T.H.E. Contest: Voting and Reviews

[FullOfFail]

This is where you cast your votes! The reason why it's a written form of voting is to confirm people have actually played what they're voting for. Polls can be rather unreliable, this method is more of a hassle, but a more substantive and worthwhile one.

If you already voted in the previous thread, you can copy and paste it here.

The reviews themselves don't really have to be indepth. Very basic constructive-criticism and/or praise for each hack is acceptable. Just so-long as it's relevant. Let's make this a learning-experience for us all.

Oh, and you do need to list who you felt did the best, preferably at the bottom of your post somewhere.

List of hacks to be reviewed: (In alphabetical order)

B2-TW (Grime)
Equilibrium (Quote58)
Low Impact (Daltone)
Melancholia IV (FullOfFail)
Rulers Of Rain (Jkp-troid)
Save Room - Darkness Returns (Crys)
SMContest (SMILEuser96)
So Little Room (MetroidMst)
Vismunds Sidehopper Special (Vismund)


Also, all the entries are in a zip attached to this thread, if you missed any:
T.H.E. Contest Entries

[Quietus]

Unless I'm missing an obvious reason for it to be the case, I'm assuming the ROM being included in your own folder is an error? :^_^:

[FullOfFail]

Woah, that was most definitely an error. I was just playing Grime's hack at the last moment, and forgot to double-check everything. Glad it was hidden in a zip. In any event, it's fixed.

Edit: Updated Daltone's patch in the zip aswell.

[Daltone]

you dont have the most fixed version of mine in the zip, if you could update that it would be swell thanks champ

B2-TW:[spoiler]overall a neat challenge, the boss is stupid at the end. the whole 2nd save not working made it frustrating with the fact you can randomly unmorph and it wont let you morph back again. good that you fixed it[/spoiler]
Equilibrium:[spoiler] really like all the neato asm, super buggy i dont know if it was because i was switching visors in the pause screen but now when i hit start to resume out of the map/equipment it takes literally a full minute slowly fading out back into gameplay.not really a fan of underwater stuff and this was that although its the only was to use the gravity boost,i could prolly come up with some hateful stuff with that lol.[/spoiler]
Melancholia IV:[spoiler]I enjoyed this though i found it a bit dragged out, could have gotten rid of the under water parts and half of the refills. i like the ideas throughout, cool effects in some rooms. lacking backgrounds but alot of the hacks were so whatever. it gets funner near the end.[/spoiler]
Rulers of Rain: [spoiler]wasnt this called something else? wtf make up your mind. overall i though this was ok, some backgrounds are glitchy and i despise the use of solid air tiles.[/spoiler]
Save Room - Darkness Returns: [spoiler]This one is actually quite good, lovely surprise. the "save rooms" are horribly glitchy for me but they still load fine so i guess it doesnt matter if i have to reset lol.[/spoiler]
SMContest: [spoiler]Nice work here, the puzzle is great. there is at least one bad slope i found, the bangs were a little tough a couple times their shots went through me without hurting me. best ending.[/spoiler]
So Little Room: [spoiler]shoot at this guy, dodge seizures and the occasional rinka. like the music. i ran through that door room for prolly 15 mins before it ended, lets drop acid bro 420 smoke weed everyday[/spoiler]
Vismunds Sidehopper Special: [spoiler]obvious overuse of the enemy but it fit the theme so good job there lol, i found this kinda fun, i enjoy the action.[/spoiler]
Low Impact: [spoiler]So i guess i should apologize, I thought people were better at super metroid. It is probably surprising considering what ive released before, just wanted to make use of the fall damage and have a hack that abuses respin stuff, it should be obvious that its not intended for regular players. I wanted people to abuse the rooms to get down safely any way they can even if it means enemies or spikes.
There are a couple bugs with it though one i think should stay, a mockball or unmorphing to land in a squat will bypass any fall damage. I made it non linear and ice beam isnt required. the metroids are a mistake, i dont know what i did to make them have different freeze hp's. the map error with the item dot in the left brinstar room isnt a error, i dont think there is any gfx for a vertical shaft with a item in it, i figured a dot in the room is better then none at all.
thanks to all who endured.
i will prolly make a new easy version that is much less offensive for when you slam it on the site. do not have enough time with the amount of RL work i have right nowSuper Metroid: Low Impact Playthrough[/spoiler]

I feel like i need to address complaints lol.
[spoiler]BG: the spots i see people have trouble wrapping their minds around to me look like it should be BG (the blue (pink) brinstar tiles) but as you can see here you are in front of something they go behind so you would think that they would be BG too, the second one is even funnier because you know you go through the blue ones in the earlier brinstar room and i think things should be consistent with other rooms. Were there any other spots that people though it was solid? i cant think of any. [spoiler][/spoiler]
Kraid and the shrine: i think if i had of made the shrine a special statue room i would have made the eyes on the statue glow, open your eyes when you play and dont be so impatient. I diddnt have enough time to buff kraid or anything and  I wasnt aware about the reverse patch. im surprised in myself that i got that much done. I'm working 2 jobs right now and dont have alot of free time.
Dont worry, im dropping my full hack project which would have been the sister hack to this, High Impact since people have never played a hard nintendo game before.[/spoiler]

Final Decision: [spoiler]B2-TW (after it was fixed)[/spoiler]

[Vismund Cygnus]

I think it's time someone did some voting, so here goes:
VISMUND'S EXCELLENT HACK REVIEWS.
These are general reviews of the hacks, however they can also be considered as my votes because I'm too lazy to write them in a vote-sounding way.  :heheh:
[spoiler=JkP-troid]
Rulers of Ruin (Lost Caverns)
Author: JkP-troid (8bit)
8bit's first release, and I believe it was an important one for him, in that I am certain he learnt a very valuable lesson in regard to testing hacks before releasing them.
Lost Caverns (Forgotten Caverns?) was the first hack released for T.H.E. Contest, and actually came out slightly early. Fortunately for him, the submission period for the contest is 7 days, so it's given him plenty of time to change it. So there are two reviews happening here. One for Lost Caverns and one for Rulers of Ruin.
Part 1: Lost Caverns
This was not good, to put it bluntly. While I understand it is 8bit's first hack, it was not well-executed and showed clear signs of someone new to Super Metroid hacking. A permastuck at the landing site (which was the only room to use the Crateria tileset) was not a good start, plus various other nuisances throughout the hack that made it a somewhat unenjoyable experience. To (somewhat) quote Digital Mantra, "running between a room farming a Geemer so I had enough energy to charge a shinespark" is not a great thing to have.
Part 2: Rulers of Ruin
And then it got fixed.
The latest patch added several new glitchy bits, and a very, very annoying thing in a certain boss fight. One improved aspect was the removal of the Norfair tileset, which randomly appeared for three rooms across the hack. However in this patch I personally recieved various background glitches and other nuisances, as well as a screen not scrolling correctly and a boss who thinks that higher health = more difficult. It does not. It means I hold down the fast-forward button the entire fight (which would have taken me as long as it took to reach the boss otherwise). I will say that the use of only a couple of tilesets really improved the look of this hack, as opposed to being visually all over the place. The removal of the overzealous lion-heads and ridiculous number of shinesparks was also a nice touch.
Overall, I did mind this hack, I wouldn't say it was the best, but with a 20 or so minute playtime it's not wasting that much time to check our what I'd call an average at best hack.
With all of those negatives said, here's some advice to 8bit: do not give up. Continue to do what you're doing. Experiment with Smile, fuck around with tilesets and make sure you enjoy what you're doing. Remember to ask questions if you have any, and ensure that if you plan on releasing a hack, it is thoroughly tested first.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Daltone]
Low Impact
Author: Daltone
I played the SV (which, to quote the author, stands for "Sore Vagina") version of this after watching Crashtour fail miserably at the normal version.
Firstly I'd like to say that this hack is reminiscent of every Japanese challenge hack ever. If challange hacks are not your thing, do not play this. With that in mind, and the very few rooms I actually saw Crash make it through, I set off to see what Daltone had done.
The use of fall damage and much higher gravity made for a unique twist on what is an otherwise a rather boring idea (challenge hacks aren't my favourite thing). The level design in itself was, okay. Many places had severe cases of "Is that a foreground or background block?", but holy cow, there was some nice, Digital Mantra-esque layering. Also, that Norfair palette looked great. That being said, expect several deaths via jumping across to what looks like a solid platform, only to fall through and die horribly. For the most part I attempted to land on enemies in order to reduce damage taken, and walljumping past a large portion of the puzzles because I'm lazy.
Many of the items in this hack were also hidden much too well. Most had no hint as to how to get to them, so reaching them consisted of dropping Power Bombs everywhere until a path was cleared. The final boss was a final boss. After all I'd been through I expected something insane. I was disappointed, yet relieved at the same time.
I am torn between whether this was a good or bad hack. As a challenge hack, it was interesting and somewhat unique in its own right. However from a general perspective, it was unfair and ridiculous. So if you're a fan of challenge hacks, by all means play it and see for yourself. Otherwise, avoid it.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=MetroidMst]
So Little Room
Author: MetroidMst
Since escaping Bubble Land, Samus relapses into horrifying flashbacks of the Rinka-Spawning Event every time she sees a Shaktool. Shaktools across the galaxy rejoice, knowing that the one they FEAR is no longer a threat to them.
THE SEIZURE WARNING ON THIS HACK IS SERIOUS. IF YOU SUFFER FROM SEIZURES DO NOT PLAY THIS HACK.
With that out of the way, here comes the best review ever.
SLR delivered exactly what it promised. Headaches, nausea, epileptic fits, bubbles, Shaktool, and of course, very few rooms. There is not much to say about this hack because it is near perfect. The level design was excellent. Custom music always raises a hack above its competitors, and SLR has no such worries, for it crushes the competition under its sawblade boot... er... glove?
SLR is among the greatest challenge hacks ever created. I give this my highest accolades, and recommend it to all non-seizure sufferers. If nothing else, you'll laugh your tits off.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Vismund Cygnus]
Vismund's Sidehopper Special
Author: Vismund Cygnus
This is the shittiest hack on the entire Metconst. Don't play it.
You weren't expecting a serious review of my own hack? If I'd known where to improve it, I would've done so, and I've recieved feedback on what was good and bad and I've taken a lot away from this competition. Never again shall I release an untested hack.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Quote58]
Equilibrium
Author: Quote58
I feel bad for Quote, because this hack shits all over the majority of what has been released for T.H.E. Contest. Unfortunately, a couple of particular game-breaking glitches ruined this hack for a lot of people. I'm unsure myself as to why these glitches occured, I'm not an expert on ASM. I did not experience these glitches, but I'm aware of their existence so I can tell you exactly what it was like from that perspective.
This is one of the better minihacks I have seen to date. It is an excellent showcase of two items in particular, the gravity boost and the Dark Visor. The first of these two is rather gimmicky, as it effectively replaces the gravity suit without the damage protection, however the second of these (AKA the game-breaker) added an amazing puzzle element to the hack that not many other hacks can boast. While some of its potential was displayed in the hack, I believe that there is much more that could be done with it that could make for extremely interesting in-depth puzzles. The only downside to these items is that the way to use them was not explained whatsoever, and until Quote informed everyone I had to stand around for 20 minutes testing every button combination possible (except the correct one, naturally). There were a lot of other interesting things in Quote's hack, and for the most part this was extremely good.
Unfortunately, those bugs do exist. I'm not sure if Quote found a workaround for them, but they made the hack completely unplayable for at least 2 people as far as I am aware. This put quite a bit of scepticism around the hack, but it  is an excellent piece of work, and I would highly recommend playing it. I look forward to seeing the sorts of puzzles that will be created through the use of the Dark Visor.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=FullOfFail]
Melancholia IV (The first version that got released)
Author: FullOfFail
A beautiful hack. At no point whilst playing through this did I think this hack did I stop to think about how it had only been made within a month. The use of the vanilla tilesets was wonderful. I will never understand how exactly FullOfFail managed to fit this much stuff within 20 rooms, but holy shit he did it. This hack is massive. My first playthrough took 1:20, and that was only after I got help from the author. Without his help, It may have been almost 2. Or I would've quit.
Another interesting thing to note is the number of items in the hack. 100% of the items included in the original game are within this hacks 20 rooms, which in my experience meant I was shooting at walls and power bombing everything. There are a huge amount of secrets in this hack, so explorers will not be disappointed. I strongly recommend this hack to anyone.
The only negatives I can think of are these:
1. This hack is very easy. It was to be expected in a 20 room hack with 100% of the items, and in no way did it make this hack less enjoyable.
2. A couple of rooms have a fair amount of slowdown, though this is likely due to the sheer size of the rooms and the number of enemies. Again, it did not make the hack any less enjoyable.
3. The final boss was, in my opinion, a huge letdown. I was hoping for something somewhat more difficult. Although I should not have been surprised with the ease with which I beat the boss, I was still disappointed. This was the only part of the entire hack that I did not enjoy.
This hack is excellent. Play it and experience it for yourself.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Grime]
B2-TW
Author: Grime
In this hack you play as a basketball who needs to reach the court in time to win the game (would be the story if I had made it).
The idea of having a hack entirely in Morph Ball is interesting, but Grime managed to pull it off pretty damned well. This reminded me an awful lot of Hallow Eve, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. A few interesting puzzle bits were present throughout this hack and personally I found them to be fun. Plus this hack is damned pretty to look at. I would definitely recommend this simply because it's a unique idea.
The final boss was also pretty interesting, but I ended up exploiting ther AI due to them having a ridiculous amount of health. Apart from that, cool hack, check it out.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=SmileUser96]
Did this thing have a name?
Author: SmileUser96
A very short and entertaining hack that showcases the remote bombs in a pretty cool way. That puzzle was a bitch, although as soon as I worked out that I had spring ball it became fairly clear as to what I had to do. Also, the ending made me laugh, because no hack is complete without an explosion.
Overall, I don't have much to say about this hack because there wasn't much to it. I look forward to seeing what SmileUser does with Remote Bombs in the future.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Crys]
Save Room
Author: Crys
And so it was that the "I made a shitty hack in half a week" is probably one of the best hacks that got made. The use of room states made for a great concept, the whole "dark world/blood world/whatever it was world" was really, really fucking cool, and the palettes and custom-ish tilesets were awesome. The final boss had eyes everywhere except for where his eyes were meant to be. There were a few spots where slight errors existed (random slope errors) but they were not significant enough to make me dislike this hack at all. I think this would honestly be a great hack if it was more polished. As it stands, it's pretty f***ing good anyway.
Play it.
It's good.
I'm done reviewing.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Final decision]
Every hack that got released for this contest had some pretty cool ideas, and I think that the community really did a good job in creating some cool stuff. Bonuses for getting people actually making content and motivating them to finish something. While I know a couple of people did not get their hacks finished, I look forward to seeing what they were planning to do, and hopefully some of the hacks released will be revisited and polished, to make for some excellent new hacks that are better than YPR.

With that said, there can only be one winner, and I've ultimately decided to go with...
FullOfFail: Melancholia IV
The sheer scale of this hack, together with how well-polished it is, are what made me choose this hack. Combined with a fun concept of finding every single item (the best I managed was 90% or so iirc) make for an excellent hack. In no way does it seem like this was a rushed piece of work that struggled to make it into the timeframe. FullOfFail made a great vanilla hack and I think he completely deserves the win.
[spoiler]Also, how the f*** did you fit so much stuff into 20 rooms?  :whoa:[/spoiler]
Okay that's enough reviewing. Well done FullOfFail for making both an excellent contest and an excellent hack.
[/spoiler]

[Crashtour99]

I'll be editing this post later for writing up reviews, but in the mean time here's a playlist of the stream videos I recorded while playing them all.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEJ-TslPc7Uc7gq7egxuaDGFqm9tpeEkO

You can probably get enough of a review by watching the videos, so I'll just do a voting thing here.

1st - FoF's Melancholia IV (the sheer size and ingenious use of enemies and fx to produce great atmospherics nudged this to the top for me)
2nd - Crys' Darkness Returns (this was very close for me, as they are both excellent)
3rd - Grime's B2-TW (playing in morph only with some really neat mechanics = top contender)
4th - Vismund's VSS (Quote's would have taken this spot had my experience with it not been so broken)
5th - SMILEuser96's SMcontest (remote bombs and that puzzle were nifty)
6th - 8bit's Rulers of Ruin (not bad, but not exactly great)
7th - Quote58's Equilibrium (like I said, it would have placed a lot higher if my experience hadn't been so broken)
8th - MetroidMst's SLR (my god the rainbow palettes)
9th - Daltone's Low Impact (please don't ever do this again, or if you do, balance things out properly first...  This was truly horrible.)

[FullOfFail]

I'm just going in a random order:

Equilibrium (Quote58)
[spoiler]
I ran into either a bug or a misunderstanding with the Dark-Visor, so I ended up watching MetroidMst's playthrough. But fortunately he's a good enough player to provide the full experience. Seems to be a hit or miss ordeal. The ASM is obviously cool, and when executed properly, has many neat features. It has infinite potential, really. On a personal-level, I'm proud of how far you've come regarding ASM. I just view this as a teaser for a bigger-picture, keep perfecting it. The design of some rooms kinda threw me off too, some were detailed, others bland. But I know that's a time-constraint issue. I view it as this hack is really just a base for a much grander project.
[/spoiler]

Low Impact (Daltone)
[spoiler]
It's hard for me to judge this as objectively and fair as I normally would. I've been working on that Megaman challenge hack thingy for almost or over two years. I'm just totally turned off from challenge hacks in general due to it. Was definitely digging the designs though. If you would've made it a exploration hack, there's a high probability that I would've leaned towards voting for you. But, I'll let others give you the real feed-back, it's just not my cup of tea at the moment.
[/spoiler]

Rulers Of Rain (Jkp-troid)
[spoiler]
This hack was rather... odd. Going from Vanilla Crateria to a fully custom atmosphere just didn't seem right at all. The inconsistency of art styles between the switch was too much. (I also got stuck in a wall directly after getting grapple btw, not sure if I ever mentioned that bug to you.) I think you would've been much better served by either sticking to Vanilla, or going full custom. I remember you asking me to beta-test, and I declined because I wanted to wait in suspense for the contest, but now I regret that decision. There's a few things I would've pointed out that would've helped the presentation. All that said, I see potential in you. It's just a long learning process to figure out what works and what doesn't. Just keep experimenting, you'll find a method that works best for you, and will mold what you  create.
[/spoiler]

SMContest (SMILEuser96)
[spoiler]
I liked the level design in some places, but that remote-bomb puzzle was just too hard. Would've been better to have a more simplistic, but neat one for the main path, and have that other one lead to a special item instead. The main thing I enjoyed about this hack though, was how you made it end. It actually makes sense, even more-so than the original. You have alot of good ideas and skills, looking forward to seeing what a full-hack from you would consist of. [/spoiler]

So Little Room (MetroidMst)
[spoiler]
Really not sure what to say about this. Me thinks you and DSO are a dangerous combination. Custom music is always a nice treat, though. Amidst the chaos and humor, there's really alot of showcasing of skill. If you applied some of this to a real full-hack, you could make some very interesting areas and atmospheres.
[/spoiler]

Vismunds Sidehopper Special (Vismund)
[spoiler]
EDIT: I think something went wrong with my patch. I just watched MetroidMst's playthrough, and that was NOT the same experience I had. I didn''t even make it to 70% of the rooms he did, I just did a short Brinstar area then went to Vanilla Norfair and fought Ridley. I'll play this again and see what happened.
[/spoiler]

Melancholia IV (FullOfFail)
[spoiler]
I'd agree this is way too easy, and the boss and ending are a bit... anticlimactic. The issue with the balance was, I wasn't really sure how much energy/missiles the player would have at any given time, since they're spread out everywhere. As far as the final boss goes, other than raising his HP and prolonging the inevitable, wasn't sure how to tweak him to be more interesting. The design isn't as polished as it could be, but I had already planned to make a big 20 room hack, so I had to sacrifice minor details for progress. Overall, I feel I accomplished what I set out to do, a 100% atmospheric Vanilla-based hack. That was really my only goal at the time.
[/spoiler]

Save Room - Darkness Returns (Crys)
[spoiler]
In my opinion, you shouldn't have added the GT so early... it felt needless, and wasn't really fun to fight. I ended up being cheap and charging up and shooting it from a ledge. Other than that, the hack was pretty cool. Very nice BG details in the starting ship. The last area was most definitely unexpected. This hack is more of a 50/50 thing to me. The designs were nice, and you did good at portraying the atmospheres, but things like the GT and a few other aspects just didn't seem to fit in well. I still give you credit for making this in such a short time though, by that standard, it is impressive regardless.
[/spoiler]

B2-TW (Grime)
[spoiler]
I actually loved this. It was very well executed. Really needed to be nerfed, though. This seems like it'd be better to play naturally all in one run, but as it stands, save-states are pretty much required. Even though the last few rooms lacked being polished in detail, I rarely even noticed. The game-play just stood out more to me. Guess it goes back to the classic gameplay > graphics debate (not to minimize design, because it is important). Good stuff.
[/spoiler]

My Vote:
[spoiler]
Due to the variety of hacks, it's hard to really choose based on any given criteria. I could break this down into sub-categories and nominate each hack for them, but since this isn't set up that way, I'll just pick one. I'm going with Grime's. It was just a unique experience, and fun.
[/spoiler]

Special Thanks
[spoiler]
I would also like to take this time out and personally thank everyone who participated. I realize this was an unorganized event, but hopefully everyone enjoyed it. I imagine these reviews will be all over the place, so determining a actual winner may be difficult when the time comes. I'm not entirely sure how to approach it if it ends up being a tie amongst multiple hacks, or what have you. We'll see what happens and go from there.
[/spoiler]

[MetroidMst]

Time for writing lots of letters into incoherent cabbages. I shall do it in the order I uploaded videos of them.

Rulers of Ruin (Rain?)
Palmy
[spoiler=Review]First off, this started as Forgotten Caverns, which is an okay name, but the more outlandish the better. Doesn't have anything to do with actual gameplay, but a fun name will never hurt with the bonus points. Anyway, the hack has some interesting things, namely the tileset and Charge Beam being odd. I had a very strange feeling playing it the first time, because it felt all over the place. For a small hack, keeping themes tight is the best idea. I know you are new, and I suggested not messing with Crocomire's/Phantoon's tilesets because of that. (Since it would require a bunch of explaining and more work on your end.) But, a hack this small would be best to put things in order and have a very small focus. This hack did not do that, but, all the bosses in it, plus an optional final boss even, certainly earn some bonus points.[/spoiler]

Equilibrium
Quote58
[spoiler=Review]First things first, this hack is buggy. There, I got it out of the way. Now, for the hack itself on its own merits. (For someone who actually had things work right.) This hack felt much more like a tech-demo for some custom things. The three things of great interesting were Supers being part of regular Missiles, and once collected your Missiles are all upgraded. Gravity Boost is also very fun to mess with. Sure, Gravity Suit would render it useless, but what if the hack doesn't have Gravity Suit? It was fun, but also slightly strange to have that button combination for using it. The best thing however, is the Dark Visor. This thing needs worked on, polished up, and released. It seriously has a ton of potential to be really sydneysauce in future hacks. Get it done. The hack itself. . . Not exactly the best. As I said, it felt more like a tech-demo than a hack. And some of the things included, mostly the water lowering Missile refill station didn't seem to have any real purpose. The Dark Visor though. . . Get thing thing together. Might be the best thing to come out of this entire contest.[/spoiler]

SMContest
SMILEuser96
[spoiler=Review]So, after my love fest with the Dark Visor you would think no other hack had anything else amazing right? Wrong. The very oddly named SMContest provided Remote Bombs, which are the second best custom item to come out of T.H.E. Contest. This also needs polished up and published, as this has great potential as well. About the hack though. . . It actually was pretty good. Tiling and such was sort of bland, and I died to things I thought I had to defeat, but really didn't. Then the puzzle. . . So much easier once I knew I had Spring Ball. Overall, the weird name, the puzzle, the SUDDEN ACID boss, and the great ending actually make this to be one of the best in this entire contest. It does suffer from tilesets jumping everywhere though, so knock a few points off of that. It did keep its overall focus though, get the Remote Bombs, figure the puzzle out, and end. Definitely a fun little hack. And the ending is amazing. Worth all your trouble.[/spoiler]

Low Impact
Daltone
[spoiler=Review]I am not sure if I love or hate this hack. Low Impact takes away a normal, and very taken-for-granted normality in Super Metroid. You can no longer fall willy-nilly and get away with it. In fact, much more than your own jump height will send you spiraling into the ground at a speed sure to break anyone's kneecaps beyond repair. And destroy their futuristic space suit along the way. So that is the thing with this hack, don't fall and go splat. How to work with it? Daltone actually did a good job with this. It isn't just a gimmick, but the hack is based off of that. There are numerous challenges thrown the players way, all in hopes that they record the results and share their pain online. (Bonus points for that!) As a challenge hack, this is really good and interesting. It works well in that manner. Even still, I was hoping for a bit more. When playing it, I thought you altered the statue room so I had to defeat Kraid, and then I thought you might have used the Reverse Kraid thing. But nope to both of those. It could have been slightly better with those things I believe. But as is, it provided some good challenge, and it was fun watching Crashtour and Eppy fail so much at it. Something to work on in the future, make sure your BG stuff looks like BG, so players don't kill themselves trying to land on it.[/spoiler]

Save Room - Darkness Returns
Crys
[spoiler=Review]I was thanking strangers on the street this didn't end up anything like I expected it to when you were talking about a "save room" hack. I thought this was going to be a RevolutionEX Save - Reset - Load in new point - save - reset - load in new point again - repeat many times until completed. But that was not the case, and this came out as perhaps the best hack in the entire contest. The theme is strong in this hack, and very weird. I don't know what the inspiration for it was, but I am not sure I want to know. I had one major issue, and that turned out not to be an issue at all actually. So, defeating Gold Torizo lets you warp into the Dark World or something, where Spore Spawns start rave parties at their death, and eyeballs like watching you. Everything about this hack was unexpected, including the Accel Charge upgrades. (Of which I missed two it seems.) The hack is a little weird and out there, and I like that. You warp from a ship onto a planet, work your way to GT, find yourself in bloodvines, and then hit a questionable spot and explode the planet. Not everything was perfect however, I am going to give a pass to everyone on the save stations, as it appears the end-game BTS screws them up, but this hack had one major, potentially hack-ruining problem. You used Red Crateria. [spoiler=Red Crateria Review]0/10 would not play.[/spoiler] I mean seriously? Why would you do this? I know it is probably the hottest thing you have in Sweden, but no. Just no. Never, ever, ever use Red Crateria. CHANGE THE PALETTE LIKE YOU DID WITH EVERYTHING ELSE. Red Crateria is why children are starving in Africa, it caused Aids, and it took your cat by giving it cancer. Stop using it and letting it spread its corrosive disease. I only expect terrible noobs to use this awful crap. What makes it both better and worse for me in this hack, is that you did change some of it, but then left the sky alone. You had the good sense to adjust the palette, and then you stopped at the sky. . . Please, change the sky next time too.[/spoiler]

Melancholia IV
FullOfFail
[spoiler=Review]So this hack reminded me of Searching For Items, which is a good thing because that is my favorite hack. This hack is basically a "go along the path and you will find everything you need" kind of hack. It is also easily the most massive hack out of them all. Seriously, 20 rooms goes a long way people, you don't need a bunch of new rooms unless you're me. So anyway, there are some interesting things in this hack, most notably for me was the clever use of tiling in the room with rain. Alternating between the two layers to make rain appear "outside" and not "inside" was pretty clever. Another thing was the completely black enemies that you find crawling around. They don't ever do anything, but it is a neat little touch to have the little critters crawling around in strange spots for the player to either notice, or completely miss them and move on. Little things like that stick out. The biggest complaint I have with this hack, is that it was too easy. Not too easy in regards to enemies, although they were laughable, but easy in explorational difficulty. Seriously, ever major thing you need? You walk right into along the way. You need a suit for the very next room? Here, before you even reach that room to know you need, it is right in your path. It would have been nice, especially with a hack this size, to have some good backtracking and looking for some of these upgrades.

The best example with this was Wave Beam. Which is pretty much the only time in the game you have to go somewhere else to get. But, even that falls short of any sort of difficulty, as the player only has three options to them, and one is blocked by a gate, and the other is going straight back where you came from. That leaves one unexplored option, which of course yields the item you need. I certainly prefer my hacks to be a little more on the challenging side, but easy works well too. (See SFI and Oxide) But this hack badly needed some more exploration for items. About the items. . . There are a lot of them, and they are everywhere. This is the best part of the hack, as you are collecting stuff in pretty much every room. Some other nice touches were the complete refill stations, and your "lava tanks" made with good tiling. The hack was fun overall, but make sure to give the player a reason to explore around more in a full hack when you get to it.[/spoiler]

B2-TW
Grime
[spoiler=Review]Finish Rise, and then make this hack bigger. B2-TW is a very interesting hack, taking place entirely in Morph Ball from. It brings in Zelda Traps and other assorted enemies. And then the player has to pass through rooms and not die. It was very fun, but ended way too soon. Also, the final boss. . . Amazing use of Lettuce Leafs as a final boss, but in the original version they had way too much health, causing players to find an exploit in the room design. This was overfixed when you did your bug fixing patch, and now they had too little health. Somewhere in between would let the player try to attempt them normally and have a decent challenge. Otherwise, what else can I say? I wish it was bigger and had some more challenge rooms. There were some nice small changes in the hack though. The fog going different directions and speeds? Radsauce. Seriously Grime, finish up Rise. Make this bigger and better, and then do more hacks.[/spoiler]

Vismund's Sidehopper Special
Vismund
[spoiler=Review]Sidehoppers are everywhere, and they want to take your gravity. This hack was pretty interesting overall. Lots of Sidehoppers, decent amount of backtracking, and death awaiting the players who rush everywhere. I know some did not like the having to destroy a bunch of enemies, but I don't really get that. And the whole map thing was unneeded, as being less than 20 rooms you can't get too lost. (Or can you. . .?) Very nice use of Green Brinstar tileset too. There were a few issues I did find though. First was when the Desgeega jumped up and fell into the ceiling. When trying to get back down from there, you almost have to take damage to get the Sidehopper to break the blocks back down. A one-way crumble block passage would have fixed that. Something to note is that there is a heavy use of fog. Lots of fog everywhere. I know you are aware of another issue with your item indexing. I was impressed that you used a custom roomstate after collecting Super Missiles. And for a future suggestion, I would say use more reverse-gravity Sidehoppers/Desgeegas, as those were underused. While dumb, they provide an interesting talking point about how they work.[/spoiler]

So Little Room
MetroidMst
[spoiler=Review]Don't do drugs kids.[/spoiler]

And for my final rankings of all the hacks. . .
[spoiler]

• Save Room - Darkness Returns
• B2-TW
• SMContest
• Melancholia
• Low Impact
• Vismund's Sidehopper Special
• Equilibrium
• Rulers of Ruin
• So Little Room

[/spoiler]
I would like to congratulate everyone for completing their hacks. And also say that I am extremely impressed with the variety that came out of this contest. I was expecting SLR to be very different because it was bad and didn't follow what I figured would be the "cookie cutter norm" for this contest. But instead, we got a ton of different ideas, great variety, and no final bosses were the same across the board. The final bosses went from Draygon, Lettuce Leafs, Bomb Torizo, Gold Torizo, Kraid, Ridley, Botwoon, Phantoon, Shaktool. For people who didn't collab together and only had a short time to put their ideas into a hack, this is pretty impressive. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully any future contest will have this amount of support and ideas. (Just don't expect me to kill myself getting videos up.)

Great job and keep up the good work!

[Quietus]

I wasn't sure whether you'd want our thoughts here, MetroidMst, what with them supposedly being discussed during the podcast..?

[MetroidMst]

At the very least, this is how you would vote for your favorite. I think the podcast might cover a little more than what is here.

[Digital_Mantra]

With it being a written vote format to prove we've played them, well you all know I played them and you can find my mini-reviews in the other thread.
While I loved grimes morphball hack, I do enjoy playing Super Metroid with all the Samus movements if I had to be picky about a winner.
Grimes was certainly the most inventive in terms of such an interesting concept.

However my vote is a split that goes to Daltone and FullOfFail.
Low Impact: Was very fun and a bit challenging (in a good way, not stupid sidehoppers everywhere way), also very replayable.
Melancholia: An Amazing and fantastic mini-hack. The aesthetics and ideas in this were original. Always great to see fresh concepts.

So my vote is .5 to Daltone and .5 to FullOfFail. Grimes being a very very close third. I'd split it again so its .33333333 for each lol.
You never know, that .5 could be what makes the winner in the end.

Great contest!

[Lunaria]

For the record, I'm not going to vote due to:
A. I have a hack in the contest
B. I am too lazy to play them all

[Smiley]

All these hacks were fun. There really weren't any bad ones, even though they all had their flaws.
It was also amazing to see how much variety people could stuff into just 20 rooms.
It was really hard to choose between Melancholia IV and Save Room - Darkness Returns, but I eventually settled for Melancholia.

So my vote goes to Melancholia IV by FullOfFail.


And yay for Tetris and drugs. :grin:

[Nikoshiba]

I only played Melancholia IV and So Little Room.
In fact, I play and beat Melancholia IV this morning:

[spoiler=Melancholia IV]This is what I like when I play minihacks, this feeling of Metroid-Medley. All was smooth, very playable, not hard at all and that was cool 'cause I don't work today and I wanted to stay quite in bed ^^. All is really nice looking.[/spoiler]

Then I tried So Little Room :

[spoiler=So Little Room]and I got up from my bed ! I played about 30 seconds and I died. No Replay. This one is weird. I have to be awake ! So maybe next time ^^[/spoiler]

MetroidMST, I don't thank you ^^

I'll play the other hacks if I find the time...
Thank you for doing such a hard work by the way...

[FullOfFail]

I'm not really trying to clutter the voting sessions with this post, but -
[spoiler]
Going back and re-reading this thread makes me grateful all the hacks turned out they way they did. They all have a certain uniqueness and appeal, but all of them are also flawed in one incarnation or the other. The reason the flaws is a good thing is because it leveled the playing-field, and there is no clear-cut winner. Even now, it's still a toss-up between multiple hacks.

Also, this thread was originally only going to be a week or so, but I'm going to keep it active for a bit longer due to insufficient data.

This may seem silly to some, but when I started my hack, I never factored in that I could possibly win. Otherwise, it's possible I would've stayed out, to avoid a conflict of interest. I just kinda figured someone would blow me out of the water with ASM and/or aesthetics. Glad I got involved though, had fun using Vanilla and came up with new concepts for future hacks in the process.

But yeah, we need a few more votes to confirm anything. There isn't really any prize for winning yet, anyway. But I'm sure we could work something out. [/spoiler]

[Lunaria]

Yeah, there are not NEARLY enough people to have weighted in on this in order for votes to be really counted in a good manner.

[Quietus]

Melancholia gets my vote for the win.  Vismund's hack would come second, primarily for the irritating enemy placement.  Melancholia felt like if this competition had never arisen, and it had been plonked here as a general hack release, it would still have been fun.  I loved it's lack of difficulty, loved the constant item collection, and it was easily my favourite hack of the bunch.

[Quote58]

I'll update with my reviews when I have time today

Edit: K so I'll just do a quick run down of the hacks
Fof - Pretty freaking amazing how you fit such a huge hack into only 20 rooms. Felt a bit boring at times though due to bland tiling and being really OP
Daltone - great challange hack, if the fall damage were a more gradual amount as opposed to if you fall after a certain distance you're pretty much dead (until you get some etanks but they don't show up often). The tiling was amazing though, really creative.
Vismund - sooooooooo boring. Tiling is good but there's just no substance to the hack. It's a bunch of enemies that are a pain to get through room after room after room. Really too bad since stylistically it's pretty good.
Mst - I could've made that rainbow flashing more eye destroying, so that was a bit disappointing in the end. As for the hack itself, I was expecting more shaktools, and the gimmic gets old quick since it soon becomes far more boring than rage inducing.
8Bit - despite what other people have said, I think this was pretty good for a first hack. that shinespark section was annoying but the rest was good. Except phantoon, that and the room before him were pretty bad. All in all though it's a great first try.
GK - loved it. Aside from the torizo having too much health, and the inability to go back to the 'light' world, this hack is pretty boss.
Grime - daaaaaamn that's a nice morphball. also the hack is pretty epic. Really loved playing it, except for the fact that there are no health recharge stations. That would've probably given you my vote. As a result though, I ended up against that boss with so little health one hit would kill me. Not cool man.
Mine? - too much water. Waaaaaay too much underwater shit. Didn't bother including the item finder fix, my bad. Messed up map. The water lowerer thing still looked like a missile station cause I forgot about that until someone pointed it out. Whoops. Uhh, couple bugs here and there with tiling and such. Felt too small by the end. Should've included some actually puzzles with the dark visor and grav. boost. As is they are really kinda gimmicky. In all it was fun at times, annoying at others, and in the end it didn't do the hud/items justice.

Is that all? Probably. My vote goes to Daltone for a great challange hack with some epic tiling. Good job man.
Runners up would be Grime in second place and GK in third.
Good job all, lets do it again sometime

Kbye


Edit again: Lol actually did forget one
Smileuser96 - could've been much better, the end boss was a huuuge pain in the ass. The bombs are pretty great though (though after looking at your code, there's a much simpler way of doing it...but it doesn't really matter since it works like this)
The bombs should detonate with a 4th shot button press though, not run button. Wouldn't be too hard to incorporate that though. As far as exploration is concerned it was pretty minimal, nothing special. I liked the asm edits, though the earthquake could've stood to not happen every time you go through the door. In all it was pretty good, but not the best there.

[Vismund Cygnus]

Grime - daaaaaamn that's a nice morphball. also the hack is pretty epic. Really loved playing it, except for the fact that there are no health recharge stations. That would've probably given you my vote.

The pink pipes were health recharge stations. I think you've gotta change your vote.  :lol:

[Lunaria]

Grime - daaaaaamn that's a nice morphball. also the hack is pretty epic. Really loved playing it, except for the fact that there are no health recharge stations. That would've probably given you my vote.

The pink pipes were health recharge stations. I think you've gotta change your vote.  :lol:

His experience remain the same though, what use is a health recharge station you can't identify?

[MetroidMst]

His experience remain the same though, what use is a health recharge station you can't identify?

Same can be said for enemy breakable blocks. Whereas they have no way to be able to identify them until the enemy actual breaks them, the pink pipes stood out compared to everything else, and even a slight touch will send your health noticeably higher. Missing that is more player error, as Grime did everything he needed to besides put a big sign saying "HEALTH REFILL AT THE OBVIOUSLY DIFFERENT AND CONVENIENTLY PLACED PIPE IN THE GROUND."

[Quietus]

I guess it's a disadvantage of having a short time to develop a hack: It means that you don't have time to add small things like a readme, which would contain basic info on any changes from 'the norm'.

[FullOfFail]

Well, I'unno guys, but I can't really leave this contest going indefinitely like this. It's already almost the next month. Just going by raw votes posted here the tally so far is:

B2-TW (Grime) - 2
Equilibrium (Quote58) - 0
Low Impact (Daltone) 1.5
Melancholia IV (FullOfFail) - 4.5
Rulers Of Rain (Jkp-troid) - 0
Save Room - Darkness Returns (Crys) - 1
SMContest (SMILEuser96) - 0
So Little Room (MetroidMst) - 0
Vismunds Sidehopper Special (Vismund) - 0

I didn't include Nikoshiba is that total, because he wasn't clear that it was a vote. But, unless we somehow get flooded with new votes, it should be safe to end it here. I have to very awkwardly call myself the winner of the contest I was supposed to be managing. Really had no intentions of doing so, but I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles.

But, I should reiterate that there wasn't really anything special for 1st place planned yet, this was just something fun for the community. Once they go onto the site, we'll all be tied anyway, only alphabetical-order will rank it then. I'm not going to make any green, unless there's a high demand for it.

Thanks for participating guys, I'll make sure to add all the updated versions of the hacks from the previous thread. I'd still be willing to count any further votes if they get added, but I'm sure this thread will get locked eventually. So if you still wish to cue in, you should do so now.

[Quietus]

Congratulations, FoF.  I've given my votes above, but I feel like it was a worthy winner. :^_^:

[Nikoshiba]

I didn't include Nikoshiba is that total, because he wasn't clear that it was a vote.

No problem ! It's not fair since I don't play all the hacks ! ;)