Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. This is a game that has a lot to live up to after the original Metroid Prime was released in 2002. I am very glad to say that it more than lives up to the standards of the first, and provides a phenomenal gameplay experience to the gamer. This is my favorite entry in the Metroid series, and one of my favorite games of all time. You are about to find out why in this review.
STORY- 10/10
Let's start out by looking at the story. It starts out with the protagonist Samus Aran suffering from electromagnetic interference and crash landing on the planet Aether. The planet is inhabited by a race called the Luminoth. Five decades ago, a meteor crashed into the planet, which splits the planetary energy, creating a Dark Aether, ruled by creatures known as the Ing. Now, Samus must solve the mystery behind these two worlds, and find out what happened to the Marines that she was searching for on this planet. You are, of course, alone during the course of this game. You will still meet one particular character that is still living early on in the game, however. The story is very good, and the dealing of light and dark subjects leads to very compelling subjects. Lots of the story can be uncovered through scanning, where you use your scan visor and read about each object or creature that you encounter in the game, and each scan is saved to your logbook. There is plenty to read about and study up on the planet Aether. If you absolutely hate reading, you will miss out on a good deal of the story, but it is quite compelling and interesting to read about. You can read about enemies, objects, and you will encounter radio logs left behind by dead marines. Something that I found fun to do was scan the dead bodies of marines and find out their cause of death. Morbid, yes, but still very interesting. Overall it is a great story that keeps you interested until the very end. The game creates a giant world for you to learn all about. There is a more immediate threat at hand, however-a character named Dark Samus. Which is an extremely cool character, who is nothing but evil. Get ready for her. That's all I'm going to say.
GAMEPLAY- 10/10
The gameplay finds you exploring the large world of Aether. And believe me, it's huge. It is in the first person perspective, and you progress through the game getting new powerups and becoming stronger as the game progresses in true Metroid fashion. This is no first-person shooter, but rather a first-person shooter adventure game. It combines the two genres. The game controls perfectly. You will explore the world of Aether. Some areas will be blocked off, and will require a new beam or powerup to access. What has changed this time around, is that there is a new ammo system for the beams. Normally, Samus' beams have unlimited ammunition. Not in this game. Welcome the Light and Dark beams. The Light beam is effective against dark enemies, and vice versa. You get Light ammunition from enemies that have been defeated with the Dark beam, and vice versa as well. It is a nice system, and it never feels like you have too little of ammo, but you must use it wisely. You are never given too much or too little ammo. It really makes you think about what beam you should use. Besides the Dark and Light beam, there is the standard charge beam with unlimited ammo and one more beam that I will let you find out for yourself. The gameplay is very fun, and relies a lot on exploration. There will be platforming areas, portals to the light/dark world to be opened, and puzzles to be solved. It all works extremely well and the level design is completely perfect. And the boss battles-oh, the boss battles. They are some of the best boss battles ever in the world of gaming, in my opinion. They are all huge, threatening, and lots of fun to fight. Each boss has a different way of fighting, and the way you defeat each always differs from the last. It is not uncommon for a boss to have multiple forms that you must defeat. Most of them can be quite difficult, but never too difficult. Each boss is defeatable, but may take you many tries. But it never becomes too frustrating. You will also find many different visors to look through that are very cool to use, utilizing sound waves to track invisible enemies is one of my favorite ones. But overall, the gameplay is completely flawless. It is compelling and sucks you into universe that you will have a great time in. The one problem that I have with the game that keeps it from getting a 10/10 is the key hunt towards the end of the game-it forces you to backtrack through each area of the game looking for many keys. The only hints that you have to these keys' whereabouts is a one-scentence clue per key that give you little to no help on finding where that particular key is. You have to scan around to find these hints as well. Overall it is too difficult to expect one person to have any hope of finding each key, and a walkthrough will most definitely be needed for this section of the game. DO NOT let that discourage you from playing the game, however, because the game is truly phenomenal and one that needs to be experienced. The game will have you playing from the very start, and the gripping, dark atmosphere and gameplay will keep you playing until the stunning conclusion.
DIFFICULTY- 10/10
In case you don't know, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is considered to be one of the most difficult Metroid titles. It is so difficult that the gameplay was made easier when it was rereleased on the Wii as a part of the Metroid Prime Collection. However, I found the difficulty to be a perfect kind of hard. It is hard, do not get me wrong. But everything is do-able. It requires you to put 100% into your gaming, and you will overcome any challenge that you face. The most difficult areas of the game in particular are the boss battles. But these are all possible to beat, and not overwhelmingly difficult. They simply provide a great challenge that makes for a great experience. You will never find yourself saying "this is impossible", because after you try a boss enough times, you will gradually get better, leading to the boss' ultimate demise. This is the most perfect difficulty that I have ever experienced in a game. It is truly the perfect difficulty. Very difficult, but when you put all of your heart and skills into playing the game, you will progress.
GRAPHICS- 10/10
This game has some of the best graphics that you will see on the Gamecube. The worlds are breathtaking with their amount of variety and detail. The dark world has a perfect color palette, most of the time it is made up of purple and black. The atmosphere created by these graphics are incredible. From the rain of Torvus Bog to the stunning high tech final area which I will keep a secret, the graphics always are notable for their crispness and colors and detail.
DEPTH- 10/10
As stated before, this is a huge game. There is much to read about, enemies to fight, lore to read up on, amazing bosses to fight, and a beautiful adventure to be had dealing with light, dark, and the ever-threatening Dark Samus.
SOUND- 10/10
Yet another 10/10. Noticing a trend? The sound is marvelous. The musical score for each area is truly amazing. The music never becomes irritating. It is a very electronic soundtrack, with orchestration as well. It is a great listening experience and suits the gameplay perfectly as well. The sound effects in the game are perfectly suited as well, from the fire of each beam to the cries of the evil Ing creatures.
OVERALL- 9.9/10
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is one of the best games of all time. It completely outdoes its predecessor in every way. The soundtrack, the amazing gameplay and the many, many imaginative creatures and boss battles, the various environments waiting to be explored, the immersive gameplay, everything is phenomenal. The game has a distinctly dark atmosphere to it for the entire game- you may find yourself getting scared during the game, because it can be quite intense. I cannot recommend this game enough to any gamer, especially those looking for an amazing sci-fi adventure to embark on. The only thing keeping this game from getting a 10/10 score is the tedious key hunt towards the end of the game. But the good far outweighs the bad with this game. Nintendo and Retro studios have outdone themselves with this one. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is a game to be experienced.

This is a great game review. I know I am sorry for not reading all of it but I am very busy right now. I will read the rest when I can. Any ways. The parts I did read I will give you a big legit thumbs up. Great work. This game seems really fun. Oh, and try to space out the places in it. It seemed a little cramped. Well anyways. I think you should keep on writing reviews. You have a big talent for it, and it would be a shame for it to go to waste. Good luck dude. Until next time .

linkmaster99 : Thank you very much! It makes me very glad to have a supporter. The review took about an hour to write but I think it paid off. I'll do more in the future, I find it enjoyable to beat a game and then talk about it and review it. As you can see, I've only reviewed a few other games, all of which have been Metroid, and those have been lackluster. But I'm going to up the length and quality to my reviews from now on. Thanks again for your support!

This game is really good step in the direction in the Metroid series before it became really dark and completely wonky in the later games. For the GameCube standards, it's probably the best game on the system. At least one of the best.

Great game review, btw. It details and sorts the game greatly. Good job!

pacman1755 : Thank you very much! I appreciate it. And I definitely agree with you. Other M and Prime 3 are great games but I feel like Prime 2 was the last one to really get that sense of isolation. I hope to hear news of a new Metroid game in the near future for 3DS and Wii U. I feel like both consoles could pull of something really unique and great. I'm sure there are games for both systems in development, I just want to hear some news!