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Thomas Was Alone: Completed!

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Told you I had nearly finished it.

A few of the puzzles towards the end were a bit tricky, particularly when I was trying to balance two squat blocks on top of a tall thin block, but there was nothing for which I required external help. I was impressed that there were very few repeated puzzles over the 100 levels, and the game finished at pretty much the right time - before it had to introduce too many new gameplay mechanics.

One of the most affecting parts of the game was losing the original cast and being given the grey blocks instead. The narration at this point was a little weak, not expressing the emotion of the change or the bewilderment of the newly introduced blocks in the same way as for previous characters. This was rectified towards the end of the levels where Gray was portrayed as a villain - even though you were controlling both him and all other characters. Seeing each of them in turn eaten by the pixel cloud was daunting (though I can't remember Team Jump's exit).

It's not the most accomplished game ever, but as a story-driven experience it works really well.

Thomas Was Alone: blundering through

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I've nearly finished this, but before I do I must comment on how well designed the game is.  Many of the levels can be solved in numerous ways, whether by design or not.  I just completed level 9.7 by carrying the smallest block (Jo) across the green gravity reversing areas using the other two blocks (Sam and Gray), using Jo to keep the others down and not fly up into spikes.  After completing the level I realised that what I should have done is to get Sam to touch the red area, making him act as a trampoline for Jo.  I'm not sure if that would have been any easier.

MH3U – Heat Exhaustion

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Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate box artOh Good God. That was a bastard. Heat Exhaustion is a five star quest (but fairly early on) which requires a big of thinking to do. Firstly, it’s set in the volcanic area, so naturally you’ll need a good supply of cold drinks. Secondly, it requires carrying burning hot rocks which constantly deplete your health from one end of the map to the other, a bit like the ‘Poached Wyvern Eggs’ quest. Except they don’t break if you drop them – they explode. So you’re going to need a lot of health and a lot of stamina. Thirdly, just to make things fun, there’s a Uragaan on the loose. If it hits you, the powderstone explodes. If the ground shakes when it thumps its tail, the powderstone explodes. If you’re in range when it roars, the powderstone explodes.

It’s a bastard of a quest. Here’s what I did:

First off, take plenty of potions, mega-potions, cool drinks and well done steaks. Most importantly, get a meal made with fresh ingredients and choose the cooking method which will give you Felyne Lander. This will allow you, carrying a stone, to leap from the ledge in area 10 and land safely in area 5, shortcutting half of the map, without the damn thing exploding.

Clear out any mobs you find on your way to 10. Many of them won’t respawn and it’ll make things easier when carrying the stones.

This bit is optional, but makes things more interesting. Hunt down the Uragaan. He does a lot of damage but isn’t mega-tough. That will probably take you about half an hour, leaving you an easy 20 minutes to grab the stones. Pick them up at 10, run like hell off the ledge to 5, then it’s plain sailing. Repeat. Win.

New Super Luigi U (Wii U): COMPLETED!

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weegiucompleteWell, that was easier than I expected. I thought some of the later levels would be hard as nails, but due to being pretty short, they weren’t. Even Bowser wasn’t too difficult, despite the lack of restart points (meaning if you die on the boss, you have to restart the level completely!), taking only two attempts.

Disappointingly, he was the same boss as with Mario, although his attack pattern was slightly different.

With him defeated, I set about completing some of the other levels I’d skipped, missed, or hadn’t unlocked yet. I’ve not done them all, and perhaps won’t – too many other games to play – but I’ll certainly do some more at least.

Some things I’ve played recently

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Round up time!

Doritos Crash Course 2 (360)

I turned my 360 on for the first time in months this weekend, and my download queue kicked in. The first thing that downloaded was this. It is, considering how it’s both a shameless advert for Doritos and free, really good fun. Much like the first game, really.

I was enjoying it, until I ran out of the stars you need to buy the next level. You see, you collect and win stars in each level, and then you spend these to buy ever more expensive extra levels to progress. A bit like Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed. Only when I ran out of stars, I was told to buy some more. For real actual money. I said no and turned it off. Ain’t playing that again.

Cloudberry Kingdom (Wii U)

cloudberry

This promised to be a lot better than it turned out, sadly. It looks and plays like a freebie Flash game. A good one, sure, but still – it’s a purposefully hard platformer with a million levels that just ramp up the difficulty to “clearly impossible”. Although the levels are short, and you instantly restart, the harder levels are almost trial and error, or worse, luck – it’s impossible to see a path through the spikes and fire and stuff, let alone avoid them all.

It is fun, but perhaps more suited to an XBL Indie Game.

New Super Luigi U (Wii U)

weegiu

At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to like this. I don’t enjoy Luigi’s jumpyslidey physics, and the game world seems to be the same as in Mario U. Having just 99 seconds to complete each level would, I thought, make them all a mad rush. No restart points would be frustrating.

But, of course, I was wrong. His floaty flutterjumps make some of the levels easier. The levels are shorter too, so the time limit rarely comes into play. In fact, the only thing I’ve not liked so far (and I’m up to the “in the clouds” world already!) is the lack of a restart point at the bosses. Oh, and the fact the bosses are the same as in Mario U, I suppose. Still, it’s really good and well worth getting.