After $hlmun attempts at the boss, and managing to get to the boss’s “second stage” many, many times only to lose the ball through no fault of my own, I finally managed to launch Bowser out of the castle and into the sky. Which, unsurprisingly, completed the game. I’ve never known a game to be so easy all of the way through, and then have a boss so difficult (and very much reliant on sheer luck) at the end. Thankfully, …

Today was just going to be a brief play, to sell the fruit that had grown since my last play, but it seems that ALL my fruit had grown. As a result, it took some 45 minutes to harvest and sell them all. Did make enough bells to drop my mortgage down to about 120,000 bells, though, which means I should be able to get another room in my house in the next few days! I also found five fossils, …

Finished the last two worlds today (5 and 6, unsurprisingly), and then defeated the final boss that comes after them. The credits rolled, and the game was over, but then… Then two new modes were opened up – Expert and Plus. Plus is a bit like a cross between the standard levels and the mini-Mario levels, whereas Expert is just a load of difficult levels. Had a go at a few, and may well plough through some more, but for …

Rattled through quite a few more levels today, completing up to World 5. Haven’t had too many taxing levels yet, although 4-MM was difficult until I realised that the Mini-Marios would jump a gap if I jumped it first. Until then it was looking pretty impossible. Tch.

Well, that’s all of the Classic levels out of the way now too. Only one goal gave me any grief – the COMBO goal on the final level (The Warehouse). After getting the C, you have to jump, then grind an invisible rail, then jump again and grind immediately. Obviously, they thought adding an invisible rail would up the difficulty somewhat. Tch. Anyway. That’s all of the GBA Tony Hawk’s games completed now. Make a new one now please Activision. …

Just did the School level on Classic. I’m really missing the non-generic goals, though, as it makes the game seem a bit “soul-less”. Didn’t have many problems on this level, although I couldn’t find the K from SKATE for a while, and getting COMBO was difficult. However, I found that getting OBMOC was much easier so did that instead.

Early morning animal visiting this morning. Gracie was about, and she gave me (after some personal questions) a Future Shirt. All my trees have grown (and are fruiting) now too, so much of my town is like a giant fruity forest. Didn’t harvest any (yet), but did find a few fossils.

Mario vs Donkey Kong is the sequel (pretty much) to the original Game Boy game Donkey Kong, which in itself was a sort of huge expansion for the even older Donkey Kong arcade game. The GB game was actually the first non-Japanese game to take advantage of the SNES Super Game Boy add-on too. And it was ACES. Mario vs Donkey Kong is also ACES. Basically, you have to travel through puzzley-platformey levels, finding keys to open doors and rescuing …

Well, I made a start on Classic Mode, and completed the first two levels. And, oh dear. They’ve removed all the “non-generic” goals from this mode. What you’re left with, is high/pro/sick scores (easy), pro/sick combo scores (easy), find the hidden tape (easy), SKATE (easy) and COMBO (usually easy). Nothing else. What a waste of an opportunity.

I’ve been playing this a fair bit today, and would you believe it – I was only about ten goals away from completing it when my game was wiped! Argh! Anyway. I unlocked everywhere again, and had to do “five old-school lines”, which I’d previously found three of accidently. Basically, there are pairs of “stickers” on each of the five levels, which denote the start and end of the lines. I was stuck with the one in the School for …

After an hour’s play, I’m about two-thirds of the way back up to the point where disaster struck. I’ve found it much easier this time through, as I didn’t bother with the not-possible-yet goals, and finding items and people was made more simple by virtue of the fact I knew where they were anyway. Bizarrely, I’ve stumbled across about five goals I’d missed the first time through as well. Oh yes, and most importantly, I’m now playing as a girl …

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I just came to play it again, while it was charging, and it has wiped my saved game! Argh! That means I need to start again! Rubbish. At least I know where things are this time round, so it shouldn’t take half the time to get to the point I was at, but still. I’m crying now.

I’ve now unlocked Vans and San Francisco, and have completed loads more goals. Some have been a bit irritating (“Oh no! I’ve lost all my tools and nuts and screws and nails and stuff! Find them for me across these four areas!!!11” in particular), and some have been too hard requiring me to up my stats before trying again (such as the liptrick-the-big-blue-thing). I’m a bit stuck in San Francisco now, as I have to do some kind of special …

Where the hell is Joan? I have almost 300,000 bells burning a hole in both pockets, some bags and my house and she’s nowhere to be seen. Gah. Sold some more fruit that had grown overnight, and dug up three fossils. Bashed the Rock o’ Money too, and talked with the animals (and walked with the animals) for a bit. Found out Caroline the Squirrel won the “Bright Nights” house competition. Tortimer told me to tell her the news, but …

Blimey. I have a lot of fruit. Well actually, I don’t any more as I collected almost all of it up to sell (making almost 65,000 bells) and buried the rest to grow more trees. Found a few fossils and gargloid thingies, and talked to a few animals. I have a new resident – Antonio the Anteater. At least, I assume he’s an anteater. Alice showed me a letter she’d got from Rev at some point. It basically said “Dear …