What aspects of Super Metroid gameplay do you enjoy the most?

[TobiMikami]

As the title says, I ask as a developer of both an engine and a very large, detailed, and dedicated
Prime 2D style fan game, I know that Super Metroid is still the most popular title being hacked/modified. When I first started hacking ROMs as a precursor to the level of development I'm at now, Super Metroid was largely the most documented game and having  the SMILE software program, made it a very "easy" game to modify. MZM and MF editors were really early back then (about 10 years ago)  while there are obviously those dedicated to the GB titles, I presumed Super takes the center stage for the gameplay dynamics, the sequence breaks etc. But I wanna know from the players what specifically they like best, is it the gamepley itself, level design and exploration wise? The items? Sequence breaks? Physics?
While my engine currently contains almost every item in SM besides the grapple beam, plus almost every item in Prime except the "boost ball" and wavebuster, I'm using MZM based sprites versus SM which are smaller, but I have walljumping, speed booster and shinesparking, etc. If players would enjoy the GBA titles more with more Super-like physics, I'd like to be able to play around with that, but I need to know from the players what everyone likes, and wants out of a fan game built entirely from nothing except two really awesome programmers (Kousoru and myself. Well technically three if you count physix..two and a half (men(troids)?"

Anyways, fire away! Keep in mind this isn't just for fan game development but for engine development that will eventually be a free open source Game Maker Studio engine with everything I build my game off of, minus rooms, bosses(maybe) and some other resources I (may) choose to keep or may not, probably will release once the entire game is done but not till then!
But the engine is almost done, enough to build the majority of the game around the remaining few elements as they come into play. So I guess in a way it's like...the players choice version of metroid? ( I hope this quirky Meta humor gets a chuckle for someone lol )

[alexman25]

The world-design and sequence-breakability are what I like about the gameplay the most, though I personally feel those have both been done better in other titles in the series. The things I prefer about SM over others are non-gameplay related.

From the perspective of what I've heard echoed the most, a lot of people prefer SM for its in-depth movement mechanics, physics, and wider variety of items.

And finally, as a mainly Zero Mission hacker, here's some things I've found that Super has that is better from a development perspective: Larger grid-map size, more enemy variety, more collision shapes, and most importantly: more screen real-estate.

One thing to mention is that Super Metroid isn't as different from  Zero Mission as one might think. The main reasons why it was the main Metroid to hack for a while were mainly

A: It was the most popular Metroid game by far. A lot of Metroid fans back in the day were really just Super Metroid fans.

B: It's on the SNES. Not only was it a less powerful system than the GBA, but it was also better documented, both making it easier to hack.

C: The status-quo. It started out as the main game people hacked, which meant that Super Metroid hacking got the most exposure, so most people who are interested in hacking would gravitate toward it first due to them already knowing it has an established hacking scene. ZM and MF are at the point now where they can rival SM, for sure. But, even if the store-brand potato-chip is better, the name-brand will continue to outsell it (bare in mind, I am not saying that GBAtroids are better than Super; it is just a comparative example).

I hope this insight can help a bit. I look forward to seeing what others have to say, as well.

[ocesse]

I love the sprite of Samus and her animations, the grace of the character.
I like how you can freely move around the lands of Zebes.
Something that has always impressed me is the X-Ray Scope item, maybe it's not the most useful item, but its idea and technical section I don't think it will be bettered by another implementation in another game.

[UDtheAesir]

I gotta say it's the level design, exploration, boss fights and finding upgrades. Movements are well-done too, especially the sounds and music. Loved the Hyper Beam reveal towards the end when I first played it, along with the effects and what it can do. I guess out of the aspects I've mentioned, the first two favorites would be the level design and exploration.

[FelixWright]

level design, art style, replayability,  run flexibility, being able to toggle abilities on and off, easier wj, music

[benox50]

At first it was the darker alien mood and exploration, but then movement and gameplay depth took the cake, this formula you wont find much in the other metroid titles.
SM has a really high skill ceiling and its really complex movement and tech wise for a snes game, it has momentum and it makes the pacing speed scalable by skills,
with elegant animation and air time.
It also has everything needed for a metroid game, from good enemies/items variety to sequences breaking

I feel the only big missings from SM is the ease of play for newcomers, which also tie into the mixed reactions on the controls,
There are alot of jank to SM, tho that makes his charm and complexity for veterans.
A big missing is that there isnt much post game content, but metconst pretty much fixed that  :grin:

[TobiMikami]

This is good stuff guys, really great. Taking a lot of that into consideration plus I actually started playing Super Metroid at the same time as the engine, I was able to tweak a few things, plus fixed Physix's water scripts and particle effects a bit. What does everyone think of these graphics and effects?
[spoiler]
https://youtu.be/IyGO48tkcjc
https://youtu.be/sDf5n0shhyE[/spoiler]

As far as Samus's sprites go, compared to SM they are shorter but theoretically Samus is about the same height, she occupies about four tiles in Super, three with the ZM sprites. However the doors are the same height, except the door hatch and bubble are a tile and a half not a full two tiles. You can see in the "stand" sprites she's more hunched at the knees, where in Super Metroid shes more straight up and down, I feel like the combat posture is more realistic that way, plus shows off some of the difference in colors in the gravity suit and phazon suit. Prime did suits right, they were so polished and sweet, but you barely seen them, so this is a good chance to imrpove on that.

They also did the Xray a lot better in that game, since you could use it not only to find items, but find hidden platforms, and fight certain bosses. plus it was the whole game screen not just that little bit stationary thing that had no real necessity except for 100%ers.

I think I got the physics a lil more floaty like SM. The gravity in the water def hits, but it crashed the varia suit, and it wasnt making all those bubbles before. I had the breath one only just dialed in, fixed the gravity and it hit pretty hard, needs some more tweaks, but shows a lot of new stuff I threw in lately. Anyone wanna do a test run at a small demo and give me some feedback on the engine?

[Zagan]

Physics and sequence break possibilities.

Controls may feel dated and complex at first, the missile system was already bad at the time, but overall Super Metroid is way more interesting than Zero Mission IMO. Learning new moves like walljump or mockball takes time and practice, but there is always a reward at the end, a new sequence break or an early item. I can't get enough of these mechanics and the more I play, the more I improve and I feel freedom of movement. I finished around 20 SM hacks and I feel I can still progress for years.

Now for what I played, the Project Base physics were the most enjoyable. This hack just feels good to play.

[TobiMikami]

Physics and sequence break possibilities.

As I'm designing I'm test playing rooms with various items to make sure if they can be obtained or not, if they're supposed og be. I have to bar certain sequence breaks like Space Jump is gonna be a really late item like Super, you probably won't get it until after the Phazon Suit (since that negates phazon as a hazard anyways, the space jump becomes a more convenient fast travel method. But you can definitely skip certain early game items all together or do them in a different order, similar to skipping the varia suit in Metroid Prime, you'd probably have to heat run Magmoor Caverns to get anything BUG early on, but there's gonna be some early missiles, early tanks, and planning to leave the early high jump in, since you'll need the jump/boost ball in Phendrana, however I'll probably put a flag in that forces the player to attempt to IBJ the alcove from the landing site, not the Tallon Canyon, too easy otherwise, and I made IBJ physics so much easier anyways.

Controls may feel dated and complex at first, the missile system was already bad at the time, but overall Super Metroid is way more interesting than Zero Mission IMO.

I also agree with the missile layout thing, I reverted to ZM style for that, but Prime Style for Super Missiles and beam combos, this way you never have missiles fully engaged you have to press the dead man switch, keeps you from accidentally wasting missiles. Also eliminates the need for Super missile tanks. I haven't decided yet if I wanted to go up to 300 missiles from 255, the bonus tank was supposed to be for 101%ers skilled enough to find it somewhere in an obscure spot of the game. There are a lot of those hidden goodies designed to make you want to check everything, Alpha fades will prolly be used for some of that eventually.

As far as physics go, I've made some nice improvements, missiles now can deflect and explode, Gravity Suit Samus hits the water with some extra velocity, still trying to make the game work without it, but slopes now we have long slopes and regular slopes, implementing a lot of Super new style lecek design, lots of slopes of different sizes strategically stacked to form long radii and nice rolling hills, dips, and valleys that are especially interesting in cave areas. You can actually feel Samus slow down and speed up now when she runs along these curved surfaces. The speed booster currently works mostly like ZM where you hit a slope and keep running, but I can't seem to save the charge again, I want to put a code in that allows that for speed runners. You'll also need to exploit the use of the speed booster in the 2-4th level of the Phazon Mines, the Shinespark may be particularly helpful in accessing certain areas.

Everyone will have their chance to try the games physics themselves very soon with a new Metroid Confrontation style demo, currently we're shooting for the end of November latest, to celebrate 20 years of Metroid Prime.

[H A M]

Barf Kraid.