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And so it came to pass that my first completed game in the grand old year of 2015, was Fantasy Life. Do not be of the mind that just because I got it for Christmas, it’s somewhat short. No, somehow in just over a week I’ve crammed more than 27 hours into it. In fact, since my last post about it just 5 days have passed and 25 hours of game have been played. And that’s just on one of the many lives available to play.
That’s the story complete, then. The world saved, every region of the planet united, and The Power of Wishes realised. Thankfully, you can still continue playing after the end, so I did for a bit in order to become a Master Paladin and level my character up to 31. Clearly there is a lot more levelling still to do, as most of the dragons roaming the map would appear to still be indestructible. With two able fighters as companions, I barely managed to scratch the blue one on the snowy mountain before my healing items were severely depleted and I had to run away with my tail between my legs.
On I went then, picking a new role for myself – a tailor. It could not be more different to being a Paladin. Instead of wandering round finding monsters to smack and performing deeds of derring do for a tall man with a ridiculous moustache and the shiniest of armour, you pick flowers and buy material to sew together and make clothes in a Cooking Mama style mini-game. It isn’t as fun as being a soldier, but then, how exciting could they have made tailoring, realistically? It’s impressive how totally distinct two game styles have been used in the same game, though. I wonder how the other lives fare?
In a (very) late entry into completed games in the year 2014, I give you Pop’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures! It’s not a shoot ‘em up like the other Pop’n TwinBee games – instead being a platformer with some elements borrowed from the likes of Castle of Illusion, Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario World, but somehow totally different from all of them.
Whereas in the shooter games in the series you pilot a cute spacecraft and take down other cute spacecraft (like a chibi-1941), you pilot a cute spacecraft who runs and jumps around levels punching things and hitting foes with a big hammer. No, really.
I have played it before, a long time ago in an incomprehensible Japanese form, but something made me want to buy the Wii U English eShop version a couple of days ago. I never got very far previously, but made an effort to complete it this time.
And it was great! I did find it pretty easy, most of the bosses especially so, but there were a couple of levels I was stuck on for ages. They were both maze-like and I just couldn’t find the right exit. One of them involved lots of pipes, none of which seemed to take me to the exit which I’d clearly seen but was unable to reach. Another was made up almost entirely of destructible blocks, and although I could locate the exit without much issue, the key on that stage (which you can use to open doors to bonus areas on other stages) was apparently inaccessible. After 20 minutes I gave up looking for a way in.
Which means I finished without collecting all the keys. I don’t think they’re necessary for anything special, though, so I’m not too bothered.
In all, it’s a strange but enjoyable (and very Japanese) game, with varied levels, and it’s a shame I missed it first time round and never paid it much attention until now. Perhaps it’s the way it’s a spin-off, as they often don’t fare too well, but in TwinBee’s case, it’s well worth a look.
In a (very) late entry into completed games in the year 2014, I give you Pop’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures! It’s not a shoot ‘em up like the other Pop’n TwinBee games – instead being a platformer with some elements borrowed from the likes of Castle of Illusion, Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario World, but somehow totally different from all of them.
Whereas in the shooter games in the series you pilot a cute spacecraft and take down other cute spacecraft (like a chibi-1941), you pilot a cute spacecraft who runs and jumps around levels punching things and hitting foes with a big hammer. No, really.
I have played it before, a long time ago in an incomprehensible Japanese form, but something made me want to buy the Wii U English eShop version a couple of days ago. I never got very far previously, but made an effort to complete it this time.
And it was great! I did find it pretty easy, most of the bosses especially so, but there were a couple of levels I was stuck on for ages. They were both maze-like and I just couldn’t find the right exit. One of them involved lots of pipes, none of which seemed to take me to the exit which I’d clearly seen but was unable to reach. Another was made up almost entirely of destructible blocks, and although I could locate the exit without much issue, the key on that stage (which you can use to open doors to bonus areas on other stages) was apparently inaccessible. After 20 minutes I gave up looking for a way in.
Which means I finished without collecting all the keys. I don’t think they’re necessary for anything special, though, so I’m not too bothered.
In all, it’s a strange but enjoyable (and very Japanese) game, with varied levels, and it’s a shame I missed it first time round and never paid it much attention until now. Perhaps it’s the way it’s a spin-off, as they often don’t fare too well, but in TwinBee’s case, it’s well worth a look.
After the slight drop in quality that Mega Man 5 brought to the series, I was glad to see that things improved for the final NES Mega Man outing.
As I’ve mentioned before, each game so far has added some new move, add-on or feature to the series. Mega Man 6 sort of brings two, as Rush is removed as a rocket/trampoline and becomes a sort of exoskeleton for Mega Man, giving him two new powers – a jetpack (which works for a very short amount of time) and a power suit which allows you to break cracked blocks (much like Guts Man’s power from the original Mega Man) and destroy some otherwise invincible enemies.
Most of the levels also include branching paths, including two different locations for the final bosses in each of the first 8 stages. Finding the alternative location results in an extra item in addition to the power that the boss normally leaves behind. Four of these items are the letters BEAT, which provides you with, obviously, Beat from Mega Man 5. I had to redo one of the levels to get the B as I’d missed it, but it wasn’t worth doing as Beat has absolutely no use anywhere in the entire game.
Once more, the difficulty of the game has been reduced, meaning that apart from Mega Man 5, the games did get progressively easier as the series went on. In 6, this was in part because of the abundance of E-Tanks, but also because of the ridiculously simple to beat final boss(es) and some of the alternate routes in the levels (almost all of which I took) seemingly miss out large sections of the game.
And that’s it. All the NES Mega Man games done. End of an era, or something. Thankfully, there are plenty more SNES titles to work through next! Final best-o-meter: 6>4>5>3>2>1.