Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Turtles in Time (Arcade) (Switch)

 

They're heroes in a half shell and they're green!

The second arcade game of TMNT games. Now Kraang appears on live television and steals the Statue of Liberty so the turtles suit up and fight on some construction that takes them to the sewer where Shredder sends them true a time portal to prehistoric time so the turtles gonna fight their way back to stop Shredder and his evil plans. After prehistory they end up on a pirate ship captained by the mutants from the second TMNT movie and then a train ride in the wild west. If I wouldn't know better it sounds like the music for this stage sounds like Sunset Riders? And coincidently they both came out in 1991. The boss is the alligator dude.

If it's the alligator dude I read in the comics he apparently was some small time thief that stole a crystal ball from a witch and while in New York dropped it into the sewer where he encountered the witch again and was turned into the alligator dude (I don't recall his name). That was terrifying as a kid and the worst part was that the comic was at least a 2-parter and we only had the first issue. So I don't know what happened.

After that they travel to the future, first a futuristic city on earth where they fight Kraang on a highway and then a starbase from the year 2100. After that back to 1991 and the final confrontation with Shredder. A much easier game, proven if not by a much lower death count. Started with 101 (added an extra life by accident) and ended on 52, almost 25 lives less spent on this game, and it felt like I did a lot better as well. A better game overall than the last game. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) (Switch)

They're the worlds most fearsome fighting Team!

Something short, the Arcade version of the Teenage Mutant Turtles game on the Cowabunga Collection for the Switch (and other platforms). A fire burst out in Apil's apartment so the shelled crusaders set out fighting through hordes of footsoldiers and mousers to rescue April and later on Splinter from Shredder, Bee-Bop and Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Kraang and... the rest of the bosses I don't recognise. After April's apartment it's the streets of New York, above and below followed by a factory that is the entrance to the Technodrome where the final confrontation of the Shredder. After his defeat the Technodrome explodes, our heroes escape and the game is over.

I was a huge Turtles fan as a kid, which is strange since we didn't have the series, but our neighbour had several of the episodes taped on a VHS. The ones I recall is one where some crazed scientist invents a machine that freezes people (where the ending is Donatello hanging frozen over a pit of acid or something) and one episode where a vase contained a genie (?). We got some comics from my cousins that also had the NES-game. The comics was based on the TV-series and not the original comics run or something. I got a Raphael toy with a motorbike that turned into a helicopter as well. And I saw the first two movies when we borrowed it from the neighbour when they came out.

Not much say about the game, short, brutal at least for one player (but it's solved with infinite continues). Started with something like 108 continues that ended somewhere just above 40. Would have liked a bit more recovering frames after each hit since I got pummeled over and over by the last bosses. No stake with the arcade version, but still,  quarter muncher is a rather telling description of the game.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Wii U)

 

LINK! He Came to Town!

He came to save the Princess Zelda!

As of writing it has just been Halloween and I have my yearly autumn semester to recharge the batteries after been working for 3 months straight (besides the one sick day due to Covid I got after the Swedish election). I intended to play Bayonetta 3, but my copy didn't show on time, and maybe that was good enough so that the controversies around it got known (and solved as far as I know). So I went on to my other choice of game that was Ocarina of Time which I haven't played in ages and that was for the 3DS. So I played it on the Wii U version since I have it on the TV (gotta use those 65 '' for something). 

So it begins with Link being woken by a fairy and a summon to the Great Deku Tree. The Tree have been cursed by a man from the desert so Link enters the tree to fight Gohma which is a throwback to one of the bosses of the first game (and I assume the entering the tree is also a reference to the first dungeon of the first game). Leaving you get the Kokirik Emerald and the quest to seek Princess Zelda in Hyrule Castle before the Deku Tree dies. Link leaves and find Zelda that send him to find the other spiritual stones, one is the Goron Ruby that you get from Darunia after saving the Gorons from the Dodonga infestation in their food cave where it was sealed by Ganondorf from the Gerudo desert... I think we found the one responsible for the death of the Deku Tree. The third stone is in Zora Domain, the Zora Sapphire that you get from Ruto after rescuing her from Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly after she got lost there. Returning with the stones to Hyrule Castle Link is almost run over by a fleeing Zelda and Impa (her nursemaid) that are being chased by Ganondorf, leaving you with the titular Ocarina of Time that you need to open the Gate of Time with the Song of Time in the Temple of Time to reach the Sacred Realm. But as you open the gate and find the Master Sword you are transported into the Sacred Realm and put to sleep for 7 years as Ganondorf followed you and take the Triforce and rules the land.

As you awake you are greeted by Rauru, the Light Sage and one of the Seven Sages who gives you the light medallion and sends you back to the Temple of Time, where you meet Shiek that instructs you to awaken the other 5 sages. You gotta travel to the Forest Temple to rescue Saria, your childhood friend of the kokiri, the fire temple where the Gorons have been abducted by Ganondorf to be feed to an ancient dragon if you and Darunia can't stop them. The Zoras meanwhile have been frozen in ice so you and Ruto gonna get to the Water Temple and restore Lake Hylia. After that you get back to Kakariko village that is under attack from the Shadow Demon Bongo Bongo that Impa sealed in the well, but now have escaped to the Shadow Temple. The last is the spirit temple that is beyond the Gerudo desert where you have to travel back and forth through time in order to save Naboro of the Gerudo from Twinrowa, the gerudo sisters that raised Ganondorf. After awakening all sages Shiek revels his true form as Zelda and the seventh sage. She gives you the light arrows and is immediately kidnapped by Ganondorf and taken to his castle. The sages creates a rainbow bridge that allows Link to enter where he once again destroy the six seals that allows the sages to destroy the barrier of darkness and allows Link to climb the tower where he face of against Ganondorf and rescues Zelda. After the battle the castle is collapsing so both of them flee and then Link has to face Ganondorf again, but this time as Ganon. In the end Ganon gets the Master Sword square into the head and Ganondorf is then sealed into the Sacred Realm by the sages. Everyone celebrates, Zelda sends Link back in time to live out the 7 years that was sacrificed so that he would defeat evil. The end!

Now the Children don't play!

But they will when Link saves the day!

HALLELUJAH!

It isn't as majestic as playing it for the first time back in 1998. I recall that dad got a call from the video game store that they had a copy left since it hadn't been claimed and I assume we weren't one of those that had a sure way preorder. He of course went and got it and he started up the game and played the first part in getting the sword and shield. It took us weeks to get through the first dungeon. I recall I was the first one getting to Gohma, but my arachnophobia got the better of me (plus I didn't get how to use the slingshot so I couldn't stun lock him fast enough). My sister got in second and defeated him so that we finally could leaves Kokiri forest. Dad was able to get Dodonga Caverns and we got to Jabu-Jabu, but I couldn't stomach (haha) the weird claustrophobic feeling inside with the jellyfish and tentacle monsters. I think we got the guide after that and it still took a long time, but I was able to get through the dungeon with a lot of coaching. So we probably already had the game for half a year at this point. With a guide. Then dad beat the Forest temple and I was able to get through the Fire Temple and after a lot of time got through the Water Temple, and then I stopped since we got to the Well and Shadow Temple, the scared little child I was couldn't handle that. Took me what, 4-5 years to get through the game and that was going on a restart and reading the guide from cover to cover (which took away some surprises like Sheik being Zelda, but since it took me 5 years it might have been excused). I recall finishing it in the summer when I was home after getting some chemical pollution at my summer work that made me sick. 

I wish I had it on a N64 mini console with the right controller, cause even though modern controllers are a bit more comfortable the fact that the game is rigged with the c-stick instead of c-buttons make certain aspects of the game harder. It's a bit flimsy with using the c-weapons if you happened to stray only a little (so I changed everything to c-> since it appeared to be the least messing up). Why not activate the d-pad for the c-stick as well so I at least could play the ocarina a little bit better? I had to change every button for the frog mini game since it didn't work with the stick. It at least forced me to learn how to close the tablet since I wanted to use my pro-controller. Especially since the battery is 80 hours compared to the 3-6 hours for the tablet, plus since my charge died a couple of years ago I had to use a usb-charger with separated cord, but sadly the charger gets a bit fried if it is on at the same time. So now I ordered a new charger that can handle the voltage. 

Game still decent, got 100 %..., well, I did't do the race to get the cow, but it was nothing you really needed anyway. Graphics are a bit dated, but I'm used to them and I find them rather charming. Music is amazing. Nothing beats entering the Temple of Time and hear the song of Time by that chanting choir. The dungeon themes on the other hand are all really eery and haunting. I would like them to get the 3DS version on Switch so that we can get the graphical update as well as better control schemes (getting iron boots on the c-buttons is a godsend in the water temple), maybe in a Zelda 3D All-Star Collection with Majora's Mask, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess? 

A DnD Tale: Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist - The Plot Thickens

They seek her here, they seek her there!

Those City Watch seek her everywhere!

So back into the campaign they are contacted once again by the Zehntarim Davil Starsong with yet another request, this time by getting some potions of mind reading and delivering it to a woman in a purple cloak. Easy Peasy and they earn some rather needed platinum to stabilise the economy. I mostly put it in here because it was a bit weirdly placed if you went through the chapters. Somehow it appeared like they at the end of the chapter they were in we either went from level 2 to 3 or 2 to 4. Which would screw up the game since the end of the chapter causes an event that affect Davil and take him out of the game and you are supposed to already gone past that part of the game, but I seemed to miss that. Anyway, they do the deed and start the wine delivery to the Gralhounds villa. 

 They appear in the middle of the day and knock the door to the inner garden of the villa. No sound. They enter and they hear a skirmish within the villa. They climb the balcony and find Yashal Gralhound and her bodyguard trying to block the door to the hallway as fighting happens outside. The gang agree, jumps down and enters through the kitchen and kills the two zhentarums in the hall and at the top of the stairs they see three Zhentarums fighting four guards while Lady gralhouse shouts that the city watch is on the way. They hear a sound from a nearby door where they rush in and find Urstul Floxin who tries to break down the door to a room where lord Gralhouse is hiding. They try to attack him, but truth be told I cheated a bit. Every hit landed that was supposed to land, but I gave him the ability to just run through them to get out. Didn't stop Freya to throw confusion on him, but I lucked out so that he was able to escape on his own until he shacked of the effect of confusion and could escape. I also gave him and the zhentarim full life (if they are supposed to be level 3 and they came up with level 8 I say that feels a bit more equal). Also, the zhentarim was able to push the guards into the bedchamber, block them and then began attack our heroes, which easily dispatch them anyway. All zhentarim are killed, but Floxin escapes out the garden and then the City Watch shows up and freezes the scene. 

Freeze, this is the City Watch! Hands over your heads!

The Watch is unable to capture Floxin, but is able to take statements from the survivors. The constables that have been on the case from the beginning make a snarky comment that the gang and them seems to run into each other a lot, but since they seems to have saved the Gralhounds they share some information with them what appears to have happened. The gang heads home. During the night Hope is contacted by Istrid Horn, Davils second in command that needs her help. Meeting at the cemetery the next day she tells her that Davil has been taken in for questioning by the City Watch as know operative for the Black Network. Istrid needs a place to hide during her Currency fraud and wants to stay at the gangs pub. She appears the next day completely dressed up like a male dwarf named Jorn that will stay with them for a tenday. Meanwhile the Emerald Enclave sends them on another mission to patrol the cemetery for a tenday in order to capture the Necromancer that have started troubles. After four days they are attacked by 6 skeletons that rises from their graves and they fight them off, the most damage on our heroes coming from their own attacks as Freya once again casts Confusion and hits all but one. They get paid for their job and then a couple of days later Istrid leaves the pub, paying for her full stay soo they are a bit awash in cash for the moment, so I gotta mitigate that. But first they make a visit back to the Gralhound Villa where they wonder if they should deliver the wine and also to get some information from Lady Gralhound. Freya decides to read thoughts and get the gist that the Gralhounds tried to kill Floxin that was injured from the fireball attack caused by the nimblewright that gathered the stone and now again was lost.

They recall they sent the private eye on a quest for looking into the necklace of fireball they found at the attack in Troll Skull Ally. They get to his office and he is a great way to get them to speed on everything they missed since they skipped the morgue scene as well as skipped most of the juicy information they could have gotten in the Gralhound Villa as well as alert them on the different factions fighting for the stone of Galorr. I also realise they wont like the search of the city for the nimblewright so I basically reveals his true form as a Rakshasa and gives them an opportunity to pay 600 gp and lend him the nimblewright device, which they do. And we pretty much quits there.

Things I think of adding later on the campaign. Pretty much do most of the factions quest since they add pieces to certain characters. For example they first meet the Black Viper giving her the potions of mind read in the beginning of this session, but she also appears in the Order of the Gauntlet quests and I know she appears in one of the main "dungeons" of the bad guys. They also been exposed to the necromancer that appears in the next chapter, but I'm thinking of bumping him up from a mage to a Wizard Necromancer (which I read in the Monster of the Multiverse as I put the statistics into my Ultimate Reference Guide that I uses to plan the battle encounters), it will at least be a bit more tuned to their level, even though I gotta put the cleric I made, Parker Bronzebeard, to heal and crowd control the undead. That will be fun.

The 7th Guest

 

Welcome to my House!

I actually thought I've already written about the game on this blog, I have but not on it's own, just mentioned in comparison to other games. The 7th Guest, the game to have for your new cd-rom computer back in 1993. My dad convinced my mom that they would get this game and she even commented on why should we get a game like this? Turns out it hooked her alright since she was the one sitting up late at night playing the game. So what is it about?

It's a puzzle game set in a horror story. It begins with telling the story of Henry Stauf, the toymaker who began with killing a woman and then gets visions of dolls and puzzles that he sell, but they apparently causes the death of children. With his money he builds a house on a hill and retire until one night where he has invited 6 guests to a night in the house where they are tasked with giving Stauf the one thing he wants and he will grant their greatest wish. And the thing he wants is the 7th guest, a boy that sneaked into the house, but ended up trapped.

All this is told through short sequences before or/and after solving the different puzzles around the house. It begins easy with dividing a cake in equal pieces and putting spiders on a pentagram or whatever. But after that we get harder and harder... well, mostly, I've played this game so much as a kid that several of the puzzles that have a sentence or such I know by heart, except the can puzzle that I still look up. The can puzzle is found in the kitchen where you are supposed to form a sentence, but the letter you have in abundance is Y. Not that easy to figure out when you hardly know english as a kid, I mean what does spryly mean? And don't get me starting on the different chess puzzles, the knights in the bathroom is kinda unnerving. And then we have the microscope puzzle which is pretty much unplayable now since the AI was wired to the speed of the computer, which today means it's really smart.

Well, I have to start again.

So you basically have to do the other way to clear puzzle, go to the library and read the hint book three times to clear the puzzle. You can do that for every puzzle, except the final one since you can't leave the room where that one is. Which gives another problem since the hint books is also the only way to get an explanation of how the puzzle works. And reading about the final puzzle (lighting windows in a three-story house) that would have made it understandable. 

Still, I like this game. It still looks good almost 30 years later and the music is eerily creepy. I don't get scared as I did as a kid, but the story has great potential and the actors really ham it up. ScummVM handles it very well. There was a sequel that we got our hand on, but sadly we couldn't get it to run beside the first puzzle or so, but then ScummVM seems to be on track to get it to work.