Summer Fun Contest: Voting and Reviews

[Vismund Cygnus]

Here is where you may cast your votes for the Summer Fun Contest. Feel free to post lengthy reviews in whatever format you wish, however a lengthy post is not required.
When voting, keep in mind the criteria for the contest, particularly the theme, i.e. Summer, warm palettes, etc., but also vote with the one you feel is most deserving of the prestigious title of "Best Summer Contest Hack".
The Eligible Entries are (linked here for your convenience):
"SM - Magaluf!" - Jordan5
"SMConflict" - SMILEUser96

SLC is disqualified due to:

Bug fixes/v1.0010102 bullshit will be DQ'd from voting. The patch you first submit will be the patch judged. Test your hack.
This contest will run from now, until Tuesday September 2nd, 23:59:59 forum time. There will be no extensions.

However, play it anyway because I helped make it and it's the best.  :sad:

Also, try to keep discussion of the hacks to the other thread, and keep arguing about how people voted to a minimum, or I'll probably just delete your posts. Remember, opinions are opinions!

[MetroidMst]

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You thought I just reserved my scathing judgements for rooms didn't you? WELL YOU THOUGHT WRONG! PREPARE FOR YOUR HACKS TO BE PASTED SO HARD CTRL P WILL BE ASKING FOR MERCY!

SM - Magaluf!
Author: Jordan5
First off, can't fault his username. Obviously wants to go for a five-peat in these things. (Better hope all So Little hacks are late from here on out!)

Summer Theme: This was the weakest entry here. Now, you did manage to find a better clothing option for a summer theme, but. . . Other than the sky, it didn't really feel that summer-y. The tileset was otherwise very "normal Zebes hack" type of thing. And the fact a lot of it was underground and didn't really have the sky in it was kind of disappointing in that regard. The thing to get though was quite interesting.

Hack: The hack itself is clearly the highlight over the theme. It plays pretty well, isn't completely unfair like it could have been with his use of one particular piece of code. (Which I honestly thought it was a little too weak, but better safe than sorry. (lolololol ANGRY SUN HAS NO PITY) The very straightforward linearity was actually a bit of a refreshing thing to see compared to the other entry, though I do wish there was a bit more exploration involved, but not too bad.

SMConflict
Author: SMILEuser96

Summer Theme: As far as palettes go, this flopped worse than a beached whale. It did have a sun. And fish. And some glows. But otherwise, I didn't really get a summer vibe from this hack. I guess that was a beach, but that is not a beach I would want to visit. The items did also manage a summerish theme too at least.

Hack: Clearly the bulk of the work went into this, and not making rad vibrant sun-washed palettes. Instead, we get a glimpse of Smiley being Smiley, with lots of silly stuff and money floating around. And some very interesting boss edits. I still have major gripes about having to pay to save the game. The goofiness was quite enjoyable though.

RESULTS:
Summer Theme: SM - Magaluf!
Summer Fun: SMConflict

I am a little undecided here actually. SMConflict was the more enjoyable hack, but I really, really didn't get a summer theme feel with it. SM - Magaluf! had a much better summer theme, but it wasn't used very much, and it was only partially there anyway. Here is my issue. The hack I think is better did not have as strong a summer theme. I will have to think about this for a while, and perhaps seeing what others say will help me sort out how exactly I feel in this.

[thedopefish]

Alrighty then.  I'll begin this by saying that I enjoyed playing all 3 of these.  I played through them all in one sitting and streamed it.  Then I waited a couple days to gather my thoughts and watch a couple others stream their playthroughs before writing this up.  So here goes:

[spoiler=Magaluf]
The Good:  Custom file select graphics.  Sunburn mechanic is kinda neat, especially how it doesn't affect you in the shade.  Justin Bailey patch fits well with the theme.  There are a few clever item placements that I completely missed, and only found out about from watching other people play the hack.

The Gripes:  The fish and pancake enemies severely hurt Samus (which makes sense considering she's suitless here), but basically everything else does negligible damage, so it feels a little inconsistent.  Removing the ability to see the equipment menu or even scroll the pause map seems to accomplish no purpose.  I thought for sure I managed to get permastuck in the room with the morph tunnel pits, but I did manage to wiggle free eventually.

The Gist:  Fun, easy, and straightforward.

The Gameplay:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaVdt9v5MiE
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=SMConflict]
The Good:  Custom file select graphics.  The shop is very cool.  Primary custom music is "interesting".  Tetris-C music is neat, and fitting.  The puzzles to get some of the items were well done.  The items other than Ka-Chings were hinted at pretty well.  Bosses were entertaining, particularly the custom names.  Fish background is best background.

The Gripes:  The glows were messed up for me, leading to some very peculiar colors.  Drop rates for energy/money suck.  While nothing REQUIRED was randomly hidden in the walls with no hint, enough things were that the hack heavily incentivizes you to go around constantly shooting walls; this isn't hugely fun and it doesn't feel like true exploration.

The Gist:  A lot of neat things going on here, and plenty of secrets.

The Gameplay:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQldOOjTys
[/spoiler]

And for completeness sake, the disqualified entries:
[spoiler=SLC]
The Good:  Custom file select graphics.  Tons of custom graphics in general.  Custom enemies too, which are quite cool.  The custom boss is amazing.  Double jump is kinda fun.  Shaktool technically exists but you don't need to spend 5 hours fighting him like in certain other So Little hacks.  Also unlike previous So Little hacks, neither the bosses nor the grapple sections are unduly difficult/frustrating.  Easter egg during planet explosion was a nice touch.

The Gripes:  Again with the disabled walljumps and bombjumps?  Those shyguys have way too much HP--the most common enemy in your hack should not require TEN power beam shots to kill--and no, the fact that you get pseudo-screw and lots of missiles to deal with them does not discount the point.  The angry sun is too difficult to avoid, and should not be able to follow you underground.  The crumble jump room is dumb.  Constantly having infinitely respawning shyguys fall on your head from nowhere gets old pretty quick.  I found a permastuck (despite playing the disqualified patch version--which for the record has since been fixed).

The Gist:  This hack is dragged down by a couple of serious problems that no doubt would have been addressed if not for time constraints.  But it does include some cool stuff and certainly looks distinctive, and I found myself largely enjoying the playthrough.

The Gameplay:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdsyqnM01K4
[/spoiler]

My vote goes to SMConflict.

[Quietus]

Since the contest requirement is that I vote on the aspect of summer, I'm voting for Conflict, though I found this to be less enjoyable than Magaluf.  Either way, congratulations to both entries. :^_^:

My more detailed response is in the relevant thread.

[X-tradyte]

I choose SMConflict.

I loved everything about it except the sidehoppers. Even still it was nice placement, and the idea to have money to buy things was cool. The music was weird though, and it wasnt completely summer themed, i felt.

Magaluf was fun as far as adventuring went, and the constant heat runs were cool, except getting the varia like suit after ridley, which was right at the end... kinda made it pointless, and so i think it should've been a little longer to give use to varia.
Otherwise it was good.

SLC, though dq'd, I thought would've won if it werent. However there are tons of issues that need to be fixed, as dopefish mentioned the lot of them, the sun was terrible at the beginning, and the middle. The pyramid was a little confusing to me, however it was fun. The shyguy spam couldve been toned down by reducing hp. I also feel like having casade of heat in the surface rooms would've given off a good idea of just how hot it was. Overall a cool hack after you got into it.

[Quietus]

Magaluf was fun as far as adventuring went, and the constant heat runs were cool, except getting the varia like suit after ridley, which was right at the end... kinda made it pointless

But that was the entire point of the hack - Samus goes looking for sun cream, so it makes sense that it's at the very end. :^_^:

[Jordan5]

Quitus is right. I did have the intro text set up explaining things a little more, but decided it was just annoying to sit through it so left it out in the end. Basically, Samus realises she forgets the suncream on her way to Magaluf, so stops off at the nearest planet to find some. So yeah, she leaves for Magaluf the moment she has it :^_^:

[Vismund Cygnus]

I forgot to do these reviews!
[spoiler=Magaluf!]I rather enjoyed this hack. The linearity didn't feel "linear" as such, and it was well-paced. I did find that use for speedbooster, though it seemed a pointless addition. Overall, a fun little hack. My only gripe is, echoing dopefish, the inconsistency in the damage dealt by enemies. Also I felt the summer theme was well represented here, and the use of the Justin Bailey patch was clever.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=SMConflict]This hack had a lot of cool ideas but I really just found it to be less fun than the other entry, and it didn't necessarily fit the theme well. The one sandy room did certainly fit it well, but the rest of it (particularly the forest(?)/jungle repalette) just didn't suit the theme. As dopey said, the drop rates for things really sucked. In addition, I had a lot of trouble getting the shop to work, mainly due to the fact that you had to be standing in a really, really specific spot and maybe had to press a button (at least, that's how it worked for me), and there was really no hint for it whatsoever. However it was a cool feature.
The bosses were both interesting, the first one was well-implemented, however the second I had to sit there and spam fire at it (I found a safe spot in the room). So yeah, I really just didn't get a summer vibe from this one, and although it had cool ideas, the hack just wasn't fun for me.[/spoiler]
So yeah, if you read through that it should be pretty obvious who I'm voting for.
[spoiler=And the winner is...]Magaluf! takes it for me, on account of being more enjoyable and fitting the theme better. I will say though that I felt SMConflict looked "better", though not suited to the theme. So that just goes to show that having a fun hack certainly beats out eye-candy.[/spoiler]

[Kte]

SMConflict receives my vote.
Magaluf may have been more Summer-y in theme, but it really only had a few Summer rooms and the suncream.  The boring underground rooms brought this one down for me.  SMConflict may have been less obviously Summer, but the atmosphere in the large shop room was better than that of the sunny rooms in Magaluf and I felt like the water would be a nice place to cool off from the Summer heat in.  This was many times over a better hack. Every little detail was considered, and it became a whole different game.  Magaluf felt like a regular modification of Super Metroid to me, but Conflict was completely different.  Among things that set it apart from SM are the shop and money feature and the inventive enemy physics.  The puzzles were great and the difficulty level a plus.  This had the more adventurous gameplay and what I felt was a constant Summer theme, and that is why my vote goes to SMConflict!

[Jiffy]

Damnit. I forgot to say who my vote goes to.

It was a tough one, but SmileUser96 gets my vote. :)

[Jiffy]

Well contest is over. SMConflict wins with "4" votes, Magaluf! With 1. SLC sitting there with a 0 and in the bin. :(
In my opinion, I think badges are required, or some status, who knows. That's not my decision anyways.

Good job anyway guys! This contest is now over. Time for the next one! :^_^:

(5 changed to 4, Mst didnt vote, my bad)