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Sonic Dash: offputting microtransactions

Posted on 12/05/2014 Written by Xexyz

Sonic Dash may be the best Sonic game for years - in that it's not trying to be anything other than a fast run through scenery.  It's an endless runner, with controls which match Sonic's standard abilities - jumping in a ball, rolling in a ball, and running fast.  You have to jump over, roll under or dodge obstacles, and roll into enemies to kill them.  From time to time there's an easy boss battle.


There's a bit of added complexity which sits behind the main game.  By completing missions, which vary from simple things like "collect 200 rings in a game" to difficult things like "avoid rings for 1000m", you can build up the multiplier applied to your score.  You can also double the multiplier by filling up the dash meter (the bar in the bottom-right, filled by collecting rings) and not activating it.  By doing this I now have an X38 multiplier, and my high score is 997,000 (compared to the next highest on my friends list of 67,000).

One thing to note that I couldn't find elsewhere on the Internet - one of the missions is to "use 5 revives in one run" which I assumed meant that you had to revive Sonic five times; since the number of tokens required doubles each time I assumed this meant I'd need 31 tokens.  Instead, the mission completed when I revived for the third time, which was annoying after I'd been saving up revive tokens for two weeks.

There are other bits to the game as well.  Over Easter there was a special event whereby collecting eggs randomly placed throughout the levels let you earn additional unlockables.  I managed to collect about 220 eggs over the period, which meant that I unlocked Cream the Rabbit.  Yes, real name.


So, all rosy.  The downside to the game is that it's full of microtransaction rubbish, where you spend rings to get new characters or upgrades, and collecting the rings in-game takes ages so you feel like spending real money to get more rings.  And it's not as if it's really hidden.


It's odd, I would happily have paid a few pounds for this game given how well it works and its production values, but I won't spend 69p on virtual currency in the game even though I got the whole game for free.  They're making significantly less money from me.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: iPad, iPhone

Katamari Forever (PS3): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/05/2014 Written by deKay

tumblr_n5dd6ic09d1svmpf2o1_1280I’ve completed this before, but only in one game mode – “Forever”. Randomly, my daughter asked me to play it again a few days ago (I didn’t even know she knew about it – she was two years old when I last put it on!) and I got a bit hooked again and played through it in Katamari Drive mode.

Which is basically the same game as before, only you move a lot faster.

This makes open levels with lots of things to collect a lot easier, and cramped levels (and those where you have to avoid certain objects) nigh on impossible. Still, I managed it and it was lots of fun because it is Katamari and Katamari is always fun and best and aces.

Lovely. Oh! And *PS3 GAME KLAXON*

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, katamari, Post, ps3

Gravity 5/5

Posted on 12/05/2014 Written by gospvg

The majority of my movie watching is done via the Amazon Lovefilm by post service. Ideally the Blu-Ray version of the movie or 3D if available.

Cinema watching is very expensive & sometimes not enjoyable with other noisy attendees so I am more than happy to wait the extra months for the movie to arrive on home media to enjoy.

I will post my score out of 5 in the title so if you have not watched a movie you can ignore the post for potential spoilers.

The latest movie was Gravity, winning itself a stack of various awards & accolades.

It deserves all the awards & accolades it has received, a great story of how an astronaut survives in outer space & her trials to get back to earth. 5/5

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: 5/5, Lovefilm, Movies

Movies & TV – Back to the Future

Posted on 12/05/2014 Written by gospvg

When I am not gaming I watch movies & quite a few of them thanks to my Netflix & Amazon Lovefilm/Instant subscriptions.

I had pondered a while ago about posting non-gaming posts on the blog but decided against it.

I've now changed my mind & will now be posting about the movies & tv shows I watch with some quick one or two line reviews. I enjoy sci-fi, westerns & action-adventure movies the most but I do also watch a fair few animation & kid movies (because I have children). I rarely watch comedies or horror & I should watch more drama. Thanks to my wife & daughter I do watch the odd Bollywood movie.

For clarification though The Back to the Future Trilogy is the best movie trilogy ever made with the first movie being the best movie ever made.

Link to a spreadsheet with 2014 movies watched
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hMBjZ_3RK0f069Ffcp1cuqiVdStFIBaoE5j6kcsbsCc/edit?usp=sharing

26 so far this year with some good titles like Shawshank Redemption, Finding Nemo 3D, Elysium, Man of Steel, Kai Po Che, Kick Ass 2 & Thor Dark World.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: BTTF, Movies

Super Metroid (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 11/05/2014 Written by deKay

tumblr_n5g6uku1xw1svmpf2o1_1280And that’s it. Samus saved the day (although, in the end, all she saved was herself – spoilers). The game was completed in 7 hours 40 minutes, and with a collected items percentage of 79. I’m surprised it’s as low as 79%, as although I didn’t attempt to get 100%, I did search pretty much everywhere and only knowingly missed three upgrades – two missiles that I saw but couldn’t figure out how to reach, and a Reserve Tank that I never actually saw. I got all the Energy Tanks though, as I assumed the final boss would be a nightmare and I’d want as much health as possible.

Insert_Cypress_Hill_reference_here.It’s genius, then, that how much health you have is completely irrelevant to the final fight. OK, so shooting Mother Brain Inna Jar is tricky with all the Evil Party Rings of Doom, but they don’t do a lot of damage and Mother Brain herself doesn’t attack until after the jar is destroyed, and it’s at that point health is pointless.

UmYou see, she transforms into a monster thing who unleashes everything at you, and is a rocket sponge. After all my missiles, super missiles and power bombs were depleted, she fired a multicoloured beam that drained me of almost all my energy (see? It doesn’t matter how much you have), then was about to finish me off when Baby Metroid (Oh! How he’s grown! Hasn’t he just? How adorable!) returned having almost sucked me dry not ten minutes earlier before he realised I was his mum. He then latched onto Mother Brain and appropriated her essential juices, before transferring them to me, restoring my health. In the process, Mother Brain reanimated and started attacking Baby Metroid, destroying her. Aww.

Worst_baddies_everStill, I’d recovered by then, and had a new rainbow beam power thing which made short work of what was left of Mother Brain, and then (of course!) a time bomb was triggered and I had to run back to my ship very fast. The end!

Yes, I’m aware I’ve missed out a lot of stuff from between my last post and the final boss. There’s just too much good to say about the game. I loved the pacing, the music and the exploration. There’s always something great about getting a new ability in games like this, that allows you to get past a room you were scratching your head over previously. Slowly building you up to be a virtually unstoppable powerhouse with each upgrade and item.

Almost_everything___supermetroidIt may be a game from 1994 (that’s TWENTY YEARS AGO), but it hasn’t aged. The pixels are still beautiful. The gameplay is timeless. Some people said they didn’t think it’d stand up today, especially coming to it now having never played it before (which I haven’t), but they were so very wrong. If this was a new release now, it would stand up perfectly against current titles. One of the best games I’ve ever played. I’m just amazed I’d managed to miss out on it for so long.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, metroid, Post, wii u

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96: Magic Beans
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What is this word “late” which you are saying? I do not recognise it and I do not understand it and I do not wish to believe it exists! Episode 96 cannot be late, for it was never scheduled. Sir, you embarrass yourself.

Arguments about timetabling aside, we would like to invite you to enjoy this most recent (at time of typing) episode of your favourite podcast! deKay, Kendrick and Orrah huddled round a warm bucket of cocoa and discussed, to varying lengths, the important news of our time – including Nintendo’s Mario Direct, more unfortunate developers losing their jobs because Money, Microsoft increasing the price of Game Pass (again, because Money) and Starbreeze getting several years into developing an eagerly anticipated Dungeons & Dragons game before pulling the plug because, well, Money. Thankfully, there’s some Good Stuff too, like chat about these games.

96: Magic Beans
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