And I didn’t even know you could complete it! It turns out there are only 20 levels in the main game, and once you finish them, you win. There then follows a slightly disturbing end of game sequence, involving love, death, children, animals, and the dark decent into overpowering insanity. No, really. It’s like, deep, man.
Played “standard” mode for a while, and managed 7th on the hiscore table. Once again I ran out of time because there was only one possible move and I couldn’t see it. Grr.
Tokoton MASTER! Well, not quite. I managed 5th on the score table, after jumping from 9th to 6th in about twelve seconds. I was only a few points from 4th as well, which was a pain.
Managed a whopping FIFTH on the main game hiscore table today. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make the top though – the game doesn’t give you enough time! Played Time Attack mode too, but didn’t do as well there. Got about 9th on that mode’s table.
Quest mode is too hard. FACT. I’ve had a few attempts at it, and I’ve managed a whopping 555 points – which, considering 10th place on the hiscore table is 1000, is pants. I do well in several of the challenges, and then get one where I completely mess up, and I lose almost all my points. Boo. If you don’t have a DS, but want to play this ace game, you could always try this link.
The DS version of this arrived today, and it’s one of those games that glues itself to your hand. I had a quick go, which was an hour long! Played “normal” mode for a bit, then had a go at “Tokoton” mode, and lasted more than 30 minutes. I thought I’d done great, but only came 7th on the hiscore table. Played Time Attack mode then, and managed to come 6th. It’s even better than I thought it was going …
The original Zookeeper was the subject of one of my very first posts on this here gaming diary over 16 years ago. Well, not quite the original game as that was a Japan-only GBA release called Zooo or something, but the DS version I played was pretty much the same game. Anyway, forward time on a bit and the world of match-3 puzzlers has changed a bit so you can’t just re-release Zookeeper and expect it to fit in. So …
Yes, it’s the same damn game as Zoo Keeper World and Simon’s Cat and Puppy Blast and 50% of the games on the App Store, but it’s polished and cute and as it’s on Apple Arcade has no IAPs or wait times or other nonsense that gets in the way of, you know, just matching three things and clearing the board of whatever it is that needs clearing. And sometimes, that’s all you want. Simple, pretty, puzzle fun.
Pikmin 2(GC 12/01/2005) Zoo Keeper(DS 29/01/2005) Paper Mario 2(GC 30/01/2005) Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude(Xbox 07/02/2005) Sonic Adventure DX(GC 09/02/2005) Fable(Xbox 17/02/2005) Mr Driller: Drill Spirits(DS 17/02/2005) Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap(GBA 21/02/2005) Ribbit King(GC 27/02/2005) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas(PS2 06/03/2005) Gitaroo Man(PS2 12/03/2005) Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon(Xbox 19/03/2005) Yoshi Touch & Go(DS 27/03/2005) Mario Golf: Advance Tour(GBA 28/03/2005) Metroid Fusion(GBA 08/04/2005) Bubble Bobble: Old & New(GBA 15/04/2005) Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars(GBA 18/04/2005) …
I’ve been away all week, so not been playing a huge amount in the way of games. However, my holiday was partly affected by rain, so my DS did get an airing. On that, I started playing Puzzle Quest, which is a Bejewelled/Zoo Keeper clone in an RPG setting. So you have to battle orcs and things by matching gems, and have special powers and stats and stuff. It sounds totally ridiculous, but is actually somewhat amazing. I also played …
This is the last of the bitGenerations games for me to try. I thought it was going to be a bit like Lumines, going off the screenshots, but it isn’t at all really. It’s more like Zoo Keeper, only you change the colours of blocks rather than move them. It’s very simple to play, but a bit long-winded to explain. It is great though. I’ve played through the first 10 or so Basic levels, and the first 2 Advanced ones.
So I downloaded a few more game demos today. First off, was Full Auto, which is very much like Burnout only with guns. And a Prince of Persia-style time-rewind system. It plays nice and all, but it doesn’t look much better than Burnout 3. In fact, in some ways, it’s actually worse visually. Probably not a game I’ll be buying any time soon, sorry Sega… Then I played Quake 4. I don’t mind FPS games, but they’re not my favourite …
Or Pokémon Torouze to you, if you can’t read the Japanese. Yes, I am just showing off that I can type in katakana like on the box. And, despite the Pokémon connection, it’s actually a very good puzzle game. So far, at least. It’s a sort of cross between Zoo Keeper and those slide puzzles. You have the usually puzzle-game-well, which starts partially filled with Pokémon heads. You slide the rows and columns to line up four or more heads, …
I didn’t even mention that I’d played Midway Arcade Treasures 3 over the weekend. Mainly because it was rubbish. Of all the games on it, only Super Off Road was any good. Tch. So I was somewhat chuffed when Potatio Leg Ends (which arrived today) turned out to be SUPARBEST. It is worth buying just for Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands and The New Zealand Story, but then they go and stick another 26 games in there! And they’re not all …
The US version of this DS puzzle game arrived from Videogamesplus this morning – just in time for me to take it away to a conference with me. Played it a little this evening. BEST EVAAR. Hectic, frantic, spastic, fantastic, arsenic and other words ending with “ic”. It is sort of like Columns, only a bit more like Zoo Keeper. Only not like either. And it has rockets. But it is very good.
