"Metroid Prime's a tough act to follow up, and while Echoes isn't revolutionary, it's a solid game that's worth your while to play."

It would be an understatement to say that Retro Studios have had their work cut out for them lately. The fact alone that they had to create the next generation follow up for Nintendo's highly successful Metroid series is enough to send shivers up veteran developers' spines, but to actually pull it off and then be asked to make a sequel could only lead to nervous breakdowns en masse.

Well, I'm sure we can all agree it was worth it.

Now that fans have gotten over the initial shock of seeing Metroid in 3D from a first person perspective, Retro have been able to refine their act a little - adding things here, balancing stuff there, and little graphical tweaks everywhere - most notably all over the star, Samus Aran's powered suit that has been so crucial to her success - that have allowed them to follow up Metroid Prime with a package that feels more polished, and complete, while still retaining all the core elements that made Metroid Prime, and indeed, all the Metroid games, what they were.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes begins as Samus receives a boring old "find and render assistance" mission pertaining to some Galactic Federation soldiers lost and out of contact on a planet known as Aether. However, while landing, her ship crashes, leaving her stranded and with nothing to do but try and figure out what happened to the soldiers. The story develops from here - be it rather abruptly, through cutscenes that are somewhat more in-your-face than any plot development in previous Metroid games.

The problem this time is that due to yet another mysterious meteor impact, a dimensional rift was torn on Aether, along with the usual impact-related catastrophes causing all sorts of problems for it's inhabitants, the Luminoth. Just as they began to recover from the impact, they are suddenly assaulted by an unknown race from beyond the rift. Eventually, the Luminoth were able to traverse the rift themselves and enter a world they dubbed "Dark Aether", and come face to face with the race they came to know as "Ing". They didn't last long though, as Dark Aether's very air was poisonous to them.

One drawn out war of attrition later, the Ing managed to siphon nearly all of Aether's planetary energy into their own dimension - stealing the remainder would destroy Aether for good. In desperation, what little remained of the Luminoth gathered in their last remaining stronghold with the remaining energy, and entered into stasis pods, leaving their future to fate. The only active Luminoth was their leader, U-Mos, who remained, awaiting either a saviour or death.

This much is explained to you early in the game, and through just HAPPENING (in the sort of coincidence known only to Samus) to stumble upon the weapon used by the Ing to siphon the energy from Aether, you are set the task of retrieving the energy and restoring the Peace to Aether. To do this, you will have to manipulate portals to travel between the two worlds, solving puzzles, and obviously, defeating gigantic bosses, in order to find the lost energy. Because of the strange Luminoth habit of gathering their energy reserves in large temples in each region of Aether, the progression in Echoes has a much more linear feel to it - even though it works in much the same way as the progression in Prime. You are initially only able to access specific places, until you find new weapons and abilities you can use to access new areas.

The bulk of the action consists of the usual videogame wild creatures who instinctively attack humans, and of course the Ing, who are designed in their own strange, twisted way that has a truly interdimensional feel to it. Initially, several enemies are overpowering, but you will eventually find weapons to make short work of even the most challenging foes. And, lest we forget, Samus' old friends, the Space Pirates, undeterred by their constant defeats from previous Metroid games, are still looking for the mysterious mutagen, Phazon, that they love so much. And if this wasn't enough, it looks as though there's even a dark version of Samus causing chaos - and among all the action, you won't be able to avoid pausing to wonder just what the hell is going on.

This is the main plot, and it sort of drifts past you as you traverse Aether and Dark Aether looking for energy. Most of the backstory and detail is hidden in various places in the form of objects you can read using Samus' Scan Visor - through various projectors, computers and datapacks, you can acquaint yourself with the history of the Luminoth, the plight of the Federation Troops and the ongoing escapades of the Space Pirates.

If you've played Metroid Prime, you'll have no problems whatsoever getting into Echoes, as the graphical front end, the physics, and the controls, are the same - polished, but still the same old same old. This has it's own pros and cons - obviously, the ease of learning the interface is apparent whether or not you've played Metroid Prime. However, it does mean that you're still restricted to four beams (equippable weapons used by Samus) and four visors (vision modes used by Samus - thermal vision and things like that). And because this was true in both Prime games, it means that Retro couldn't add any new beams or visors without sacrificing the old ones.

Fortunately, Retro have found very clever ways of dealing with this - by improving the previous beam weapons by adding new features, but at the same time, limiting their use by implementing an ammunition system previously unknown to the Metroid series. For example, the Ice Beam has been transformed into the Dark Beam, which can still freeze enemies, but now has Dark energetic properties with their own uses, while the Plasma Beam has turned into the Light Beam, which has retained it's flammable property while also being blinding. The Wave Beam has departed completely in favour of a new weapon with it's own unique quirks. Visor-wise, the X Ray Visor remains largely unchanged, save it's name - it is now the Dark Visor. And the Thermal Visor has gone completely to make way for the Echo Visor - which allows Samus to interact with sonic equipment with her various weapons, and also to spot invisible enemies.

All the old systems are back, unchanged though - the Missile Launcher remains the same, and the Energy Tank system, as well as Samus' unique Morph Ball and it's additions, remain unadulterated. There are some new things you can do with the Morph Ball and Missile Launcher that seriously carry a "Where've you BEEN all my life?" feeling to them, but these are better left for discovery. You'll also find upgrades for Samus' Suit that actually do more than add fancy colours like they did in Prime - you'll have to find these out for yourself too.

What you'll notice more than anything else in Echoes is the climactic feel of the boss fights. In Prime, you may know they're coming, but some of them still felt sudden, and placed simply to punctuate the platforming. However, in Echoes, you will still find the punctuating sub-bosses with their own pros and cons - but by far the best ones come... well, you'll figure it out, but let me tell you, you'll KNOW when they're coming, and just remember - whenever you feel you're doing a pointless task, always know that there's a big, bad boss coming up that will make it all worth your while. Each boss requires a unique and strategic use of the equipment you've picked up so far and manages to create a feel of tension, adrenaline and a sense of climax all at once.

As geographical progression goes, Metroid games, Echo included, are somewhat strange. The worlds of Aether and Dark Aether are not designed with linear paths, but you'll still find that the progression through the areas, until you find that one powerup that's missing, is still quite linear. In addition, there's a fair bit of backtracking that would be torturous the first time through were it not for a hint system that kicks in when you flounder around for too long, telling you the location of your next point of interest. You'd do well to remember inaccessible areas you can come back to - and if you want a challenge, you can turn the hint system off. The game also provides you with a very helpful map for navigation.

Echoes has three main ways of making you come back for more - completing the story for the first time gives you access to an increased difficulty mode, and of course, there's the percentage of items collected and log book completion - items being things like missile and energy expansions, and log book being where Scan data is collected - a 100% log book means you've scanned everything and are left with a complete and comprehensive guide to Aether. And finally, there's multiplayer. Yep. Multiplayer. In Metroid.

Multiplayer in Metroid basically means multiple Samuses, shooting eachother with weapons they'll find scattered around the maps. It's really that simple. If I had to fault the multiplayer, I'd fault it on the fact that it feels tacked on, maybe with glue, maybe with duct tape, I don't know. It's no less fun for this, though.

Finally, the aesthetics. The music in Metroid is as it should be - appropriate for the situation and setting, but not irritatingly catchy to the point where you're whistling it in elevators and stuff. Most of it follows a sort of soft techno theme, with some mild orchestral parts for boss fights and the like. The graphics are quite good, especially on the Samus model and the creatures - they look pretty, and they have detail, but aren't really anything special.

One other thing - loading times. Since Metroid Prime, Retro have been cleverly masking loading times by separating areas with doors. When you move to open a door, the game begins loading the next area, so the transition feels seamless - in theory. In practice, though, you will often find yourself stuck by doors waiting to open while the room beyond loads, which can be infuriating if you're getting attacked at the time and need to escape.

Must I fault Echoes? It's put together so well, it feels like a game you don't WANT to fault. However, some things are inescapable. Firstly, the progression does not feel real. It's believable the first time Samus loses all of her equipment and has to go looking for it, but every next time, it feels fake. I also can't help but feel bad every time a developer plays the "dark dimension" card, and Echoes is no exception. Finally, towards the end, the game turns into a sort of scavenger hunt, but I don't think this is done particularly well - especially if you haven't figured out how it works by the time you start, which may or may not happen by accident. If you want to think less of the game because of the multiplayer, then do so, but I don't feel it makes a difference.

If you're the kind of person who plays games heavily, but puts them down once finished, you may actually be better off with a rental - if you play hard, Echoes can be beaten in about ten hours. But if you like replaying, multiplayer, and the like, or if you want to see just how far you can push the linear progression around (an art known as Sequence Breaking, in which you skip items and stages, or just shuffle the order around, usually using glitches and the like), you definitely want to buy.

While not really being revolutionary in the same way Metroid Prime was, Echoes is still a definite step forwards for the Metroid series, and a worthy addition to any GameCube owner's collection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/05