Metroid: Metroid - Project Ridien

This is a complete game hack with all new graphics and all new level designs! Please refer to read me for additional information on the background of the game.

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1. Introduction
2. Story
3. Power-ups
4. Worlds & Enemies
5. Special Objects
7. FAQ
8. Credits
9. Legal

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Project Ridien is a Metroid ROM. It is a hack of Metroid (the original) and is designed to be a counter to the "easy" new Metroids game... It is designed to be as hard as can be. You play as a clone of Samus, not Samus herself, in a very different area of Zebes. Enjoy, and survive if you can...

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During the time between Metroid Prime and Super Metroid, the Project Ridien incident occurred.

Project Ridien was originally called A.S.H., standing for Anti-Space Hunter. The project was originally started to create a super-being that could be used to fight off all Space Hunters. However, during Samus' invasion of Zebes, it was reorganized to stop her specifically. After countless attempts to create a super monster that could destroy Samus (one of attempts resulted in the fake Kraid) they changed what their goal was. Using cameras and other technology, they managed to almost duplicate Samus's basic suit.

The plan was to create a duplicate robot of Samus that could, being equal to Samus, destroy her with the help of other Space Pirates. Unfortunately, the robots that were placed inside the suit could not function well enough. When pitted against other space pirates, the robots were easily defeated. Samus's invasion almost over by now, and her approaching Tourian, the space pirates changed A.S.H. to a codename, Project Ridien, in case Samus were to stumble across evidence of it while invading Tourian. When the time bomb was set off, Project Ridien, its creators, and its blueprints were evacuated to the other side of the planet. There, in the Coron Skystation, a giant station floating in the clouds, further tests were conducted.

There the space pirates working on it determined that they could not create a robot programmed well enough to destroy Samus. For about 2 weeks the project was ignored, but then a new discovery was found. A search team of space pirates looking for metroids (that survived the explosion the time bomb caused) discovered the remains of a metroid. When the metroid DNA was tested to see if it could be used to create new metroids, the results were negative, but they did find something very interesting in the DNA.

When this specific metroid latched onto Samus, it had been bombed off. However, the metroid had sucked out enough of Samus's energy to extract some of Samus's DNA. The creators of Project Ridien picked up the project again, this time hoping not to have to use a robot but instead of clone of Samus.

The original idea was to create a perfect clone of Samus- body, mind, and abilities. They already had the entire mind they needed (having receptors picking up Samus's brainwaves when she was invading Zebes), which they merely needed to focus into the clone?s own brain to learn them. The creators' idea was to recreate the Samus we all know and love, a perfect clone.

However, this plan did not work. They soon realized that the DNA that had been extracted from the Metroid remains was, like the Metroid DNA, not intact and had missing parts. Original attempts to create a clone without repairing the damage ended up creating a random blob of cells. After numerous attempts, the creators decided they'd have to repair the DNA.

Attempting to repair the DNA with artificial particles, the result was horrible. Although the results were human-like shapes, the bodies was mangled, disproportioned, missing limbs, and usually dead. The few that did come out alive only lasted for about a minute. They twisted and twitched for a minute, then their bodies collapsed and they died. Finally, the space pirates were close to giving up Project Ridien. In addition, funds had been running low as a large amount of energy was being put into Mother Brain's recovery; after Samus defeated her on Zebes, there was a flash and a burst of flames, thought to be the Mother Brain exploding. However, in reality, it was her teleporting away... To a hideaway on Coron Skystation. In an attempt to advance her biological section's recovery, natural plants were brought in to help it feel less mechanical... But the plants grew, and took over, consuming the metroid cloning area as well and corrupting the metroid's DNA into Kesonoids, a planty mutation of metroids. Faced with this new problem, the researchers were told that they needed to complete their project immediately or give up. As a last attempt, they intercepted a Federation Police vessel, invaded it, and took a female officer's dead body back to the Coron Skystation. Using parts of her DNA to reconstruct Samus's, they started cloning again.

The results started out bad. The clones looked normal now, but their brains and some organs didn't function properly and they never lived. However, the space pirate scientists kept trying to recreate the DNA perfectly. Although the pirates grew ever closer to creating a working clone, disaster struck once again on the cursed project. The pirate base of Tallon IV fell at the hands of Samus, and a large explosion in the phazon crater caused by Samus blew a large chunk of the crater into space. The fragment had been thrown into space at a particularily bad time- when Zebes' orbit was closest to Tallon IV's. The pirates, trying desperately to regroup after the assault on Tallon IV, completely ignored the meteorite... Until it crashed directly into Coron Skystation. The fragment extremely damaged a large portion of the station and superheated the area. Large amounts of Deoxidation Drones had to be dispatched to the area in order to stop the flames by cutting off the oxygen and transforming it into carbon dioxide. Not only this, but the damage majorly cut the station's power supplies. Nearly all power had to be redirected to Mother Brain's recovery. Life support and lights had to be removed. The station's workers were replaced by drones, and the lights replaced by a gel-infused metal which glowed green with even the slightest light. Even with all this, all power had to be cut from Project Ridien. In addition, the crater the fragment had created had been found to possess Phazon... Not only that, a search team had discovered an offspring of Prime's- a minirature Prime that had formed from some of the original Prime's phazon veins. Even more power was diverted to helping the spread and mining of the phazon in the crater. Further complicating matters, the Ridley Cloning station had recently been built into Norfair beneath Coron Skystation... But things had gone wrong. The station was designed to mass-clone an army of Ridleys led by one Super Ridley... But the Super Ridley had wreaked havoc on the entire Cloning Station and it was in a state of Chaos. Mother Brain's Recovery, the station's damage, the cloning station, and the crater's developement had taken away all of Project Ridien's resources.

Finally, when Project Ridien was all but abandoned, one of the scientists on the team pointed out that all of these recovery processes that were taking away from Project Ridien were all caused by what Project Ridien wished to stop... Samus. A small amount of resources were granted. Now, with the bare minimum equipment, a miracle was given. They finally created a working clone. She wasn't exactly Samus- she was slightly thinner, slightly stronger, her hair was a dark brown (the color of the Federation Police officer's), but she was a very close clone. The clone and the suit created earlier were both named Ridien, after the project.

However, the project did not end there. Using technologies that were used in Mother Brain's mechanical armor and the turrets in her chamber, they reinforced the Ridien suit and it's beam to make it more than 10 times stronger than Samus's. Finally, Ridien was suited up in her suit and placed in the Brainwave chamber to have Samus's mind placed in her. However, thehorrible luck that had plauged the project was about to come to a final blow. The scientists made a large mistake- they had not edited Samus's thoughts at all. They had hoped to teach Ridien all that Samus knew about battle and the world, her skills. They had also implanted extra information into Ridien so she knew what she was, were she was, what space pirates were. However, when Samus's thoughts entered Ridien's head, Ridien became Samus. COMPLETELY Samus... Her memories had not been wiped. And she knew what to do, and what space pirates really were. And she hated them. And she knew that there was only a thin laser door between her and the rest of Coron Skystation. And so she knew that she had been placed in the heart of an enemy world- for she was now Samus- and that she must destroy the Coron Skystation and stop Mother Brain from being resurrected, to slow their plans until the Federation could catch on, to slow the ressurection of Ridley before the Federation was ready. She was not the real Samus, she knew... But she was Ridien.

And she would fight.

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This is a list of all weapons in Project Ridien.

Inferno Beam: Ridien's starting weapon. Shoots fire.

Gamma Beam: Ridien starts with this weapon, but needs the right kind of concentrated energy to use it. It fires ultra hot, 3000 degree plasma beams mixed with radiation, and is by far her most powerful attack. Designed to counteract Samus's missles.

Concentrated Energy: This will give Ridien either an extra tank of Shield, or enough energy to fire off five gamma beams. It is impossible to tell which kind of energy it is until you pick it up. However, be wary; the Space Pirate's design is flawed. Ridien's suit is imperfect, and especially in the use of concentrated energy. Every time you die, when you respawn you may lose, or gain, maximum Shield or Gamma, randomly... Be careful not to die. Also, some concentrated energies will regrow after you die, so you can pick them up again and again... If you're willing to make the trip.

Hover Ball: This is a failed concept. The Space Pirates intended it to allow Ridien to roll into a ball in order to roll across lava... But it didn't work. As a side effect, however, Ridien can walk on clouds after she picks up this powerup.

Long Beam: The standard long beam, allowing Ridien to fire shots that go further.

Ice Beam: Fires chunks of ice at enemies to freeze them.

Toxic Beam: Fires toxic waves at enemies. The most powerful beam.

Sky Jump: Samus' high jump, adapted to Ridien's suit.

Fragmentation Bombs: Bombs which explode with deadly shrapnel. Explosion will damage nearby enemies.

D-SA: Double screw attack. It's radiates both electricity and radiation. Designed to overpower Samus' screw attack, should they both attack eachother at the same time.

RS V2.5: Ridien Suit Version 2.5. A slight upgrade to Ridien's basic suit which increases the suit's durability.

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Coron Skystation is a floating station, much like a spacestation but in the atmosphere of a planet. It floats somewhere in middle atmosphere, with it's lower areas reaching into the lower atom sphere, a thick area of clouds descending all the way to the ground in certain areas. It floats above an area of Norfair on the other side of Zebes that Samus explored. This area of Norfair is exposed to the surface in certain areas, creating volcanoes.

Coron Skystation is currently in a state of recovery. Struck by a falling meteorite, all power had to be diverted to Mother Brain's recovery. Therefore, the entire station was coated in certain areas with a metal that glows green when exposed to any amount of light in order to preserve energy. Therefore, many enemies in Coron Skystation emit flames and light. All life support has been cut off, so the space pirates have been evacuated and replaced by drones to patrol and keep the station in order until the deoxidation drones can finish the recovery process. The flames that have spread throughout the damaged sector are being put down by deoxidation drones, which have managed to keep the fires in that area to a minimum, though the area is still incredibly hot, and the metal burns. Also, smaller amounts of deoxidation drones have been dispatched to other areas to put down smaller fires that the other drones have created.

There is a gravity elevator that goes between the meteorite crater that has also been shut down to conserve power.

The Docking Zone: This small area connects Coron Skystation to any docked ships. It is currently using normal methods of lighting and contains no enemies or glowing metal, just an empty area, so that it can transfer ships in without allowing oxygen in. It basically serves as an airlock.


There are six different types of enemies in the normal Coron Skystation, which vary in strength by the quality of the metal they're built of. The darker the metal and flames, the stronger the drone.

Sentry Drone: The sole purpose of this machine is to detect intruders. It flies in simple back and-forth patterns, and transmits everything it views directly to Coron Skystation's security area.

Attack Drone: These drones' pure purpose is to destroy anything that they come into contact with. While simple, their flames are incredibly effective at destruction.

Deoxidation Drones: These drones are crucial to Coron Skystation. They were built in order to counteract the fires on the damaged sector by cutting off all oxygen. They do this by taking in the oxygen(O) and chemically forcing it to combine with pouches of carbon(C) they have inside them to form carbon dioxide(CO). There are massive numbers of them in the damaged sector. They fly through the air, moving in and out their air gathers at rapids speeds; contact with the moving machinary causes major damage.

Bomber Drone: This drone attaches to the ceiling with it's sticky top. It drops and explodes whenever intruders walk near it.

Flying Attack Drone: This attack drone has been adapted to flying. Far more dangerous than the standard attack drone, it flies through the air ands emits flames at random intervals.

Rocket: These rockets come out of launchers and fly towards intruders. They have very limited targeting capabilities.


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Once Samus defeated Mother Brain in Tourian deep in the catacombs of Zebes there was a bright flash of white light and a breif burst of flames, thought to be Mother Brain exploding. However, this is not true; it was really Mother Brain teleporting away when she was within an inch of death. She had teleported to a section of the Coron Skystation. That section was slowly converted into a organic, planty habitat. Moss covered all the metal, and plants grew. Toxic, thorn-covered vines sprouted from the floor. The idea was that a more natural enviornment may help the Mother Brain's organic sections heal faster... And so far it is showing signs of an advanced recovery.


Kesonoids: Before Mother Brain arrived in area where the Recovery Chamber is now, it was used for cloning Metroids. However, once the plants took over they began working their own DNA into the DNA that was being created, forming Kesonoids. They are very strong and have a leafy covering on them. They are of an irregular shape but other than that look at lot like Metroids.

Mother Brain: Mother Brain herself is much better defended with water tubes that are much harder to destroy than her old zeebeties. Her own body, however, is also much better defended. She only has a tiny hole that you can fire into this time around, and you can't just stand on one place while you fire; you have to jump. The tiny platform you stand on has green rinkas coming out of it every 5 seconds directly where you stand, so you often get bumped off into the thorny vines. Also, her body is halfway between her body in Metroid and Super Metroid; it now is mobile with tiny insect legs. Although the body itself is the entire thing, the only part that can be damaged is the actual Mother Brain.


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LZA (Lower Zebesian Atmosphere) is merely a dense concentration of clouds between Coron Skystation and the Norfairian Volcanoes. There are Sentry Posts throughout it, small hovering platforms with a door in the middle. Their purpose is merely to provide a platform for a gun or defensive turret should one need to be installed, or to serve as a hiding place for space pirates. Normally, it would be futile to attempt to travel this area without a ship. However, with Ridien's hover ball ability, an added side effect is that she can walk on clouds, giving her the ability to travel Zebes' sky. Small portions of the Norfairian Volcanoes are also accessable.

In addition, LZA's doors are newly designed security doors to keep the flying Gerutas from the Norfairian Volcanoes from getting inside the doors and screwing them up. A slightly altered method is required to open them.


There are four new types of enemies in the LZA, all of them consistenting of poisonous gas being emitted by Coron Skystation. Several of the enemies from Norfair can be found in the Norfairian Volcanoes.

Poisonous Gas +: This gas is magnetically attracted to the negatively charged gases in the LZA. It crawls along the walls and will deal damage if touched.

Poisonous Gas -: This gas is magnetically repelled by the negatively charged gases in the LZA. It will bounce off any walls that it comes into contact with.

Poisonous Draft: This upward draft carries poisonous particles with it. It will strike quickly and then be gone, so be wary for it.

Poisonous Gust: This gust of wind carries very large amounts of poisonous gas with it, and continually comes out of poisonous windtunnels. Use caution.


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Buried deep inside Norfair, the Cloning Station was created for one purpose: To clone genetically engineered Ridleys. A massive, every-increasing army of powerful Ridleys was it's goal... With one Ridley, The Super Ridley, commanding them all... Unfortunately, it didn't work. The Super Ridley broke free and wreaked havoc on the entire station. Now, in a state of panic, the Cloning Station is one more problem added to the already plauged Space Pirates.


The Cloning Station, while created for Ridleys, is still crawling with five other enemies:

Tabees: This enemy has a cental body part which is slightly detached from the rest of it's body, which is constantly spinning very fast. It's spinning body will deal plenty of damage if you touch it.

Droemb: This ball actually stays still as it flies through the air, bouncing around. However, it's electrical shield spins around it very fast, and hurts anything that touches it.

Harlsk: Harlsk appears very much like a fairy at first glance, but is actually quite dangerous. It's wings rapidly propel it towards it's prey, and it impales them with it's two-pronged horn.

Ittraw: A marvel of genetic engineering. The Ittraw can walk on the ground or the floor, and hover in between because of it's genetically engineered hydrogen sacks and light body weight. The large sacks next to it's head pulsate in and out, releasing and taking in hydrogen to float, stay on the ceiling, or stay on the floor. It's general attack pattern is jumping between the ceiling and the floor, grabbing enemies with it's sharp claws as it goes.

Advanced Attack Drone: One of the most powerful enemies, these attack drones are designated to guard the Cloning Station and make sure none of the other enemies get out of control and start attacking the Ridleys. The central "eye" and prongs can manipulate gravity for it so it will fall up. It uses springy legs to propel itself upwards and downwards and then adds a little extra "boost" of flames at the end. It deals a large amount of damage, as it is improperly built and is always overheating, giving it it's redding appearance. This also gives severe burns to whatever it attacks.

Ridley: Underdeveloped Ridleys will come out of cloning tubes if an intruder comes near. Luckily, they are not completed, and will die easily. However, these Ridleys are more powerful than the ones Samus encountered, as they are slightly genetically engineered.

Miniboss: Super Ridley: Genetically engineered to be superior to the normal Ridley, this Ridley's skin is redder and incredibly tough. The precusor to the eventual Super Metroid Ridley, once fully developed it will be nigh-unstoppable... But it broke free of it's cloning tank and wreaked havoc on a large portion of the Cloning Station, completely closing it off. It is currently in hiding.


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The Meteorite Crater was created when a Meteorite fell out of the sky, struck Coron Skystation, and then smashed into Zebes. When a team of Space Pirates went inside to investigate, they found something amazing: Phazon, everywhere. It has since been discovered that the meteorite in question had come from the Impact Crater on Tallon IV, propelled into space at massive speeds when the Impact Crater exploded. Yet an even more shocking fact was discovered shortly after; the Phazon was spreading by means of a miniature Metroid Prime. The Prime was an offshoot of the original; a small part that had attached itself to the meteorite and regrown into a small, but functional, Mini-Prime. Early attempts were made to capture it, but all failed and since then the Space Pirates have left the Mini-Prime alone, instead concentrating their efforts on harvesting the Phazon. A gravity elevator carries materials and miners from the Meteorite Crater to Coron Skystation, though it was shut-down mid transfer in order to conserve energy after a substantial amount was lost.

In addition, the crater tore so deeply into Zebes that a new series of ruins has been uncovered... Unfortunately, the ruins have nearly all been torn apart by the meteorite.

There are five enemies in the Meteorite Crater. The first variation them is mutated enemies. These enemies have been exposed to the Phazon and mutated to grow more powerful:

Mutated Ripper

Mutated Zeb

Mutated Sidehopper

Mutated Zoomer

Mutated Skree

The second variation of enemies are Phazonic Enemies. These enemies have been so exposed to phazon that it has actually bonded with their bodies. However, the prolonged exposure was too much for them and has signifcantly weakened them.

Miniboss: Mini-Prime: This small bit of Metroid Prime hides deep inside the Meteorite Crater. It defends himself with walls of Phazonic dust, which it can throw at it's enemies. Use caution, and a lot of skill, as you may find it hard to hit...

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The Brainwave Chamber: The Brainwave Chamber is a chamber specifically designed for imputing knowledge into another person's brain. This Brainwave Chamber was designed to put Samus' mind into Ridien's. However, unexpectedly, Samus' memories also got transfered into Ridien's mind. Ridien now thought like Samus, and set off to destroy the Coron Skystation and stop Mother Brain from being resurrected. This is where you start the game.

Teleporting Room: The teleporters are a simple device to teleport you from once place to another. To operate them, jump in through the door and walk to the left. Then, as soon as the screen stops scrolling walk to the right until it starts scrolling again. You should reappear somewhere on the screen. However, this is a very basic technology: messing around with it could get you torn apart atom by atom, freely floating. If you lose control and this happens, reload the ROM or all items including elevators will disappear. Also, only use these teleporters when absolutely necessary; sometimes they can make strange things happen...

Cloning Vat: These are where Ridleys are cloned. They can move upwards through the top if they see an intruder.

Super Cloning Vat: This vat was used to genetically create Super Ridley. However, it has not been seen since he broke free from it.

Broken Door: Some doors are broken and can be opened, but cannot be traveled through.

Cloaked Platform: These platforms are invisible and cannot be seen.

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This is a section which answers the questions, or comments, that I get most often.

Q: How do I play it?
A: You need an emulator to play the ROM, and an IPS patcher if it's a .ips patch.
Emulator: http://tnse.zophar.net/NESten.htm#Download
IPS Patcher: http://www.zophar.net/utilities/download/ipsXP-111-setup.exe

Q: Can I host Project Ridien on my site?
A: Yes. If you want the ROM or patch, e-mail me. You can host it, as long as you give due credit and supply a link to http://www.projectridien.4t.com/

Q: Why did you write such a complex story for such a simple game?
A: Because I wanted to.

Q: Are you making/have you made any other hacks?
A: Yes, I've made Eternal Descent and Metroid Adventure, and am planning on making more. Check them out at http://www.projectridien.4t.com/

Q: Why'd you make a hack? Why not create your own game?
A: Hacks are easier, and harder. Generally, custom Metroid games have few weapons and are short... Which mine would be, if I wouldn't chosen to do so.

Q: Hey! NARPASSWORD doesn't work!
A: Oops, that's right, it doesn't. I changed it. Sorry, no cheating for you.

Q: Neither does MetEdit!
A: Correct. Stop trying to cheat, or edit the game.

Q: Hey, I just lost a bunch of missles/energy tanks! What's going on?
A: Concentrated Energy randomly is gained/lost sometimes after you die. If you like how much you have... Don't die. And there's a higher chance you'll lose them if you do.

Q: Uh... I just regot a weapon that I don't think I was supposed to get...
A: Some weapons are restocked in Coron Skystation every time you die. It doesn't affect you if you get them again... Except for the Concentrated Energy, which respawns.

Q: How many missles/E-tanks are there in the game?
A: Since you can get some of them again and again, I can't give an exact number... But there aren't very many if you don't count those. There's about as many Concentrated Energies for shield as their are for gamma beams, I'll tell you that much.

Q: But that's only about 25 gamma beams! How am I supposed to beat Mother Brain?
A: Beat the minibosses.

Q: Uh... There's no statue blocking the enterance to the Recovery Chamber.
A: Correct. You can get in as soon as you have ever powerup except the D-SA and RS V2.5. You only need to beat the minibosses if you need their concentrated energy you get for killing them.

Q: But I can't beat them!
A: Then you get go get the same concentrated energy for gamma, die, run all the way back, and get it again a billion times.

Q: This game is way too hard!
A: It's supposed to be. However, I will be releasing an Easy version... Minus the ending on it.

Q: Where is the ______?
A: Find it yourself.

Q: Where's the ice beam in Coron Skystation/LZA?
A: There's only one in the game, I removed the other one.

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Project Ridien by Nathan Schmidt and is made with MetEdit, TilelayerPro, and Hexposure, all of which were made by the incredible SnowBro.

Metroid by Nintendo.

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All original Project Ridien content is ?2004 Nathan Schmidt.

All original Metroid material is ?1986 Nintendo.

This is just a fan game and not to be distributed for money and should be given out freely.

Nintendo: This is just a fan game and is purely for fun. I don't mean to hurt your bussiness in any way. In fact, everyone go buy all the Metroid games. If you own them already, buy a mint copy.

Metroid (U) (PRG0) [!].nes - NOINTRO
CRC32: A2C89CB9
MD5: D77C8053168DA14B360BF5CAECCC5964
SHA-1: ECF39EC5A33E6A6F832F03E8FFC61C5D53F4F90B
SHA-256: E6E6B7014685ADAE447EBB3833242815747BC1E5DF83ADE79F693FB67CF565B6