jdlyga's Ratings and Reviews
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Super Metroid: Subversion by TestRunner and AmoebaOfDoom [SM Exploration], rated by jdlyga on Mar 07, 2023 (Star Star Star Star Star )
No completion stats.
Stop what you're doing and play this hack. I don't want to oversell it, but just play it. This is my favorite of Super Metroid I've played so far. Don't look up anything about it, just try it out.

It has custom tilesets, many custom abilities and completely new mechanics, lots of custom music, and a map that's at least double the size of Super Metroid without feeling empty or cumbersome.

This absolutely deserves one of those gold cup awards, since it's up there with the greatest hacks.
Super Metroid: Ascent by Benox50 [SM Exploration], rated by jdlyga on Oct 30, 2019 (Star Star Star Star Star )
63% in 7:00
I just finished this hack, and I made an account just to tell you all how beautiful and amazing it is. It's humongous, very pretty, and there's so much depth.

Samus is at the very bottom of a multi-layered planet split into 3 giant areas. Each area has multiple sub-areas with different music and tilesets. After you explore each subarea and collect powerups, there's a boss at the end. And after, a frenzied escape sequence! After that area is engulfed in a huge blast, you move up into the next area further towards the surface into Area 2. And the process repeats with Area 3 until you finish the game.

There is a lot of custom music in this game, some of which you might've heard before if you've played Super Metroid Arcade or other hacks. The graphics are done amazingly well and as a whole, it feels like a totally new game instead of simply a rearranged Super Metroid.

There's a couple new upgrades in this hack, some of which you might remember from Metroid Prime. The way the upgrades are handed out is pretty interesting. You gain a certain beam upgrade surprisingly early. There's also antigravity mechanics, and a very different "floaty" shinespark that leads to all sorts of different puzzles.

I've played a fair amount of Super Metroid hacks. Some of which I've gotten frustrated with due to getting lost or being unfairly hard. But this game is designed quite fairly, and doesn't hammer you over the head with insane difficulty. This game is definitely harder than Super Metroid. But not dramatically so. You're in good shape if you know how to wall jump reliably, and can pull off a shinespark in restricted space.

But try it, see if you like it. I did.