therealsusan's Hack Reviews - Metroid Construction

Metroid: Scrolls 6 by Conner, OneOf99, CaptGlitch, JRP [ MZM

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on Oct 24, 2022 (

)

82% in 3:17

I haven't played MZM in quite a while so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it felt like a new title.

Overall looked and sounded great. Level design was well done.

The Reo enemies everywhere were annoying as possible, but it worked well for the equipment progression.

Only thing I didn't care for was the fourth round of the chozo warrior battle I had to predict when the vulnerability would open... Even right next to it, if I waited for the visual/audio cue it was too late :/

V I T A L I T Y by Digital_Mantra [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 08, 2022 (

)

65% in 5:30

Completion stats were from a blind playthrough last year. I replayed it today blind up until the Norfair area, then I used a map (http://www.nordub.ca/Maps/Vitality.png) & completed @ 4:27 with 85%

It's definitely memorable. A year later and there's quite a few areas a remembered (Tchernobog in particular)... I remember getting gravity by accident the first time but this time even with the map I couldn't figure out how.

The graphics were expertly put together, caused me to stop and stare at times. Unlike others I didn't notice an issue figuring out what platforms you could walk on.

Boss difficulty was about perfect (Ridley was a little tough others were just easy enough)

Enemy difficulty was done well, too- strong enough to force you to slow down on the way in and weak enough after you collected the areas items to blow through them.

Unlike others, I thought that it was too linear, if anything (using the map might've been part of that) & I didn't like the forced heat run when it felt like there was a lot of areas to potentially explore (it's ultimately why I loaded the map, trying to avoid sequence breaking)

The ending felt a little bit railroaded, too, but it worked well with the overall design.

Edit: forgot to mention that I agree with others about the beginning being slow. The phrase "progression drought" came to mind.

______

TLDR: Awesome hack, hope you can give us another masterpiece before too long

Ancient Chozo by Albert V. [

Vanilla+], rated by therealsusan on May 10, 2021 (

)

72% in 2:35

Really pretty. Probably the best vanilla hack out there. Seems like I was forced into doing sequence break tricks to gather certain items & some of the high damage in the beginning was annoying, but enemies were plentiful with drops.

Super Metroid: HISHE by Scyzer [

Unknown], rated by therealsusan on May 08, 2021 (

)

0% in 0:01

Super Metroid: Hidden by TN [

Unknown], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2021 (

)

83% in 6:03

I spent maybe 20 minutes (including using fast forward) watching geemers traverse walls, looking for notches in the wall while hunting bombs... Did lead me to a few missiles, but I ultimately had to look up where to find bombs.

Afterwards, I felt a little dumb & from there on I had a better understanding of the author's style... Ultimately I can't fault a hack called Hidden for hiding things really well.

Super Metroid: Ascent by Benox50 [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2021 (

)

70% in 6:00

My second playthrough a couple months later I did it in 4.5h with 65%

The first time I spent waaayyyy too much time figuring out that puzzle where the rippers break the blocks (you know the one)

The damage/heal zones are pretty cool (the main reason I'm giving 5* instead of 4*)... But I found in my second playthrough I was MORE hesitant to go into the heated rooms in favor of searching around more and getting more prepared...

Anyway, it's definitely a top notch hack.

SMConflict by SMILEuser96 [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2021 (

)

75% in 0:45

Wouldn't have even played this, except I watched someone else play it on YouTube (just didn't think spoof category would interest me)

Thank god I don't have speakers on my computer lol

Really surprised nobody else has used the shop mechanic from this game in another hack.

Only complaint is it was too short.

Hyper Metroid by RealRed [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 05, 2021 (

)

84% in 5:16

Really enjoyed this hack. Exploration was fun since the level design really stood out and finding items was really intuitive... The back tracking might have been a chore, but I played it in two sittings so it didn't bother me.

The only thing I really struggled to find was power bombs... I had almost all the items and most of the E tanks before I found them.

Making all the ammo under the same pool was neat. Makes every pickup worth grabbing, but there really wasn't much of a point having them different pick ups except for the first one you get.

Edit: forgot to say this has by far the best escape sequence of any hack I've played!

Super Metroid: Y-Faster by Metaquarius [

Speedrun/Race], rated by therealsusan on Oct 24, 2022 (

)

54% in 0:50

In a way I liked this better than the Y-Faster 2 Furious. Was hoping it had more of the meme format of that one, though.

A technical error or two I found:

1) the final door is marked as a PB door... Not having PBs I was about to quit.

2) There's a tunnel where you come out on top of a chozo statue head... Trying to get back through it, the floor isn't level & I had to glitch jump to get through. Might have been intentional on your part, but doesn't seem like it.

Off to play the sequel! Thanks for the hack meta!

Super Metroid: Y-Faster 2 Furious by Metaquarius [

Speedrun/Race], rated by therealsusan on Oct 24, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

I didn't record completion stats because I save scummed... But around 1.5h game time 59%.

Really hated the physics changes in Angry Fyre & one of the puzzles didn't work right for me the first time which caused me to erroneously backtrack.

Game started off tough, too... But one thing it does better than almost any game is allow you to have an "end game" where you can actually use an end game set up for more progression than just the last boss area. Could've been my routing, but the last few areas were an absolute cake walk.

The maze was kind of cool, kind of hated it. Noticed quite a bit of lag in some places, too.

Would recommend and will play again, but I'm looking up a guide or something for that maze... No way would I wanna do that again

Super Metroid Alliance by Mentlegen, Tundain, Dewhi100 [

Quick Play], rated by therealsusan on Oct 23, 2022 (

)

81% in 1:33

Short and sweet. The friendly aliens were used to a nice touch

My only real complaint is how dark some areas are while also having "hidden" paths for progression.

Super Metroid: Subversion by TestRunner and AmoebaOfDoom [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on Oct 23, 2022 (

)

71% in 7:44

Lot of cool stuff going on in this hack, some stuff worked great other stuff felt like it was thrown in for Ss&Gs. Hope to see some of the stuff (eg the log book) in future hacks.

It felt really linear to me... Which in the beginning was nice, but later on caused a lot of back tracking to the point I just looked up a map & towards the end of the game I was just ready for it to be over... Might be that torizo fight that did it.

Super Duper Metroid by Metaquarius, Daltone [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on Jun 09, 2022 (

)

80% in 5:01

Overall very fun hack. The new intro alone makes checking this out worthwhile. I really liked the option for changing the bomb timer.

Unlike others, I didn't have a problem finding anything except supers & I thought item placement was great.

I didn't like how speed booster handled & the foreground objects breaking when shot was distracting.

There's an easy soft lock right after you get space jump, too, if you accidentally kill the snail.

The reason I'm giving it 4* instead of 5* is the endgame kind of falls flat.

Harvest by Oi27 [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2022 (

)

49% in 2:54

Awesome hack! There's so much brought to the table with new features I'm surprised it didn't win the contest.

Reason I'm giving it 4* instead of 5* is there's some mildly confusing aspects and it feels like there should've been another area to utilize items.

SM - Cryogenesis by Onnyks [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 05, 2022 (

)

60% in 3:46

Actual game time was more like 4.5h-5h

I about rage quit in the beginning, couldn't find grapple. Guess I should've guessed by the ratings that sequence breaks weren't required, but I was trying anything to progress. Ultimately had to look it up, but afterwards didn't have any trouble.

I soft locked twice, both in Urdant, once in the huge grapple room on the west end... I tried seeing if there was a path behind some missiles and the block reset (no bombs) & the other time in the vertical shaft just below the save point in the vines between the platforms (didn't have morph)

Besides the graphics glitch with BT, there's a camera scroll glitch I noticed at least twice, but otherwise nothing too major (assuming that map deal in Maridia is intentional)

_____

Anyway, enough with the bad & ugly, here's what was good:

The tile work is spot on for creating memorable and intuitive rooms & the new sprites were nice. The background/foreground switching was slightly odd but it worked and it was a nice touch at that amount.

The few puzzles were really good, particularly the one in the aptly named void engine

The hammer ball was cool... Item progression was well done overall.

_____

This easily could be a 5* if it was finished and the beginning wasn't so easy to get lost in.

Super Metroid Ruin by personitis [

Quick Play], rated by therealsusan on Jun 05, 2021 (

)

60% in 0:19

Short and sweet. Really liked the graphics. Final boss was the only difficult part. Not a big fan of the health bar, but I won't knock the hack for trying something new.

SM Weekend III by dewhi100 [

Quick Play], rated by therealsusan on Jun 05, 2021 (

)

90% in 0:26

Had to look up where spore spawn was, and momentarily got lost before Kraid. Personally thought the acid did too much damage.

Overall fun hack

Super Metroid: Advent by Shadow96 [

Quick Play], rated by therealsusan on May 18, 2021 (

)

29% in 0:48

Absolutely love the look.

Saving at the ship crashes the game, can reset and it'll work fine except it resets your map.

The first unmapped save station would've been a stroke of genius had the other save stations worked.

Seems to have been made to showcase the beam door feature, but ultimately the hack was too short to really do it justice.

Might open it back up and see if I can find some more hidden stuff. *Edit: found 3 more e-tanks and spring ball, completion 1:06 33%> lot of grayed out doors still*

Super Metroid Exertion by Mentlegen [

Improvement], rated by therealsusan on May 11, 2021 (

)

34% in 0:58

Really fun hack. Color scheme made it difficult to tell when you could shine spark.

The minor glitches (embedding into floor on room transition, map tiling, laggy last area) Wouldn't stop me from recommending the hack.

Super Metroid: Arrival by Jefe962 [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 11, 2021 (

)

93% in 3:00

Completion stats are for the first time I beat it a few months ago.

Just playing it again- your 100% in the description is wrong, I'm sitting on 130 missiles. Have basically everything else, but never found power bombs, except some that were blocked by PB tiles. (Bailing on this playthrough because of it)

Fun hack. Main complaint is the running back and forth between areas. Most of the physics changes were easy to adapt to except for space jump, highly considered turning that off.

Temple of the Winds by Moehr and Albert V. [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 08, 2021 (

)

78% in 2:21

Probably the prettiest hack out there. Coolest map I've seen to go with it. Only time I've seen mode 7 in a hack. 5/5* in that department.

Gameplay is decent. Confusing at times. Often clunky. Some trolly enemies. 3/5* here.

Super Metroid Gathering by Leodox [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 08, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Made it to Ridley & apparently missed charge, plasma & more than half the E tanks... Didn't have enough ammo to take him out & didn't feel like hunting.

Cool hack, though. Fun puzzles. Map was entirely broken, not that it was necessary. Some scrolling issues in wrecked ship, but nothing major.

B2-TW by Grime [

Quick Play], rated by therealsusan on May 08, 2021 (

)

10% in 0:05

Cool hack. Bomb jumping kind of breaks it, though.

I also had a weird glitch where after a couple retries Samus' starting position (in the first room) would shift a character width to the left just as you start falling

The Adam Virus by Crystal_Knight [

Unknown], rated by therealsusan on May 05, 2021 (

)

60% in 0:13

There's a glitch in the left side ceiling of the third room where Samus gets stuck if you jump up there.

That happened in the first few seconds of gameplay, so I used save states at checkpoints after.

Moderate, but enjoyable difficulty. Unusual invisible item pick ups... Did not expect to see different percentages in the reviews

So Little Garden by MetroidMst [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on Oct 24, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

Not sure the extent to which it will happen, but right before monstool mash if you open the map it'll freeze the game.

The music is a nice change of pace. Got old after a while, though. Nature tiling can be really tough to make look good & I think this game does a pretty decent job at it.

Level design is pretty bland. Felt like the whole goal was "get an enemy to knock them down in a spike pit." It does a good job at making the game feel bigger than it actually is, though, I suppose.

Boss fights were mildly interesting. Reminds me of old arcade games designed to eat quarters with how many projectiles there are though... That's what presumably causes so much lag.

Didn't finish it, but I'd say it's worth checking out.

Super Metroid: Y-Faster 2 Fast by Metaquarius [

Speedrun/Race], rated by therealsusan on Oct 24, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

If I hadn't played the 1&3 first I would've bailed after about 20 minutes max. In the others I never truly felt stuck whereas this one I couldn't complete a single section... Got supers and grapple before seemingly getting stuck trying to exit the fire area (without clearing it)

Feels like this hack was designed to be absolutely annoying as possible while giving relatively quick recovery to make up for it.

Ignoring any external factors, this would be a 2 orb, maybe even a 1. Giving it 3 because I think it's deliberately mocking shitty (and hideous) hacks

Oxide by Cyclamen32 [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on Jun 14, 2022 (

)

169% in 2:23

Some of the visuals were cool. Basically infinite missiles + a ton of marked pickups was cool.

Loads of enemies got monotonous for back tracking through. Forgettable layout. Ridley was hard to find.

Overall a good average hack.

SM:Decision by JoshShoeWah [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on Jun 13, 2022 (

)

86% in 2:21

I soft locked in less than 30 seconds in lol

Also encountered a weird graphics glitch (right after bomb Torizo IIRC) where after switching my reserve tanks to auto/manual the entire background filled up with morph ball sprites.

I ended up making it to Ridley with 2 E tanks & had to spend a lot of time hunting more down

The "decision" gimmick is a cool idea, but ultimately didn't do anything for me with this implementation

Super Metroid - Vengeance SE by Noxus [

Vanilla+], rated by therealsusan on Jun 07, 2022 (

)

82% in 2:53

Soft locked a couple times (in gauntlet and at morph) & saw quite a few other opportunities to soft lock.

Overall it's a fun play. Some sections are absolutely hideous (every map/missile/energy station + some of Maridia & lower Norfair)

Does require some tight mockballing & short charging, but nothing super difficult

Edit: there's some slight physics changes also. The most noticeable is morph ball will dribble jump, which is pretty annoying

Super Metroid: Escape II by Hiroishi [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 09, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

The environment is often uselessly big, but it redeems itself with a really good map.

There's nothing particularly special about the world, but it's passable and mildly enjoyable.

Super Metroid Biohazard by Mentlegen, SMILEuser96 [

Speedrun/Race], rated by therealsusan on May 08, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

Got soft locked with that save station glitch after a space pirate OHKOd me

Graphics and music looked good. Layout seemed pretty random... Really surprised I some how bee lined it to bombs.

Might try again another time, soft lock caused me to bail

Edit: June 10 2022 Tried again & pseudo soft locked at Draygon (I can't grapple climb)... Haven't saved in forever so bailing again

Super Ethical Metroid by dewhi100 [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

Mostly uninspiring room layouts with trolly enemies... Great execution of secret placement, though.

Orange phazon lost woods in the dark caused me to bail. Not my cup of tea.

Super Metroid Fugue on Globe by JaceTheBodySculptor [

Speedrun/Race], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

Tight jumps, quicksand, spikes, painful random crumble blocks everywhere & enemies that knock you back into the last room on entry are hallmarks of a shitty ROMhack

Add to that what equates to a randomizer with crowd control (preventing visibility or wall jumping) & it's a top of the line shitty ROMhack

Giving 3* instead of 2* because the cycling is neat (even though I don't like the result) and I assume it's designed to be punishing (though that's not up my alley)

_______

Played about an hour before bailing

Collected Morph, 1-2 Etanks, 5 missiles & a PB

Eris by Digital_Mantra [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 05, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Really wanted to like this hack more. The graphics are pretty cool, even though you can't always tell where the floor is.

Lot of running around in a big loop & some very easy to miss progression points. I got really lost at one point and leafed through a playthrough video.

Turns out the artifact chozo in the limestone ruins was glitched out (there was some black invisible box preventing me from getting into its hand), so I couldn't complete.

Played the version where powerbombs lock you out of evasion... Would've been nice to have that on spore spawn. Most frustrating spospo fight ever (only had one e-tank)

SM HotSurface by Benox50 [

Unknown], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2022 (

)

No completion stats.

4/5* ugly

Played for maybe 10 minutes tops. Got hit once and my health was at 03/99... Figured I'd go until I died which was like 30 seconds later.

Can't bring myself to play this.

Super Metroid Weekend by dewhi100 [

Unknown], rated by therealsusan on Jun 05, 2021 (

)

3% in 0:07

Super Metroid Weekend II by dewhi100 [

Quick Play], rated by therealsusan on Jun 05, 2021 (

)

7% in 0:19

Tiling was horrible. Hard to see what you were doing a lot of times, though oddly I thought that kind of worked in Maridia.

Ice Metal Uninstall by Crys [

Exploration], rated by therealsusan on May 06, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Hack starts off ok. New sprites tiles are always a plus, even though these look like a rush fab (only created the 90°s&45°s causing everything to look really blocky)... The sewer looked like the tiles were ripped from a Wario game.

Little confusing on where to go. Items weren't the easiest to find. Lot of odd holes that look like you should be able to go into but can't. Back tracking was a burden.

I was having an ok time, despite the map errors, until the water area. A blind playthrough, hah! There's a graphics layer above all the sprites so I couldn't see what was going on... Somehow wandered into Tourian. The thought of traversing back through that travesty cause me to pave forward (wave, spazer, varia, all HUD items, lot of health)

Nearly impossible bosses at that point. Had to dodge every rinka because they did way too much damage. Finding charge at that point and the heat damage on top of it was insult to injury. Could not escape even with abusing save states.

Super Metroid Weekend IV by dewhi100 [

Quick Play], rated by therealsusan on Jun 05, 2021 (

)

No completion stats.

Will change the rating if it's fixed.

Downloaded and applied the patch twice, doesn't work.

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