Spent a while working my way through the league. Teams played against today include Tottenham, Norwich, Manchester City, Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea. I lost to Arsenal, but drew or beat all of the others. Most embarrasing was a 0-0 draw with Norwich. They played crap, their marking was rubbish, and they didn’t attempt a shot on goal. And I drew. RUBBISH. I’m now 9th in the league (Norwich are bottom), with a F/A of -1. Not too bad, I suppose, …
Since everyone on the ugv* groups are talking about this, I decided to download the demo and have a go. There are three game modes, with two levels in each, open in the demo. Race is, obviously, a race. I’m not too sure about the handling, though, and the jumps are pretty blind. Perhaps a Hard Drivin’ “speed limit” sign system might help here. But it’s “nice”. Platform mode involves jumping, mostly. But, since the jumps are blind still, you …
Played a bit of this today, but didn’t try very hard. Managed to get up to Level 18 on “New” mode. I was doing well until Level 14 or so, without losing any lives, then it all went to pot. The theme tune is now drummed into my head. Great.
Hurrah! The SA-X was killified on my fifth or so go. It seems there’s an easy way to kill it, if you jump over it and shoot it in the back. Then I had to run to my ship, which had vanished – to be replaced with a [spoiler]! Then [spoiler] happened, and it was the end!
After being stuck for a bit unable to figure out where the heck I was supposed to be going, I finally stumbled across the security robot I fought earlier. Only this time, he had rockets and could electrify the water he was wading around in. For some reason, though, he was easier to kill. I got the Wave Beam from him, so I can now shoot through walls. I then went into the Restricted Area the robot was trying to …
It took many, many attempts, and lots of dying very quickly, but I finally figured out the way to dodge Nightmare in his second “phase”. Well, I’d figured it out already, it was just because my Space Jump skillz were not ub3r1337 that I couldn’t put them into place. Some of it was also down to luck – namely, where he stopped. In certain places it meant I could fire off a million rockets into his face, in others only …
Managed to outrun the SA-X this time. I didn’t realise you could shoot it with ice missiles to freeze it. I didn’t have a lot of energy left afterwards, so had to limp my way to a save point. The SA-X can kill you in two hits, even if you have some 600 units of health. Nasty. After that, I found the cause of the vegetation growth – another boss. This one was pretty wasy, but took some 753265 missiles …
It took another three attempts, but Mr Spider is teh dead. WIN. Well, WIN for a bit, since there’s more of the game left. He did give me the Space Jump, however, which was nice. Not that I can control it properly, of course. Wandered around a bit looking for the “cause of the vegetation” that is blocking up the main power silo of the research lab. Found an entrance to somewhere, but the SA-X was lurking in there too …
Jumpy shooty killy explodey fun later (including another run-in and escape-from the SA-X Evil Me), and I make it back to my ship. There I’m told that the power is down everywhere, and I need to find the cause. Some maze navigation ensues, and I kill some X-Space Pirate thingies, and run into a giant spider. Who kills me in about three hits. Boo.
Still plugging my way through this. Started and got through Sector 3, killed a security robot, and then had to move onto Sector 6. Picked up the Varia suit from the boss at the end, which means I can now go in ice and fire areas. One of which was Sector 5, which was next. “Completed” Sector 5, and an alarm went off – I had to rush back to Sector 3 and run through it all to a room …
It looks like I spoke to soon about always having your hand held as to what to do next, since I spent a merry half an hour stuck. Finally found a route through Sector 2, and killed the eyeball boss thing. Then moved on to Sector 4, which was somewhat simpler to get around. Killed the boss there too – Sector 3 next, it seems. I have the super jump, ball jump, and power boost now too.
OK, so it’s more linear than Zero Mission. In a way, that’s actually a good thing. I did spend a fair amount of Zero wondering where the hell I was supposed to go next, so actually being told this time around is a good thing. Probably. I’ve done the bit at the beginning, and found and fixed the five atmospheric controller thingies, and then got into Area 2. I have the Charge Beam, Morph Ball and Power Bomb so far, …
Gah! I’m sure there’s a bug in this game, which randomly causes your mission to end when you blow up Orion capital ships. The mission I’m on, takes the form of a scouting session round a load of mostly destroyed ISS ships. And the mission is long, like 20 minutes or so. Then, as I’m heading back to the Excelsior, Orion pirates appear again. I blow up the ship, and even though I’m some 260,000, er, “things” away (you need …
The “Field of Hono(u)r” mission was really annoying me for much of today’s play. It’s a rock-Klingon-rock mission, but then two Orion ships appear and loads of fighters. I managed to kill the Klingons and the rocks, and one of the two Orion capital ships (the other ran away) – but the Orion fighters are so quick that they’re hard to kill. Invariably, that left the Excelsior blown up. That wasn’t the most irritating thing though – the time it …
I completed Metroid Zero Mission for the GBA some time before Christmas, and although this is considered to be not as good, I’ve just had a quick go and it seems to be more of the same. I don’t have any weapon power-ups or anything yet though, so things may change then. The graphics and sound are near identical too.