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Skylanders (360): COMPLETED!

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Look! Look at that thing in the post title! And the tag list! LOOOOOK!! It says “completed”!!

That’s right. About 18 months after starting the game, my daughter and I finally completed it today. We’d been just a couple of levels off the end for months and months, but every time we got a new Skylander we played some earlier levels to level it up a bit and get money to buy upgrades.

Today, we went for one final push and did it. OK, so she dropped out of the final boss battle (there was just too much going on for her to cope with), and until I figured out that Double Trouble seemed to be the best at dealing sustained damage on Kaos we went through about ten Skylanders (although Spyro and Dark Spyro both hung on for ages).

The main issue with the final boss was that it took aaaaages. Like, a good 40 minutes. There’s only a short window in each “wave” where you can deal damage, and Kaos has a massive energy bar. The assorted minions weren’t a problem, and the hydra’s attacks were mostly simple to dodge (especially with [Dark] Spyro), but it just took forever to whittle that bar down to nothing. Eventually though, he was bested and Skylands was safe once more. Well, for a while anyway. Skylanders Giants beckons.

Just in time for Skylanders Swap Force, the third game, to be released. Ho hum.

Pikmin 3 (Wii U)

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pikmin3allfruitAnd go back for the remaining fruit I did. None of it was that hard to reach, but I did seem to be missing one fruit in the Distant Tundra area. Nothing was showing on the map, but I figured out it was a bunch of grapes I’d somehow not picked up (even though I recall doing so), so headed for where they were.

Only to find a single grape was there. Just one. How I missed one, I don’t know.

With all the fruit collected, I beat the final boss again, and got the Good Ending. Woo!

Pikmin 3 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

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pikmin3end15 hours, apparently. Which equated to 39 in-game days. That’s how long it took me to find the Cosmic Drive key, best the final boss, and escape from Certainly Not Earth and head home with all the fruit juice and seeds I could carry.

Well, most of the fruit juice and seeds. 43 of the 66 fruits available, in fact.

And rather a lot of carrotmen died for the cause. Er, about 700, all in. Which sounds horrific, but you have to remember – without my intervention there’d be only 5 of the things in total. It’s only thanks to my Pikmin Breeding Programme that almost two thousand tasty, tasty Pikmin were even brought into existence, so it’s worth it, overall.

But the game! I haven’t mentioned the game!

It’s Pikmin. In fact, it’s just like Pikmin 1, only without the hard limit on how many days you can stay on the planet before you perish. Sure, there’s a movable limit (it’s determined by how much juice you have – but I had enough for another 30+ days when I’d finished), but it takes away all the stress of rushing the game. There’s still a daily time limit, but that’s not so bad. Aside from when you get near the end of the game and SPOILER happens and you’re left with no juice at all and have to get some quick sharp that very day (and, probably, the next couple of days too).

You have a couple of extra Pikmin types over the first game (and lose the purple and white ones from the second game) – weak but flying pink ones, and heavy rock ones – but the main difference is the graphics. Oh my, the gorgeous, HD, colourful beautiful graphics.

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I controlled the whole game with the GamePad. Sure, lots have said it’s better with the remote and nunchuk, but I couldn’t be bothered with that. I didn’t feel out of control at any point anyway, and having the map in my hands was very useful, especially for directing my crew around.

Next task is to return to the game to get the last of the fruit, which I’ll enjoy doing because it is an utterly fantastic game. It might be almost a year later than expected, but it was well worth it.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (3DS): COMPLETED!

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I am not a big fan of the Donkey Kong Country series of games. I didn’t like the SNES ones, I didn’t like the Game Boy ones, and although Donkey Kong 64 started well, the collecting killed it for me.

As a result, I didn’t even have a slight interest in the Wii game “Donkey Kong Country Returns”, of which this is a 3D “remix”. So why then did I play it? Firstly, curiosity. Secondly, it was free. And thirdly? Lots of people raving about it.

And today, I completed it. And it was hard.

Oh boy was it hard. I don’t think I’ve played such an unrelentingly difficult game in ages. Certainly not to completion, anyway (and Cloudberry Kingdom and VVVVVV don’t count due to unlimited lives and instant, nearby, respawn points). Somehow, though, it’s the difficulty that I enjoyed. The satisfaction of finally beating one of the hard-as-nails barrel rocket levels. Or besting that robot chicken boss even though it seemed impossible for the first 27 lives.

And not once did I resort to using the Super Guide flag-waving pig thing. Woo!

My impressions of the game besides the difficulty, then. Well, it’s pretty. So very pretty, especially in 3D. It plays really well too, and I’m not really understanding the control problems people have had with it. Sure, “grab” on R is a bit odd, but you get used to it. The timing for “bouncing on a baddie to boost jump” is tricky, especially on the later levels where it’s essential, but not really a control issue. From the comments people have made, it seems lots of players seem to be randomly rolling off cliffs and dying. Not really sure how they’re doing that.

I’ve said that the game was free (it was part of the “So Many Games” promotion a few months back), so would I, with hindsight, have bought it? Yes. Probably. Not for the full price, but maybe £15. Will I be going back and 100%ing the game? No. Some of the levels are too stressful to complete normally, let alone grabbing jigsaw pieces and KONG letters. I think it’ll go back on the virtual shelf with a 3/5 sticker, and I’ll be happy it’s done, but not sad to see it gathering dust.

Thomas Was Alone (PS3): COMPLETED!

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Here’s something unusual – a PS3 game. A completed PS3 game at that. Haven’t had that in months!

Thomas Was Alone was something I did want to play. I thought about getting it on Steam, but then I remembered – I don’t play PC games – so waited until a console release. Sadly, it only hit the PS3 (and Vita, I think), rather than any console I actually use, so I left it. Until I realised I had just over six quid in my PSN account and Thomas Was Alone went on sale for about £2.39 or something.

And I wanted to spend my PSN “cash” before Sony stole it again (if you don’t spend it after a certain amount of time, Sony just take it from you – already had that happen once), of course.

So Thomas Was Bought, played, enjoyed, and completed.

There are two main parts to the game. The first is the puzzle platforming bit. Thomas, a rectangle, and various other rectangles with different names and various physical “powers” (able to jump higher, double jump, have reversed gravity, act as a trampoline, etc.) have to reach matching rectangular door “portals” across about 80 levels of platforming. The graphics are plain, the puzzles mostly simple, and sound effects are almost nonexistent. It’s not a bad game, just there’s no depth and very little challenge.

But there’s another part to the game. The running narration of the progress, feelings and story behind all these little rectangles. They all have distinct personalities, egos and fears. Not a single part of the narration affects how the game plays at all, but the funny characters that it draws out of the shapes you control adds a massive layer of purpose to the game, elevating it above the “drab puzzle platformer” it appears to be.

It’s short, and I spent between two and three hours on it, but it’s definitely well worth playing. And best of all, it uses the d-pad and a single button on the PS3 controller (plus L1/R1 to swap shape) so it’s even enjoyable to control for those of us who hate the Dual Shock 3. Lovely.

Now, what do I spend my remaining £3.80-ish on?