A.N.T.I. Contest Voting and Reviews

[Vismund Cygnus]

The A.N.T.I. Contest is over, and that means the time has come for you, Metconst, to decide who was the best of the bunch!
Our four entrants, and the themes they displayed, are as follows:

Title	Author	Theme 1	Theme 2	Theme 3	Theme 4	Theme 5
AN.T.I. (ANother Terrible Idea)	T-A-U	Future	Desert	Enter
Metroid Expedition Z	Gohan	Descent	Enter	Collection
So Little Garden	MetroidMst	Forest	Future	Constraint	Collection	Mystery
Angry Remnants	DSO	Ascent	Escape	Collection

Download them all and play each one, then write up all of your reviews (so you can prove you at least tried all of the hacks), and tell us who you believe deserves to win and why. When picking your winner, please keep in mind not only how much you enjoyed it, but how well the hack presented its themes.

And with that aside, contragulations to everybody who made an entry, and good luck, may the best hack win!
git 2 et mitconts



VOTING ENDS NOVEMBER 14th WHOOPS

[Eppy37]

AN.T.I: You disabled Walljumping. YOU BASTARD! Nah but it did work out with the double jump ability. Still felt like a pain when needing to get from point to point sometimes. The Doors resealing was neat at first but started to get annoying as ammo started feeling had to come by(and with some stronger enemies)


Metroid Expedition Z: For the majority of the hack, it felt like I was playing Redesign. Soooooo muuuuuuuch backtracking. ugggggggggggg.... The method required to obtain Super Missiles(I think?), Nononononononononononononononooooooooooooooooooooooooo


So Little Garden: More Wall Jumping disabling....yay.....more grappling.....yay...................Though I do like how well designed the hack is as a whole. While the backgrounds are amazing, in some cases, they made things confusing on what was background and what wasn't. Some of the bosses are a little over the top and the Ridley fight is too RNG for my tastes.


Angry Remnants: Even if it's AFC 1.5, It's Item collection is still the best of the contest. I like how clever a lot of the item locations are and how you can get items in weird orders such as Screw Attack before bombs and Plasma before any other beam. The Graphics are really good as usual, but the Graphic effects make some rooms really hard to see in. Enemy balance is also a ways off. I didn't actually get to finish this hack because I got stuck in the area where Varia suit is and couldn't find a way out.


Winner: SLG. Angry Remnants is a close second.

[X-tradyte]

So my thoughts on the A.N.T.I Contest, i feel like it couldve been better than what i had thought, 4 entries are great but as  soon as the other half couldnt do it in time i realized it wasnt going to be quite as much fun. I personally tried to make something that was small but try to make it sorta long, which is why i added the backtracking to plasma beam part that almost everyone hated.. There were errors and other such things I forgot to include for fixes, namely the one at the very endd of the game where walking off the ship glitchfucks you cause I forgot to solidate the wall theeeere. :facepalm:

Aside from all that shit I honestly think I did a pretty okay job and I'm pretty sure everyone said they enjoyed it somewhat to a point (I guess?) Though my next contest hack I enter will hopefully be better and more improved as this was a big learning experience as I've never had people stream or play a hack from me so hearing from players helps me quite a bit and i learned new things doing this so even if i dont win, I'm glad I entered this.

Also @Eppy, I believe you are talking about Plasma beam.

Now on to the reviews!

[spoiler=AN.T.I by TriAsUnit (T.A.U)]This hack started out with some beautiful scenery, Maridia tiles mixed with the whole desert mix. It was nice, looked a lot like SLC. At least there was no angry sun! Coming up to bombs and such I noticed that the doors respawn. I dont know if there is a reason for it but that was quite a hassle for later parts of the game, as it was a waste of ammo. Especially needing to kill those Ninja Pirates like 5 times. The charge rate due to the accel charges was terrible, and made charge beam literally useless to me. I only found one of two of the Accel charges and from what I watched, it still doesnt quite match up to the original charge speed with both anyway. Nice idea, rarely used item patch, but i feel it couldve used more speed per pickup.

Finding the route forward to Super Missiles was actually pretty meh, i found it immediately and watching others they stumbled around for it for a while.  It was blending in, as your tile design choice for the other rooms made it not look suspicious.

Aside from this stuff, and that abrupt ending, this was a great hack and it's surely one of the best of the 4.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=So Little Garden (SLG) by MetroidMst]Oh boy. Ohhhh boy. Well this hack is a tie for me on things that I hate and things that I like. Lets get down to the things I hate about this hack first, and I know most people will say the same thing...

GOD DAMN THAT MAP AND UNPAUSE TIME. By far, these were the worst things in this entire hack I found. That ungodly slow unpause time made me not want to even open the map. (According to person from his stream last night, he mentioned knowing a fix to it as it was a bad hijack?) Another thing I hated about this was Monstool, however as hard and annoying as he is, there is an easy way to beat him that I saw last night, but who would think to GRAPPLE them? We still dont know if it was intended or not either but if it is, that's really annoying that you need to grapple freeze them.
There was a bad scroll i found as well where you can go off the screen. Also the lag in the Think Tank....good lord.

Now on to the good, I liked the music choices. Specifically having Dark Samus and MP2 Hunters Multiplayer theme was really nice. I also liked hearing Dire Dire Docks while going around the hack so those were nice touches. I also liked the Ridley fight, modeled after Meta in MP3, no doubt. I feel like it couldve used a bit of work though. Rocketball was really cool too.

All in all, it was a decent hack, with some really bad fuck ups that could've completely benefited the hack if they were fixed.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Angry Remnants by DSO]What can I even say about this hack... I am disappoint. DSO, under the circumstances you should've realized a big idea wasnt going to fit in the time span.  :heheh: I was hoping for a great new contest hack to play, but we get AFC 1.5 instead.. Anyways, I never finished this hack. I just couldnt. I got permastuck before bombs because of screw attack. Even if I continued to play, I still watched how others had a terrible terrible time with Ridley. The Atomics room was also really annoying and just wasntt needed. There was a door frame glitch with the room before ridley, plus i feel it was unneeded as it cheaped off damage before ridley if you didnt find screw attack or plasma beam.

Probably the worst of the 4 imo, but it was still cool to see the different fx1s and room layouts while playing. Good job, and it was certainly a good try DSO. Better luck next time.[/spoiler]

So, there are my thoughts on the hacks, I personally did not have a favorite and I think all of them could use a little work, some a lot, but they are what they are and a winner much be chosen between them. So without further adieu...

[spoiler=My vote goes to...]This is hard, but from my reviews, there is one that sticks out with the least errors and such things to prohibit good game play. My vote goes to AN.T.I, as I feel if that charge beam was sped up, it would've made the hack 99.9% better. Good work, T.A.U. Mst was a close second for me, but i just couldnt do it cause of those map issues.[/spoiler]

[SpoOkyMagician]

Alright. I will give them a try. I will edit these below later.

AN.T.I.
[spoiler]
A bit frustrating at first. However, I still managed to complete it. (30-ish minutes with 92%) I did enjoy it though. Room design, gameplay, etc. was fine. Theme wise, he seemed to have followed it perfectly. A good mini hack for sure. I would recommend it.
[/spoiler]

Metroid Expedition Z
[spoiler]I got decently far but, I am stuck. I cannot find supers anywhere. I also noticed a possible stuck. I went to Croc without charge/missiles. I had to die... It is an interesting hack but, I found myself more frustrated than anything. It is a good difficult hack. However, for a mini hack that took me 30+ minutes and getting stuck, I am just gonna leave it there. Theme wise, he follows it as well. I'd recommend trying it.[/spoiler]

So Little Garden
[spoiler]It was very MST that is for sure. I pretty much cheated all the boss battles because those rapid fire Rinka's... Ugh... (I didn't use save stats. I use reverse time.) As for Ridley, the idea was cool. Actually fighting him though, no... Not really fun. I completed with like, 1:38 with 50% or so. Room design, gameplay, etc. was fine. Theme wise, yes. Fine.[/spoiler]

Angry Remnants
[spoiler]I got pretty far but, not completed yet. (I am getting frustrated/bored. Nothing towards you DSO. I am just gonna end it here.) This hack is very cryptic for sure. It's very hard to see where I am going but, very fitting for the theme. I am not really a fan of the gravity change but, it works. The gameplay is questionable. I found it pretty tricky at times figuring out where to go. While that is the theme, it's a bit too cryptic as I said. Still a overall good hack. I would recommend it.[/spoiler]

Final Results/Pick
[spoiler]Pretty tough call for me. They are all good/follow the theme well. Difficulty is pretty much hard-ish except DSO's. (It's more confusing than hard.) TAU's wasn't too bad either... Just a little tricky. Design wise, my favorite is MST's. Theme wise, that's a tough call... I'd have to say draw. Overall wise, ...MST's is probably my choice. While it has it's issues IMO, it was still pretty fun. Congrats MST. You got my vote.[/spoiler]

(Results Complete.)

~ SpoOkyMagician

[Vismund Cygnus]

Brace yourselves for ranty ravings and reviews! Four enter the arena, but who will emerge the victor? Let's find out!

[spoiler=AN.T.I.]
AN.T.I. (ANother Terrible Idea) by T-A-U

Completion Rate: 100%

AN.T.I. is one of those hacks that is hard in a really not fun way. Enemies health is ramped up (eg Green Pirates take 2 missiles now instead of one), but fear not, because this is compensated by. . . having less ammo? Missile packs give an abysmal 3 per pack. But you have Charge Beam! . . which uses accel charges, making it basically useless throughout the whole game. Coupled with respawning doorcaps, most of my time spent playing AN.T.I. went jumping between rooms farming enemies so that I could get a Super Missile to open a goddamn door.
With that said, I will commend T-A-U on his use of graphics and level design. It's all quite good, it's just the enemies made the whole thing a real letdown.

Pros -
*Nice Graphics.
*Bomb Torizo's room was something different.
*Botwoon had thankfully lower health.
*Proper ending totals.
*Good usage of themes mostly.
*No bugs to be found?
*100%.

Cons -
*Hugely abrupt ending.
*No map in an exploration game.
*Third theme was somewhat of a non-theme, but that's mostly okay.
*Enemies tanking too much damage.
*Drop rates for Missiles/Supers/Health need balanced.
*Not being able to jump from the top of a double jump? I'm not sure if this was just me but it seemed as though you had to fall a little before being able to jump again.
*There is at least one item that can't be reached if you miss it the first time around.

Overall, AN.T.I. was a mean and mostly unmemorable romp that I couldn't bring myself to enjoy.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Expedition Z]
Metroid Expedition Z by Gohan (Apex)

Completion Rate - N/A

Here are the notes that I took as I was playing the hack (as I did for all of the hacks)

-lack of attention to detail in paletting
-required damage from players
-sometimes unfair enemy placement
-for a hack that is based around descent, i seem to be doing a whole lot of ascending
-contrived bomb puzzle?
-bullshit lava pit outside of spospo
-hiding save stations?
-really, I am ascending an awful lot
-the puzzle for getting the first super missile was completely dumb
-what the fuck
-fucking metroids
-fucking Gold Torizo
-nope fuck this

And so it was that I didn't finish Metroid Expedition Z. The hack was so full of contrived stupidity that I really just couldn't do it. I'm writing this just after I've finished so it's still fresh in my mind, but here's the main lowdown on the pros and cons.

Pros -

* The ice area had a neat aesthetic
* Two of the three themes were presented quite well
*100%?

There were probably more pros than this, but unfortunately I couldn't remember much over all the bad things I found myself bitching about.

Cons -

*First off, the map breaking after saving and loading is a huge issue in an exploration based hack, and ended up making much of the later item collecting (plasma in particular, but more on that later) more of a chore than anything else.
*As I said up there, there seemed to be a lot of lack of care in some of the paletting. The first area was all very Redesign Crateria. The red brick area was at least somewhat original, but then throwing in regular Spore Spawn threw the whole thing off. Why is the plant king living in a lava land? Was it that much effort to colour him red? Also in Red Brinstar, what was up with the random flecks of blue throughout the red? I'm sure it was due to the blue Omnoms, but would it have been that much of an effort to draw out the blue?
*There were multiple instances of required damage throughout the hack. Namely with Spore Spawn's room, where it was impossible to avoid both Spore Spawn and the lava in the bottom at the same time. Additionally with the elevator into the ice area, although the damage taken is incredibly low, it still shouldn't happen.
*As stated above, the puzzle for the first super missile (with the reflecs) was complete stupidity. There was absolutely no indication that the reflecs were there, which made for a good 20 minutes of running around everywhere before I gave up and cheated in SMILE.
*On the subject of supers, why hide such an important major upgrade in this way? I don't understand why people do this! Having an obnoxious puzzle should be reserved for optional, unneeded items. Hiding major upgrades like this is just a pain in the ass way of killing momentum. Do you see the original game doing stupid shit like this? If so, please tell me where.
*What was up with the save station in Brinstar being hidden in the wall? Though the hint was obvious, I did manage to miss it the first time around (there had been other instances of being able to see rooms from the other side of walls). The same could almost be said of the ice area, why hide the save station at the top of the elevator? Why hide save stations at all?
*I got stuck in the block underneath Varia and had to hard reset back to the start of Brinstar.
*Underwater spikes. It's so incredibly easy to get stuck on an underwater suitless spike when you have to jump to get off them.
*The Metroids. Yes, I understand it was part of your story to have them only immune to plasma, but why did they in turn have to deal so much damage, while you're running through a suitless underwater section with no way to get them off you and already having a low amount of energy? In a room designed to take a lot of time and effort to traverse through?
*And that's another issue. There's a huge number of rooms that take the Redesign philosophy of "how can I make this room take as long as I possibly can to traverse?" By padding out rooms with annoying things that kill your run and force you to walk around a silly contrived long path, it pads out the gameplay in the most boring way possible.
*Plasma, what the fuck? This was probably the dumbest puzzle of all of them in this hack. There was absolutely no signposting to suggest that I would have to travel all the way to the start of the hack to find a required item. Then actually finding the item in itself with your apparent "hints" that weren't obvious as hints until after you had found the hints. In a hack as linear as this one, there is quite simply no need to make the play travel all the way from the very end point of the hack, right back to the start (with virtually nothing to do in between), only to make them travel all the way back to where they were in the first place. It killed any momentum the hack had going for it left, and left me in rather a sour mood. Instead what should have been done is you could have created some sort of quick loop back to the start, or alternatively made it more obvious that plasma was there from the get-go.
*Why, why, why, why, why, why is Gold Torizo immune to charge? Despite the fact that it doesn't seem his health has been changed from the original, he's now 200% harder to kill because he still follows the standard Gold Torizo behaviour of dodge missiles, grab supers. Meaning he's almost impossible to kill with a low ammo count. This is where I gave up playing the hack.
*And finally, what on the surface was not a big issue, but in terms of the rules is a massive oversight. You claim that one of your themes is "descent", yet for the vast majority of the hack I felt like I was climbing. I climbed to get out of Crateria. Yes, I then took a downward elevator, but that was followed by a climb up to Spospo. Then I took an upward elevator into the climby shaft land of Brinstar, where every single major upgrade I found seemed to be at the top of a shaft. The ice area was very descent-y, though it looped around then you had to climb back up through Brinstar to get the the end of the game. And though the escape is very descend-y, I don't believe it justifies that the vast majority of the hack was spent climbing up through the world.


And so if it wasn't obvious, ExZ takes my pick for the worst of the bunch. It felt incredibly unpolished and underwhelming, with some ridiculous expectations from the player backed with the Redesign-approved method of telling them to get better.

[spoiler=Now Gohan, before you rage-reply]Gohan, I only hope that when you read the criticisms I've raised here in a very non-levelheaded way, you'll not immediately get pissed off, but instead you'll read into it and take away from it some idea of where I think your hack went wrong, and what you can do to improve on those things in future endeavours. If you can do that, I'll be incredibly happy. Don't just dismiss my ranting as the ravings of an angry lunatic, or you'll have taken nothing away from this experience. Just pay attention to the criticisms, take them in stride, and learn from some of the mistakes you made. Don't just ignore it because I think your hack was bad and it made me mad. If you were worried about people being negative about it, you should have never released it.[/spoiler]
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Angry Remnants]
Angry Remnants by DSO

Completion Rate: 70.4%


Well, what can I say about Angry Remnants that hasn't been said about Angry Fire Chozo? Not a great deal. AR is AFC's spiritual, untested, and unbalanced other self, like the mentally unstable identical twin you keep locked in the attic and feed fish heads to continue to sustain it for some kind of satanic ritual you're planning to extend your life when you reach the age of 66 and 6 days or something of the like. But anyway, I go off on a tangent. Dot points have worked well for me so far, so hey, let's continue the trend!

Pros -

*The only hack of the 4 with a working map!
*Of the 4, Angry Remnants was probably the best in terms of displaying its thematic choices. The incorporation of physics changes to justify the "Ascent" theme was a neat take on things (although it could just as easily have been used for "descent"). There were plenty of items to be picked up (which may be viewed as both a pro and a con), and the escape theme, though the weakest of the 3 you chose, was presented in a wacky enough way that it kinda stuck for me.
*Level design was interesting to say the least. The Angry Fire Physics Mechanics (TM) present some really unique ways to build rooms, and it's clear to me that despite only taking a week to create the hack, a great deal of care was put into designing the rooms, for the most part.
*Crazy FX1, tilesets, and palettes were overall very interesting to see.
*The non-linearity of the hack (though you said on IRC it was somewhat unintended) was cool to see. The more I played, the more I saw ways I could've taken a different route and collected items in a different order.
*100%

Cons -

*The abundance of items mainly seemed to be to buff up the "Collection" aspect of the hack, as was clearly evidenced by quarter pickups.
*The lack of testing was incredibly apparent from the get-go. AR was the only hack where I felt the need to save-state, up until the first save point. The next few points are specifically in relation to the lack of testing.
   *Enemy damage was insanely high, notably with the crabs early on in the hack. Thankfully Screw Attack was relatively early in the hack, which made things significantly easier.
   *Spore Spawn was in the hack for no reason.
   *Vanilla Ridley but with half the items. Need I say more?
   *There were a number of perma's in the hack, which could easily have been ironed out with some testing.


Angry Remnants for me could've been a shoo-in for the top pick, but the lack of testing and the overall unpolished nature of the hack unfortunately marred the playthrough of the hack for me. Still an overall fun playthrough, and I've no real things for you to take away from this other than get testers. :P
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=SLG]
So Little Garden by MetroidMst

Completion Rate: 132.2% ( :^) )
       but actually 100%

First off, I'll be completely transparent and say that yeah, I was one of the beta-testers for this hack. Now, before you go yelling biased, you're probably right, but I imagine the only bias I have is hating the hack more because of some of the stuff that was in this before it was changed.
Now with that aside, SLG felt as though it was the most polished of all the hacks, and it certainly had the largest number of changes of any of the hacks. Custom items, bosses, tilesets, HUD, music, and GFX all lifted SLG up above its peers. That's not to say it was without its flaws, so let's get to all that in dot points!

Pros -
*100%, with plenty of items to collect along the way.
*Presentation of themes was done really well
*Custom everything! Music, bosses, graphics, HUDs, all sorts of cool stuff. It definitely felt like more than a month's work.
*Speaking of bosses, SLG is one of the few hacks where the custom bosses felt like bosses as opposed to just strong enemies.
*Plenty of secrets to be found and things to explore.
*An abundance of save stations! Save stations that refill you! Excellent stuff!
*Back on the subject of bosses, the Ridley fight is the most interesting Ridley has ever been in a hack.
*Rocket ball was really neat, and implemented very well in places.
*Mostly bug-free, with two glaring exceptions.

This is the only hack that deserves a "Mixed" section of dot points. Things that were dumb, but justifiable in context.

Mixed -
*Bosses were able to tank huge amounts of damage, and dish it out just as well, but the abundance of energy and missiles at the players disposal (A total of something like 2000 energy and 400 missiles) meant I never felt like I was going in under-prepared.
*Monstool was the biggest issue of all the bosses, not so much because he was "difficult", mostly he just got tedious after playing for some time. Not having Screw Attack may very well have made the fight hell though. It was also quite nice in my opinion to have a save station/refill just before the fight.
*Ridley sometimes threw out unfair patterns that could just outright kill you, however that's the nature of the boss, and having a save station nearby made dying to him less bad.
*Bladetool(?(The resprited Metroid boss)) was stupidly impossible to see, but he was such a pushover that it didn't really matter to me.
*There were a few instances of directionless wandering in some parts of the hack, notably between a couple of the bosses. However the abundance of items to be found made this less concerning.

Cons -
*I don't care what stupid story excuse you made up, having a borked map in a hack that demands as much exploration as SLG is a huge issue.
*The map screen taking forever to unload would be a nightmare for console players. On an emulator it's pretty okay. Hooray for fast forward!
*Some items were hidden in ways that would be completely impossible to find. No map suggestions or tileset hints are to be found.
*A good deal of the later part of the hack was just tedious item collection to build up enough energy to beat Ridley, which would have been fine, except the map didn't work and much of the hack looked very same-y, so it came down to half an hour or so of "did I explore this room? Yes. What about this one? No! What about these two? Yes." etc. etc.

And yet, in spite of everything Mst tried to do to make players mad, I enjoyed SLG. I enjoyed the quirky Shak bosses, and the stupid item finding, and the Smiley faced ship.
[/spoiler]



And the results are:
[spoiler]
And so, as much as I hate myself for saying this, SLG takes my vote for the best hack of the lot. It's overall polish, presentation of themes and the amount of enjoyment I got from playing it put it a cut above the rest.
Angry Remnants is definitely my second pick, as it was not only fun but presented its A.N.T.I. themes very well, however the lack of polish and testing marred the experience. Otherwise, as stated previously, it would probably have taken my top pick.
As for AN.T.I. and Ex-Z, unfortunately I just didn't find myself enjoying either hack enough to pick either above SLG or AR. However I congratulate both authors on finishing their hacks in time for the contest, and I hope both will the criticisms directed at them in stride and learn from what they did wrong.

So congrats, MetroidMst and SLG!
[/spoiler]

[Lenophis]

I have a SRS BUSINESS question that I need to ask and have answered:

Mainly...
how long does the voting of the wreckage go on for?!
(I know it's over the top, but THIS IS A CONTEST OF CRUSHMENT IN ALL ITS GLORY)

[Eppy37]

Also @Eppy, I believe you are talking about Plasma beam.

I'm 99.9% sure it's Super Missiles. Plasma Beam was easy.

[X-tradyte]

Also @Eppy, I believe you are talking about Plasma beam.

I'm 99.9% sure it's Super Missiles. Plasma Beam was easy.

The part with the gasbag and the reflecs and the cebi thing, those were supers.

[Meeptroid]

OK, everyone, this is my first time doing a review for a contest hack, so, please bear with me.

[spoiler]Anyways, my vote goes to Apex/Gohan's hack, Metroid Expedition Z! The hack was very well made and all of the themes fit with the hack. Decent, as you are quite literally descending into Planet Zeron, Enter goes by the same basic terms, and collection as there are many items to find within the 30 rooms in the hack. Overall, I would highly recommend this hack to any person who wants to play a Super Metroid hack with some new ideas in the hack (I won't say WHAT these ideas are, just play the hack to find out yourselves guys!)

SLG wasn't bad, and it would be second place for me, but the bosses were too hard in my opinion, that and no walljumping really set the hack lower for me. [/spoiler]

[Plutia]

Words? I can't do those

AN.T.I.: No
Metroid Expedition Z: No
So Little Garden: Maybe!??!?!!!!?!!!1!?
Angry Remnants: Definitely

recorded streams:
SLG: http://www.hitbox.tv/video/755108
AN.T.I.: http://www.hitbox.tv/video/755109
Metroid Expedition Z: http://www.hitbox.tv/video/755110
Angry Remnants: http://www.hitbox.tv/video/755111

(if it wasn't clear my vote goes to angry remnants)

[Crashtour99]

Angry Remnants:  [spoiler]Sorry DSO, but I can't accept a half hack of one of your already released hacks as a legit contest entry.  That said, I had an interesting time playing through it.  And glitching through the big metroid multiple times made for some good hilarity. [/spoiler]

Expedition Z:  [spoiler]Very tedious and boring to play.  Tiling and palette errors.  Some interesting ideas, but relying on reflecs for progression is a bad idea.  The overall feel is very much like Redesign, just not as pretty or thoroughly planned out.  Didn't bother finishing it after getting permastuck against Crocomire with no charge and little ammo, cheating my way out (by giving myself charge), and then getting further frustrated by poor level design.  If I didn't disqualify Angry Remnants, this would come in dead last for me...[/spoiler]

AN.T.I.:  [spoiler]Overall not a bad entry.  Sorely needed some balancing between enemy damage/drops and ammo.  The abrupt ending definitely caught me off guard and elicited many laughs.  Came in 2nd for me.[/spoiler]

SLG:  [spoiler]Unlike everyone else it seems, I had no issues with the map or pausing/unpausing.  It did have a few issues here and there, and in typical Mst fashion they were covered up or explained in the readme as game mechanics.   :>_>:  However I actually really did enjoy playing this.  The bosses were hard, but not overly so (probably because I got some hints for collecting screw attack early, thus not getting maimed by rinkas at every turn).  [/spoiler]

Vote goes to:  [spoiler]Mst with SLG.  Sadly his So Little series, while getting better with its trolling of players, is also getting more polished and playable to the point of being really good mini-hacks.  What is this world coming to?[/spoiler]

[Vismund Cygnus]

Don't forget, you still have four days to finish up and review each of our excellent entries! Each hack had a good 30 downloads on the other thread, meaning I expect a lot more reviews!  :heheh:

[TheAnonymousUser]

Here goes, I guess. (Most of this will be bullet pointed...I'm bad at reviewing)
[spoiler=ExZ (Gohan/Apex)]
+ Clever early power bombs
+ Good use of vanilla tiles
+ Secret stuff felt useful most of the time

- A mixture of ascent and decent in a decent hack?
- Lava area is just nope
- The ice area happened
- You take damage on the way in/out of the ice area (minor)
- The ice water was not pleasant to look at
- Unfreezable metroids that do a lot of damage
- Suitless underwater with said metroids
- Pause map isn't preserved in brinstar
- Funky camera when entering the green door on the left of red brinstar (not sure if one-off)
- Perma stuck at the very last room (fall off ship and di--perma stuck in tourian)
- Reflecs...nope (not a fan of reflecs)
- Super missile puzzle is 'eh'
- Backtrack to plasma (minor)[/spoiler]

[spoiler=SLG (MetroidMst)]
+ Custom HUD
+ Full refill save stations
+ Rocket ball is something (seems like an interesting speedrun item idk ¯\_(シ)_/¯)

- Dire Dire Docks got annoying after the first hour
- Item cancel also switches beams. Annoying if you use item cancel (which I do, a lot)
- Most beams didn't feel useful
- Most bosses are just nope
- Issues reading the map
- Metroid shaktool's inducing ear rape...no thanks
- Lag is not a feature. No ifs. No buts.
- Ridley RNG can kill you if it feels like it. Not fun at all
- No tetris...[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Angry Remnants (DSO)]
? Items...items everywhere

- Couldn't see shit because of haze
- Potential to perma stuck just before bombs
- Can get behind the giant metroid, and the way out isn't very subtle.
- Seizure inducing power bombs
- Angry I am, indeed (Ragequit)[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Ruins (Person)]
(I know this isn't a viable entry, but worth looking at it anywho)
+ Use of tilesets...'nough said
+ Interesting puzzles

- Use of energy...nope
- Suitless botwoon (I'm 'eh' about that)
- Couldn't tell how dead botwoon was (minor)
- Crumble grapple blocks seem to break faster? (this caused problems for me)
- Some items there was no way of knowing it was there.
- Ridley happened (not the greatest at minimalist ridley)[/spoiler]

[spoiler=So who is winrar]
I...don't...know...
Each hack had it's ups and downs. And most of the downs took away the replay value from each hack. But if I had to choose: With a bit of fixing, ExZ[/spoiler]


[spoiler=AN.T.I (Wall of text)]
So I guess this is where I talk shit about my own hack, huh.
This mostly just addresses feedback

The more I think about it, the hack should have also fallen under sparcity, due to the scarce amount of ammo...perhaps, too scarce...

BALANCE:
The biggest issue people have pointed out is health/damage balance. This has never been a strong point for me. This was also prominent in a game I made in GML some 3 years ago. I've been looking at a few ways to try and balance the hack out a bit. We'll see how that goes down.

Now here's the problem: I was trying to make missiles useful, and have charge more as a back up, but just as powerful (a la prime, where charge and missiles do roughly the same damage?) Clearly, I did a wonderful job of balancing that out. </sarcasm>
(I'll see if I can change the initial charge timer for charge to make it somewhat useful)

Ending:
The abrupt ending? Mostly because I was reaching the room limit. Seems space pirate cores/reactors have enough power to nuke the planet (tl;dr Samus blew up the space pirate base. Job done. Nuke a planet to roll the credits.)

Issues from our beloved resident nazi mod:

*Not being able to jump from the top of a double jump? I'm not sure if this was just me but it seemed as though you had to fall a little before being able to jump again.

The re-jump value was changed to 01.
This is just a personal gripe of mine. When space jump is set so you can immediately jump a second time, I find mockballing more tedious (not much an issue for this hack, as it has almost no use, but still.) Noted, never the less.

*There is at least one item that can't be reached if you miss it the first time around.

The only thing I can think of there would be to have that missile elsewhere in the base with the same index value, in the event the player misses that expansion first time around.

Secrets:
As for secrets in the hack...last time I added secrets to something, no one found them. Meaning players were pretty much playing most of the game with very few items. And I didn't want to make that mistake a second time.

Other than a few minor errors, and one obviously overlooked perma stuck...uh...AN.T.I happened? Useless fun fact: U.P.D.A [Unoriginal Plot Device A] (Yes, I'm bad at plot, too. I get it.)[/spoiler]

[spoiler=AN.T.I (Condensed)]
- This hack should have also been categorised as 'sparcity.'
- Increase the number of starting missiles.
- (Re)Move enemies.
- Nerf enemy health/Change vulnerability values.
- Change item drop values.
- Increase dropped energy/item values.
- (If it's possible) Start the player off with accel charges right off the bat.
- Make the ending make more sense?
- Space Jump will never be perfect.
- Missing a missile is bad.
- Do something about the secrets?
- Fix some minor shit.
- Fix a perma stuck.
- Expect a post contest patch
[/spoiler]

[Lenophis]

[spoiler=Expedition Z]Themes claimed: Descent, Enter, and Collection
Descent: the act, process, or fact of moving from a higher to a lower position. Sadly, this hack misses on this particular theme. There is at least as much ascending as there is descending. Even if you take just the meaning of the word, it never really feels like you're going DOWN into something.
Enter: to come or go in. The entire point of the game is to go into new places, because it's exploration-based. In that regard this hack gets it right, because you are forced to explore everywhere and then some.
Collection: to gather together; assemble. I'm not sure this hack hit on this one, either. You are forced to find some items to progress the story, but vanilla does the same.
Arguments can be made for this hack to claim the themes of Mystery, Constraint, and Sparsity.
Mystery: It's really open-ended and you pretty much have no idea WTF you're doing. A couple of puzzle-not-puzzles also make the player scratch their head.
Constraint: limitation or restriction. Goes along with the exploration, but you're definitely confined to specific areas until that one key item is obtained.
Sparsity: Seriously, where are all the supers and power bombs? And why doesn't anything drop them ever!?
Pros:

• Creative ways to make landscape that also doesn't let Samus go everywhere because walljumps are a thing.
• Palettes. They were good just about everywhere.
• Grapple is useful, but much like Hyper it's usefulness lasts for about 30 seconds
• Awesome morph maze

Cons:

• Broken map is broken
• Planet Zebes turns into Planet Zeron and then back to Planet Zebes again
• The Plasma "puzzle."
• Awesome morph maze which CLEARLY has something in that space to the left is unexplorable.
• Metroid Prime/Redesign levels of backtracking
• Riding the elevator down to frozen hell. Free shots at Samus!
• Just how much health does Draygon have, and why does its belly not change color until it's literally just about to die?
• Requiring short-charging to advance the plot, a semi-advanced speedrunning trick hack-players probably don't know how to do.
• Said short-charging leading to missiles you would not think to use anything else on except sparks and bombs. Seriously, dumb puzzle.
• The initial Super Missile "puzzle" requiring the player to have blind faith about an item that never really existed in the original with no real hint about how to solve it.
• That Ripper...
• Some players may not pick up that you actually have to turn off the Ice Beam in order to advance late-game. This can become a brick wall.
• Walk off the ship.
• What is it with hacks that just insist that Spore Spawn try and be harder than the actual bosses? There's a reason they're called "Mini-Bosses!"
• Couldn't fit Kraid or Phantoon in the boss rush?

Bosses and Mini-Bosses used: Super Spore Spawn, Super Draygon, RBO Ridley, Super Gold Torizo unless-you-find-his-cheese-spot, and Crocomire-melts-in-your-water-not-in-lava.

Movie link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/syxlsvyj7r38xxu/Expedition%20Z.7z
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Another Terrible Idea]
Themes claimed: Future, Desert, and Enter
Future: time that is to be or come hereafter. Apparently "Future" always means "steampunk." Oh, wait, wrong section.
Desert: any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil. This hack definitely scores here. I honestly thought I was playing So Little Collab at first. Although it fights the theme by having enemies...everywhere? The more-literal meaning of dry and arid is probably the bigger intent here. In which case, win.
Enter: to come or go in. In this instance I think "Infiltrate" would be more accurate, since Samus does enter a facility which looks like it could be an enemy base.

Pros:

• The intro.
• Shoutouts:
• Pretty awesome tilesets used everywhere. Like the hazard signs around the lava, especially.
• I rather enjoyed the door caps being resealed, however that leads to...

Cons:

• Way too many areas where you can get stuck in the landscape because of forced-crouch. Nothing perma-stuck, just stuck.
• I was expecting Reserve Tanks, not Accel Charges
• Apparently "Future" always means "steampunk."
• ...Ninja Pirate refights.
• Wait, that's...it?

Bosses and Mini-Bosses used: Bomb Torizo and Botwoon

Movie link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/0ssjuld1is3a3uw/ANTI.7z
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Angry Remnants]
Themes claimed: Ascent, Escape, and Collection
Ascent: upward movement; a rising movement. Since this is AFC 1.5, all you do is slowly climb up ad-nauseum. Point.
Escape: to slip or get away, as from confinement or restraint; gain or regain liberty. Since you are literally confined by your upward movement speed and that's all this hack is about, I do not believe this hack meets this criteria.
Collection: to gather together; assemble. Again, since this is AFC 1.5 items are freaking everywhere. Point.

I'll admit, I didn't play this one because DSO had already recruited me to play AFC a few months back with tragic results.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=So Little Garden]
Themes claimed: Forest, Future, Constraint, Collection, and Mystery.
Forest: a large tract of land covered with trees and underbrush; woodland. Other than trees and leaves in the background, it's all steampunk flooring. The hack misses on this particular one, partly.
Future: time that is to be or come hereafter. Apparently "Future" always means "steampunk." Oh, wait, wrong section.
Constraint: limitation or restriction. This hack scores big time with this theme.
Mystery: anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown. So how does that apply here, exactly? That's the mystery! Oxymoron for the win.

Pros:

• Room names, finally!
• Palettes
• Mention of Doom during power-up

Cons:

• And you change weapons...how exactly? Where's the explanation for this?
• When unpausing it seems to be like the game froze up. Sadly it's just this hack rehashing what you do if you are facing right when you get Hyper Beam against Mother Brain in vanilla. This prevented me from finishing, because I honestly thought the game had died, and I did not want to start over.
• Laggy fights are laggy.
• Bloody Tears Vampire Killer is NOT A FIGHT SONG.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih20Tx-fNJs or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AZ5XZHIDh0
• Ironic hack titles
• 499 starting energy. Such an arbitrary number, but also not?
• Mention of Doom during power-up, but failing to provide Doom Guy, a Cyber Demon, a Shaktool, or Benders shouting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A5XOIMs6D0
• Map makes me think I'm playing Earthbound again.

Bosses and Mini-Bosses used: Lettucetool, Hypertool, and others. See above Con point about pausing.

Follow-up point about pausing. The rules of the contest clearly state that the first hack submitted is the one we must vote on. Mst has said that the pausing bug has been fixed, but I must judge this game-breaker as-is. I perceived it as a game-breaking bug and was not able to complete it as a result.

Movie link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/14clrwv46wlmjzz/So%20Little%20Garden.7z[/spoiler]

Vote goes to Another Terrible Idea since it clearly WRECKED ALL OF THE COMPETITION.

[thedopefish]

I suppose I should do one of these here voting things:

[spoiler=AN.T.I.]
It's fitting that this is the only entry without a "collection" theme, as it features the sparsest amount of upgrades, promoting careful management of ammo and health.  The desert theme fits the initial area, but the most memorable part of the hack is the indoor complex.  It's an enjoyable little trek that flows well and looks pleasing.  A bit on the short side, at least compared to the competition, but that doesn't detract from it.  There's also no map, which would have been a big issue if the hack were larger or required more backtracking, but I didn't find it to be a big deal.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=ExZ]
This hack is pretty linear, which fits the theme of descending through the planet.  There's some clever secrets and puzzles.  I particularly enjoyed the room with your first PBs and supers, and I'm not going to let the fact that I now know I sequence broke the hell out of that room, diminish my fun.  But speaking of fun, the hunt for plasma sapped rather a lot of it out of this hack.  Also loses some points for the map bugs (not the least of which is the phantom room with an item dot that shows up on the map but doesn't exist).
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=SLG]
It's very colorful and foresty, and it's chock-full of shaktools of all varieties (as one would expect).  Also some really cool features like plenty of custom music, rocket ball shenanigans, crazy shaktoolified bosses, and room names displayed on the HUD.  There's plenty of items to be found, and in fact I had to detour to search for a bunch of them in order to beat monstool (and even then I struggled with him).  I quite liked the ridley battle as well.  Loses some points for rinka-overload-induced lag, the map bugs, and the slow grapple physics (lolunderwater).
P.S. Pollen Pass is best room.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Angry Remnants]
Ascent theme is fitting due to angry physics.  Collection theme also applies in spades, as there's squillions of hidden items here, often in clever hiding spots and sometimes bunches of them all crammed into a single room.  Dark environments and reddish palettes abound, which makes it hard to see in a lot of the rooms.  Some interesting puzzles involving metroids that aren't trying to eat you, for once.  Loses some points for largely being a rehash of content we've seen, and for some permastucks and other obvious signs of didn't-have-time-to-polish.
[/spoiler]

Winner:  I waffled about this for a while, and in the end it was pretty close.  But I have to give it to [spoiler]SLG[/spoiler]

[Technomagus]

I'm more thoroughly judgmental of these in my playthroughs which will be up on YouTube this weekend.

[spoiler=An.T.I.]Should win on name alone, but then again, I'm probably biased because I tested it.  Has a few non-intuitive moments, and a few wasted opportunities for hidden items, but overall not the worst.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Expedition Z]I think I've levied enough vitriol towards this hack while I was watching people play it.  Now that I've had the chance to experience it myself, I'm glad that almost none of it was unfounded.  Also, invisible grapple blocks should be grounds for automatic failure, but that's just my opinion.  Finally, for a hack themed on "Descent," I spent an awful lot of time ascending instead.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Angry Remnants]Goofball physics aside, I enjoyed playing this one slightly more than ExZ.  I did like the plentiful items, though a few of them were placed in rather annoying locations that required more effort than necessary to collect.  A thorough Meh.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=SLG]Hoo boy.  Significantly better level design than ExZ and Remnants, easily.  Intelligently placed save/refill points, a good helping of ASM changes, and new mechanics.  Beam Switch and Item Cancel being the same button is irritating, and the excessive lag thanks to that damn Rinka spam and Think Tank are major demerits in my eye.  Some decent music choices, however, so I can't fault that.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=My Vote]TAU and An.T.I.[/spoiler]

[personitis]

I suppose I've sat on my thoughts long enough by now. Time to critique and make a vote.

Before I go on, I'd like to say that people need to read readme files more often when they are provided.
[spoiler=Another Terrible Idea]I felt this hack did the best at sticking to it's themes as they're pretty much in-your-face existent. Enemies were a bit strong, but overall didn't pose too big of a threat and progression was straightforward but rather entertaining. I never found myself having to stop and critically think where I have and have not been or checked yet. Respawning doorcaps were an interesting concept that wasn't nearly as terrible as some might think, though resealing locked doors (namely in the ninja pirate room) was lame. Sure the ending was rather abrupt, but despite that minor bit, this was an enjoyable and quick play.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Metroid Expedition Z]Theme usage here is pretty generic and questionable. I will no give points to "decent" as you do just about as much ascending as you do descending. Pretty smooth sailing for most of the hack, things were pretty vanilla feeling, smooth and straightforward. Then you asked the player to find Plasma Beam, which isn't really an issue cause who doesn't want a really powerful beam? But when you build the hack in such a linear manner then ask a backtrack to the beginning of the game on a sudden 180, then there's an issue. This could've been softened had the areas connected up better and not by what was a linear, sequential order. After, there's the slight curve ball that was getting through the ice area which I didn't think was all that bad. Just a bit out of place when the rest of the game felt vanilla-y. A fair few people didn't like the Super Missile puzzle and while I see why, it didn't really bother me. Another good hack up until I was slapped in the face by the need to backtrack.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=So Little Garden]Forest and future themes are held up by the tileset used. Alright. Collecting items? Yup, every So Little hack ever. Constraining yourself to a single tileset. A small stretch, but a reasonable explanation. Mystery...? Sure, okay, but it's not doing it for me. Things like the broken map on reload and the immense unpause lag made playing this that much more unenjoyable. Rinka spam is downright fucking annoying and not fun. On the upside, we got a lot of cool things like the Rocket Ball, chainblocks (which I will say again, are awesome and should be used more often), and the Ridley fight. For being as big as the hack is, it's nice that how functional it is compared to what it could have been with all the changes made and given the time limit. Nothing was terribly difficult and was it so, didn't take too many attempts to overcome. But the bugged map holds this down so much for how much exploring you expect the player to do and having used a single tileset through and through. Add another hack to the list of "decent" So Little hacks.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Angry Remnants]Where the AFC physics get ascent right, I also seemed to be doing a lot of descending to further progress. I do question the use of escape but I think it's just barely passable with wanting to get it over with. The room FX are really overpowering at times, so much so that wanting to go back and explore was rather discouraging in addition to having to take my time going up through rooms. A few rooms were obnoxious as well, such as the respawning Atmoic room by Varia and the hall before Ridley which felt like it served no purpose other than "Here's some cool FX" and to knock so energy/ammo off the player. Apparently, you can find Plasma and Screw Attack before this point, but I had not. As with when I originally played AFC, I found Boost Ball and didn't find any use for it. And after having conversation about it, the weirdest of all, Ridley was not fun. Going in with 70 missiles, 15 supers, and Wave/Spazer/Charge, I should've been able to demolish Ridley, yet I couldn't for reasons I can hardly explain. Overall, this does feel unfinished and rushed together with the topping that I'm not real fond of AFC physics, as interesting as they are.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=This contest's winner is...]Another Terrible Idea. I found it the best at sticking with its chosen themes. There wasn't a point were it was frustrating either. Sure it was what I think a smoother ride than what's usual among hacks, but overall it works better in different aspect compared to the other three entries.[/spoiler]

[Vismund Cygnus]

22 hours until voting closes! That gives you plenty of time to play through the hacks and write your reviews!

[JAM]

It's too late for voting, but not for writing reviews. Played 3 of 5 (including personitis' hack) for now.

[reserved for the future use]

[Vismund Cygnus]

WHOOPS I FORGOT

Thank you all for voting! However I am disappointed in you all, because, with 5 votes, this contest's winner is MetroidMst with So Little Garden! T-A-U almost pulled off a comeback, with 3 late votes for AN.T.I. bringing its total to 4 votes. Gohan's Expedition Z and DSO's Angry Remnants both recieved 1 vote apiece.
Congratulations to all of our competitors. Honourable mentions to Person701 for completing his entry, albeit just outside the timeframe.

[siddhartha__]

i should have voted, because i know for sure Expedition Z was better than SLG. 'cept i didn't play through AN.T.I. so i didn't vote.

don't let this get to your head Mst!  :mad:

[thedopefish]

Let's be honest.

Of course it's going to go to his head.

[MetroidMst]

There is nothing in my head to hold anything in there, but this outcome was obvious. As soon as my one challenger (Grimlock) decided to be weak and wimp out on me, there was nothing that could prevent this crushment.

[spoiler=You Can't Hide From Your Shame]I'M CALLING YOU OUT GRIMLOCK! NEXT TIME, YOU ENTER YOUR WAD INTO THE ARENA, AND IF I AM ALSO ENTERING AN ENTRY IT WILL BE THE GREATEST CONTEST IN HISTORY![/spoiler]

But not quite as seriously, good job to the other contestants, and those who sort of did a hack and/or didn't finish in time. This was some good stuff, though still slightly buggy overall. People need to get better, and become better, testers. There were some overlooked things that should have been caught and addressed, but they weren't. We all need to step it up in that regard.

Otherwise, to T-A-U, Apex, snarf, person, and a teeny bit to DSO, good job. This was a really fun batch of entries. Not enough people enter these things, and not enough people just have fun with the entries. (Both in terms of hacking and playing.) An actual game-breaking bug during the escape? LOL! Sure it's a serious bug, but no need to stick it up your butt and spew out trash about it. (At least someone got their hack out amirite?) Being aware of things is one thing, being a complete jerk about it is another. Have fun with these, hopefully the other contestants had a great time with their projects and are now more motivated to work on projects in the next contest, or better yet, full-blown hacks.

Really, there is a legit struggle to finish these things by the deadline. Things get cut, ideas have to be changed to fit, testers find the dumbest bugs, it's stressful. But for those who haven't actually finished an entry in the past, try it again and get something out there next time. It will likely never be your original vision, but watching people play your hack is a great thing. (And watching them suffer is even better!) It's time to start making 4 entries a low amount instead of the average amount. Let's get some hype going for the next contest! And if possible, do your part and spread the word around. Whether that's a post on some weird devil-social-media thing, videos of your playthroughs on YouTube/stream, reviews, links, mentions on random podcasts, classmates, whatever it is, get it out there. Great things come from struggles and effort, not from sitting around watching things develop while you stuff your face with 14 Baconators. GET HYPE FOR CRUSHMENT!

[X-tradyte]

WHOOPS I FORGOT

Thank you all for voting! However I am disappointed in you all, because, with 5 votes, this contest's winner is MetroidMst with So Little Garden! T-A-U almost pulled off a comeback, with 3 late votes for AN.T.I. bringing its total to 4 votes. Gohan's Expedition Z and DSO's Angry Remnants both recieved 1 vote apiece.
Congratulations to all of our competitors. Honourable mentions to Person701 for completing his entry, albeit just outside the timeframe.

Do you know how to count lol, I dont mean to insult or anything so I hope it doesnt come off like that, but when I counted through I had SLG for 5 votes, T.A.U for 4, I had 3 and DSOs had 1. Are you sure you didnt completely skip someones vote? Also I can see mine getting 2 because there was one vote for me on the anti thread, not the voting thread but even still i'd have 2 at least.

[Vismund Cygnus]

I can count fine, however yourself and two other can't read.

Download them all and play each one, then write up all of your reviews (so you can prove you at least tried all of the hacks)

As clearly stated in the first post here, a review was required for each hack. As Meeptroid and Secret Agent Clunk (whose review I did admittedly miss entirely) only reviewed Expedition Z, their votes were not counted. Regardless (even with those two extra votes), the results stand.
Congrats MetroidMst! #gitgud everyone else  :heheh: