Dark pirate commandos are a noob's trap, the trick is this one: Charged dark beam shot to freeze them, and then shatter them with a single missile. Metroid prime 2, the game that gets better each time you play it.
Yeah, I don't know why anyone doesn't see this. Retro added a lot of attention to detail to this game, I played it when I was 14 and thought I knew a lot then, nearly 20 years later I'm playing the game I'm figuring out new strategies. Retro made combat in this game a lot more open and flexible than you initially realise. You think because its just a sequel to Prime with the same control layout its all the same (which I think was also intentional) so you get comfortable relying on old methods from Prime which pretty much amounted to pick the right beam or missile and shoot and don't get shot. There are multiple strategies that can be exploited to make combating some of the more challenging enemies more manageable. Except Grenchlers, fuck grenchlers they are some of the most OP normal in game enemies to ever exist, they are just a nightmare regardless of what strategy you use.
My favorite Prime-game. It nailed aspects that I feel are really important in Metroid games; the sense of loneliness and isolation, as well as claustrophobic hostile environments, especially on Dark Aether. The way Samus walks off "into the sunset" in the ending is rad & glorious. And while not entirely the same type of games, it reminds of what Majora's Mask did after Ocarina of Time, as I prefer the direct sequel in this case as well. Great video!
Thank you for watching! I do wish I spent a bit more time discussing the atmosphere of dark aether in particular, as I fully agree with you. And yeah, Samus is pretty badass.
There are similarities I've noticed across both franchises. Ocarina could be seen as a 3d version of a link to the past and the same could be said for prime 1 being a 3d version of super metroid. But both sequels feel so unique
It's my favorite too I go into details from difficulty being so satisfying to beat each really difficult boss or enemy to the creepy atmosphere and then the music this game with the soldiers getting possessed and coming back to life scared me as a kid yet I loved it was surprised this was a Nintendo game I remember telling myself.
And I forgot to mention the graphics still hold up and looks amazing to this day compared to most PS2 and Xbox games just wow I can't believe it retro studios are wizards or something retro studios should help with every Nintendo game lol.
I think it's the best looking but not the most beautiful. I think either Windwaker or Metroid Prime takes the cake for most beautiful. Metroid Prime 2 is much more bland in appearance than Prime 1, which had a much better color pallet.
@@educationalporpoises9592 I agree that Prime 1 is more beautiful but Prime 2 has the single best looking level of the Gamecube era in Sanctuary Fortress
@@educationalporpoises9592 The bland art direction reflect the tone of the story. The stakes wouldnt feel too high if everything was thriving. The place truly appears as if its on the last few edges of being wiped out by its paracausal counterpart. More interesting and stellar notes from tiny story beats and the lore itself describe the shock caused by Dark Aether's emergence. Environmental disasters like the drought in Agon, floods of Torvus Bog and tech going haywire are a result of that cataclysm along with the destruction of the Ing. It's neat and clever world building in my opinion!
Quadraxis is easily one of the most fun boss battles in a video game, even all these years after the game's release. It's a long battle, sure, but because of how it requires the player to use every weapon at their disposal to take the boss down, it never really gets boring. It's essentially a puzzle that actively tries to stop you from solving it.
The problem with the tedious healing in bubbles can be solved by shooting the ing capsules for health. You can exit the room and come back to respawn the capsules easily for quick health regen! 👍 Also, to kill the Alpha Blogg quickly, use a dark missle!
Great video. The music in all 3 games is some of my favorite. It’s one of the few soundtracks that comes off as both atmospheric and melodic. That Torvus bog theme, goddamn. Whenever it rains outside I always end up listening to Phendrana Drifts
*** EDIT *** I’m aware of the fact that you can freeze Dark Pirates. The game doesn’t tell you you can do this, as it actually tells you that the dark beam is ineffective against dark enemies, so I didn’t think to try. Apologies for the occasional stuttering in the footage. I tried my best to edit around them, but it seems some slipped through the cracks. My PC isn't that great at emulation, so it was kind of inevitable. I appreciate all of you watching!
The game is weird that way. I tried to freeze the dark pirates right away, but I also saw how confusing it could be since they're controlled by the ing so it's basically a given that people will rightfully think they're in the dark category. A little clarification on that wrinkle could've saved headaches against certain foes like the dark pirate commandos.
there's a couple cases like this, like dark Samus being weak to the dark beam, and almost unaffected by the light beam. the dark commandos weakness is a charged dark beam with a missile, just like all metroids in this title. the commandos also can't hide from the dark visor, like the chozo ghosts and x ray vision in prime 1
You can shoot beacons with the light beam. The bubble turns into a gold color, and enemies that move inside the bubble are damaged. It's an easy way to kill the hunter ing. If you shoot beacons with the annihilator beam, the bubble turns red, and enemies are compelled to move towards the bubble.
@@microArcThat's why scanning is clutch. Dark Samus scans in as an offworlder, which means it's a "light" being even though it has "dark" in the name.
@@prometheus4257 honestly, i never even thought about it like that, i was just trying out all my weapons on her and noticed that i did a lot more damage with dark beam than others.
Damn Dark Samus looks terrifying here with the skull design. I’ve only ever known her design from the Smash series! Once again great video, and congrats on the views!
Legitimately didnt notice that i wasnt watching a famous youtuber until the video was over and i went to like the video. I enjoy watching retrospectives as background while playing games and listen attentively, but your editing skills and your presentation are absolutely insane for where your channel is currently at right now. Your presentation literally would still be perfect even for an audience of 100k+ subs. Hope to see your channel grow.
Just a tip for the Dark Pirates: Shoot them with a charged Dark Beam shot. It will freeze them the same way the Ice Beam does in Prime 1, and you can finish them off with a missile. Most enemies can be dealt with this way, but it's really effective against those jerks.
I am obsessed with metroid prime 2. If there's 2 games of all time I could play for the rest of my life it would be re4 or mp2. There's just no perfect balance between items, upgrades, adventure, and enemy variety in any other game. There's no scan system or multiple visors in any other fps. Truly original.
I love the Scan Visor and I will never understand the people who want Prime 4 to either remove it or make it automatic like AM2R. Like, 90% of the fun of the Scan Visor is the interactivity. It makes me feel like I really am operating some sort of scanning device.
Prime 2 was so good. It's my favorite of the three, then 3 then 1. Prime 2 has the number one spot for best video game music I've ever heard. Even better then Ocarina of Time and thats my favorite game of all time and I love it's music to death. But Prime 2 is just special. I actually really enjoyed it's multiplayer to.
Admittedly I have yet to try the multiplayer which is mostly why I refrained from talking about it here, and also because I just don’t really have anybody interested in playing it with me lol.
A lot of people dont like the Dark Pirate Commandos, but I found it a treat when I did my first playthrough and found actual non-Dark Pirate Commandos. Got the scan logs for them too. I think the game explains why a few of them still exist, which makes sense because there are occasions where regular pirate forces are found.
i don't know about you but for some reason i found dark pirate commandos to be really easy to kill, i had a lot of trouble with the normal ones that were not ing hosts.
Pro tip for the dark commandos: dark charge shot and a missile. It works every time. I get why most people miss that tho. They shouldnt have made the most difficult dark enemy have a weakness to the dark beam, it's contradictory
Appreciate the tip! Yeah, the game never really tells you you can do this, in fact it tells you that the dark beam is ineffective on dark enemies which is why I guess I never thought to try it.
@@Kohana64 It's very unfortunate the game actively discourages the player from experiment heavily with the different beams. After playing the game many times over for years myself I've found ussing the Dark or Light beam will almost always do more damage than the Power beam regardless of the enemy. There are even examples of times when using the 'wrong' beam is the optimal strategy. The Dark Commando is a commonly cited one but another notable point would be using the homing shots of the Light beam to stun Chykka's adult form incredibly quickly. This speeds the fight up immensely and creates an interesting situation where you'll continually end up low on Light ammo and need to use the Dark beam on Dark Chykka's spawn to regenerate your resources. Another gripe I have with the combat in Echoes is how the beam combos are implemented, since it feels like they didn't even try to improve it past Prime 1 at all. You still have the same problem of 2 of them beam combos being locked behind the late-game and while none of them are as outright awful as the flamethrower, the Lightburst still feels fairly weak. On the other hand, the Darkburst is actually very powerful and useful, on top of being attainable as soon as you have the seeker missle. Some noteworthy uses would be the insane amount of damage a single shot can deal to both the Alpha Blogg and Dark Samus 2.
@TheMrRental after lots of experimenting I found that the light burst is useless. 4 charge shots do more damage than a direct light burst explosion which uses 10 more ammo and missiles. The same is true for the sonic boom. The dark burst and super missle are the only useful ones in the game
@@jeanpitre5789The Lightburst really is a cruel joke. Even if it had just been a copy and paste of the Darkburst, but light damage it could have had some niche use case where it's optimal. Sonic Boom is just acquired to late to be relevant. I'm certain if you could get it earlier in the game it would have some points where it shined. Even so it has one point where it can do something so I say it's better than the Lightburst at least. Against the Emperor Ing's first phase, the fast travel time can make it a more lenient option for damaging the core than super missles if you're struggling to get optimal DPS from them. The damage is acceptable as well.
Wow. What a phenomenal video. Playing Prime 2 is one of my first ever gaming memories, I played with my brother and we had absolutely no idea how to play as well as being absolutely astoundingly horrified. It wasn’t until I was 11 or 12 or so is where I completely finished the game front to back, the game made me feel incredible. You didn’t really note it in your video but for me, as a little boy, Samus made me feel so safe, it made me feel like I was Samus, the anxiety of the world and terrifying nature was mitigated as I walked in Samus shoes. This is also the first game that I feel Samus as a beautifully emotional character and you can see just how fantastic she is within every cutscene of the game. I still have the fondest of memories where me and my brother would replicate Samus touching the troopers face cause we thought it was so cool and sad. Amazing video and my favorite video game ever.
Dark Pirate Commandos are actually quite easy to defeat: just fire a charged dark beam shot at them and then use a missile to kill them. The game is programmed, so that the dark beam freezes all humanoid enemies, even if they're taken over by the Ing.
Part of me also thinks that this is the best game in the trilogy. I really enjoy the dark world mechanic and higher difficulty. The atmosphere is amazing as well. But Prime 1 will always be my personal fav.
Totally valid. Prime 1 is the perfect 1:1 translation of 2D Metroid into 3D. I just love how Prime 2 expands on the framework and creates its own identity.
I couldn't play it at around 14 years old cause I was still too scared. Loved metroid prime 1 though and bought a wii just for metroid prime 3. I was planning on buying a switch for metroid prime 4, but the development of that game took way too long already. Then I said fine, I'll jutst get a switch for the advance wars remake instead. But fucking nintendo delayed that game indefinitely because of the damn war.
Ah yes, good ol' Prime 2. My favorite metroid game, my second favorite metroidvania, and one of my top 10 games. I love this game to death. Its storytelling, its atmosphere, its music, its gameplay. The bread and butter of my childhood. I will consume literally ANY content of this game on youtube, and you certainly have not disappointed. Fantastic video, i realized just right now that you only have 170 subs and a couple thousand views, this deserves WAY more.
This was a nice nostalgic trip! I had forgotten about the Dark Pirate Commandos warping out of the fight; it would always make me mad not being able to kill them 😤 never realized it was part of their design. Also regarding the light bubbles, although their slow healing was annoying, it was always an experience trying to clear out a room and just stand under the beacons for some time. Almost like sitting and resting around a campfire.
I do agree there’s a sense of solace in sitting under then after combat, i was more so trying to explain how at times it motivates you to not explore. Glad i could bring some points to your attention, though!
Prime 2 is my favorite after super and yes bloodborne is brilliant in conclusion Super Metroid Prime 2 Bloodborne are in my top ten best favorite games of all time.
Ah Metroid Prime 2, my favorite game of all time. Always fun to watch a retrospective of this game. I really enjoyed this video and agreed with a lot of points you made (pros and cons both). I'd like to touch up on a couple things The Dark Pirate Commandos, as everyone has told you, are weak to Charged Dark Beam and a Missile. It might seem a bit contradictory because the game teaches you how Dark Beam is less effective on dark enemies, but like you said at the end of the video, if you put time and effort, the game rewards you. When you check your inventory menu and read the Dark Beam's description, it says that a charged dark beam (Entangler) has a freezing property as it surrounds the enemy with dark tendrils. When I first read that, I started experimenting with the beam and used the charged dark beam shot on a lot of enemies that were seemingly just slogs to get through. I found out that most enemies get destroyed by the charged dark beam + missile combo, or just the charged dark beam shot alone (Because the freezing property is universal, it works on almost all light and dark enemies). For example, the Dark Pirate Commandos, the Rezbits (enemies in Sanctuary that mess up your visor), Grenchlers, all can be frozen and then shattered with a missile or two. Due to this the Dark beam is generally stronger than Light Beam. It is also more useful against Dark Samus because contradictory to her name, Dark Samus is not a dark enemy (because she is the Metroid Prime that absorbed your Phazon Suit at the end of Prime 1). It may just be me because I really like to go in depth and experiment with weapons in games but it really is rewarding when you find out what it can do. For the Chykka boss fight, the first phase is way quicker if 1. You pay attention to the enemy radar on your top left to see where the larva emerges from and 2. Use Super Missiles and the Light/Dark beam instead of regular Power Beam/Charge Beam For the adult phase, when you stun it and go behind its wings, its faster to destroy them with seeker missiles as there are 4 glowing targets and it stays stunned for a pretty long time so you can charge up your seekers and fire at it. But aside from that I pretty much agree with almost everything you said, and is definitely among the more enjoyable retrospectives I've seen of this game. Your channel is quite underrated for how well made your discussions are, definitely earned a sub from me!
I’m really happy to hear you enjoyed it, despite our disagreement! I’ll be the first to admit I still have much more to learn about the game, and reading comments like these have taught me a lot. That’s something I love about discussing these games. I’m gonna have to implement the dark beam more on my next play through and see how my opinion of the dark pirate segments is changed after. As for the Chykka thing, I genuinely didn’t know that. Thanks for the tip!
I played through prime 1 when i got my gamecube back in 2020. And i instantly feel in love with metroid. Then i got prime trilogy when I got my Wii U in 2021. I played through Prime 2 over Christmas break and man it was awesome. The music was awesome, the story was great, and the gameplay was incredible. Everything just flows so much better in 2 than 1. And i really like the boss fights in 2 more. I think when i was around halfway through prime 2 i was constantly going "how the hell is this not on switch?? This is one of the best games ive ever played". I really hope nintendo does a full remaster for this and corruption, but i would be fine with ports too
After going to prison after selling big amounts of weed, this was one of the games that you could borrow to your cell. Truly amazing game. And great video, really enjoyed it. Fun fact: memory cards was allowed for gamecube but forbidden for ps2. However, with much dedication, and a lot of time, I managed to play FFXII to the end. Another amazing game. Constant adrenaline by avoiding game over!
Glad you enjoyed the video! I really do love how games can impact people's lives in so many different ways. I have yet to hear of anybody playing Metroid in prison LOL. Thank you for sharing, seriously.
@@ItApproaches Well, there was the good things, like video games, and the bad things. And there was quite alot of bad things. Alot more. But yeah, when I transferred to minimum security it was all of a sudden really really great. The prison was located near the coast out in the woods. And there was a farm with cows and everything. You could work with the cows, train dogs for the military, work in the kitchen - which I did and the food was top quality! - or go to school. And you could take walks in the woods and swim in the ocean. I mean, it was really good.
As someone who worked in the electronics department at Target during the release of the first two Prime games, one of the main reasons why the original Prime sold so well was because Nintendo offered the game for $20 to anyone who bought a Gamecube that Christmas season. My store must have sold 100 copies of it in a week because of that. For Prime 2, we received 2 cases of 30 and probably only sold half of them all holiday. No discount on them. I can only imagine how many copies of Prime showed up under Christmas trees that year that didn't get a fair shake because of that deal.
the Prime trilogy was my first dip intro the "Metroid pool", and loved them. And with Prime Four coming out, I *REALLY* hope the Trilogy comes to the Switch so I can relive playing them.
Great video I replayed the game probably because of this vid it’s my favorite of the trilogy I hope you get popular or more subs it seemed like you had a good amount but the views are so 17 your sub count thank you for bringing me back into this game keep making quality videos
Genuinely my favorite Metroid game : it just nails everything i love about this series in a brilliant way and in 3D. The more I replayed it throughout the years, the more I liked it, despite a first impression that didn't feel that great because of its high difficulty and (some) frustrating fights. I really like that they try to go the Catlevania way and give ennemies Samus' powers, it makes for very interesting fights. I really hope Echoes and Corruption get the full remastered treatment that Prime got, even though i'd already be very happy with an HD port with updated controls. That's how much i love this game.
In terms of the music for each area, what you said kind of makes me view it in a different light. The rhythm to each track changes the general feel of the song. Temple - Revere Agon - Be lost Torvus - Explore Sanctuary - Wage war
You might know this by now, but you can "freeze" Dark Pirates with a Charged Dark Beam and then kill them with a missile. Like Chozo Ghosts, but weak to Ice Beam, and you'll make short work of all their encounters. You can also Boost through Quadraxis' weakspots.
Prime 2 was the game that got me into gaming as an adult. Watched my brother play Prime 1 every day, 8-10 hrs a day, was so engrossed I bought a $99 platinum GameCube with Prime 2, and I played that game so much I had dreams about the Ing (no joke, I really did). It remains my favorite video game of all time.
I really wish the Prime remaster had implemented Echoes' scan visor with the full objects highlighted. Echoes is the most difficult one but probably the best environments/layout.
I believe Id software took tons of stuff from Prime 2 and its Luminoth creatures for DOOM Eternal, the inspiration is clear imo, especially in the architecture.
Ah yes. Prime 2. Man This brings me some good memories. Prime 2 has always been a special game...futuristic even for the Prime series. Visually stunning, Prime 2 is my favorite out of the Prime series in terms of visuals, graphics and level design. My only complain about this title is it not being longer. Everything about Echoes hits different. The barren Agon plains, then the beautiful but poisoned Bog and finally the Sanctuary Fortress and having their dark world counterparts was just insane and the music for each area, each of the temple bosses. Prime 2 is EPIC. Still remember playing this on mute back when I was a kid just because the visuals and the music was just overwhelming. Dark Agon and the Dark Submerged Torvus scared the shit out of me. Now as an adult I can finally appreciate how awesome and immersive this game was. Plus it has my favorite Boss battle in the entire series Chykka.
Great video. Unfortunately I’ve only played part of this game at a friend’s house and a cousin’s house. Most of the time was in the multiplayer (really fun). I really like the oppressive atmosphere this game evokes. One thing I wish they did was to have different groups in the game have different alliances instead of all working together. This would be stuff like having the different animals have their own food chain like the Xen creatures from Half-Life. Having the possessed soldiers (when I was a kid I thought the way the Ing took them out ver was by using their different limbs to puppeteer the bodies because my cousins told me that. We also didn’t know what the creatures were called so we just called them purple parasites) and space pirates fight each other like the three way fights between you and your allies, the Flood, and Covenant in Halo (factional fighting is always really good. It ensures that combat encounters don’t play out the exact same way twice. Same goes for ai with good tactics who react to the player and each other really well. The Covenant from Halo, soldiers in FEAR, and Marines in Half-Life 1/expansions are great examples of this). I really like how well they’ve translated 2D Metroid into a 3D world space. It’s really too bad that we don’t see any Metroid Prime clones like we do with 2D Metroid. That would be great. You should look up the cut content for Metroid Prime. This guy called The Obsessive Gamer has some videos on that. There’s also this other video you might want to watch that talks about why Metroid Prime 4 has been in development hell for so long and why Retro Studios hasn’t released any games for a long time called “Retro Studios hasn’t released a new game since 2014. We think we know why!”. The reason I’m not just directly linking it is because the RUclips comment bots don’t like links (sometimes they work but most of the time they don’t. They also make it so certain key words/phrases will outright delete or hide what you say). Good luck on the other videos you make. I also watched your video about Prime 1.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed! If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend playing this game all the way through. I’d love a spiritual successor to the prime series in addition to new entries from the series itself personally.
Yeah, I definitely should. Since you’ve made some Nintendo content you might want to know about these really cool fan games/mods: The first one is called Hyrule Conquest and it’s a Zelda mod for this rts game 0ad (open source game so it’s 100% free), but it originally started out as a mod for Medieval 2 and was called Hyrule Total War at the time (haven’t played it since I don’t have that game. Unfortunately the guy hasn’t updated that mod so it might not work with the most recent version of the game. Luckily this other guy made a continuation mod called Hyrule Total War: Classic Ultimate that comes with various balancing changes and updates it. Since I haven’t played either I don’t know how close to the original vision it is). The guy jumped ship from one engine to another because the 0ad engine allowed him to work with the people making it to add all of these cool features into the game. The factions are made up of different Zelda groups that are all vying for power. Their gameplay is really unique, and they’re all visually distinct. It’s really impressive what the guy has been able to make. The guy has a lot of videos on the mod and some on this Star Fox fan game. Segueing into the Star Fox game he also made this really cool mod for Free Space Open (another open source game so the only thing you’d lose by playing either of those is time) called Star Fox Event Horizon. It follows the 64 continuity and uses ideas/characters from all three timelines/reboots. It’s very impressive what the guy has been able to make. Recently he even got Estelle Ellis Krystal’s original voice actor to partner with him and do voice work for the mod. You should definitely check it out. The third is this fan game being made by this guy Esphirian that’s a reimagining of Adventures called Remadventures. It’s similar to BOTW where it has an open world where you can do objectives in any order you want. Krystal and Fox will be working together and bond as the story goes on. Andross is dead and there’s just a military alliance between Scales and Andross’s remnants. The Great Fox and it’s crew will be actively involved in the story/gameplay. It’s very impressive what he’s shown off so far. Unfortunately there’s no demos/playable builds for this one because it’s nowhere near complete and the guy doesn’t want Nintendo to strike it. I’ve talked with the guy in the comments and he has some really cool ideas for the story/gameplay. There will also be a connection between Krystal and the Krazoa akin to the connection between humans and Forerunners back when Bungie made Halo (if you know about the lore that was retconned you’ll know what I’m talking about. Speaking of Halo there was this guy who animated the Halo 2 storyboards. There’s also the “big reveal” where the Arbiter would look into a sarcophagus inside the Ark that was located on Earth at the time. Where modern humans originated from some 100,000 years ago. The hint is pretty obvious). Hopefully Nintendo doesn’t strike down these amazing projects. Luckily UndyingNephalim’s games have been around for over a decade and somehow nothing has happened to them.
i cannot agree more with the “echoes is a miracle” take. the game had less than two years to be made, similar to prime 1’s two years or super smash bros melee’s 13 months, but somehow came out as a masterpiece just like those other two games.
As time passes by, I think Prime has come to be appreciated more and more. It deserves it. I wonder if the games is brought to Switch, remastered, people might be able appreciate it even more.
I really need to complete this before prime 4, i really hope they re-release this on switch. A remastered would be asking too much but at least updated controllers.
Love the Prime reviews, they're really great. Pro tip with the Dark Pirates: Charged Dark Beam shots will freeze them. Followed by a missile, it makes these insane encounters way easier.
With Prime 1's Remaster doing as well as it has, one can only hope Prime 2 and 3 get the Remastered treatment. Having replayed Prime 1 was a nice refreshing course and even tackling hard mode, which I never did back on the GC days made me appreciate the more nuanced aspects of the combat and beam usage against specific enemies, along with the beam weapons (Love the Ice Spreader). I didn't have a strong opinion on Prime 2 on my first (and only) playthrough, so I hope Prime 2's Remaster, whenever comes, helps me appreciate it as much as you do.
First entering Agon was a different type of Dread for first time plays, the sound of the boom that happened every 5 seconds felt like a heart beat. Like someone having a panic attack or something similar. I love the hell out of the soundtrack
Definitely my favorite game. Things about combat to note - Dark Pirate Commandos were a bitch yeah, but once you got the dark visor, they were easy to take apart, because their stealth was non existent. Ing Hunters could be insta-killed by a light-energy charged light zone, and the sonic charged zones would draw them in for an insta-kill too. I always thought there were a ton of fun little nuances to combat. Dark Beam killed light enemies quickly and functioned like the ice beam on them, and the Light Beam like the plasma beam on dark enemies, while the Sonic Beam sought the target like the Wave Beam - especially noticeable with the Wii version.
IMO the best solution to the light bubble issue would be having them function like breathing air in SM64 - you'd take damage from the air and quickly replenish it when stepping into a bubble, but any damage from other sources is permanent and would have to be refilled normally. I think this would keep the tension and knowing you can't mess around in the dark world but keep the pace up, and also not make any light crystal essentially a save station if you wait 5 minutes in it
A solution to the light bubble healing rate is something that I'm dumbfounded isn't a feature. So, first off, shooting either a light crystal or floating light beacon with the Power Beam simply activates it, shooting them with the Light Beam charges it and makes the bubble deal damage to dark enemies, and the Annihilator Beam super charges them, making the bubbles do even more damage than the Light Beam charged ones, while also drawing enemies into itself like a black hole of death. Why oh WHY doesn't this also increase the healing speed for the bubbles they produce??? It's such an obvious idea and yet it's just not a thing, spend a unit of light ammo to temporarily speed up healing, it would just work so well.
cool video! It looks like your channel is somewhat new. I think you should consider doing a Twilight Princess video next. It's a great game and also has a great back story to tell alongside a review. Best of Luck to you. I look forward to future videos.
Appreciate it a ton man! I plan on covering the Zelda games in succession at some point, but they’re gonna be a ways off just because I’ve only recently played a lot of them
An idea to help fix the problem, that you mentioned, with the Dark World light bubbles... The meter on the left of Samus's visor shows "how close you are to something that hurts you." We could change this into a meter that instead says "how much Dark World Corruption your suit has taken." Standing in the Dark World gains corruption, standing in bubbles eases corruption, and you don't start taking health damage until your corruption is maxed out. Note, I have not played Echoes, so I do not know how much a change this would cause overall... but it's an idea.
One of the very first video games I ever played, and safe to say it set my standards VERY high. Glad people are giving this game the god-damned respect it DESERVES. Fantastic video
Great review. Regarding the Boost Guardian, I think most complaints center around the Gamecube version, especially when the game first launched. It's a much more challenging fight on that version for 3 reasons: 1) There's no free aim on Gamecube unless you're standing still, so damaging the boss in its amorphous form where you can't lock on is very difficult, and you're immobile while doing so 2) The spring jump isn't present in the Gamecube version, leaving your only "jump" option for avoiding contact damage as bomb jumps (which is nearly impossible) 3) The damage values from making contact with the amorphous form were reduced on the Wii vs the Gamecube
Prime 2 I only played once and remember it less than Prime 1 or 3. It came out during a very bad time for me and I only got around to playing it a year later. If Nintendo remakes Echoes for Switch I'll buy that again just like I did Prime. From what I remember of all 3 Prime games, the first was always my favorite.
The Dark Pirate Comandos can be dealt with within like ten seconds. Just freeze, shatter. Freeze, shatter. Freeze, shatter. Done. Of course it get's alot easier after getting the dark visor.
@@Kohana64yes actually. The dark beam when using a charge shot acts like the ice beam and freezes some enemies, both light and dark. This includes the dark pirate commandos, which makes them incredibly easy to deal with. Just dark beam charge shot then missile, then it’s done. I think this makes them better than the chozo ghosts specifically cause you get an easy way to deal with it if you’re able to figure it out. Hope this helps.
@@Kohana64 Yup. The dark beam freezes all enemies except the ing themselves. But all the posessed enemies can be frozen just like their light world counterparts.
Great job! And my favorite Prime game. Excellent variety of bosses, unique implementation of Samus' skills that arent just tied to progression, along with the story and content. You KNOW why you are on Aether, and the world's layout is designed in such a cohesive way that turns what can be misinterpreted a chore into a job. Gone are the lush, serene forests of Tallon IV, brazen lava caves, frozen beauty and cold dark labs. The contrast of a searing wasteland, submerged swamps and artistic sky-city stronghold to Tallon IV's Metroid-styled signature environments its known for also show the creativity of Retro Studios and why developing this game was their bread and butter :) They did it so well, I can see why burnout could occur, as where else could they take the art direction of Metroid Prime after this game into Metroid Prime 3? You mentioned how Echoes is more puzzle-driven and I definitely see it now than I did when I was younger. It could be lengthier than Prime in some cases, but both games are well-packed with things to do. Combat wise, I didnt mind the Space Pirates being secondary here. The lore entries show us the Space Pirates were getting creamed and they had little to do with dusting off Samus when they had both Dark Samus and the Ing to deal with while harvesting Phazon. Needless to say, them boys were fatigued from countless Ls and disobeying High Command was not an option. We get some of the best boss fight music the series, too! Lastly, my ONLY gripe with this game was the multiplayer. Missed opportunity! Online capability with the Gamecube wasnt the cleanest, but it could have capitalized then and later on with LAN/Broadband support, along with using bots as something to do post-game from the story, or for quick fun. Even further, MPT on the online consoles could have once again made use of this. 444 Free for All, 2v2 team matches and some 1v1s would have been a nice competitive formula for the niche it breathes. We may not get a true multiplayer experience for Metroid again, but if it ever comes back, I want to be there. Thanks for the content!
Honestly I think a better solution to the bubble situation is to have them not heal you at all. They included that so you don't get softlocked, but maybe they could place more crates/caches instead. I don't think they were ever meant for you to fully heal yourself with. I don't use them like that and it makes it a lot less tedious and annoying
Dark Space Pirate Commandos are super easy, even without the dark visor. Just hit it with a charged dark beam to freeze it, and follow it with a missile and it’s dead
You are completely correct about Screw Attack's finickiness, in order to activate it you must be moving forward (or slightly forward) on the stick at the time you input B the 3rd time. Inputting a 3rd B input when Samus isn't moving forward will not allow you to SA anymore until you land. The trilogy release's floatyness with the lack of an L button for good controls makes the issue a bit worse. I can't speak for trilogy Primehack (I've only played the GC one) but Primehack in general is pretty jank and not a great platform. One thing I haven't seen any retrospective on this game (or Prime 1) mention is how unbelievable impressive it is that Retro Studios was capable of developing these Gamecube games capable of maintaining 60fps. In Echoes on disc you'll drop frames on Emperor Ing 2 and during some attacks of Dark Samus 2, but otherwise it's completely flawless. Any "remaster" or port that doesn't maintain the smooth framerate would be a complete downgrade
Thanks for the insight! PrimeHack trilogy seems to have issues as well. (Namely FPS stutters like you’ll see in my footage) I do wish I mentioned something about the FPS somewhere, as that’s a pretty important feature for sure. Let’s hope Nintendo gets it right whenever they do a rerelease
As others have stated I will consume pretty much every deep dive or review of the Prime games. It allows me more time to connect dots that were not obvious before. Metroid Prime devs thought "hey why not use Soul Reaver mechanics but Metroid style"? Also the dark hopeless setting and lore of Echoes is so effective that I always forget that the Luminoth are not extinct and will rebuild thanks to Samus. The beam combos in this game are not great but the super missle is difficult to top. Boost Guardian is a legend due to Hard mode damage values. Ing are the superior version of X Parasites. Echoes is my favorite Prime game no contest. The beginning up until you get the Dark Suit is great at causing anxiety. Thanks for the vid!
I wanted to say, the chykka adult phase you have to use the seeker missiles on the wings. It one shots the wings and makes it fall. Reducing the length of the fight dramatically
It was a lot more complex than prime 1 but it’s undeniably massive and complicated and geniusly designed. Takes a special kind of mind to really love it, I think, and I hope to love it more at some point perhaps. Not my favorite right now, but like I said, the greatness is undeniable. I also played the gamecube version, not sure how much that alters it.
16 minutes? for chyka? use the seeker launcher on the wings. for the dark pirates, use a dark charge beam and missile to 1 shot em, you can see them with the dark visor too
You forgot to mention the infamous game-breaking bug in the Main Research room. This was the first game I ever experienced a bug with as a kid. In that room, you have to break 4 locks to proceed. If you only break some of them, leave the room, then re-enter, the remaining locks disappear and the door becomes impossible to open to proceed. You have to start the entire game back over unless you were lucky enough to save much further back. I never beat the game as a kid because of that.
My favorite Prime game as well. The only issue I had was the limitations on the GameCube controls. The huge bosses are amazing but the controls put an unnatural difficulty on them. They are a lot more fun to fight with the Wii motion controls and I really can't wait for the remaster for a better controller set up. I don't love the motion controls but it is the best until the remaster comes out.
I don’t think I really touched on it since I played with mouse and keyboard, but yeah on GameCube the fights like emperor ing are absurd. Let’s hope we get that remaster soon
I never really found the damage from the Dark Aether atmosphere to be a problem, because I always made sure to stop and fully heal in them. Usually, I would manage to avoid getting hurt that much so it didn't take long.
I was initially shocked and disappointed Nintendo had decided to steer Metroid as a FPS. The decision is understandable since so many gamers love that sort of style- especially in the west. However, it wasn’t really a style I liked because I knew I would absolutely suck at it- and I did, in the beginning. Metroid Prime really pushed me hard in ways I never thought I could be and I came to love it for that reason. Even 24 years later after playing MP1, I was rusty but I eventually adapted. I am really glad they made the MP series and Echoes is definitely my favorite of the trilogy because of the theme: light vs dark. I think that theme was probably my most favorite as it pushed the typical sci-fi aspect of Metroid and threw in a little fantasy into it (albeit still strictly done in a sci-fi vein).
I loved Prime 2 so much. I actually enjoyed hunting all upgrades cause it was so hard I needed them. One day I will beat the wii version though. Only ever done it on gamecube
You’ll most likely have a much better time on Wii if you prefer the control layout on that system. The spring ball and pointer controls are too good to pass up!
@@Kohana64 yes I expect so. Prime 3 proved how well shooters can work on wii and I have played most of prime 1 on wii. I just kept putting it off as I have already beat it and there is so much more to play still
Dark pirate commandos are a noob's trap, the trick is this one: Charged dark beam shot to freeze them, and then shatter them with a single missile.
Metroid prime 2, the game that gets better each time you play it.
Yeah, I don't know why anyone doesn't see this. Retro added a lot of attention to detail to this game, I played it when I was 14 and thought I knew a lot then, nearly 20 years later I'm playing the game I'm figuring out new strategies. Retro made combat in this game a lot more open and flexible than you initially realise. You think because its just a sequel to Prime with the same control layout its all the same (which I think was also intentional) so you get comfortable relying on old methods from Prime which pretty much amounted to pick the right beam or missile and shoot and don't get shot. There are multiple strategies that can be exploited to make combating some of the more challenging enemies more manageable. Except Grenchlers, fuck grenchlers they are some of the most OP normal in game enemies to ever exist, they are just a nightmare regardless of what strategy you use.
My favorite Prime-game. It nailed aspects that I feel are really important in Metroid games; the sense of loneliness and isolation, as well as claustrophobic hostile environments, especially on Dark Aether. The way Samus walks off "into the sunset" in the ending is rad & glorious. And while not entirely the same type of games, it reminds of what Majora's Mask did after Ocarina of Time, as I prefer the direct sequel in this case as well. Great video!
Thank you for watching! I do wish I spent a bit more time discussing the atmosphere of dark aether in particular, as I fully agree with you. And yeah, Samus is pretty badass.
Well said. This is my favorite game of all time. The way it made me feel playing it as a kid was unlike anything I've experienced before.
There are similarities I've noticed across both franchises. Ocarina could be seen as a 3d version of a link to the past and the same could be said for prime 1 being a 3d version of super metroid.
But both sequels feel so unique
It's my favorite too I go into details from difficulty being so satisfying to beat each really difficult boss or enemy to the creepy atmosphere and then the music this game with the soldiers getting possessed and coming back to life scared me as a kid yet I loved it was surprised this was a Nintendo game I remember telling myself.
And I forgot to mention the graphics still hold up and looks amazing to this day compared to most PS2 and Xbox games just wow I can't believe it retro studios are wizards or something retro studios should help with every Nintendo game lol.
By far the toughest game in the entire series, and maybe the most beautiful-looking title on the GameCube.
I think it's the best looking but not the most beautiful. I think either Windwaker or Metroid Prime takes the cake for most beautiful. Metroid Prime 2 is much more bland in appearance than Prime 1, which had a much better color pallet.
@@educationalporpoises9592 I agree that Prime 1 is more beautiful but Prime 2 has the single best looking level of the Gamecube era in Sanctuary Fortress
Dont forget in introduced multiplayer vs mode
the game wasn't hard at all. easily finished the game in a few days.
@@educationalporpoises9592 The bland art direction reflect the tone of the story. The stakes wouldnt feel too high if everything was thriving. The place truly appears as if its on the last few edges of being wiped out by its paracausal counterpart. More interesting and stellar notes from tiny story beats and the lore itself describe the shock caused by Dark Aether's emergence. Environmental disasters like the drought in Agon, floods of Torvus Bog and tech going haywire are a result of that cataclysm along with the destruction of the Ing. It's neat and clever world building in my opinion!
Quadraxis is easily one of the most fun boss battles in a video game, even all these years after the game's release. It's a long battle, sure, but because of how it requires the player to use every weapon at their disposal to take the boss down, it never really gets boring. It's essentially a puzzle that actively tries to stop you from solving it.
The problem with the tedious healing in bubbles can be solved by shooting the ing capsules for health. You can exit the room and come back to respawn the capsules easily for quick health regen! 👍 Also, to kill the Alpha Blogg quickly, use a dark missle!
Great video. The music in all 3 games is some of my favorite. It’s one of the few soundtracks that comes off as both atmospheric and melodic. That Torvus bog theme, goddamn. Whenever it rains outside I always end up listening to Phendrana Drifts
Seriously some of my all time favorite video game songs are in the prime series.
*** EDIT *** I’m aware of the fact that you can freeze Dark Pirates. The game doesn’t tell you you can do this, as it actually tells you that the dark beam is ineffective against dark enemies, so I didn’t think to try.
Apologies for the occasional stuttering in the footage. I tried my best to edit around them, but it seems some slipped through the cracks. My PC isn't that great at emulation, so it was kind of inevitable. I appreciate all of you watching!
The game is weird that way. I tried to freeze the dark pirates right away, but I also saw how confusing it could be since they're controlled by the ing so it's basically a given that people will rightfully think they're in the dark category. A little clarification on that wrinkle could've saved headaches against certain foes like the dark pirate commandos.
there's a couple cases like this, like dark Samus being weak to the dark beam, and almost unaffected by the light beam.
the dark commandos weakness is a charged dark beam with a missile, just like all metroids in this title. the commandos also can't hide from the dark visor, like the chozo ghosts and x ray vision in prime 1
You can shoot beacons with the light beam. The bubble turns into a gold color, and enemies that move inside the bubble are damaged. It's an easy way to kill the hunter ing. If you shoot beacons with the annihilator beam, the bubble turns red, and enemies are compelled to move towards the bubble.
@@microArcThat's why scanning is clutch. Dark Samus scans in as an offworlder, which means it's a "light" being even though it has "dark" in the name.
@@prometheus4257 honestly, i never even thought about it like that, i was just trying out all my weapons on her and noticed that i did a lot more damage with dark beam than others.
Damn Dark Samus looks terrifying here with the skull design. I’ve only ever known her design from the Smash series! Once again great video, and congrats on the views!
Thanks for checking it out!
I really wanted that design as a an alt skin in Smash. Also I was dissappointed at Dark Samus's theme not being a song in Smash as well.
Legitimately didnt notice that i wasnt watching a famous youtuber until the video was over and i went to like the video. I enjoy watching retrospectives as background while playing games and listen attentively, but your editing skills and your presentation are absolutely insane for where your channel is currently at right now. Your presentation literally would still be perfect even for an audience of 100k+ subs. Hope to see your channel grow.
Thank you!!
Just a tip for the Dark Pirates: Shoot them with a charged Dark Beam shot. It will freeze them the same way the Ice Beam does in Prime 1, and you can finish them off with a missile. Most enemies can be dealt with this way, but it's really effective against those jerks.
I am obsessed with metroid prime 2. If there's 2 games of all time I could play for the rest of my life it would be re4 or mp2. There's just no perfect balance between items, upgrades, adventure, and enemy variety in any other game. There's no scan system or multiple visors in any other fps. Truly original.
Bro this game is in my top 10 favorite best games of all time is just more than brilliant more than spectacular.
I love the Scan Visor and I will never understand the people who want Prime 4 to either remove it or make it automatic like AM2R. Like, 90% of the fun of the Scan Visor is the interactivity. It makes me feel like I really am operating some sort of scanning device.
Prime 2 was so good. It's my favorite of the three, then 3 then 1. Prime 2 has the number one spot for best video game music I've ever heard. Even better then Ocarina of Time and thats my favorite game of all time and I love it's music to death. But Prime 2 is just special. I actually really enjoyed it's multiplayer to.
Admittedly I have yet to try the multiplayer which is mostly why I refrained from talking about it here, and also because I just don’t really have anybody interested in playing it with me lol.
@@Kohana64 Back in the Gamecube days we still had couch coop with friends lol.
I hope Metroid prime 2 and Metroid prime 3 get the Metroid prime remastered treatment
A lot of people dont like the Dark Pirate Commandos, but I found it a treat when I did my first playthrough and found actual non-Dark Pirate Commandos. Got the scan logs for them too. I think the game explains why a few of them still exist, which makes sense because there are occasions where regular pirate forces are found.
Dark charge beam + missile = insta kill for those fuckers
i don't know about you but for some reason i found dark pirate commandos to be really easy to kill, i had a lot of trouble with the normal ones that were not ing hosts.
Pro tip for the dark commandos: dark charge shot and a missile. It works every time. I get why most people miss that tho. They shouldnt have made the most difficult dark enemy have a weakness to the dark beam, it's contradictory
Appreciate the tip! Yeah, the game never really tells you you can do this, in fact it tells you that the dark beam is ineffective on dark enemies which is why I guess I never thought to try it.
@@Kohana64 It's very unfortunate the game actively discourages the player from experiment heavily with the different beams. After playing the game many times over for years myself I've found ussing the Dark or Light beam will almost always do more damage than the Power beam regardless of the enemy. There are even examples of times when using the 'wrong' beam is the optimal strategy. The Dark Commando is a commonly cited one but another notable point would be using the homing shots of the Light beam to stun Chykka's adult form incredibly quickly. This speeds the fight up immensely and creates an interesting situation where you'll continually end up low on Light ammo and need to use the Dark beam on Dark Chykka's spawn to regenerate your resources.
Another gripe I have with the combat in Echoes is how the beam combos are implemented, since it feels like they didn't even try to improve it past Prime 1 at all. You still have the same problem of 2 of them beam combos being locked behind the late-game and while none of them are as outright awful as the flamethrower, the Lightburst still feels fairly weak.
On the other hand, the Darkburst is actually very powerful and useful, on top of being attainable as soon as you have the seeker missle. Some noteworthy uses would be the insane amount of damage a single shot can deal to both the Alpha Blogg and Dark Samus 2.
@TheMrRental after lots of experimenting I found that the light burst is useless. 4 charge shots do more damage than a direct light burst explosion which uses 10 more ammo and missiles. The same is true for the sonic boom. The dark burst and super missle are the only useful ones in the game
@@jeanpitre5789The Lightburst really is a cruel joke. Even if it had just been a copy and paste of the Darkburst, but light damage it could have had some niche use case where it's optimal.
Sonic Boom is just acquired to late to be relevant. I'm certain if you could get it earlier in the game it would have some points where it shined. Even so it has one point where it can do something so I say it's better than the Lightburst at least. Against the Emperor Ing's first phase, the fast travel time can make it a more lenient option for damaging the core than super missles if you're struggling to get optimal DPS from them. The damage is acceptable as well.
Wow. What a phenomenal video. Playing Prime 2 is one of my first ever gaming memories, I played with my brother and we had absolutely no idea how to play as well as being absolutely astoundingly horrified. It wasn’t until I was 11 or 12 or so is where I completely finished the game front to back, the game made me feel incredible.
You didn’t really note it in your video but for me, as a little boy, Samus made me feel so safe, it made me feel like I was Samus, the anxiety of the world and terrifying nature was mitigated as I walked in Samus shoes.
This is also the first game that I feel Samus as a beautifully emotional character and you can see just how fantastic she is within every cutscene of the game.
I still have the fondest of memories where me and my brother would replicate Samus touching the troopers face cause we thought it was so cool and sad.
Amazing video and my favorite video game ever.
Dark Pirate Commandos are actually quite easy to defeat: just fire a charged dark beam shot at them and then use a missile to kill them. The game is programmed, so that the dark beam freezes all humanoid enemies, even if they're taken over by the Ing.
Part of me also thinks that this is the best game in the trilogy. I really enjoy the dark world mechanic and higher difficulty. The atmosphere is amazing as well. But Prime 1 will always be my personal fav.
Totally valid. Prime 1 is the perfect 1:1 translation of 2D Metroid into 3D. I just love how Prime 2 expands on the framework and creates its own identity.
Man I remember this game scared the literal shit out me as a kid. Good memories.
Honestly, it even scared me as an adult sometimes. Also, literal ????
I couldn't play it at around 14 years old cause I was still too scared. Loved metroid prime 1 though and bought a wii just for metroid prime 3. I was planning on buying a switch for metroid prime 4, but the development of that game took way too long already. Then I said fine, I'll jutst get a switch for the advance wars remake instead. But fucking nintendo delayed that game indefinitely because of the damn war.
@@xHeigoux Hey, maybe 4 will come out on the switch eventually!
@@Kohana64 Prime 4 will be the holiday title of 2023.
Ah yes, good ol' Prime 2. My favorite metroid game, my second favorite metroidvania, and one of my top 10 games. I love this game to death. Its storytelling, its atmosphere, its music, its gameplay. The bread and butter of my childhood. I will consume literally ANY content of this game on youtube, and you certainly have not disappointed. Fantastic video, i realized just right now that you only have 170 subs and a couple thousand views, this deserves WAY more.
I appreciate that a ton! I'm glad this was enjoyable for you despite having seen so much content surrounding it. Prime 2 is pretty fuckin' awesome.
I bought it the week it released and I've completed it about once a year since. And now here I am playing the prime-hack version.... :)
PrimeHack really makes it feel like a totally new game. It’s seriously awesome
My favorite thing about echoes has been the music and I actually use the torvus bog OST as my alarm music
I appreciate very much the risk of experimentation in this game.
my favorite Prime !
Absolutely something I love about it.
This was a nice nostalgic trip! I had forgotten about the Dark Pirate Commandos warping out of the fight; it would always make me mad not being able to kill them 😤 never realized it was part of their design.
Also regarding the light bubbles, although their slow healing was annoying, it was always an experience trying to clear out a room and just stand under the beacons for some time. Almost like sitting and resting around a campfire.
I do agree there’s a sense of solace in sitting under then after combat, i was more so trying to explain how at times it motivates you to not explore. Glad i could bring some points to your attention, though!
My favorite game of all time. Tied with bloodborne. Everything about this game just hits the spot.
Literally my 2 favourite games too lol
Prime 2 is my favorite after super and yes bloodborne is brilliant in conclusion
Super Metroid
Prime 2
Bloodborne are in my top ten best favorite games of all time.
thank you for this I was running out of retrospectives to watch on this game
Glad you enjoyed!
Ah Metroid Prime 2, my favorite game of all time. Always fun to watch a retrospective of this game.
I really enjoyed this video and agreed with a lot of points you made (pros and cons both). I'd like to touch up on a couple things
The Dark Pirate Commandos, as everyone has told you, are weak to Charged Dark Beam and a Missile. It might seem a bit contradictory because the game teaches you how Dark Beam is less effective on dark enemies, but like you said at the end of the video, if you put time and effort, the game rewards you. When you check your inventory menu and read the Dark Beam's description, it says that a charged dark beam (Entangler) has a freezing property as it surrounds the enemy with dark tendrils. When I first read that, I started experimenting with the beam and used the charged dark beam shot on a lot of enemies that were seemingly just slogs to get through. I found out that most enemies get destroyed by the charged dark beam + missile combo, or just the charged dark beam shot alone (Because the freezing property is universal, it works on almost all light and dark enemies). For example, the Dark Pirate Commandos, the Rezbits (enemies in Sanctuary that mess up your visor), Grenchlers, all can be frozen and then shattered with a missile or two. Due to this the Dark beam is generally stronger than Light Beam. It is also more useful against Dark Samus because contradictory to her name, Dark Samus is not a dark enemy (because she is the Metroid Prime that absorbed your Phazon Suit at the end of Prime 1). It may just be me because I really like to go in depth and experiment with weapons in games but it really is rewarding when you find out what it can do.
For the Chykka boss fight, the first phase is way quicker if
1. You pay attention to the enemy radar on your top left to see where the larva emerges from and
2. Use Super Missiles and the Light/Dark beam instead of regular Power Beam/Charge Beam
For the adult phase, when you stun it and go behind its wings, its faster to destroy them with seeker missiles as there are 4 glowing targets and it stays stunned for a pretty long time so you can charge up your seekers and fire at it.
But aside from that I pretty much agree with almost everything you said, and is definitely among the more enjoyable retrospectives I've seen of this game. Your channel is quite underrated for how well made your discussions are, definitely earned a sub from me!
I’m really happy to hear you enjoyed it, despite our disagreement! I’ll be the first to admit I still have much more to learn about the game, and reading comments like these have taught me a lot. That’s something I love about discussing these games. I’m gonna have to implement the dark beam more on my next play through and see how my opinion of the dark pirate segments is changed after. As for the Chykka thing, I genuinely didn’t know that. Thanks for the tip!
Definitely my favorite game to this date
Totally valid!
I played through prime 1 when i got my gamecube back in 2020. And i instantly feel in love with metroid. Then i got prime trilogy when I got my Wii U in 2021. I played through Prime 2 over Christmas break and man it was awesome. The music was awesome, the story was great, and the gameplay was incredible. Everything just flows so much better in 2 than 1. And i really like the boss fights in 2 more. I think when i was around halfway through prime 2 i was constantly going "how the hell is this not on switch?? This is one of the best games ive ever played". I really hope nintendo does a full remaster for this and corruption, but i would be fine with ports too
I'm glad to hear there's still new fans.
After going to prison after selling big amounts of weed, this was one of the games that you could borrow to your cell. Truly amazing game. And great video, really enjoyed it.
Fun fact: memory cards was allowed for gamecube but forbidden for ps2. However, with much dedication, and a lot of time, I managed to play FFXII to the end. Another amazing game. Constant adrenaline by avoiding game over!
Glad you enjoyed the video! I really do love how games can impact people's lives in so many different ways. I have yet to hear of anybody playing Metroid in prison LOL. Thank you for sharing, seriously.
I once watched a documentation about the german prison system and in it was a clip with an inmate playing metroid prime on a gamecube. Was that you? 🤣
@@trashaimgamer7822 Hehe really? Nope, not me. I live in Sweden.
What kinda lucky buggers are you? That ain't prison it's a 2 star hotel house arrest lol.
@@ItApproaches Well, there was the good things, like video games, and the bad things. And there was quite alot of bad things. Alot more. But yeah, when I transferred to minimum security it was all of a sudden really really great. The prison was located near the coast out in the woods. And there was a farm with cows and everything. You could work with the cows, train dogs for the military, work in the kitchen - which I did and the food was top quality! - or go to school. And you could take walks in the woods and swim in the ocean. I mean, it was really good.
As someone who worked in the electronics department at Target during the release of the first two Prime games, one of the main reasons why the original Prime sold so well was because Nintendo offered the game for $20 to anyone who bought a Gamecube that Christmas season. My store must have sold 100 copies of it in a week because of that. For Prime 2, we received 2 cases of 30 and probably only sold half of them all holiday. No discount on them. I can only imagine how many copies of Prime showed up under Christmas trees that year that didn't get a fair shake because of that deal.
the Prime trilogy was my first dip intro the "Metroid pool", and loved them. And with Prime Four coming out, I *REALLY* hope the Trilogy comes to the Switch so I can relive playing them.
Well...
Ask and you shall have 😭
@@berto8232 Are the other games on Switch?
@@Obozo_Gaming Nope, just Metroid Prime for now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they release them eventually.
@@berto8232 You got my hopes up there for a second.
This is such an awesome video. I don’t understand the low view count. Subscribed and liked, keep up the great work 👍🏻
Appreciate it a ton man! I’m glad you enjoyed.
I'm sad that Prime 2 likely won't receive the full remaster treatment but goodness, I'm chomping on the bit to get it back on switch
▪️
I'd personally want updated controls over new visuals if I had to choose.
🟥
This is my fav Metroid game, nice video, you earned a sub :)
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed!
Can't wait to revisit dark Aether in glorious HD textures.
Great video I replayed the game probably because of this vid it’s my favorite of the trilogy I hope you get popular or more subs it seemed like you had a good amount but the views are so 17 your sub count thank you for bringing me back into this game keep making quality videos
Genuinely my favorite Metroid game : it just nails everything i love about this series in a brilliant way and in 3D. The more I replayed it throughout the years, the more I liked it, despite a first impression that didn't feel that great because of its high difficulty and (some) frustrating fights. I really like that they try to go the Catlevania way and give ennemies Samus' powers, it makes for very interesting fights.
I really hope Echoes and Corruption get the full remastered treatment that Prime got, even though i'd already be very happy with an HD port with updated controls. That's how much i love this game.
This is one of my favorite games of all times. Is majestic.
In terms of the music for each area, what you said kind of makes me view it in a different light. The rhythm to each track changes the general feel of the song.
Temple - Revere
Agon - Be lost
Torvus - Explore
Sanctuary - Wage war
You might know this by now, but you can "freeze" Dark Pirates with a Charged Dark Beam and then kill them with a missile. Like Chozo Ghosts, but weak to Ice Beam, and you'll make short work of all their encounters.
You can also Boost through Quadraxis' weakspots.
Also like the ghosts, you can track and shoot them when they're invisible with the dark visor
Prime 2 was the game that got me into gaming as an adult. Watched my brother play Prime 1 every day, 8-10 hrs a day, was so engrossed I bought a $99 platinum GameCube with Prime 2, and I played that game so much I had dreams about the Ing (no joke, I really did). It remains my favorite video game of all time.
I love metroid so much, specially the prime trilogy. The ost will always have a place in mt heart. One of the best in gaming!
I really wish the Prime remaster had implemented Echoes' scan visor with the full objects highlighted.
Echoes is the most difficult one but probably the best environments/layout.
I believe Id software took tons of stuff from Prime 2 and its Luminoth creatures for DOOM Eternal, the inspiration is clear imo, especially in the architecture.
Ah yes. Prime 2. Man This brings me some good memories. Prime 2 has always been a special game...futuristic even for the Prime series. Visually stunning, Prime 2 is my favorite out of the Prime series in terms of visuals, graphics and level design. My only complain about this title is it not being longer. Everything about Echoes hits different. The barren Agon plains, then the beautiful but poisoned Bog and finally the Sanctuary Fortress and having their dark world counterparts was just insane and the music for each area, each of the temple bosses. Prime 2 is EPIC. Still remember playing this on mute back when I was a kid just because the visuals and the music was just overwhelming. Dark Agon and the Dark Submerged Torvus scared the shit out of me. Now as an adult I can finally appreciate how awesome and immersive this game was. Plus it has my favorite Boss battle in the entire series Chykka.
Great video. Unfortunately I’ve only played part of this game at a friend’s house and a cousin’s house. Most of the time was in the multiplayer (really fun).
I really like the oppressive atmosphere this game evokes. One thing I wish they did was to have different groups in the game have different alliances instead of all working together. This would be stuff like having the different animals have their own food chain like the Xen creatures from Half-Life. Having the possessed soldiers (when I was a kid I thought the way the Ing took them out ver was by using their different limbs to puppeteer the bodies because my cousins told me that. We also didn’t know what the creatures were called so we just called them purple parasites) and space pirates fight each other like the three way fights between you and your allies, the Flood, and Covenant in Halo (factional fighting is always really good. It ensures that combat encounters don’t play out the exact same way twice. Same goes for ai with good tactics who react to the player and each other really well. The Covenant from Halo, soldiers in FEAR, and Marines in Half-Life 1/expansions are great examples of this).
I really like how well they’ve translated 2D Metroid into a 3D world space. It’s really too bad that we don’t see any Metroid Prime clones like we do with 2D Metroid. That would be great.
You should look up the cut content for Metroid Prime. This guy called The Obsessive Gamer has some videos on that. There’s also this other video you might want to watch that talks about why Metroid Prime 4 has been in development hell for so long and why Retro Studios hasn’t released any games for a long time called “Retro Studios hasn’t released a new game since 2014. We think we know why!”. The reason I’m not just directly linking it is because the RUclips comment bots don’t like links (sometimes they work but most of the time they don’t. They also make it so certain key words/phrases will outright delete or hide what you say).
Good luck on the other videos you make. I also watched your video about Prime 1.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed! If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend playing this game all the way through. I’d love a spiritual successor to the prime series in addition to new entries from the series itself personally.
Yeah, I definitely should.
Since you’ve made some Nintendo content you might want to know about these really cool fan games/mods: The first one is called Hyrule Conquest and it’s a Zelda mod for this rts game 0ad (open source game so it’s 100% free), but it originally started out as a mod for Medieval 2 and was called Hyrule Total War at the time (haven’t played it since I don’t have that game. Unfortunately the guy hasn’t updated that mod so it might not work with the most recent version of the game. Luckily this other guy made a continuation mod called Hyrule Total War: Classic Ultimate that comes with various balancing changes and updates it. Since I haven’t played either I don’t know how close to the original vision it is). The guy jumped ship from one engine to another because the 0ad engine allowed him to work with the people making it to add all of these cool features into the game. The factions are made up of different Zelda groups that are all vying for power. Their gameplay is really unique, and they’re all visually distinct. It’s really impressive what the guy has been able to make. The guy has a lot of videos on the mod and some on this Star Fox fan game.
Segueing into the Star Fox game he also made this really cool mod for Free Space Open (another open source game so the only thing you’d lose by playing either of those is time) called Star Fox Event Horizon. It follows the 64 continuity and uses ideas/characters from all three timelines/reboots. It’s very impressive what the guy has been able to make. Recently he even got Estelle Ellis Krystal’s original voice actor to partner with him and do voice work for the mod. You should definitely check it out.
The third is this fan game being made by this guy Esphirian that’s a reimagining of Adventures called Remadventures. It’s similar to BOTW where it has an open world where you can do objectives in any order you want. Krystal and Fox will be working together and bond as the story goes on. Andross is dead and there’s just a military alliance between Scales and Andross’s remnants. The Great Fox and it’s crew will be actively involved in the story/gameplay. It’s very impressive what he’s shown off so far. Unfortunately there’s no demos/playable builds for this one because it’s nowhere near complete and the guy doesn’t want Nintendo to strike it. I’ve talked with the guy in the comments and he has some really cool ideas for the story/gameplay. There will also be a connection between Krystal and the Krazoa akin to the connection between humans and Forerunners back when Bungie made Halo (if you know about the lore that was retconned you’ll know what I’m talking about. Speaking of Halo there was this guy who animated the Halo 2 storyboards. There’s also the “big reveal” where the Arbiter would look into a sarcophagus inside the Ark that was located on Earth at the time. Where modern humans originated from some 100,000 years ago. The hint is pretty obvious). Hopefully Nintendo doesn’t strike down these amazing projects. Luckily UndyingNephalim’s games have been around for over a decade and somehow nothing has happened to them.
Who's here after the Prime HD shadow drop? 🙋🏼♂️
i cannot agree more with the “echoes is a miracle” take. the game had less than two years to be made, similar to prime 1’s two years or super smash bros melee’s 13 months, but somehow came out as a masterpiece just like those other two games.
What's more is that they only had 30% of the game done 5 months before it's release. It really is a miracle
@@Remext could not agree more, extended music guy (ty for your work)
@@salreishopemobile Appreciate it haha
As time passes by, I think Prime has come to be appreciated more and more. It deserves it. I wonder if the games is brought to Switch, remastered, people might be able appreciate it even more.
I really need to complete this before prime 4, i really hope they re-release this on switch. A remastered would be asking too much but at least updated controllers.
One of the coolest additions in this game is the ability to use boost ball while on spider ball tracks!
Love the Prime reviews, they're really great. Pro tip with the Dark Pirates: Charged Dark Beam shots will freeze them. Followed by a missile, it makes these insane encounters way easier.
Thank you for the kind words!
@@Kohana64 You're welcome!
Another great review keep up the good work. I might have spoiled myself for the 1st 2 games but it was worth it these videos are awesome.
Thank you so much!! I hope they don’t impede your enjoyment of the games whenever you play them!
Just subbed, great video over this game. Just started replaying this game again since never got to beat it. Definitely underrated gem
With Prime 1's Remaster doing as well as it has, one can only hope Prime 2 and 3 get the Remastered treatment.
Having replayed Prime 1 was a nice refreshing course and even tackling hard mode, which I never did back on the GC days made me appreciate the more nuanced aspects of the combat and beam usage against specific enemies, along with the beam weapons (Love the Ice Spreader).
I didn't have a strong opinion on Prime 2 on my first (and only) playthrough, so I hope Prime 2's Remaster, whenever comes, helps me appreciate it as much as you do.
Looking forward to following you as your channel blows up :)
First entering Agon was a different type of Dread for first time plays, the sound of the boom that happened every 5 seconds felt like a heart beat. Like someone having a panic attack or something similar. I love the hell out of the soundtrack
Definitely my favorite game. Things about combat to note - Dark Pirate Commandos were a bitch yeah, but once you got the dark visor, they were easy to take apart, because their stealth was non existent. Ing Hunters could be insta-killed by a light-energy charged light zone, and the sonic charged zones would draw them in for an insta-kill too. I always thought there were a ton of fun little nuances to combat. Dark Beam killed light enemies quickly and functioned like the ice beam on them, and the Light Beam like the plasma beam on dark enemies, while the Sonic Beam sought the target like the Wave Beam - especially noticeable with the Wii version.
IMO the best solution to the light bubble issue would be having them function like breathing air in SM64 - you'd take damage from the air and quickly replenish it when stepping into a bubble, but any damage from other sources is permanent and would have to be refilled normally. I think this would keep the tension and knowing you can't mess around in the dark world but keep the pace up, and also not make any light crystal essentially a save station if you wait 5 minutes in it
I actually like this idea a lot!
Hope a remake is next
A solution to the light bubble healing rate is something that I'm dumbfounded isn't a feature.
So, first off, shooting either a light crystal or floating light beacon with the Power Beam simply activates it, shooting them with the Light Beam charges it and makes the bubble deal damage to dark enemies, and the Annihilator Beam super charges them, making the bubbles do even more damage than the Light Beam charged ones, while also drawing enemies into itself like a black hole of death.
Why oh WHY doesn't this also increase the healing speed for the bubbles they produce??? It's such an obvious idea and yet it's just not a thing, spend a unit of light ammo to temporarily speed up healing, it would just work so well.
cool video! It looks like your channel is somewhat new. I think you should consider doing a Twilight Princess video next. It's a great game and also has a great back story to tell alongside a review. Best of Luck to you. I look forward to future videos.
Appreciate it a ton man! I plan on covering the Zelda games in succession at some point, but they’re gonna be a ways off just because I’ve only recently played a lot of them
Awesome video. Looking forward to more.
Thank you!
An idea to help fix the problem, that you mentioned, with the Dark World light bubbles...
The meter on the left of Samus's visor shows "how close you are to something that hurts you." We could change this into a meter that instead says "how much Dark World Corruption your suit has taken."
Standing in the Dark World gains corruption, standing in bubbles eases corruption, and you don't start taking health damage until your corruption is maxed out.
Note, I have not played Echoes, so I do not know how much a change this would cause overall... but it's an idea.
Not gonna lie that's a really sick idea that could make the dark world much better for people who aren't a fan of it ticking your health away
One of the very first video games I ever played, and safe to say it set my standards VERY high. Glad people are giving this game the god-damned respect it DESERVES. Fantastic video
Great review. Regarding the Boost Guardian, I think most complaints center around the Gamecube version, especially when the game first launched. It's a much more challenging fight on that version for 3 reasons:
1) There's no free aim on Gamecube unless you're standing still, so damaging the boss in its amorphous form where you can't lock on is very difficult, and you're immobile while doing so
2) The spring jump isn't present in the Gamecube version, leaving your only "jump" option for avoiding contact damage as bomb jumps (which is nearly impossible)
3) The damage values from making contact with the amorphous form were reduced on the Wii vs the Gamecube
Prime 2 I only played once and remember it less than Prime 1 or 3. It came out during a very bad time for me and I only got around to playing it a year later. If Nintendo remakes Echoes for Switch I'll buy that again just like I did Prime. From what I remember of all 3 Prime games, the first was always my favorite.
A well-done review. You just earned yourself a subscriber.
Great video dude the series looks like it keeps getting better and with new remaster I'm sure 4 will be awesome!
Prime 1 is on if the GOATs, hands down. But Prime 2 is my favorite
The Dark Pirate Comandos can be dealt with within like ten seconds.
Just freeze, shatter. Freeze, shatter. Freeze, shatter. Done.
Of course it get's alot easier after getting the dark visor.
Is there a way to freeze them in this game?? I wasn’t aware.
@@Kohana64yes actually. The dark beam when using a charge shot acts like the ice beam and freezes some enemies, both light and dark. This includes the dark pirate commandos, which makes them incredibly easy to deal with. Just dark beam charge shot then missile, then it’s done. I think this makes them better than the chozo ghosts specifically cause you get an easy way to deal with it if you’re able to figure it out. Hope this helps.
@@xord3844 Huh, never knew that. Thanks for letting me know!
@@Kohana64 Yup. The dark beam freezes all enemies except the ing themselves. But all the posessed enemies can be frozen just like their light world counterparts.
The game does not tell you this and tells you the dark beam is ineffective, so points arguably should be docked even harder for this
Great job! And my favorite Prime game. Excellent variety of bosses, unique implementation of Samus' skills that arent just tied to progression, along with the story and content. You KNOW why you are on Aether, and the world's layout is designed in such a cohesive way that turns what can be misinterpreted a chore into a job. Gone are the lush, serene forests of Tallon IV, brazen lava caves, frozen beauty and cold dark labs. The contrast of a searing wasteland, submerged swamps and artistic sky-city stronghold to Tallon IV's Metroid-styled signature environments its known for also show the creativity of Retro Studios and why developing this game was their bread and butter :) They did it so well, I can see why burnout could occur, as where else could they take the art direction of Metroid Prime after this game into Metroid Prime 3?
You mentioned how Echoes is more puzzle-driven and I definitely see it now than I did when I was younger. It could be lengthier than Prime in some cases, but both games are well-packed with things to do. Combat wise, I didnt mind the Space Pirates being secondary here. The lore entries show us the Space Pirates were getting creamed and they had little to do with dusting off Samus when they had both Dark Samus and the Ing to deal with while harvesting Phazon. Needless to say, them boys were fatigued from countless Ls and disobeying High Command was not an option. We get some of the best boss fight music the series, too!
Lastly, my ONLY gripe with this game was the multiplayer. Missed opportunity! Online capability with the Gamecube wasnt the cleanest, but it could have capitalized then and later on with LAN/Broadband support, along with using bots as something to do post-game from the story, or for quick fun. Even further, MPT on the online consoles could have once again made use of this. 444 Free for All, 2v2 team matches and some 1v1s would have been a nice competitive formula for the niche it breathes. We may not get a true multiplayer experience for Metroid again, but if it ever comes back, I want to be there. Thanks for the content!
Prime 2 has my favorite intro theme of any Metroid game.
Honestly I think a better solution to the bubble situation is to have them not heal you at all. They included that so you don't get softlocked, but maybe they could place more crates/caches instead. I don't think they were ever meant for you to fully heal yourself with. I don't use them like that and it makes it a lot less tedious and annoying
I think we need Metroid Prime 2 Remastered after how good of a job Prime 1 remastered was handled!
This was a great video bro!! Kudos!!
Thanks so much!!
Dark Space Pirate Commandos are super easy, even without the dark visor. Just hit it with a charged dark beam to freeze it, and follow it with a missile and it’s dead
This is by far my favorite metroid game. Just love how it went out of the comfort zone of all the other metroid games.
You are completely correct about Screw Attack's finickiness, in order to activate it you must be moving forward (or slightly forward) on the stick at the time you input B the 3rd time. Inputting a 3rd B input when Samus isn't moving forward will not allow you to SA anymore until you land. The trilogy release's floatyness with the lack of an L button for good controls makes the issue a bit worse. I can't speak for trilogy Primehack (I've only played the GC one) but Primehack in general is pretty jank and not a great platform.
One thing I haven't seen any retrospective on this game (or Prime 1) mention is how unbelievable impressive it is that Retro Studios was capable of developing these Gamecube games capable of maintaining 60fps. In Echoes on disc you'll drop frames on Emperor Ing 2 and during some attacks of Dark Samus 2, but otherwise it's completely flawless. Any "remaster" or port that doesn't maintain the smooth framerate would be a complete downgrade
Thanks for the insight! PrimeHack trilogy seems to have issues as well. (Namely FPS stutters like you’ll see in my footage)
I do wish I mentioned something about the FPS somewhere, as that’s a pretty important feature for sure. Let’s hope Nintendo gets it right whenever they do a rerelease
The music in this game was lit 🔥 my favorite Metroid game is this one ☝️ even have a tattoo of Samus on my arm. massive fan
Silent Hill vibes, it’s great
That title screen theme still haunts me to this day, much like the oft under-appreciated SMT4 title theme
As others have stated I will consume pretty much every deep dive or review of the Prime games. It allows me more time to connect dots that were not obvious before. Metroid Prime devs thought "hey why not use Soul Reaver mechanics but Metroid style"? Also the dark hopeless setting and lore of Echoes is so effective that I always forget that the Luminoth are not extinct and will rebuild thanks to Samus. The beam combos in this game are not great but the super missle is difficult to top. Boost Guardian is a legend due to Hard mode damage values. Ing are the superior version of X Parasites. Echoes is my favorite Prime game no contest. The beginning up until you get the Dark Suit is great at causing anxiety. Thanks for the vid!
I wanted to say, the chykka adult phase you have to use the seeker missiles on the wings. It one shots the wings and makes it fall. Reducing the length of the fight dramatically
It was a lot more complex than prime 1 but it’s undeniably massive and complicated and geniusly designed. Takes a special kind of mind to really love it, I think, and I hope to love it more at some point perhaps. Not my favorite right now, but like I said, the greatness is undeniable. I also played the gamecube version, not sure how much that alters it.
16 minutes? for chyka? use the seeker launcher on the wings. for the dark pirates, use a dark charge beam and missile to 1 shot em, you can see them with the dark visor too
I love torvus bog, sant fortress and skytown
Amazing work! I loved your retrospective and how you laid out your thoughts, you can count me as a new subscriber and I look forward to seeing more!
Glad you enjoyed it! I appreciate you sticking around!
The Boost guardian was harder on the OG GC version. It was toned down for the Trilogy release.
I really wish they release the entire Trilogy instead of just the first game in HD. Seriously Metroid can't wait till the play the entire trilogy
You forgot to mention the infamous game-breaking bug in the Main Research room. This was the first game I ever experienced a bug with as a kid. In that room, you have to break 4 locks to proceed. If you only break some of them, leave the room, then re-enter, the remaining locks disappear and the door becomes impossible to open to proceed. You have to start the entire game back over unless you were lucky enough to save much further back. I never beat the game as a kid because of that.
My favorite Prime game as well. The only issue I had was the limitations on the GameCube controls. The huge bosses are amazing but the controls put an unnatural difficulty on them. They are a lot more fun to fight with the Wii motion controls and I really can't wait for the remaster for a better controller set up. I don't love the motion controls but it is the best until the remaster comes out.
I don’t think I really touched on it since I played with mouse and keyboard, but yeah on GameCube the fights like emperor ing are absurd. Let’s hope we get that remaster soon
Fingers crossed we are getting the Prime sequels on the switch soon 🤩
Thank you for the video.
One of my favourite games of all time.
you're supposed to use the dark visor against disappearing enemies; of course you can kill them before they disappear
I never really found the damage from the Dark Aether atmosphere to be a problem, because I always made sure to stop and fully heal in them. Usually, I would manage to avoid getting hurt that much so it didn't take long.
I was initially shocked and disappointed Nintendo had decided to steer Metroid as a FPS. The decision is understandable since so many gamers love that sort of style- especially in the west. However, it wasn’t really a style I liked because I knew I would absolutely suck at it- and I did, in the beginning. Metroid Prime really pushed me hard in ways I never thought I could be and I came to love it for that reason. Even 24 years later after playing MP1, I was rusty but I eventually adapted.
I am really glad they made the MP series and Echoes is definitely my favorite of the trilogy because of the theme: light vs dark. I think that theme was probably my most favorite as it pushed the typical sci-fi aspect of Metroid and threw in a little fantasy into it (albeit still strictly done in a sci-fi vein).
I loved Prime 2 so much. I actually enjoyed hunting all upgrades cause it was so hard I needed them. One day I will beat the wii version though. Only ever done it on gamecube
You’ll most likely have a much better time on Wii if you prefer the control layout on that system. The spring ball and pointer controls are too good to pass up!
@@Kohana64 yes I expect so. Prime 3 proved how well shooters can work on wii and I have played most of prime 1 on wii. I just kept putting it off as I have already beat it and there is so much more to play still
For the dark pirates to alleviate your hate for them use the charged dark beam . It’s pretty much this games Ice beam