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Super Mario 3D Land: depth perception

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I'm up to world 5 now, so over half-way through the standard list of eight (though I suspect, given other Mario titles, that there may be more hidden).  It has got better, but I'm still not finding it amazing to play - it just feels a bit awkward to control at times and I'm finding it tricky to see which plane Mario's actually standing on when it comes to some of the side-scrolling sections.  Even with the 3D effect on maximum, some of the platforms blend too much into the background, especially on the cloud sections.

Still, I've collected lots of star coins, have around 50 lives to spare, and have no intention of dropping this game half-way through.  It helps that I've got a nine-hour flight on Friday ...

Nintendo Land: Donkey Kong (many) Crash(es) Course

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The last parts of the Donkey Kong game are pretty evil.  I've now got the first eight areas down pat, although I frequently lose one or two lives in area 7 (in the upper-left of the screen below - you can see the remnants of a crash there) where you have to use the left trigger to raise and lower platforms.


But then I get to area 9, in the bottom-right.


You can see I've lost a couple of lives there already.  Here you have to tap the right trigger to launch your cart up the ramps.  You need to have the gamepad tilted just right to avoid flipping over.  And you need to press the trigger very quickly, and let go very quickly, to avoid catching your character as the platform comes back down.

It took me ages, but finally ...


I then lost all six lives on the last platform before the end of area 10.  I've not beaten that yet.

The Homebrew Channel: ugly GUI

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For various reasons I've not felt the need to mod my Wii up to now. There would have been a few advantages - being able to play my American and Japanese GameCube games, importing US games that didn't get released here, backing up some of the saves for games that don't allow copying.  But these advantages were outweighed by the idea that it was a difficult process and would make my Wii behave oddly.

I now have a bit more impetus to do this. I don't want to replace my Wii with the Wii U completely, for various reasons - GameCube support, Lost Winds not transferring, an extra step needed to get to the Wii menu. However, there are now benefits to moving data to the Wii U, including a cheap upgrade price for the various Virtual Console games I've bought.  If Nintendo had a proper account system in place this wouldn't be an issue; I could just transfer the games I'm interested in. They don't; I have to move everything across or nothing at all.

However, by modding the Wii I am able to have the stuff I've bought in both places; back up the system before transferring, transfer, restore from backup. I can continue to use my Wii for playing Wii games, but can pay the upgrade price for Super Mario World.

It wasn't a difficult process at all. I followed the guide here, and it took twenty minutes all in, from plugging the sensor bar in (as this moves between the Wii U and the Wii) to looking through the Homebrew Browser. The Homebrew Channel has a nice channel icon and a pleasant enough background, but as soon as you start installing anything else you quickly see why companies pay people so much for graphic design. Some of this software is very ugly indeed.

So first stage complete: I have a modded Wii and have it backed up to an SD card.  All I need to do now is to transfer my data and then restore it back to the Wii as well.  And then work out how to make everything region-free.

Super Mario 3D Land: gerrorf me cart!

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With Rhythm Thief finished, it's time to move on to a game that I've waited a while for. SM3DL had some great reviews but it came out at the same time as Mario Kart 7, and the latter won out.  I've been waiting to see this reduced somewhere; I finally found it in good condition second-hand for £20.

It being second-hand, it had some save games on there already. Two of the slots had been used by one person and one slot by another. They'd got as far as world 2 before deciding the game wasn't for them.

It was sad, deleting their profiles. Did they give up because it was too hard, they just didn't like the game? Maybe they were short of money. I was going to get rid of all their hard work with two button presses.


Bye, random girl.

As for the game? It's OK. The viewpoint can be confusing in places, the controls feel a little imprecise, and the level design doesn't feel hugely imaginative. It's fun, but it's not amazing.  I'm on world 3 now, and it feels a little light on content so far - there are few levels per world in particular.  It may get better.

Super Metroid: nearly dead

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I've been waiting for this to be on special offer since I got my Wii U.  The first Metroid game I played was Fusion on the GBA, which pre-dated this blog.  Metroid Zero Mission was completed in 2005, after an intensive playing time.  I've since wanted more of the 2D games, but there wasn't an easy way to get either the second game or Super Metroid - I have a feeling that the latter may have been on the Wii Virtual Console but I never thought to look there.

Anyway, I've started this now.


Oh no!  And that's where the last Metroid is!  I'd better go back!


But nobody's home.

Eventually I got through to the end of the space station, where a big bird thing stole the Metroid and fought me.  I was massively underpowered and nearly died - but luckily the enemy scarpered before I died.

Arriving on the planet, I descended down a shaft until I found a blue door.  Going through ... and I could go no further.  Huh.


After a bit of exploration, I finally found the morph ball, meaning I could go through the tunnel.  A little way.  There was a block just a way down a tunnel.


A bit more exploration ...


This meant I could go through the tunnel at last.


There wasn't much at the end (a bunch of missiles), but at least on the way back I could take a shortcut.


At least I have a few upgrades now, but I still feel pretty underpowered - so walking into this room I was rather apprehensive.  Luckily it appears to be a statue, or at least it is at the moment.


I found another lift down, but I didn't want to go down until I'd coloured in the blue.


There's quite a way to go ...