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Wii U – Initial thoughts

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The OS seems really sluggish, the game pad too big & do I look at the TV or the game pad to play?!

After fighting with the wifi settings, running the system update & creating my mii. Two hours later I finally got to play with the console. Whatever happen to the open the box, plug & play experience of the cartridge generation?

I browsed the mii verse, added some friends, signed up to some notifications & visited the eshop to download Street U which was fun for two minutes.

Only got a brief chance to try Mario U before the Sugar commanded the TV. It looks lovely in HD but really the game pad is TOO big.

Will spend more time tomorrow because I've got the kids mii accounts to create.

Hopefully also get a chance to try Zombi U & Nintendoland.

Sega Rally Online Arcade: second, again

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A couple of friends have asked me why I did so badly in this on my last blog post.  Just to clarify, you are not supposed to finish in first place on the Tropical course.  The idea is that you play through the three courses (Tropical, Desert, Alpine) and end up first by the end of the Alpine course.  I was hoping to have reached at least tenth at the end of the first level, though.

I've still not managed that.  I have progressed to coming eleventh, and by the end of the Alpine level I'm second with the leader in sight.  But that Alpine level is hard, with some nasty hairpins and slippery roads, and I'm still struggling with gear changes. 

Lego City Undercover (Wii U)

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legocity87pc

This is progress. All red bricks got, 400/450 gold bricks got, and 8 of the 15 main “levels” 100%ed. Almost 52 hours on the clock.

The important question is, even though there’s no story left and I’m basically just wandering round looking for things, is it still fun? Hell yes. It doesn’t get dull or repetitive. There are still loads of funny things, like conversations I stumbled across and places I hadn’t been. There’s just so much to see and do – every corner of the game has something to discover.

Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure: Completed!

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Napoleon wasn't Napoleon, he was a random bloke who announced his name with great flair but I had no idea who he was or what that meant.

Navigating the gardens, there was a particularly difficult battle where control shifted between Phantom R, Charlie and Inspector Vergier and I couldn't work out the timing for Charlie's sections at all.  I managed to get past it in the end - with a B rank - by just making no mistakes on the Vergier and Phantom R parts.

And then to Napoleon, with a particularly cringeworthy line.


I wish there was a better way of taking photos or screenshots on the 3DS.  You have to tilt it to avoid glare and reflection, but then you have to try and correct the skew ...

After a final battle, Napoleon jumped off the side of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (which were in the air over Paris, do keep up) and I had to flee with Marie.  Lots of questions remain unanswered - where is Raphael's dad?  How did the Duchess survive being shot at point-blank range? Will Phantom R ever be arrested?

He really ought to be, even if it's just for chat-up lines like this.


I enjoyed this game.  It didn't feel as padded as a Layton game, which is good as I'm not sure the rhythm games would have carried it that much further.  Some of the side games were pretty tough, including the Rub Rabbits theme performed Samba de Amigo style.  I may go back one day to pick up any last bits I've missed (a few of the music scraps, for example), but for now, I'm done.

Conceptis Puzzles: freemium done right

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According to Mr Kavanagh, I have somehow missed the launch of the follow-up to my third most-played 3DS game.  I'm somewhat loathe to download this, as I know I'll end up playing it exclusively for the next few weeks.  I'm frequently tempted to do so anyway, but only at work and I can't connect my 3DS to the Internet there.

But yesterday I fancied a bit of a puzzle.  As I'm unable to buy Picross E 2 using work's WiFi network, I investigated what was available on the iPhone for my journey home instead.  There are, as you'd expect, a lot of picross puzzles, at various prices. There are also slitherlink puzzles, and other such grid games.  Some of the best I've found are by Conceptis, who provide a decent number of free puzzles in their (free) apps, with lots of additional puzzles available at a cost.  The controls of the puzzles have been well thought out given the limitations of the touch screen - a lack of accuracy in particular.

Investigating their catalogue has introduced me to some new puzzle types as well - link-a-pix and hashi in particular.  Hashi is a bit tricky to work out the logic at times, but I'm getting there.