Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (Wii U)

 

Shouldn't it be Tripple Trouble?

Well, had to continue and Bananza didn't come to me on the Monday after release so I had one more evening. Didn't feel it as much in this game. On one hand from start to finish it is very close to the second game, but there is a lot more stuff to do, getting items to trade to find your way to the Secret Area and such compared to the second game where you just needed the money to pay. But at the same time it was straightforward. 

Story is that Donkey and Diddy disappeared in this new area so Dixie sets of to find them. Funky Kong gives you vehicles to traverse the area and Dixie Kong's cousin Kiddy Kong joins her. He's a stand in for Donkey. I liked the gameplay in the second game better for some reason. Maybe due to the things they tried was a bit more obnoxious like the area where you constantly gets shoot at or an area where you swim in poison water where your controls are reversed. I also feels that the stages from Donkey Kong Land 3 is rather different which also maybe gives me a pushback (or maybe since I played that game legit on my Game Boy Pocket I replayed the stages so much that it felt like they where more stages).

Maybe I'm fatigued after playing the whole series during a weekend or maybe that review in Super Play was right, it's not that good of a series. Or the fact that temperatures are reaching 30 degrees C might effect my enjoyment of the game.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Wii U)

 

The Revenge of King K. Rool.

Continued playing the second game. Basically Donkey Kong's been kidnapped by King K. Rool so Diddy and his girlfriend Dixie Kong sets out to save him. Cranky and Funky returns with them and some new Kongs like Wrinkly and Swanky. Pretty much returning animal buddies like Rambi, Enquarde, Sqwakes and new ones like the spider and snake. And I enjoy this game much more than the first game.

I think because they made it somewhat easier (still hard levels and such), but other things that helped the enjoyment. For one, every animal buddy can attack, compared to the ostrich in the first game. They made it more obvious where secrets are, both in the levels like with banana arrows or letters indicating what ability to use or hints you can get from Cranky. The bonus stage also had a title card for what you where supposed to do so it wasn't that obtuse. This allowed me get over 60 % this time around and my lives was at a full 99 (well, using the restore point I saved up on unnecessary deaths and such, but compare it to the first game when I only ended the game with something around 50 lives, you where supposed to grind for life I assume). 

On the other hand, since I've played Donkey Kong Land 2 a lot and actually finished that one I might have already learned some of the patterns it wasn't completely new to me. Don't like that you have to pay to save at certain points. Always made me stingy with the collectibles. It could also be that the duo Dixie and Diddy actually plays better. You switch characters with select this time around and can join up for some special move with A if both are in the party. 

So this is clearly a better sequel. Or it can be that I haven't gotten to play these games as much compared to the first one and I'm not good at the first one, meaning I never get past it. But we know that can't be the case.

Donkey Kong Country (Wii U)

Time for some monkey buisness!

I was gonna play Donkey Kong Bananza during my final weekend of my vacation, but yet again the postal services have betrayed me. So it will probably come when I started work again. Thanks for that. So what can I do to occupy myself these last days? Well, I got the whole Country-series on Wii U so that could be something. I got the game on GBA, Wii Virtual Console, 3DS, Wii U and SNES Mini and technically I got the Donkey Kong Land as well, but this is the first time I actually finish it for the first time. Only around 50 % since I haven't gotten all secrets and so on and I won't get them since I really don't like the game.

Story is that King K. Rool and his kremlings have stolen Donkey Kong's banana hoard so DK and Diddy sets out to get them back. Kranky Kong, Funky Kong and Candy Kong sets out to help our primate friends as they traverse all over DK Island in search for the golden bananas. It's rather hard and maybe why I don't like it. To often there is a new gimmick for the stage and you basically have to memorize the stages in order to get past them. I remember reading a review of... maybe the GBA game for the Swedish magazine Super Play where the reviewer apologized for ever thinking this game was good so it might have colored my perception as well. 

I got past the game mostly by abusing the save state function on the Wii U and in total the gameplay ended on less than 2 hours, but I assume that it maybe would have been a couple hours added since I restarted all the time. To finish it legit? Who knows how many hours I had to spend on it. Now, if I was a kid and played it as intended on SNES I might have forced myself to learn the patterns and such and have a completely different appreciation of the game. 

But to be more positive, it looks good with the graphics and the music is really good, but it plays a bit bad in my opinion. And the game is a bit evil with enemy placement, for example there is a couple of stages where before clearing a jump from moving platforms there is a big muscle guy you only can defeat with Donkey Kong since Diddy is to small, if you hit them as Diddy, they push you back into the pit, game over. And the bosses takes a lot of beating and with only two hits it's a question of pattern recognition. So you see, I'm not that impressed by the game.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

 

Clash of the Gaming Titans!

Yet another remake, this time of a Super Nintendo game, the very first Mario RPG, made by Square (now Square Enix). Originally not released in Europe until it was one of the first special Wii Virtual Console releases during a certain Japanese holiday and cost a bit more than the usual releases. I got it there and then they released it for the SNES Mini as well. Never finished either version. Only tried it on the Wii Virtual Console, but I fell asleep somewhere after the bow boss. Should probably finish it some day to see the differences from this game.

Story is that Bowser have kidnapped Princess Peach, but as Mario beats Bowser in his castle a gian sword falls from the sky and throws Mario, Bowser and Peach in different directions. Apparently the sword was sent by Smithy from Weapons land as he intends to take over the world. So Mario begins the rescue of the whole world.

First he meets Mallow a cloud boy that says he is a frog. He had a run in with a pick-pocket so you help him and you go back to his father, the frog sage that tells him that he really is adopted since the sage found him in the river so he took care of him. You also meets up with a living doll called Geno that have been possessed by a star entity to find the seven stars to restore the star road (that was smashed by the sword crashing down) so that wishes can be granted again.

I played to much D&D when this is what I think of as star entities.

You also recruit Bowser and Peach in order to stop this existential threat to the Mushroom kingdom and all others. You fight underwater shark pirates, climb to the clouds and fight off a usurper to the throne that belongs to Mallow, you traverse Star hill, fight some dwarf in a tower that tries to marry Peach and so on until you fight off Smithy in his weapon factory. Beat him and you win, a parade is shown and everyone lives happily again. 

It was a fun adventure. The changes made the game go a lot faster. For one, if you time your attacks right you get an area of effect that damage all enemies and that greatly speed up the game. I think that was what broke me last time, that I had to fight every individual enemy in a fight. You also can gather energy to a super attack with all three players in your party either do some buff or healing effect or do decent damage. Otherwise it's seems to be just graphics and music that is changed. Also they added cutscenes that was a bit more cinematic than the in-game cutscenes from the original. Interesting choice not to have any voice acting. You are able to play some post-game stuff and finish up unfinished quests, like what's behind the locked door in Monstro Town... OH NO!!!

I haven't been fooled like this since Final Fantasy V and the damn treasure chest!

Overall, I found it most enjoyable. Finally finished it for the first time. Really looking forward to the Thousand Year Door remake in 2024. Why I mention this is that the Paper Mario was the sequels to this game Nintendo made themselves and you can feel that the first Paper Mario really took a lot of the story like the seven stars and star road and incorporated it into that game. Due to the first Paper Mario being on the Switch as N64-game I have a hard time seeing that being remade. All I'm saying I got a craving for more Paper Mario. (This was of course played well before the announcement of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake)

E.V.O.: In Search of Eden (SNES)

Here's your invitation
Dirty rags and body bags
Evilution

Another SNES classic and another 16-bit Gem recommended game. This game comes from Enix with music from the same creator that made all the Dragon Quest music until he died, Koichi Sugiyama. So that at least is good. Honestly, not that impressed by the game after playing through it, but the music was good.

So it starts with the sun tasking Gaia to... I don't really know. She tasks you, the player, to help her with the evolution of the species of the earth. So you start of as an eel at the beginning of life on earth in the sea, and from there you gotta eat other animals in order to get EVO-point in order to evolve different parts of your body. I assume if I had an instruction manual I might have gotten a better idea out of this system, but I didn't get one. 

But evolution is tied up by bosses at each section that you have to defeat to get through. I got to the shark boss and got trounced. It's not easy. I might think that me not understanding the evolution system is the thing that made me loose the fight. I got the most expensive upgrades and I don't know if I should have gone for high damage and speed instead of the slower but more robust fish. But guess what? I got this for my Retron-5 and you know what that means? Yes, cheats. Infinity HP. Still, the boss takes forever to get through and that's when I understood that I won't enjoy this if I play it as intended.

The game doesn't have that much to offer actually since it's basically eat for EVO-points, upgrade your character to an appropriate creature and defeat the enemies and in reality, the only enemies you have to defeat is the bosses, you can skip every enemy in the normal stages, but you need the EVO-points since every evolution change needs it, meaning it's a real grind to get enough points to upgrade. Doesn't help that you loose half of your points if you are defeated. So to avoid the grind what do you do? Infinite EVO-points! Evolve how ever you want trying to get optimal creatures... doesn't help me since the stats still seems to be very low compared to what you have to accomplish in later part of the game.

So after crawling out of the sea you begin walking with amphibians and dinosaurs until the asteroid hits. Defeat some mammoths in the ice age and suddenly you have a flying fortress with sky people that evolved with the help of some crystals they got. The insects in prior age also mentioned having been given crystals so Gaia believes someone is tampering with Earths evolution... like we are doing I assume? You enter the final age right before mankind and fights several crystal bearing enemies, like the Rogan in the sea that are killing of the whales and the lizard people... beside the conspiracy theories, I get flashbacks to Ys VIII and the different extinction events they showed.

Right before Eden, the final area where the lizard people live you gotta defeat Cro-Maine which I believe is a pun on Cro-Magnon, the name for the early human race. Glad my biology and history knowledge from school still recall these facts. You fight through the lizard people and face of against the big boss, a one-cell abomination called Bolbox that have taken every crystal and evolved to the thing it is.

Kill it with fire!

After a very long fight (I had evolved into a human at this point, and that had somehow locked me into continue being a human for the rest of the game) trying to fight of Bolbox and the harder minions he spit out I stand triumphant looking out over Eden as Sol, the sun, grants me intelligence and the start of human civilisation. And then we see the ones handling out crystals to try to speed up the evolution of Earth.... martians. Damn aliens. Overall, it's an interesting game, but the grind and difficulty over a, in reality, very shallow game makes it to much to stomach for my taste. 

Mario's Super Picross (Wii U)

 

I'M MELTING! I'M MELTING!

So, 2023 Nintendo is gonna close the Wii U and 3DS eshops, so now with disposable income and a years knowledge in advance, I had to go through and buy games I was on the fence on to get my hand on the games. Especially since I don't want a repeat of Super Adventure Island 2 where I missed to get it on the Wii virtual console, forcing me to pay 100 $ or € instead of... I don't know, was there 15 €/$ for SNES games on the Wii? Doesn't matter, I will get the most out of my Wii U and 3DS. 

So, basically this is a puzzle game. I think I saw the Game Boy version back in the 90's when looking for Game Boy-games. What I didn't get was that it was completely in Japanese. So I guess it was released on one of those festival releases where we could get some really interesting games, like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy and other games. Well, I don't speak Japanese, but does it stop me? No, the gameplay is pretty much like the puzzle portion of Murder by Numbers and fidgeting around in the choice at the start of Mario levels I get that it gives you hints in payment with lowered time. Should explain that there is two modes, either Mario levels or Wario levels. Mario gives you a 30 minute timer while Wario gives you endless time (as far as I know), which should make Mario harder, but I get that it is easier puzzles than Wario that gets you to guess at times and doesn't tell you if it's right or wrong.

There's cutscenes between certain levels, but I don't know what they said. I found out that there was 300 different puzzles. I think it overstayed i's welcome a bit since I wanted to get out of the game after 250 puzzles or something like that. I guess you at least got a rather long puzzle game, I had to play it over 4 weeks (might have been a bit faster if I hadn't to be social). Still, it was fun to play for a while, especially when I got things like Orion or the big dipper before the picture was finished. Well, guess there will be more of these reviews of odd games I pick up.

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES)

Should have gone with Lufia 0.

Another German game cart that I had to patch so I could read the damn thing. Also another of the Clan of the Grey Wolfs reviews. I actually thought I had got Lufia I: Fortress of Doom since the cartridge just says Lufia, but when I checked it out Lufia I was never released in Europe. Which is sad, but at least doesn't confuse people since Lufia II is a prequel to I that ends where Lufia I starts. Why make it easy?

So the game follows Maxim, a boy travelling the world for adventure. Apparently he is a really strong human and he gathers a party of other strong individuals to stop the Sinistrals, four beings of evil that threatens destruction on the world due to the dual blades started ringing. One thing that the German original translation probably gets more correct than the english is that the Dual Blades actual name is Lufia... it's gotta be, otherwise the name has no purpose in the story, or maybe it's something in Lufia 1 cause the game ends with a to be continue after some dialog from someone named Lufia.

In reality the story is kinda bland and the dialog is really bad. It's very simplistic. The graphics on the other hand is really good, the intro sequence especially. That was my first hint that this might not be the first game since it looked too good. Music is also bland, except the sinistrals theme, it rules. Although I will probably remember the boss and battle themes for a while. Gameplay beyond the normal RPG is that you also have overworld items that work like Zelda-games for some puzzle solving, which is rather fun, but I found certain puzzles a bit of a stretch, but maybe I'm just impatient as an adult.

As noticed, I probably don't have much to say about it. It's just go to the next town, find the right person that opens up the nearest dungeon and after that return to the town to open up the road to the next town and so it goes on. Very walled in. I miss a map as well when you finally get a boat since it's rather easy getting lost on the high seas. I also think the language patch screwed with some of the graphics since the credit crawls was all white lines and name of equipments in the equipment screen would get strange. Beside the main quest you could also gather 8 dragon eggs for the dragon, which I didn't do since it would unlock a super boss that I don't really would like to fight. Then we had the ancient cave. A randomly generated 99 level cave where you start from level 1 and has to fight your way down to level 99. Now with save stats you take the pressure away and thank god for that since the last 20 levels are horrible with the damn MP stealing attacks or insta kill spells. 

It has it's charm, but I don't find it that interesting. Maybe not worth the 100 $ or € I paid for this.

Super Adventure Island II (SNES)

Interesting choice to have all the bosses front and centre.

And yet another game that was reviewed by the Clan of the Gray Wolf. A bit simpler this time compared to the RPG:s. Master Higgins together with his wife Tina is on a honeymoon cruise (on a raft) in some tropical islands when a storm struck, separating the lovers and causing both to have amnesia. And then Tina is saved by the king and wants to marry her, but on the wedding day a giant buzzard appears and kidnaps her. And Master Higgins just happens to appear as an adventurer and gets the job to rescue Tina. So he travels through the 6 islands until he can climb the mountain on the last island where he rescues Tina from the buzzard but some alien space scorpion is behind it all so you... is sent back to the starting island where they heal you up and then you gotta climb the mountain... again, to fight it... I think it's called padding in the industry. Save Tina and both fly away on a balloon afterwards as credits roll. 

The game plays like a Metroidvania, Wonder Boy or Zelda II if you like. Begin with your bare fist and then collect weapons and armours, some of the weapons you need to solve puzzles or get past obstacles. Mostly fun, but it tends to pad out things I feel when you need to flip switches on different islands and such, and do it several times.  The maps aren't that useful either, would gladly have seen the passageways to different islands to make travel a bit easier. The worst problem though is to me the controls. Not how the games play, but damn menu controls. Don't know how many times I pushed back and forth to do what I was supposed to do. And why couldn't they map the map to L or R or even some quick change of weapons since I constantly had to go in and change for certain bits. Just annoys me. 

Overall it wasn't a bad game. Short enough so that it doesn't bothers me that much. Could also be that the beginning game was much harder up until I found the casino and rolled the slots with some save scumming to get triple 7:s and buy the best equipment, which made the last couple of bosses maybe a bit too easy. But I don't care really. Great music in some stages like the ice island and the final level. Sad thing is actually that this game was released on the Wii Virtual Console, but I didn't get it since I didn't care that much for these kinda games at the time and when they closed the Virtual Console down I was unemployed and had no cash to go on a shopping spree to pick up maybe good games. Would probably have saved me the 100 € or 100 $ I payed for the physical version.

Terranigma (SNES)

As a drifter I was born to walk alone!

An' I've Made Up My Mind, I Ain't Wasting No More Time!

Yet another of the 16-bit Gems games that I could get a hold off. This one I had to get from a german seller through Amazon and then use the emulation capabilities of the Retron 5 and get a german to english translation patch. And still it went for something like € 80, and it was just the cartridge. Wish I could go back in time and hit my stupid self in the head for choosing the Mega Drive (on the other hand, don't think I would have picked up this game anyway). So this is Terranigma, released at the final days of the SNES before the N64 and interesting enough wasn't released in the US. Which probably explains why there is only german versions to get since the english copies have been picked up by the Americans.

So it begins in the village of Crysta as Ark is awakened by Elle, his childhood friend. He walks around and opens the door the elder told the village to never open. Inside lies Pandora's Box containing... Yomi... a creature I guess? Then the whole village turns to crystal beside Ark and the elder. The elder tells him to climb the 5 towers around the village in order to awaken the world above since, shocker, we are in the underworld. Climb the towers, rescue the villagers and as you awakened the surface world the elder tasks you to resurrect all life. And the first thing I do is run over to Elle, who has locked her inside her workshop since she cries over the thought of Ark leaving... nice sending me away game. So you jump through a hole in the ground and ends up in the Amazon, on our earth. No plants so you enter the dead tree Ra to destroy the parasite within the tree so that the flowers can grow again. You also can speak to the plants and they guide you to Colorado North America where monster birds have taken over the skies. Fight them off and you released the birds from their captivity. And they in their turn fly you to the African Savannah where you gotta fight off a storm god, resurrect all living beast and then rescue a lion cub. The last task is climbing Himalaya and defeat some shapeshifter in order to awaken humanity from its slumber as the animals builds a bridge over the Indus river. 

The battle leaves you sleeping for three years (no worry, the animal bridge still stands) in Lhasa where the Dalia Lama watches over you. So you set out making sure that towns and villages expand and progress as within the span of the game they go from medieval technology to 20th century. Most important is probably Loire, a french town where the princess looks like Elle and is named that as well. The king of Loire is looking for a fiancé for the princess and if one can make her speak again one can marry her. Turns out that the king actually stole Elle from the Scandinavian town of Stockton (a play on Stockholm I assume) after slaughtering the other villagers. As Ark helps the princess regain her ability to speak, and the memories of the destruction of Stocktorn, the princess in the night kills the king and escapes with her loyal knight to the Americas. Now, the thing with Stockton is that it's also a replica of Crysta, the village Ark grew up in. How can that be?

In the Americas you rescue an airplane inventor so that you can travel to Moscow where an evil cult worshipping the mad scientist Berluga lives. Apparently a Nobel Peace Price winner for his work in immortality....??? Why didn't he get the Nobel Price in medicine or chemistry? Why Peace? Still, turns out that he created a virus called Asmodeus that works more like a chemical weapon... I assume. He put himself in cryo and Ark awakens him, which causes city of Neotokio to be attacked by Berluga, killing all living humans there. Once again Ark is saved by the Dalai Lama and sets you on course of finding five starstones and take them to the end of the world which is Antarctica. The ritual forces Ark to be reborn (?) and taken care of by Elle who have returned to Stockton (time is really lenient here), but he is kidnapped by the underwolrd Elle together with Yomi who was sent by the elder to kill Ark, but Elle can't do it since she loves Ark and sacrifices herself. Returning to the world Ark joins with the friends he made during the adventure on an attack on Berlugas tower in Siberia where they assault his flying ship and crashes it, after Berluga ends skewered by a propeller. And so Ark descends back into the underworld to fight against the elder who is none other than Dark Gaia, satan himself. Defeating the big crystal butterfly allows Ark to see his village one last time, before going to sleep and the whole underworld disappearing. 

I was amazed by this game, describing the story doesn't make it justice. Playing it I felt spiritual. The music and the graphics are fantastic. The resurrection scenes works of art and the philosophical themes behind them moved me. Best parts are the two first chapters, after resurrecting humanity it got a bit boring as the game slowed down with the progression of the towns. Could also be due to right before the humans are awakened the game hits you with an avalanche and you gotta spend the night talking to a mountain goat that just lost her husband and tells you to eat him to survive and then when she is able to break through a wall it just allows you to escape and the goat has to stay behind, slowly dying at her husbands side. Oh way game do you make me feel for a goat I just met? What it misses a bit is the expectation that progress is beyond everything when it comes to civilisation as it's measured by this german economist in every town. Now, it could be argued that since we are sent out by satan that it might be the reason. People expand businesses and all, but some seems to detest the prosperity since they have to fulfil demands beyond their control and just work. Kinda sad life. Then again, as Chicago burns down and you travel the world with letters for funds, who do you go to? All the people you helped, giving me at least the impression that progress allows charity, which I can agree on. If you don't have anything to share, how else would it work?

It took me 20 hours to beat this game, but I used the save state function to test out certain aspects as to avoid getting damaged or as with the end boss, see what works. One aspect I wasn't keen on was the magic system. You craft rings with magical stones you find. Now, I thought that if you used it you lost it, but as to a comment I read you actually got the stones back and can use them for more magical rings. Now the problem with the magic system is that I need to stand in the right place for certain rings and use the ring within the ring box in the inventory, not allowing me to see use it as a quick command (I think, hard to know without a manual). Also, I used rings only for the Bloody Mary boss and thought that since the final fight got nearer I just get as many rings as possible. Guess what? Can't use magic against the final boss... then what's the point of magic? Still, amazing game. The experience itself is worth it. The last thing I want to add, since I just thought of it, was an idea around the name. Since Terranigma seems to be a portmanteau of terra and enigma, meaning the puzzle of the earth, meaning the world pretty much. I can't help but like it, must be the snobbery of the liberal elite I resonate with.

Illusion of Time (SNES)

Finally, a PAL-version!

Released as Illusion of Gaia in the US I first heard of it by watching the Clan of the Gray Wolf as it was the first game in the 16-bit Gems-series. So watching that back in 2009 one would hope it would be released on the Virtual Console or something, but that never happened so I had to buy it for the original console now when I can play it. Got box and manual, but decided to not get the version with the map in it, saved me over 400 SEK (something like 40 € or $). 

So you play as Will, a boy that one year earlier travelled with his father to the tower of Babel, but the expedition disappeared but Will made it back somehow. Now he has some psychic powers that allow him to move things and I gather giving him some second sight. One day he finds a door to inter-dimensional pocket where Gaia exist, a spirit that warns Will that a comet is approaching earth and it will cause immense destruction as it does every 800 years. It has caused several civilisations through earths history being destroyed and in the beginning it was created by humans, but backfired on its creator. So now Will is a descendent of the knights of Darkness and with his power of Darkness have to travel the earth and search the ruins for the mystic statues.

Now the fun thing is that the ruins and world is based on real locations, like the Incan empire, Nazca, Angkor Wat, the Pyramids and so on. Something bothered me though, the world map doesn't correspond with our map so somehow Nazca and the Inca are two different continents, you walk from the great wall of China to the city of Euro (with the company Roleks, which I gather is a rewrite of Rolex) and from there you get to Angkor Wat and then you get to the pyramids. But the story actually explain it. The end shows how the world forms the continents we know of. Apparently the light of the comet caused the world to change away from what it was supposed to evolve into so that is part of why Will have to clear this mess.

On this journey Will will travel with Kara, the princess of the kingdom where Will lived, Lance, Erik and Seth, childhood friends of Will, Lilly, a new friend that can turn into a dandelion and hails from a hidden village near the lost Incan Empire. Also Will's cousin Neil that are an inventor and the son of the President of the Roleks company. They travel the world for the ruins and sees how the comet's light have destroyed the past and is doing the same now. The people around Angkor Wat is starving as the food have disappeared and some even turns to demons (I wonder if the food is referencing some kind of real world food shortages in South East Asia, like Cambodia?), the ancient Mu palace was overtaken by vampires, the Roleks company is partaking in a world spanning slave trade originating from the desert town of Dao and Kara's father sends the hunter Jackal after them in order to obtain the powers Will possess for himself. In the floating city we see people partaking in a Russian Roulette game of poisoned drinks where the loser even though he has a child on the way still drinks the poisoned glass and everyone around begs him to stop. Will himself isn't always that good either since a side-quest that span the whole game is finding these 50 red jewels and give them to the jeweller for power ups and a secret area and boss. One of the gems is snitching on an escaped slave to the slavers, and the slave and the ones hiding him disappears. And the Jackal? You burn him to death by activating a trap in the pyramids. The scene is rather gruesome!

FIRE! I take you to burn!

Gameplay wise, you go around towns until you get to go to a ruin where you traverse it solving puzzles and fighting monsters. Clearing all monsters in a room gives you a stat boost in either life, strength or defence. Will fights with a flute and can play musical melodies as well as being more acrobatic with slides and spinning jumps. Will can also change into two different forms helping him. First is the dark knight Freedan that is stronger and can reach switches further away and then Shadow, the one destined to fight the comet in the end and can go through floors. Used in only one dungeon and for the boss rush at the end, making it feel like the game was rushed a bit. They also just gives you the final mystic statue so you can reach the comet, but I wonder if they where supposed to put in Stonehenge as well as a final stage since they show it in the intro.

Overall, it was a fun game. Graphics are nice, music is good, and the gameplay is rather good. It wasn't that hard, but that could be due to having a guide at the end of the manual showing you every red jewel and some strategies for defeating the early bosses. So I wasn't cheating since the game came with it... maybe the save states actually count towards it, but mostly it saves me maybe one day of play. Would I 100 % it again? Maybe not, getting the red jewels only serve to connect the game with its spiritual predecessor Soul Blazer... which I probably wont get since it goes for over 1 000 SEK (ca € 100). It also is very linear so no instant re-playability I would say. Also, I question if it's actually an RPG, yes you have stat increases, but they are predetermined by killing all monsters in every room, so I would define it more as an action adventure. 

Super Metroid (SNES Classic)

 

Killing the Dragon Again!

Yet again finished Super Metroid, this time for the SNES Classic Mini. Apparently I haven't written about it before, but I can swear I finished it on the Wii U? Played it the first time on Wii and as stated Wii U and have it also for the New Nintendo 3DS. First entry in the series was Metroid Fusion for the GBA. So, on one hand, yes, the game has its moments. You get the Metroid experience that you expect, much improved after Metroid and Metroid II, both graphically and gameplay wise. On the other hand, I prefer Fusion and Zero Mission with the climbing and jumping ball (I didn't find a power-up for that in this game, and that makes the it rather irritating going around). Also, even though you have more buttons, the newer games with limited buttons actually made it easier to switch between the different weapons, don't know how many power bombs I've used when I just wanted to use a normal bomb. And then we have the fact that the space jump and wall jump don't allways connect. Especially when trying to jump upwards, more often that not I can't continue the momentum for some reason and then it's start over from the beginning.

Now, the story continues right from the last game, Metroid II. Samus Aran have destroyed all metroids on planet SR388 except a newborn hatchling that follows her around. She takes it to a federation research station, but just after leaving she gets a distress signal from the station where they are attacked by space pirates. Samus encounter a resurected Ridley that steals the metroid and heads back to planet Zebes from the first game. There you travel around the i terior of the planet to get power-ups and defeat bosses so that you can enter Tourian and defeat Mother Brain. Mother Brain on the other hand have assembled some kind of monster suit that she wrecks you with until the metroid appears and drains Mother Brain and gives it to Samus. Mother Brain kills the metroid and Samus now armed with a special laser destroys Mother Brain, escapes the explosion and saves some animals (of course you do) and then it's on toward Metroid Fusion.

I really felt more irritated with this game. It takes a long time before ammo for the rocket launcher feels like I can handle most things. It could be that I played the more modern games a lot more and therefore have no problem knowing where they are and therefore is a bit more powered up. It's a good game, but I probably play the other games before this again.

SNES Classic Mini

Can't stop with just one!

Of course, the SNES Classic Mini was probably more valued right from the get go with both Star Fox and Yoshi's Island being part of the package together with the never released before Star Fox 2. Star Fox and Yoshi's Island where games we got for the SNES back home but never was rereleased on virtual console. We got Yoshi's Island from the Game Boy Advance port released on the Wii U virtual console as well as the ambassador program for the 3DS and it has its merits, but it just feels nicer to have the original. All in all 21 games and two controllers in the package. No need for an extra product to buy to enhance the experience. The only games I haven't bought and played before is the 2 Kirby games and Street Fighter II. Of the games we had as a kid the only one missing is the Super Mario All-Star (the others being Zelda, Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island and Star Fox called Star Wing in Europe). Games I would like that isn't here might be the other Donkey Kong Country-games, Chrono Trigger, Actriser, Illusion of Gaia... well, rather many fantasy JRPG that would really tick off some people I guess. 

We got the SNES back in 1998 as dads 40th birthday come... mostly due to him complaining that I got a Mega Drive instead when I got the chance and on one hand I had a bit of buyers remorse since I'm more of a Nintendo player, but it was black, had Sonic and probably the first sign of independence for myself. Still, this one was the one I was intended to get anyway. Same problem as the NES Classic and that is that the Classic Controller is preferable when I can switch games without leaving the couch. And yet, the controllers are really nice. 

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (3DS)

The Gold Standard

Seeing a lot of randomisers out there being played by the favourite pastime of youtubing I got a bit of craving for playing the original game. And since it's the time of easter while playing this I had nothing else to do while stuck at my parents place for the holiday besides eating. And I could have hooked up the family SNES, but then I would have to take a break for the news and movies on the TV, but I brought my trusty New 3DS with its new battery loaded with all the games I bought during the years and never played. Time to resolve that.

Nice with a long holiday to play some video games.

Now, this game set the standard for Zelda games for a long time. Gather 3 items to unlock the master sword and then several dungeons to get to Ganon and defeat him and get the triforce to set everything right. Today I can finish the game around 10 hours in a run, but back in 1998 when we got it for the first time it took years. Mostly due to my scaredy-cat attitude. The first three dungeons fine and all, but the dark world scared me for some reason. And the dungeons where really scary. Lost woods was probably the worst, and if it wasn't the gibdos it's probably the wall-masters and the damn shield eaters... I don't know if it was like likes, but it ate my shield non the less. The graphics are pleasant, the music fantastic and the story is gripping enough and sent my mind soaring as a kid. It's still my number 1 Zelda-game. Which maybe shows that we bought this game 5 times (including the Wii U upgrade cost if you got it for the Wii first). If we look at the Game Boy Advance remake, do I miss something from it? Not really. Maybe that Maple isn't the witch assistant since otherwise it looks like every other magic shop salesman. I don't need the blonde hair or Ocarina of Time screams to enjoy the game, but it was at least portable, but my 3DS handles that well enough.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past

Already wrote about 1 and 2 so let's continue.

The first Zelda-game I actually finished. Didn't play it until 1998 when we gave it together with a Super Nintendo and Yoshi's Island to my father for his 40 year birthday (in October). And the same christmas my oldest little sister got Madonna's Ray of Light-album. Which she listened to on the stereo. At that time I've had reached the Tower of Hera (I was 10 years old, I was bad at video games) so "The Power of Goodbye" is to me the soundtrack of the game. Took me probably around 2-3 years to finish. This is pretty much the game that standardised how a Zelda-game is structured as well as geographical with Hyrule Castle in the middle and Death Mountain to the north. And we get Kakoriko village, Lost Woods and Lake Hylia although they tend to shift placement between games.

Hyrule, in 16-bit!!!

So the game starts a rainy night when Link awakes to a telepathic message from princess Zelda that she is captured in the castle dungeon. Link's uncle apparently heard it to since he headed out first and told Link to stay home. Sweet, easiest game ever. They should have made an option for a bad ending directly like they did in Golden Sun if you declined the call to get the Emerald Stars back and left the sanctum. Since you have to you go up and heads out. Now, I've played several different versions of the game through the years, the original, Game Boy Advance version with added characters and the Four Sword-multiplayer game, and then virtual console release for Wii, Wii U and 3DS. The Advance version is pretty much the better version in the story department since it adds certain elements. For example, in the beginning the soldiers doesn't look like the soldiers you fight. They also gives a more creepy element to the overtake of Hyrule by Agahnim. Some of them have noted how the attitude of some soldiers have changed and they were actually afraid.  Really nice touches. Sorry for the side-track. So you go to the castle, find the uncle who give you your sword and shield, rescue Zelda, take her to a priest/sage that tells the story of the Master Sword, the Triforce and the Sealing wars that trapped Ganondorf in the Dark World. You set out and get 3 artifacts that lets you get the Master Sword. You confront Agahnim and surprise surprise he transports you to the aforementioned Dark World. So you get two worlds in one... which Nintendo have reused in several games.

Where have I seen this before?

The thing about the Dark World is that it transforms everyone who enters into what their heart really is. And Link is for some reason a rabbit. A pink rabbit. I have no idea why. Could be cultural differences of what a rabbit imply. So to counter this you picked up a mirror that transport you back to the light world and a pearl that negates the effect unless you get cursed. So you travel to 7 different dungeons and gathers the 7 crystals containing the descendants of the 7 sages that sealed Ganondorf and allowed Agahnim to get him out. The final one being princess Zelda and she instructs you to enter Ganon's Tower using the 7 sages. You fight Agahnim and again, surprise surprise Agahnim is actually Ganon who escapes to the pyramid you first entered the Dark World in and gets ready for the showdown. Now, I can't recall if any of the sages stated it, but you actually must have the silver arrows which you find in another opening of the pyramid that you blow up with a special bomb. I think some NPC's tells you about it, but that I see as a small fault of the game since it's easy to miss and that must be the reason in later games with the light arrows you either find in one of the final temples or Zelda pretty much gives you or uses it herself so you don't have to go on a scavenger hunt. You kill Ganon and makes your wish to the Triforce and restores Hyrule.

Well, until 2013 when they released A Link Between Worlds

This is probably my favourite Zelda-game since it was the first I finished, I like the graphics and playing this didn't overwhelm me as the 3D-games did to me in the beginning. Add great music and a rather new story... for its time and my age. And certain side-quest are actually gripping. You have the boy who lies sick and gives you the net (I actually thought he was dying), father who wishes to see his son again and the son actually is trapped as a bird in the Dark World where you get his ocarina back and he turns into a tree. There's a lot of those moments. The sage dies, kidnapped women and so on. It's a sad and dark world. And you have to save it. I'm really invested in this world and I actually dared entering it since I felt I had control of the world. Although it took me 2-3 years to finish it... and replaying it tops it out on 10 hours. 

Earthbound

 

So I finally finished Earthbound, THE cult game that everyone spoke of and with Ness (a character possessing strong psychic abilities) in Super Smash Bros poked everyone's interest who hadn't played the game, including me. So Nintendo finally released the game for the virtual console all across the world so the first thing I got from the virtual console when I bought the Wii U was this game since I was clearly interested. That was half a year ago and I finished it this Sunday. I gotta say, I will probably be threatened by the Earthbound fans, cause it wasn't really my thing... Please don't kill me! Really, I can see why so many like it. It's charming, charming as hell, the music, the world, the characters and all the wacky things that happens. Sadly it isn't enough for me to say this is the best game of all time. Let us begin with the story. A meteor hits outside your house so you go out investigate and later meet up with your obnoxious bully neighbor Pokey. There you meet Buzz Buzz, an intergalactic police bee that tells you about Giygas, this alien overlord that will conquer earth if Ness doesn't stop him. Buzz Buzz gets killed by Pokey's mother and you set out to finish the job. On the way you meet Paula, another psychic and apparent love interest (well they appear to be around 10 years old so not much more than close friends, but still), Jeff scientific engineer  and Poo, a psychic martial artist and future king of some enlightened society.

One reason I might not get this instant love might be the rpg sin for leaving the game for a month or two before continuing, putting me in the dark at certain times on where I'm supposed to go and what some things do. Still, didn't stop me from enjoying the final battle. This gonna be spoilers so heads up if you care. So to fight Giygas you must travel to the center of the earth in a transporter. There you find out that it isn't enough since you need to travel back in time as well by putting your soul into robots (almost a reversed Terminator time travel). You find Giygas and Pokey who (for some reason) appears to be the brains behind Giygas since Giygas have gone mad for some unknown reason (how Pokey got there I didn't quite get). You fight of Pokey which leaves you alone with Giygas. To defeat Giygas you need Paula to use Pray (the game gives you a hint by making Pokey mock you that no one will save you and you are all alone so you are supposed to get that you "pray for help" even though as far as my understanding went Pray only gave you some small HP recovery, figure that out) that will ask your friends and families you meet on the journey for aid, in the end that isn't enough. So Paula prays out into a void a couple of times. First her prayer disappears, but then it grows stronger and stronger and this unknown character hears this and joins in the praying. Each time a couple of letters gets displayed until the whole name is shown, showing the name that you entered as your name, meaning it's you who prays. That's pretty neat. Must have been rather unique at that time to put you the player in. Today I can mention Baiten Kaitos and Bravely Default that have done it even more (I won't say better, but put more hints of it into the game that you as a player guided the main characters). Your prayer deals huge amount of damage and kills Giygas. The characters souls return to their bodies, the group goes there separate ways and Ness takes Paula home and then goes home himself and tells his mother about his adventure by showing her the album a photographer made during the journey. And then after the credits roll the game seems to start over, but when you open the front door you get a letter from Pokey telling Ness to try and catch him. The End...? A damn cliffhanger. Well, lets see if it takes another 20 years until we get Mother 3 (or even Mother 1) to the rest of the world.

So the story is fine, the ending is good so what's the problem? Small things that just irritates me, but first let's discuss the good gameplay aspects. No random encounters, and best of all, if you are over leveled and you accidentally walked into a low level enemy the screen goes black and the enemy auto-dies. THANK GOD! Best rpg mechanic ever. The HP/PP counter is neat (if you get hit the counter rolls down and if you are fast enough you can reverse a deadly hit with a cure spell or such). The bad then, why isn't there a window or button that lets you see that the different healing spells does? Do I have to memorize it (or use a guide by the side)? It's get obnoxiousness if one character starts to cry and I chose to use healing alpha instead of healing beta wasting a turn and some PP, all because I couldn't memorize what spell does what. Also equipping weapons. Mostly Ness is affected by this, but it's still irritating. Some weapons miss a lot more than others. Do you see a lowered accuracy indicating that is the problem? No. Use a damn guide that anyone that bought it in the US back in the day got. Just irritates me. And now the most irritating thing ever, the damn self-destruct enemies. In Final Fantasy, bombs for example will self-destruct on you if you push them into the danger zone without finishing them giving you a tactic of giving all to avoid damage. Here, if you kill them they will self-destruct on you, making you taking damage whatever you do (if you aren't over leveled so you kill them without a fight). And guess what, the end-game is riddled with them, draining your HP and PP all the way to the final boss. It just frustrated the hell out of me. That's not good gameplay, cause I can't do anything against it, except run. Also the teleport mechanic means you either need a straight line or big area to run around in to activate it. More often then not I run into something, waste my PP and need to redo it. Small things like that is probably why I'm not overjoyed, and the hype around it probably didn't help. Maybe a second playthrough in the future without month long absence make me appreciate it more. Again, don't kill me!

Mario Kart 8

 

I usually try to write about games that I finished, but it's rather hard when you have a game like Mario Kart 8 which technically has no end since it's supposed to be a multiplayer experience. Well, good enough they do have a end credit scene when you unlock all stages and win on them. Which I've done on the 50cc. As most current Nintendo games it looks fantastic and fun music. The gimmick for this game is the gravitation mechanic so at certain points you can go up in the ceiling or walls. Since I missed out on the 7th game driving under water and flying with a glider or parachute is new as well. The flying mechanic took me until the very last stage I played to figure out since I tend to push forward all the time on my controller when driver to placebo myself into thinking I'm driving faster. This makes the flying portions diving right into the ground. I didn't think it was something wrong until I missed the jump at the airport every single time... as Toad... one of the lightest characters in the game. I figured something was fishy so the following stage I just pushed it backwards when flying and what do you know... I actually flew a bit. That's neat. Maybe should have read the instructions.

Still, maybe it's the fact that I'm playing on my own, I find it kinda boring at times. Maybe it's me playing on easy since the AI isn't up to the challenge so I should probably play with something more tougher. With other real players it gets more intense, this I know since I played all the retro stages with one of my sisters. And that was fun... mostly since I reigned supreme on most courses, all though we very often switched first plays with each other.

Then we have the DLC. First we have the Mercedes cars. I have it, but don't bother with it and isn't probably bothered with it either. The other ones though that doesn't come out until November and May I preordered for some reason. Why I don't know since I'm not that huge of player when it comes to this game. Maybe if I had a social life worth talking about it might be a reason, but I prefer playing alone. Might have been the Blue Falcon's cooler design and Link as a playable character. And mentioning Blue Falcon. I've only played one F-Zero game, the first one for Game boy advance and I can say, I don't play that well. Maybe the Kart rules will make me able to appreciate it more... and actually finishing courses without being blown up.

Super Castlevania IV

 

Finally finished this game, was stuck on Death for a couple of months and then a week before I had the pattern of Dracula himself down. Said to be one of the easiest old school Castlevania games and I don't know, whipping in 8 directions together with all the things you can do with the whip also opens for more things to keep in mind and therefore more mistakes to make. Or I just suck as usual. At least I finished all 4 original games. Well, technically IV is just a remake of the first game, but still.

Nice graphics and music as expected by a Konami Castlevania game. This game I actually remembered at the game stores as playable during it's release. To scary for me at the time, but we didn't get any in this series until Castlevania 64. I must say, even though I'm a cheating bastard that abuse the save state option like crazy, the final boss fight still was fun and felt rewarding. Maybe because I replayed the damn fight and every time I lost I restarted just before the fight began and when I finally got the hang of the fireball mechanic and the fire spirits, the first part of the battle ain't so though... that ends of course when Dracula decides to unexpectedly send lightning all over the screen and I just happens to stand in the way... dead. Replay, have a bit over half life left and save when phase 2 starts... unnecessary since I know what's coming so just avoid the lightning and whip the head. Not hard really, but because the Theme of Simon Belmont sets in, it becomes awesome:

Really, Death was much more of a nuisances until I realized that staying put behind the one block of the room was the correct course of action. Only took me a couple of months until I by a fluke chance realized it. Of course it was more like me trying maybe once every second week without results and closing down the game until I actually sat down and observed his pattern. So lesson to take away from this... be patient.

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja

 

Finally finished the Legend of the Mystical Ninja for the Snes and I gotta say, it felt a bit on the hard side if I hadn't abused the save scumming feature on the Wii U to get the most equipment... or even get the most money by cheating on the dice game. I don't think I would have succeeded otherwise. Maybe I just suck at playing those kind of game, but still, it seemed a bit unfair when the unpredictable townspeople started jumping around and throwing coins at me knocking away my newly bought piece of armor and my weapon level goes from this awesome Rygar yo-yo to a small pipe. All in all I prefer the Nintendo 64 game since there I could avoid everything pretty much without problem and my weapon stayed upgraded when I upgraded them. I even played that game a couple of times even before realizing I actually could buy armor to stop bullets and hits to damage me, but I wonder why have it when you could acquire 20 hearts or dots or whatever the life bar was.

The story then. It starts out with talk of a ghost attacking the villager and Goemon and Ebisumaru... Sorry, I mean Kid Ying and Dr Yang sets out to stop it. Then suddenly it's about saving a princess that takes you across Japan... I would guess, I don't think they ever pointed out where we were except by name and I ain't that good on the geography of Japan. Maybe I didn't like it due to playing by myself since it supports two-player and I only played it once with one of my sisters and since I suck on my own and she being worse on video games than me that wasn't the best combo. I don't think we passed the first level and since my only level was on the fourth level we couldn't cheat for more money and then armors and lives. Or I might just find someone else to play with. At least the music good and the cut scenes can be entertaining. Maybe the 64 game clouds my appreciation of this game or it might just be that you need a nostalgic connection to be willing to grind your way through the game legit.