Metroid rom hacks and fangames? (any Metroid)

[Edmond Dantes]

So lately, I finally played Metroid Fusion for the first time. I dunno how many people experienced this, but I'm actually finding it to be the most difficult non-romhack Metroid game I've played.

But I've also been hitting the older games again, and I'm wondering about Romhacks. We all know Mario has a ton, but for Metroid I've heard of very few. One I tried--Super Metroid Redesign--felt too "hardcore" in that it requires you to use the wall-jump (already an irritating technique in Super Metroid, made worse because I think this hack messed with the jumping physics) to get basically anywhere, and after awhile I got sick of that.

But I am wondering if there's other Romhacks I should try, for any 2D Metroid game?

Thanks in advance

[Tanooki]

I had it back when it was fresh and played like 2/3 of it and got pissed and annoyed at it and stopped. Only some months ago I found a good price on a complete one locally so I risked getting it to try again later.

I guess one word could be it's like a rom hack in how it's cheaply harder than it needs to be. They dumbed down how much HP the restore balls give, while also bumping up the amount of damage enemies will do from a simple hit. Some can knock out an entire E tank in 2 hits which sucks. I'm not sure if Nintendo really wanted it to be overly difficult or were shooting for something and it was a bad side effect. It never bothered me about the narrative with it others whined about, I mean it did a little as it was out of place, but looking back it's not that much of a problem.

If there was one hack I'd love to see, someone should bust open Metroid II and do like they did to NES Castlevania II where you add in a map system to the game, then touch up the rest (in the case of CV2 was a correct translation, but in this case I'd say full exploitation of a GBC only cart and colorize it beautifully.) I'd pay good money to have that tossed onto a GBC cart on the after market if that existed because the lack of a map is too much in how they laid it out and while the detail is nice it gets too repetitive and blends easily so you feel at times overly lost in the game. I mean I have finished it once years ago, but it would be nice to see the change. There is a current patch out there to do just half of that, colorizing Metroid II (I think it's called Metroid II DX or something like that.)

I don't blame you for hating on that one rom hack, that's the problem I notice with a lot of them. They're fanboy bait where they don't take into consideration proper balance and go to extremes in many cases sucking the fun out short of being a sadist. Or it swing the other way and something either just is so badly done it's boring, broken, sucks, just downright fails to amuse and should probably have never been made public.

[Edmond Dantes]

I'm thankful for one thing: Fusion is tough in the "I died five times during that bit where you have to run from SA-X" way, rather than in the "I have to use a glitch to advance" way. I was playing a romhack of the original Metroid called "Samus: Mother Brain Returns" and got stuck, then realized that's what the game wanted me to do. I succeeded at it, but then came to another roadblock because I guessed I missed something (there was a path earlier I thought was impossible to take, but I wasn't accounting for the game being designed around glitches).

That should be the #1 rule of romhacks: glitches should never be something you _need_ to do to advance farther in the game, they should always be strictly optional.

Rule #2 should be "there should always be two ways of doing something, especially when the primary way involves doing that fricking wall jump." That section of SM Redesign actually hurt my thumb after awhile, and aching thumbs are not my idea of a good time!

On Fusion's storyline, one thought I keep having now is that I wonder why people complained so much about Other M when a lot of Other M's characterization of Samus was foreshadowed in Fusion? Don't get me wrong--I watched Retsupurae's riffing of Other M and I totally agree that it's a bastardization and betrayal, its just that I have exactly the same issue with Fusion, though to a lesser extent. At least Fusion's gameplay is good (I never actually played Other M so I can't say if it is, and I've heard mixed debates on that) and the storyline makes up for its shortcomings by offering a compelling situation and an equally compelling nemesis in the form of SA-X, who I honestly like.

BTW, question--I seem to remember seeing this game on a store kiosk and in that one, SA-X showed up in a room while Samus was just standing there. So is it actually possible for SA-X to show up at random in rooms you happen to be in, or are all her appearances scripted? (I actually think I heard her off-screen at points in my current playthrough, but since I'm scared of her I never went to check).

[celerystalker]

All of the SA-X appearances are scripted, and are usually telegraphed by damage to the scenery seen for the first time.

Zero Mission was one I really liked. Super Metroid is probably one of my top 3 favorite games ever, and its play control felt closest to that game. I've played so much Metroid over the years that I didn't really notice any difficulty spike. However, at times in my life that I felt really depressed, I used to sit down and play Super Metroid over and over, as its control was second nature to me, so I could just zone out, stop thinking while my hands were occupied, and kind of get centered. A bit of praying and a lot of Super Metroid got me through some tough times in my early 20s.

It's also just a badass game.

I'd love to see Metroid II redone like Zero Mission as far as a nice overhaul. I like the game a lot, and sprucing up some of the scenery and boss fights could make for a killer game. Never havr played a ROM hack, but I considered buying some repro carts I've run across over the years. I've always held off for fear they'd have obnoxious design choices that wreck the spirit of the games. It seems from what I've read, ROM hackers are every bit as likely to abuse glitches as they are to add dicks, swastikas, and Wilfred Brimley to games.

[jperryss]

There's an original Metroid hack called mOTHER which is mainly graphical but also adds a map on the pause screen and allows you to combine wave+ice beams. I played through it last week and enjoyed it.

I liked Fusion but enjoyed ZM much more as it felt more like SM, which is probably my favorite SNES game and top 3 overall. Fusion is also the only game I've ever turned the volume down due to poor sounds effects (during Ridley and the final SA-X battle, if I remember right).

SM Redesign is a well-done hack, but brutally difficult and IMO not meant to be played through without cheating/save states. SM Impossible is literally impossible to get through without cheating and abusing glitches.

I just started playing Super Zero Mission last night (normal version, not hard version). So far at least, I haven't hit anything brutally difficult and it feels like it was meant to be played on original hardware.

http://www.metroid-database.com/reviews/mszm.php

[Tanooki]

OtherM was designed to be like Super Metroid, just 2.5D is all. While there was depth, it was NOT prime, it was still all based upon rooms and corridors like the 16bit title was and the play was relatively flat. You had a little range left/right or front/back but the general path was narrow, and setup like the old game, as was the exploration involved with hidden things too. The part people ripped on was the story, hated it, and hated the guy in charge would just turn your suit off basically like a big dick and only allow you to use stuff once you were authorized to despite having it equipped (just a bad way to power up really.) OtherM I never finished but I didn't get most the hate other than that part as it felt like a semi-3D sequel to Super Metroid.

Fusion though, that one has a more sensible and reasonable likely story to fall into play within the Metroid world, and no gimping artificially. The story works, the play is very solid, it's just stupid cheap on the little health recharge orbs give versus the overkill damage enemies do which were never near that high in past games so it made the game kind of infuriating.

[Alianger]

Axiom Verge is pretty much a Metroid fan game, and AM2R (fan remake of M2) is fairly close to completion. There's a downloadable demo.

[Edmond Dantes]

Incidentally I'm really questioning the Galaxy Federation's characterization right now.

SPOILERS FOR FUSION AND OTHER M (just being nice, I imagine most of us would already know, but I don't wanna be a big meaniehead)

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I mean, Other M gives the idea that they're... sorta-corrupt, I guess? Developing Metroids for warfare. Except for... warfare against who? The space pirates? Who can't even organize without Mother Brain (who was dead until the GF brought her back to life?) I honestly can't see how the Metroids have any practical military value, except maybe via giving all soldiers hyper beams. Fusion's excuse that they're for medical research makes a lot more sense

Also, because Google exists, I already know about the Secret Message you can find in Fusion with a sequence break.... in which a contact from Galactic HQ wants to let Samus in on what the station is really for (take a wild guess: Either they're A) breeding metroids or B) working on an official localization of Mother 3) but Adam stops him. This actually to me makes Adam come off as the more shadowy one while the HQ guy seems more on the up and up.

So yeah, not sure what to think of these guys, altho overall I almost wonder if the series isn't trying too hard to overcomplicate itself. Seems a lot of classic game franchises do that. I'm kind of mixed on the idea of Samus having a special childhood as I like to think she became awesome through experience rather than being born that way. But whatever.

.... Also, the AGDQ for Metroid Prime (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jebIo5z-5_Q) actually gave me some new respect for the game.

EDIT: Also, like I said I only know Other M from Retsupurae's riff of it, but I'm surprised they didn't call out how the name "Madeline Bergman" makes an upcoming plot twist pretty obvious. The first time I watched that riff, the VERY INSTANT that name popped up on the screen, I instantly guessed who she would turn out to be. I'm sure I can't be the only one who called it.

[Edmond Dantes]

Just played Zero Mission. I'm sorry to say, but I'm effing hating it.

Fusion, like I said, was difficult in the "bosses are hard" way. ZM on the other hand (and I'm playing on Normal difficulty so this may be why) feels more like those Mario hacks Protonjon used to always play, where everything was a puzzle that would kaizo trap you the first time and it seems like you're supposed to abuse game mechanics to get upgrades. Just awhile back I ran into a room with two missile pickups and a lot of crumbly floors, and after that a room with a super missile pickup where you have to bomb a wall but then jump when its only part-way demolished otherwise you fall onto a crumbler floor below. It just feels like every other room is a puzzle, where the prize is a missile pickup, and I'm sorry but I don't play Metroid to solve puzzles.

ZM's other problem tho is that... it feels TOO faithful to the original Metroid. Like the Varia suit being in essentially the same place, requiring an asinine amount of backtracking. Altho the game almost seems designed to cater to sequence breakers. A lot of times, I couldn't tell if I was sequence breaking or if I was legitimately supposed to do something I did.

Also what the hell is with the "unknown items" you pick up?

I'm at Mother Brain right now. The area is getting on my nerves, because somehow the rinkas and the little turrets are more annoying than they were in the original NES game, and now MB herself can fire hadoukens, and the same insane amount of damage Tanooki mentioned for Fusion seems to be here too--I come into this room with full health yet MB has killed me twice (tho that might be my own fault--I haven't bothered strategizing, mostly because I just want the game to freaking END already, so maybe she's easier if I take my time and figure out a viable strat). Oh well though. At the moment, I can't be assed to care. I almost would rather watch someone else play this garbage than play it myself.

This is all a first impression of course, and my first impressions tend to be more extreme than my final thoughts.

[Tanooki]

Ehh you're being a bit extreme but still accurate around the extremes. I own it as well and have off and on over the years like Fusion. It has the same map layout as the 8bit game, but it adds that new Chozo area with the proper tie ins to the old 8bit play spaces. I don't recall what those mystery items are either, been far too long. The game is as cheap and puzzly as the original one, the big difference is they made the MB an insufferable bitch with her hadouken fireballs like you pointed out. I honestly can't remember if I ever bothered to kill her either as it was infuriating, but I had played out the rest.

[celerystalker]

The Unknown Items at first allow you to destroy blocks that match the item symbol. After beating a certain portion of the game, they become fully usable items. It'd be a spoiler to say what they are, but there's a lot of game ahead of you. If you want me to post what they are, just say the word.

[Edmond Dantes]

I beat it today. Just needed to finish it and get it off my back for good.

I watched a Speed Run that gave me pointers on what to do about Mother Brain, and when I played again I think I mostly just froze the rinkas and that made things a lot easier because I could focus on dodging the turrets (easy now that I could see their pattern) and the eye-doken. Also if you use Super Missiles most times she gets pattern-locked and it only takes a few of them to take her out. Its apparently possible to perch on the same platform she's on once you destroy the glass, the speedrunner did it, but I kept taking damage when I tried. If you pull it off, then nothing can hit you and you can just pummel her until she dies.

The segment afterwards was actually nowhere near as hard as I had been warned.