Metaquarius's Hack Reviews - Metroid Construction

Super Metroid: Darkholme Hospital by Cloud12 [

Quick Play], rated by Metaquarius on Jun 27, 2020 (

)

100% in 2:19

Excellent hack from Cloud!
Lack of save stations is annoying and some rooms are more cramped than they should be.
Spy Mode keypatch is really interesting for a second playthrought. Combine it with others if you want more difficulty (except Generator Off which I reasonnably can't recommand)

Super Zero Mission by SBniconico [

Exploration], rated by Metaquarius on Apr 04, 2015 (

)

No completion stats.

SZM was ahead of its time when it came out and is still pretty impressive by today standards. It has raised the bar in almost every way possible. It's a large and complex world but doesn't lack of content and variety which is the pitfall most large hacks fall into. It has also a lot of replayability value with alternate paths, optional challenges and the hard version (if you have the skill of course). Howewer, 100% is basically not possible unless you have TAS reflexes. The only weak point I can think of is Chozodia, very uninspired place, bland and hard to navigate through.
SZM doesn't want to be Zero Mission, it combines elements and locations from various Metroid games to make its own unique adventure.
Recommended.

Temple of the Winds by Moehr and Albert V. [

Exploration], rated by Metaquarius on Jul 05, 2020 (

)

60% in 0:47

This hack is full of unique but also stupid surprises. I have managed to finish it but still confused by it. Some of its mechanics and new item functions aren't very well conveyed, you probably must read the manual for that.
More importantly, there are some annoyances in the level design and in the enemy department. Later in the game, they are literally spawning and re-spawning on your face which gets old very fast. Not to mention invisible enemies... This is where I started to use save states since you can't regain health whenever you want.
Other than that, echoing what others said about graphics. Custom music is not as memorable as Clocktoberfest but still nice and original.

Super Metroid: Hotlands by MetroidNerd#9001 [

Exploration], rated by Metaquarius on Dec 29, 2021 (

)

46% in 0:43

Here is my hot take on Hotlands: decent mini-hack overall, hampered down by health/ammunition farming concerns. It almost felt like I was doing low% while I did not want to ^^ Gimme charge!

Most bosses are a test of patience where you slowly farm ammo from rinkas and then aim and shoot at static red 1x1 cores while avoiding some hazards (which is not so bad in and of itself). If you enter this room with low health and/or ammo like I did, it quickly becomes a slog and waiting for ammo is not fun neither challenging. Some of these rooms have forced damaged, which means less ammo and more health, thus more waiting. None of these rooms are properly signaled to the player and you can't escape them. For some reason, those mini-bosses don't spawn drops on death so you have to keep farming.

The nail in the coffin was when I was stuck in the pre final boss room with no ammo left, grey pirates only vulnerable to supers and door closed behind me. One red core was blocking my forward path and I had only basic bombs to destroy it... which put me in range of those space pirates. Reset. Ouch last time I saved was before the ninja pirates + red core boss rooms which I really didn't want to do again...

Custom music is okay, didn't like it personally as it felt a bit out of place in my opinion.

Super Metroid: MINI by Mr. Hiryu [

Unknown], rated by Metaquarius on Jun 27, 2020 (

)

No completion stats.

This hack isn't that hard, it's just stupid.
I had more fun fixing this than playing but eh, at least, it looks better than Mission Rescue, right?

Lost World by TROM [

Exploration], rated by Metaquarius on Jun 27, 2020 (

)

No completion stats.

Reminder that bigger isn't always better. Those neverending massive rooms literally killed my interest after a while. Did not finish.

Super Metroid: Pit of 100 Trials by MetroidNerd#9001 [

Challenge], rated by Metaquarius on Jun 27, 2020 (

)

No completion stats.

It's like Super Metroid with backtracking removed and nothing to make up for it. Kinda boring overall in my opinion but I appreciate the effort trying new concepts. Vanilla tiling is well done and everything works as intended.

Hyper Metroid by RealRed [

Exploration], rated by Metaquarius on May 17, 2015 (

)

92% in 5:57

v1.0
Hyper Metroid is one of those extremely well polished hacks. The graphics are the strongest point, places in Maridia, Wrecked Ship and Tourian have a really unique feel. The hack has a good difficulty balance and exploration is never frustrating. Despite taking place on Zebes again, the map layout has little to do with the original so that's a complete new world with tons of secrets and rooms to explore. The physics changes makes Samus super fast (hyper fast I should say ;) which is really convenient to navigate through those large rooms. The hack provides a decent amount of free exploration akin to Ice Metal.

Now what does this hack have to offer aside from exploring a brand new Zebes with stellar graphics ? Well, don't expect anything more than that. There's no really memorable moment I can think of. The hack also suffers from a lack of direction due to his open-endness nature. Let me clarify, you never get lost but you have no idea where to go and if you are actually in the right place. Phantoon is the first major boss I encountered, he destroyed me so hard, so I had to turn back to find what I was missing... but in the end, I learned this was the intended way. The same could be said about Gold Torizo, Ridley, Maridia before Gravity and a couple of tricky speedbooster sequences (mandatory unfortunately)

These downsides shouldn't detract you from playing this well-done ROM hack really.

Super Metroid Planet of Barren by ノブッキー (Nobucky) [

Vanilla+], rated by Metaquarius on Aug 18, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

-1 orb for being a quintessential half-hack (does not alter room locations nor door transitions at all) making the whole thing predictable, hence boring. Not to mention there are already a dozen of souless hacks like this. There is some much "interesting new ways" you can pull off with so little changes.

-1 orb for dubious palette choices and poor tiling -- a few select rooms have minor level design edits which are often visually offputting, biggest offenders being those large rooms made with the same repeating tiles.

-1 orb for lack of overall polish -- tiling errors are not uncommon, some of them are in plain sight so no excuse. Pickups have been moved out of their original location but map dots have NOT been edited accordingly... Phantoon was nerfed, yeah, but the next room filled with KZAN enemies (and spikes) kill you in one hit, too bad.

The one and only saving grace is that it's using project base 0.7 engine making the whole thing somewhat bearable, otherwise I'd have put that down way earlier. There are some sequence breaking opportunities too.

Did not finish.
Do not recommend.

Super Metroid: Cristener Homenag 2 by Juan Dennys [

Vanilla+], rated by Metaquarius on Sep 28, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

On surface level, there is clearly nothing to say that has been already said about Homenags, ie, this hack is beyond crap and should not even be listed at Metconst, period. The fact its score isn't as low as possible is outrageous.
To give you a little insight, during the time span you meticulously wrote a review for this hack, Pedro could have already released two Super Metroid hacks.
And he doesn't care whatever you are babbling about. Why ? Because he's long gone now.
His goal at the time was to provoke a reaction from the community by flooding us with poorly made hacks with no description nor pictures (which isn't allowed by the rules btw) and outlandish titles.
In reality, Pedro/crimsonsunbird/jailsonmendes/[insert alt name here] only cared about one thing : Cristina.
In the end, the story never told if he ever won her heart but let me get this straight : you can do better than this.

Metroid - Fusion X by ShuiJing [

Exploration], rated by Metaquarius on Jun 19, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

-1 orb for being YACHH (Yet Another Chinese Half Hack) ie it's like someone has messed with MAGE for the first time and decided to make every single room more painful to navigate. And that's it. This one isn't more challenging nor unique than the others.

-1 orb for hiding main path/items constantly. You might remember, back in the day, that bad habit called "find the shot block" in Super Metroid hacking. That was terrible, right ? Guess what. Plus, every room or so is littered with invisible tiny holes in walls, ceillings, unhinted of course.

-1 orb for tasteless tiling. Just look at the very first room in the hack. It's made of screw attack blocks on a black background. Why ? For some reasons, severals rooms are like that, made of the same repeating tiles. It is indeed bad and break the vanilla feel of the hack. Some places are unnecesary busy with impeding platforms, crumble blocks everywhere. Fake items too. "Fun" considering how hard it is to get pick ups in the first place.

-1 orb for egregious false advertising. Wether that was done on purpose or not, it already had made people wonder if this is X-Fusion or not. Not to mention it is flagged as vanilla when it's clearly not, given the early game is brutal.

Play only if you are a Metroid Fusion master and love bonking your head at walls for 15-min straight to find the block/gap you need. Otherwise, stay away from this one.

Super Metroid: Federation Force by Metaquarius [

Spoof], rated by Metaquarius on May 25, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

What a scam, I could not save Anthony at the end, I want a refund NOW

Super Metroid CRE 2 by Tundain [

Quick Play], rated by Metaquarius on May 24, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

Forgettable spin off (barely a sequel) as it brings absolutely nothing new to the table, it feels more like a playground for animated tiles than anything else.
You basically spend the whole time in a junkyard of CRE tiles and call it a day.
Your mileage may vary, uninitiated shall find some of the stuff thrown in goofy but I was rolling my eyes the entire time.
Special mention for boss redesigns which look kind of cool.

Super Metroid CRE 3 by Tundain [

Spoof], rated by Metaquarius on May 24, 2023 (

)

87% in 0:40

v1.0
Horrendous graphics and music, cramped and repetitive rooms, goofy enemies (most of them are fairly imaginative but annoying to deal with)
The new crumble switch item is interesting in theory, but really crumblesome to use in practice -- doesn't work during the final fight because reasons
Speedbooster reminds you to use the camera manual mode... o-okay? (and why would I use that in the first place ?)
Unedited game over screen (just like CRE 2)
Map lies to you
Do not recommend

Super Metroid: HISHE by Scyzer [

Unknown], rated by Metaquarius on Jul 16, 2022 (

)

0% in 0:01

No, the plot in this doesn't make more sense than the plot in Super Metroid. Ceres is supposed to be under attack. There are dead bodies and broken glasses and yet no sign of Space Pirates. No alarm's going on, nothing. So what, they've just attacked Ceres, could not find the baby metroid, gave up and left ? Or were they afraid of Samus ? In both cases, that's pretty stupid, probably even more concerning than the fact Samus lost all of her upgrades from Metroid II SOMEHOW. How it should have ended should be Samus utterly wiping Ridley out with her arsenal, grab the baby metroid then leave.

420 spike landing site cre edit insta death barf kraid grapple clip hack by H A M [

Spoof], rated by Metaquarius on Jul 16, 2022 (

)

4% in 0:05

Landing site with spikes but no Red Crateria ? 0/10
Also game froze when I grabbed Plasma.

Super Metroid: Y-Faster 2 Fast by Metaquarius [

Speedrun/Race], rated by Metaquarius on Feb 27, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

FUK THIS SHIT!!! STUPID TIMER FORCING ME 2 GO FAST. I ONLY PLAY BORING VANILLA+ HACKS WHY ARN'T THOU MAKIMG HACKS THAT DO NOT SUCK. SRIOUSLY YOU NEED TO QUIT MAKIMG HACK LIKE THIS, GO BACK HOME AND BE A FAMILY MAN!!!

Metroid Mission Rescue by Mettyk25jigsaw [

Exploration], rated by Metaquarius on Jun 27, 2020 (

)

No completion stats.

Guess what. I spent half an hour just to get the basic gears (morph ball & bombs), almost died from spikes and haven't returned to the surface yet. I have seen enough hacks to know where this is going.

Super Metroid: Cristener Homenag by Juan Dennys [

Vanilla+], rated by Metaquarius on Jan 27, 2020 (

)

No completion stats.

The worst offender is how low effort this hack truly is. Many rooms are not changed and when they are, it's pretty dumb, lazy and often awful. Don't waste your time playing this.

Username:
Password: