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

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

so cool i love metroid and this is awesome!

Made an account just to post this review. TL;DR, it's absolutely bonkers incredible. I'm an enormous Metroid fan and not a very big Sonic fan, used to play a ton of Metroid Dreadnaught and this scratched that nostalgia itch and more.

This "Character" is incredible. Calling it merely a character is nowhere near the amount of endless fellatio this addon deserves. It's very funny to me that the criticisms put forth by the other reviews tend to include "add more stuff >:(" when this already goes so far above and beyond.

As far as actual criticisms go, the sound effects are in general way too loud and clip the audio frequently, but at some point it begins to just become part of the experience. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't ready for Samus Aran and neither were your ears.

The Samus-only sections were incredibly atmospheric and it made me wish the whole game was that stuff. You did an incredible job translating that early Prime 2 creepiness here. The first boss replacement was incredibly tense and hectic, it was awesome. The second was pure fanservice and it was also awesome, though not nearly as challenging. I didn't get the Hyper Beam until just before fighting Metal Sonic and Robotnik so it was extra cathartic to unload on them.

Absolutely hysterical and wonderful experience. Absolutely download.

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

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE BAT FILE

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

Awesome stuff. Though personally I am not a fan of the change to force the player's crosshair to a particular one, I believe that should be up to the player's preference entirely.

samus shoots some heckin pterodactyls with a super missile

As a huge Metroid fan, I must say, WOW.
I found this on twitter after Samus was trending, and immediately downloaded and did a full playthrough on it. It's pretty cool how if you aren't used to playing SRB2 in a first person perspective, the levels feel so much different, I found myself getting lost in levels I would normally zoom through (Which is not at all a bad thing), I would find emerald tokens (And alternate paths, though because I prefer playing SRB2 as just Sonic) I NEVER would have found on a vanilla SRB2 playthrough by just casually exploring with Samus. Once I got boost ball and shinespark, I would try to find all kinds of shortcuts especially in ACZ. I also love the couple original acts, with unique bosses, and the entire map giving such a dark and creepy atmosphere, I saw these non-moving enemies and when I shot them they would vanish, and in my head I'm like "Wait what are they doing?" and then it hit me "OH It's just like Super Metroid, those are husks!" or "Watch out for the blue?" and then approaching the boss of that act and realizing what that meant. I love the attention to detail, and the little references. If there ever were an update to this mod, I would personally really like having the Power Grip from Zero Mission (Although that would snap levels in half with all the movement options already lol), and of course 3D models, at least for Samus and her gunship. Overall just a very solid mod and worth playing through if you're looking for something a little different.

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.

Great mod, great levels, great character,but there's one thing i noticed, the last level function is broken af, you can grind on the first half of the game to reach ultimate power before you even beat dark samus, and i have no idea how to recharge the hyper beam, other than that it's awesome

Wow. Unbelievable work.

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.

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

holy shit, this is amazing, its basically its own game, i dont even have anything to nitpick, suprised to see it work in splitscreen

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!

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.

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.

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

I've loved this mod ever since its very first version in 2.1. It's genuinely a shining beacon of how much one can love a series. All the details, all the references, how you've managed to implement tricks from Super Metroid into a 3D space and make it work in a Sonic game! I've never played a Metroid Prime game, but I have played Metroid, MII:RoS, and beaten SM. This actually encouraged me to play the latter of the three.

Even after making what felt like a perfect mod, you've managed to make it even better! The new maps are a very welcome addition, and the new bosses are exactly what Samus needed to feel like there was a challenge before the endgame and outside of Hyper and Fusion mode.

If I had to give any criticism, it's that a lot of the enemies in Hyper(+) are extremely touchy and sometimes downright obnoxious in the case of Pyre Flies, Egg Guards (I played an outdated version so ignore this one if it doesn't apply anymore), and Gold Buzz's.

-Pyre Flies take up a huge amount of space, sometimes forcing you to fire at them long before trying to platform, and slowing the pace in what is otherwise a fast-paced endgame.
- Egg Guards on the bridge, and pretty much anywhere else, are just... actual pain, and cause the same problem as Pyre Flies, slowing the pace down to a crawl until you demolish each last one of them at points where you just want to speed and not get sniped by a Robo Hood.
- Gold Buzz's are... well, obvious. They'd be fine if there weren't so many of them in THZ1, and if the Emeralds didn't require no-damage runs. Thanks to the combination of circumstances, it makes Gold Buzz's excruciatingly painful unless you have Wave Beam or are really good with your shots.

Even those enemies aren't enough for me to falter on giving this 5 Stars. This is just *the* best character mod SRB2 has ever seen. Worth every minute of wait.