Story Synopsis:
Metroid Prime
Written by ihateelvis
As you first start the game, you find Samus Aran landing on what seems to be a space station, which will serve as the game's tutorial level. It is here that you'll learn all of the basics, from simple shooting to learning how to use the handy morph ball to your advantage. Unfortunately, the usage of these tools is short-lived; after discovering and destroying the monstrosity that is the Parasite Queen, you lose a vast majority of your powerups from an injury while attempting to escape the self-destructing space station. During your escape, you come across Meta-Ridley, another enhanced being. It makes its escape of the space station as well, and you follow it to the planet of Tallon IV, and this is where your main adventure begins.
Upon landing, you find yourself in a lush, green world that is Tallon IV's overworld, the "central area" as it were. From here, you will go explore 'worlds' such as Magmoor Caverns, a large cave deep underground with plenty of lava and fire-based enemies, as well as Phendrana Drifts, a freezing, mountainous area that will pique your vertigo more than a few times. As it turns out, the planet used to be the home of the Chozo, an ancient race that became extinct due to a meteor containing a mysterious and highly poisonous substance called Phazon that crashed there. Apparently, the notorious Space Pirates have discovered the substance, and hope to harness its energy to create biologically enhanced organisms that they can use and control at their will. This is, for the most part, the objective of your quest: to destroy the Space Pirates. This will not be easy, however, as their experiments have already progressed greatly.
As you progress through the game, you will eventually come across something knows as a Chozo Artifact. There are 12 in total, and if you are able to follow the hints and locate them all, you will gain access to the Impact Crater, where the core essence of Phazon is located. It is here that Samus runs into Metroid Prime, the main culprit and final boss of the game. After being defeated, Metroid Prime gets beaten down to nothing more than a puddle of Phazon. However, this might not be the last we've seen of it.......
Notable Powerups:
Due to Samus' rather unfortunate loss of the majority of her powerups at the beginning of the game, she must locate and obtain them back while on Tallon IV, as well as find some others she didn't know existed. Some of these include:
Morph Ball: This powerup is by far the most useful in your whole aresnal. Obtained early on in the game, it can be used to roll your way to safety, navigate through tight spots, and gain access to otherwise unreachable places. With many additonal add-ons, eventually you will be able to fire off bombs (which can also be used to help you jump while in morph ball form), get a temporary speed boost (which can be used to get to the top of half-pipes), and even climb walls.
Wave/Ice/Plasma Beam: In addition to the standard power beam that you have at the beginning of the game, over the course of your journey you will obtain the Wave, Ice and Plasma beams, in that order. Along with being able to open doors and defeat enemies of their own respective colours (Purple = Wave Beam, White = Ice Beam, Red = Plasma Beam), they also have their own uses. The Wave Beam is especially useful against enemies that are made up of energy, as they are undefeatable otherwise. The Ice Beam, while rather slow, has the chance of freezing enemies on contact. With little long-range capabilities, the Plasma Beam is by far the strongest of them all, as well as being extra-effective against enemies composed of ice. Each beam (including the Power Beam) can be upgraded to integrate missiles into a special, extra-powerful attack if the appropriate powerup is found.
Missiles/Missile Expansions: This ever-useful, early-obtained weapon will be used on many occasions. They are able to open missile-specific doors, deal damage to otherwise invincible enemies, deal extra damage to normal enemies, and even combine with whatever beam you are using to launch a super attack to deal a heavy amount of damage. In addition to the initial five missiles you are given when you obtain the missile powerup, missile expansions can be found strewn throughout the planet of Tallon IV, hidden in hard-to reach locations or secret rooms. The more you obtain, the higher capacity your suit has to store missiles.
Energy Tanks: While not a powerup in and of itself, energy tanks are hidden throughout Tallon IV, albeit much more sparsely, just like missile expansions. However, they are infinitely more useful; each one gives you an extra health bar to help keep you alive when you get into really tough situations. These, for the most part, are hidden much better than missile expansions, so only the most observant Metroid Prime player will be able to locate them all.
Power/Varia/Gravity/Phazon Suit: While you start off with the Varia Suit at the very beginning of the game, it will quickly downgrade to the extremely basic Power Suit after your suit malfunctions. Generally, your suit only upgrades after you've beaten a large boss, and each suit stacks upon each other to keep the previous ability. Once the Varia Suit has been found, you will finally be able to venture into areas such as the Magmoor Caverns, since it has the ability to resist heat much better than your Power Suit. The Gravity Suit adds the ability to jump and navigate through water as if it was air, and finally the Phazon Suit will leave you impervious to the highly poisonous Phazon. The Phazon Suit also adds the ability to fire the Phazon Beam, however it is only used in the final battle of the game.
Grapple Beam: The Grapple Beam is a powerup that allows you to navigate past large chasms and gaps that are impossible to cross even with the help of the Space Jump Boots (another powerup giving you the ability to perform a double-jump). Obtained rather late in the game, this powerup is essential to your completion of the game as well as the location of certain missile expansions.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Written by ihateelvis
Just as in the original Metroid Prime, we find ourselves in the shoes of bounty hunter Samus Aran landing on another foreign planet. This time around the destination is the planet Aether, with the seemingly-simple task of locating a squadron of Galactic Federation trroops who have inexplicably gone missing. You'll figure out what happened to them soon enough; unfortunately, this complicates your mission greatly. While the Galactic Federation squadron was sent to destroy a stray ship of Space Pirates that crash-landed on the planet, it seems that they were overwhelmed and possessed by an evil race that you will later find out to be called the Ing. While you explore the remains of the outpost, you come across a dark figure that looks strikingly similar to yourself. Upon chase of the doppleganger, you end up travelling through a portal to a dark version of the planet, where you get easily overpowered by a large number of enemy Ing. Because of this, you return to the "light" world. But where are your powerups? It seems that you've lost them yet again. However, this time they've actually been absorbed by the Ing.
Continuing to explore the planet, you meet up with the U-Mos, one of the few remaining creatures known as the Luminoth on the planet Aether. It is he who explains to you what is exactly going on with the planet; a meteor infused with Phazon had hit the planet, dividing it into two alternate dimensions, Light and Dark. As the world does not have enough energy to support both dimensions, the Luminoth and the Ing are in a war to gain control of the planet's energy. Unfortunately, the Luminoth have been largely unsuccessful in their campaign, and the Ing are quickly gaining control. Of course, it is now upon your shoulders to aid the Luminoth and restore the planet Aether back to what it once was. It is now your responsibility to travel through both light and dark to collect the stolen energy from three separate regions to restore light to a world in chaos.
In restoring power to Light Aether, you will end up having to locate three 'keys' in each region, and use them to unlock the doors to the guardian of the region's energy controller. Generally this means fighting an especially large and difficult enemy. Once this has been completed for each of the three regions, Samus must then vetnure into the Sky Temple, destroy the leader of the notorious Ing, and put an end to Metroid Prime, who this time has adopted the form of a copy of Samus. Once completed, Dark Aether collapses onto itself and Aether is restored to its former glory.
Notable Powerups:
Dark/Light Suit: As Dark Aether's atmosphere is harmful to Samus and decreases her energy at an alarming rate, she's going to need all the help she can get to keep herself alive. After obtaining the Dark Suit from the first region's guardian, you'll now have a much simpler time navigating through the harmful Dark Aether. While this does not protect you completely from harm, it provides a much higher resistance towards the poisonous air. Much later, U-Mos himself presents you wuth an even better upgrade, the Light Suit. These spiffy duds will protect you completely from environmental damage while in Dark Aether, as well as grant you the ability to travel through beams of light to explore previously unreachable areas.
Dark/Light/Annihilator Beam: Much like in the original Metroid Prime, Samus will once again come across powerups that will increase her Power Beam's capabilities. However, differing from the original, the Dark, Light and Annihilator Beams ammunition supplies aren't limitless; the Dark and Light Beams have their own separate amounts of ammunition, while the Annihilator Beam requires one of each type of ammunition to fire, as it is a fusion of both guns. Unsurprisingly, the Light Beam generally is extremely effective against Dark Aether enemies, while the Dark Beam is especially powerful against enemies found in Light Aether. Also, all three beams can be upgraded to incorporate missiles into their attacks, thus dealing yet more damage to an unfortunate and unsuspecting enemy.
Gravity Boost: Similar to the Gravity Suit from the original Metroid Prime, this powerup once again increases your mobility in water to as if you were walking in open air. Interestingly enough, the tool also serves as an underwater jetpack of sorts; now you can briefly continue floating upwards after performing a double jump.
Screw Attack: Paying homage to the original sidescrolling Metroid titles, the Screw Attack once again makes its appearance in a Metroid game, this time in 3-D. This extremely useful powerup enables you to perform a powerful spinning attack multiple times by repeatedly pressing the jump button after performing a double jump to a maximum of five jumps. In addition to being a rather useless attack (as it's quite difficult to hit enemies with it consistently), it's mainly used to help you cross very large chasms. What's more, it can even be used against special surfaces to help you perform a wall jump to reach the top of vertical passageways.
Seeker Launcher: This interesting item adds to the missile launcher, and even gives you an extra five missiles when obtained. Now, instead of being able to launch only a single missile at a time, it now allows you to fire off multiple missiles at a time, helping you to kill of multiple enemies or open doors with multiple locks that must be activated at the same time to open.
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