Billy Drown

Billy Drown

the Juice

Samus Aran, Nintendo’s first lady, is on another adventure in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Her engagement this time deals with something about light and dark worlds and being stalked by these evil forces called Ing, all while trying to uncover the mysteries that happened to these troops. Well, at least that is what the back of the game box told me.

And with that I found my first somewhat flaw with this wholly enjoyable game. If you played the first Prime you already know that there are hardly any cut-scenes in the Metroid universe.

Instead of watching and hearing the story unfold you have a nifty scanner that you scan objects with to fully understand the whole story, which means you have a whole lot of reading to do. I’m probably the only one who didn’t quite understand the story, since all sci-fi dialogue confused me.

But not really understanding what I was reading (which sucked) actually added a lot to the game. I actually felt like I was Samus Aran, crash-landed on this mysterious planet on the way to find the troops. As she learned, so did I. Echoes would have lost so much of the tone of the game if the story were played out in cut-scenes.

Echoes feels and plays out a lot like the original. So if you enjoyed the first one you will love the sequel.

For newbies to the series the controls might feel a bit wonky at first, but in about half an hour you will adjust to the controls and be exploring like the best of them.

Some new weapon upgrades discovered throughout the adventure add a new assortment to your arsenal for alien ass kicking. There is a dark beam that does more damage to the beasties in the light realm and a light beam that of course does more damage to the beasties in the dark realm.

To discover these new weapon upgrades there is a lot of adventuring to do. I found myself wandering around aimlessly, almost to the point of hoping that I would stumble upon something new.

When I usually found something new, and of course it just happened to be a new baddie, I found out that this sequel is a lot harder then the original.

Some people may put their controllers down in disgust trying to kill off the bugs. Some may find the exploring tiresome after a bit. harder, with scarier baddies, but if Nintendo could of made the dark world a whole new planet, I would’ve welcomed it with open arms. Light and dark as the only difference between the two worlds got repetitive.

All in all, Echoes is a fun adventure, even though all the searching can be a bit tedious at times. But as the story develops and you progress further in the game you’ll find it really hard to put down.

Four out of five stars