I did it. Took 30 hours (and 6 years) but I did it.
As previously noted, I felt like bashing my controller into the floor probably 1,000 times... but now that I'm finished, I'm back to my original conclusion: Prime 2 is a better looking game than 1, has some crazy awesome boss fights and is just an overall darn good game. Prime 1 is still better as a whole, but beating this and struggling through all of the tough bits gave me a better appreciation for the game and the series. I also think if I had played this from the Trilogy disc rather than GCN I'd have been a little more impressed and a lot less frustrated. It's my new goal to find a Trilogy copy before they hit $200 on eBay...
What I will probably always despise is
Not that anyone asked, but I've gotta say Prime 1 > Prime 2 in terms of gameplay, feel and controls, but Prime 2 > Prime 1 in graphics, bosses and puzzles. So as soon as I finished, I popped Prime 3 into the Wii (never got past the initial 'generator quest' to date)... I'm so in love with this game. Shoulda played this one through before Other M... luckily I can always do my planned replay of Other M right afterwards, and keep my Metroid rollin'
-vdz
Somewhat related: I finished the also-polarizing Starfox Adventures last weekend as well, and... I liked it. Been playing it on weekends on and off with my 5 y/o, and even though there's obvious problems and some janky aiming controls that make later parts tough, it was a fun ride and an amazing looking game for it's time. Ninty should absolutely remake this in the "new play control" series at the least, but adding just a few tweaks and rounding out the content near the end would make this game a classic.
As previously noted, I felt like bashing my controller into the floor probably 1,000 times... but now that I'm finished, I'm back to my original conclusion: Prime 2 is a better looking game than 1, has some crazy awesome boss fights and is just an overall darn good game. Prime 1 is still better as a whole, but beating this and struggling through all of the tough bits gave me a better appreciation for the game and the series. I also think if I had played this from the Trilogy disc rather than GCN I'd have been a little more impressed and a lot less frustrated. It's my new goal to find a Trilogy copy before they hit $200 on eBay...
What I will probably always despise is
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
For what it's worth, I liked the morph ball puzzles, and I didn't mind all the bosses you have to fight while in morphball form (I had 4 energy tanks when I got to the Boost Guardian, so the battle wasn't quite as bad). I didn't care much for the fetch quest at the end (now please stop doing this in video games, Nintendo), but even that was reasonably good in retrospect.Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
the s#!tty controls while in the spider ball. I seriously considered quitting every time I had to make a boost ball jump... It made getting around the Sanctuary Fortress infuriating, hitting the last form of Quadraxis was nearly impossible (especially because I had almost no health left), trying to bomb the inglets while spider balling my way around the second form of the Emperor Ing, trying not to get whacked into oblivion... did it really need to be a fixed camera, Retro?
Not that anyone asked, but I've gotta say Prime 1 > Prime 2 in terms of gameplay, feel and controls, but Prime 2 > Prime 1 in graphics, bosses and puzzles. So as soon as I finished, I popped Prime 3 into the Wii (never got past the initial 'generator quest' to date)... I'm so in love with this game. Shoulda played this one through before Other M... luckily I can always do my planned replay of Other M right afterwards, and keep my Metroid rollin'
-vdz
Somewhat related: I finished the also-polarizing Starfox Adventures last weekend as well, and... I liked it. Been playing it on weekends on and off with my 5 y/o, and even though there's obvious problems and some janky aiming controls that make later parts tough, it was a fun ride and an amazing looking game for it's time. Ninty should absolutely remake this in the "new play control" series at the least, but adding just a few tweaks and rounding out the content near the end would make this game a classic.
