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Mega Man X (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 03/08/2014 Written by deKay

After I’d completed Earthbound, which was some time ago now, I realise, I asked about for suggestions for other great SNES games I may have missed. Mega Man X was recommended several times.

I was never a big fan of the series. In fact, I’d only properly played Mega Man 2 and one other (I don’t recall which) NES game, until the new-old Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 came out for the Wii a few years back. I enjoyed them quite a bit.

So this weekend, despite having a million other games to play already, I found myself wanting to download Mega Man X on the Wii U. I was going to play something on my 3DS instead, but my SD card has died (which is a story for another time), so that was out of action and… well. I’ve no excuse really. The deed was done and I set about playing it. Oh my is it hard.

Not as hard as Mega Man 9, though, I found. And, although the graphics have clearly improved over the NES games, and Mega Man is now X, so actually a different robot, it’s the same game as it ever was. 8 bosses to fight, in any order you choose, with each giving you a new weapon which will take down another boss with ease. Of course, you’ve no real way of knowing which weapon will bump off which boss quickly, so it’s down to luck over which order you try them.

This actually meant the game mostly got easier as I played. The first few bosses I tried were very difficult, but most of the later ones I had a suitable weapon for. Not that having the best weapon was a guarantee for a quick kill, though – they were still pretty nails. The trick is to learn their patterns and strike only when you know it’s safe. Take your time – watch and listen. Most fights involved staying somewhere safe most of the time, with the odd safe attack to slowly (very, very slowly in some cases) whittle down their energy.

Before reaching any bosses, a level must be traversed but with very few exceptions these were pretty easy. Especially when compared to the boss robots at the end, anyway.

With all of the minions dispatched, it was on to Not Dr Wily (Sigma, I think he was called), bumping off all the previous bosses once more, as well as a few extra ones for good measure. Joy! It’s a SuckySuck(TM) Bit! No, not joy – the other thing. Despair! That’s the one.

Fortunately, the second time round these robots are a bit easier, mainly because you know how to defeat them, but also because you have the necessary sidearm to deal with them. Eventually, after doing all this, you reach Sigma. Having already thrown Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Cliché #1 (the SuckySuck(TM) Bit) at you, Mega Man X then moves onto Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Cliché #2 – where the boss is defeated but then somehow is resurrected immediately in a new form and has to be defeated again. Sigh.

Which I did. In fact, Sigma was somewhat easier than most of the previous bosses, which was a surprise. And, regardless of Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Clichés, the game was fun and rewarding. And hard. Very hard.

I will almost certainly be moving onto Mega Man X2 in the near future, but I’d best clear some other games out of my Pile of Shame first before adding any more to it.

Pikmin 2: completed!

Posted on 01/08/2014 Written by Xexyz

After a long break, I decided to go back and try to finish this before it was lost forever. I had completed the first two areas, and had a remaining debt of just 105 doodahs. It shouldn't take too long, thought I.

Straight away I found another bit of treasure outside in the Perplexing Pool. It was on a high ledge, which could only be accessed by yellow pikmin due to their added throwing height. I had to throw them up to a platform, walk around myself, and throw them up to the top. The treasure was worth 100 pipplies. So close.

So I went down into the shower room, a cave system which required me to have water, fire, electric and poison pikmin. I didn't take enough poison pikmin for the first few levels, as half the enemies were spewing purple gas and I had to fight through with my little band of twenty. The levels were quite inventive though, with a good use of previous enemies and some new ones - floating jellyfish in particular - thrown in.

Of course, after the first level I had made over 10,000 jinglies, but I wasn't going to stop there. One of the frog enemies killed about 25 of my pikmin in a single jump; an electric jellyfish killed more. Half way down I found a level which let me regenerate some more pikmin, and it randomly gave me some more red ones.

Which was annoying, as I managed to clear out the entire cave apart from one treasure - a set of false teeth underwater, which required twenty pikmin to move. I had only 14 blue pikmin left.

The boss was hard as well. A larger version of the wibbly slug on the surface, which meant I knew I had to attack the flower on the back. It killed a large number of pikmin, and I'm still unsure of the best strategy to beat it, but I got there with brute force. I went back to the surface, and ...

The end-of-game scores are presented as a leaderboard, hinting that other people should play this copy or I should go back and do it all over again. Maybe not.

There's more game to play though. Louie's been left on the surface; Mr Boss Man says he'll go back to get him. There are a fair few treasures in the Perplexing Pool to collect, and a whole new area has opened in the top-right of the map. I may well be back.

Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition: completed!

Posted on 31/07/2014 Written by Xexyz

OK, hardly the longest campaign or story mode, but it has taken me quite a while to beat. I'm not great at SFIV - I was great at SFII on the mega Drive with the 6-button pad, completing it with every character, but this is less straightforward. I got the original SFIV ages ago and played through the arcade mode a few times, but Seth beat me constantly. I was resigned to having to dial down the difficulty a bit if I wanted to win.

But I managed to beat Super SFIV on medium, with no continues, using Ken. Seth is still a git, but I managed to defeat him, finally. I then played through again using Zangief, who is pretty slow but handy with his spinning clothes line move.

And then I was delighted to find that the game automatically saves replays of your matches, so I was able to bask in glory at my defeats of Kieron [planneroftowns] and John [BadHead] (and ignore the matches where they won instead).

They didn't lose all the time, of course. Sometimes they fought each other.

Gaming moments: E

Posted on 31/07/2014 Written by Xexyz

Essential Sudoku DS (DS)

After competing 999 picross puzzles, there was one left. Surely the pinnacle of difficulty, it's surely going to be a trophy or medal or something special. Oh no, it's really easy and it's a pie chart. A bloody pie chart.

Earth Defense Force 2017 (Xbox 360)
Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable (PS Vita)

Both games have many highlights, but the thing I will remember most is the mission in which you are sent into battle against the massive walking fortress. I destroyed more of the city than the fortress did while trying to attack it, and finally the mission ends with you withdrawing because your weapons aren't powerful enough. Sorry I broke the Space Needle for nothing, guys.

Exit (PSP)

One of the characters you have to rescue is very fat. I called him Fatty. I pushed boxes onto him. He died.

Ecolibrium (PS Vita)

Playing on the train, on the tutorial. And then the game requires me to look around 180 degrees with my Vita to see the animals behind me. Not going to happen; never loaded up again.

Endless Ocean (Wii)

I recently went back to this as part of the "Au Revoir Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection" drive, which was pointless as the only online mode it has is to connect to a friend who is simultaneously playing the game; that will never have happened. Anyway, during my brief play I watched the most stilted and awkward cutscene ever made.

EyeToy: Play (PS2)

Accompanying the cleaning suds game with "When I'm Cleaning Windows" was a work of genius.

Batman: Arkham Origins (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 30/07/2014 Written by deKay

What’s this? Two Batman games completed in a single day? What are the chances?

Before today’s session I was actually pretty close to the end anyway, so it only took about half an hour to finish off. Well, over an hour if you count the ludicrously long credit sequence which listed every single person who has ever existed ever, and plenty of other people who never existed at all. Probably.

Anyway. The game! Was brilliant. Although it started off full of bugs, I actually found very few after the first few hours. Aside from this one, from not far from the end:

Hardly game breaking, I know. Thankfully, that was pretty much it – better than Arkham City by the end. In fact, the whole game was better than Arkham City by the end.

Yes! It really was! Despite the map being bigger, and that being one of the things I disliked about City over Asylum, for some reason I preferred it here. The combat was more or less the same as previously, and there weren’t many (or any?) new enemy types over the earlier games. I’m not really sure why I enjoyed it more than City, when I come to analyse it – I just know I did.

One thing that was definitely an improvement was in the boss fights. They were more varied, and some of them, such as the Firefly one, were really something new. The Electrocutioner was hilarious with his one punch kill, and Bane’s final fight was pretty awesome.

I also preferred the plot. I never got on with Arkham City’s “I’m dying and now you’re dying” Joker story, perhaps because although you really had all the time in the world to finish the game, there was this nagging sense of urgency as you needed to find the cure before you died. It was interesting to see the origins (that’s the name of the game, remember) of some of the characters, like Harley and Gordon, but laying the smackdown on a load of cops never really felt right, no matter how bent they appeared to be.

In order then, Arkham > Origins > City. Although I know many will disagree.

Onto Blackgate on the 3DS then.