Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is a video game that consists of 1 release

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Intergalactic Bounty Hunter Samus Aran struggles to rid Aether of darkness and the Ing Hoard in the second 3D Metroid game for the GameCube.

There was a mere 2 year gap between the release of Prime 1 and Prime 2, one fourth the time it took Nintendo to make the leap from Super Metroid to the aforementioned. This led many a Metroid fan to openly speculate as to whether Retro could repeat the same success in such a short time. Metroid Prime was received well critically, but was lost amongst the Q4 '04 din of Half-Life 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, GTA: San Andreas, and of course Halo 2. As if in a half-hearted attempt to parry the latter, Retro shoehorned in a split-screen multiplayer component which was passable, but far below 2004 shooter standards. This disappointed many purchasers, despite the fact that Metroid games are single-player focused and that the single-player game was well-received.

There were other elements of the game that gave people the impression that Echoes was a mere pot-boiler: The game featured a dark/light system akin (but not identical) A Link to the Past, and although it created for some interesting puzzles and visual surprises, many still felt as though the concept was tacked-on. Also, the game was a little more heavy on the hand-holding than Metroid Prime, even with the hint system turned off, and significant sequence breaking was made extremely difficult by the boss-lock system: New areas of the game could not be traversed without obtaining a key-like trigger after defeating the previous region's boss. Also, Samus' dark and light beams required ammo pick-ups to be replenished, the first beam weapons -- but not the first weapon -- to require ammo in a Metroid game. However, in reality it did not have a significant impact on gameplay.

Despite this, the game had two significant (and one insignificant) assets: it was a visual wonder and is arguably the best-looking game on the GameCube to this day, and features some of the most inventive and challenging boss fights in the Metroid series. Metroid Prime 2 Also features one of the most inventive menu systems ever: a sort of orbital format.

In the style of Halo 2's ilovebees.com, Metroid Prime 2 also had an online viral marketing campaign. The campaign consisted of two websites: Orbis Labs and Channel 51. Orbis Labs is apparently a weapons development company that was, at the time, working on a piece of machinery known as the Battle Sphere, a nod to the Morph Ball featured in the Metroid series. Channel 51 was a blog in the style of a typical conspiracy theory website. Run by a "Samantha Manus," Channel 51 featured distorted Metroid Prime 2 footage as well as other hints alluding to a few gameplay elements.

Story

Metroid Prime 2, taking place six months after the events of Metroid Prime, revolves around the conflict between two races, the Luminoth and the Ing, on Aether. Prior to Samus's arival, Aether was hit by a meteor of Phazon, duplicating the planet in a Dark realm, thus splitting the planet into two. The Dark version of Aether became home to the Ing, a race of creatures able to possess both organisms and machines. The Space Pirates, upon discovering Aether, had decided to harvest the Phazon in order to make up for their defeat on Tallon IV. Samus Aran is sent to investigate, where she learns that the Luminoth, dwellers of "light" Aether, are losing an ongoing battle between them and the Ing. It is Samus's mission to restore peace to Aether by defeating the Ing while simultaneously ridding the planet of Space Pirates and the mysterious Dark Samus.

General Information Edit

Game Name	Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Platform(s)	GameCube Wii
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Developer(s)	Retro Studios
Genres	Add a new genre Action Adventure First-Person Shooter Platformer
Themes	Add a new theme Sci-Fi
Original US Release	Nov. 16, 2004 need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
Aliases	mp2
ESRB	ESRB: T