In short, this hack is fantastic. Oozing in its own style, redesigning the powerups you get in interesting ways that differ it from Super Metroid's arsenal. The bosses are pretty much reskins of the originals but I don't mind, it lets me enjoy the new visuals while already having an understanding of how to beat them.
Definitely will be replaying this one in the future.
Digital Cube by Cloud12 [ Challenge],
rated by Altzan on May 05, 2024 ()
A hack that isn't perfect but is pretty impressive for what it is. The style and visuals of it were what I appreciated the most, as well as the map itself (both physically and on the pause screen). Interesting to explore.
As others have stated, this hack has no save stations and can insta-kill you. So unless you're masochistic, I highly recommend using save states frequently, especially when entering new rooms, as otherwise all you're doing is punishing your deaths with increasing amounts of repetition.
It's more of a short (if not brutal) puzzle hack of sorts.
My two final critiques I'll mention are spoilers for the last part of the hack, so don't read on if you're still deciding whether or not to play it.
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[1]The infinite room was annoying to deal with. I don't think the clue helps much other than SM veterans who understand how door transitions work, because otherwise the possibility the hint tries to convey will never occur to the average person. At least, that's how I feel about it. I didn't mind the other tricky or strange parts of exploring the map, but that one left me annoyed.
[2]And the final boss is pretty tough with an irregular arena (the half-floor) and no ability to harm him with charged beams as you'd expect to be able to. I was able to slog through it by farming his bombing attack for super missile drops, but it felt less "challenging" and more "repetitive".
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So yeah - there's stuff I don't really like, but stuff I do, and I can't help but admit it's very unique. Will I ever replay it? Probably not. Am I glad to have given it a try? Yeah, I am.
And am I glad save states exist? You bet.
Hyper Metroid by RealRed [ Exploration],
rated by Altzan on Jun 24, 2021 ()
Exploration and decoration were top notch. Exploring the planet and finding where to go next was very enjoyable, and finding secrets even more so.
Getting the next key item to proceed was mostly painless, though a couple were tricky and almost got me to look them up instead of finding them myself (the first super missile, the first power bomb, and gravity suit).
The finale and escape were jaw-dropping. I had no idea an escape sequence could be that elaborate and dramatic. Did run out of time the first try and had to give it a second go, but I really liked it. Felt exciting and frantic. Managed to find the animals too.
I'm going to knock it down one notch due to annoyances with the map, mainly. I know that Super Metroid doesn't inherently mark items as acquired on the map, so I won't blame the hack for that. But it was frustrating when I could come across items where I can't collect it yet, but I enter the cell it's in, so the tile on the map becomes pink to designate I'd been there. I couldn't leave it blue to ensure I remembered to return and collect it. This meant having to take a lot of screenshots and notes. A similar issue arose with doors from time to time - most doorways were shown on the map which was excellent, but more than a few were not shown at all, and I'm not talking about secret entrances or hidden doors, just regular out in the open doors that were marked on the map as a wall for some bizarre reason. It made keeping track of where I've been and where I still needed to go a bit of a headache later on whenever I collected a new key item and needed to decide where to check next. Probably could have knocked off one or two of my playtime hours if that hadn't been a problem.
Nevertheless, it was a fantastic and very fun hack, one I'd recommend to any Super Metroid enthusiast. The skill needed to win is somewhat higher than vanilla SM, but not much, and the improvements to the game that were brought along by Project Base really help you feel powerful and capable as you grow your arsenal throughout the game. Well worth your time. Just keep a notepad handy, if your memory's as bad as mine.
Exploration],
rated by Altzan on Feb 21, 2024 (
