junkrares's Ratings and Reviews
My original review was very short, but I am going to expand a bit. This hack feels like a chore, front to back. There's very little flow, there's no ammo even though the screenshots show it -- making me think even the creator of the hack wasn't good enough to handle the artificial difficulty without missiles and supers.
Every enemy (except the bosses) hit like a truck, palettes and tiling are grating and uninspired, and the map is... OK. Every bit of the difficulty in this hack is forced damage from off-screen enemies and it isn't veteran, it is just mean for the sake of meanness. Half the time you cannot even tell what is the background and foreground, and every single tile is a square edge (except a handful of triangles).
I got every major available, and probably missed one e-tank. The map erasing after Kraid made it so I had to hunt around the entire map again just to find Ridley. And once he was dead, it was just over. The escape was one room, a mere 20 foot walk to your ship that just conveniently redocked itself next to the boss.
I can understand this was done in a short timeframe. That still doesn't excuse the lack of quality or execution. I've seen Exister's ROTM submissions and played the Subper Meptroid demo, and truly expected more out of this. Play at your own risk.
Every enemy (except the bosses) hit like a truck, palettes and tiling are grating and uninspired, and the map is... OK. Every bit of the difficulty in this hack is forced damage from off-screen enemies and it isn't veteran, it is just mean for the sake of meanness. Half the time you cannot even tell what is the background and foreground, and every single tile is a square edge (except a handful of triangles).
I got every major available, and probably missed one e-tank. The map erasing after Kraid made it so I had to hunt around the entire map again just to find Ridley. And once he was dead, it was just over. The escape was one room, a mere 20 foot walk to your ship that just conveniently redocked itself next to the boss.
I can understand this was done in a short timeframe. That still doesn't excuse the lack of quality or execution. I've seen Exister's ROTM submissions and played the Subper Meptroid demo, and truly expected more out of this. Play at your own risk.
For a spoof hack and contest hack, T O U R O F I T A L Y has a lot to offer. Each zone is distinct with their own themes (within the confines of "space station/factory" vibe). The gelato vibe is strong, and I want-a-to-save-a constantly to make sure I don't lose progress. The difficulty is vanilla, bordering on beginner. There are lots of opportunities to sequence break through gate glitches and hell runs -- but none are required. The story is funny and engaging, atmospheric without straight out telling you what is what. The ASM edits are well-implemented, and can be abused fully. Once this gets polished up and becomes a full hack, I would be thrilled to play this again.
PS: The credits were a real treat and got a legitimate belly laugh out of me.
PS: The credits were a real treat and got a legitimate belly laugh out of me.
Metroid: Symphony of the Light by starlightintheriver [
Incomplete],
rated by junkrares on Jul 02, 2024 (
)
Incomplete],
rated by junkrares on Jul 02, 2024 ( )
93% in 0:47
What a ride this hack was. I didn't "finish" it because there was no boss or ending to speak of -- but I think I got every item possible. Secrets are well-telegraphed and hardly need the X-Ray scope to make you understand where they are. I enjoyed every moment of this hack, and it left me wanting more. You can tell where it is going to expand (the cone was my favorite character), and understand where the story is going. This may be overreaching, but I got severe Trilby vibes, a la Seven Days a Skeptic, and I hope the author has played that game. If not, it may give solid inspiration to finish it. The scans and map icons were well implemented, and the vanilla physics were very welcome and offered several sequence breaking opportunities that would definitely make a difference when this is a full hack. As Kirarin stated, as-is, this is a 5/5 would-play-again hack.
I wasn't going to put an orb rating or any completion stats, because that would be unfair given the little I played this -- but the site requires it. I'll give it two orbs because the music and graphics and ASM and just everything is well executed and on-theme.
But the gameplay?
It is pure punishment, simply because there is no quick respawn. Almost every move requires instantaneous decision making and frame-perfect timing. If they implemented some sort of system like V E R T I C A L I T Y uses for the teleport spikes, this may be a bit more tolerable. To rate this as a "Veteran" hack and a "Race" hack is rather disingenuous to how difficult this is. This is an expert-level hack, and not just an expert Super Metroid hack.
I really wanted to like this, but I cannot just sit there and get kicked in the teeth every 30 seconds, and then spend an equal amount of time restarting and replaying the same rooms.
But the gameplay?
It is pure punishment, simply because there is no quick respawn. Almost every move requires instantaneous decision making and frame-perfect timing. If they implemented some sort of system like V E R T I C A L I T Y uses for the teleport spikes, this may be a bit more tolerable. To rate this as a "Veteran" hack and a "Race" hack is rather disingenuous to how difficult this is. This is an expert-level hack, and not just an expert Super Metroid hack.
I really wanted to like this, but I cannot just sit there and get kicked in the teeth every 30 seconds, and then spend an equal amount of time restarting and replaying the same rooms.
Metroid - Galactic Marine by Stat!k / Srarokz [ Exploration],
rated by junkrares on Nov 27, 2024 ( 
)
Exploration],
rated by junkrares on Nov 27, 2024 ( )
92% in 1:23
For a first hack (I assume?) this was very well done with just the right mix of quickplay and exploration. Just had a few quick thoughts I'd like to share, both positive notes and some constructive criticism.
Pros:
Good tiling and palettes, especially for a first hack. Sometimes the lower frozen areas were a little too blue in metal rooms, but otherwise very well executed. The use of layers and parallax were also well done. To add to this, the overall layout of the map was pretty decent as well. Nothing felt useless or too big or arbitrary.
The map screen was well done, with good clues to the invisible walls and secret passages. I liked the open circles for event rooms, the dots and crosses for unfound/found items, and that the maps/data didn't reveal every room. I also enjoyed the map data blurbs. Highlighting thermal damage rooms was also appreciated.
The story was decent, and the atmospheric details made each area unique and enjoyable to be in. I didn't even get bummed out by the forced suitless water areas. It just felt like that was an obstacle to overcome to explore the world. Well done!
Excellent use of existing ASM/resources. Its always enjoyable to use charge missiles and the grenade launcher. The tooltips on pickup for things were also a nice touch. At a certain point, I didn't even miss having morph ball or the other usual Power Suit upgrades.
Cons:
The absolute lack of health drops was a downer. I am sure it is intended, but I felt it made the game more of a chore than it needed to be. Not being able to farm and instead having to backtrack to recharge rooms was not a positive. This is also on the back of making normal shots very weak and charged shots very strong. Combine that with some truly oppressive enemy/environmental damage in some areas and overall low health and ammo access -- it made a lot of the difficulty feel artificial.
Touching on the above no-health-drops, making missile tanks only have one missile, and then also making missiles slow, AND making SpoSpo, Phantoon, and Torizo not drop missiles was a bit cruel. I'd bring the drop pattern back to vanilla for all enemies, and also make missile tanks worth at least two if not five.
Given that the ASM for recharge at save points exists, it felt a little weird to have recharge and saves be separate pods in the same room. I understand the goal was to have rooms that sometimes had one or the other, but it felt a little cumbersome.
The lack of spin jump was very weird. It made walljumping a little awkward, and lead to odd sprites like charged beam wall jumping where you're bouncing off the walls or CWJ'ing without spinning. I get that you are trying to eliminate pseudo-screw, but it just looks funky. I think you would be better off tweaking or zeroing pseudo-screw damage and still giving us spin jump frames.
Speaking of walljumping, there are some very easy sequence breaks that seem to be punishable by either getting nothing/nowhere or getting your ass beat by a boss you weren't ready for. It is almost childs-play to accidentally stumble into Phantoon with three missiles and zero e-tanks. This is not really a criticism, just wanting to mention that it is easy to get in over your head with some basic game skills.
Just a nitpick, but maybe find a better name for the planet than "Snowball." :P
I am sure I had some other thoughts, but they've escaped me at this point. Overall, I enjoyed this hack and look forward to what you come up with next.
Pros:
Good tiling and palettes, especially for a first hack. Sometimes the lower frozen areas were a little too blue in metal rooms, but otherwise very well executed. The use of layers and parallax were also well done. To add to this, the overall layout of the map was pretty decent as well. Nothing felt useless or too big or arbitrary.
The map screen was well done, with good clues to the invisible walls and secret passages. I liked the open circles for event rooms, the dots and crosses for unfound/found items, and that the maps/data didn't reveal every room. I also enjoyed the map data blurbs. Highlighting thermal damage rooms was also appreciated.
The story was decent, and the atmospheric details made each area unique and enjoyable to be in. I didn't even get bummed out by the forced suitless water areas. It just felt like that was an obstacle to overcome to explore the world. Well done!
Excellent use of existing ASM/resources. Its always enjoyable to use charge missiles and the grenade launcher. The tooltips on pickup for things were also a nice touch. At a certain point, I didn't even miss having morph ball or the other usual Power Suit upgrades.
Cons:
The absolute lack of health drops was a downer. I am sure it is intended, but I felt it made the game more of a chore than it needed to be. Not being able to farm and instead having to backtrack to recharge rooms was not a positive. This is also on the back of making normal shots very weak and charged shots very strong. Combine that with some truly oppressive enemy/environmental damage in some areas and overall low health and ammo access -- it made a lot of the difficulty feel artificial.
Touching on the above no-health-drops, making missile tanks only have one missile, and then also making missiles slow, AND making SpoSpo, Phantoon, and Torizo not drop missiles was a bit cruel. I'd bring the drop pattern back to vanilla for all enemies, and also make missile tanks worth at least two if not five.
Given that the ASM for recharge at save points exists, it felt a little weird to have recharge and saves be separate pods in the same room. I understand the goal was to have rooms that sometimes had one or the other, but it felt a little cumbersome.
The lack of spin jump was very weird. It made walljumping a little awkward, and lead to odd sprites like charged beam wall jumping where you're bouncing off the walls or CWJ'ing without spinning. I get that you are trying to eliminate pseudo-screw, but it just looks funky. I think you would be better off tweaking or zeroing pseudo-screw damage and still giving us spin jump frames.
Speaking of walljumping, there are some very easy sequence breaks that seem to be punishable by either getting nothing/nowhere or getting your ass beat by a boss you weren't ready for. It is almost childs-play to accidentally stumble into Phantoon with three missiles and zero e-tanks. This is not really a criticism, just wanting to mention that it is easy to get in over your head with some basic game skills.
Just a nitpick, but maybe find a better name for the planet than "Snowball." :P
I am sure I had some other thoughts, but they've escaped me at this point. Overall, I enjoyed this hack and look forward to what you come up with next.
