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 …

This is the last GBA Tony Hawk game I have left to play. In fact, it’s the only one left at all. Bah. Unlike the other Tony Hawk GBA games, this one’s levels (so far) bear little resemblance to the console versions. That isn’t really a bad thing – just a bit odd. In fact, it has at least two levels completely different so far – a school level (with bits similar to the College level in THPS2) and Los …

Well, Arcade (or “Classic” as it should really be called) was a bit of a let down. Not only did I manage to walk (or, er, skate) through it in about an hour, but it posed no challenge whatsoever. Worse, was the “selection” of goals – every level was almost the same. Basically, you have the High/Pro/Sick scores, Pro/Sick Combo scores, SKATE, COMBO, and Find the Hidden Tape. That’s fine. That’s what Tony Hawk games are for. However, you’d then …

Went back to Story Mode to see what (if anything) I’d missed. It seems there were three more challenges I’d not seen in Skatopia (including a very hard Tony Hawk Indy 900 one – why can’t you bump up the pro skater’s stats? That’s rubbish), so completed them. Not that it did anything. Still no game credits or “Game Over” or anything. Pah.

At least, I think so. I completed Australia, Suburbia, New Orleans and then made it onto Skatopia – the final level. Completed the usual “starter” goals, then the “tag team” irritating goals, and then moved on to the Pro goals (or, since I only had the one pro, the “Tony Hawk Goals”. After doing a few of them, I got a “text message” from Tony to say “Well done! We won the tour!” or something to that effect, and that …

Oh. I see. Basically, you have to do the tricks right in front of them to get “ped props”. And then I had to do it again with a pro skater. Tch. After that, and some Segway and shopping trolley “action”, it was Flame On for a 100,000 point on-fire combo, and a few other bits. Now it’s off to Australia!

Barcelona came and went without any problems. One annoying niggle with the game did become apparent though: some of the challenges have to be done twice – once by “you”, and then again by a “pro” chosen by you. This just seems like some cheap way of lengthening the game without offering variety. Luckily, there aren’t many challenges like this that you have to do. After Barcelona was Berlin, and I conpleted ten or so challenges there before becoming stuck. …

Just 66 bells today. I didn’t even have a lot of fruit to harvest and sell, and what little I did have I buried to grow more of my uber-orchard of fruity delights. I did find the Rock ‘o Money, and two fossils I already had, so made some bells there. Went and paid off some 80,000 bells of my current mortgage too, although I still have a long way to go…

And today’s turnip price is… just 75 bells. Another rubbish day on the Stalk Market. Not that it matters much now, as my fruit orchard is pretty huge, and was almost entirely in fruit today. After selling it all, I’d made 50,000 bells in just a few minutes. What is even better, is I have more trees on the way, and next time I have fruit I’ll be planting even more. Maximum bellage!

Oekaki is another new game today, and is a puzzle game often called “Hanji” or “Picross”. Basically, you start with a grid. On the end of each row and column are numbers that tell you how long a line of squares in that row or column is, and you have to fill them in to fit the rules. It usually gives a simple “pixelated” picture. For some reason, this DS variation seems to have a sort of card battle mode. …

This arrived today, so have a quick go on some of the modes. It basically consists of three main types of game: Shanghai, Shisensho, and some sort of “falling” Shanghai, where there’s “gravity” at the bottom of the level and removed tiles allow others to fall. Completed a “standard” Shisensho level, but failed the others.

I’ve now completed enough goals to take me on to Barcelona. They are very easy so far, but I expect that’ll change nearer the end of the game. Something else I’ve noticed over the previous GBA Tony Hawk games, is that proper actual real songs (with singing and everything) are played rather than just chip tunes. OK, so they’re tinny, distorted and about 15 seconds long each, but still. Quite impressed. I’ve also maxed out my stats too, after a …

Haven’t yet got into it “proper”, much like with the previous game, as there are too many training goals to achieve first. “Do a kickflip!”, “Do a manual!”, “Do a tailgrab!”, etc. Do me a lemon! Anyway, finished a load of them, and bumped my stats up a bit more. I only have Air, Ollie and Rail to max out now, I think – the three hardest too. Did a few other goals as well – simple stuff like skitch …

Turnips were at 80 bells today, so I went and harvested some of the fruit bounty that had grown since yesterday. I also added some more to my ever-growing orchard. It’s now getting somewhat cramped in the south-east corner of Cheese, what with all the trees and stuff. Also finally picked up the Exotic Wall for my house. I have most of the Exotic set now, I think.