junkrares's Ratings and Reviews
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Metroid: Symphony of the Light by starlightintheriver [SM Incomplete], rated by junkrares on Jul 02, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
93% in 0:47
What a ride this hack was. I didn't "finish" it because there was no boss or ending to speak of -- but I think I got every item possible. Secrets are well-telegraphed and hardly need the X-Ray scope to make you understand where they are. I enjoyed every moment of this hack, and it left me wanting more. You can tell where it is going to expand (the cone was my favorite character), and understand where the story is going. This may be overreaching, but I got severe Trilby vibes, a la Seven Days a Skeptic, and I hope the author has played that game. If not, it may give solid inspiration to finish it. The scans and map icons were well implemented, and the vanilla physics were very welcome and offered several sequence breaking opportunities that would definitely make a difference when this is a full hack. As Kirarin stated, as-is, this is a 5/5 would-play-again hack.
T O U R O F I T A L Y by RT-55J [SM Exploration], rated by junkrares on Jul 02, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
85% in 1:15
For a spoof hack and contest hack, T O U R O F I T A L Y has a lot to offer. Each zone is distinct with their own themes (within the confines of "space station/factory" vibe). The gelato vibe is strong, and I want-a-to-save-a constantly to make sure I don't lose progress. The difficulty is vanilla, bordering on beginner. There are lots of opportunities to sequence break through gate glitches and hell runs -- but none are required. The story is funny and engaging, atmospheric without straight out telling you what is what. The ASM edits are well-implemented, and can be abused fully. Once this gets polished up and becomes a full hack, I would be thrilled to play this again.

PS: The credits were a real treat and got a legitimate belly laugh out of me.
Samus Wants Robot by Croakomire [SM Speedrun/Race], rated by junkrares on Jul 03, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
1% in 0:30
I wasn't going to put an orb rating or any completion stats, because that would be unfair given the little I played this -- but the site requires it. I'll give it two orbs because the music and graphics and ASM and just everything is well executed and on-theme.

But the gameplay?

It is pure punishment, simply because there is no quick respawn. Almost every move requires instantaneous decision making and frame-perfect timing. If they implemented some sort of system like V E R T I C A L I T Y uses for the teleport spikes, this may be a bit more tolerable. To rate this as a "Veteran" hack and a "Race" hack is rather disingenuous to how difficult this is. This is an expert-level hack, and not just an expert Super Metroid hack.

I really wanted to like this, but I cannot just sit there and get kicked in the teeth every 30 seconds, and then spend an equal amount of time restarting and replaying the same rooms.
Achelous DX by Exister [SM Exploration], rated by junkrares on Jul 02, 2024 (Star Star Star Star Star )
12% in 0:34
My original review was very short, but I am going to expand a bit. This hack feels like a chore, front to back. There's very little flow, there's no ammo even though the screenshots show it -- making me think even the creator of the hack wasn't good enough to handle the artificial difficulty without missiles and supers.

Every enemy (except the bosses) hit like a truck, palettes and tiling are grating and uninspired, and the map is... OK. Every bit of the difficulty in this hack is forced damage from off-screen enemies and it isn't veteran, it is just mean for the sake of meanness. Half the time you cannot even tell what is the background and foreground, and every single tile is a square edge (except a handful of triangles).

I got every major available, and probably missed one e-tank. The map erasing after Kraid made it so I had to hunt around the entire map again just to find Ridley. And once he was dead, it was just over. The escape was one room, a mere 20 foot walk to your ship that just conveniently redocked itself next to the boss.

I can understand this was done in a short timeframe. That still doesn't excuse the lack of quality or execution. I've seen Exister's ROTM submissions and played the Subper Meptroid demo, and truly expected more out of this. Play at your own risk.