Post — Page 115

10 Gaming Years

Posted on 01/01/2015 Written by deKay

10 years ago today, on the 1st January 2005, I posted my very first Gaming Diary post. Back then, I was using Blogger and it uploaded posts via FTP to my own server when I published. After a few years, Google decided to discontinue this ability, leaving me with three options: give my domain name to Google and continue with Blogger, change to a Blogger or Blogspot URL and continue with Blogger, or cut the cord and import the lot into a shiny new blogging platform called WordPress, which I had installed on my own server.

I chose the latter, pressed the import button, and crossed my fingers.

It worked! After a very long and somewhat scary few minutes, my Gaming Diary was copied over to WordPress. Then I realised I’d made a mistake in the configuration and the post formats or something were not correct, so I deleted it and tried again, this time with the correct settings. Then it was all working how I want it, and, some wonky upgrades notwithstanding, it has remained that way ever since.

Unfortunately, my very first two posts on the old Blogger were lost to the internet aetherial plane during testing (I accidentally told it to move, not copy or something) before the import, but I do remember they were both about Anarchy Online. Remember that? It was my first – and only – foray into that sort of MMORPG, and signalled pretty much the end of my time playing any sort of PC games. Still, my third ever post still exists here, about the lovely Pikmin 2 on the Gamecube. Back when Pikmin 2 was a current title. That’s two whole generations ago! How time flies.

Over the years I’ve blogged about so many games. Hundreds of them. Just taking into account those I’ve completed takes the number up to 474. That’s over 47 games a year! There are countless more I never completed, including Anarchy Online, and so many demos. I’d be surprised if I hadn’t covered over 1000 titles, probably much more than 1000.

In recent years I’ve posted less frequently, and included more “roundup” posts. Perhaps this was due to lack of time, but I’ve tried to make up for it by writing in more detail about games in the “completed” posts. So quantity of posts may have dropped, but quality and length have hopefully increased. F’nar.

Thanks for reading, and, if you managed to do so for the full ten years, blimey. What the hell is wrong with you? Here’s to another ten!

Pop’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 31/12/2014 Written by deKay

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.

Pop’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 31/12/2014 Written by deKay

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.

Things I’ve been playing recently

Posted on 29/12/2014 Written by deKay

Fantasy Life (3DS)

It’s like 8 RPGs in one! I chose my first life to be a Paladin, applying the logic that any combat required in the other lives may benefit from my skills as a trained killer. Or something. I’m not very far in, only a couple of hours, but I’m already engrossed in the seemingly endless number of sidequests (which, unlike most RPGs, actually affect your progression in the game in a big way), and the game is both charming and interesting. I think I’ve guessed the real identity of Flutter the butterfly already, though, but then perhaps I’m meant to.

A “doom stone” has just smashed into the roof of my house, which can’t be a good thing. Now I have to go off and find another one.

Persona 4 Golden (Vita)

It took a lot of attempts, but I finally managed to defeat the boss at the top of Yukiko’s castle. Having done so, I asked around about it and it seems that having all your characters on around level 15 (the same level Yukiko is when she joins your party afterwards) is recommended.

All mine were on 10 or 11. Yeah, that’ll be why it was hard.

I’m a bit concerned about the inability to grind and the forced time limit on defeating each boss before the fog claims the next victim, but I’ve been assured that you can still grind as much as you want (until you run low on SP) by revisiting completed dungeons and never leaving. So, after rescuing Yukiko I spent some time redoing her castle to level up. Reached a new boss at the end of it, which can wipe out my entire party in a single hit. Methinks I should probably avoid him for a bit…

Super Smash Bros U (Wii U)

I’ve barely touched it so far, but have played through some of the single player modes a bit, and had a few fights online (which, sadly, were so badly lagged they were impossible to play), but I can already see that the huge amount of content and collectables will keep me coming back. Hopefully it’ll be a return to the greatness of the Gamecube game, as the Wii one wasn’t great (although I put that mainly down to the controls).

Scribble Shooter (Vita)

This may be a demo, but it’s hard to tell. It’s a Playstation Home Arcade game, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to purchase the full version so I don’t know if it’s just very, very short or what. It was quite good fun but over very quickly.

Wipeout 2D (Vita)

Another Playstation Home Arcade game. It’s exactly what it suggests – Wipeout in 2D. It plays like Super Sprint, but the handling feels terrible and I didn’t really enjoy it. Motorstorm RC is a billion times better, and the similar F-Zero themed minigame in Nintendoland is what Wipeout 2D wishes it was.

Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)

Of course. This just keeps on giving! I’ve a single square in Adventure Mode left to open now, and it’s proving pretty difficult. I’m having to level up some rarely used characters to build up to another attempt, but I keep getting sidetracked and hunt for better weapons and stuff instead.

I’ve bought my first Amiibo this week, and, which Hyrule Warriors in mind, it had to be Link. He unlocked the Spinner weapon which is awesome to use. Sadly, it’s only a Level 1 weapon so only does 80 damage. It’s kind of made up for with Link himself being on Level 112, but a 420 damage Spinner would be nice!

Apparently I can use the Amiibo once a day to unlock more stuff, so I’ll be giving that a go.

Hello Kitty Happy Happy Family (Demo) (3DS)

Sadly, not a return to form for Kitty. I was hoping for something more like the fantastic (truthfully) Hello Kitty Roller Rescue, or even the GBA Happy Party Pals game, but no – it’s a sub-Cooking Mama set of rubbish minigames. What a shame, although I did expect this was how it was going to be.

Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)

All the Level 5 Guild 01/02 games have been on offer recently, so I picked this up cheap along with The Starship Damrey. I haven’t played it a great deal yet, only through the tutorial and as far as the french bloke and the two girls returning from their quests. Seems quite good so far though – a sort of rhythm action game where you make the weapons and level them up by sending them out with adventurers. It’s pretty funny too, especially the almost Twitter-like Grindcast, which updates you on the quests your customers go on.

Mega Man 6 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 29/12/2014 Written by deKay

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.