Metroid Prime 2 Echoes
Platform: GameCube
Release: 11.15.2004
Now I am not going to lie, I didn't beat this game, but there was reason why I didn't. Metroid Prime 2 Echoes is so much like the first Metroid Prime that I didn't really want to play through it again. I figured this would be the case, and that is why I was so hesitant to play it at all. You start out, lose all of your powerups as usual, and have to go get them back; the only twist is the Dark World. The Dark World is almost exaclty like the Light World, except the air hurts you, and there are slight differences in creatures and layouts. This game also makes you scan too much in my opinion. There are too many doors that you have to sit and scan to open, which really slows the pace of the game. The battles are also boring, consisting completely of strafing and shooting with really no timing needed, just constant movement.
The sound in the game is also not as good as the first. There is a lot less of the nostalgic Metroid music as there is a lot of new stuff. Personally, I think the original score is better. The entire game looks like the first one all over again, but the visuals aren't even as good as the first Metroid Prime. The monsters look blocky, and the attack animations are pretty shabby.
I didn't even touch the multiplayer, but the controls don't make for a very good experience. The fact that you can only strafe when you are locked on is annoying. The game needs to re-do its controls if it wants to make a first person shooter out of this title, and until it does reformat, games like Halo 2 are going to make it look silly.
-Newman
02.26.2005
©2005 Koma Forest, a division of Road Kill Productions