Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

As an aside, I really should get round to scanning the covers for some of these games… I thought I’d have a quick go through as Richiter Belmont. And it was quick. I mean, he’s fast. Badly animated, but fast. I killed the boss at the end of City of Haze, who was really easy, and due to the way the map is open from the start I found my way to the Clock Tower and killed Stella (or Loretta? …

Excite Truck (Wii)

To hell with the 8917286 not-yet-completed games I have currently on the go, and hurrah for New Games Day! Excite Truck and Kororinpa both arrived from Choices today (cost me less than £50 for the two, which was nice). Excite Truck then. It’s, erm, fast, yes? And a bit bloody hard to control. But ooooooo is it fun. I’ve done all the Bronze races, getting three A ranks and a B rank without much difficulty, but then the Silver races …

Military Madness (Wii)

In your face, Tim Miller! So you’re stuck on Level 4, eh? YOU ARE RUBBISH. It was EASY. I did WIN IT. I took over both un-owned factories to start with, and took out a Kilroy and a tank from the right of the map. The enemy sent in some more foot soldiers to try and regain the factories, but I stood firm and they didn’t come close. Until the helichopper thing came and started wiping out all my units. …

Kororinpa (Wii)

It’s Super Monkey Ball, only more tilty! Sort of. It’s technically easier than Super Monkey Ball as there isn’t really a time limit. You do have to collect crystals, however, but if you die then any already collected are kept, making the next attempt a bit easier. What I mean by “more tilty” is, well, exactly that. In The Game With Monkeys In, you only tilt the controller a small way in any direction, and there’s a limit to how …

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS): COMPLETED!

TA-DAAAH! Completed! I gave up on the Nest of Evil thing, and went back to the game proper. Decided it was time to actually learn to use the Vampire Killer, so set about killing Richiter Belmont. Yes, really. Well, a “memory” of him anyway. Bizarrely, the weapon I killed him with, was the Cream Pie. It dealt a fair amount of damage, and could be thrown at such an angle so as to be just out of reach of his …

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

Again, the stats: 8 hours 34 minutes in, Level 39 reached, 895.5% explored. Good lord. Who’s betting it’ll be 1000% when all is done? So I completed the final four paintings. Or at least, what I thought were the final four. The bosses today included Medusa (who was VERY easy, once I realised there was a place you could stand, from where you could slap her about, but not get hit by any of her attacks (well, you had to …

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

I will start by pointing out my “stats” at the end of today’s play: 6-ish hours in, Level 30-ish ranked, and (wait for it…) 455% explored. Why bother with a percentage if you’re going to go over 100%? Eh? Anyway. I finished my fourth painting, and then explored more of the castle. This involved back-tracking into other paintings for power-ups I may have missed (like the Toad Morph one), and then I made it up into the Clock Tower. Every …

Castlevania (PS2)

Hmm. Not really enjoying this a great deal any more. Well, I was never enjoying it loads as it is, but there are just too many things I don’t like about it – the camera, the controls, the lack of platforming, the bits where there is platforming being difficult due to the camera or controls, etc. It’s all a bit rubbish, really. So I found the “e” stone to put in the “meth” stone in the Lab level, which brought …

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

Sand painting boss found! It was some woman who, who had a strange attack – she throws hearts at you, and if you’re Jonathan, and they hit you, then she takes control of you and you control Charlotte. Jonathan then attacks you. Erk. Luckily, I killed her without too many attempts, and then it was back to the Castle to rest up, and move onwards (and upwards). I found the next painting – Nations of Fools – which was set …

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

And into the next painting I went! One nice thing about the paintings is that it allows Castlevania-ing in locations not normally included in Castlevania. So there’s a bit less castle, and more, well – this painting is in Egypt, so it’s got sand. And sandworms! It adds a bit of variety to the proceedings, anyway. So I’ve gone though loads of this Egyptian level, and not found a boss yet. I’ve found a few places I can’t yet reach …

Military Madness (Wii)

I downloaded this for the Virtual Console last weekend, but then didn’t actually play it. Well, I loaded it, got confused, and turned it off again. Today, however, I found it has an in-game tutorial! I had a quick scan of that, and then started playing. And it’s lovely. Comparing it to Advance Wars is unfair (Military Madness is years older – if anything, it’s a clone of Famicom Wars, Advance Wars‘ great-grandad) but unavoidable. The premise is the same …

Tiny Laptop

I found this today. I knew I had it, but had completely forgotten how small it was. Like, 24x17x4cm. Which is VERY small. Shame it only has a 233MHz CPU and no built-in network card.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

Wow. Just wow. Yeah, so it doesn’t have the soul collecting of Dawn of Sorrow, and the tag-team system ranges from pointless to annoying, but how any reviewer can say this is anything less than fantastic is beyond me. It ticks all the boxes: save points and warps in sensible places, a shop to buy potions, a great (if confusing, currently) story, and excellent graphics and controls. Today’s play took me back to the City painting, as Wind told me …

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

Just in the nick of time! With my handheld versions of Castlevania having run out yesterday, Play Asia delivered Portrait of Ruin today. Phew, eh? And… is it any good? Of course it is! It’s ACES! The first thing to hit me was the graphics. Not the character graphics, as although they’re good – they’re nothing special, but the backgrounds. Several layers deep with detailed parallax. 3D objects in the distance (like a big abbey thing which you see ‘around’ …