Played this again for quite a while today. I’ve now managed to come first (and under par) on both courses – hence the “completed”. The Scottish course, complete with Stone Henge, is by far the harder of the two. It seems to have much stronger winds, smaller patches of fairway, and larger (and more) trees. On the other hand, the Caribbean course has lots of water. Which I ended up in for the first time playing my wife. I thought …
Amazingly, this didn’t turn out to be pants like I was expecting. OK, so it doesn’t feel like a game that has been in development for, what, 40 years? And it isn’t quite as hack-everything as the previews seemed to suggest. And there’s a story (about technologically advanced Nordic Gods or something) too. Rough edges include the lack of proper camera control, The Kameo Effect on far too many surfaces, and some minor animation problems, but I had fun for …
Yes indeed – it is XBLA Demo Catchup time! 1942: Joint StrikeAs I’ve said before, shooters aren’t my thing really. However, I’m one for nostalgia and this is a great looking, and playing, remake of 1942. I’m tempted to get it, except I know I’ll be crap at it. I was crap at the demo as it is. SchizoidIt’s like Geometry Wars, only two player, and with no shooting. And you control both players. And it’s pretty good. Go! Go! …
The other half of Gauntlet and Rampart, obviously. And, like Rampart, it’s an excellent conversion even on a very small screen. I did get stuck on Level 14 though – I had a pocket full of keys (© The Rock) but had to pick up another to progress. But I couldn’t. Thankfully, the old hang-around-for-a-few-minutes trick worked and the walls all turned to exits.
Another of the Play Asia package today. This one is actually one half of the “Gauntlet and Rampart” double game cartridge (which, at the time of typing, you can get for a bargainous £5 from here). And? It is, as it always was, ace. I remember I was on holiday with a friend one summer and we walked three miles to the nearest arcade just to play this. It loses a little with just one player, but still plays fantastically …
This arrived in the post today, along with some other stuff, from Play Asia. And, since ugvm Retro Week has been extended into this week, it was ideal for playing! Or so I thought. It turns out that in the process of simply porting the original Megadrive Sonic game to the GBA, Sega couldn’t help but rape my childhood memories by making it worse than those shoddy “fan-made” Flash-based Sonic games. It has more issues than a journal library. Par …
N64 on Wii, of course. Even though I have it on the N64 too. Tch. But I completed it for the first time ever! I know it isn’t a hard game, and the main point is to use it as a sort of Score Attack thing, but still. It really was very good too. And I finished up with three non-dead Yoshis!
I haven’t played this in ages! I think I was a little put off last time as I thought I’d finally completed all the levels, only to find I’s opened up a million more. Completed the rest of Level 8, and three puzzles in Level 9.
With it being Retro Week (now extended to Retro Fortnight) on ugvm, and with a guy coming up in a few weeks to interview me about old game systems, I rummaged through the loft this weekend for some old kit. Standout games were: Virus (Speccy)It’s a bit bloody hard, yes? Qix (Atari 400)Excellent, even if the Qix (that’s the multi-line baddie in the middle, yes?) seemed to move at random rather than bounce off things. River Raid (Atari 400)Pretty good, …
Yeah, on the Wii. Via SCUMMVM. Sadly, after an hour’s play, I saved my game only to have SCUMMVM crash on me. I’d barely done anything in the game, aside from wander round, but still – if the save routines aren’t going to work, I don’t think there’s much point playing. Shame.
It’s Retro Week on ugvm! But, it would appear that I’m out almost every night this week. Thank the lord for a spare hour today, and my OneStation. In case you’ve forgotten, the OneStation is a portable Famiclone, not much larger than a Game Boy Micro. Anyway – the games. First up was Pinbot. I was impressed that the ball physics were much better than I was expecting. Most 8-bit pinball titles are pretty poor in this regard, but Pinbot …
Next week on ugvm is Retro Week, and so I was hoping to play this a bit then. Only… I can’t. For two reasons. Firstly, in order to not break the rules of the week, I would have to play either the original Rondo of Blood (rather than the 2.5D remake that makes up the main title in this collection), or Symphony of the Night. Both of which have to be unlocked in the main game. Secondly, the main game …
After many, many more attempts, I finally managed to save Meden. I’d tried every combination of Patapon armies to do it, but in the end my standard Tate/Yari/Yumi setup was enough. Then it was off to fight a harder version of the crab boss I killed earlier, who dropped the ability to create Megapons. I haven’t made any yet, though. I did, however, come up against some (sort of) in the next mission – where I had to kill off …
With the power of my new stew, and deciding to run away then fight rather than just storm forwards, I completed the mission I was stuck on (where you have to beat Gong to a caged Patapon, then defeat Gong himself). After that, I opened up a new hunting ground, where I found a black star (although it didn’t appear to do anything), and then repeated the level so it gave me a new cap – reviving a blacksmith Patapon! …
Created a few more characters this morning (no mages still, though), but actually spent time playing the missions. I’ve just found the back entrance to Full House’s tower, and had a fight there. I’ve also played and completed the Easy run of the Rehearsal Room. I levelled up my monk too – he’s now Silver instead of Bronze, and is amazingly powerful!