Developed by Retro Studios in collaboration with Nintendo, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the sequel to the classic Metroid Prime. It was first released in 2004 – to rave reviews – and it remains one of the best games ever made for the Nintendo GameCube.

Playing once again as Samus, you crash-land on the planet Aether and become embroiled in a war between the forces of light and darkness. As well as the usual quest to restore all the powers to your suit, lost after a sneak attack by some mysterious all-black dark energy monsters.

The basic structure of the game – Samus’s abilities, the combat, the object scanning, the elevators, the saving, the map system, and pretty much everything else – are more or less the same as in the first Metroid Prime, which is fine because they all work great. If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it, as they say.

What is different in this sequel is the story, the characters, the enemies, the lore, and the environments, which are more detailed, complex and surprising than those seen in the first game. The improved graphics, music and special effects are dazzling, too.

After a short introduction to exploring and surviving on Aether, you eventually meet a race of creatures called The Luminoth, who ask you to help them, by going into another dimension and transferring the energy from three dark temples into their light-side counterparts. That basically means: fighting and jumping your way through a variety of hostile environments, and looking for special objects in a world full of enemies. These temples are guarded by The Ing, a malevolent parasitic being that is trying to take over the universe. And you must fight off tougher incarnations of The Ing as you progress through the game.

There is a surprise twist about a third into Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, but I won’t spoil it here. Those who’ve played the first Metroid Prime will understand the surprise, though. And then the stakes are raised in the game and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes becomes even more involving and challenging, with an almost never-ending stream of new gadget additions to keep you hooked on the adventure.

You get to meet “The Dark Metroid” quite early into the story, and that experience sets up the last two-thirds of the game, which sees you teleporting between two dimensions on Aether. The dark dimension and the light dimension. Searching for evil temples and infiltrating them. Blasting new monsters with an ever-improving arsenal of weaponry. Scanning everything that you can possibly scan – even if it puts your life in danger.

On Dark Aether, the atmosphere is poisonous and will constantly harm you, unless you can stand in a protected area, of which there are thankfully some. On Light Aether it is The Dark Metroid who undergoes constant damage while in the light.

Both sides of Aether must be explored, and Samus must survive at all costs…

Can Samus save The Luminoth and planet Aether? And defeat The Ing while she’s at it? Only you can stop them…

Note: there is a multiplayer side to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I wrote a separate article about that, here.

More: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on Wikipedia