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New Super Mario Bros U: completed!

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I left this alone for a long time - I'm not sure why, it may have been because some of the levels were a little too frustrating.  Indeed, after I went back to it a week ago, there have been a few instances where after completing a level I've had to put the controller down and walk away.  Alternatively, I've had to go back to an early stage in order to get a few more lives ...


Anyway, on returning it appeared that there were relatively few stages to complete until I reached the castle, which was hidden in a cloud of smog.  Or maybe magic smoke.


Some of the levels in the castle were really difficult.  I think the hardest was a level where you stood on a tilting platform, which you steered by tilting the gamepad.  At the same time, you had to control Mario jumping on switch blocks, throwing bombs off the platform, and avoiding getting stuck (so that the rising lava didn't catch up).


Eventually, I got to the final door ...


... and the final boss fight harked back to the original Super Mario Bros, where jumping past Bowser and hitting the button caused him to fall down and die.  Most amusing.


Of course, that wasn't the end, and Bowser came back four times the size and meaner than ever.  Luckily, Bowser Jr was there to lend me his little hovering thing, so I could get high enough to jump on Bowser's head.  It took me a couple of attempts, but he soon departed.


That's one strong hovercraft.


Of course, although I've marked this completed (I've seen the end credits after all), there's a lot of the game remaining.  I've not collected all the large coins on each stage - I went back after seeing the credits and collected the coins on Acorn Plains, just so I could play one level on Star Road.  There was one coin that eluded me for ages, and it turns out it was on a hidden route off another hidden route.




I'll go back to this one day soon, but for now I've still got NSMBW to complete ...

Disco Zoo Funky Bus

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Disco Zoo has a hidden funky bus mode tap the bus in the car park nine times & leave for a few seconds to unlock Funky Bus. This is a homage to flappy bird & has you avoiding traffic to get a high score.


My highest score so far is 108



Knytt Underground (Wii U): COMPLETED!

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Last_bell___darksoulsChapter 3 is enormous. Like, really enormous. It contains the maps from chapters 1 and 2, and then about 50 times as much content again. And it isn’t just how many rooms there are, either – the puzzles and platforming sections are harder, so take longer. There are quests to get  items which have you travelling (not too far, usually, thankfully) round the map as you try to complete them. With enough of certain items, you can ring bells, but not until you’ve figured out how to reach them, and with five bells rung you can ring the final one.

And not once does it get dull, or repetitive, or frustrating. No matter how hard bits are, you don’t go back far when you die, and you instantly restart, so even the most difficult screens don’t cause anger. Actually, even the few I was really stuck on I found to be optional anyway, since there are more items than the bare minimum, and usually if you’re short you can supplement them with coins, which are found more frequently and are normally easier to collect – you just need more of them.

With the final bell rung, it was completed, with one of the most half-hearted (and purposefully so) endings I’ve ever seen. In fact, there it is in this very post. Basically, the narrator (who wrote the game) says that’s the end, and he’d off for a cup of tea. OK, so there’s a bit more after that, but not much that makes any sense.

tumblr_n2qbqwlb0e1svmpf2o1_1280With it done, I found a bit on the title screen I hadn’t accessed (perhaps I couldn’t?) before, which was a short set of platforming challenges in the style of the intermission previously in the game. A couple of bits were pretty tricky, mainly involving those magnetic robots as you fling yourself from one to another trying not to crash into walls of death. I think that’s it now though.

A lovely little game, that well deserves some attention. The morals it tries to deal with and the story could have done with some work, perhaps something is lost in translation, or is too deep for me, but I didn’t really understand a lot of what was going on. I get the Myriadist/Internet divide is a religion/atheism thing, but much of the rest didn’t really work. Ignore all that though (and the terrible character art), and just enjoy a pleasant and involving platformer with some fantastic in-game artwork.

Pocket Mine – Accceeeddd

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Pocket mine has been updated now with different levels to play, the acid level requires two batteries to start & also use up double the amout of pick smashes to break a block. You also get double the XP. New depth score to start me off straight at the top of the leaderboards.