Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GC)

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Developer(s)	Retro Studios
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	Metroid
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	NA November 15, 2004 EU November 26, 2004 AUS December 2, 2004 JP May 26, 2005
Genre(s)	First-person action-adventure, First-person shooter, Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-Player, Multiplayer
Input methods	GameCube Controller
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	G2MP01, G2ME01, G2MJ01
See also...	Trilogy Version Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, known as Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes (メトロイドプライム2: ダークエコーズ Metoroido Puraimu Tsū: Dāku Ekōzu) in Japan, is a first-person, action-adventure video game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the seventh published game in the Metroid series and a direct sequel to Metroid Prime.

Like it's predecessor, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes takes place in an open-ended world with interconnected regions, revolving around solving puzzles to uncover secrets, platform jumping, and shooting enemies. Echoes features adds parallel dimensions gameplay, Light Aether and Dark Aether, where changes in either dimension often reflect changes in the other. Dark Aether's atmosphere is caustic and damages Samus' Power Suit, requiring the player to move between designated "safe zones" that allow Samus' health to be regained slowly.

An updated version exists for the Wii as part of the Metroid Prime: Trilogy.

Problems

Audio Issues

With DSP HLE Several sounds don´t play appropriately, and sometimes music stops playing. DSP LLE also has problems, but these problems change depending on the revision used; varying between BGM cutting out, sound effects problems, and moderate to severe stuttering. See issue 5563.

Black Bar

Whenever Dolphin has trouble with the game and flickers, from a loading hiccup to taking a screenshot, a black bar will appear on the bottom of the screen taking up 15% of the screen space and "squishing" the game in the remaining space. This occurs in all graphics backends, and there is no known solution. See issue 5574.

NTSC Correct emulation

NTSC Black bar and squishing

Visors

Scanner/Visors will only work if EFB to Ram is enabled. However, EFB to Ram is set as default within the game INI, preventing the user from using anything but EFB to Ram for this game.

Dot

When playing above 1x Native internal resolution, there is a dot in the center of the screen. It's small and easy to ignore, but it is present whenever the HUD is on screen. There is no fix for this problem.

The dot, zoomed in 8x

Crashing

Random crashes may occur on older revisions. Current revisions appear to be mostly stable however. If in doubt, save often.

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

Audio

Config	Setting	Notes
DSP Emulator Engine	LLE	Minimizes audio problems

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r1943

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5.0-21549 (current)

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Δ

Δ

Δ

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2.0 (r5384)

Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Test Entries
Revision	OS	CPU	GPU	Result	Tester
r1943	Windows	Intel Core i7-920 @ 4GHz	nVidia GeForce GTX 285	Metroid Prime 2 on Dolphin 1943 (Emulator) - High Quality (Normally running on 45-60 FPS!!!)
r6569	Windows 7 x64	AMD Phenom II X2 550 @ 3.1GHz	ATI Radeon HD 4850	Playable: 30-60 FPS with OpenGL plug-in and Recommended Configuration
r7346	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66GHz	nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS	Playable: 30-60 FPS with DX9 plug-in and Recommended Configuration. Just like Metroid Prime 1, if there are too many enemies, you will occasionally have some slowdown, especially since EFB copy to RAM is REQUIRED for the scan visor, which is an essential part of the game. Essentially runs flawlessly as of r7346.	ShobuPrime
r7436	Windows 7 x64	AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.8GHz	ATI Radeon HD 4650	Playable: Runs fine except for occasional loading pauses and the scan visor. Using slightly tweaked config based off of recommended config.	MechWarrior001
r7661	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 @ 3.2GHz	AMD Radeon HD 6950	Perfect thanks to Dolphin DX 11 renderer without any issues and with the scan visor fully functional. 60FPS all the time.	Xenon
^3.0	Windows 7 x64	AMD Phenom II X6 1100T	AMD Radeon HD 6850	Perfect, just some slows when rain drops or water on the visor,audio some times crashes, graphics are clean and perfect	Aldaris

Gameplay Videos

Metroid Prime 2 on Dolphin 1943 (Emulator) - High Quality (Normaly running on 45-60 FPS!!!)