Top Hacks 2012

[MetroidMst]

Yes fellow Metconstians, it is that time of year again. The time of year when 3 more hacks will be released before the end of the year and I have to update this post... (Don't disappoint me!) So, it is time we discuss the hacks that were released this year, the triumphs and flaws within them, and ultimately state our case and reason for or against these fine efforts brought to us by some of the most intrepid hackers.

First off, a very large and hearty thanks to those who released hacks this year! I know it certainly isn't an easy task to make one, and they have all been fun in some way. Now, for what we have had released this last year. (Pending the rest of the year of course!)

• Blackout
• Made in Metroid: Attack of the Rinkas
• PB v0.6
• Darkholme Hospital
• Super Metroid: Black Plague
• Metroid: Advent
• Digital Cube
• Escape from Planet Metroid
• Z-Factor
• SM - 32
• Eris 2012

Alright, so discuss away! Bring out the good, bad, and the ugly about the hacks in question. I think it is safe to say that all the hacks this year have some issues. So, what do you like for worst hack? (This one is special to me!) How about the best aesthetics? Which is the best quickplay? And as always, the ultimate goal, what is best overall?

The categories that will be up for voting is as follows:

• Best Aesthetics
• Most Creative Gameplay
• Best Quick Play
• Best Challenge
• Best Exploration
• Worst Hack
• Best Overall

So, there you have it. The particulars of the case are established. The hacks are up for your judging. So first off, make sure you play the hacks, give them all a fair shake now, and then depending on how you feel state your case. Of course, this practice is full of personal opinions and feelings about the hacks played, so don't get worked up if someone says something. Also, please read what others have said. They may have some valuable points about the hacks you may not have picked up.

Let the debate begin!

[FullOfFail]

I haven't played all of them entirely, but I have seen enough vids of all them to make a judgement call.

[spoiler]

Best Aesthetics

You know, this one is tough. I like different designs for different hacks for different reasons. Advent and Black Plague has really nice aesthetics. But, I'll give it to Z-factor, just because making rooms exactly like the original can be tough. You'd think it'd be easy, but it's rare people follow the formula properly. The original has that certain tile-placement style, and both Redesign and Z-Factor nailed it. It's something that takes alot of experience. I disagree with Z-factor in many other areas, though.

Most Creative Gameplay

I'll give this to Attack Of the Rinkas. If you played it, you should know why.

Best Quick Play

Uh, depends on the time-span of "quick" because Attack of the Rinkas might win this too. But I'll instead go with Darkholm hospital. It was a change of pace, I liked it.

Best Challenge

Maybe I was just doing things out of order, but Z-Factor was pretty damn hard. But I guess I'll go with blackout since you couldn't even see Samus most of the time. It's hard enough to remember a 100% item run regularly, much less the entire game instinctively.

Best Exploration

Uh, since most of these are mini's or experimental, it's hard to judge. But I'll go with Black Plague. Totally got stuck in the atmosphere of it. If Z-Factor didn't have so many secret main routes, it might've won. But exploring a hack that size when everything is hidden or obscure is frustrating.

Worst Hack

Aww, got to be rude now :( Probably Blackout. Would be much nicer if it was instead just outlines, or some type of hint.

Best Overall

Another tough one. I'll give it to Z-Factor just because he put so much effort into making it. Just wish it was slightly different in terms of level layout.

[/spoiler]

[Digital_Mantra]

[spoiler]Best Aesthetics
Z-Factor (He knows his shit.)

Most Creative Gameplay
Darkholme Hospital (It was genius.)

Best Quick Play
Darkholm Hospital

Best Challenge
Z-Factor (Tough monsters, etanks being scarce the first half, spikes and shit.)

Best Exploration
Z-Factor (I know we all got stuck but it was huge, it was all about exploration.)

Worst Hack
Blackout (..yeah, not my cup of tea.)

Best Overall
Z-Factor (It's just a given at this point.)[/spoiler]

[MetroidMst]

I won't give out what I think I'll vote for, but I will instead list what I think can be entered into each category and why they deserve some credit in that area.

Best Aesthetics: Quite a few hacks can lay claim to this one.
1: Black Plague. This hack creates a nice, dark atmosphere within the wrecked facility. The Webbers know how to use their tiles well, and this is no exception. Pretty outstanding work with the tiles. There is one major flaw. Where are the bubbles?
2: Project Base 0.6. If there is one visual complain to make, it is that bubbles don't appear in every room. Other than that, I didn't really like the rooms made solely out of the mustard blocks. (Red Brinstar.) However, PB does make use of bubbles in lots of places, and has some very good palettes as well. (Lacks purple and green unfortunately.)
3: Advent. Quite simply, Advent has the best looking area released this year with the dark jungle. That is an awesome area. Advent is also pretty strong otherwise, but nothing quite stands out like that jungle. (He does use bubbles in the underwater area too!)
4: Z-Factor. Why am I including Z-Factor in here? Because simply put, it uses vanilla tiles for most everything, and does it extremely well. I believe DMan said it in IRC, but no other hack has used the original tiles like this since Redesign. For you original purists out there, Z-Factor is a loaf of bread.
5: Digital Cube. I include this for your consideration. Digital Cube offers nothing for tile variety. It uses the save/map station tileset, with very little else. However, I include it because the tileset is used extremely well. Any hidden path you have to find? There is always a hint you can find. This won't win, but I think it should be noted it does a lot with very little.
6: Darkholme Hospital. Cloud seems to like using minimal tilesets. (And two hacks in a single year?) However, like Digital Cube, Darkholme provides more excellent use of minimal tiles, and also provides an atmosphere to match to the dark, broken ruins of the hospital. This one probably won't win either, but it should be another example to study how to do a lot with little.
Six hacks in this category? Looks like hackers are getting better with their designs! While I think 4 of these don't have a chance, they are still solid, excellent looking hacks.

Most Creative Gameplay:
1. Attack of the Rinkas. This is obvious. Rinkas is easily the most interesting Metroid gameplay you will find in a Metroid game. It turns Samus into a hi-score chasing fiend, and players only complaint is lack of level variety and Tetris music.
2. Blackout. So it is nothing more than the original really, but it tests how well you really know Super Metroid by blanking your visual slate and making the player grope about practically blind. A very interesting concept.
3. Digital Cube. This hack made dying not such a big deal. You were going to die no matter what. Eventually you would make a wrong turn. But this hack creates a premise that the player doesn't mind dying. Each time you start over, you keep building your knowledge of the hack and avoid the death traps, and eventually the player will triumph.
4. Project Base 0.6. Yet another hack that is basically the original game. But this one needs mentioned because it changes how you play it. A myriad of different tweaks created this smooth, fast flowing game. There is a lot to like with the changes, and it makes for a completely new experience.
5. Z-Factor. This hack is easily one of the most creative hacks to date. It offers many interesting things. Bosses may be different and weird, things stare at you, and then WHY ARE THOSE BOULDERS FALLING ON ME? And seriously, exploration may never be as "creative" as Zaridia provides. Ever. Again.

Best Quick Play:
1. Attack of the Rinkas. Again, pretty obvious for this. Rinkas brings back memories of chasing hi-scores in arcade games. You can just pick it up and play for a quick bit.
2. Digital Cube. A small hack, with a pretty simple, but well executed concept. You will die somewhere, but the hack is 7*7 in totality. That's right, 49 explorable screens in total. Plus, the puzzle element makes this one hack you can grab and have fun with for an hour before finishing it. A very solid pick for a quick play.
3. Black Plague. Honestly, it is a small hack, which fits very well with this category. Black Plague is another you can load up and play for a bit before finishing it.

Best Challenge:
1. Z-Factor. This hack... It offers a challenge alright. Explorational challenge is often what I consider some of the worst to have to the extent Z-Factor does. However, I really only lost it during the whole 10 hour visit to Zaridia, because I was genuinely enjoying the hack otherwise. Explorational challenge aside, there are some very, very interesting bosses and an extremely tight escape. (Which is needed more often. Quit giving players the rest of their life to escape!)
2. Darkholme Hospital. It seems the French like to challenge us. As you go deeper into the hospital and get closer to the cause of all that ails space-faring species, things get tougher, and tougher, and tougher. Eventually even instant death enemies. Besides enemies, there are some good hidden things to discover as well.
3. Digital Cube. Yep, Cloud likes a challenge. Cube isn't as hard as the others, even though you will die in it, and you may not in the others. Cube makes the player find a path, die, find the path again and make minor adjustments or find a new secret and advance. Then die again, and start it over, all while building a mental map and understanding what it is you have to do here, and figuring out how to advance even more.
4. Attack of the Rinkas. Seriously, how much can you score?

Best Exploration:
1. Digital Cube. As I've mentioned before, it is all about adding to what you know and keep following the path and figuring out what to do. Death traps me be inconvenient, but it works well within this hack. It offers something very different for the player.
2. Z-Factor. No hack has the amount of exploration as Z-Factor, and while not all of it is good (See Zaridia.) most of the hack is pure win. Exploring is a major factor, as it always is in large Metroid hacks, and there is no shortage of it. Even early on, you will discover that exploring all over the place will happen. And eventually, after 4 hours, you will get to Zaridia, and you will spend the rest of your natural life trying to figure that place out. After that, things got much more straightforward, and Z-Factor has the best, and most realistic, Tourian ever.

Worst Hack:
1. Attack of the Rinkas. Seriously, an arcade-type-chasing-hi-score game in Metroid? WHY?
2. Darkholme Hospital. Why are there insta-death enemies at the end? Can't you give us one hit at least?
3. Z-Factor. Zaridia.
4. Blackout. Sometimes, seeing is nice.
5. Project Base 0.6. This isn't complete, and working on it has delayed Rise.
6. Escape From Planet Metroid. Metroids don't planet, they do it! (Get it? "Planet?" "Plan it?" Oh nevermind.)
I would like to note that this is the best category, and any hack could probably fall under this. Seriously, as the previous winner of this, I am disappointed that there were no hacks that were made specifically to win this fine award. Do better next year, or MMT if it is finished/released in that time frame will walk away with this easily.

Best Overall:
1. Z-Factor. It has flaws, it has Zaridia, and everyone has either a positive or negative opinion about it. There is no in-between. Zaridia took care of them. That being said, this hack has so many excellent things in it. Early on you get the water droplets and eyes. The statue holding Morph may freak you out. BOULDERS. Some bosses are... Different. The best Tourian ever. Period. (Seriously, play through the thing to get here.) And it actually has a decent challenge.
2. Digital Cube. As you can tell, I really like this hack. It is small, but for what it is the hack is superb. There is only one issue with it. Since it is puzzle based, and small, once you're got that down... Then what? Not much replayability here. However, once people know what to do, it would be a nice hack to race, something the other competitors can't really say.
3. Attack of the Rinkas. If you want something completely different, and hope to see more completely different Metroid hacks, why not Rinkas? It is different enough to throw a wrench into the "Metroid" type of Metroid hacks.
4. Darkholme Hospital. A small hack that packs a punch. It has a good balance of exploration/reward. A dark story and atmosphere, and weird tentacle things on the bottom floor...

I think you can see a lot of good points for many of these hacks in these categories. Perhaps there are more I missed? And what are the points against them?

[Zhs2]

Bump. This is now the nomination topic. Nominations will last for three weeks, after which voting will occur for the next week. Nominate well, and nominate cool, Metconst, and don't forget to pick up and play some good hacks along the way!

[MetroidMst]

After a long, hard, arduous process of picking through these fine hacks, I have come to nominate hacks for the honors of the Metroid Construction Award ceremony and all that jazz. (Zeke should livestream the announcement of the winners and have confetti fall!)

Best Aesthetics - Metroid: Advent
Most Creative Gameplay - Digital Cube
Best Quickplay - Made in Metroid: Attack of the Rinkas
Best Challenge - Digital Cube
Best Exploration - Super Metroid: Z-Factor
Worst Hack - Eris 2012
Best Overall - Super Metroid: Z-Factor

I think it is safe to say that Z-Factor will be up for pretty much any category, so I wanted to make sure there were some other voting options when that happens. Perhaps get some thinking a bit more about what really deserves what.

[Quote58]

Aesthetics - Darkholme Hospital [in both the concept of the hospital getting more ruined as you get father in, and the fantastic backgrounds (especially the doors)]
Creative gameplay - Made in Metroid [one of the most interesting hack ideas I've seen]
Quickplay - Darkholme Hospital [Although it doesn't take very long to get through, it's great all the way through (except for some of the enemy difficulty levels)]
Challenge - Digital Cube [I didn't find it too hard, but without savestates it can be rather unforgiving]
Exploration - Z-Factor [easy decision here, although the main path isn't well hinted at, the exploration is fantastic. Especially thanks to the large SB opportunities, it was a joy to explore the larger planet looking for items and areas.]
Something else about Z-factors exploration though, is it brought metconst together for a few days. You can choose to look at the hacks super open ended nature as a flaw, but that also got everyone helping each other out and trying to figure out where to go next. Which is something pretty special, since not a lot of hacks do that. To me, there's no competition for best exploration this year.
Worst Hack - Z-Factor [as much as I love the exploration and SB, there are some pretty unfair parts of the hack. These would include some enemies doing too much damage, walls that hide important paths but aren't hinted at, and the updates which don't see the big picture, and well, who can forget zaridia :heheh:]
Best Overall - This is a tough one. Easily either Darkholme or Z-factor, but I think I have to give it to Darkholme Hospital.
Darkholme had some fantastic ideas and mechanics in the hack which made it so interesting to play through. The updates don't do anything to hinder it but in fact make it a little bigger, and more fun to play through.
Some of the most interesting parts would include:
-One elevator, that goes through the whole hospital except for level 6
-Doors in the background giving a nice perspective and being done with mostly vanilla tiles
-Logs of workers being seen through the map stations [like lore, but less common]
-hands reaching up replacing spike gfx in cre
-blood on walls and handprints [all of that level 6 stuff was just great]
-new spore spawn gfx. Best resprite of spore spawn I've seen yet]

Probably the best thing about Darkholme is it has so much potential. It started as a cool concept, but with a lot of graphical issues, and a couple of overly powerful enemies. But, with a little time it has fixed these issues for the most part, and is not only great in concept, but in practice as well. There's still potencial for this hack with his DLC-like updates (key patches or whatever they're called) and I can't wait to see more of Darkholme this year.
Good job Cloud.

And good job to all the hack makers this year, lets hope for at least as many this year  :yay:

[JAM]

What a high activity this year!
While it's not too late, I'll write the short review for each category.

Best Aesthetics: Project Base v0.6.
It's wonderful how differently the game with actually unchanged layout may looks like.

Most Creative gameplay: Digital Cube.
Reminds me the movie named Cube (Cube 2: Hypercube, Cube Zero).

Best Quickplay: Darkholme Hospital.
Very nice for mini-hack. Can it be called mini-hack after all?

Best Challenge: Blackout and New Zebes.
Both were a good challenge for me.

Worst Hack: None.
If there was something that have a lot of permastucks, graphical glitches and bugs in one hack (and it wasn't fixed) I'd definitely nominate such kind of hack.

Best Overall: Eris 2012.
Custom music first time in Super Metroid hack!

[Zhs2]

Not many nominations this year, but nonetheless voting has started. Go to it, Metconsters! http://metroidconstruction.com/tophacks.php

[Zhs2]

And Top Hacks writing is finished, gentlemen! Enjoy it here! http://metroidconstruction.com/Top12/