This isn't the thread for hacks, but I feel like this is going to have better visibility here, but I'm playing through ROMhack Super Metroid: Subversion and I really need to gush about it.
This is likely going to be what I write in completed games thread too but I honestly am so impressed I need more people to read and know about this game.
Super Metroid: Subversion might be the best ROMhack I've ever played.
With over double the amount of rooms from the original, completely new world, new music, new abilities, new pick-ups, and a ton of creativity, it's one of the best Metroid games of all time even if we count the official releases.
I'll try not to spoil a lot, but if you're waiting for Metroid Prime 4, I highly recommend to play this game as it borrows a lot of stuff from Prime series in addition to the original 1994 game it's based on.
Possibly the biggest inclusion is the logbook which acts as both a lore repository, a tutorial library, and a hint system. With the game being double the size of the original it's a very organic way to remind players of what they've seen and even tell them what else they need to do by featuring "obsticles" section with large red markers for unsolved puzzles.
This didn't actually help me from getting stuck, as by the time I realized I needed it I didn't understand how it works. My fault completely, frankly, but I do wish a tab called "Need new weapons" was a little more heavy on Ice Beam mention, as I saw it, read it, saw the big "UNSOLVED" and figured I need a Plasma Beam or something. Even now I feel like other hints are much better at reminding you what exactly you need, mentioning tight passages, gusts of wind, lasers, and so on.
The game does a pretty wonderful job of navigating the player through its mazes and I can remember only a few times where I went somewhere I didn't need to and ended up getting stuck, like with aforementioned Ice Beam where, after getting it, I remembered a nearby puzzle and went off on a loop around the world going away from my actual goal.
The game is still a hack, so it's clear that there are some things they couldn't change. Most bosses are about the same, with some being given a twist that's a bit too ROMhacky (Spore Spawn now has Mega Man-esque disappearing blocks and is on top of a much taller room?), but a few battles do have very interesting remixes.
However, there are things that are changed from the original in a way that feel like a miracle. For example, multiple times throughout the game player will change the state of the world! You remember those rare things in Metroid where a sector would blow up in Fusion or when a place would get overtaken by ice in Dread? This game does this, but I'd say what it does is even cooler. Some new mechanics also feel like they don't belong in Metroid, but in a good way. Instead of feeling out-of-place, I was just constantly surprised by this being a mod of a 30-year-old game.
One thing that's pretty much completely changed is the pick-up system. I don't care much for pick-ups in Metroid games. Getting 100% is my goal at the beginning, but after picking up samey upgrades I lose interest. After all, getting your 48th missile pick up just feels prefuntory.
Subversion goes the Prime way of balancing ammo adding its own touch which makes it much more appealing: Super Missiles cost 5 ammo, but Power Bombs cost 10, which means ammo pickups are much more desireable, not to mention that there are two varieties of them - one adding 5 to your max, and another adding 10.
Even beyond that, there are completely new pickups that make the game so much more interesting. Refuel tanks, damage and charge amps, space jump boosts all feel extremely important and made me feel way cooler and stronger than any pick-up from an official Metroid did in the past 20 years (except for E-tanks, I guess, those always felt important).
There is nearly nothing negative I can say about this game. Its pacing and new power-ups, new mechanics and enemies all add up to something that feels completely unique. The world is divided into even more areas than the original which helps make it memorable despite its size (don't worry, authors didn't just take Norfair and added 50 more rooms to it), and the surprises this game has in store rival official Metroid games.
This is by all accounts Super Metroid 2.
