Even though I’ve completed it, I’m still drawn to rolling stuff up. Not least because completing it seems to have unlocked new levels. For starters, there’s the roll-people-up-with-the-Sun bit from during the game credits, which I managed 58 on. Slightly better than 1, which I got the other day. Then there’s another where you have to roll up all the countries in the world, starting with the small ones. You actually have to know your geography to do this, as …
Well, I wasn’t going to buy this until after I’d done all three GBA Castlevania games, but it seems I did. Oh well. It’s pretty good. Better than I remember it (which is good), but not really as good as recent 2D outing in the series. Anyway. I’ve killed two bosses, and I’m now on level 3-1. I think.
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.
A group of friends whiled away the evening running up to New Year by playing on the Wii. Mostly Wii Sports (and on that, mostly baseball and bowling), but also a bit of Rayman Raving Rabbids. It was all ace, and was the first time I’d played two player boxing and tennis. Both roxxored. And there’s my final entry for the year. How exciting!
Just squeezing in at the end of the year is this, my 45th completed title of 2006. I got as far as Level 24, and was knocked down accidentally to Level 23, so I decided to keep falling until I reached 17 to see if there was a ship piece I’d missed – and there was. Found that, then dropped all the way to Level 1, used an innertube to swim to the island in the bottom left, dropped to …
Pressed on from Level 7-ish all the way up to Level 20 today. I’m down to three lives (and not a lot of energy), and it’s actually getting quite hard. I’m pretty sure I’ve missed a ship piece on Level 17 too, so I’ll have to drop back down and check at some point. I only have two ship pieces left, though. Can’t remember how many levels there are – 26? 27?
After much playing of this today, and rolling up piles of animals, some clouds, loads more flowers, a gingerbread house, the sumo bloke again, and entire continents (including volcanoes, some sort of god, and a giant 1km octopus), I completed it. I finally created enough celestial bodies to allow me to roll up the Earth, into these planets and moons and stuff, and then move on and actually roll up the Sun. No, really. Excellent. And an excellent game too. …
DOUBLE PLAYER ROCK ACTION! Me and my friend Chris played with two guitars on this today. We “won” about as many songs as each other, and it was aces. Slightly confusing due to the way it “splits” the notes up between the two players, as sometimes you play alternate sections, other times you play together, and sometimes you play alternating notes. But yes, we RAWKED. I also managed another track (solo) on my Hard Career.
Still having niggles with the controls, but I’m finding myself avoiding the need to rotate the camera rather than getting used to them, so it isn’t so much of an issue any more. Lots more levels done today, including one where I had to get my katamari to 12m, which was ace, and one where I was rolling (automatically) around a race track, which wasn’t so ace. Also had a level where I had to roll a sumo wrestler around …
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 …
Two more levels completed today, and I’m still struggling with the controls. In an ideal world, the left stick would move me around, and the right stick would control the camera, but it doesn’t work like that. It seems to do the “rotating round the ball as you roll” thing I want to do, I have to hold left on the left stick, and up on the right, or up and right if I want to go the other way. …
Hurrah! Many more attempts at “Bark at the Moon” later, and I’d finally done it. The trick, in the end, was to save my Star Power for a difficult section and use it then, so that missed notes matter less and hit notes count double. Aces. I then went back and did the few tracks I hadn’t needed to do, and so Medium is now complete. After that, I made a start on Hard. And oh my, is it hard. …
Oh my. This has to be the most gay game I’ve played since Ai Cho Aniki. It’s great though. Sort of. I’ve done the tutorial, and the first level, but I’m having real problems controlling my katamari rolling. I can’t seem to “rotate” around the ball as I roll it – I just end up rolling sideways which doesn’t help for navigation as you can’t see a bloody thing. And the music is stuck in my head.
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 …
Well, I’ve managed to get past Pro and now I’m a Guitar Hero. Of course, I still have five more tracks to go, all of which seem completely impossible. I’d read that “Bark at the Moon” was really somewhat difficult – not surprising since it’s the last song on the list, but I hadn’t realised how hard. Around ten attempts later, and I was still only 22% through the song. Impossible. Luckily, I managed to get the other four tracks …