Difficulty: Normal

Percent of pick-ups retrieved: 100%

Time played: 14:30

*Warning: possible minor spoilers*

Yeah, I know that "normal" isn't all that impressive, but I still beat it. I'll probably go back next summer and try it on Hypermode difficulty (which I hear is ridiculously hard). The final boss battles were ok; I liked the dark Samus fight much better than the Aurora Unit 313 battle. The AU just seemed to simple in concept (it stayed in once spot while it spit Dark Echo Samus' at you). It's attacks were fairly easy to avoid (until you got to it's second phase though); Dark Samus' fight was much more intense (it felt). The hardest part of the AU fight was simply figuring out what I was supposed to do to kill it! Ah well, I'm sure on harder difficulties the engagement level would rack up significantly.

As to the final "Fixed Hypermode" I liked it how your concept of damage was reversed. You wanted to keep your "health bar" as low as possible so that you didn't get totally corrupted. This was good, but I found the absence of a save station after you land on Phaaze annoying (I never had to try again though; I made it through first try). You have to walk all the way through Phaaze's interior, fight Dark Samus, and then fight AU 313 (both forms) without taking a break. I dunno, I guess that sortof makes sense from a gaming point of view.

Out of all of the Final Boss Battles in the Prime series (ignoring the Dark Samus battles), I think I liked Prime 2's the best. In the MP1, you are too confined in the hall-like tunnel to move around (although you utilize your beams well) and in MP3, the boss doesn't actually move until it's second phase. I felt that the Emperor Ing in MP2 made you utilize all of your abilities in full. That's just my take though...

Overall, I loved the game, and I think that it might be my favorite out of the Prime series. However, in order to make a final judgment I need to play through the other two with the updated Wii controls... Sheesh, they're all great!

Oh, also: if there is anyone out there with MP3 save data on their Wii and they have some spare Friend Vouchers, I'd love to trade them to get some Friend Credits. Just shoot me a PM if you've got any.

GBG