I thought it would be good to have a thread devoted to the most recent installment of a very popular game: Metroid.

Well, I've had some time to play the game myself finally - about 3 hours or so logged on the game.

My feelings on this game are mixed. The game itself has been a little disappointing to me so far.

The graphics are excellent (slightly upgraded from the last in fact), the music is cool and smooth, the game play and movement is pretty much exactly how it was in Prime, and many of the Prime elements of play are here to enjoy.

So why is this game NOT everything that I loved about it's predecessor?

I'm not exactly sure, though I am aware of several elements that I do not like about the game.

From the start, it failed to suck me right in as the previous game did. I certainly don't dislike the game, its just not as entertaining to me as the previous Metroid games have been. So it's a let down since I've enjoyed each game more than the previous.

Menus

The menu system was completely redesigned for maximum "cool" look and minimum functionality. Actually, after looking at the menu system a few times, I didn't even think it looked cool anymore, just annoying and dumb. The menu system in Prime (the first one) was great - easy to follow and maneuver through. Echoes employs a menu system that is cluttered looking and not nearly as easy to maneuver through. Yuck. It hasn't grown on me, and has only annoyed me greater the more time I've spent in the game.

The Scan Visor

The scan visor in Prime was really cool and it was very easy to locate items that could be scanned to unlock information and open up new areas of the game. The scan visor in Echoes has kind of an "upgrade" to it. Note the quotes. This time around, not just a little glowing square is visible on items that can be scanned, but the entire object lights up if it can be scanned. That's actually very cool. The down side is that it can be problematic focusing on exactly what to scan when several scanable objects are near each other (which happens often). That is very irritating to me. Again - looks cool, but functionality is lost or at least diminished.

Sloppy Game Programming?

There is another annoying problem in this game. As in Prime, Echoes has some figuring out to do so that you can advance further in the game. I was wandering ALL over the place getting nowhere after some misleading game play. A rock formation had a weak point to it that the scanner picked up. In Prime, these weak points can be shot with a missile or super missile. So I aimed at the weak point with a missile and bull's-eyed it. Nothing happened. I shot a couple more missiles at it and nothing. Ok, it must require a super missile. So I wandered ALL OVER THE FREAKIN' place looking for what else I would need to advance... and found NOTHING. With no other options left, I started rescanning everything I had already scanned. Just for the heck of it, this time I got up close and personal with the rock formation's weak point and shot a missile at it again, knowing it would not work. This time, it worked. DOH! What the heck was that all about? I bull's-eyed it MULTIPLE times from another angle further away, and YES, it was a DIRECT hit each time to that EXACT part of the rock formation. If I can scan it from that other angle, and I can clearly SEE it from that other angle, why the hell can't I shoot it from that other angle? This threw me WAY off and had me on a wild goose chase for over an hour. Very, VERY poor programming there!

General Thoughts and Opinions

Echoes is definitely more difficult than Prime. As you walk around, you must scan EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE or else you'll get stuck pretty quick. You must also remember where you scanned some items so that you can hit them later once you've received some upgraded abilities. That kind of annoys me too, as I have a real

A few more hours of the game under my belt.


Hmmm... I'm digging it more now...

Yeah - I'd pick this one up for sure, The PimpDragon. I don't know if it can recapture the greatness of Prime, but it's getting better for me...



SPOILER ALERT - DO NOT READ FURTHER OR FEAR THE WRATH OF MY SPOILERS!

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Ok, I FINALLY opened the gate to Dark Aether. I missed that damn morph ball elevator system in portal room and kept wandering around other areas wondering what I'm supposed to be looking for. But, I found the elevator system and entered Dark Aether!

Um.. WOW!

Yeah - I started feeling myself being drawn in to the game. Yep - things are REALLY starting to get cool now. I still don't care for the menu system, but I'm more used to it now.

And now I've just scanned Phazon Energy containers... OH YEAH BABY! NOW this is really starting to feel like Metroid!

Where there is Phazon, there MUST be a Metroid somewhere! Those Space Pirates are always up to something with their Phazon!

So the game was off to a very slow start for me. But NOW I'm getting in to it. I really need to look around the rooms more carefully. I can't believe I wandered around for TWO hours looking for that stupid morph ball elevator system... I mean, I didn't even notice that a morph ball would fit in there! STUPID ME!

Ok, digging the game MUCH more now!

And... I'm heading back for more, as I can't WAIT to see what's around the next corner!

Whew - I was hoping I'd feel like this sooner or later!

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I finally picked up my own copy of MP2, using a gift certificate at Best Buy that I got for my birthday.

Just as I suspected, I'm totally hooked and can't stop playing every time I pick up the controller.

The one thing that stuck out as being a highlight of the game for me is the new environments. Aether is incredibly beautiful and organic looking. Some of those spots in the game where you can just look out over the horizon are just awesome.

I haven't gotten very far yet, but I recently got the dark beam. I think I've gone through about 8% of the game so far.

Anyways, it's great to be playing Metroid again!

Great review, btw, Todd. I pretty much agree with most of your views on the new game.where to buy abortion pill http://blog.bitimpulse.com/template/default.aspx?abortion-types buy abortion pill onlineabortion pills online http://www.kvicksundscupen.se/template/default.aspx?abortion-questions cytotec abortion

Yeah, it even seems like the save stations are more spread out this time around, too. Save stations seem so old-school, that it's sort of a joke now to integrate them into any game. I mean, they don't have to retain them for the sake of nostalgia, or staying true to the franchise, if that's what they're doing. There certainly could be a nicer way of handling it.

I think it might be nice if like every other connecting area of the game had a simple interface where Samus plugs her beam into the wall and saves her data there. It would be subtle, quick and simple. I don't know, then again, maybe having the option wide open to save wherever you wanted to would make the game too easy to just play through without much consequence. I guess a couple more save stations here and there would be good enough, just not so spread out.order abortion pill morning after pill price where to buy abortion pill

Whew!

I FINALLY completed Metroid Prime II: Echoes

That was one TOUGH game - at least for a moderate gamer like myself.

The graphics, animation, bosses, and overall technical presentation of the game was superior to the last Metroid installment Metroid Prime released in 2002. The game play was also longer and more epic than the previous release. But I'd have to say that this game was not as enjoyable of experience to me as the previous game for some reason. I'm not sure if it was because the story seemed not very Metroid. I mean the game was spent trying to save the Aether from the Ing - Metroids and Space Pirates were kind of just there at times. The plot was kind of cool and engaging, but it seemed off for a Metroid game to me. Also, the bosses - they were more of a pain in the ass to defeat at times, and not very enjoyable. There were several bosses I had to research how to defeat. I should not have to do that. Again, I'm not a hard core gamer so maybe the techniques were more obvious to the hard core gamers than me, but it was just a pain in the ass at times trying to figure out how to defeat them. Some bosses I had to go up against more than 10 times to defeat - like that damn spider guardian - BLAH! The final boss (or should I say bosses) was also very difficult and I must have played (or tried to) the end boss at least 10 times, maybe more. I had to put the game down for long periods at times because it was often more frustrating than fun.

I must not have gotten enough scans in the game because in my ending sequence, Samus didn't reveal much - she was in something that looked like a blue surfing wetsuit, and then just hopped in her ship and took off. Oh well. I knew that more scans and more items collected would equal a better ending sequence, but I think I just got the mid-level ending. Unfortunately, I'll probably never see the best ending. The game was fun, but I doubt I'll play it through again. Bad taste in my mouth left by all the times I had to keep playing against the same bosses over and over and over and over and over throughout the game. It took me 4 months to complete it because I kept walking away from it for a week or two at a time each time I'd get frustrated with it, which was often.

I'm tired of every boss having multiple stages and transforming in to other forms. It's cool here and there, but that concept gets old and irritating. It's like every time you think you've defeated the boss, you're just wondering "ok - now what will it turn in to now that I've used up all my ammo and have almost no energy left..." That's just me. Maybe most people dig the idea of a boss constantly morphing in other forms before it's defeated. I think it's overdone (at least it was in this game).

Are you a Metroid fan who has not played the game? Well, I'd recommend getting it. It wasn't the best installment in the series, but it was a good ride (aside from all the annoyances).where to buy abortion pill http://blog.bitimpulse.com/template/default.aspx?abortion-types buy abortion pill online

NOTE: this post may be laced with SPOILERS. If you have not yet completed Metroid Prime: Echoes, read this post at your own risk of getting spoiled.

I'm not using the INVISI-TAG because most of this post is just opinion with a few spoilers here and there.

Hale-XF11 Wrote:Hey, alright! Good jorb! I had the same feelings as you about the game overall after finishing it. I'm going back though and getting all the missiles, tanks and bombs which I believe will get me the real ending. It will at least give me some replay value...

Well, I finished the game at 94% (or at least that's the game status of the saved game just before the final boss). I don't remember what my scan percentage was, but like I said - I must not have done well because the ending was kind of blah. I did like the ship flying off and the playing of the Metroid music (theme used Super Metroid) - that was very cool and felt a lot like Metroid.

But I'm not in any rush to play through the game again to find all of the power-ups and get all the scans. After completing Super Metroid some years ago, I immediately started playing again to get the better endings. The endings in that game were time based, and I was eventually able to complete the game in about 3 hours (not all in one sitting though). When I completed Metroid Prime a couple of years ago, I also started playing it again immediately. But the second time around, I lost interest as I had great difficulty finding all the power-ups and never did complete it again. With Echoes, I don't have any desire to complete the game again. The game was fun in general, and very pretty with all it's great graphics, animations, action sequences, etc. But I don't care to play it again. I have somewhat mixed feelings about it.

The final battle:

Well, it was cool in terms of visuals, but I really didn't care for it. In Super Metroid, when the mother brain was defeated... and then rose up from the ground to reveal an entire body beneath it - that was just an awesome sight and GREAT game play! It was very cool and unexpected at the time. Actually, I got spoiled when I saw some images of the final boss in a mag before I got to play it, but it was still very cool. Now that kind of thing is over done to me. Maybe because I'm slow to pick up on how to defeat the bosses. But I had to play that final battle sequence so many times, I almost didn't complete the game. It wasn't fun anymore just doing it over and over and over and over and over. You know - getting all fired up in the heat of battle, getting so far... and then dieing. I was at the point where I'd only try to beat the final boss ONCE a week. That's it - just one attempt per week because that was all I could tolerate. It's been well over a month I had been trying to defeat the final boss. This week, I actually allowed myself TWO attempts at defeating the boss, because I figured out a cool trick while laying power bombs on the 2nd stage emperor Ing. I learned that I could keep bombing the... whatever those puddle Ing are called to obtain more health power-ups until I reached full energy again. I also realized that if I kept shooting missles at the final stage Emperor Ing instead of just bombarding it with regular shots to turn its "heart" dark or light, that I could defeat it quicker. The walkthrough I read made no mentions of these tricks - shame on them! Actually, it's a damn shame that I had to use a walkthrough at all. I figure out as much as I can in the game on my own, but when I get stuck or have to fight the same boss over too many times, I have to refer to a walkthrough. Anyway, I defeated the emperor Ing with only about 50 energy left or so. Then when I realized that the game was still not over, I said "screw it" and grabbed the walkthrough again to find out what was coming next. By this time, the game was no longer enjoyable - I just wanted to complete

Just so you know, I've almost completed Metroid Prime 2. I'm actually stuck on Emporer Ing right now....

And yes, I loved the Tron inspiration!

I still haven't played through Echoes yet. I've been VERY BUSY with Resident Evil 4, and what an incredible game that is!

But is it just me, or would you not love to see them remake the first Metroid and Super Metroid with the Prime engine?

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Read my review on it for more details, but it's by and far my favorite of the series. You can find it here on the "Other Sectors" page.

I loved the remake on the GC and was disappointed when the rest of the games (save for RE Zero) were nothing more than ports of the PS One games! WTF? I'm not paying $50 for those!

But RE4 is like Metroid Prime - it takes a beloved franchise into new territories, while maintaining a strong balance of invention and faithfulness to the source material.

RE4 is like a direct sequel to Resident Evil 2 - with Leon Kennedy now the main man.

This game is UBER-CREEPY, especially with the chanting monks. If you have Dolby Pro-Logic II, you'll absolutely get shivers when you hear them chanting, laughing, hissing and screaming from all sides - especially from behind. I got goosebumps and an itchy trigger finger on more than one occasion!

Great story + INCREDIBLE graphics + Better play mechanics + Better voice acting + Great replayability (going through on my 3rd time now) = MUST OWN GAME!!!

The PimpDragon Wrote:Read my review on it for more details, but it's by and far my favorite of the series. You can find it here on the "Other Sectors" page...

Thanks for the review, PimpDragon!

I actually noticed your official RE4 review shortly after my last post here. I only skimmed through it thought, because I didn't want to take the chance of coming across any spoilers.

Based on what you wrote here though, it sounds like a worthy game. That's all I needed to know - and hearing it from a RE fan the way you put it, I think I'll be adding it to my collection! Thanks a lot for the input!

I've never played RE2. I'm hoping that the game holds its own without having to know anything about RE2.

Vortex.EXE Wrote:*silently regrets not having a gamecube* ...

Sorry you don't have a GC. Actually Metroid Prime (the 2002 release) is pretty much reason enough to buy one. That game ROCKED! My only complaint is that the adventure was too short, taking approx. 20 hours to play through my first time (and that's including the fact that I got lost and wandered around at times). Echoes is technically superior in graphics and length of adventure over the previous release, but 2002's release was my favorite of the two.