The Authorized Contest

[OneOf99]

About Metroid: SR387
In Command Center, in the 2wide3tall room below map room, and above a save room, there's thunder+lightning effect(which I didn't even remember was in vanilla, had to check), but as far as I noticed it's the only room in the hack with that effect, it doesn't even seem happen in top ridley area. I'm guessing it's unintentional? Also, imho music in command was too loud.

Also, I have found 100% items according to endgame screen, but I still haven't found out what's behind once particular set of speedbooster blocks(bombs reveal a 4 block tall column). I'm guessing they're a way out but I have no idea where from. They're kind of near an elevator and a save room, don't want to get too spoilery. If someone knows what I'm talking about, please pm me with either a hint or a spoiler how to get there.

The speedboost blocks there are a joke, they are a reference to a error that was in the previous ZM contest hack Spooky Mission. You have 100% of items!

[Conner]

REVIEWS!!!

Here are my reviews for all the wonderfull Hacks ^^

[spoiler]Theme Strengh:05/10

Ing Ing has hit the topic halfway through the discussions with Adam, but some items were needed again later!

Quality Control:3/5

There were no tiling errors or graphics errors, but softlocks are quite annoying and dont add fun to the game!

Enjoyability:3/5

The hack is definitely fun but it has been too hard for me so I did not have so much fun!

Graphics:3/5

The graphics are a bit questionable. In some places they look great and ugly in other places!

TOTAL POINTS:14/25
The Hack is Enjoyable but for me it was just to Hard. You should give it a Try![/spoiler]Adam Please by Ing Ing

[spoiler]Theme Strengh:3/10

Wow I thought at first that this hack hit the subject completely but it went completely past it ... an item was found and it was still needed later. Only rarely was an item really only used once, such as the Ice Beam, but only partially.

Quality Control:5/5

Where there is still a shortage of the theme you have gotten out of here a lot! There are no graphic errors and no other mistakes either. I came through the hack without big problems!

Enjoyability:3/5

Even though the hack was relatively good, it was just boring in many places because the items were not heavily hidden and there were simply pointless rooms that dragged it all out!

Graphics:5/5

what can I say ... the hack was definitely the nicest hack I've seen in a while. Custom animations, graphics and music made everything better!

TOTAL POINTS:17/25
This hack is worth it to play!![/spoiler]Metroid SR387 by OneOf99 and NathanTech

[spoiler]This Hack is so F*cking awesome... it should be an Instant Win!!!![/spoiler]Metroid Dread 2 - The Quest for the ultimate Treasure - Remix Edition Turbo Ultimate by Tedicles

[spoiler]Theme Strengh:9/10

I did not think this hack would work so well! None of the items was needed later, exept of backtracking so there is such a high score!

Quality Control:4/5

There were no big mistakes except a wall which was permeable but where nothing was behind!

Enjoyability:5/5

I had fun playing permanently and have no objection!

Graphics:2/5

I'm sorry, but I think the graphics style does not fit Super Metroid at all. You should have taken something darker

TOTAL POINTS:20/25
You should defenetly play this Hack! Its a realy solid Hack![/spoiler]Metroid Adam Virus by Crystal Knight

[caauyjdp]

The speedboost blocks there are a joke, they are a reference to a error that was in the previous ZM contest hack Spooky Mission. You have 100% of items!

Aww. Thank you for telling though, I still had some fun trying to find a way in.

[FelixWright]

[spoiler=Adam, Please!]
Theme Strength: 7/10
Many situations where the player needed an item to progress and lacked an item needed to progress until an alternative method is found. However the abilities are reused after they are obtained so they are still somewhat useful
Quality Control: 4/5
A few softlocks.
Enjoyability: 4/5
The difficulty of this hack was both fun and irritating at times. Fortunately Ing knew when to stop before taking the difficulty too far (filling some rooms with X for the heat run)
Graphics: 3/5
Backgrounds were awesome, but the tilesets not so much. The rotated save room was particularly awesome.

Total: 18/25
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Metroid:SR387]
Theme Strength: 3/10
Ice Beam was the only item fitting the theme, and it was entirely optional.
Quality Control: 4/5
Filler rooms but otherwise enjoyable.
Enjoyability: 4/5
Difficulty didn't scale very well, and super missles rarely dropped. You are often either dead or close to dead before noticing that your energy is low, because the initial area was a bit too easy. The skippable area has the best music IMO.
Graphics: 5/5
Not everything was customised but there were a lot of (good looking) custom tilesets and other graphics.

Total: 16/25
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Metroid: Freezeflame]
Theme Strength: 0/10
This hack did not fit the theme at all tbh
Quality Control: 4/5
Perhaps some tiling errors, but still pretty great.
Enjoyability: 4/5
I was disappointed by the vanilla landing site/tourian, but I had a grand time with this hack. it's like the dimension jumping adventures of metroid prime 2.
Graphics: 2/5
the additions to the norfair tileset were p gud but there was a lot to be desired overall for custom graphics. Not even the title screen was customised.
Total: 10/25
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Metroid Dread 2 - The Quest for the ultimate Treasure - Remix Edition Turbo Ultimate]
Theme Strength: 10/10
Adam would approve. Lack of an ending does DQ this submission though!
Quality Control: 5/5
Flawless in execution.
Enjoyability: 5/5
Lacking in replayability, but a good laugh.
Graphics: 1/5
The text is custom I guess.
Total: 21/25
It's too bad such a masterpiece had to recieve a DQ... :T_T:
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Super Metroid: The Adam Virus]
Theme Strength: 10/10
May be the best hack for this theme
Quality Control: 5/5
No noticeable tiling errors
Enjoyability: 4/5
I got destroyed by the heat run but this was still a pretty good hack.
Graphics: 4/5
Custom tilesets up the wa-zoo! vanilla assets clashed with the custom ones though.
Total: 23/25 WINNER!~★[/spoiler]

@Crystal_Knight 's hack gets my vote this contest.

[OneOf99]

Here are my hack reviews!

Adam Please (Ing-Ing)[spoiler]
Theme Strength: 6/10
This hack only really fulfilled half of the theme requirement, being the player's want for and item and requiring you to get to places with different methods than obtaining an item. However all items were used again later, so I cannot grant full points for the theme (though the Adam was strong with this one)

Quality Control: 4/5
Overall this hack is very well put together. However there exist a few tiling errors but they do not detriment to the experience of this hack.

Enjoyability: 3/5
This hack has a lot going good for it, like the creative use of items to get around and some of the puzzles, but there is a bit too much trial and error for my liking. Also there are some blind spots and enemies do way too much damage (or at least you won't be getting e-tanks for the first two sectors, which alone compromised a whole third of the hack).

Graphics: 5/5
The graphics were good and consistent in style. They made sense for the areas they were to represent and most of the time I could tell clearly what tile was which.

Total: 18/25
[/spoiler]

The Adam Virus (CrystalKnight)
[spoiler]
Theme Strength: 10/10
This hack captures the theme perfectly; you gain items after they are necessary the entire time. I especially enjoyed the heat run and suit less portions.

Quality Control: 5/5
There are almost no errors in this hack as far as I can see other than one wall that you could slightly go into. Very solid entry.

Enjoyability: 5/5
I really enjoyed playing this hack despite the contest theme in it! The level design is very good, and enemy placement/damage is very fair. The items' uses are well tied in with the authorization theme, so kudos to the author for making limits be an actual fun game mechanic.

Graphics: 3/5
For the most part the graphics were fine, but the beginning area with the sand and crystal mines were lacking in style that would make them scream "Super Metroid".

Total: 23/25
[/spoiler]

Metroid Dread 2- The Quest for the Ultimate Treasure- Remix Edition Turbo Ultimate 15 (mccad)
[spoiler]
Theme Strength: Adam/10
I was astounded at how well the hack incorporated authorization into the level design. Surely such heights in game design will never be reached again.

Quality Control: Ice Beam/5
No mistakes, this is perfection. I cried by the end, the beauty of this hack was too much for my mind to comprehend. I ascended into the fifth dimension by the time of completion.

Enjoyability: Sector Zero/5
Where to even begin? I loved the cinematic cutscenes, and all the minigames that you could find throughout were a joy to play. I skipped 4 tests just to keep playing this, I might never graduate now but it doesn't matter because I was able to experience this.

Graphics: Remember Me/5
I didn't even know that 16k could run on the snes! Tedicles never ceases to amaze, I can't wait to see what he comes out with next.

Total: Princess/25
[/spoiler]

FreezeFlame (Contendo)
[spoiler]
Theme Strength: 7/10
This hack is a expanded heatrun the entire way through. So the main problem with this hack is that you never actually get varia suit by the end of it. Luckily there are plenty of other items that follow the trend of authorization, and the idea of not having varia still works somewhat.

Quality Control: 4/5
For the most part this hack has no errors. There are a few volonus doors here and there, but they don't make too much of a lasting impact. And also varia was somehow forgotten to be placed unfortunately.

Enjoyability: 5/5
Definitely fun, and the level design is well thought out. You can get plenty of e-tanks to save you in the heat, and the idea of switching between the hot and cold areas was very interesting. This hack was also much bigger than I expected, which was nice because instead of being short and sweet it was long and sweet.

Graphics: 5/5
I really liked the graphics in this one, and the tiling was spot on in some places (especially when the Norfair rocks and metal tiles were mixed together). The icy tileset felt... icy like it should have. Only complaint is that there were no enemy recolors, but that's nothing to subtract points over.

Total: 21/25
[/spoiler]

Overall
[spoiler]
First:       Adam Virus          23/25
Second:   FreezeFlame        21/25
Third:      Adam Please        18/25
DQ:         Dread 2             -20/25
[/spoiler]

[Ing-ing]

Adam Virus
Theme 8
QA 4
Enjoy 0
Gfx 5
total 17 Verdict: Running sucks.

SR387
Theme 0
QA 5
Enjoy 4
GFX 5
total 14 Verdict: Filler rooms don't hurt as much as Adam having a vacation.

Freezeflame
Theme 5 (Because you never have enough energy, despite how many tanks you get)
QA 2 (Literally can't be beaten on hard.)
Enjoy 5
GFX 5
Total 17 Verdict: Few more seconds of testing, and varia at the end would have made this Dread 2 level of perfect 10/10.

Dread 2
You know what? This thing will win even if I give it all zeroes, so so be it.
Theme 0
QA 0
Enjoy 0
GFX0
Total 0 Verdict: I literally only rated like this to give other hacks a silver of chance.

[Cardweaver]

My ratings:

[spoiler=Adam, Please]
Theme: 5/10
It definitely fit the "authorized" part in that it reminded me of Other M, but failed to provide items that were useless after receiving them. Some of the writing was very funny as well.

Quality Control: 3/5
I only noticed the SA-X softlock and the yellow doors that didn't open after unlocking yellow doors (that may have been intended, but still seems buggy). Everything else seemed sound.

Enjoyability: 2/5
Some parts of this were fun, but for the most part it was painful and excessively limiting. That might be fine, but it's not for me.

Graphics: 3/5
Very plain in some places, but it is a gba hack, so i'll excuse some of that. No custom spriting, but the ending images made up for that given the theme.

Total: 13/25
This was a cool hack, and very nice to see a fusion hack entered. Good job, Ing-Ing!
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=SR387]
Theme: 2/10
This barely felt like it fit the theme at all. It receives some points for Ice Beam.

Quality Control: 4.5/5
Other than a few tiling errors, this was very well done. I noticed the custom music bug, but most hacks don't even have custom music so I'm ignoring it.

Enjoyability: 4/5
As much as I hate to admit enjoying a ZM hack, this was pretty fun. My only complaint would be that it felt excessively large. Making a hack big just for the sake of it being large isn't a good idea.

Graphics: 5/5
Everything looks and sounds amazing. Very well done.

Total: 15.5/25
This could've easily won in my opinion if it adhered to the theme of the contest. Fun, good-looking hack, but it felt out of place in this contest.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Adam's Virus]
Theme: 10/10
Amazing. I've never been less excited to get items in a hack before. Very "authorized."

Quality Control: 5/5
If there are any bugs, I didn't notice them.

Enjoyability: 4/5
I agree with Glitch's "you have to die to learn what to do" idea, which to me is bad design. Other than that, it was fun! I think I'm going to play through this one again now that I know what to do and see if it's more fun/less painful.

Graphics: 1/5
The tilesets remind me of Volta. Beautiful, but out of place. The other reason for the low score is the lack of anything else custom.

Total: 20/25
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=METROID DREAD 2...]
DQ. 0/25. It doesn't fit the theme at all, and I'm personally not a fan of hacks being bad just to be funny. I think it gives the wrong idea to people outside of the inside joke. Why would anyone want to play the demonspawn of SMI and Homenag?
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Freeze Flame]
Theme: 6/10 (4/10 without Varia, 8/10 with it, so I split.)
If this had Varia right before the end it would've been amazing. I understand it was supposed to, so I'm only cutting half the points I would've, and the other half are lost from Quality.

Quality Control: 3/5
Everything seemed solid except for messing up Varia's door transition. Given how big of an issue an entire missing room is, I'd say this was not properly tested. Test your work!!!

Enjoyability: 3/5
I enjoyed it more than I thought I would given that heat runs give me anxiety. The hot/cold world differences were fun!

Graphics: 3/5
I liked the frozen tileset, and the portal rooms were well designed. However, the portals art does not fit with the rest of the game. There wasn't much else custom that I noticed.

Total: 15/25
I would say to definitely give this hack a try. Despite the heat/cold pressure on you the entire time, it's fairly lenient and a good implementation of a massive "heatrun."
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Verdict]
Crystal Knight is the winner of this one in my mind. Well done!
[/spoiler]

[Crystal_Knight]

Okay, it is time for my reviews
Adam Please by Ing-Ing
[spoiler]This one was simultaneously the first hack I started, and the last one I finished. The reason for this is that it was the longest, and the hardest hack submitted. Playing this hack was a learning experience. When I started I did not know that jumping from a cliff, gives you greater horizontal speed, or that mashing A and B makes you fall slower. As such this was very much a trial by fire, and very frustrating at parts, because I am bad. I would recommend this hack to people who are good at Fusion, if you are bad--like me--save this one for later

Theming: 7/10
The talks with Adam were perhaps the best part of the hack for me, and these talks gave this hack a very Adam like feel. This hack put obstacles that you had to find ways to circumnavigate, until you find the item that trivializes the obstacle. However you quite often would need to reuse the items throughout the hack. If not for reusing items, the theme would have a perfect 10.

Quality Control 3/5
Many people have mentioned softlocks, while I never found any of these. (Most likely because I was using save states, I know, I am bad, but I was starting to lose my sanity) However, this does not change the fact that they were there. Also, there was a door that was messed up.

Enjoyability 3/5
This part was hard to score, because as before mentioned I am bad, as such this massively affected how much I enjoyed the hack. However, I don't think it is an unenjoyable hack if you are good at fusion

Graphics 4/5
I liked the tiles, but there were quite a few places where the tiles just cut off

Total score 17/25 [/spoiler]

Metroid: SR387 by lot of people
[spoiler]This hack was one the most enjoyable hacks entered into the contest.

Theme 2/10
Sadly this hack did not do a great job following the theme. The Ice Beam segment, kind of followed the theme.

Quality Control 4/5
The quality of this hack was high, the only thing I found was that you could go off the map in the 2nd room of the path to Ridly

Enjoyability 5/5
This hack was a ton of fun, a few rooms were pointless, but that did not really affect how much I enjoyed the hack.

Graphics 4/5
I liked the way the hack looked; not much to criticize.

Total Score 15/25
[/spoiler]

METROID DREAD 2 - THE QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE TREASURE - REMIX EDITION TURBO ULTIMATE 15 by Tedicles
[spoiler]
This is... a hack... I guess...ON TO SCORES

Theme: Unauthorised/10

Quality Control: Unauthorised/5

Enjoyability: Unauthorised/5

Graphics: Unauthorised/5

Total: Unauthorised/25
[/spoiler]

METROID FREEZEFLAME by Contendo
[spoiler]
Throughout the entire hack it is overious what the Unauthorised item is Varia

Theme 4/10
Because Varia is clearly supposed to be the unauthorized, but it is NOT IN THE HACK

Quality Control 3/5
Skipped room with Varia

Enjoyability 4/5
The whole hack being a heat run can be a little stressful, but not too much

Graphics 4/5
I like the icy norfair, and GF tiles

Total: 15/25

[/spoiler]

[mccad]

Reviews:
[spoiler=Adam Please]
Theme Strength: 7 out of 10
While this hack doesn't follow the theme to a tee, the dialogue helps a lot to convey the idea behind it. Had more items become obsolete after acquiring, this would be a 10 easy.

Quality Control: 3 out of 5
Generally pretty well designed, there were permastucks, but i personally didn't encounter any during gameplay. Besides that, I only really noticed that a door transition was very slightly broken.

Enjoyability: 3 out of 5
This was a pretty good hack, but some of the platforming was a bit of a chore do to the level of precision required. For a more experienced GBAtroid player, this wouldn't be as much of a problem.

Graphics: 4 out of 5
While not all of the areas looked great, it always makes me happy to see people go the extra mile and heavily incorporate custom graphics to their hacks. Some of it does need a bit of a touch up, however, particularly the Siberian lab area.

Closing: Total 17 out of 25
No doubt a quality hack, just not exactly my cup of tea. Add a bit of polish and you have a wonderful hack on your hands that most GBA players will really enjoy.
[/spoiler]


[spoiler=SR387]
Theme Strength: 2 out of 10
This hack has very little to do with the contest theme, beyond maybe 1 optional item and the backstory.

Quality Control: 4 out of 5
Very impressive level of quality for a contest hack. Some area's may have been rushed a tiny bit, but overall I couldn't see any glaring issues, beyond the minor annoyance of some rooms canceling the music.

Enjoyability: 4 out of 5
Even for a Super Metroid player like myself, this hack was loads of fun to play. I really enjoyed how open the sequence was, with many of the items in the Phazon Mines being totally skip-able. My only gripe is that the hack felt a little too open in some places, particularly at the beginning before you find bombs and missiles. Had the early sequence been closed up a little bit, I would probably give this a 5.

Graphics: 5 out of 5
You really took the extra mile here to make each area (and even the suit) look good and fresh. No doubt one of the best GBA metroid hacks I have ever seen. The only real problem I had with the graphics is that the AM2R distribution center tiles were a tad bit overused.

Closing: Total 15 out of 25
Despite not really following the contest criteria at all, this is probably my favorite hack from this contest. Apply this same level of dedication and skill to a fullhack and you'll have something really spectacular on your hands.
[/spoiler]


[spoiler=The Adam Virus]
Theme Strength: 10 out of 10
This hack follows the theme perfectly, really feels like Adam is behind the scenes fucking with you the whole time. Amazing use of copy blocks.

Quality Control: 2 out of 5
There were a number of places in this hack that could result in permastucks, as well as a fake wall that just sorta lead to nothing. Make sure you think outside the box when playtesting your hacks in the future, try everything you can to break it. Most importantly, seal in all of your rooms with solid tiles!

Enjoyability: 3 out of 5
This hack was pretty fun to play besides the heat run segment. I'm sure for more skilled players this could be a great, tense moment, but I found myself falling into giant lava pools far too often to really get anything out of it. Everything else was pretty alright in my book.

Graphics: 4 out of 5
This hack looks pretty decent graphically, but the tiles don't fit with the rest of Super Metroid's graphics all that well. Can't really blame you too much for that though, it takes a long time to get used to the style of SM. Besides that, there were a few places where it was difficult to tell whether or not tiles were solid, so some better telegraphing of that via palettes would be nice.

Closing: Total 19 out of 25
This hack is pretty decent, and I got some good fun out of it. Keep up the good work on your graphics, it's good to see so many people interested in making their hacks look unique.
[/spoiler]


[spoiler=Freeze Flame]
Theme Strength: 4 out of 10
This hack tried to follow the theme well, but the fatal mistake of forgetting to add varia suit really drags it down. I would probably give you a 0 here if you didn't at least intend to do so.

Quality Control: 4 out of 5
Besides the lack of varia, the only real issue I saw here was that the minimap didn't work. I'll assume that was intentional, but you were probably better off doing some ASM changes to make it not display at all, it would make it look a lot nicer that way.

Enjoyability: 2 out of 5
I think a lot of people who don't suck would enjoy this hack more than I did. It would probably be in the best interest of everyone if you had made health drops a bit more common, even if it meant lowering the amount they healed you back to vanilla's numbers.

Graphics: 3 out of 5
Your use of the vanilla tiles and palettes was A-OK, but the ice areas looked pretty poor, and the portal didn't look too great either. I did enjoy your caution line metal stuff though, that all looked pretty nice and fit into ZM pretty well.

Closing: Total 13 out of 25
This could have been a lot better with some small fixes. Overall, this is by no means a bad hack, I just didn't have too much fun with it myself.
[/spoiler]


[spoiler=Final Scores]

The Adam Virus	19/25
Adam Please	17/25
SR387	15/25
Freeze Flame	13/25

[/spoiler]

[MetroidMst]

SCORES:
Adam, Please
Theme Strength: 7/10
Quality Control: 3/5
Enjoyability: 4/5
Graphics: 3/5
Total: 17/25
FreezeFlame
Theme Strength: 2/10
Quality Control: 3/5
Enjoyability: 4/5
Graphics: 4/5
Total: 13/25
SR387
Theme Strength: 3/10
Quality Control: 5/5
Enjoyability: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
Total: 17/25
Dread 2
Theme Strength: 0/10
Quality Control: 0/5
Enjoyability: 0/5
Graphics: 0/5
Total: 0/25
The Adam Virus
Theme Strength: 9/10
Quality Control: 4/5
Enjoyability: 5/5
Graphics: 4/5
Total: 22/25

Actual thoughts on the hacks/contest will come in a video later.

[Quote58]

Alright metconst, the results are in with the new contest!

First, let's congratulate Crystal on their win with The Adam Virus

And unfortunately we also have to acknowledge the one disqualification of the contest in Dread 2, by Tedicles. It was a great idea, but it did not fulfill the requirements of the competition (it crashes instead of going to credits).

Now, let's go over the winners for each category.

• Theme Strength: The Adam Virus with 65 points
• Quality Control: SR387 with 31.5 points
• Enjoyability: SR387 and Freeze Flame tied with 27 points each
• Graphics: SR387 with 34 points
• Total: The Adam Virus with 141 points

If anyone wants to check my math, here are the numbers:
[spoiler]ing ing (adam please):
   theme: 6, 5, 6, _, 5, 7, 7, 7      — 43
   quality: 2, 3, 4, _, 3, 3, 3, 3    — 21
   enjoy:   4, 3, 3, _, 2, 3, 3, 4    — 22
   gfx:       3, 3, 5, _, 3, 4, 4, 3    — 25
   total: 111

one of (sr387):
   theme: 4, 3, _, 0, 2, 2, 2, 3     — 16
   quality: 4, 5, _, 5, 4.5, 4, 4, 5 — 31.5
   enjoy:   3,  3, _, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4   — 27
   gfx:       5, 5, _, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5    — 34
   total: 108.5

crystal (adam virus):
   theme: 9, 9, 10, 8, 10, _, 10, 9  — 65
   quality: 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, _, 2, 4      — 29
   enjoy:   4, 5, 5, 0, 4, _, 3, 5       — 26
   gfx:       2, 2, 3, 5, 1, _, 4, 4       — 21
   total: — 141

ted (dread 2):
   theme: ?,
   quality: ?,
   enjoy: ?,
   gfx: ?,
   total: ?,

contendo (freeze flame):
   theme: 4, _, 7, 5, 6, 4, 4, 2     — 32
   quality: 4, _, 4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3    — 23
   enjoy:   4, _, 5, 5, 3, 4, 2, 4    — 27
   gfx:       3, _, 5, 5, 3, 4, 3, 4    — 27
   total: — 109[/spoiler]

Good job everyone who contributed, and I'll see you all soon for the next contest!

[NathanTech]

Yeah, we kinda lost sight of the theme.

[Cardweaver]

The scores for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are crazy close, whoa.

[X-tradyte]

Its a shame I would have participated in this but I just got access to hacking again today so surely I'll cook something up for the next one. I'll definitely give these a run through myself as well just for fun.