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

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

A banger as always, Shine -- the quality of your work here is absolutely aweing. Samus seems to perfectly blend her home game's mechanics with those of SRB2, and it's an added bonus that there's a mode for better compatibility with vanilla characters. Haven't gotten my hands on an official Metroid title yet (Metroid Prime 4 will happen eventually) but I'm convinced this is pretty darn close to what it feels like.

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.

Dude, I was trying to write this and didn't know how to even start.

This mod is just amazing, all the new mechanics and abilities, I'm impressed with all the new movement and fighting options that this mod gives, is like playing a totally diferent game.

I love how the different weapons work and all the stuff you can do with them, freezing enemies with the ice beam and then finishing them with another cool weapon, do some funny trick shots with the wave beam, beat easily (almost) every enemy with the charge shot or destroy absolutely everything with the suprise of the 7 Chaos Emeralds

(Spoiler Alert:)
Something funny that happened while I was playing is that I was expecting just another good mod character and then I got yeeted into Deep Sea Zone Act 4 and my mind explode when I saw the Metroid breakin' through the wall, same thing happened when I saw the Omega Metroid & Dark Samus (and I'm expecting something big for the last areas)

Also, the music selection 10/10

Last thing I wanna say is that I love this mod and I really wanna see what are you gonna do next

(PD: Please can some one tell me what are the map number for the extra acts? Thank you)

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.

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.

This is the best SRB2 mod out there

This is hands-down one of the best addons ever. There's just.... so much cool stuff. Samus' moveset is really solid and every new upgrade makes it even better. The new acts for both DSZ and ACZ are really solid/ The sheer level of customization is also really neat (from the color of Samus' Power, Varia, and Gravity Suits and Gravity Suit lights to so much more). The music is phenomenal as well. Just everything about this addon is amazing imho, aside from the RNG (which is always kinda bs sometimes, no matter the medium, so it is what it is). Overall, a 10/10

This mod was a blast to play, I played the Prime games (Got to the artifact hunt for MP1, forgot where I am in MP2, and near beating MP3 I think)

so cool i love metroid and this is awesome!

y'ever run out of health due to something stupid and instead of dying you just go full metal unga bunga and proceed to destroy everything in a 3 mile radius

yeah that's happened to me
in all seriousness i absolutely love this mod
all of the cool details from the dialogue to the hidden final boss just make this mod probably the most expansive character mod on the MB if i'm gonna be honest, the only nitpick i really have is that i feel like it's a little TOO hard to find the special items
i still haven't found the FIRST ONE EVEN AFTER I LOOKED UP A GUIDE, although that may just be a skill issue on my end
very good mod, caveman brain do enjoy a lot
even tried the bosses as fang which went incredibly poorly as i should have expected

I should start this review off by saying I've never been a huge fan of the Metroid series. For some reason the games just didn't really click with me in the way I had hoped. I guess maybe it felt a bit too slow paced for me in the early game and it somewhat turned me off.

With that said though... holy shit! From start to finish, this mod is an absolute marvel to behold. I've always been a HUGE fan of mods that manage to completely remix the way a game is played while still working with the conventions of the original design, and this does it in spades.

The exploratory ethos of Metroid gameplay merges very well with Sonic Robo Blast 2's level design, and the implementation here also solves my issue with Metroid games being a bit too slow paced for me. Upgrades come fast if you go out of your way to look for each item box and it becomes an incredibly rewarding experience to get super powered early on and be able to blaze through levels with ease in the lategame.

On top of that, my preferred way to play through SRB2 is co-op with friends, and this mod has absolutely wonderful support for it! There are many settings you can choose to tailor fit the experience to what you and your friends want, including changing the spawn behavior for item boxes, limiting it to fresh saves so everyone is on an even playing field, and a wealth of other options. I am extremely happy to see my favorite way of playing this game so fully supported!

One comment I will make is that me and my group of about 8 friends experienced a lot of lag at one point in the Samus exclusive area in DSZ. It got so bad that most people dropped to 1 frame per second! We had to use the exitlevel command to skip to the next level. Trying to avoid spoilers where I can, but three of us moved on to the encounter in that level while 5 of the others were still working on the platforming section, and our running theory is that the game had a lot of trouble handling that many people spread out across the map, as when we went back to it again in a later session it was fixed by simply waiting for everyone to catch up and sticking together before entering the encounter. I feel like this might be more a limitation of SRB2 netgames rather than the mod itself, so I will not be deducting any points, especially since there's a simple fix.

Overall, I was impressed with this mod, and I can say without a doubt that it's one of the absolute best I've seen in my ten year tenure of playing SRB2 and lurking the MB. (just look at my join date!) As someone who really loved SMS back in the day, it makes me extremely happy to see that you're still around and making cool things for the community, and I will continue to keep a close eye on the content you produce. Thank you!

Yeah!!!
My one of favorite addon for srb2 are update!
And it's cool!


Well just like somewhere there was a new battle with eggman...
But I've had enough and new hmm shooter super metroid prime randomizer gameplay.

Thanks for game! ( U wU)

is one of the best characters ever i see in my life... abyways i also im gonna ask if are a opcion to put the story again because the dialogues is not appear anymore when i play again

Wow. Unbelievable work.

amazing work i love the system of returning to green flower zone i used it to grind out chaos emeralds and actually destroy the omega metroid but can you add the grapple beam it would come from invincibility boxes

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.

My god, this mod is amazing, i think it may genuinely be one of the best SRB2 mods i've ever played, i haven't quite completed the main campaign yet (currently at ACZ4) but goddamn this mod is so good

The custom bosses are so damn cool, the Omega Metroid fight was genuinely amazing and dealing the killing blow with a shinespark was so damn satisfying

I'll admit that part of the reason ive stopped at ACZ4 is *that one scene* before the boss, im aware you can turn it off and i do plan on doing so when i eventually resume playing, but for some reason i started feeling really anxious upon starting the act since i saw the scene a year or so ago back when i first played this mod, that doesn't change the mod being amazing thus far but i was just feeling a bit anxious about that bit in particular

Anyways, 10/10

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE BAT FILE