I had a thought recently about Super Metroid ROM hacking, curious if the idea is appealing in any way to anyone else the way I find it interesting:

Basically, a "what if" ROM hack of "Super Metroid 2", an overhaul & optimization of the SM engine, using SM as a base, and pretending it's an official sequel released near end life of Super NES -- using ALL available horsepower to revamp the engine, ie: using ALL relevant on-cartridge chips to squeeze every drop of horsepower from the SNES & SM engine, like:

• Super FX
• Cx4
• SA-1
• S-DD1
• OBC-1
• ST (SETA Corp) chips
• Basically any chip from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_NES_enhancement_chips that could realistically apply to & enhance the Super Metroid engine, in general -- I think I listed the most relevant ones.

Interestingly, Super Metroid is NOT listed as using ANY additional on-cartridge chips!(??)

Also of interest: as noted in the wiki, someone kind of already did similar with other SNES games!

Brazilian ROM hacker Vitor Vilela has created ROM patches for Contra III: The Alien Wars, Gradius III, Super Mario World, Super R-Type, and Race Drivin' that shifts some work from the Super NES's CPU onto the SA-1 co-processor. This improves the frame rate consistency, load times, and sprite limit.

Can you imagine SM with such enhancements, and more??

The core goals here would be:

• A technically fun challenge, to build a hypothetical "best" 2D scroller engine for SNES, using all relevant cartridge chips, which would have been cost prohibitive at the time (and probably technically & physically impossible due to physical cartridge limitations).

• Specifically, for "Super Metroid Optimized" to even further solidify its timeless classic status, focusing on keeping the core pure game, but modernize its performance (higher frame rate, stable frame rate, sprite work, etc)

• And for "Super Metroid 2" with further enhancements:

• Increased screen resolution (akin to AM2R, Dread, etc)

• Increased view area (resolution)

• Increased and/or more stable frame rate

• Dynamic camera zoom in/out

• More Mode7 effects

• More "3D" effects

• More physics

• Modernize the control scheme

Basically: a ROM hack that shows off the hypothetical upper limit of what a SNES could do, with "Super Metroid 2" as the showcase. Imagine SM with the above enhancements, PLAYING ON SNES, but also with tweaks like:

• Fusion & Dread style L/R buttons: one for aim, one for missiles.

• Possibly: A face button freed up from Run, using Dread/Fusion style.

• Basically doing away with abs streamlining SM's inventory system.

• More dynamic and interactive beam selections, like Prime.

• Creative enemies and sprite work: like large baby metroids (from end of SM), as "normal" enemies, even multiple on screen at once, considering increased resolution & view area....

Would require a SNES emulator of course, or something like SD2SNES where the end goal is still TECHNICALLY possible to play on real SNES hardware" as a showcase of hypothetical absolute best of what SNES could do.

Anyone else think this would be REALLY cool & interesting to see???