Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

 GameCube
User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 506 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 454 out of 506
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 506
  3. Negative: 28 out of 506
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  1. Youmustdienow
    Jun 21, 2017
    4
    In time for Metroid Prime 4's announcement I decided to warn people about this game.

    As a long time fan of the Metroid franchise it's frustrating that this game was designed for a narrow audience that likes their games brutally unforgiving. Nintendo typically makes games with a balanced difficulty to challenge the player. I've completed every Prime & mainline Metroid game to this date.    In time for Metroid Prime 4's announcement I decided to warn people about this game.

    As a long time fan of the Metroid franchise it's frustrating that this game was designed for a narrow audience that likes their games brutally unforgiving. Nintendo typically makes games with a balanced difficulty to challenge the player. I've completed every Prime & mainline Metroid game to this date. I've only given up several times one the NES original for being unfair & frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind hard. I've defeated the Unamed King in Dark Souls 3 & felt rewarded. In Prime 2 we get leeway to ease the challenge only by collecting every hidden upgrade in the game. That's fine but this game punishes for exploration. When you revisit sections you have to battle enemies who like to run around at top speed, that lock you in rooms, which then go invisible, & take way too long to inflict damage upon. Not till the end of the game when I combined light & dark suit power into my inventory was I able to cope with exploration. There are some boss battles that require you to switch between ball & suit. It becomes so riddled with difficulty spikes that I wanted to actually smash my controller. I had not been that angry while playing games in years. Every time a boss got too hard, I would dread back tracking to get better items because it's so easy to get lost. Not only that but the dark world drains health by roaming in it. By the time I got to the end, the boss fights became more and more unforgivable. They would place me in long winded battles depleting health bar after bar. When I died, I got sent all the way back to a save station. Had to hike back to the boss, watch cutscene, & face trial while experimenting to find weak spots during battle. When I fought my doppelgänger, the boss was impossible. It turned invisible & required pin point timing to inflict a small amount of damage on. The biggest slap in the face was before I got to end game. Just like other Prime games you need to find every hidden artifact possible. First game was mellow by comparison. I mean, the sky keys are like finding buried treasure while being blind folded. This game is overrated to no end. As a positive I wouldn't mind replaying this game if they ended up remaking it with less frustrating bits. Under the difficulty lies a gem. It sucks to hate this game over a programming decision like that. But then again how did Nintendo not think they would alienate a lot of fans by choosing to go this route?

    PS. The Prime series had some moments, but I've never seen any enemy from the original except for Ridley. In 2 we don't even get that. No basic enemy types are familiar. We never got Mother Brain once. Just some odd looking thing at the end of 3 that needed to be shot in the back of its head while pointing up with a Wii remote that couldn't detect off TV motions.    … Expand
  2. Zombiemouse
    Aug 29, 2015
    4
    Finally finished Metroid Prime 2 today.
    I give it a 4/10, but please read why.
    I enjoy exploration in video games but it has to be rewarding. It seemed like the items in Prime 2 were nothing more than elaborate keys to get to other locations. Most items were literal keys. While I get that's kinda the point to exploration games, in Super Metroid the grapper had utility on top of    Finally finished Metroid Prime 2 today.
    I give it a 4/10, but please read why.
    I enjoy exploration in video games but it has to be rewarding. It seemed like the items in Prime 2 were nothing more than elaborate keys to get to other locations. Most items were literal keys. While I get that's kinda the point to exploration games, in Super Metroid the grapper had utility on top of swinging around. The hookshot in Zelda had hella utility besides going from point A to point B. The Screw Attack is the worst, as in Super, and pretty much every other metroid ever, the Screw Attack turned you into a spiral of invincible destruction. In prime 2, again, basically another key. It let you "jump longer" and had virtually no utility outside of that. But the worst part was, that each time you obtain a new "fun" item such as the morph ball, bombs, ect, they LITTER the area with doors and areas you can't reach until you get a DIFFERENT item. Like, haha, congrats you got this piece of **** bomb ball. Betcha wish you had spider ball tho don't cha? Guess you'll be back HERE again, won'tcha **** My final rant just deals with the lazy "get behind them" combat that is common with 90% of bosses and several VERY annoying enemies. It leads you to holding L to lock on, right or left on the stick to strafe behind them, and attempting to double-tap jump to quickly dash to the side. Problem #1: You can't see where you're dashing to. You take damage, fall off cliffs, hit walls, ect. Horrible. Problem #2: As you double tap jump, often times you simply JUMP up in the air, which actually SLOWS your strafing down causing even more frustration. Problem #3 is that it's hardly telegraphed whatsoever if you're far enough back behind the enemy to hit that precious weak spot, and if you miss, you'll take another 30 seconds to charge up another shot and by this time they've done their little 180 hop and are facing you again. Another problem is that the enemies rarely drop anything worth value (no exp) so by the end of the game when you have enough HP and armor, you're basically roaming the halls of the game going from point A to point B taking tiny amounts of damage the whole trip, completely ignoring enemies. Quality gameplay.
    That being said, the graphics were pretty and samus wasn't some crying whiny "I'm just a girl" sex object. She was samus. Seriously the art design and detail made up half of my 4/10 rating.    … Expand
  3. JesusC.
    Mar 7, 2005
    4
    The game is fun with GREAT visuals but the backtracking takes away from the fun and the multiplayer is worthless. Overall the game is fun but that is sucked out by the repetetiveness. AND you can kill a metroid by running into a door!
  4. gorelequint
    Apr 25, 2013
    2
    Most people like games because of gameplay, graphics, how hard it was... but this game is hard to get into. The first level involves running around with virtually no direction given, and the second is worse, as you have to look for several keys with even less direction. Funnily enough, if you could save whenever you wanted, it might get a 3, but it screws that up too. You have to backtrackMost people like games because of gameplay, graphics, how hard it was... but this game is hard to get into. The first level involves running around with virtually no direction given, and the second is worse, as you have to look for several keys with even less direction. Funnily enough, if you could save whenever you wanted, it might get a 3, but it screws that up too. You have to backtrack all the way to your ship to save. No thanks, this game is strictly for Sci-fi nerds.… Expand
  5. TomH.
    Aug 1, 2005
    3
    Badly designed old-school tat.
  6. MikeB.
    Nov 18, 2004
    2
    It's more of the same. I expected better from Retro.
  7. EthanR.
    Apr 16, 2006
    0
    This game is absolutely terrible. The controls are impossible to use the story mode is boring and bland. The graphics are the only descent thing in this game. It is the worst game I have ever played and do not play this game ever!
  8. Raknner44
    Oct 26, 2020
    0
    No sé a quién carajos dejaron la tarea de diseñar los jefes de este juego, algunos son puzzles y eso está bien, pero la mayoría son tan absurdamente frustrantes que no recomendaría este juego para nada. ¿Que es esa mecánica de que el jefe pueda quitarse el fijado de la cámara? Es ABSURDO, no tiene ningún sentido si tenés en cuenta que en este juego muchos jefes se mueven muy rápido. Y elNo sé a quién carajos dejaron la tarea de diseñar los jefes de este juego, algunos son puzzles y eso está bien, pero la mayoría son tan absurdamente frustrantes que no recomendaría este juego para nada. ¿Que es esa mecánica de que el jefe pueda quitarse el fijado de la cámara? Es ABSURDO, no tiene ningún sentido si tenés en cuenta que en este juego muchos jefes se mueven muy rápido. Y el diseño de la batalla contra Samus oscura es un completo asco. El juego en general es ridículamente laberíntico y se pierde mucho tiempo sin conseguir progresar.… Expand
  9. OliRock92
    Dec 19, 2021
    1
    I can't stand this game. Anyone giving this more than a 4 is goddamn insane. The game is gorgeous, some of the best graphics of any gen 6 games. But that doesn't mean anything when the gameplay is so terrible. The Dark World, which is half of the world, literraly hurts you. You'll see yourself run from one secure light source to the next, trying to figure out where to go at the same time.I can't stand this game. Anyone giving this more than a 4 is goddamn insane. The game is gorgeous, some of the best graphics of any gen 6 games. But that doesn't mean anything when the gameplay is so terrible. The Dark World, which is half of the world, literraly hurts you. You'll see yourself run from one secure light source to the next, trying to figure out where to go at the same time. Since the world itself hurts you, you'll also spend nearly 5 minutes waiting in each light source you come accross to restore your health. So, walk for 1 minute, stand still for 5, rinse and repeat. The game might have been good it not for the Dark World but it ruins the game. Please Metroid, stop trying to be Zelda, you really fail at it. Ennemies also take forever to kill. Not that they pose a threat. They're all so predictable and easy to dodge. But they have so many HPs they take forever to die. I know you get light ammo to kill ennemies faster (which you need to replenish...seriously, replenishing BEAM AMMO in Metroid?! What were they thinking?!) and a light armor, which prevents you from losing life energy in the Dark World. But you get the armor near the end of the very long and boring game. I never could endure the game long enough to reach it, not once in the 3 tries I gave it over the years. Also, I know backtracing is an issue in most Metroid games but this world basically having 2 duplicate maps just makes it so much worse. Seriously, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 3 and yes, even Metroid Prime: Hunters on the DS are all masterpieces in my book. But Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the black sheep of the series. One that seems to be there just to remind you of how amazing the other 3 are. Here's hoping that Prime 4 will not be like this one.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best GameCube Game of 2004
2
#2 Most Discussed GameCube Game of 2004
4
#4 Most Shared GameCube Game of 2004

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
92

Universal acclaim - based on 60 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 60 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 60
  3. Negative: 0 out of 60
  1. Gamestyle
    100
    To match such thrill-a-minute environments, the level design, puzzles, and boss fights are all insanely original.
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  2. Games Radar
    90
    Other than a few superficial tweaks and some vanilla, offline multiplayer, the rest is exactly like the first Prime.
    Read full review
  3. NTSC-uk
    90
    Whilst none of the levels quite match up to the stunning quality that was Phendrana Drifts, it is, as a sum of its parts, wonderfully evocative as a playing experience and induces the same level, if not more, of internal satisfaction that Prime achieved.
    Read full review
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