Top Hacks 2013 Discussion

[MetroidMst]

[spoiler]https://youtu.be/xjO895XAl2w[/spoiler]

It is getting to be that time of year again! Thanks to T.H.E. Contest, there are 15 entries that I have found so far. (If I am missing any, please bring them. And no, Cliffhanger Save Edition doesn't count. I had that discussion with Zhs2 already.) As always, there are 6 categories these hacks can win in, including:

• Best Aesthetics
• Best Quick Play
• Best Challenge
• Best Exploration
• Most Creative Gameplay
• Best Overall

It also appears there might be some serious competition this year for Worst hack.

However, this is just to get things started off. Any discussion as to which is worthy of what is welcome, as the voting is not too far away. Also, perhaps there might be some late releases this year that snipe some of the awards? We'll end up seeing about that soon enough.

Links to the hacks I could find for this year:
[SM] Metroid Exercise
[SM]MX2
[SM] YPR
Super Metroid Inverted
Super Metroid: Airy
Super Metroid: GR2
New Wet Dream
Rulers of Ruin
Vismund's Sidehopper Special
So Little Room
Low Impact
Melancholia IV
Equilibrium
SMContest
Darkness Returns
B2-TW
The worst thing you've ever seen

[Metaquarius]

Looks like you've missed the "new wet dream" hack (made by the french dude called TROM) which is a mix-up of two hacks : Crys's Wet Dream and Nevyn's Life hacks. I think it has gone completely unnoticed but it is in the SM section here and is beatable as far as I can tell (it's been a while)

On a side note, I'm hoping Darkholme Hospital 2 could compete this year because several hacks released so far are a bit disappointing. I had the most fun with SM Exercice but... those graphics hurt my eyes ! :mad:

[Quietus]

I always feel a little bad, since I never play all of the hacks if they're not to my tastes, but in their respective order:

• Best Aesthetics: Vismund's SS.  I know I didn't get that far, due to the eponymous irritants, but I remember being impressed by what I saw.  Keep it up, Vismund!
• Best Quick Play: Melancholia IV.  I mentioned before that this hack would have been a great separate release, let alone one releasesd in a short time for a competition.
• Best Challenge: MX2.  Designed to be so, so it's probably a no-brainer, but outside of one or two silly hard bits, some of the others were fun to figure out.
• Best Exploration: Melancholia IV.  From beginning to end, it felt like a collectathon that you could take at your own pace.  Fairly linear, but it didn't matter.
• Most Creative Gameplay: I suspect this will be a landslide for B2-TW, and rightly so.  Apart from the murderous lettuces, every room was fun, and offered something new.
• Best Overall: Melancholia IV.  Personally, I'd love to see this massively expanded.  It felt like a throwback to why I loved Super Metroid to begin with.  Good work, FoF! :^_^:

And since somebody has to have it:

• Worst Hack: Rulers of Ruin.  It had some nice parts, but overall it felt like a mish-mash of newbie mistakes, and it never seemed to recover.  Sorry, JkP! :^_^:

[MetroidMst]

And since somebody has to have it:

• Worst Hack: Rulers of Ruin.  It had some nice parts, but overall it felt like a mish-mash of newbie mistakes, and it never seemed to recover.  Sorry, JkP! :^_^:

I am severely disappointed I did not meet your worst standards.

Also, that will give me another hack to try out Meta. I will add it to the list.

[Lunaria]

It's called Darkness Returns, period; the save room part of the title was dropped after the contest and was just a joke to mess with people and was removed in the more public (and refined) release which was done a week or two later.

Edit: and you can find the final release here: Romhacking.net, or on the metconst hacks page in which I was told it was uploaded too...

[begrimed]

No need for a contest, Balls 2 the Wall already wins everything.

[Quietus]

I am severely disappointed I did not meet your worst standards.

Sorry, buddy.  Using a Shaktool outside of a tunnel, and the custom music, gave you too many creds. :heheh:

[Vismund Cygnus]

We're doing this already?
I'll post my winners now, and I'll update this when it's convenient for me (aka when I am on my computer):
ACTUALLY BETTER YET: Here's ones that I think deserve to be nominated for a category, as well as my top pick for each, with super awesome amazing detailed reviews because I'm crazy!


Best Aesthetics: This is probably the hardest category for me to choose one for, because in all honesty, there was nothing that was really outstanding in terms of appearance. So that's why I choose:

• 
  [spoiler=Darkness Returns]
  While it wasn't exactly the most beautiful hack released, there was certainly nothing wrong with the actual appearance of this hack. Part 1 of the hack was nicely tiled vanilla Crateria, and there's nothing wrong with that. So why does it get my top pick? The red area genuinely conveyed a horror-type aspect, and it really suited the theme of the hack. Again, it wasn't really pretty, but it was eye-catching and it did exactly what it set out to do.
  [/spoiler]
  
• 
  [spoiler=Melancholia IV]
  The beauty of this hack comes from the fact that it was extremely well done vanilla tiling in every single aspect. The whole hack was really pleasing, and the environment was really good for what it was trying to do.
  [/spoiler]
  

Best Challenge: This one only had two real contenders in my opinion, one of which I'd completely forgotten until right this moment, and have actually made it hard for me to choose. So here they are, not in order of favourites because I don't know which I prefer:

• 
  [spoiler=SMMX2]
  This hack was a doozy. It's infuriating, and at the same time, it feels rewarding. Every time I make it past a particularly difficult section, I felt like I accomplished something. Have I beaten it yet? No. I might one day. It's the sort of thing I can't keep up for fear of losing my sanity, and in some ways, that's what makes it a fantastic challenge hack. The highlight for me so far would have to be the Bomb Torizo "fight". It was well thought out and a unique idea.
  [/spoiler]
  
• 
  [spoiler=Low Impact]
  Using fall damage is something completely foreign to Metroid and I think that's what made this hack stand out. Without the fall damage aspect, it would have just been a simple walljump-and-grapple hack with acid-trip visuals (or weed, correct me if I'm wrong.  :wink:). The fall damage made this a unique challenge as you actually had to plan out your jumps, as opposed to just blindly leaping around the place. There was very little room for error, and that was pretty cool.
  [/spoiler]
  

Best Exploration: Again, I only see two real contenders for this category.

• 
  [spoiler=Airy]
  The non-linearity of this hack makes it a clear contender for this. Apart from the extremely casual gameplay feeling, this hack stood out for it's lack of direction, which in a way gave it direction. There was no real "path" to take. It didn't feel like I was being pulled along a direct path and that made it stand out in this category.
  [/spoiler]
  
• 
  [spoiler=Melancholia IV]
  Another nomination for FullOfFail, who needs to be more confident in his work. While this hack was definitely more linear than Airy, it also didn't seem like there were many items I was required to get. The fact that it had 100% of the items made exploring (read: bombing everything) a viable option, as it was interesting to see what would be found and how it would be hidden.
  [/spoiler]
  

Most Creative: Once again, two options, one of which is likely to be a landslide favourite:

• 
  [spoiler=B2-TW]
  Grime's idea of a fully morphed hack was surprisingly great. As well as being unique, the hack was challenging and cool in a way that not many people could pull off. Props to Grime for being balls to the wall awesome. I look forward to hopefully seeing an expansion on this idea.
  [/spoiler]
  
• 
  [spoiler=Low Impact]
  I explained this before, but the idea of fall damage being used in a Metroid game is pretty cool. It needs to be tweaked a bit, but a cool idea nonetheless. The thing that makes B2-TW a clear favourite over this is that I'd like to see more of the idea of a fully morphed hack; this idea can't really be expanded on as much.
  [/spoiler]
  

Overall: This category is a tough one to pick for, because really, there's so much choice. There were hacks that were all really cool in their own ways, and it makes it tough to pick an overall based on one aspect. I've already given explanations of why all three of these hacks are cool, so this is just a straight up list, in no particular order:

• Melancholia IV
• B2-TW
• Airy

Worst: The category with the most competition! Honestly, a lot of these hacks could contend for this category, for one ridiculous aspect or another. So here comes a big list, with one line explanations on why they were terribad:
[spoiler]

• 
  Rulers of Ruin: There were a lot of nooby errors in this hack. Slope errors, permastucks, too many tilesets, and just some ugly things in general. Some of it was fixed, other things weren't. So that's not good. Keep working at it though Palmy.
  


• 
  Equilibrium: Having a hack that works is nice. Unfortunately for a lot of people, this just didn't work, which is a shame, because it had awesome ideas and it was pretty cool in its own way. If this visor thing had been working properly, honestly this would be up for most creative and best overall.
  


• 
  YPR: Good ideas, terrible execution. Those 4 words sum up this hack. It had some of the coolest things in it that I've seen in a hack, but it was so, so poorly made that I, and many other members of the community, couldn't finish it.
  


• 
  SLR: I still have nightmares about Shaktools and bubbles. Sometimes I hear scratching on the door at night and hide in fear of the Shaktool police.
  


• 
  VSS: What would a worst of list be without my own hack? Repetitive enemies with terrible placement, and Ridley, made this hack a piece of crap. Not to mention directionless exploration and general weird things that really made it unbearable.
  


• 
  Super Metroid Inverted: This wasn't a hack. This was spikes and bad tiling and complete and utter horrible rooky errors that made SLR look like Redesign. Go back to the drawing board and think of something interesting. Pls.
  


• 
  Low Impact: Fall damage in Metroid, while unique, is also horrible and I hate you.
  (I'm kidding Daltone. I don't hate you. I just hate fall damage.)
  


• 
  Melancholia IV: The amount of underwater suitless exploration in this made the start drag on waaaaay too much, to the point where I almost couldn't be arsed with the hack. Which would have been a huge shame because this hack is awesome.
  


• 
  SMMX2: Sadism.
  


• 
  Exercise: This hack was godawfully ugly and had so many hidden things that could have been improved just by adding a slight graphical hint. As it stands there's just so much stuff that took way too long to find just because I didn't feel like bombing and shooting every little block.
  


• 
  Darkness Returns: UGLY RED SKY
  

[/spoiler]
Closing statements:
There's still a month left of the year, and while the quality of some hacks in some respects has been bad, there's been some stuff that really shone through. Congrats to everyone who released a hack, especially to the participants of T.H.E. Contest, and let's hope for Darkholme 2 before December 31st!

[MetroidMst]

This is more a discussion about the hacks and why they would deserve to be in the running for an award. The actual nominating/voting happens later, when everything has been officially released for the year.

[Digital_Mantra]

In that case, Exercise, Melancholia, Low Impact and B2-TW are the only ones that should be running.
Why? Because Exercise is the best full hack, Melancholia is the best mini-hack, Low Impact is the best challenge hack, and B2-TW is a.. ballin'!

[Daltone]

Cliffhanger Save Edition doesn't count.

Cliffhanger for best aesthetics, challenge and overall

[Digital_Mantra]

Cliffhanger for best aesthetics, challenge and overall

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Crashtour99]

I really have to disagree with Low Impact being a challenge hack.  The fall damage makes it so that once Samus' vertical speed reaches a certain point ANY horizontal surface becomes instant death spikes.  This isn't a challenge, it's just plain stupid.  The ultimate spike hack without all the spikes.  If the fall damage were removed, THEN I'd consider it a challenge hack (there are still plenty of tricks and maneuvers needed to beat it for it to qualify).
Seriously, fuck you Daltone...   :nope:

For me it beats out all the others for worst hack.

[Daltone]

Seriously, fuck you Daltone...

Fuck you, learn how to play the game your supposedly hacking. Your truly an embarrassment to us all.

[Crashtour99]

I can play the game just fine thanks.  I just don't like hacks that take super crazy elitist skills to even get past the first room.

However I think it's funny that when I heavily criticize your hack for having what I consider idiotic design and gameplay characteristics you try to attack my legitimacy as a SM hacker.  Especially since I've given more to the community in patches and understanding how the game functions than quite a lot of folks around here.

If there's an embarrassment here, it ain't me.

[Daltone]

Lol I have no problem with you critizing my hack but when you say "fuck you Dalton" I can't help but take it personally. So then I made it personal Lol.

[Vismund Cygnus]

Seriously though, fuck everyone for not think SLR is the best hack. It had custom music, ASM and an original idea; giving everyone seizures!
Vote SLR #1 hack of 2013.

[Quote58]

oh you two, lets try and leave the mad in irc shall we?
For the record I played through low impact and loved it, but I certainly see where crash is coming fine. To be honest I liked it not as a challenge hack, but as a visually stunning hack with some surprises and a couple of challenges. The fall damage could get annoying sure, but I didn't mind it too much.
Metroidmst, seriously slt can't get worst hack cause it wasn't difficult to play, you don't get lost really, and the experience will be different for everyone since the doors are random. Also tetris music, I mean come on that alone gets you out of worst hack, sorry :/
Getting back to the topic, I think Airy should really be considered here. It's got some really great exploration and visuals at times.

[MetroidMst]

I think Airy should really be considered here. It's got some really great exploration and visuals at times.

Airy should get more consideration, but I disagree with the visual part. It had blue Crateria. B.L.U.E. It was Red Crateria all over, except blue. This is a crime. And Exercise used Red Crateria. . . I guess this means SLR for Best Aesthetics!

[Lunaria]

Seriously, fuck you Daltone...

Fuck you, learn how to play the game your supposedly hacking. Your truly an embarrassment to us all.

Wow, this is like the worst way to take critique.

[Quote58]

Ya, and "fuck you daltone" is the worst way to /give/ critique

[Quietus]

Yowsers!  This deteriorated rapidly. :whoa:

[Digital_Mantra]

Can we get a 'Most Boring' category so I can put Airy in it?

[Lunaria]

Ya, and "fuck you daltone" is the worst way to /give/ critique

While I agree that putting in rude remarks is not really a good idea when giving critique, being unable to ignore that part of the statement is a bigger issue in my book. There are always going to think your stuff is shit and that you're shit so it's something you're just going to have to deal with; which is why it's important to evaluate all critique objectively.

[Vismund Cygnus]

Yowsers!  This deteriorated rapidly. :whoa:

Metroid Deconstruction

Can we get a 'Most Boring' category so I can put Airy in it?

This could actually work as a category. Something doesn't necessarily have to be a bad hack to be a boring one, so it could work as a split category. As well as a few others that I think anyone in a position to be inventing categories has been notified of.   :^_^:

Anyway, I'd still say that Low Impact should be considered a challenge hack.

The ultimate spike hack without all the spikes.

I know that it's your opinion and this is mine so lets all try and be friendly and not start a flamewar and instead just make it a friendly debate  :wink:
But is a "spike hack" not a challenge hack? Almost every other challenge hack in existence uses spikes on every wall requiring precise jumps, or else death. The severe damage from falling was made clear right from the start of the hack (you'll recall there was a giant pit next to the spawn), and effectively, even if you think the fall damage replaces spikes in most instances, that it was simply to allow for better looking environments, instead of having ugly spikes everywhere.

(there are still plenty of tricks and maneuvers needed to beat it for it to qualify)

So, you consider it a challenge hack in terms of tricks, but replacing spikes with fall damage is an instant disqualifier?
Again, opinions opinions opinions. I'm not arguing that you thought the hack was a pile of shit and that in your opinion it was the worst, but I hardly see one mechanic instantly making it not a challenge hack. What does a hack need to qualify as a challenge hack anyway?

*END OPINIONATED RANT*