dagit's Ratings and Reviews
I was unable to complete this hack even with save states.
This hack is meant for people that want a really challenging and maximally frustrating experience, but it also includes a lot of level edits that more annoying than anything else. Like in Ceres station, the bodies of the dead scientists now have collision so you have to jump around them. You can't just walk/run through rooms. It's just really awkward. With savestates it took me over 10 minutes just to do ceres station.
I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get out of landing site and other 5 minutes just getting the first item. The level edits are punishing and obtuse.
I almost liked the way they changed BT's room, but the fight itself went on way too long.
I gave up when I reached a hellrun and after several attempts realized that I probably missed at least one item and didn't feel like going back for it. The hack just didn't draw me in enough and it really felt too similar to RBO and RBO Impossible.
I spent about 4 hours on this hack in total. Maybe some day if I run out of hacks to play I'll revisit it, but I doubt it.
This hack is meant for people that want a really challenging and maximally frustrating experience, but it also includes a lot of level edits that more annoying than anything else. Like in Ceres station, the bodies of the dead scientists now have collision so you have to jump around them. You can't just walk/run through rooms. It's just really awkward. With savestates it took me over 10 minutes just to do ceres station.
I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get out of landing site and other 5 minutes just getting the first item. The level edits are punishing and obtuse.
I almost liked the way they changed BT's room, but the fight itself went on way too long.
I gave up when I reached a hellrun and after several attempts realized that I probably missed at least one item and didn't feel like going back for it. The hack just didn't draw me in enough and it really felt too similar to RBO and RBO Impossible.
I spent about 4 hours on this hack in total. Maybe some day if I run out of hacks to play I'll revisit it, but I doubt it.
This is a good hack for someone that wants a relatively short hack that is quite a bit different than vanilla. It's got some decent puzzles and the level design is all original. However, it also has some flaws. So approach it with patience or you'll just get frustrated.
I was going to give this 3 chozo orbs for being a fairly mediocre hack, but then I remembered how much I hated the escape sequence. They give you plenty of time (30 minutes), but most of the rooms fill with acid so that extra time isn't useful. The acid will kill you way faster than 30 minutes. I had to kill MB several times before finding my way out.
One criticism I have is that the first couple items, necessary for leaving the landing site, are hidden and it makes the landing site tedious. You just have to wander around and search every tile until you have what you need to leave.
The Phantoon fight is a bit too long. Unless you fight him early you won't be in any danger. It's just time consuming.
The Draygon fight is kind of annoying in that I don't know if you can fight Dray without tanking a ton of damage. The way things work out it just sort of seems like you stand there and take damage and hope to win the damage race. Fights like that seem more like a check on your exploration than something skill based and just don't appeal to me.
All that said, I think you can do much worse than this hack, especially for a 2008 hack. It's worth playing if you want something that's not too crazy and can be easily completed in an afternoon by an experienced player.
I was going to give this 3 chozo orbs for being a fairly mediocre hack, but then I remembered how much I hated the escape sequence. They give you plenty of time (30 minutes), but most of the rooms fill with acid so that extra time isn't useful. The acid will kill you way faster than 30 minutes. I had to kill MB several times before finding my way out.
One criticism I have is that the first couple items, necessary for leaving the landing site, are hidden and it makes the landing site tedious. You just have to wander around and search every tile until you have what you need to leave.
The Phantoon fight is a bit too long. Unless you fight him early you won't be in any danger. It's just time consuming.
The Draygon fight is kind of annoying in that I don't know if you can fight Dray without tanking a ton of damage. The way things work out it just sort of seems like you stand there and take damage and hope to win the damage race. Fights like that seem more like a check on your exploration than something skill based and just don't appeal to me.
All that said, I think you can do much worse than this hack, especially for a 2008 hack. It's worth playing if you want something that's not too crazy and can be easily completed in an afternoon by an experienced player.
Metroid Grime: Dream Sequence by Grime [
Incomplete],
rated by dagit on Feb 22, 2022 (
)
Incomplete],
rated by dagit on Feb 22, 2022 ( )
69% in 2:30
This hack has a lot of good things about it. Good art. Weird rooms (that fit the theme). However, it is unfinished and took me multiple attempts because on the first attempt I went in a broken save room and killed my save file. It was the save room at the top of red tower, but unless you know the vanilla game fairly well you may not recognize which one it is. The wrecked ship save room is also broken. Do not enter either of those save rooms, you won't be able to get out and if you save you'll have to start over from scratch.
Other than the broken things, it's an interesting hack. I disagree with the author about the difficulty. I think this is quite a bit harder than vanilla. There were a number of places where it seemed like I was expected to morph into a tunnel after a walljump and while that's not too hard to learn it's way more complicated than what is required in vanilla. Not to mention the gimmick with the suits, but I can't really say more without giving spoilers.
Overall, it's fun, weird, and visually interesting. However, you'll need to have patience with it because it has weird difficulty spikes, precise platforming, and the late game can be very punishing. This is a great start of a hack but I had to take away points because it's incomplete and unpolished.
Other than the broken things, it's an interesting hack. I disagree with the author about the difficulty. I think this is quite a bit harder than vanilla. There were a number of places where it seemed like I was expected to morph into a tunnel after a walljump and while that's not too hard to learn it's way more complicated than what is required in vanilla. Not to mention the gimmick with the suits, but I can't really say more without giving spoilers.
Overall, it's fun, weird, and visually interesting. However, you'll need to have patience with it because it has weird difficulty spikes, precise platforming, and the late game can be very punishing. This is a great start of a hack but I had to take away points because it's incomplete and unpolished.
This hack leaves you asking, "Why can't metroid morph?"
I spent a good chunk of the early game laughing.
Eventually the new gimmick just didn't matter. At that point I almost stopped. There was one item I couldn't find and that kept me going more than anything. I tried to use xray in the bowling room at the back of wrecked ship but the game crashed. Unfortunately, that caused me to lose about 10 items I had collected. So my final percentage was 89% instead of 99%.
Overall, it's a funny goof twist on vanilla but once you reach the plasma pirates room after draygon you've seen all the hack has to offer.
I spent a good chunk of the early game laughing.
Eventually the new gimmick just didn't matter. At that point I almost stopped. There was one item I couldn't find and that kept me going more than anything. I tried to use xray in the bowling room at the back of wrecked ship but the game crashed. Unfortunately, that caused me to lose about 10 items I had collected. So my final percentage was 89% instead of 99%.
Overall, it's a funny goof twist on vanilla but once you reach the plasma pirates room after draygon you've seen all the hack has to offer.
This is a really nice chill hack that lets you wander around and explore some well-made rooms. If this were a full game, instead of a demo, I would be giving it 5 points. The changes to the minimap are fantastic and it really made the game a lot of fun to explore.
And even though it's just a demo, it's still some good afternoon fun. If you want to get all the items it will probably take you at least an hour, maybe two.
I'm really looking forward to the finished hack.
And even though it's just a demo, it's still some good afternoon fun. If you want to get all the items it will probably take you at least an hour, maybe two.
I'm really looking forward to the finished hack.
Super Metroid Biohazard by Mentlegen, SMILEuser96 [ Speedrun/Race],
rated by dagit on Mar 21, 2022 ( )
Speedrun/Race],
rated by dagit on Mar 21, 2022 ( )
60% in 2:49
There's a lot to like with this hack. For me it was a rollercoaster at times.
I hit the save warp bug. I used IBJ to reach an underwater area (I didn't have gravity) and I got stuck. I was pretty mad at myself because I couldn't remember the last time I saved. When I reloaded I was in some water area. Thankfully I had springball so I used springball jumps to get out of that area and back to areas I should have been in. I thought maybe it was an antisoftlock measure because I wasn't sure if I had lost any progress. So for a while I wandered around thinking it was just a weird way of preventing people getting stuck the way I had.
Aside from that save warp, which ultimately wasn't that big of a deal, the only other frustration I had was that the map was hard for me to understand and navigate. I think the big rooms were sometimes a bit empty feeling due to a lack of enemies. However, I understand this hack was created in limited time by two people. They made a huge world and populating it fully probably just takes way more time than they had. That's pretty much it for things I could want changed.
Overall my experience was very positive. I think this is a good hack that I would recommend to people. I think speedruns of this hack could be a lot of fun, due to all the routing choices you could make. The upside down gimmick was interesting. I really struggled to control samus but it was fun to have a new gimmick in a hack other than "ruin vanilla physics".
I loved the custom music. I think that was my favorite thing. Finding the chozo keys was cool. The big locked gate that opens was epic.
I hit the save warp bug. I used IBJ to reach an underwater area (I didn't have gravity) and I got stuck. I was pretty mad at myself because I couldn't remember the last time I saved. When I reloaded I was in some water area. Thankfully I had springball so I used springball jumps to get out of that area and back to areas I should have been in. I thought maybe it was an antisoftlock measure because I wasn't sure if I had lost any progress. So for a while I wandered around thinking it was just a weird way of preventing people getting stuck the way I had.
Aside from that save warp, which ultimately wasn't that big of a deal, the only other frustration I had was that the map was hard for me to understand and navigate. I think the big rooms were sometimes a bit empty feeling due to a lack of enemies. However, I understand this hack was created in limited time by two people. They made a huge world and populating it fully probably just takes way more time than they had. That's pretty much it for things I could want changed.
Overall my experience was very positive. I think this is a good hack that I would recommend to people. I think speedruns of this hack could be a lot of fun, due to all the routing choices you could make. The upside down gimmick was interesting. I really struggled to control samus but it was fun to have a new gimmick in a hack other than "ruin vanilla physics".
I loved the custom music. I think that was my favorite thing. Finding the chozo keys was cool. The big locked gate that opens was epic.
Super Metroid: Hotlands by MetroidNerd#9001 [ Exploration],
rated by dagit on Mar 23, 2022 ( )
Exploration],
rated 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.
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.
This hack has a lot of original ideas. Interesting new mechanics. I would say more but I don't want to put spoilers in my review.
I would probably be giving this hack a rating of 5 except, I got really annoyed and frustrated with one particular boss fight that felt like it was entirely RNG. I probably died 8 times before beating it. And the time I beat it, I didn't feel like I earned it. It just felt like I got lucky. I'm not a fan of RNG heavy boss fights.
There's also some bugs with items in the early game. If you come across item locations very early they will be bugged out. I also felt railroaded near the end of the game. I thought for sure I was working towards a particular item and instead I ended up stuck where the only way forward was a boss fight. This was disappointing as I had planned to revisit more of the world and the level design prevented that without any warning.
Overall it's a great hack that I will recommend to people, but I also can't give it 5 orbs with some of the flaws above.
I would probably be giving this hack a rating of 5 except, I got really annoyed and frustrated with one particular boss fight that felt like it was entirely RNG. I probably died 8 times before beating it. And the time I beat it, I didn't feel like I earned it. It just felt like I got lucky. I'm not a fan of RNG heavy boss fights.
There's also some bugs with items in the early game. If you come across item locations very early they will be bugged out. I also felt railroaded near the end of the game. I thought for sure I was working towards a particular item and instead I ended up stuck where the only way forward was a boss fight. This was disappointing as I had planned to revisit more of the world and the level design prevented that without any warning.
Overall it's a great hack that I will recommend to people, but I also can't give it 5 orbs with some of the flaws above.
Super Metroid Fugue on Globe by JaceTheBodySculptor [ Speedrun/Race],
rated by dagit on Mar 26, 2022 ( )
Speedrun/Race],
rated by dagit on Mar 26, 2022 ( )
93% in 3:55
Lots of creative changes to the base game. Initially, I was going to give this hack a lower score. My first 2 or 3 hours of play were brutal and I was salty. I just wandered around and died constantly. With enough wandering and occasionally getting lucky, I managed to get a foothold. Once I beat my first boss things just snowballed from there.
Before I knew it I was making all sorts of progress and collecting lots of items. Most of the new mechanics were good. I don't think I'll go into details here just to avoid spoilers. Probably my least favorite new item mechanics were the suit mechanics. However, I think I liked everything else.
The ending was sort of hard to find but I did eventually find it. I think this hack could benefit from a way to wait for the next time of day, like how geralt can wait at a camp fire in witcher. And maybe there could be some change(s) to make the early game less brutal? Early on staying alive was hard but near the end it was almost too easy.
Overall I enjoyed it. I'll probably need to be really careful who I recommend this hack to as I think it requires a fair bit of patience and determination to get through the early game and survive your first couple boss fights.
Before I knew it I was making all sorts of progress and collecting lots of items. Most of the new mechanics were good. I don't think I'll go into details here just to avoid spoilers. Probably my least favorite new item mechanics were the suit mechanics. However, I think I liked everything else.
The ending was sort of hard to find but I did eventually find it. I think this hack could benefit from a way to wait for the next time of day, like how geralt can wait at a camp fire in witcher. And maybe there could be some change(s) to make the early game less brutal? Early on staying alive was hard but near the end it was almost too easy.
Overall I enjoyed it. I'll probably need to be really careful who I recommend this hack to as I think it requires a fair bit of patience and determination to get through the early game and survive your first couple boss fights.
First off, go play this.
The only real criticism I can conjure up is that the beginning is slow. It took me a while to find a particular path. This happened a couple times. However, this did give me a chance to get familiar with the map. It's just that maybe a few early secrets are a little too hard to stumble upon? Then again, I enjoyed the challenge of figuring those things out.
I guess my recommendation to other people is play this and assume you might get stuck and have to scratch your head and look around.
I did one sequence break the author didn't anticipate but it didn't cause any issues like a permastuck. So that was nice. It was fun to discover the sequence break and it gave me access to a rewarding item.
The only real criticism I can conjure up is that the beginning is slow. It took me a while to find a particular path. This happened a couple times. However, this did give me a chance to get familiar with the map. It's just that maybe a few early secrets are a little too hard to stumble upon? Then again, I enjoyed the challenge of figuring those things out.
I guess my recommendation to other people is play this and assume you might get stuck and have to scratch your head and look around.
I did one sequence break the author didn't anticipate but it didn't cause any issues like a permastuck. So that was nice. It was fun to discover the sequence break and it gave me access to a rewarding item.
Time is real-time. I got my completion percent by just adding up how many items I found.
If this were a finished hack, I would probably rate it a 3. However, in the current incomplete state it's got a lot of bugs and no save rooms. And I feel like I need to take a point off for that.
The art style is a bit weird but charming in its own way. It often feels like the hack is messing with you.
I feel like this could be cleaned up and turned into a 4 orb hack if someone wanted to put in the time.
In the current state, I would only recommend this to people who are going to use save states and have a lot of patience.
I stopped down in a lower norfair area after I got locked in the room. It seemed like I had found the major items, including the unknown item. I probably missed some ammo or etanks.
If this were a finished hack, I would probably rate it a 3. However, in the current incomplete state it's got a lot of bugs and no save rooms. And I feel like I need to take a point off for that.
The art style is a bit weird but charming in its own way. It often feels like the hack is messing with you.
I feel like this could be cleaned up and turned into a 4 orb hack if someone wanted to put in the time.
In the current state, I would only recommend this to people who are going to use save states and have a lot of patience.
I stopped down in a lower norfair area after I got locked in the room. It seemed like I had found the major items, including the unknown item. I probably missed some ammo or etanks.
Is it weird that I actually kind of like this hack? I think it should be in the spoof or challenge category. You get exactly what it sounds like it will be. A challenging playthrough where you need to use your abilities to find where you are in the room or you need to rely on memorizing the rooms. So I would only recommend this to people who have expert knowledge of the vanilla map.
I found ceres to be the most challenging part. During the ceres escape it took me multiple tries to get past the 3rd to last and last rooms. One horrible thing happened mid playthrough that made me upset. I went into the save room before botwoon and the game crashed. I would avoid that room if you play this.
Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this. The idea is a bit lazy (just make everything black), but at the same time it's a great challenge. I would rate this a 4, except for the crash bug.
I found ceres to be the most challenging part. During the ceres escape it took me multiple tries to get past the 3rd to last and last rooms. One horrible thing happened mid playthrough that made me upset. I went into the save room before botwoon and the game crashed. I would avoid that room if you play this.
Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this. The idea is a bit lazy (just make everything black), but at the same time it's a great challenge. I would rate this a 4, except for the crash bug.
In some ways this is better than the original Rotation. It has some upgrades with farms working correctly. Working gates. It was also able to keep crumbles in places that Rotation had to remove them. Etc.
I had one crash at phantoon, but the author fixed it already. Time is real-time. My IGT was 2:33. Definitely could do it faster, but it was fun to visit every room and see everything.
Why are you still reading this? Go play it!
I had one crash at phantoon, but the author fixed it already. Time is real-time. My IGT was 2:33. Definitely could do it faster, but it was fun to visit every room and see everything.
Why are you still reading this? Go play it!
This one is hard to review. At first I was stuck. Like really stuck. And that was making me not like the hack. However, I eventually got the ball rolling and found enough gear to be able to do some basic exploration.
I liked the creativity of the puzzles. This is a unique hack, at least compared to everything that came before it. The biggest negatives were that sometimes things were just too cryptic and obtuse and in some places boss fights were a really bad difficulty spike (in an unfun way). I only used save states at the very end. So it's not like this hack is out to murder Samus all the time. Just in a few key places.
The system of gates for bosses was a bit too cryptic. Some of the early items were a bit too cryptic. Etc. I don't want to go into details here and spoil things. But just expect to be wandering for a long time in some parts.
Overall, I think I would recommend this hack but only to experts that like a good puzzle and a good challenge. Definitely not a hack I would recommend to players in general. I don't know if all the weird tricks and glitches that I did are required, but I do believe this hack requires fairly deep knowledge of SM quirks.
BTW, the time listed is my in game time. Real time, this hack took me a bit under 13 hours to complete. I don't have the exact time handy because my computer crashed about 20 minutes in and I had to reboot and lost my timer.
I want to give this a 5/5 for creative puzzles. However, due to the difficulty spikes, and depth of knowledge required, I feel like I shouldn't give it more than a 4/5. Moreover, to avoid a situation where relatively inexperienced players pick this up and get frustrated because it's beyond their knowledge of the game I feel that I should give it a 3/5. Just know that I'm really torn about rating this one.
I liked the creativity of the puzzles. This is a unique hack, at least compared to everything that came before it. The biggest negatives were that sometimes things were just too cryptic and obtuse and in some places boss fights were a really bad difficulty spike (in an unfun way). I only used save states at the very end. So it's not like this hack is out to murder Samus all the time. Just in a few key places.
The system of gates for bosses was a bit too cryptic. Some of the early items were a bit too cryptic. Etc. I don't want to go into details here and spoil things. But just expect to be wandering for a long time in some parts.
Overall, I think I would recommend this hack but only to experts that like a good puzzle and a good challenge. Definitely not a hack I would recommend to players in general. I don't know if all the weird tricks and glitches that I did are required, but I do believe this hack requires fairly deep knowledge of SM quirks.
BTW, the time listed is my in game time. Real time, this hack took me a bit under 13 hours to complete. I don't have the exact time handy because my computer crashed about 20 minutes in and I had to reboot and lost my timer.
I want to give this a 5/5 for creative puzzles. However, due to the difficulty spikes, and depth of knowledge required, I feel like I shouldn't give it more than a 4/5. Moreover, to avoid a situation where relatively inexperienced players pick this up and get frustrated because it's beyond their knowledge of the game I feel that I should give it a 3/5. Just know that I'm really torn about rating this one.
Super Metroid: Boss Attack by b_a_c_k__f_i_r_e [ Boss Rush],
rated by dagit on Sep 09, 2022 ( )
Boss Rush],
rated by dagit on Sep 09, 2022 ( )
75% in 2:57
This hack is better than the reviews above would lead you to believe. The issue is that the version people played before is broken. That was version v2.9.5. Hopefully by the time you read this, the download link will be fixed. If not find the review by the author and go to the home page and download the zip/ips from there. That should be version v2.9.7.5. Slap it on an unheader rom and you should be good to go.
The good things about this hack:
* Unique mechanics
* Interesting progression
* New puzzles
The bad things about this hack:
* Enemies have way too much health
* The way this hack says "no" is to just kill you or let you permastuck
* The escape
I think this is a good hack for patient players that want to see something new and novel. I wouldn't recommend it to beginners as at least one progression item need a minor glitch to get.
I think I may have gone to tourian early as I had a really hard time in the escape. I missed 25% of the items and I think I skipped some intended items. If you had all the vanilla items the escape shouldn't be too bad. I ended up having to cheese my ammo in the MB fight in order to make it out.
The good things about this hack:
* Unique mechanics
* Interesting progression
* New puzzles
The bad things about this hack:
* Enemies have way too much health
* The way this hack says "no" is to just kill you or let you permastuck
* The escape
I think this is a good hack for patient players that want to see something new and novel. I wouldn't recommend it to beginners as at least one progression item need a minor glitch to get.
I think I may have gone to tourian early as I had a really hard time in the escape. I missed 25% of the items and I think I skipped some intended items. If you had all the vanilla items the escape shouldn't be too bad. I ended up having to cheese my ammo in the MB fight in order to make it out.
Super Metroid: Subversion by TestRunner and AmoebaOfDoom [ Exploration],
rated by dagit on Sep 30, 2022 ( )
Exploration],
rated by dagit on Sep 30, 2022 ( )
87% in 9:30
I'm taking off one orb because of graphic glitches that happen continuously while I played the hack. I played on console. I've heard it works better on emulator, but I prefer to play on console.
I'm taking off another orb for issues related to game play. The intended progression is very back and forth. For the first approximately half the game you'll go from one end of the map back to the other end and back. There's a ton of hacks that do that and I'm never a fan of it. One boss glitched out for me and I almost reset the console to fix it. I started toggling random items and the fight was able to start. I had glitches on several other bosses and rooms. I didn't like the changes to how you activate items, particularly headgear. Etc.
There is a puzzle where you make changes in one room and check in a different room. Even after I figured out what I was doing, it still took me a ton of room transitions to make changes and check the result. And I found that kind of tedious. I would have preferred the switches and puzzle to be in the same room so that it's faster to check what's going on. I feel like I made 50 trips back and forth. In fact, there is a different puzzle that is similar where the solution and toggles are in the same room and I didn't mind that one at all.
I liked some of the musical choices and others I got sick of really quickly. I can't really comment on the art. To work around the obnoxious graphical glitches in the hud, I stayed in grayscale for like 90% of the game. And as a result I missed out on most of the art.
I did like that the fanfares are dramatically shorter. I loved the new fast doors. The new grapple blocks make for interesting puzzles. I think they should be a little faster to activate and there is something wrong with their hit detection. About half the time I grappled them samus didn't latch on.
I was told by the author of the hack that I was playing incorrectly. I'm not sure what they meant by that, but apparently there was some sort of book you're supposed to read to go along with the hack. I guess that's a stylistic choice you can make when you make a hack. I don't play metroid games so that I can read. I play them for the action and platforming. Seems like a weird choice to me to try to force that on players, but it's their hack they can do whatever they want. On the flip side, that doesn't mean I'm going to engage with it or like the choice.
The hack has some stuff that can only be unlocked if you beat the game. I never like that in games. I basically never try those things out because it's exceedingly rare that I beat a game and immediately start a new save file. I was there was a way to say "Yes, I'm really sure I want to unlock this without beating the game first."
The room design was consistently good. There were some rooms I didn't like, but most rooms were good. Some have amazingly bad lag.The SA-1 patch can't come into existence fast enough.
I'm not sure if I would recommend this to people. I think if you play on emulator and you don't mind lots of backtracking, you'll probably like this hack because so many people do.
I'm taking off another orb for issues related to game play. The intended progression is very back and forth. For the first approximately half the game you'll go from one end of the map back to the other end and back. There's a ton of hacks that do that and I'm never a fan of it. One boss glitched out for me and I almost reset the console to fix it. I started toggling random items and the fight was able to start. I had glitches on several other bosses and rooms. I didn't like the changes to how you activate items, particularly headgear. Etc.
There is a puzzle where you make changes in one room and check in a different room. Even after I figured out what I was doing, it still took me a ton of room transitions to make changes and check the result. And I found that kind of tedious. I would have preferred the switches and puzzle to be in the same room so that it's faster to check what's going on. I feel like I made 50 trips back and forth. In fact, there is a different puzzle that is similar where the solution and toggles are in the same room and I didn't mind that one at all.
I liked some of the musical choices and others I got sick of really quickly. I can't really comment on the art. To work around the obnoxious graphical glitches in the hud, I stayed in grayscale for like 90% of the game. And as a result I missed out on most of the art.
I did like that the fanfares are dramatically shorter. I loved the new fast doors. The new grapple blocks make for interesting puzzles. I think they should be a little faster to activate and there is something wrong with their hit detection. About half the time I grappled them samus didn't latch on.
I was told by the author of the hack that I was playing incorrectly. I'm not sure what they meant by that, but apparently there was some sort of book you're supposed to read to go along with the hack. I guess that's a stylistic choice you can make when you make a hack. I don't play metroid games so that I can read. I play them for the action and platforming. Seems like a weird choice to me to try to force that on players, but it's their hack they can do whatever they want. On the flip side, that doesn't mean I'm going to engage with it or like the choice.
The hack has some stuff that can only be unlocked if you beat the game. I never like that in games. I basically never try those things out because it's exceedingly rare that I beat a game and immediately start a new save file. I was there was a way to say "Yes, I'm really sure I want to unlock this without beating the game first."
The room design was consistently good. There were some rooms I didn't like, but most rooms were good. Some have amazingly bad lag.The SA-1 patch can't come into existence fast enough.
I'm not sure if I would recommend this to people. I think if you play on emulator and you don't mind lots of backtracking, you'll probably like this hack because so many people do.
I really enjoyed this one. I had a few moments where I was confused about progression, but usually because I forgot about a room I meant to explore. I played on normal and I thought the challenge was just right. Harder areas meant I should explore elsewhere and come back. I thought it had fresh and interesting puzzles. I enjoyed the challenge of reaching plasma.
However, it's not perfect. I got rolled out of bounds in one room trying to explore what I thought was a passage way. I banged my head against GT for a while before realizing that maybe I shouldn't be trying to fight him yet. In some areas the palette doesn't have enough contrast. There's quite a few background objects that are bright enough to look like foreground with collision. That left me confused in several rooms, but it was usually easy to resolve by just trying to press up against those objects.
Overall, I would recommend this to people. I think it's a bit of an underrated gem. To me it felt like a fresh take on vanilla.
However, it's not perfect. I got rolled out of bounds in one room trying to explore what I thought was a passage way. I banged my head against GT for a while before realizing that maybe I shouldn't be trying to fight him yet. In some areas the palette doesn't have enough contrast. There's quite a few background objects that are bright enough to look like foreground with collision. That left me confused in several rooms, but it was usually easy to resolve by just trying to press up against those objects.
Overall, I would recommend this to people. I think it's a bit of an underrated gem. To me it felt like a fresh take on vanilla.
Metroid Mission Rescue by Mettyk25jigsaw [ Exploration],
rated by dagit on Jun 02, 2023 ( )
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png)
Exploration],
rated by dagit on Jun 02, 2023 ( )
76% in 47:11
Completion stats are in game counters. The real-time was 69 hours (nice). I used gt code so my item collection percentage is inflated.
I really did not enjoy this hack. I do not like the hud changes. I don't like that you can only lay one bomb at a time (unless you use glitches). No IBJ (without glitches). No wall jump 99% of the time. It's very much a hack that removes the things I find fun about super metroid and replaces them with things I don't find fun. And so much beam switching.
It's a big hack with complicated puzzles. So if that's your thing then you might like this, but even still it has a strong tendency to over do things. There's just too much of everything. And basic movement is a bit of a pain so getting around is a slog. Too many "lost woods" style puzzles. Too many "oops now you have to re-enter the area and try again" paths. Even with save states, the escape took me 2 hours and I had to ask for help.
I played it without spoilers for the first 60 hours and then the last 10 hours I got a map from Aran;Jaeger. Frankly I would not have finished it without the spoilers. I was playing normal mode. Using gt code was a blessing and a curse. It made basic navigation easier because of all the quality of life upgrades, but it also made it harder to figure out progression at times because I wasn't being rail roaded by lack of items anymore. Overall though I think it was a net boon in that I was able to finish it faster and with fewer tears than if I hadn't done gt code.
There's neat ideas in places, but the overall experience of playing the hack is one of frustration (at least for me).
I really did not enjoy this hack. I do not like the hud changes. I don't like that you can only lay one bomb at a time (unless you use glitches). No IBJ (without glitches). No wall jump 99% of the time. It's very much a hack that removes the things I find fun about super metroid and replaces them with things I don't find fun. And so much beam switching.
It's a big hack with complicated puzzles. So if that's your thing then you might like this, but even still it has a strong tendency to over do things. There's just too much of everything. And basic movement is a bit of a pain so getting around is a slog. Too many "lost woods" style puzzles. Too many "oops now you have to re-enter the area and try again" paths. Even with save states, the escape took me 2 hours and I had to ask for help.
I played it without spoilers for the first 60 hours and then the last 10 hours I got a map from Aran;Jaeger. Frankly I would not have finished it without the spoilers. I was playing normal mode. Using gt code was a blessing and a curse. It made basic navigation easier because of all the quality of life upgrades, but it also made it harder to figure out progression at times because I wasn't being rail roaded by lack of items anymore. Overall though I think it was a net boon in that I was able to finish it faster and with fewer tears than if I hadn't done gt code.
There's neat ideas in places, but the overall experience of playing the hack is one of frustration (at least for me).
Super Metroid Dark Nightmare by jailsonmendes [ Challenge],
rated by dagit on Jan 17, 2024 ( )
Challenge],
rated by dagit on Jan 17, 2024 ( )
% in 13:00
Time is RTA with massive cheats. Collection percent is meaningless (because cheats).
I just assumed the other reviewers were being a bit hyperbolic. How naive I was! You should avoid this hack for your mental and physical health/well being. It's hard to explain why that is without massive spoilers.
As such, this review contains massive spoilers. You have been warned.
At first this hack seems like a typical challenge hack. Very constrained. Everything kills you instantly. Enemies move so fast that they teleport around the room. You have less energy that normal. All that usual terribly unfair stuff that comes with challenge hacks. However, this hack holds a dark secret, as its name might imply.
You start out as normal but with a reduced ceres timer, get morph, get a missile pack (that grants 1 ammo), and then you start the climb back to get bombs. The rooms are overly challenging but many challenge hacks go all in on that. Enemies take about a minute to kill and block your path and instantly kill you. This forces you to shoot them. And many will respawn. Eventually you can get through it. I used save states to accelerate the process.
When you reach bomb torizo's door is when you get the first hint that something isn't right. You'll have 1 or 2 missile ammo at this point depending on your collection rate. However, the door won't open. You can't farm for ammo because the flying guys outside BT are immune to your gun BUT even if they could be killed missile and super missile ammo drops give 0 ammo. Health drops give 1 or 2 depending on big or small. Farming is just not viable in this hack.
Next you'll wander around and you might eventually find another missile pack in a far off corner of Zebes. It should be noted that the hack author really likes the kill count door mechanic. You will encounter many grey doors that require excessive enemy farming to open. This can be as high as 255 in some rooms! Anyway, when you leave the room you will be warped back to the room a couple rooms right of morph. So then you have to climb back up to the ship/BT. However, the 3 missile ammo you have at this point is still not enough to open the door. We checked in SMILE/SMART and the door outside of BT, and ALL missile doors, requires 255 missiles. How will you get those missiles? That missile pack in the far corner of zebes you just got, it respawns. Each time you get it you will need to complete a loop.
You will need to complete this loop 253 times to get 255 missiles. I did about 25 iterations of this loop. My personal best was probably around 15 minutes and still had at least one death. Maybe you can do better? Maybe you can learn to do the loop deathless in 8 minutes. That would mean you'd only spend about about 34 hours collecting the necessary missiles. It would have taken me around 60 hours.
Surely once you get bombs things improve right? Wrong. The next item you need to collect using a loop is super missiles. Again you get 1 per iteration. I'm not sure how long this loop takes when done optimally, but to do the loop you'll now need 768 missiles. That's because you'll run into three missile doors in one room and 2 of them respawn and block the 3rd, so you can't just leave and refill. Now we're talking over 100 hours (766 loops at 8min each) to collect all the missiles. And that's assuming you're a speedrunner that can get 1 missile every 8 minutes with no deaths. For me it would be more like 200 hours.
How many super missiles do you need to collect? By the way, you'll need to revisit the ship or a refill station after each super missile so you can use another 512 missiles to open the path to the next super. You'll need to do this new loop 1530 times because there is a room with respawning green doors that each take 255 supers. I don't have good data on how long this super loop takes but considering it's a pretty big loop, you need to refill at the ship after, and you have to fire 512 missiles each time. So let's say it takes 10 minutes per loop. That's 255 hours.
So you're looking at 350 to 450 hours easily just to collect enough ammo to get out of Brinstar and into the rest of the game. This is the point where I switched to playing on emulator so that I could edit my inventory to just give myself infinite ammo and all the suit upgrades. I wanted to know what else was in the hack but I was no longer interested in obtaining the items normally.
Even with those cheats, turbo fire, and emulator turbo speed, it still took me another 6 or 7 hours to beat the hack. That is, I spent about 6.5 hours playing legit and another 6.5 playing with cheats.
After you get all that missile and super missile ammo, you will need to do a lot of hell running because gravity doesn't provide full heat protection and varia is as deep in norfair as you can imagine. So you'll probably want to grab a few hundred power bombs. I'm not sure how many you want. I gave myself varia. Thankfully those respawn without you needing to leave the room. So while it's tedious it's significantly faster than the other ammo grinds.
Now once you've beaten all the bosses and entered tourian, the tedium shoots up again. Now you have to open several kill count gray doors in tourian. The MB fight is vanilla. However, during the escape the timer will be set to about 100 minutes and you will need a serious chunk of that time on the remaining grey kill count doors. In one room you need to kill 255 pirates to proceed. This took me 60 minutes and I couldn't use emulator speedup as I had to move around and shoot the pirates. I did cheese my emulator so that it thought I was holding angle and shoot when I wasn't pressing anything. Otherwise I would have had to taking significant breaks because I can't hold buttons down for 60 minutes straight. This hack IS bad for your health.
Animals saved. Not recommended.
I just assumed the other reviewers were being a bit hyperbolic. How naive I was! You should avoid this hack for your mental and physical health/well being. It's hard to explain why that is without massive spoilers.
As such, this review contains massive spoilers. You have been warned.
At first this hack seems like a typical challenge hack. Very constrained. Everything kills you instantly. Enemies move so fast that they teleport around the room. You have less energy that normal. All that usual terribly unfair stuff that comes with challenge hacks. However, this hack holds a dark secret, as its name might imply.
You start out as normal but with a reduced ceres timer, get morph, get a missile pack (that grants 1 ammo), and then you start the climb back to get bombs. The rooms are overly challenging but many challenge hacks go all in on that. Enemies take about a minute to kill and block your path and instantly kill you. This forces you to shoot them. And many will respawn. Eventually you can get through it. I used save states to accelerate the process.
When you reach bomb torizo's door is when you get the first hint that something isn't right. You'll have 1 or 2 missile ammo at this point depending on your collection rate. However, the door won't open. You can't farm for ammo because the flying guys outside BT are immune to your gun BUT even if they could be killed missile and super missile ammo drops give 0 ammo. Health drops give 1 or 2 depending on big or small. Farming is just not viable in this hack.
Next you'll wander around and you might eventually find another missile pack in a far off corner of Zebes. It should be noted that the hack author really likes the kill count door mechanic. You will encounter many grey doors that require excessive enemy farming to open. This can be as high as 255 in some rooms! Anyway, when you leave the room you will be warped back to the room a couple rooms right of morph. So then you have to climb back up to the ship/BT. However, the 3 missile ammo you have at this point is still not enough to open the door. We checked in SMILE/SMART and the door outside of BT, and ALL missile doors, requires 255 missiles. How will you get those missiles? That missile pack in the far corner of zebes you just got, it respawns. Each time you get it you will need to complete a loop.
You will need to complete this loop 253 times to get 255 missiles. I did about 25 iterations of this loop. My personal best was probably around 15 minutes and still had at least one death. Maybe you can do better? Maybe you can learn to do the loop deathless in 8 minutes. That would mean you'd only spend about about 34 hours collecting the necessary missiles. It would have taken me around 60 hours.
Surely once you get bombs things improve right? Wrong. The next item you need to collect using a loop is super missiles. Again you get 1 per iteration. I'm not sure how long this loop takes when done optimally, but to do the loop you'll now need 768 missiles. That's because you'll run into three missile doors in one room and 2 of them respawn and block the 3rd, so you can't just leave and refill. Now we're talking over 100 hours (766 loops at 8min each) to collect all the missiles. And that's assuming you're a speedrunner that can get 1 missile every 8 minutes with no deaths. For me it would be more like 200 hours.
How many super missiles do you need to collect? By the way, you'll need to revisit the ship or a refill station after each super missile so you can use another 512 missiles to open the path to the next super. You'll need to do this new loop 1530 times because there is a room with respawning green doors that each take 255 supers. I don't have good data on how long this super loop takes but considering it's a pretty big loop, you need to refill at the ship after, and you have to fire 512 missiles each time. So let's say it takes 10 minutes per loop. That's 255 hours.
So you're looking at 350 to 450 hours easily just to collect enough ammo to get out of Brinstar and into the rest of the game. This is the point where I switched to playing on emulator so that I could edit my inventory to just give myself infinite ammo and all the suit upgrades. I wanted to know what else was in the hack but I was no longer interested in obtaining the items normally.
Even with those cheats, turbo fire, and emulator turbo speed, it still took me another 6 or 7 hours to beat the hack. That is, I spent about 6.5 hours playing legit and another 6.5 playing with cheats.
After you get all that missile and super missile ammo, you will need to do a lot of hell running because gravity doesn't provide full heat protection and varia is as deep in norfair as you can imagine. So you'll probably want to grab a few hundred power bombs. I'm not sure how many you want. I gave myself varia. Thankfully those respawn without you needing to leave the room. So while it's tedious it's significantly faster than the other ammo grinds.
Now once you've beaten all the bosses and entered tourian, the tedium shoots up again. Now you have to open several kill count gray doors in tourian. The MB fight is vanilla. However, during the escape the timer will be set to about 100 minutes and you will need a serious chunk of that time on the remaining grey kill count doors. In one room you need to kill 255 pirates to proceed. This took me 60 minutes and I couldn't use emulator speedup as I had to move around and shoot the pirates. I did cheese my emulator so that it thought I was holding angle and shoot when I wasn't pressing anything. Otherwise I would have had to taking significant breaks because I can't hold buttons down for 60 minutes straight. This hack IS bad for your health.
Animals saved. Not recommended.
Super Metroid Puzzle Lunatic by pedro123 [ Challenge],
rated by dagit on Jan 26, 2024 ( )
Challenge],
rated by dagit on Jan 26, 2024 ( )
No completion stats.
I don't think hack can be completed. I did some hex edits to restore enemy drops to vanilla, restore beam damage to vanilla, and the firing rate. These changes allowed me to get bombs, get the item in the middle of gauntlet. From there it seemed like I was required to do a hell run.
Unless I passed some key item or something, I don't think the hell run is possible. I made it the LN main hall but I just couldn't reach the left door. The acid damage is just too much. And that's with being able to farm during the hell run. Without those changes, I'm not convinced a TAS could do it. It's always possible I'm over looking something or didn't find an item, but it just strikes me as a very dubious hack.
Unless I passed some key item or something, I don't think the hell run is possible. I made it the LN main hall but I just couldn't reach the left door. The acid damage is just too much. And that's with being able to farm during the hell run. Without those changes, I'm not convinced a TAS could do it. It's always possible I'm over looking something or didn't find an item, but it just strikes me as a very dubious hack.
As others have mentioned the execution is not the best. It was nice to see it as a hack of the justin bailey samus. The gimmick was mildly interesting but if you die at Ridley, you need to go all the way back through tourian to rekill mother brain to get hyper beam back and that's a bit ass.
Would have been nice to see more changes to zebes even if it is a half hack. Treat this as a hard plando.
Would have been nice to see more changes to zebes even if it is a half hack. Treat this as a hard plando.
Super Metroid Pseudo Screw Attack by jailsonmendes [ Spoof],
rated by dagit on Jan 30, 2024 ( )
Spoof],
rated by dagit on Jan 30, 2024 ( )
73% in 2:42
This hack has a seemingly dumb gimmick, but it's one of pedro's better hacks if you play it through to the end. Bosses have had their health rebalanced for pseudo screwing. Lots of enemies are weak to things other than pseudo screw once you get later in the hack.
Edit: I have to retract what I said about the impressive room edits. Those were actually taken from Another Super Metroid. That makes me like the hack less. I thought that was Pedro's creativity. As such, I'm lowering my review score.
Edit: I have to retract what I said about the impressive room edits. Those were actually taken from Another Super Metroid. That makes me like the hack less. I thought that was Pedro's creativity. As such, I'm lowering my review score.
I don't really have anything to add compared to Syphon an Sapphron. Not a bad pedro hack but LN is definitely hard. The timing on the CF is fairly tight.
