When it comes to fan games and mods, remakes and reimaginings have always been some of the craziest to us. Whether it’s the folks remaking Super Mario Galaxy in Super Mario Odyssey’s engine in A Galaxy Story, the dual Super Mario Sunshine/Galaxy remakes in the other’s engine in the form of Super Mario Starshine and Solarshine or Kaze’s insane Super Mario 64 based remakes of modern Mario games, it’s always been insane to see fans recreate complicated games for platforms they were never intended to run on.
With today’s project of choice only pushing that even further. Why? Because this time around, we’re talking to Metaquarius, creator of the incredible SNES Metroid Fusion reimagining Super Metroid: X-Fusion. As the name suggests, it’s a quasi remake of the GBA’s Metroid Fusion in the Super Metroid engine, mechanics and all.
Here’s the launch trailer if you haven’t seen it already:
Yeah, it’s a truly incredible recreation to say the least. Indeed, with every single tileset and background, song, enemy, powerup and boss from Metroid Fusion recreated and functional in Super Metroid’s engine, and a style of game design that feels like it came straight out of Nintendo themselves, Super Metroid: X-Fusion may be the most impressive Metroid ROM hack ever made, or even one of the most impressive fan projects on the SNES as a whole.
So today, we’re gonna learn all about it from Metaquarius themselves. Let’s get this show on the road!
The Interview
Starting with some personal info. Who is Metaquarius anyway?
I am a French dude who’s been hacking retro games for over 10 years now.
Where did your name come from? It sounds like a combination of video game areas or something…
It’s a combination of “Meta” and “Aquarius”.
“Aquarius” is the eleventh astrological sign in the zodiac and was chosen because of a certain character I like in Saint Seiya manga/anime series.
“Meta” was added because it sounds cool I suppose.
What was your first game?
The first game I played was Mission Impossible on the NES. That first level music is engrained into my memory.
What games are you playing at the moment?
I play other romhacks, first person shooters or visual novels.
How were you introduced to the Metroid series?
As a kid, I played Super Metroid once at the local game library but didn’t go very far. I think I was stuck in the first area. It was very unlike the few games I had played so far, I was very confused and the atmosphere really gave me the creeps.
Metaquarius first played Super Metroid, though he didn’t get too far initially
Growing up, my cousin let me play Metroid Prime on his Gamecube, he absolutely loved that game but still I had very little interest.
Much later, I (re)discovered some classic SNES and GBA titles and Super Metroid really caught my attention this time. From there, I wanted to know more about the series.
And what are your thoughts on the latest titles, like Metroid Dread or the upcoming Prime 4?
- Dread: I have yet to play Metroid Dread so it’s difficult to give a decent opinion on it.
I think the game looks neat and presents some interesting ideas. Alas the game also seems to be very formulaic despite the few changes to freshen up the gameplay. - Prime 4: I think MP4 is shaping up to be some kind of awkward follow up to a trilogy that was well and truly over. But they are taking their sweet time to make sure that the game will still be able to deliver.
Onto game development now. How did you get into that?
Before I had my very own PC, I used to craft my own small board games and gamebooks, drawing maps and illustrations. So it was only natural for me to experiment with game development later on.
How about ROM hacking? What made you decide to mod Super Metroid rather than Metroid Fusion, Zero Mission, etc?
Before romhacking, I used to mod PC games. One day, I stumbled upon “Super Metroid Redesign” playthrough videos so I wanted to know how they had managed such a feat, let alone modding a SNES game.
In reality, Super Metroid had an easy to use and solid level editor called SMILE with some documentation available whereas Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission had barely anything.
What made you decide to create Metroid X-Fusion? Why a pseudo remake of Metroid Fusion?
A talented Japanese romhacker made “Super Zero Mission” (SZM) in 2011, combining elements from NES Metroid, Super Metroid and Zero Mission. At the time, it was very impressive on a technical stand point but also I liked the concept and execution. Rather than being a stale remake/demake, it creates a unique experience.
I wanted to do the same thing but with Fusion and going even further porting music, bosses, etc. But for such a big project, I knew I had to start small, so I started making a simple boss rush.
One thing that’s interesting about X-Fusion is that it’s not a 1:1 remake of the original game, with new area designs, mechanics and bosses included alongside the Fusion ones. What made you decide to go that route?
The conversations with Adam return in this mod
As do all the enemies and mechanics
SZM being my main source of inspiration, it was clear from the get-go X-Fusion was going to be a personal passion project as well. What would be the point of playing a 1:1 inferior remake? I also wanted this hack to explore the many unknown and what-ifs of Metroid Fusion.
Are there any ideas you had to cut, either for technical or game design reasons?
There are plenty of ideas that either got cut or re-arranged. Many of those ideas never left the brainstorming stage, some of them reshaped due to technical reasons (limited ROM space or just feasibility) or others that were scrapped because deemed too out of place retrospectively. There is always some kind of dilemma : how far are you willing to go? Not going all out, it will feel like a missed opportunity. Going too far, it will stray away from its purpose. The major shift concerns the final area, I had to fall back to a traditional Tourian-like area late in development.
How did you get the graphics working here? As someone who’s worked with them before, Fusion’s tilesets and backgrounds are a lot more complex than anything on the SNES…
SNES and GBA graphics are similar. The only issue is that SNES does have less space available for graphics in VRAM and less usable background layers so I had to use every single trick up my sleeve.
How did you add all the necessary custom code here? I don’t recall many other Super Metroid hacks having this many new upgrades, enemies, bosses or other mechanics…
Custom code is written in assembly language using 65816 instruction set and injected into the ROM using a SNES assembler (xkas) Not only you have to be proficient with ASM but also understand the game’s inner workings (and short comings) And even then, it can take a long time to get things working. Some hackers simply may lack the skill or the will to spend months of work just to make a single custom boss fight.
Speaking of enemies and bosses, how did you get those working on the SNES?
When I started working on X-Fusion more than 10 years ago, custom bosses were non-existent in Super Metroid hacks (aside from a few unspectacular attempts). While Super Metroid editors do the heavy lifting for certain aspects of the game, programming new events and enemies was largely an uncharted territory. There was a lot of personal research and trial and error to get where I am now. Once I somewhat mastered the implementation of custom entities, I studied closely Fusion’s enemies and bosses to replicate them to the best of my abilities, taking frame by frame screenshots and extracting VRAM dumps.
Impressively, the game ports bosses like Nightmare (pictured) from Metroid Fusion to Super Metroid
One thing we’re very glad to see included is the SA-X, which has actually been upgraded for this hack. How did you implement such a complicated enemy into this hack?
The SA-X has a complex animation structure based on Samus’s implementation (state machine)
While not alerted, the SA-X follows a defined set of instructions.
While alerted, the SA-X roams around the room endlessly and reacts to carefully placed triggers (there is no actual pathfinding involved)
And how did you decide what to change here? It feels a lot smarter than the original Metroid Fusion one did, with some very useful abilities not present in that game.
Now think about it : if the SA-X has Samus’s full arsenal, how come that it never uses Gravity Suit or Speedbooster in Metroid Fusion? That’s one of the many things implemented to spice things up.
The game has caught some flack for its difficulty though, with some saying areas like Sector X are more unfair than challenging. Did you deliberately set out to make this an extremely challenging game, or was that unintentional?
As these reviews from the Metroid Construction download page show, some people have criticised the high level of difficulty present
There were some notable oversights in the first release but in the end, X-Fusion is designed with veteran Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion players in mind. And by veteran, I mean, experienced players who played other romhacks before (as romhacks tend to be more demanding than the base game in general). The game won’t hold your hands, it will challenge your skills and your beliefs. Even the newly crafted “easy mode” is far from a cakewalk by Super Metroid standards.
In the case of Sector-X, it was conceived as a “parcours du combattant” (obstacle course) . I added checkpoints because you certainly aren’t supposed to manage to get through on the first attempt. The area and the hack in general has received some flack but almost as much praise if not more from various players. Some of them even messaged me directly to express how much they had a blast playing it.
Speaking of sector X, I always found it interesting that this game ends with Kraid and the SA-X, not the Omega Metroid. What made you decide to change the final battle like this?
Because the hack is meant to surprise the player! Just like the Metroid Fusion ad says: “Be ready for the unexpected” or something like that.
Heck, what made you decide to add Sector X as a whole? It seems to be a very different setup to the original’s Restricted Zone…
Sector-X is a raging battleground between X and Metroids, in this place, you can finally see both species duke it out and try to get an edge over the other, Samus being caught in the crossfire.
Regardless, the game quickly got people’s attention upon being announced, with its popularity skyrocketing on release. Did you expect this much interest in the project?
Of course, I knew the hack would reach new heights. In less than two weeks, it is already the most reviewed hack of Metconst and in the top 5 of the most downloaded hacks (for the record, it took many years for other hacks to get there)
But more importantly, it has managed to slip under the radar of mainstream media so far. Looks like my strategy has paid off. Now we are far from safe, fanworks can also get cancelled way after their release. Let’s be cautious ^^
Are you planning to update the game in future, either with extra features or bug fixes?
More updates incoming, bug fixes mostly, randomizer integration and provide more language options.
What are your future plans for Super Metroid hacks? Are you planning to make any other ROM hacks now X-Fusion is done?
Time will tell. A “DLC” of sorts might be on the card.
How about indie games or other projects? Do you have any plans for non-Metroid related projects?
I have plenty of non-Metroid related project ideas but not enough time to focus on all of them! A few years ago, I did work on a Sailor Moon Castlevania clone for example. As for making something that is not a fangame… everything is possible!
Finally, what advice would you give to someone looking to get into Super Metroid hacking, or game development as a whole?
ROM hacking is interesting but be warned : it takes a lot of time and experimentation to get things done… things you’d have done 100 times faster in any modern game making tool!
Yeah, isn’t that the truth? ROM hacking can certainly be fun, but the learning curve can be way steeper than normal game development, especially when you’re working with assembly language or trying to recreate elements from games not built for the platform you’re working on. As someone who’s worked with ASM for their own mods in the past, learning it well enough to create anything on par with the custom elements in Super Metroid: X-Fusion will be a challenge for even the most seasoned programmer.
Basically, there’s a reason that most ROM hacking scenes don’t truly take off until the original game has been fully decompiled, and another for why complex projects with a ton of mechanical changes are rare even then. Turning one game from the 90s or 00s into another is a challenge that will stump even the most skilled devs around.
It’s definitely trickier than coding with a modern game engine in mind much of the time, and something that means we’d probably recommend using something like Game Maker or Unity if actual console compatibility isn’t the project’s main goal.
Regardless, kudos to Metaquarius for the incredible game and interview. It’s been really fun learning more about what went into Super Metroid: X-Fusion these last few weeks, and the end result is one of the most impressive Metroid fan projects we’ve seen since AM2R. Definitely give it a look if you’re a Metroid fan, or want a new take on Metroid Fusion for a different console generation.
Still, what did you think of the game and interview? Have you tried out Super Metroid: X-Fusion since its release this August?
Leave your thoughts on it in the comments below, on social media, or over on our Discord server today!