Metroid Prime 2 is a weird game. It might be the most divisive of all the Metroid games, with some people claiming it’s superior to its predecessor and others saying it’s a disappointment. I’m afraid to admit I belong more in the latter camp, as the majority of my time with this game has been a mix of frustration, confusion, and boredom.

Metroid Prime 2 feels almost intentionally designed to be a chore to play at times. The map is big and sprawling, but not in a fun way. The better metroidvania games usually do a good job at having level design that guides you across the nonlinear world without straight up telling you where to go and what to do. Super Metroid does this excellently, and Metroid Prime does this pretty well, barring a couple moments here and there. With Prime 2 I recall consistently getting frustrated and bored trying to figure out where to go, many times having to rely on waiting for the hint system to trigger. Having to find keys for every area, an obvious attempt at artificially lengthening the game, didn’t help either. Not to mention the portal hopping between the light and dark worlds only adding to the tedium. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention to the map enough or being impatient, but something about Prime 2’s progression felt very arbitrary rather than intuitive.

Exacerbating this issue is how uninteresting most of the game’s world is. Other than Sanctuary Fortress, all the areas of Metroid Prime 2 are dead or dying wastelands with nothing but dull looking environments. None of the areas of this game have the same spectacle as the locales of the first game. Plus, the world feels far too “gamey.” The different areas all feel very disconnected from each other, leading to a world that’s far less immersive. Tallon IV felt like an actual planet, whereas the Temple Grounds of Aether felt more like a glorified level select screen.

Many of the game’s enemies are pretty tanky, sometimes with hitboxes that seem far too small for the game’s aiming mechanics. They also feel a lot more aggressive and tend to get right in your face, messing with the game’s lock-on system. Grenchlers especially are obnoxious, as they’re basically souped up reskins of the Sheegoths from the first game. This time though they are much faster, can jump, have a ranged attack, and have significantly more health. You can see this type of design philosophy of “make the enemies beefier and more annoying” across the entire game. Hell, they even saw how much people hated the Chozo ghosts in the first game, so they decided to up the ante by having Prime 2’s Chozo ghost equivalent lock the doors when they appear, forcing you to engage in battle with them. This game has far too many enemies that I’d rather run past and forget about than actually fight.

Of course, if the enemies are going to be a pain to deal with, you also have to make the bosses a pain as well. The majority of Prime 2’s boss fights are tedious, some downright infuriating with how clunky they are. They sometimes feel like they’re designed for a game with a completely different control scheme. Retro also for some reason was obsessed with morph ball focused fights in this game, which are never fun. The Boost Guardian and Spider Guardian might be two of the worst bosses ever put in a video game. When even one of the developers of your own game admits that they couldn’t beat a boss without using debug mode, you should realize you have a problem. The only bosses that really stood out to me positively were Quadraxis and two of the three Dark Samus fights. Even then, Quadraxis was only decent, not the amazing fight I’ve heard so much about. And before anyone says “skill issue,” none of these fights (other than Boost Guardian) are actually all that hard. Most of them throw health pickups at you like crazy, even the final boss.

I will applaud Retro for at least trying to diverge from the other Metroid games with the weapons and upgrades. A lot of them are what you’d expect, but the light and dark beams are cool, and I appreciate their attempt at bringing the screw attack into a 3D environment even if it is clunky and kind of garbage. The ammo system with beams is a bit strange, but I never found it to be that big of an issue. Seeker missiles are also neat, if a bit unwieldy. There are genuinely good ideas here, despite some of the questionable execution.

Other positives are the music and atmosphere. They definitely nailed that at least. It is also gorgeous for a Gamecube game. To think that Super Metroid was merely a decade prior to this is pretty impressive. There are some good quality of life improvements as well, such as the scanner system. Giving you a fast travel system for the endgame key collectathon was nice at least, although I’ll fully admit that I just looked up a guide for this part because by this point I was done with the game and wanted it to be over.

Ultimately, Metroid Prime 2 is a massive step down from Prime, and a notable disappointment. I can appreciate the hard work and effort it must have taken to finish this game in merely 2 years, but it definitely feels like a rushed product. I have heard that the game is significantly better on repeat playthroughs, and that the changes in the Trilogy version of the game help with the game’s more glaring issues. Maybe someday I’ll play that version and understand the acclaim. As for now though, I can only see this game as a messy experience with boring exploration, annoying enemies, and frustrating bosses. It’s certainly not the worst Metroid game, but for me it’s pretty close, and one of the few I really had to force myself to complete.