“Where all of the space pirates chill on weekends”
| Super Metroid: Redesign | ||
Release date: Feb 10, 2007 |
Author: Drewseph
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Genre: Exploration [?] Game: 
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Difficulty: Veteran [?]
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Average runtime:
17:11 Average collection: 76% |
Read Me: [None] |
Forum Thread: [None] |
Rating:
 
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Other Links:
Website |
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Description
Metroid: Redesign is a total overhaul of Super Metroid by Drewseph with major coding done by Kejardon, MathOnNapkins and Jathys. The Planet Zebes, now bigger than we've previously seen it, is filled with many mysteries. Sleeping within the depths of the planet is a secret heavily protected by the last standing symbols of the great Chozo race...
Screenshots
Ratings and Reviews
ORIGINAL REVIEW: It's the granddaddy of major hacks, alright. The physics fight you, there are great places to get stuck X-Ray won't help you out of, and Sidehoppers will try to shank you with impunity. Still, it's worth checking out as a solid release and a experience you will likely never forget - good and bad. Watch out for Metroids!
UPDATED REVIEW, DATED 12/22/22: Don't play this. Play Axeil, and then rip the band-aid off when you get to Tourian (aka dump your rom in the trash). You can read why in my Axeil review, but between this version and Axeil this version of Redesign has some of the dumbest design decisions, particularly late game (some of them are fixed in Axeil, thankfully in regards to filler Chozo guardian placement). You will suffer through a mandatory heatrun, fall in lava and not be able to get out, explore Norfair and not be able to get out, explore lower Norfair and be unceremoniously booted back to upper Norfair, enjoy no hints and have to search out all of the major items yourself, and lose plenty of health trying to screw attack grounded foes in lower Norfair (don't touch Ridley btw). Its biggest saving graces are Screw Attack as soon as you attain Speedbooster (normally required to reach Draygon in progression post-Space Jump) and Tourian is right to the point (if not still a savestateathon because the Metroids are always on you and you don't have enough bombs worth dealing with them). It might be worth that if you like a Super Metroid hack that makes you suffer.
UPDATED REVIEW, DATED 12/22/22: Don't play this. Play Axeil, and then rip the band-aid off when you get to Tourian (aka dump your rom in the trash). You can read why in my Axeil review, but between this version and Axeil this version of Redesign has some of the dumbest design decisions, particularly late game (some of them are fixed in Axeil, thankfully in regards to filler Chozo guardian placement). You will suffer through a mandatory heatrun, fall in lava and not be able to get out, explore Norfair and not be able to get out, explore lower Norfair and be unceremoniously booted back to upper Norfair, enjoy no hints and have to search out all of the major items yourself, and lose plenty of health trying to screw attack grounded foes in lower Norfair (don't touch Ridley btw). Its biggest saving graces are Screw Attack as soon as you attain Speedbooster (normally required to reach Draygon in progression post-Space Jump) and Tourian is right to the point (if not still a savestateathon because the Metroids are always on you and you don't have enough bombs worth dealing with them). It might be worth that if you like a Super Metroid hack that makes you suffer.
Throw out what you knew about Super Metroid, because this is a completely different monster.
Redesign is a rigidly linear adventure that will reward you with endless challenging gameplay as you reach deeper and deeper into the massive planet.
Samus is no longer an unstoppable badass. This is not the story of samus versus the space pirates, this is samus versus the world. At every turn, the game will make you feel like you're one powerup short of the necessary arsenal. The gravity, the powerful enemies, and the exacted sequence will test you at every turn.
It's painful, but it's beautiful. Redesign has a few ugly flaws (ie. Norfair), but it offers hour after hour of gameplay that will satisfy the itching for some SERIOUS Super Metroid hours.
Redesign is a rigidly linear adventure that will reward you with endless challenging gameplay as you reach deeper and deeper into the massive planet.
Samus is no longer an unstoppable badass. This is not the story of samus versus the space pirates, this is samus versus the world. At every turn, the game will make you feel like you're one powerup short of the necessary arsenal. The gravity, the powerful enemies, and the exacted sequence will test you at every turn.
It's painful, but it's beautiful. Redesign has a few ugly flaws (ie. Norfair), but it offers hour after hour of gameplay that will satisfy the itching for some SERIOUS Super Metroid hours.
The hack that got me into hacking. While the difficulty and physic changes may turn you away, this hack is very well made. Looking for super metroid cept different? This is the hack to play. Looking for heat runs that will take 20 tries to pass? This is the hack for you.
This was my first hack, and is what got me into Super Metroid hacking. It's an amazingly large overhaul of the game, and even today, we are only just now getting to the level of polish that was in this game. It expands the size of the game to three to four times the size of the original.
It's a fine game, and has some rewarding experiences, such as:
-large map to explore
-lots of polish in the hack make it look professional
-when you finally beat it, its a rewarding experience, with how hard it can be
A sample of things I didn't like:
-the physics are not very fun, gravity is too heavy
-enemies are too hard far too often, you never really feel like your OP until the end of the game
-spend a large amount of time to get an item, and it only adds 1 to your ammo total
-gauntlets of death that makes playing console condition next to impossible
-wasting time with pointless lost caverns section that isn't fun
-sand in maridia makes getting around really hard
-looking forever and a half for chozo guardians, since the hack is so large, and you get next to no clues
-tourian is hard as shit, and made me rage quit my first time playing
OVERALL, I feel the negative parts of the hack outshine the fun that you could have otherwise, which is a shame, considering how much work and how polished the game is.
It's a fine game, and has some rewarding experiences, such as:
-large map to explore
-lots of polish in the hack make it look professional
-when you finally beat it, its a rewarding experience, with how hard it can be
A sample of things I didn't like:
-the physics are not very fun, gravity is too heavy
-enemies are too hard far too often, you never really feel like your OP until the end of the game
-spend a large amount of time to get an item, and it only adds 1 to your ammo total
-gauntlets of death that makes playing console condition next to impossible
-wasting time with pointless lost caverns section that isn't fun
-sand in maridia makes getting around really hard
-looking forever and a half for chozo guardians, since the hack is so large, and you get next to no clues
-tourian is hard as shit, and made me rage quit my first time playing
OVERALL, I feel the negative parts of the hack outshine the fun that you could have otherwise, which is a shame, considering how much work and how polished the game is.
The hack that got everyone into hacking. Insane amounts of custom code for an old hack, the largest planet yet, intense challenges that provide a rewarding feeling of conquest, and lots and lots of secret items and shortcuts to be found. The physics make a few things more difficult than they need to be, but at the same time makes a whole new experience out of playing Super Metroid. You will end up making good use of every item, right up until the end. And the escape is something to behold, that will have your heart pounding at every turn. The hack does a very good job of eliciting emotions from the player, and that is why I like it so much.
People hate on Tourian a lot. I don't think it's that hard. Learn how to detach Metroids and you'll be fine.
People hate on Tourian a lot. I don't think it's that hard. Learn how to detach Metroids and you'll be fine.
For years, I hated this hack. It was essentially unplayable in my eyes, and I was confused that people were not only able to actually survive the physics changes, but also get some sort of enjoyment out of the game's madness.
I mean, it looks so good, and that makes it all the more frustrating that I literally could not even get out of the room with the Wall Jump Boots. I had to slow the game down to around 25% or less, and that was effectively the way I played a fair portion of Redesign when I finally returned to it about 5 or so years ago. Play the game at 75% or so for better reaction time, drop it further as needed. I actually ended up being good at bomb jumping in Redesign as an alternative to wall-jumping.. it sucked.
It was clear that Drew likes Metroid Prime, because there's quite a few elements taken right out of the game. Including the way bombs work and a specific Energy Tank. That's not a bad thing, of course, it's just very noticeable.
I don't think I ever managed to beat the original Redesign, but I watched a few friends play it, so I know what an ordeal Tourian and Maridia were. And the Escape Sequence, holy crap, I think it lasted like 25 minutes which was ridiculous.
I do not consider myself a bad player, although I obviously don't have the level of skill that this apparently required. I'm not big on needless challenge, which Redesign seemed to have a lot of. It's fine for some, I know a couple people that replayed it dozens of times. For me, though, it was an abysmal execution of some really cool ideas.
I mean, it looks so good, and that makes it all the more frustrating that I literally could not even get out of the room with the Wall Jump Boots. I had to slow the game down to around 25% or less, and that was effectively the way I played a fair portion of Redesign when I finally returned to it about 5 or so years ago. Play the game at 75% or so for better reaction time, drop it further as needed. I actually ended up being good at bomb jumping in Redesign as an alternative to wall-jumping.. it sucked.
It was clear that Drew likes Metroid Prime, because there's quite a few elements taken right out of the game. Including the way bombs work and a specific Energy Tank. That's not a bad thing, of course, it's just very noticeable.
I don't think I ever managed to beat the original Redesign, but I watched a few friends play it, so I know what an ordeal Tourian and Maridia were. And the Escape Sequence, holy crap, I think it lasted like 25 minutes which was ridiculous.
I do not consider myself a bad player, although I obviously don't have the level of skill that this apparently required. I'm not big on needless challenge, which Redesign seemed to have a lot of. It's fine for some, I know a couple people that replayed it dozens of times. For me, though, it was an abysmal execution of some really cool ideas.
First off, I will say this is a hack everyone should at least play once. Most of us got our start in hacking because of this hack, and it should be thanked for that. However. . .
This hack has one major issue that affects the entire game, the physics. Yes, the game was designed around these physics, and they work for that purpose. But that doesn't not prevent them from being a massive weight, pun intended, on the players shoulders for the entire experience. I will maintain that Redesign with normal physics would easily be one of the best hacks out there still. "But that would break the hack by letting players actually move and go places." And the point is? Fun trumps dumb physics every time.
That mini rant aside, there is a lot to like about the hack otherwise. It has a nice difficulty level, a massive world to explore, and some Chozo Statues to find. I know some hate the Statue hunt in the game, but I love things like that personally. Makes the player actually explore the world. Of course, there are the terrible 25 Missile doors in the hack too, so that in itself is a big detriment to exploration.
This hack is frustrating because it could have been so much better by just refusing to touch the physics. Everything else is easily acceptable, except the 25 Missile doors. It is like you make the most delicious cake of all time, offer people a piece of it, and smear lice-filled horse poop all over top of it.
This hack has one major issue that affects the entire game, the physics. Yes, the game was designed around these physics, and they work for that purpose. But that doesn't not prevent them from being a massive weight, pun intended, on the players shoulders for the entire experience. I will maintain that Redesign with normal physics would easily be one of the best hacks out there still. "But that would break the hack by letting players actually move and go places." And the point is? Fun trumps dumb physics every time.
That mini rant aside, there is a lot to like about the hack otherwise. It has a nice difficulty level, a massive world to explore, and some Chozo Statues to find. I know some hate the Statue hunt in the game, but I love things like that personally. Makes the player actually explore the world. Of course, there are the terrible 25 Missile doors in the hack too, so that in itself is a big detriment to exploration.
This hack is frustrating because it could have been so much better by just refusing to touch the physics. Everything else is easily acceptable, except the 25 Missile doors. It is like you make the most delicious cake of all time, offer people a piece of it, and smear lice-filled horse poop all over top of it.
Extreme difficulty--but the huge world and completely rethought areas with entirely new ideas and usage of Super Metroid's assets make it worth playing and completing to see it all. The one major issue is the physics changes, but you have to look at it as a whole new game, with the physics allowing for more choke points to stretch the game out to the maximum length that the greatly expanded areas allow.
I first attempted this hack some years ago now I must've been 16, or 15. I remember jumping in the Ceres station for the first time and thinking how odd it is that jumping functions this way, but that isn't a negative in it of itself. Just different. I remember when I saw the 30 second timer to escape Ceres and my eyes widening. I remember first descending into Crateria and being delighted at how much had changed already. I remember being delighted at the map data for Crateria, Brinstar, saying to myself "this is going to be a lotta fun to explore." Unfortunately I never finished Redesign those years ago.
Years later, all these feelings returned in waves of nostalgia as well as seeing them with older and more seasoned eyes having played more video games since. However I noted the difficulty. Everything was doing so much damage in Crateria, in Brinstar. Especially those damn hoppers. I started asking myself how I could've possibly had the patience for this kind of difficulty back then. But on I pressed. Having a nice time getting lost with Samus Aran again.
Cutting this review short, as I'll save the rest for an essay someday. The hack never truly felt as open as it could've been for such large areas. Given the increased damage of most enemies, I can see why this decision was made. The game felt at its most open when entering Maridia proper. That was the highest point of the hack for me. Have all the gadgets I need, and I have this huge underwater area to explore with the lovely Western Maridia theme. Unfortunately I was railroaded to acquire the space jump, but more than being railroaded was the monotony of combat and enemies. Now, this is actually a problem with Metroid as a whole so it's not the fault of the hack; most enemies in the Metroid series are cannon fodder. Maridia's most common enemies were the fish and the crabs. They are not exciting to kill for the nth time in a row. Maridia is enormous and constantly reuses these enemies to the point of tedium. This isn't as much of an issue in the original Super Metroid because Maridia is smaller in that game. Again, this is more a problem with Metroid as a whole than with the hack. It was with these realizations that Redesign became an absolute chore to play through.
Lower Norfair was intriguing, and could probably be used in a class about game design. You acquire the Screw Attack before Golden Torizo. This was a huge empowering moment. Everything was going down left and right as I looked for the entrance to Lower Norfair. Once I got in there proper, again things going down left and right. Those giant hoppers, the gold pirates. Down, down. The problem is for much of early Lower Norfair nothing is a challenge. I said to myself, "if you can't have challenging enemies then you have to change the level design to compensate." Lo and behold, spiked ceilings and acidic floors. These were some of the more clever moments in the hack, some of my favorites. Another peak for me was having to avoid puffers as well as avoid the spiked ceilings. That was actually a lot of fun.
Notes:
-If you're going to have save stations so far apart from each other, then don't put them at all as it pushes the player to rely on save states
-Some of the Guardian locations were ridiculous. Particularly the one in red Brinstar
-The sand that drags Samus down in Maridia got really fucking ridiculous at times
-Golden Torizo destroying the environment was awesome. His coming after Ridley was interesting.
-Adding the two parts of the wall that jut out in Ridley's arena made the battle far too easy.
-Tourian was hilariously difficult
-The final escape sequence was strange. It was a combination of creative and not so creative quirks of level design. I enjoyed it for the most part, but rules were being made and broken on the fly. You can shoot certain gates and they explode, but not others? All of a sudden those pieces of metals in the tunnel you can morph ball on top of?
-Being forced to move underwater for long periods of time without the Gravity Suit was a great decision
Years later, all these feelings returned in waves of nostalgia as well as seeing them with older and more seasoned eyes having played more video games since. However I noted the difficulty. Everything was doing so much damage in Crateria, in Brinstar. Especially those damn hoppers. I started asking myself how I could've possibly had the patience for this kind of difficulty back then. But on I pressed. Having a nice time getting lost with Samus Aran again.
Cutting this review short, as I'll save the rest for an essay someday. The hack never truly felt as open as it could've been for such large areas. Given the increased damage of most enemies, I can see why this decision was made. The game felt at its most open when entering Maridia proper. That was the highest point of the hack for me. Have all the gadgets I need, and I have this huge underwater area to explore with the lovely Western Maridia theme. Unfortunately I was railroaded to acquire the space jump, but more than being railroaded was the monotony of combat and enemies. Now, this is actually a problem with Metroid as a whole so it's not the fault of the hack; most enemies in the Metroid series are cannon fodder. Maridia's most common enemies were the fish and the crabs. They are not exciting to kill for the nth time in a row. Maridia is enormous and constantly reuses these enemies to the point of tedium. This isn't as much of an issue in the original Super Metroid because Maridia is smaller in that game. Again, this is more a problem with Metroid as a whole than with the hack. It was with these realizations that Redesign became an absolute chore to play through.
Lower Norfair was intriguing, and could probably be used in a class about game design. You acquire the Screw Attack before Golden Torizo. This was a huge empowering moment. Everything was going down left and right as I looked for the entrance to Lower Norfair. Once I got in there proper, again things going down left and right. Those giant hoppers, the gold pirates. Down, down. The problem is for much of early Lower Norfair nothing is a challenge. I said to myself, "if you can't have challenging enemies then you have to change the level design to compensate." Lo and behold, spiked ceilings and acidic floors. These were some of the more clever moments in the hack, some of my favorites. Another peak for me was having to avoid puffers as well as avoid the spiked ceilings. That was actually a lot of fun.
Notes:
-If you're going to have save stations so far apart from each other, then don't put them at all as it pushes the player to rely on save states
-Some of the Guardian locations were ridiculous. Particularly the one in red Brinstar
-The sand that drags Samus down in Maridia got really fucking ridiculous at times
-Golden Torizo destroying the environment was awesome. His coming after Ridley was interesting.
-Adding the two parts of the wall that jut out in Ridley's arena made the battle far too easy.
-Tourian was hilariously difficult
-The final escape sequence was strange. It was a combination of creative and not so creative quirks of level design. I enjoyed it for the most part, but rules were being made and broken on the fly. You can shoot certain gates and they explode, but not others? All of a sudden those pieces of metals in the tunnel you can morph ball on top of?
-Being forced to move underwater for long periods of time without the Gravity Suit was a great decision
![[Watch Video]](images/video.png){kind=small}
Animals saved.
Quick Summary of the meaning of my SM hack ratings:
5 orbs: SM hacks within the 80% to 100% (90% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; SM hacks for outstanding wholesome playing experiences and at most minor inconveniences.
4 orbs: SM hacks within the 60% to 80% (70% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Well done SM hacks with noticeable design problems.
3 orbs: SM hacks within the 40% to 60% (50% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Normal decent average SM hacks.
2 orbs: SM hacks within the 20% to 40% (30% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Overall messy, confusing, or punishing SM hacks with some upsides.
1 orb : SM hacks within the 00% to 20% (10% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Ruthlessly unplayable, broken, or barely from the original game changed SM hacks.
Judgement parameters summary:
° Creative ideas and features, polished design, how enjoyable and fun the hack can be, lack of hard to find or cryptic required game elements, the difficulty, and if the hack can be finished without major guides or tools.
° Note that the length of a SM hack will not necessarily contribute to my rating of the SM hack, since instead the averaged out experience over the whole hack will be taken into account to get a relative comparison between SM hacks.
° Besides this, lack of impactful changes from the original SM game also went into the evaluation of SM hacks (otherwise one may consider them among the 3 stars hacks) as follows: Ultimately, for my ratings I consider a situation in which an SM enthusiast that already has, knows about and is familiar with the original game and its prominent mechanics could only choose 1 new SM hack to play and thus would really want to make sure he/she will get a fresh and fantastic experience or journey out of his/her 1 choice.
The goal of all these SM hack ratings is so that rather new players have an overview of the whole spectrum of SM hacks and how to sort them in, in relation to each other, where SM hacks that are rated lower might still be enjoyable for more experienced players.
Finally, sometimes for SM hacks it can be relevant that they may be significantly more enjoyable from a player standpoint at which the player is well practiced and familiarized with Super Metroid's game mechanics in general, and that in particular some of the best SM hacks may not be the outright best first SM hack choices to play otherwise because of this, and for beginner SM hack players this typically steers the best first SM hack choices towards some of the SM hacks that I rated with 4 orbs instead of 5.
Rating for some hacks may be off by 1 Star, but arguably not more, and ratings are not attempted to be provided within the precision of ''half orbs''.
Quick Summary of the meaning of my SM hack ratings:
5 orbs: SM hacks within the 80% to 100% (90% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; SM hacks for outstanding wholesome playing experiences and at most minor inconveniences.
4 orbs: SM hacks within the 60% to 80% (70% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Well done SM hacks with noticeable design problems.
3 orbs: SM hacks within the 40% to 60% (50% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Normal decent average SM hacks.
2 orbs: SM hacks within the 20% to 40% (30% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Overall messy, confusing, or punishing SM hacks with some upsides.
1 orb : SM hacks within the 00% to 20% (10% ± 10%) range of perceived perfection; Ruthlessly unplayable, broken, or barely from the original game changed SM hacks.
Judgement parameters summary:
° Creative ideas and features, polished design, how enjoyable and fun the hack can be, lack of hard to find or cryptic required game elements, the difficulty, and if the hack can be finished without major guides or tools.
° Note that the length of a SM hack will not necessarily contribute to my rating of the SM hack, since instead the averaged out experience over the whole hack will be taken into account to get a relative comparison between SM hacks.
° Besides this, lack of impactful changes from the original SM game also went into the evaluation of SM hacks (otherwise one may consider them among the 3 stars hacks) as follows: Ultimately, for my ratings I consider a situation in which an SM enthusiast that already has, knows about and is familiar with the original game and its prominent mechanics could only choose 1 new SM hack to play and thus would really want to make sure he/she will get a fresh and fantastic experience or journey out of his/her 1 choice.
The goal of all these SM hack ratings is so that rather new players have an overview of the whole spectrum of SM hacks and how to sort them in, in relation to each other, where SM hacks that are rated lower might still be enjoyable for more experienced players.
Finally, sometimes for SM hacks it can be relevant that they may be significantly more enjoyable from a player standpoint at which the player is well practiced and familiarized with Super Metroid's game mechanics in general, and that in particular some of the best SM hacks may not be the outright best first SM hack choices to play otherwise because of this, and for beginner SM hack players this typically steers the best first SM hack choices towards some of the SM hacks that I rated with 4 orbs instead of 5.
Rating for some hacks may be off by 1 Star, but arguably not more, and ratings are not attempted to be provided within the precision of ''half orbs''.
This guy has an annoying obsession with the stupid wall jump. Ruined this hack, in my opinion.
I'm going to go aside from my rant from earlier. This hack... I don't fully know how to describe it. The physics changes catch you off guard, and they make platforming very awkward. The hack itself is well built, many rooms are fun to go through, but often times the physics ruin the experience. That isn't the only gripe I have though. This hack is overly linear, and progression is incredibly slow. Some rooms catch you completely off guard with either enemies or the environment. This will lead to many deaths, often times far from the last save point.
By the way, 95% of save points are not marked on the map, making them sometimes hard to find and/or remember the location of. The only save station that is marked on the map is the last save station in the game.
Wall jumping is incredibly clunky and it seems inconsistent which platforms will and won't let you wall jump, and sometimes it seems very arbitrary. There are many places where, if you fall, you have to go in another circle to get back to where you were, but if you could wall jump, it would save lots of time. It seems this hack doesn't like you going fast at all. Power bombs do not destroy shot blocks, forcing you to take more time to slowly bomb your way through them.
Many paths are also very punishing when you fail. Often times with a lava or acid pit that you cannot escape, leading to even more death. This is specially compounded by the lack of save stations, which are incredibly sparce.
Another problem lies with the puzzles required to get items. These puzzles are punishing and cruel in many ways. Crumble blocks force you to do them again, and the rewards are very small, often in the form of 2 missiles. Many rooms also annoyingly require the wall jump, but it's physics are so hard to work with that falling is almost guaranteed. Morph lock is awful and is used in the stupidest of ways.
Tourian actually wasn't too bad, once I figured out the Drewtroids. I actually had fun with it. My main problem was the escape. You know an escape has overstayed its welcome when the screen flashing starts to hurt your eyes. The kill rooms with rising lava and acid were also annoying, as well as the unnecessary addition of Metroids.
I should probably stop ranting and conclude that this hack is well built in most places, but if it had vanilla physics, it would actually be pretty good. By the way, come in armed with a full map, and save states.
By the way, 95% of save points are not marked on the map, making them sometimes hard to find and/or remember the location of. The only save station that is marked on the map is the last save station in the game.
Wall jumping is incredibly clunky and it seems inconsistent which platforms will and won't let you wall jump, and sometimes it seems very arbitrary. There are many places where, if you fall, you have to go in another circle to get back to where you were, but if you could wall jump, it would save lots of time. It seems this hack doesn't like you going fast at all. Power bombs do not destroy shot blocks, forcing you to take more time to slowly bomb your way through them.
Many paths are also very punishing when you fail. Often times with a lava or acid pit that you cannot escape, leading to even more death. This is specially compounded by the lack of save stations, which are incredibly sparce.
Another problem lies with the puzzles required to get items. These puzzles are punishing and cruel in many ways. Crumble blocks force you to do them again, and the rewards are very small, often in the form of 2 missiles. Many rooms also annoyingly require the wall jump, but it's physics are so hard to work with that falling is almost guaranteed. Morph lock is awful and is used in the stupidest of ways.
Tourian actually wasn't too bad, once I figured out the Drewtroids. I actually had fun with it. My main problem was the escape. You know an escape has overstayed its welcome when the screen flashing starts to hurt your eyes. The kill rooms with rising lava and acid were also annoying, as well as the unnecessary addition of Metroids.
I should probably stop ranting and conclude that this hack is well built in most places, but if it had vanilla physics, it would actually be pretty good. By the way, come in armed with a full map, and save states.
The first hack I played. Got all the way to the end but couldn't unlock the last gate. Ambitious map, but actually too big for it's own good. Backtracking is atrocious. I guess it's a classic, but there's much better out there by today's standard.
This is one of the first Super Metroid hacks I've played. I have mixed feelings about it.
From one side, the map is really big. It's too very easy to lost yourself in Zebes. There are many secret paths, most of them necessary to finish the game, so you have to check everything! If you like exploration-based hacks, you'll love this.
The enemies are toughter than in the original and the boss arenas have changed in order to increase the difficulty of the game.
Wall jumping is now an item, and you cannot do it in all places. You can only wall jump in a specific walls.
You cannot combinate your beams until you find a special item, near to the end of the game.
While all the above is great, this hack has in my opinion lots of drawbacks.
First of all, the physics. The physics system has been changed, so now the floating effect of the original game is gone and a new gravity effect has been added. This system leads to very difficult jumps and makes Wall-jumping very difficult (and it is mandatory to finish the game).
You can only set three bombs in a row, so infinite bomb jumping is very difficult to achieve (and if you take into account the physics, the difficulty increases a lot!!).
While the different areas of Zebes are very well recreated, giving the feeling of staying in a very dangerous place, there are lots of unforgiving places, specially in Norfair. There are lots of chasms with lava. If you fall there, you are dead. Fortunately there are save points near the difficult areas, but its very annoying to fall down in a lava pool and cannot do nothing to save yourself and wait for death.
The items are very well hidden, but there are a few of them that requires extreme chain shinesparking abilities (some of them need to cross a big portion of a sector, making very difficult to made it without using savestates). By the way, the items gives you now different ammount of Missile, Super Missile or Power Bombs, depending of the difficulty of getting the item.
Finally, the escape sequence. While it is epic and very long, perhaps it's very difficult and annoying. You'll need to dominate bomb jumping (chain at least two jumps), run in a water portion without Gravity Suit, made accurate jumps in small platforms (the physics did't help!) and cross rooms very fast while the lava rises (a very cool idea, but if you fall in the lava or are slow, you're dead!). Be sure of have plenty of time when trying to finish off Mother Brain.
In summary, this is a great hack if you enjoy exploration. The new physics is the main feature of the hack, but unfortunately, is the main drawback of the game, increasing the dificult of the hack.
From one side, the map is really big. It's too very easy to lost yourself in Zebes. There are many secret paths, most of them necessary to finish the game, so you have to check everything! If you like exploration-based hacks, you'll love this.
The enemies are toughter than in the original and the boss arenas have changed in order to increase the difficulty of the game.
Wall jumping is now an item, and you cannot do it in all places. You can only wall jump in a specific walls.
You cannot combinate your beams until you find a special item, near to the end of the game.
While all the above is great, this hack has in my opinion lots of drawbacks.
First of all, the physics. The physics system has been changed, so now the floating effect of the original game is gone and a new gravity effect has been added. This system leads to very difficult jumps and makes Wall-jumping very difficult (and it is mandatory to finish the game).
You can only set three bombs in a row, so infinite bomb jumping is very difficult to achieve (and if you take into account the physics, the difficulty increases a lot!!).
While the different areas of Zebes are very well recreated, giving the feeling of staying in a very dangerous place, there are lots of unforgiving places, specially in Norfair. There are lots of chasms with lava. If you fall there, you are dead. Fortunately there are save points near the difficult areas, but its very annoying to fall down in a lava pool and cannot do nothing to save yourself and wait for death.
The items are very well hidden, but there are a few of them that requires extreme chain shinesparking abilities (some of them need to cross a big portion of a sector, making very difficult to made it without using savestates). By the way, the items gives you now different ammount of Missile, Super Missile or Power Bombs, depending of the difficulty of getting the item.
Finally, the escape sequence. While it is epic and very long, perhaps it's very difficult and annoying. You'll need to dominate bomb jumping (chain at least two jumps), run in a water portion without Gravity Suit, made accurate jumps in small platforms (the physics did't help!) and cross rooms very fast while the lava rises (a very cool idea, but if you fall in the lava or are slow, you're dead!). Be sure of have plenty of time when trying to finish off Mother Brain.
In summary, this is a great hack if you enjoy exploration. The new physics is the main feature of the hack, but unfortunately, is the main drawback of the game, increasing the dificult of the hack.
This hack,i did not like it,i know that it lead to many people start hacking super metroid,but the physics are the worst thing in the game,you're too heavy,wall jump is way too bad,there are so many death traps,it's so annoying,and needing to go to norfair without varia and not being able to come back is horrible,this hack would have gotten way better,also bomb jumping is annoying too,it's kinda cool each items give different amount of stuff,like the missile pack that gives 10 missiles. I gave up at norfair because without Varia Suit and no way to go back.
This hack is a BIG piece of shit!!!, the worst hack I've played!!!, this TRASH isn't Metroid!, WHY IS THIS CRAP POSTED HERE?, please don't lose your time with this, there's much better hacks
this hack has been a hell of an experiance, lot of emotion, i know a lot of peeps think the game would be better with vanilla physic but i highly disagree, while i would prefer less heavy physic to make it a little easier to navigate, the physic change is needed to experiance this hack well without it it won't be the same and the experiance would be ruined.
this hack do a good job at making you feel you need to be on your guard at every turn as your are not overpowered at all untill the end with all the upgrade and lot of ammo and energy and even then it still dangerous, the escape while being long know how to keep your focus as every corner is not safe, as you are stripped of nearly everything, only bad thing is giving ammo during the escape, just don't, appart from that, the escape is good at making you fearful for your survival then at some points give you a false sense of safety to then remind you later with lava and acid rising that its not over yet and you need to escape, giving you the sense of urgency.
overall i had a great experiance with this hack but there were some stupid moment and the difficulty curve of certain section skyrocket pretty high making it very painful and hard to do, but when you get those hard part its so rewarding as you feel you deserve it and i understand it can be difficult to create a more clean difficulty curve.
if i could i would rate this hack 4.5 orb out of 5 but can't so i give it 4 orb, i highly advise everyone to try this one at least once it is worth the experiance
this hack do a good job at making you feel you need to be on your guard at every turn as your are not overpowered at all untill the end with all the upgrade and lot of ammo and energy and even then it still dangerous, the escape while being long know how to keep your focus as every corner is not safe, as you are stripped of nearly everything, only bad thing is giving ammo during the escape, just don't, appart from that, the escape is good at making you fearful for your survival then at some points give you a false sense of safety to then remind you later with lava and acid rising that its not over yet and you need to escape, giving you the sense of urgency.
overall i had a great experiance with this hack but there were some stupid moment and the difficulty curve of certain section skyrocket pretty high making it very painful and hard to do, but when you get those hard part its so rewarding as you feel you deserve it and i understand it can be difficult to create a more clean difficulty curve.
if i could i would rate this hack 4.5 orb out of 5 but can't so i give it 4 orb, i highly advise everyone to try this one at least once it is worth the experiance
if I wanted heavy gravity I would play Zero Mission tbh
This is the first hack that I played many years ago and I still remember it giving me the same excitement as playing the original for the first time again.
I remember it being pretty difficult and huge and checking back on my save file the play time shows 46 hours ... did it really take me that long to finish?
I know back then I was trying to get 100% but couldn't do it because it required advanced techniques. But today with the help of savestates I was able to achieve it.
I remember it being pretty difficult and huge and checking back on my save file the play time shows 46 hours ... did it really take me that long to finish?
I know back then I was trying to get 100% but couldn't do it because it required advanced techniques. But today with the help of savestates I was able to achieve it.
Don't recommend unless you are really good at Super Metroid or you'll likely be very frustrated. That doesn’t’ mean it’s a bad hack, just have an expectation for a real challenge…. I never quit playing many of the original NES games even though I couldn’t make very far into many of the games.
Similar to my review of Axeil Edition they both have a vast world which is great. They also have the lots of challenges you won’t complete without lots of practice and patience; this one's more difficult and less forgiving and has some obvious needed design edits which many are fixed in Axeil Edition. My recommendation is get good at Super Metroid. Then play a bunch of the other easier hacks first, then complete Redesign Axeil a couple of times, then maybe play this one for a challenge more then Axeil.
I remember playing through the original redesign and it was an excitement to play and explore a completely new SM world. The map areas and routing were fun and beautifully crafted, but further into the game, I didn't realize how much of a challenge this hack was going to be. Looking back the problem was my expectation more than anything. My expectations of how difficult the game was going to be were nowhere near the hacks and eventually these expectations led me to stop playing the game. In the original Redesign some of the midair morphs were doable but really difficult and later in the game it was very punishing instant death traps and hard to find hidden required routes.
Thanks Drewseph for all the hard work here and especially in the Axeil release.
It’s a shame that some people can come in here and post ratings or reviews on any of these hacks without really playing through the hack, don’t have the desire to get better at the game first, or any other reason just to be upset and are too subjective vs. really giving the hack a thoughtful objective review….. Maybe Metroid-Construction needs a different review rating system such as the old Nintendo Power magazines had where each game had a review separate for Player’s Rating, Pro’s Rating, and Developer’s Rating (by other developers).
Similar to my review of Axeil Edition they both have a vast world which is great. They also have the lots of challenges you won’t complete without lots of practice and patience; this one's more difficult and less forgiving and has some obvious needed design edits which many are fixed in Axeil Edition. My recommendation is get good at Super Metroid. Then play a bunch of the other easier hacks first, then complete Redesign Axeil a couple of times, then maybe play this one for a challenge more then Axeil.
I remember playing through the original redesign and it was an excitement to play and explore a completely new SM world. The map areas and routing were fun and beautifully crafted, but further into the game, I didn't realize how much of a challenge this hack was going to be. Looking back the problem was my expectation more than anything. My expectations of how difficult the game was going to be were nowhere near the hacks and eventually these expectations led me to stop playing the game. In the original Redesign some of the midair morphs were doable but really difficult and later in the game it was very punishing instant death traps and hard to find hidden required routes.
Thanks Drewseph for all the hard work here and especially in the Axeil release.
It’s a shame that some people can come in here and post ratings or reviews on any of these hacks without really playing through the hack, don’t have the desire to get better at the game first, or any other reason just to be upset and are too subjective vs. really giving the hack a thoughtful objective review….. Maybe Metroid-Construction needs a different review rating system such as the old Nintendo Power magazines had where each game had a review separate for Player’s Rating, Pro’s Rating, and Developer’s Rating (by other developers).
This is obviously not recommended seeing as there is a new version of this and even that version couldn't get a recommendation due to it being glitch-gated
Edit: March 17th, 2024
Clear time 13:21.
After another playthrough I thought it would be good to reflect on Redesign with a little bit of distance from the initial review.
Does it still hold up in 2024? Absolutely. I intend to make a point to replay this hack many times to come.
I enjoyed it even more this time around.
I've making a concerted effort these days to limit the use of save states. This campaign they were used pretty sparingly (aside from simply recording progress.)
But that all changed with Tourian. I think trying to not have to use so many states has opened my eyes to why Axeil overhauled this part of the game (and why it is for the better.)
Some of these points echo what ClaireDiviner said, and it's only coincidentally we both reached similar conclusions given the timeframe of our playthroughs.
The Metroids are brutal. For the life of me I don't remember how to consistently knock them off. I don't recall this being a problem in Axeil. I restarted so many rooms over this.
The escape, I have mixed feelings on. It's definitely iconic, and there are some elements I think Axeil players will miss out on. But there are too many places you have to be lucky or endure trial and error like you're playing a space shooter on real hardware.
The physics I still stand by. This is supposed to be like Prime and Zero Mission combined. Axeil improves this tenfold, but this is part of what gives this hack its charm.
I think I fell even more in love with all the GFX changes. You really don't realize how different it is from Vanilla until you get to working with the tilesets.
We're almost 20 years removed from its release and it stands as one the most attractive Zebes overhauls.
What do I think of the Chozo statue hunt?
It can be tedious, but it's a challenge unique to this hack. Considering they are different in Axeil, I actually had to consult a map for one of the Norfair ones. That alone provides replay value for this and Axeil Edition. I find it intruguing when I see how this or other hacks implement their own artifact or gate hunt.
February 17th, 2023:
76% in 15:02. I believe the review is based off the second playthrough.
Savestates used.
I really enjoyed this game. It has a long rich history with this scene and deserves respect for its legacy and ambition. It is still one of the best examples of level design, spritework and custom palettes.
Naturally I will be comparing it to Axeil Edition as I feel that is the definitive version. This review is primarily criticism, but I have chosen to leave 5 stars because as Cosmic stated, this version was "wip."
Physics. This is certainly the part that has aged the least gracefully and prompted Drewseph to modify them in the latest revision (the Axeil version is actually some of the finest custom physics of any hack you will find.) Very restrictive in original Redesign. But honestly, if you approach this hack knowing it's not Vanilla, you get used to the added weight. IBJ was made significantly easier in Axeil.
The Norfair Grapple gauntlet. Hope you're not playing this on OG hardware. You'll need save-states. On the Norfair front, I do miss the early Screw Attack you miss out on in Axeil Edition.
I actually prefer the Lost Caverns puzzle in this hack. The clues were more intuitive to me.
There was much criticism over the new Tourian in Axeil. There's a tradeoff. With this hack Tourian is more straight-forward, but the escape is absolutely brutal. Do not squander whatever powerups come your way. Even still, when you get to the surface of Zebes after this slog it really makes you feel like a beast.
I actually wore in the B button in my SNES Classic controller the first time I beat original Redesign from learning all the shinespark puzzles.
Criticism aside, this version of Redesign is still relevant in 2023. Everybody needs to play it at least once. Drewseph and Kejardon put a great deal of work into this, it solidified (and polarized) a new community, and it still has some interesting level layout to offer aspiring hackers looking for inspiration. It was where many community staples began (like ZM style respin.)
Clear time 13:21.
After another playthrough I thought it would be good to reflect on Redesign with a little bit of distance from the initial review.
Does it still hold up in 2024? Absolutely. I intend to make a point to replay this hack many times to come.
I enjoyed it even more this time around.
I've making a concerted effort these days to limit the use of save states. This campaign they were used pretty sparingly (aside from simply recording progress.)
But that all changed with Tourian. I think trying to not have to use so many states has opened my eyes to why Axeil overhauled this part of the game (and why it is for the better.)
Some of these points echo what ClaireDiviner said, and it's only coincidentally we both reached similar conclusions given the timeframe of our playthroughs.
The Metroids are brutal. For the life of me I don't remember how to consistently knock them off. I don't recall this being a problem in Axeil. I restarted so many rooms over this.
The escape, I have mixed feelings on. It's definitely iconic, and there are some elements I think Axeil players will miss out on. But there are too many places you have to be lucky or endure trial and error like you're playing a space shooter on real hardware.
The physics I still stand by. This is supposed to be like Prime and Zero Mission combined. Axeil improves this tenfold, but this is part of what gives this hack its charm.
I think I fell even more in love with all the GFX changes. You really don't realize how different it is from Vanilla until you get to working with the tilesets.
We're almost 20 years removed from its release and it stands as one the most attractive Zebes overhauls.
What do I think of the Chozo statue hunt?
It can be tedious, but it's a challenge unique to this hack. Considering they are different in Axeil, I actually had to consult a map for one of the Norfair ones. That alone provides replay value for this and Axeil Edition. I find it intruguing when I see how this or other hacks implement their own artifact or gate hunt.
February 17th, 2023:
76% in 15:02. I believe the review is based off the second playthrough.
Savestates used.
I really enjoyed this game. It has a long rich history with this scene and deserves respect for its legacy and ambition. It is still one of the best examples of level design, spritework and custom palettes.
Naturally I will be comparing it to Axeil Edition as I feel that is the definitive version. This review is primarily criticism, but I have chosen to leave 5 stars because as Cosmic stated, this version was "wip."
Physics. This is certainly the part that has aged the least gracefully and prompted Drewseph to modify them in the latest revision (the Axeil version is actually some of the finest custom physics of any hack you will find.) Very restrictive in original Redesign. But honestly, if you approach this hack knowing it's not Vanilla, you get used to the added weight. IBJ was made significantly easier in Axeil.
The Norfair Grapple gauntlet. Hope you're not playing this on OG hardware. You'll need save-states. On the Norfair front, I do miss the early Screw Attack you miss out on in Axeil Edition.
I actually prefer the Lost Caverns puzzle in this hack. The clues were more intuitive to me.
There was much criticism over the new Tourian in Axeil. There's a tradeoff. With this hack Tourian is more straight-forward, but the escape is absolutely brutal. Do not squander whatever powerups come your way. Even still, when you get to the surface of Zebes after this slog it really makes you feel like a beast.
I actually wore in the B button in my SNES Classic controller the first time I beat original Redesign from learning all the shinespark puzzles.
Criticism aside, this version of Redesign is still relevant in 2023. Everybody needs to play it at least once. Drewseph and Kejardon put a great deal of work into this, it solidified (and polarized) a new community, and it still has some interesting level layout to offer aspiring hackers looking for inspiration. It was where many community staples began (like ZM style respin.)
I remember playing this a version a very long time ago, so sadly i don't remember my stats.
That out of the way, here are my thoughts:
I played this without even knowing about the existence of axeil edition, so i thought this was all there was. I still enjoyed it tho (perhaps because of my ignorance?). The physics where smth i could just never truly get used to, but it did worked out. I don't think i have a lot to add (mainly since it's been so long), except that the lost caverns here are truly a nightmare.
Also, there's no wrecked ship, sadge :(
Still a worthy piece of metconst history, even if it is hated upon by it's own creator nowadays.
That out of the way, here are my thoughts:
I played this without even knowing about the existence of axeil edition, so i thought this was all there was. I still enjoyed it tho (perhaps because of my ignorance?). The physics where smth i could just never truly get used to, but it did worked out. I don't think i have a lot to add (mainly since it's been so long), except that the lost caverns here are truly a nightmare.
Also, there's no wrecked ship, sadge :(
Still a worthy piece of metconst history, even if it is hated upon by it's own creator nowadays.
samus is climbing a mountain. why is she climbing a mountain?
i chose to play redesign not because it is easy, but because it is hard. pretty unfairly hard at some points, but still worth playing because it is an important ambitious milestone for super metroid hacking. and hey, if you don't want to do the escape the intended way, you can just x-ray climb out of bounds in the room to the right of the ship and trigger the escape. ;] can't do /that/ in axeil.
i chose to play redesign not because it is easy, but because it is hard. pretty unfairly hard at some points, but still worth playing because it is an important ambitious milestone for super metroid hacking. and hey, if you don't want to do the escape the intended way, you can just x-ray climb out of bounds in the room to the right of the ship and trigger the escape. ;] can't do /that/ in axeil.
So here we have the rom hack that really put Super Metroid rom hacks on the map. When I first played this a while ago, I initially didn't like it. Then I revisited it. After having more of an open mind, I decided to play this again, to see if my opinion on this game has changed. Long story short: Yes, it changed, and for the better, though the game isn't exempt of criticism for flaws, some of which are really bad, which I'll be going over.
First thing's first: The physics change seems to be the usual point of criticism for many who do not like this hack. I feel that to be unfair, as yes, it goes against everything we're used to in vanilla Super Metroid. The hack is called Super Metroid: REDESIGN for a reason. Rather than treating this game as a hack of Super Metroid - and I get it, it is a rom hack - this should be treated as a totally different Metroid game entirely. When you disconnect this game from what is established in vanilla Super Metroid, and play this game for what it is, and not for what you want it to be/what it's not, you'll have an easier time accepting its physics at face value.
That out of the way, let's talk about some of the things I hate, because there are a few, and they're egregiously assholish. The Grappling Beam section; the increased gravity/fall speed of Samus, paired with her lack of aerial mobility (we'll get to that) makes swinging from one Grapple point to the next much harder, and more precise than it needs to be. On top of that, should you fail to leave the Grappling Beam area by way of a missed Grapple shot on a Grapple block, you fall into the acid and die, and you can't do anything about it. I could have easily forgiven that, had the save point before Grappling Beam wasn't placed so far before said item, meaning any deaths suffered after Grapple means having to spend roughly 5 minutes reacquiring Grappling Beam, which makes this stupidly tedious.
My other biggest gripe with the game, as I'm sure many others before me had, is the Chozo Statue hunt. To gain access to Tourian, one must find standing Chozo Statues, and Morph into their hands to activate their triggers. There are three such Chozo Statues in each area (3 in Crateria; 3 in Brinstar, etc.), which isn't an issue by itself. What is an issue, however, is that quite a few of these Chozo Statues are super-well hidden, with no hint as to where or how to find them. One must get lucky enough to X-Ray Scope the path leading to a Chozo Statue to find them, or just accidentally find the path without it. In one instance in Brinstar, to the right of the Dachora, the X-Ray Scope doesn't even reveal the fact you can simply Morph Ball through the wall. It's a bad design choice that I feel needed second opinions from playtesters before deciding it was good to go. I feel it should be a requirement for hack makers to put markers on the map that helps with pointing out the general location of said triggers, whether it's the Chozo Statues here, or the Door Triggers in Metroid Mission Rescue, or the Green Doors in Super Metroid: Lost World. All that said, I do know that this issue was addressed and fixed in the later-released "Axeil Edition" of this game, which is great, but I have to rate this game for what it has.
The Tourian escape is unnecessarily tough. Between losing nearly all major items from Mother Brain's rainbow beam, to the escape being really long for the timer to be 25 minutes, to some rooms having trollish routing, precise jumps, and even a Missile pickup that is hard-required to open two red doors during the escape (DO NOT waste any of those Missiles, because you are given no way to farm any, should you miss a shot), it makes one wonder if "Veteran" is truly the appropriate difficulty with which to label this hack. One thing is for sure: This game is NOT for those who are casuals to Super Metroid.
About the aerial movement: From the start, your jumps are hard to control, and you only ever get any real horizontal movement when getting a running start. This makes some jumping sections harder/more tedious than they need to be. That said, however, when you acquire the Space Jump, your aerial movement speed greatly improves, and the Screw Attack only improves it even further, to the point of being hard to control sometimes. Thankfully, the Screw Attack can be triggered by holding the run button, and if you don't want to keep using it mid somersault, you can let go of the run button to dial it down, which I felt was smart. Morph Ball movement is also very slow and clunky, but improves significantly when acquiring the Hi-Jump Boots, which has Spring Ball built in. So while Samus's mobility does feel hampered, it does feel rewarding when you collect the items that help improve it; it really makes you feel stronger, and more accomplished.
Some of the items in the game are placed in really bad areas. The areas themselves isn't bad in the sense that they're hard to find, but rather, the means to get to the items are way too frustrating for most people to want to do, including a Spring Ball/Bomb Jump gauntlet in Norfair, to get a Power Bomb pickup. It's as if Drewseph used save states to see if it was technically RTA possible, saw that it was, and made it the player's problem. Another Power Bomb pickup in Crateria hard-required IBJ, which is notoriously difficult to accomplish because of A, the high gravity, which wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for B, the Bomb use limit. You are given a three-Bomb limit for laying Bombs within a time window. If all three Bombs are used, you must wait for a lengthy cooldown before you can use Bombs again. It is possible to IBJ by timing the Bomb jumps, so that you don't lay the third Bomb by the time the second bomb cooldown is complete. This makes IBJ insanely precise for no real reason. I'd say it was to discourage cheesing/sequence breaks, but IBJ is a feature that was intended by Drewseph to acquire an item or two in the game, so there really wasn't a need to put such a limit on Bombs other than to annoy the player.
Finally, the path forward can be a little too obtuse at times, like finding your way to Phantoon's area through Crateria; there's a hidden Morph tunnel that - unless you know to go in it, or use X-Ray Scope to see it - is almost impossible to notice. Why make the way forward hidden? I would have expected that for a side item pickup for a Missile, or a non-essential luxury item, like Screw Attack. Speaking of Phantoon, the Lost Caverns, or whatever it's called, is annoying, and while there are visual cues that hints to the player how to solve it, it's too cryptic for most people to realistically figure out on their own. I was able to solve it in my most recent playthrough because of prior knowledge gained from a playthrough some time ago before it. Maze-type areas need to have a more transparent hint to the player, or else it just leads to needless frustration, to the point where solving it doesn't even feel rewarding.
All that said, I genuinely enjoyed everything else in this game. There are a lot of great ideas, and a ton of work was put into this from the ground up. It really is a benchmark hack that shows the potential for Super Metroid rom hacking, showing what rom hacks can really do, and be. For that reason, despite my gripes with the game, I can't give it any less than a 4/5. On a side note, saving the animals is made way out of the way during the Tourian escape. Obviously, it's not required to beat the game, but the location of the animals (which should be obvious), and what it takes to get to them, combined with the time of the escape really does feel like an accomplishment. Again, not needed to beat the game, but a nice flex to say "Yeah, I did it", so kudos to Drewseph for the way saving the animals was done.
First thing's first: The physics change seems to be the usual point of criticism for many who do not like this hack. I feel that to be unfair, as yes, it goes against everything we're used to in vanilla Super Metroid. The hack is called Super Metroid: REDESIGN for a reason. Rather than treating this game as a hack of Super Metroid - and I get it, it is a rom hack - this should be treated as a totally different Metroid game entirely. When you disconnect this game from what is established in vanilla Super Metroid, and play this game for what it is, and not for what you want it to be/what it's not, you'll have an easier time accepting its physics at face value.
That out of the way, let's talk about some of the things I hate, because there are a few, and they're egregiously assholish. The Grappling Beam section; the increased gravity/fall speed of Samus, paired with her lack of aerial mobility (we'll get to that) makes swinging from one Grapple point to the next much harder, and more precise than it needs to be. On top of that, should you fail to leave the Grappling Beam area by way of a missed Grapple shot on a Grapple block, you fall into the acid and die, and you can't do anything about it. I could have easily forgiven that, had the save point before Grappling Beam wasn't placed so far before said item, meaning any deaths suffered after Grapple means having to spend roughly 5 minutes reacquiring Grappling Beam, which makes this stupidly tedious.
My other biggest gripe with the game, as I'm sure many others before me had, is the Chozo Statue hunt. To gain access to Tourian, one must find standing Chozo Statues, and Morph into their hands to activate their triggers. There are three such Chozo Statues in each area (3 in Crateria; 3 in Brinstar, etc.), which isn't an issue by itself. What is an issue, however, is that quite a few of these Chozo Statues are super-well hidden, with no hint as to where or how to find them. One must get lucky enough to X-Ray Scope the path leading to a Chozo Statue to find them, or just accidentally find the path without it. In one instance in Brinstar, to the right of the Dachora, the X-Ray Scope doesn't even reveal the fact you can simply Morph Ball through the wall. It's a bad design choice that I feel needed second opinions from playtesters before deciding it was good to go. I feel it should be a requirement for hack makers to put markers on the map that helps with pointing out the general location of said triggers, whether it's the Chozo Statues here, or the Door Triggers in Metroid Mission Rescue, or the Green Doors in Super Metroid: Lost World. All that said, I do know that this issue was addressed and fixed in the later-released "Axeil Edition" of this game, which is great, but I have to rate this game for what it has.
The Tourian escape is unnecessarily tough. Between losing nearly all major items from Mother Brain's rainbow beam, to the escape being really long for the timer to be 25 minutes, to some rooms having trollish routing, precise jumps, and even a Missile pickup that is hard-required to open two red doors during the escape (DO NOT waste any of those Missiles, because you are given no way to farm any, should you miss a shot), it makes one wonder if "Veteran" is truly the appropriate difficulty with which to label this hack. One thing is for sure: This game is NOT for those who are casuals to Super Metroid.
About the aerial movement: From the start, your jumps are hard to control, and you only ever get any real horizontal movement when getting a running start. This makes some jumping sections harder/more tedious than they need to be. That said, however, when you acquire the Space Jump, your aerial movement speed greatly improves, and the Screw Attack only improves it even further, to the point of being hard to control sometimes. Thankfully, the Screw Attack can be triggered by holding the run button, and if you don't want to keep using it mid somersault, you can let go of the run button to dial it down, which I felt was smart. Morph Ball movement is also very slow and clunky, but improves significantly when acquiring the Hi-Jump Boots, which has Spring Ball built in. So while Samus's mobility does feel hampered, it does feel rewarding when you collect the items that help improve it; it really makes you feel stronger, and more accomplished.
Some of the items in the game are placed in really bad areas. The areas themselves isn't bad in the sense that they're hard to find, but rather, the means to get to the items are way too frustrating for most people to want to do, including a Spring Ball/Bomb Jump gauntlet in Norfair, to get a Power Bomb pickup. It's as if Drewseph used save states to see if it was technically RTA possible, saw that it was, and made it the player's problem. Another Power Bomb pickup in Crateria hard-required IBJ, which is notoriously difficult to accomplish because of A, the high gravity, which wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for B, the Bomb use limit. You are given a three-Bomb limit for laying Bombs within a time window. If all three Bombs are used, you must wait for a lengthy cooldown before you can use Bombs again. It is possible to IBJ by timing the Bomb jumps, so that you don't lay the third Bomb by the time the second bomb cooldown is complete. This makes IBJ insanely precise for no real reason. I'd say it was to discourage cheesing/sequence breaks, but IBJ is a feature that was intended by Drewseph to acquire an item or two in the game, so there really wasn't a need to put such a limit on Bombs other than to annoy the player.
Finally, the path forward can be a little too obtuse at times, like finding your way to Phantoon's area through Crateria; there's a hidden Morph tunnel that - unless you know to go in it, or use X-Ray Scope to see it - is almost impossible to notice. Why make the way forward hidden? I would have expected that for a side item pickup for a Missile, or a non-essential luxury item, like Screw Attack. Speaking of Phantoon, the Lost Caverns, or whatever it's called, is annoying, and while there are visual cues that hints to the player how to solve it, it's too cryptic for most people to realistically figure out on their own. I was able to solve it in my most recent playthrough because of prior knowledge gained from a playthrough some time ago before it. Maze-type areas need to have a more transparent hint to the player, or else it just leads to needless frustration, to the point where solving it doesn't even feel rewarding.
All that said, I genuinely enjoyed everything else in this game. There are a lot of great ideas, and a ton of work was put into this from the ground up. It really is a benchmark hack that shows the potential for Super Metroid rom hacking, showing what rom hacks can really do, and be. For that reason, despite my gripes with the game, I can't give it any less than a 4/5. On a side note, saving the animals is made way out of the way during the Tourian escape. Obviously, it's not required to beat the game, but the location of the animals (which should be obvious), and what it takes to get to them, combined with the time of the escape really does feel like an accomplishment. Again, not needed to beat the game, but a nice flex to say "Yeah, I did it", so kudos to Drewseph for the way saving the animals was done.
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