WillowPunch's Hack Reviews - Metroid Construction

Super Junkoid by P. Yoshi [

Exploration], rated by WillowPunch on Sep 12, 2023 (

)

100% in 3:00

This is truly the hack of all time.
No, really, you should just stop reading these reviews and give it a play immediately.

Here's the actual review:
This is basically taking Vitality and turning it inside out. No, really, the aesthetics are so good, I bet you can ask like 10 people "What was your favorite area?" and the answers would be different. The visuals, the music are top notch. Actually had given me creeps. Easy to 100% thanks to map QoL changes.

Actually didn't notice for the first 10 minutes that the hitbox is smaller now. Junko is 2 blocks tall instead of 3. The twist on abilities is really in place. The drowning and all that, the rat, changes to the speed mechanics, it's all put very well together. Bravo, just bravo.

Metroid Fusion: Google Translate Edition by kkzero [

Spoof], rated by WillowPunch on Jul 28, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

Completed the hack a long time ago and haven't had the time to review back then. Just a little cool story is enough.

Found this hack and streamed it to my friend (we both had great times with Google Translate mods/hacks before). The best thing was playing while translating all this gibberish to Russian and actually trying to make sense of the "refined" text. We completed like 25% of the story and my cheeks were already hurtin from laughs.

Def recommend

Super Metroid: Y-Faster 2 Furious by Metaquarius [

Speedrun/Race], rated by WillowPunch on Jan 15, 2023 (

)

60% in 1:30

To embrace the funny, one shall overcome the first area. And then you relax.

Remember: Cursed Jump is cursed.

Super Metroid: Subversion by TestRunner and AmoebaOfDoom [

Exploration], rated by WillowPunch on Dec 12, 2022 (

)

70% in 6:33

I really like what is going on with the hacking scene in the past few years.

Lots of them get something new like in terms of asm code and this one delivers.
(*minor spoilers ahead*)
New upgrades felt really cool, especially considering that verdite lasers are your worst exploration enemy at first, then you switch them off and then you get an upgrade that wants you crave those are reactivated.

There was always that illusion of non-linearity when you had lots of grapple blocks in an area but you had no grapple but space jump instead. Then turns out this is prob how it's supposed to be.
Really like the space jump mechanic. It really is balanced at first and becomes OP only as you progress and explore.

Some puzzles are actually fun and smart, one E-tank at Cargo Rail really made me understand that in this game it is for the best to turn off some upgrades sometimes. The Screw Attack puzzle tho was quite tedious, I just wasted like 10-20 minutes running back and forth aligning lasers. But I say it's my bad as, after all, I got Charge Beam in the end game since I couldn't figure out an invisible wall.

Recommended for sure

SM: Search and Destroy by lenorator [

Quick Play], rated by WillowPunch on Jun 13, 2024 (

)

93% in 0:34

Nah, I'm not picking that missile

Good music tho and lots of effort for the first hack

V I T A L I T Y by Digital_Mantra [

Exploration], rated by WillowPunch on Dec 25, 2022 (

)

56% in 4:56

It has a great and dark story. It has great visual design. But it's not without flaws.

First of all, the design of rooms is beautiful but it has a lot of mixing foreground and background elements which was really frustrating sometimes, like fake blocks on top of lava in Akhlys or the lava itself which you just can't see (maybe it's actually hot water?). Also this is a hack where you definitely will mess up a solid block with a part of background.
Some parts although look great but feel very disorienting (Tchornobog is a great example).
Some rooms are so dark, you just can't find a way in these mazes like in Andavald (I mean, I know it's atmospheric but at one point it made me crave this hack had dark visor like recently published Subversion).

You take a lot of damage midgame from enemies when you don't have one or both suits and only manage to find ~2 E-Tanks. To anyone reading this before actual playing (probably no one): just find Varia as soon as possible or be ready to die multiple times if you don't use savestates or rewinds. And about 2 E-Tanks... Yea, you're probably going to conserve ammo and energy to the very end of the game and usually use ammo only to destroy required blocks. You should only trust your beam. Because of this, naturally, you will frequently grind geegas and gamets and use the recharge stations.

Great hack, recommended. But be aware that with all that I've said, I'm not agreeing with this hack having vanilla difficulty. It's definitely done with veterans in mind.

Username:
Password: