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 …
Right, before I start I really should qualify my “completed” status thing for this game. Yeah, so I haven’t done every last thing possible (yet), but I have had every single pinata resident at some point, and – most importantly – I have not gained all 1000 points worth of achievements. That’s 50/50 achievements. All of them. So I can take that as “complete”, seeing as there’s not really another way of completing it, is there? Well, aside from the …
And I’m now on Level 90. There really isn’t a whole lot left to do, I don’t think. Master Romanced Lickatoads (which I thought I’d done already, but obviously not), and Macaracoons, and also found all the variants for both species. Apparently, 108 is the maximum level you can get to. I have no idea how I’ll get that far with so little else to do, though.
And so begins 2007. I’m not the sort of person who makes resolutions, for several reasons. Firstly because too many resolutions are simply not going to be kept. You say you’ll do it, and you don’t. Secondly, why start a new year in order to give something up or start something new? If you want to stop smoking, just stop. Or try and stop, anyway. Don’t wait until New Year to make a start. Finally, there’s nothing I want to …
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually played Ms. Pac-Man before. I just assumed it was Pac-Man in drag. And it is, sort of, but slightly better aurally and graphically, and with different maze layouts (and not the same ones every level either). So why not? It’s only 400 points anyway. I quite like it. It does seem to play like it’s a public domain Pac-Man clone (like the Amiga had fifty-sixty-twelve of) rather than a sequel, but it’s …
No more levelling up today, but I did Master Romance Cocoadiles and Mothdrops. The Mothdrops were a real pain in the backside, as I couldn’t get two out of their house at any one time without them instantly disappearing back inside. It didn’t help that my Cocoadiles and remaining Chippotamuses kept deciding to choose the tiny bit og land my romance sweets were on as a bed, preventing my Mothdrops from eating them. I very nearly exploded the controller.
After getting all the variants of my Roarios, and sending some of them away, I moved over to my Water Garden and proceeded to empty it of almost every tree, plant and pinata. Then I dug a pond which was about 70% of the area of the garden, and planted stacks of bullrushes, water lillies and water cress. The reason? To tempt in a Chippotamus – the only pinata remaining that I hadn’t had resident. Pretty soon one appeared, and …
It’s like other games don’t actually exist, isn’t it? I’ve ditched Animal Crossing and Viva Pinata has stolen my life. Ended up today with a pile of Roarios (I was sent one in the end as I couldn’t get them to stay) and level 84. I did some pinata-pruning in my Grass Garden too, by selling them, and also got a few more variants for Candarys, Sparrowmints and some other pinatas. Sent out some pinatas to people too, and got …
Level 80! Romanced my Bonboons raw, then decided to try and get myself a Roario. This involved getting lots of Doenuts and Zumbugs into my garden, and while I waited for a Roario to show up I busied myself with getting the Master Romancer award for Goobaas and Rashberries, as well as all the colour variants for those and the Doenuts and Zumbugs. Sent out some of my excess animals to people too. Since the Roario was a real pain …
Level 75 now! Played for about two and a half hours today, mainly breeding Mallowolfs and Parrybos (which finally made it into my garden, helped along by one I was sent). I tamed a Bonboon too, and set about breeding Jameleons. I’ve already Master Romanced them, but I need three for each Bonboon to romance. I built a mine, and along with all the gems, seeds and other assorted things the Diggerling dug up, I also got a Dragonache egg! …
I’m up to level 11 now, I think, and I got a pile of achievements in one go today, including the do-level-7-without-dying one, which I thought was going to be really hard. That means I’m in with a chance of getting all 200 points for this game!
Bah. Got to the watery bit of 8-4 this time, only to die. I’m sure this version runs faster than any other version I’ve played as well, which doesn’t help. I’ve found the continue option though – you press A and Start on the title screen. That’s NES-A, not Wii-A, so is 1 on the remote.
Got lots done today. Master Romanced some more species (more Flutterscotches, Profitamoles) and then set about taming sours. Released one Tour Of Sour block at a time, and got a Mallowolf and a Cocoadile. Used my Crowla and Sherbat to distract Dastardos to get myself a couple of achievements, and also scared Professor Pester off with the Mallowolf for another one. I then started growing and fertilising a load of plants to get the Master Green Fingers achievement, and so …
Just a short go. I got through a large section of the next level, up to what seemed like “almost the end”, only to lose all my lives falling through holes. You see, rather than land on the platform below (which I’d been standing on moments before), the screen doesn’t scroll down again and you die. Bah.
Hey! Nobody said this was on the Wii Virtual Console shop today! Well, probably lots of people did, but I didn’t hear them. So i found it myself and downloaded it. Lovely. Of course, I managed to get to World 8-1 on my first go, but then forgot how difficult it is. And there’s no continue function in this version! Nooo!