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Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Review - Gamecube

How do you top a game that seems untoppable? If a game really is amazingly, breathtakingly good, then sequels invariably seem as good. It happened to Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and it's happened to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Nostalgia is a big part of the gaming community today, and people refuse to see games for what they are when their thoughts are clouded by memories of an earlier game. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is amazing, but not as amazing as the first. Gameplay

The first game, Metroid Prime, was groundbreaking. It created a new genre - the First Person Adventure (FPA). It was a game with a first-person viewpoint, but with a focus more on puzzles and exploration that on shooting. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the same in a couple of ways, but also different in a few too. There is still amazing platforming and exploration, and more morphball puzzles than ever before. There is still a decent amount of shooting though, so don't get disheartened.

Exploration is more a key part of the game this time round because of the introduction of a parallel universe. When a meteor crashed into the planet of Aether thousands of years ago, it split the world into two dimensions - a light and dark side. This cataclysm shattered the gentle Luminoth that inhabited the world, and spawned the Ing. The Ing inhabited the toxic atmosphere of Dark Aether, while the Luminoth remained in what was left of Light Aether. A war for possession of the planet broke out. Later, a Galactic Federation vessel landed on the planet, and a distress beacon was sent out. Samus arrives to investigate.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes follows the same control scheme set by the previous title. The A button shoots, the B button jumps, Y is used for missiles and X to turn into morphball (once you gain that upgrade). The D-pad is used to change visors, and the C-stick to change beams. The control stick is for movement, the L button locks on and the R button is used to manually look around. One of the suggestions after the first title arrived was the option to use the two control sticks to walk and move, but it can't feasibly be done if you removed the C-stick for weaponry. There is an option to invert the Y axis, though. It plays brilliantly once you familiarise yourself with the controls (Timesplitters players will take a little while to adjust). The lock-on is as flawless as ever, and letting loose a charged glob of dark matter is deeply satisfying.

Like I mentioned earlier, the dynamic between the light and dark worlds plays a big part of the game. The dark world is dank and gloomy. You have to move between Light Crystals that emit a bubble of light because the atmosphere is toxic. The first expedition into the dark world is frightening. Returning through the portal to the light world (continued next page)