Yes, yes. Another new DS game. But this one is ACE! Just like the last few. Ahem. It’s a rhythm game, like Dance Dance Revolution or Gitaroo Man. More like the latter, in fact, since it’s by the same people. And yes, I did hate Gitaroo Man more than anything else ever, but Ouendan is better. And not as impossible (yet, anyway). You basically just circled tap numbers as they appear, as close as possible to the decreasing-in-size ring around …
Mission 18. A long narrow map, with two armies under my control – one on the bottom half of the map, one on the top – separated by a mountain range. On the far right (cloaked in Fog of War nastiness) was the Black Hole HQ. It was MUCH easier than I expected it to be, however. They did introduce another enemy unit (Oozium, which eats any ground unit in one go and is virtually indestructable), but it could only …
I won! It took some 40-odd days, but I won! I kept him locked down with a load of ranged units fronted and protected by some Neotanks, and then, after another Tag Team CO Power, stormed in for the kill and sat units on top of his factories. Suddenly, he only had a couple of light tanks and some infantry, although he could still build aerial units (and so built a bomber). It didn’t do any major damage, and was …
Dipped out of Campaign Mode again, to tackle one of the War Room maps. By Day 15 things were already not looking good. At all. I had hardly any units, the enemy had me pinned down, and some of my cities had started to fall. I can’t create any aerial units as they get shot down immediately, and the missile silos I reached didn’t help a great deal. By Day 25 things were even worse, but then my Tag Team …
Completed all of World 3 this evening, and as a result of collecting a certain number of gems, I unlocked World 7-1, on Pac Moon. Basically, it was a DS version of the original Pac-Man, with a goal of 10,000 points to gain another gem. Luckily, it was pretty simple and I soon had some 18,000 points before I died. Back into the main game, and I’m now on to World 4 – Ghost Land. Uh, but all the lands …
And on to (and past) World 2. It’s, erm, a bit easy so far. Fun still though! Plenty of ramps and launchers and hilly rolly bits and springs and a pinball bit. And then a boss at the end of the world. One power pellet isn’t enough to dispose of him – oh no. He needs three, collected in quick succession, and the you can eat him. Repeat a couple more times, and he haev teh dead. Then onto World …
Noooooooooooooo! Too many DS games to play! Pac ‘n Roll arrived today, and of course, I had to play it. And it’s ACEBEST. You control Pac-Man by rubbing the stylus over his face on the lower screen, like a trackball. He then rolls around the level on the top screen. It’s really quite clever. You can do long fast “strokes” to power forward, and there are assorted hats to wear to add new abilities and stuff. Played through all of …
Mission 18, and it’s another double front mission. At first, it seemed impossible, but thanks to some Stealth Fighters it was soon made much easier. I also got aircraft carriers on this level, which were useful for firing at helicopters as well as for re-supplying my flying units. S-Rank GET!
Took a short break from the main story mode to have a go at one of the War Room maps – Spann. It was after about 15 moves that I realised I’d played that map before – in the original Advance Wars. Took a good 30-odd days to win though, even though I started off with the advantage. C-rank == RUBBISH.
A few more (lengthy but pretty easy) missions, including one against Green Earth and a Megatank (which took some 6 rockets to destroy) and another with some Black Bombs that were under my control. Stupidly, I destroyed two trying to figure out what to do with them, and then the others ran out of fuel. I did get one to detonate near some baddies anyway.
“Chris! Chris! Good boy! Sit! Sit! No, Sit! Sit! Sit dammit! Sit! No, not Roll Over, Sit! No! Come back! Chris! Chris! Chris! Gah!” And so on. I did teach Chris a few more tricks (Lie Down and Roll Over), but he doesn’t seem to respond to “Sit” anymore. Maybe my voice broke last night or something. Took him for a walk, which he didn’t seem to enjoy as I kept having to yank his lead to keep him moving. …
Missions 10-13. One of them, 11, against Yellow Comet was a bit tricky, until I found the obvious weakness and stormed it. It didn’t seem to matter that I was hopelessly underpowered in the end. There was a Fog of War one too, which I almost lost due to not realising that under the fog, there might be ranged weapons. There were, and they wiped out my infantry. With no factories, I couldn’t create more, and, even though there were …
Mission 9, and it’s the first one with a “war on two fronts”. As such, it was a bit confusing to start with, but in fact the second front (on the second screen) kind of takes care of itself for the most part. I just had to send up reinforcements every so often. This mission took ages, but was pretty simple. I think I overdid it buying millions of missile launchers, when Neotanks were much more useful. Destroyed the “Black …
A few more missions, and my first DS game crash! Part way through the first Fog of War mission, I attacked an enemy tank, and the bottom screen went black and the game crashed. The music was still playing in the background though. Had to power off and try again. Also had a play on Combat Mode. It’s great – kind of like a cross between Atari’s Combat for the 2600, and Gauntlet. You have one unit at a time …
Just a quick go to pet Chris some more, and water him again. Bought him a frisbee (sorry, “flying disc”) and we had a play with that for a bit too. Also bought a rubber brush, and it made me giggle when I used it and it said “Chris is clean now!” when the “real life” Chris is anything but.