Super Metroid QoL rom hacks compared? (For first time playthrough)

[Feliz Lombriz]

I'm planning to my toe into the Metroid franchise for the first time! Current game plan is Zero Mission, AM2R, Super Metroid. Then Fusion and Dread if I haven't run out of steam. (But I've also heard start with Fusion, so 🤷‍♂️😅)

For Super Metroid, looks like there are quite a few options for quality of life rom hacks, including:

-Super Metroid Turbo!
-Super Metroid Redux
-Project Base Levels + Control Freak
-Something else?

People seem to like them all, but I'm struggling to get a read on how they actually compare. Which might be best for a first-time player? Or maybe you'd recommend something else for first-time Super Metroid? Thanks!

(First post! If this should instead be under General Gaming or something, just let me know.)

[shaktool7]

Everyone would recommend you to play the original Super Metroid first so you can experience what the devs intended and also be able appreciate the changes in the quality of life hacks. All the hacks change the game to various degrees (project base being the most).

[Ambureon]

in addition to recommending that you forego any "improvement hacks" and just go for the unchanged vanilla experience, i would also recommend that you start with super metroid. playing zero mission, and especially am2r before getting to super metroid will definitely alter your experience with super metroid, possibly for the worse. it is a masterpiece of a game, but it also definitely shows its age in a lot of aspects, and playing it after very recent experience of two highly modern and well-polished games with extremely tight and snappy controls is not the ideal conditions in which to appreciate your first playthrough of super metroid.

[FelixWright]

Full disclosure, I am the author of Project ZM. Until you play vanilla, I recommend against playing any improvement hacks.

The thing about improvement hacks is that they are very subjective. The authors of said hacks won't follow the same philosophy as the original authors of the game, so changes that may be considered "QOL" are likely also completely missing the point of how the game was designed. For example, Project ZM has an option for enabling unknown items before they are normally unlocked. This goes entirely against the point of late game.

TL;DR First time playing Metroid? Don't touch improvement hacks.

i would also recommend that you start with super metroid. playing zero mission, and especially am2r before getting to super metroid will definitely alter your experience with super metroid, possibly for the worse.

I'm more of a chronological man so I personally consider this a bad take.

If Super Metroid has aged so well (and it has!) you shouldn't need to make people play it before Metroid and Metroid II.

That being said, I DO agree that OP should not replace Samus Returns with AM2R. As much as I like AM2R, it is best enjoyed as a fan celebration of the metroid series that pays homage to other entries in the series, NOT as a replacement for the official remake. AM2R is a non-canon fan remake of Metroid II with an engine designed after Zero Mission. An unofficial Zero Mission 2 if you will. You miss out on the lore in Samus Returns. Also as Ambureon said, it sets the bar way too high for the other games. Playing ZM then AM2R, you will expect every metroid to play like GBAtroids. You will get attached to a specific type of gameplay and not want to try new things. Playing AM2R is basically like playing a metroid 2 improvement hack. You shouldnt do it your first time through.

TL;DR What order to play 2D Metroid? Zero Mission -> Samus Returns -> Super Metroid -> Metroid Fusion -> Metroid Dread

[Zhs2]

Metroid 1 is meh, replace it with whatever you want unless you really like navigating a player hostile world and doing the whole "draw your own maps" experience (better yet, if you really want the original experience you can play it through the modern viewport of M. Planets), but I have yet to see any fan projects of Metroid 2 that accurately replicate the original atmosphere of Metroid 2. I might just be a millenial that grew up with the beeps and blips nostalgia but you cannot just beat the progression of creepiness in those beeps and blips throughout the original game, and Metroid 2 is still a solid game all on its own (had to be, stemming from the same SML3 Wario Land engine! That game is great too!) Even Samus Returns feels like a fan project compared to the original Metroid 2, although I might be biased because I hate Samus Returns for being TOO deviant for an official product that claims to be a "remake". I like AM2R because it's closer but FelixWright does have a point about it being too ZM-ey.

Tl;dr OG Metroid 2 should be experienced as-is. Don't sell it short just because it's a black-and-white Game Boy entry.