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Big Tournament Golf (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Although I don’t like golf at all, I’ve always enjoyed a good golf game. From PGA European Tour on the Amiga, which I don’t even remember buying, through Mario Gold, NES Golf, Golf Story, and so on. One of my favourites is Neo Turf Masters for the NeoGeo Pocket, which is the Other Region name for this – Big Tournament Golf.

To be enjoyable, golf games need to be simple. Choose a club, aim, press a button to swing, set power, then set accuracy. That’s it. And Big Tournament Golf does exactly this with no fuss. There are three courses, with increasing difficulty, although actually none of them are really very hard. I completed them all over a couple of weeks, coming first in the tournaments for each.

Blaster Master Zero 2 (Switch): COMPLETED!

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It’s been a few years since I completed the first Blaster Master Zero, because for some reason I forgot to buy the sequel. I have now rectified that and so here is my post. Like the original, it was great. Unlike the original, it was more fragmented, in that it was made up of lots of small levels (mostly separate planets) rather than a handful of large maps. It was still Metroidvania-y though, and a lot of fun with some great bosses.

The levels had plenty of variety, with one of them actually existing as two separate levels that had maps that intermingled. Each was in a different “phase”, so that was interesting and unusual.

After completing it, it was clear I got some sort of bad ending, so had to look up how to get the good ending – turns out you have to finish a handful of side missions, which then unlocks the real final boss.

Now to wait for Blaster Master Zero 3 to come down in price!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Yes, I finally caved and bought Mario Kart 8 again. I have it for the Wii U so didn’t really need it on the Switch, but then they went and announced a load of new tracks will be coming to it and it was 33% off so here we are.

It’s the same as on the Wii U. Only you don’t get a screen each in two player and all the cups, tracks and characters are unlocked from the start. I’ve been through and come first in all the cups in 50, 100 and 150cc (so that’s more than enough to consider it “completed”), but haven’t played much of Mirror or 200cc yet.

Best character is Tanooki Mario with all his default kart options.

Touhou Luna Nights (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Apparently this is an authorised fan-game based on the Touhou shooter series, but none of that means anything to me. I was just keeping an eye on it because it looked like an interesting Metroidvania game, and as it turns out, it is.

Plot is something something fake castle world something baddie something, but what that means is Castlevania without a Dracula. It’s very similar to Castlevania, even having some similar areas (like a clock tower) and enemies (like Frankenstein’s monster and skeletons), and of course it has blocked areas you need items or upgrades to access.

What’s different is in the abilities of your character. She can slow and stop time, for one thing. And “graze” enemies and projectiles in which to replenish energy. Or, graze them when time is stopped to replenish magic points. And you’ll need to replenish magic a lot, because all your attacks use it. The time stop power is also used in environmental “puzzles” too, as some objects and enemies aren’t frozen, some are frozen, and some only move (or move backwards) when time is stopped. There’s a lot of hidden room finding too, and of course a map to fill in 100%.

I completed it, and then discovered that there’s a whole extra area afterwards which I think was DLC in the original PC version of the game, so of course I had to finish that too. The end boss was especially tricky (in her second form, anyway), but I managed it. And then I went and found the few remaining areas and items to get 100%.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and it’s certainly different to play compared to how it looks – not a “standard” Metroidvania by any means.

Deiland (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Set in the same universe as Summer in Mara, Deiland starts out as superficially similar – chop down trees, smash rocks, grow crops – but set on a tiny planet instead of a big sea. There’s no exploration, and you only have a couple of small areas of other planets you can travel to as the story progresses, and also unlike Summer in Mara, there’s combat.

Every so often, baddies will spawn on your little planet and you have to defeat them. If you don’t, they knock you out and nick some of your resources. They’re not hard to deal with, however, and healing is easy – just stand next to a fire for a bit.

You’ll get visitors in space ships, including a few characters who were also in Summer on Mara, who act as both quest givers and shops. Quest are almost always of the form “collect X” or “create Y”, but because you don’t need to travel far, they’re less drawn out as in Mara.

It’s a simpler game than Mara, but it’s different. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much, but it’s still worth playing.