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Animal Crossing New Leaf: time sink extraordinaire

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I played Animal Crossing on the GameCube a bit - I bought a US version while over there on holiday, a long time before it came out in Europe, and the need for faffing with Freeloader tempered my enthusiasm somewhat.

I played Animal Crossing Wild World on the DS.  I played it almost daily for eight months, collecting loads of fish, bugs, even a load of paintings.  I grew flowers.  I occasionally visited after my farewell, but had no compulsion to complete anything.

I bought Animal Crossing Let's Go to the City on the Wii.  I've never played it.

I now have the 3DS game, and have so far put in 31 hours.  It's already my most played 3DS game, beating Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask by four hours. The game is a natural evolution of everything that's gone before, moving turnip sales to a shop that never closes for refurbishment, having the museum and various shops on a separate street, allowing the player to have more control over the town.  I am the mayor.

I've paid off two mortgages.  I've seen off Leonardo, a hateful leopard.  I've collected lots of fish and bugs and even some seaweed.  I've been to the island.  I've gained over a million bells.  I have a blue pansy.  I have no time to write about any of it, since I am busy playing it.  I  have posted a few screenshots to Twitter, though.

Super Mario 3D Land: Completed!

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At least, I've seen the end credits, completing all the levels in Worlds 1-8.  I've rescued Peach, and Bowser has been consumed by lava.  And then the game reveals that it's actually twice the size, with 'Special Worlds' (some of which are very similar to existing levels with time limits reduced or different enemies) and Luigi's been captured.  Completing Special World 1 rescues Luigi, and you can then use him instead of Mario, making some of the jumps easier but landing on small platforms harder.

I've completed up to the end of Special World 3, but I don't have a huge desire to continue.  It's odd; this is actually a really good game and is much more of a 3D conversion of the 2D Mario games than 64, Sunshine or Galaxy.  There's no stars to collect or multiple goals in a level - just a clear run to the defined finish line.  Maybe I've overdosed a bit on Mario lately, with NSMB2, NSMBW and NSMBU; I can always come back to this.

But for now, it's done and my 3DS is all ready for something else all-consuming ...

DLC Quest: Completed!

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A quirky and charming little puzzle platform game, DLC Quest is intended as a satirical look at the way that console games have been progressing, with ever-more content locked away.  The game sees you collecting coins in order to pay the shopkeeper for items such as the ability to move left, or animation of your character.  As much of the humour is in the writing, I've hidden the rest of this post on its own page.

The only thing you can do to start with is move left, collecting four coins and reaching the shopkeeper.  The only thing you can buy for four coins is the ability to move left, which is lucky ...


I initially thought that my computer wasn't working that well, as the sound stopped working after I moved my character.  Once I looked at the rest of the DLC list, however, I found out this wasn't a mistake.


It took a bit of exploration to find enough coins to buy the audio pack, the animation pack and the pause menu.  The first achievement (or "awardment") recognised this.


After the initial stages, the game settled into a Metroid-style exploration game, where you need to collect coins in order to buy new abilities from the shopkeeper - like a map to get past the forest, a double jump, or a way to sharpen a sword.  It was here that the quality of the writing started to shine.  Meeting random characters with little to add to the game was amusing, and seeing increasing amounts of pointless DLC to buy with an excess of coins helped the satire.






I was amused that one of the DLC packs was for horse armour - one of the classic first uses of microtransactions.  I was more amused when it was needed to complete the game - at least, completing the game properly (after buying the DLC for the actual ending).





After getting the good ending, there were a couple of achievements outstanding - buying all DLC, and killing all characters and sheep.  It took me a little while to find the last sheep, and I killed the shepherd last.




After getting the good ending, there were a couple of achievements outstanding - buying all DLC, and killing all characters and sheep.  It took me a little while to find the last sheep, and I killed the shepherd last.

A short and fun game, which was very amusing.  I think I paid around 75p for it, and it may have worked better as a satire if that amount had been collected while playing in bits and pieces - though I'm not sure if I'd actually have played to the end if that were the case, no matter how small the amounts.

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.