This game is awesome, guys! I'll prove it. Let's Play Super Metroid (Redesign)!

I like the redesigned missile doors. It's like Drewseph's sexual insecurities could not abide the pinkish doors of the original. This is a man's missile door! Like rare meat!!

I like to think that both the normal missile and 25-missile doors are simply NES callbacks made for the sake of NES callbacks.

Oh man, I know where this is going.

I don't think I've ever seen a game designed with so much raw malice for the player.

It's like Drewseph hates the world and made this to show it in a socially acceptable manner.

From the Other LP: Drewseph admitted on the "Special Developer's Commentary Edition" video that he had a chance to talk to someone from Retro Studios about how to design a game, and learned a lot of things he supposedly used in this hack.

Interpret that how you will.

That sounds too much like a joke. I'm kind of unwilling to believe it.

I take about as much from that as I do from the claims by David Berkowitz that a demon-possessed dog told him to become a mass murderer.

Well, he's certainly cribbing a lot (of the worst aspects) from Metroid Prime, so it sounds reasonable.

Heh heh, wait until the next installment...

He got rid of the eye doors for this? and wtf I DON'T EVEN HAVE FIVE SUPERS. I honestly find it much more likely that it's a Metroid 1 flashback, and that we're supposed to waste 25 missiles just because. But then, you knew Drewseph, after all. :/

Maybe Berkowitz's demon-possessed dog told him to get rid of the eye doors! There's a theory. It's also the most reasonable explanation I can find.

Man, I was going to wait another 12 hours or so, but this is so absolutely perfect that I can't.

So! Speaking of the next update (that link is the update - I told you this one would be special )...

My gast is flabbered. (I'm flabbergasted)

In the Hell Run's defense, I have to say that when you play it with as many savestates as your arms can carry, it's hilarious.

You know, I halfway thought about playing this until that video. Fuck that.

WHY!?

Given that this is the 'romhack' school of videogame design, I'd have been disappointed if there wasn't at least some occasion where you were made to run through heat unprotected. Although, had I been the designer I expect I wouldn't have made it quite that long, or with quite that many wall-jumps.

I'm convinced drewseph hates Super Metroid. There's no other explanation for his terrible, unforgivable crimes against it.

Such horrors I have seen. Such nightmares that are.

Why would any monster create this?

This kind of bullshit is what happens when you assume that challenging = fun. Something fun can have challenge, and often should. But fun comes first.

It comes first!

I can't imagine what kind of person would even think of continuing to play after seeing that. But I guess you and Dart are that person Vorpal.
I am unsure if that should scare me.

Talk about a barrier to entry. I would never be able to get past that part since I can hardly wall jump even when i dont have my life quickly ticking down.

Man, so if you didn't know exactly what route to take from the very beginning... you're basically fucked? How could you possibly expect someone to ever get past that section unless they have a full map of it sitting in front of them? It boggles the mind!

I've done Hell's Run without save states. Well, I did have a save state right as the elevator landed, and in the that save/refill room when I got to it. I wasn't trying to do it for the challenge of it or anything, I was just being an idiot. I was afraid of getting stuck and having to start over, and it didn't occur to me that I could just reload it manually from the save points, or just used another damn save state slot. I really have no idea what I was thinking when I did that.

As terrible game design that obviously is, watching that video makes me find it strangely compelling. It's probably because of how skillfully you pulled it off.

It does make me wonder if it is at all possible to do such a segment without it being bullshit. Like if it was a maze of rooms identical to one you just passed through before the life drain. Or just a purely linear segment with a few hazards to slow you down if you hit them. Whatever it is, it needs to be telegraphed to the player that Yes, this is the correct path, so they don't just assume the life drain is telling them to turn back.

You know, this ROMhack is rapidly making clear the key problem of ROMhacks everywhere: they're designed by people who have already mastered the game being hacked, and who want a better challenge. Problem being that (as any veteran game designer worth his or her salt can tell you) what you personally find challenging is several notches above what anybody else will when you're the one designing said challenge.

Poor designers don't even stop to consider that the player has no existing knowledge of the layout being used, and Drewseph has shown that he falls victim to this shortsightedness to a degree that's downright frightening. If he really did talk to the Retro Studio people, I don't think he actually took anything they said about the basics of design away from it. Maybe a thing or two about aesthetics, but definitely not a thing on proper design techniques.

That looked like the opposite of fun. I give you major props for pulling that off, but there's no way in hell anyone should be expected to do something like that.

If you tell me that you've never collected the speed booster and wave beam in original Super without the Varia, or that you didn't feel a great sense of accomplishment after doing so, I'm going to call you a liar. :P

Which is not to excuse the major problems this segment has (and that the original Super Norfair run doesn't have), but merely to explain why I still managed to enjoy making that video. I guess I'm screwed up enough to like challenges like this.


Given that I also play and enjoy games like this... yeah, you should be scared. I will protest that that stage is actually much easier than the player makes it look, though! He's going for score, which changes things up quite a bit.

I have a theory:
Metroid Prime 2 and 3 have shown us in small doses what Retro Studios is really about. Since Drewseph is a Prime fanboy and took advice from at least one person who worked on those games, we can reasonably conclude that Redesign is a reflection of what Retro would have done if they got their hands on Super Metroid and had free reign to do whatever they wanted.

I don't have a chat log for this, but when I first got to this point, the conversation between Drewseph and I went something like this:

Zaidyer: Where is the Varia suit I am dying in Norfair
Drewseph: You need the Ice Beam to get it
Zaidyer: But I'm stuck at Norfair
Drewseph: Maybe you should explore down there
Zaidyer: Wait, are you serious?
Drewseph: Probably...
Zaidyer: This is impossible I am burning to death I don't have enough energy!!
Drewseph: Shoot the pipe bugs to refill
Zaidyer: WHAT
Zaidyer: THIS IS INSANE WHY DID YOU DO THIS
Zaidyer: No normal human being is going to want to beat this once he figures out this is the only way forward
Drewseph: It's doable if you figure it out. That's what makes it fun. I'm not cutting it.


That day, I learned Drewseph equates challenge to fun.

Apparently! This whole segment, while really impressive to watch when it's done right, is not something I would ever consider remotely enjoyable to do on my own.

holy shit he gave you a hint

No, that is the day you learned that Drewseph hates people who enjoy Metroid.