Background | Year of Release | Media | Mini-Reivew | The Result

System: GameCube Developer: Retro Studios Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1-4 Save: Card Genre: First Person Adventure

Occurring shortly after the events of Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2 continues the first-person adventures of Samus Aran. Metroid Prime 2 takes place on the mysterious planet Ether, where two parallel light and dark worlds exist. This game was developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo.

North America: 11/15/2004
Japan: TBA
Europe: 11/26/2004

Screenshots: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5

Metroid Prime was one of the best games made for this generation. It offered a fantastically fresh first-person experience. Metroid Prime 2 has a lot to live up to.

Not much has changed in Metroid Prime 2 from the original; the control system has remained identical, the graphics engine has remained largely unchanged, and the music and sound effects are of the same high-calibre. This game employs similar quest design as in previous Metroid adventures. You begin with few abilities, attain more powers as you progress through the game and then backtrack through previous areas to access more passageways. I presume Retro's philosophy is, "Why mess with a good thing."

To keeps things from getting stale, Retro incorporated two parallel (light and darks) worlds. During your quest, you will have to travel back and fourth between each world, events that occur in the light world affect the dark world and dark world events affect the light world. The dark world is slightly more challenging than the light world because it contains a hazardous atmosphere that will cause Samus to take damage as well as more powerful baddies. However, the dark world does contain certain safe zones where Samus can regain her health.

This time around a multi-player death match mode was included in the game. It provides a reasonable amount of entertainment value, but the single-player mode is where you'll spend almost all of your time.

Metroid Prime 2 is a great follow-up to a tremendous game. Like other sequels to groundbreaking games, Metroid Prime 2 will never get the respect of its predecessor. While not perfect, Metroid Prime 2 is one of the best games to be released in 2004.

Score - 9.5

It's a classic!

Page by Player Guy Forever

01/31/2005