September 02, 2004 - It's ironic isn't it? Samus Aran, heroine of Nintendo's Metroid series, stars in one of the best games of all time(certainly my favourite) in Super Metroid on the Super NES, and then doesn't even appear on the N64 apart from a fleeting appearance in Super Smash Bros. Then within a year she returns in a GameCube title, a GBA title, a GBA remake of the original game, and now there's another one for GCN on the way.

Nintendo obviously knows what an opportunity they missed with this franchise. Now, they're looking to remedy things. With Metroid Prime, Retro Studios managed what a lot of people considered to be impossible. They successfully translated the vintage Metroid gameplay into the third dimension. And now they're working on further expanding the series with a sequel, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Recently, we got another chance to sample the E3 demo on the floor of Game Stars Live.

Translating Metroid into 3D was never going to be easy, and when you do it as admirably as Retro you're not keen to mess with it too much. Metroid Prime 2 understandably doesn't really tinker with the established formula and just adds to it - it wasn't broke so why fix it? Samus now has light and dark beams in addition to that old staple, the Power Beam. The demo featured one moment in which Samus needed the Dark Beam to dispel a light barrier, which helps illustrate just one way Samus will employ her new weapons.

We already know that Dark Samus will be an enemy and that Samus can jump between light and dark worlds, and those nefarious Space Pirates certainly look darker this time. The Dark Beam also has a very nice effect when you charge it where what looks like phazon grows over the cannon until you release it.



The combat is very similar with beams and missiles utilised in the same way as the first game. The scan and combat visors are present and correct, and Samus can roll into her Morph Ball at will. Some of the moves dropped from Super Metroid for Metroid Prime like the screw attack, allowing Samus to kill enemies by jumping into them and also to reach distant ledges by spinning through the air.

Graphically Metroid Prime excelled and MP2 is no different. It's not hugely different, but things did look more detailed and more organic than the environments in the first game. The frame rate was similarly consistent and didn't even drop during combat with effects flying between the combatants. Once again Retro has shown what we've known all along but many people seem to forget - that the GCN is more than capable of keeping up with the competition. The graphics, coupled with the set pieces witnessed in the demo--such as Space Pirates rushing through a portal to the Dark World or Space Pirates manning huge cannons in an effort to eliminate you--really make it seem like you're visiting a living, breathing planet.

Most of the upgrades to Metroid Prime have been fairly minor, but it's the multiplayer that is the biggest addition. Purists have complained that multiplayer Metroid is missing the point, but that didn't stop a lot of gamers requesting it for the latest game. Retro has listened to the masses and now Metroid Prime 2 adds support for up to four players in Deathmatch and Bounty Hunter modes. It's odd to have multiplayer games with the ability to lock onto opponents as it often causes games to deteriorate into pure circle strafing matches. It's also a matter of who can fire faster and who has the most Power Suit upgrades. It's fun though, and the demo map had plenty of opportunities for Morph Ball antics. I can't see it being anything big, but it's a nice distraction from the main story mode.

Although the Metroid Prime 2 demo we played was the same as the one we played at E3 in May, it looks great and it should be brilliant when it finally arrives in November. One to watch - but you already knew that.