Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Metroid Prime 2: Echoes North American Cover Art

Publisher Nintendo Developer(s) Retro Studios Platform(s) Nintendo GameCube Genre First Person Adventure Ratings ESRB: T PEGI: 12+ USK: 12 Modes Single-player, four-player versus multiplayer Media Nintendo GameCube optical disc Input Nintendo GameCube controller

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the sequel to Metroid Prime, also released on Nintendo GameCube, in 2004. It was the first Metroid game to feature a multiplayer mode.

Plot

As Samus screens the space near the planet Aether for a fleet of lost Marines, her ship is knocked down to the planet's surface by a lightning storm. Samus realizes that the electromagnetic forces generated by the intense storms have shut down her communication with the outside, and that the Marines were most likely cut off by the very same storm. Continuing on foot, Samus discovers dead Marines scattered within a hive of indigenous, spider-like creatures called Splinters. Soon thereafter the bounty hunter comes across her twisted doppelgänger, Dark Samus. Samus pursues Dark Samus through a portal and into Dark aether, where she is attacked by a group of Ing. The Ing steal most of her weapons and she is flung back into Light Aether with only her primitive suit functions. After discovering that the Ing possessed creatures in Light Aether and were the ones responsible for the Marines' deaths, Samus travels to the nearby Luminoth Temple in search of clues. There she meets U-Mos, the last remaining Luminoth sentinel. U-Mos explains that the Ing have stolen the life source of Aether - called the Light of Aether - and are hording it in their contorted Dark world. He sends Samus on a mission to recover the lost Light of Aether.

Samus ventures to several different regions of Aether: Agon Wastes, Torvus Bog, and the Sanctuary Fortress. She recovers the keys to the regions' specific temples and defeats the Ing in the parallel Dark portions of the levels. Along the way she encounters Space Pirates, who are harvesting Phazon to mutate Metroid specimen.

Ultimately, Samus transfers all of the energy back to Light Aether, save for the last unit protected by the Emperor Ing itself. U-Mos gifts Samus the Light Suit and sends her back to Dark Aether one last time, where she combats the Emperor Ing. Upon acquiring the last fragment of the Light of Aether, Dark Aether becomes unstable and threatens to collapse within minutes. Samus flees from the Sky Temple and attempts to return to Light Aether, but is balked by Dark Samus, who has absorbed Phazon to critical capacity. Samus overcomes her adversary and warps back to Light Aether mere moments before Dark Aether ceased to exist. She returns to U-Mos, who has awoken the previously slumbering Luminoth. The Luminoth thank Samus, who then leaves in her repaired gunship. Should the player finish the game 100%, they are rewarded with a post-credits cutscene depicting Dark Samus reforming herself in outer space.

Trivia

• In the PAL region, it remains the only Nintendo-published game not to be compatible with the PAL-50Hz mode, which means it cannot be played on older PAL TVs except for the Metroid Prime Trilogy version.