SaiFu's Ratings and Reviews
Metroid: Spring Break by Jefe962, Frydi [
Exploration],
rated by SaiFu on May 08, 2025 (
)
Exploration],
rated by SaiFu on May 08, 2025 ( )
78% in 1:28
V2 | 3.5/5: Cute, merry and open-ended short hack with a few bugs and some awkward bosses.
Hard mode feels dangerous throughout without feeling like cbt, and though I think limiting missile pickups to 2 like normal would otherwise be a good balancing move (especially since you start out with charge beam) the design of the hack invites a variety of runs which might make that limit annoying. The difficulty does decrease but I appreciate that I couldn't mindlessly blast through it. Some puzzles are a bit more elaborate to solve than expected, and combined with the general design of larger and harder-to-traverse rooms the hack felt like it made good use of what it included. I did not go far out of my way to get everything, including whatever lies beyond the platforming challenge. I would insist on doing the harder sections without savestates, and I'm not that patient right now.
The custom spritework is cute and bright, which matches the music. The music choice is pretty good except for the song in the second layer of the map which reminds me of American colonial marches. It drove me nuts at first. Even so that track feels whimsical enough to fit the mood of the hack. There are maybe too many static custom sprites in places but they also add personality and levity to the hack.
Spring Break is pretty open-ended too. Since you're equipped from the start with most traversal upgrades you can skip almost everything and tackle most areas in any order. There's notable replayability for challenge runners. Good luck finishing a hard mode lowest%, though.
Most bosses are fine, but the last two are bothersome. Fighting the second to last boss is frustrating if you approach it the normal way and I ended up just going behind it to deal damage without dying in the process. I imagine just spamming it and taking hits on normal works but is a little lame. There is a more interesting way to fight that boss but I had to experiment for a bit after my first run to find it, and the path of least resistance on a first encounter is more enjoyable. The final boss feels off. I think the devs removed two attack patterns from it to balance the damage its other attacks deal, but that overbalances the fight in the player's favor. The first part is boring, and even in the second I can stand in one place and tank weaker attacks with 3 etanks and survive on hard mode. That said I still had to change my approach to outlast the boss, and testing whether I'm just getting lucky on boss attacks some fights are close but I win. I died enough on my first run that it felt more challenging than it really is. Overall the final boss isn't bad, just somewhat disappointing. The escape sequence is a nice change though. I'd like to see more hacks with similar sequences this challenging but with fewer full stops.
On advice from others I included the bugs I saw in the Spring Break Forum thread. The only bugs I encountered were in boss fights, and only one of which stopped progress altogether. Since it's only a couple minutes to get back from the nearest save I consider this minor.
If some of the boss glitches were fixed I'd bump up to a (true) 4/5 orbs. Even with the current bugs the hack still works as expected most of the time.
Hard mode feels dangerous throughout without feeling like cbt, and though I think limiting missile pickups to 2 like normal would otherwise be a good balancing move (especially since you start out with charge beam) the design of the hack invites a variety of runs which might make that limit annoying. The difficulty does decrease but I appreciate that I couldn't mindlessly blast through it. Some puzzles are a bit more elaborate to solve than expected, and combined with the general design of larger and harder-to-traverse rooms the hack felt like it made good use of what it included. I did not go far out of my way to get everything, including whatever lies beyond the platforming challenge. I would insist on doing the harder sections without savestates, and I'm not that patient right now.
The custom spritework is cute and bright, which matches the music. The music choice is pretty good except for the song in the second layer of the map which reminds me of American colonial marches. It drove me nuts at first. Even so that track feels whimsical enough to fit the mood of the hack. There are maybe too many static custom sprites in places but they also add personality and levity to the hack.
Spring Break is pretty open-ended too. Since you're equipped from the start with most traversal upgrades you can skip almost everything and tackle most areas in any order. There's notable replayability for challenge runners. Good luck finishing a hard mode lowest%, though.
Most bosses are fine, but the last two are bothersome. Fighting the second to last boss is frustrating if you approach it the normal way and I ended up just going behind it to deal damage without dying in the process. I imagine just spamming it and taking hits on normal works but is a little lame. There is a more interesting way to fight that boss but I had to experiment for a bit after my first run to find it, and the path of least resistance on a first encounter is more enjoyable. The final boss feels off. I think the devs removed two attack patterns from it to balance the damage its other attacks deal, but that overbalances the fight in the player's favor. The first part is boring, and even in the second I can stand in one place and tank weaker attacks with 3 etanks and survive on hard mode. That said I still had to change my approach to outlast the boss, and testing whether I'm just getting lucky on boss attacks some fights are close but I win. I died enough on my first run that it felt more challenging than it really is. Overall the final boss isn't bad, just somewhat disappointing. The escape sequence is a nice change though. I'd like to see more hacks with similar sequences this challenging but with fewer full stops.
On advice from others I included the bugs I saw in the Spring Break Forum thread. The only bugs I encountered were in boss fights, and only one of which stopped progress altogether. Since it's only a couple minutes to get back from the nearest save I consider this minor.
If some of the boss glitches were fixed I'd bump up to a (true) 4/5 orbs. Even with the current bugs the hack still works as expected most of the time.
V1.2
I'm not a romhack dev but 10 days to make something pretty good is impressive to me. If more people made small hacks like this with refined spaces, encounters, and ideas I wouldn't complain!
I'm surprised the hack still doesn't have a rating after all these months, so here's to getting it one.
Normal Mode IGT: 0:47:42 (100%)
Light difficulty in traversal on either mode. I think most MZM veterans will find the puzzles easy to moderate; it's not hard to see what you have to do and execute it in short order. The music is chill... maybe even a bit too subdued. The visuals are fine. Areas are distinct but nothing made a strong impression on me. Even though progression asks you to backtrack, the size of the map helps that not feel cumbersome.
Hard Mode IGT: 0:41:31 (100%)
There's a nice early emphasis on progression-based puzzles, but like Desolation or RTZ's Master Quest mode eventually that linear and challenge-focused design loosens its gorilla grip and you can revisit everything. I think One Zone benefits from being shorter since hard mode feels different for more of the experience. The Ridley fight was also pretty good.
Overall a decent short hack elevated by the hard mode. The only things I don't like are a certain hidden block required to progress in hard mode, a one-way door in hard mode that forces you to take a longer circuit back to the rest of the map, and being locked into e-tank pickups. I like the gameplay of low energy runs. The only glitch I detected was a high-pitched blip at the very start.
I added an orb to counterbalance the orb Zincoshine deducted.
I'm not a romhack dev but 10 days to make something pretty good is impressive to me. If more people made small hacks like this with refined spaces, encounters, and ideas I wouldn't complain!
I'm surprised the hack still doesn't have a rating after all these months, so here's to getting it one.
Normal Mode IGT: 0:47:42 (100%)
Light difficulty in traversal on either mode. I think most MZM veterans will find the puzzles easy to moderate; it's not hard to see what you have to do and execute it in short order. The music is chill... maybe even a bit too subdued. The visuals are fine. Areas are distinct but nothing made a strong impression on me. Even though progression asks you to backtrack, the size of the map helps that not feel cumbersome.
Hard Mode IGT: 0:41:31 (100%)
There's a nice early emphasis on progression-based puzzles, but like Desolation or RTZ's Master Quest mode eventually that linear and challenge-focused design loosens its gorilla grip and you can revisit everything. I think One Zone benefits from being shorter since hard mode feels different for more of the experience. The Ridley fight was also pretty good.
Overall a decent short hack elevated by the hard mode. The only things I don't like are a certain hidden block required to progress in hard mode, a one-way door in hard mode that forces you to take a longer circuit back to the rest of the map, and being locked into e-tank pickups. I like the gameplay of low energy runs. The only glitch I detected was a high-pitched blip at the very start.
I added an orb to counterbalance the orb Zincoshine deducted.
