ugvm

the site of uk.games.video.misc

Tomb Raider: Peru

Posted on Written by

This is the 1996 game called Tomb Raider, as opposed to the 2013 game called Tomb Raider.  I completed the 2013 game called Tomb Raider back in 2014, and then I completed the sequel to that game (a 2015 game called Rise of the Tomb Raider) in 2024. I have previously completed the 1996 game called Tomb Raider, back in 1998, after I had completed the 1997 game called Tomb Raider II. I have also completed a 2006 game called Tomb Raider Legend and (I think) a 2007 game called Tomb Raider Anniversary which was a remake of the 1996 game called Tomb Raider but not the 2013 game called Tomb Raider. I have also played a 1998 game called Tomb Raider III and a 2008 game called Tomb Raider Underworld but have not completed those, and neither of those was a remake of the 1998 game called Tomb Raider.

In fact, this is only sort of the 1996 game called Tomb Raider. This is a game called Tomb Raider which was released in 2024 on a compilation of three games, which collectively were called Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. Within the game you can play a port of the original 1996 game called Tomb Raider, or a remastered version which updates graphics, allows you to use different controls, and changes saving mechanisms. This remastered version is much closer to the original 1996 game called Tomb Raider than the 2007 game called Tomb Raider Anniversary.

I hope that’s clear.

My intention with this was to try to complete Tomb Raider III, which still eludes me, but I have fond memories of the first and second games and I didn’t feel capable of just ignoring them. A refresh of story, controls, and mechanics was also useful. So, I’ve started at the start and have taken Lara through the caves of Peru, completing the first four levels of the game. There’s a lot of stuff here which I don’t think I’ve appreciated before, such as how combat and puzzles are largely kept separate, and (so far) there’s been no respawning enemies when you retrace your steps. This is something I was very glad of when I ran back past the (still warm) T-Rex corpse having collected three gears for the sluice gate machine in the third area. The camera is a bit frustrating, with little user control (especially when using original graphics) and sometimes it just won’t show you what’s ahead of Lara until you’ve nearly fallen off the ledge that’s around a corner. The modern graphics are, on the whole, a very welcome addition, other than the fact that they’re just so dark. I’ve found myself having to switch between the two just to see where the walls are, at times.

I’m glad you can switch between graphic modes on the fly

Some of the notes I made from the modern Tomb Raider games apply here as well. If you have your guns drawn, Lara will automatically aim at enemies, and this means you can sidestep across blind corners knowing that the game will tell you if there’s anything to be afraid of. Some of the game is more like a puzzle, identifying how to get somewhere, although this first game has less of the verticality that I know happens later in the series. You can easily see how the new games drew on the first for inspiration, but there are some aspects where game design has inevitably moved on.

In a surprise to nobody, having found the artifact I was charged to get, and while retracing my steps to leave the tombs, I was ambushed by my employer’s sidekick (Larson) who wanted the scion for himself. I jumped around and shot him multiple times, and then, crucially, didn’t kill him. This is the 1996 game called Tomb Raider, and while Lara’s happy to kill off a lost valley of dinosaurs, and wolves, and other wildlife, it was always made clear she wasn’t a murderer – not until the end of the game, at least. In Tomb Raider Anniversary, it is explicitly clear that she kills Larson, and that was the first time she killed a person.

Not my video, but it’s basically a cutscene anyway

So, i have the first piece of the puzzle, and have watched a (very dated) cutscene of Lara raiding the offices of her now-former employer. Off to find someone else now.

Super Mario World: completed!

Posted on Written by

I didn’t get lost again, but that was largely because the game’s designers had finished messing around with the world map and everything was fairly linear from that point. I did find a couple of extra exits on Chocolate Island, but maintaining my aim of ignoring the red blinking markers and just pushing through to the end, I finished off Wendy and progressed through the shipwreck down to Bowser’s hidden valley, previously submerged beneath the suspicious big empty sea in the middle of the map.

I was expecting the Valley of Bowser to be more difficult, in fact, but actually the levels themselves didn’t present much of a challenge. There was one annoying level where the big moles kept getting in the way and I couldn’t find the way out the level, meaning I died a couple of time running out of time, but one I realised that I could go out and get a Yoshi, and then eat the moles, things became easier.

What was tricky was the final boss battle, and I felt I was fighting against the controls much more than in the rest of the game. To defeat Bowser you had to attack him from above, and the only way you could do that was to jump on one of the clockwork bomb things he was throwing down to stun it, grab it, and then throw it up so that it would land on Bowser’s head as he swung his ship back around. Obviously, this had to be done while avoiding the other clockwork bomb things and his ship.

Peach really needs a better tailor.

Still, it only took me a couple of goes, and then I saw the credits, meaning that the game is completed. Sure, it’s not completed completed, since there are a lot of secret exits I’ve not found, and I believe there’s a star world somewhere to be discovered. I’ll park it here, much as I did with Galaxy and 64 and Odyssey, and plan to come back to it one day soon.

Super Mario World: lost in chocolate

Posted on Written by

I have got further than ever before, but that’s not saying much. I own Super Mario World on multiple systems – SNES, GBA, Wii, Wii U, 3DS – as well as having emulated it on the Raspberry Pi, the iMac, and (shh) my work laptop. I have played the start of it many times over, knowing to go left at the first map screen and turn on the yellow switch, then progressing right up the map to Donut Plains. I know about the secret exit in Donut Plains 2 to get to the green switch palace. I have, very often, given up at the ghost house in Donut Plains because I just hate the way the enemies move and the need for constant vigilance.

Not this time, though. Playing on the Switch (and then the Switch 2), I pushed through, and found new life beyond the ghosts in Vanilla Dome, Twin Bridges, and then the Forest of Illusion. And at this point it became really annoying.

In an effort to actually finish the game, I tried to ignore the red blinking dots that told me there were alternative exits to the levels. I went straight through each level, to the obvious end, making progress. And then in the Forest of Illusion, taking the obvious exit no longer worked; I ended up going around the overworld map in circles. I did find a secret exit in Forest of Illusion 1, but that just took me to the ghost house which I had already accessed from Forest of Illusion 3. The ghost house exit took me to FoI4, and then the exit from there went back to FoI2. I was frustrated for ages until I found the secret exit from FoI3 which was hidden in a pipe I was sure I’d been down multiple times before, just before the normal end of the level.

Keeping a Yoshi seems to make life a lot easier.

Through Roy’s castle, and onto Chocolate Island. I was doing fine until Chocolate Island 3, when I found that the exit led me into a loop which took me back to Chocolate Island 3. I explored CI2 for ages, because there was a sign at the start indicating that if I collected a certain number of coins or finished at a certain time I would get a different exit, but no amount of experimenting gave that result. There didn’t look as if there could be a secret path leading from the ghost house or CI1. And then, met with a facepalm, I realised that the arrows at the end of CI3 were pointing to the right, showing me where I had to go. I rode Yoshi along, swallowed the blue koopa to give me wings, and then made my way over to the other secret exit.

I’ve left it at CI4, which has a lot of diagonal platforms to slide down. Hopefully I won’t get lost again.

Lunistice (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on Written by

A while back, I played the demo of this and enjoyed it enough to stick it on my wishlist until it went on sale. Eventually, it did!

While it might not look like anything special, and there are a million late-90s style 3D platformers around, what this has that most of the others don’t is a properly controllable character. As in, the jumping and “steering” physics and controls feel right. You know how on the Super NES, Mario in Super Mario World feels right, but Bubsy the Bobcat is a horrible slidey imprecise mess? Now see how most 3D platformers from the Mario 64 era (and those that ape it) are more like nasty Gex 3D and not Banjo Kazooie in the same way. Well, Lunistice isn’t and clicked immediately with me.

It isn’t a huge game, with only a handful of worlds with most only having two acts, but it is inventive, varied and fun. There’s bits like Sonic Adventure, and bits like Mario 64, and bits like Crash Bandicoot (only good), but it still manages to be its own thing. Nice music, new-retro 32bit console aesthetic graphics, and a draw distance the PS1 couldn’t even dream about.

Party House (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on Written by

And here it is! Party House is one of the games on UFO 50. The idea is, on each level, you are hosting a house party and every time you open the door a random guest from a pool of guests turns up. Each guest has a different effect on the party, however, and that’s where it gets hard.

So to start with, your house can only hold 5 guests. Some guests increase the popularity of the party (which, each round, adds up and can be “spent” on inviting other guests to the pool). Some guests bring in some money (which you can use to increase the capacity of your party). Others actually cost you money, and some increase the chances of the police turning up and shutting you down (which requires you to blame one party attendee who is then barred for a round).

Then you’ve other guests who can reduce the police chance, or automatically bring a +1 (which may cause the party to overspill – causing another shutdown), or act as a popularity multiplier. There are dogs who can preview who the next guest will be, bouncers who can kick someone out, and guests who can invite a specific additional guest from your pool.

It all feels a bit like a more complex version of a sort of solitaire poker, or something akin to Balatro. Even though it’s mostly random, there’s strategy as you try to gain enough popularity across each of the 20 or so rounds to eventually be able to “buy” all the required attendees needed to call the party a success and win.

Each of the five levels has a different set of available guests, so they play out differently. It’s very addictive, meaning the extra “random party” mode can give unlimited replayability.