Best Tourian Not Named Z-Factor

[djcdubz]

Just finished Z-Factor and obviously Tourian is excellent. What other hacks have reworked Tourians that are of comparable quality?

[drb]

For me, four "proper" Tourians have always stood head and shoulders above the rest, granted it's probably not a very original list:

Z-Factor: Played recently for the first time in a long time, for a map I'm working on.  Just a phenomenal Tourian, probably still the best ever.

Hyper Metroid: For aesthetics - Love the color palettes and "Metroid Hive" feel.  Also, a bit tangential but it leads to my favorite escape sequence in a hack.

Redesign Axeil: For gameplay - combat can be a putoff but it becomes manageable with practice, and the death laser puzzle is a game unto itself.  The Tourian that Redesign always deserved.

Super Zero Mission: For plot/events - the "lab" look and feel is well above and beyond Zero Mission the first time through, and the return trip is simply a masterclass in event-driven game design.

[djcdubz]

For me, four "proper" Tourians have always stood head and shoulders above the rest, granted it's probably not a very original list:

Z-Factor: Played recently for the first time in a long time, for a map I'm working on.  Just a phenomenal Tourian, probably still the best ever.

Hyper Metroid: For aesthetics - Love the color palettes and "Metroid Hive" feel.  Also, a bit tangential but it leads to my favorite escape sequence in a hack.

Redesign Axeil: For gameplay - combat can be a putoff but it becomes manageable with practice, and the death laser puzzle is a game unto itself.  The Tourian that Redesign always deserved.

Super Zero Mission: For plot/events - the "lab" look and feel is well above and beyond Zero Mission the first time through, and the return trip is simply a masterclass in event-driven game design.

Have you played Recovery? That also has a more fleshed out Tourian.

[Love Colored Magic]

I'm going to be unoriginal and say Redesign: Axiel, Super Zero Mission, and VITALITY.  The first two for reasons already mentioned.  VITALITY for its environmental storytelling and inventive tile usage.  Also giving a nod to Hydellius for using custom graphics to convey a different setting from conventional Tourian.  I liked ice Metal's take too but it doesn't stand out as much when placed alongside these examples.

[H A M]

oxide because of barf in croc's room in tourian

[drb]

Have you played Recovery? That also has a more fleshed out Tourian.

Played on your recommendation.  Pretty good Tourain, not on the level as the others mentioned here but a nice surprise in the context of a half-halfhack.  And a good hack overall, so thanks for the heads-up.

VITALITY for its environmental storytelling and inventive tile usage.

The black mark on VITALITY's final area is that it's all exposition and no gameplay, so it's only interesting once: after the first playthrough it's a casual stroll to the finish line after an otherwise-amazing game.  Definitely has to be experienced once though, and the business with the save station is epic.

oxide because of barf in croc's room in tourian

Everything about Oxide is barf.

[TobiMikami]

Have you played Recovery?

oxide because of barf in croc's room in tourian

Everything about Oxide is barf.

Oxide had some really good pallettes imo. Not all of them were the greatest thing in the world, but  I personally liked a few of them. It also came out around 2015 I believe, I remember it coming out back when i was still hacking in 2014-2015 before I started free coding, SM hacking is a whole different world now.

[drb]

Oxide had some really good pallettes imo. Not all of them were the greatest thing in the world, but  I personally liked a few of them. It also came out around 2015 I believe, I remember it coming out back when i was still hacking in 2014-2015 before I started free coding, SM hacking is a whole different world now.

Okay, maybe I was a little harsh there.  I guess I just don't enjoy that much weirdness in my hacks.

Oxide was 2011, and I get your point, but in fairness 2011 also had stuff like Ice Metal, Phazon 0.3 and Super Zero Mission.

[TobiMikami]

Super Zero Mission was easily top three hacks back then let alone top three existential, completed fan games (since AM2R was being made but a long way off, Prime 2D was a pretty crappy demo compared to the new one) but it was a real graphics heavy hack, they were the first ones I know of that had implemented the alpha fade on contact like MZM, but it was a lot of graphical changes. Super Metroid Phazon had a lot more ASM and custom graphics, SZM was more cut and paste graphics wise although they did look cool in Super Metroid back then.

Generally though the further back you go in time to some of the very first hacks like Redesign, a lot of them were vanilla graphics with some pallette changes and maybe some HEX and/or asm work. I mean someone had to be the first to learn, and then share their experiences to help others learn how to build better, more complex hacks.

Although I will admit there's of course better hacks graphics wise and was for the time even, nowadays there's a lot of cool hacks with new graphics and unique ideas, vanilla gfx with a pallete change can seem kinda meh if you weren't around 6-10+ years ago haha.