Sunday, September 09, 2007

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes: First Thoughts...

Well, I finally plugged my Wii back into the TV on Friday night after a prolonged absence from gaming. The recent trip to Wales and the subsequent grim realisation that the vacation period was coming to an end, had left me in something of a gaming limbo...


Added to this was the fact that my game collection has been randomly scattered throughout the house, stuffed into bin bags, shoe boxes, in cupboards, under beds, obscured by shoes and so on... The Dreamcast, Saturn, DS, PS2, Master System and Wii had remained unplayed (even when Mrs. K was out at work.)

Added to these facts were the factors of extended periods of drunkeness, visitors to the Krishna household and also the start of the English Premiership (that's football folks....)

I also got rather into watching movies (the affore mentioned Departed, This Is England, Bourne Supremacy, Kicking It Old School, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Pirates Of The Carribbean and so on...)


The above circumstances led me to something of a gaming torpor, nay impotence, that got me rather worried for a bit... A knock on effect was me then losing the will to blog... Or even to post on my favurite blogs - Gnome's Lair, GGOTG, The Elderly Gamer, J's Corner, The Dreamcast Junkyard or even *choke* The Saturn Junkyard...

Still words of kindness and encouragement from Gnome, Elderly and NebachadnezzaR, beagn to thaw out my steely resolve... I've been galvanised into action! I've started to gather together my disparate games collection, and in doing so have found a couple of gems I'd forgotten about - my Neo Geo emulator for Dreamcast, my Dream Key discs, Marvel vs. Capcom for the PS2, some great PS2 demo. discs, Soul Blade, The One, Pandemonium and Phantom Menace for PS1 - and various other little bits and bobs... I've cleared a big space in a cupboard in my son's room, so if not on display, at least they'll be centralised... I'm gonna sort through them all and anally catalogue them. If you're (un)lucky I might even share those lists with you...


So the Wii was now plugged in, but for what? What could I play? Then whilst perusing the Corner, The Elderly and The Lair, one game seemed to be receiving a lot of attention, and stirring up a lot of excitement... the up and coming Metroid Prime 3 for Wii.

Now I know nothing about the Metroid world, a relatively recent convert to the world of Nintendo, I'd not grown up on the franchise. In fact the only thing I did know about the game was that the heroine was named Samus, and that the game was a FPS... not my usual thing...


I'd picked up MP2 for the Gamecube a couple of months earlier, after a guy called N1NT3ND007, from the Planet Dreamcast Forum had been raving about it... But I had simply put it next to my computer and forgotten about it. But I lifetd up a bunch of stuff on Friday night, and there it was... So in it went!

Opening sequence? Meh... I've seen better opening sequences on The Saturn! But by the time it got to the ship landing and Samus popping out, I was intrigued... For some reason I expected spectacular graphics... They were OK, but not stunning... (bare in mind the only other GC game I'd seen was the Resident Evil re-make). But then I stopped and 'caught myself on'... If this had been a Dreamcast game, I'd have been creaming over the graphics... And then it struck me... There was something a bit 'Dreamcast' about the whole feel of the game, and at that point, my defenses dropped and I started to get into it!

First of all, I loved the abilities of Samus' suit. I loved the scanning visor, the information gained, and perspective seen through it. I loved the firepower of the blaster and its ability to 'charge and blast'. I loved the 'lock on' feature, the environments and Samus' ability to morph into the little bomb dropping sphere that can roll through nooks and crannies. I loved the arachnid type aliens, somewhat reminiscent of the movie "Starship Troopers". Hell, even the convoluted storyline began to make some sense...


The only downside to the whole experience was when I got to the Temple Assembly Site, I died and got thrown right back to the start of the game... I had preumed that the Wii would have saved my progress at the save points, but alas no! So, my learned friends, what's the deal? Is it possible to save progress on Gamecube games played on a Wii without purchasing a GC or Wii memory card? I'm not touching it agin till some kind soul can enlighten me... Plus it seems like a game that requires an intense amount of gameplay, and I'm not sure I'm in the zone for that right now... If you want to know more look here... for a walkthrough (and I'll be using this if I play it) look here...

9 comments:

NebachadnezzaR said...

I'm also not a Metroid fan, but this series of videos really enlightened me:

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/5261.html

You should take a look.

Anyway, not sure you picked the right game. Since you picked the middle game of a trilogy you won't follow the whole storyline, and since all Metroid Prime games require time and patience, I doubt you will play them all, so maybe MP3, being the better game of the three, could be a better option.

But this is just me talking, of course...

Anyway, good to see you back ;)

fatherkrishna said...

Thanks for the link to the videos Nebacha!

I think your right, maybe it wasn't the best thing to get me gaming again... Might try Illbleed fro Dreamcast or a 'brand new' Saturn experience to get me going again...

Yep I'm back! Hurrah! :)

gnome said...

Excellent -and weirdly touching- write up dear Father. Also a reminder of the important Gamecube aspect of the Wii. Noew, gotta grab me a Metroid Prime too and prepare for the Wii offering.

BTW, still doing fine at the Premiership, aren't you? Oh, and lovely having you back proper my friend!

fatherkrishna said...

Why thank you Gnome! Its nice to be back! City are still in the top half of the premiership after a fleeting spell at the top (blink and you would have missed it...) However, after two unlucky defeats we're looking for victory on Saturday... With Sven as manager and Frank Sinatra's ill gotten cash, who knows? It could be good this year!

Unknown said...

a randomly scattered game collection? whatever has come over you... here take this... (hands FK a rollodesk...) beats having to secret them anally....tut!...

ah visitors.. i know that feeling here (hands FK shotgun and shovel...)

losing the will to blog.. can't have that here (fits fk with a must blog or explode implant...)

now lets see.. all the way to temple site and get thrown back... well feck that!!... thats not kosher.. no siree.... it's a test I tell you a test of your very mettle and resolve....

from my extensive research it appears MP2 requires reaching save points in order to save progress... which in my humble opinion is a bol... erm wrong...

fatherkrishna said...

But I did reach save points! But the Wii didn't save them for me! Bah! Nice rollodesk Elderly thanks!

OooH! A shotgun and a shovel! Lovely! These should come in handy!

Elderly? What are you doing with that strange looking implant? What th...?! *Eyes water...* OUCH!

gnome said...

So, we might just meet in an UEFA cup match next year... nice.

Unknown said...

..Fk!!!! you touched my implant... did you not read the "do not touch the implant" sign... really .. now i've got to go all the way back to have a new one fitted... really this is going to take forever... still i'm glad you like the stuff... be careful with the safety lock on the shotgun.. .. give me a few hours i'll be back and we can rollodesk your collection together...

Random J said...

I think the graphics in this game are stunning myself. But to each their own. *shrugs*

Metroid isn't a game for everybody because it isn't all out action and it's not as linear as most console FPS's. But that's what I like about it. It's different.