Mega Drive / Genesis Metroid Port Becomes 'Space Hunter'

I really need to splurge on an everdrive so I can try out all these homebrews.

In all honesty not to interested in this as there are loads of Super Metroid rom hacks for the SNES now that offer something a bit different and some new ideas. If it was a new game that was a metroid inspired one I think I would be more interested.

Great!

Now, can someone go and make some SNES versions of the best Genesis games, and actually use the SNES' full capabilities to add in more colours, more background layers and additional overlapping parallax, higher fidelity vertical column scrolling, proper multi-coloured transparency, 8bpp 256-colour or high-res 512x448 cut-scene images, window/shape masking, Mode 7, orchestrated music maybe even with Dolby Surround sound support, controls that take full advantage of the SNES controller's diamond-layout face buttons and shoulder buttons, etc.. . . .

That would be very cool to see.

Watch it get shut down by Nintendo once it gets ready.

If not, not long after this article was written, especially since the developer is using "#Metroid"

I guess they don't think that overprotective of their IPs Nintendo, who announces when Directs come out on Twitter, uses Twitter.

@RetroGames couldn't agree more, it drives me mad the Snes doesn't get the same love. Surely in the right hands the snes could be pushed to new heights.

My original comment seems to have ages well on this one although as long as it doesn't aim for being just a skin changed Metroid like it still does then it will be of some interest to me.

@Zenszulu I agree. I'd much rather have a Metroid inspired game on the MD instead of a port of Super Metroid.

@RetroGames Shinobi 3 on the SNES would probably be amazing.

@Hexapus That I would love to see.

Edit: I've researched how this could be done on SNES for some time now, and I think it could manage basically everything seen in Shinobi III plus have the HUD properly overlaid throughout, have more colours throughout too, show proper transparency effects in the places where the Genesis version currently uses dithering for faux transparency, go for a more authentic Eastern soundscape using real samples, and map the controls better to its gamepad too (could use the shoulder buttons to quickly cycle Ninjutsu types without having to go into the Pause menu for example).

Impressive but to be honest it makes me want to just play Metroid. I can see myself just quitting and booting up Super Metroid… it’s like some fever dream/beta pre-release proof-of-concept of the real thing.

It's for the best that they are changing it to an original IP. They won't have to deal with Nintendo, and we'll get a new game that we can, hopefully, purchase a physical edition of in the future. If there's one thing the Genesis/Mega Drive always needed, in my opinion, it's a metroivania

@Hexapus it honestly looked like an inferior port of zero mission before the project change.

@RetroGames
Don't forget slowdown, lower horizontal resolution and muffled sound!

@President_Leever Slowdown and stutter is not inherent to the SNES:

https://youtu.be/Tl7D25I6yDc?si=1j1RHwnSX5c23W4h&t=2849 (running on stock SNES at only 70% of its full CPU speed)

And, since you're denigrating SNES for no reason, I'll just point out that Genesis also suffers slowdown at times too, such as in Thunder Force IV as one obvious example:

https://youtu.be/EmO8WGx1hcE?si=rZ6ukrOYlQoujlpP&t=454

https://youtu.be/EmO8WGx1hcE?si=o14uzaFDwDbE4kMq&t=1982

The standard horizontal resolution on SNES is lower than it is on the Genesis, but SNES does have a higher maximum resolution, with SNES being capable of 512x448 and Genesis 320x448:

https://youtu.be/1AGMEZvU14g?si=ehsQBh_WAW-QOlSd&t=1535 (backgrounds running in 512x448 on SNES)

The SNES' sound isn't muffled when used properly, just as the Genesis' sound isn't scratchy, tinny, and grating when used properly:

https://youtu.be/kloTSpSEyIc?si=173b-T6WJfZlHcC5

https://youtu.be/eUDn26_uCd0?si=6bwaJ0FhtvoRY3ZP

But again, since you're denigrating SNES for no reason, I'll just demonstrate some really harsh, scratchy, tinny, and eardrum bursting Genesis sound for comparison too then:

https://youtu.be/KM1mqsJJUzI?si=E4l5pGuNCtP8yOKc&t=34

No but a bunch of the best MD games would suffer from it on SNES unless the coder is very talented and a fastROM is used.
Some of the slowdown in TFIV is actually built in, you can see this at the first boss of the cylinder (?) city level if you overclock it.

That hi-res mode puts severe limitations on color, so it can't really be used for gameplay if you want the games to look on par. See RPM racing.

It is muffled by comparison (around 32khz vs 53khz for FM synth on the MD), but it can sound relatively clear and punchy, sure. Youtube uploads (besides specified as real hardware) are based on emulation, removing the filtering so they're not a demonstration of its sound.

@President_Leever So, developers have to design games properly to work within the limitations of these 30+ year old consoles if they want the best results.

I think it's understood by most that the SNES and Genesis have various relative limitations, such as the lower colours on-screen, narrower colour gamut, less sophisticated transparency capabilities, lower amount of background layers, lower max resolution, less instructions per cycle, more artificial, scratchy, tinny and grating audio [if not utilized properly] that doesn't support Dolby Surround sound, etc, on Genesis, compared to the lower amount of larger sprites per scanline [before flicker], less space in VRAM for sprite tiles, lower standard horizontal resolution, lower raw clock speed, more muffled audio [if not utilized properly], etc, on SNES.

Ultimately, SNES is a background powerhouse and beyond Genesis in pretty much every way in that area, and Genesis is a sprite powerhouse and in most real-use cases beyond SNES in that area. Audio is basically a matter of personal opinion, because neither is technically superior in all or even most practical use-cases in that area. And the default SNES controller is patently superior to the standard 3-button Genesis controller, but the 6-button Genesis controller, which over half of the Genesis owners would need to buy separately, is arguably about on par.

The takeaway here is that each system has both strengths and weaknesses next to the other and you should play to each system's strengths when designing your games for them if you want to get the best out of them. And if you do that, both can achieve great results that no reasonable person would try to diminish or dismiss.

And the SNES' high-res mode can still show far more colours on-screen than Genesis and absolutely be used for full-quality gameplay:

https://youtu.be/1AGMEZvU14g?si=ehsQBh_WAW-QOlSd&t=1535 (backgrounds running in 512x448 on SNES)

Not sure what your goal is here in apparently completely ignoring this perfect example I already provided of exactly what the SNES can do in 512x448 mode.

Also, it's a bit misleading to claim the SNES' audio doesn't sound like that too, as many YouTube examples are as they would sound on real hardware to the average listener's ears, and in some cases would actually sound technically better output directly from the real hardware. For example:

https://youtu.be/p_60V8UdYEY?si=6aeWOZBiMxFzYNhy&t=13 (read video description)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT4uMVdZ4nU&list=PLgzzAlT_CcFchDRdsl6wWTAKq6hR_bSBP&index=27 (read video description)

All the audio examples I provided sound great on SNES to the average person's ear vs measuring how good a game sounds via some technophile oscilloscope analysis or whatever. Trying to convince people otherwise with misleading isolated individual kHz numbers is disingenuous, given even actual CD quality audio is "only" 44.1 kHz yet clearly sounds far better than Genesis. One random number on paper is not the full audio story, as I'm sure you know fine well.

Anyway, all I did originally was say it would also be great to similarly see some Genesis games ported to SNES, just as that Super Metroid game was being ported to Genesis, and pointed out a few technically factual areas where the SNES versions could even improve upon the originals if someone were to attempt such a thing. Nothing attacking the Genesis there nor lying about the SNES either. And I see no issue with someone wanting SNES to get ports of some Genesis games too.

All your comments about SNES on the other hand come across as basically unwarranted attacks and even disingenuous, like trying to imply slowdown is basically inherent to SNES when that's not even remotely the truth for example, which is just weird and unnecessary. I wonder if anyone else has noticed that.

You don't have to basically attack, deceive, and try to manipulate people's thinking around either system's capabilities to make whatever point you think you are making.

So, unless you have some ulterior motive here, how about we just agree that both systems are great and very capable in the right hands, and also that ports from one to the other are more than possible within each of their respective capabilities and with some changes here and there taking into account each system's particular specs and features.