“It's like I've gone and died to Heaven. Also, metroids.”
ClaireDiviner's Ratings and Reviews
This hack was pretty badass, although it barely eked out a 5/5. The tile sets are all fresh and unique, and the color palettes were mostly good. There were some places that felt a little too dark, however, like Maridia (Deep Ice), for example, but overall, it wasn't hard to navigate... for me, and there lies a potential issue. So the hack is VERY open-ended, so with some exceptions, you can explore just about anywhere. I got lucky with the route I chose to take, and got rewarded with items that ultimately helped with further exploration/progression. It is possible for the player to explore an area that would make life harder/more tedious in terms of movement/exploration, and that's the issue I have with such open-ended hacks, as having a little linearity and guidance to the player on how to gain progression items does go a ways to prevent unnecessary confusion and slog.
That said, I'm basing this review/rating off of my own experience, and what was available at the time in 2010, and it was very much positive. To my knowledge, there are no items on the map you won't know about, as every item I've found had a dot on the map to show that it's there, so by the time you're done with the hack, you should have a healthy amount of ammo and E-Tanks. I wasn't lost or stuck for extended periods wondering where I needed to go either, as paths are generally not super-hidden or anything, and even then, you can get X-Ray Scope very early, which helps immensely in the exploration aspect. Without X-Ray, I'm sure I would've had more of a miserable time, so props for allowing the player quick access to X-Ray.
The final boss and escape sequence was also unexpected. I won't give a spoiler here, but I will say it was certainly unique for the time, and it wasn't a hard slog either, neither did it overstay its welcome. Just a shame that animals cannot be saved. If I had to give any complaints, it's the nerfing of beams. Plasma Beam, in particular, was heavily nerfed, to the point where you wouldn't want to use it, and a surprising number of enemies were immune to the Wave Beam, so the best beam combo is Ice and Spazer for max damage potential. Also, more of a personal problem, but I never found Screw Attack, which kinda sucks, because it would've come in handy in a few areas, but you really don't need it.
Overall, this hack kicked ass, and I'm glad I can mark this down as another major full hack I got to play.
That said, I'm basing this review/rating off of my own experience, and what was available at the time in 2010, and it was very much positive. To my knowledge, there are no items on the map you won't know about, as every item I've found had a dot on the map to show that it's there, so by the time you're done with the hack, you should have a healthy amount of ammo and E-Tanks. I wasn't lost or stuck for extended periods wondering where I needed to go either, as paths are generally not super-hidden or anything, and even then, you can get X-Ray Scope very early, which helps immensely in the exploration aspect. Without X-Ray, I'm sure I would've had more of a miserable time, so props for allowing the player quick access to X-Ray.
The final boss and escape sequence was also unexpected. I won't give a spoiler here, but I will say it was certainly unique for the time, and it wasn't a hard slog either, neither did it overstay its welcome. Just a shame that animals cannot be saved. If I had to give any complaints, it's the nerfing of beams. Plasma Beam, in particular, was heavily nerfed, to the point where you wouldn't want to use it, and a surprising number of enemies were immune to the Wave Beam, so the best beam combo is Ice and Spazer for max damage potential. Also, more of a personal problem, but I never found Screw Attack, which kinda sucks, because it would've come in handy in a few areas, but you really don't need it.
Overall, this hack kicked ass, and I'm glad I can mark this down as another major full hack I got to play.
Would've given this a 4/5... BUT THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS HATS ON THE TINY METROIDS, THOUGH! And the Christmas boots on the hoppers, and Christmas tree Cacatacs, and the candy mint worms! The overall aesthetics were great too. Looked Sonic-like.
The fact that it's the first hack I know that has custom music is impressive on its own. The custom visuals and Christmas aesthetic was also nice, and the theme of the hack is very on point for what it wants to do. A quick, short hack, but was still amusing.
Let me say what I didn't like about the hack first: The biggest issue I have is the way Super Missile blocks look. I didn't know what I was looking at, but they didn't look like Super blocks. I only found out that Supers destroy them purely by accident. The other issue is the path to many of the items feeling obtuse, and I couldn't find X-Ray Scope (not even sure if it's in the hack, honestly) to help me find the path to one Missile in particular, forcing me to have to cheese to get it.
That out of the way, everything else was pretty damn good. The routing was fine, subtle-as-fuck Super Missile blocks notwithstanding, and the palettes were good too, if a bit dark and dank. More than anything, though, is the gameplay and physics change; many may recognize them from being from Project Base. This hack feels like a prototype, or rather, a proof of concept that would later be seen in Project Base, as well as other hacks after that, like Hyper Metroid, etc., and given begrimed was one of the people behind Project Base, it really shows. Just the gameplay changes alone would help pave the way for some future hacks, and in my opinion, certainly for the better. It's these changes to the gameplay, and making it feel so nice to play that earns this a 5/5.
That out of the way, everything else was pretty damn good. The routing was fine, subtle-as-fuck Super Missile blocks notwithstanding, and the palettes were good too, if a bit dark and dank. More than anything, though, is the gameplay and physics change; many may recognize them from being from Project Base. This hack feels like a prototype, or rather, a proof of concept that would later be seen in Project Base, as well as other hacks after that, like Hyper Metroid, etc., and given begrimed was one of the people behind Project Base, it really shows. Just the gameplay changes alone would help pave the way for some future hacks, and in my opinion, certainly for the better. It's these changes to the gameplay, and making it feel so nice to play that earns this a 5/5.
Another major hack that isn't a half-hack. This one appears to be well put together, and with no hidden Grapple shenanigans. There are a few moments where they hide the path forward behind fake walls, which is annoying, but the progression feels like a little higher than vanilla difficulty, which is fine by me. If I had one critique, I'd say it should've made the path to some major items a little more apparent, like Speed Booster, Wave Beam, or the way to Wrecked Ship. Also, the map breaking when loading a save also sucks, but it's the curse of old hacks. Overall, compared to some of the other old hacks, this one is by far one of the most robust. I thought about a 4/5, but I'm giving it a 5/5, and it's probably more than I should give.
Junkoid by P. Yoshi, Mindflower [
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Sep 10, 2023 (
)
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png)
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Sep 10, 2023 ( )
% in 1:36
Just like its successor, this hack has tons of visual creativity, including changing a couple of aspects upon entering a specific area. The difficulty is fair, and so too is the difficulty progression. There's a small secret in the game that can also be found, if you know how to go about reaching it (I won't say here, for spoiler reasons).
All in all, this is a solid hack that I highly recommend any NEStroid fan. You can tell this was but a taste of what would later become its sequel, Super Junkoid.
All in all, this is a solid hack that I highly recommend any NEStroid fan. You can tell this was but a taste of what would later become its sequel, Super Junkoid.
Easily the most creative hack I've played. Given other hacks that exist, this is saying an awful lot. From all the custom sprite work and assets, to the overall world, and power-ups/progression, this game hits all notes just about as perfectly as one could hope a Metroidvania, rom hack or not, would.
If there's only one nitpick I have, it's one particular attack that isn't very well telegraphed, making it very difficult to avoid, which also makes possible any% runs harder than anything (won't elaborate, because I dare not spoil a single thing). Outside of that, I thoroughly enjoyed this hack, and had the most fun with this since Subversion, and V I T A L I T Y before that, and Escape II before that.
I couldn't recommend this anymore than I already am. If macabre and dark/gory visuals isn't your thing, this MAY not be your cup of tea, however. Easily a 5/5, I'd give it a 6, if I could. Great job on this hack. The work poured into this really shows.
If there's only one nitpick I have, it's one particular attack that isn't very well telegraphed, making it very difficult to avoid, which also makes possible any% runs harder than anything (won't elaborate, because I dare not spoil a single thing). Outside of that, I thoroughly enjoyed this hack, and had the most fun with this since Subversion, and V I T A L I T Y before that, and Escape II before that.
I couldn't recommend this anymore than I already am. If macabre and dark/gory visuals isn't your thing, this MAY not be your cup of tea, however. Easily a 5/5, I'd give it a 6, if I could. Great job on this hack. The work poured into this really shows.
Some of the things here is just okay. Overall, it felt kinda bland, and the progression was also just as boring. The visuals were a little too dark and dank, even with the Halloween theme. So why do I give this a 4/5? Well, I won't say; play through to the end to find that out.
Sigma++ by Silver_Skree [
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( 
)
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This is pretty much a remake of Sigma Boss Rush, which was a hack I already liked well enough. This one is just better, and more polished, with better visuals, better gameplay, especially with Charge Beam healing whilst charging, and Speed Booster triggering MUCH sooner. The bosses were buffed, but don't remember if they were buffed from Sigma Boss Rush, or the same as its predecessor. My only complaints are that A, it's unfinished (and will likely never be), and B, for some reason Bombs harm Samus; not sure why Silver_Skree thought that was a good idea.
The hack ends after Crocomire.
The hack ends after Crocomire.
Event Horizon Demo by DSO [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
A great hack demo, with god-tier custom visuals. Nothing too fancy gameplay-wise, save for a high-gravity section. Other than that, it's a shame this will likely never see a finished state.
The only complaint I have with this hack is that it's too short. It's a proof of concept more than anything, so I guess the fact it's really short shouldn't be surprising. That said, I really love the concept. I just wish there were hacks that utilize this more. Yeah, Ascent does implement something similar, but to have a hack where this is the main focus would be nice.
Normally, I dislike vanilla+ hacks, and so I thought this would be no exception. However, this hack changes so much of the physics and ways to play, that it ends up being more fun than anything. Definitely not for the casual, given the lack of Varia Suit, and the Gravity does NOT protect against heat. However, the hell runs reduces health significantly slowly as to not be a problem for most seasoned players. The Plasma and Spazer were switched around, weirdly, and so Plasma was nerfed, while Spazer was given Plasma's power, which was an interesting choice. The Missile and Super Missile had their rate of fire heavily nerfed, so quick killing Kraid is much harder, if not impossible.
The gravity was comparable to Redesign, so no bomb jumping can be had. Also, no wall jumps means the player effectively has to play this hack going the vanilla casual route, which in most cases would be annoying, but I had fun trying to find the way forward outside of what was intended; I couldn't really find any way to sequence break outside of early Supers. Also, lack of wall and bomb jumps mean that Etecoons room is a soft lock, and if you save at the bottom of Etecoons, consider your save file effectively locked.
Outside of the Etecoons lock issue, this hack was a fun experience, just because it challenged me to see if I can play this hack outside of its intention, and I effectively failed, which was actually a good thing. I'd like to see a full hack where the routing and world was built with these physics changes in mind... And I'm not talking Redesign.
The gravity was comparable to Redesign, so no bomb jumping can be had. Also, no wall jumps means the player effectively has to play this hack going the vanilla casual route, which in most cases would be annoying, but I had fun trying to find the way forward outside of what was intended; I couldn't really find any way to sequence break outside of early Supers. Also, lack of wall and bomb jumps mean that Etecoons room is a soft lock, and if you save at the bottom of Etecoons, consider your save file effectively locked.
Outside of the Etecoons lock issue, this hack was a fun experience, just because it challenged me to see if I can play this hack outside of its intention, and I effectively failed, which was actually a good thing. I'd like to see a full hack where the routing and world was built with these physics changes in mind... And I'm not talking Redesign.
This hack feels a little longer than a mere Quick Play hack, though I do understand why its genre is labelled as such, since it isn't as long as some dedicated full hacks either. The hack was pretty good overall. The forced hell run to get the Varia is my only gripe, but that's mostly minor. Progression feels kinda free, for better or worse, and there's enough exploration to be had that rewards those looking to do just that.
The escape was kind of weird, and having item pickups in the middle of the escape is kind of annoying, but nothing that's badly implemented or anything. Also, no animals to save, so sad face there. Not a bad hack to burn some time. Don't expect anything too grand out of this. Oh, and the palettes were also quite nice in some places.
The escape was kind of weird, and having item pickups in the middle of the escape is kind of annoying, but nothing that's badly implemented or anything. Also, no animals to save, so sad face there. Not a bad hack to burn some time. Don't expect anything too grand out of this. Oh, and the palettes were also quite nice in some places.
BOOP! BOOP! BOOP! BEEEEEEEEP!
Nyoooooooooooooooooonyoooooooooooom! Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyooooooooooooooooooooom! ERRRRRK! Nyooooooooooooooooooooooom! NYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! ERRRK! Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom! ERK! Nyooooo- ERK Nyoo-ERK! Nyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! ERRRRRRRRRRRK!
"FINISH!"
Nyoooooooooooooooooonyoooooooooooom! Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyooooooooooooooooooooom! ERRRRRK! Nyooooooooooooooooooooooom! NYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! ERRRK! Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom! ERK! Nyooooo- ERK Nyoo-ERK! Nyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! ERRRRRRRRRRRK!
"FINISH!"
So, this one is a weird one. Let me preface this by saying I had to use cheats to beat this hack, which I will explain shortly. This hack was actually pretty neat, especially for a half hack. Some items are in their usual spots, while others are in unexpected locations, like Screw Attack. The room layouts are also different enough from vanilla Super Metroid in most cases, that the routing is very much different from a few other half hacks.
So, what about this cheating business? Well, that's the sad thing about the hack; in its current state, it is not beatable. Mind you, I played the Unheadered version, so I don't know if the Headered version will be any different. In Noob Bridge, upon entering, the door behind you closes shut, and turns into a metal door. My guess is that the hack maker meant for either Bomb Torizo or Spore Spawn to be the trigger that unlocks it, but something went wrong, and the door never unlocks. There is literally nowhere else in the hack that will allow the player to proceed anywhere. You'll acquire Bombs, a couple of E-Tanks, and some Missiles, but that's all you'll get, and none of it allows the player to leave. So I used a Walk Through Walls Action Replay cheat to bypass the presumably meant-to-be-open metal door, and played the rest of the hack as normal.
There is another opportunity for a softlock, possibly locking your save if the player ends up entering G4 by way of what would normally be the entrance to Waterway Energy Tank Room. Without Speed Booster, you cannot leave the area at all, and nothing else can allow the player to leave, making that part another oversight by the hack maker.
On that note, I think I know where Gravity Suit is supposed to be, but didn't see it there. I can't tell if that's because it was accidentally left out, or if it was simply removed by the game after I used GT Code to acquire Gravity that way. I could always check that out someday (probably not).
The escape sequence was a bit assholish in the way the player proceeds past the Tourian Escape Room 4. And to leave Parlor to the Landing Site hard requires the player to know how to really short charge. Nothing TAS level, but short enough that most casuals will likely find it too difficult to escape. But hey, the animals can be saved.
One other thing: Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room is bugged. If you proceed more than halfway through before the planet "awakens", the room will lag SEVERELY. The only way out is to either reset, or speed up the emulator 5000% and make an about-face to leave the lag threshold. It's the weirdest quirk, and it no longer becomes an issue after awakening Zebes.
Overall, if I could disregard the two softlocks, including the one that makes the game unbeatable in the first place, as well as the weird lag in Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room, this ended up being a hack I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. If anyone can look into the Noob Bridge door issue, that'd be great, because it sucks to have to resort to Game Genie/Action Replay to have to proceed through a hack. Especially one that I would actually recommend otherwise, despite the other save lock and pre-awakened Zebes lag issue.
So, what about this cheating business? Well, that's the sad thing about the hack; in its current state, it is not beatable. Mind you, I played the Unheadered version, so I don't know if the Headered version will be any different. In Noob Bridge, upon entering, the door behind you closes shut, and turns into a metal door. My guess is that the hack maker meant for either Bomb Torizo or Spore Spawn to be the trigger that unlocks it, but something went wrong, and the door never unlocks. There is literally nowhere else in the hack that will allow the player to proceed anywhere. You'll acquire Bombs, a couple of E-Tanks, and some Missiles, but that's all you'll get, and none of it allows the player to leave. So I used a Walk Through Walls Action Replay cheat to bypass the presumably meant-to-be-open metal door, and played the rest of the hack as normal.
There is another opportunity for a softlock, possibly locking your save if the player ends up entering G4 by way of what would normally be the entrance to Waterway Energy Tank Room. Without Speed Booster, you cannot leave the area at all, and nothing else can allow the player to leave, making that part another oversight by the hack maker.
On that note, I think I know where Gravity Suit is supposed to be, but didn't see it there. I can't tell if that's because it was accidentally left out, or if it was simply removed by the game after I used GT Code to acquire Gravity that way. I could always check that out someday (probably not).
The escape sequence was a bit assholish in the way the player proceeds past the Tourian Escape Room 4. And to leave Parlor to the Landing Site hard requires the player to know how to really short charge. Nothing TAS level, but short enough that most casuals will likely find it too difficult to escape. But hey, the animals can be saved.
One other thing: Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room is bugged. If you proceed more than halfway through before the planet "awakens", the room will lag SEVERELY. The only way out is to either reset, or speed up the emulator 5000% and make an about-face to leave the lag threshold. It's the weirdest quirk, and it no longer becomes an issue after awakening Zebes.
Overall, if I could disregard the two softlocks, including the one that makes the game unbeatable in the first place, as well as the weird lag in Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room, this ended up being a hack I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. If anyone can look into the Noob Bridge door issue, that'd be great, because it sucks to have to resort to Game Genie/Action Replay to have to proceed through a hack. Especially one that I would actually recommend otherwise, despite the other save lock and pre-awakened Zebes lag issue.
Volta is an unfortunate case in the fact that it has since been abandoned, and will likely never see a finished state. What we do have is a very intriguing rom hack with really nice visuals, and a nice progression flow. There are also places to explore beyond the surface level of what the hack offers, to give you a little extra game, but the sad part is that it eventually ends. No final boss fight, no ending sequence.
Some of the room layouts were definitely well thought out, and borrows a page from Redesign in making rooms function as backgrounds to other rooms, etc. Any doors you see that you cannot access are rooms that were never meant to be entered. After reaching the functional end of the hack, I used Walk Through Walls cheats to see where they lead, and for the most part, they lead to nowhere. I hear there is supposed to be a way to access Power Bombs, and then to Charge Beam, but I haven't been able to find that, and likely never will.
For what it has, this was a fun experience. My guess is that FirePhoenix burnt out after a while. I also got some insight that apparently, many of these old hacks were made by then teenager hack makers, some with high ambitions, and many would eventually abandon some of their hack ideas because real life happens, which is fair. Life and careers happen, and this is likely one of those hacks where real life had to come first, and what we have was what could have been.
Rambling aside, this gets a 4/5, because of the creativity behind it all. Will it ever get finished someday? I'm betting no. But this was certainly a showcase in the old days of what people could really do with rom hacking, even with whatever resources they had available.
Some of the room layouts were definitely well thought out, and borrows a page from Redesign in making rooms function as backgrounds to other rooms, etc. Any doors you see that you cannot access are rooms that were never meant to be entered. After reaching the functional end of the hack, I used Walk Through Walls cheats to see where they lead, and for the most part, they lead to nowhere. I hear there is supposed to be a way to access Power Bombs, and then to Charge Beam, but I haven't been able to find that, and likely never will.
For what it has, this was a fun experience. My guess is that FirePhoenix burnt out after a while. I also got some insight that apparently, many of these old hacks were made by then teenager hack makers, some with high ambitions, and many would eventually abandon some of their hack ideas because real life happens, which is fair. Life and careers happen, and this is likely one of those hacks where real life had to come first, and what we have was what could have been.
Rambling aside, this gets a 4/5, because of the creativity behind it all. Will it ever get finished someday? I'm betting no. But this was certainly a showcase in the old days of what people could really do with rom hacking, even with whatever resources they had available.
For what it is, I liked the way it was executed. Better than other hacks with similar concepts. The fact that the player is given a choice between hell running and grabbing Varia to alter the challenge of the hack is nice, and the only real challenge to this is to test oneself, to see how fast one can beat it. Short, simple, and executed pretty well, especially for its time. The custom visuals are pretty cool too.
Super Metroid: Soup by Cardweaver [ Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 21, 2025 ( )
Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 21, 2025 ( )
69% in 3:49
This was an interesting hack, and probably my favorite of the Cardweaver hacks. There are some questionable design choices, like filling Ridley's room to the top with acid (although reducing Ridley's health to compensate helps), but I kinda liked the routing and some of the layout changes to what would have otherwise been just another half hack. It does nothing stellar by any means, but I did like the challenge. Certainly no Impossible or the like, but definitely NOT for the casual. I may be giving it a higher rating than it deserves, but given some of the other crap I've played from 2008, this was certainly a fresh step up by comparison.
I was expecting yet another lazy half-hack, since that was all the rage in the previous years. Instead, what we have here is an interesting rerouting of the vanilla map, albeit with some tweaks to accommodate it. Essentially, the route is supposed to be RDPK, though the order isn't strict (I beat Phantoon last), which gives the player freedom to sequence break here and there. Some thought was also put into some of the rooms, to ensure the player doesn't accidentally softlock.
That said, there are two instances of where the player can potentially softlock, and that is Old Mother Brain Room, where the Power Bomb block going down into the item location reforms. Of course, the odds of locking down there is incredibly low, but not zero. Also, the Bomb Torizo being immune to all but Missiles and Super Missiles, meaning if you decapitate it, and you happen to run out of ammo, there's no way to beat it, forcing a death/reset.
Enemies have been changed to accommodate the routing as well, so places that normally have giant Desgeegas will have the normal-sized ones, etc. The bosses have also been tweaked as well, with Kraid having really fat-fat HP (probably the same as vanilla Ridley), while Ridley's health is rather low, to emphasize his first-bossness.
All in all, a neat hack, and a nice change from some other half-hacks. It's still a half-hack all the same, so it gets a 3.5, but because I'm rounding up, it gets a 4/5.
That said, there are two instances of where the player can potentially softlock, and that is Old Mother Brain Room, where the Power Bomb block going down into the item location reforms. Of course, the odds of locking down there is incredibly low, but not zero. Also, the Bomb Torizo being immune to all but Missiles and Super Missiles, meaning if you decapitate it, and you happen to run out of ammo, there's no way to beat it, forcing a death/reset.
Enemies have been changed to accommodate the routing as well, so places that normally have giant Desgeegas will have the normal-sized ones, etc. The bosses have also been tweaked as well, with Kraid having really fat-fat HP (probably the same as vanilla Ridley), while Ridley's health is rather low, to emphasize his first-bossness.
All in all, a neat hack, and a nice change from some other half-hacks. It's still a half-hack all the same, so it gets a 3.5, but because I'm rounding up, it gets a 4/5.
Super Metroid: Glitchtroid by ducknerd [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 25, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 25, 2024 ( )
45% in 0:00
So, this is going to sound weird, but I'm giving this a 4/5, when everyone else gave it a 1. My reasons explained below:
First and foremost, you can tell this game was made to abuse savestate, for better or worse. Personally, I detest the use of savestate, and generally don't use it, even in hacks where the creator encourages it (like Super Metroid: Golden Dawn). However, with the lack of any real save points (save for one in Norfair), and two boss fights being unbelievably hard, this game forced me to go the savestate route. Normally, I'd resent it, if not for one thing: Preeeetty sure this hack was made with TAS in mind.
Now, the real issue I have with this hack, other than the lack of saves, forcing me to savestate (I really wouldn't have savestated if there were well-placed saves), is the abundance of softlock chances. And I don't mean locking to the point of reloading your save and trying again, but literally 2-3 moments in this hack can make it so the player has to restart the whole thing from the very beginning if they lock their whole save due to weird-ass routing. Ordinarily, that'd take a point off, but again, pretty sure this game was made for TAS (we'll get to that).
I was able to beat the game, albeit with savestates. The only times I really needed to load the state aggressively was during the fight with Bomb Torizo, Draygon, the path toward the Varia Suit, and a few other spots that was deemed rather difficult, and needed a savestate for safety, or else lose a ton of progress. I would love to see someone attempt to beat this without savestating at all. I imagine it'd be a hell of an endeavor, with just Bomb Torizo alone, much less Draygon.
I enjoyed some of the puzzles the hack actually has. However, another issue I have with the hack is that there isn't much in the way of required glitches as the hack's name would imply. X-Ray climb, Gate Glitch, and... That's pretty much all I can remember, as far as actual glitches go. Everything else are merely just tricks that, in many cases, are dev intended (well, maybe not short-charged speed boosts). All the same, was still fun. It's a shame there's no proper ending; once you reach the Red Tower elevator, and go up it, the game crashes, and that is actually intended to be how the game actually ends, so no Zebes-shattering kaboom.
As for the TAS, Sapphron did share a link to a TAS that SMFTP made, which showcases how the game was meant to look when played and beaten, and that is where the hack shines the most, as it was made specifically for that, or so I'm sure. It makes for an entertaining-as-hell watch, and while there are no moonfalls (probably was made before its discovery), it still looks cool everywhere else. The link to the TAS video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTmDUDRtlto
First and foremost, you can tell this game was made to abuse savestate, for better or worse. Personally, I detest the use of savestate, and generally don't use it, even in hacks where the creator encourages it (like Super Metroid: Golden Dawn). However, with the lack of any real save points (save for one in Norfair), and two boss fights being unbelievably hard, this game forced me to go the savestate route. Normally, I'd resent it, if not for one thing: Preeeetty sure this hack was made with TAS in mind.
Now, the real issue I have with this hack, other than the lack of saves, forcing me to savestate (I really wouldn't have savestated if there were well-placed saves), is the abundance of softlock chances. And I don't mean locking to the point of reloading your save and trying again, but literally 2-3 moments in this hack can make it so the player has to restart the whole thing from the very beginning if they lock their whole save due to weird-ass routing. Ordinarily, that'd take a point off, but again, pretty sure this game was made for TAS (we'll get to that).
I was able to beat the game, albeit with savestates. The only times I really needed to load the state aggressively was during the fight with Bomb Torizo, Draygon, the path toward the Varia Suit, and a few other spots that was deemed rather difficult, and needed a savestate for safety, or else lose a ton of progress. I would love to see someone attempt to beat this without savestating at all. I imagine it'd be a hell of an endeavor, with just Bomb Torizo alone, much less Draygon.
I enjoyed some of the puzzles the hack actually has. However, another issue I have with the hack is that there isn't much in the way of required glitches as the hack's name would imply. X-Ray climb, Gate Glitch, and... That's pretty much all I can remember, as far as actual glitches go. Everything else are merely just tricks that, in many cases, are dev intended (well, maybe not short-charged speed boosts). All the same, was still fun. It's a shame there's no proper ending; once you reach the Red Tower elevator, and go up it, the game crashes, and that is actually intended to be how the game actually ends, so no Zebes-shattering kaboom.
As for the TAS, Sapphron did share a link to a TAS that SMFTP made, which showcases how the game was meant to look when played and beaten, and that is where the hack shines the most, as it was made specifically for that, or so I'm sure. It makes for an entertaining-as-hell watch, and while there are no moonfalls (probably was made before its discovery), it still looks cool everywhere else. The link to the TAS video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTmDUDRtlto
Super Metroid: Redesign by Drewseph [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 16, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 16, 2024 ( )
86% in 12:13
So here we have the rom hack that really put Super Metroid rom hacks on the map. When I first played this a while ago, I initially didn't like it. Then I revisited it. After having more of an open mind, I decided to play this again, to see if my opinion on this game has changed. Long story short: Yes, it changed, and for the better, though the game isn't exempt of criticism for flaws, some of which are really bad, which I'll be going over.
First thing's first: The physics change seems to be the usual point of criticism for many who do not like this hack. I feel that to be unfair, as yes, it goes against everything we're used to in vanilla Super Metroid. The hack is called Super Metroid: REDESIGN for a reason. Rather than treating this game as a hack of Super Metroid - and I get it, it is a rom hack - this should be treated as a totally different Metroid game entirely. When you disconnect this game from what is established in vanilla Super Metroid, and play this game for what it is, and not for what you want it to be/what it's not, you'll have an easier time accepting its physics at face value.
That out of the way, let's talk about some of the things I hate, because there are a few, and they're egregiously assholish. The Grappling Beam section; the increased gravity/fall speed of Samus, paired with her lack of aerial mobility (we'll get to that) makes swinging from one Grapple point to the next much harder, and more precise than it needs to be. On top of that, should you fail to leave the Grappling Beam area by way of a missed Grapple shot on a Grapple block, you fall into the acid and die, and you can't do anything about it. I could have easily forgiven that, had the save point before Grappling Beam wasn't placed so far before said item, meaning any deaths suffered after Grapple means having to spend roughly 5 minutes reacquiring Grappling Beam, which makes this stupidly tedious.
My other biggest gripe with the game, as I'm sure many others before me had, is the Chozo Statue hunt. To gain access to Tourian, one must find standing Chozo Statues, and Morph into their hands to activate their triggers. There are three such Chozo Statues in each area (3 in Crateria; 3 in Brinstar, etc.), which isn't an issue by itself. What is an issue, however, is that quite a few of these Chozo Statues are super-well hidden, with no hint as to where or how to find them. One must get lucky enough to X-Ray Scope the path leading to a Chozo Statue to find them, or just accidentally find the path without it. In one instance in Brinstar, to the right of the Dachora, the X-Ray Scope doesn't even reveal the fact you can simply Morph Ball through the wall. It's a bad design choice that I feel needed second opinions from playtesters before deciding it was good to go. I feel it should be a requirement for hack makers to put markers on the map that helps with pointing out the general location of said triggers, whether it's the Chozo Statues here, or the Door Triggers in Metroid Mission Rescue, or the Green Doors in Super Metroid: Lost World. All that said, I do know that this issue was addressed and fixed in the later-released "Axeil Edition" of this game, which is great, but I have to rate this game for what it has.
The Tourian escape is unnecessarily tough. Between losing nearly all major items from Mother Brain's rainbow beam, to the escape being really long for the timer to be 25 minutes, to some rooms having trollish routing, precise jumps, and even a Missile pickup that is hard-required to open two red doors during the escape (DO NOT waste any of those Missiles, because you are given no way to farm any, should you miss a shot), it makes one wonder if "Veteran" is truly the appropriate difficulty with which to label this hack. One thing is for sure: This game is NOT for those who are casuals to Super Metroid.
About the aerial movement: From the start, your jumps are hard to control, and you only ever get any real horizontal movement when getting a running start. This makes some jumping sections harder/more tedious than they need to be. That said, however, when you acquire the Space Jump, your aerial movement speed greatly improves, and the Screw Attack only improves it even further, to the point of being hard to control sometimes. Thankfully, the Screw Attack can be triggered by holding the run button, and if you don't want to keep using it mid somersault, you can let go of the run button to dial it down, which I felt was smart. Morph Ball movement is also very slow and clunky, but improves significantly when acquiring the Hi-Jump Boots, which has Spring Ball built in. So while Samus's mobility does feel hampered, it does feel rewarding when you collect the items that help improve it; it really makes you feel stronger, and more accomplished.
Some of the items in the game are placed in really bad areas. The areas themselves isn't bad in the sense that they're hard to find, but rather, the means to get to the items are way too frustrating for most people to want to do, including a Spring Ball/Bomb Jump gauntlet in Norfair, to get a Power Bomb pickup. It's as if Drewseph used save states to see if it was technically RTA possible, saw that it was, and made it the player's problem. Another Power Bomb pickup in Crateria hard-required IBJ, which is notoriously difficult to accomplish because of A, the high gravity, which wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for B, the Bomb use limit. You are given a three-Bomb limit for laying Bombs within a time window. If all three Bombs are used, you must wait for a lengthy cooldown before you can use Bombs again. It is possible to IBJ by timing the Bomb jumps, so that you don't lay the third Bomb by the time the second bomb cooldown is complete. This makes IBJ insanely precise for no real reason. I'd say it was to discourage cheesing/sequence breaks, but IBJ is a feature that was intended by Drewseph to acquire an item or two in the game, so there really wasn't a need to put such a limit on Bombs other than to annoy the player.
Finally, the path forward can be a little too obtuse at times, like finding your way to Phantoon's area through Crateria; there's a hidden Morph tunnel that - unless you know to go in it, or use X-Ray Scope to see it - is almost impossible to notice. Why make the way forward hidden? I would have expected that for a side item pickup for a Missile, or a non-essential luxury item, like Screw Attack. Speaking of Phantoon, the Lost Caverns, or whatever it's called, is annoying, and while there are visual cues that hints to the player how to solve it, it's too cryptic for most people to realistically figure out on their own. I was able to solve it in my most recent playthrough because of prior knowledge gained from a playthrough some time ago before it. Maze-type areas need to have a more transparent hint to the player, or else it just leads to needless frustration, to the point where solving it doesn't even feel rewarding.
All that said, I genuinely enjoyed everything else in this game. There are a lot of great ideas, and a ton of work was put into this from the ground up. It really is a benchmark hack that shows the potential for Super Metroid rom hacking, showing what rom hacks can really do, and be. For that reason, despite my gripes with the game, I can't give it any less than a 4/5. On a side note, saving the animals is made way out of the way during the Tourian escape. Obviously, it's not required to beat the game, but the location of the animals (which should be obvious), and what it takes to get to them, combined with the time of the escape really does feel like an accomplishment. Again, not needed to beat the game, but a nice flex to say "Yeah, I did it", so kudos to Drewseph for the way saving the animals was done.
First thing's first: The physics change seems to be the usual point of criticism for many who do not like this hack. I feel that to be unfair, as yes, it goes against everything we're used to in vanilla Super Metroid. The hack is called Super Metroid: REDESIGN for a reason. Rather than treating this game as a hack of Super Metroid - and I get it, it is a rom hack - this should be treated as a totally different Metroid game entirely. When you disconnect this game from what is established in vanilla Super Metroid, and play this game for what it is, and not for what you want it to be/what it's not, you'll have an easier time accepting its physics at face value.
That out of the way, let's talk about some of the things I hate, because there are a few, and they're egregiously assholish. The Grappling Beam section; the increased gravity/fall speed of Samus, paired with her lack of aerial mobility (we'll get to that) makes swinging from one Grapple point to the next much harder, and more precise than it needs to be. On top of that, should you fail to leave the Grappling Beam area by way of a missed Grapple shot on a Grapple block, you fall into the acid and die, and you can't do anything about it. I could have easily forgiven that, had the save point before Grappling Beam wasn't placed so far before said item, meaning any deaths suffered after Grapple means having to spend roughly 5 minutes reacquiring Grappling Beam, which makes this stupidly tedious.
My other biggest gripe with the game, as I'm sure many others before me had, is the Chozo Statue hunt. To gain access to Tourian, one must find standing Chozo Statues, and Morph into their hands to activate their triggers. There are three such Chozo Statues in each area (3 in Crateria; 3 in Brinstar, etc.), which isn't an issue by itself. What is an issue, however, is that quite a few of these Chozo Statues are super-well hidden, with no hint as to where or how to find them. One must get lucky enough to X-Ray Scope the path leading to a Chozo Statue to find them, or just accidentally find the path without it. In one instance in Brinstar, to the right of the Dachora, the X-Ray Scope doesn't even reveal the fact you can simply Morph Ball through the wall. It's a bad design choice that I feel needed second opinions from playtesters before deciding it was good to go. I feel it should be a requirement for hack makers to put markers on the map that helps with pointing out the general location of said triggers, whether it's the Chozo Statues here, or the Door Triggers in Metroid Mission Rescue, or the Green Doors in Super Metroid: Lost World. All that said, I do know that this issue was addressed and fixed in the later-released "Axeil Edition" of this game, which is great, but I have to rate this game for what it has.
The Tourian escape is unnecessarily tough. Between losing nearly all major items from Mother Brain's rainbow beam, to the escape being really long for the timer to be 25 minutes, to some rooms having trollish routing, precise jumps, and even a Missile pickup that is hard-required to open two red doors during the escape (DO NOT waste any of those Missiles, because you are given no way to farm any, should you miss a shot), it makes one wonder if "Veteran" is truly the appropriate difficulty with which to label this hack. One thing is for sure: This game is NOT for those who are casuals to Super Metroid.
About the aerial movement: From the start, your jumps are hard to control, and you only ever get any real horizontal movement when getting a running start. This makes some jumping sections harder/more tedious than they need to be. That said, however, when you acquire the Space Jump, your aerial movement speed greatly improves, and the Screw Attack only improves it even further, to the point of being hard to control sometimes. Thankfully, the Screw Attack can be triggered by holding the run button, and if you don't want to keep using it mid somersault, you can let go of the run button to dial it down, which I felt was smart. Morph Ball movement is also very slow and clunky, but improves significantly when acquiring the Hi-Jump Boots, which has Spring Ball built in. So while Samus's mobility does feel hampered, it does feel rewarding when you collect the items that help improve it; it really makes you feel stronger, and more accomplished.
Some of the items in the game are placed in really bad areas. The areas themselves isn't bad in the sense that they're hard to find, but rather, the means to get to the items are way too frustrating for most people to want to do, including a Spring Ball/Bomb Jump gauntlet in Norfair, to get a Power Bomb pickup. It's as if Drewseph used save states to see if it was technically RTA possible, saw that it was, and made it the player's problem. Another Power Bomb pickup in Crateria hard-required IBJ, which is notoriously difficult to accomplish because of A, the high gravity, which wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for B, the Bomb use limit. You are given a three-Bomb limit for laying Bombs within a time window. If all three Bombs are used, you must wait for a lengthy cooldown before you can use Bombs again. It is possible to IBJ by timing the Bomb jumps, so that you don't lay the third Bomb by the time the second bomb cooldown is complete. This makes IBJ insanely precise for no real reason. I'd say it was to discourage cheesing/sequence breaks, but IBJ is a feature that was intended by Drewseph to acquire an item or two in the game, so there really wasn't a need to put such a limit on Bombs other than to annoy the player.
Finally, the path forward can be a little too obtuse at times, like finding your way to Phantoon's area through Crateria; there's a hidden Morph tunnel that - unless you know to go in it, or use X-Ray Scope to see it - is almost impossible to notice. Why make the way forward hidden? I would have expected that for a side item pickup for a Missile, or a non-essential luxury item, like Screw Attack. Speaking of Phantoon, the Lost Caverns, or whatever it's called, is annoying, and while there are visual cues that hints to the player how to solve it, it's too cryptic for most people to realistically figure out on their own. I was able to solve it in my most recent playthrough because of prior knowledge gained from a playthrough some time ago before it. Maze-type areas need to have a more transparent hint to the player, or else it just leads to needless frustration, to the point where solving it doesn't even feel rewarding.
All that said, I genuinely enjoyed everything else in this game. There are a lot of great ideas, and a ton of work was put into this from the ground up. It really is a benchmark hack that shows the potential for Super Metroid rom hacking, showing what rom hacks can really do, and be. For that reason, despite my gripes with the game, I can't give it any less than a 4/5. On a side note, saving the animals is made way out of the way during the Tourian escape. Obviously, it's not required to beat the game, but the location of the animals (which should be obvious), and what it takes to get to them, combined with the time of the escape really does feel like an accomplishment. Again, not needed to beat the game, but a nice flex to say "Yeah, I did it", so kudos to Drewseph for the way saving the animals was done.
Super Metroid: Resurrection by BoostGuardian [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 07, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 07, 2024 ( )
96% in 4:03
I could've given this hack a low rating pretty easily, especially with some of the jank in this hack, including permastuck in a corner, like in Amphitheater, or Fish Tank. And don't get me started on the godawful layout that was The Worst Room in the Game; that could have, and should have been implemented so much better. Yet, despite all of that, the one thing I really enjoyed about this hack more than anything is the routing.
It can be easy to get lost, or forget where one can go. Thing is, I'm not going to fault the maker for the routing confusion, because in hindsight, I should have known of some alternative ways to get around Zebes, when the usual route that most players know won't cut it. Granted, I did figure it out eventually, but it only made me more aware of some of the way one can get around Zebes (the fact the Forgotten Highway has its namesake can potentially be the reason a player unfamiliar with routing can get stumped).
I would've like Phantoon to have more health, given how late in the game he's encountered, but I'm guessing the hack maker figured there'd hardly be a point, given the gear acquired by then, trivializing Phantoon regardless. All in all, I liked it despite the frustration, maybe more so than this hack deserves.
Also, I unironically like the Samus sprite colors, from the Power Suit, to the Varia, and the Gravity. While the Gravity is my favorite aesthetically, the dark sprite can make it hard to see Samus in quite a few rooms, which can be a potential annoyance. That's about it. Not much else I can add to this.
It can be easy to get lost, or forget where one can go. Thing is, I'm not going to fault the maker for the routing confusion, because in hindsight, I should have known of some alternative ways to get around Zebes, when the usual route that most players know won't cut it. Granted, I did figure it out eventually, but it only made me more aware of some of the way one can get around Zebes (the fact the Forgotten Highway has its namesake can potentially be the reason a player unfamiliar with routing can get stumped).
I would've like Phantoon to have more health, given how late in the game he's encountered, but I'm guessing the hack maker figured there'd hardly be a point, given the gear acquired by then, trivializing Phantoon regardless. All in all, I liked it despite the frustration, maybe more so than this hack deserves.
Also, I unironically like the Samus sprite colors, from the Power Suit, to the Varia, and the Gravity. While the Gravity is my favorite aesthetically, the dark sprite can make it hard to see Samus in quite a few rooms, which can be a potential annoyance. That's about it. Not much else I can add to this.
Super Metroid: Magma by BoostGuardian [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 19, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 19, 2024 ( )
33% in 1:29
The idea behind the hack is pretty neat. The planet is basically a volcano. There isn't a lot that is done with the idea, but what is done is still neat all the same. Some of the color palettes were pretty cool, with the color of the Gravity being my personal favorite custom color. Progression forward can be a bit confusing, and by the point, the hidden Grapple blocks that progresses through the game become more obvious for those who have dealt with them in other hacks before (still sucks that they're still a thing in this hack, though).
All in all, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would have; probably more than I should have. Regardless, it gets a 4/5 from me.
All in all, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would have; probably more than I should have. Regardless, it gets a 4/5 from me.
The (as of writing this) last hack of 2004. While, in my opinion, not the best hack, what with the weird design and progression decisions, the routing and item progression still makes this hack an interesting playthrough. While not exactly a half-hack, it still falls in the category of vanilla+, due to the general structure of the game world, with one major exception, which I'll get to.
My only gripe with this hack... I honestly don't have much complaints, as the path forward isn't so blatantly hidden in trollish ways. The complaints I do have, however include the tedious maze that's in Forgotten Highway, and the maze of rooms where one would normally expect to see G4. That latter part, however, can be cheesed, if one knows how and where to do it, and while there are no visual cues/clues as to how to navigate the maze, each room is very different from one another, so you can still map out where you've been before.
Overall, not a bad hack, and arguably one of the better ones of 2004. Only thing stopping me from giving a 5/5 is some of the design choices in certain rooms, and - while few - some softlock potential, if you're too reckless.
My only gripe with this hack... I honestly don't have much complaints, as the path forward isn't so blatantly hidden in trollish ways. The complaints I do have, however include the tedious maze that's in Forgotten Highway, and the maze of rooms where one would normally expect to see G4. That latter part, however, can be cheesed, if one knows how and where to do it, and while there are no visual cues/clues as to how to navigate the maze, each room is very different from one another, so you can still map out where you've been before.
Overall, not a bad hack, and arguably one of the better ones of 2004. Only thing stopping me from giving a 5/5 is some of the design choices in certain rooms, and - while few - some softlock potential, if you're too reckless.
Super Metroid: Battle by Banana Oyaji [ Boss Rush],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 13, 2024 ( )
Boss Rush],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 13, 2024 ( )
30% in 0:38
As the name implies, this is a Boss Rush of sorts, but it's a little more than that. Rather than beat a boss, and go to the next room for the next boss, you still need to find items in the order you normally would in the vanilla game to progress to the next area housing the boss. Each area isn't big at all, usually no more than 2-4 rooms, give or take, but the item progression is enough to require some thought to progress. The boss fights themselves were not much different stat-wise, but the rooms for a majority of them were different, changing up how they're fought. The Mother Brain fight is only different in the first phase; the other phases are the same. However, from my playthrough, I only found 3 E-Tanks, so you gotta make sure your Mother Brain fight is on point. The escape sequence is similar to Another Super Metroid, with some minor differences. Though you can save the animals, the way in which it's done is subtle enough for the player to not realize what triggered the save.
Regrettably, I never got to find the Spring Ball during my playthrough, and I'm sure it is somewhere in this hack, but I could be wrong. Overall, this hack, especially for one so old, ended up being better than I thought it would be. And it's short enough where it doesn't overstay its welcome. I think a solid 4 does this hack justice, especially when comparing to other hacks of 2004.
Regrettably, I never got to find the Spring Ball during my playthrough, and I'm sure it is somewhere in this hack, but I could be wrong. Overall, this hack, especially for one so old, ended up being better than I thought it would be. And it's short enough where it doesn't overstay its welcome. I think a solid 4 does this hack justice, especially when comparing to other hacks of 2004.
Gaslight, Gate Glitch, Miniboss by Croakomire [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Nov 02, 2023 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Nov 02, 2023 ( )
9% in 0:38
Given that this game was released on April Fool's Day 2023, I have to rate it accordingly. This game promises everything that the title advertises, so there's points for that. You need to know some obscure tech to get through several of the game's rooms. Everything else is just execution, really. Only thing preventing me from giving this a perfect 5/5 is the first save room, which commands perfect gate glitching thrice in a row, which sucks.
I only recommend for those who are willing to see how far they can go, and for the novelty of it.
I only recommend for those who are willing to see how far they can go, and for the novelty of it.
Super Metroid: Super Kill Time by Stacy [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 11, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 11, 2025 ( )
74% in 3:50
This hack has many obtuse routing and progression issues, not unlike its predecessor, Super Metroid: Kill Time. The issue immediately begins in Wrecked Ship, as the path forward isn't made obvious. Worse still, all doors in the really big room, save for the door on the left (from where you entered), and the door on the bottom, leads to the center room. This wouldn't be much of an issue. In fact, the middle room should be a godsend, given it's a health refill room. The problem is that whatever music/sound track is used upon entering, it has a 90% chance to crash the game, forcing the player to have to reset, sometimes requiring a hard reset. This is annoying, and why this was never fixed is beyond me. DO NOT enter the center room.
The item progression is also weird, and save for some obvious progression item orders around the start, it's not really made clear what the intended order to progress actually is. The way to Phantoon, the way to Kraid, and the way to Draygon are all cryptic or hidden, or both (spoiler ahead). In the "Red Tower" section of Brinstar, you'll see three identical rooms on the left, each with a Chozo statue that has seemingly nothing. However, the bottom-most room among them is the path forward, as the Chozo statue can be destroyed, and the way to Kraid opened. Phantoon, being the first intended boss, is reached by bombing an inconspicuous tile in the bottom-right corner of the room, above a Chozo statue. The player would have to either be lucky, or be super-attentive to find this path forward; I used the SMILE program. Draygon is very tricky. You'll come across a room with a monster head, similar to what's seen in vanilla SM's Warehouse Entrance. What the player is meant to do is in the hall prior to that room, one must shine spark up the middle of the corridor. If the player goes back from the monster head room, the corridor loaded is different, and cannot shine spark up the center. Only by entering the corridor from its left side can the player proceed, so charge a shine spark going in from the left.
Everything else is fine for the most part. There are plenty of dead ends and red herrings that lead to nothing, mostly Chozo statues holding pure white orbs; they serve literally zero purpose, and the worst of them is the Mama Turtle Room, as that has literally nothing to acquire, and all you'll find, other than the turtles, is a Chozo statue holding a useless white orb, and non-solid tiles in the shape of a heart. It really is an anomaly, if not a troll.
For all my gripes with this hack, it isn't terrible, but is certainly near the bottom of the totem pole of hacks I've given 3/5 for a rating. This could have been put together better, and the path forward more apparent to the player. I'm not a fan of obscure and cryptic paths forward, and this hack has plenty of those, as well as the godawful crash of the center room in Wrecked Ship's gigantic room.
The item progression is also weird, and save for some obvious progression item orders around the start, it's not really made clear what the intended order to progress actually is. The way to Phantoon, the way to Kraid, and the way to Draygon are all cryptic or hidden, or both (spoiler ahead). In the "Red Tower" section of Brinstar, you'll see three identical rooms on the left, each with a Chozo statue that has seemingly nothing. However, the bottom-most room among them is the path forward, as the Chozo statue can be destroyed, and the way to Kraid opened. Phantoon, being the first intended boss, is reached by bombing an inconspicuous tile in the bottom-right corner of the room, above a Chozo statue. The player would have to either be lucky, or be super-attentive to find this path forward; I used the SMILE program. Draygon is very tricky. You'll come across a room with a monster head, similar to what's seen in vanilla SM's Warehouse Entrance. What the player is meant to do is in the hall prior to that room, one must shine spark up the middle of the corridor. If the player goes back from the monster head room, the corridor loaded is different, and cannot shine spark up the center. Only by entering the corridor from its left side can the player proceed, so charge a shine spark going in from the left.
Everything else is fine for the most part. There are plenty of dead ends and red herrings that lead to nothing, mostly Chozo statues holding pure white orbs; they serve literally zero purpose, and the worst of them is the Mama Turtle Room, as that has literally nothing to acquire, and all you'll find, other than the turtles, is a Chozo statue holding a useless white orb, and non-solid tiles in the shape of a heart. It really is an anomaly, if not a troll.
For all my gripes with this hack, it isn't terrible, but is certainly near the bottom of the totem pole of hacks I've given 3/5 for a rating. This could have been put together better, and the path forward more apparent to the player. I'm not a fan of obscure and cryptic paths forward, and this hack has plenty of those, as well as the godawful crash of the center room in Wrecked Ship's gigantic room.
Super Metroid: Life by Nevyn 1.0 / DCR 1.2 [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 10, 2025 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 10, 2025 ( )
93% in 3:09
This hack was alright. It feels half-hack-ish, but not exactly. There are enough differences where one can wonder if it's technically considered a full hack. Item progression was interesting, and the ways to get certain items, though strange (looking at you, Space Jump), was kinda fun, and rewarding. Actual forward progression was a bit confusing, but can be managed. My only gripe, honestly, is the path to Tourian being well hidden, where one would have to either find it by accident, or use X-Ray Scope everywhere you go. In my case, I ended up using SMILE to find it, which never feels good. Another gripe I have: Where the hell was Ice Beam?! I never found it, and having to use Power Bombs on Metroids was not a really fun experience, especially given how limited Power Bombs were in this hack. Those gripes out of the way, this hack was pretty decent overall. Nothing to write home about, but still good enough to drain about 4+ hours out of your life.
P.S. The animals can't be saved. Which really sucks. The door that leads to them stays closed during the escape sequence.
P.S. The animals can't be saved. Which really sucks. The door that leads to them stays closed during the escape sequence.
This hack was okay. Like other challenge hacks before it, lots of spike placements, and room layout edits to make the game harder, more inconvenient, and more tedious. Tedium aside, I did like some of g the room layouts presented; nothing that required extreme levels of precision, but still precise enough where mistakes can be lethal.
Another issue I have is a few of the items being really obscure to get. Granted, for the most part, almost all items are found in their vanilla room locations, their positions in said rooms mostly differ (spoiler ahead). This isn't so bad, but there is a Missile in West Ocean that is a bit obtuse to get, as X-Ray Scope doesn't do much to help in finding the path to get it. I had to use SMILE to know how to grab it, and stupidly, it was somewhere that could have been found if I used a Power Bomb to blow open an off-screen bombable block.
One major gripe I had with this hack more than anything, though, are the enemy buffs. While it makes the game harder in the beginning part of it, more than anything, upping enemy health makes playing this feel more like a chore. Hoppers taking a million shots to kill just to have to move on does not feel good to play. If this hack kept enemy health pools unchanged, the experience would have been far more enjoyable. Also, the hack has a weird habit of putting conveyer tiles in weird places, and can often wreck an unsuspecting player (conveyer tile moving player into spikes, for example).
Bosses were also changed, mostly in room layout, though some have noticeably larger health pools. The worst boss, honestly, was Spore Spawn, given its spike-filled room layout, and Spore Spawn being positioned lower means you can't avoid it, even when in morph. Honestly, it would have been pretty free, had I known where to find the E-Tank in Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room, and Gauntlet Energy Tank Room, so technically, Spore Spawn's difficulty was on me.
I guess all in all, the hack wasn't the worst I've seen, and I actually kind of enjoyed the challenge it has. Again, dumb down the enemy buffs, and make the bosses less obnoxious, and... well, I'd still give it a 3/5, because it's just another half hack, but it still would've been better off.
Another issue I have is a few of the items being really obscure to get. Granted, for the most part, almost all items are found in their vanilla room locations, their positions in said rooms mostly differ (spoiler ahead). This isn't so bad, but there is a Missile in West Ocean that is a bit obtuse to get, as X-Ray Scope doesn't do much to help in finding the path to get it. I had to use SMILE to know how to grab it, and stupidly, it was somewhere that could have been found if I used a Power Bomb to blow open an off-screen bombable block.
One major gripe I had with this hack more than anything, though, are the enemy buffs. While it makes the game harder in the beginning part of it, more than anything, upping enemy health makes playing this feel more like a chore. Hoppers taking a million shots to kill just to have to move on does not feel good to play. If this hack kept enemy health pools unchanged, the experience would have been far more enjoyable. Also, the hack has a weird habit of putting conveyer tiles in weird places, and can often wreck an unsuspecting player (conveyer tile moving player into spikes, for example).
Bosses were also changed, mostly in room layout, though some have noticeably larger health pools. The worst boss, honestly, was Spore Spawn, given its spike-filled room layout, and Spore Spawn being positioned lower means you can't avoid it, even when in morph. Honestly, it would have been pretty free, had I known where to find the E-Tank in Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room, and Gauntlet Energy Tank Room, so technically, Spore Spawn's difficulty was on me.
I guess all in all, the hack wasn't the worst I've seen, and I actually kind of enjoyed the challenge it has. Again, dumb down the enemy buffs, and make the bosses less obnoxious, and... well, I'd still give it a 3/5, because it's just another half hack, but it still would've been better off.
Super Metroid: emoD by EMODORAN/Backfire [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 31, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 31, 2025 ( )
98% in 2:44
There are quite a few things in this hack I enjoyed, most notably, the challenge overall. Granted, it does nothing really new, as far as challenging obstacles go, what with the usual 60-damage spikes scattered around the world, including the start of the game, making traversing to the Morph and Missiles the real tough part of the hack. Beyond that, yeah, there's still spikes around the game, but the rooms have also been changed, some significantly more so than others, to make a route that is completely different from the usual vanilla route. In fact, some room layouts differ so drastically, you can barely recognize them as their original counterparts (The Climb, and Terminator immediately come to mind).
The intended routing is fairly linear, though the player can deviate from the intended sequence here and there with trick/technique knowledge, and can actually reward the player greatly, such as getting Grappling Beam earlier than intended. Some might find issue with the progression, but you're allowed X-Ray Scope early-ish enough, so that the majority of the hack isn't an obtuse slogfest.
The bosses have been mostly buffed/changed. Spore Spawn, in particular, was actually pretty tough due to its obnoxious room layout, though I have experienced worse Spore Spawns. Ridley was also particularly bad, though thankfully, it's a damage race most seasoned players can win just fine. Overall, the bosses weren't too hard beyond that.
My only real gripe was Terminator Room (spoiler ahead). The player is supposed to take the Speed Booster, and head toward Crateria through Terminator, to fight Bomb Torizo and get Bombs, to then go all the way back to Crocomire, to gain Grappling Beam, with which to gain access to Phantoon in Wrecked Ship. The problem is that to proceed through Terminator, one must find a shot block in a ceiling that is pretty much hard to find. So hard, in fact, I never actually found it, and decided to cheese my way into Crocomire by busting through the bombable block with speed keep blue suit. It wasn't until after I got X-Ray Scope, I was able to find the shot block, and proceed through the rest of the game just fine. On the plus side, sequence breaking the way I did allowed me a more efficient route than the back-and-forth I would have had to do otherwise.
The way into Tourian was also interesting as well. The room to G4 was unique, and surprised the hell out of me. Tourian itself, however, remain mostly unchanged. The escape sequence was pretty cool. The Tourian Escape Rooms weren't changed, but The Climb Room, and the way one shine sparked up it was rather neat. Saving the animals was a pain in the ass, however, as the only way I know to get in there is to speed keep blue suit down to the door leading to BT Room. The problem is that the steam is very disruptive, and will really kill much of your short charge attempts. Took me one Zebes explosion before I was successful in saving the animals.
Overall, I had fun with the challenge. It was hard enough without being totally degenerate. I give it a 3/5 because it is just another challenge hack with the usual tropes we see in others like it, enjoyable as it was.
The intended routing is fairly linear, though the player can deviate from the intended sequence here and there with trick/technique knowledge, and can actually reward the player greatly, such as getting Grappling Beam earlier than intended. Some might find issue with the progression, but you're allowed X-Ray Scope early-ish enough, so that the majority of the hack isn't an obtuse slogfest.
The bosses have been mostly buffed/changed. Spore Spawn, in particular, was actually pretty tough due to its obnoxious room layout, though I have experienced worse Spore Spawns. Ridley was also particularly bad, though thankfully, it's a damage race most seasoned players can win just fine. Overall, the bosses weren't too hard beyond that.
My only real gripe was Terminator Room (spoiler ahead). The player is supposed to take the Speed Booster, and head toward Crateria through Terminator, to fight Bomb Torizo and get Bombs, to then go all the way back to Crocomire, to gain Grappling Beam, with which to gain access to Phantoon in Wrecked Ship. The problem is that to proceed through Terminator, one must find a shot block in a ceiling that is pretty much hard to find. So hard, in fact, I never actually found it, and decided to cheese my way into Crocomire by busting through the bombable block with speed keep blue suit. It wasn't until after I got X-Ray Scope, I was able to find the shot block, and proceed through the rest of the game just fine. On the plus side, sequence breaking the way I did allowed me a more efficient route than the back-and-forth I would have had to do otherwise.
The way into Tourian was also interesting as well. The room to G4 was unique, and surprised the hell out of me. Tourian itself, however, remain mostly unchanged. The escape sequence was pretty cool. The Tourian Escape Rooms weren't changed, but The Climb Room, and the way one shine sparked up it was rather neat. Saving the animals was a pain in the ass, however, as the only way I know to get in there is to speed keep blue suit down to the door leading to BT Room. The problem is that the steam is very disruptive, and will really kill much of your short charge attempts. Took me one Zebes explosion before I was successful in saving the animals.
Overall, I had fun with the challenge. It was hard enough without being totally degenerate. I give it a 3/5 because it is just another challenge hack with the usual tropes we see in others like it, enjoyable as it was.
Super Metroid: True Boss Rush by KT JDDD [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 31, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 31, 2025 ( )
58% in 0:14
Not half-bad a boss rush hack. Nothing too extraordinary about it, though. That said, I do prefer the Hard Mode variant, as it changes the physics a bit (gravity increases), changes a couple of the boss behaviors, buffs bosses a bit, and the escape sequence is an actual escape sequence, albeit short. My only complaint is the inability to save the animals.
Completion status is based on Normal Mode playthrough.
Completion status is based on Normal Mode playthrough.
Wasn't too big of a fan of this, but will give credit for its visuals, and some of the gameplay, and challenge, as well as Halloween theme. What I didn't like was some of the obtuse ways to progress, especially the final stretch with speedballing; not sure how begrimed expected people to figure that out on their own, except by sheer accident. Also, I know it's a challenge hack, but did you really need to have to make 80% of the hack a bullet hell? Anyway, overall, this was okay, though not my cup of tea. 3/5.
P.S.
The Game. Now piss off.
P.S.
The Game. Now piss off.
A weird little hack with a similar concept to Super Metroid: Automatic. (spoiler ahead) It's more elaborate than Automatic, with a pretty funny ending that results in a randomly humorous death. That said, it is possible to beat this hack properly if you exit Ridley Tank Room with 3 E-Tanks worth of energy remaining. That's pretty much it.
Metroid Switch by anonymous [ Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Super-short puzzle hack, with no proper ending. The hack ends after acquiring Power Bombs. I would've liked to see more, but what we got, especially with the Geemer and the Etecoons were quite clever.
Super Metroid: Kaizo Edition by Green Samus [ Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
I knew I would eventually get around to this one, the infamous Kaizo Edition. There are some things I want to say about this, not the least of which includes the name, "Kaizo" Edition. So what exactly is a "kaizo"? Well, in Japan, it's a word that means "rearranged", but because of the release of T. Takemoto's Kaizo Mario World back in 2007, it's difficulty (most notably), popularity at the time, and legacy over the years, "kaizo" has become a word synonymous with high difficulty here in the west, so any rom hack with the name that includes "Kaizo" is nearly guaranteed to be very hard, and likely created by players of high skill/understanding of the game for which they made the kaizo hack.
So, history aside, Green Samus set out to make a very specific hack, and to that end, was a success... kind of. Don't misunderstand, this hack is extremely hard, literally hard-requiring save states to even get anywhere in this game. But therein lies the problem; it fails at being a kaizo. "Kaizo" is a genre that is indeed indicative of difficulty in a modified game, but should also be reasonably beatable without the need for save states, much less TASing. What we have here is a game that should swap names with Impossible, because Impossible is a perfect example of a kaizo; being exceedingly hard, but can be conquered without save states by those who are either skilled enough, or stubborn enough. Other notable examples include Cliffhanger, and its Redux remaster, Super Mega-Metroid X-2, Super Metroid HOTA, Metroid Super Zero Mission (Hard Mode), and funny enough, Super Metroid Kaizo Possible, which is an actual kaizo-fied version of this hack, one that can be beaten without save states hard-required.
There is a TAS by Hoandizi for this hack that shows how it can be beaten, and by what is shown, it really does showcase just how functionally impossible it is for a non-TASer to beat this. Save states on its own can only go so far; I was shocked I managed to make it through one lap of the left side of Landing Site, grabbing Morph, then Grapple, then Bombs, and working my way back to Landing Site with just save states. I then was able to reach the Speed Booster with a combination of save states and slow downs, but it was there I threw in the towel, as those actions must be repeated multiple times throughout a regular run. As a side note, unless proven otherwise, I made it farther in Kaizo Edition than anyone else with save states as of writing this (TASers notwithstanding), so I have that under my belt.
So what exactly is this, if not a kaizo? Well, it's purely a TAS hack, similar to PangaeaPanga's Item Abuse series of hacks for Super Mario World; hacks that transcend kaizos, and become its own thing. This is strictly a hack that challenges TASers to beat, and no one else. To that end, it is indeed a success. And when one TASes and beats it, it becomes an entertaining watch. But that's all it is. It's a fine test to see how far a player can get with just save states (or without, if you're really masochistic/insane), but this hack is quite literally as impossible as Super Metroid Impossible thought itself to be.
As a kaizo, it gets a 1-2/5, but as a TAS-only challenge, it gets a 4-5/5. Why a 4? Because Green Samus overlooked a detail in Parlor, where a Missile infinitely respawns, allowing the player to constantly collect it and make the Missile check requirement in Tourian easier to acquire than to hunt down all Missile locations. Would be nice to see a TAS that ignores this, and grabs all intended items in their locations; really wanna see what that post-Ridley acid dive in OG Kaizo looks like. That said, it all balances out to a 3/5.
So, history aside, Green Samus set out to make a very specific hack, and to that end, was a success... kind of. Don't misunderstand, this hack is extremely hard, literally hard-requiring save states to even get anywhere in this game. But therein lies the problem; it fails at being a kaizo. "Kaizo" is a genre that is indeed indicative of difficulty in a modified game, but should also be reasonably beatable without the need for save states, much less TASing. What we have here is a game that should swap names with Impossible, because Impossible is a perfect example of a kaizo; being exceedingly hard, but can be conquered without save states by those who are either skilled enough, or stubborn enough. Other notable examples include Cliffhanger, and its Redux remaster, Super Mega-Metroid X-2, Super Metroid HOTA, Metroid Super Zero Mission (Hard Mode), and funny enough, Super Metroid Kaizo Possible, which is an actual kaizo-fied version of this hack, one that can be beaten without save states hard-required.
There is a TAS by Hoandizi for this hack that shows how it can be beaten, and by what is shown, it really does showcase just how functionally impossible it is for a non-TASer to beat this. Save states on its own can only go so far; I was shocked I managed to make it through one lap of the left side of Landing Site, grabbing Morph, then Grapple, then Bombs, and working my way back to Landing Site with just save states. I then was able to reach the Speed Booster with a combination of save states and slow downs, but it was there I threw in the towel, as those actions must be repeated multiple times throughout a regular run. As a side note, unless proven otherwise, I made it farther in Kaizo Edition than anyone else with save states as of writing this (TASers notwithstanding), so I have that under my belt.
So what exactly is this, if not a kaizo? Well, it's purely a TAS hack, similar to PangaeaPanga's Item Abuse series of hacks for Super Mario World; hacks that transcend kaizos, and become its own thing. This is strictly a hack that challenges TASers to beat, and no one else. To that end, it is indeed a success. And when one TASes and beats it, it becomes an entertaining watch. But that's all it is. It's a fine test to see how far a player can get with just save states (or without, if you're really masochistic/insane), but this hack is quite literally as impossible as Super Metroid Impossible thought itself to be.
As a kaizo, it gets a 1-2/5, but as a TAS-only challenge, it gets a 4-5/5. Why a 4? Because Green Samus overlooked a detail in Parlor, where a Missile infinitely respawns, allowing the player to constantly collect it and make the Missile check requirement in Tourian easier to acquire than to hunt down all Missile locations. Would be nice to see a TAS that ignores this, and grabs all intended items in their locations; really wanna see what that post-Ridley acid dive in OG Kaizo looks like. That said, it all balances out to a 3/5.
Super Metroid: Kill Time by Stacy [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 25, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 25, 2025 ( )
78% in 5:21
There were some things I liked in this hack, like the challenging obstacles (save for one, which I'll go over in a bit), and some of the routing. Also, even though this feels like a half hack, the rooms are all pretty much different in layout and structure, so the only recognizable thing about vanilla is the general world layout.
The things I didn't like are few, but really really annoying (spoilers ahead). First, some of the item placements, like Hi-Jump Boots; there's no indication where they were, and for the longest time, I thought the room where Below Spazer room should be had nothing more than what is shown on the surface level. Turns out, you CAN go up by bombing a tile at the top middle part of the ceiling, leading to Hi-Jump, which are hard-required for exploring through Lower Norfair, which is required for getting Gravity Suit, which is required for Maridia.
As bad as that is, however, absolutely nothing is as bad as Plasma Beam's placement. For starters, this hack has a ton of conveyer tiles, which push Samus in whatever direction they do, and this even happens when in the air, as even the air can be made up of this stuff. It adds less of a challenge, and more to frustration. Which brings me to Plasma Beam...
First off, to even get to the obstacle leading to it, there are a couple of hidden Grapple crumble blocks one must break to the right of the Dachora in the room where Crab Tunnel would normally be. This leads to a middle path between the upper and lower paths through the Sand Halls. Then you'll come to a secret in Pants Room, and this is where the game eats dog shit. It's a winding path upward with a sandfall in which you cannot Space Jump, must Grapple onto Grapple blocks, and avoid spikes on the way up. But that's not where the bullshit ends; alongside the sandfall, all air tiles are made up of conveyers, which will shove you back down, disrupting your climb attempts. Not bad enough? Well any ground that isn't spikes are crumble blocks (save for the very bottom), maximizing the amount of frustration given to the player during the climb. Then when you reach the top, there is a hidden morph tunnel into which you must Grapple clip, which leads to the other side of Pants Room. Shaktool Room is annoying, as you're greeted with a Tourian Hopper that hits significantly hard, and the path Shaktool carves out for you has spikes lining the ceiling and the floor. At the end of all of that shit is the room containing Plasma. Easily the most not-worth-the-effort Plasma I've ever seen, bar none.
I was so tempted to give this a 2/5, but some of the routing issues were kind of on me. And Plasma is not needed for beating the game, so that bullshit slog fest is entirely optional. The escape is tricky, if you forget that there's a Super Missile Block in Landing Site above the ship you need to break, so don't ignore the Cacatac in Parlor to get at least 1 Super drop. Overall, what I liked, I liked enough. What I hated were mostly optional, so I think it all balances out to a 3/5.
The things I didn't like are few, but really really annoying (spoilers ahead). First, some of the item placements, like Hi-Jump Boots; there's no indication where they were, and for the longest time, I thought the room where Below Spazer room should be had nothing more than what is shown on the surface level. Turns out, you CAN go up by bombing a tile at the top middle part of the ceiling, leading to Hi-Jump, which are hard-required for exploring through Lower Norfair, which is required for getting Gravity Suit, which is required for Maridia.
As bad as that is, however, absolutely nothing is as bad as Plasma Beam's placement. For starters, this hack has a ton of conveyer tiles, which push Samus in whatever direction they do, and this even happens when in the air, as even the air can be made up of this stuff. It adds less of a challenge, and more to frustration. Which brings me to Plasma Beam...
First off, to even get to the obstacle leading to it, there are a couple of hidden Grapple crumble blocks one must break to the right of the Dachora in the room where Crab Tunnel would normally be. This leads to a middle path between the upper and lower paths through the Sand Halls. Then you'll come to a secret in Pants Room, and this is where the game eats dog shit. It's a winding path upward with a sandfall in which you cannot Space Jump, must Grapple onto Grapple blocks, and avoid spikes on the way up. But that's not where the bullshit ends; alongside the sandfall, all air tiles are made up of conveyers, which will shove you back down, disrupting your climb attempts. Not bad enough? Well any ground that isn't spikes are crumble blocks (save for the very bottom), maximizing the amount of frustration given to the player during the climb. Then when you reach the top, there is a hidden morph tunnel into which you must Grapple clip, which leads to the other side of Pants Room. Shaktool Room is annoying, as you're greeted with a Tourian Hopper that hits significantly hard, and the path Shaktool carves out for you has spikes lining the ceiling and the floor. At the end of all of that shit is the room containing Plasma. Easily the most not-worth-the-effort Plasma I've ever seen, bar none.
I was so tempted to give this a 2/5, but some of the routing issues were kind of on me. And Plasma is not needed for beating the game, so that bullshit slog fest is entirely optional. The escape is tricky, if you forget that there's a Super Missile Block in Landing Site above the ship you need to break, so don't ignore the Cacatac in Parlor to get at least 1 Super drop. Overall, what I liked, I liked enough. What I hated were mostly optional, so I think it all balances out to a 3/5.
Super Metroid: SnowCrash by uzqap [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 25, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 25, 2025 ( )
94% in 2:48
Let me start off by saying that the unheadered patch is broken. To progress through the hack, the player is forced to go through Gauntlet early, and that room is a broken mess of yellow door tiles. Someone should either fix the issue, or remove the unheadered patch from the main site. The headered patch, however, works just fine.
The hack itself was okay overall. Given the challenge of the hack, I'm assuming uzqap was making this hack in the mid-2000s, during the height of Impossible's popularity, and decided to finish and upload this hack in 2010. I say this, because there are a few things that very much feel SM Impossible-like, most especially the Post Crocomire Jump Room. There's a maze of morph tunnels not unlike Impossible, but somehow, it's made more tedious and annoying, especially with all the crumble blocks, and mockball requirements (I'll get to that soon). Only upside is that falling all the way down doesn't spell instant death for the player, but still sucks, because acid damage.
A ton of the hack feels like "Mockball: The Game". There isn't anything inherently wrong with it, but it feels like the hack maker didn't really know how to make a challenging section outside of mockball across crumble blocks. It does get dull after the first 100 or so of these. Also, I read in Sickwood's review that you need to do Crystal Flash to get an item. I'm guessing it has something to do with the door leading to X-Ray, but I never got to find where to Crystal Flash, and gave up. I really don't like that kind of obtuse level design, even if the item isn't really required to beat the game. It sucked in SM Impossible; it sucks here.
I was close to giving this game a 2/5, but I did genuinely like some of the challenges in this hack, as repetitive as some definitely felt. The overall routing could have been better, though. You can't enter Wrecked Ship via Forgotten Highway, for example, because of a metal door that never opens, forcing the player to have to go around through Red Tower, and out West Ocean to enter Wrecked Ship.
A very soft 3/5.
The hack itself was okay overall. Given the challenge of the hack, I'm assuming uzqap was making this hack in the mid-2000s, during the height of Impossible's popularity, and decided to finish and upload this hack in 2010. I say this, because there are a few things that very much feel SM Impossible-like, most especially the Post Crocomire Jump Room. There's a maze of morph tunnels not unlike Impossible, but somehow, it's made more tedious and annoying, especially with all the crumble blocks, and mockball requirements (I'll get to that soon). Only upside is that falling all the way down doesn't spell instant death for the player, but still sucks, because acid damage.
A ton of the hack feels like "Mockball: The Game". There isn't anything inherently wrong with it, but it feels like the hack maker didn't really know how to make a challenging section outside of mockball across crumble blocks. It does get dull after the first 100 or so of these. Also, I read in Sickwood's review that you need to do Crystal Flash to get an item. I'm guessing it has something to do with the door leading to X-Ray, but I never got to find where to Crystal Flash, and gave up. I really don't like that kind of obtuse level design, even if the item isn't really required to beat the game. It sucked in SM Impossible; it sucks here.
I was close to giving this game a 2/5, but I did genuinely like some of the challenges in this hack, as repetitive as some definitely felt. The overall routing could have been better, though. You can't enter Wrecked Ship via Forgotten Highway, for example, because of a metal door that never opens, forcing the player to have to go around through Red Tower, and out West Ocean to enter Wrecked Ship.
A very soft 3/5.
Super Metroid: Automatic by aigamerDS [ Spoof],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
Spoof],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
0% in 0:04
Neat little 4-5-minute carnival ride, but that's about it. Would've liked it more if it went all throughout Zebes in some way, leading to Tourian. I still liked the concept enough.
Holy hot damn! The aesthetics chosen for this is absolutely amazing! Definitely reminiscent of the silhouette levels of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze, and this hack precedes those games! Unfortunately, it's unfinished, and like Sapphron, I ended up in a broken mess of a room; not sure if a headered version would be any different. Because there's so little in this proof of concept, I can't give this more than a 3/5. I would have given a 4/5, but the broken room really hurt, and the lack of game also kinda sucks.
If anyone can make a full hack based on these visuals, or make a hack where an entire area uses this aesthetic, that would be pretty awesome.
If anyone can make a full hack based on these visuals, or make a hack where an entire area uses this aesthetic, that would be pretty awesome.
First Horizon Demo by Lion/Rebel [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 14, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 14, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
So this hack feels like someone took Super Metroid: Redesign, and tried to make a rom hack out of it. For all I know, that's exactly what this is, as just about everything about the physics feels just like Redesign. For what little it had to show, it was pretty fun, and easier than Redesign, in my opinion. A shame it won't ever get finished. I had fun dissecting the game with cheat codes, once I was done playing it properly.
Metroid Grime: Dream Sequence by Grime [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 13, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 13, 2025 ( )
63% in 1:43
Don't be fooled by the 3/5 rating I'm giving, as this hack has quite a few things wrong with it. The biggest issue being that this feels like an unfinished mess, put together with duct tape. To be fair, this hack is unfinished, but why it was released on the main site in this state is beyond me. So what did I like about it? Well...
The visuals (well, the ones that had work done) looked pretty grimy, which fits with the hack's name. The routing in the beginning was interesting enough. Nothing here felt too difficult or obtuse. However, there are a couple of things I didn't like. Several, actually. One being that because this hack is unfinished, some doors lead to either dead ends, out of bounds, broken save rooms, etc. You have to take caution when entering doors, because it could lead to a reset. Next is the suit upgrades. You'll eventually find two suits from which to choose. Their Chozo orbs regenerate, so while you collect one suit, the other goes back into its Chozo orb, and then the other suit becomes inaccessible. This is likely because Varia and Gravity share the same item ID. Unlike previous hacks before this, Gravity Suit DOES NOT protect against heat, so which suit you choose will have to be chosen wisely, unless you're able to collect both suits fast enough before the other vanishes. For me, I took Gravity, headed toward Lower Norfair (one of few places left untouched), headed for Gold Torizo, and GT Coded to acquire the Varia Suit, which I would have otherwise lacked.
This is a weird hack, though not really weird by design, more so than weird because of jank. I did have genuine fun with what it was, though. The fact you can actually beat this hack, and even save the animals was what really made me give it a 3/5. Would have been a 2/5 otherwise.
The visuals (well, the ones that had work done) looked pretty grimy, which fits with the hack's name. The routing in the beginning was interesting enough. Nothing here felt too difficult or obtuse. However, there are a couple of things I didn't like. Several, actually. One being that because this hack is unfinished, some doors lead to either dead ends, out of bounds, broken save rooms, etc. You have to take caution when entering doors, because it could lead to a reset. Next is the suit upgrades. You'll eventually find two suits from which to choose. Their Chozo orbs regenerate, so while you collect one suit, the other goes back into its Chozo orb, and then the other suit becomes inaccessible. This is likely because Varia and Gravity share the same item ID. Unlike previous hacks before this, Gravity Suit DOES NOT protect against heat, so which suit you choose will have to be chosen wisely, unless you're able to collect both suits fast enough before the other vanishes. For me, I took Gravity, headed toward Lower Norfair (one of few places left untouched), headed for Gold Torizo, and GT Coded to acquire the Varia Suit, which I would have otherwise lacked.
This is a weird hack, though not really weird by design, more so than weird because of jank. I did have genuine fun with what it was, though. The fact you can actually beat this hack, and even save the animals was what really made me give it a 3/5. Would have been a 2/5 otherwise.
Super Metroid: Rebuild by Dark099 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
97% in 1:49
It was alright. The routing is nothing too special. Some rooms changed here and there, but is ultimately just another half-hack. Metroids in Maridia area was an interesting choice, as was placing Varia where Speed Booster normally is. Though, if you follow the general PRKD route, you'll get Gravity before that, making hell runs non-existent.
I kinda liked this hack. I will say I'm not a fan of the wall jumps being modified to instantly break spin, making continuous wall jumps impossible. The routing was pretty interesting, but not a fan of where Gravity Suit was located, seeing as what was needed to reach it in the first place being a little outside-the-box to be able to navigate to it. The weird warp points for some of the doors were an interesting choice; not the biggest fan of it, but it's interesting all the same. Also, the modified Spring Ball was... really fun, and very overpowered when one knows how to fully utilize everything it can do. It's a shame it's acquired really late in the game, making its value diminished. A half-hack, sure, but it's changed enough for me to give it a 3/5.
Sigma Boss Rush by Silver_Skree [ Boss Rush],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 01, 2025 ( )
Boss Rush],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 01, 2025 ( )
33% in 2:09
This hack was okay. Definitely more effort than most other boss rush-style hacks. It's not without its issues, however. Finding the items needed to leave Landing Site was annoying, requiring the player to search every tile, or accidentally find them through luck. The progression felt a bit back-and-forth as well, but at least the world map isn't really huge to make that as tedious as it otherwise would have been.
I now understand why the description mentioned Phantoon the way it did; why in the hell would you buff Phantoon's health so much? Starts off red, and when you do enough damage to it, it underflows and changes to its normal color, before changing to red again. I was the victim of the sunken cost fallacy, and ended up taking almost an hour to beat Phantoon; I didn't get Plasma until after. The fact that Phantoon instantly vanishes after any hit ensures it cannot be dopplered, making the fight last MUCH longer than it should have.
The Tourian save point is broken. Saving, and then reloading the save will cause Samus to spawn in a strange-looking refill room that can softlock, if your initial movement isn't specific. At least any Metroids defeated remain so. Speaking of Tourian, the escape is dickish, in that you need to find an item mid-escape to progress, or die to the acid that rapidly fills the room. The 30-minute timer, honestly, felt like a joke, as you don't even need 5 minutes to escape.
There were a few other quirks with the hack here and there outside of that, but otherwise, this wasn't a bad experience. I liked it just fine.
I now understand why the description mentioned Phantoon the way it did; why in the hell would you buff Phantoon's health so much? Starts off red, and when you do enough damage to it, it underflows and changes to its normal color, before changing to red again. I was the victim of the sunken cost fallacy, and ended up taking almost an hour to beat Phantoon; I didn't get Plasma until after. The fact that Phantoon instantly vanishes after any hit ensures it cannot be dopplered, making the fight last MUCH longer than it should have.
The Tourian save point is broken. Saving, and then reloading the save will cause Samus to spawn in a strange-looking refill room that can softlock, if your initial movement isn't specific. At least any Metroids defeated remain so. Speaking of Tourian, the escape is dickish, in that you need to find an item mid-escape to progress, or die to the acid that rapidly fills the room. The 30-minute timer, honestly, felt like a joke, as you don't even need 5 minutes to escape.
There were a few other quirks with the hack here and there outside of that, but otherwise, this wasn't a bad experience. I liked it just fine.
Rainbow City by squishy_ichigo [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 01, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 01, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This was certainly a fun proof of concept. It's largely unfinished, sadly. Everything, minus items have been reskinned, and I find it very impressive the amount of work put into this hack for its time. A bit sad that the music wasn't altered, but given the date of this hack's creation, it was during a time when music mods was non-existent. There's only one boss, and that's Botwoon. I... don't think the player is ever given enough ammo to beat it, though. After using cheat codes for infinite ammo, blue suit, and walk through walls, I found there really isn't anything after Botwoon, so that's functionally where the hack ends.
A neat look at what could have been. A ton of ambition, but I think it was abandoned after burnout, which is fair. Still a cool hack, if only for the aesthetics.
A neat look at what could have been. A ton of ambition, but I think it was abandoned after burnout, which is fair. Still a cool hack, if only for the aesthetics.
Super Metroid: Pantheon by squishy_ichigo [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 01, 2025 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 01, 2025 ( )
81% in 4:39
Compared to the last several hacks of 2008 here on MetroidConstruction, this was certainly a fresh step up. Let's go over what I didn't like, because there are only a few: The lack of save points was annoying. I get why the hack maker omitted them, but I feel with some time and patience, they could code the save points to be disabled during the escape sequence. Either that, or route the escape as to be linear, leading directly to the ship. Second thing is the lack of direction, which I'll elaborate, but also want to say that this is also a bit of why I liked the hack too.
This is probably one of the more open-ended hacks I've played. There's still restrictions on where one can go if lacking items, and so there is a route for progression, but given the freedom granted to the player from the start, you can either head west, as intended, or east, if you've the wall jumping skills (which isn't really hard at all). What you choose to do grants you items that changes the game's overall difficulty. After acquiring Speed Booster, a majority of the game is open for exploration, though much of that exploration may only yield minor items here and there.
The game is perhaps a bit too open, however. There is a possibility for a softlock in Maridia, if you either go the wrong way, or are unprepared. You also wouldn't be able to tell if you're supposed to be in Maridia, when in fact, you are supposed to progress through it. The item progression is a bit obtuse in that regard, but nothing too bad, especially if your skill set includes many tricks most Map Rando players would have at this point in time.
As with Golden Dawn, and Cliffhanger before it, the lack of a save means having to go all the way back to your ship whenever you want to save. And while the game isn't difficult by any real means, there are some sections that can warrant a player to backtrack to the ship, as to not lose any progression. It's this tedium that hurts the hack a bit, and even more so when there isn't much in the way of a shortcut between areas of the game. It makes progression feel much slower than it would otherwise.
The escape sequence is probably my favorite thing about the hack, honestly. It's the most open-ended escape I've seen, as you can pretty much go anywhere in the game, and route the escape however you want. It grants the player 15 minutes, which realistically, is WAY more than enough to escape, even with saving the animals. But that time does allow for any player of any skill to escape however they see fit. It was pretty amusing.
All in all, I liked this. Effort was clearly put into it, and that's something I can appreciate. The challenge was fair; slightly above casual, but not really hard either. It was the kind of exploration I've wanted after going through half of 2008's shit.
This is probably one of the more open-ended hacks I've played. There's still restrictions on where one can go if lacking items, and so there is a route for progression, but given the freedom granted to the player from the start, you can either head west, as intended, or east, if you've the wall jumping skills (which isn't really hard at all). What you choose to do grants you items that changes the game's overall difficulty. After acquiring Speed Booster, a majority of the game is open for exploration, though much of that exploration may only yield minor items here and there.
The game is perhaps a bit too open, however. There is a possibility for a softlock in Maridia, if you either go the wrong way, or are unprepared. You also wouldn't be able to tell if you're supposed to be in Maridia, when in fact, you are supposed to progress through it. The item progression is a bit obtuse in that regard, but nothing too bad, especially if your skill set includes many tricks most Map Rando players would have at this point in time.
As with Golden Dawn, and Cliffhanger before it, the lack of a save means having to go all the way back to your ship whenever you want to save. And while the game isn't difficult by any real means, there are some sections that can warrant a player to backtrack to the ship, as to not lose any progression. It's this tedium that hurts the hack a bit, and even more so when there isn't much in the way of a shortcut between areas of the game. It makes progression feel much slower than it would otherwise.
The escape sequence is probably my favorite thing about the hack, honestly. It's the most open-ended escape I've seen, as you can pretty much go anywhere in the game, and route the escape however you want. It grants the player 15 minutes, which realistically, is WAY more than enough to escape, even with saving the animals. But that time does allow for any player of any skill to escape however they see fit. It was pretty amusing.
All in all, I liked this. Effort was clearly put into it, and that's something I can appreciate. The challenge was fair; slightly above casual, but not really hard either. It was the kind of exploration I've wanted after going through half of 2008's shit.
I kinda liked this hack. Another half-hack, so nothing too special, but the routing is different enough to not be boring. There is an obviously intended route, where you're meant to go through Lower Norfair, and weather some acid baths with Varia, but with some cheese strats, I was able to cheese my way to Gravity Suit, which made my trek through Lower Norfair a cake walk. I think that's why I liked the hack, because I was able to break it in half with my current skill set, and ignore the established path. Some rooms had lava added to them, which can catch some players off guard, but other than those differences here and there, there's nothing too special about this.
So there are some issues I have with this hack. Most of them more or less mirror my gripes with RBO Impossible. That said, I didn't hate this quite as much as I did its predecessor. In fact, I kinda liked my experience with this hack for some part. Enough to give a 3/5 instead of a 1 or 2. However, I must be realistic and say that aside from some of the obtuse shit as far as progression goes, the fact that I had to resort to cheesing this hack harder than I have any other hack shows that playing this hack as intended wouldn't have been a lot of fun. My fun derived in the way I could dissect this game as much as I could, and being rewarded for it.
Case in point, GT Code. It is usually a last resort-type of thing for anyone to wanna do, but for me, I just didn't want to deal with the bullshit that Lower Norfair had to offer. It trivialized much of the rest of the hack, and I didn't care. The true challenge of this hack, however, even in spite of the GT Code, are some of the interestingly coded enemies, which I'll elaborate in the next paragraph...
There are several enemies in this game that are coded to insta-kill Samus upon being hit. Beetoms are a popular choice in this. However, the hack goes one step further than this; any type of damage inflicted to said enemies, whether a beam shot, a Missile shot, or even Bombs will instantly kill Samus, forcing the player to have to avoid all interactions with the enemies. There are also some surprising choices of enemies for whom this code was implemented. Aside from the aforementioned Beetoms, the other enemies that will insta-kill Samus when hit by them, or when damaging them ("damaging" being the loose term, as these enemies are functionally immortal) include the green sparks in Wrecked Ship, Kraid's flying claws (have fun with that one), and egregious still, Rinkas in Tourian, making it especially tricky. One would think it'd make the experience super-frustrating, and yes, they certainly can, but I also had fun trying to find a way to weave around them to avoid them.
Kraid pretty much hard-requires Screw Attack, which can be acquired fairly early. I had the misfortune of doing the GT Code after having already collected Screw, so I was forced to Spacetime Beam, resetting the game state, and playing from the beginning, just to reacquire the Screw Attack. I don't fault the game for that in this regard, as GT Coding was purely my decision.
Still had to throw a few save states here and there to cut down on the tedium of hiking it back through a really easy obstacle, like going from Forgotten Highway Save Room to Phantoon via Wrecked Ship's back door; it's not hard, but is annoying to have to do that after every failure, so I save stated at Phantoon's door, because I'm only gonna be back there easily anyway. That's just one such example.
Let's talk about the Tourian escape. That one caught me off guard. Changing the pirates vulnerability to Missiles and Bombs only was... a choice. You're given 10 minutes, and thankfully, that was more than enough, as I had a couple of minutes to spare, even after saving the animals. Not exactly my cup of tea for a Tourian escape, but I have seen worse.
I enjoyed the routing, and the freedom I had to just play surgeon with the hack, but like RBO Impossible, it could have been very much executed better. If I hadn't had as much fun experimenting with the hack, I probably would have given this a 2/5 instead. Again, this is a hack that will more than likely require a SMILE program to see where to go or what to do. I only figured things out on my own because of the lessons learned from RBO Impossible.
Case in point, GT Code. It is usually a last resort-type of thing for anyone to wanna do, but for me, I just didn't want to deal with the bullshit that Lower Norfair had to offer. It trivialized much of the rest of the hack, and I didn't care. The true challenge of this hack, however, even in spite of the GT Code, are some of the interestingly coded enemies, which I'll elaborate in the next paragraph...
There are several enemies in this game that are coded to insta-kill Samus upon being hit. Beetoms are a popular choice in this. However, the hack goes one step further than this; any type of damage inflicted to said enemies, whether a beam shot, a Missile shot, or even Bombs will instantly kill Samus, forcing the player to have to avoid all interactions with the enemies. There are also some surprising choices of enemies for whom this code was implemented. Aside from the aforementioned Beetoms, the other enemies that will insta-kill Samus when hit by them, or when damaging them ("damaging" being the loose term, as these enemies are functionally immortal) include the green sparks in Wrecked Ship, Kraid's flying claws (have fun with that one), and egregious still, Rinkas in Tourian, making it especially tricky. One would think it'd make the experience super-frustrating, and yes, they certainly can, but I also had fun trying to find a way to weave around them to avoid them.
Kraid pretty much hard-requires Screw Attack, which can be acquired fairly early. I had the misfortune of doing the GT Code after having already collected Screw, so I was forced to Spacetime Beam, resetting the game state, and playing from the beginning, just to reacquire the Screw Attack. I don't fault the game for that in this regard, as GT Coding was purely my decision.
Still had to throw a few save states here and there to cut down on the tedium of hiking it back through a really easy obstacle, like going from Forgotten Highway Save Room to Phantoon via Wrecked Ship's back door; it's not hard, but is annoying to have to do that after every failure, so I save stated at Phantoon's door, because I'm only gonna be back there easily anyway. That's just one such example.
Let's talk about the Tourian escape. That one caught me off guard. Changing the pirates vulnerability to Missiles and Bombs only was... a choice. You're given 10 minutes, and thankfully, that was more than enough, as I had a couple of minutes to spare, even after saving the animals. Not exactly my cup of tea for a Tourian escape, but I have seen worse.
I enjoyed the routing, and the freedom I had to just play surgeon with the hack, but like RBO Impossible, it could have been very much executed better. If I hadn't had as much fun experimenting with the hack, I probably would have given this a 2/5 instead. Again, this is a hack that will more than likely require a SMILE program to see where to go or what to do. I only figured things out on my own because of the lessons learned from RBO Impossible.
This hack was actually pretty neat. What I will say is an issue, personally, is the location of the Varia Suit; no one is going to know to look for it under the Ridley's room Gadora. Other than that, I liked the routing, though I admit, I did cheese the hell out of the game by way of clipping into Etecoons, for early Power Bombs, allowing me items, and a route that would have not been possible otherwise, and allowing me to beat the bosses out of order, with Draygon, Phantoon, Kraid, and then Ridley.
The bosses were fine, for the most part. While Phantoon's body does one-shot the player, smart movement will make it trivial, especially with the very early Screw Attack that's acquired. Kraid's room, however, was a pain in the ass. Not only does Kraid, and the spinning claws one-shot, but all walls and platforms are spike tiles, forcing the player to stay airborne, turning the fight into a damage race. At least Kraid's health isn't buffed heavily, so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
All in all, I had fun with this.
The bosses were fine, for the most part. While Phantoon's body does one-shot the player, smart movement will make it trivial, especially with the very early Screw Attack that's acquired. Kraid's room, however, was a pain in the ass. Not only does Kraid, and the spinning claws one-shot, but all walls and platforms are spike tiles, forcing the player to stay airborne, turning the fight into a damage race. At least Kraid's health isn't buffed heavily, so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
All in all, I had fun with this.
So the biggest problem with this hack that I personally have is the lack of save points. I don't know if it was because Digital_Mantra didn't know how to implement them at the time or not, but having the player rely on save states isn't a very fun way to go. Either that, or someone can painfully grind for over 30 hours just to say "Yeah, I beat this save state-less." If one was going to go the way of Golden Dawn, and make a hack without save points, it'd be better to just balance the difficulty, so that the player has plenty of opportunities to go back to the ship and save whenever they can. The first trip to Norfair to get Speed Booster, as well as the first rodeo through Wrecked Ship are especially egregious in this regard. If a hack has to encourage the use of save states, I feel it's the failure of the hack more than that of the player. But that's what the Redux version of Cliffhanger is for (Oh, I'll get to that at a future time).
That said, onto the actual challenge of the hack. One problem with the hack is not exactly knowing where to go or what to do. In the beginning, the path is rather linear, but after Wrecked Ship, everything starts to get confusing. The path forward isn't made obvious to the player, and would have the player ask "Am I even supposed to be here without x item?" Because of this, I felt I had to punch holes through as much of the hack as I could to force a way forward by way of glitches, like gate glitching for X-Ray Scope, or using said X-Ray to cheese for early Varia Suit. This is clearly a hack that almost requires you to take notes of areas you've seen, so you know to go back to them when you think you have the necessary things to get through.
Enemies were weird. For the most part, many remain unchanged, but the Reos were given steroids, and WILL one-shot, unless you have enough health, and they themselves can take a ton of punishment. The Bulls were also heavily buffed, requiring multiple Super Missiles to fell, and God help those who think they can easily kill them with Grappling Beam.
So all the shit I've been saying about this hack, is there anything about it I actually liked? Well, yes. Some of the obstacles and challenges were genuinely fun, but without save points, failing a single one means having to do a tedious-as-hell trek from your ship all the way back to the obstacle. All things considered, there is fun to be had here, and the effort in making a creative, yet hard hack is there. But if you want to play this without the frustration of no saves, or don't want to use save states, just play Cliffhanger Redux.
That said, onto the actual challenge of the hack. One problem with the hack is not exactly knowing where to go or what to do. In the beginning, the path is rather linear, but after Wrecked Ship, everything starts to get confusing. The path forward isn't made obvious to the player, and would have the player ask "Am I even supposed to be here without x item?" Because of this, I felt I had to punch holes through as much of the hack as I could to force a way forward by way of glitches, like gate glitching for X-Ray Scope, or using said X-Ray to cheese for early Varia Suit. This is clearly a hack that almost requires you to take notes of areas you've seen, so you know to go back to them when you think you have the necessary things to get through.
Enemies were weird. For the most part, many remain unchanged, but the Reos were given steroids, and WILL one-shot, unless you have enough health, and they themselves can take a ton of punishment. The Bulls were also heavily buffed, requiring multiple Super Missiles to fell, and God help those who think they can easily kill them with Grappling Beam.
So all the shit I've been saying about this hack, is there anything about it I actually liked? Well, yes. Some of the obstacles and challenges were genuinely fun, but without save points, failing a single one means having to do a tedious-as-hell trek from your ship all the way back to the obstacle. All things considered, there is fun to be had here, and the effort in making a creative, yet hard hack is there. But if you want to play this without the frustration of no saves, or don't want to use save states, just play Cliffhanger Redux.
Super Metroid: Boss by Cardweaver [ Boss Rush],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 19, 2024 ( )
Boss Rush],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 19, 2024 ( )
48% in 0:18
It's a pretty standard Boss Rush. I like how certain rooms transition, and how the bosses are fought in accordance to their areas, and not really the order in which they're casually fought (with one little exception). The only sad thing is no animals to save. Other than that, it's better than some of the other Boss Rush hacks I've played so far, so it gets a 3/5.
Super Metroid: Golden Dawn by Black Telomeres [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 20, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 20, 2024 ( )
80% in 4:20
Let me get something out of the way right now: I unironically really like this hack. Before I elaborate, let me go over what I didn't like:
- The gunship being the only save in the game, I admit, really sucks. I do understand that implementing save points was a difficult thing to do in hacks back then. But there are hacks, like Redesign, that was able to pull it off just fine. It could just be me, but I wondered if asked for help in something like this, someone maybe could have given some pointers or something.
THAT being said, the hack maker does give the player their blessing to use savesates (oh I'll get to that). Sadly, those who want to play this on console, aren't afforded the luxury. Also, while I do say it sucks, it does, however, add to the high stakes/high reward aspect of the game, where one has to make a choice as to whether or not to save, to preserve the items they got, or to keep going to avoid the trek all the way back to the ship. Of course, dying means losing any progress you've made since saving at the Landing Site, so the player MUST take stock in their situation, and decide accordingly whether they're confident they'll survive going further.
- Mother Brain... I really really hate that the area where Mother Brain is encountered uses the Red Tower music, because this results in a VERY high chance the game crashes upon beating MB1. I've tried just about every emulator, and the issue is the same. I hear even console has this issue, but don't quote me on that one.
I never had to use savestates during the course of my playthrough, as the game can be conquered without it, but this is the first non-TAS-only hack (so far), where I was hard-forced to use a savestate, or reset to have to trek ALL the way back to Mother Brain from the gunship. I've lost count the number of times I reloaded the state, but if you take the time it takes to reach Mother Brain from the gunship, and multiply that by the number of times I've reloaded the state, it would mean literal hours of grinding and grinding, and beating MB1 over and over, until the game accidentally works. For the sake of my sanity, the playthrough, and my stream/viewers, I had no alternative but to rely on savestates, and pretend I just reached Mother Brain from the ship that many times.
- I understand there are items super-well hidden, not unlike what is seen in Impossible. I am not a fan of items like that, as A, the X-Ray Scope couldn't even reveal or hint at them, making the player none the wiser, and B, it forces the player to have to look in an editor to see that the items are there. Specifically, a Missile pickup in the big room before Grappling Beam, and a Power Bomb in the big green room leading to Kraid.
Everything else was pretty much fine. Some of the obstacles were pretty cheap in its difficulty, but nothing too overtly troll, as far as I can tell. The Speed Booster escape was absolute hell, but to the maker's credit, the player can literally see the room's layout before getting Speed Booster, and try to plan accordingly. Some other weird changes include enemies, like Mocktroids and Cacatacs being immune to Grappling Beam for some reason, etc.
The path forward is FAR linear than Super Metroid: Dependence, for better or worse. Some may like that, some won't. I'm mostly indifferent, and if nothing else, it makes it more fun to try and figure out ways to sequence break wherever possible (there are VERY few opportunities for sequence breaks, as far as I can tell). Still, the progression was interesting, and the challenge was genuinely fun for me.
The Tourian(?) escape sequence was definitely something. I won't spoil anything, but it was tough, and in some cases, a bit annoying. I liked it more than I was annoyed with it, so it's a net positive overall. My only complaint is that the timer breaks in the middle of the escape, and it never fixes itself. I get why it does that, and I don't know if there's any way for anyone to fix the issue. Otherwise, I liked it. What I didn't like is that there are no animals to save; I really like trying to save the animals, whenever I'm able. Unless they can be saved, and I never knew?
Also, let me talk about the look. I'll be the odd bitch out and say that I do like the aesthetics. Granted, the really green room in Crateria (when you know, you know) was... really green, but everything else was fine. Norfair, Brinstar, Wrecked Ship, and Ceres-style rooms were left mostly unchanged aesthetically. However, the Sky Temple, with the really bright yellow, and lime green bricks, was quite the cool thing, in my opinion.
Yeah, the Sky Temple visuals can certainly blind a player, especially when they've been so used to the dark, dank environments of everywhere else, but I really like how unique it was compared to other hacks I've seen; we've seen a million red Craterias/sky backgrounds, but how many hacks have a background that literally lives up to the hack's name?
So why am I giving it a 3, instead of a 4, or 5/5? Well, the lack of saves do hurt it, but not as much as one may think. Like, yeah, it sucks, but it can be a non-issue if the player uses savestates, or in the case of myself and some others, have the necessary skill to persevere using ONLY the gunship as the save point. Still, it's something that I take into consideration, given the difficulty of some sections, and having too much path between you and the ship.
The other issue, which is the biggest downside for me, is the Mother Brain crash. I hate using savestates, unless it's hard-required, like the original Kaizo. So having to be effectively forced to have to use it at MB1 just felt really wrong to me. It also makes one wonder if this game was ever playtested up to that point, either by Black Telomeres themselves, or someone else. If so, they may have reached MB1, got lucky that the game didn't crash the first encounter, and thought, "Yeah, it's good to go."
If anyone, even if it's Black Telomeres themselves, ever decide to go back to this hack, and update it with a little polish in the same way Digital_Mantra did with Cliffhanger Redux, that would be pretty awesome. Even if the choice to have no saves outside of gunship is kept, just fixing the Mother Brain crash issue will definitely shoot this hack to a 4/5 for me. Maybe even a 5/5, just for the ambition, the aesthetics, and the fact that not one bit of this hack has anything vanilla as far as room/map layout is concerned.
- The gunship being the only save in the game, I admit, really sucks. I do understand that implementing save points was a difficult thing to do in hacks back then. But there are hacks, like Redesign, that was able to pull it off just fine. It could just be me, but I wondered if asked for help in something like this, someone maybe could have given some pointers or something.
THAT being said, the hack maker does give the player their blessing to use savesates (oh I'll get to that). Sadly, those who want to play this on console, aren't afforded the luxury. Also, while I do say it sucks, it does, however, add to the high stakes/high reward aspect of the game, where one has to make a choice as to whether or not to save, to preserve the items they got, or to keep going to avoid the trek all the way back to the ship. Of course, dying means losing any progress you've made since saving at the Landing Site, so the player MUST take stock in their situation, and decide accordingly whether they're confident they'll survive going further.
- Mother Brain... I really really hate that the area where Mother Brain is encountered uses the Red Tower music, because this results in a VERY high chance the game crashes upon beating MB1. I've tried just about every emulator, and the issue is the same. I hear even console has this issue, but don't quote me on that one.
I never had to use savestates during the course of my playthrough, as the game can be conquered without it, but this is the first non-TAS-only hack (so far), where I was hard-forced to use a savestate, or reset to have to trek ALL the way back to Mother Brain from the gunship. I've lost count the number of times I reloaded the state, but if you take the time it takes to reach Mother Brain from the gunship, and multiply that by the number of times I've reloaded the state, it would mean literal hours of grinding and grinding, and beating MB1 over and over, until the game accidentally works. For the sake of my sanity, the playthrough, and my stream/viewers, I had no alternative but to rely on savestates, and pretend I just reached Mother Brain from the ship that many times.
- I understand there are items super-well hidden, not unlike what is seen in Impossible. I am not a fan of items like that, as A, the X-Ray Scope couldn't even reveal or hint at them, making the player none the wiser, and B, it forces the player to have to look in an editor to see that the items are there. Specifically, a Missile pickup in the big room before Grappling Beam, and a Power Bomb in the big green room leading to Kraid.
Everything else was pretty much fine. Some of the obstacles were pretty cheap in its difficulty, but nothing too overtly troll, as far as I can tell. The Speed Booster escape was absolute hell, but to the maker's credit, the player can literally see the room's layout before getting Speed Booster, and try to plan accordingly. Some other weird changes include enemies, like Mocktroids and Cacatacs being immune to Grappling Beam for some reason, etc.
The path forward is FAR linear than Super Metroid: Dependence, for better or worse. Some may like that, some won't. I'm mostly indifferent, and if nothing else, it makes it more fun to try and figure out ways to sequence break wherever possible (there are VERY few opportunities for sequence breaks, as far as I can tell). Still, the progression was interesting, and the challenge was genuinely fun for me.
The Tourian(?) escape sequence was definitely something. I won't spoil anything, but it was tough, and in some cases, a bit annoying. I liked it more than I was annoyed with it, so it's a net positive overall. My only complaint is that the timer breaks in the middle of the escape, and it never fixes itself. I get why it does that, and I don't know if there's any way for anyone to fix the issue. Otherwise, I liked it. What I didn't like is that there are no animals to save; I really like trying to save the animals, whenever I'm able. Unless they can be saved, and I never knew?
Also, let me talk about the look. I'll be the odd bitch out and say that I do like the aesthetics. Granted, the really green room in Crateria (when you know, you know) was... really green, but everything else was fine. Norfair, Brinstar, Wrecked Ship, and Ceres-style rooms were left mostly unchanged aesthetically. However, the Sky Temple, with the really bright yellow, and lime green bricks, was quite the cool thing, in my opinion.
Yeah, the Sky Temple visuals can certainly blind a player, especially when they've been so used to the dark, dank environments of everywhere else, but I really like how unique it was compared to other hacks I've seen; we've seen a million red Craterias/sky backgrounds, but how many hacks have a background that literally lives up to the hack's name?
So why am I giving it a 3, instead of a 4, or 5/5? Well, the lack of saves do hurt it, but not as much as one may think. Like, yeah, it sucks, but it can be a non-issue if the player uses savestates, or in the case of myself and some others, have the necessary skill to persevere using ONLY the gunship as the save point. Still, it's something that I take into consideration, given the difficulty of some sections, and having too much path between you and the ship.
The other issue, which is the biggest downside for me, is the Mother Brain crash. I hate using savestates, unless it's hard-required, like the original Kaizo. So having to be effectively forced to have to use it at MB1 just felt really wrong to me. It also makes one wonder if this game was ever playtested up to that point, either by Black Telomeres themselves, or someone else. If so, they may have reached MB1, got lucky that the game didn't crash the first encounter, and thought, "Yeah, it's good to go."
If anyone, even if it's Black Telomeres themselves, ever decide to go back to this hack, and update it with a little polish in the same way Digital_Mantra did with Cliffhanger Redux, that would be pretty awesome. Even if the choice to have no saves outside of gunship is kept, just fixing the Mother Brain crash issue will definitely shoot this hack to a 4/5 for me. Maybe even a 5/5, just for the ambition, the aesthetics, and the fact that not one bit of this hack has anything vanilla as far as room/map layout is concerned.
Super Metroid: Dependence by Black Telomeres [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 18, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 18, 2024 ( )
88% in 4:14
This was an interesting full hack. Definitely not for the casual players, but isn't hard enough for me to consider this a challenge hack in the same way Super Hard Metroid, or even Super T-Metroid were. There wasn't anything that stands out in this hack, however; it's pretty standard. That said, I do have two issues with this:
- The path forward in ProtoTourian (Maridia): There are Power Bomb blocks at a ceiling in a Metroid room that would more than likely not be seen by the player. The X-Ray Scope cannot reach that high, unless the player had the forethought to freeze one of the Metroids, and use them as platforms. You can bomb the ceiling to reveal them, but the position of said blocks means the player would more often than not have had to find them by accident. It could've been implemented better, and be made more transparent to the player.
- Red herrings: There are a few doors in this hack that cannot be reached, and the player is given the impression that there's some kind of secret way into the door, or some path that leads out of it. The truth is that these doors go nowhere, and are simply there to piss people off. Case in point, there's a blue door in the room where Screw Attack is acquired that is normally unreachable. When X-Ray Climbing, one can reach said door. Entering it will take the player to another Lower Norfair room that can be reached elsewhere, making that door above the Screw Attack absolutely pointless.
Other gripes include the path forward in Tourian being one of those hidden paths that X-Ray can't reveal, etc. Also, I must be superhuman as Black Telomeres says I could be, because I did not find the Spring Ball, nor could I find it, so it was not for a lack of trying. If anyone knows where that hidden sumbitch is, I'd love to know.
Those issues out of the way, everything else is pretty straightforward. Some parts can be seen as challenging to the average player, while to veterans, not so much. I think the biggest selling point for this game, more than anything, for better or worse, is its open-endedness, as the player can take almost any route they want to proceed. Of course, this means some parts of the game will become harder, depending on where one chooses to go first, but that's part of the charm. Overall, I give this a 3/5.
- The path forward in ProtoTourian (Maridia): There are Power Bomb blocks at a ceiling in a Metroid room that would more than likely not be seen by the player. The X-Ray Scope cannot reach that high, unless the player had the forethought to freeze one of the Metroids, and use them as platforms. You can bomb the ceiling to reveal them, but the position of said blocks means the player would more often than not have had to find them by accident. It could've been implemented better, and be made more transparent to the player.
- Red herrings: There are a few doors in this hack that cannot be reached, and the player is given the impression that there's some kind of secret way into the door, or some path that leads out of it. The truth is that these doors go nowhere, and are simply there to piss people off. Case in point, there's a blue door in the room where Screw Attack is acquired that is normally unreachable. When X-Ray Climbing, one can reach said door. Entering it will take the player to another Lower Norfair room that can be reached elsewhere, making that door above the Screw Attack absolutely pointless.
Other gripes include the path forward in Tourian being one of those hidden paths that X-Ray can't reveal, etc. Also, I must be superhuman as Black Telomeres says I could be, because I did not find the Spring Ball, nor could I find it, so it was not for a lack of trying. If anyone knows where that hidden sumbitch is, I'd love to know.
Those issues out of the way, everything else is pretty straightforward. Some parts can be seen as challenging to the average player, while to veterans, not so much. I think the biggest selling point for this game, more than anything, for better or worse, is its open-endedness, as the player can take almost any route they want to proceed. Of course, this means some parts of the game will become harder, depending on where one chooses to go first, but that's part of the charm. Overall, I give this a 3/5.
The very first true challenge hack on the site. Yeah, there were hacks, like Ultimate Challenge 1 and 2, Super Hard Metroid, and Super T-Metroid, but this one feels far more fleshed out, with the challenges really thought through in how one progresses through the game. I did enjoy the challenges and routing, for sure, but this game is not without its issues, as I'll go over first.
My biggest issue, more than anything, is the location of some items. There are many places that are way too obtuse to figure out, like grabbing the Missile in Aqueduct, for example. The player absolutely cannot and will not know about how to get said Missile, and there's no way to cheese it either. Damning still is that X-Ray Scope (oh, I'll get to that) doesn't reveal anything either. The player has to somehow know there's a hidden crumbling Grapple Block on the right side of the door leading to Botwoon Hallway, literally right below the loading zone. One must time a jump with Spring Ball as the Grapple Block crumbles, as it does reform, and must do so without hitting the loading zone. HOW THE HELL IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?! IT'S BULLSHIT! Literally, one is forced to look at the hack in an editor, like SMILE in order to know that it's there; there is no universe, no timeline where a player accidentally stumbles upon this intended little path to the Missiles. There are plenty of obtuse instances of items being this well hidden for no reason. The X-Ray Scope does reveal most things otherwise.
Speaking of X-Ray Scope, the location is just plain mean spirited. While there's a non-zero chance the path to the Aqueduct Missile can be accidentally found, there is literally no way anyone could have found X-Ray Scope on their own. This one hard-requires either prior knowledge, or opening the game in an editor to see where it is. It's found in Three Musketeers' Room, and requires a Crystal Flash into the wall between the right side, and FrankerZ Missiles, but in a very specific stretch of tiles, as there's a hidden path within. Immediately from there, one must navigate in Morph Ball in a crawl space above, and ceiling bomb jump across a 1-tile gap, or else one will fall through to the main area below, with no way back up, except another Crystal Flash. Once across said 1-tile gap, the X-Ray Scope is to the far right of that section.
I understand why the X-Ray Scope was placed in such a stupidly cryptic manner, and while I don't like or agree with the choice, I can respect it. I learned, while playing this game, that the hack's author, Saturn, is a known TASer, and knew just how powerful a tool the X-Ray Scope can be in the hands of those who know how to really use it beyond the devs' intended function. If the X-Ray Scope was acquired earlier, or more easily, one can cheese parts of the game, including the acquisition of the Gravity Suit MUCH earlier than intended. I agree with Saturn's motive, just not the method.
The one saving grace, however, is that ALL hard-required items are pretty straightforward. From my experience, only the truly esoteric and cryptic items are optional, including the X-Ray Scope, and isn't needed to progress through the game. Granted, sticking to ONLY the required items will make life harder, as one will have less resources, like ammo and energy for later bosses and areas - oh, I'll get to that too!
The areas are hard, but it's to be expected. Norfair's "Oops! All Hell Runs!" was a bitch to do, but was still fun in its challenge. Definitely NOT for everyone, but anyone who plays this game should know what to expect. The bosses are also hard as well, though to some detriment. Phantoon was alright for the most part. Kraid was annoyingly bulky, and hit harder than usual, but nothing too bad. Draygon, on the other hand, was WAY too stupid. For starters, it hit like a truck; I don't even know if the damage was buffed from it or the surrounding turrets, but they all hit stupidly hard all the same. To add to this, Draygon's health has been significantly buffed, and the turrets are impossible to destroy. This makes the fight less about skill, and more about RNG. If the game decides "Here's a dick," you can't do anything about it; you have to take it and start again. The only saving grace is that the save point is, like, right there... which cannot be said about Ridley.
Ridley has also been buffed significantly in health. Either that, or his resistance to Super Missiles were increased. Either way, the fight isn't easy, since you'll be in a hell run throughout, meaning the fight with Ridley is a DPS race. That itself isn't a problem. What is, however, is the fact that the closest save is in the Red Kihunter Shaft, meaning every death results in a tedious trek back to Ridley, and an even more tedious health/ammo grind, using the wasps in the Lower Norfair Farming Room before Ridley. They could have placed an energy and Missile refill in there or something, to mitigate the tedium.
Mother Brain is a major pain in the ass. Everything she throws at you does an illegal amount of damage, and her health has been heavily buffed. So knowing how to deal with all of her attacks, especially her bombs, are important. Also, health management is equally important, as you need to put yourself within range for MB's rainbow beam to initiate the Baby cutscene, or else you die to Mother Brain's projectiles during her taunting phase. The escape after that gives you only 1 minute, with very little room for error. Tourian Escape Room 3 is easily the worst part of it, requiring not only a shinespark, but weaving through a Morph crawl space before shinesparking to the top-right door. One can mess that up once, and still have just barely enough time to escape, so not all is lost. I am 100% convinced, unless I see proof to the contrary, that the animals are impossible to save successfully.
Overall, I still enjoyed everything else in the game, most especially the routing, what with where the game places Varia. Once that is acquired, A, you're pretty much at the end game, and B, there's a genuine feeling of accomplishment. Draygon and Ridley does sour the experience quite a bit, but what's good in this game is pretty damn good in terms of testing one's skill. That said, I can't give this more than a 3/5, because of Draygon and Ridley made to be more aggravating than challenging, and the way in which this game hides most of the item pickups. Still, I liked it more than anything.
My biggest issue, more than anything, is the location of some items. There are many places that are way too obtuse to figure out, like grabbing the Missile in Aqueduct, for example. The player absolutely cannot and will not know about how to get said Missile, and there's no way to cheese it either. Damning still is that X-Ray Scope (oh, I'll get to that) doesn't reveal anything either. The player has to somehow know there's a hidden crumbling Grapple Block on the right side of the door leading to Botwoon Hallway, literally right below the loading zone. One must time a jump with Spring Ball as the Grapple Block crumbles, as it does reform, and must do so without hitting the loading zone. HOW THE HELL IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?! IT'S BULLSHIT! Literally, one is forced to look at the hack in an editor, like SMILE in order to know that it's there; there is no universe, no timeline where a player accidentally stumbles upon this intended little path to the Missiles. There are plenty of obtuse instances of items being this well hidden for no reason. The X-Ray Scope does reveal most things otherwise.
Speaking of X-Ray Scope, the location is just plain mean spirited. While there's a non-zero chance the path to the Aqueduct Missile can be accidentally found, there is literally no way anyone could have found X-Ray Scope on their own. This one hard-requires either prior knowledge, or opening the game in an editor to see where it is. It's found in Three Musketeers' Room, and requires a Crystal Flash into the wall between the right side, and FrankerZ Missiles, but in a very specific stretch of tiles, as there's a hidden path within. Immediately from there, one must navigate in Morph Ball in a crawl space above, and ceiling bomb jump across a 1-tile gap, or else one will fall through to the main area below, with no way back up, except another Crystal Flash. Once across said 1-tile gap, the X-Ray Scope is to the far right of that section.
I understand why the X-Ray Scope was placed in such a stupidly cryptic manner, and while I don't like or agree with the choice, I can respect it. I learned, while playing this game, that the hack's author, Saturn, is a known TASer, and knew just how powerful a tool the X-Ray Scope can be in the hands of those who know how to really use it beyond the devs' intended function. If the X-Ray Scope was acquired earlier, or more easily, one can cheese parts of the game, including the acquisition of the Gravity Suit MUCH earlier than intended. I agree with Saturn's motive, just not the method.
The one saving grace, however, is that ALL hard-required items are pretty straightforward. From my experience, only the truly esoteric and cryptic items are optional, including the X-Ray Scope, and isn't needed to progress through the game. Granted, sticking to ONLY the required items will make life harder, as one will have less resources, like ammo and energy for later bosses and areas - oh, I'll get to that too!
The areas are hard, but it's to be expected. Norfair's "Oops! All Hell Runs!" was a bitch to do, but was still fun in its challenge. Definitely NOT for everyone, but anyone who plays this game should know what to expect. The bosses are also hard as well, though to some detriment. Phantoon was alright for the most part. Kraid was annoyingly bulky, and hit harder than usual, but nothing too bad. Draygon, on the other hand, was WAY too stupid. For starters, it hit like a truck; I don't even know if the damage was buffed from it or the surrounding turrets, but they all hit stupidly hard all the same. To add to this, Draygon's health has been significantly buffed, and the turrets are impossible to destroy. This makes the fight less about skill, and more about RNG. If the game decides "Here's a dick," you can't do anything about it; you have to take it and start again. The only saving grace is that the save point is, like, right there... which cannot be said about Ridley.
Ridley has also been buffed significantly in health. Either that, or his resistance to Super Missiles were increased. Either way, the fight isn't easy, since you'll be in a hell run throughout, meaning the fight with Ridley is a DPS race. That itself isn't a problem. What is, however, is the fact that the closest save is in the Red Kihunter Shaft, meaning every death results in a tedious trek back to Ridley, and an even more tedious health/ammo grind, using the wasps in the Lower Norfair Farming Room before Ridley. They could have placed an energy and Missile refill in there or something, to mitigate the tedium.
Mother Brain is a major pain in the ass. Everything she throws at you does an illegal amount of damage, and her health has been heavily buffed. So knowing how to deal with all of her attacks, especially her bombs, are important. Also, health management is equally important, as you need to put yourself within range for MB's rainbow beam to initiate the Baby cutscene, or else you die to Mother Brain's projectiles during her taunting phase. The escape after that gives you only 1 minute, with very little room for error. Tourian Escape Room 3 is easily the worst part of it, requiring not only a shinespark, but weaving through a Morph crawl space before shinesparking to the top-right door. One can mess that up once, and still have just barely enough time to escape, so not all is lost. I am 100% convinced, unless I see proof to the contrary, that the animals are impossible to save successfully.
Overall, I still enjoyed everything else in the game, most especially the routing, what with where the game places Varia. Once that is acquired, A, you're pretty much at the end game, and B, there's a genuine feeling of accomplishment. Draygon and Ridley does sour the experience quite a bit, but what's good in this game is pretty damn good in terms of testing one's skill. That said, I can't give this more than a 3/5, because of Draygon and Ridley made to be more aggravating than challenging, and the way in which this game hides most of the item pickups. Still, I liked it more than anything.
Super Metroid: The Darkness Spreads 2 by BoostGuardian [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 10, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 10, 2024 ( )
65% in 6:08
There are two major issues I have with this hack, preventing me from rating this any higher than a 3:
- It's BORING and TEDIOUS to navigate. To elaborate, there are way too many instances where rooms are laid out to have a lot of narrow passages, requiring Morph and Bombs to proceed. It becomes a slow slogfest, with the purpose of aggravating the player. I could easily forgive it, if the hack gave the player Spring Ball early, but no, it's given significantly late in the game. It should be a requirement for hack makers to give Spring in hacks where they insist on tedious Morph Ball mazes, do not debate me.
- Red herrings; this game has a lot of them. Grey doors that don't open, and even if they did, leads to nowhere, or even if they had a loading zone, like Crocomire's room, it's impossible to enter them. This is made more egregious when Crocomire's door, which is grey, flashes after defeating Ridley, as a way to taunt the player. There's no reason for that. While I haven't used any Game Genie codes to walk through walls, to see what was down there, I do speculate that Crocomire's area is purely unchanged from vanilla, because why would it be different if it can't be entered? On a related note, the map remains unchanged from vanilla, so rooms that are omitted from the hack are still displayed, incluidng Croco's room, Hi-Jump Boots Room, etc.
After reading the reviews after my playthrough, I'd parrot what caauyjdp said; I used Crystal Flash to enter the bottom door of Crateria Super Room. What I didn't realize was that it was meant to be an exit. I collected a Power Bomb within. During the escape sequence, the top door of that room opens to the player, where they are meant to go around to the bottom of Craterai Super Room, collect the Power Bombs, and escape. If you collect the PBs before the escape sequence, it will be nearly impossible to escape (not sure if the Boyons in the room, which can be killed with a single Bomb, drops Power Bombs).
At that point, I was forced to hard-reset the run, but by way of Spacetime Beam, as to keep my items, and speed through the game to Tourian. Had it not been for that, I'd have been forced to start a whole new playthrough, and it would technically be the fault of the player, but it's still an awful thing to put necessary items during the escape sequence, because of occasions, like these.
Other than those gripes, I did enjoy the routing, the aesthetic, some of the genuine effort, and the challenge presented in the hack. This could have been executed better, but for what it is, and what we got, it could've been so much worse.
- It's BORING and TEDIOUS to navigate. To elaborate, there are way too many instances where rooms are laid out to have a lot of narrow passages, requiring Morph and Bombs to proceed. It becomes a slow slogfest, with the purpose of aggravating the player. I could easily forgive it, if the hack gave the player Spring Ball early, but no, it's given significantly late in the game. It should be a requirement for hack makers to give Spring in hacks where they insist on tedious Morph Ball mazes, do not debate me.
- Red herrings; this game has a lot of them. Grey doors that don't open, and even if they did, leads to nowhere, or even if they had a loading zone, like Crocomire's room, it's impossible to enter them. This is made more egregious when Crocomire's door, which is grey, flashes after defeating Ridley, as a way to taunt the player. There's no reason for that. While I haven't used any Game Genie codes to walk through walls, to see what was down there, I do speculate that Crocomire's area is purely unchanged from vanilla, because why would it be different if it can't be entered? On a related note, the map remains unchanged from vanilla, so rooms that are omitted from the hack are still displayed, incluidng Croco's room, Hi-Jump Boots Room, etc.
After reading the reviews after my playthrough, I'd parrot what caauyjdp said; I used Crystal Flash to enter the bottom door of Crateria Super Room. What I didn't realize was that it was meant to be an exit. I collected a Power Bomb within. During the escape sequence, the top door of that room opens to the player, where they are meant to go around to the bottom of Craterai Super Room, collect the Power Bombs, and escape. If you collect the PBs before the escape sequence, it will be nearly impossible to escape (not sure if the Boyons in the room, which can be killed with a single Bomb, drops Power Bombs).
At that point, I was forced to hard-reset the run, but by way of Spacetime Beam, as to keep my items, and speed through the game to Tourian. Had it not been for that, I'd have been forced to start a whole new playthrough, and it would technically be the fault of the player, but it's still an awful thing to put necessary items during the escape sequence, because of occasions, like these.
Other than those gripes, I did enjoy the routing, the aesthetic, some of the genuine effort, and the challenge presented in the hack. This could have been executed better, but for what it is, and what we got, it could've been so much worse.
This hack is interesting. After years in the military, under the command of Adam Malkovich, Samus Aran goes her own way, working hard to make a name for herself as a bounty hunter. She is well renowned in the galaxy, as the Galactic Federation often calls on her to take on missions even their own trained military forces cannot. Why wouldn't they? Even from childhood, Samus has lived her life working; training her body to become physically strong, and flexible, to the point she can perform feats no ordinary human can. Granted, much of that heavy lifting was due to her DNA being combined with that of the Chozo, making her overqualified for many tasks considered too dangerous for a human otherwise.
She has infiltrated the Space Pirate base on Zebes, to fell their leader, the Mother Brain, and during that mission, she had to navigate the treacherous caverns, even going so deep as to reach volcanic chasms, where she encountered the likes of Space Pirate generals, Kraid and Ridley; formidable foes, the latter of whom was responsible for Samus being an orphan, and being plunged into the life in which she currently lives.
Fast forward to the Prime series, where she has tangoed with more Space Pirates, including a returning Ridley, and has also tangoed with other bounty hunters, some of whom proved as formidable as Samus herself. That's to say nothing of the Metroid Prime, which ultimately became a ferocious dark-side version of Samus, a foe even more dangerous than Ridley and Mother Brain could ever hope to be.
Then she was tasked to explore the Metroid-ruled planet of SR388, where her mission was to destroy all the Metroids that thrive there, a job no other human could accomplish, given the danger the Metroids posed. Not just the standard life-draining Metroid larvae, but she also tussled with their more mature stages, including Beta, Zeta, and the fearsome Omega, leading up to the behemoth that was the Metroid Queen. It was there, she encountered a baby Metroid. The last of its kind, who mistook Samus as its mother. Having shown such intelligence, Samus didn't have the heart to eradicate the larva, and instead, took it with her.
All this leads up to the events of Super Metroid, AKA Metroid 3. And after all that she has been through up until this point, the bitch definitely more than deserves a vacation. To hell with Zebes, to hell with Ceres, to hell with the Galactic Federation, Samus is going out to Space Hawaii to sip on mimosas and having her Metroid baby as a companion, because not even Adam Malkovich can tell her she ain't earned her time to put her feet up. Yes, Adam, there is an objection, and Samus will dare you to do something about it!
She has infiltrated the Space Pirate base on Zebes, to fell their leader, the Mother Brain, and during that mission, she had to navigate the treacherous caverns, even going so deep as to reach volcanic chasms, where she encountered the likes of Space Pirate generals, Kraid and Ridley; formidable foes, the latter of whom was responsible for Samus being an orphan, and being plunged into the life in which she currently lives.
Fast forward to the Prime series, where she has tangoed with more Space Pirates, including a returning Ridley, and has also tangoed with other bounty hunters, some of whom proved as formidable as Samus herself. That's to say nothing of the Metroid Prime, which ultimately became a ferocious dark-side version of Samus, a foe even more dangerous than Ridley and Mother Brain could ever hope to be.
Then she was tasked to explore the Metroid-ruled planet of SR388, where her mission was to destroy all the Metroids that thrive there, a job no other human could accomplish, given the danger the Metroids posed. Not just the standard life-draining Metroid larvae, but she also tussled with their more mature stages, including Beta, Zeta, and the fearsome Omega, leading up to the behemoth that was the Metroid Queen. It was there, she encountered a baby Metroid. The last of its kind, who mistook Samus as its mother. Having shown such intelligence, Samus didn't have the heart to eradicate the larva, and instead, took it with her.
All this leads up to the events of Super Metroid, AKA Metroid 3. And after all that she has been through up until this point, the bitch definitely more than deserves a vacation. To hell with Zebes, to hell with Ceres, to hell with the Galactic Federation, Samus is going out to Space Hawaii to sip on mimosas and having her Metroid baby as a companion, because not even Adam Malkovich can tell her she ain't earned her time to put her feet up. Yes, Adam, there is an objection, and Samus will dare you to do something about it!
Super Metroid: The Darkness Spreads 1 by BoostGuardian [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 28, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 28, 2024 ( )
97% in 2:05
It's a half-hack, with different routing. Some of the item locations are different, which is neat. If you're a casual, you'll likely follow the intended path, but veterans will more than likely stray from the main route and find more items than they need by the time they fight the first intended G4 boss encounter. Some of the bosses were vastly buffed (in health, not damage) while others were greatly nerfed, for the sake of the routing. Not much else to say, really. My only gripe is, despite the name, the aesthetics of Zebes (or Dark Zebes, in this case) looks literally no different than ordinary Zebes. At least Samus's suits have different colors. As something to note: Like with Super Hard Metroid, the Baby Metroid encounter uses a different sound effect for the Baby Metroid, making the game very likely to crash if it grabs Samus, and reduces her health to 1, forcing the player to have to Baby skip, which is always annoying.
P.S. Where the hell is Spazer?!
P.S. Where the hell is Spazer?!
Searching for Items by Terimakasih [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 22, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 22, 2024 ( )
85% in 2:36
The hack was neat, but some things hold it back. The most glaring of which is the save. Saving anywhere in Crateria will render the save unplayable, as you'll end up softlocked out of bounds in Spore Spawn's area somewhere. Maridia's save is fine. Norfair's save, however, places you in a watery room a room or two before the actual save room. Bottom line: Saves are broken, so don't save in Crateria. I was forced to use savestates at save points, in place of actually using the save, which sucks, because I don't like using savestates, especially when I don't have to. Only thing that saved me from the Crateria save softlock was by resorting to using an Action Replay code that allowed me to select in which area to load my save (Norfair was the safe option).
Another point against the hack is some of the obtuse item locations, most especially Ice Beam. This is a hack that practically forces the player to use X-Ray Scope EVERYWHERE the moment they get it, and sometimes, it doesn't really help much. Also, there are a few doors that cannot be entered, which act as red herrings to the player. To see if they led anywhere, I took it upon myself (after my playthrough) to use a "Walk Through Walls" cheat to enter the door, in which it led to a softlock. Also, unless proven otherwise, there are no animals to save. Or if there are, the means to do so isn't made apparent, if at all possible.
The good things it does have otherwise is its map layout and - barring the item locations - item progression. The boss fights were pretty standard, though most boss rooms were changed to make them more interesting. Ridley's room, however, was annoying; it made the fight harder than it needed to be, which I feel was unnecessary.
I'm giving it a 3/5, because there was genuine effort put into this, though some of the execution was a bit lacking. I would've given this a 4/5 if the save issues weren't a factor.
Another point against the hack is some of the obtuse item locations, most especially Ice Beam. This is a hack that practically forces the player to use X-Ray Scope EVERYWHERE the moment they get it, and sometimes, it doesn't really help much. Also, there are a few doors that cannot be entered, which act as red herrings to the player. To see if they led anywhere, I took it upon myself (after my playthrough) to use a "Walk Through Walls" cheat to enter the door, in which it led to a softlock. Also, unless proven otherwise, there are no animals to save. Or if there are, the means to do so isn't made apparent, if at all possible.
The good things it does have otherwise is its map layout and - barring the item locations - item progression. The boss fights were pretty standard, though most boss rooms were changed to make them more interesting. Ridley's room, however, was annoying; it made the fight harder than it needed to be, which I feel was unnecessary.
I'm giving it a 3/5, because there was genuine effort put into this, though some of the execution was a bit lacking. I would've given this a 4/5 if the save issues weren't a factor.
Weird level layout, and a weird hell run, made weirder by the lack of a proper moving camera. Ceres was also really troll, though I managed to get through it (and the rest of the game) deathless. Overall, I kinda like it, and the challenge it presented. Nothing about which to write home, but I found it (mostly) harmless.
Super Metroid: Ultimate Challenge 1 by Popple_Waffles [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 07, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 07, 2024 ( )
15% in 0:00
Your run-of-the-mill obstacle course hack. This one isn't for beginners, but those who are half-adept in Super Metroid movement should be okay, especially since you start with max E-Tanks.
I like the obstacle course style of this hack. It does what it set out to do, simplistic as it may be. My only criticism is the lack of an actual ending, but at least you'll know when you reach the end. I liked it more than I thought I would, but nothing too special overall.
Another Super Metroid by Banana Oyaji [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 07, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 07, 2024 ( )
100% in 2:13
For the earliest hack on the site, and a hack this old, I can't judge it harshly. It's a half-hack, except there's genuine effort put into the structure of many of the rooms. If you know vanilla Super Metroid, you'll know where to find everything, so in that regards, it's very simple. Still, it's a nice look at what rom hacks were like that early. Not great, but not bad. Feels more like a test of what one can do with whatever tools they had back then for hacks.
Super Metroid: Intense by Eddy23911 [ Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 11, 2025 ( )
Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 11, 2025 ( )
100% in 2:36
So this hack, like others before it, is mostly just spike spam, with no difference in item placement, though actual progression does change a bit, such as hard-requiring Grappling Beam to enter Wrecked Ship, for example. The rate of fire on Spazer is rather nice, as is Plasma+Wave+Ice combo. Some bosses are decently buffed, while others are hilariously nerfed (looking at you, Gold Torizo). My biggest issue with this hack, other than just being mostly spike spam, is the weird, and even godawful music choice; MB2 fight music for most of Upper Norfair gets really tiring really quickly. Speaking of Mother Brain, the music choice in MB's room causes the game to crash hard after defeating MB1. I found that after destroying all Zebetites, and her glass tank, then leaving to save and come back, it was able to work fine, though it might be me having gotten lucky? (Spoiler ahead) Another issue is the way to Gravity Suit. You must enter Bowling Alley through the upper door, as there is no access through its front door. This wouldn't be an issue normally, except the screen scroll PLM does not work, so going down from the Reserve Tank means having to navigate half-blind, through the robots and spike pits. Not too hard to do, but is still annoying as hell.
I do appreciate the buffed health drops, which one would think would mitigate farming, but Missile drops only yield 1 Missile, so it kinda evens out to about the same as normal. I did enjoy some of the challenge that came with it, but because it's something we've seen countless times before, this ends up being nothing special, and kind of tedious, and even a tad boring. I liked it just enough for this hack to barely eke a 2/5 from me.
I do appreciate the buffed health drops, which one would think would mitigate farming, but Missile drops only yield 1 Missile, so it kinda evens out to about the same as normal. I did enjoy some of the challenge that came with it, but because it's something we've seen countless times before, this ends up being nothing special, and kind of tedious, and even a tad boring. I liked it just enough for this hack to barely eke a 2/5 from me.
Legend of the Beast - Prologue by statik [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
35% in 0:49
Overall, this hack was kinda boring. It's a full hack, at least, but it was still short overall, and some of the pacing can either be quick or slow, depending on how you go about it. The lack of a save outside of the ship only exacerbates the pacing a bit. The visuals were fine, save for the first room of Wrecked Ship, where the background becomes an eyesore, at least until after you collect Wave Beam, it seems. The end was also bugged; approaching the trigger for the end causes the game to crash. I did reclose the wave gate, and then approached the trigger in morph form to successfully trigger the ending, if that means anything. Also, there was no beast anywhere in the hack, despite the hack's name. In the end, I was rather underwhelmed.
Platinum Hexidecimal by seastorm [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Misspelling of "Hexadecimal" aside, this hack wasn't too bad. The progression was pretty fair, and the palettes were interesting, though the suit colors could've been executed better. The fight with Ridley, which, weirdly enough, is the Ceres version, is a little bugged, as he'll fly off screen and stay off screen until you lay a Power Bomb, after which he'll stay in the battle without bugging out. The fight is also made harder than usual, as it takes more than 100 shots to make him run away, and the only part of him that deals any real damage is his main body, at 100 damage, meaning him running away from damaging Samus isn't likely to happen. In either case, the hack ends when he runs away. Nothing else happens; no escape sequence, nothing. Samus just stays in the room, and you can't do anything else afterward. An anticlimactic end, for sure.
P.S. I don't believe X-Ray Scope can be acquired. It's just there to taunt the player. Although, even if you could get it, it'd be too late into the hack to be of any use.
P.S. I don't believe X-Ray Scope can be acquired. It's just there to taunt the player. Although, even if you could get it, it'd be too late into the hack to be of any use.
Super Metroid: Vino by Cyclamen32 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
88% in 3:23
Wasn't really a fan of this hack. A lot of cryptic progression points (spoiler ahead), like a hidden Super block that takes you into Crocomire, or a hidden enemy in "Wasteland" in the corner of a wall that needs to be killed while the pirates are ignored. Worse still, is the location of the Wave Beam; I'll save ya'll the trouble and just straight up tell you that you need to go into Lower Norfair through the back door to find it in "Three Musketeers Room", using a Power Bomb to break your way into the usual Missile location. Without that Wave Beam, you ain't progressing anywhere. If this hack did anything for me, is teach me to make a habit of checking if Lower Norfair can be entered through the back in any hack I play moving forward. I can see why someone would rate this a 3/5 or more, but this hack just didn't do it for me.
Super Metroid: Fantasy and Dazzle by backfire [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 22, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 22, 2025 ( )
119% in 1:48
This hack was not fantastic, nor was it dazzling. It's just another half hack with routing that makes it different from vanilla. There are many changes to some of the rooms to help force said routing, but overall, this was just another standard half hack with not a lot of substance. The buffs to bosses didn't really add much of a challenge either.
Aside from the .srm file issue in the beginning, this hack is way too short. Worst of all, there is no file select screen; you just go right into the gameplay, which presents two problems: You cannot remap your controls, forcing the player to play with the vanilla button scheme (which is no problem if, say, you're Oatsngoats), and you cannot turn on moonwalk... not that moonwalking would have been much benefit in such a short hack anyway. The only real thing I can say about this hack that's good is the tile set. I wish more was done with it.
Wasn't too bad. The visuals were nice, but that's pretty much it. It was really short, and there wasn't exactly anything that screamed "Christmas". Would've like for it to be a bit longer, and have more in the way of actual Christmas aesthetics.
Metroid Classic Demo by JAM [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
For its time, the idea was really cool, but unfortunately, there's a lot that's missing. Literally only the top part of Brinstar is almost done, with the Long Beam chamber/hall being absent, and the path to Tourian leading to a flashbang of a dead end room. Other than that, the rest of the game is just vanilla, which was disappointing. You can't even beat the game, as the game crashes upon getting past the Big Boy Room.
There's already a hack that recreated NEStroid, and arguably better than the ambitions set by this one; a hack called Retroid. This was still interesting to see that recreating NEStroid was an idea someone had back in 2009.
There's already a hack that recreated NEStroid, and arguably better than the ambitions set by this one; a hack called Retroid. This was still interesting to see that recreating NEStroid was an idea someone had back in 2009.
Metroid Bloodstone by NORTHa [ Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
On paper, this hack is a Quick Play, but in actual practice, you'll likely spend much longer trying to find the way forward, and then repeating the way forward multiple times due to cheap troll deaths. It isn't as small a hack as the description implies, and has far more rooms than just "a few". The biggest issue this hack has are, again, the pick-a-path troll deaths, where if you pick wrong, or do something incorrectly, you get unfairly fucked for no reason. I could have easily forgiven that aspect of the hack, and have given this a 3/5 if there were save points, but there isn't, so you're better off using save states and saving yourself the annoying tedium of starting over from the beginning again and again. I don't recommend this.
I wasn't too fond of this hack. It was amusing for the most part, I will admit, but it gets so tedious very quickly. For starters, Metroids EVERYWHERE. Just because the series is called "Metroid" doesn't mean one should run with it. And if one was going to do that, why buff the Metroids? They require 10 Missiles/2 Super Missiles to kill, making ammo management annoying, and some Metroids require multiple shots with Ice Beam to actually freeze. It makes navigating rooms a slog, and ends up being less a challenge, and more a test in patience and frustration.
My biggest issues with this hack are two things: The first being Red Tower. The player is allowed at the top of Red Tower, but you'll acquire no Power Bombs up there. If you happen to save up there (which most players understandably would), you'll lock your save, forcing the player to start the game fresh from the beginning... Or be a spiteful bitch, like me, and use Action Replay to simply walk through the door from where you entered Red Brinstar Elevator Room/Caterpillar Room. The other issue is the Amphitheater; how the hell is the player supposed to know there are speed blocks through which the player must shine spark, except by pure accident? The X-Ray Scope cannot reveal it either, as the player isn't able to get high enough for the camera to show that part of the screen. I had to be told the answer, and that really pissed me off. It's a failure in design by the maker.
Everything else was just a challenge hack, with challenge hack stuff, like lava/acid-filled rooms and the like. Nothing too difficult, all things considered, but goddamn, those Metroids really slow the playthrough down to a crawl. I wanna like it more. Maybe if the Metroids' stats were left unchanged, and the Amphitheater fixed, and the softlock in Red Tower removed, I would have liked it more than I did, and likely given a 3/5. As it stands, this hack kinda sucks.
My biggest issues with this hack are two things: The first being Red Tower. The player is allowed at the top of Red Tower, but you'll acquire no Power Bombs up there. If you happen to save up there (which most players understandably would), you'll lock your save, forcing the player to start the game fresh from the beginning... Or be a spiteful bitch, like me, and use Action Replay to simply walk through the door from where you entered Red Brinstar Elevator Room/Caterpillar Room. The other issue is the Amphitheater; how the hell is the player supposed to know there are speed blocks through which the player must shine spark, except by pure accident? The X-Ray Scope cannot reveal it either, as the player isn't able to get high enough for the camera to show that part of the screen. I had to be told the answer, and that really pissed me off. It's a failure in design by the maker.
Everything else was just a challenge hack, with challenge hack stuff, like lava/acid-filled rooms and the like. Nothing too difficult, all things considered, but goddamn, those Metroids really slow the playthrough down to a crawl. I wanna like it more. Maybe if the Metroids' stats were left unchanged, and the Amphitheater fixed, and the softlock in Red Tower removed, I would have liked it more than I did, and likely given a 3/5. As it stands, this hack kinda sucks.
Wasn't really a big fan of this one. The routing was alright, and some of the room layouts were neat, but the fact that so much of the hack was underwater really took the "Wet" part of Wet Dream, and really ran with it. You also get Gravity Suit really late in the hack too, so by the time you get it, you had to have gone through the slog that was the rest of the hack leading up to it. It could've been executed much better.
Still have no clue what the hell those random smiley faces are, or what purpose they serve throughout Norfair.
Still have no clue what the hell those random smiley faces are, or what purpose they serve throughout Norfair.
Super Metroid X - Chapter 1: Investigation by reaper901 [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 13, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 13, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
I thought this hack was neat. Progression was linear, which isn't a bad thing sometimes. The challenge is fair, though some of the enemies felt stronger than they should be. There isn't much else to be said of this, as there isn't much to really play. The hack really just ends after acquiring Bombs. A shame it'll never be finished.
This hack was kinda trash. Too much obtuse hidden paths in rooms that didn't need it. It necessitates the use of X-Ray Scope, which is always tedious. Placing the first intended Power Bombs in the first intended Super Missile room also sucks, because it relies on the player to remember to visit that room later to get it, or wander around aimlessly, wondering where to go. The Plasma Beam Room in Maridia is bad in particular, because one of the wall pirates on the right side of the room will vanish if it jumps from its position, so if you don't kill it before that happens, you never will be able to, softlocking Samus in the room, forcing a reset. You cannot save the animals during the escape, and the door from where you exit in Landing Site remains blue, allowing the player to re-enter, and presumably get into Parlor; doing so crashes the game mid-door transition.
I get it, this hack is made by someone when they were a noob, as the description reads, but did Crys really need to upload this to the main site? Whatever, the hack is pretty bad, but not the absolute worst I've played.
P.S. There are a couple of rooms where X-Ray Scope will crash the game. Big Pink in particular have an E-Tank that infinitely respawns. Same thing with Green Bubbles Missile Room, where entering the room will always produce a Missile pickup. Those can obviously be abused to the player's advantage.
I get it, this hack is made by someone when they were a noob, as the description reads, but did Crys really need to upload this to the main site? Whatever, the hack is pretty bad, but not the absolute worst I've played.
P.S. There are a couple of rooms where X-Ray Scope will crash the game. Big Pink in particular have an E-Tank that infinitely respawns. Same thing with Green Bubbles Missile Room, where entering the room will always produce a Missile pickup. Those can obviously be abused to the player's advantage.
Lunar Pull by Cardweaver [ Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 12, 2025 ( )
Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 12, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
I would've given this a 3/5, but wanted to give this a 1/5. I felt generous and gave it a 2/5. My biggest issue with this? The wall jump out of the rising and descending water tide. The jump itself isn't what pissed me off, but the troll immediately afterward that causes Samus to fall through a 1-way platform, punishing the player for doing what the game asked. It has nothing to do with the theme of the hack, or its challenges, and was a sour spot of the game. Everything else was fine; as long as you understand how Super Metroid's water physics work, and you know how to play around it, this hack won't be too hard. Tricky, sure, but not hard.
Not sure why the genre is labeled "Quick Play" when the hack is certainly longer than a quick play hack. Though I suppose, technically, depending on what you choose to do, it can be beaten quickly, which I'll go over in a bit.
First, what I didn't like: The physics. Just because an accidental quirk was found doesn't mean it'd make for a good gameplay concept. The weird gravity made the whole experience feel sluggish, boring, and tedious. The first set of crumble blocks you come across were annoying as all hell. I don't know if there was a dev-intended way to get past it, but I had to use weird jumping to get past them; mockball will not work. Finally, the Boost Ball. First of all, that item is hard as hell to figure out, and took me a while to realize how it's used. Secondly, the way to exit the room where you acquire the Boost Ball is way too obtuse and esoteric, that the player will either figure it out by accident through sheer luck, or assume they're softlocked and reset. It is a very awful design, and so too is the way in which you get into the room. A game like this begs for the player to have X-Ray Scope early in the hack, and they likely will never get it.
Everything else about the hack is... fine, for the most part. The visuals are rather nice, and it isn't a half-hack, like many other hacks in 2009. That said, I felt like I missed a ton, because I did beat the game what felt like much earlier than I thought I would have. Like I skipped out on over 60% of the game. And the thing is that I didn't do any sequence breaks or the like; I just played. The final boss is... weird. I get the gimmick, but Gold Torizo's health was buffed a little too much, to the point of the fight feeling like a slog. The escape sequence was interesting, but the inability to tell how much time the player has is a bummer.
Overall, an interesting concept bogged down by garbage physics, and obtuse paths. A shame, honestly.
First, what I didn't like: The physics. Just because an accidental quirk was found doesn't mean it'd make for a good gameplay concept. The weird gravity made the whole experience feel sluggish, boring, and tedious. The first set of crumble blocks you come across were annoying as all hell. I don't know if there was a dev-intended way to get past it, but I had to use weird jumping to get past them; mockball will not work. Finally, the Boost Ball. First of all, that item is hard as hell to figure out, and took me a while to realize how it's used. Secondly, the way to exit the room where you acquire the Boost Ball is way too obtuse and esoteric, that the player will either figure it out by accident through sheer luck, or assume they're softlocked and reset. It is a very awful design, and so too is the way in which you get into the room. A game like this begs for the player to have X-Ray Scope early in the hack, and they likely will never get it.
Everything else about the hack is... fine, for the most part. The visuals are rather nice, and it isn't a half-hack, like many other hacks in 2009. That said, I felt like I missed a ton, because I did beat the game what felt like much earlier than I thought I would have. Like I skipped out on over 60% of the game. And the thing is that I didn't do any sequence breaks or the like; I just played. The final boss is... weird. I get the gimmick, but Gold Torizo's health was buffed a little too much, to the point of the fight feeling like a slog. The escape sequence was interesting, but the inability to tell how much time the player has is a bummer.
Overall, an interesting concept bogged down by garbage physics, and obtuse paths. A shame, honestly.
Ridley's Revenge by Tyjet66 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 09, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 09, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Let me start off by saying that, as of writing this review, there is something wrong with the upload.
The unheadered patch is actually for the 2008 rom hack, Ridley's Challenge, by squishy_ichigo. The only patch that is available it the one for a headered rom. That out of the way, the hack itself was alright. There wasn't really much of a challenge to it; get one item to get the next item, and so on, until you have enough items to fight and beat Ridley. After Ridley, you come across a modified Ice Beam Gate Room with no functioning gates, and both doors looping to one another, effectively ending the hack. That said...
I was able to use the Walk Through Walls Action Replay code to make my way to the bottom portion of the room, and beyond that was... the rest of the game, but completely vanilla. So I did the only thing anyone would've done; I played through the rest of it, albeit as fast as I could, because it was just another vanilla Super Metroid, avoiding all instances of Crateria (when needed), and Lower Norfair, since Ridley was already beaten. Sadly, after Mother Brain, going up past The Climb and into the modified Parlor softlocks the game, making beating the game functionally impossible.
Still, had fun, albeit more with the stuff I wasn't supposed to do.
The unheadered patch is actually for the 2008 rom hack, Ridley's Challenge, by squishy_ichigo. The only patch that is available it the one for a headered rom. That out of the way, the hack itself was alright. There wasn't really much of a challenge to it; get one item to get the next item, and so on, until you have enough items to fight and beat Ridley. After Ridley, you come across a modified Ice Beam Gate Room with no functioning gates, and both doors looping to one another, effectively ending the hack. That said...
I was able to use the Walk Through Walls Action Replay code to make my way to the bottom portion of the room, and beyond that was... the rest of the game, but completely vanilla. So I did the only thing anyone would've done; I played through the rest of it, albeit as fast as I could, because it was just another vanilla Super Metroid, avoiding all instances of Crateria (when needed), and Lower Norfair, since Ridley was already beaten. Sadly, after Mother Brain, going up past The Climb and into the modified Parlor softlocks the game, making beating the game functionally impossible.
Still, had fun, albeit more with the stuff I wasn't supposed to do.
Super Metroid: Rebuild 4 by Dark099 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 08, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 08, 2025 ( )
80% in 2:37
So while this one was certainly different than the other Rebuilds, by the time I got to Rebuild 4, the formula started to feel tired and boring. Still a half-hack, with nothing much to offer. And my god, why was Botwoon buffed so much? Same with Gold Torizo? They're not even hard fights, as their damage output remained unchanged; they just take long to kill, becoming tedious. Overall, the hack isn't terrible, but it ain't half-good neither. Wouldn't really recommend.
Super Metroid: Hard Mode Gamma by reaper901 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
49% in 1:35
I'll pretty much parrot what Syphon stated: It's just another hard mode hack. It is a little better than other hard mode hack attempts by actually being hard mode in many aspects, but at the end of the day, if the player is a seasoned Super Metroid veteran, they can get through this hack just fine. 49% is the max percentage for item completion.
Super Metroid: Few Room Hack by Shadow34370 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
A short hack with the objective being finding the next item, using the last item you collected. Shouldn't take too long to figure out where to go and what to do next, given there's only so many places one can check. The game is pretty much over after collecting X-Ray Scope, which serves no real purpose at that point in the hack.
Super Metroid: Rebuild 3 by Dark099 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
93% in 2:33
Better than the second rodeo, but my biggest issue is with the routing a bit, especially Maridia. Gaining access to the Plasma Beam room requires a trek through the Forgotten Highway. The top door in Oasis is completely blocked off on both ends, making it tedious to have to go to and from Plasma Beam room via Forgotten Highway. Honestly, not much else to this hack, other than being like Rebuild 1 and 2, but with some different room layouts and routes, etc. It's worth a playthrough.
Avenger's Hack 2 by Ult. Avenger [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This was more of a challenge than Avenger's Hack, so I guess there's slightly more to this than its predecessor. Some confusing parts here and there, but is a really short hack all the same.
Neat concept, but the game is just Vanilla, with Maridia drained, with some lava here and there, and Norfair flooded with water. Would've liked it more had they changed item order/routing. Getting Gravity early after Phantoon makes everything super-trivial. I did like the palettes at least.
Super Metroid Revolution EX by RealRed [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 30, 2025 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 30, 2025 ( )
71% in 3:50
This hack pissed me off something fierce. The routing, the obstacles, and just about everything about it is... fine, for the most part, with a few obtuse progression points here and there. However, there is one thing that pissed me off about this hack. The whole "You might even have to reset the game..." portion of the description. First of all, no one remembers descriptions of rom hacks. Secondly, there is absolutely NOTHING in game that hints to needing to reset (spoiler ahead).
For context, there is a very specific save point near where you find a room with the Tourian Sand Torizo. That save room is very unremarkable, and not much special or different than other save rooms, save for being a bit smaller than your average save room. In it is an Energy Tank, and nothing else. I had to sequence break to acquire X-Ray Scope, and X-Ray revealed nothing in that room, so it would stand to reason that one would think there's nothing there, especially with a lack of any kind of in-game map system.
What the player is supposed to do is save at that save point, and then immediately reset the game. Loading the save file will bring the player to that same save room, but in a different state, revealing a Morph tunnel that leads to progression, and ultimately the Gravity Suit. This has got to be the most obtuse and cryptic way to implement such progression in any rom hack I have ever played by far. There is zero reason to think, even with the subtle hint in the description, that the player will know to do this, much less at THAT specific save point. It is awful, and I only knew of it because I had to watch Dragon's playthrough of it.
The only way any player would progress from there is by sheer accident, either dying after saving there, or turning the game off after saving in that room, with the intention of returning to continue the game. There is another hack that does this, but does this the right way, and it's a well known hack known as V I T A L I T Y, by Digital_Mantra. Without spoiling too much, there is a save point at which the player is expected to save, just to fall into a death trap, and by the time they realize it's too late, they're already dead, forcing them to load their save, and continue the narrative in that manner.
This hack does not do this. They don't force the player to have to reload their save after saving there. The player is free to leave and explore some more, and presumably save at other save points, negating the purpose of the E-Tank Save Room. I can say with confidence that I would never have figured that out myself, even by accident, and would stand to reason that other people would have the same issue I did.
Another issue are the pirates. I get what they were going for, but making the Pirates weakness specific single beams is just tedious, having to pause to unequip and re-equip beams to deal with them. I do appreciate the color coding of said pirates, indicating their weakness, but it could have been implemented better. The rest of the hack is just okay. The rooms are just rehashes of vanilla rooms, just moved around, and rearranged. The visuals are decent, and the rest of the progression is also fine. The escape sequence is definitely dickish, but can be managed a second rodeo, if the first attempt is a failure. Overall, this hack was just tiring. It felt okay until the save point issue, and even then, between the tedium of the backtracking, beam switching for pirates, and visual fatigue (a lot of the visuals weren't really that... great), this ended up being a hack with neat ideas, but with mediocre execution.
For context, there is a very specific save point near where you find a room with the Tourian Sand Torizo. That save room is very unremarkable, and not much special or different than other save rooms, save for being a bit smaller than your average save room. In it is an Energy Tank, and nothing else. I had to sequence break to acquire X-Ray Scope, and X-Ray revealed nothing in that room, so it would stand to reason that one would think there's nothing there, especially with a lack of any kind of in-game map system.
What the player is supposed to do is save at that save point, and then immediately reset the game. Loading the save file will bring the player to that same save room, but in a different state, revealing a Morph tunnel that leads to progression, and ultimately the Gravity Suit. This has got to be the most obtuse and cryptic way to implement such progression in any rom hack I have ever played by far. There is zero reason to think, even with the subtle hint in the description, that the player will know to do this, much less at THAT specific save point. It is awful, and I only knew of it because I had to watch Dragon's playthrough of it.
The only way any player would progress from there is by sheer accident, either dying after saving there, or turning the game off after saving in that room, with the intention of returning to continue the game. There is another hack that does this, but does this the right way, and it's a well known hack known as V I T A L I T Y, by Digital_Mantra. Without spoiling too much, there is a save point at which the player is expected to save, just to fall into a death trap, and by the time they realize it's too late, they're already dead, forcing them to load their save, and continue the narrative in that manner.
This hack does not do this. They don't force the player to have to reload their save after saving there. The player is free to leave and explore some more, and presumably save at other save points, negating the purpose of the E-Tank Save Room. I can say with confidence that I would never have figured that out myself, even by accident, and would stand to reason that other people would have the same issue I did.
Another issue are the pirates. I get what they were going for, but making the Pirates weakness specific single beams is just tedious, having to pause to unequip and re-equip beams to deal with them. I do appreciate the color coding of said pirates, indicating their weakness, but it could have been implemented better. The rest of the hack is just okay. The rooms are just rehashes of vanilla rooms, just moved around, and rearranged. The visuals are decent, and the rest of the progression is also fine. The escape sequence is definitely dickish, but can be managed a second rodeo, if the first attempt is a failure. Overall, this hack was just tiring. It felt okay until the save point issue, and even then, between the tedium of the backtracking, beam switching for pirates, and visual fatigue (a lot of the visuals weren't really that... great), this ended up being a hack with neat ideas, but with mediocre execution.
Let me start off by saying I was only able to beat this by using the Action Replay code that allows for the player to walk through walls. It was how I was able to enter Lower Norfair through the back door, to beat Ridley, and continue onto Tourian. Had X-Ray Scope existed in this hack, I could have used G-Mode to enter the back door, but that clearly wasn't possible.
As for the hack itself, it's a weirdly-made half-hack. It has some things in it, like death traps, and weird door warps that attempts to live up to its odd namesake, but not enough of it to really impress. Amusing at times, but that's it. Lower Norfair is impossible to do. The only direction one can go in Main Hall is to the right, and the Fast Pillars Setup Room is completely broken. You can get softlocked in the room itself. If you can manage to find your way into the non-solid parts of that room, the only way out is through a loading zone that gets you stuck in Main Hall's upper-right wall, above the door. Even if you found a way through to the left of Main Hall, and into Gold Torizo, going past the Fast Ripper Room will take you back into the broken mess of Fast Pillars Setup Room, where there's no way to progress, making the hack functionally unbeatable.
A real shame, too, because there are changes in enough of the Lower Norfair rooms, and even Tourian to suggest the hack maker maybe intended for the hack to be beatable, but overlooked some broken code or something. There's really not much else to say about it. I didn't hate what I got to play legitimately. Hated that I hard-required Action Replay codes to beat it.
As for the hack itself, it's a weirdly-made half-hack. It has some things in it, like death traps, and weird door warps that attempts to live up to its odd namesake, but not enough of it to really impress. Amusing at times, but that's it. Lower Norfair is impossible to do. The only direction one can go in Main Hall is to the right, and the Fast Pillars Setup Room is completely broken. You can get softlocked in the room itself. If you can manage to find your way into the non-solid parts of that room, the only way out is through a loading zone that gets you stuck in Main Hall's upper-right wall, above the door. Even if you found a way through to the left of Main Hall, and into Gold Torizo, going past the Fast Ripper Room will take you back into the broken mess of Fast Pillars Setup Room, where there's no way to progress, making the hack functionally unbeatable.
A real shame, too, because there are changes in enough of the Lower Norfair rooms, and even Tourian to suggest the hack maker maybe intended for the hack to be beatable, but overlooked some broken code or something. There's really not much else to say about it. I didn't hate what I got to play legitimately. Hated that I hard-required Action Replay codes to beat it.
To be fair to this hack, the description gives you exactly what you would expect. Crateria is an assault on the eyes, and everything else is just... vanilla. Well, except about 2% of Tourian. I still found this hack very amusing, from respawning items, to Missile packs that gives over 1200 missiles, to some E-Tanks giving enough health for even casual Super Metroid players to successfully hell run Upper Norfair. I don't recommend this hack, but I didn't hate it either.
P.S. My percentage given is just made up, because of the weird Missile pickups, my in-game percentage read "AJ99%".
P.S. My percentage given is just made up, because of the weird Missile pickups, my in-game percentage read "AJ99%".
Super Metroid: Training Camp by RealRed [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 28, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 28, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
There isn't much to this hack. Go to the room to the right after collecting Morph, and you'll find a room with nearly every item in the game. The Landing Site acts as a sort of "playground" to just do things. There are indestructible Chozo Orbs laid throughout the area, so my guess is the player challenges themselves to reach each orb, just to say they could. There are better ways to make a training hack, I would think, but for what this is, and what it does, it's passable.
I've noticed a trend with some of these 2008 rom hacks; many of the hack makers wanted to be the next Saturn, and make the next Super Metroid Impossible. What many fail to understand, however, is what made Impossible work. This hack is no exception. Let me preface this by saying that Super Metroid Impossible had its fair share of obtuse bullshit, even in the form of how to progress, and people playing that hack now will know where to go because we have the benefit of seeing people, like Zoast and Oatsngoats speedrun it. That said, this hack tries hard to be that, but fails in several ways.
First of all, the progression. While at the start of the hack, progression seems fine, it is when you get to Norfair where problems begin to arise. Barely enough E-Tanks/Reserves to hell run into Bubble Mountain casually speaking (I'll elaborate more on that later). The fact that you have to kill all enemies in Cathedral Entrance to open the metal door, then leave to save and health grind, then to do the same thing for Cathedral is dumb as hell, given the energy the player would likely have.
On the issue of E-Tanks. I understand that hell runs are a part of the game's progression, and therefor, so too is collecting enough E-Tanks to survive said hell runs. However, one egregious example of hiding that progression behind something so obtuse is the Taco Tank in Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room. It isn't obvious to the player that there is a fake Morph tunnel through which the player can proceed to collect it. Bombs can't reveal it, and the player isn't given the X-Ray Scope until endgame. If you're going to make any hack, hard or not, it is never okay to hide the path forward in such a dick way. When the player has to look at another player's playthrough (like how I skimmed EternisedDragon's playthrough to find out how to get Taco Tank and even Ice Beam), or look at a hack through SMILE to know where shit is, or where to go next, it serves as an example of the failure of the hack. I could forgive this if the hack hid non-essential items in obtuse ways, because those are always optional. But items that are necessary to beat the game? There's "Impossible", and then there's being a Super Mario Maker 2-level of amateurish design meant for the frustration of the player, and nothing more. This hack really teeters between that boundary.
I had to find ways to cheese the hell out of the game, and I spent hours to do it. From Moondancing into Etecoons, to bullshitting my way into Mama Turtle for early Power Bombs that I never knew were there. This hack compelled me to break the rules of the intended routing, in an attempt to even the playing field. Where is the fun in that? ... Well, okay, there was some fun and satisfaction to be had when I break the game and find alternate means to beat it, but I shouldn't have to resort to that.
Was there anything I liked about this hack? Well, yes, there are quite a few things I did like. Barring the confusing part of progression, I did enjoy much of the challenge of the hack, and respect the routing the hack maker was going for. When all the necessary items are acquired, the obstacles serve as a pure skill and knowledge check of the player, like pausing at 0 health to manually fill from Reserves to survive intentional acid baths, etc. The bosses are... pretty much unchanged from the first RBO, save for Phantoon, whose room is now more narrower, increasing the risk of its body hitting the player, even WITH Screw Attack. But they were interesting enough for me to revel in the challenge, though I think you may have overdone it with Kraid and Phantoon's health buff a bit; they wore out their welcome after a while.
Overall, while I'm not a fan of this particular attempt at a challenge hack for the issues I mentioned, I didn't outright hate it, or think the hack is pure trash overall. It just could have been better executed in its balancing.
First of all, the progression. While at the start of the hack, progression seems fine, it is when you get to Norfair where problems begin to arise. Barely enough E-Tanks/Reserves to hell run into Bubble Mountain casually speaking (I'll elaborate more on that later). The fact that you have to kill all enemies in Cathedral Entrance to open the metal door, then leave to save and health grind, then to do the same thing for Cathedral is dumb as hell, given the energy the player would likely have.
On the issue of E-Tanks. I understand that hell runs are a part of the game's progression, and therefor, so too is collecting enough E-Tanks to survive said hell runs. However, one egregious example of hiding that progression behind something so obtuse is the Taco Tank in Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room. It isn't obvious to the player that there is a fake Morph tunnel through which the player can proceed to collect it. Bombs can't reveal it, and the player isn't given the X-Ray Scope until endgame. If you're going to make any hack, hard or not, it is never okay to hide the path forward in such a dick way. When the player has to look at another player's playthrough (like how I skimmed EternisedDragon's playthrough to find out how to get Taco Tank and even Ice Beam), or look at a hack through SMILE to know where shit is, or where to go next, it serves as an example of the failure of the hack. I could forgive this if the hack hid non-essential items in obtuse ways, because those are always optional. But items that are necessary to beat the game? There's "Impossible", and then there's being a Super Mario Maker 2-level of amateurish design meant for the frustration of the player, and nothing more. This hack really teeters between that boundary.
I had to find ways to cheese the hell out of the game, and I spent hours to do it. From Moondancing into Etecoons, to bullshitting my way into Mama Turtle for early Power Bombs that I never knew were there. This hack compelled me to break the rules of the intended routing, in an attempt to even the playing field. Where is the fun in that? ... Well, okay, there was some fun and satisfaction to be had when I break the game and find alternate means to beat it, but I shouldn't have to resort to that.
Was there anything I liked about this hack? Well, yes, there are quite a few things I did like. Barring the confusing part of progression, I did enjoy much of the challenge of the hack, and respect the routing the hack maker was going for. When all the necessary items are acquired, the obstacles serve as a pure skill and knowledge check of the player, like pausing at 0 health to manually fill from Reserves to survive intentional acid baths, etc. The bosses are... pretty much unchanged from the first RBO, save for Phantoon, whose room is now more narrower, increasing the risk of its body hitting the player, even WITH Screw Attack. But they were interesting enough for me to revel in the challenge, though I think you may have overdone it with Kraid and Phantoon's health buff a bit; they wore out their welcome after a while.
Overall, while I'm not a fan of this particular attempt at a challenge hack for the issues I mentioned, I didn't outright hate it, or think the hack is pure trash overall. It just could have been better executed in its balancing.
Super Metroid: Derprevation by Super_Metroid_1990 [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 27, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 27, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
The hack is incomplete, and you can't even progress much either, due to the game crashing upon entering some doors. Wrecked Ship is inaccessible, so you wouldn't be able to beat the game anyway, unless you X-Ray Climb up G4 into Tourian, but who would wanna spend the time doing that? Everything beyond Crateria is vanilla, save for some rooms and item placements (some rooms have no items at all, for example). Only reason I give it a 2/5 is because of the look of Crateria. It showed potential for what could have been, but that's it.
I could have forgiven this hack, honestly, had it not been for the godawful placement of Bombs in the upper-right room, next to the Landing Site. Outside of that, the rest of the hack is pretty generic overall; we've seen boss rush-style hacks like this before.
This is just Hangtime, but with better tile sets, some new tricks added, and a custom power up. Not that I got to see any of that, seeing as I accidentally found myself out of bounds, and ended up inadvertently beating the game in short time. Still, not my personal cup of tea, but can see the appeal of it.
Super Metroid: Shadow by Acheron [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 21, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 21, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Only good thing I will say is that some of the tile sets look neat. Otherwise, there's really no way to progress further beyond Brinstar. Even after using Action Replay codes to give myself infinite health and blue suit to explore beyond what I could, it amounted to not an awful lot. It's unfinished, and unpolished. Had some potential, but it's just another incomplete abandoned hack.
Super Metroid: A More Different Zebes by Xaggoth [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 14, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 14, 2025 ( )
69% in 2:33
An interesting concept. Honestly, my mistake was not fully reading the description of how the hack works; I chose a route that ensures there were no Power Bombs, which was something that confused me. It did make for interesting routing throughout, but my biggest issue with the hack is that there's nothing that tells the player that Tourian becomes accessible the moment they acquire Speed Booster and Grappling Beam, with no particular need to beat the G4 bosses. This left me scratching my head, turning what should have been an hour or so hack into a 2 1/2 hour (over 5 hours real time) playthrough of aimless wandering, and looking for what amounted to nothing significant. Good attempt overall, but the the fact that the player wouldn't know that Tourian is technically just open, unless they make a habit of visiting G4 the first chance they get, kinda hurts it enough for me to give a 2/5.
Not the biggest fan of this hack. The concept isn't bad, but the execution is. The blind jumps downward really hurts, as the player isn't given time to react fast enough, resulting in a room reset. The final stretch is especially bad with this. Also, there are a few points where a softlock can occur, which is just unpleasant.
Super Metroid: Rush by Dark_Echoes [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 28, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 28, 2024 ( )
26% in 0:18
I have nothing to really say. Just another boss rush with nothing unique to offer to it. It isn't stupid, unlike Warfare, so it gets a 2/5, at the very least. No animals to save, sadly.
Playground by Cardweaver [ Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 19, 2024 ( )
Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 19, 2024 ( )
No completion stats.
My biggest issue with this hack is how stupidly obtuse progression is in the beginning. Everything else was actually fine. Between trying to find a stupidly hidden bomb block, to kagoing upward through a slope, which runs the risk of softlocking the player, this hack feels largely unpolished. Could've been worse; I've played worse.
Super Metroid: Mission Bicho by don gato pato [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 18, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 18, 2024 ( )
100% in 2:16
This game is mostly lazy spike spam, and breakable blocks (including Super Missile, Power Bomb, and Crumbling Grapple blocks). The item locations, save for a couple of exceptions, are exactly the same as vanilla, thought the routing differs a little, because of some obstacle placements.
I didn't hate the hack, and actually kind of liked some things about it, but it was rather shallow in the end. I'd give this a higher score if the obstacles, spikes included, weren't placed so arbitrarily, and the breakable obstacles did reform; the Speed blocks that block Taco Tank, for example, will reform quickly, softlocking you, if you shinespark to get it. I had to use a temporary Blue Suit in order to get it without softlocking. There are other instances where one can softlock, if they're not careful, and that is mostly a failure on part of the hack maker than the player.
I didn't hate the hack, and actually kind of liked some things about it, but it was rather shallow in the end. I'd give this a higher score if the obstacles, spikes included, weren't placed so arbitrarily, and the breakable obstacles did reform; the Speed blocks that block Taco Tank, for example, will reform quickly, softlocking you, if you shinespark to get it. I had to use a temporary Blue Suit in order to get it without softlocking. There are other instances where one can softlock, if they're not careful, and that is mostly a failure on part of the hack maker than the player.
Super Metroid: Full Run by BoostGuardian [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 07, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 07, 2024 ( )
36% in 0:25
Just a more fleshed out version of Super Metroid: Marathon. Not much substance to this. Some softlock potential, but as long as the player isn't dumb enough to needlessly waste ammo, they'll be fine. The Baby Metroid has the issue that some early hacks have, using a different sound effect, resulting in a game crash if it grabs Samus and reduces her health to 1, forcing the player to Baby Skip. Had it not been for that, I'd have given this a 3/5.
(Played Extreme Mode)
I have quite a few issues with this hack. The first major issue to get out of the way are some of the Missile pickups; there are 2 Missiles in West Ocean, a Missile in Kraid's Warehouse, etc. that crashes the game upon collecting them. I don't know if it's an emulator issue or not, but it prevented me from getting max collection %. The good news is that they're just Missiles, and not something important, like Bombs, or Gravity.
The progression is weird, and the ways to get some items seem to be more annoying than actually difficult, like Speed Booster, for example. It's a half-hack, so you'll know the locations to most items, though some items have been changed around. This, however, leads to my biggest gripe...
The location of the Charge Beam. Why in the blue hell would anyone put it in a save room, especially when it's a save most Super Metroid veterans would normally ignore? Every other save room in the game lacks items, though I suppose I'm just too stupid to take the subtle hint of Chozo statues in right-ward save rooms alluding to one of them potentially holding a Chozo orb. See, it's MY fault, the player, for not reading the mind of the hack maker, and what they want the player to do. Of course, I say all this with sarcasm.
I could forgive all of that, had it not been for Draygon's section in Maridia. Botwoon, and Draygon have unholy amounts of health, which is no problem if one had Charge Beam, as to microwave them with charged Plasma shots; because of the Charge Beam's location, I was forced to fight Botwoon with ammo, by way of getting stuck in the door, to avoid Botwoon's body, as it does almost 100 damage per hit (projectiles were more forgiving), and in a room layout that's too ridiculous to make fighting and beating Botwoon feasibly possible with just ammo.
I mentioned Draygon's section; if you go past the Botwoon E-Tank room, you absolutely cannot go back without Spring Ball. Draygon guards the Spring Ball. Draygon's room makes hitting him with Supers nearly impossible, and the turrets cannot be destroyed. Draygon also does a shit-ton of damage, making that fight impossible without Charge Beam. I had thought myself irreversibly functionally softlocked. I ended up X-Ray climbing out of bounds in Botwoon E-Tank Room, and trying to find a loading zone that can potentially get me out. By some miraculous stroke of serendipitous bullshit, I managed to reach a replica of Botwoon's room, and navigate it half-blind to reach a loading zone to safety, allowing me to continue the game.
All that said, one would think I'd give this a 1/5, but no. There are a few challenging spots I enjoyed, all things considered. The location of the Plasma Beam, for example, was pretty amusing, among other things. Still, I can't recommend this, unless one is curious to see the weirdness put together in this hack, as if someone from the Memphis Group was given a rom hack to make.
P.S. Why was this called "Super Metroid: Colors", when the colors and aesthetics didn't look any different or more colorful than vanilla?
I have quite a few issues with this hack. The first major issue to get out of the way are some of the Missile pickups; there are 2 Missiles in West Ocean, a Missile in Kraid's Warehouse, etc. that crashes the game upon collecting them. I don't know if it's an emulator issue or not, but it prevented me from getting max collection %. The good news is that they're just Missiles, and not something important, like Bombs, or Gravity.
The progression is weird, and the ways to get some items seem to be more annoying than actually difficult, like Speed Booster, for example. It's a half-hack, so you'll know the locations to most items, though some items have been changed around. This, however, leads to my biggest gripe...
The location of the Charge Beam. Why in the blue hell would anyone put it in a save room, especially when it's a save most Super Metroid veterans would normally ignore? Every other save room in the game lacks items, though I suppose I'm just too stupid to take the subtle hint of Chozo statues in right-ward save rooms alluding to one of them potentially holding a Chozo orb. See, it's MY fault, the player, for not reading the mind of the hack maker, and what they want the player to do. Of course, I say all this with sarcasm.
I could forgive all of that, had it not been for Draygon's section in Maridia. Botwoon, and Draygon have unholy amounts of health, which is no problem if one had Charge Beam, as to microwave them with charged Plasma shots; because of the Charge Beam's location, I was forced to fight Botwoon with ammo, by way of getting stuck in the door, to avoid Botwoon's body, as it does almost 100 damage per hit (projectiles were more forgiving), and in a room layout that's too ridiculous to make fighting and beating Botwoon feasibly possible with just ammo.
I mentioned Draygon's section; if you go past the Botwoon E-Tank room, you absolutely cannot go back without Spring Ball. Draygon guards the Spring Ball. Draygon's room makes hitting him with Supers nearly impossible, and the turrets cannot be destroyed. Draygon also does a shit-ton of damage, making that fight impossible without Charge Beam. I had thought myself irreversibly functionally softlocked. I ended up X-Ray climbing out of bounds in Botwoon E-Tank Room, and trying to find a loading zone that can potentially get me out. By some miraculous stroke of serendipitous bullshit, I managed to reach a replica of Botwoon's room, and navigate it half-blind to reach a loading zone to safety, allowing me to continue the game.
All that said, one would think I'd give this a 1/5, but no. There are a few challenging spots I enjoyed, all things considered. The location of the Plasma Beam, for example, was pretty amusing, among other things. Still, I can't recommend this, unless one is curious to see the weirdness put together in this hack, as if someone from the Memphis Group was given a rom hack to make.
P.S. Why was this called "Super Metroid: Colors", when the colors and aesthetics didn't look any different or more colorful than vanilla?
Super Metroid: Marathon by BoostGuardian [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 03, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 03, 2024 ( )
No completion stats.
Run boy run! This world is not made for you
Run boy run! They're trying to catch you
Run boy run! Running is a victory
Run boy run! Beauty lays behind the hills
Run boy run! The sun will be guiding you
Run boy run! They're dying to stop you
Run boy run! This race is a prophecy
Run boy run! Break out from society
Tomorrow is another day
And you won't have to hide away
You'll be a man, boy!
But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!
Run boy run! This ride is a journey to
Run boy run! The secret inside of you
Run boy run! This race is a prophecy
Run boy run! And disappear in the trees
Tomorrow is another day
And you won't have to hide away
You'll be a man, boy!
But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!
Tomorrow is another day
And when the night fades away
You'll be a man, boy!
But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!
Run boy run! They're trying to catch you
Run boy run! Running is a victory
Run boy run! Beauty lays behind the hills
Run boy run! The sun will be guiding you
Run boy run! They're dying to stop you
Run boy run! This race is a prophecy
Run boy run! Break out from society
Tomorrow is another day
And you won't have to hide away
You'll be a man, boy!
But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!
Run boy run! This ride is a journey to
Run boy run! The secret inside of you
Run boy run! This race is a prophecy
Run boy run! And disappear in the trees
Tomorrow is another day
And you won't have to hide away
You'll be a man, boy!
But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!
Tomorrow is another day
And when the night fades away
You'll be a man, boy!
But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!
There's a few things that can be said about this. Many others have already said what I would say, honestly, so to not beat a dead horse, I'll go over my review briefly.
What I liked: The fact that it's a full hack, and one particular section of the escape sequence was really cool.
What I didn't like:
- Some of the obstacles are a little obtuse in telegraphing to the player what to expect. The Speed Booster section comes immediately to mind; the end of which many players will likely die during their first rodeo, not knowing they need to charge for a shinespark, let alone when to actually charge it.
- The Grapple section leading to Phantoon is harder than it needed to be. It could have used either less Atomics, or... Nah, just remove the Atomics altogether, because the obstacle's a good enough challenge without them disrupting the flow of it.
- Maridia. Beyond the glass tube, proceeding forward results in the player unable to backtrack, nor can they return beyond the broke glass tube after that section is done. This creates a major issue; Plasma Beam is in a hard-to-reach area, and if that area isn't reached, you missed your chance. Beyond that point, whether you get Plasma or not, is the Gravity Suit, which requires blue suit, which is fine, but a player who doesn't know what that is can easily lose it, and potentially softlock themselves. After gaining Gravity, and proceeding to the exit of Maridia, assuming you didn't get the Plasma Beam, you will have permanently missed your chance. It punishes the player for not happening to know this would happen.
- The troll crumbles during the escape sequence. They do nothing but to hemorrhage time, which you're given little for the length of the escape. The final part is literally the only cool thing about it.
Overall, some neat ideas here and there, including the routing, but the execution in many regards fall flat, with sections being hard because of bad design choices. Had this hack given the player the chance to return to post-glass tube room for a second chance at Plasma, I'd have given this hack a 3/5 instead of a 2.
What I liked: The fact that it's a full hack, and one particular section of the escape sequence was really cool.
What I didn't like:
- Some of the obstacles are a little obtuse in telegraphing to the player what to expect. The Speed Booster section comes immediately to mind; the end of which many players will likely die during their first rodeo, not knowing they need to charge for a shinespark, let alone when to actually charge it.
- The Grapple section leading to Phantoon is harder than it needed to be. It could have used either less Atomics, or... Nah, just remove the Atomics altogether, because the obstacle's a good enough challenge without them disrupting the flow of it.
- Maridia. Beyond the glass tube, proceeding forward results in the player unable to backtrack, nor can they return beyond the broke glass tube after that section is done. This creates a major issue; Plasma Beam is in a hard-to-reach area, and if that area isn't reached, you missed your chance. Beyond that point, whether you get Plasma or not, is the Gravity Suit, which requires blue suit, which is fine, but a player who doesn't know what that is can easily lose it, and potentially softlock themselves. After gaining Gravity, and proceeding to the exit of Maridia, assuming you didn't get the Plasma Beam, you will have permanently missed your chance. It punishes the player for not happening to know this would happen.
- The troll crumbles during the escape sequence. They do nothing but to hemorrhage time, which you're given little for the length of the escape. The final part is literally the only cool thing about it.
Overall, some neat ideas here and there, including the routing, but the execution in many regards fall flat, with sections being hard because of bad design choices. Had this hack given the player the chance to return to post-glass tube room for a second chance at Plasma, I'd have given this hack a 3/5 instead of a 2.
Super Hard Metroid by Crocomire [ Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 27, 2024 ( )
Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 27, 2024 ( )
97% in 4:28
I really wanted to like this hack, because the truth is, I low-key enjoy challenge hacks with spikes, provided the spike placements aren't stupid. For the most part, that's what I feel we have with this hack. The routing is also interesting, and replacing the water in Moat with lava was an interesting choice, among many others. However, there are several things that prevent me from giving it more than a 2/5:
- The biggest issue for me are the troll traps, whereby you fall through a crumble block, and end up irreversibly trapped in a pit of spikes; sometimes these are the result of picking the wrong path forward. Shit, like this, is the kind of amateurish design shitty Mario Maker level creators do with the thought that it's "challenging". It isn't a challenge, it's tedious and stupid. There are other trial and error hacks, like Super Mega Metroid X-2, and Kaizo Possible, but they have the decency to implement an instant respawn. A hack like this shouldn't have such trolls, espeicially for players who happen to have not saved in a while. When I think "challenge", I picture an obstacle that's transparent to the player, so that said player uses their skill to get through it, and not because of blind chance.
- Some of the items appear to be impossible to obtain. Specifically the E-Tank in the Big Pink Water Speedway, and the Power Bombs in the top-right corner of Landing Site. The former is just blocked off, with no discernible way to reach it (X-Ray Scope reveals nothing here either); the latter crashes the game upon using Power Bombs to open the door to the room housing the Power Bombs. There's one other item that is too obtuse to obtain, and that's the Main Street Missiles; the speed block reforms, trapping the player in, forcing a softlock. The only way to get it is for the player to have the forethought to use Blue Suit obtained from Draygon, or with speed keep, using X-Ray Scope for turning (and I'm not sure if that method is realistically feasible.
- Another major issue that many hacks released since this seem to have, is that the Baby Metroid's sound effect is different, for some weird reason. On its own, it's no big deal, but when Samus is grabbed, and drained to 1 health, the game's audio goes ape shit, and soft-crashes the game, causing a hard crash upon loading the next room. This hard-forces the player to have to Baby skip, which would be fine, if the game wasn't being run on the PAL version (oh, we'll get to that).
- Finally, this game runs on the PAL version. Even if you apply this patch to an NTSC version rom, the PAL version's quirks will overwrite. I've never played the PAL version before (only ever hearing about it), but from what I've played, it really messes with the muscle memory, and physics that the vast majority of Super Metroid players know. Speed Booster is different, item fanfares are longer, beam and missile cooldown is longer, the list goes on; it runs slower than NTSC, at (from what I was told) 50 FPS. Why you chose to go with PAL is beyond me, especially when your previous hacks are the standard NTSC.
Despite everything listed, I didn't hate the hack. What I liked in it, like the actual challenges, I did like (even Ridley's room that amounts to "Oops! All Spikes!"). However, the issues I did have with the game REALLY hurt it, to the point where I'm giving it a 2/5, instead of a 3 or 4.
- The biggest issue for me are the troll traps, whereby you fall through a crumble block, and end up irreversibly trapped in a pit of spikes; sometimes these are the result of picking the wrong path forward. Shit, like this, is the kind of amateurish design shitty Mario Maker level creators do with the thought that it's "challenging". It isn't a challenge, it's tedious and stupid. There are other trial and error hacks, like Super Mega Metroid X-2, and Kaizo Possible, but they have the decency to implement an instant respawn. A hack like this shouldn't have such trolls, espeicially for players who happen to have not saved in a while. When I think "challenge", I picture an obstacle that's transparent to the player, so that said player uses their skill to get through it, and not because of blind chance.
- Some of the items appear to be impossible to obtain. Specifically the E-Tank in the Big Pink Water Speedway, and the Power Bombs in the top-right corner of Landing Site. The former is just blocked off, with no discernible way to reach it (X-Ray Scope reveals nothing here either); the latter crashes the game upon using Power Bombs to open the door to the room housing the Power Bombs. There's one other item that is too obtuse to obtain, and that's the Main Street Missiles; the speed block reforms, trapping the player in, forcing a softlock. The only way to get it is for the player to have the forethought to use Blue Suit obtained from Draygon, or with speed keep, using X-Ray Scope for turning (and I'm not sure if that method is realistically feasible.
- Another major issue that many hacks released since this seem to have, is that the Baby Metroid's sound effect is different, for some weird reason. On its own, it's no big deal, but when Samus is grabbed, and drained to 1 health, the game's audio goes ape shit, and soft-crashes the game, causing a hard crash upon loading the next room. This hard-forces the player to have to Baby skip, which would be fine, if the game wasn't being run on the PAL version (oh, we'll get to that).
- Finally, this game runs on the PAL version. Even if you apply this patch to an NTSC version rom, the PAL version's quirks will overwrite. I've never played the PAL version before (only ever hearing about it), but from what I've played, it really messes with the muscle memory, and physics that the vast majority of Super Metroid players know. Speed Booster is different, item fanfares are longer, beam and missile cooldown is longer, the list goes on; it runs slower than NTSC, at (from what I was told) 50 FPS. Why you chose to go with PAL is beyond me, especially when your previous hacks are the standard NTSC.
Despite everything listed, I didn't hate the hack. What I liked in it, like the actual challenges, I did like (even Ridley's room that amounts to "Oops! All Spikes!"). However, the issues I did have with the game REALLY hurt it, to the point where I'm giving it a 2/5, instead of a 3 or 4.
Super Metroid: Grapple by Crocomire [ Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 25, 2024 ( )
Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 25, 2024 ( )
52% in 1:07
There's a good concept in this hack somewhere. The issue is how awful it's executed. What can I say that hasn't already been said by others? Well, I can say what I would have done to improve upon the concept:
I would remove the ability to jump altogether, let alone the ability to wall jump (not sure if this would impact jumping off walls from a Grapple position). That way, a hack can be built around the full focus of the Grappling Beam and its mechanics. The ideas and pieces are there; maybe someone will make something polished out of it, if it hasn't been done already.
A couple of troublesome things to note:
- The entrance to Lower Norfair has not been altered, as far as I was able to tell, and without the Space Jump, or grapple blocks to use Grappling Beam, the player is forced to do a Gravity Jump in Lava Dive in order to enter Lower Norfair. I thought maybe the back door into Three Musketeers would have been opened to compensate, but that isn't the case.
- The Plasma Room in Maridia is completely unaltered, so if the player, without thinking, kills off all Pirates in the room, they'll be effectively softlocked, not unless a stupidly precise wall jump out is possible, but most players aren't adept enough for such a trick. Either way, that room was badly handled as well.
I gave it a 2/5 because I like the idea... but that's all it has going for it. Everything else is... eveything else.
I would remove the ability to jump altogether, let alone the ability to wall jump (not sure if this would impact jumping off walls from a Grapple position). That way, a hack can be built around the full focus of the Grappling Beam and its mechanics. The ideas and pieces are there; maybe someone will make something polished out of it, if it hasn't been done already.
A couple of troublesome things to note:
- The entrance to Lower Norfair has not been altered, as far as I was able to tell, and without the Space Jump, or grapple blocks to use Grappling Beam, the player is forced to do a Gravity Jump in Lava Dive in order to enter Lower Norfair. I thought maybe the back door into Three Musketeers would have been opened to compensate, but that isn't the case.
- The Plasma Room in Maridia is completely unaltered, so if the player, without thinking, kills off all Pirates in the room, they'll be effectively softlocked, not unless a stupidly precise wall jump out is possible, but most players aren't adept enough for such a trick. Either way, that room was badly handled as well.
I gave it a 2/5 because I like the idea... but that's all it has going for it. Everything else is... eveything else.
There's really not much to this hack. It is what it says it is, to be fair. This is something you give to your young nephew, or something, to introduce them to Super Metroid. Even then, a kid could reasonably beat this, as most people on this site did just fine during their childhoods in this game. My one nitpick is the removal of the hidden path with the crumble block in Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room (Taco Tank Room), as it was there as a safety measure, should the player run out of Power Bombs; with that path removed, a player can softlock if they happen to use their last PB, and proceed to Billy Mays.
While I enjoyed the changes made to the major item location, and changes to the routing, it's still ultimately a vanilla+ hack. Granted, more effort and thought was put into this than some other half-hacks, but it's still a half-hack all the same. I do appreciate the bosses' health being adjusted accordingly, with the order in which they're meant to be fought, like Ridley being the second boss, for example (his lowered health does make him stupidly easy, however).
The changes to Samus's color pallet is nice as well, though I can see some not liking it. Also, while the opening intro's narrative was changed, nothing in this game exactly references it, making it pretty pointless, if not somewhat amusing. While some newcomers may find a somewhat decent challenge here, veterans of Super Metroid can generally blaze through this just fine.
The changes to Samus's color pallet is nice as well, though I can see some not liking it. Also, while the opening intro's narrative was changed, nothing in this game exactly references it, making it pretty pointless, if not somewhat amusing. While some newcomers may find a somewhat decent challenge here, veterans of Super Metroid can generally blaze through this just fine.
This is an edited/updated review. It has come to my attention that the patch for this hack is (as of writing this) mislabeled as an unheadered patch, when it's actually for headered. Shoutout to Neen, for getting me an unheadered patch, so that I can review this properly:
The ideas here are neat, and the custom enemies, though few, are definitely something I've yet to see in a hack up to this point. The low gravity areas were cool, and the pallets were also nice. Though Ceres is now used as an actual explorable area, little is done with it. I didn't know where the hack actually ended, but I believe after the Baby encounter, the game can be considered done. Beyond that point is just the vanilla game, but with a few caveats, which I'll explain below (Spoiler Warning):
- Exiting the Baby room to the left takes you to a room where the camera breaks. Going to the right gets Samus an E-Tank, while going to the left exits the room toward the sand pit in Botwoon E-Tank Room. The game proceeds from there, but with broken graphics. However, saving and reloading will fix it. From there, much of vanilla Zebes is explorable, emphasis on "much"
- DO NOT enter Save Rooms where the entrance is through doors to the right (the only exception being Business Center); the Save Rooms are broken, probably wouldn't even work, if you found the save machine, and you end up softlocking, trying to explore an out-of-bounds area. Maybe there's something out there if one is tenacious enough, but I didn't spend too long exploring it to find out.
- Many of the rooms for this hack are just modified versions of otherwise vanilla rooms. For that reason, exiting Big Pink to the left (save for the Waterway) will result in Samus exiting to one of the rooms made for the hack, but stuck in a wall, resulting in a softlock. While some doors won't softlock, they will - all the same - return you to the main hack map proper.
- The only modified enemy (other than The Baby) appears to be modded from what was a Kago. This is made apparent when you enter Mushroom Kingdom, as the Kagos are replaced by them, which makes for an amusing encounter.
-There are doubles of quite a few items, including Ice Beam, Varia Suit, etc. There are, however, many items that won't be in their usual locations, like most of Big Pink's items. I don't know if they're simply not there, or if they share an ID with an item acquired in the main hack map.
- The one thing preventing a higher score than a 2/5, personally, is the lack of a proper ending. Tourian is completely broken, and entering Tourian from G4 will result in a softlock in a room of garbage graphics, making Mother Brain impossible to reach.
Overall, it was okay, but I would've liked an actual ending. Oh well.
The ideas here are neat, and the custom enemies, though few, are definitely something I've yet to see in a hack up to this point. The low gravity areas were cool, and the pallets were also nice. Though Ceres is now used as an actual explorable area, little is done with it. I didn't know where the hack actually ended, but I believe after the Baby encounter, the game can be considered done. Beyond that point is just the vanilla game, but with a few caveats, which I'll explain below (Spoiler Warning):
- Exiting the Baby room to the left takes you to a room where the camera breaks. Going to the right gets Samus an E-Tank, while going to the left exits the room toward the sand pit in Botwoon E-Tank Room. The game proceeds from there, but with broken graphics. However, saving and reloading will fix it. From there, much of vanilla Zebes is explorable, emphasis on "much"
- DO NOT enter Save Rooms where the entrance is through doors to the right (the only exception being Business Center); the Save Rooms are broken, probably wouldn't even work, if you found the save machine, and you end up softlocking, trying to explore an out-of-bounds area. Maybe there's something out there if one is tenacious enough, but I didn't spend too long exploring it to find out.
- Many of the rooms for this hack are just modified versions of otherwise vanilla rooms. For that reason, exiting Big Pink to the left (save for the Waterway) will result in Samus exiting to one of the rooms made for the hack, but stuck in a wall, resulting in a softlock. While some doors won't softlock, they will - all the same - return you to the main hack map proper.
- The only modified enemy (other than The Baby) appears to be modded from what was a Kago. This is made apparent when you enter Mushroom Kingdom, as the Kagos are replaced by them, which makes for an amusing encounter.
-There are doubles of quite a few items, including Ice Beam, Varia Suit, etc. There are, however, many items that won't be in their usual locations, like most of Big Pink's items. I don't know if they're simply not there, or if they share an ID with an item acquired in the main hack map.
- The one thing preventing a higher score than a 2/5, personally, is the lack of a proper ending. Tourian is completely broken, and entering Tourian from G4 will result in a softlock in a room of garbage graphics, making Mother Brain impossible to reach.
Overall, it was okay, but I would've liked an actual ending. Oh well.
Enemy Scroll Concept by Jathys [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 23, 2024 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 23, 2024 ( )
No completion stats.
There's potential here. The hack itself is just vanilla outside of Parlor, so don't expect anything outside a showcase of a potential idea for an autoscroller. That said, I'll give this a 2/5, despite the hack barely even being a hack, simply for the concept alone. I really hope someone, in the future, takes this concept, refines it, and makes something out of it.
I'd have given this a 3/5, but you had to go and hide the way forward in such a stupid way. I had to look at your Read Me file to see the hint. Yeah, hiding a morph tunnel you can't see above the blue door to the right of the ship wasn't cool. Hack makers really need to not hide progression in such an obtuse manner. It's fine for optional item pickups, like Missiles, etc., but not for progression.
As for the rest of the hack, it was fine otherwise. It certainly felt more like a boss rush compared to the first game, but ultimately, nothing beyond that.
As for the rest of the hack, it was fine otherwise. It certainly felt more like a boss rush compared to the first game, but ultimately, nothing beyond that.
Fun idea, especially from a hack this old. My only gripe are the hidden Grapple blocks that cannot be revealed until shot with Grapple, and some of the obtuse, cryptic paths forward. I ended up grabbing items out of sequence using Spike Suit, among other tricks. When the path forward isn't made too apparent, it's a flaw in my book. Some of the cool things were pretty cool, but that's about it.
I give this a 1.5/5, so I'll round it up to 2. The idea has potential, but the execution is downright unfinished. Once you beat Kraid, and Bomb Torizo, that's it. There's no proper ending to this game, so don't expect much outside of a few minutes or so worth of gameplay.
It's weird. A few minor changes in the beginning, but it's vanilla for almost the whole way. Oh, except for the Save Room in Parlor... Won't say what that's about; best to find out for yourself. The new intro dialogue was half-amusing, but nothing is done with it. Mediocre overall. Had it not been for the fact that this was merely a test, I'd have given a 1/5. Still, this didn't need to be a hack released on the main site.
Super Metroid: So Much Hell Apocalypse "Q" by The Monster of Surrealton [ Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Sep 11, 2023 ( )
Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Sep 11, 2023 ( )
98% in 4:39
I've had some time to reflect on this. Initially, I was going to give this a 1/5, like the others, but upon looking back on this game... Yeah, it's a pretty bad hack. It's not without its merits, though.
For starters, this game is what you get when you have most of the bad design ideas in a Mario Maker game slapped into a Super Metroid hack, including spike spam, and rooms that's filled with nothing but lava and/or acid... WITH spikes, because "Ha ha! You died, scrub! lul!" Despite this, there were some parts that I genuinely liked overcoming. Once you get the Daemon Armor (Gravity Suit), the game becomes much easier, until it doesn't anymore, which I'll elaborate more...
SPOILER AHEAD:
For starters, the rooms that are acid-filled, or rooms where acid fills quickly are pretty harsh, to say the least, but can be overcome with proper movement, and shinesparking (in the case of the Pillar Room). However, the Ridley fight, which has no platforms on which to stand, and is a room that is nothing but spikes, with an acid bath at the bottom was just ridiculous. Practically speaking, you will need to find every bit of ammo and E-Tank you can find. The bosses' health has been buffed, so you're looking at way more than 35 Supers to take Rodney down.
You would think that Ridley would be the hardest fight, because it's Ridley, and he has the most health, but no... There's Botwoon, with a room full of acid instead of water, with spikes everywhere, and then Draygon, which is pretty much like Botwoon, except there are turrets that cannot be destroyed. You WILL be hard-required to use well-timed Crystal Flashes throughout the fight to even survive (the ammo provided up to this point allows no more than 4 Crystal Flashes, so use your ammo and CFs wisely).
END SPOILER:
Where I give this a 2/5 instead of a 1 is the challenge that I think is pretty fun, all things considered, with the exception for what I mentioned in the spoiler section. Also, the custom Metroid sprites looked pretty dope too, so those get a point as well.
Clearly not a hack for everyone, so only play this if you're morbidly curious, believe you have the skill to persevere, and/or are purely a masochist.
For starters, this game is what you get when you have most of the bad design ideas in a Mario Maker game slapped into a Super Metroid hack, including spike spam, and rooms that's filled with nothing but lava and/or acid... WITH spikes, because "Ha ha! You died, scrub! lul!" Despite this, there were some parts that I genuinely liked overcoming. Once you get the Daemon Armor (Gravity Suit), the game becomes much easier, until it doesn't anymore, which I'll elaborate more...
SPOILER AHEAD:
For starters, the rooms that are acid-filled, or rooms where acid fills quickly are pretty harsh, to say the least, but can be overcome with proper movement, and shinesparking (in the case of the Pillar Room). However, the Ridley fight, which has no platforms on which to stand, and is a room that is nothing but spikes, with an acid bath at the bottom was just ridiculous. Practically speaking, you will need to find every bit of ammo and E-Tank you can find. The bosses' health has been buffed, so you're looking at way more than 35 Supers to take Rodney down.
You would think that Ridley would be the hardest fight, because it's Ridley, and he has the most health, but no... There's Botwoon, with a room full of acid instead of water, with spikes everywhere, and then Draygon, which is pretty much like Botwoon, except there are turrets that cannot be destroyed. You WILL be hard-required to use well-timed Crystal Flashes throughout the fight to even survive (the ammo provided up to this point allows no more than 4 Crystal Flashes, so use your ammo and CFs wisely).
END SPOILER:
Where I give this a 2/5 instead of a 1 is the challenge that I think is pretty fun, all things considered, with the exception for what I mentioned in the spoiler section. Also, the custom Metroid sprites looked pretty dope too, so those get a point as well.
Clearly not a hack for everyone, so only play this if you're morbidly curious, believe you have the skill to persevere, and/or are purely a masochist.
Super Metroid: Puzzle by Eddy23911 [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 11, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 11, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Under normal circumstances, you cannot get past Big Pink, as the entrance to Green Hill Zone is closed off by a yellow door. But have you met me? I'm me! Of course I moondanced into Etecoons Room to get early Power Bombs. What was beyond anything PB-locked was... just vanilla Super Metroid, which to be fair, is expected, given the hack was supposed to be unfinished.
That said, even with that, the game is functionally unbeatable, because of Landing Site. There is a crumble block that leads into Parlor, which isn't the bad part. What is bad, however, is to get back to your ship, you must break a Super Missile block, and if you know Mother Brain 2, you know that she drains all of your ammo (except Missiles, if you have enough of them). This makes it practically impossible to escape, unless someone manages to deep-stuck themselves into the lower-left door of Landing Site, X-Ray climb up to Gauntlet's door, and then escape that way, but between steam hindering short charge attempts, and the limited time offered during the escape, yeah, it's impractical. The only real way to ensure you have enough Super Missiles is multiple instances of the Spacetime Beam glitch, so that you can collect enough Supers to have some leftover after Mother Brain's rainbow beam. At least you can save the animals, I guess.
The biggest issue with this hack is that it doesn't do anything interesting, other than adding some obstacles to rooms to make navigation more tedious. Worse still, despite its namesake, this hack has absolutely zero puzzles of which to speak, so it fails in doing what its name was supposed to imply. A waste of time for something with subpar effort at best.
That said, even with that, the game is functionally unbeatable, because of Landing Site. There is a crumble block that leads into Parlor, which isn't the bad part. What is bad, however, is to get back to your ship, you must break a Super Missile block, and if you know Mother Brain 2, you know that she drains all of your ammo (except Missiles, if you have enough of them). This makes it practically impossible to escape, unless someone manages to deep-stuck themselves into the lower-left door of Landing Site, X-Ray climb up to Gauntlet's door, and then escape that way, but between steam hindering short charge attempts, and the limited time offered during the escape, yeah, it's impractical. The only real way to ensure you have enough Super Missiles is multiple instances of the Spacetime Beam glitch, so that you can collect enough Supers to have some leftover after Mother Brain's rainbow beam. At least you can save the animals, I guess.
The biggest issue with this hack is that it doesn't do anything interesting, other than adding some obstacles to rooms to make navigation more tedious. Worse still, despite its namesake, this hack has absolutely zero puzzles of which to speak, so it fails in doing what its name was supposed to imply. A waste of time for something with subpar effort at best.
Super Metroid: Apocalypse by DarkSamus [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 10, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 10, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This hack is really shallow at best. There are some perma-stucks, and worst of all, Morph Ball cannot be acquired; it just sits there behind a wall, taunting the player. I did use a walk-through-walls cheat code to grab it, though, and even with that, it doesn't allow for much beyond that. The hack, casually playing, ends when Bombs are acquired, as Bomb Torizo's room cannot be escaped, unless again, one uses walk-through-walls cheats. Even with granting myself all power-ups, beams, etc., and a walk-through-walls code, the hack doesn't offer anything much beyond Bomb Torizo. My playthrough ended when I fell out of bounds, and couldn't find my way back.
The palettes were neat, but that's all it has. This hack is 14 years old (as of this review), and nothing else manifested from this, so we can safely assume we'll never see a finished version.
The palettes were neat, but that's all it has. This hack is 14 years old (as of this review), and nothing else manifested from this, so we can safely assume we'll never see a finished version.
Super Metroid: Space Adventures by DaveBatista [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 10, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 10, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
So seeing as this hack is built using Vanilla++ as a base, I was expecting something decent. Truth is... it ain't too bad, despite my 1/5 rating, but my issue is the end, as well as the journey there. There really isn't much at all to this hack. In practice, it's incredibly short with hardly any content to be had, and some of the progression was a bit obtuse here and there, with some possible perma-stucks.
As for the ending (spoiler ahead), I didn't actually know there was an ending sequence to this hack. It wasn't until after I accepted there being no ending, and moving on that I saw in ED's playthrough that there actually is an end to the hack. To be fair, the description does also allude to this. To the left of the Power Bombs is a hidden morph tunnel that needs said Power Bombs to break through. Entering the morph tunnel, and touching the loading zone triggers the planet explosion ending. It's for this reason, I have no completion stats. Furthermore, the ending is too well hidden for most players to know that it's even there.
Overall, there wasn't much to this. Not the worst of the hacks I've rated 1 orb by any means, but still felt like a waste of time.
As for the ending (spoiler ahead), I didn't actually know there was an ending sequence to this hack. It wasn't until after I accepted there being no ending, and moving on that I saw in ED's playthrough that there actually is an end to the hack. To be fair, the description does also allude to this. To the left of the Power Bombs is a hidden morph tunnel that needs said Power Bombs to break through. Entering the morph tunnel, and touching the loading zone triggers the planet explosion ending. It's for this reason, I have no completion stats. Furthermore, the ending is too well hidden for most players to know that it's even there.
Overall, there wasn't much to this. Not the worst of the hacks I've rated 1 orb by any means, but still felt like a waste of time.
Super Metroid Nightmare by JAM [ Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 02, 2025 ( )
Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Jun 02, 2025 ( )
200% in 5:02
What in the hell was this?! This hack is an awful hack, and possibly the worst on this site thus far! Mind you, this takes into consideration hacks that are broken, unfinished, and/or made stupidly, whether Warfare, NoobSmasher, Super T-Metroid, or even Super Metroid AQUA FINALZ! The worst part is that the general idea isn't bad, but the execution is worse than dog shit; at least dog shit can be used to grow a dandelion or some other shitty weed. This hack, however... Well, let's go over why this hack is less than shit.
First, let's go over the worst part of the hack, and it happens from the word "Go": Ceres Station. Ridley will not run from the player, so the player is hard-required to fire 100 shots to initiate the escape. This doesn't sound bad on paper, and is normally very doable. Hell, Super Metroid: Escape II did this with their Hard Mode patch. However this hack decides to add bullshit onto this task by making Ridley's fire breath deal 15 damage (which isn't that bad), his body deal 30 damage, and his tail, of all things, deal 60 damage; the same amount as the most savage spikes. This is a big issue, due to Ridley's actions being entirely RNG, and he has only three moves; fire breath, swoop, and tackle. Fire breath can be dodged, and therefor avoided, while the swoop is trickier, but can be managed. The tackle, however, is what WILL fuck you, as there is zero cue (visual or otherwise) to allow the player to anticipate and avoid it, and because of RNG, Ridley can and often will spam just that! Worse still, his tail is often swinging around, and has a disjointed hitbox, so when Ridley tackles, oftentimes, the player will take damage from the tail's hitbox over Ridley's body, meaning you could die within seconds of the battle starting. Had the damage been reversed, where the tail did 15, body did 30, and breath did 60, this could have been easier to digest.
Now if that weren't bad enough, not only do you have to simply get lucky during the Ridley encounter, but the Ceres escape sequence only allows the player 15 seconds to escape. To put that in perspective, that is the same amount of time given to the player in Super Metroid: Kaizo Edition, so if the player's movements aren't perfect, and steam/rubble RNG doesn't align, you'll have your attempt forfeit, and have to start all over again with the Ridley fight. I begrudgingly used save states after the Ridley fight, after over an hour of grinding, because I got too aggravated. I later find out, in EternisedDragon's playthrough, that the steam during the escape does damage Samus, so if the player damages down fast enough during the escape to 0 health before the timer runs out, restarting will put Samus on the elevator while Ceres's escape flag is still active, allowing the player to cheese the escape. This pissed me off, because I could have done that, and not have to need to save state, and for that, I will forever have resentment toward this hack and its maker!
After all that, the game itself doesn't stop with its bullshit. The world map is entirely vanilla, with minor changes. These changes are some doors here and there, to allow the player to not need ammo in certain places to proceed. There's a reason for this. The first Missiles acquired grants 5 ammo, which is to be expected. However, all other ammo pickups, including other Missiles, will give only 1 each. This leaves the player with a max ammo count of 50/10/10. Under ordinary circumstances, this doesn't really do all that much, but in this hack, it's a problem, as red doors require 25 Missiles generally, all green doors require 5 Super Missiles, and yellow doors are heavily varied; one yellow door may require 5 Power Bombs, while another can require up to 25 Power Bombs. For this reason, it is ordinarily impossible to open the yellow door leaving Red Tower from the top. Some doors also hard-require the player to blow all of their ammo on a door, and then grind for more ammo from surrounding enemies to continue with opening the door.
The bosses are obnoxious in their HP buff and damage output. But none more so than Spore Spawn. Spore Spawn, unlike many other Spore Spawns, will continue to move, even when its shell is open. This results in there being no safe spot to hide from it, forcing the player to run back and forth to avoid it, and it gets even worse when Spore Spawn speeds up. Worse still, Spore Spawn has an unholy amount of health, so you can spend upwards of 30+ minutes fighting it, the time mostly spent dodging it while farming ammo and health, all the while, Spore Spawn's body does around 48 damage, making it a two-hit KO in most circumstances, because Energy Tanks don't offer much of anything for health, increasing health by 25 every tank. If that wasn't bad enough, after Ceres, you start the game off with only 49 energy. If you're able to do the escape cheese ED did, you can mitigate this by starting the game with 99 energy, allowing for 50 more energy than normal.
Enemies were also insanely buffed, some of them being able to one-shot outright before suits and more E-Tanks, including Hoppers, Ki Hunters, and Desgeegas. Their health was also buffed, requiring tedious firing of your beam to kill them; even Zebetites were insanely buffed, making Missiles alone inadequate to deal with them. Plasma feels underpowered late game as a result of these mindless buffs. Alongside enemies, lava and acid were also insanely buffed as well. Lava, even with Varia Suit, will drain health about as fast as acid does to a suitless Samus, while acid's damage is so vicious, your health will just vanish in a near-blink of an eye.
Tourian is stupid. While the usual Metroid rooms are whatever, the room with the two Tourian Sidehoppers is what showcases the true stupid of Tourian here. The way forward is blocked by a metal door, so you must kill both Hoppers using your ammo (minus Power Bombs). That's not all, though, as killing the Hoppers won't immediately open it; you must leave, refill ammo, and return to kill one more Hopper for the door to open. And that seems to be the main theme of this hack; proceed through to a colored door, blow all your ammo on it, grind for 30 minutes to get ammo back, and repeat, sometimes needing to grind in the middle of trying to open the door.
The very first chance one gets, which won't happen until late game, I highly recommend saying "Fuck you!" to this hack, and using GT Code. This will grant you far more health and ammo than the game is supposed to allow, literally doubling your max ammo amount, while also giving the player a ton more health than what is achieved by end game normally. It also evens the playing field against Gold Torizo, Ridley, and Mother Brain, the last of which is not much different from her SM Impossible counterpart. On a side note, MB1 will require ALL of your ammo; all 50 Missiles, all 10 Supers, and even all 10 Power Bombs (yes Power Bombs does damage MB1). GT Code is also how my completion stats read 200%.
Literally, the only one positive, if I absolutely must say anything nice about this hack, is that the player is hard-required to save the animals, or else the door leading out to Landing Site remains a metal door. It was a cool thing, and I think some more hacks should implement something like that. Otherwise, this entire hack is just not fun. It is the antithesis to the concept of fun. It's as if JAM woke up and thought, "How can I make vanilla Super Metroid as unfun, boring, hard, and tedious as humanly possible?" And decided to act upon those intrusive thoughts. There are a ton of hacks that are hard due to design, including obstacles, etc., as well as hacks that are hard from broken coding, and then there's this, a hack that is hard for all the wrong reasons that I can't see anyone realistically enjoying, and anyone who claims this hack to be good, or claim they enjoyed it are bold-faced liars.
This hack sucks, and is likely the worst Vanilla+ hack on MetroidConstruction, and will likely remain the worst.
First, let's go over the worst part of the hack, and it happens from the word "Go": Ceres Station. Ridley will not run from the player, so the player is hard-required to fire 100 shots to initiate the escape. This doesn't sound bad on paper, and is normally very doable. Hell, Super Metroid: Escape II did this with their Hard Mode patch. However this hack decides to add bullshit onto this task by making Ridley's fire breath deal 15 damage (which isn't that bad), his body deal 30 damage, and his tail, of all things, deal 60 damage; the same amount as the most savage spikes. This is a big issue, due to Ridley's actions being entirely RNG, and he has only three moves; fire breath, swoop, and tackle. Fire breath can be dodged, and therefor avoided, while the swoop is trickier, but can be managed. The tackle, however, is what WILL fuck you, as there is zero cue (visual or otherwise) to allow the player to anticipate and avoid it, and because of RNG, Ridley can and often will spam just that! Worse still, his tail is often swinging around, and has a disjointed hitbox, so when Ridley tackles, oftentimes, the player will take damage from the tail's hitbox over Ridley's body, meaning you could die within seconds of the battle starting. Had the damage been reversed, where the tail did 15, body did 30, and breath did 60, this could have been easier to digest.
Now if that weren't bad enough, not only do you have to simply get lucky during the Ridley encounter, but the Ceres escape sequence only allows the player 15 seconds to escape. To put that in perspective, that is the same amount of time given to the player in Super Metroid: Kaizo Edition, so if the player's movements aren't perfect, and steam/rubble RNG doesn't align, you'll have your attempt forfeit, and have to start all over again with the Ridley fight. I begrudgingly used save states after the Ridley fight, after over an hour of grinding, because I got too aggravated. I later find out, in EternisedDragon's playthrough, that the steam during the escape does damage Samus, so if the player damages down fast enough during the escape to 0 health before the timer runs out, restarting will put Samus on the elevator while Ceres's escape flag is still active, allowing the player to cheese the escape. This pissed me off, because I could have done that, and not have to need to save state, and for that, I will forever have resentment toward this hack and its maker!
After all that, the game itself doesn't stop with its bullshit. The world map is entirely vanilla, with minor changes. These changes are some doors here and there, to allow the player to not need ammo in certain places to proceed. There's a reason for this. The first Missiles acquired grants 5 ammo, which is to be expected. However, all other ammo pickups, including other Missiles, will give only 1 each. This leaves the player with a max ammo count of 50/10/10. Under ordinary circumstances, this doesn't really do all that much, but in this hack, it's a problem, as red doors require 25 Missiles generally, all green doors require 5 Super Missiles, and yellow doors are heavily varied; one yellow door may require 5 Power Bombs, while another can require up to 25 Power Bombs. For this reason, it is ordinarily impossible to open the yellow door leaving Red Tower from the top. Some doors also hard-require the player to blow all of their ammo on a door, and then grind for more ammo from surrounding enemies to continue with opening the door.
The bosses are obnoxious in their HP buff and damage output. But none more so than Spore Spawn. Spore Spawn, unlike many other Spore Spawns, will continue to move, even when its shell is open. This results in there being no safe spot to hide from it, forcing the player to run back and forth to avoid it, and it gets even worse when Spore Spawn speeds up. Worse still, Spore Spawn has an unholy amount of health, so you can spend upwards of 30+ minutes fighting it, the time mostly spent dodging it while farming ammo and health, all the while, Spore Spawn's body does around 48 damage, making it a two-hit KO in most circumstances, because Energy Tanks don't offer much of anything for health, increasing health by 25 every tank. If that wasn't bad enough, after Ceres, you start the game off with only 49 energy. If you're able to do the escape cheese ED did, you can mitigate this by starting the game with 99 energy, allowing for 50 more energy than normal.
Enemies were also insanely buffed, some of them being able to one-shot outright before suits and more E-Tanks, including Hoppers, Ki Hunters, and Desgeegas. Their health was also buffed, requiring tedious firing of your beam to kill them; even Zebetites were insanely buffed, making Missiles alone inadequate to deal with them. Plasma feels underpowered late game as a result of these mindless buffs. Alongside enemies, lava and acid were also insanely buffed as well. Lava, even with Varia Suit, will drain health about as fast as acid does to a suitless Samus, while acid's damage is so vicious, your health will just vanish in a near-blink of an eye.
Tourian is stupid. While the usual Metroid rooms are whatever, the room with the two Tourian Sidehoppers is what showcases the true stupid of Tourian here. The way forward is blocked by a metal door, so you must kill both Hoppers using your ammo (minus Power Bombs). That's not all, though, as killing the Hoppers won't immediately open it; you must leave, refill ammo, and return to kill one more Hopper for the door to open. And that seems to be the main theme of this hack; proceed through to a colored door, blow all your ammo on it, grind for 30 minutes to get ammo back, and repeat, sometimes needing to grind in the middle of trying to open the door.
The very first chance one gets, which won't happen until late game, I highly recommend saying "Fuck you!" to this hack, and using GT Code. This will grant you far more health and ammo than the game is supposed to allow, literally doubling your max ammo amount, while also giving the player a ton more health than what is achieved by end game normally. It also evens the playing field against Gold Torizo, Ridley, and Mother Brain, the last of which is not much different from her SM Impossible counterpart. On a side note, MB1 will require ALL of your ammo; all 50 Missiles, all 10 Supers, and even all 10 Power Bombs (yes Power Bombs does damage MB1). GT Code is also how my completion stats read 200%.
Literally, the only one positive, if I absolutely must say anything nice about this hack, is that the player is hard-required to save the animals, or else the door leading out to Landing Site remains a metal door. It was a cool thing, and I think some more hacks should implement something like that. Otherwise, this entire hack is just not fun. It is the antithesis to the concept of fun. It's as if JAM woke up and thought, "How can I make vanilla Super Metroid as unfun, boring, hard, and tedious as humanly possible?" And decided to act upon those intrusive thoughts. There are a ton of hacks that are hard due to design, including obstacles, etc., as well as hacks that are hard from broken coding, and then there's this, a hack that is hard for all the wrong reasons that I can't see anyone realistically enjoying, and anyone who claims this hack to be good, or claim they enjoyed it are bold-faced liars.
This hack sucks, and is likely the worst Vanilla+ hack on MetroidConstruction, and will likely remain the worst.
Sam & Phazar's Halloween Hack by Phazar [ Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
4% in 0:03
If the only thing about this hack being "Halloween" was Samus's pumpkin-colored power suit, then this hack failed in making a properly-themed hack. Death traps, spikes, and the overused red Crateria litters this hack. Also, though it does have a proper ending, it is still very much anticlimactic. A waste of time, really.
KT JDDD Halloween by KT JDDD [ Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
Quick Play],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This hack has literally nothing in it that suggests this was made for Halloween. It's just a really short hack with a few issues. The biggest one is the lack of an item farm, so goodness help you if you use your only Power Bomb, and didn't leave any crabs alive that could help give a PB drop. Furthermore, this hack ends with a weird death, so it has no proper ending. Really mediocre, even when disregarding the "Halloween" part of it.
Super Metroid: Perspective by ZENE09 [ Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Here's my perspective: This hack absolutely sucks! There is too little to it to be called a hack, and after getting Super Missiles, there's literally nothing else you can do, as you cannot escape the room in which you acquire them. Don't waste your time with this.
Super Metroid: Eternity by Kasel [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 30, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This was too short to be much of a demo. Just like First Horizon Demo, this hack felt like someone took Super Metroid: Redesign, and tried to make a rom hack off that, what with some of the game physics, etc. There wasn't much to this hack. Some of the door warps were also broken too. When progressing past Bomb Torizo's room the first time, you come to a dead end because of a door you cannot open. Progress to that point a second time, and the room changes to a broken mess that cannot be progressed, softlocking the player. Progress elsewhere in the hack, and you'll come to another broken door that leads to the top of Amphitheater, behind a wall, softlocking/killing the player. Had the potential for promise, but it ended up being nothing.
How the hell does Tyjet66 go from making a really good hack (Stardust), to this? So, for the most part, this hack is... a'ight in terms of obstacles... that is until the Zeb freezing section. For some reason that I can weirdly imagine, conveyer tiles cover the air going up, making the ascent one of the bigger pains in the ass I've seen in rom hacks. After enough experimenting, I figured out a way to make life as easy as possible:
When you freeze the Zeb, continually jump on it, and if you see yourself move significantly on either side upon landing, mid-air morph to land on the Zeb in morph form, and then unmorph WITHOUT standing; while in this position, the conveyer will not move Samus. Basically repeat until you reach the top. If upon landing on the Zeb after jumping, you don't move to either side, it's safe to just stand on it; crouching or morphing at that point will actually push you off. It's really weird, and really stupid. The rest is just a tight Space Jump section through a spike path, and an annoying Morph Ball maze. The E-Tank at the end is the hack's win condition, and grants you max E-Tanks, which honestly, would have been a lot helpful much earlier in the hack.
That said, this hack is pretty bad, and I don't recommend it to anyone of any skill level. 1/5.
When you freeze the Zeb, continually jump on it, and if you see yourself move significantly on either side upon landing, mid-air morph to land on the Zeb in morph form, and then unmorph WITHOUT standing; while in this position, the conveyer will not move Samus. Basically repeat until you reach the top. If upon landing on the Zeb after jumping, you don't move to either side, it's safe to just stand on it; crouching or morphing at that point will actually push you off. It's really weird, and really stupid. The rest is just a tight Space Jump section through a spike path, and an annoying Morph Ball maze. The E-Tank at the end is the hack's win condition, and grants you max E-Tanks, which honestly, would have been a lot helpful much earlier in the hack.
That said, this hack is pretty bad, and I don't recommend it to anyone of any skill level. 1/5.
Super Metroid: Opus 1 by Gamma_Metroid [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
93% in 1:34
Don't let my completion stats fool you; this hack cannot be played as it currently stands, as Landing Site has uninitialized data. This results in random garbage tiles, including some that can crash the game. Even then, Samus cannot move from her starting position either, so this hack is impossible to play... under normal circumstances.
But you look at how I play Super Metroid rom hacks, and how I like to approach and even dissect them, and you'll know that I'm not normal. You see, I used Action Replay codes to select where on Zebes I wanted to start, so I chose Brinstar and went from there. So far, only Landing Site suffers from this garbage, as all other rooms are perfectly fine.
So what does this hack actually have that's worth anything? Well, it's a half hack, with some interesting room layout changes, and item placements, but that's all it's got. Doesn't even change all areas, as Wrecked Ship, Lower Norfair, and Tourian are all completely unchanged. While what is changed is half-decent, it wouldn't have been enough to rate this higher than a 2/5, assuming Landing Site was fixed.
Probably asking yourself, "How the hell did she even beat the game, if Landing Site is broken?" Well, some of the garbage tiles can be broken with Screw Attack, though interacting with some tiles can crash the game. Also, the ship is impossible to reach even after Screw Attack, as there are solid tiles blocking the way, so a walk-through-walls Action Replay code was used to circumvent that. So while my completion time isn't exactly valid, I did show that there are things in this hack that was meant to be played and seen by the player.
However, Landing Site is broken, and for that reason, I absolutely cannot give this hack anymore than a 1/5, since playing a hack is the point, which this hack misses.
But you look at how I play Super Metroid rom hacks, and how I like to approach and even dissect them, and you'll know that I'm not normal. You see, I used Action Replay codes to select where on Zebes I wanted to start, so I chose Brinstar and went from there. So far, only Landing Site suffers from this garbage, as all other rooms are perfectly fine.
So what does this hack actually have that's worth anything? Well, it's a half hack, with some interesting room layout changes, and item placements, but that's all it's got. Doesn't even change all areas, as Wrecked Ship, Lower Norfair, and Tourian are all completely unchanged. While what is changed is half-decent, it wouldn't have been enough to rate this higher than a 2/5, assuming Landing Site was fixed.
Probably asking yourself, "How the hell did she even beat the game, if Landing Site is broken?" Well, some of the garbage tiles can be broken with Screw Attack, though interacting with some tiles can crash the game. Also, the ship is impossible to reach even after Screw Attack, as there are solid tiles blocking the way, so a walk-through-walls Action Replay code was used to circumvent that. So while my completion time isn't exactly valid, I did show that there are things in this hack that was meant to be played and seen by the player.
However, Landing Site is broken, and for that reason, I absolutely cannot give this hack anymore than a 1/5, since playing a hack is the point, which this hack misses.
The Technique Trainer by Untouchablekill [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
24% in 0:09
As was stated by others, Grapple Beam crashes the game when attempting to grapple swing. Also, unless you pan the camera far enough to the left, attempting to save at the invisible ship will cause a giant Dessgeega to spawn, and then crash the game. Furthermore, move ahead enough in the hack past a glitched-looking Kraid, and a giant Dessgeega, and you'll load in an off-screen Ki Hunter that straight up crashes the game, making progression normally impossible. However, if you're able to take a Beetom and drag it with you back to the weird Hi-Jump graphic morph tunnels, you can freeze it, and ice clip into said morph tunnels to beat the hack that way. The ending is very anti-climactic.
That said, what was this hack trying to train the player to do? It didn't feel like it was training me anything, and some areas straight up heal the player to full health, so there isn't much in the way of consequences for messing up, for better or worse. Either way, this hack was a mess, and I am no fan of it.
That said, what was this hack trying to train the player to do? It didn't feel like it was training me anything, and some areas straight up heal the player to full health, so there isn't much in the way of consequences for messing up, for better or worse. Either way, this hack was a mess, and I am no fan of it.
This hack has some really neat visuals, but most of it is really dark, and makes it hard as hell to see, or even tell where you're going, or what you're doing. The vibe has some survival horror elements to it, which is neat, what with 90% of enemies being Metroids/Mocktroids. The hack, on paper, is short, and can be beaten in about 15 or so minutes, but the difficulty definitely pads the play time.
That said, there is one extremely fatal flaw to this hack (spoiler ahead), and that is the final room with the group of Red Metroids. There is a Power Bomb in that room that is required to beat the hack. The problem is that there is an item in the game that shares the same ID as said Power Bomb, effectively despawning the Power Bomb, and rendering the save unbeatable. The item in question: A Reserve Tank in the room following where Noob Bridge generally would be; you'll come across a room with a Reserve Tank, with an Energy Tank right next to it, and to the right, a door that leads nowhere, with a Red Metroid hiding behind it. DO NOT collect that Reserve Tank, as it WILL despawn the Power Bomb needed at the end. It took me several playthroughs, and getting the bare minimum items before I was able to beat it, because I didn't know which item was the culprit. It wasn't until days later, I finally acquired the SMILE program, just so I can see which item it was for the sake of this review, since no one seems to wanna say what the offending item is. But there you go, now you know.
It is that awful oversight that nets this hack a 1/5 from me. The visuals and idea are great, and the execution is okay, but it isn't all that, and without that item ID issue, I'd have given this a 3/5. What a shame.
That said, there is one extremely fatal flaw to this hack (spoiler ahead), and that is the final room with the group of Red Metroids. There is a Power Bomb in that room that is required to beat the hack. The problem is that there is an item in the game that shares the same ID as said Power Bomb, effectively despawning the Power Bomb, and rendering the save unbeatable. The item in question: A Reserve Tank in the room following where Noob Bridge generally would be; you'll come across a room with a Reserve Tank, with an Energy Tank right next to it, and to the right, a door that leads nowhere, with a Red Metroid hiding behind it. DO NOT collect that Reserve Tank, as it WILL despawn the Power Bomb needed at the end. It took me several playthroughs, and getting the bare minimum items before I was able to beat it, because I didn't know which item was the culprit. It wasn't until days later, I finally acquired the SMILE program, just so I can see which item it was for the sake of this review, since no one seems to wanna say what the offending item is. But there you go, now you know.
It is that awful oversight that nets this hack a 1/5 from me. The visuals and idea are great, and the execution is okay, but it isn't all that, and without that item ID issue, I'd have given this a 3/5. What a shame.
Super Metroid: Dark by DarkSamus [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 26, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This hack sucks. The visuals were a'ight, and the spots that drain and refill health were neat (as seen in Dark World), but that's it. Bomb Torizo's room is a mess, the tiles in Terminator Room are scrambled to hell, and the metal door to the left of Landing Site doesn't even open after beating Bomb Torizo... Not that it would matter, because I used Action Replay walk-through-walls cheats to get in, just to find out Parlor (or what's supposed to be Parlor) crashes upon loading, rendering this "demo" unplayable.
Speaking of, I did use cheat codes to see what this hack did have to offer, by way of going through the wall on the right. There are some different room layouts the player was never meant to see, including a very small Wrecked Ship area with a buffed Phantoon at the end of it. You can also access Red Tower with weird tiling, and broken scroll PLMs. Alpha Power Bomb Room and Beta Power Bomb Room functions just fine, but Hellway crashes upon loading. Didn't bother checking Maridia's back door. The save room is broken, and can only be exited through the right side, which softlocks the player out of bounds. Speaking of Power Bombs, Power Bomb pickups give 50, while Missiles give 230. There are no Super Missiles to find, but I'm guessing they also give 50.
There was some interesting tidbits on what the hack could have potentially been, as I used Action Replay to give myself all equipment, and most of them had different names:
Charge Beam: (Unchanged)
Ice Beam: Dark Beam
Wave Beam: Light Beam
Spazer: Tri-Beam
Plasma Beam: Ammilator
Varia Suit: DarkEnergy
Gravity Suit: LightEnergy
Morphing Ball: Ball'O'Morph
Bombs: Grenades
Spring Ball: (Unchanged)
Screw Attack: Killer Attack
Hi-Jump Boots: SpaceJumpBoots
Space Jump: Screw Jump
Speed Booster: (Unchanged)
All that said, this hack is a mess, and not really playable, so it gets a 1/5.
Speaking of, I did use cheat codes to see what this hack did have to offer, by way of going through the wall on the right. There are some different room layouts the player was never meant to see, including a very small Wrecked Ship area with a buffed Phantoon at the end of it. You can also access Red Tower with weird tiling, and broken scroll PLMs. Alpha Power Bomb Room and Beta Power Bomb Room functions just fine, but Hellway crashes upon loading. Didn't bother checking Maridia's back door. The save room is broken, and can only be exited through the right side, which softlocks the player out of bounds. Speaking of Power Bombs, Power Bomb pickups give 50, while Missiles give 230. There are no Super Missiles to find, but I'm guessing they also give 50.
There was some interesting tidbits on what the hack could have potentially been, as I used Action Replay to give myself all equipment, and most of them had different names:
Charge Beam: (Unchanged)
Ice Beam: Dark Beam
Wave Beam: Light Beam
Spazer: Tri-Beam
Plasma Beam: Ammilator
Varia Suit: DarkEnergy
Gravity Suit: LightEnergy
Morphing Ball: Ball'O'Morph
Bombs: Grenades
Spring Ball: (Unchanged)
Screw Attack: Killer Attack
Hi-Jump Boots: SpaceJumpBoots
Space Jump: Screw Jump
Speed Booster: (Unchanged)
All that said, this hack is a mess, and not really playable, so it gets a 1/5.
Super Metroid: ÊÐæÏ@!Ðúi by squishy_ichigo [ Spoof],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
Spoof],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
% in 0:42
What a horrible day to have eyesight.
Super Metroid: Samus Returns by pomtt [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 24, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Literally unplayable. Landing Site does not load properly, preventing the player from even starting the game. I even went so far as to use an Action Replay code to force start in Brinstar's Big Pink, and the game crashed upon loading Green Brinstar Main Shaft. This hack is a lost cause. Why was this even allowed to be uploaded and kept on the main site? This hardly even deserves a spot on the forums... not that it even has a forum thread for it.
Super Metroid: Oblivion by Gamefreq [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 21, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 21, 2025 ( )
55% in 1:25
This hack changes some things, especially in the beginning, but that isn't enough to make this not feel boring. There's a challenge on paper, but even for 2009, it wasn't really hard, much less in 2025, where the general skill level of players are high enough to make some headway through Impossible. The idea is to have to hell run through Norfair, do whatever you need to do, to get Speed Booster, and then fight Kraid for... Gravity Suit? Yeah, there is no Varia in this hack. Or, you can go to Wrecked Ship early, fight Phantoon, and get a Gravity Suit in its usual location. I don't know why there are two Gravity Suits, honestly.
Anyway, it was tedious and pretty boring, so it gets a 1/5.
Anyway, it was tedious and pretty boring, so it gets a 1/5.
Super Metroid: Hard Mode by personitis [ Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
Challenge],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
55% in 1:44
Another lazy "Hard Mode". Removing the ability to mockball, and making wall jump height shorter forces the player to play the route fairly vanilla. Honestly, if you want a Hard Mode hack done decently, play Hard Mode Gamma. This one is just another boring, uninspired slog.
Super Metroid AQUA FINALZ by RYNO [ Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 20, 2025 ( )
189% in 2:13
This hack is awful. Landing Site is a glitched-out mess, and the fact RYNO saw this and thought, "Yeah, it's good to go", is unacceptable. The player have to either blindly explore through something they can't possibly see, or view the rom in a hack editor to see where to go. A lot of Crateria is just a mess, really, as if a 5-year-old did whatever the hell they wanted in the SMILE editor.
Progression was weird, but the game overall was... boring. Felt like a chore to get through and progress, and some parts of the hack are completely unchanged from vanilla. There is a hidden Missile in the lava in Green Bubbles Missile Room that infinitely respawn, so the player can grab as many Missiles as they please (it's how my item collection reads 189%). You will need all of those Missiles, though, as Metroids were buffed immensely, requiring 54 Missiles to kill, which was annoying as hell.
At least the hack is beatable... I guess. I don't recommend this at all, though. Broken graphics, PLM error crashes (like the Etecoon Energy Tank Room), and an overall boring experience makes this hack unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.
Progression was weird, but the game overall was... boring. Felt like a chore to get through and progress, and some parts of the hack are completely unchanged from vanilla. There is a hidden Missile in the lava in Green Bubbles Missile Room that infinitely respawn, so the player can grab as many Missiles as they please (it's how my item collection reads 189%). You will need all of those Missiles, though, as Metroids were buffed immensely, requiring 54 Missiles to kill, which was annoying as hell.
At least the hack is beatable... I guess. I don't recommend this at all, though. Broken graphics, PLM error crashes (like the Etecoon Energy Tank Room), and an overall boring experience makes this hack unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.
This hack sucks. I get what they were going for, but the execution was awful. Doors that can lead to a softlock if you enter from where you came, items that can be missed, and the only save in the hack outside of the ship is the last Tourian save, and god help you if you missed a second E-Tank before that point. There are other boss rush-style hacks that are better than this. The fact I used savestates out of fear I might accidentally pick the wrong door and softlock myself is a failure on the hack maker, and further solidifies the lack of quality control on this site.
This hack is dogshit, plain and simple. It isn't the face-value challenge, nor the increased gravity. It isn't even the shitty softlock potential during the escape sequence. It's the betrayal to the player of the rules established by the game. From the start, the player is taught to avoid all the spikes, as being 60-damage spikes, they will kill Samus. So tell me why, of all the things this hack maker can do, do they put important hard-required progression items behind inconspicuous fake spikes that look no different than any other spike. They could have given some kind of visual clue to the player, by making the spikes not animate or something, but no, they don't. Super Missiles are found in the middle of a spike pit that happen to be made of fake spikes, and the Wave Beam behind a fake wall with a fake spike, with real spikes ahead of even that. The player has to look at the hack through a rom editor, like SMART, to know this, be stupidly lucky, or in my case, watching someone else's playthrough, and to do either of those things as a crutch, to know how to progress through any hack, shows the failure on both the hack maker's end, as well as the design of the hack.
Had the fake spike shit been a non-issue, I'd have given this maybe a 3/5, or likely a 2/5. But as it stands, I give this shit show a -5/5. The 1/5 displayed is a visual glitch.
Had the fake spike shit been a non-issue, I'd have given this maybe a 3/5, or likely a 2/5. But as it stands, I give this shit show a -5/5. The 1/5 displayed is a visual glitch.
So, I understand this is called TAS Practice, and so human players shouldn't be playing this, but there could have been a better way to go about the room layout. I got as far as the first speed ball section, and then gave up, but not before seeing the next two obstacles, using cheat codes, and yeah, there's really no reason for this hack to be on the main site. I don't even know if this hack has a proper ending, and I didn't think it was worth the time cheating to even see that far into it. Don't bother with this hack, unless you know how to actually TAS. Even then, there are better hacks that you can practice on; this one isn't so much a practice than it is a TAS Exam.
Super Metroid: Fear by MetroidMst [ Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 08, 2025 ( )
Incomplete],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 08, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
What little this hack had to show was creative visually, for sure. But to say it's unfinished is an understatement. The hack ends after, like 5 or six rooms. Any further exploration just softlocks in untouched vanilla rooms. It's 2025, so I doubt this hack will ever get finished.
Speed Booster Practice by Ult. Avenger [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Not much here to practice. If you wanna practice anything Speed Booster-related, just play the Super Metroid Practice Rom.
Torture Hack by Ult. Avenger [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 06, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
There really wasn't anything in here that was torture. A seasoned player could get through this just fine. Also, the description lied; you start with a crap-ton of health, making this all the easier. You'll know when the hack ends, and its rather anticlimactic.
A couple of short obstacles in a one-room Landing Site hack. Not really worth the time.
Super Metroid: Rebuild 2 by Dark099 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
68% in 1:36
Not much changed from the first Super Metroid: Rebuild. Some room layouts were changed, and some item placements were also changed, but overall, it's the same thing, mostly. I'd skip this one.
Avenger's Hack by Ult. Avenger [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 05, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Mediocre at best. There's really isn't any notable substance to it.
Legend of Doom by devonodev [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 30, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 30, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
A little better than devonodev's other hack, Maze, but not good enough to be anything special, or substantial. Didn't see any apparent way into Space Jump, so I didn't bother. This hack was just a nothing burger.
This is the equivalent to one of those mazes on the back of those IHOP kids menus that comes with cheap crayons for your 5-year-old nephew to finish. That is to say, it's extremely short, with no substance. The background color was nice, at least.
I hated this hack. There are too many tedious sections, especially The Climb Room section. One would think there'd be a shortcut to Blue Brinstar from Crateria, but no, you have to go through the spike gauntlet every single time. That's just the least of this hack's issues. I understand the hack is called "Precision", but it really gets out of hand with that idea in many places. The most egregious for me being the stupidly-precise wall jump into Warehouse Entrance; I would have less of an issue with it if the water didn't bob up and down, like the asshole design choice it was, but the player has to time their jump with that water, and pray they get that timing EXACT. If they're off by a frame or a few, they fail the jump, because the water prevents a wall jump. I've spent what felt like 30+ minutes on that alone; it was such a brain-numbing grind to get seemingly lucky.
Saying the hack isn't as hard as the name suggests is misleading as hell, especially with the actual contents of the hack. I swear, unlike what the description reads, some parts felt like a short charge was absolutely necessary to get through. Most notably, Red Tower. Needing Power Bombs to blow away the PB blocks, and then to shine spark upwards, after doing a short charge. There's also a forced hell run through Cathedral that requires perfection in both execution, and RNG drops from enemies, or else the player gets fucked. I only got through that by cheesing for an extra E-Tank (more on that in a bit).
You're not offered as much freedom of exploration as the hack seems to lead on. Much of the exploration will just lead to dead ends locked by a yet-to-be-acquired item, or a Wrecked Ship robot head... which I guess is the same thing, honestly. After poking and prodding for some way to explore and acquire more items (especially E-Tanks), I was left with no choice but to cheese the game with an obscure trick that managed to reward me greatly (spoiler ahead).
Starting from Gauntlet Energy Tank Room, I acquired the Blue Suit and very carefully made my way to Morph Ball Room, where pink pirates await. These pirates are invulnerable to nearly everything the player has at this point, with the exception of Shinespark echoes. It was with careful positioning, I was able to kill all of the pirates, and open the way to Construction Zone. From there, I proceeded right, and did a combination of careful wall jumps and bomb jumps into the room above the Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room. Dodged some unexpected Metroids, and was rewarded with, of all things, Ice Beam. It was with that Ice Beam, I was able to destroy the robot heads blocking various paths, and acquire some extra item pickups, including an E-Tank in particular that turned the Cathedral hell run into a barely more manageable mess of a trek.
Not long after, after having cheesed the game one more time by way of ice clipping past a crumble block in Bubble Mountain, I came across Gold Torizo. It was there, I had made up my mind, and thought the hack overstayed its welcome; I used the GT Code to give myself everything, barring Screw Attack. Of course, the rest of the hack became MUCH easier as a result, but I didn't care at that point. I was just mentally drained trying to find the way forward, and I knew what to do with the Wave Beam one would acquire after GT, but I didn't bother to see what was beyond Wrecked Ship's Attic; I just wanted the hack to end.
Varia Suit being found in Lower Norfair was a real dick move, given what the player would have had to do to get there without any suits, and Gravity Suit was no better, being at Mama Turtle's room. There were also a few softlocks in Lower Norfair, both of which I ended up suffering through no fault of my own. To add insult to it all, the Screw Attack, which you get after Ridley, is the Screw Attack you get from Temu, as many enemies are immune to it, many of whom shouldn't really be.
The escape sequence differs from vanilla, but because of The Climb being unclimbable, and the player needing to traverse the mazelike layout of Crateria Super Room (though there is a shortcut going upward only), and the two minutes afforded to the player, you're given not much time to actually escape, and the animals are functionally unable to be saved.
I could have forgiven much of this if the description went so far as to describe the fact that this is a challenge hack. Hell, even the difficulty category reads "Unknown", leaving the player out of the loop of what to expect despite the hack's description. Just another 2008 hack trying to be Saturn, trying to make the next Impossible. Guess what? You're not Saturn, and this isn't Super Metroid Impossible. I understand there is an "easy mode" version of this hack, which I haven't played, and refuse to play at this point, but when a hack needs an "easy mode" to offset the difficulty of its normal mode, there's a problem, unless the hack is advertised as one of those challenge hacks. RBO Impossible, and RBO Insane were stupid, yeah, but at least I had a semblance of an idea of what to expect. This one, not so much.
Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say on this.
Saying the hack isn't as hard as the name suggests is misleading as hell, especially with the actual contents of the hack. I swear, unlike what the description reads, some parts felt like a short charge was absolutely necessary to get through. Most notably, Red Tower. Needing Power Bombs to blow away the PB blocks, and then to shine spark upwards, after doing a short charge. There's also a forced hell run through Cathedral that requires perfection in both execution, and RNG drops from enemies, or else the player gets fucked. I only got through that by cheesing for an extra E-Tank (more on that in a bit).
You're not offered as much freedom of exploration as the hack seems to lead on. Much of the exploration will just lead to dead ends locked by a yet-to-be-acquired item, or a Wrecked Ship robot head... which I guess is the same thing, honestly. After poking and prodding for some way to explore and acquire more items (especially E-Tanks), I was left with no choice but to cheese the game with an obscure trick that managed to reward me greatly (spoiler ahead).
Starting from Gauntlet Energy Tank Room, I acquired the Blue Suit and very carefully made my way to Morph Ball Room, where pink pirates await. These pirates are invulnerable to nearly everything the player has at this point, with the exception of Shinespark echoes. It was with careful positioning, I was able to kill all of the pirates, and open the way to Construction Zone. From there, I proceeded right, and did a combination of careful wall jumps and bomb jumps into the room above the Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room. Dodged some unexpected Metroids, and was rewarded with, of all things, Ice Beam. It was with that Ice Beam, I was able to destroy the robot heads blocking various paths, and acquire some extra item pickups, including an E-Tank in particular that turned the Cathedral hell run into a barely more manageable mess of a trek.
Not long after, after having cheesed the game one more time by way of ice clipping past a crumble block in Bubble Mountain, I came across Gold Torizo. It was there, I had made up my mind, and thought the hack overstayed its welcome; I used the GT Code to give myself everything, barring Screw Attack. Of course, the rest of the hack became MUCH easier as a result, but I didn't care at that point. I was just mentally drained trying to find the way forward, and I knew what to do with the Wave Beam one would acquire after GT, but I didn't bother to see what was beyond Wrecked Ship's Attic; I just wanted the hack to end.
Varia Suit being found in Lower Norfair was a real dick move, given what the player would have had to do to get there without any suits, and Gravity Suit was no better, being at Mama Turtle's room. There were also a few softlocks in Lower Norfair, both of which I ended up suffering through no fault of my own. To add insult to it all, the Screw Attack, which you get after Ridley, is the Screw Attack you get from Temu, as many enemies are immune to it, many of whom shouldn't really be.
The escape sequence differs from vanilla, but because of The Climb being unclimbable, and the player needing to traverse the mazelike layout of Crateria Super Room (though there is a shortcut going upward only), and the two minutes afforded to the player, you're given not much time to actually escape, and the animals are functionally unable to be saved.
I could have forgiven much of this if the description went so far as to describe the fact that this is a challenge hack. Hell, even the difficulty category reads "Unknown", leaving the player out of the loop of what to expect despite the hack's description. Just another 2008 hack trying to be Saturn, trying to make the next Impossible. Guess what? You're not Saturn, and this isn't Super Metroid Impossible. I understand there is an "easy mode" version of this hack, which I haven't played, and refuse to play at this point, but when a hack needs an "easy mode" to offset the difficulty of its normal mode, there's a problem, unless the hack is advertised as one of those challenge hacks. RBO Impossible, and RBO Insane were stupid, yeah, but at least I had a semblance of an idea of what to expect. This one, not so much.
Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say on this.
Super Metroid: Zeon by TheBigM [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 30, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 30, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
This hack cannot be beaten, because there is no G4 or Tourian. Not unless you maybe use an Action Replay code that allows you to choose Tourian as your loading point, but this hack isn't worth that effort. It's too broken with softlocks/crash opportunities. Some rooms crash the game upon loading, like Crocomire Escape, for example. Kraid's room is especially bad, as there is no collision on the ground where the spikes are located, nor any collision on the platforms above during the second phase, causing the player to fall out of bounds. The ship at Landing Site is a dangerous save point, as loading a save at that point causes the player to load inside a wall somewhere, effectively locking that save, and forcing the player to have to start the game over from the beginning. The pallet is nauseating, and the overall quality, or lack thereof suggests the hack maker tried... something at the start, and just gave up partway through. Don't waste your time with this.
Another lazy attempt at a "Hard Mode" hack of vanilla Super Metroid by way of increasing enemy damage, and decreasing ammo yields from item pickups. I thought romhacking would've moved past this type of junk after 2005. Don't waste your time with this.
Super Metroid: Training by Bioniclegenius [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 28, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 28, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Not a fan of this hack, mostly because of the water Morph tunnel maze to the left of Landing Site that can softlock a player. Not much in the way of obstacles to really "train" or practice. Super Metroid: Training Camp did it better.
One would assume by this time, people would have been done with these uninspired, troll-sih 1-room hacks, yet here we are with this shit-tastic hack. Obtuse progression, and death traps everywhere. I could forgive most of it if the items didn't perma-despawn upon death, like it did in Super Metroid: Confinement. While save states aren't exactly a must, it will save you the trouble of having to erase your save and start over from scratch after every death. This hack is just crap.
Super Metroid: Containment by reaper901 [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 14, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 14, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
The tiling is interesting, and the area that was modified was neat. After Crocomire, however, it becomes vanilla Super Metroid the rest of the way... sort of. Any attempts to reach Crateria either ends in a softlock, or going back to the starting area of the hack, as the beginning rooms are just Crateria and Brinstar rooms, just modified. You can beat Ridley and Draygon, but that's as far as you'll get. There is no proper end to this hack.
Ridley's Challenge by squishy_ichigo [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 14, 2025 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Apr 14, 2025 ( )
No completion stats.
Honestly, I didn't mind the overall design of the hack. It's one of those usual old one-room challenge hacks. There were a few parts of it that are easily cheesed, though I'm guessing this was made before said cheese strats were developed/known at the time.
What makes me give this a 1/5 rating, however, is the Ridley fight itself. Making the whole main platform into crumble blocks, forcing the player to dodge Ridley, while trying to avoid falling in acid does not make a good challenge; it's just made to frustrate. I don't recommend this hack.
What makes me give this a 1/5 rating, however, is the Ridley fight itself. Making the whole main platform into crumble blocks, forcing the player to dodge Ridley, while trying to avoid falling in acid does not make a good challenge; it's just made to frustrate. I don't recommend this hack.
MockingBird Station by Xaggoth [ Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 15, 2024 ( )
Exploration],
rated by ClaireDiviner on May 15, 2024 ( )
42% in 4:53
This hack is awful. The idea is neat on paper, but the execution is absolute trash. For starters, no saves. Like, did ya'll really have some misplaced sense of pride in the late 2000s that ya'll couldn't ask others for help in that regard, or help those who didn't know how to? If Redesign could do it, I know save points could've been implemented. I'll likely see more and more of these issues with these 2000s hacks. Another issue is how obtuse this game's progression is; too many hidden blocks that lead to progression, and even the X-Ray Scope won't guarantee you'll find the path forward. Also, the red herring that is the yellow doors; this hack has no Power Bombs, so I'm saving whoever is reading this the trouble of looking for or expecting a way into yellow doors. There is no way in them, and are there purely to point at, and laugh at the player, like a dumbass.
I could forgive all of that had it not been for two things: The godawful Phantoon fight, and what comes after. I am 100% convinced Xaggoth cannot beat Phantoon without save states (I did it save stateless), until proven otherwise. Between the room layout being a goddamn Morph maze, and Phantoon being vulnerable ONLY to Bombs, there clearly was zero thought put into the fight. No sense of balance, reason, or even vision. "Oh, Impossible made a really hard Draygon fight. I'm going to make a hard Phantoon fight!" Yeah, guess what, you failed at realizing what makes a hard boss fight good; this was just a bad fucking fight!
Then there's the issue that follows the Phantoon fight. Be sure to backtrack allllll the way back to your ship to save, because the path forward from Phantoon is a room with three Metal Pirates that crashes the game due to some issue with the audio. Either retry over and over again, loading your game every time, until you get lucky, or middle finger the hack's design and save state in front of the room's door, brute forcing reloads until the sound stops having a fuckin' seizure! God help those who decide not to save after Phantoon, or else they'll have to refight him after the game crashes. Oh, and the location of the Gravity Suit was a dick move. I had to look at Dragon's playthrough to find it, and I wasn't even looking for Gravity at the time; I assumed it was locked behind Phantoon.
Shit design, shit philosophy, shit execution, shit game. This game sucks, and the hack maker should not be proud of this.
I could forgive all of that had it not been for two things: The godawful Phantoon fight, and what comes after. I am 100% convinced Xaggoth cannot beat Phantoon without save states (I did it save stateless), until proven otherwise. Between the room layout being a goddamn Morph maze, and Phantoon being vulnerable ONLY to Bombs, there clearly was zero thought put into the fight. No sense of balance, reason, or even vision. "Oh, Impossible made a really hard Draygon fight. I'm going to make a hard Phantoon fight!" Yeah, guess what, you failed at realizing what makes a hard boss fight good; this was just a bad fucking fight!
Then there's the issue that follows the Phantoon fight. Be sure to backtrack allllll the way back to your ship to save, because the path forward from Phantoon is a room with three Metal Pirates that crashes the game due to some issue with the audio. Either retry over and over again, loading your game every time, until you get lucky, or middle finger the hack's design and save state in front of the room's door, brute forcing reloads until the sound stops having a fuckin' seizure! God help those who decide not to save after Phantoon, or else they'll have to refight him after the game crashes. Oh, and the location of the Gravity Suit was a dick move. I had to look at Dragon's playthrough to find it, and I wasn't even looking for Gravity at the time; I assumed it was locked behind Phantoon.
Shit design, shit philosophy, shit execution, shit game. This game sucks, and the hack maker should not be proud of this.
Not a fan of the high Redesign-like gravity, but it's mostly harmless. It's short, but the biggest issue with the hack is the same MB1 crash issue that plagued Super Metroid: Golden Dawn, as well as a stupid hidden path in Green Hill Zone during the escape that leads to the Speed Booster needed to proceed. Outside of that, it was really underwhelming.
So, I can respect the idea behind the concept, but it falls flat with how unintuitive the controls really are. Despite the hack's name, I felt like I had less control, but maybe it's just my muscle memory being so ingrained to vanilla Super Metroid, that this kept throwing me off, especially when wanting to aim diagonal-downward. The removal of moonwalk is also an unneeded choice. I understand the motive, but don't agree with the method. The removal of downbacking is also unnecessary, unless that's just a byproduct of the control change.
I will say this: This has a ton of opportunity for a TASer to do things with this hack that cannot be done in vanilla, though the lack of moonfalling and downback will hurt it some. But that's all it's got. The least this hack could have done is have a different map to utilize the different controls, but it's still just vanilla Super Metroid at the end of the day. I can only recommend this as a play-around, just to see the gimmick of the different controls, but that's it.
I will say this: This has a ton of opportunity for a TASer to do things with this hack that cannot be done in vanilla, though the lack of moonfalling and downback will hurt it some. But that's all it's got. The least this hack could have done is have a different map to utilize the different controls, but it's still just vanilla Super Metroid at the end of the day. I can only recommend this as a play-around, just to see the gimmick of the different controls, but that's it.
This is one of the worst hacks so far, and given some of the obtuse exploration hacks I've played, that says a lot. First off, no saves. I can have truck with that, except the bosses have been buffed to hell, which is also not that big of an issue, were it not for the fact that (save for Kraid and Gold Torizo), all boss rooms have been altered to be as unfair as possible. The hack maker has the gall to suck their own dong and say "unless you're the boss fight expert". You goddamn right I am; I could beat these bosses just fine, even with buffs, but you throw in obstacles that do nothing but aggravate the player, it literally forces the player to - at the very least - save state before a fight, which is dogshit design. Throw a save point for god's sake; I would've never resorted to save states otherwise.
For context, Spore Spawn has low-level water with 60-damage spikes on the side of the room. Crocomire has crumble blocks, though the lava has been replaced with water, in the only act of mercy. Phantoon has two small-ass platforms on which to stand to avoid the lava below, with (what I'm guessing are) 60-damage spikes in the top corners of the ceiling. Botwoon has spikes in all four corners of the room, meaning no safe spot on which to stand, so you are literally at the mercy of RNG. Draygon has one turret that is indestructible, but if you're used to suitless Draygon fights, you'll be mostly okay. And all of this is done without a Varia Suit.
Worst of all is if someone had it in them to actually play through this and go the distance without save states, and to actually gain the favor of RNGesus, it will all be for nothing, because after the battle with Gold Torizo, the player is put in a glitchy mess of a room that cannot be progressed further, effectively ending the playthrough. It should be a hard requirement for hack makers to get playtests and opinions from other members before uploading a thing! Blah!
Frustration aside, a hack like this makes me petition for reviews to allow for a 0/5. In fact, I challenge the hack maker, Bolognab (if they're even still around) to beat their own hack without save states. If they can do this live, I will personally give them $100. I could not recommend this game less.
For context, Spore Spawn has low-level water with 60-damage spikes on the side of the room. Crocomire has crumble blocks, though the lava has been replaced with water, in the only act of mercy. Phantoon has two small-ass platforms on which to stand to avoid the lava below, with (what I'm guessing are) 60-damage spikes in the top corners of the ceiling. Botwoon has spikes in all four corners of the room, meaning no safe spot on which to stand, so you are literally at the mercy of RNG. Draygon has one turret that is indestructible, but if you're used to suitless Draygon fights, you'll be mostly okay. And all of this is done without a Varia Suit.
Worst of all is if someone had it in them to actually play through this and go the distance without save states, and to actually gain the favor of RNGesus, it will all be for nothing, because after the battle with Gold Torizo, the player is put in a glitchy mess of a room that cannot be progressed further, effectively ending the playthrough. It should be a hard requirement for hack makers to get playtests and opinions from other members before uploading a thing! Blah!
Frustration aside, a hack like this makes me petition for reviews to allow for a 0/5. In fact, I challenge the hack maker, Bolognab (if they're even still around) to beat their own hack without save states. If they can do this live, I will personally give them $100. I could not recommend this game less.
Super Metroid: Puddin by Cardweaver [ Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 31, 2024 ( )
Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 31, 2024 ( )
74% in 5:25
Fuck this hack! I'm moving on...
The One Room Hack by Digital_Mantra [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 26, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 26, 2024 ( )
No completion stats.
Every hack maker has to start somewhere, and that start is always their first ever hack. Some hack makers debut with a hell of a strong start; others debut with a rough-as-hell game. Digital_Mantra needs no introduction to anyone who is in the Super Metroid rom hacking community, either as a creator, a player, or both, and has become one of the more respected high-tier makers around.
All that said, however, I'm going to review this hack fairly, and from what I've played here, yeah, it really does show that this was a first ever hack for a maker. As the name implies, it's exactly that: A One Room Hack, not unlike Landing Site Abuse. Like Landing Site Abuse, this hack has a lot of problems, and all of them stem from one main issue: A lack of transparency. Just like with other hacks before it, including Super Metroid: Gravy, and Super T-Metroid (to name a couple), this game's progression is incredibly cryptic, with zero hint as to how to progress. Worse still is the tired gimmick of having hidden Grapple blocks that even Bombs can't reveal.
Another issue, and probably the biggest, is a PLM issue involving the gates. It's never made clear to the player if the lack of function on the gate is supposed to be a feature or not, and yeah, it's actually a feature. The most egregious being required to open a hidden door behind a Gadora eye at the top part of the room. Only then will the upper-most gate be operational. I had thought I broke something in the game, and ended up restarting a fresh file multiple times, when it's the game gaslighting the shit out of me. I swear, makers have no idea how uncool that shit is.
The last issue I have is the lack of a clear win condition. The description doesn't mention anything of the sort, and you wouldn't really know where the end was, unless you found it by accident. Long story short: You must find a hidden map station that looks nothing like a map station, where you will see a message that essentially congratulates you, and that's it. That's the end of the game. Can't say it's the worst win condition, but it's still quite anticlimactic, but I'll get to the map thing in the next paragraph.
Let's talk about the things that are cool in this hack. It most certainly is not the challenge/obstacles, because they're too convoluted. The things I found cool were the aesthetics, and the message received when activating the map station. Those have since become staples of DMan's hacks. A signature, if you will. From the unique use of the Chozo assets, to the structure of the tiles. It screams Digital_Mantra. I do wonder if the lore presented in each of DMan's hacks ties in to one another, or if they're all standalone. Either way, it's those aspects that do make me appreciate, at the very least, that part.
Overall, though, I have to rate it as the game that it is, and the game that it is isn't good. A 1/5, which while unfortunate, given the hack maker, it is his first attempt at a hack. I reiterate: Not every artist's debut can come in strong, but it's still interesting to see the major difference in growth between DMan's first hack, and his later masterpieces, like Eris, or V I T A L I T Y.
But yeah, this hack sucks.
All that said, however, I'm going to review this hack fairly, and from what I've played here, yeah, it really does show that this was a first ever hack for a maker. As the name implies, it's exactly that: A One Room Hack, not unlike Landing Site Abuse. Like Landing Site Abuse, this hack has a lot of problems, and all of them stem from one main issue: A lack of transparency. Just like with other hacks before it, including Super Metroid: Gravy, and Super T-Metroid (to name a couple), this game's progression is incredibly cryptic, with zero hint as to how to progress. Worse still is the tired gimmick of having hidden Grapple blocks that even Bombs can't reveal.
Another issue, and probably the biggest, is a PLM issue involving the gates. It's never made clear to the player if the lack of function on the gate is supposed to be a feature or not, and yeah, it's actually a feature. The most egregious being required to open a hidden door behind a Gadora eye at the top part of the room. Only then will the upper-most gate be operational. I had thought I broke something in the game, and ended up restarting a fresh file multiple times, when it's the game gaslighting the shit out of me. I swear, makers have no idea how uncool that shit is.
The last issue I have is the lack of a clear win condition. The description doesn't mention anything of the sort, and you wouldn't really know where the end was, unless you found it by accident. Long story short: You must find a hidden map station that looks nothing like a map station, where you will see a message that essentially congratulates you, and that's it. That's the end of the game. Can't say it's the worst win condition, but it's still quite anticlimactic, but I'll get to the map thing in the next paragraph.
Let's talk about the things that are cool in this hack. It most certainly is not the challenge/obstacles, because they're too convoluted. The things I found cool were the aesthetics, and the message received when activating the map station. Those have since become staples of DMan's hacks. A signature, if you will. From the unique use of the Chozo assets, to the structure of the tiles. It screams Digital_Mantra. I do wonder if the lore presented in each of DMan's hacks ties in to one another, or if they're all standalone. Either way, it's those aspects that do make me appreciate, at the very least, that part.
Overall, though, I have to rate it as the game that it is, and the game that it is isn't good. A 1/5, which while unfortunate, given the hack maker, it is his first attempt at a hack. I reiterate: Not every artist's debut can come in strong, but it's still interesting to see the major difference in growth between DMan's first hack, and his later masterpieces, like Eris, or V I T A L I T Y.
But yeah, this hack sucks.
Super Metroid: Gravy by Cardweaver [ Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 23, 2024 ( )
Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 23, 2024 ( )
84% in 4:50
I really hate this hack. The main issue lies in its routing. Everything is stupidly hidden from the player, forcing them to Bomb EVERYWHERE, or accidentally find a hidden Morph tunnel, or a hidden Grapple block.
Now, here's the thing: I could have truck with this if the X-Ray Scope was found reasonably early, as it does reveal pretty much all obtuse shit in this hack. The problem is that you need X-Ray Scope to find X-Ray Scope. By that, I mean the way to it is so cryptic and hidden, I challenge anyone who can find someone who managed to find it on their own without looking at a playthrough, or a level editor. I'll stake my life in such a person not existing.
I'll save you the trouble of shoving your thumb up your ass, trying to find it, and tell you here (so an obligatory spoiler warning): It is located in Mama Turtle's Room. The problem is that you need to find a super-hidden Morph tunnel under the ledge under the eastern door of Mt. Everest, of all the places to put that shit! No hint or clue, be it visual or anything telegraphs to the player that there's anything at all there. It isn't something you can Bomb either; it's a hidden Morph tunnel hidden within the rocky terrain, too high up, and in a spot that is largely unremarkable. LITERALLY NO ONE WILL THINK TO CHECK THERE!
Worst part is that the path forward, especially to Lower Norfair, is also as stupidly hidden as the X-Ray Scope, as there's a hidden Morph tunnel in Lava Dive that the player simply won't know to check at all, and only the X-Ray Scope can reveal it, hence the issue.
That's to say nothing of the door leading to Bowling Alley in West Ocean. It's a locked door with no hint as to how to open it. You MUST kill 15 enemies (the Zebs in the Zeb nest will count). Thing is, unless someone happen to need to do extensive energy/ammo farm, no one will know to do this; I had assumed I was missing some Boss or some other trigger to open the door.
Here's another thing: I am convinced the hack maker, and likely others beyond this, likely saw Impossible, and thought, "Wow, I want to make a hack like that!" without actually knowing what made Impossible work. Yeah, Super Metroid Impossible had an awful lot of cryptic and obtuse item locations, and X-Ray Scope is literally impossible for anyone to find on their own, even by accident. But the thing is, all of those super-obscure, super-hidden items are not needed; they're optional, and the path forward is also transparent to the player. You can get the items that are easy enough to see and acquire, and while it's the bare minimum, it's still all you need to beat the game's challenges.
This hack (and likely others I'll be playing) completely misses the point, and poorly emulates what made Impossible good. By hiding X-Ray Scope in such a way, that alone isn't an issue. What is an issue is hiding the path that progresses the game in such a way, it may as well require X-Ray Scope to find. Therein lies the egregious oversight presented here. This hack isn't without its cool ideas, but the frustrations of finding one's way to the end of the game is just too much for me to give this game anything higher than a 1/5, and I'm surprised I'm the only one (as of writing this) to give it this low a score.
Here's to hoping Cardweaver's other hacks are made better, and more transparent than this. I can handle hard games. I don't mind a challenge. But being super-cryptic in the same vein as something, like Shadowgate on the NES, or that one cryptic tornado puzzle in Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, does not a good game (much less a hack) make.
Now, here's the thing: I could have truck with this if the X-Ray Scope was found reasonably early, as it does reveal pretty much all obtuse shit in this hack. The problem is that you need X-Ray Scope to find X-Ray Scope. By that, I mean the way to it is so cryptic and hidden, I challenge anyone who can find someone who managed to find it on their own without looking at a playthrough, or a level editor. I'll stake my life in such a person not existing.
I'll save you the trouble of shoving your thumb up your ass, trying to find it, and tell you here (so an obligatory spoiler warning): It is located in Mama Turtle's Room. The problem is that you need to find a super-hidden Morph tunnel under the ledge under the eastern door of Mt. Everest, of all the places to put that shit! No hint or clue, be it visual or anything telegraphs to the player that there's anything at all there. It isn't something you can Bomb either; it's a hidden Morph tunnel hidden within the rocky terrain, too high up, and in a spot that is largely unremarkable. LITERALLY NO ONE WILL THINK TO CHECK THERE!
Worst part is that the path forward, especially to Lower Norfair, is also as stupidly hidden as the X-Ray Scope, as there's a hidden Morph tunnel in Lava Dive that the player simply won't know to check at all, and only the X-Ray Scope can reveal it, hence the issue.
That's to say nothing of the door leading to Bowling Alley in West Ocean. It's a locked door with no hint as to how to open it. You MUST kill 15 enemies (the Zebs in the Zeb nest will count). Thing is, unless someone happen to need to do extensive energy/ammo farm, no one will know to do this; I had assumed I was missing some Boss or some other trigger to open the door.
Here's another thing: I am convinced the hack maker, and likely others beyond this, likely saw Impossible, and thought, "Wow, I want to make a hack like that!" without actually knowing what made Impossible work. Yeah, Super Metroid Impossible had an awful lot of cryptic and obtuse item locations, and X-Ray Scope is literally impossible for anyone to find on their own, even by accident. But the thing is, all of those super-obscure, super-hidden items are not needed; they're optional, and the path forward is also transparent to the player. You can get the items that are easy enough to see and acquire, and while it's the bare minimum, it's still all you need to beat the game's challenges.
This hack (and likely others I'll be playing) completely misses the point, and poorly emulates what made Impossible good. By hiding X-Ray Scope in such a way, that alone isn't an issue. What is an issue is hiding the path that progresses the game in such a way, it may as well require X-Ray Scope to find. Therein lies the egregious oversight presented here. This hack isn't without its cool ideas, but the frustrations of finding one's way to the end of the game is just too much for me to give this game anything higher than a 1/5, and I'm surprised I'm the only one (as of writing this) to give it this low a score.
Here's to hoping Cardweaver's other hacks are made better, and more transparent than this. I can handle hard games. I don't mind a challenge. But being super-cryptic in the same vein as something, like Shadowgate on the NES, or that one cryptic tornado puzzle in Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, does not a good game (much less a hack) make.
As of writing this, this is personally, by far, the worst rom hack I've played on this site. This is because of two factors: The beginning, and the end.
- The start of the game is incredibly badly designed. Midair morphing to avoid spikes that one can hit because of luck (oscillating hitboxes, or whatever it's called) means you will die more times because of the unlucky roll of the RNG dice. After one gets past that, there's a gauntlet of crumble block jumps, followed by 1-tile blocks that have hidden conveyers on top. For me to realistically get through it, I was forced to wall jump off the sides of each platform, and even that didn't guarantee anything, as the nature of the conveyer means you could be pushed a little farther from the platform to wall jump off of it.
If that weren't bad enough, you are given an E-Tank with which to run through Speed Booster Hall. It's mostly vanilla, save for the red door requiring 1 Missile (it'd be impossible to survive otherwise, I'd guess). The next room is a gauntlet where one must navigate a "maze" in Morph Ball form, and by the time you reach this, you have too little health to survive a hit. This maze also include falling down into gaps, and god help you if the oscillating frames decide to give you a dick through no fault of your own. In several cases, an unmorph into remorph is required to get through this. That's to say nothing of the timed Bomb Jumps one must perform to cross one-tile gaps with spikes while in a 1-tile Morph tunnel.
If you managed to survive that, the next room has Speed Booster, and below that is a pit of spikes, and a 1-tile Morph tunnel one must carefully unmorph and remorph to enter, or face a death. Beyond that are Speed Blocks that lead back out into the Landing Site, AND THEN you're able to save. If this game threw in a save point somewhere before the room where Bombs are acquired, I'd have forgiven this game, and given it a 2/5.
- I mentioned the end. The escape is very trollish, but it's not the worst I've seen, and I could forgive even that, had it not been for Tourian Escape Room 4; There are Metroids (more on those later) that, while they can die to Hyper Beam, leave behind their shell sprites. This creates an issue with the sprite limit, between the explosion sprites in the room, and the Metroid shell sprites, this creates a chance that the game can crash upon loading the next room through no fault of the player.
This is clearly a hack that was not playtested by the maker, and I'm willing to bet they couldn't even beat their own game without savestates. No care was put into the balance of this game, and while some other games have very high difficulty, they were balanced out with either items, or well-placed save points, sometimes both. The only thing I can say I liked about the hack were the Metroids in Tourian; it made for a fun little "puzzle" of sorts, trying to figure out the best way to maneuver them, and take them out.
I'll likely play even worse hacks than this, I'm sure, but right now, this is the worst I've played thus far. I won't update this review to reflect the fact I happen to play something worse, but I will say this hack is a hard pass from me. If this site allowed a negative rating, I'd give this a -3/5. Hell, if we were allowed to give a 0/5, I'd do that too, but the lowest score I can give is a 1/5, and that is more than what this hack deserves.
- The start of the game is incredibly badly designed. Midair morphing to avoid spikes that one can hit because of luck (oscillating hitboxes, or whatever it's called) means you will die more times because of the unlucky roll of the RNG dice. After one gets past that, there's a gauntlet of crumble block jumps, followed by 1-tile blocks that have hidden conveyers on top. For me to realistically get through it, I was forced to wall jump off the sides of each platform, and even that didn't guarantee anything, as the nature of the conveyer means you could be pushed a little farther from the platform to wall jump off of it.
If that weren't bad enough, you are given an E-Tank with which to run through Speed Booster Hall. It's mostly vanilla, save for the red door requiring 1 Missile (it'd be impossible to survive otherwise, I'd guess). The next room is a gauntlet where one must navigate a "maze" in Morph Ball form, and by the time you reach this, you have too little health to survive a hit. This maze also include falling down into gaps, and god help you if the oscillating frames decide to give you a dick through no fault of your own. In several cases, an unmorph into remorph is required to get through this. That's to say nothing of the timed Bomb Jumps one must perform to cross one-tile gaps with spikes while in a 1-tile Morph tunnel.
If you managed to survive that, the next room has Speed Booster, and below that is a pit of spikes, and a 1-tile Morph tunnel one must carefully unmorph and remorph to enter, or face a death. Beyond that are Speed Blocks that lead back out into the Landing Site, AND THEN you're able to save. If this game threw in a save point somewhere before the room where Bombs are acquired, I'd have forgiven this game, and given it a 2/5.
- I mentioned the end. The escape is very trollish, but it's not the worst I've seen, and I could forgive even that, had it not been for Tourian Escape Room 4; There are Metroids (more on those later) that, while they can die to Hyper Beam, leave behind their shell sprites. This creates an issue with the sprite limit, between the explosion sprites in the room, and the Metroid shell sprites, this creates a chance that the game can crash upon loading the next room through no fault of the player.
This is clearly a hack that was not playtested by the maker, and I'm willing to bet they couldn't even beat their own game without savestates. No care was put into the balance of this game, and while some other games have very high difficulty, they were balanced out with either items, or well-placed save points, sometimes both. The only thing I can say I liked about the hack were the Metroids in Tourian; it made for a fun little "puzzle" of sorts, trying to figure out the best way to maneuver them, and take them out.
I'll likely play even worse hacks than this, I'm sure, but right now, this is the worst I've played thus far. I won't update this review to reflect the fact I happen to play something worse, but I will say this hack is a hard pass from me. If this site allowed a negative rating, I'd give this a -3/5. Hell, if we were allowed to give a 0/5, I'd do that too, but the lowest score I can give is a 1/5, and that is more than what this hack deserves.
As others have said, this is almost no different than Super Metroid: Expert Edition. Only change from Expert Edition is Ridley having a ton more health, but it doesn't change the difficulty of the fight. Just like Expert Edition was just a lazy editing of some numbers, and nothing more, this one is just as lazy. Take vanilla Super Metroid, edit some enemy stats, and call it a rom hack? Blah!
Neat concept, but nothing is done with it. It can barely be called an alpha build. The game crashes upon entering Bomb Torizo's room; once that happens, the playthrough is done. 18 years later, and I doubt this hack idea will ever go beyond what is here.
Screwed And Chopped by InsomniaDX [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 04, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Mar 04, 2024 ( )
No completion stats.
It's a shame this game is unfinished, though I understand there's a version of this that actually was made to be finished, and not as jank. As the name implies, it is screwed up, and chopped up, and put together by Scotch tape. Some neat ideas and layouts, sure, but if you save in Maridia, you'll end up in a state where you won't be able to progress further upon reloading your save. Oh well.
Boy, I knew I was going to get around to reviewing this sooner or later. I'll try to give my own take, as to not parrot what the others have said.
The only positive I can think of, is that it isn't vanilla, and that's the best I can think of. Some of the challenge was neat, I suppose, but everything else sours the whole of the experience, the challenges in this hack, having now become a dime a dozen, makes me want to play hacks that are hard (some almost unfairly so), but fair.
Let's go over the issues I did have with it:
- Bomb Torizo. The game crashes upon initiating the Bomb Torizo fight. Granted, it IS possible for the fight to start without an issue, but one must be lucky for the audio conflict to not spaghetti the game. Either one must brute force the fight over and over until they get a fight that won't crash the game, or find an alternate route around the game to allow the player to return to BT with Spike Suit (oh, there's plenty of spikes in the game off which to do that), and shinespark out with the Bombs.
- Progression is... weird, for lack of a better way to describe it. I had to cheese Power Bombs early to progress beyond Bomb Torizo, so I know not the intended route, though that hardly matters, as well-known Super Metroid streamer, Oatsngoats, managed to lock himself out of progression; he managed to initiate Bomb Torizo without a crash, and proceeded through the game presumably as intended, with the result being that a Power Bomb pickup vanishes. There is an item in the game that must share the same ID as said Power Bomb (the very one I cheesed early), causing it to vanish.
- X-Ray Scope is a potentially dangerous item. You get it stupidly late, and I assume it's because of the power that item has in the hands of those who know how to abuse it. Either that, or the hack maker simply didn't want the player to get help in finding ways to items until late game. However, there are some rooms where unseen items (likely out of bounds) are set with the respawn flag, which results in the game hard crashing upon using X-Ray. Though I haven't experienced it, I hear that there's a risk the crash can wipe one's save.
- There are plenty of "red herrings" throughout this hack; either doors that cannot be entered, items that cannot be reached, or in one case, a path that results in getting lost, and possibly softlocking out of bounds. It's bad design meant to only frustrate the player. It's not a challenge, it's a troll.
There are a myriad of other things that is wrong with this hack that I cannot begin to cover in a single review (I don't have the mental fortitude to even go over its issues, as I can go on 'til rapture). All I know is that this game is awful, and feels like it was the maker throwing darts at a dart board, seeing what sticks, and all the darts happen to hit and stick to a bench below said board. A game that feels like it was barely put together, and was likely never playtested by anyone other than the author. If I could, I'd rate this a 0/5, but since the lowest score that can be given is 1, it's the next best thing I can do to get my own point across. What a shame.
The only positive I can think of, is that it isn't vanilla, and that's the best I can think of. Some of the challenge was neat, I suppose, but everything else sours the whole of the experience, the challenges in this hack, having now become a dime a dozen, makes me want to play hacks that are hard (some almost unfairly so), but fair.
Let's go over the issues I did have with it:
- Bomb Torizo. The game crashes upon initiating the Bomb Torizo fight. Granted, it IS possible for the fight to start without an issue, but one must be lucky for the audio conflict to not spaghetti the game. Either one must brute force the fight over and over until they get a fight that won't crash the game, or find an alternate route around the game to allow the player to return to BT with Spike Suit (oh, there's plenty of spikes in the game off which to do that), and shinespark out with the Bombs.
- Progression is... weird, for lack of a better way to describe it. I had to cheese Power Bombs early to progress beyond Bomb Torizo, so I know not the intended route, though that hardly matters, as well-known Super Metroid streamer, Oatsngoats, managed to lock himself out of progression; he managed to initiate Bomb Torizo without a crash, and proceeded through the game presumably as intended, with the result being that a Power Bomb pickup vanishes. There is an item in the game that must share the same ID as said Power Bomb (the very one I cheesed early), causing it to vanish.
- X-Ray Scope is a potentially dangerous item. You get it stupidly late, and I assume it's because of the power that item has in the hands of those who know how to abuse it. Either that, or the hack maker simply didn't want the player to get help in finding ways to items until late game. However, there are some rooms where unseen items (likely out of bounds) are set with the respawn flag, which results in the game hard crashing upon using X-Ray. Though I haven't experienced it, I hear that there's a risk the crash can wipe one's save.
- There are plenty of "red herrings" throughout this hack; either doors that cannot be entered, items that cannot be reached, or in one case, a path that results in getting lost, and possibly softlocking out of bounds. It's bad design meant to only frustrate the player. It's not a challenge, it's a troll.
There are a myriad of other things that is wrong with this hack that I cannot begin to cover in a single review (I don't have the mental fortitude to even go over its issues, as I can go on 'til rapture). All I know is that this game is awful, and feels like it was the maker throwing darts at a dart board, seeing what sticks, and all the darts happen to hit and stick to a bench below said board. A game that feels like it was barely put together, and was likely never playtested by anyone other than the author. If I could, I'd rate this a 0/5, but since the lowest score that can be given is 1, it's the next best thing I can do to get my own point across. What a shame.
This game is unfinished, so I'll only review this for what it is currently:
It's still a mess. For starters, hiding Super Missile blocks in seemingly arbitrary places that's meant to progress is not good design. I'd have more truck with it if the X-Ray Scope, or Bombs were given from the onset, but you don't get Bombs until you're already deep enough into the hack to not care anymore. Also, there are issues with certain enemy placements, as the game crashes upon loading certain rooms, or loading certain enemies.
I ended up using Game Genie walk-through-walls cheats to explore the places that was otherwise unreachable, to find that there was slightly more things being worked on, but still unfinished (West Ocean, in this case), including Zebs or something that crashes the game upon loading. The Wrecked Ship is literally unchanged, which is fair, since it's a place you're not supposed to reach anyway. When entering The Mushroom Kingdom room, the game crashes, so you effectively reach the end of the hack upon entering that door.
I'd give the hack 2/5 for some ideas, but because of softlocks, crashes, and stupid placements of Super blocks, with hardly much in the way to refill ammo until after the planet's awake, this sits firmly with a 1/5.
It's still a mess. For starters, hiding Super Missile blocks in seemingly arbitrary places that's meant to progress is not good design. I'd have more truck with it if the X-Ray Scope, or Bombs were given from the onset, but you don't get Bombs until you're already deep enough into the hack to not care anymore. Also, there are issues with certain enemy placements, as the game crashes upon loading certain rooms, or loading certain enemies.
I ended up using Game Genie walk-through-walls cheats to explore the places that was otherwise unreachable, to find that there was slightly more things being worked on, but still unfinished (West Ocean, in this case), including Zebs or something that crashes the game upon loading. The Wrecked Ship is literally unchanged, which is fair, since it's a place you're not supposed to reach anyway. When entering The Mushroom Kingdom room, the game crashes, so you effectively reach the end of the hack upon entering that door.
I'd give the hack 2/5 for some ideas, but because of softlocks, crashes, and stupid placements of Super blocks, with hardly much in the way to refill ammo until after the planet's awake, this sits firmly with a 1/5.
This isn't really much of anything. Showcases one-way tiles, essentially, but that's it. There's nothing beyond landing site, except a soft lock. It's not like it's the first hack to utilize this either, as there are earlier hacks that has used these, like Reverse.
The Ceres station was somewhat almost interesting, but there was nothing too special. Making the fake wall with the morph tunnel unviewable with X-Ray Scope was a tad bit of a dick move, but I've seen worse cases of this. You're given 10 seconds to escape, which isn't enough time to do so. Even if it was, you're trapped in a room with Metroids that will give you the succ. Upon reloading the game, the Ceres station will still have the escape flag on, allowing you to instantly escape at the elevator. After that, it's literally vanilla Super Metroid. I went as far as Varia, to see if the suit colors were different, at the very least, but they sadly were left unchanged. You're free to finish the game proper, but seeing as Ceres is the only point of this hack, there's no reason to play what is basically OG Super Metroid again beyond Ceres.
Super Metroid: Expert Edition by Dark Knight Kain [ Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 13, 2024 ( )
Vanilla+],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 13, 2024 ( )
74% in 1:09
It's more or less like Hard, except it's even more vanilla than that. Many of the bosses are hardly buffed, and... There's really nothing I can add to this. At least Hard changed the look of Landing Site somewhat, and buffed all the bosses (sans Mother Brain). This is a hard pass from me.
It's literally just vanilla Super Metroid, with tankier enemies, and nerfed drops (Big Health gives 10 instead of 20). The Landing Site is slightly different in appearance only, but that just gives a false sense of something different, until you actually play the game. It's lazy at best.
Super Metroid: Ultimate Challenge 2 by Popple_Waffles [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 08, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 08, 2024 ( )
6% in 0:00
My biggest gripe with this hack isn't the acid and spikes, because I can handle that. It's the fact that - unless I overlooked something - there is NO Screw Attack to collect, which is supposed to be the win condition for this hack. I reached an area I'm guessing was supposed to house the Screw, but it had no item, let alone Screw Attack. And to make doubly sure I wasn't crazy, or being gaslit, I took the liberty of using Game Genie codes to walk through walls, and even give myself X-Ray Scope. Guess what? Nothing was found. I'd have given it a 2/5 otherwise.
Super Metroid: Confinement by Bolognab [ Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 07, 2024 ( )
Unknown],
rated by ClaireDiviner on Feb 07, 2024 ( )
7% in 0:00
I would've liked this hack. Probably would've given it a 3. However, with the exception for Missiles, all items in this game share the same ID, as stated by caauyjdp, so if you reload your save (assuming you saved after getting Morph), all the items will be gone, irreversibly locking the save.
One will need to either play from start to finish without any deaths, which is made difficult by the 60-damage spikes, and no E-Tank until the very end, or rely on savestates (I did the former). The one saving grace of mercy is that once the E-Tank is collected, you can save just fine, and not worry about a locked save. The game ends after Botwoon, but has no actual ending.
One will need to either play from start to finish without any deaths, which is made difficult by the 60-damage spikes, and no E-Tank until the very end, or rely on savestates (I did the former). The one saving grace of mercy is that once the E-Tank is collected, you can save just fine, and not worry about a locked save. The game ends after Botwoon, but has no actual ending.
