hile a heavy focus of this year’s Nintendo Gamers Summit 2004 was centered on the DS, it’s important to remember that the company still has quite a bit up their sleeves when it comes to the GameCube.  At yesterday’s event, attendees were treated to a special demonstration of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the highly anticipated sequel to Metroid Prime.  With that title being such an overwhelming success, you would think that Retro may fall prey to the “sequel blues.”  Well, I can equivocally say that they’re haven’t.  While the overall feeling of Echoes is quite reminiscent of the first game, nearly every single aspect of the sequel has been overhauled.  The result is a game that feels and plays like the original but has far more polish and gameplay variety.  After the demonstration I hunkered down in front of a TV and GameCube and played through a copy of the game that’s very near completion. 

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes begins much in the same way that Prime did; with Samus being called to a mysterious planet with little or no clue as to what is awaiting her.  The build I played started off with a sort of tutorial level that got me acclimated to using my abilities, which included a charge beam, morph ball, bombs, and missiles.  The level was set up in a pretty beginner-friendly manner, with large open areas to explore as well as some small morph-ball accessible tunnels to traverse through every now and then.  After you complete the short tutorial stage the real fun begins.  It seems that a regiment of Space Troopers on a distant planet has set off their distress beacon.  Samus picks up the SOS and pilots her ship to the location of the Troopers.  But, she’s too late.  The only thing awaiting her is the dead bodies of the men who had called for aid.  Determined to figure out what killed the Troopers, Samus sets out alone on the strange planet, which is filled with the artifacts and architecture of an ancient culture.  Later on, she learns that in the past the planet was struck by a massive meteor.  The ensuing destruction actually caused a rift in time and space, separating the planet into two distinct forms: light and dark.  The Luminoths, a peaceful race inhabited the light side of the world.  The Ing, a brutal and ruthless group, took refuge in the dark world.  All seems fine for a short time; that is until the Ing begin to invade the Luminoth world.  With the planet split in two, the Ing realize that if they can destroy the Luminoths, the energy from their world will be transferred to their dark abode, granting them great power.

As Samus makes her way through the game she’ll make contact with several Luminoth, who view her as their only hope for victory against the evil Ing.  But, outside of that conflict, she has a greater threat to deal with.  If you beat Prime with 100% completion, you were treated to a neat cut scene in which a strange “being” is borne from a puddle of Phazon.  Well, that creature is Dark Samus, a twisted Phazon abomination that is evil to the core, but also possesses all of the skills and abilities of its previous host, Samus.  Many times throughout the game you’ll run into Dark Samus, who is trying to collect deposits of Phazon scattered throughout the world to increase her power.  With so much going on with the Ing and Dark Samus, you would think that there wouldn’t be enough room for Space Pirates or Metroids.  Well, you’re wrong.  They also play a prominent role in the game, although they do appear to be suffering from the reckless acts of Dark Samus as well.  Still the dedicated genetic experimenters, they haven’t given up their hobby of trying to breed Metroids using Phazon.  But, it is this Phazon that has attracted Dark Samus to the planet’s surface, putting the Pirates in a strange predicament of also falling victims to the strange entity.

While the Echoes’ story is admittedly complex, the gameplay thankfully is still how you remembered it in the first game.  Echoes uses a pseudo-FPS control scheme; movement is mapped to the left analog stick, changing your weapon to the C-stick.  The left trigger is used to lock-on to a potential target while the right trigger is used to actually move your targeting reticule around to aim.  The A button fires your currently selected weapon while the D-pad is used to cycle through your various visors.  Rounding out the rest of the controller’s buttons, the X and Y buttons reprise their functions from Prime with the X initializing your morph ball transformation and the Y used to fire off missiles. 

In terms of the title’s controls, there aren’t too many surprises.  The real innovation comes in the game’s heavy use of color polarity in regards to the planet’s light and dark worlds.  The Luminoth and the Ing represent the exact opposite qualities of each other.  As such, their light and dark qualities are actually powerful forces that you can eventually harness for your own use.  The Luminoth and the Ing, while engaged in fighting for centuries, can’t just travel to each other’s world and start fighting.  The light world’s atmosphere is extremely toxic to the dark Ing, and likewise, the dark world of the Ing proves damaging to the Luminoth.  But after so many years of fighting, the Luminoth have laid down special crystals throughout the dark world, each of which can bloom a special aura that provides you protection while in it.  But, there’s a catch to these safe havens; they can only be activated with the special light beam.  When in the Ing dark world you’ll see the light pockets as iridescent orbs floating in the air.  A quick shot at one with your light beam will create a protective dome that can slowly replenish your health if you stand within it.  But, the orb-based light pockets don’t last forever, so you’ll generally find yourself running from one to another.  The Ing, however, don’t just sit around and let you take a rest and recuperate.  Since they’re dark-based, they can actually shoot your crystal-based domes and negate their effects, essentially leaving you exposed to the dark world atmosphere.

Perhaps the most strategic aspect of the beam weapons is the fact that you don’t have unlimited ammunition for either one.  After you first pick up one of the weapons, you’re given 50 shots.   While you can eek out some extra ammo every now and then, as well as pick up expansions to increase your maximum supply, you’ll quickly learn that conserving the ammo is of the utmost importance.  Granted, it’s tempting to use a particular beam like crazy.  Fighting the Ing with the light beams lets you dole out extreme amounts of damage, but in the ensuing chaos, you usually go through ton of ammo.  But, to counteract this syndrome the Ing can be defeated with your conventional weapons.  While it doesn’t prove to be as damaging, it’s sometimes the only choice you’ll have in order to conserve light or dark beam ammunition.

Visually, it’s pretty apparent that Retro Studios is aiming to take Echoes to a whole new graphical level.  While Prime was a visually impressive in and of itself, the sequel takes that idea into entirely new directions.  First o fall, the game’s 3D engine has been nearly completely overhauled, resulting in a game that seems to flow more fluidly with better animation and environmental detail.  Areas in the game come complete with very well constructed textures and you’ll also notice that you’re often times surrounded by a mind-boggling array of details.  Granted, some of the environments were a bit bland in Prime.  But, don’t expect to find this problem in Echoes.  Locales are now filled with obstacles and objects, including things like destroyable crates, debris, plant life, and an immense number of scannable objects and enemies.  Particle effects have also gotten quite a bit of attention and the game features highly realistic shadowing as well as fire and smoke effects.  While the game doesn’t quite venture into the realm of “best on the GameCube,” I was incredibly pleased to see that Retro wasn’t simply content with taking the first game and just adding some new content.  While it still “looks” like Prime in terms of style, the little extra details make for an incredibly lush visual experience.

On the audio side of things Echoes is sticking fairly close to the themes and sounds of Prime, but that’ not necessarily a bad thing.  Musical tracks run the gamut from subdued ambient tunes to hectic battle songs, but none seem too far from what you would expect to hear in a Metroid game. 

The biggest draw for most of the event attendees was Echoes’ multiplayer and I do have to admit that I was initially skeptical.  I’m one of those purists and am completely happy with the idea that Metroid is a single player game and multiplayer, although a nice bonus isn’t really all that necessary.  Well, after spending some time with the mode I do have to admit that I did come away impressed.  While it’s probably not the most engaging multiplayer offering out there for home consoles, Retro manages to create an engaging experience and still manage to stay on track by making it feel like a Metroid game.

The multiplayer mode of Echoes supports up to four player via split-screen, although you can start up a game with as little as two players.  Once you’ve selected a level, which are designed to better suit specific numbers of participants, you’re thrust into the harsh world of Deathmatch.  The bare bone elements of Deathmatch are pretty similar to what you’ve seen in other games; you need to kill your opponent and try to stay alive.  The interesting qualities come in the odd power-ups and weapons that you’re able to pick up, as well as the heavy emphasis on morph ball use.  First of all, you start off a match with your regular gun, the ability to morph into a ball, and the ability to boost while in ball form. But you can also pick up things like bombs, missiles, super missiles, power bombs, and even man gun turrets capable of dealing out quite a bit of damage.  Also scattered through a map are power-ups, temporary items that usually give you a huge advantage against your competition.  You’ll come across infinite missiles, invisibility, invulnerability, and our favorite, the death ball, an odd item that forces you into morph ball mode without the ability to boost, but also surrounded by a strange aura that can kill an opponent with a single touch.

The death ball is a nice reminder that multiplayer Echoes is extremely heavy on morph ball use.  Boosting while in ball form gives you a quick and easy way to escape some confrontations and the ball itself is the main way of breaking an opponent’s lock on you.  You see, while in multiplayer you can still lock-on to an enemy.  But, to counteract having players simply running around and never missing each other, Retro decided to add an escape mechanism.  If an enemy locks on to you, going into morph ball form and boosting will let you break that lock.  While it’s true that you’re still vulnerable in ball form, you’re at least given the chance to make an escape.  Overall multiplayer Echoes was a pretty fun time thanks in part to the game’s ability to run at a nice clip.  I never noticed any slowdown, despite the fact that I was usually embroiled in four player death bonanzas.  But while the mode is enjoyable, I am a bit disappointed that it’s not online.  But, if you do have three friends gathered about and are itching for some Deathmatch, you could do a lot worse than the tight experience of Echoes.

Metroid Prime wowed GameCube owners in the past and Echoes is going to wow them all again.  While the title still has that “feel” of Prime, it’s been expounded on so greatly that it’s truly a new and unique experience.  The better visuals, sound, and unique light/dark mechanic is intriguing enough to keep things interesting from beginning to end and the multiplayer mode offers up some surprisingly good action.  While I only had a chance to play through about half of the immense build at the event, the two hour glimpse that I did get is an excellent sign of things to come.

Luckily, I also got a chance to chat with Michael Kelbaugh, President of Retro Studios, as well as Bryan Walker, Senior Producer of Metroid Prime: Echoes.  They're notorious for not giving interviews, but I managed to get a few new details from them!