Tag: xbla

You know, I do play this a lot more often than I normally report on. It’s a regular “a couple of goes before bed” game. Anyway, played two rounds with my wife, and won both. I always seem to score badly through the game as she picks up huge castles and long roads, and then make a killing with carefully planned farms.

There’s a sale on at XBLA at the moment (although it’s only two days long), with Gauntlet reduced to just 200 points. Rude not to, eh? It’s a lot harder than I recall. So hard, in fact, that in single player I think Level 8 is impossible, with Questor at least. You can continue as many times as you like, but you’re returned to the start of the level rather than just carry on. I know this is probably how …

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Fun Fact #1: Completing “Y” Mode on Hard is impossible. In fact, just defeating the first character is impossible.Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Fun Fact #2: Getting the “destroy a 25-gem block in Arcade Mode” achievement is also impossible, as if you play it on Easy or Normal, the CPU character dies before you get there, and if you play on Hard or Expert, you die before you get there.

Played through X’ Arcade Mode with Akuma, and completed it. I’m not classing the game as complete just yet though, as I have X, Y and Z modes to go yet! Sadly, I missed out on an achievement for finishing Arcade Mode without using a credit, as I underestimated the end of game boss – also Akuma – and he beat me.

Hmm. Things are not going so well now. I lost two continues trying to kill the boss that looks like Blanka from Street Fighter II, and so have made it to Level 5 with just two lives (and no more continues, it seems) left. I then had a go on Versus Mode on Xbox Live. Sadly, it is totally broken. If you host, you win. The reason? If you’re not hosting, all of your movements are delayed by almost a …

Played quite a few games with my wife, winning about as many as I lost. Also had a try at some of the other game modes. “Y” is more like Columns, in that you have to get lines of three or more rather then groups of gems which you then trigger. It was OK, but not as good as X or X’ modes. “Z” is similar to Hexic, sort of, in that you rotate blocks of four to make groups, …

You know, a lot of people say that Streets of Rage 2 is the pinnacle of 16-bit side-scrolling fighting games. Personally, I prefer both the first and the third games over this, but I don’t really know why. So I bought it (for just 400 points) and am now on Level 3, having died just once – on the end of level 2 boss. I very nearly made it without being killed by him too, which is a shame.

Who needs a demo version, eh? I just stumped up the 800 points without even trying it first. That’s how much I knew it was going to be ace. And, of course, it is ace. At least as ace as the Saturn version I’ve been playing recently, but in lovely smooth HD and with online play for up to four players. It’s like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo X ++ Alpha HD really. Or something. First up, I played three …

Beck sent me a plea for help while I was playing skate., asking for information on the Battle Mode power-ups. I sent her some instructions (although they’re right there when you start Battle Mode anyway – women lol :P), and she said “well if yuo fancy any two player anytime let me know”. Who could resist? I “leapt” right into Hexic 2 and invited her to a game. And she just ignored me! Pff. So I played Ranked Battle Mode …

I noticed the scoreboards had all been reset recently, so took the opportunity to try to make it to the top of my friends leaderboard. Sadly, I fell short of Robert Hazelby’s feeble 13,840 with a slightly less feeble 13,760. Ish. And I remember my 25k days. Bah.

Six games of Battle Mode against my wife, and I won the first four. Then I told her about how you could make your attacks more powerful (just fill the relevant bar up more notches) and then proceeded to lose the next two games. In future, she will be kept in the dark about such things.

Played four Battle Mode games online, in Ranked Matches this evening. I won the first game, but only just, but then failed to win any of the next three even though it appeared my opponents were all crap. Clearly, I was wrong…