visual experience. And yeah, that's a neat idea, but actually traversing the world and finding upgrades should be fun too. Half the weird alien rooms have nothing in them either, instead just being purely visual as you run through them. I hate to rate the hack so low but I just didn't enjoy my time with it very much. I stuck with it to see if it would be better by the end and I can't say that it really was.
This a very mixed bag, but ultimately, it really just leans towards 2 orbs for me personally.
there's a lot to say about this hack, but in the end, i feel like this isn't really a hack, but more like a playground for testing visual effects, of which there are plenty, and ultimately just too much.
when you start the game, you notice the heavier gravity right away. a controversial choice to start of with, but not as bad as some other hacks.
a lot of the rooms have very strange level design, which feel a lot of the time designed to force you into taking roundabouts in each room.
Also since it doesn't seem like all enemies where rebalanced, enemies hit like a truck for a large portion of the hack, so be careful there.
Once i got to mladicia, i quickly realised suitless was gonna be a prominent part of the hack, which didn't made me very happy.
An actual sense of progression felt really absent. I really could never guess what the hack was expecting from me and just ran around aimlessly until i found something. At one point you take a journey to a faraway spot in the first area, with a tight challenge, and when you finally get the reward, you find out it doesn't actually help you in terms of progression (even tho the reward do is great i guess).
many rooms, although interesting in terms of visual effects, just looked pretty boring and bland in terms of tiling (the ship being the worst offender, as it has entire rooms (or part of rooms) tiled with the single, same tile. Also, i had to look up a playtrough to find phantoon, since there's absolutely no hint to the location(i guess the map can be a hint but it's a very bad thing to rely on the map for that).
This hack could be called "super metroid: the quest for gravity suit", since so much of the time i was hoping i could finally find it (on the plus side: huge satisfaction when i did find it).
The chozo abominations made me feel like this hack was dmantra inspired, but the final area definitely changed my mind on that. The visual effects there definitely convinced me this hack was based of of clocktoberfest. An overabundance of garbage-feeling colors that made it a pain to look at my screen, i rushed as fast as i could through every room so i didn't have to look at it anymore. Finally, perhaps my biggest complaint: where the heck is charge beam???? i never found it, and i bet it's needed to enter the final area, but i ended up shinesparking bc i really didn't feel like doing a planetary roundabout. this did result in the final boss requiring pretty much every single piece of my ammo, i guess i got lucky with all the items i found.
Also some bosses not having any music felt like a bug rather than being intended, but it does feel intended with this hack.
also the credits are also a pain to look at since it seems neen went for light mode this time, why?
on the plus side, the visual effects weren't always so bad, and where sometimes funny in how trippy they where. Also the sequence where you get to the ship was really cool.
I was initially excited to play this hack, and i really did my best to enjoy it, but ultimately there were so many unpleasant things about it that i just had to be honest with myself, and therefore i can't bring myself to rate this higher than 2 orbs (if i did rate it higher it would just be to be nice, but this is how i really feel about it).
there's a lot to say about this hack, but in the end, i feel like this isn't really a hack, but more like a playground for testing visual effects, of which there are plenty, and ultimately just too much.
when you start the game, you notice the heavier gravity right away. a controversial choice to start of with, but not as bad as some other hacks.
a lot of the rooms have very strange level design, which feel a lot of the time designed to force you into taking roundabouts in each room.
Also since it doesn't seem like all enemies where rebalanced, enemies hit like a truck for a large portion of the hack, so be careful there.
Once i got to mladicia, i quickly realised suitless was gonna be a prominent part of the hack, which didn't made me very happy.
An actual sense of progression felt really absent. I really could never guess what the hack was expecting from me and just ran around aimlessly until i found something. At one point you take a journey to a faraway spot in the first area, with a tight challenge, and when you finally get the reward, you find out it doesn't actually help you in terms of progression (even tho the reward do is great i guess).
many rooms, although interesting in terms of visual effects, just looked pretty boring and bland in terms of tiling (the ship being the worst offender, as it has entire rooms (or part of rooms) tiled with the single, same tile. Also, i had to look up a playtrough to find phantoon, since there's absolutely no hint to the location(i guess the map can be a hint but it's a very bad thing to rely on the map for that).
This hack could be called "super metroid: the quest for gravity suit", since so much of the time i was hoping i could finally find it (on the plus side: huge satisfaction when i did find it).
The chozo abominations made me feel like this hack was dmantra inspired, but the final area definitely changed my mind on that. The visual effects there definitely convinced me this hack was based of of clocktoberfest. An overabundance of garbage-feeling colors that made it a pain to look at my screen, i rushed as fast as i could through every room so i didn't have to look at it anymore. Finally, perhaps my biggest complaint: where the heck is charge beam???? i never found it, and i bet it's needed to enter the final area, but i ended up shinesparking bc i really didn't feel like doing a planetary roundabout. this did result in the final boss requiring pretty much every single piece of my ammo, i guess i got lucky with all the items i found.
Also some bosses not having any music felt like a bug rather than being intended, but it does feel intended with this hack.
also the credits are also a pain to look at since it seems neen went for light mode this time, why?
on the plus side, the visual effects weren't always so bad, and where sometimes funny in how trippy they where. Also the sequence where you get to the ship was really cool.
I was initially excited to play this hack, and i really did my best to enjoy it, but ultimately there were so many unpleasant things about it that i just had to be honest with myself, and therefore i can't bring myself to rate this higher than 2 orbs (if i did rate it higher it would just be to be nice, but this is how i really feel about it).
The good: A visual feast with some interesting changes. Once I figured out what to do, I was interested in playing this hack again.
Not so good: Too much time spent suitless underwater. Many room ideas feel disjointed. The physics changes are not an improvement.
Overall: Between a 3 and a 4 for me. My speedrunner brain wants to untwist the labyrinth. My detective brain wants to go find 100%. My rando brain wants to camp out and playground all over this hack.
I forget my exact completion time and percent for my first play, but this is close enough.
Not so good: Too much time spent suitless underwater. Many room ideas feel disjointed. The physics changes are not an improvement.
Overall: Between a 3 and a 4 for me. My speedrunner brain wants to untwist the labyrinth. My detective brain wants to go find 100%. My rando brain wants to camp out and playground all over this hack.
I forget my exact completion time and percent for my first play, but this is close enough.
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png)
I'll admit that as a beta tester and friend of the show, that I am not really the most impartial judge of this hack.
With that said, as the credits were rolling on my playthrough on stream, I felt inexplicably at peace with myself and the world for a moment, as if I could just spend the rest of the night simply breathing and have a good time.
I'm not sure how much of that is directly attributable to the hack itself, but it's hard to argue against a thing that leaves you feeling like that.
What I can say is that this hack is one that rewards a second playthough. The first time around, you'll loop the starting area a few times around in confusion, and then loop around the main two areas as a whole unit multiple times until you find progression. The second time you play this hack, everything will be simply ripe for the picking, as progress in it is as much knowledge-based as it is ability-based (if not more).
The altered physics are definitely an odd choice. The gravity is heavier, but not quite as much as Redesign. The increased pull forces you to be more intimate with the craggier terrain. An interesting side-effect to this is that you end up being more mobile underwater than above water, which (considering how much water there is) provides an interesting set of sensations and frictions unique to this hack. (Is it "good"? I don't care. I thought it was interesting and still fun.)
In terms of difficulty, it isn't too bad. Energy is in slightly short supply, but not unmanageable. Contrary to what some of the above reviews seem to imply, this hack does accommodate players of lower tech skill. Wall jumping is not required (as far as I could tell), and I'd wager that past a certain threshold your skills might end up making things harder on yourself. (With that said, I am under the understanding that the last handful of items for 100% require knowledge and execution of some very advanced tech, but they seem to be hidden well enough (and are inconsequential enough) that you won't run into them anyway.)
The visuals of this hack might be its most divisive point, but I quite like them. Everything looks to me like it looks like what it wants to look like. Traditional, vanilla-style rooms look sufficiently interesting. Dark rooms look dark. Weird rooms look weird. And the final area is an utterly fantastic collection of abstract glitch art (much moreso than Clocktoberfest).
This hack may not be the most appealing to hardcore design purists or whatever, but it is a highly-idiosyncratic and polished piece of work.
4.5/5 - Recommended
tl;dr - my favorite part of this hack was when samus said "it's gossaming time!" and gossamed all over the place.
Note: My listed completion time is from my beta test playthough, while the completion percentage is from my second playthrough on stream (because the beta didn't yet adjust the percentage properly).
With that said, as the credits were rolling on my playthrough on stream, I felt inexplicably at peace with myself and the world for a moment, as if I could just spend the rest of the night simply breathing and have a good time.
I'm not sure how much of that is directly attributable to the hack itself, but it's hard to argue against a thing that leaves you feeling like that.
What I can say is that this hack is one that rewards a second playthough. The first time around, you'll loop the starting area a few times around in confusion, and then loop around the main two areas as a whole unit multiple times until you find progression. The second time you play this hack, everything will be simply ripe for the picking, as progress in it is as much knowledge-based as it is ability-based (if not more).
The altered physics are definitely an odd choice. The gravity is heavier, but not quite as much as Redesign. The increased pull forces you to be more intimate with the craggier terrain. An interesting side-effect to this is that you end up being more mobile underwater than above water, which (considering how much water there is) provides an interesting set of sensations and frictions unique to this hack. (Is it "good"? I don't care. I thought it was interesting and still fun.)
In terms of difficulty, it isn't too bad. Energy is in slightly short supply, but not unmanageable. Contrary to what some of the above reviews seem to imply, this hack does accommodate players of lower tech skill. Wall jumping is not required (as far as I could tell), and I'd wager that past a certain threshold your skills might end up making things harder on yourself. (With that said, I am under the understanding that the last handful of items for 100% require knowledge and execution of some very advanced tech, but they seem to be hidden well enough (and are inconsequential enough) that you won't run into them anyway.)
The visuals of this hack might be its most divisive point, but I quite like them. Everything looks to me like it looks like what it wants to look like. Traditional, vanilla-style rooms look sufficiently interesting. Dark rooms look dark. Weird rooms look weird. And the final area is an utterly fantastic collection of abstract glitch art (much moreso than Clocktoberfest).
This hack may not be the most appealing to hardcore design purists or whatever, but it is a highly-idiosyncratic and polished piece of work.
4.5/5 - Recommended
tl;dr - my favorite part of this hack was when samus said "it's gossaming time!" and gossamed all over the place.
Note: My listed completion time is from my beta test playthough, while the completion percentage is from my second playthrough on stream (because the beta didn't yet adjust the percentage properly).
(Disclaimer. First playthrough took 2 and a half hours, 71% item progression. Explored a bit further and bumped my progression from 88 to 95.2, to finally 100%. Secrets are well worth a second playthrough)
Excellent, excellent romhack. I admit I started this hack thinking it would be super easy or a bit bland cuz I only heard the exploration part. When I entered the second area, came back to this page and saw the Veteran difficulty, I got the right mindset and things started falling into place.
Like those challenge hacks, there's quite some back and forth, but it didn't bother me because I liked the level design and palettes used. Most enemies got great recoloring.
There's a lot of suitless underwater, but I don't mind those. It's fine for me because the way the physics in this hack works, the jumps float better underwater than ground, at least until you get Space. The game even gives Spring Ball early to counter that.
This felt a challenge hack that didn't overstay its welcome. Fast paced, no item fanfare (great), rewarding exploration, nice usage of Spring Ball and the hack is not obvious, which is a good point for a challenge hack imo. It feels rewarding to figure out where to go next.
Overall, great puzzles. Puzzles at Ship were very creative. First time I kinda rushed my playthrough, so I didn't get Screw and some upgrades, like most e-tanks, but beat the game barely hanging. I guess if you go blind and rambo-style, this hack is in-between Veteran and Challenge, secrets aside.
The mood of the hack was very very good, I guess its uniqueness + being challenging enough+ keeping you guessing, but also allowing you to beat the game with some different routing is what makes me give this 5 stars. The hack starts as normal, but without revealing too much, you start sensing something is off. And the visuals + sound effects carry that feeling.
The final area is something I wasn't expecting, that's for sure. Terrific job.
I will say though, I feel this hack will be divisive because not everyone will like the lack of sense to where to go (even though the map and rooms you come across give you some clues where to go or when to come back). I'd have to think about it, but maybe this hack will benefit of an easy type for some things, or at least being a bit more obvious in some puzzles.
For me, I didn't find how to unlock at least 3 doors. Even after getting 100% one of them stood grey and the other is related to a puzzle (that red room) I haven't figured the solution yet.
Charge was easy for me to find. If you like to sequence break a lot and it's good with the game physics, you can get it much earlier than expected.
Finally, for some tips or improvements, I liked how the bosses don't have song, but the first ones would be nice to get a recoloring like Ridley did, and only Phantoon got different cries; I think Draygon and Ridley would benefit a lot with that to set the mood of the fights. Explore the sounds!! EDIT: Explored a bit further and found something quite hidden that fitted this last point. This was exactly the kind of stuff I was waiting for in this hack. Marvelous.
Again, solid hack. GG!
Excellent, excellent romhack. I admit I started this hack thinking it would be super easy or a bit bland cuz I only heard the exploration part. When I entered the second area, came back to this page and saw the Veteran difficulty, I got the right mindset and things started falling into place.
Like those challenge hacks, there's quite some back and forth, but it didn't bother me because I liked the level design and palettes used. Most enemies got great recoloring.
There's a lot of suitless underwater, but I don't mind those. It's fine for me because the way the physics in this hack works, the jumps float better underwater than ground, at least until you get Space. The game even gives Spring Ball early to counter that.
This felt a challenge hack that didn't overstay its welcome. Fast paced, no item fanfare (great), rewarding exploration, nice usage of Spring Ball and the hack is not obvious, which is a good point for a challenge hack imo. It feels rewarding to figure out where to go next.
Overall, great puzzles. Puzzles at Ship were very creative. First time I kinda rushed my playthrough, so I didn't get Screw and some upgrades, like most e-tanks, but beat the game barely hanging. I guess if you go blind and rambo-style, this hack is in-between Veteran and Challenge, secrets aside.
The mood of the hack was very very good, I guess its uniqueness + being challenging enough+ keeping you guessing, but also allowing you to beat the game with some different routing is what makes me give this 5 stars. The hack starts as normal, but without revealing too much, you start sensing something is off. And the visuals + sound effects carry that feeling.
The final area is something I wasn't expecting, that's for sure. Terrific job.
I will say though, I feel this hack will be divisive because not everyone will like the lack of sense to where to go (even though the map and rooms you come across give you some clues where to go or when to come back). I'd have to think about it, but maybe this hack will benefit of an easy type for some things, or at least being a bit more obvious in some puzzles.
For me, I didn't find how to unlock at least 3 doors. Even after getting 100% one of them stood grey and the other is related to a puzzle (that red room) I haven't figured the solution yet.
Charge was easy for me to find. If you like to sequence break a lot and it's good with the game physics, you can get it much earlier than expected.
Finally, for some tips or improvements, I liked how the bosses don't have song, but the first ones would be nice to get a recoloring like Ridley did, and only Phantoon got different cries; I think Draygon and Ridley would benefit a lot with that to set the mood of the fights. Explore the sounds!! EDIT: Explored a bit further and found something quite hidden that fitted this last point. This was exactly the kind of stuff I was waiting for in this hack. Marvelous.
Again, solid hack. GG!
The physics changes in this were offputting at first, having restricted movement isn't so fun. But upon arriving at Mladicia, the underwater physics are actually buffed with more jump height, making you feel more free. I love suitless underwater movement, so this felt great for me and felt like it balanced the harsher physics above water.
The visuals in this hack are very experimental, and I think they worked most of the time. Lots of the rooms are very dark and it can be hard to contrast platforms and even items at times. The final area takes the visuals to an extreme, and I was pleasantly surprised with them so much that I was laughing by the final fight.
Progression in the hack can be rough. Some puzzles are cool to figure out, like the ship area, but other areas are more obscure. The map is able to hint at some stuff, but its easy to end up in a loop of running around trying to find where to go next. Only place I really felt stuck was finding the start to the path to gravity, which I had to refer to another playthrough to find. Finally finding gravity was initially gratifying, but then I was back to the more restricting physics, so that gratification was unfortunately short lived.
I do like that this hack is generally pretty open to sequence breaks. I got charge earlier than intended and definitely missed some items and secrets that I'll have to go back and find. The underwater physics had me doing UWJs and I almost got myself stuck a couple times trying to sequence break lol.
Definitely a mixed bag of goodies here, but I enjoyed it.
The visuals in this hack are very experimental, and I think they worked most of the time. Lots of the rooms are very dark and it can be hard to contrast platforms and even items at times. The final area takes the visuals to an extreme, and I was pleasantly surprised with them so much that I was laughing by the final fight.
Progression in the hack can be rough. Some puzzles are cool to figure out, like the ship area, but other areas are more obscure. The map is able to hint at some stuff, but its easy to end up in a loop of running around trying to find where to go next. Only place I really felt stuck was finding the start to the path to gravity, which I had to refer to another playthrough to find. Finally finding gravity was initially gratifying, but then I was back to the more restricting physics, so that gratification was unfortunately short lived.
I do like that this hack is generally pretty open to sequence breaks. I got charge earlier than intended and definitely missed some items and secrets that I'll have to go back and find. The underwater physics had me doing UWJs and I almost got myself stuck a couple times trying to sequence break lol.
Definitely a mixed bag of goodies here, but I enjoyed it.
This was a super fun hack! I loved the room designs and use of layers for different trippy effects. I ended up beating it without finding some key items and bosses but that's because I don't take the hint when I'm not supposed to be somewhere. There are a couple things that I'd say are "polarizing" in this hack, being physics changes and a lot of suitless underwater areas. Overall, the suitless sections didn't require any crazy tricks and were pretty tame, and the physics complemented the hack well. I also would have liked just a few extra save locations. Progression was a bit cryptic, but I think it's supposed to be - it's definitely very non-linear and open. Everyone will probably finish this hack somewhat differently. But overall I had a lot of fun playing and found myself wanting to come back when I was done. I'll definitely be playing again to find the missing items I left behind.
A fine hack, if you can bear to look at it. Seriously, about 30% of the hack is damp palettes on vanilla tiles, 20% is "I can't do real backgrounds", item rooms are a terrible mess that can only wish they were assembled by Digital Mantra, the deeper final areas aim to give Dismet a run for its money, and Ridley's room is unwarranted rather than a nice "OH WOW HE RIPPED OFF OF ANOTHER FRANCHISE! :soypoint:" But despite looking like neon garbage, this hack is very playable. I might be inclined to say it's a little closer to vanilla difficulty than its veteran rating if it wasn't too easy to fall into very suitless areas without the proper gear - I personally downgrabbed my way into Seizuridia without high jump, and while I realized later on after escaping that that was a very me problem this could also have been mitigated if the way in was a higher jump with a morphball passage at the top that all the casual noobs hate. Just a suggestion since I'm sure the downgrabbable entrance was a conscious design choice, and it's entirely possible to escape Seizuridia, return to Crapteria, and claim the necessary traversal gear. Nothing else is really terrible explorationwise, aside from some late game items being hidden behind silly riddles with answers you would never commit in normal Super Metroid. Just make sure you bring as much equipment to the end as possible because you will have to wear down Ridley with limited ammo.
Good start, nice to play until it gets rushed. It feels incomplete.
This hack was awesome! Recommend. Last part was a little hard to see, but i love the challenges in this hack. Also, thought the hint to get shinespark could have been a little clearer, but i should have just known anyways lol. Can't wait to play again, considering there were parts I could not figure out how to explore.
Somewhat interesting, but not particularly good. I can understand having a focus on experimental visual effects and many routing options, if that's what you like, but I would prefer that the visual effects were well-executed and that the intended sequence weren't so obfuscated. I can confirm that everything in this hack can be done without advanced techniques (even without walljumps), but you'd be forgiven for thinking they're required due to how obscure the intended route is, and just how helpful those techniques can be. It looks like spazer requires temporary blue, for instance, but there's a hidden entrance. It's telling that some reviewers above describe the hack as a "challenge" hack despite the fact that none of the items are challenging to obtain if you do them the intended way.
The physics changes were unpleasant and confusing. I can't understand what's wrong with the vanilla physics that these changes were necessary. I suppose it makes infinite bomb jumping impossible, but I don't think there's anywhere infinite bomb jumping would be useful anyway. The power bombs in Slumberland can be gotten early anyway, for instance. I enjoy suitless underwater more than the vast majority of people, so the large amount of it was fine with me. I'd say the suitless underwater movement felt better than the normal physics in this hack, so I was disappointed to find gravity as early as I did.
If you ignore the visual effects, the aesthetics are very bland. So much so that it feels like the effects are used as a crutch. The rooms that lack them are dull. Almost all the rooms in Slumberland look nearly the same, and the same is true in Mladicia, making the map generally confusing to navigate. Ship also has a lot of the same tiling, but the symmetric layout makes it memorable. The visuals in the final area are fine, I suppose (I played with the Special FX option on), but they did interfere with my ability to see what was happening in the game.
The progression is almost never obvious, and many of the paths forward are blocked by grey doors. I'm not sure how I got 100%, considering there were two grey doors that I never figured out how to open, and not for lack of trying. There were some grey doors where I wasn't sure what opened them, even once I'd done the thing that opened them. I did not enjoy the "riddles" either. The one to get screw attack was weird, and I think it requires every power bomb in the game (and one of them requires you to bomb unmarked tiles). There are many instances where the answer is simply to bomb a random tile. Getting to Phantoon requires you to bomb unmarked tiles twice. I know the map layout hints at this, but the bombable tiles should still be visually distinct. Charge beam being in such a random location is honestly bizarre. It's technically possible to get very early, but you realistically won't get it until late, if you get it at all.
Overall, I'm not sure who I can recommend this hack to. Skilled players will end up making the game harder for themselves by sequence breaking, while less skilled players will likely not be able to find the sequence. This author has potential, however, and I'm interested in seeing what they make next.
Edit: My original score was too harsh and didn't reflect my feelings on the hack properly, so I changed it to 3 orbs.
The physics changes were unpleasant and confusing. I can't understand what's wrong with the vanilla physics that these changes were necessary. I suppose it makes infinite bomb jumping impossible, but I don't think there's anywhere infinite bomb jumping would be useful anyway. The power bombs in Slumberland can be gotten early anyway, for instance. I enjoy suitless underwater more than the vast majority of people, so the large amount of it was fine with me. I'd say the suitless underwater movement felt better than the normal physics in this hack, so I was disappointed to find gravity as early as I did.
If you ignore the visual effects, the aesthetics are very bland. So much so that it feels like the effects are used as a crutch. The rooms that lack them are dull. Almost all the rooms in Slumberland look nearly the same, and the same is true in Mladicia, making the map generally confusing to navigate. Ship also has a lot of the same tiling, but the symmetric layout makes it memorable. The visuals in the final area are fine, I suppose (I played with the Special FX option on), but they did interfere with my ability to see what was happening in the game.
The progression is almost never obvious, and many of the paths forward are blocked by grey doors. I'm not sure how I got 100%, considering there were two grey doors that I never figured out how to open, and not for lack of trying. There were some grey doors where I wasn't sure what opened them, even once I'd done the thing that opened them. I did not enjoy the "riddles" either. The one to get screw attack was weird, and I think it requires every power bomb in the game (and one of them requires you to bomb unmarked tiles). There are many instances where the answer is simply to bomb a random tile. Getting to Phantoon requires you to bomb unmarked tiles twice. I know the map layout hints at this, but the bombable tiles should still be visually distinct. Charge beam being in such a random location is honestly bizarre. It's technically possible to get very early, but you realistically won't get it until late, if you get it at all.
Overall, I'm not sure who I can recommend this hack to. Skilled players will end up making the game harder for themselves by sequence breaking, while less skilled players will likely not be able to find the sequence. This author has potential, however, and I'm interested in seeing what they make next.
Edit: My original score was too harsh and didn't reflect my feelings on the hack properly, so I changed it to 3 orbs.
So many good things here but unfortunately some weird decisions really hold it back from being great. For the most part I enjoyed the challenge, getting a couple of items early in the first area was rewarding, and I enjoyed the rugged terrain. What I didn't enjoy were some minor issues with aesthetics and some pacing issues due to difficulty in finding progression.
Aesthetics were largely good and at overall perhaps great but a few moments were a little much, like the end area. I also felt it beneficial to turn the saturation setting up on my emulator to make the experience more enjoyable. Overall though I'd consider the aesthetics a plus.
It's biggest flaw however is how difficult progression is to find, although I wonder if my use of advanced tech to sequence break created additional problems for me. I don't mind wandering a bit but even by the end there were still two grey doors I don't know how to open. Many obtuse and difficult to figure out puzzles became a little too intrusive to the overall experience not to set it back IMO. It's challenge and explorative nature did allow such a decision to be overall tolerable but it would have been nice to feel a little less confused. So much suit less traversal really doesn't help the degree of confusion as it makes hunting for progress at times frustratingly slow, even if the layout made good use of the mechanic.
In saying all that it was mostly really fun and it has a unique charm to it from it's aesthetics, physics, and layout that make it in the very least a solid experience for veteran players. The author certainly displayed a lot of talent and potential in creating this. I just wish it was overall a little less confusing and some minor tweaks to the graphics could also help. Thanks for the quality hack, I hope you consider making another because I feel you could do something great given what was here.
Edit: I went back and got 100%. I decided to up it to a 5 because I missed an item that would have made it a little less frustrating. It was annoyingly hidden but not THAT bad and it was more on me than the hack.
Aesthetics were largely good and at overall perhaps great but a few moments were a little much, like the end area. I also felt it beneficial to turn the saturation setting up on my emulator to make the experience more enjoyable. Overall though I'd consider the aesthetics a plus.
It's biggest flaw however is how difficult progression is to find, although I wonder if my use of advanced tech to sequence break created additional problems for me. I don't mind wandering a bit but even by the end there were still two grey doors I don't know how to open. Many obtuse and difficult to figure out puzzles became a little too intrusive to the overall experience not to set it back IMO. It's challenge and explorative nature did allow such a decision to be overall tolerable but it would have been nice to feel a little less confused. So much suit less traversal really doesn't help the degree of confusion as it makes hunting for progress at times frustratingly slow, even if the layout made good use of the mechanic.
In saying all that it was mostly really fun and it has a unique charm to it from it's aesthetics, physics, and layout that make it in the very least a solid experience for veteran players. The author certainly displayed a lot of talent and potential in creating this. I just wish it was overall a little less confusing and some minor tweaks to the graphics could also help. Thanks for the quality hack, I hope you consider making another because I feel you could do something great given what was here.
Edit: I went back and got 100%. I decided to up it to a 5 because I missed an item that would have made it a little less frustrating. It was annoyingly hidden but not THAT bad and it was more on me than the hack.
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