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Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, An Over hyped Sequel???

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes brings you back to your favorite female bounty hunter Samus Aran. This time around, things got a bit "darker".
Yeah, the "most anticipated GC sequel" keeps veterans, and new players from having that "ever anticipated" feeling. But there are perks, you'll be introduced to some new ammo systems, and a some what intriguing story.

Once again Samus is just flying along, minding her own buisness, when she has to once gain save an entire race and planet from an apocalyptic-like doom. This "soon be gone" planet is known as Aether. The prospering peaceful planet inhabited by the Luminoth. Large moth like creatures that have ruled the land with a satin line fist. When a dark meteor from outer space makes a quick detour for Aether, EVERYTHING GOES WRONG. The meteor has caused the planet to split into two parallel dimensions consisting of a light side and a dark side. In the dark twisted version of Aether, known as Dark Aether (That is one of the most creative titles I've ever heard) the parasitic spiderish like Ing rule. Through the discovery of rifts and portals between the two dimensions, the Ing and the Luminoth rage war against each other. And of course sinsce there's a heroine in the game the dark side is obviously winning. And since Samus is still to blonde to figure out that if she brings all the big guns with her, then they will all get scattered about the entire planet.

So the average story line here, kill bad creature, get weapons back, kill more bad creatures, save planet, the end. It would have been nice if they just would have made an actual story for a change. The whole "save the universe" thing is getting old, and it starting to show.

Visual- Well, it doesn't look to much different than Metroid Prime, but there are noticibale upadates in the environments and chraracters. A-

Audio- Same old, same old, remixed Metroid classics that are replayed over and over.Which I guess isn't so bad, because tha's pretty much the audio for every Metroid game. It's pretty good in the beginning, that is until the frustrating gameplay causes you to listen to the same boss music over and over. Metroid fans shouldn't be surprised, as for newbies, well, turn the volume
down. B+

Gameplay- Where do I begin? Well, you start off as always with Samus' most basic abilties, the only way to the more latent abilities, your gonna have to kill things, and solve puzzles. The main gameplay developing weapons are put into the story, so you don't have to worry about missing them. As for aquiring more ammo and health, you'l have to solve some ridiculous puzzles, and go way off to nowhere to find them. Yes, yes "That's what Metroid's all about" but don't you think it's time for some change? For how long have we spent hours upon hours of our time trying to get that one energy tank, or that last missle expansion. Yes endless tedious, mind numbing hours. It would have been nice if they would have just made things a little simpler. Anyways, the gameplay is okay, but the sometimes confusing button controls, and the terrible save system, keep this game from fame. You'll accidentally change into a morph ball when you want to shoot missles, you'll switch to your Echoe visor when you want to change to light beam, this becomes annoying and it cuases you to die, FAST. Most of you out there would think that a gaming icon like MEtroid would have a easy accesible save system, but once again we are shot down. There's about, 12 save stations in the entire game. So you'll have to beat a boss, run back to the save room, go all the way back, get a new weapon, rinse and repeat. There are great new innovative weapons int his sequel, like the spiritualy awakening Light Beam, and the gothy suicidal like Dark Beam. These wil be your main weapoons, and wil be used in countless tedious puzzles. As if there wasn't enough item collecting in this game, you have to collect "temple keys". I'm noticing a Zelda-like influence here. You'll have to go back and forth between the two worlds, solve puzzles, kill things, jump, shoot, and a patridge in a pear tree. B-

Overall this is still a great Metroid game, it will provide tons of hours of fun. There is a multiplayer, but it's not worth mentioning, since Nintendo's lack of Online capabilities and that you can lock on to your opponents is just another gimmick to make the game sell.

Overall- B+

Great Next Part of the Series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The first time I tried to play this game, I absolutely hated it - I had just beaten Prime 1 on normal mode and wanted to jump right into this game. The game is much more challenging than Prime I, so I got extremely frustrated with it. I gave up on it for a while and didn't think I'd ever come back to it. Recently, though, I played through Prime 1 again on normal mode, then again on hard mode, and then went to Echoes. THAT time, Echoes was absolutely amazing. If you found Echoes too difficult, I strongly recommmend playing through Prime 1 on hard mode and then trying to tackle this game. Now, hard mode on Echoes is very difficult, but worth it. Once I adjusted to the difficulty, I found this game very entertaining - it's longer than Prime, but it's a great continuation of the storyline. Now I'm ecstatic for Corruption on Wii to see how the series ends. If you enjoyed Prime, you'll love Echoes, so long as you can adjust to the difficulty.

Better than PRIME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you loved the award winning Metroid Prime for GameCube then you will adore the follow-up. Taking a tried and true formula from a classic SNES title called The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, MP2Echoes uses a Light/Dark World theme. This allows for cross world puzzle solving and some amazingly unique locales. The control setup is identical to its predecessor, and the HUD (Helmet display) is pretty much the same. No need to remaster new controls, just hop in and go.

Graphically the engine was rewritten from scratch. It looks lightly different but not a large gulf of difference. It does push the Cube to its limits in many ways with ginormous bosses and no slowdown. The game features a lot more cut-scenes and lore to explore with log files from dead soldiers and computers found throughout the games large areas. Space pirates are low key in this one but still they are in here trying to kill you any chance they get.

There is a lot more wild life and curved terrain thanks to the fantastic engine. The plot also moves a long a lot faster than the orginal which makes for a more pleasant trek. You get to battle a dark version of Samus throughout and also traverse giant mechanical fortresses. There is a lot of variety and the music is "to die for" good.

All in all the MP2E is a solid First Person Adventure with shooting components, puzzles, ginormous bosses, a variety of lifeforms, lots of weapons/suit upgrades, tones of secrets to explore, fantastic music and real atmosphere. A must buy for the serious gamer.

Excellent FPS/Puzzle Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've successfully played and beaten this game with 91% completion and about 26 hours of game time. I have to say this game met my expectations after playing Metroid Prime 1 and I was very impressed by the game play.

Things I liked:
1. Fantastic graphics -- Ing & Luminoth char's were unbelievably detailed and pretty much as life-like as it seems possible.
2. Fast gameplay -- All parts of the game were virtually seemless & nothing ever lagged, even in the biggest rooms or with the biggest bosses.
3. Challenging puzzles -- The puzzles in this game are numerous and at least as challenging as the puzzles from Metroid Prime 1. Often times a part of it was hidden from view or behind some rocks.
4. Challenging bosses & sub-bosses -- The sub-bosses in this game are not simple shoot-and-kill bosses. In one case there was a sub-boss you couldn't hurt directly and as a result you had to figure out how to use your surroundings to do so.
5. Full-screen videos -- The videos in this game made it feel a bit more like an interactive movie than the previous game. Several times when I moved Samus into a room, it would switch to a cut-scene and something would happen (i.e. you'd see some pirate creeps entering a portal).
6. New weapons and toys -- If you're looking to have all the same weapons and toys from the first game, you won't find them here. You do have the same basic beam gun & missiles, but you won't find the ice beam, plasma beam, or such here. You do have some new visors too, along with a few other new toys.
7. Lots of secrets -- There appears to be more secrets in this game than the previous game. I've collected about 235 missiles so far and 4 expansions for the super bomb, along with 3 ammo expansions for the *new* beam weapons and I'm only at 91% as mentioned before.
8. Game ending -- I won't say why I liked this because I don't want to spoil it!

Things I didn't really care for...
1. Save points. I found it somewhat of an irritation that I had to go to particular places to save my game in Metroid Prime 1. This game is no different and it seems like there are actually less save points than in the previous game. I don't consider this a terrible inconvienence but it does get annoying at certain points in the game.

All in all, I would heartily recommend getting this game if you like First-person shooter games AND you like to solve puzzles. I recommend you get Metroid Prime 1 first though. In my mind, this game is at least as difficult as Metroid Prime 1 and as a result I would recommend you play Metroid Prime 1 before you play this game.

Worthy, if lesser, successor to the original

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In 2002, Nintendo unveiled a game of such vision, complexity, and stunning visual detail that it shook the gaming world to its core. In a time when Xbox and Playstation 2 games were running away with the market and widely considered to be far superior to anything Nintendo put out, this game rose above it all to become one of the most popular console games of the past decade and even achieving the coveted title of GameSpot Magazine's 2002 "Game of the Year" honor (for ALL platforms, not just Nintendo). That revolutionary game was "METROID PRIME".
Two years later, the time has come for the much-anticipated sequel to that seminal video game. Just this past November, "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" hit the market just in time to quell the hunger of Samus Aran fans nationwide who had their appetites hopelessly whetted by its predecessor. With all this pressure of having to live up to the standard set by "Metroid Prime", the burning question becomes, "How well does `...Echoes' stand up?" While not being quite mold-breaker of the original, "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" holds up quite well.
The story, in brief, leads Samus, our intrepid bounty hunter, to the planet, Aether. Initially in pursuit of a quarry, Samus ends up involved in a much deeper and far more dangerous struggle as Aether struggles with a rift torn in time that has torn the planet between two dimensions, light and dark. It is up to Samus to travel between the two dimensions to recover the stolen energies that caused the rift and to close the rift for good. All the while, she is followed and mocked by an adversary who looks very familiar.
The true strength of "...Echoes" is in its stunning graphics, which even surpass the incredible visuals of "Metroid Prime". The attention to detail is so great and realism so present that the player feels more like a part of this game than in any that have come before. The concept of traveling between the Light and Dark Aether worlds, while initially difficult to adjust to, proves to be a tremendous asset because is forces the player to adopt different strategies based on which realm Samus is in (i.e. the atmosphere on Dark Aether is poisonous and Samus can only seek shelter within small fields of light crystals). The degree of challenge is right up there with the previous game and conclusion of the final battle leaves one feeling quite satisfied. The addition of light and dark crystal weapons, while not very practical, are also a nice touch.
Alas, there are some weaknesses to "...Echoes" that leave it a step below the original. One of the most glaring is how it seems that some missions are just plain tedious and take forever to accomplish, despite not involving a high degree of challenge. The beauty of "Metroid Prime" was that even random explorations of the various aspects of Chozo provided a visual treat that created a very robust gaming experience. "...Echoes" has more of a bare-bones feel to it that leaves the player just wanting to rush from one mission to the next to finish the game as quickly as possible, instead of taking in the full experience. This pattern continues with a number of the enemies and bosses that are faced. Defeating them seems more like a chore than a challenge.
The overall structure of the game feels a bit more out of focus than in the original. The maps overlap and confuse much more than they help (a marked difference from the first when the maps were an tremendous help). In addition, the dearth of save stations through the game proves exceptionally frustrating when a player has to go way out of their way to save the game or risk losing all their progress by forgoing it and losing a life in a tedious manner later on.
This quibbles aside, "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" still stands strong next to its older brethren and more than leaves the diehard Samus Aran fan's appetite whetted for future installments.

Please, longeeeeeeeeer!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 22
Date: August 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am yet again going to be up at one in the morning to stand in line for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. The first game awas ridiculously and absurdly good, so I will pound to death anyone who stnad sin my way. However, when I reviewed Metroid Prime for the website I used to workfor, I gave it 39/40. Yes, that is an "almost perfect". ALMOST. The first game had two things that kept it from being truly perfect:
1. It was quite a bit too short. In easy mode i finished it the firt time through with 100% of all upgrades in 10h27 min, and in hard mode I did the same in 15h or so. I know that shooters are hard to make any longer, but as everyone on the Internet seems to agree, MP was not really a FPS, but more of a FPA, First Person Adventure. It ties in with shooters and adventure games like Zelda, which, I am glad to say are way longer than FPS. Now I am actually ready to grovel and lick the boots of the guys over at Retro Studios in Texas for them to make this one longer than the first one. Please make it at least a good, healthy 20 hours of sweetness equal to the first.

2. It was a bit too easy. That was probably because of the hint system, which pretty much told you were to go. I finished it in easy mode under 15 hours without the hint system, which evened out the easiness of the game, but as i said, unless Retro wants to be responsible for mass suicides, they should make it AT THE VERY LEAST 20 hours long.

With that said, Metroid Prime is, along with Zelda: The Wind Waker, the greatest game on the gamecube to this day. I really hope echoes will live up to the hype, but from what i have seen, it should have no problem doing it.

Over and Out.

A review from a Metroid Prime Veteran....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The best way I can describe MP2 is that it's Metroid prime with a 2. That's it. Otherwise it's pretty much the same game, for better or worse. I'll be comparing it often to it's predecessor, as is only fitting, so it would benefit you if you played the original first before playing this one.

Story wise, the game is very predictable. Two people at war, Samus must protect the light and save the planet from the dark. Wow. That's crazy original. What really got me though was the fact that I HAD to lose my equipment in the first 5 minutes. No grappling beam for you Samus. They even had the nerve to list me the items that I lost which were about 10. WHERE DO THE DEVELOPERS GET OFF DOING THIS EVERY GAME?! It's an excuse not to actually do something new, and it's enough to get the game knocked down a whole star. It may seem harsh, but I'm sick of having to go through the same fetch quest every time for the same items to magically find them because Samus accidentally loses them and forgets a spare. Very very very disappointing. Retro needs to stop designing Retro. If Samus is an intergalactic bounty hunter living in the distant future, SHE SHOULD BE ABLE TO CARRY AN EXTRA MISSILE LAUNCHER OR GRAPPLING HOOK. There I said it. The same goes for Zelda where they make us find the same items over and over and over again game after game. I don't care if it's Zelda or Metroid. Having those names on your game is no excuse to skimp on common sense or originality. 3/10

Starting with graphics, MP2 isn't really that great. Compared side by side with MP1, the games are indistinguishable. The graphics haven't been changed in 2 years. Now the original Metroid Prime was absolutely amazing. I can still remember the opening sequence with the landing in what is a jungle, the rain, the waterfall, Samus and her ship. It was stunning. MP2 just doesn't have that WOW effect that MP1 had nailed down. It looks good, but not that much different then it's predecessor, and in some ways, it actually doesn't match up. 8/10

Musically, the game has lost something. MP1 had an amazing soundtrack, but MP2 is lacking in this department. It has a lot of the sound effects nailed, but it lacks that really memorable tune. Still, it's solid overall. 8/10

Gameplay hasn't changed a bit since the original. The emphasis is heavy on exploration and visor use. You still use a mostly First Person view, but it's all done very well. The controls aren't typical of most first person shooters, but they become very intuititve after an hour of playing. Basically, the game involves upgrading Samus so she can explore more of the environment, using a collection of various visors and weapons. Unfortunately, there is WAY WAY too much scanning in this game. If you didn't play the original, scanning consists of switching to a visor and holding L over a colored item, an enemy, building, etc. and gathering info about it. But pretty much everything can be scanned in the game, and a lot of it is just repeated or useless information. Generally, a waste of time. Even worse, they got rid of most of the weapons seen in MP1. Now you basically have 3 weapons (one of which, the charge beam, is standard in every game.) The light and dark beams. Unfortunately, they require ammo, which is very unlike every other game in the series that gave unlimited ammo. You'll often find yourself running away from enemies to conserve precious ammo needed for bosses and such. It's tried and true but has a number of flaws. 8/10

Difficulty: this game is HARD. There is no option to choose difficulty anymore. You start on normal whether you like it or not, and the normal in MP2 is like the hard of MP1. And the hard mode of MP2 is insane if you have what it takes to play through it a 2nd time. Many of the enemies take a very long time to beat, you have limited ammo, bosses consist of trial and error, and to compound all the problems, save points are relatively hard to find. At the beginning of the game they locked one of the save points so I couldn't use it after a boss battle. Not to mention that you constantly take damage in the Dark Realm until you get the Dark Suit which they choose to give you much later. Puzzles will have you reaching for a strategy guide which I would recommend. Bottom Line: This isn't your old Metroid Prime. 1 being Ninja Gaiden hard, and 10 being for Elmo and friends. 5/10

Finally, we get to originality which this game, and many of Nintendo's franchises suffer for. Like I said, this is Metroid Prime by and by. Different story, slightly different weapons, same game. The light beam is similar to the wave beam in look and attack with only a difference in color, and the dark beam is very similar in look the the ice beam and the way it fires as well with the difference being its color. The graphics are the same, story isn't too far off, and even the idea of Dark Samus was stolen from the GBA game Metroid Fusion except that Fusion implemented Dark Samus much better. If that was the only problem, I would be ok. But it isn't. As in every game before, Samus loses almost all of her equipment in some kind of accident and you have to go on another fetch quest. Shouldn't she carry a spare suit or upgrades since it's happened for the umpteenth time. You once again have to go hunt for the grapple beam, missile launcher, etc. It's a wonder they actually gave the charge beam from the very beginning. INTRODUCE SOMETHING NEW!!! 3/10

Overall, Metroid Prime 2 isn't a bad game. But it's severely lacking originality, and feels far too similar to MP1 to be considered a good game. Hopefully, they will really do something new for MP3.

Defines the Series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I say that Metroid Prime 2 is going to define the Metroid series, because it is that perfect. Any other game that comes out in the Metroid line will be compared to this. In terms of graphics, gameplay and storyline Metroid Prime 2 has no equal. Let the Halo fans say what they like about Metroid not being a good first person shooter. That's because it's not an FPS in the traditional sense. Yes, this is in the first person and yes you are shooting things but there is more to the game then that. The rich landscapes have made me in many occasions stuck around after a firefight and just look at the detail that went into the enviroment.
Let me touch on the plot. Samus Aran recieves a request to find a downed Federation ship. She lands on Aether to find that the crew is dead. Well, not quite, play the game and you'll see. She discovers through that Aether has been split into two parts, a Light and a Dark side. With this in mind, the creators were able to make a mirror image for every section of the map. Samus gets pulled into the conflict between the Light and Dark planets. The story of what happened before you arrived on the planet is told in the same way as the original Metroid Prime. You scan certain objects and get their data. There is a broad amount of information though as opposed to the orginal. You recieve the story from many perspectives such as the natives, the Space Pirates, and the soldiers you are sent to find.
I've seen many complaints that the gameplay is exactly the same as the original. To that I ask what did you expect? The idea of making a sequel is that it is going to have the same general feel as its predecessors. While much in Prime 2 is the same, there are new things to get used to. First is the new ammo system for Samus' alternate blasters. You also gain new movement systems that are new to the game, such as the Screw Attack, which is rather difficult to get used to. But the controls are basically the same, though in my opinion they feel a little tighter. They did the right thing here in sticking with a system that works.
My favorite aspect of the game though are the creatures. There are a few returners from the first Prime, but there are a slew that are native to Aether. Many creatures dwarf Samus and like the worlds, there are dark versions of most enemies. These dark creatures are much stronger and often require a new strategy then their light counterpart. The Ing, the main enemies of the game are equally impressive and are sometimes very difficult to bring down at the game's start. The bosses are amazing. Their massive size is enough to make anyone feel small. Most of them have multiple phases, which can get frustrating as your health starts to drop. They are mostly fought on Dark Aether, where the atmosphere will damage you if you're not in a safe zone, and this adds a further sense of urgency.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is one of the best games I've played in awhile. This is going to be Nintendo's biggest hit until the new Legend of Zelda finally gets released. Metroid is a strong sequel despite what many reviews might say. Don't buy this expecting a shoot 'em up. If you get it to enjoy the graphics, plot, and action to mesh together into a great game look no futher. Otherwise don't bother.

What will wars be waged over in the future? Energy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

For all the obvious talent and effort present in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, a Metroid Prime it is not. Sure, it looks the same, plays the same, is made by the same company, is about the same length gameplay--wise; but what it isn't is an innovative and all-encompassing experience that the original was. This is simply an issue of the Law of Diminishing Returns; if you run the same basic game formula through the assembly line--same engine, gameplay elements, sound effects, visual standards--it will ultimately and inevitably return a product with little innovation and feels very similar. This isn't always a bad thing; conversely and obviously, this isn't always a good thing. To me, a well-oiled machine is the Mega Man X series. I never get tired of those games, but I do recognize the series' diminishing returns. In the case of Metroid Prime 2, I believe the franchise can afford and should be afforded one sequel like this. And I believe that's all we're going to get out of the current game engine since the next-generation of gaming fast approaches.

The best and most accurate comparison Echoes has to another video game is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask--a much tonally darker, slightly more difficult derivative of the legendary Ocarina of Time. The same applies to Echoes relationship to its predecessor. My initial reaction to Majora's Mask was rather muted. I played the game consistently until I beat it, but it's nothing I got too excited about. As for Echoes, I enjoyed it more my first time through than I did MM. However, upon a subsequent play-through of MM, I found the game quaintly poetic and whimsical at parts. I have yet to begin a second adventure through the conflicted world of Aether in Prime 2, but maybe I'll have a slightly (and I emphasize slightly) improved outlook on the game, since I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time through. As it stands now, Prime 2 is still an impressively constructed game.

It's a funny time to be a FPS. I consider Echoes a FPS not in the classical sense, but in the modern sense, as most or all FPS now stress platforming, intricate puzzle-solving involving more than just flipping switches, third-person gameplay mechanics, and a couple other commonalities besides all-out run and gun battles. Besides Echoes, how many more FPS power-houses are there out in the market as of late? Quite a few, and we're talking absolute power-houses: Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and Halo 2 are the main contenders.

Graphically, Echoes is no match technically to those previously mentioned games, especially the PC FPSs (Doom 3 looks ungodly good). Technical graphics isn't a vehemence, however, for Echoes--most of it is in the artistic presentation--but don't discredit the technical wizardry this game displays on Nintendo's little old Gamecube. Artistically and functionally though, the direction follows in yet another Zelda game's pioneering footsteps, that of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, concerning the whole "Light/Dark World" mechanic.

The planet of Aether, stricken by a meteor plagued with destructive forces, is dimensionally cast in-two by the impact, leaving a Light and Dark Aether, traversable only through rifts in the local spacetime. Traveling back and forth between these worlds is much like doing so in A Link to the Past: a tonal shift occurs through the lighting, color schemes, music, sfx, enemies, and level design in the specific version of Aether. In Dark Aether, everything succumbs to blacks and purples, resonant and haunting sounds comprise a sparse sound track, and the level design is a corrupted variation of what exists on the light side. The Ing reside in this dimension, caustic, wraith-like entities of black, amorphous substance that pop up here and there, along with those that the Ing have possessed to further enhance their forces. On the Lighter side of things is a world that sort of resembles the locales of Metroid Prime, but without the variety or the effortless melding of the organic and mechanic.

Concerning the gameplay mechanics, traversing worlds is required to accomplish certain tasks. An example would be activating a bridge that is experiencing interdimensional flux (placing most of its atomic components in the other dimension, believe it or not). Unlike ALttP, however, you are not afforded the ability to teleport on-the-fly between light and dark worlds, as that is reserved only for the rifts. It would have probably been a nightmare for the designers to implement a feature like this (since it is a 3-dimensional game), but in this regard and in retrospect, props goes to ALttP. Besides the topographical changes that affect how you approach your objectives, there's the fact that the very atmosphere of Dark Aether is corrosive to Samus, which factors into how easily you can navigate the areas you explore. Light Crystals are scattered about the landscape that, when activated, expel a temporary light barrier, effectively shielding Samus from the harmful atmosphere. Some crystals are permanent fixtures that were installed by members of the Luminoth, tall, spindly inhabitants of the Light portion of Aether-a relic of their ongoing war of control over the planet's energy. The way the light/dark world mechanic affects gameplay is not limited to what I just mentioned, but it's a taste of what to expect.

As mentioned earlier, a lot of sound effects are rehashed for Samus' new adventure. Understandable. The music is not, however. Unfortunately, the musical quality found in the original Prime is not to be found in Echoes, either. That's not to say that it sucks--no, pretty far from that--but it feels uninspired at times. The outstanding melodic excellence of Prime's soundtrack is truly something to behold, and I wanted more of that this time, too. The same thing happened with the two Zelda games I have been comparing the Prime games to: Ocarina of Time had so many memorable tracks and melodies that I could hum and drum to them all day, but not Majora's Mask. While I was disappointed then as I am now, I can understand that a tonal shift and a more direct focus on the offshoot direction both derivative games have taken resulted in the change in musical direction as well. Still, that perceived realization doesn't soothe the expectations any better.

During her journey, Samus of course loses all she has gained near the beginning, works on getting it back, fights massive and impressive bosses (one of the great things about this game), and finishes the mission. Her main objective is to repossess the energy (stored in large energy controllers) that the Ing have stolen from the Luminoth. Mix in human Space Marines, Space Pirates, and a foe hard-core Prime fanatics will recognize along the way, and you have, well, Echoes. Fans of the original will be happy to know that all these factions don't exactly make their presence known and turn the solitary, hypnotic exploratory adventure into some kind of cut-scene driven circus. But I have to comment on the quality of the logs that Samus can scan for. The detailed and observant writing has been depreciated a bit from what was found in Prime. Also, remember the flashes of self-deprecating humor from the Space Pirates in the original? Yeah, well, it seems that the Space Pirates have been dragged into full-blown self-parody, as much of their logs indicate when you read them. Good for a laugh, though.

Ultimately, the Law of Derivative Game Design implicates that the potential gaming experience grows exponentially less with each derivation. It's as if the system continuously loses more and more energy due to friction because the efficiency declines with each iteration, thus the potential gaming experience of the system shrinks. The solution? A new system for the new elements to do their work in. That's semi-putting it in physics terms, but you get the point... I guess. In any case, I eagerly await the Metroid series' next incarnation in the upcoming generation of gaming.

Metroid Prime 2, pure gaming bliss

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been a huge Metroid fan as long as I can remember. My love for the series started way back in the day when my father brought home the original Metroid for the NES. My love for the series continued to grow thereafter. Metroid II was fun little addition to the Gameboy and Super Metroid is still, too this day, the best game ever made. These three games defined my childhood. Then it happened, 9 long years without a Metroid game. I thought the series was done for good, but then... Metroid Prime.

I was ecstatic. I simply couldn't control myself. I preorded the game months before release and left school early the day of release to get it as early as possible. Upon arriving home I proceeded to play the game. Oh and did I play it. I played it nearly non-stop till I finished it and upon finishing Metroid Prime my mind was made up. Metroid Prime was somewhat of a letdown.

To this day I can't tell you why I felt let down. I truly can't quite say the exact cause. Maybe it's the map system that babied me the entire way through the game. Maybe it was the lack of original gadgets. Whatever the reason was I think the biggest problem was the lack of challenge. By Challenge I mean both mentally and physically. By physically I mean the challenge level of combat within the game. I just didn't get it. I finished the game without dying and I rarely felt like I was mentally challenged during the course of the game. Well, in the end I pushed the game aside and moved on with my life.

Well two years later Metroid Prime 2 comes out. I wasn't exactly thrilled about the game but I ended up buying it sometime in early January. After about a half hour into this game I was blown away...

This is the best game I have played in years! Everything about it is perfect from the subtle but well created music to the extremely detailed world. The new weapons in the game are original and fun to use. The puzzles are complex and very rewarding. My favorite aspect of the game is the richly detailed zones. Each is unique with fitting music, flora, and fauna which are all beautifully rendered in the game. The world just drags you in and makes you feel like you are a part of it. The pointer system, has been improved too. Although you will still be told where to go, it doesn't happen nearly as much now. Only when you steer way off course and are clearly taking longer then you should to progress will the game point you. Also it only gives you a general idea of where you should be and does not water down the challenge in any way.

Speaking of challenge this game is perfect. Nearly every game on the marked is either too hard or too easy. I say again, Metroid Prime 2 has the perfect challenge level. The puzzles are very challenging yet not so hard that you can't finish them without some thought. The difficulty of combat is right on par too. Nearly every boss will take more then one try but rarely more then two. Just the right amount if you ask me.

All in all, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes delivers on ever level. Engrossing well placed music, richly detailed worlds with a level of immersion you rarely find else ware. This, along with a level of difficulty that is perfect makes Metroid Prime 2 one of the best video games of all time.

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