starlightintheriver's Ratings and Reviews
Super Metroid Redux by ShadowOne3333 [
Improvement],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 08, 2024 (
)
Improvement],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 08, 2024 ( )
100% in 2:45
I have to admit, I felt pretty sad when I saw how long this had gone with a rating pending. It's a great hack that adds a fair bit of QOL to Super Metroid in a way that I personally don't feel goes overboard like Project Base has a tendency to do.
I played with all of the patches installed that don't change something back to vanilla; I played with GBA physics, SpazPlas, new suit graphics, etc. I have to admit I think the GBA-style physics are finicky and slippery in midair but since they're completely optional, it's hard to dock points from the hack as a whole for it.
For me going in, the main draws were SpazPlas- a very rare feature in modern SM hacks- and Hard Mode. Hard Mode doubles damage taken from enemies and halves damage dealt to them. In a different game I'd argue that double HP on enemies is lazy and pads the game out, but I've played so much Super Metroid the bosses feel like they fly by, so it honestly works pretty well here (except for with Spore Spawn. Spore Spawn really does not need to be able to survive 6 super missiles)
Overall, it's Super Metroid, and it's hard to mess up Super Metroid by making the changes made here, especially since they're all so customizable. The new controls for aiming and using HUD items work surprisingly well, and it's very convenient just pressing a button to use X-ray if you use it a lot like I do. I do have two minor graphical complaints tho: Screw Attack, like in Project Base, doesn't glow green anymore (except after wall jumping for some reason), and Ice/Spazer/Plasma doesn't spawn snowflakes that flutter down so it looks a little lame compared to plain Ice/Plasma.
If you haven't played vanilla SM in a while and want something improved but not too different from the original, I'd recommend this. Hopefully with another review, it'll get a site-wide rating soon and see more attention from the community at large.
I played with all of the patches installed that don't change something back to vanilla; I played with GBA physics, SpazPlas, new suit graphics, etc. I have to admit I think the GBA-style physics are finicky and slippery in midair but since they're completely optional, it's hard to dock points from the hack as a whole for it.
For me going in, the main draws were SpazPlas- a very rare feature in modern SM hacks- and Hard Mode. Hard Mode doubles damage taken from enemies and halves damage dealt to them. In a different game I'd argue that double HP on enemies is lazy and pads the game out, but I've played so much Super Metroid the bosses feel like they fly by, so it honestly works pretty well here (except for with Spore Spawn. Spore Spawn really does not need to be able to survive 6 super missiles)
Overall, it's Super Metroid, and it's hard to mess up Super Metroid by making the changes made here, especially since they're all so customizable. The new controls for aiming and using HUD items work surprisingly well, and it's very convenient just pressing a button to use X-ray if you use it a lot like I do. I do have two minor graphical complaints tho: Screw Attack, like in Project Base, doesn't glow green anymore (except after wall jumping for some reason), and Ice/Spazer/Plasma doesn't spawn snowflakes that flutter down so it looks a little lame compared to plain Ice/Plasma.
If you haven't played vanilla SM in a while and want something improved but not too different from the original, I'd recommend this. Hopefully with another review, it'll get a site-wide rating soon and see more attention from the community at large.
Super Metroid Nature by Jefe962 [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 17, 2024 ( 
)
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 17, 2024 ( )
100% in 4:30
QUICK NOTE BEFORE THE REVIEW: I haven't done any testing on this, but the palettes in the escape sequence could very possibly be harmful if you suffer from epileptic seizures. If I were certain this were a danger, it would probably eat off at least another star, NGL. If there's one thing to know about this hack going in, this is it.
Time above is my most recent playthrough, with the help of the Project Maptroid maps by badatmetroid. Not sure if they have a different name here on MetConst but iunno.
Nature is an excellent hack that's bogged down a little by a few major flaws; if those few things were fixed, it would easily be a 5/5 hack. However, what's good is very good and you can tell Jefe spent a lot of time crafting each room to be unique and memorable.
In terms of progression and level design, Nature isn't too much different from the vanilla game; what's different is how much it touches up every little thing there is to appreciate. Palettes are nicer (I especially appreciate the slight purple hues in Tourian and the less aggressive Norfair palettes), and vanilla tiles are interwoven beautifully. As other reviews have mentioned, Nature replaces X-Ray with a brand new Beam Burst upgrade, clearly inspired by the upgrade from Samus Returns. I got it a little too late to really appreciate it, but it was still a lot of fun when I got the chance to use it. I should mention that having five Charge shots on screen at once will absolutely lag your game and cause screen flicker, especially if you have Plasma.
Now, for the bad. There are three principle complaints: the lack of respin, the way secrets are hidden, and a particular room in Maridia that I would change if I were making this hack. I may be ignorant for saying this, but I don't really understand why anyone would make a hack without including respin in this day and age considering how much it adds.
Many of the secrets are hidden relatively well, and I was able to find them on my own. However, there were several that I couldn't find on my own because they require you to walk through intangible walls that look exactly like the other walls around them. Between that and a lot of spots which look to my eye like they hold secrets but don't, this kinda made it hard to motivate myself to actually check out suspicious looking spots, so I missed a lot of other secrets. (For example, the large room after Grapple really looks to me like it should have an item under the lava, but it doesn't)
The last complaint is about a particular green gate in Maridia. The switch is on the left, meaning it's possible to skip through, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it blocks off what would be the most convenient way to get into the main areas of Maridia from Kraid's Lair. Because of it, you instead have to take a long and circuitous route through the Space Jump room and through a long passage that basically goes all the way to the other end of Maridia. Considering Wave Beam is *in* Maridia, there's really no reason in my mind why that gate couldn't have been blue, so that Maridia could open up a little once you get most of its major items.
Sorry the review is so long, haha. This is one of those hacks where I really can't help but think about all sorts of specific moments I appreciated or didn't appreciate, and every little thing I would change if I were designing this. Really, I could go on all day about it. Please play this hack so I have someone to infodump to.
Time above is my most recent playthrough, with the help of the Project Maptroid maps by badatmetroid. Not sure if they have a different name here on MetConst but iunno.
Nature is an excellent hack that's bogged down a little by a few major flaws; if those few things were fixed, it would easily be a 5/5 hack. However, what's good is very good and you can tell Jefe spent a lot of time crafting each room to be unique and memorable.
In terms of progression and level design, Nature isn't too much different from the vanilla game; what's different is how much it touches up every little thing there is to appreciate. Palettes are nicer (I especially appreciate the slight purple hues in Tourian and the less aggressive Norfair palettes), and vanilla tiles are interwoven beautifully. As other reviews have mentioned, Nature replaces X-Ray with a brand new Beam Burst upgrade, clearly inspired by the upgrade from Samus Returns. I got it a little too late to really appreciate it, but it was still a lot of fun when I got the chance to use it. I should mention that having five Charge shots on screen at once will absolutely lag your game and cause screen flicker, especially if you have Plasma.
Now, for the bad. There are three principle complaints: the lack of respin, the way secrets are hidden, and a particular room in Maridia that I would change if I were making this hack. I may be ignorant for saying this, but I don't really understand why anyone would make a hack without including respin in this day and age considering how much it adds.
Many of the secrets are hidden relatively well, and I was able to find them on my own. However, there were several that I couldn't find on my own because they require you to walk through intangible walls that look exactly like the other walls around them. Between that and a lot of spots which look to my eye like they hold secrets but don't, this kinda made it hard to motivate myself to actually check out suspicious looking spots, so I missed a lot of other secrets. (For example, the large room after Grapple really looks to me like it should have an item under the lava, but it doesn't)
The last complaint is about a particular green gate in Maridia. The switch is on the left, meaning it's possible to skip through, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it blocks off what would be the most convenient way to get into the main areas of Maridia from Kraid's Lair. Because of it, you instead have to take a long and circuitous route through the Space Jump room and through a long passage that basically goes all the way to the other end of Maridia. Considering Wave Beam is *in* Maridia, there's really no reason in my mind why that gate couldn't have been blue, so that Maridia could open up a little once you get most of its major items.
Sorry the review is so long, haha. This is one of those hacks where I really can't help but think about all sorts of specific moments I appreciated or didn't appreciate, and every little thing I would change if I were designing this. Really, I could go on all day about it. Please play this hack so I have someone to infodump to.
Metroid: Desolation by jasinchen [
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 22, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 22, 2024 ( )
100% in 6:01
Played v1.1.3, which is (so far as I can tell) the final version and the version with the most content. I kinda hope it's not, though, and I'll explain later at the end of the review.
Desolation is absolutely one of the most impressive GBAtroid hacks out there; it almost feels like a GBA port of a modern Metroid game. The normal mode is accessible for beginners, and the true ending mode provides a decent challenge while not being too ridiculous (there are no required hell runs, for example). I also just found it extremely impressive how the true ending works; the only difference between it and the normal mode is that you start in a different room in the first area, and that alone dramatically changes the route.
The world is very open and connected, and the settings are very diverse and imaginative (Though two in particular, Karst and Tangle, don't quite fit the "desertification" theme imo). Pulling bosses from both ZM and Fusion allows for a ridiculous amount of them, and there are even a few custom bosses (I was especially fond of the return of the Ninja Pirates). Alternate routes and special techniques allow for a large number of sequence breaks, such as breaking into Bionicle early using Speed Booster or getting early PBs at the bottom of Rocava to skip Ridley.
The plot is very imaginative; without going too far into details, the Space Pirates have siphoned all of the water from the planet to construct a very large laboratory underneath the sand, where Samus can find a frozen Nightmare and several Metroids. Defeating all of the Metroids on the true route allows her to access the pump where water is being siphoned, returning water to the surface, and then after she goes back to the lab and beats up Nightmare the land is restored. (Also, you can save the animals. Don't know what from, but you can save them.) I have to admit, I think my major gripe with this hack is just that very little of the plot is properly conveyed to the player; it's not exactly clear what the Pirates are using the water for, why the pump uses the Metroids as locks, why shutting off the pump makes Nightmare thaw out, or why destroying Nightmare allows the plants to grow back.
Honestly, if it weren't for the slightly inconsistent theming and poorly explained plot, I probably would have considered this a masterpiece akin to Dread or Super, but I just don't feel comfortable saying it's quite as amazing as that. That said, it's not enough to take my rating down from five stars; this hack is still outstanding and frankly my gripes with the plot and theming probably just suggests that my standards are too high.
The reason why I hope 1.1.3 isn't the final version is because I discovered a softlock in the top-left of Karst, the water area, and Jasinchen is aware of it. In the sideways U-shaped room with the spark puzzle, don't try and ballspark backwards through the exit where the Missile is, or you'll get stuck. Since this could be fixed by just barely changing the layout of one room so that it's impossible to spark backwards through that tunnel, I'm pretty optimistic it'll get fixed, which also means I don't feel like I need to lower my rating. I'll post a more detailed description of the softlock in the Desolation forums so people can understand it a bit better and hopefully avoid it.
Desolation is absolutely one of the most impressive GBAtroid hacks out there; it almost feels like a GBA port of a modern Metroid game. The normal mode is accessible for beginners, and the true ending mode provides a decent challenge while not being too ridiculous (there are no required hell runs, for example). I also just found it extremely impressive how the true ending works; the only difference between it and the normal mode is that you start in a different room in the first area, and that alone dramatically changes the route.
The world is very open and connected, and the settings are very diverse and imaginative (Though two in particular, Karst and Tangle, don't quite fit the "desertification" theme imo). Pulling bosses from both ZM and Fusion allows for a ridiculous amount of them, and there are even a few custom bosses (I was especially fond of the return of the Ninja Pirates). Alternate routes and special techniques allow for a large number of sequence breaks, such as breaking into Bionicle early using Speed Booster or getting early PBs at the bottom of Rocava to skip Ridley.
The plot is very imaginative; without going too far into details, the Space Pirates have siphoned all of the water from the planet to construct a very large laboratory underneath the sand, where Samus can find a frozen Nightmare and several Metroids. Defeating all of the Metroids on the true route allows her to access the pump where water is being siphoned, returning water to the surface, and then after she goes back to the lab and beats up Nightmare the land is restored. (Also, you can save the animals. Don't know what from, but you can save them.) I have to admit, I think my major gripe with this hack is just that very little of the plot is properly conveyed to the player; it's not exactly clear what the Pirates are using the water for, why the pump uses the Metroids as locks, why shutting off the pump makes Nightmare thaw out, or why destroying Nightmare allows the plants to grow back.
Honestly, if it weren't for the slightly inconsistent theming and poorly explained plot, I probably would have considered this a masterpiece akin to Dread or Super, but I just don't feel comfortable saying it's quite as amazing as that. That said, it's not enough to take my rating down from five stars; this hack is still outstanding and frankly my gripes with the plot and theming probably just suggests that my standards are too high.
The reason why I hope 1.1.3 isn't the final version is because I discovered a softlock in the top-left of Karst, the water area, and Jasinchen is aware of it. In the sideways U-shaped room with the spark puzzle, don't try and ballspark backwards through the exit where the Missile is, or you'll get stuck. Since this could be fixed by just barely changing the layout of one room so that it's impossible to spark backwards through that tunnel, I'm pretty optimistic it'll get fixed, which also means I don't feel like I need to lower my rating. I'll post a more detailed description of the softlock in the Desolation forums so people can understand it a bit better and hopefully avoid it.
The completion time/percentage wasn't my first clear. I initially cleared it with about 65% and 1h30m on the clock, but then I realized I had hardly explored one of the optional areas, so I went back and cleared it out.
To be honest, this hack has been really hard for me to review. It has so much stuff in it that's a TON of fun (I love the giant maze room in Chozotrite that's full of the DK cannons for launching you around for puzzles, some were very creative) but there was also a lot that really confuses me. I went through the whole thing being very, very confused about why Ob said the only difficult part was the final boss when, in my mind, the whole thing is a veteran hack.
Now, I should clarify something: I am NOT good at finding secrets, or anything in a large environment really; I think it's an autism thing. For example, I can be asked to go pick something up off the shelf for a family member, and I take several minutes to find it even though it's just blatantly sitting out there in the open. I've gotten better at this with Metroid games because I've figured out what to look for in many cases, but in a hack like this with largely non-vanilla graphics and some really unusual visual cues, it really messed with me.
Now, that leads in to the main gripe I have with this hack: At no point does it ever really force you to poke around in a specific area to look for secrets. I know that this is something that previous Metroid games have gotten flack for in the past (I know Metroid Dread received a lot of criticism from diehard fans for it), but this feels like the opposite end of that extreme. At all points, basically the entire hack is open to you, which means there's an overwhelming amount of nooks and crannies to poke around in. This gave me trouble with two particular majors, one of which was required to beat the game.
Overall, it's hard for me to rate this hack less than 4 stars, just because I know it's a contest hack that probably had a bunch of stuff scrapped or rushed in the 2-month time period. I participated in that same contest and I know I didn't do everything I wanted to do. At the same time, though, I feel bad giving it a high score because it frustrated me so much, and if the discord is any indication it frustrated a lot of other people too.
I'm going to end this review off with a couple more positives: the hack's tiling is absolutely gorgeous, and the bomb launcher was a ton of fun to play around with; I can tell it was fun for Ob to make, because they made some excellent puzzles with it (There was one where you had to shoot into a giant chamber full of Rippers and bomb blocks to make a path for the Rippers to escape to open the way to an item). Enemies are placed well and never personally frustrated me (though they hit really hard, another reason I feel like the whole hack should be rated veteran). Eventually you do get regular bombs; since you already have bombs, I feel like this should have been swapped out for something a bit more cool and epic like Plasma or SJ, but that's just me. The QOL provided by vanilla Bombs is definitely nice.
Overall, this is a very complicated hack, and the feelings it inspires are too complex to really put into words. It's absolutely a 5/5 hack in terms of how much fun it is to talk about it (and yes, that is meant to be a complement), but I just don't feel comfortable giving it the full 5/5 stars because of what I've mentioned about the progression and obtuse secret locations.
I really hope Ob keeps working on more hacks. I can tell they've got some great stuff in their future.
To be honest, this hack has been really hard for me to review. It has so much stuff in it that's a TON of fun (I love the giant maze room in Chozotrite that's full of the DK cannons for launching you around for puzzles, some were very creative) but there was also a lot that really confuses me. I went through the whole thing being very, very confused about why Ob said the only difficult part was the final boss when, in my mind, the whole thing is a veteran hack.
Now, I should clarify something: I am NOT good at finding secrets, or anything in a large environment really; I think it's an autism thing. For example, I can be asked to go pick something up off the shelf for a family member, and I take several minutes to find it even though it's just blatantly sitting out there in the open. I've gotten better at this with Metroid games because I've figured out what to look for in many cases, but in a hack like this with largely non-vanilla graphics and some really unusual visual cues, it really messed with me.
Now, that leads in to the main gripe I have with this hack: At no point does it ever really force you to poke around in a specific area to look for secrets. I know that this is something that previous Metroid games have gotten flack for in the past (I know Metroid Dread received a lot of criticism from diehard fans for it), but this feels like the opposite end of that extreme. At all points, basically the entire hack is open to you, which means there's an overwhelming amount of nooks and crannies to poke around in. This gave me trouble with two particular majors, one of which was required to beat the game.
Overall, it's hard for me to rate this hack less than 4 stars, just because I know it's a contest hack that probably had a bunch of stuff scrapped or rushed in the 2-month time period. I participated in that same contest and I know I didn't do everything I wanted to do. At the same time, though, I feel bad giving it a high score because it frustrated me so much, and if the discord is any indication it frustrated a lot of other people too.
I'm going to end this review off with a couple more positives: the hack's tiling is absolutely gorgeous, and the bomb launcher was a ton of fun to play around with; I can tell it was fun for Ob to make, because they made some excellent puzzles with it (There was one where you had to shoot into a giant chamber full of Rippers and bomb blocks to make a path for the Rippers to escape to open the way to an item). Enemies are placed well and never personally frustrated me (though they hit really hard, another reason I feel like the whole hack should be rated veteran). Eventually you do get regular bombs; since you already have bombs, I feel like this should have been swapped out for something a bit more cool and epic like Plasma or SJ, but that's just me. The QOL provided by vanilla Bombs is definitely nice.
Overall, this is a very complicated hack, and the feelings it inspires are too complex to really put into words. It's absolutely a 5/5 hack in terms of how much fun it is to talk about it (and yes, that is meant to be a complement), but I just don't feel comfortable giving it the full 5/5 stars because of what I've mentioned about the progression and obtuse secret locations.
I really hope Ob keeps working on more hacks. I can tell they've got some great stuff in their future.
Samus Wants Robot by Croakomire [ Speedrun/Race],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 30, 2024 ( )
Speedrun/Race],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jun 30, 2024 ( )
3% in 4:09
I really, really tried to see this one through to the end. The completion stats aren't actually my time when I BEAT this hack, just when I gave up on it, and the item percentage is 3% because that's how many unique items I was able to find. I SAW more, but for some reason I just couldn't reach them.
For a bit of context, the original Robot Wants series (or at least Robot Wants Kitty, which is the one I used as a reference) are a series of flash-made kind of... mini-Metroidvanias, where you explore a large maze and collect abilities that let you explore more of the maze. You die in one hit, but when you die, you instantly respawn at a nearby checkpoint, kinda like Celeste or Super Meat Boy or one of those other hardcore platformer types. You'd think this would translate well to a Super Metroid hack, right?
Well... this game is HARD. Enemies take you off guard and lock you into corners, large parts of the game are required hell runs, the layout is confusing and you seem to randomly jump all the way across the map, and when you die you have to sit through the whole rigamarole of the original game's death sequence. In particular I found myself using savestates to get past the first hell run, because every time you fail you have to spend about a minute travelling back from the previous save. But being hard isn't a problem, right? Kaizo Metroid is hard... but it also gives ample Saves and never tries to waste your time with death traps, plus it has a modified death cutscene so you respawn instantly. (I should specify that I haven't actually played Kaizo, I am not good at video games and that is likely not going to change.)
I've gotten explicit confirmation from Croakomire on the design philosophy. The idea is to encourage quick thinking, where every time you dive back into the station you get a little further until you finally burst through. It's extremely ambitious, a worthy goal, and I just don't think it was done well here.
That said, I do have one MAJOR positive: the use of GOLDENVENGEANCE is absolutely based and +Vpilled. Omoripilled. Me when i show up to a "having good taste in music" contest and my opponent is this guy (I'm cooked). Idk lol im trying to come up with some sort of joke here have mercy
For a bit of context, the original Robot Wants series (or at least Robot Wants Kitty, which is the one I used as a reference) are a series of flash-made kind of... mini-Metroidvanias, where you explore a large maze and collect abilities that let you explore more of the maze. You die in one hit, but when you die, you instantly respawn at a nearby checkpoint, kinda like Celeste or Super Meat Boy or one of those other hardcore platformer types. You'd think this would translate well to a Super Metroid hack, right?
Well... this game is HARD. Enemies take you off guard and lock you into corners, large parts of the game are required hell runs, the layout is confusing and you seem to randomly jump all the way across the map, and when you die you have to sit through the whole rigamarole of the original game's death sequence. In particular I found myself using savestates to get past the first hell run, because every time you fail you have to spend about a minute travelling back from the previous save. But being hard isn't a problem, right? Kaizo Metroid is hard... but it also gives ample Saves and never tries to waste your time with death traps, plus it has a modified death cutscene so you respawn instantly. (I should specify that I haven't actually played Kaizo, I am not good at video games and that is likely not going to change.)
I've gotten explicit confirmation from Croakomire on the design philosophy. The idea is to encourage quick thinking, where every time you dive back into the station you get a little further until you finally burst through. It's extremely ambitious, a worthy goal, and I just don't think it was done well here.
That said, I do have one MAJOR positive: the use of GOLDENVENGEANCE is absolutely based and +Vpilled. Omoripilled. Me when i show up to a "having good taste in music" contest and my opponent is this guy (I'm cooked). Idk lol im trying to come up with some sort of joke here have mercy
Honestly... not as bad as I thought it would be going into it.
Achelous is just... really bland and inoffensive. The level design isn't particularly interesting, nothing really stands out about it. I like the visuals, but that's probably just because i've played so many YNFGs, and/or have bad taste. (I was especially fond of the fleshy areas, I think having a "flesh pit" type area is something that's a bit underutilized in Metroid games. It doesn't even have to be supernatural, you could make it a giant organism like Phaaze)
It's also really not as hard as the Veteran ranking seems to imply it is. Junkrares is right, enemies hit like a truck, but they're also the same basic stuff as in vanilla SM and you can almost always avoid them by just taking your time as you travel. I can't say I don't understand why people wouldn't want to sit around and wait for a good opportunity though.
Overall, I think my biggest complain is just that it's uninspired. There's nothing really good OR bad to really sink your teeth into, it's not much more than just a bisexually-lit maze. Because there's nothing outright bad I don't feel comfortable giving it only one star, but since it's such a nothingburger I don't feel comfortable giving it more than two. I think this can be good if the level design is refined and the setting is made more fun, but until then, sorry for the low rating.
Sidenote, I think the choice between not having Kraid and having Kraid erase the map data is actually a lot closer than it initially seems. I feel like another boss (maybe Draygon, since the hack has Grapple) would have worked well if you just replaced him entirely.
Achelous is just... really bland and inoffensive. The level design isn't particularly interesting, nothing really stands out about it. I like the visuals, but that's probably just because i've played so many YNFGs, and/or have bad taste. (I was especially fond of the fleshy areas, I think having a "flesh pit" type area is something that's a bit underutilized in Metroid games. It doesn't even have to be supernatural, you could make it a giant organism like Phaaze)
It's also really not as hard as the Veteran ranking seems to imply it is. Junkrares is right, enemies hit like a truck, but they're also the same basic stuff as in vanilla SM and you can almost always avoid them by just taking your time as you travel. I can't say I don't understand why people wouldn't want to sit around and wait for a good opportunity though.
Overall, I think my biggest complain is just that it's uninspired. There's nothing really good OR bad to really sink your teeth into, it's not much more than just a bisexually-lit maze. Because there's nothing outright bad I don't feel comfortable giving it only one star, but since it's such a nothingburger I don't feel comfortable giving it more than two. I think this can be good if the level design is refined and the setting is made more fun, but until then, sorry for the low rating.
Sidenote, I think the choice between not having Kraid and having Kraid erase the map data is actually a lot closer than it initially seems. I feel like another boss (maybe Draygon, since the hack has Grapple) would have worked well if you just replaced him entirely.
Super Metroid: Eleven by Metaquarius [ Quick Play],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 06, 2024 ( )
Quick Play],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 06, 2024 ( )
97% in 2:01
I'm in a very difficult position here. Eleven isn't exactly my kind of hack; the focus is largely on puzzle solving, where you see a fuel tank on the map and try and find your way there, seeing what items in your inventory you can use to grab it. Some of the puzzles have very clever solutions, I was particularly proud of one fuel tank I grabbed in a way that I'm not certain it's intended?
I think what personally doesn't appeal to me about this hack is the lack of a combat focus; the water (sorry, "fuel") heals you, at a rate of about 10 health per second, which means as long as you're in the water you're basically invincible. Combined with some other stuff later in the hack, this means it's basically impossible to die for the most part, even though there are still enemies to fight around every corner. Maybe I'm weird for liking combat in a Metroid game, sorry, not sorry.
By the way, if you're an hour or two in and you're thinking about quitting, don't give up. This hack absolutely entombs the lead like it's King Tut. If you're an hour or so in and thinking about giving up, just trust me and push through it.
Overall, Eleven puts me in a difficult situation where I have to rate a hack that does what it set out to do extremely well, but I just... wasn't a fan of what it set out to do. How am I supposed to rate that?? I ended up deciding that it's so experimental and unique while still maintaining a solid level of polish that I really can't fault it for anything, even if there are a billion things I would change if I were the author.
I think what personally doesn't appeal to me about this hack is the lack of a combat focus; the water (sorry, "fuel") heals you, at a rate of about 10 health per second, which means as long as you're in the water you're basically invincible. Combined with some other stuff later in the hack, this means it's basically impossible to die for the most part, even though there are still enemies to fight around every corner. Maybe I'm weird for liking combat in a Metroid game, sorry, not sorry.
By the way, if you're an hour or two in and you're thinking about quitting, don't give up. This hack absolutely entombs the lead like it's King Tut. If you're an hour or so in and thinking about giving up, just trust me and push through it.
Overall, Eleven puts me in a difficult situation where I have to rate a hack that does what it set out to do extremely well, but I just... wasn't a fan of what it set out to do. How am I supposed to rate that?? I ended up deciding that it's so experimental and unique while still maintaining a solid level of polish that I really can't fault it for anything, even if there are a billion things I would change if I were the author.
GRAVITY - Sylux's Crusade by Roebloz [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 06, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 06, 2024 ( )
75% in 1:44
Considering this hack was made in two months, it's honestly amazing how well-polished a hack of this size is. It feels like the kind of hack that should have taken four or five. That said, there is definitely some jank here between Sylux's animations and a lot of environmental stuff (For example, in the ending, the ship doesn't follow Sylux out of landing site). That said, most of it is all just visual, and the worst thing you get from the jank is having trouble telling exactly where Sylux's hitbox is.
The level design is indeed very open, allowing for some items to be collected shockingly early (including Plasma and Screw, for example). It never really feels like any path you could take is fruitless, there's always something for you to do. Environmental design is excellent, each area looks unique, and there are some excellent music choices.
If I had to give one major complaint, it's that the level design leaves something to be desired. Many rooms throw what feels like dozens of enemies in your face, and it can be really overwhelming to try and weave through them all, especially when some rooms have high numbers of particularly annoying enemies like Atomic or Puyo. I also had several frustrating moments where I found myself basically unable to escape a pit because of the liquid physics meaning the exit is too high to jump out of. (For example, the upper path to Yakuza in Dark has a pit of acid that can be very difficult to escape without Gravity (the suit), and there's also an underwater spike pit in Water which has a similar problem). There's one more thing I found frustrating, which was the decompression areas in Gravity (the area); I wasn't too upset with rooms that lock you in until you kill all the Metroids, and neither was I upset with rooms where you have to platform to avoid instant death. I am, however, upset about both of these things at once with no telegraphs. I just think if you're going to say "DO NOT FALL DOWN HERE," you should let the player go back to prepare a little bit more if they want to.
Sorry for the long string of complaints. This hack has a lot of promise, but it also has a lot of things that can absolutely be made better.
The level design is indeed very open, allowing for some items to be collected shockingly early (including Plasma and Screw, for example). It never really feels like any path you could take is fruitless, there's always something for you to do. Environmental design is excellent, each area looks unique, and there are some excellent music choices.
If I had to give one major complaint, it's that the level design leaves something to be desired. Many rooms throw what feels like dozens of enemies in your face, and it can be really overwhelming to try and weave through them all, especially when some rooms have high numbers of particularly annoying enemies like Atomic or Puyo. I also had several frustrating moments where I found myself basically unable to escape a pit because of the liquid physics meaning the exit is too high to jump out of. (For example, the upper path to Yakuza in Dark has a pit of acid that can be very difficult to escape without Gravity (the suit), and there's also an underwater spike pit in Water which has a similar problem). There's one more thing I found frustrating, which was the decompression areas in Gravity (the area); I wasn't too upset with rooms that lock you in until you kill all the Metroids, and neither was I upset with rooms where you have to platform to avoid instant death. I am, however, upset about both of these things at once with no telegraphs. I just think if you're going to say "DO NOT FALL DOWN HERE," you should let the player go back to prepare a little bit more if they want to.
Sorry for the long string of complaints. This hack has a lot of promise, but it also has a lot of things that can absolutely be made better.
T O U R O F I T A L Y by RT-55J [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 07, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 07, 2024 ( )
82% in 1:21
Time is an estimate, I got 1:17 right before the escape and escape is 4 minutes so I just added them up.
The fact that this hack is as good as it is is a sin. Every area is unique, the custom items are excellent, but most importantly it just somehow manages to capture that fun factor that all the best hacks have. It's a magical little thing that I don't know how to describe? This hack also has some really neat nonlinearity where you can go to the three main areas in any order, but items from one area are required for full progression in the others.
There are a couple of really fun custom items here. As Jace described, the Swirl Clamber is excellent, but I also wanted to give a shoutout to Tricolor Suit for having spike immunity, and for resembling the excellent Samus Returns color scheme for the Fusion suit. I do agree that the Swirl Clamber could benefit from respin, and I did have some frustrating moments before I realized it wasn't strong enough to overcome the force of gravity once Samus reaches terminal velocity. I thought it had stopped working, lmao.
If there's anything else I would change, it would be making the environments more different from eachother. Each one is still distinct enough, but the tilesets are similar enough that it does get a little boring. For example, perhaps you could lean more into the grass/water/fire elements of each area, or perhaps even give each area the respective plants (pistachio trees, vanilla orchids, and cherry trees) their flavors of ice cream are derived from. But that's just me wondering how you could improve an already nearly perfect hack, so what do I know?
The fact that this hack is as good as it is is a sin. Every area is unique, the custom items are excellent, but most importantly it just somehow manages to capture that fun factor that all the best hacks have. It's a magical little thing that I don't know how to describe? This hack also has some really neat nonlinearity where you can go to the three main areas in any order, but items from one area are required for full progression in the others.
There are a couple of really fun custom items here. As Jace described, the Swirl Clamber is excellent, but I also wanted to give a shoutout to Tricolor Suit for having spike immunity, and for resembling the excellent Samus Returns color scheme for the Fusion suit. I do agree that the Swirl Clamber could benefit from respin, and I did have some frustrating moments before I realized it wasn't strong enough to overcome the force of gravity once Samus reaches terminal velocity. I thought it had stopped working, lmao.
If there's anything else I would change, it would be making the environments more different from eachother. Each one is still distinct enough, but the tilesets are similar enough that it does get a little boring. For example, perhaps you could lean more into the grass/water/fire elements of each area, or perhaps even give each area the respective plants (pistachio trees, vanilla orchids, and cherry trees) their flavors of ice cream are derived from. But that's just me wondering how you could improve an already nearly perfect hack, so what do I know?
Project ZM by FelixWright [ Improvement],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 10, 2024 ( )
Improvement],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 10, 2024 ( )
100% in 2:40
Played version 0.8.3.
This hack gets 5/5 stars for the sheer fact of adding a shortcut between upper Chozodia and the Mothership bridge. In the vanilla game, the absurd backtrack after getting PBs for cleanup is a travesty of level design. In addition it adds a ton of stuff that just makes the game more fun to play, like speedkeep.
I dunno, I don't really have much to say here. It's not too much different from the vanilla game, but it fixes so much stuff wrong with vanilla that I can't really dock points for anything.
This hack gets 5/5 stars for the sheer fact of adding a shortcut between upper Chozodia and the Mothership bridge. In the vanilla game, the absurd backtrack after getting PBs for cleanup is a travesty of level design. In addition it adds a ton of stuff that just makes the game more fun to play, like speedkeep.
I dunno, I don't really have much to say here. It's not too much different from the vanilla game, but it fixes so much stuff wrong with vanilla that I can't really dock points for anything.
Metroid: New Zero Mission by jasinchen [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 14, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 14, 2024 ( )
100% in 7:09
I have some complicated feelings about this one. Comparing it to Desolation definitely feels like a stretch; I'd liken it to Lost Chozo in terms of quality, just more vanilla. I do personally really like Lost Chozo (I plan on replaying it for a review eventually) but not for a while now.
I suppose I'll start with the good. The hack is very large, but nearly every room feels like it serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things, even if that purpose is just to be a short little platforming challenge for an odd route you need to take to escape a trap. A strong example of this is some rooms in Tourian, which you cross through after killing Kraid to escape his lair with Speed Booster in hand. The hack is extremely well connected too; there are shortcuts all over the place, some of which I didn't find until way after they would be most helpful, and the hack also takes some of the best aspects of Super Zero Mission and refines them (such as the underwater Chozodia for Gravity, the Norfair-Chozodia elevator, the extra undestroyed areas of Tourian containing items, even the good use of Speed Booster)
However, for as much as there is good, there are several pretty egregious flaws that make large parts of the game pretty difficult. Several areas including Norfair and Ridley's Lair have one-ways that require a long path around, such as shinesparks that take you all the way up to the highest levels of Norfair, from which there isn't any easy way down except by going back through the tall vertical shaft to the east. One example of this includes the long tunnel leading through the entrance to Ridley, which normally gates Screw Attack in the vanilla game. In the hack, though, it's just a fairly pointless shortcut back to the top of Norfair, especially since you can't actually go back directly to Norfair from Ridley anyway because of *another* one-way in the form of a tower with crumble blocks on the bottom.
Speaking of Ridley's Lair, I thought it might be worthwhile to bring up Space Jump, since that's the item a lot of people struggle to find according to other reviews, and it's in Ridley's Lair behind Speed Booster blocks. It's technically hinted (the exit from the area where you get SJ is obvious, but not the entrance), but because there's another room that I thought could theoretically lead out to that exit, I didn't explore any further and just skipped Space Jump, coming back for it in cleanup. At first I was confused why Jasinchen didn't make it so you can't get out of Ridley's Lair without SJ, but looking back I think they actually intended SJ to be required. There's an awkward shinespark to get up to Ridley, a shortcut back that's basically impossible without Space Jump, and a large empty room that you need to climb to get out that would be easy with Space Jump. That said, if you're good enough to skip SJ, the shinespark to Power Bombs isn't really that hard, and shinesparks are needed to beat the game under normal progression anyway (one is required to get to Varia, for example).
If there was one thing that particularly frustrated me, it was actually that I missed a *different* major item (Wave Beam), which thankfully isn't required either. It's hidden in Chozodia (the real Chozodia, not the area labeled Chozodia even though it's literally just the Mothership), behind a breakable wall. Unlike the path to Space Jump, which does have a visual inconsistency, the wall in front of Wave Beam looks exactly the same as a solid unbreakable wall; without hints, I genuinely don't understand how most people would find it on their own; it was my last major, and I had to look at the maps on MAGE to find it (that was how I found SJ too, but I felt pretty stupid when I realized how blatantly I had ignored the hint for it). I think I would have personally moved Wave Beam to the end of the long tunnel under Norfair, so that it's not just a pointless shortcut and is actually reasonable for a normal person to collect.
Overall, it's... Pretty shaky and inconsistent, with some major highs and pretty deep lows. I definitely think it would improve with the QOL features from Project ZM, along with some of the progression being tidied up. I overall recommend it, even if only to see how far jasin has come since Desolation.
Sorry for this incredibly rambly unedited review which probably has several typos. I'm extremely glad Jasinchen kept going and refined their craft, because Desolation so absolutely excellent and a must-play.
I suppose I'll start with the good. The hack is very large, but nearly every room feels like it serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things, even if that purpose is just to be a short little platforming challenge for an odd route you need to take to escape a trap. A strong example of this is some rooms in Tourian, which you cross through after killing Kraid to escape his lair with Speed Booster in hand. The hack is extremely well connected too; there are shortcuts all over the place, some of which I didn't find until way after they would be most helpful, and the hack also takes some of the best aspects of Super Zero Mission and refines them (such as the underwater Chozodia for Gravity, the Norfair-Chozodia elevator, the extra undestroyed areas of Tourian containing items, even the good use of Speed Booster)
However, for as much as there is good, there are several pretty egregious flaws that make large parts of the game pretty difficult. Several areas including Norfair and Ridley's Lair have one-ways that require a long path around, such as shinesparks that take you all the way up to the highest levels of Norfair, from which there isn't any easy way down except by going back through the tall vertical shaft to the east. One example of this includes the long tunnel leading through the entrance to Ridley, which normally gates Screw Attack in the vanilla game. In the hack, though, it's just a fairly pointless shortcut back to the top of Norfair, especially since you can't actually go back directly to Norfair from Ridley anyway because of *another* one-way in the form of a tower with crumble blocks on the bottom.
Speaking of Ridley's Lair, I thought it might be worthwhile to bring up Space Jump, since that's the item a lot of people struggle to find according to other reviews, and it's in Ridley's Lair behind Speed Booster blocks. It's technically hinted (the exit from the area where you get SJ is obvious, but not the entrance), but because there's another room that I thought could theoretically lead out to that exit, I didn't explore any further and just skipped Space Jump, coming back for it in cleanup. At first I was confused why Jasinchen didn't make it so you can't get out of Ridley's Lair without SJ, but looking back I think they actually intended SJ to be required. There's an awkward shinespark to get up to Ridley, a shortcut back that's basically impossible without Space Jump, and a large empty room that you need to climb to get out that would be easy with Space Jump. That said, if you're good enough to skip SJ, the shinespark to Power Bombs isn't really that hard, and shinesparks are needed to beat the game under normal progression anyway (one is required to get to Varia, for example).
If there was one thing that particularly frustrated me, it was actually that I missed a *different* major item (Wave Beam), which thankfully isn't required either. It's hidden in Chozodia (the real Chozodia, not the area labeled Chozodia even though it's literally just the Mothership), behind a breakable wall. Unlike the path to Space Jump, which does have a visual inconsistency, the wall in front of Wave Beam looks exactly the same as a solid unbreakable wall; without hints, I genuinely don't understand how most people would find it on their own; it was my last major, and I had to look at the maps on MAGE to find it (that was how I found SJ too, but I felt pretty stupid when I realized how blatantly I had ignored the hint for it). I think I would have personally moved Wave Beam to the end of the long tunnel under Norfair, so that it's not just a pointless shortcut and is actually reasonable for a normal person to collect.
Overall, it's... Pretty shaky and inconsistent, with some major highs and pretty deep lows. I definitely think it would improve with the QOL features from Project ZM, along with some of the progression being tidied up. I overall recommend it, even if only to see how far jasin has come since Desolation.
Sorry for this incredibly rambly unedited review which probably has several typos. I'm extremely glad Jasinchen kept going and refined their craft, because Desolation so absolutely excellent and a must-play.
Super Metroid - Revamp by The Brothers Crafters [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 17, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 17, 2024 ( )
101% in 3:22
This review is going to be perhaps uncharacteristically harsh, but... look. I really enjoyed this hack. There's so much fun stuff about it, I loved seeing all of the new routes and easter eggs, I thought it was really cool and clever how content from Super was reinterpreted as content from Zero Mission. But all that love isn't enough to mask my true feelings about this hack.
If you check the forum thread, you can see Pethronos report a softlock with the glass tube that connects Maridia to Kraid's lair. I have to be honest and admit, I have no idea how you actually perform this softlock. But frankly I don't really care, and I found two other softlocks anyway: one if you speed boost through the boost wall near the entrance to Green Brinstar before getting Supers; and one if you enter Maridia without gravity, go down the elevator to the lowest floor, and jump in the sand. Both of these softlocks are easily fixable: The first by adding a bomb tunnel back towards the other side of the speed wall, and the second by adding a morph tunnel present in vanilla SM that allows you to bomb jump back up to the vertical tube.
Now here comes the problem. Again, in the forum thread, TBC responds to Pethronos' softlock report by saying that the softlock is a consequence of a speedrun strat, and is thus intentional. I don't know what this strat is, but I don't think it would change my judgement. Look, I don't think it's a good idea to allow people to get stuck and lose progress for the sake of speedrunning; the majority of players aren't going to speedrun, and there are ways to make it possible to do this anyway. For example, if you wanted to try and get through the Maridia tube without PBs, maybe you could make it possible to go backwards through the one-way passage connecting Main Street to Alpha PBs with a fancy trick or something? I dunno.
So, that explains my final judgement of the hack. I don't feel comfortable giving it one star, because it's ultimately a good hack, but I feel like I need to be harsh to make people understand that this otherwise good hack has some problems that are easily avoidable, I don't see any reason to leave them in. Ultimately I'm hoping to convince TBC to go back and fix the softlocks- once they do, I'll feel comfortable bumping this back up to a 5 star rating. But until then, do not try and subvert the Maridia tube, do not go in the sand without Varia, and get Supers as fast as you can once you get Speed Booster. There may be other softlocks, but those are the ones I found.
EDIT: So, yeah, this was a little harsh, lmao. Sorry about that. Ultimately, I do recommend this hack; it's not like the softlocks are easy to get stuck in (I'm pretty sure I had to do some UWJs to get into Maridia quicksand before Gravity, for example) and I also felt really bad saying the softlocks were "unacceptable" because that implies that TBC did a morally bad thing? Like it's just a hack dude. Bumped it back up to three stars just in case this is the final version because TBC just don't want to work on it anymore, which is understandable.
If you check the forum thread, you can see Pethronos report a softlock with the glass tube that connects Maridia to Kraid's lair. I have to be honest and admit, I have no idea how you actually perform this softlock. But frankly I don't really care, and I found two other softlocks anyway: one if you speed boost through the boost wall near the entrance to Green Brinstar before getting Supers; and one if you enter Maridia without gravity, go down the elevator to the lowest floor, and jump in the sand. Both of these softlocks are easily fixable: The first by adding a bomb tunnel back towards the other side of the speed wall, and the second by adding a morph tunnel present in vanilla SM that allows you to bomb jump back up to the vertical tube.
Now here comes the problem. Again, in the forum thread, TBC responds to Pethronos' softlock report by saying that the softlock is a consequence of a speedrun strat, and is thus intentional. I don't know what this strat is, but I don't think it would change my judgement. Look, I don't think it's a good idea to allow people to get stuck and lose progress for the sake of speedrunning; the majority of players aren't going to speedrun, and there are ways to make it possible to do this anyway. For example, if you wanted to try and get through the Maridia tube without PBs, maybe you could make it possible to go backwards through the one-way passage connecting Main Street to Alpha PBs with a fancy trick or something? I dunno.
So, that explains my final judgement of the hack. I don't feel comfortable giving it one star, because it's ultimately a good hack, but I feel like I need to be harsh to make people understand that this otherwise good hack has some problems that are easily avoidable, I don't see any reason to leave them in. Ultimately I'm hoping to convince TBC to go back and fix the softlocks- once they do, I'll feel comfortable bumping this back up to a 5 star rating. But until then, do not try and subvert the Maridia tube, do not go in the sand without Varia, and get Supers as fast as you can once you get Speed Booster. There may be other softlocks, but those are the ones I found.
EDIT: So, yeah, this was a little harsh, lmao. Sorry about that. Ultimately, I do recommend this hack; it's not like the softlocks are easy to get stuck in (I'm pretty sure I had to do some UWJs to get into Maridia quicksand before Gravity, for example) and I also felt really bad saying the softlocks were "unacceptable" because that implies that TBC did a morally bad thing? Like it's just a hack dude. Bumped it back up to three stars just in case this is the final version because TBC just don't want to work on it anymore, which is understandable.
Super Metroid: Z-Factor by Metaquarius [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 17, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 17, 2024 ( )
100% in 9:50
I'm honestly amazed that a hack got *this* close to making me pass the 10 hour mark. This hack is huge and really hard; it has unique progression and all kinds of unique challenges in every area, and you really do have to use your grey matter to find the correct path forward.
I don't have a lot to say about this hack that hasn't been said already. I have to be honest, it's actually been a while since I played this one, mostly because I struggled for a long time with the escape (It's extremely tight, when I finally beat the game I think I was less than 0.1 seconds away from detonation). It's particular well known for its iterations of Maridia and Tourian, the former of which is itself something of a large puzzle to navigate, while the latter has a novel blackout section and excellent atmosphere.
I will say, this hack does lack some things I prefer to see in ROM hack: it doesn't have easy Space Jump or respin, and it's impossible to return from the last save point in Tourian just like in vanilla (Even though there's a nearby locked door that could have easily served as a shortcut back). It does also have some wacky difficulty balancing (the black space pirates in Tourian were strangely way more dangerous than the Metroids that killed them).
Overall, if you want a hack that'll challenge you in terms of combat, platforming, and navigation, Z-Factor is an excellent choice.
I don't have a lot to say about this hack that hasn't been said already. I have to be honest, it's actually been a while since I played this one, mostly because I struggled for a long time with the escape (It's extremely tight, when I finally beat the game I think I was less than 0.1 seconds away from detonation). It's particular well known for its iterations of Maridia and Tourian, the former of which is itself something of a large puzzle to navigate, while the latter has a novel blackout section and excellent atmosphere.
I will say, this hack does lack some things I prefer to see in ROM hack: it doesn't have easy Space Jump or respin, and it's impossible to return from the last save point in Tourian just like in vanilla (Even though there's a nearby locked door that could have easily served as a shortcut back). It does also have some wacky difficulty balancing (the black space pirates in Tourian were strangely way more dangerous than the Metroids that killed them).
Overall, if you want a hack that'll challenge you in terms of combat, platforming, and navigation, Z-Factor is an excellent choice.
Super Junkoid by P. Yoshi [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 21, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Jul 21, 2024 ( )
100% in 3:21
Not much I really need to say about this one. Other people have already explained what's so good about it. I do agree that the final area could have been better (I personally didn't really understand what the plot was about). I was also disappointed by the lack of Screw Attack (Or I guess Death's Scythe). That said, none of these are things that really make the hack not worth playing.
I have to admit, I wasn't super bothered by the moments where it was obvious you're playing Super Metroid. It's literally called "Super Junkoid", so it gave the impression that P.Yoshi wasn't actually trying too hard to make a fully new SNES game, instead leaning into the source material, which I can appreciate.
Also, credit where credit is due for being one of the few hacks where I was actually able to get 100% without a map. This is mostly just because items are labeled on the map even if you haven't visited their map tiles but like, still.
I have to admit, I wasn't super bothered by the moments where it was obvious you're playing Super Metroid. It's literally called "Super Junkoid", so it gave the impression that P.Yoshi wasn't actually trying too hard to make a fully new SNES game, instead leaning into the source material, which I can appreciate.
Also, credit where credit is due for being one of the few hacks where I was actually able to get 100% without a map. This is mostly just because items are labeled on the map even if you haven't visited their map tiles but like, still.
Spooky Mission 2: The Nightmare Before Christmas by Spooky Team [ Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Aug 17, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by starlightintheriver on Aug 17, 2024 ( )
100% in 4:42
this hack so scary i shid my pant
An excellent and absolutely ginormous hack with a huge variety in locations and level design. It does a great job at mixing the silly with the serious to make a hack very worth your time. Secrets are telegraphed very well, and hunting for them feels natural enough that I only needed a map to find about five or so of the 98 total items.
In particular, I found that the Pumpkin area was my favorite, for the way it switches up the tilesets and enemy variety while giving the player plenty of paths to take. I also want to shout out Glacier for the interesting ways you navigate through it. While the hack is a lot more Metroid-y in the earlier parts of the game, in the later half you start finding areas that act more like traditional levels, relatively linear areas with a boss and a goal at the end. If I had to state any negatives, it would simply be that the boneyard is perhaps a bit too big.
There's not much more I can really say on this one. If you like ZM hacks, play this.
An excellent and absolutely ginormous hack with a huge variety in locations and level design. It does a great job at mixing the silly with the serious to make a hack very worth your time. Secrets are telegraphed very well, and hunting for them feels natural enough that I only needed a map to find about five or so of the 98 total items.
In particular, I found that the Pumpkin area was my favorite, for the way it switches up the tilesets and enemy variety while giving the player plenty of paths to take. I also want to shout out Glacier for the interesting ways you navigate through it. While the hack is a lot more Metroid-y in the earlier parts of the game, in the later half you start finding areas that act more like traditional levels, relatively linear areas with a boss and a goal at the end. If I had to state any negatives, it would simply be that the boneyard is perhaps a bit too big.
There's not much more I can really say on this one. If you like ZM hacks, play this.
