ptoil's Hack Reviews - Metroid Construction

Super Metroid KERO by Pyonkichi [

Challenge], rated by ptoil on Jun 17, 2023 (

)

41% in 3:13

Superb puzzle hack, worthy successor to Contamination. Lots of cool tech showed off. The extra puzzles and fights for the best ending were also neat and I'm glad they were made optional since they can be a bit much. The rest of the hack plays very well for a puzzle hack so if you enjoyed any of the others, this is a must play.

Super Metroid: Subversion by TestRunner and AmoebaOfDoom [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Sep 07, 2022 (

)

100% in 9:00

Amazing hack. So many areas to explore, and each area is fully fleshed out with its own look, music, and lore. The custom mechanics really show the extent of whats possible with this game, and there are so many nice little details that make this an excellently polished masterpiece.
Absolutely no reason this would get anything less than 5 orbs.

V I T A L I T Y by Digital_Mantra [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Oct 20, 2020 (

)

55% in 4:35

Wow...
Great visuals, story, aesthetic. Best hack I've played yet.
Play it

Hyper Metroid by RealRed [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Sep 01, 2020 (

)

74% in 6:38

Not much to say that hasn't already been said. This hack VERY highly exceeded my expectations!

Wibrarne by Taco [

Challenge], rated by ptoil on May 22, 2020 (

)

4% in 0:17

The challenges in the hack are great, but the boss fight is what pushed me to give this 5 orbs.
It's very well made and provides a challenge like no other.

Super Metroid: Arrival by Jefe962 [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Feb 12, 2020 (

)

87% in 2:54

Really awesome hack, loved the environments and music choices

SMChallenge by SMILEuser96 [

Speedrun/Race], rated by ptoil on Dec 31, 2019 (

)

113% in 0:12

Hack got straight to the point. A relatively simple map, easy item collection, and an entertaining final boss make this hack awesome to play.

Super Metroid Nature by Jefe962 [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Dec 03, 2019 (

)

73% in 0:00

Wow this was fun. Particularly enjoyed LN and Tourian

Super Metroid Contamination by Lioran, Aran;Jaeger [

Challenge], rated by ptoil on Oct 22, 2019 (

)

No completion stats.

Just like containment chamber, an awesome hack to showcase SM's strange mechanics

Super Metroid Containment Chamber by Lioran [

Challenge], rated by ptoil on Oct 22, 2019 (

)

No completion stats.

Awesome showcase of cool tech

B2-TW by Grime [

Quick Play], rated by ptoil on Oct 22, 2019 (

)

10% in 0:06

Short and sweet

gossamer by neen [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Mar 02, 2024 (

)

77% in 3:38

The physics changes in this were offputting at first, having restricted movement isn't so fun. But upon arriving at Mladicia, the underwater physics are actually buffed with more jump height, making you feel more free. I love suitless underwater movement, so this felt great for me and felt like it balanced the harsher physics above water.

The visuals in this hack are very experimental, and I think they worked most of the time. Lots of the rooms are very dark and it can be hard to contrast platforms and even items at times. The final area takes the visuals to an extreme, and I was pleasantly surprised with them so much that I was laughing by the final fight.

Progression in the hack can be rough. Some puzzles are cool to figure out, like the ship area, but other areas are more obscure. The map is able to hint at some stuff, but its easy to end up in a loop of running around trying to find where to go next. Only place I really felt stuck was finding the start to the path to gravity, which I had to refer to another playthrough to find. Finally finding gravity was initially gratifying, but then I was back to the more restricting physics, so that gratification was unfortunately short lived.

I do like that this hack is generally pretty open to sequence breaks. I got charge earlier than intended and definitely missed some items and secrets that I'll have to go back and find. The underwater physics had me doing UWJs and I almost got myself stuck a couple times trying to sequence break lol.

Definitely a mixed bag of goodies here, but I enjoyed it.

Super Metroid Alliance by Mentlegen, Tundain, Dewhi100 [

Quick Play], rated by ptoil on Jul 01, 2023 (

)

75% in 1:06

Enjoyable hack to play. My main issues are in Stagnithyros, where there are some weird slopes and the map doesnt save properly. Puzzles and progression were fun to play through otherwise. Loved the allies :D

Walljumping Above It by Croakomire [

Challenge], rated by ptoil on Oct 21, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

Croak never holds back. This hack is brutal, maybe a little too brutal at times, but it does a great job of imitating games like Getting Over It and Jump King, which can also be brutal (I've tried both but havent completed either). Typically when you fall and lose progress, its not too much and you can recover, but its when you make multiple mistakes that you fall further and further. Of course there are places where a fall will lose you a lot of progress, but I think they were necessary for the hack's intended experience.
The majority of the movement in this hack is based on precision, having to jump/wj as late as possible, downgrabbing, etc. Croak essentially made a parkour playground and I had a blast exploring it. I liked the new mechanics as well.
I was able to complete the first room after enough time without savestates, but after that I started using them to save my progress. Found 2 of the supers and another hidden item (although i wasn't able to keep it for reasons). Might continue playing to find the rest of the secrets and/or see how far I can get without savestates.

Depth Of Field by Croakomire [

Challenge], rated by ptoil on Oct 21, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

This puzzle hack showcases some really cool tech, through pushing both the obscurity and required skill level to the extreme. I really liked the gate system to relay how obscure or difficult each puzzle is. There are save stations however I still used savestates in a few places. Puzzle 24 stands out for easily being the hardest to execute, I don't see myself ever completing that room without savestates.
Completed the main game and started the post game. If you enjoyed Lioran's puzzle hacks, I'd recommend playing this one, but be prepared for the much higher difficulty. Croak has done a dev commentary playthrough of the hack that can help if you get stuck: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1414838423

Metroid Mission II by Sapphron [ MZM

Quick Play], rated by ptoil on Jul 19, 2020 (

)

75% in 0:11

Fun little experience. Despite being devoid of color, tiling is nice, although some items can be annoying to find.

Snowglobe by Scyzer [

Quick Play], rated by ptoil on Dec 25, 2019 (

)

5% in 0:18

Awesome music, glad I played this today

Super Metroid Kaizo Possible by Lioran [

Challenge], rated by ptoil on Nov 16, 2019 (

)

43% in 7:30

This hack is more than challenging. Quick respawn makes playing easier but with how many deaths you will experience, save states are needed to make the experience tolerable. Boss battles were easier than expected for a "kaizo" hack.
Plenty of savestates were used.
rta time is 27h 46m

Metroid Mission Rescue by Mettyk25jigsaw [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Oct 04, 2023 (

)

76% in 25:59

Played on Normal. Some savestates were used, especially in the escape, so the IGT is deflated.

This hack has a huge reputation, being the largest sm hack at the moment, and going into the hack my expectation was that I would be playing a hack with items and progression far apart with the space between filled with boring, similar looking rooms. Although this isn't completely incorrect, while playing the hack I was impressed with the sheer amount of effort that was put into the hack.

This hack is way more complex than I expected. With more variants of door caps for each weapon you can obtain, tons of sector and world switches that teleport you to other parts of the map, and not only doorcaps that unlock the final area, but also activators for those doorcaps, this hack consistently overwhelmed and confused me. But at the same time I was in awe of how, even with all that complexity, the hack's progression still managed to work correctly. At the start of the hack I was referencing the page in the manual that showed each of the doorcap colors. I don't understand why the doorcap colors don't match their corresponding beam's color. The exploration in this hack is honestly pretty great. The hint room is clever, although confusing to understand at first, and with that and a map (I made use of ED's fixed map) I was usually able to figure out where I needed to go next, so there wasn't too much getting stuck until the endgame. Without the map, I definitely would have struggled and would have found less fun in the hack. Seeing how the hack fit together and making sense of its complexity was definitely what gave me the most satisfaction.

Visually, I thought the hack looked alright, definitely better than I was expecting. It's a mixed bag, with areas like Wadaria and Mahagan being rough or boring to look at. Wadaria however is saved by the banging M2 track, and I gotta shout out FLJ's performance using ED's lyrics: https://clips.twitch.tv/UgliestUglyButterflySoonerLater . Still each area generally had its own unique style, and after a while you do start to get a grip of the map. There are a lot of rooms requiring you to go through walls and such, which make it very difficult to navigate as you can't easily tell where Samus or the walls and floors are. And that combined with the mazelike structures of rooms (a big pink room in Messadon definitely comes to mind) can make it very frustrating to play. Speaking of mazes, there are so many of them in this hack: rooms with lots of paths, morphball mazes, series of rooms with up to eight different doors in which only one leads you down the correct path, AND THERES NO INDICATION AT ALL OF WHICH DOOR IS CORRECT. It literally forces you to brute force the correct answer, and without savestates I could easily see it taking up to an hour to get through the whole thing. Moments like these are so insanely stupid, I wouldn't blame anyone for quitting the hack. If you already aren't enjoying the hack, there's nothing further into the hack that's worth sticking through it for. Speaking of which...

The endgame. This was easily the worst part of the hack. After you've followed the progression through the hint room and collected all the major items, you're stuck hunting down 24 doorcaps that unlock the final area, and not only that, you have to find activators for those doorcaps. This leads to a very tedious task of running all over the map to collect each of the doorcaps and then running back to the final area to see which one you are missing next. Even with the map I struggled with this a bit, because although most of the activators are in the same area as their doorcaps, a couple of the areas have their activator in another area. I'm glad this hack at least had the proper patch to make sure the map saves properly. Some hacks don't have that and although it's usually just a bit unfortunate, it would be devastating for this hack and made it near impossible to find progression without the help of an external map.

But anyways, you manage to track down all the doorcaps and gain access to the final area and escape. Metty states that he designed Smachoghr and the escape early on in the hack's development, and it's painfully obvious. Smachoghr is easily the worst area to look at and navigate, with terrible room designs and excessive sector switch use. Then the escape has hidden pathways, hidden items that are required to collect, more mazes, invisible mazes, morph tunnels that are in the bottom/top two tiles of each room, meaning they aren't even on screen, and a janky (albeit actually kinda neat) baby metroid mechanic where you're essentially moving around praying that the metroid breaks the tiles blocking your path. To be fair I don't mind the invisible mazes too much, but it doesn't belong as the required path in an escape sequence. Although having a maze that requires almost ALL of your super missiles and therefore requires you to farm a ton beforehand is just so unnecessary.

The hack was enjoyable to explore and make sense of for the most part, but tourian and the escape really should've been revamped before the hack's release. The custom content is definitely cool, and it's clear that Metty has talent, he just needs more focus. If you're into more of the janky, lower ranked hacks and have a lot of tolerance and patience, this hack is actually a very interesting play, just play at your own risk.

Subpar Metroid by WompaStompa [

Spoof], rated by ptoil on Apr 26, 2021 (

)

99% in 1:00

The hack does what it advertises. The world is more cramped, which makes movement through rooms feel more restricted at times. Since none of the enemies were removed from rooms, they can end up being packed together, which results in excess lag and getting hit very easily. For what the hack set out to do, it accomplishes it's goal.

Super Metroid: Life by Nevyn 1.0 / DCR 1.2 [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Jan 14, 2021 (

)

94% in 4:21

I enjoyed the different item progression and exploration. There were more than a few instances of bad tiling and the hack felt closed off at times. Not bad, worth checking out.

Oxide by Cyclamen32 [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Jul 25, 2020 (

)

167% in 2:32

Way too many killdoors for my liking.
Exploration and nonlinearity of the hack makes it worth checking out.
missiles missiles missiles

Limit by Sin [

Unknown], rated by ptoil on May 25, 2020 (

)

86% in 5:10

Very interesting hack. It starts out slow and with big rooms with lots of doors it can be overwhelming and hard to navigate. Finding where to go for progression isn't always obvious or easy to locate since the map doesn't save properly. There are very few save stations, so I used savestates at times to keep my progress.

A lot of the hack felt like I was just running around finding items/progression, with cool or challenging rooms just lightly sprinkled around. With some help from looking up where to go next the hack wasn't too bad.

Took the super missile route.
The rooms that were cool were very cool and memorable
I enjoyed it, but theres definitely room for improvement, as expected from an old hack.

Super Metroid Fog by pedro123 [

Unknown], rated by ptoil on Apr 10, 2021 (

)

81% in 2:53

There is a legitimate idea here, took me a while to realize that the reason maridia has no water and norfair has no lava/acid is because it's all become the fog. As has been said, the fog is very annoying and progression is strange.

Super Metroid Weekend by dewhi100 [

Unknown], rated by ptoil on May 17, 2020 (

)

3% in 0:08

Short and simple, nothing really interesting

F-Metroid by mrkishumo [

Speedrun/Race], rated by ptoil on Dec 13, 2019 (

)

13% in 0:16

Samus' Turkey Journey by Sapphron [ MZM

Quick Play], rated by ptoil on Dec 01, 2019 (

)

No completion stats.

Although I was able to stuff my enemies FULL, this hack was too short to stuff me full.

Starburst by Tyjet66 [

Unknown], rated by ptoil on Sep 20, 2023 (

)

No completion stats.

Yeah theres not much here worth checking out. Some of the movement/progression is interesting, but thats quickly over as you hit the grapple and bug freezing sections. Hack is too short and the lack of a proper end leaves me very unsatisfied.

Metroid Depression by Silver Wing [

Exploration], rated by ptoil on Nov 09, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

https://i.imgur.com/1CkntyC.png

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