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....and then she promptly murders the wildlife on the planet she's sent to save. :P Go PETA Samus.

Okay, tasteless jokes aside, this is an interesting hack to be sure. In many ways, this will be similar to my Golden Dawn review in that while I cannot up and recommend this hack to EVERYONE, I will say it's a fun title that takes a specific kind of gamer to enjoy.

WORLD: Woo boy, this is a HUGE world. I complimented TROM for his work on Hydellius as he really went all out in creating a new world there. However, Hydellius was about an enormous research lab while this is the various ecosystems of a gigantic planet. The level design is pretty awesome, and each location feels like two as there's two different area types in each. The Mountains, for example, contains the outside, roaming around the icy peaks and various ice caverns while further down is the inner, lava-filled volcanoes of the mountain. The Dark Forest has the treetops (including an Etecoon village which is pretty cool and filled with secrets) and the river/lake at the base of the trees. Each area is gigantic, so a lot of intense love went into this aspect of the game. TROM, you're amazing when it comes to crafting unique new worlds for Super Metroid, so I applaud you for that.

GAMEPLAY: And here is where the game will divide its players. Exploration is the name of the game here, and boy does it show. It can take an enormous amount of time to even figure out where to begin in Lost World. The game SLOWLY improves as you gather upgrades, but the biggest downfall of this game is the fact that the original Super Metroid had a feeling of direction for where to go next. In this, getting...say...the Speed Booster then opens up maybe 10 different places you could go, and you'll need to check each and every one (and hope you remember where each and every one is too) in order to find more upgrades. As a result, this hack will take ENORMOUS amounts of time to get through. When I completed this today, I clocked over 13hrs, though I've heard of other gamers taking significantly longer than that.

FUN: The question anyone would want to know, and one I feel iffy giving an answer to. I personally think this is fun, but there's an intense difficulty to it. Some of the puzzles can be very difficult, even brutal to figure out. And being lost with no sense of direction can be frustrating. The X-Ray Scope unfortunately isn't as useful this time around because some rooms it won't reveal anything. I understand trying to preserve the thrill of exploration, but this part is just ridiculous. Several times I lucked upon a solution by sheer chance cause the X-Ray Scope wouldn't reveal anything, and crumbling grapple blocks ARE NOT REVEALED BY BOMBS. There's plenty of annoyances here that can put off a number of players. But if you're up for a challenge, this one will meet that itch and then some.

MY RATING: 7/10 Lost World is gigantic game to explore and get lost in, so this will keep a gamer occupied for quite some time. Unfortunately, there's no sense of direction, it's VERY hard to make any significant progress without enormous amounts of patience, and some of the puzzles are grueling and aggravating, especially when the X-Ray Scope only works in select rooms now. Enemies and traps can also utterly destroy you if you're not careful. While I had fun, I honestly got angry a number of times at this game and really considered giving up multiple times. But if you have patience for a long, difficult experience, then pick this up and save some animals....otherwise, leave the job to more professional animal hunters-er, saviors :P