Xexyz

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages: it’s a bit familiar

Posted on 20/05/2026 Written by Xexyz

I mentioned in my last post that I’d started to play Oracle of Ages again, and I’m still working my way through it. It seems to be taking an absolute … er, age … even though it’s very clearly signposted throughout. As soon as you finish a dungeon, the Deku Tree pipes up to tell you where to go next. The thing is, it all seems very familiar. It follows the Link’s Awakening formula quite closely with you having to find eight thingies in dungeons, and the added gimmick – of time travel – just makes things a little more complicated. Usually that would be a good thing in a Zelda game, but Link’s Awakening understood the audience which was there to play a game on a portable system, probably in fits and starts. Step away from Link’s Awakening for a couple of days, and on return you can still see where to go. Step away from Oracle of Ages, and when starting again it’s tricky to remember where things are and how to get there, switching between time periods.

There is a good use of colour to distinguish between areas, though it can be quite garish.

The other reason it might feel familiar is because I can see that I have played this before, getting to a more advanced stage than I managed this time. I don’t think I completed it, though, which is slightly odd given that I was very advanced. That’s my aim for now. I’ve just finished the fifth dungeon, which granted me the Cane of Somaria, allowing me to conjure blocks from nothing. I’m now thinking if there’s anywhere in the overworld where that might be useful – and am drawing a blank. Off to see the Gorons, then.

Hollow Knight: Greenpath

Posted on 10/04/2026 Written by Xexyz

Although I have a number of games on my wishlist, Justine knows that when it comes to birthday presents I am averse to treating it like an opportunity to just order things that I could buy myself. As a result, she spent some time researching things that I may like, searched through my collections, and bought off list.

She did very well. Of the two games she bought, both are titles which are well considered and which I wanted to play. I may not immediately start Echoes of Wisdom, the Zelda game where you play as Zelda, since I have recently restarted Oracles of Ages on the 3DS Virtual Console, and we all know what happens when I try to play two Zeldas at once. But I did immediately start Hollow Knight.

I am sure I have played this before, in that I remember the start of the game, but I have no record of playing it on any platform and I certainly don’t own it. Maybe I watched someone else? That wouldn’t explain the muscle memory I have, or the recognition of how the slight pause when you strike an enemy conveys such impact. This is another stylish game, making me feel good about my abilities, even when I keep dying due to a lack of them.

It’s also a bit too dark. I know it’s set underground, but even so a few more lanterns wouldn’t go amiss.

The main character is a little nondescript, but maybe that’s intentional

I have explored a lot now. I’ve been through the first, blue, area, and found a (pinkish) mine which I couldn’t progress through. I’ve collected lots of money but not enough for all the charms I want. I defeated some big nasty bug thing pretending to be a knight, and a big mummy flying firefly thing. I went through a pretty green area, Greenpath, where lots of plants were growing even though they get no sunlight. I have opened the stag stations, and found some sort of underground railway but haven’t found the tokens for that yet. I fought a red-cloaked enemy who I understand to be the protagonist of Silksong. I have a cloak that allows me to dash through the air, and have now ventured into an area where lots of enemies want to poison me.

That’s not very kind.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: whatchutalkinbout?

Posted on 18/03/2026 Written by Xexyz

On one miserable, rainy evening, with a bit of a cold, and with an hour and a half spare before I had to go and collect Nicholas from Scouts, I wanted to do something substantial; cross something off my “to do” list. I could have put up the hooks in the utility room that have sat there for several months. I could have rearranged the loft to get the Christmas decorations properly put away. I could have hung up the artwork that has sat on top of our bookcase for the past four years, wrapped in bubble wrap in case of accidents. Instead I decided to do something that has been overdue for much longer – I decided to start GTA San Andreas.

San Andreas is often cited as the best of the PS2-era GTAs, and one of the best games of all time. I’ve mentioned before that two things put me off playing it.

The setting. The 2000s setting of GTA3, and the 1980s setting of GTAVC, felt much more relatable to me than the 1990s rap and gangster world of GTASA. I don’t like rap music, I don’t get the attraction of baggy trousers, I find the general griminess off-putting.
The complications. I remember reviews telling us how amazing it was that you could get your hair cut, that you could go to the gym, that you needed to eat to stay healthy, and so on. At the time that seemed unnecessarily complex – could I not just run around the world shooting at other people, stealing cars, and failing missions several times before getting lucky?

I’ve now played a few hours, and while the first is an issue, the second isn’t. Maybe expectations have moved on (while my prejudices have not), but the use of food to recover health is just a clever cover for health packs, and everything else seems to be entirely optional cosmetics. I have bought green trousers and a white shirt, and that’ll do me. There may be more to the mechanics in future (and the immediate view of stats with L1 implies they may be more important) but for now I’m not having to think about much at all.

Some of the lighting effects were very impressive on the PS2 but actually get in the way of gameplay.

The first point is more of an issue. I have very little affinity with any of the characters, even CJ, and everyone is just generally unpleasant to each other all the time. They live in grimy houses, shout at each other in barely comprehensible sentences, and just seem ready to jump into a fight at any moment. It’s not a life I really want to live.

As such, I’m concentrating on completing missions, rather than exploring the world at large. This will no doubt give me a disadvantage in future missions when I don’t know my way around, but for now it’s nice to streamline my objectives.

Virtua Fighter 2: no not that one

Posted on 13/03/2026 Written by Xexyz

Released late in the life of the Mega Drive, Virtua Fighter 2 is a very accomplished rework of Sega’s 3D fighting game. It’s been reimagined in 2D, using sprites, but it feels very similar to the fighting in the 3D game – or the Saturn version of it, at least. The controls map well, with a button for each of punch, kick, and block. Some of the combos also seemed to work (Jacky’s dash hammer kick in particular) but I’m not sure if this is universal, due to my general incompetence in pulling these off.

It’s a very pretty and colourful game, and runs really smoothly as well. Had I had this before the Saturn released (and before I got a PlayStation) I imagine I’d have put a lot of time into it. Nowadays, despite it being a really good approximation, I would probably just play VF3b on the Dreamcast instead.

Tomb Raider: completed!

Posted on 09/03/2026 Written by Xexyz

The final levels, which I understand are set in Atlantis but in fact are set in some creepy pyramid on an island which appears to be constructed from living flesh, were a step up in difficulty from the previous ones. The biggest change came from the enemies, who were more aggressive, more in number, and required more bullets to dispatch. I moved away from using my standard pistols, to a combination of the Uzis and the Magnums – the shotgun seemed a bit useless, with long reload time and poor aiming – in order to prevent enemies getting too close. The tactics I’d used before (of finding a ledge to stand on) no longer worked, with enemies who could throw fireballs and shoot, and others who flew around the room. They were horrible things too, seemingly with no skin, just flesh and muscle.

Of the levels set in Atlantis, the first was relatively normal. At the end of the Egyptian levels Lara was captured and escaped by diving off a cliff, and it turns out that she’s lost all her guns (but for some reasons still had some ammunition). To find her weapons you had to explore some mines, finding three fuses which were needed to lower a suspended building containing pistols. With pistols equipped, the mines led (via lava rivers, concrete mazes, and underwater tunnels) to three human enemies: a cowboy, a skateboarder, and a bouncer, each using some of Lara’s guns. The skateboard fight was very tricky to start with, until I found a passage I could take to come out on a ledge above the level, where I could wait for him to skate past and get shot multiple times.

Armoury reclaimed, I set off for Natla, who was using the scion thingy in the pyramid. I caught up with her and she unleashed a big enemy which I initially thought was the game’s end boss, until I killed it first try (somersaulting from side to side put me out of reach, and I could just shoot it many times). I then had to continue through the pyramid, finding a route back to the scion for me to destroy it. The levels became increasingly icky, with pods growing on the walls which burst to release enemies as I approached them. I’m not entirely sure what the cutscenes showed, but eventually I found Natla in a room at the top of the pyramid, and I fought and killed her using my favourite tactic of running away and finding a ledge to shoot from. Being shot to death wasn’t enough; she woke up and I had to do it all over again.

After a while I was desperate to see anything green.

With her dead again, all that was left was for Lara to run away, through a pyramid which was shuddering and collapsing (but not actually collapsing; this wasn’t a timed run). A few nasty jumps nearly had me throwing the controller in frustration, but I got out in the end – Lara swam out to the boat and took off just as the island exploded.

As a game, it’s aged, but only in that other games have taken the same sort of formula and made it more fluid to play. The way that the platforming is almost puzzle-like at times remains very clever, and the game’s pacing is really well thought out. I don’t think I’ll be going back to find all the secret areas, nor find more efficient routes through the levels – but that’s mainly because I’ve got Tomb Raider II waiting for me.