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Wow....just wow...I've overlooked this game for far too long. It's sat in my SNES library for quite some time, and now...I've finally finished it, and what a ride it was!

WORLD: So apparently this isn't Zebes? But Spawn World? Spore World? Spore Spawn World? Whatever...despite the read-me making it sound like this is a game of memes, it's actually a very well crafted world. Each area is pretty large, so there's plenty of game to be had here, and each level has been renamed to something else. What's really special is the Secret Lab portion of Sector S (Tourian), which requires a specific path to get to. It's not hard to find, but it can be hard to get in and out if you're low on energy. It's a nice diversion, and opens up some special gateways in the game, which is a fun addition that the original game never had. The palette of the game also features a LOT of blue...which is unusually calming in this kind of game.

GAMEPLAY: And the meat of this game. Most things haven't changed, but some have. Beam damage has been weakened, and certain beam combos actually weaken your weapon further, depending on what it is. Check out Metroid Construction if you're interested in that, because someone gave a breakdown of the power of each individual beam plus each beam combination. As a result, you'll need to rely a bit more on missiles in some places...or just shoot like no tomorrow, like I did, lol. One of the major changes is speed booster and how it functions. Samus keeps momentum in both ball and regular form if she makes an uninterrupted jump or drop and lands without a problem, allowing you to gather speed boost energy over a handful of small ledges if done right. Also, my FAVORITE bit....you can actually control your shinespark when it's performed! Pressing up, left, right, L, and R all control your shinespark in the air, while holding down flips you down into a shinesparking morph ball. As a result, this gives you a brand new angle for how to solve various puzzles within the world. Many of the puzzles require a bit of thought, but even when I got stumped, a sudden inspiration would come to me, I'd go back and try it, and find myself thrilled when I solved it.

FUN: Definitely! I actually REALLY liked this hack. Yeah, there's not a lot of direction on where to go, but personally....this is one of the few times I can say I legit agree with this design. A handful of the main equipment items are located in multiple places, so you have different opportunities to pick them up. Six of them are also found in the secret rooms if you completed the Secret Lab. Granted, if you've already picked them up, you'll just find an empty room, but this does mean that you can either find the items where they're normally found, or pick them up early, your choice. And for me, that's the appeal of this game; this feels like the best design to just play it your way. The world is VERY open to exploration, the puzzles may stump you a bit but aren't too hard, and so long as you find items and can handle the challenges, you can do what you want when you want. Heck, I even found myself reaching Mother Brain early, so if you wanna speed run this game, go for it! There's also three different escape paths for the final sequence, befitting the name of the hack, and I actually enjoyed trying all three of them, though granted one is only available if you find it AND have completed the Secret Lab :P

MY RATING: 9.5/10 Man, I'm giving a lot of high scores lately...not that anyone cares, lol. I do it more for my own benefit really, I guess. But this game definitely deserves it. I'll admit, with all the freedom, I sorta feel like I'm in a Bethesda game in that eventually, I need it to just conclude, so it CAN get a little tedious if you hunt for all the items, and admittedly some of the puzzles CAN be frustrating if you fail them. Shinespark control, for all intents and purposes, is still a little sketchy. It's a cool idea, but can still be difficult to handle when you need to make some REALLY tight turns. But for all it has, this is a game to dig into and play it your way, and enjoy it all the while. Can't be blue when this game has plenty of it in your stead! 8D

I find Escape2 to be a complete, technically robust SM experience, with minor-to-moderate changes to overall classic story and action styles but with very rewarding surprises, a very well connected and expanded world vastly influenced by a Metroid Fusion structure, and small-spicy details on its gameplay and atmosphere.

The common description of the hack is definitely not indicative of the quality of its contents (unless you can clearly interpret the japanese documentation). The palette remark is certainly accurate, and worth mentioning that is quite more pleasant and harmonic than many other hacks out there trying to use melancholic colors in a sober manner, avoiding emo-style exaggeration. In this regard, I thought of the bosses as the "lunar" (FFIV Advance bonus) versions of the original, both in art and difficulty.

The difficulty of this work is quite manageable and ramps up to intermediate-high at later stages (You will LOVE to feel threatened by Ridley again, screaming 'PLEASE DIE' while dispensing an uninterrupted and finger-exhausting line of missiles, just as when you were 12 back in the mid 90's). Definitely higher in average than the original SM. The linearity of the quest is a little bit vulnerable to wall jumping, leading you to some places you shouldn't see at early stages. However, the shine spark control mechanics were very refreshing and unexpected, giving a new dimension to puzzles and overall item collection challenge experience. The way the author progressively 'teaches' you to incorporate moves involving that and other normally underrated items such as the spring ball, turned out to be very appropriate, with a very wild rewarding but not impossible challenge level for those last tricky-to-get missiles.

I HIGHLY recommend NOT to use the secret keys leading to early empowerments. This totally breaks the progressive experience and surprises the author has prepared for you. I believe the secret area and its features should be used for very interesting speed-run optimization efforts, but not for enjoying this work on its entirety. Anyway, the access to it is definitely not intuitive and fails to be recognized by X-ray scoping, so It's not very likely for it to be a huge temptation unless already known in advance.

My particular favorite compositions in this work were those item rooms/puzzles hidden near elevators to other zones or warping doors. Many of these were actually other 'alternate' elevators, or small passages leading to completely different atmospheres from the nearby zones, producing a combination of eerie and exciting feelings. This style was very resemblant to the experiences in Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact (TR3 expansion), where +40% of each level were secret, alternate routes with very unexpected elements, although in a much minor scale.

You will find this author's Tourian as a very pleasant experimental and artistic parade. Oh my God! I've never seen so much inspiration and effort put on the final escape sequence. The options there are overwhelming and interesting depending on your SM gaming style. A nice way to close the overall experience.

By all means, go for it ! Even after experiencing other major works such as Redesign, Escape2 will sure grip you for a while, getting some genuine smiles from you here and there.