[Open Assets] = Metroid Vanguard = Samus Aran in SRB2 [v1.5c] v1.5c

This was such an exhilarating experience. I have a few 100% run saves under my belt and I still keep finding small lil nuggets of extra stuff and fun new things to experience and explore. Samus' kit is so diverse and customizable I can't even begin to explain how good of an ebb and flow it has. It becomes instinct, you reach a point of immersion where you completely zone out of this being a friggin .pk3 and not a full game conversion.

From the save system to the clever story-telling through Samus' very in-character dialogue and Metroid's classic visual story telling tie this all up into one of, if not the best mod experience I've had in SRB2. There's so much love and passion put into this that I'm a little sad to see it completed and released.
I have much yet to finish, however - And I know I'll be playing this over and over again to finally complete this mission. Godspeed, Shine - absolutely stellar work! A true magnum opus.

One of the most fully featured character mods I have ever seen. Even more than ChrispyChars. This is just a different game now, holy shit.

I lack the ability to comprehend Shine's work ethic. As a Metroid fan myself since childhood, to say that this mod is more than I could have hoped for, let alone dreamed of, is a vast understatement. I just finished it last night at 100%, and I still can't get over how many little things you put into this. Though, I suppose I shouldn't surprised when this is coming from the maker of SMS Reborn. It's not perfect obviously, as nothing in life is, but it sure is close.

My two biggest critiques are:

1) The arm cannon fires lower than the cross-hair in 1stP mode. This is probably the most egregious issue, and one that I would STRONGLY urge you to fix whenever you can.

At first I wasn't sure if this was just a hold-over from Ringslinger modes and I just wasn't used to it, but as I watched some other people play, they too also commented on the targeting discrepancy, so I know i'm not the only one who finds this annoying. It also often makes it finnicky to fire at targets on the ground in front of you, as you shots will often just hit right into the ground. Obviously you can just say "lol just remember to aim above them its ez", but it'd be nice to not have to remember to do that all the time.

^^^ Fix this at your earliest convenience, cuz I have a feeling that doing so will greatly boost the QoL of this mod.

2) Egg Guard's hyper mode ability sometimes makes traversing CEZ 2 a literal kaizo-esque NIGHTMARE.

And I know why this is happening, too: It's a combination of A) the unique level design of CEZ 2, and B) the fact that enemy LoS calculations don't take the Z axis into account. What this all MEANS (as i'm sure you recognize, since I imagine you must have play tested all levels extensively during development) is that: If you hit a spring while high above in a certain room, and there are Egg Guards on the floor of that room, they will teleport to you, and due to your momentum, you more than likely wont have a chance to kill them before they kill all of your aerial momentum, condemning you to plummet back down to the bottom of the room.

As far as how to fix this WITHOUT nerfing the Egg Guard? Honestly, all I can think of is to literally just move Egg Guards away from rooms that have vertical or diagonal springs. Cuz the problem isn't necessarily the ability itself: It's the level design of CEZ 2 that causes this phenemona to happen, along with the lack of Z-axis checking in LoS calcs.

This is the best SRB2 mod out there

HOLY HELL MY SECOND FAVORITE ARM CANNON WIELDING CHARCTER IS HERE AND MY GOD IS IT GOOD IF MEGAMAN SOMEDAY GETS IN ILL GO NUTS

Amazing mod but the final flash i have no idea how i activated it twice but it's op as shit i activated it in the final boss

It's returned from 2.1 and it's WAAAAY better than it needs to be. Wonderful work, everyone should give this a go

This is a friggin' amazing addon pack. It's astonishing how well Samus works in SRB2's levels, and the few original levels feel like proper Metroid Prime material (including the bosses). Though there are a few criticisms I do have:

* While being able to start over with all your upgrades is nice in case your luck is absolutely dreadful, the upgrades system does feel a bit too luck-based, even if I understand why you designed it like that. I was actively scrambling to try and get those last few super bombs and tanks all the way up to the end of ERZ2.
* The original bosses on normal difficulty feel like massive damage sponges if you're not using the Hyper Beam or beam combos. They're a massive jump in difficulty compared to both SRB2 and the Prime games, and doesn't really make them as fun to fight as they could be.
* Third person doesn't have a targeting crosshair. It would be nice so it's a viable alternative for aiming manually, because third person is better for platforming (especially at the speeds Samus can go), but also because the lock-on can be unreliable with some enemy types.
* I love the little bits of narrative added to Samus' story and how professional she's characterized as being, but I feel like it's... Not enough? There's not even any dialogue with Eggman, who Samus encounters multiple times. I know it'd be challenging to add more, but my story-brain can't help but think of the possibilities.
* I think the graphic scene that happens in ACZ3 which caused the need for the disclaimer and all the discussion kerfuffle is unnecessary. The sense of tension and horror in the entire scene leading up to the boss fight works perfectly, but I think it could've worked just as well if, say, poor you-know-who was still alive but hurt and scared out of his goddamn mind in a corner and nearly shoots Samus when she approaches when he briefly mistakes her as being, well, you know who.

Insane level of depth. Experiencing all of the vanilla levels as Samus really gives them a different feel, heightened by small aesthetic changes that bring a more metroid atmosphere. Never thought I'd love Deep Sea Zone this much. There's also a couple of extra stages for good measure where story beats are needed. There's a few lines at the start of most stages, which are all very well written characterizations for Samus and remind us all the eggman really *is* an intergalactic threat.
The moveset of Samus is really inclusive and complex, making it very possible to get to any character restricted routes. This allows her gameplay to focus more on item completion, rewarding each new monitor you find with a chance at a permanent upgrade to her arsenal. I ended up spending upwards of 20 minutes per level at times searching for upgrades and emerald tokens (which are also reworked). It may take some time for 100% completion, which is where this mod's save system comes in.
This has to be the most transformative character mod in existence. It's hard to put all of the experience into words, so you should definitely try it if you haven't.

Easily one of my favourite character mods, but not without it's flaws. It's first is how extremely difficult ACZ4's boss is. That being said, I have been known as being pretty bad at Metroid Bosses. The second problem (and the most important of the 2 so it'll be in caps) SOFTLOCKING CAN HAPPEN. Entered ACZ4 with one life, died to the boss and tried to continue only to find I couldn't morph ball, so I couldn't get to the boss arena holding energy.

Beautiful. Only complaint is that the extra bosses feel just a tiny bit too difficult. Loved it otherwise. Kinda wish there was an option for beam stacking, just for fun.

literally made an account here for the first time in like 10 years to say that this is awesome. downloaded this around 10p and ended up accidentally pulling an all-nighter playing it. it's inspired me to pick lua back up again and try my hand at srb2 mods.

my only notes:
1. arid canyon boss was an *amazing* inclusion, but it is kind of a
visual clusterfuck, particularly because there aren't any 3d models as of yet. the excessive knockback and hitboxes flying everywhere is extremely difficult to deal with in first-person, and even harder with sprites. i'd remove the shadow clones and sparks flying and make the battle much more like the first one in [redacted] - slower-paced, and more constrained.

(also, it seems like it really ought to be the final boss in lieu of OVA robot)

2. you've already got the metroidvania vibe with the monitors, but i think the levels themselves could be chained together in a metroidvania-esque way too, with the entrances and exits being two-way. obviously you're working with the existing campaign, but you could use the same techniques as the actual sm randomizer to generate a level path that is theoretically completable with the items in set locations. just an idea - one that i might work on at some point myself.

3. the solution you've come up with for the emerald tokens is clever, but i think a better one lies in prime games: the chozo artifacts / sky temple keys. with the game already allowing you to go to previous levels without losing equipment, it seems like you could gate the final level behind the chozo artifacts, and then replace their locations as-necessary to require samus's items to access. you could combine this suggestion with (1) and (2) and make the arid canyon boss the reward for collecting all the artifacts, etc.

4. samus's walkspeed probably doesn't need to be so fast - combined with the low traction, it was a liability during some of the platforming sections, which there are many. it'd probably be good to lower her base speed and then raise it back once you get the speed booster.

overall, probably the best srb2 mod i've ever played! which says a lot, because the competition is fierce. amazing work.

spoilers ahead for bosses, please experience this yourself before reading (seriously it's super good please play it)


Holy fucking shit. It might seem like I'm exaggerating or being ridiculous but this is literally the best game(?) I have played in years. I'm working my way through Metroid Prime 1 via dolphin at the moment, and I wish I had opted for the mouse and keyboard hack because, while still fun, tank controls make things way more cumbersome than they need to be (shocking opinion, I know). But this? Again, holy fucking shit. It's literally a crossover between Sonic, Doom, and Metroid, which are series that have had the most satisfying gameplay loops in my experience. And even that fact is a cherry on top in and of itself.

I would've given this 5 stars from the unique levels after Deep Sea and Arid Canyon alone, ESPECIALLY the bosses. Just wow. You're just stumbling through a dark cave, exploring around, and then you fall into some new area and OH MY GOD THE CAMERA'S ROLLING AROUND LIKE CRAZY AND SOMETHING IS SHOOTING AT YOU GET ON YOUR FEET AND SHOOT AT IT GO GO GO GO GO and then you get your bearings and its a GIANT FUCKING MUTATED METROID MONSTER THAT'S STARING AT YOU AND CHARGING TOWARDS YOU REALLY FUCKING FAST and if it's not that then it's LIKE 50 SHADOW CLONES OF DARK SAMUS OH FUCK

wrap it all up with satisfying gameplay, great music (I mean it's metroid music ofc its great), tons of stuff to collect, and an amazing coat of polish on the whole thing and you've got yourself a god damn masterpiece. Very well done.

I couldn't even possibly explain why i love this mod so much

it's just so good (even if i hate the horror segments, but i just hate horror in general)

Fang didn't have to die for this but he did

Like seriously this mod is so good. I apologize for having somewhat negative opinions after SMS. Amazing work. nothing like it and nothing will be like it.

it's an awesome mod, that's for sure, but there was one issue with the bat file. instead of showing the actual filename (SMCL_Samus-V1.1.pk3) it showed (SMCL_Samus-V1-1.pk3). so that took a little rearranging, not the biggest possible problem but i thought you should know

the scale of this mod, just, WOW
and it will be teh closest thing to metroid prime i'll ever get
10 outta 10

I've always been a fan of Metroid Dreadnought when it came out in the DOOM WAD section of the mods. Man, being able to shoot demons as Samus was truly something. Of course, like most metroid mods or fangames though, it was eventually abandon/little word was being heard on its development.
And then came along Metroid: Vanguard
And I gotta say, Metroid: Vanguard definitely carries the spirit of Dreadnought with it, despite the engine differences with SRB2.
For one, if you're like any metroid speedrunner, the mechanics to execute complex speedrunner techniques are built right into SRB2, but combined with the mechanics thrown into this mod - Ball boosting, Shinesparking, even ball-spiking off of enemies - adds to that experience a whole lot. Now unfortunately with SRB2 does come the caviate of semi-imprecise movement - IE, Samus kinda moves with a bit of a delay, as with any other character in SRB2, and when it comes down to strafing or shooting at a target, ESPECIALLY with the custom ones the mod adds, you're gonna find yourself at the edge of a game over quite a bit. If you can get over Vanguard's movement in comparison to Dreadnought's, however, it's still a very rewarding mod with a good depth on how metroid operates in something like SRB2. Pardon my french, but this fucking guy knows how to nail the feeling of a metroid game in the custom maps he made - the isolated, lonely, and downright haunting ambience combined with those tense build-ups before the custom bosses adds a whole ton to this mod than any other mod, and this is what sets it apart from its Dreadnought inspiration. If anything, I hope Golden Shine goes on to add onto Dreadnought even with the amount of detail he puts into his maps and the enemies as well, he's got talent, and it's very apparent he's a hard-core Metroid fan.
Beyond the movement criticsm, my only other critisms would be the lack of new, custom maps and other custom enemies. Don't get me wrong, what's in there is great, but otherwise it IS just a character mod throughout. Maybe in future versions we'll see more added to it, but otherwise it does leave one wishing for a little more.

Overall, great mod, dare I say it even goes above and beyond Metroid Dreadnought in both its presentation and amount of detail. As someone that's been playing metroid since Prime 1, hell, since even Super, Golden's definitely outdone himself here with everything thrown in, and I highly recommend keeping an eye out on the other stuff he makes with this amount of quality put into this one mod.

As someone who loves Metroid but didn't get to play 2.1 Samus too much, I have a lot to talk about after playing this. I have yet to do anything related to multiplayer, but I still have a bit to say about it anyway.


The new graphical assets are quite pretty, and the care put into them certainly shows. Some prime examples are the dialogue art and custom menu assets. Some of the smaller touches also help it that extra bit, such as the dialogue art matching the player's current suit/visor colors and subtle differences in shading/lighting between the suit variants for said art.

Samus happens to be the first character that I have ever rebound my controls for, and in a positive way. The controls never once felt frustrating to me after moving some keys around, and all mistakes related to platforming/combat/etc. felt like they were 100% on my end. Sometimes I was even pleasantly surprised at how well Samus controls, the big example being the walljump.

From a gameplay standpoint, this is probably the most fun I've had with SRB2 in a pretty long time. Being able to string together certain actions (i.e. Ice Beam into Missile) felt as smooth as butter and streamlined the experience quite nicely. All of the special interactions Samus has with the environment/enemies also gave the playstyle even more identity and charm than it already had.

Item collection was extremely fun and gave me a reason to thoroughly explore levels again after ages of "knowing the layout." Gathering all the emeralds was also interesting with how the no hit system works and I found myself benefiting quite heavily from knowing more than a handful of token locations.

I was very satisfied with how the story was handled here. The dialogue is written pretty well despite the plot being relatively simplistic in nature, and the extra levels were a very nice treat that helped give the experience a bit more atmosphere along with strengthening the overall impression I was left with by the end.

Overall, Samus is fun, unique, and probably one of the best experiences I've had with SRB2 perhaps ever. The effort put in radiates from it in every direction, and is one of the only mods I can currently 100% recommend.

5/5. One of the best mods ever made for 2.2 so far.

This is simply one of the best mods i have ever played. This doesn't even feels like SRB2 anymore, here, you deserve this 5 stars.

It's fun until DSZ in my opinion; I stopped playing after CEZ Act 3.

The enemies become increasingly more and more annoying to deal with from then onwards. But not in a way that actually challenges the player. Most regular enemies receive the most mundane abilities conceivable, such as the Blue Crawlas having flamethrowers and the Red Crawlas very lethargically flying in your general direction and rarely dodging your attacks. The Crushstaceans have children for whatever reason. And the Jet Jaws are just themselves being mildly irritating as usual, although slightly more so as it's difficult to see in the water. This visibility issue is more noticeable on a level with less water, GFZ Act 1, where the relatively shallow depths are darker than the abyss. The Egg Guards in CEZ can teleport? This feature often works to their detriment as you can trick them into teleporting off of a ledge. They also like to interrupt your jumps, as they can teleport high into the air. The prompts telling you how to use an item sometimes don't go away, even if you disable them. This fortunately doesn't persist between Acts. The text boxes are also comically large, and are so intrusive that I have to wait for them to go away in order to proceed. Quite often when I pick up a missile tank, the text reaffirming the fact that I have indeed picked up said missile tank outstays its welcome and interrupts gameplay. Meanwhile a Buzz sneaks up on me and drains my health at an alarming rate.

On the topic of items and pickups, you can get almost everything within the GFZ (if you are lucky) or midway through Act 1 in THZ. This causes the player to become too powerful, too quickly even on the hardest difficulty. Every regular enemy becomes trivial to deal with; almost no obstacle cannot be passed. Any and all fun that I could've had with a challenging experience is drained. Not to mention, the Chaos Emeralds are made even easier to acquire, as you don't have to do the special stages. Instead, you just have to not take damage for the rest of the level. This is impossible to fail, as there's nothing stopping the player from just obliterating every Badnik before picking them all up. And even if you don't, the Badniks are still woefully incompetent at thwarting anyone's plans if you're at least mildly cautions and become super sniper Samus. I also wish that in the place of Emblems, were literally anything of value. I hate it when I bust down a breakable wall or explore who knows where only to find nothing. There's also a problem with missiles. Because I played on the hardest difficulty, the increased cost of using missiles instilled the notion that I should save them for when I actually need to truly obliterate enemies. Even though I had over one hundred missiles to spare by the end of THZ Act 2, I was just afraid that I would happen upon God or something and that I would need every single one. It's like with the grenade launcher in Left 4 Dead 2, where you have a very limited supply of ammunition that many players save for only when the Tank appears; rarely use it for anything else out of the fear that they'll waste valuable shots or harm teammates. And then they run around with either melee or the Magnum and contribute very little and feel disappointed. There's also the problem with the fact that Samus' arm-cannon just feels way stronger than regular missiles. Especially when no base game enemy actually poses a threat. The charged shot excels at everything. Then there's super missiles, which I surprisingly used more than the regular missiles, but only for wall busting and to make Eggman disappear in a blink of an eye.

There's also a problem with the arm-cannon's projectile hitting things that it clearly didn't. Such as the walls in a tight space. Or around corners. Or anywhere with complex geometry for that matter. And to elaborate further, what i mean is that the projectile visually does not hit the wall. It would clearly be moving around it, before suddenly stopping and the projectile impact effect would play a significant distance away from where it actually was.

Moving onto the morph ball, it feels iffy to move with. Especially with how there are many instances where using its various abilities can cause the player to lose all aerial control. I also got stuck inside of the terrain once, which made me quite sad. The situation was quite inescapable.

The Screw Attack I used only to get past spikes; a few enemies. It can also sometimes be used in situations where the player is stunned. This caused a bug in the Metroid boss fight where after being knocked back I immediately used the Screw Attack and upon touching the ground my ears were destroyed by Samus doing the damage sound at an incomprehensible rate before keeling over and dying.

Speaking of Metroids, I have never met a more irritating enemy ever. These enemies put the Cloakers from Payday 2 to shame. But unlike the Cloakers, they lack a brain and can't navigate around the very level they are introduced in. When I turn a corner and I see a Metroid failing to move around a pillar, I just burst out laughing. Truly the most intimidating lifeform. But when they stop being stuck, they become an Expert Mission Boss in DBXV2 and get autododge. And even though I am clearly hitting them as my projectiles cease to exist and do the impact effect, they just somersault in a random direction while trying to deliver the grand suck. And even if I hit them immediately afterwards as they're incredibly predictable, they just seem to have nanomachines and refuse to get frozen or die. And then they just pop out of the blue because the level they are in has terrible visibility. Or they accidentally abuse decades old glitches to glide across walls or the ceiling at super speeds. And when they do deliver the grand suck, they just don't want to let go. Whether I blast myself with a missile, the Hyper beam, Morph Ball Bombs or the Power Bomb they just don't leave me. Fortunately I eventually free myself, but as I would like to reaffirm, they're really irritating. More so on moving platforms, and slopes.

Moving onto the bosses, they're pretty bad. GFZ is just Eggman but now he's Frieza and sometimes throws energy balls at you, somehow. THZ I couldn't see as I had the Hyper beam and instantly killed him. The totally not completely broken, boring and often times plain unfair Metroid boss fight is cool in theory. But first of all, I should not enter a boss fight being hit by a ranged attack that stuns me, of which I couldn't see as I'm facing the wrong direction after falling through a seemingly incorporeal floor. And then being hit by an attack that I still can't see as I'm still stunned and can't turn. Before being knocked into a wall and receiving damage, while being inside the Metroid. Who then proceeded to knock me away to the other side of the room all the while dealing completely ludicrous amounts of damage in comparison to literally anything else that I've faced thus far. And then dying sends you ALL the way back to the start of the level so you have to slog through a whole lot of nothing and the same cacophony of Metroids. This boss has a ranged attack that spews... Something in all directions and (assuming your not blindsided by bad level design) is incredibly easy to dodge. But also it is incredibly annoying as this devious fellow likes to sprint up to you before using the attack immediately, with very little warning. Furthermore, the attack has some questionable collision. His next attack is some kind of fire breath, which he used at all the wrong occasions. Then there is his charge, which is fair I guess. I wish there was more warning though and that he couldn't just spam the same attack over and over and over again. I don't even know if he actually has a regular melee attack. 80% of the fight was him charging at me, 5% him using the fire attack while out of range; 15% him checking if I'm awake with his actual ranged attack. But I see why he would use the charge so often, after all he likes to magically accelerate to his top speed practically instantly. Fortunately, luck was on my side and he got stuck in the wall. I blasted him with my Hyper beam and Ice Beam. I do wish there was more of an indicator as to how much health he had left. Perhaps like in Metroid Fusion where the Omega Metroid's "skin" changed colour as it became closer to death. If this is already a feature then I guess I'm blind or it wasn't noticeable. Then, there's CEZ Eggman, who is just himself but also Frieza.

The level after DSZ Act 2 is a cool addition. But I don't have much positive to say. It often looks ugly and claustrophobic in the later half. The completely random change in camera when you go down the tube with the Chaos Emerald before it left me temporarily bewildered. Why did this exist? What purpose does it serve? All it did was strip any hope of immersion I might have and leave me waiting for the camera to return to normal so I can continue playing the game. Additionally, the first half is super boring. Aside from exploring, there isn't much that I found interesting to do. And any attempts to build atmosphere just went over me. I cannot be scared by a Badnik that received the grand suck from a Metroid if I'm playing as Samus in her prime with every upgrade. Some areas being dark also doesn't build tension or make it scary. It's just annoying. The later half being claustrophobic interrupts gameplay, and is annoying. Not only for me, but the poor Metroids who get stuck literally everywhere. The lack of visibility means that I wander into damaging floors that I, as you can assume, cannot see. The terrain also interrupts most of my projectiles. Even when they do not hit. At all.

There's also a problem where the special abilities for the beams you get just don't work most of the time. And then they disable the beam despite doing nothing. And then you have to wait until the next century before you can roll the dice to see if it works like I'm playing HL2RP and the Civil Protection are metagaming as usual. Probably just a me issue.

I'm not sure if I'm just blind and missed it, but I do wish there was an option to disable the splash effect on the visor. And Samus' face. It's distracting; the splashes cause my eyes to water.

Also, there's a rare bug where you can wall jump off of very small inclines and floors even. I noticed it while strafing circles around enemies; other players.

There is no doubt that a lot of effort was put into this mod.
I look forward to seeing it improve.
I rate the:
- Sprites: 10/10
- Skin (Samus): 10/10
- Exploration: 9/10
- Customizability: 7/10
- The Choice of Music: 7/10
- The Level Design: 6/10
- Combat: 6/10
- Enemies: Mediocre
- Bosses: Mediocre
- Arsenal: Good
- Compatibility with Netgames: 8/10
- Difficulty: Easy, but boring and tedious with seemingly random difficulty spikes.

Overall, I rate it a 7.35/10.

I am aware of the content I did not experience personally, but my friends told me about it. I obviously cannot comment much on it, other than it looks cool.