Gauntlet (GBA)

The other half of Gauntlet and Rampart, obviously.

And, like Rampart, it's an excellent conversion even on a very small screen. I did get stuck on Level 14 though - I had a pocket full of keys (© The Rock) but had to pick up another to progress. But I couldn't. Thankfully, the old hang-around-for-a-few-minutes trick worked and the walls all turned to exits.

Rampart (GBA)

Another of the Play Asia package today. This one is actually one half of the "Gauntlet and Rampart" double game cartridge (which, at the time of typing, you can get for a bargainous £5 from here).

And? It is, as it always was, ace. I remember I was on holiday with a friend one summer and we walked three miles to the nearest arcade just to play this. It loses a little with just one player, but still plays fantastically (even on a Game Boy Micro's screen!). I managed to win five "levels", before being unable to finish the sixth.

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis (GBA)

This arrived in the post today, along with some other stuff, from Play Asia. And, since ugvm Retro Week has been extended into this week, it was ideal for playing!

Or so I thought. It turns out that in the process of simply porting the original Megadrive Sonic game to the GBA, Sega couldn't help but rape my childhood memories by making it worse than those shoddy "fan-made" Flash-based Sonic games. It has more issues than a journal library. Par example:

1) You only get to see around 60% of the screen. The edges have been trimmed to fit the GBA. Not a huge issue if you know the layout of the levels off by heart (like me), but it means far too many leaps-of-faith and running-off-the-edge-of-things otherwise.

2) Horrific slowdown. Even when the screen isn't busy, the game will slow down for seemingly no reason.

3) Inconsistent scroll speeds. Scrolling up and down is twice as quick as left and right. Or perhaps it's just Sonic moves twice as quick when jumping? Either way, he doesn't control like Sonic any more.

4) Things don't draw in. You know the edges of the platforms in Green Hill that crumble when you stand on them? Sometimes they're not there. But you can stand on them, and they crumble under you, but you can only see them as they crumble. The swinging platform on Green Hill Act 2 vanished while I was standing on it too.

5) Things simply aren't there. You know the baddie in the air when you fly up into all those rings after the tunnel bit on Green Hill Act 1? The one you generally rebound off and aim back left to get more of the rings? Gone. Not just "not drawn in" - he's gone.

6) The sound effects are broken. Some of them simply aren't there. Others sound out of tune. Some sound completely wrong.

7) The music is awful. It's like some 12 year old has "rerecorded" the original tracks using a dodgy midi sequencer.

8) The special stages are impossible. They run three times faster than the rest of the game. And no, it isn't just 50 vs 60Hz issues - they're WAY faster. And there's the smaller viewport to contend with too.

Basically: Fuck off, Sega.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA): COMPLETED!

World 11 was, in fact, the final world. Dark Castle and all!

As expected of the final world, many of the levels sort of repeated some of the puzzles and routines of previous levels, although obviously mixed up a bit. Thankfully, there was no SuckySuck(TM) bit either. The end boss, however, did do the usual trick of dying, only to change form and regain all his energy - twice. I wasn't too bothered though, as each form was very different, none were especially hard, and if you died (and I did three or four times) you didn't have to start from the beginning again. And you healed fully after each transformation too, making it fair. Hurrah, eh?

And then it was all over. I killed his final form, rescued someone who appeared to be my dad (a previous starfish "hero", it seems), and banished the boss to a pot with a face on. However, my clam friend accidentally dropped the pot during the end of game sequence and let him out again. Tch.

Overall then, it was a great little platformer. It had a few irritations, e.g lots of similar sections - the dragon flying, balloon riding, fish surfing, and koala jumping bits especially - were reused a lot, albeit differently each time. Also, some of the puzzles were impossible to solve due to being in Japanese, but luckily trial-and-error won through. That's not really the game's fault, obviously, but why haven't Nintendo released any of the Stafi series (of which there are four games) over in the UK? Now I just need to find copies of 1 and 3 in the set, and play through 4 on the DS!

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

It seems that World 8 (my next "most likely last level") wasn't the final world either, even though it was a castle. It was actually the castle of goodies, not baddies, so clearly there was more to do.

I've got a few more power-ups now too - a double jump (finally!), and a more powerful, and faster, dash-spin-kill attack thing. Of course, the game fights back to negate some of these when it can with stronger water currents, wind, and higher platforms. As is the way with platformers!

World 10 wasn't the final world either, so my Platform Game Senses would dictate that World 12 would be the next likely candidate, but World 11 (which I've reached but not started) is a giant dark castle, seemingly set in space. Double whammy! Pretty much has to be the final world now, yes?

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

Didn't play this for that long today, although I did manage to get as far as World 6-3. It's still not getting very difficult, but it's slowly getting more complicated, if you see what I mean. The puzzles (and most levels have at least one) are getting more involved, and I've had to solve a couple with trial-and-error simply because I can't understand what it is I'm supposed to be doing.

I was under the impression (although I don't know where I got this idea from) that there are six worlds. Well, World Six is too happy and bouncy to be the last level. One of the Rules of Platform Games is that the final level/world/area is a castle, an enemy base, or set in space. Or a combination of them all - not some sort of garden with smiling flowers. Or something.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

This really is a most excellent platformer, you know, even though I fear I'm missing out on some totally riveting storyline with the amount of Japanese dialogue going on.

Progressed past World 4, killing the Ice/Fire Dragon boss at the end that was somewhat heat bi-polar, and now I'm into Tree Tops World (World 5). Yes, a starfish in the trees, which are conveniently full of water and stuff. I've gained the ability to double-jump now too.

I did have a few bizarre "smack four things in order" puzzles to contend with, and no idea which order to smack them. Managed two by trial and error, and my wife solved the third one for me.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

After playing Hide and Seek with some small turtles (or whatever they are), it was time to move on to killing the boss at the end of World 3. It was a thing riding a giant moth.

Like the previous bosses, it was pretty easy, and I was soon onto World 4, which is Ice World. So lots of falling ice spikes and slippy floors.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

You know, this is a deceptively deep platformer. In between the platforming and swimming, there are puzzles, spikes (and stars to collect) trapped in blocks you destroy, and a pretty large array of moves. Who knew a starfish could be so agile?

I'm up to 3-3 now, and I seem to be hopping around the back of a giant turtle. You know, as you do.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

I already have, and have played a little of, the 4th game in this series. I was hoping to start with the first game, but can't get it for under a million pounds, and this was about 9p on Play Asia a while ago so I picked it up.

It's a cute platformer with some puzzley elements and collection, and many of the levels involve some sort of quest.

So far, I'm on level 2-2, having just collected some furniture for a fish. Including a chair. For a fish.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA): COMPLETED!

So I went rummaging around for three books that Mina suggested I might need. I actually had one already, and the other two were found pretty easily once I'd taken a good look at the map. I found another boss (Legion) who was alarmingly easy to kill, and then got another soul or three.

After all that, I had the books required, and the three souls it was suggested I equip (Flame Armour, Succabus, and Giant Bat - all traits of Dracula, if you think about it...), so I set them all up and went after Graham again. He was even easier to kill than last time! Not least because the Succabus soul gives you HP each time you get a hit in. Oh, and I was on Level 39 instead of 32 or something too.

Then a thing happened that I won't say as it's a spoiler, and then instead of the game being over, I could carry on playing. Got another soul and some better armour from the room just past Graham, then set off to the black mist door (with the floating garden baddies now complete walkovers - even the huge Devil which previously took a billion hits), where I had to fight Julius. He wasn't easy at all, as it turned out, and I used just about all my potions on him. Managed it though, then retreated back to Hammer to get more supplies, saved my game, then stepped into the Quantum Leap acceleratorwarp to Chaos and vanished.

Soma awoke to find himself trapped in the pastin a twisted version of the castle, where going from one room to another seemed to warp him around the various areas I'd previously been through. It almost became a SuckySuck(TM) bit, as there were loads of previous bosses, but since they're all really weak now, or I could just skip them (flying bat powaz FTW), I won't complain.

Then Chaos came. And he was easy. Like, realy easy. OK - not as easy as Dracula at the end of Harmony of Dissonance, but still pretty simple to beat. And the game was over - properly this time, with the happy ending and everything!

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

Bossaroo! Did the third boss-room-that-isn't-a-boss first of all today, and then moved on to the actual next boss. At first, it seemed like it was going to be a giant bat, but then a huge hand came out of nowhere and squashed the bat, killing it.

Instead, I had to kill the two hands and two eyes of a, uh, thing. Balgone? Something like that anyway. It was actually pretty easy once I'd sussed the fact you could jump on the hands as long as they weren't swiping.

Then I got a soul to turn me into a bat, opening up more areas of the map. Went and got all the small areas I'd previously been unable to get to done first, before moving on to a new area with some really hard baddies in (flying things with pitchforks, succabuses, harder versions of previous bosses, etc.) and found a save point in a tower. Then, found another boss - Graham.

He did Dracula's classic "warp then shoot fireballs" attack at first, and then morphed into a huge thing with grabby hands and a storm cloud thing. He seemed impossible, until I realised you could tell which hand was going to grab at you, so you got a chance to dodge. So I killed him, and then the credits came up and the game was complete!

So why no "COMPLETED!" in the title of this post? Because I think the game is lying. The end boss seemed too easy (although, that was also the case with Harmony of Dissonace), but also I'm only at 86% of the castle complete, there's that swirly black door thing to get past yet, and the ending didn't seem quite "right". Also, it didn't unlock any other modes, unlike every other recent Castlevania game does. So there's more, kiddies!

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

Death = DEAD! Well, sort of. He got sucked into some sort of whirlpool thing. I'd got the lightning doll soul, which really helps, and gone up a couple of levels. In the room just past Death was a soul giving me the power to swim (I guess Soma never got his bronze swimming certificate), so off I went into the waterways in the bottom of the map.

Found lots of new baddies, souls, weapons (I now have an ice sword which is way more powerful than the hrunting), and a ring. Did get a bit stuck though, but eventually found my way into a new area with loads of beam skeletons and stuff.

And then, I found not one, but two boss doors. Neither of which had a boss behind them, instead having a difficult room each and a weapon and armour at the end of each. Did those, and levelled up a bit more. I'm now on Level 28.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

Well. It looks like Death is the next boss after all. I spent ages exploring every single part of the map that I could get to, and found some more weapons, potions and armour (and collected a few souls along the way), but found no other bosses.

Now I have to traipse half-way around the castle again to get back to him! Bah.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

I'm lost. I think. I killed another boss, and got a power-up to do the Jesus thing and walk on water, which let me access a couple of new areas. However, I then stumbled into some kind of garden filled with giant chickens, and then into some strange castles in the sky that are linked together in a strange way with really difficult wear-jaguars (or something) and devils in.

Then I appeared to be in a clock tower, and it was difficult with loads of Medusa heads and dragons and Disc Armours in. And then, I found Death. Surely I shouldn't be up to Death yet? I mean, he's usually at the end of the game? I tried to kill him, and it took ages to defeat his first form and then his second form killed me. So I don't think I should be there...

I backtracked a bit, but the castles in the sky warped me around again and I ended up in a place with a black cloud blocking a door, and I don't know what to do there. Eventually, I managed to make it back to known territory and saved the game. An upside of my wanderings is that I now have over 50% of the map open.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

I'm 35% through this already! Lawks. Killed the Manticore easily this time, as I found that if you stand in the doorway, you can't be hit. Grenade-tastic!

After that, it was STOP! Hammertime! As in, I met Hammer. And he told me he was going to set up a shop by the castle entrance. As you do. I then collected a soul that gave me a double-jump (finally!) and had a bit of an explore some more, heading vaguely to Hammer's shop, and finding a few new routes and a warp point along the way.

Killed some more bosses, including a huge suit of armour and a thing which kept swapping heads, and have the group slide power-up too.

I've also got a nifty broadsword now, which is a bit slower than my previous weapon of choice, but does waaaaay more damage and has a wider killing arc, meaning I can swipe it at things above and below me. I've improved my armour as well, buying War Fatigues from Hammer, and have a soul which boosts my strength. However, I'm now in an area with some witches and persephones and it's a bit hard.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

Squeezed a bit more of this game into my day, exploring an area I'd have found far more easily if I'd actually looked at the map I'd found.

Worked my way up into some sort of bell tower, but couldn't find anything to do up there, so came back down again. I then found another save point, followed by a Manticore boss, that killed me. So it's harder than Harmony if nothing else...

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

So, no sooner had I finished Harmony, I was on to Aria. They're even on the same cartridge (hence the same box art on the left there), so I didn't have to swap games or anything. Ace.

Only played for about half an hour so far, and Soma's sword (rather than Juste/Nathan's whip) is taking a bit of getting used to. I've already found a few things about Harmony that I prefer to this (yes, I know - and I didn't like that as much as Circle), such as the ability to save anywhere, and the ability to equip more concurrent items. However, since Aria has a primitive version of Dawn of Sorrow's soul system, you get to use several magical items at once. Graphically, it's very lovely, and the silly blue glow of Juste is no more, which is good.

I've killed a huge skeleton-with-no-legs boss, gone up abut 4 levels already, upgraded my weapon and armour, got a soul to let me jump further, have assorted other souls, and have run out of places to go already. Hurrah!

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA): COMPLETED!

Well. After getting a couple of keys, I was able to get around pretty much the entire map. Picked up the Griffin's Wing and Crush Boots too, so I then could get round the entire map, and killed a few more bosses on the way and collected fahsands more power-ups and some well ace armour. I reached Level 48 or so, and my DEF stat was so high that almost no enemy could deal out more than a couple of damage to me. Even some of the bosses that were left barely scratched me. Excellent.

Then I found, right at the very top of the map, part of Dracula's body. This opened a passageway - and I knew it was the blocked hole in the floor near the middle of the map. So, I set off down there, bought loads of Potions and High Potions, and saved next to the hole before jumping in to kill...

Maxim? What, no Dracula? Well, I was expecting Maxim then Dracula, but no - just Maxim. Who was easy. And then it was game over and I'd won. Sort of. Not the proper ending, methinks.

A quick search of the internet, and it seems I needed to be in Castle B, not Castle A for the proper ending (and have some specific items equipped). So off I went, only to find the hole in the floor sealed. I didn't have all the parts of Dracula, apparently. Eventually found his missing eye (nice), and tried again. Hurrah! I was in!

Then there was Maxim to kill again (he was even easier then), and finally Dracula. Well, not Dracula as such, a Dracula Wraith (who was so easy I didn't even get hit), followed by a second Dracula form. Who was also easy. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Dracula was in fact the easiest boss in the entire game. Tch. So much for my millions of High Potions...

And that was the REAL actual proper happy ending! Completed!

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)

Grr! I'm stuck again! I've explored everywhere I can, and even though I now have the smash-through-walls whip attachment, I have exhausted every area there is.

I have killed a couple more bosses (including a Giant Merman), and found a load more HP/MP/heart Max power-ups, and have explored 125% of the castle(s) now, but I have no idea where to go next. There are loads of doors still locked, a hole in the floor that is sealed, and at least three rooms I can't navigate as I can't jump high enough...

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)

After half an hour of searching, and finally resorting to watching the first part of a speedrun on YouTube, I eventually found somewhere I could reach but hadn't been to yet. And so, I had opened up a huge new area!

In fact, my exploration status went from about 65% of the castle, to 102% in this evening's play. No, that isn't a mistake - it turns out there are two castles. Cripes.

Both are effectively the same layout, but with slightly different graphics and enemies. Sort of like the light and dark worlds of Link to the Past. Yeah, so not content with stealing Metroid's raison d'etre, Konami have nicked bits of Zelda too. ACE! :)

Anyway. I have killed loads of bosses now. There seem to be hundreds of them in this game. Got rid of a giant slime, a giant skeleton, a giant Peeking Eye, and a few other things which were not all giant things. Also pushed a huge Guardian Armour into a clock mechanism, mincing him and spitting out a load of Guardian Armour items I could wear, improving my stats considerably. I've also come across Maxim again, who is now slightly less scary than he was previously, and Death, who I couldn't kill as he ran away.

I'm on about level 26 now too, and have collected a pile of items for Juste's room. Yeah, he has a room in the castle. I don't know why. It's all a bit Pokémon, actually.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)

Hmm. Some of the flaws are starting to show in this game now. The map isn't as easy to navigate as in Circle of the Moon, especially in the way that there are rooms which serve no purpose than to slow you down. No baddies, no spikes, just a poorly laid out room to navigate. They're not hard, just annoying. Then there's the structure of the bosses. You don't seem to have to do them all in a specific order, and you don't get an extra move power-up after each, meaning you wonder why you bothered killing them.

The graphics aren't as good as Circle either, mainly due to the drab caves, busy bone caverns, awful psychedelic swirly nonsense, and strange character after-effects. Then there's the problem of not being able to use sub-weapons and spellbooks.

I mean, it's still good, but it should have been better, really.

Anyway. I've killed a couple more bosses (which aren't that great either, to be honest), and have explored 61% of the castle. I'm totally stuck now though, as I can't find anywhere to go. Locked doors, sealed holes in the floor, platforms I can't reach (even though I now have the double-jump power-up) and walls that are clearly breakable (but I can't break them) block every route. Bah.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)

And so it's out with Circle of the Moon, and in with Harmony of Dissonance. I've played it for almost an hour and a half already, and I'm enjoying it. There's something not quite right about it, though. Maybe it's the way Juste (your character) has a bizarre blue glow and shadow trails. Maybe it's the fact I had to start again completely powerless. It could be that L and R perform dashes rather than special moves. Or perhaps it's that you don't have DSS (like Circle, which is effectively the same as the souls in Dawn of Sorrow for the DS). It could even be that you don't feel like you're actually in a castle for much of it (so far), with strange rooms and caves and caverns and things.

But in other ways, it's more like Castlevania. Specifically, some of the baddies from Super Castlevania IV reappear, like the bone snake thing, and the bone towers (which were in Circle, bit in a bastardised form). You collect money too, and can manually "twirl" your whip.

And then it has bits like Dawn. Like a shop. And great added bits like the ability to quick save anywhere. You can sort of tell it was made between the SNES and DS games, anyway.

So to the game itself proper then. I've killed two bosses already. There was a bat cluster, and a big skeleton with a large sword who I whipped in the kneecaps. I've seen about 25% of the map, collected the Ice and Fire books, loads of armour upgrades, and assorted relics including Lizard Tail. I'm really missing the double-tap-to-run and double-jump powers though. I'm sure they'll become available at some point.

I'm saved up near a boss door for now. That's for next time's play, though.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA): COMPLETED!

After trying several times to kill Dracula, I gave up. The final boss has two phases: one where he appears and disappears, and has three attacks - poison clouds, laser beam, and meteor strike, and after that he flies around a lot, then turns into a load of bats and a giant eyeball. The first phase was easy, especially if I used the DSS card combo that effectively grants you double energy. The second, however, was not.

Dodging Dracula flying around was simple enough - just use Roc's Feather to stay at the top of the screen - but the bats and eye was a real pain. I could use Poison Cloud myself to kill most of the bats off, and get a hit or two in with the eye, but most of the time it was unreachable, or a bat somehow dodged the cloud and hit me.

So I left it for a bit, and wandered off to find the card needed for Summons. It was in the hall where I'd previously killed the Golum boss (GameFAQs helped here with it's Card FAQ), and after a bit more exploring of the castle, gaining another level and some more upgrades, I set about killing Dracula again.

Summoning Thunderbird to get the eyeball worked a treat! I just needed four Summons, and he was dead! The game was over, the credits came up, and I unlocked Magician Mode (where you start will all the cards). Aces!

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Damn that Devil thing! I either get past it unscathed and then have my HP demolished by the Dark Armours, or the thing kills me. Thankfully, I found a fantastic way of killing Hugh without me losing much energy at all - shoot a load of crucifixes away from him, then jump over him and them as they come back, they all pass though Hugh and Super Damage ensues. Aces.

So after a couple of attempts with this tactic, he was dead. Then I realised that in order to get back to a save point, I had to pass the two Dark Armours and the Devil again! With almost no energy left! Gaaaah!

Thankfully, I fluked it, but then got hit by an Electric Skeleton. It did only 2 damage, but since I only had 3 in total, I was a bit alarmed. But I did it!

I then went and found Dracula and easily saw off his first form, before tailing it out of there and spent an hour exploring the castle more for power-ups, cards and potions and stuff. Suitably powered up, and with a new card combo that halves the damage I can take (effectively giving me double HP), and then tried Dracula's second form. Five times. And died every time.

I think I have a tactic that'll win, though...

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I'm getting near the end now. I can smell it. That, and I've uncovered more than 80% of the map and have only one "magic power" left to obtain.

Killed Camilla, who was actually very easy once I took my time about it and actually dodged her attacks rather than blindly trying to whip her. My axes proved very useful too. My power-up gained was Roc's Feather (isn't that Link's power-up? Hmm...) which lets me jump very high indeed.

Then it was off to the top bit of the map, which was full of nasty Dark Armours and a Devil which is so hard he might as well be a boss. I found another warp though, which helped, and then came across Hugh. Who I must fight. So I did, and died. I don't think he's going to be especially difficult, but there's a Devil and two Dark Armours to get past before I even reach him, so when I finally get there, I have only half my energy remaining.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Off I went to the bit where the acid water was, and as expected, it became normal water again. I then worked my way through quite a few lizardmen, ice women things, and some witches, before finding a huge ice demon thing which killed me.

So I tried again, took a slightly different route, and found a save point. Just past that, was the next boss - Camilla (who is the woman right at the start of the game who is trying to resurrect Dracula). We had a little chat, she implied that Hugh has become a follower of Dracula, and then turned into a winged devil woman riding a giant skull. And killed me.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Decided to try and level up a few times before attempting Death again, and also found some Chain Mail (which was better than my armour at the time), and realised that equipping two Cursed Rings would boost my strength and defense hugely (although my luck would drop - not important for a boss fight though, I don't think). I also found a HP Max upgrade too, which would help.

It still took me five or so goes to kill Death, although it was his second, skeleton crab, form which was difficult. Thankfully, the axes I'd found really helped, as so I killed him eventually - that's the second Death today! I got a power-up which "cleanses water", so no doubt that means the acid water I couldn't get past before is now clear for me to touch.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Aha! I think the rivers of acid bit was the wrong route to take, as I found another way to go today, into some sort of warehouse or something. And there, so my dismay, I found Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Cliche #2 - crate puzzles. GAH!

How many games must people RUIN with crate puzzles? And why are they always actually crates? Surely other things could be used instead? Broken Sword 3 and Lost in Blue both had game-almost-breaking crate puzzle sections in them. -10pts, Konami. angrystare.gif

At least they weren't hard. I suppose that's something. I just hope they don't have the SuckySuck(TM) bit (Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Cliche #1) at the end of the game now too.

Anyway. So I worked through the warehouse bit, killed a load of Poltergeists and Lightning Armour baddies, as well as some King Moths and Manticores, and eventually found myself at the next boss - Death. He didn't seem to be especially hard, as I could easily see off his flying scythes with my spinning balls of fire, and he was soon killed, but then he turned into a giant skeleton crab (Irritating and Unnecessary Game Cliche #3) who promptly killed me.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Dragons SLAIN! Hurrah! I found a pattern I could stick to that made them much easier to kill and dodge, and so they were soon dead.

And then it was off on another wander around the castle opening areas I couldn't previously get to, since I can now push big crates out of the way. Found some more HP/MP/heart upgrades, and then wandered into an area full of Ice Armour baddies and some sort of acid water. Eurgh.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Spent ages trying to get through the moths-and-triffids area, and found it pretty hard going. Retreated instead, and worked my way around areas of the castle trying to find new areas (which I didn't really manage), and secret rooms leading to power-ups (of which I found loads). My heart, HP and MP maximum levels were then somewhat higher than previously, allowing me to get through the moths to another save point.

I then wandered around to bump my level up a bit, and then found the next boss - a pair of dragon things. Which I can't seem to kill. I mean, I can hit them - it's just they seem to take a billion hits and there's no great place to stand to whip them without being hit yourself.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

After what seemed like ages, I finally found another boss - a giant ram's head thing that threw ghost faces and stuff at me. He was really easy to kill though, as I had my magic fireballs-that-spin-round-me on (which killed most of the projectiles before they hit me), leaving me to just jump-whip his head over and over.

Once dead, I could hit a switch which I think has now made new pathways available elsewhere on the map. No new move power-up yet though, which is what I was expecting. Bumped into Hugh Baldwin again too, who seems to hate me. Hurrah!

I'm now exploring some area where there are lots of poisonous moths and some triffids and things.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I've just realised that this game has an ID in my games database of "1337". Hilarious.

Anyway, I've now opened up what seems to be a huge portion of the map. I'm getting very lost still, trying every dead end with each new power-up I get. My most recent one is wall-jump, and with it I've got into an area full of were-bears and hippo things and all sorts of baddies that take loads of hits. I've found three teleporters now too, which is really helping get around the (growing ever-larger) map...

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I killed the puma boss thing without much difficulty on my first attempt today. I'd levelled up a few times first, however, and had picked up some better armour and a couple of cards (which when combined gave me a magic power that made my whip do more damage), all of which helped a lot. I then wandered round for a while trying to find where I needed to go next, which turned out to be pretty obvious as it was somewhere that I needed the "run" power-up I'd just gained from the boss to reach.

Anyway. I then found another boss, died, levelled up some more, and then defeated, giving me another power-up - a double jump! Again, this let me reach places I previously couldn't, and soon I'd found a third boss, which gave me a sort of dash-attack which breaks blocks - again opening new areas to me.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Since I'm limited to handheld consoles at the moment (I'm at relatives for Christmas), I'm using this opportunity to actually start some games I've had for a while but not touched yet. See also Contact on the DS from earlier today.

Anyway. Since I have all three GBA Castlevania games, this is the one to start with. When it came out, people complained it was virtually impossible to play on the non-lit-screen original GBA. No such problems with the super-bright Game Boy Micro I have, though!

So I've done the intro, worked my way through some of the catacombs and stuff, killed what I thought was a boss (but it wasn't), found two save points, and attempted to kill an actual boss (a puma thing) a few times and failed. I'm now going to level up a few times and hope for better items to be dropped by baddies to help a bit...

Qwak (GBA)

Normal Mode is too hard. This is now a Fact. As such, I can't make it past level 14, so I've knocked the difficulty down to Easy (because I'm a coward) and managed to get to 23. I'd have managed much further, but the second Guardians level wiped out virtually all my lives, and all of my continues.

I wish I knew what all the little potion things do. I know the shield ones give you, uh, shielding, but the others? I should read the manual, really.

Qwak (GBA)

Wow. This is my 100th GBA game, which is a milestone in itself, but it's also the first non-licenced, home made cartridge-based game I've ever bought!

Qwak is a remake (or port, or mix of the two - I'm not entirely certain) of the Amiga game of the same name. The GBA version is done by the original author too, so you can be sure it's authentic! I don't have the Amiga version, and I don't recall playing it either, but the game is very much in the style of other platformers of the time - Bubble Bobble, Snow Bros, that sort of thing. Small levels with baddies to avoid or shoot, and things to collect before the exit opens.

It's great. Colourful and cute, rock hard to play, and very professional. I'm amazed the author didn't try and get it published properly, as the quality is far above many "real" GBA releases.

Anyway. I played a few times, managed to get up to level 14-ish, and then it all got a bit too hard for me. On my first go I'd only managed to get to level 2 before using a continue, so I had actually shown some improvement...

If you want to buy the game yourself (it's limited to 300 copies), you can get it from here.