Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is an action-adventure video game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube and Wii, it is the sequel to Metroid Prime and is the second installment of the Metroid Prime series.

Plot
The story of Echoes follows bounty hunter Samus Aran after she is sent to rescue Galactic Federation Marines from a ship near Aether, a planet inhabited by a race known as the Luminoth. There, she discovers that the troops were slaughtered by the Ing, a race that came from an alternate dimension of Aether. Samus must travel to three temples to ensure the destruction of the Ing, while battling Space Pirates and her mysterious doppelgänger called Dark Samus.

Why Its Light Will Serve You Well

 * 1) It follows and improves upon the same gameplay formula as its already amazing predecessor, Metroid Prime, and even feels like an ideal sequel to said game with the improvements it brings.
 * 2) While it doesn't stray far from the first game's formula, unlike the first game, Metroid Prime 2 focuses a bit more on the storyline by introducing us to many new locations and new creatures and two new races of aliens (The Luminoth and the Ing), and includes new gameplay elements, like the Screw Attack, which was scrapped from the first game due to time constraints.
 * 3) The story itself is also pretty engaging, where Samus is saving a race of anthropomorphic months known as the Luminoth from the Ing (the same beings that attacked her at the beginning) and also going against her new rival, Dark Samus.
 * 4) It retains the same solid controls from Metroid Prime, and of course, they got improved upon in the New! Play Control and Metroid Prime Trilogy ports.
 * 5) The graphics and soundtrack are just as incredible as before, some good examples being the Temple Grounds, Torvus Bogg, and the bosses' music.
 * 6) The new environments are also very big and breath-taking, really sharpening the feel of being in a new world completely foreign to what has already been ventured through.
 * 7) *The three different locations are also connected to the Temple Grounds, kinda like a world map, which is much more manageable than how the game's predecessor's world worked.
 * 8) **While Agon Wastes just feels like a desert wasteland, this does fit with how it's supposed to be presented, and it even has some details hidden from here to there.
 * 9) **Torvus Bogg is a wetland-like area with excellent, chill music in both of its sections (one of which is also a remix of Super Metroid's Lower Brinstar theme) that makes you feel in a good mood while traversing the area.
 * 10) **Sanctuary Fortress is full to the brim with cool design and deep lore everywhere, as it's actually a former paradise for the Luminoth during the war before the Ing infested it.
 * 11) Many new and great collectible power-ups and secrets, with new items available such as the Seeker Launcher (which would go on to be a returning item in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid Dread as the Storm Missile).
 * 12) Like in Metroid Prime, the lore scans in Metriod Prime 2: Echoes are super engaging to read, and are actually pretty dark the more you read about how the Luminoth's war with the Ing went.
 * 13) The game is also really great at giving Samus more character, such as the way she lands after beating Quadraxis or when she raises her hand goodbye while leaving the Luminoths.
 * 14) Awesome boss battles, which also improve from the first Prime having really only a few exceptional bosses.
 * 15) *Dark Samus 1 & 2 are really great rivalry-type fights that each have their own unique elements, such as destructible structures.
 * 16) **The second fight is especially epic with you knowing Dark Samus is constantly lurking within the Sanctuary Fortress after you witness her destroy the bridge leading to the Temple Grounds, and your fear gets moved up when you see her kill some Dark Space Pirates and absorb Phazon from two containers while you're stuck watching everything, but when the door opens, you'll eventually run into her in an elevator where she immediately fires at you and slams a button to go up, ensuring that you aren't going anywhere, raising the overall tension and showing that she's not messing around.
 * 17) **The arena itself is thankfully wide and well-designed enough to justify the whole fight (and gets wider when you and Dark Samus finally get to the highest point of the whole fortress), and fits for the new moves Dark Samus gains, like her own Boost Ball move. It's also a cool way of using a niche upgrade (The Dark Visor) to find Dark Samus when she's invisible, all while still being an excellent fight and not slowing down in the slightest.
 * 18) **It's even complete with an ending, something most bosses in the Metroid series lack, as after you beat Dark Samus, she staggers a bit before shooting open a wall to fall down a cliff. Samus quickly realizes that she's trying to escape, but Dark Samus falls down and evaporates before Samus can catch her. With how horrifying Dark Samus looks in her third fight, it's fair to assume she took a huge beating earlier.
 * 19) *Amorbis is a neat first major boss to fight, gets built up very well with some details and foreshadowing throughout the Agon Wastes, and feels like a decent challenge.
 * 20) **Its build up also comes from the natural feeling that you wouldn't know what to expect. Maybe you're just gonna fight another Ing? Well, that feeling goes away quick when this giant worm (which you'll later know as Amorbis, of course) bursts out of the ground and the fight commences after Samus dodges the attack.
 * 21) **While it is mostly just a simple cycle boss, it still feels like a fun boss to fight and a good appetizer for the next two major bosses, and fits well with your current status of not having much items to work with. And it even has two references to two other Nintendo games, like how the fight feels like a nod to Lanmola (the second boss of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past) and how you have to kill Amorbis by laying bombs while in its mouth (like the Queen Metroid from Metroid II: Return of Samus).
 * 22) *Chykka is a really great fight that stands out from how you'd probably expect another fight to go after Amorbis.
 * 23) **When you insert the Dark Temple Keys, no door opens nor do you ride an elevator. The whole room is flooded with toxic purple sludge and raises you into the actual temple, which is also flooded. Then, there isn't anything going on. However, after a moment of confusion, you should notice that four targets are keeping a giant cocoon on the wall up. They can be shot down by the Seeker Missiles. When you shoot the cocoon and make it fall into the purple gunk, it's shown in two halves when it rises to the surface, implying that whatever was in there is now swimming below you, which causes a good sense of dread. And then the boss itself, a big fish worm creature, jumps right out of water and falls back in, giving you a good glimpse of what you have to fight, and the fight itself is neat and has a good variety of attacks, like sending Dark Shredders after you and pulling you into its mouth with its tongue, which you have to blast with your weaponry to escape.
 * 24) **The second phase, however, is when things get really fun. You have to grapple onto one of the three different platforms to avoid some attacks and if you don't want to take damage from the sludge, which makes for some great quick movement the game isn't generally fond of. Chykka also has to be defeated with the Seeker Missiles (you can fire them at joints in its wings), which sends it crashing into the gunk and turning its abdomen into a bigger weak spot but gives it the ability to shoot at you (this attack is easy to dodge, though). Rinse and repeat, and you should come out on top. This fight is really fun not just because of its attacks, difficulty, music, and design, but also because of how it utilizes two underused items for a great experience.
 * 25) *Quadraxis is one of the greatest bosses in the entire series, having a wide variety of attacks and fun phases, adapting quickly thanks to its great A.I., and forcing you to use all your basic movement and attacking options, while also needing you to think hard about what to do.
 * 26) **One notable detail in its first phase related to its great A.I. is when it has a weak point or two (those are its knee joints) left on its first phase, it constantly shifts its leg away from your gunpoint, so you have to get good with strafing to damage its knee joint. Thankfully, this never feels unfair and just feels like an authentic challenge you're fighting against.
 * 27) **You also generally have to use the Morph Ball for some instances like the third phase, but like Chykka, the boss is designed with niche puzzle items in mind, and to the point where they won't become a slog to use, so this should create a fun experience. You even get to use the Echo Visor for help with stunning Quadraxis' floating Head Module in the second phase and damaging it.
 * 28) **The read spots at the bottom of its legs drop health pickups when damaged by your Boost Ball or Bombs, which is really helpful for when Quadraxis deals heavy damage with its hard-to-dodge laser and spinning attack. You can still get health in the second phase from killing Dark Quad robots that the boss summons.
 * 29) **The third phase utilizes the Spider and Boost Ball upgrades quite well, where you need to launch and cling yourself onto the Head Module and bomb one of two slots in it, and repeat for the second time, of course.
 * 30) **Samus even has a cool moment after killing Quadraxis, where she lands in a cool fashion and doesn't even look back at the Head Module exploding.
 * 31) *Emperor Ing is a cool final boss, and a good improvement over the Metroid Prime from the first game in some aspects.
 * 32) **While the first phase is kind of annoying with Emperor Ing's tentacles being a big nuisance if you don't use the Annihilator Beam, and it's pretty unsatisfying if you fail to hit the core with a Sonicboom or Super Missile, the second phase is at least another neat take on a Spider Ball-focused boss, and you can even sort of cheese the swinging tentacles with Power Bombs, though you still need to be careful and not let the Inglets or tentacles knock you off, as there's toxic gas flooding the floor.
 * 33) **Mutated Emperor Ing (the third phase), in spite of its awful weak point hitbox (more on that in BQ#2), is a really great fight with tough attacks (the big laser it fires at times is even Light or Dark themed, both having their own effects that are like yours), and even requires you to switch between the Power Beam (for the Super Missile) or the Annihilator Beam if you have enough ammo, similar to the Metroid Prime.
 * 34) Higher difficulty for those craving for some challenge, even if it can get really tedious at times.
 * 35) Traveling between dark and light worlds is a pretty cool gimmick, even being expanded on from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past, a game that had the same concept of sorts.
 * 36) *You also take damage quickly (although not as much with the Dark Suit, and not at all with the Light Suit) outside of lightened zones, which means you need to think seriously with how you traverse Dark Aether.
 * 37) *The music also consists of unnerving remixes of the Light Aether variants' themes, which fit the overall atmosphere.
 * 38) Dark Samus (who is the Metroid Prime from the first game after possessing the stolen Phazon Suit) is fully introduced, and is a really great and active threat, causing tons of destruction ahead of or in front of you, showing a really malicious and intelligent personality (namely during her aforementioned moments in the Sanctuary Fortress), and as said earlier, having amazing gunfights (with the exception of her third and final boss).
 * 39) *It's no accident (and probably no surprise) that Retro Studios actually took inspiration from Metroid Fusion's SA-X for Dark Samus, but they really expanded on that concept with how she was portrayed, and it only gets better in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The higher difficulty can be a bit too much, especially with the bosses, though thankfuly it was tone down in the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii.
 * 2) While the bosses are awesome, the guardians alongside a few actual bosses are heavily flawed.
 * 3) *The Boost and Spider Guardian are some of the hardest and most annoying bosses in the whole franchise.
 * 4) **The Boost Guardian damages you from every corner, and it deals heavy damage from every turn. Not helping that it's usually really hard to hit (namely when it's using the titular Boost Ball upgrade, which it does most of the time), and there's no light zones to prevent taking environmental damage, while you can only get health pickups four times!
 * 5) **The Spider Ball is a great concept of a fight, but it also hurts a lot (thankfully not as bad as the Boost Guardian, as you're in Light Aether here instead), and while the Morph Ball is a fun puzzle solving mechanic, actually fighting a boss where you have limited time to actually harm it is egregious with how you can only jump with Bombs (unless you play Metroid Prime Trilogy, where you can jump in ball form by moving the Wii Remote up). Not helping that some of the environment can cause tons of error, like that ramp next to the final bomb slot.
 * 6) **Thankfully, they are easier in the Wii's New Play Control!/Trilogy ports. The Boost Guardian now summons Inglets that can be killed for pickups, and the Spider Guardian isn't as tedious to fight now that you have the Spring Ball trick from Metroid Prime 3.
 * 7) *Alpha Blogg is a really underwhelming boss with a terrible hitbox for if you use the Super Missile, and dying to it sends you back a LOOOONG way.
 * 8) *The Grapple Guardian, while good, is rather tedious to fight when it has only a quarter of its health bar left. It does make the boss stand out, at least.
 * 9) *The Power Bomb Guardian is really unfair, as the Power Bombs it fires have a huge hitbox, and will almost always knock you off the Spider Ball rails.
 * 10) **If you can get pass that, the whole fight in general is pretty underwhelming.
 * 11) *The guardians are also lazily designed, just being stronger versions of normal enemies with a few redesigns.
 * 12) *Mutated Emperor Ing also has a horrendous weak point hitbox (especially when you try to use the Sonicboom or the Super Missile), and the Sunburst or Darkburst are completely useless with how slow they are.
 * 13) **Even the Dark Beam on its own feels too slow to use on the boss, and the Light Beam deals no damage, which really just makes the Annihilator Beam the only recommended alternate beam.
 * 14) **The Super Missile and Sonicboom are also only really viable when Mutated Empeor Ing slowly opens its mouth before charging (when it's at half health or under) or firing a barrage of lasers, but even then, there's still a chance you'll miss because it doesn't go into the center, which is really unfair.
 * 15) *Dark Samus 3 is a lame final boss (although it is debatable whether the final boss is her or Emperor Ing) if you know exactly what to do (absorb blue Phazon projectiles she shoots from above and blasting them back at her), though it kinda makes sense with the obvious countdown. Thankfully, there's a checkpoint at the start of the countdown if you lose to her.
 * 16) The beam weapons (with the exception of the Power Beam) have an ammo count, which is a bit strange as they are one of your main abilities, they can however be refilled and even have ammo expansions.
 * 17) Forgettable multiplayer, even though most of the game's development was spent on it.
 * 18) Much like the Chozo Artifacts from the first game, the player must look for nine Sky Temple Keys, which is much harder due to the fact that they require the Dark Visor in order to even start the search.
 * 19) *This is egregious since it sucks a lot of that "Metroid" feel, where you could obtain stuff either the casual way, or obtain said stuff early through complex but satisfying methods. For example, you could obtain some Chozo Artifacts in Metroid Prime just using Missiles alone, which helps if you wanna get them early.
 * 20) You can frequently get lost when doing certain tasks, especially when hunting for the Sky Temple Keys.
 * 21) *Not helping is that this game follows backtracking quite a lot, just like its predecessor.
 * 22) Some enemies are absolute pains to fight, like Dark Pirate Commandos (at least before you get the Dark Visor).
 * 23) While it is still really good for most people, the game is a bit rushed, as it was said to only have been released at 30% completion, not helping that it was clearly trying to compete with games like Halo 2 with its similar and bizarre ad campaigns and being released not long after its launch.
 * 24) *This was thankfully avoided with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, as it had a whole extra year of polish.

Trivia

 * A lot of moments in the game reference the Alien franchise.
 * Samus being sent to Aether to restore contact with the troopers is a concept in Aliens in which Ripley and the Colonial Marines are sent to restore contact with the colony on LV-426.
 * The Splinter hive in the Federation Troopers' Ops base and the discovery of the dead troopers caught in webs is similar to the discovery of the Alien hive and cocooned colonists in the colony complex in Aliens.
 * The scene where Dark Samus aims at the real Samus when they first meet is, according to storyboards, based on the climax of Aliens.
 * Commenting on criticisms of Echoes for being too difficult, the lead technical engineer Jack Mathews stated that the difficulty level masked many of the "stressful" gameplay mechanics, such as navigating Dark Aether and the Beam Ammo system, as well as the internal struggle to build a game that could match or surpass the success of the first Metroid Prime. He wished that the developers could have spent more time differentiating the environments of Aether and Dark Aether, which are often dark or light mirrors of the other in the final game. Plans to have a completely dark world with Samus walking around with a spotlight emitting from her were scrapped as it was "just impossible to play". The team only had enough time to build the Sanctuary Fortress and Ing Hive to be more distinct from each other.
 * Following from DQ#8, one of the many advertising campaigns was a website named Channel 51, which was part of an online viral marketing Artificial Reality Game (or ARG for short) that consisted of different stuff like data logs and screenshots of the then unreleased game. The other websites consisted of Athena Astronautics, Orbis Labs, and a forum for mature gamers (17 and up) called the Luminoth Temple.
 * While the original website is sadly no longer up, there is a partial archive of it on Wikitroid and the Internet Archive.
 * A promotional cookie was also made for the game, and was said to release in press kits. However, with how rare the cookie was, not much are known to still exist, and its actual flavor is unknown. In 2011, however, a promo cookie was placed up for auction for $129.99, although it is reasonable to presume the cookie is no longer edible. Later on, the cookie resurfaced again in 2022.

Videos
o4YnzLcVszE pHv4c21mw9U 7lTshq914CA jw17mTIA2Qg hGiTTZbnUoc