• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Metroid Prime Echoes is stupid

I loved the first, and so naturaly bought the second. But I was only able to make it halfway through the second area (Torvus Bog I think it was?) before giving up on the game. The game was just too dark for me, it felt like I was playing some survival horror collectathon instead of a Metroid game. For all I know, the later areas could've been much better - and the whole Dark Samus story interested me greatly, so I do wonder what the rest of the game was like. But alas, I've since traded it in fo Advance Wars DS, so I guess it'll always just be one of the mysteries to me.
 
Those orange things that you can see when you get the Echo Visor. Those things that emit soundwaves that you have to shoot to turn them off; turning them all off usually opens a door. They're in Sanctuary Fortress (one is to get to a miniboss in the Sanctuary Fortress, the Caretaker Drone thing) and there's some in the first big room of Agon Wastes (to get an Etank).

They go away after you turn them off; if you leave the room before going/getting whatever opens up before doing so, they won't be there to shoot again and activate what you unlock.
 
I loved Metroid Prime Echoes. Unlike the first Metroid Prime it didn't hold you hand all the time with that hint system telling you were to go every damn second. I liked that it was more like Super Metroid and made you explore the whole damn world every time you got a new item. That is what I found so appealing about Super Metroid in 96. The game was also more difficult and also added lots of cool Morph Ball elements to the game. I also liked that it was a darker game. Metroid Prime was a rehash of a lot of past Metroid elements, and while Prime 2 kept some of these elements and added more past ones (such as colored doors) it added even more new things and delivered a much different gameplay experience that I loved.
 
Red Scarlet said:
How many missiles do you have? There's 255 max in MP2 (5 from the launcher, 5 from the Seekers, 49 expansions).

I have 250 missiles right now. And I had to take a break because searching for expansions can get quite tedious without a guide. I'm basically exploring all the levels with the music turned off to hear for the *hum* when there's an item upgrade nearby. I'm a completist so it is my cross to bear LOL
 
Mama Smurf said:
Having Samus powered up from the beginning and keeping it is possibly the most horrible idea GAF has ever come up with, and the competition is fierce.

The item progression is such a key part of the Metroid formula, if you don't like it go play another game rather trying to turn Metroid into another game. To me, this is like someone saying temples and dungeons are boring in Zelda now, that the world should just flow together and puzzles and bosses should appear in the overworld. Fine ideas for new games, but keep the hell away from core aspects of established series.

*Nods approvingly*

A fully stocked Samus from the get-go? That'd be like getting outta bed fully dressed for work. Kinda nice to think about for a sec, but silly, plain silly.

Unless....

















Nah, still silly. :)
 
I enjoyed MP:E while I was playing it, but I recently sold it back; I don't think I'll ever really go back and play it again. MP on the other hand, hells yeah.

I found MP:E to be an ultimately frustrating experience not necessarily for the difficulty level of the enemies, bosses, what have you, but because of the mechanics.
- The Dark World was tedious; even when you got the Dark Suit.
- Ammo for the different guns forced you to sit around and either conserve your ammo for the bosses or specific puzzles/doors, or have to kill enemies just to collect it back.
- The fact that there were maybe 3 novel items in the entire game (and the Screw Attack seems Retro threw in just to shut up the 2D Metroid-ies) and the rest were the same as MP
- The fact that you even needed to re-collect said repeated items, even though MP:E is a direct continuation of MP, and that you started the game with all your stuff anyways
- The keys felt like something out a Rare game. So did the artifacts in MP, but by the time you got around to those, you were such a bad ass that it was kinda fun exploring all those crevices you left behind.

That being said, I liked Echoes quite a bit; just not as much as MP. I thought some of the environments were fantastic (the Sanctuary Fortress) and the bosses were awesome (Quadraxis was great.)

I feel for MP:3, they need to just start Samus with nothing. Have her be caught off guard, with absolutely nothing. Also, whoever said that she should be able to combine her abilities like in SM is absolutely right. Also... please... add new items to play with. MP was so great because there were so many implementations of old items in 3D, but so many new ones to play with.

That being said, I think MP:E is like the Majora's Mask of the Metroid Franchise. It's a fun, enjoyable game, but ultimately a frustrating experience in the end (and I'm replaying Majora's Mask so I could go off on that one too. :))
 
Red Scarlet said:
oooo the dreaded last one. gl

I remember the last missle exp cost me about 10 hours, because I did it withotu a guide and I managed to check all places except for the last one. LOL
 
olimario said:
Mama Smurf-
What about having her start off with everything and then give her even more powerful weapons, jumps, etc... ?

And then the next game she starts with those and gets even more and the game after she has even more still until it gets ridiculous.

If people don't want her being so weak from the start, then fine. If she keeps, let's say, the normal beam, a small amount of missiles and the morph ball, perhaps that will satisfy people.

Not that this whole argument matters anyway, it's the heart of Metroid and I can't imagine they'd change it. It's good to be on the winning side blah blah etc.
 
Mama Smurf said:
And then the next game she starts with those and gets even more and the game after she has even more still until it gets ridiculous.

If people don't want her being so weak from the start, then fine. If she keeps, let's say, the normal beam, a small amount of missiles and the morph ball, perhaps that will satisfy people.

Not that this whole argument matters anyway, it's the heart of Metroid and I can't imagine they'd change it. It's good to be on the winning side blah blah etc.


I'd say one jump is enough. Like MegaMan to MegaMan X.
 
That doesn't make any sense. Are you saying Samus would never get anymore power ups after the next Metroid game? If it's stupid that she loses most of her abilities at the start of every game as it is, it'll be stupid in future games too so the choice would be either never get power ups again or have her as some whacked out, all powerful, undefeatable machine.
 
Mama Smurf said:
That doesn't make any sense. Are you saying Samus would never get anymore power ups after the next Metroid game? If it's stupid that she loses most of her abilities at the start of every game as it is, it'll be stupid in future games too so the choice would be either never get power ups again or have her as some whacked out, all powerful, undefeatable machine.


I'm saying that she should start more powerful in Prime 3 and that her base powes in 3 should stay her base powers through the next few titles. We've been acquiring the morph ball since the NES... I think it's time we added new powers on top of her existing ones.
 
Well ok, that's a bit different to what a lot of people are arguing so I thought you were with them, but still...it won't actually make that much difference.

It may seem like she's stronger at first, but in reality you're just going to be in exactly the same position, just with stronger enemies. Progression is still going to be the same and abilities will still have to be lost for the new games.

Besides, apart from some standard things like missiles and the morphball, Echoes upgrades had plenty of stuff Prime didn't, I don't see the problem when it comes to getting new abilities rather than just getting back what we had the previous game.
 
Metroid Prime 2 was such a fantastic game, i'm astonished about all the hate it's getting in this thread.

Maybe the starting area and agon wastes weren't as cool as the first two areas of MP1; and the dark world could be annoying at times.. but it was still a really amazing game imo. Inventive boss designs, awesome puzzles, and the same great gameplay from the first.. I do think MP1 is a slighty better game, but echoes is more challenging and still holds its own as one of GameCube's best games.
 
Sweet Bejeezus that spiderball boss about made me lose my religon.

I haven't touched the game in six months, but I'm just collecting keys...so I don't have much further to go. Oddly enough I did the same thing with the first Prime, got to the last boss, and then didn't touch the game for nearly a year, then finally came back and beat it. Overall I've enjoyed the game but not nearly as much as the original. The amount of firepower that it takes to kill enemies is borderline ridiculous.

Also, maybe in my older age I'm becoming a weak sauce gamer, but I just don't enjoy games where I have a real tough time getting through them anymore. I think it's lack of time, but I just enjoyed the easier enemies of the first game to the 15 minute shooting fests of echoes.
 
MP2:E> MP1

Flame me all you want, but look at the majority of complaints here "the dark world is tedious and boring" wtf did you want? didn't people here read? the dark world was a parallel dimension to the light world of course it's going to be basically the same shit. another complaint is "I got stuck here... the game suxors!!" as far as I know it's not game's fault if you suck at games.

things MP2:E do better than MP1
-Better worlds: I was tired of the same Ice, Fire, Water shtick that MP1 had. Sanctuary Fortress and Torvus Bog were amazing.
-Better Bosses: You can't argue against that, Quadraxis is all the evidence I need
-Better Puzzles: the morphball ones were awesome
-Better Scanning: the colored thing make scanning easiear also seeing the 3d models of the enemies as opposed of just seeing screenshots was better.
-Better Graphics: this is an obvious one

in short MP2:E>MP1 fuck the MP2:E haters my only complaint was the multiplayer they should have drop that shit and focused more on the single player experience.
 
Update: I went back to this game in order to get into that dumb hole and make progression. Turns out I didn't reach a save point yet and had to start over. Man fuck this game.
 
Something about this game just didn't grab my attention. I wasn't in the mood for backtracking around a brown/grey 3d world, constantly switching between maps, visors, and guns.

I was very excited to get a new copy from EB for 20$ 3 months ago, but after a solid hour of gameplay, I put it away.


EDIT: This av is cool. where from? (the RPG monster one)
avatar.jpg
 
SantaCruZer said:
hmm someone got this game down to 1:43 in a speedrun. thats impressive
That's fucking amazing. This was the first Metroid that took me more than 10 hours to beat (17 to be exact, AND I was using a guide half the time). But that's why I didn't like it, it wasn't as logical "I got this item, great, now I can do this!" style that I love Metroid for. It's "goddamn it when am I gonna get powerbombs to open the 20 yellow doors I've seen already".
 
LakeEarth said:
That's fucking amazing. This was the first Metroid that took me more than 10 hours to beat (17 to be exact, AND I was using a guide half the time). But that's why I didn't like it, it wasn't as logical "I got this item, great, now I can do this!" style that I love Metroid for. It's "goddamn it when am I gonna get powerbombs to open the 20 yellow doors I've seen already".

yeah it took long just because you had to enter those god damn awful portals back and forth. Bad game design.
 
The 1:43 is even on PAL! (But that doesn't matter, there's very, very few differences this time around). It's a great video though, almost every part had something I had not seen or remember from the 2:25 100%.
 
Red Scarlet said:
The 1:43 is even on PAL! (But that doesn't matter, there's very, very few differences this time around). It's a great video though, almost every part had something I had not seen or remember from the 2:25 100%.

jugding by the 1:43 run, how far do you think they can get it? 1:30 possible?
 
Man, I finally fanally beat this game on the weekend....... such a freakin' step down from the origional --- still brilliant just not legendary.

The game wasn't extremely hard -- a nice challenge, just with cryptic boss-puzzles in the middle of all the stress that often seemed so unrewarding.

I stomached the offensive/obligatory "dark world", and the "keys" that the Metroid franchise has done so well to avoid up untill this point --- so uninspiring.
The hunt for relics in the first Prime was fun, because you had on your map many unexplored areas and doors to go back and find them in... but man that "sky key" hunt killed me, none of the keys were in 'new' areas --- they were all hidden under the rubble, in ponds, and in the dark world you have to come in and out of.

The game just got lost in itself, and so confusing of a labyrinth --- it really felt like a metroid made spacifically for fans who beat the game 10 times 100%.......
I felt obligated to complete it since I've completed every other Metroid --- but I will never be comming back....

I hate to be such a 'traditionalist' but every moment of Echoes made me want to be back in Prime. I hope they've learned a lot since.
 
One of my main beefs with the game was that you spent so much of it in that horrible-looking Dark Suit, and like 10 minutes with the freaking amazing-looking Light Suit.

Overall, a step down from Prime, I'd agree, but still a fantastic game.
 
One thing I disliked was how the map showed you that you could use a weapon to go through a door, then it DOESNT show you that theres another barrier around the door to where you cant get to it. Either you need a visor like the Echo visor to deactivate doors, or you get there coming from the Dark World.

I think thats the problem about the backtracking bit. I didnt mind doing it, I just mind if I picked the wrong direction.
 
i really loved echoes. My only real disappointment was the screw attack. While i was excited to get it, and had some fun with it, they could've given us a little more control over it while in the air... it wouldn't have taken anything away from the game to do that
 
Top Bottom