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After a mammoth effort this weekend, I get all the stars, stamps and flags from the rest of the remaining levels. It wasn’t hard, it just took a fair while as most of the levels had at least something left to collect.
My reward? World Crown. I was slightly disappointed to find there were just three levels on this world, but as you can see – one of them is pretty much a monster. Look at all them stars!
More not-actually-aimless wandering led to the accidental discovery of Turtle Rock, and the completion of it. The actual dungeon was very small, but involved several “layers” on each of the two floors and was actually quite complicated.
It was pretty easy though, brain-twisty puzzles aside, and the boss was easily seen off.
After that, I set about looking for entrances to other dungeons, finding my way to the Dark Palace (which had a rubbish stealth section before it – mercifully, it was easy and very short) and whatever the one in Lorule’s Lost Words equivalent is called. Triggering the weather vanes outside will make getting to each of these easier later on. While in those woods, I found a guy who wanted to sell me “a treasure” for 888 rupees. Since I have a billion rupees, I said yes – and he gave me a golden bee which I passed on to Bee Guy for a Bee Badge. Apparently, bees won’t pester me any more. Not that they ever did, mind.
This is slow going. Not that slow going is a problem, and it’s actually mostly my “fault” as I keep getting sidetracked looking for treasure and stuff – only to be disappointed that I don’t have the Titan’s Mitt to pick up big rocks. Well, sorted that by getting the mitt from the Desert Palace. Now (I think!) I can reach everywhere, as I’ve all the weapons too.
But I’m ahead of myself. Before the Desert Palace (which, like in Link to the Past, was “split” into several sections inside and outside the dungeon – and in this game split across both Hyrule and Lorule) I completed the Ice Palace. It wasn’t hard, but was substantially harder than I was anticipating at this still-relatively-early stage in the game. Enemies were taking 4 or 5 hearts off with a single hit, so I had to be careful. Thankfully, there’s a supply of fairies in a central thoroughfare so I could frequently heal up without much trekking. Then I remembered – you can do dungeons in any order, so it stands to reason I might hit a hard one early, which is what I suspect I did. In addition to the enemies, the puzzles were a bit brain bendy too, so yeah.
After that, the Desert Palace was a complete walkover. Even though I forgot I had the sand rod several times so temporarily struggled with the scarab things and buried chests. Old age, eh?
And still the game goes on. I found out that the reason I didn’t have a Gold Shovel yet is because I simply haven’t bought enough fertiliser. So I’ve been buying fertiliser.
But what to do with all my fertiliser? Send it to Agent S, of course! That girl (yes, it surprised me too) loves fertiliser. Probably.
Then my transvestitism was unkindly brought up when the less tolerant than expected Lopez questioned why I was wearing a lady’s hat. Because I like it and it makes me feel pretty, Lopez.
Fight intolerance, yo.
That picture there is all the flags, stars and stamps for all of the worlds from 1-8. Or 1-Bowser, if you’re using Nintendo’s eclectic numbering system. Surprisingly, although the hardest level up until then when playing normally and for the first run through, was Grumblump Inferno (the one with the blocks you have to stand on as they roll over lava), and I’d failed to get anything but a finish on it, this time I found it incredibly easy and breezed through getting everything. Time is such a healer.
Or, in the case of Mario games, time is a great provider of awesome Mario skills. With much play comes great power. Or something.
After that, it was onto the special worlds to clean up the remaining collectables there. I’m not far in yet, but no real difficulties yet. Aside from on Rainbow Run, where although I didn’t die, getting to the second star with a Fire Flower intact was a challenge. After several attempts (restarting if I lost it), I realised there was a Fire Flower just to the left of the area you need one for. Gah.
The reward? DAH DAH DAH DAAAAAH!!