Happy Holidays!... and new Demo!

First of all, you can find the new demo in THIS PAGE. Go on, leave it downloading while you read the rest of the post.

So, I was planning to do an early release of this new demo. Like always, there were complications and delays here and there, and what used to set me back a day or two now takes me a week worth of free time. It's hard, but possible.

I have to thank all the great people that helped out this time. Awesome artists that expanded the existing graphic style of the game, great writers who provided both the intro and log texts in great English, patient and thorough testers who found each small detail to be polished into the solid game that AM2R is now.

Ok, I guess I'll be adding more mirrors and adding some screenshots and a trailer after Christmas. Until then, enjoy the demo, and have a wonderful Holiday celebration with the people you love.

Happy Holidays!


Edit: I managed to replicate and fix these 3 annoying bugs that made it into the release:
- Start button couldn't be changed when using a joypad
- Save File not being detected after exiting the game
- Game crashing after first Alpha battle, in certain situations
Please redownload the game if these issues were bothering you. Sorry for the inconveniences!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Merry Christmas, doc :) it's nice that you keep working on this project
BloodOnlySpills said…
YES! Merry Christmas, good Doctor. Enjoy this time with your family, and we await the new footage and media!
E7YC3 said…
We are grateful for giving us a demo :) is it playable on Mac?
Unknown said…
Christmas has come early! (Yes, 1 day is still "early)

Will be playing this today, I'll try to send you my feedback!

Thank you again for all your hard work on this project. You and your family have a merry Christmas!
Anonymous said…
Thank you!

I defeated the first metroid and walked back, there was an error variable shaking 19 or so...demo ended :(

But it was very nice to this point of gaming.
Anonymous said…
Quite a nice Christmas present you had in store for your followers there, Doc. Thank you and Merry Christmas! Also, the best of luck to you in your future endeavours!
Anonymous said…
happy holidays! :)
Cory said…
I have been following this project for a little while now and, as a lifelong Metroid fan, I've gotta say, this game just continues to impress. I don't know when you plan to have this game finished, but whenever that happens to be, this will be my GOTY for that year. Just one thing about this demo that bugged me (although it's not really a huge issue) is that I could not set the "start" button to a different control. I use a wired Xbox 360 controller and it was set to the left thumbstick. Otherwise an amazing game. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to a truly great game universe that deserves better than what it's creators have done to it.
Anonymous said…
What a great present for all Metroid fans! I still check your project page every day just waiting for updates and news.
Unfortunately I have a lot to do right now, so testing the new demo has to wait.

Anyway, I wish you and your family a happy holiday Doc = )
Metroid Creator said…
Thank you a lot Doc' !

You didn't managed yourself for this demo. Thanks and Merry Christmas !
Anonymous said…
Best Christmas ever
Unknown said…
Cool work Doc, the Arachnus fight was amazing :D I can't wait for the next area and Gamma Metroid.
Chapolin Colorado said…
BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER!!! (Until the final release, if on Christmas)
Anonymous said…
Merry Christmas Doc, I hope you have a great holiday! Thank you for the demo!
Unknown said…
Ahh wow thank. So awesome.

It´s a shame it doesn´t run on my Windows 8. Will try to play it with my XP tomorrow.
Spike said…
Heya,
I just wanted to say that the new demo is brilliant! I was blown away by the new music, the brilliant atmosphere, the new area, the secrets, hidden surprises and battles. You have outdone yourself. Graphics, Sound, Balancing, everything was perfect. i was sad that the demo ended. Well done!
Unknown said…
the non-metroid bosses were awesome to fight, you should include a boss fight mode in the finished game. you should also include a save system similar to the one found in metroid fusion or zero mission. other than that, this made the best Christmas eve present I've ever gotten ever.

I will enjoy to see the finished product when it comes!
ForcedSim said…
I couldn't map all of the joypad controls, but I managed to play. That is, until I left the first area. There was no trigger, so after Samus left the first area the camera just locked. I could see on the map that I was falling through the map. I will wait for a more stable release to continue playing.
Anonymous said…
Merry Christmas to all of you and especially to you doc! Great work so far! :D Does anyone of you know if it's going to work on a mac?
iamli3 said…
update with a new demo came at a good time for me , thanks.....
Camelslayer said…
Pretty good. I will say, however, Arachnus is a little on the ludicrous end of the difficulty scale. Should tone him down a little, the difficulty spike with him is way too high.
I really had this feeling the demo would come for the holidays... this was undoubtly the best gift i got for many years.

Sincerely, thank you, doc.
Anonymous said…
Thank you!
As a metroid fan, I've been updating myself on this project but this is my first demo try and its awesome! Gameplay, music etc was very much perfect. Just a few prolong loads and a little lag, but overall, I cannot wait to get the full version :)

Have a great Christmas and enjoy the holidays doc :)
Ken said…
Great work! Every release continues to impress and exceed my expectations. Everything was pretty much spot on. A couple of the alphas literally made me gasp when they popped out of nowhere--definitely reminiscent of the original. The music, the animation, the atmosphere... it all came together wonderfully. If you'd like some constructive criticism, I ran into just a few problems:

1) The game seemed like it wouldn't load sometimes. Would get to the second loading screen (with the copyright disclaimer, right after the old title screen) and just hang there. Let it go for a few minutes, but nothing. I'm running Windows 8. All I could do was hit Alt+F4 to force quit, and then restart it. Then it would work fine. This happened twice.

2) I couldn't map the "Start" button on the joystick. Not a deal-breaker, but it would be nice not having to grab the keyboard to read all the awesome flavor text.

3) The Arachnus fight was a little rough. Personally I loved the challenge, but I imagine the difficulty spike would be a bit much for some people. Then again, who's gonna play this that isn't a hardened Metroid veteran?

Honestly, that's it. Really minor stuff. Thanks for the early Christmas present and keep up the amazing work. We can't wait to see the finished product!
Anonymous said…
Thank you!!
Anonymous said…
I think I've found a bug.

When you try to fire diagonally by holding up and left at the same time, you cannot fire. You can, however, if you hold the diagonal aim key.
ronny14 said…
This is a great demo! But, for some reason, when mapping the joypad, "Start" gets locked on button 6 and you can't change it. This is very awkward for me, as button 6 on my dualshock is the right trigger. By the way, arachnus was awesome and way more epic than the original!
Anonymous said…
Great job, but is it supposed to end abruptly? I was just exploring around and all of a sudden it just finished, is it timed? Also it deleted my save, aw man. Music is amazing btw.
Zach Hixson said…
Merry Christmas doc. And a happy new year.
Anonymous said…
what an amazing x mas present...thanks doc...good to see your still up and running...still following. and always will
t3rr4
Anonymous said…
I really like what you did with the Hydro Station here. The atmosphere was really good and I felt like I was playing a 2D Prime game. The boss fight was surprisingly challenging and creative. Great work!
Talyn said…
Good stuff, Doc.
Difficulty is about perfect, 'cept some mobs seem to take a few too many hits/missiles to die.
Music's awesome 'n creative. Love it.
Some tricky ways to hide/reach items! Keep that up, it's fun!
Anonymous said…
Wow this demo is great! I've been playing it for a few hours and there honestly are very few problems. The biggest issue I have is with some of the Alpha metroid AIs. With the ones that are in very tight spaces (like the last one you kill before the lava sinks for the second time) they often have a lot of trouble moving comfortably for me, resulting in a lot of frustrating situations where I'm pinned against a wall or the floor even cuz I'm unable to move very much. And personally I do believe that the Alphas are a bit too difficult, as I remember them being fairly easy in the original. Seriously though, the quality of this game is top notch. It's been a long long time since I've been truly excited for a metroid game. Thank you so much!
Anonymous said…
I also had trouble with the joypad (an XBox 360 controller), but in my case it was simple not keeping the X-Y axises stable. So it's basically unplayable like that with the pad.
Seraphin Eveles said…
VERY awesome. Can't wait to play the full game. It'll definately be something i stream.
Firespawn7 said…
Just finished the demo and I gotta say... That music was AMAZING! Great work on that last section before the demos end. That music was some of the best Metroid remixing I've ever heard!

One thing I did notice was that when you had the Ice Beam and the Wave Beam equipped at the same time, the max semi-auto fire rate was lowered. Was this intentional? When you have just one or the other equipped, the fire rate is fine, but not when both are up.

Also, I used an XBOX controller, and for some reason you couldn't remap the "Start" button. It was preset to the Left Stick Button, which was sort of odd. Also, I would recommend giving some sort of autolatching to the Spiderball, I had a lot of trouble sticking myself to ceilings from a Spring Ball or Bomb Jump (especially the later).

Other than that, loved it! I've been a follower from the beginning and this demo really made me smile so much. Thanks for all the work you have put into this!
Anonymous said…
the demo is great, but is there any reason i cant get the spiderball to work? it says "press down to activate" but im not seeing it activate, so i dont know if its working at all since i cant seem to stick to any wall that looks like i should. especially the cave area where i should be able to explore the roof(?)
Rage_Inducer said…
Found a BUG the track of the chozo miniboss is not far enough in the back. It goes over the spiky pillars, covering the top. It needs to be sent further into the background becaouse that just looks strange.
Unknown said…
Love love love love love love love! You make me want to go out and make some of my own fan game projects that have been rolling around in my head. I love this demo. Like other people, I had the problem with not being able to change the pause button and I'm not using a Xbox controller. So.. But it was on my select button, so that wasn't a big deal. The most disappointing part of the demo is it had to end.

Looking forward to the next demo/release of the finished product. Your love for the Franchise shows through your work on this game.
Unknown said…
I got the following error while playing, after the first Metroid alpha fight:


___________________________________________
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event
for object k0ud_P2A__9:

Error in code at line 1:
if(SB_MJW__fzV__x.shaking and active=1)or!instance_exists(SB_MJW__fzV__x){mover=instance_create(0,0,i11iOil)mover.delay=4 mover.targety=800 instance_destroy()}
^
at position 19: Unknown variable shaking
HMS said…
Awesome! Great present to everyone. I see that the game is coming nicely. I eagerly await for the complete game.

Having said that, there are some things I've noticed (I don't know if you meant to do them or not):

1. When you press the start button, some areas in the map are marked missing, even though I've been to that location. I'm guessing this is just an error.

2. I think that there's one area near the end where missile is surrounded by the walls, but I see no way to access that.

3. When you start a new game, save at the save point, then quit to menu, you cannot continue. But you can continue once you quit the program and restart it.

4. It would seem that there's no health/missile recovery stations. I thought every metroid games had that (including Metroid 2 for Gameboy). If you think having those makes the game too easy (I honestly don't think so, since metroids, even the alphas, are so freaking hard), then maybe you can include destroyable blocks that generate health/missiles.

Despite some shortcomings that I mentioned, I can just tell that this will be the greatest masterpiece among homebrew games. Keep up the good work.
HMS said…
Oh, and despite a lot of complaints that Arachnus is too hard, I found him to be just right - pretty hard, but not completely unfair. Alphas on the other hand were pretty tough, especially the ones I had to fight on the damaging floor place. If Alphas are this hard and smart (they actively try to dodge the missile for every other hits), just how hard are the later ones?
Chapolin Colorado said…
Just played it... AMAZING!!! That Alpha that came from the rock scared me as hell! And their AI is great, they get smarter and faster.. FANTASTIC! The new area was awesome! If you keep this level, I can even say that will be the 2º best Metroid game ever!!!
I haven't finished the demo (had to go somewhere) but I've found two issues:

1. Cannot disable the upscaling filter. Previously there was no filter if you played on Windows 7 (and on XP you could just run the game at 320x240)

2. You cannot map the "Start" function in the joypad controls.
Necdilzor said…
Happy holidays! Thank you so much for the demo :D I will check it out now ;)
Blue Madness said…
Damn, I really enjoyed the demo! Too bad it didn't save my progress. =(

There are a few things that bothered me:

1 - The enemies' death explosion looks kinda.... generic, I dunno.

2 - The first beam doesn't have a different sound when it's charged. I think this one is already going to change, since the Ice Beam does.

3 - Like others, I played using an Xbox controller, and Start was assigned to the left thumbstick. It wasn't exactly a problem, as I could still play nicely that way, but it would be nice to assign it to the actual Start button.

All in all, can't wait for the full release!
Anonymous said…
Oh shoot, forget what I said about the incorrect grammar, I was thought I was scrolling through the text by page, not by one sentence at a time. My bad, your grammar is awesome. :). May the metroid be with you.
Lippi said…
Merry Christmas, Doc! And congratiulations for this excellent demo,the new area is just awesome! The new ingame menu was a bit confusing at first, but it works very well. And the Arachnus fight... woah! Keep up the good work, I hope, to see some Gammas in the next demo ;)
Anonymous said…
Great work on the game Doc. Been following this for years and am patiently awaiting every update. The demo is incredible, loved the Metroid popping out of the rocks and the water jets, great details. Anyway I found a small bug. After I got Wave Beam I disabled ice which caused the beam sound effect to stop working (except charge beam). Restoring Ice did not bring the beam sounds back. There was no error code and the game continued normally aside from that. This is with the update. Your work is very appreciated. Cheers.
Talyn said…
One request Doc: While this was a pleasure to play, please don't release any more demos. Odd request, sure, but the immersion of the game will be lost if we can play it one area at a time.
Please reserve the next release for the final, no matter how long it takes. :3
Anonymous said…
LAst demo i hit down down to use spiderball well nothing happens now does not work maybe its a bug anyone else have that problem
Unknown said…
Doc, I was blown away with this Demo. It was EVERYTHING I hoped it would be, and more. It felt like I was playing a brand new Metroid game right from Nintendo.

I loved the new puzzles and enemys thrown into the game, and the raised difficulty compared to the original Metroid 2. The boosted challenge makes the game extremely fun and playable. My favorite part of the demo was area 2. The hydro station looked amazing. I LOVED the water pumps and machinery throw into it, and how you used those added in elements in the puzzle solving. Just amazing.

I can't be more satisfied in this demo. This taste of the game makes waiting for the final version worth it. My hype for the final release is now through the roof. I can't wait to see what surprises are hiding in the next few areas.

AMAZING JOB. I can't even begin to express my gratitude for you making this game. Please keep it up, and good luck. I hope you have a happy holiday season.
meep said…
omg ITS AWSOME!!!!!!!!! ok, a hate to ask you of anything else, but when your done, could you make a soundtrack of the game? Please.
As mentioned above, this was the best christmas gift I could ever receive.

Some feedback is in place.

1)Background images may not glue end-to end continously while scrolling. I noticed this a few times in the tunnel where we first meet the big frogs. It seems to be a performance problem. Will test on my faster computer to verify this.

2)Loading times between areas can be improved. On slower systems or systems low on RAM, bg music loading makes the game virtually pause for 4-9 seconds between areas. This can be negotiated either by clever compression of the music files, and/or by letting the game keep multiple tracks in its working memory (for instance, if you go back to the previous area, the track wouldn't have to be loaded again since it was second latest to be loaded). You can also experiment with preloading the music of the expected next area.

3)Arachnus is a great challenge but as already mentioned by some, newcomers won't find this boss beatable for without a lot of practice. I'm not sure what step is appropriate here. Reducing damage taken might just make the fight tiresome, for instance.
Anonymous said…
Just here to report that the Spider Ball isn't working. Pressing down doesn't seem to yield any results.

Other wise, this demo is amazing! This project truly puts Nintendo to shame, boundlessly. It really makes one think "What the fuck is Nintendo doing?"

Keep up the amazing work Dr. M!
Anonymous said…
Goodness, I was so immersed in the demo that when it ended I was almost ready to cry. Very, very engaging stuff. Loved the music, loved the tricky patterns of the Alphas even if it did grind on my nerves towards the latter end, loved the ability to infinite bomb jump...I could go on and on. Not to mention everything just looks gorgeous. In short, you and this demo rock :D
ForcedSim said…
While I can now map "start", when I press the button the screen shakes and moves down a frame, but no menus appear.

I still fall through the map, but now in the 3rd room instead of the 1st.
Bruno 1986 Brasil said…
AMAZING DEMO!!! The data about metroid, environments and research team, the optional quest of saving federation guys, the new design of some items, the improvement of sound effects, everything is amazing! I just suggest you to put letters in the minimap to to represent the metroids. M, A, G, Z, O and Q.
Anonymous said…
Geniaaaaal graicas doc como siempre dando buenas noticias :D
Anonymous said…
Holy crap, that first Alpha in the new area...
Q_Bert_Ds said…
I agree with the above poster. Maybe instead of exerting your time to releasing demos and screenshots, try to finish up the tedious bug-hunting stage and release the game in its entirety. I don't mind waiting a while, I've been waiting patiently for a few years and I think you've almost got it.

Unknown said…
I have a problem with spider ball. It does not work when I press the button! and I don't know if its the game or the computer!
DoctorM64 said…
The spiderball now has 2 methods of activation. The new method (using the AIM button) is the one enabled by default, but I forgot to update the item get message.
Gonna patch that up, in the meantime, you can change the activation at the options screen.
Anonymous said…
Holy Crap! That was a lot of fun! Playing the second time, no error appears. I played about 70 minutes. the suprise metroid from the rock sceared the shit out of me :D The fights against the gammes were a little bit to tough, but they are beatable.

But i had a few suggestions:
* Spiderball isn´t activated by pressing down, its the same Buttons as diagional Aiming. That confuses me and makes the game harder to play.
* The dropfish in the beginnig area (first lava section) looks a little bit lousy.
* There are rockets packed in stone and no hint how to reach them. No bombing, rockts or laser will give entry.
* Demo ends abrupt. I thought about it, and it comes...but END DEMO....nah...its strange ^^

Last two words: FUCKUNG AMAZING
I really love this project! (at least since 2009 when I found your homepage..blogspot...ehm..you know what I mean;) ) I am a metroid fan since the very beginning and still am I. I loved, and I still do of course, all of the two dimensional revisions of metroid, published by nintendo. sadly nintendo does not release any new metroid games without the third dimension but a two dimensional gameplay since metroid zero mission (which was a god damn good game, though it was sort of short; never mind that). Therefore...once upon a time, I was searching for a new two dimensional sequel of metroid and I found this homepage.
The first thing I noticed was that this game actually was looking like an official released metroid game by nintendo. After playing the first demo I was a little dissapointed because of the look which was impressive, due to the program you are using and the sprites you where able to implementate, but the gameplay wasn´t that what I was expecting for. BUT afterwards, after playing the new demo (christmas release) I was completly confirmed about your ability to make a GREAT GAME. The demo is so much improved in comparison to the old releases!
Please go on and do your duty ;-)
Nevertheless I have some little notes which I want to tell you.
1) it would be great if the pictogram of samus would change by selecting an item (e.g. formshape: power-/varia-/gravitisuite; [maybe visor, gunarm, hand changes due to items])
2) the "sand pallets" are missing in AM2R. In Metroid II:return of Samus there are many .."sandy objects" which can be destroyed, even without any purpose, but in order to reabuild your environment ( even some objects [e.g. missile container] are hidden in within these).
3) some enemies are... a little bit to..well..I dunno to tell..surreal(?). -->(e.g.) the blue spike thingly creatures, crawling around the edges of a platform in the corridors between the areas, even when they are non vivid animated in the original, they imaginated some sort of living beeing in our mind due to the limitation of pixels and sprite size. May you could think about using more darker and realisic sprite patterns in the way they have been used in super metroid.
nevertheless you are doing are very good job! ...really YOU ARE!
Luis E. said…
No puedo entrar al mapa sin que el juego se congele y cierre.

"ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object Z_T_rAF2p4r:

Trying to use non-existing surface."

:c
The7thGuest said…
Happy Holidays for those who have some !

Thanks for the new Demo i will Test this, (if i have some free Time) on Win8.

Will it still be possible to walljumt to the Exit with nox Textures ? Im Happy Thank you.
Genesis said…
"- Start button couldn't be changed when using a joypad
- Save File not being detected after exiting the game
- Game crashing after first Alpha battle, in certain situations"
It's funny, how all of these 3 happened during the first time I played it xD
I tried to set the start button at first-> didn't work, then I played and the game crashed after the first alpha battle and after restarting the demo, I had to start from scratch xD
Nice work though, the demo is great!
The only thing that I didn't like though is, that the jumping mechanics seem a lot faster than in Zero Mission to me, a little bit too fast if you ask me.
Anonymous said…
so its as i thought. Doc says it was labelled wrong.
and yet even without the spideball i used infinite bomb jumping to get to where i needed to. lol
T3RR4 said…
hello doc. i been following the project practically from the start.
just want to say thank you for all the effort you have been putting in.
the new demo plays very smooth. the sound is awesome...even samus' footsteps change noise when she changes terrain..good job keep it up...arachnus was epic!!!

my one issue..its only minor, but...
in the room before you get the HIGH JUMP BOOTS,(the green room with the moving pillars and a pink blast door at the bottom) if you have ran out of missiles when you reach the bottom, you cannot open the blast door...your only hope is too kill the enemies in that room and hope they leave a pick up...if they dont....it is EXTREMELY HARD to get out of the room otherwise...even a skilled play like myself found it a little tedious to get out...even with bomb jumping and wall jumping(which i have no problem doing)
any way i thought maybe you should change something in order to make it easier to get a pick up, a save state..or even chaging the door blue , instead of pink

ANY WAY GREAT JOB , HOPE THINGS ARE WELL FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY..KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK...
TERRA
Lancer said…
Dunno if this is doable at this stage in development/tweaking, but a small annoyance I noticed when killing Alpha Metroids: if you kill one in the air pre-High Jump Boots, sometimes you can't reach the missiles/energy pick-ups when they die. A suggestion: if possible, when Alphas die, make it so their drops that replenish energy/missiles are in a more convenient reach-able place. Especially if you have to kill an Alpha in one room that flies up high so you can't reach replenishing items that would help for an Alpha in a room above/below. :)

Another potential useful or perhaps unnecessary change: when alt-tabbing to a browser window running in the background, the game still remains the active window. If one wanted to refer to a walkthrough, or respond to a chat msg/Facebook, alt-tabbing to a background window and back while full screened is not possible. Sure, could easily remedy that with taking off full screen, but more user-friendly things like this would generate more positive feedback I'm assuming.

One more thing, just a minor typo: under the Intel heading for Research Team on the line "scans of Metroid specific energy patters" should be modified/edited to "specific energy patterns" :D

Great work so far though; I really gotta say I'm loving this remake! Especially the extra mini-bosses and advanced AI (especially the Alphas and their little dash attacks and the full-on ramming attack!) among many other changes I'm excited to see in the finished product :)
Samuel said…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
This Demo is awesome, although I am a little disappointed there was no Gamma fight. But, that aside, this was really amazing! Can't wait to play the finished project!
Anonymous said…
Dont know what the issue is but using the keyboard the game runs fine but using a controller there is serious slowdown and lag at times????
Anonymous said…
Played 107 minutes.
105 rockets
4 heart container
27 (9) metroids to move
Ice, wave and charge beam

Have i missed something?

Its a wonderful game!

Anonymous said…
I played through almost the entire demo in one sitting--I just couldn't stop. The music especially is really great, a perfect fusion of classic Metroid with newer Prime-era sounds.

One issue: I was going to hunt down that last metroid and Varia suit, but I mistakenly hit "New Game" when I was going to continue. I was dismayed to see that it immediately overwrote my saved game, even though I instantly exited and tried to continue.

I think it's way too easy to overwrite your saved game--at the very least, you should get until the first save point on a new game before replacing your saved game, to avoid mistakes (like mine), and then it may be helpful to have a prompt.

Thank you again for all your work. This is amazing--even as a game, it holds its own, and it's hard to believe we still have a full game coming. Incredible work.
Joe Hauptman said…
This was a fantastic demo! No surprises really, but the waterworks were neat. Also, that Alpha Metroid that broke from the rock made me jump.
Drew P said…
I haven't finished the demo yet, but I'm liking all of the new features thus far! The log, the map, everything! The Alphas are indeed easier... almost too easy, but the improvements are amazing. The final product is going to be something else.
Anonymous said…
Found a minor spelling error: In Log -Intel -Research Team, the line "specific energy patters" should be "patterns".
Now that that's out of the way: thanks so much for the amazing demo, I was entranced with every bit of it. Please have a wonderful holiday season, and enjoy the New Year. Cheers!
Fran said…
Hola doc, tengo un enorme bug que no me permite jugar, voy hacia la derecha y samus desaparece y solo se escucha el sonido del salto =(
Fran said…
Hola doc tengo un enorme bug, cuando voy hacia la derecha samus desaparece
Forrest said…
I just keep falling out of the map when I try to enter the second area (the game starts, I move to the right to try to enter the cave, and I fall out of the map.)

Though I CAN map the start button, when I press it nothing happens.
brandino said…
Merry Christmas Doc! And have a fantabulous New Year! :-)
Samuel Douglas said…
I really liked this demo. Good job. Let's see... The physics is perfect, great music, etc. I liked the Alpha Metroid's surprise attack in the new area. Also I'm glad the Auto Grip is now optional, this was bugging me in the first demo. But now there's other things that annoy me a little:

1. The Alphas have a very impressive AI and all... but I think they are still a bit hard. Not really hard, just annoying. The metroids in the "vine area"... They are harder than they should be. Especially because of their erratic movements and of their avoiding.

2. I think it would be good if unread entries, were marked as "New", or something like that.

3. The Arachnus boss should be a little easier. I mean, some new people may have problems with it the first time.

4. Just like ith other Metroid games, saving in Save Staions should be optional. Basically, you could use the stations only for recharging, saving only if you wish.

That aside, this demo is great! I really look forward for this game to be finished.
Anonymous said…
El demo es simplemente A-S-O-M-B-R-O-S-O
terra said…
i think the arachnus boss is fine....a first time player would have trouble figuring it out first time...but who wants an easy game?
NOT ME THATS FoR SURE..

games are too easy these days...players are losing the ability to try again if u die
terra
Anonymous said…
the missle sprite and explosion sprite could be alot better

otherwise fantastic demo
gurrrrrllllll said…
I love this! I have lots of thoughts....

--Arachnus was AWESOME! It was an interesting and completely learn-able battle that made sense. I beat it on the first try, but I was try-harding and I only beat it barely! Really creative, the player felt rewarded for figuring it out, and felt capable once he did.

--I wish the sound effect for the lava-lowering earthquake was much more powerful--one of my favorite parts of the original was the epicness of a new area opening, a real reward for the player.

--The wall jump is VERY difficult to execute, when compared to Super Metroid (it's usually my main mode of vertical transportation!) Don't know if you are looking to make it difficult so that it's not overused, and if so, nevermind.

--I found it a bit annoying (sorry) that if I was in the crouched position, if I hit left or right there was a small pause before I moved. This was a problem especially in the chozo hallway boss with the different colored lasers. I was trying to stay crouched an maneuver left and right, but had a hard time judging how far I'd walk and end up walking into spikes.

--Bombs blow up really quickly. I don't think it's a problem, but something I always loved to do was just spider-ball around a huge area and constantly bomb everything. With how fast bombs explode, you can't really bomb any non-straight areas, so you can't bomb a corner in a ceiling, for instance. I guess if you don't hide anything there, it doesn't matter too much.

--Love the music now. I'm really looking for forward to the more dramatic music toward the end (caverns 3, Omega area)

--I do miss the music/soound effect of killing a metroid. Makes it feel more like an accomplishment. Of course, I think it might be inappropriate for the tone you're going for.

--The alpha battle began to annoy me.... Because they weren't very predictable (especially toward the end) I found myself be punished not for making bad or sloppy decisions, but at random. The most striking example was when I got down to just a few hits before death, recharded at a neardby station, and came back only to beat the metroid by lucking out with it swinging overhead at the right moments--it was done in seconds. The lack of control and feeling of earned achievement made alphas progressively more harrowing and unpleasant to deal with.

--Kinda random, but I thought for a short while that the yellow arrow in the upper right corner of the mini-map was supposed to be pointing me toward something. Then I realized that that was silly. Still, I'm sure others will make the same mistake.

--I'm extremely appreciative of the custom key-mapping. I can't play a lot of games well due to forcing me to play with uncomfortable keys.

In all, this is AMAZING and anything I criticized with minute, picky, and probably preferential. Keep it up, it's awesome! :D ♥
jbodner09 said…
I just have to say how amazing that music is. It's a fantastic homage to the Prime series in terms of the instrumentation and minimalism, and it really helps convey the darker tone you were going for.

There is one odd bug that I felt was worth mentioning, but it might not affect many people. Some people had mentioned the "not loading" bug, and I just thought maybe it was because I was on a 64-bit system. So, I fired up my VirtualBox copy of Windows XP, and even though the game was playable, a couple of things stood out. First, the game only displayed in full-screen mode. Whenever it was windowed, nothing showed up, because the contents of the window were being written out of the view. So, when I turned on full screen, it was visible, but it wouldn't stretch to fill the entire window. I suspect this is just because of the virtualization, because when I got it to run on my real hardware, it displayed fine, both windowed and stretched in full screen mode. During gameplay on the virtual machine, I think the game also ran into a little glitch in one of the Golden Temple areas that had robots on the wall. It looked like a screen buffer became corrupted, and it was visible whenever I entered a new room or obtained a major item that caused text to be overlayed on a darkened screen. In both situations, instead of showing darkened versions of the room you are in/going to, it showed a garbled mess. I took a couple of screenshots of when I collected items, and the portion of the screen that isn't garbled is where the text was overlayed, which is how I figured out where the buffer became corrupted, and why I think that is the problem. Again, I don't think those issues will affect to many, if any, people, but it might be something to keep in mind since you want to get this polished so well.
Anonymous said…
Fifty bucks says the next trailer shows off everything, and the next release is Beta.

Happy New Year!
Blue Madness said…
Alright, I finally finished the demo! This is freaking awesome!! I especially loved the Hydro Station music, and the Varia Suit looks beautiful. However, no pain no gain, so here's a summary of the issues I've had:

- Like I said before, the first beam doesn't have a different sound when it's charged. I think this one is already going to change, since the Ice Beam does.

- The Wave Beam's reduced fire rate bothered me. I'm quite used to how it behaves in Zero Mission and Fusion.

- There's a little delay to walk when crouched.

- The Morph Ball's jump doesn't have sensibility, unlike Samus' jump. Like, when you press the jump button quickly, Samus just does a short hop, but the Morph Ball always jumps at maximum height.

- Some enemy death explosions, especially the early ones, are a little generic, I think.

- Like others, I think the Arachnus battle should be a little easier. However, I do mean JUST A LITTLE, so don't make it TOO easy. One thing I think could use a change is how he telegraphs that laser-claw-attack-thingy... I think he should telegraph that attack like he does in Fusion.

And that's about it. I could barely wait for this game to come out, but now this demo is gonna keep me tight until the full release. =)

And just so it doesn't feel like I have nothing but complaints, here's stuff I loved about the game:

- The Spider Ball using Prime's design. SO PRETTY.

- Hydro Station's music. SO PRETTY.

- The Varia Suit. SO PRE... you know what, you get the gist of it.

- That "automatic Morph Ball" thing. That thing's so useful, I accidentally tried doing that in Zero Mission. And was disappointed that Zero Mission didn't have it. LOVE IT.

- The backgrounds! ......sopretty....

- And... the overall quality of the game, I guess. I mean, nitpicks aside, it feels just like a Metroid game, and that's awesome!
Unknown said…
Well, i played this demo and the game is awesome, but i found some bugs, beating metroids. Most of them canb be caught in the corner and killed by shooting some rockets dioganally. Fix it, please. And. That boss, Arachnus, was really cool!
El Nene said…
Hey Doc. Why the wave beam is weaker than the power beam?? It's a beam upgrade not a beam downgrade. :(
Also, the wave beam doesn't discover bomb blocks and you can't shoot wave+ice as fast as the power beam.
Anonymous said…
Thanks for the demo doc!, Absolutely amazing. The only big problem i had with it was that it had to end! i was like NOOOOOOOOO!!!

I agree with everything gurrrrrllllll said, my thoughts exactly. They arent big issues, just little things that popped into my mind while playing.

Someone above mentioned how the Rate of Fire changes when you get the wave beam and i agree with them, it becomes a little bit too slow.

I have to point out how much i love the music. You have done such a great job. The feel of the game is epic, particularly in the cave where the hydro station is

Its definitely worth the wait to see such a polished, solid game, but its so good that its addictive!
Please release MOAR ASAP!

Thanks again Doc.
Anonymous said…
I can't seem to use a controller AT ALL when playing this. what's going on?
Anonymous said…
whn you are done, please make a mp3 soundtrack of the game, for seperate download, and please make there be able to have multiple save files. please.
Anonymous said…
Amazing demo. I really enjoyed this remake overall.

Just one bug to be aware of...

When I turned off the auto ledge grip by mistake, at times it refused to come back on, even when I set back on in the settings. This made the game impossible to beat when in the water plant, as I could not grab the ledge above the 2 spike walls to roll into a ball and reach the second breeding area.

Please redesign this spot so it either no longer requires the grip, or make sure the grip works properly when shut on and off.

Otherwise, your demo is brilliant and I am begging you to get the final product done at some point soon. I crave the whole game badly.

(Interesting that you removed the gamma metroids from where they should be. I guess you wanted to leave them a surprise for the final product)
Anonymous said…
i think you are on the verge of something great
Unknown said…
I really love the demo and have followed you for a while... the only suggestion I have is that when you get the spring ball upgrade, you can't make small jumps like a normal jump. I think it would make it even better if you could tweak it so that the button being pressed controls the right of the ball jump.
Just played the demo. All I can say is "Wow"!

This really brought back some of how I felt playing Super Metroid, a game that, in my opinion, achieved a level of greatness no game since it has achieved. It's a masterpiece, and this remake you've brought to the table is great! I had a blast. When I reached that final cavern and the text "Demo Over" came up, I was so sad! Nooooo!

I can't wait to play the full version. Just out of curiosity, what % of the full game was the Demo?
Fran said…
Doc se me ha solucionado el problema de pasar de escena cuando vas hacia la derecha, pero ahora me ocurre lo mismo cuando bajas hacia abajo y tienes que usar la morfoesfera para cruzar, caigo hacia abajo y ya samus no se ve.... todos estos bugs no me sucedieron con las otras demos
Unknown said…
I just finished playing the demo. awesome game and nice ideas, also very good music
Unknown said…
Awesome Demo , i had a lot of fun playing through it , nice music and nice ideas espacially the water caverns.
Anonymous said…
Gunpei Yokoi would be so proud.
Unknown said…
I've player quite a few Metroid hacks, but this was the first Fusion/Zero Mission engine one. This is one of my most favorite hacks/remakes ever, and not just because Metroid 2 is my favorite Metroid. I love not having to chose between the three beams like the original. The Arachnus fight was perfect. You shouldn't be able to kill a boss on your first try. Gamers these days eh?

My only suggestion is to have the option of setting a windowed resolution. I mean, I guess you can manually resize the window, but getting it perfect is a pain. Unless there's already an option and I'm just missing it.
Anonymous said…
Great work! Always very exciting to see a new demo for download :)

I have one suggestion for control option: I have a wired Xbox 360 controller that I use for AM2R. Is there a way to make the D-Pad work with AM2R? I don't think the analog stick is the best solution for 2D Metroid ;)
Patrick said…
Thank you for continuing to expand this project, Doc. May you and your family be happy and blessed this holiday season! ^^
Aska1987 said…
You are truly making a great homage to this game. Growing up, this game scared me immensely. You have retained the atmosphere completely and utterly. Well done, I can't wait for the final version. One thing I am particularly worried about however is the battles with Zeta and Omega metroids, hopefully you have kept to the original still but tweaked the AI for intelligence such as missile dodging and launching dummy attacks to trick Samus' evasion plans.
Jea Mike said…
Doc Tu Eres el mejor el demon esta Super, no me canso de jugarlo. pero no creo que sea buena idea que saques mas demon porque si sigues así jugaré el juego por pedazos :). feliz navidad :D
Anonymous said…
Always exciting to see a new demo!

On my wired Xbox 360 controller I can only use the analog pad for movement. Is it possible to allow the usage of the d-pad for movement? I think that would be better for 2D-Metroid games.

Another problem regarding controlls is that whenever I run to the right Samus aims to the upper-right corner.

Thanks for all your work!
Am2r Fan said…
To the people who say aracnus is too hard, hey i beat him turning off all items but power suit morph ball and bombs, and no missles. so that means i killed him in power suit, using power beam, and bombs only to bouncce him up. Its not that hard of a boss, and originally, in m2, you had to use bombs only to kill him, and he told you how to kill him in the aracnus log, so dont complain.
Anonymous said…
el demo esta excelente pero hay algunas pequeñas fallas como el movimiento en el agua de samus cuando camina esta bien pero cuando salta avanza como si no estuviera dentro del agua aprte la pantalla de la armadura el diseño es muy bueno pero me parece demasiado talvez si redujeras la imagen quiero decir que entre toda la armadura en la pantalla, pero en todo lo demas es excelente aprte un consejo para la zona del agua la musica no se escucha muy bien talvez si la cambiaras por la que hay en pendrama drift de los prime seria mejor, el diseño de los estados de grabado me parece muy sencillo
Yonathan said…
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FELIZ AÑOOO NUEVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Y QUE GRAN REGALOOOOOOOO GRACIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS XDDDDDD EMOCIOOON AL 1000%%%%
Anonymous said…
I found the demo to be fairly flawless, honestly. The only nitpicky aspect I can think of is that I wish various enemies had more frames to their movements (the ceiling grub-worm things that drop down to the floor in particular).
Apart from that, I found all of the upgrades pretty easily (I think I got all of them, at least), and while I died once on the new boss enemy, I found it far easier on the second time around once I knew what to do. The alpha metroids were interesting too, but not all that difficult.
All that said, I'm very used to the 2d Metroid games, so I'm guessing someone new to them would have a much different experience. I think your work is up there with Zero Mission, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion in terms of quality - which isn't to say I think all of those games are equally as good as the other (Super Metroid > Zero Mission > Fusion), but still. Great job.
Blue Madness said…
I have no idea why gurrrrrllllll said walljumping is difficult. I had absolutely NO trouble doing it. I can walljump just fine, it's really not hard at all.
mirahsan2 said…
Thank You Doc, I finally tried the demo today. Noticed a few things relating to sound. I checked the options when I first started the game and the sound messed up after I changed some sound settings to see how they worked. Later after restarting the game and playing it. The sound started messing up again after I left the ship screen. Just letting you know, other than that everything is great. Thanks again! :)
Unknown said…
greeeeaaat Demo, realy had a lot of fun with it.

The defense turrets, called "Autrack" didn't have any sound effects when say constantly shoting.

Please put it some sound effects for this enemy
Jea Mike said…
Esta muy pero muy bueno el demo me ha guatado en verdad muchoooo, te recomiendo que no saques más porque creo que terminaré jugando el juego por parte, pero esa es tu decisión. :D
Anonymous said…
Esta super bueno el demo me encanta, no dejo de jugarlo. Te recomiendo que no saques tantos demons porque creo que terminaré jugando el juego por partes pero es tu decisión. :D
Anonymous said…
Beat the Demo, and it was great, and this is a long demo, three areas, two that are somewhat big, can't wait to play the full game, but it's coming along nicely.
terra said…
i agree with AM2R FAN...arachnus is fine he does not need to be made easier...please dont change him doc

terra
Hey Doc! So I just finished the demo and it is awesome! Music is amazing and the design rocks, especially for the hydrostation. I have a few issues that I'd like to bring up though:

-Hanging on fall blocks doesn't cause them to disappear. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, just informing you.

-Pink jumping enemies at back of hydrostation get stuck in the walls when they fall, causing them to slowly nudge their way up until they get loose.

-In the wave beam room, I switched my beams to turn off ice beam, and then none of them made any sound. Upon leaving the room and changing again, they all made sound in all combinations.

Then one last comment, not what seems like a bug, just a comment of the mechanics:

Alpha Metroid dodge mechanics are seem pretty overpowered for the metroids, especially in the last battle in the demo because you are on very small blocks. I like the mechanic, I just don't like it when the Metroid is a few pixels away from Samus, and can dodge her attack, while hitting her too. I would recommend either having them only occasionally dodge, have them have a certain number of dodges before having to recharge, or making them unable to dodge at extremely close range.

Those are just some thoughts, but overall the demo was really amazing great work!
Unknown said…
Really AWESOME! The new features are super-useful! Expecially the pause menu, with marker on the map and in-game option screen. That's a great upgrade.
mirahsan2 said…
Ran into something else. I accidentally clicked on New Game and when I exited to go back and click Continue instead, the New Game had already went and saved over my last file where I was much further in the game. Just letting everyone know.
Hi said…
Hey Doc, love the new demo, but there's one problem I'm having and I don't know if you know what to do, but the problem is, is that whenever I install the game, it doesn't save. So, whenever I go back to play, I can't because it doesn't save my file and I have to reinstall it again. Is there any way to save it, so I don't lose my data again?
Kostas Vs said…
Excellent demo, just like the previous ones! I enjoyed it very much, thank you! Now, where IS that donation button? ;)

The highlight for me were the metroid fights. Clever little £$%^@:~#!! :) Not scared of the ice beam, these! I could barely do more than two in a row without running for a refill, even with the upgrades.

The Arachnus boss was super fun as well. I died twice, but the 2nd attempt was SO close. Perfect difficulty if you ask me :)

How do you get that missile upgrade that's on the floor, surrounded by pipes (not too far from Arachnus)?

I seem to have the same problem getting past the loading screen when the xbox controller (wireless) is on. I'm on Win 8, 64 bit. I only seem to be able to make it to the start screen once every 8 or so attempts. When the controller is disconnected, it always loads fine.. Let me know if I can help debug this further.

I found wall jumping really hard to do as well. Thankfully, it wasn't required for the demo. Is it a controller thing?

Thanks again! Now please release the whole thing before Ninten.... oops! Sssssssh :)
Sq said…
Just stumbled into this game. Looks, sounds, and plays great! The level design is really solid too for the most part; usually that's one of the things that suffers most in fan games and it certainly isn't here.

Nitpicks (don't let these detract from the general tone being impressed!)
1 - The circle-flying enemy with the spike on the bottom looks flat compared to other sprites.
2 - The metroid rooms, especially later in the demo, feel randomly put together. You could tie all the little platforms together with some sort of background set piece to make it less strange.
3 - The delay in running right after you land is just slightly too long.
Anonymous said…
I like the new demo a lot. I really can't wait for the finished product. It was a lot of fun. The new bosses are really challenging. I have been following this project for years and I hope it's nearing completion soon. The new metroid AI is much improved over the previous demo. Thanks for your hard work and keep it up.
Anonymous said…
Oh my sweet jesus this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen :'D Beat the demo and I can't believe how amazing it is! You're awesome!
Ajbolt89 said…
Man. You've come up with some super fun ways to spice up the tired old formula. Obviously the bomb charging stuff is awesome, but some of your hidden items are such excellent emulations of how official Metroid games are designed. I really love the water jets in the hydro area, as well as the whole addition of the lore stuff. This is super great, such a different experience from the very first tech demo years ago. I'm happier because of your hard work. Thanks!
MoriyaMug said…
This is utterly astounding. It feels just like Zero Mission did to me: nostalgic, but with a lot of neat surprises. Very professional. My only complaint? Not enough of it! Also, plays flawlessly with my Tron LE PS3 controller.

As an aside, is it just me, or does the percussion in the music seem kind of weak? Was this to make it seem more ambient?
Unknown said…
This game might just be my favorite Metroid game yet. Yes, I said it. It has nice motion throughout the terrain. Jumping, climbing, shooting and morph-ball use all feels very smooth and efficient. The revamped areas and music are a massive improvement over the original Metroid 2, and I can't help but love this. Stellar work, keep it up!

... And if Nintendo decides to get uppity, like Square did with those Chrono Trigger remakers, we shall just have to launch a petition to make this an official Metroid 2 remake. It's too good to be left in the dark!
Anonymous said…
chorei quando chegou em Hydro station. Lembro que tinha um buraco em cima (igual ao que se encontra o chefe) que era escuro e você só ia para frente com a spider ball. Mutio Show. esperando muito o completo.
Hyde209 said…
Played the demo in one sitting today. Got to say it's top notch. I'm a huge metroid fan myself. Keep it up, I'll support you all the way ^^
Anonymous said…
Really awesome to see the game make it this far. Been following it for the last 5 years and it's unbelievable that you've made it this far with it. Congrats and don't rush the release! Also, the demo is killer.
Anonymous said…
This project so wonderfull
i played the demo i can't wait to see the final game.
So much cause i didn't played the orignal game at first time.

So guys, keep it up. If only i could be of some help
ELF said…
As ForcedSim reported, I am "stuck" in the opening room. As soon as I exit right, the screen seems to do a slight jump. The areas seem to be loaded, as the automap is showing me as moving through them, but the camera is locked on the first room. I managed to bumble my way down far enough and to the left so the camera was looking at some blank space to the left of Samus' spacecraft.

I restarted the program; if I run back into the start room as soon as I leave it, the camera works fine in the start room, but it's still locked to viewing the start room.

Exiting the game forceably via Task Manager reports a floating point division by zero error.
Unknown said…
Dude awesome demo man i can't wait until u make either another demo or release the whole game and the hydrostation music is an awesome remix from the overgrown area in super metroid now im fully am inspired to play the demo again
Zinyin said…
Wish, I could put this on my R4i card and play it portably, that's how awesome this is.
Reaper Creeper said…
Hey Doc, I think i played this demo about 4, maybe 5 times already. It is a great piece of work. Glad to see you've ballanced out the metroid battles.
Found one small problem. The chozo minibos's rail appears over the spiky pillars, covering the top. I'm not sure if it's a bug or this only happens on my computer.

Geep up the good work Doc.
Unknown said…
Amazing. I rarely found any bugs, and I really got into the game before it ended :/
Soundtrack is great, Background is Great, everything is greaT ! lol
I also am one of the people who found this a few years ago. Take your time on this project man i want this game to be perfect !

ONE REQUEST THOUGH:
-It would be nice if you include a difficulty setting so newcomers and veterans could enjoy this game equally

That is all, keep doing a great job man <3
Fraöt said…
Hey! Beautiful remix of Brinstar!
I fucking love this game. So damn awesome. Seriously, Nintendo should hire you.

I say to take down Nintendo and force them yo give you Metroid license.

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