OVEREchoes Unbound 0.8 brings working multiplayer to the native Metroid Prime 2 port, and Metroid Prime 0.38.0 adds a Grapple button
One day after the 0.37.0 / 0.7.0 pair we covered on Sunday, Odrannnn shipped another round for both native Metroid Prime ports on the afternoon of November 1 (Pacific time): Echoes Unbound 0.8.0 for Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime port 0.38.0, followed late that night by an Echoes Unbound 0.8.1 hotfix. Both ports are built from the PrimeDecomp decompilations, so they run as real Android apps instead of through a GameCube emulator, and both ship an arm64 APK next to Windows, Linux, macOS and iPhone/iPad builds. New to them? Start with our Metroid Prime and Echoes Unbound explainers.
Echoes Unbound 0.8.0: multiplayer works
The headline is that Metroid Prime 2's multiplayer mode now works in the port. A new F1 > Multiplayer page lets you pick each player's controller and give every player their own button remap, presets, twin-stick setup, stick speeds, aim assist and gyro. The developer suggests trying it with enhancements like faster walking and fast morph. Also new in 0.8.0:- A Dodge binding for a sideways dash while strafing, with or without lock-on.
- New options: toggle Spider Ball, Aim Lock-On (locks the enemy nearest your crosshair, handy with gyro or touch aim), the left hand resting on the cannon when you stand still, Morph Ball black bars, and the crosshair in the Dark and Echo Visors.
- Fewer stutters on a first run: the game's shaders now compile in the background from the start, on desktop and Android.
- Save states now keep the room's layers, so loading one in the Battleground no longer replays its key event. Save states made in 0.7.0 won't load any more.
- Menus keep their titles and Confirm/Back prompts in 16:10 and 16:9.
Echoes Unbound 0.8.1: the crash fixes
0.8.1 fixes random crashes some players hit in 0.8.0 when going through portals, picking up keys or morphing. The cause was a scan visor bug that wrote past the end of its memory in larger rooms, which also left scannable objects stuck pulsing red or yellow until the room reloaded. Water no longer flickers or loses its refraction when something splashes into it. If you installed 0.8.0, update.
Metroid Prime 0.38.0
- A Grapple binding separate from lock-on, with a Toggle Grapple option (jumping lets go too), and Shoot While Grappling, on by default.
- A Spider Ball toggle, and Samus's left hand resting on the cannon when standing still, like the Trilogy version.
- Per-visor crosshair toggles for X-Ray and Thermal, a Morph Ball black bars option, and colours for the four Dread Samus suits.
- Music and sound effects volume can go above 100%.
- Android and slow GPUs: entering a world now prepares the shader pipelines of every room in it, so rooms behind doors no longer show up black or load their models late.
- More Metroid Prime Remastered graphics work, including Performance mode improvements and cheaper shading.
- Fixes for high simulation rates (footsteps, camera bob, jumps from rising lifts), an Archipelago item stuck in the floor, and the Android touch back arrow now sends B in menus with any pad preset.
What you need
Your own disc image. Echoes Unbound takes Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (USA G2ME01, PAL G2MP01) or Metroid Prime Trilogy (USA R3ME01, PAL R3MP01). Metroid Prime takes the GameCube game (USA GM8E01 revisions 1.00 to 1.02, PAL GM8P01) or Trilogy. No game files are included, and Overclocked doesn't link any. The Android APKs need arm64 (Metroid Prime asks for Android 9 or newer). Echoes Unbound is still an early release, so keep normal saves and report bugs with the log from F1 > System > Log. Download only from the official release pages: Echoes Unbound 0.8.1 and Metroid Prime 0.38.0. More native ports are in our ports directory.