Metroid is an absolutely fantastic game series and it's amazing that fans are doing things like this while keeping a continuity with the story and game mechanics/art.
A minor program note: the blog says that a native Linux version is coming soon. However, the Windows version runs perfectly for me using Wine 1.8 on Ubuntu 16.04. There's no need to wait.
As a now grown person who owned the original Metroid 2 on Game Boy, I'm loving this remake.
Since there is no official Mac version (yet) I created a quick-and-dirty standalone wrapper .app using Wineskin Winery. It works really well and can be downloaded here:
Though I'm a fan of video game music and remixes, I'm very picky about them. Especially when it's reinstrumented. (I'm yet to find a remix of Kraid's Hideout from Metroid 1 that's anywhere near as good as the original.) But this remix from Metroid 2 works pretty well.
Eh, to each their own I suppose. I was really excited about this remake when I saw the graphics. Watching the video you linked dampened my enthusiasm.
I grew up on Metroid 2. I remember playing it outside the principal's office in school! The music is dark and haunting and unlike anything I've heard since.
To be fair, the piece remixed in that video is one of the only “traditional” musical tracks in the game, and I think the remix works pretty well. But I share your concerns: I hope that the later parts of the game, where music is replaced with weird sounds and background noises, retain the wholly alien feeling of the original.
Metroid 2 is relatively forgotten compared to Metroid and Super Metroid, but its graphics and sound build up a sense of tension and uneasiness in a way that they don’t match, I think. This blog post articulates my feelings on the music of Metroid 2 pretty well: http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/2007/03/15/the-music-of-metroi...
Thanks for sharing that post. It echoed many of the thoughts I'd had about the game. The sheer genius of Metroid 2 is how well it juxtaposes the ruins of a lost civilization with the sheer alien horror of the "jungle" that is taking over. The music and sounds don't just complement that, they play a starring role in the creation of that tension.
It's a cool enough remix, and the beginning was different from ones I've heard before. The problem is that I feel that the eeriness of the original comes from the minimalism. Any sorts of drums or orchestra or choir sounds take away from it. Maybe the only improvement could be more modern synth sounds? That's just my feel on it, maybe I'll hear a counterexample some day.
> I feel that the eeriness of the original comes from the minimalism.
Yeah, I definitely agree with you here.
The minimalism of the original creates a great feeling of isolation, which I clearly didn't re-create in the remix.
(BTW I found the same feeling of minimalism-conveyed-isolation to be present in "Maridia 2" music of Super Metroid - same problem here, orchestration make it disappear)
Anyway, thanks for listening!
It's probable that the original can't be enhanced :-)
Despite Metroid being my favorite game series, I never played Metroid 2 on the GB. So I'm excited to play a nice modernized version (a la Zero Mission). Also, yes, it runs well in wine :)
Does anyone know what the chances are that Nintendo will force a take down of this? I know they tend to enforce their rights very strongly on YouTube, not sure what their track record is for these matters outside of that.
I'm not really sure you can really put odds down on something like this. For the Youtube things, you are right that Nintendo has had a very unusual track record with videos. For example, while Let's Plays have been removed, things such as Angry Video Game Nerd and Pat the NES Punk continue to operate without issue. To the best of my knowledge, neither has an agreement with Nintendo, and they utilize Nintendo IP very heavily.
Additionally, with something like the Mother 3 translation project, Nintendo was apparently "aware" but took no action. [1] I would assume there were similar conditions for other translation projects for Nintendo products. I think in the case of Mother 3, it helped that it had been officially decided there would be no official translation at the time and the translation team plastered commands about "don't pirate" and links to purchase the original game via import all over the site.
This fan game really isn't quite either situation - it uses Nintendo IP, but it's also 100% from the ground up original content and code, so it's just the Metroid IP that Nintendo could issue a cease and desist over. AM2R has been in production for years though, and I don't think it's been any secret to Nintendo. My guess is if they haven't issued a c/d yet, they probably are giving a silent approval.
It uses their intellectual property and content Game Boy Advance versions of Metroid. Chances are Nintendo will take it down same as when they killed the remake of Mario 64.
Eh, I'd say about 30% or so. There are quite a lot of Nintendo fan projects like this that do fine for years; this one's been in public development for nearly a decade now.
However, there is a possibility that a fake take down might hit it. There have been stories about someone pretending to be a Nintendo lawyer and randomly taking down fan works, or maybe some sort of bot auto removing stuff under questionable premises.
However, it's not as likely to take it offline as for some projects. The imposter only seems to go after file hosts like Dropbox, Mediafire, etc. This fan game is also hosted on a Metroid fan site and isn't dependant on a company honouring questionable takedowns to cover their backside.
It might happen, but it could easily survive. Or have its mirror links taken down by an imposter.
If you haven't already dealt with the patching annoyance, https://a.cocaine.ninja/ytcdwm.smc will save you some time. Also I think worth mentioning: I've been playing SM since it came out, and Hyper is the first game in a very long time that inspired the same feeling of exploring a new world that I remember from my first playthroughs of NES Metroid and Super. Enjoy!
The story is somewhat undermined by the fact that someone at ms made them draw all the dialogue text in the windows 8 font. TBH I cant make much sense of the plot. The game is awesome though.
Being an experienced metroid player, you'll probably want to put it on hard mode from the start, although you can switch at any time.
Also make sure you get the newly released Definitive Edition, which has some extra stuff in it.
Yep. I recommend Snes9x; once you have it, the file you want to load in it is https://a.cocaine.ninja/ytcdwm.smc. (Patching SNES ROMs is a pain, and I've already done it, so this'll save you the trouble.)
You need to know going in that Hyper Metroid is tuned to provide an enjoyable experience for the veteran Super Metroid player, and in absolute terms is thus very hard. In Super, you can facetank everything and spam missiles and get by just fine. Attempting the same method in Hyper will net you only frustration.
To progress, you'll need to be able to get the most out of Samus's mobility, and you'll need to know what techniques to use when, including stuff like the mockball that requires frame-accurate timing and is arguably an engine glitch. If this isn't something with which you have practice, you'll probably do well to work your way up through Project Base (https://a.cocaine.ninja/zicwwx.SMC), on which Hyper is built; they share the same mobility mechanics, but Project Base is otherwise almost entirely vanilla, and will provide a much gentler experience overall as you develop the skills you'll need to progress through Hyper Metroid without finding it overly frustrating.
Oh, for God's sake, no wonder I kept getting owned so hard in Maridia! I mean, I'm probably a better Metroid player for it, but I guess I should play through it one time the way it's intended to be run, just so I have a better sense of how hard it's actually supposed to be.
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 106 ms ] threadAs a now grown person who owned the original Metroid 2 on Game Boy, I'm loving this remake.
http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/owU5nvIE/file.html
(Needless to say: install and run at your own risk!)
Is packaging it in Wineskin Winery tricky? My only concern is with updates and if I had to package it myself.
Though I'm a fan of video game music and remixes, I'm very picky about them. Especially when it's reinstrumented. (I'm yet to find a remix of Kraid's Hideout from Metroid 1 that's anywhere near as good as the original.) But this remix from Metroid 2 works pretty well.
Eh, to each their own I suppose. I was really excited about this remake when I saw the graphics. Watching the video you linked dampened my enthusiasm.
I grew up on Metroid 2. I remember playing it outside the principal's office in school! The music is dark and haunting and unlike anything I've heard since.
Metroid 2 is relatively forgotten compared to Metroid and Super Metroid, but its graphics and sound build up a sense of tension and uneasiness in a way that they don’t match, I think. This blog post articulates my feelings on the music of Metroid 2 pretty well: http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/2007/03/15/the-music-of-metroi...
There is also a two-hour long play video from a year ago that includes more music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYX9g7z4Av8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m_ooRjCuNw&list=PLROcUs85n5...
The warp records-ish versions in metroid prime are pretty awesome too.
I used to use this version to test subwoofers.
Trying my luck: https://soundcloud.com/ace17-1/industroid-r3
Yeah, I definitely agree with you here. The minimalism of the original creates a great feeling of isolation, which I clearly didn't re-create in the remix.
(BTW I found the same feeling of minimalism-conveyed-isolation to be present in "Maridia 2" music of Super Metroid - same problem here, orchestration make it disappear)
Anyway, thanks for listening! It's probable that the original can't be enhanced :-)
http://metroid2remake.blogspot.com/p/about-project.html?m=1
Incredible perseverance to ship it after close to a decade of work!
https://web.archive.org/web/20080615000000*/http://metroid2r... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owSldu1CRSo
Additionally, with something like the Mother 3 translation project, Nintendo was apparently "aware" but took no action. [1] I would assume there were similar conditions for other translation projects for Nintendo products. I think in the case of Mother 3, it helped that it had been officially decided there would be no official translation at the time and the translation team plastered commands about "don't pirate" and links to purchase the original game via import all over the site.
This fan game really isn't quite either situation - it uses Nintendo IP, but it's also 100% from the ground up original content and code, so it's just the Metroid IP that Nintendo could issue a cease and desist over. AM2R has been in production for years though, and I don't think it's been any secret to Nintendo. My guess is if they haven't issued a c/d yet, they probably are giving a silent approval.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_3_fan_translation
edit: forgot my link >.<
However, there is a possibility that a fake take down might hit it. There have been stories about someone pretending to be a Nintendo lawyer and randomly taking down fan works, or maybe some sort of bot auto removing stuff under questionable premises.
For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_gnwn535eM
Or my post about the same matter:
https://gamingreinvented.com/nintendoarticles/fake-nintendo-...
However, it's not as likely to take it offline as for some projects. The imposter only seems to go after file hosts like Dropbox, Mediafire, etc. This fan game is also hosted on a Metroid fan site and isn't dependant on a company honouring questionable takedowns to cover their backside.
It might happen, but it could easily survive. Or have its mirror links taken down by an imposter.
And sadly, seems that the torrent isn't working [for me].
http://www.hyper.metroidconstruction.com/
Being an experienced metroid player, you'll probably want to put it on hard mode from the start, although you can switch at any time.
Also make sure you get the newly released Definitive Edition, which has some extra stuff in it.
You need to know going in that Hyper Metroid is tuned to provide an enjoyable experience for the veteran Super Metroid player, and in absolute terms is thus very hard. In Super, you can facetank everything and spam missiles and get by just fine. Attempting the same method in Hyper will net you only frustration.
To progress, you'll need to be able to get the most out of Samus's mobility, and you'll need to know what techniques to use when, including stuff like the mockball that requires frame-accurate timing and is arguably an engine glitch. If this isn't something with which you have practice, you'll probably do well to work your way up through Project Base (https://a.cocaine.ninja/zicwwx.SMC), on which Hyper is built; they share the same mobility mechanics, but Project Base is otherwise almost entirely vanilla, and will provide a much gentler experience overall as you develop the skills you'll need to progress through Hyper Metroid without finding it overly frustrating.
Hope this helps!
mockballing does allow a big sequence break though, which I guess is what you assumed was the intended route.
Thanks for the heads-up!
I wonder where are more of the secret areas...
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:31059585e68123d095871d3169899cd900b77213&dn=AM2R%20v1.0