Since I enjoyed replaying Sonic the Hedgehog on XBLA so much this week, I decided to buy the sequel on the Wii. Yes, I already own it a jijillion times, but since when did that matter? And, of course, it’s great. So far I’m up to the end of Aquatic Ruin. Not had any problems yet, and haven’t died either. Not that there’s an achievement for not dying, as I keep thinking there must be. Bloody Xbox 360-isms.
Hmm. Whereas Alpha 2 was mostly just Alpha with new (or rather, returned) characters and new backgrounds, Alpha 3 is totally new. Totally new fighters, new style, new super combo mechanics, redrawn characters (well, some of them anyway), and new moves. I played as Ryu, who seems to have gained Ken’s super flaming dragon punch super combo and lost his vacuum hurricane kick, and had a pretty tough time of it actually. Too much blocking and countering for my liking. …
Erk. This was waaaaay harder than the first game. Especially when I got to Ryu, who seemed capable of countering just about every single attack I tried. In the end, I only beat him by being somewhat cheap, trapping him in the corner, and dragon punching and uppercutting the hell out of him. I still only barely managed it though – I even thought the final killing blow was a double-KO, but I must have just had a slither of …
Didn’t play this for long. I was scrolling through my XBLA games list (some 40 games long now) and realised I hadn’t played this all that much. So I had a few goes on the Speed Machine table, and eat my previous 50 million score… by getting almost 300 million. And I’m not sure how. One minute I was stil around 35 million, the next I’d broken 250. Managed to get two achievements for this too, and reached second placed …
And not just completed – completed without losing a life! I didn’t really even have to try that hard, actually, although I did nearly plunge to my doom on Scrap Brain Zone 1. Which would have been a bit of a pain. And I almost drowned twice on Scrap Brain Zone 3. But I did it, which is all that’s important! Then I went and started again, to try for the Win In 40 Minutes achievement and the Fast Marble …
I seem to be playing this almost solely in two player with my wife these days. Not that that’s a bad thing, just an observation. Anyway, played five games (without the river expansion, I should add) and won four of them.
Remember dongles? They’re devices that often came with (usually expensive) software. You plugged them into a port on your computer, and the software wouldn’t run without them. It was a stone age anti-piracy device, basically. Well, lookee what arrived this morning: That’s right. It’s a dongle! A USB dongle, in fact. Ah, the memories. The hideous memories. Memories of software not recognising you have a dongle plugged in and calling you a pirate. Memories of losing the dongle and being …
It’s another 400 point Sega game, also arriving on XBLA today. And I completed it on my first go. As the woman, whose name I’ve forgotten. I keep wanting to say “Blaze”, but that’s Streets of Rage. The bosses in this are just as easy as I remember. Dash attacks make short work of them, provided you can time everything right, but having other baddies floating around at the same time complicate matters. I think I lost 15 lives overall, …
No, not the awful recent 3D “masterpiece” that I refuse to buy, but the original Megadrive version, available today on XBLA. Yes. I already have this game twelventyzillion times. Yes, I have completed it on the Wii since Christmas. Yes. I did buy it. Again. But it is lovely, see? And this version lets you save your game whenever you want! And there are leaderboards! So it was worth it, yes? Of course it was. Anyway. I’m up to Spring …
Level 20 GET! All (two!) Korean cars GET! Amazing scenes. Mainly raced myself today, although I did hire a driver for a couple of races. Managed another hardest-settings race too, although it was on the same track as the last one so it wasn’t really that challenging. Braved the auctions again, mostly to get rid of some of the cars I have but don’t need, but won a few too, including a New Super Mario Bros Nissan Fairlady Z. I’m …
My wife has been practicing this vs hard computer opponents, and so has upped her game considerably since we last played. Now there is increased deviousness in castle-stealage and farm planning, which makes things a bit harder for me. I did, however, manage to beat her 2-1 this evening.
I’ve ranked up to Level 17 now, but I’m starting to run out of races to participate in. Some need me to buy a new car (which I tried doing via the auctions, but again they just frustrated me), but most need me to be on level 20. Raced a few more races, mainly by hiring drivers. It’s the game that plays itself! You earn in-game credits for sitting on the toilet. Excellent. I did drive a few myself though, …
It’s about time I went back to this for a bit. Why, then, did I spent a good 45 minutes doing nothing but watch my AI driver play two races for me, then spend ages trying to buy and sell cars? I didn’t actually do any driving. And it’s a bloody driving game. And the auction is broken, as you can’t specify a price you want to bid, making it all rubbish and long-winded when you’re buying. Pah.
Yet more play on this with my wife this evening. We played a few games with a third (AI) player, but it just made things confusing. We also played with the river expansion turned on for a few games, but that too made it more confusing. So we went back to playing it normally.
After finishing the first game, I thought I’d have a look through the other titles on the disc. I used to play Alpha 2 a bit a uni too, but not as much as the first one for some reason. It’s still great, and yes, it’s technically better than Alpha, but I think maybe it’s just down to what I knew and loved first. Anyway, I played a few rounds, again as Kenneth for the main part. And doesn’t Dan …