Metroid: Castle

Metroid: Castle
Release date: Mar 16, 2025	Author: justaicon	Download: v1.1 (25 downloads) Download: v1.0 (175 downloads) (5 downloads of previous versions)
Genre: Quick Play [?] Game:	Difficulty: Vanilla [?]	Average runtime: 0:36 Average collection: 91%
Read Me: [None]	Forum Thread: [None]	Rating:

Description

Metroid Castle is a quick play hack designed to be a fun hack inspired by those old Wario Land games on the Game Boy Color, while also staying true to the overall Metroid gameplay formula.

This hack was originally a little challenge from me to see what I could create in just under 96 hours for my second effort after Engage Ridley, and I think it ended up quite terrible for what I could do.

This hack features...
-Revamped single-map overworld
-Custom music
-Custom graphics
-New ending screens
-6 Energy Tanks, 17 Missile tanks and 4 Super Missile tanks to collect
-Custom credits
-and so much more that's waiting for you to see

[v1.1] Major overhaul

-Revamped music
-Improved title screen
-Added a new major item + 1 additional missile tank (item scale % has been improved for this fix)
-Added a few new areas
-Rapid fire beam (hold B)
-5x3 minimap
-Fixed credits so more people are credited
-Fixed ending screens
-Made harder to find items less hidden
-Adjusted level design
-Chozo mural cutscene skip (thanks jiffy!)

The v1.1 version of this hack is the most complete version to play, unlike the v1.0 that features many rushed flaws put into place. tldr; don't rush your hacks.

The v1.1 version has also been tested on real hardware, on both a AGS001 Gameboy Advance SP and a Gameboy Player using an EZFLASH OMEGA DEFINITIVE EDITION, emulator compatibility has been tested on mGBA and Mesen; other emulator playability is uncertain.

Made in Canada™

Screenshots

Ratings and Reviews

By OmegaDragnet9 on Mar 21, 2025 (

)

93% in 0:44

A really fun and solid playthrough, (especially considering the time constraint of the project.)

I think it could benefit from having more than one song in the area, but basically my only gripe.

I haven't played a ton of Wario Land stuff, but the custom graphics looked cool (and would probably be appreciated more by somebody more acquainted with the series.)

I am very much in favor of seeing people release single-area hacks like this. The level design and progression with items is sound.

I liked the custom art at the end of the game; I thought that was a nice touch.

By RT-55J on Mar 22, 2025 (

)

90% in 0:33

Nice little one area hack -- not quite as good as Engage Ridley (the author's previous hack), but it's still pretty much as good as the self-imposed time limit on the project would allow.

There are a few more one-way paths than I would have added, but given the shortness of the item sequence that is an understandable design compromise.

Recommended. :)

By bg2 on Mar 23, 2025 (

)

100% in 0:32

(v1.0)
2/5
After playing through twice and getting 100% items, I can't justify more than 2 orbs.
For all intents and purposes, a functional hack with custom sprites and music, but the gameplay is severely lacking in challenge and variety

+Reduced cooldown space jump is always appreciated
+Custom sprites and music

-Must be one of the most boring hacks I've ever played gameplay-wise and visually
-It seems that the <100% and 100% item completion ending screens are the same (normal difficulty setting)
-Some slopes don't work (e.g. in one of the rooms after obtaining space jump)

A novelty, but not a good time. A lot of blunders could be overlooked if the gameplay is decent; unfortunately that's not the case with this hack.
Not recommended

By Contendo on Mar 25, 2025 (

)

75% in 0:29

There is not much to this hack. It is a fairly polished hack for the amount of time that went into it. I couldnt encounter any visual or gameplay bugs. However, there also isnt a lot to this hack.

The biggest issue in this hack is that it goes past the point where exploring more of the area becomes tedious. The tileset is the same throughout the entire hack and rooms look the same everywhere. There is no visual variety at all. The music is no different. The hack uses a single song, which repeats after 30 seconds. Its also a very annoying song, in my opinion.

If it werent for the high quality of polish I would probably only rate this 2/5 orbs

By Zincoshine on Apr 21, 2025 (

)

90% in 0:41

Justaicon made a name for himself with the excellent level design of Metroid: Engage Ridley hack and this hack possesses the same good level design. However, here we have three problems. First of all, the custom music was a bad choice that wears out it's welcome quickly. A slower more deliberate track like the one in course 12 warioland should have been used instead. Second, the rooms are almost identical to each other, they get so repetitive that towards the end the hack starts to feel like it was procedurally generated by ChatGPT. Third, the hack has quite a few bugs, although thankfully none that are game breaking. Due to these three issues, I'm forced to deduct an orb from this rating. Also, all of these three issues seem to stem from the hack being rushed.

On that note, I want to take a moment to say something that needs to be said to all aspiring hackers, especially zero mission ROM hackers: Making a hack quickly isn't a good thing, bragging about how you rushed a product to completion in a short time makes you look stupid. Rushing is what AAA publishers do because they want to make a quick buck and impress investors. I've seen this rushing in many MZM rom hacks. To those who have done this: Why do you think anyone would want this AAA business crap in a rom hack? Who do you think is being impressed by this rushing? There is no money or investors involved in rom hacking. Please stop doing rushing your MZM
hacking projects and just take the time you need to make a quality hack. Quality is what is impressive.

I recommend this, with reservations.

By Zhs2 on May 11, 2025 (

)

96% in 0:41

Meh. It starts off feeling like a randomly handcrafted nostalgia trip and ends up being more annoying than it is worth to play. Why? Do you ever when designing a game feel like it's a great idea to implement one-way loops into the player's paths and then place save stations STRICTLY at the ends of these paths? The only enemy capable of wrecking you in the entire hack - the final boss - is located several rooms away from any save station and you need to fall into their respective loops to use either save station, which are even more rooms away. I guess you're gonna either be collecting that plasma beam every time you try the fight OR you will backtrack through the whole damn castle to pick a save station. It's not aggravating until you get to this point, but when you do it is. No foresight whatsoever. And as all of the other reviews have stated the music is highly repetitive, never broken up, and nowhere near any of the actual good songs in Wario Land 2. It's fun to explore but it's not fun enough for a higher rating than mid. Play at the peril of your patience and ears.

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