I got it today, and I live in Louisiana, see here's a step-by-step of what I did, with some humor thrown in, because parts of it were funny. Keep in mind, there will be
SPOILERS, and I'm not going to blank them out, because it's only
SPOILERS for the demo disk. If you want to play through it fresh, wait until after you play it to read this:
Excuse the switches from past-tense to present-tense, but I was playing through it again as I wrote this, so it seemed natural to go with present-tense sometimes. I'd go back and change it, but I don't feel like it, so just try to ignore it
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Startup. Make sure to notice the wide-screen effect at the title screen. Noticed the cool new Retro Logo.
Background info. Mission: "
Locate Federation Troopers" or other nonsense. Kill all the bad guys is basically what it said.
Okay, nice shifting between Light and Dark worlds from the planet view. Samus flies in, gets banged up by Dark lightning, and crashes thrown some rocks into a conveniently empty room that seems to have been put there specifically for her.
The new ship is #@$%$# sweet.
Samus appears. Love the added green glowing lines going down her leg. She jumps in the air, cutting 7,000 frontflips before landing. Business as usual.
The first thing I noticed was that there were these bird-sized insects flying around. I tried to destroy them, but no luck.
I go through my options. Double-jumping still works. Morph Ball and the bombs still work, but no Spider Ball and no Dash Ball. Wave Beam, Ice Beam, and Plasma Beam have been replaced with the Dark and Light beams, with the normal Power Beam still present.
I try to fire both, and found that the Light Beam fires almost exactly like the Plasma Beam in Prime 1. A fast, straight line. When charged, it fired a spray of shots, but it didn't spray too far apart. It could be used to hit a single target if close enough.
The Dark Beam was different. You remember those floating gasballs from Magmoor Caverns in Prime 1? The ones where when you hit them, they exploded and left the little ball of green gas behind? Well, the Dark Beam looks like that. You're firing the green gas left behind in Magmoor Caverns, only now it's purple and black. Charging just shoots a bigger ball faster.
Normal Visor was present with his brother the Scan Visor. I scanned everything, and everything seemed to be normal, despite the gigantic flying bugs. There was a divurgent path in the first room, but I needed a more powerful weapon than I had to blast the big stone blocking it away. I blasted a big spiderweb that was blocking my path with the Light Beam and it disappeared. It also works with the Dark Beam.
I came to the first door and approved. I like the new design.
I then came across a tunnel not unlike those you would find in Magmoor Caverns. Remember those ones that had glass around the sides? Almost exactly like that, only I was way up in the air. There was a single creature crawling around, and upon scanning found out it could phase out of the current timespace if I didn't kill it immediately. Talk about convenient.
That's when I noticed that I didn't like the Scanning system as much as Prime 1. Instead of being able to scan anything within that little widescreen bar that comes up, you have to put the desired object with a smaller circle within the bar. It required more precision than I liked.
I blasted the creature with a charged up Dark Beam. It was at this point that I remembered I had ammo. Keep in mind that I had been blasting aimlessly around the first room for several minutes, so I didn't have much left. Upon a second play, I found out that you start with 50 ammo for each weapon (Power Beam has infinite shots), and it takes 5 for a charged shot.
As I moved closer to where it had died, I was attacked by two flying, glowing things. After a second of sheer panic and wild firing, I found that these were ammo packs. Apparently, they're automatically attracted to you now, even while you're not charging a beam. Very useful, I stopped for a moment in silent approval. In case it didn't occur to you by reading that (don't worry, it didn't occur to me until later), enemies can give more than one item behind, now. Then I moved on through the next door.
The next room had a small side-path, an elevator, and a cliff on the opposite end. I explored the side-path for a moment to find nothing of interest inside. There was what appeared to be a giant cocoon, but I couldn't scan it or blow it up, so I lost interest. I scanned the little tower next to the elevator to boot it up, just like in Prime 1, noticing again that the scanning system was worse. I decided to explore the cliff before descending, however, figuring that I may be able to walk somewhere.
As I approached, a message flashed up on my screen:
Warning: Terminal Fall Ahead!
I stopped for a moment to admire that. It was an excellent touch, and was very funny. Even funnier if someone is running towards the cliff, and it shows up after they've fallen.
Anyway, I could see nothing of interest beyond the continuation of the giant bugs. I fired at some distant cliffs, and was surprised to learn that my Power Beam shots actually reached that far. Upon using the Light and Dark Beams, I found that they could not reach. Still, I could see the distinctive flash of the Power shot hitting something when it reached the wall. Very impressive.
I moved onto the elevator, and instantly liked it more than the elevators in Prime 1. It was much faster, or maybe it seemed that way because it wasn't being lowered at all. When I stepped on, some clamps let go, and it just let me fall.
I hit the ground (in third-person view now) at about 200 miles an hour. The camera hovered behind Samus for a moment before entering her head, and I noticed that her butt was more well-defined than the last game (it's worth mentioning). More of the suspicious spiderweb blocked my path, so I blasted it with the Light Beam and moved through the door.
In the next "room" (it was an open pathway), I was attacked by several small creatures. They posed no challenge, and I laughed as I executed them one-by-one. Next door.
I can tell that this room holds something significant. There are buildings here, and small fires, so I know something bad happened. I scan the two items closest to me. The one on the left looks like a windmill if you knocked it flat on it's back, and then pointed the "arms" skyward. Upon scannation, I am informed that it is a functioning Space Pirate wind-harvesting energy source. On my right, I have what is referred to as a "Galactic Federation Cargo Crate," which for the purpose of this review will from now on be called a "crate," I tried to the destroy the windmill, but no luck. The crate did explode, and I took the ammo inside.
Three space pirates show up, although the music stays eerily still. As I'm blasting them with the Power Beam (to conserve ammo on my special ones), I'm informed that I can use "Y" to fire a missile. No duh. I do so, and then try a Super Missile, but can't do it. The Pirate that was on a platform above me falls realistically off when he dies.
I move forward, and am attacked by two more Pirates.
Now the familiar music starts, and I notice it's been tweaked just a bit. As I kill the two pirates, I notice that they fire much more accurately in this game.
Immediately upon defeating those two pirates, two more jump into these very sweet-looking hover-cannons. Finding the Power Beam useless, I dispatch them with the Dark Beam. Upon my second play, I found that the Light Beam was similarly effective. *Note: Upon a
third play, I found the Light Beam to be
more effective. The cannons take roughly 4 shots to defeat, and so the spread shot of the Light Beam takes out each cannon in one shot, because really, it's like 6 shots in 1.
Moving towards the door, I fire upon the crates. The Light and Dark Beam ammo fly to me instantly, but I have to charge up to get the Missile Ammo to be similarly attracted. Guess it only works for the beam ammo.
In the next room, I am told to use the Dark Beam to dissolve a Light barrier. How stupid does
Retro think I am?
Past the Light barrier, I immediately see that there is no exit, so I scan the room. I notice that two seperate panels in the floor are bright blue, and upon scannation, see that there are several stress fractures running across it. Go figure, I have to use the Morph Ball Bombs to go underneath the floor.
After doing this, I exit the Scanner, and a message pops up:
Use the Morph Ball to get through small areas.
Feeling intelligent and smug, knowing that I already knew what to do even before the game did, I bombed the floor, and went through some kind of organic tunnel. Think about what the inside of your large intestine would look like (without the poop). That's what this tunnel looked like. Except there was a door in it. Your intestines don't have doors.
The next room was really cool, I was rolling around underneath the floor the Space Pirates were walking on! I'm not exactly sure why they had connected the two rooms using an intestinal tract that none of them could hope to fit through, considering that their own Morph Ball experiments ended... badly. Still, it was incredibly convenient for me. I laid several bombs under them, but they didn't seem to notice, so I moved on.
I avoided small barriers and watched above me as several Space Pirates jumped into a Dark Portal. I ended up on the side of the room, and took out the two remaining Space Pirates, trying up my Dark Beam as I did. Upon charging, the Dark Beam freezes opponents in their tracks. On my second play, I tried the Light Beam, and was delighted to find that the spread shots home in on targets, instead of going in a straight light. #@$%$# sweet. Scanning the various terminals in the room revealed basic information about the Dark World. There were several reported casualties, yada yada.
I moved to the Dark Portal, because that's obviously what I was supposed to do. I walked through it, and then decided to stand still in it, feeling dumb. For a moment, I thought maybe I
was in the Dark World, and that the transformation was merely cosmetic. But seeing nothing different, I decided that that hypothesis was wrong, and, seeing a mini-elevator, charged it up.
Moving upstairs, and being required to do a double-jump, I noticed that they changed the physics of it some. Not a whole lot, but it will be noticable until you get used to the new physics. One Space Pirate appears, and I dispatch of him quickly.
Moving towards the locked door that opened up when I defeated that pirate, I was completely taken off-guard when I found a Pirate behind some kind of a laser-glass, in what looked like the control room, directly to my right. I fired at him, but the glass seemed to be impenetrable (at least by the Power Beam), so I just sat there, staring at him. Waiting for him to signal an alarm, or something. And right then, he shot me! Completely off-guard twice in a matter of seconds. I dispatch of him through the now-broken glass, and find that I can't jump through it. So, going back upstairs, I go through the now-open door.
In the room, I see what could be a cage with it's doors wide open. The door is hooked up to some kind of generator, like the kind you would find in the Phazon Mines in Prime 1. As I a move closer, I am surprised when
the cage doors crash closed and HOLY #@$%$ IT'S #$%$#@$%ing DARK SAMUS!!!
She flies backwards, farther into wherever that is, but I am unable to follow, or shoot her, because of the door. I look around, but there's no way to follow her.
Going into the other door in that room, I reach the control room where I had shot the Pirate before, and turn on the Dark Portal. Duh.
Now, I go in the Dark Portal for real. Very cool warping effects. In a cut-scene, Samus is freaking surprised to find out that the Dark World hurts her when she sticks her hand out. The Portal back to the lab disappears, leaving me in a bubble of Light energy in the Dark World.
Scanning, I found a couple of dead Space Pirate carcasses lying in the Darkness. They were dead for various different reasons, but all of the scanning revealed that they had been infested with some kind of parasite, and were terminated by their fellow Pirates. Interesting. I ready myself, and jump to the next bubble.
The first thing I notice is that while, yes, you lose energy in the Dark Matter, you
gain energy while standing in the Light zones. I don't know if you guys knew that, but I hadn't read it. I noticed then that I had nowhere else to go, but, seeing a floating bubble, I shot it with a Light Beam to reveal a bubble. I tried shooting the crystal in the previous bubble, but it didn't make that bubble any larger. Oh well.
In the next room, I burn down a Dark spiderweb with the Light Beam. Moving on to burn several more Dark spiderwebs, I run into the Dark Matter and into the next room. One of the bubbles you can shoot for a Light bubble is right at the door, but I totally bypass it and run to the next functioning bubble.
That's when the monsters appeared. Imagine the outcome if a horse and a spider mated. Okay, now give it one glowing red eye. And dreadlocks made out of Dark Matter. That's what these monsters looked like.
Obviously, I was supposed to shoot these things with the Light Beam, so that's what I did. (These are the monsters that can turn into direct Dark energy to move around. They are invulnerable when they do this.) I only got hit once, when one of them swiped at me from outside. Apparently, they can't come into the bubble with you, which was convenient for me. *Note: On my third time playing, on of them shot me with some kind of beam, propelling
far from my Light bubble! Luckily, I actually landed inside another one, but it was still kind of unsettling. I hadn't encountered that attack upon my last two plays.
It was at that moment that I ran out of Light Ammunition. I could see one of the Light balls ahead of me, waiting to be shot so it could turn into a bubble. No such luck. So instead I ran straight at it, hoping to find another dome.
What I hadn't realized is that it wasn't one of the balls, it was a portal. Walking into it, I was brought to a Mission Complete screen. Demo over.
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Overall, I liked it much better than I expected to. I figured it would be more of the same, but it was different enough to feel brand-new. The only complaint I have is with the new precision required for Scanning.
