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I'm suprised that I've played this character a lot and I didn't leaved a rating so here is it!

Gameplay wise overall, I feel it balanced, or as I always say, "Vanilla paced". that's a big plus! the moveset is fun to use. I like to use a lot the cool homing attack it has. the sound effects are also cool to hear.

The voices, im not fan that voices applies for all situations like death, pain, etc. The only acceptable situations for me where the voice applies is their attacks and taunts. nothing else.

I know that a command to turn off voices is there but, maybe another option is good to turn off most of the voices and only apply voices in the situations I mentioned...? maybe, is probably a dumb suggestion. or I can just make an external pk3 to patch it for myself.

I said this because attacks or taunts without his voice feels, off.

Now, Sprites. To be honest, it looks amazing despite being prerendered. If there would be actual sprites with "srb2's style" would be better of course, but I understand that not everyone are skilled or being veery patient to do that.

Overall this character is pretty decent and proves that a coder with a bit of blender knowledge (or the basics of spriting knowledge) can make very good characters.
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This map pack seems to jump between a fun, fairly easy experience and a sudden difficulty spike to kaizo-level traps that are nothing but trial and error. The longer it goes on, the bigger these dips and spikes in difficulty get. One level will be easy going, then it'll suddenly crank up the difficulty and drain your lives. I'm convinced map 20 wasn't meant to be beaten by a human, at least on the "secret" route. Sure, I'm weak, whatever, but I'm not gonna waste my time going for a secret level when the design of the levels directly punishes and hates me. Some segments I could mercifully find a way around (those narrow platforms in map 19 for example, you can spindash jump to a small path on the left wall), but for the ones I couldn't, it was just a matter of dying to a trap, retrying, getting past that trap, then dying to the next trap. Rinse and repeat until you can manage to brute force your way to the end.

That said, there's a lot to like for the good parts. When the maps are good, they're very fun, and visually they look pretty good as well. The cutscenes were good for a laugh or two. Bit surprised there were no emblems in this mod, though I found several places where a green grayed out emblem was hovering in place. I actually didn't mind being forced to switch between all 3 characters for different levels, though quite often when faced with kaizo-like challenges I'd wished I could choose my own character. The lack of being able to pick Amy/Fang/Metal kinda hurts too.

The mod's overall a good experience, but the levels towards the end where you're hit with beginner traps and trial and error challenges are infuriating. I think it can have its place in unlockable maps, but for main campaign levels, some of this stuff is discouraging. If the difficulty curve could be smoothed out, I think this is a pretty solid level pack.
Riolucariolu
Riolucariolu
You get to the Amy stages by beating the hard path in Map20 lol.
Would you mind DMing me which stages you experienced as especially hard or listing them in the discussion tab? I made the maps so I'm numb to the difficulty and I'd like to know which maps cause the most trouble because I've gotten the difficulty spike criticism a lot; in the 1.2 versions Map03 was quite a spike and I had hoped to correct it with this update. Also, what do you mean with beginner traps and where do you see trial and error obstacles?
Map20 of course is supposed to be hard, I only put the easy route in after criticism (and I'm glad I did). I disagree that it's Kaizo though, I think the level is hard and quite precise, but I also think I made it fair. A good amount of people seem to have beaten it, too.

Thanks for playing!
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Like the maps conceptually, especially the return of Basic Bounce. I don't think these are all that great right now though.

Eight Beat doesn't have much going on, but the trick panel pad in the center isn't all that fun to make it ever worth picking over something like Green Triangle to give a map that's close to compare. If you add some other stuff and didn't make the tricking gimmick take up so much of the track, then it could be pretty neat. Also the (seemingly) random sound effects could be removed so that the music can be better enjoyed. They didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason that was apparent and just disturbed the music unnecessarily.

Star Slalom is really laggy and probably needs some fixes to make it fun even in GP on my system. Even with that, there is very little room to drive on making the map very tough with little leeway on counterplay. This was only ran through once on GP Vicious like the other tracks so I missed out on taking advantage of shortcuts that might have helped me.

Basic Bounce might be really fun, but it probably should have normal springs or maybe moon panels instead of tricks so that pace doesn't break trying to take the small cuts. I think there were other problems too, but those could be from running this also really hard track for the first time.

[Spoiler] probably should have just been unlocked right away rather be required to beat in GP. I did learn how to play the track effectively from losing on it a couple times, but I didn't have much fun playing the same joke after the first time.

I think if the track design were improved, then this pack could seem less like a meme track pack. As it is now, the tracks are kind of just Hell maps or the equivalent of such as of right now. Besides that, I think the maps look distinct and could become iconic with improvement.
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when i tried playing, it gave me the messege of "makeviamapthings: slope vertex 0 (for linedef tag 1010) not found "
Riolucariolu
Riolucariolu
This issue has been fixed in version 1.3.2. gosas and I couldn't figure out how to delete reviews.
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good for getting emblems and can be used with mod chars
very good char, can be used with models (chars who have models)
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I always hate how l have no room for the OCs people make, but I just HAVE TO for this goober. The clean art really heightens the design
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truly the char mod of all time, truly incredible, riveting story, colorful and whimsical graphics, fun mechanic, indeed the best mod in world
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Very well done guide, but I wanna ask: does this all work on Steam Deck? I got whatever dev tools I could find and I've started working on the sprites for my own character addon, but I wanna know if the whole process is doable on Steam Deck (since that's what I've been using) so I'll know if I need to borrow a family member's windows computer to complete the development process, especially since I don't know if Kartmaker will work on Deck.
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It's cool, got through in 3 tries. Only issue that stops a five is that I don't see many varied uses of the rock, only the same pinballs. If there were things like jumping from one rock to another while it's bouncing. or dropping a rock off with momentum then getting it back, kinda like a kaizo, I'd bump this up to an easy five. Still though, it's great. enjoyed it a lot
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This is probably the simplest thing I've ever done for something relating to maps (yes, this is even easier than making a level header). Works like a dream!
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In terms of visual and audio quality, as well as the gameplay changes, it's all fantastic. Where this really struggles is the level design. Just like the original mod, this mod's level design struggles immensely with stage readability.

There are so many points in this campaign where I've just been completely lost as to what to do, the special stages have it the worst. The forest maze and lava special stages are genuinely hair-pullingly annoying. THe lava one especially forces you to make do-or-die leaps of faith or play super quickly whent he level design really is not clearly conveying what it wants you to do, or where to go. I never even figured out what the wheels you can activate were doing. THere's just no feedback to the player or any indication.

When a stage's entire gimmick is "follow the arrow on the ground" or the signposts have to actively point you in the direction of progress, that's a sign of a fundamental flaw with the level design.

Honestly, the new special stages should be scrapped entirely, I don't understand the scoring, and none of them so far have really been fun to play. Please, just give us back the simple "collect the rings" stages I beg you. I want to get my emerald and get out not spend 20 minutes in a single stage and then be kicked out because i ran out of continues.

Overall this mod is impressive, it's given me a ton of nostalgia over the original mod, but just like the original mod, frustrates the hell out of me. It's better in a lot of ways, but worse in some others.
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An amazing cup all round. The guy I know as the maker of Funky Fortress and the rest of the original Draft Tracks did not disappoint.

The secret additional map not mentioned on the page as of writing is absolutely fantastic being on a whole other level of fun. It's really tough, but worth giving a go at it. I posted a guide in the discussions tab if anyone wants to try it out by unlocking it.
https://mb.srb2.org/threads/draft-tracks-ring-racing-edition.43932/post-683109

The one glaring issue though was figuring out how to unlock that track. There was a whole ARG behind it that had to be solved and the puzzle design isn't that great as a game. It's possible that if the participants and I better spent our time those days, the ARG might not have stung so much, but I think better puzzle design would have been better regardless.

The puzzles themselves get a 2/5 for trying and almost giving a fun little hunt, but failed due to the ultimate let downs and over exertion trying to solve it.
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I have never had anything to do with phantasy star online before.. and still don't. So I have no idea how well anything is ported over from the original, what adjustments have been made, etc.. that didn't stop me from enjoying this addon a lot though.
Combat takes some getting used to, but it gives a more tactical feeling, along with the satifaction of building up a big chain for big damage, it's pretty great. dodging is useful, both in mobility and avoiding attacks and allows for some clutch moments, but luckily not the end-all-be-all tool for every situation, positioning is still important, so it overall manages to have a good mix of both. I also like how the npcs scattered around the hub have something different to say after every mission.
And multiplayer, I only got to play with one other person, but the experience for that has been positive as well. you get to keep your own gear, can share items and overall feels pretty synergistic. and multiplayer support is just always fun.

There are some things i'd like to critique though. To start with something minor, the Jump Pads early on feel like a relic of development, given how we not only never see them again after the early missions, but also see them replaced with springs later on.
The coffee shop felt rather... useless, until i was pretty late into the game. i never found materials for it and the gear would've been outdated pretty quickly anyway. Having a limited inventory of 60 also feels a bit redundant, because consumable items are stacked and have their own limits anyway, so it's kinda just for gear you find. And I know we could have more space, the storage exists after all. The fact you can just send anything at any time there anyway makes it less of a consideration on what to bring, but just an inconvenience to bring more items to sell.
The length of the Missions also blows up a looooot later. From beating a mission in 10 minutes at first to later on get an S-Rank after almost passing the 1 hour mark in a mission.
A bigger point for me would be how poorly some things are explained. And if there's a place in the game that explains it, i have no idea where that's supposed to be. for example, elements. weapons, some skills and even armor can have elements and enemies have elemental weaknesses as well. But for a long time, i wondered if it even did anything. Testing the same attack on 2 different enemies didn't feel any different, despite one of them being supposed to be weak to it. Did i do extra damage, does it have an extra effect, do the elements even work?.. They do, but i didn't really feel it until i went all in with elemental damage. And the elements on the armor are even less transparent, because.. what kinda damage do the enemies even deal? how do i know? do most of them even deal any? Is it even supposed to be a damage reduction? And besides the elements, the game fails to explain other minor things like the how technique-based weapons allow you the freedom to choose for yourself what attacks build chain and which ones break it. my coop parter also didn't know about a lot of things, until i told him, like how units work, how you can quick-switch weapons with the corresponding weapon buttons (doing it via the manu is pretty clunky after all), that you can level up your weapon proficiencies or that you can buy new skills at the shop.
Lastly.. there's a bunch of endgame gear to grind and unlock, but.. for what? there's no endgame to speak of. nothing feels like it was meant for this equipment, even though max level is where you really start unlocking all your possibilities, all the variety and some extra rare gear. but you can beat everything in the game with much less. so what's the point in even grinding anyway, particulary the last few levels don't feel like they're really meant for fun repeat play. i guess the Arena kinda fulfills that, but it's limited and not enough, especially since it's pretty much the same every time and lacks the usual stage gameplay. No cool post-game stages, enemies or bosses for my shiny gear. But i suppose, it all boils down to.. i just want more.
I know the negative section is a bit longer, but don't let it fool you, the issues are overall relatively minor compared to how this is has been a very fun experience for me, it's a great Addon with lots of effort behind it. I had a lot of fun with it and am certainly looking forward for more!
Lat'
Lat'
Thanks for the insightful review!

To go point by point...
-Yes, jump pads are relics of v1.x, however, I didn't change the level design of these earlier maps as there was nothing inherently wrong with them and remaking them would've taken time that was better spent making on the new stuff.

- The café shop lets you exchange rare weapons from the fields for the weapon types of your choices and eventually fuse all of them into a stronger weapon. It also has exchanges that act as a pity system for rare drops in hard mode.
Also worth knowing that you can get items to "limit break" weapons from the café which boost their stats closer to the strongest weapons, which lets you keep using the ones you like the Potentials of.

-Inventory space is more of a holdover from how things are in the source material rather than specific consideration being put into it. I don't actually have anything more to add to it but it's maybe something that'll be taken a look at eventually.

-Mission length is intentionally much higher starting with the ver.2 content. Missions before then were very easy to complete without putting much thought into bringing anything, whereas the longer ones means players prepare a bit more and also make use of telepipes every now and then. 7-2 is of course intentionally the longest mission.

-Weapon / Armour element is indeed not explained anywhere and kind of relies on general gaming tropes of "hit weakness for more damage". Every enemy does actually deal elemental damage, the element being the opposite of their main weakness (Fire <-> Ice, Elec <-> Earth, Light <-> Dark), and matching armour element with enemy attacks' will reduce damage.
With that said, I'll look into adding ways to tell which element dealt damage to the player as well as some extra visual flair when hitting enemy weaknesses.
Overall, I'd like to add some tutorial missions to explain both basics and advanced concepts with more numbers at some point but it unfortunately isn't in the cards yet.


- The lack of postgame is something that is being adressed in the next update which will add a new difficulty level to all missions (and new non-story missions) where strong equipment and mechanical skill is *expected* of the player.
Right now, it's true that equipment (especially 10 and 11-star rarity gear) outscales the difficulty curve set by late hard mode.
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Literally one of the highest quality mods for SRB2 out there. All of the characters are fun to play and really easy to understand.
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This addon is pretty good if paired with Adventure Sonic

(Also extra message)
If SRB2 had Micheal Bay for the explosions Lol
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Fantastic work! Simple as that. I love the new version of Burning Bone Zone as well.

The only qualm I have is that there is no good reason I should try to get a plus record for the cup considering how hard the Special Stage is. I absolutely love it for Special Mode, but unless you have a cool cinematic cut-scene or really any super reward for beating the stage in a real GP, I don't see it being worth grinding for.
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Just 100% completed this mod and honestly it's pretty good. Namely because unlike DoomGuy who can't even get past a castle bridge jump in Castle Eggman, Samus actually feels like she was designed for SRB2. But my god are the flaws numerous.
For starters the tutorials literally just clutter the screen and don't bugger off until you actually do what they tell you. Why couldn't they just leave if you did nothing after a set amount of time?!
For some reason at a certain point the game the lock-on feature disabled itself which meant I had to re-enable it which was really jarring.
The lock-on itself wasn't all that accurate anyway. During the fight against the omega metroid (Which BTW nagivating the pre-boss arenas are a pain in the butt) the charged shots kept missing the boss unless I jumped before shooting it which made 0 sense.
Suit colors for some reason don't save when you change them which means if you wanted to make the suits look like they were from Metroid Fusion? Too bad! You had to re-adjust them everytime you stopped playing! (Though if a later update added in the fusion suit which made it deal more damage and shoot ice missiles but you take more damage as a compromise it would make the fusion suit colorscheme pointless)
Item RNG doesn't sound like the worst idea on paper but the problem is that it's completley wack in some cases. Espicially since sometimes you can end up with upgrades like hyper bombs and super missiles BEFORE YOU EVEN LEFT GREENFLOWER ZONE!
And the 2 bonus upgrades you can get can be extremely annoying to get espicially when one requires bomb jumping at a level so absurd that it feels like it was made for the kaizo players while the other has the timing so strict it might as well be non-existent! The item radar while useful, it's given so late that it might as well not be there. The fact it carries through to other save files doesn't save it.
That one scene during Arid Canyon zone before the boss however... MY GOD what the hell was going through your mind when you made it?! Yes I'm aware there is something that lets you turn it off but once you played the zone once the disclaimer just doesn't pop up! Can you imagine someone who got to that zone and actually threw up from seeing Fang dead and bloody on the floor?!
By far the worst offender for me however was that shooting the blaster and missiles were binded to the opposite sides of the mouse. For whatever reason the blaser's controls were inverted from what I am used to when it comes to first person shooters since the missiles were on M1 and the blaster was on M2. Which meant I either had to swap my fingers on the mouse and risk getting carpel tunnel or re-bind the mouse keys so it makes sense and risk forgetting to re-set the mouse back to the original settings when I am done with the mod!
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
SRB2's 2.2.14 update broke some of Samus' features (it broke a billion mods in general.), so a hotfix update will be coming eventually to resolve those. I imagine the color and lock-on issues had something to do with that.

You can turn off tutorials if you wish. For most players it's a necessity, so it's on by default. A big problem in previous versions was people never experimenting with mechanics, either due to ammo stingyness or tunnel vision, and then not knowing how to use said mechanics when they really mattered.

The idea for the 1st Bonus Item is to teach players that launching off walls with the boost ball resets the Spider Ball's refills the meter, but I guess you could stubbornly bombjump the whole thing. Just like how the 2nd one teaches Super Metroid's Mach Ball trick. The third bonus item, the Scan Visor, exists very late because it'd be really boring if players were encouraged to blindly chase every blip on their radar to exhaust every monitor in every map. People overexploring GFZ and THZ and getting OP early is already an issue as-is.

You can swap the fire buttons, btw. It's in the gunship's settings.
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