nisekoishi's Hack Reviews - Metroid Construction

nisekoishi's Ratings and Reviews

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Sequence Breaking Fusion by Kazuto [

Vanilla+], rated by nisekoishi on Oct 02, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

metroid fusion as god intended it

Super Metroid: Eleven by Metaquarius [

Quick Play], rated by nisekoishi on Aug 17, 2025 (

)

100% in 2:01

very fun short hack. a bit off putting at first, but pretty good once you get into the swing of things. claims veteran difficulty, but is actually very easy (imo too easy), but does require some obscure tech (especially for 100%)

Metroid: Lost Chozo by jasinchen [ MZM

Exploration], rated by nisekoishi on Aug 05, 2022 (

)

36% in 2:32

pretty good hack. nice big map to explore, the edited tiles & new music are quite nice. progression doesnt feel too fast or too slow. definitely has that signature metroid feel of having to find your own way what with all the hidden and hidden passageways.

level design is pretty good but also kinda hit or miss. the rooms in the volcano area were more interesting imo than some of the ones in kraid or ridley for example. starting as zss is pretty neat but nothing interesting is really done with it, it's kinda just the vanilla stealth sequence but shorter and different rooms.

UpTroidDown by BuggMann [

Vanilla+], rated by nisekoishi on Sep 28, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

mid-air morph simulator

quite an interesting way to replay super metroid. well, it's still just vanilla super metroid, only upside down.

Metroid Acrash by Heyhooheyhoo [

Exploration], rated by nisekoishi on Sep 28, 2021 (

)

99% in 4:31

A great hack held back by some very big flaws. The custom code definitely spices up the game a lot and makes this hack unique in a lot of ways. Definitely recommend for any big Metroid fan to play.

-Non-linear map design. A nice, big open map that lets you go anywhere you want and get abilities in almost any order. Fun to explore and test your skill on the various challenges provided by different areas.

-Buggy as all hell. Lots of lag, some softlocks, text errors, graphical errors, sound errors, you name it, it probably has it. Has a lot of custom code that just barely works.

-Lots of interesting ideas, asm, and level design. Good music and graphics. Definitely on the hard side, and has its fair share of low blows, but is far from unreasonably unfair. For the most part, an enjoyable challenge.

-Another huge problem is the map (not level) design. The map has a lot of one-way doors and tiles that let you enter from one side, but won't let you go back. This sometimes makes exploring a bonafide chore, and the map doesnt even open up that much from unlocking doors or abilities. Additionally it can be very hard to figure out where to go early game, and to a lesser extent in lategame.

-One other big problem is there is no way to figure out how to actually beat the game other than getting lucky and guessing right, or by watching someone else beat it.

-Great aesthetics, high quality (as in not gba-quality) music and very nice custom tiles.

-Minimap works, but has issues. Some rooms dont line up, some powerups aren't shown, some are missing, doors aren't shown, etc.

Super Metroid: Subversion by TestRunner and AmoebaOfDoom [

Exploration], rated by nisekoishi on Aug 23, 2025 (

)

86% in 8:21

this hack is really impressive, and has a fuckton of great ideas, but for some reason i didn't have a lot of fun playing it.

also the screw attack puzzle can go fuck itself

Super Metroid: X-Fusion by Metaquarius [

Total Conversion], rated by nisekoishi on Aug 06, 2025 (

)

78% in 5:44

super metroid x fusion was slated to be the greatest hack of all time. everyone could tell from the previews that this was going to be an amazing game surpassing most of the official titles.

then it came out. the game is perfect in all regards. the map design, the aesthetics, the sublime marriage of fusion's elements and super's elements, the custom code, the music, the everything. it's all perfect. everything, except for the game balance.

this game is like, 90% the best hack you've ever played, and 10% the worst hack you've ever played. in spite of how excellent most of this hack is, the lows are so low that just two or three or four or so points in the game are so atrocious that i genuinely never want to play this hack again just so i don't have to go through that again.

the only way to describe the game balance is dismal. the game is far too difficult in ways it shouldnt be, and far too easy in ways it shouldn't be. the first half of the game is absolutely frontloaded with obscene enemy damage, lethal traps, camera issues, counterintuitive progression, impossible or nigh-impossible to dodge obstacles, tedious trial and error gameplay, and more. to help deal with this, the game gives you the reserve-x mechanic, which would be comically broken in most other games, and here just makes the challenges offered to you by the game feel cheap and ill conceived. enemy did 90% of your hp in one hit? just sit on your ass for a solid minute and heal it all back up. having trouble dodging the boss's attacks? just camp the corner and heal it right back. didn't conserve your ammo properly and ran out? well have i got the mechanic for you. there are so many issues in the game balance it gives the strong impression that this hack was never playtested, and reserve-x feels like a band-aid solution just to keep the game playable. issues such as the long "unskippable" death cutscene which actually can be skipped with what is essentially a cheat code. a cheat code told directly to players who bothered to read the information given by the dev's release post. might i ask why? why can't it just be skipped with start like you would in literally any other game? start doesnt even do anything during cutscenes otherwise.

after the unreasonably (and unreasonably is the exact correct word to use here) difficult first half of the game, the second half is basically smooth sailing. once you have equipment and energy to tank everything you can basically run through the rest of the game with reckless abandon. why? i thought this was supposed to be a "hard" hack. after all that nonsense you put us through in the first half, the rest of it is just "who cares lmao". at least be consistent in the difficulty. even the first half suffers from inconsistent difficulty. some parts are even reasonably difficult.

the game finally closes out with a section that is so unbearably frustrating and tedious that i almost dropped the hack completely despite being at the very very end of the hack. this section is so bad that even the dev could tell it was horrible and added checkpoints to the hack for the first time in the entire game, just for the final 10 or so rooms of the game. oh my fucking god. as a great man once said, what the fuck were they thinking.

10/10, would never, ever recommend.

side note, kinda wish there was more dialogue with adam. i liked reading them, even if the dialogue was genuinely kinda shoddy.

now, i've cleared both versions 1.0 and 1.1 (without savestates or cheats). they are the same game. 1.1 downs the room-to-room difficulty mainly by making enemies hit like a rental motorcycle instead of an entire dump truck. this means you can actually traverse the game without having to worry about inadvertently falling on an enemy that deals 80-150% of your max hp in one hit. but most of the fundamental flaws are still in effect. the only things that matter in the update are the crab contact damage, the better railroading in arc, ibj being restored, the delay before dialogue choices, and the freeze timer in the final area. everything else is just fluff. if you must play this hack, play 1.1. it's just better. yes, 1.0 is harder, but there is no meaningful difference in the difficulty. it's only more punishing of mistakes since everything does more damage, and it's all the worse of an experience for a blind run. this review was written specifically for 1.0, but it basically all still applies to 1.1. they are the same game.

in spite of its horrible flaws, i like this hack a lot. but i cannot in good faith give it a high rating just because of how bad the final area is. it really is that bad. if 1.1 didn't come out, i would have given it a 2/5.

Super Metroid - GBA Edition by The Brothers Crafters [ MZM

Exploration], rated by nisekoishi on Jul 20, 2022 (

)

58% in 1:37

A for effort

an attempt was made. the map, at the very least, was very faithfully recreated from super metroid. the hack can also be very creative in dealing with the limitations of hacking zm (different enemies, physics, etc).

that being said, it is kind of like the worst of both sm and zm. it's missing a lot of the charm that made sm so great and is stuck with all of the flaws zm has. there are even some new bugs introduced. it's also very annoying how often non-powergrip blocks are used just to prevent you from doing things the game doesnt want you to. the version i played is the first version to actually have the music from super metroid, but the ports are quite bad. i almost would have preferred to have heard the vanilla zm tracks.

that being said also, this hack is no less than competent. if for some reason you wanna play super metroid but condensed into zm, this hack is for you.

Metroid zero mission Harder by yohann [ MZM

Vanilla+], rated by nisekoishi on Sep 28, 2021 (

)

46% in 2:56

a fun challenge for ZM veterans, but not too hard. has lots of funny moments where it plays with your expectations. hope you like shinesparking because this hack is full of shinespark puzzles. the fun peaks at midgame and slowly peters off.

Super Metroid: GBA Style! by ShadowOne333 [

Vanilla+], rated by nisekoishi on Oct 02, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

very weird hack. attempts to feel like zm, but ends up with something that feels like neither zm nor sm. there are a lot of weird quirks from vanilla as well as exclusive to this hack that make it very unlike gba metroid, so calling it gba style is quite the misnomer. as someone who actually prefers the gba control scheme, i must say i'm disappointed.

samus is very fast in this hack. she accelerates fast. she jumps fast. she falls fast. etc. much faster than any other samus in any other game. even bombs are stupidly fast. once you get used to it, it's alright, but it's nothing like fusion or even zero mission.

the new mechanics are broken. the auto-fire rate is so hilariously op that there is no reason to equip charge beam for 90% of the game since you can mow down 90%+ of enemies by holding down the shot button. the end result is a game that's dramatically easier than vanilla.

the default button configuration isn't even correct, you don't get the one shown in the screenshot but a weird amalgamation of sm's default controls and the gba controls.

at least space jump controls like a dream

Metroid Super Autosadism by Meilove [

Challenge], rated by nisekoishi on Sep 28, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Absolutely hilarious hack. Lots of dumb decisions by the creator had me rolling. Ended up giving up because the intended path was too unclear and required me to go through quite a tedious gauntlet just for a chance to try again to figure it out.

Heed the warnings from the other reviews. This is not a good hack.

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