On Sunday, I got back to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch, which I had been intending to beat two months ago, but I got a couple of game overs at the final boss and got frustrated with myself. So I took a break. But on Sunday I got it first try. This is a great game, and I do intend to try 100% it! This morning I beat Shark Tale on GameCube. This game was a bit disappointing. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I'd expected more because there was an ad for this game in Shrek 2, which is my favourite GameCube game so far. However, while both published by Activision, Shrek 2 was also developed by Activision, while Shark Tale was developed by a second or third party (Edge of Reality), so it makes sense that it wasn't as good. I do not intend to try 100%ing it, as the game works with missions, where you have to clear the main mission to beat the stage (usually the main mission is essentially 'beat the stage'). Then there is a 'bonus mission' and an 'elite mission', and several of the elite missions seem obnoxiously hard. So I decided to just not even try. Edit: Ah, both games keep track of your playtime, that's always an interesting statistic I think. I've got a bit over 40 hours into The Thousand-Year Door, and 3 hours into Shark Tale.
The Switch version looks really cool, Nintendo did a great job with altering the Gamecube ISO with superior graphics, and even implementing shaders at runtime. Some of the tracks are too overkill for me, but I do love their artistic takes on them regardless. Definitely takes me back to when I was a kid when this game first game out for the Gamecube!
I beat the Story mode of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania on Switch recently. It has no new stages, it's the same as Super Monkey Ball Deluxe from 2005, but I haven't played that game. I enjoyed most of it, although there were quite a few stages that I found too gimmicky. The levels that I enjoyed most were those that did not include any moving parts but were quite difficult. I also beat Donkey Kong Country 2 on GBA. I think I'll try going for 100% completion, but I might give up before getting there, as completing DKC games tends to be rather tricky. And I somehow forgot to post something really big... after almost 15 years, I 100%ed Mario Kart: Super Circuit!! I actually recorded a video to commemorate it. It's 20 minutes long, though, so it might not be worth watching.
I beat Monsters, Inc. on GBA on Hard mode. If I recall correctly, this is a game that was really disappointing to Joy? My experience with the game is weird. I knew I played it a bit as a kid, but got bored and didn't finish it. I thought I'd left it at that, and when I started playing the game again recently, I thought the later levels were new to me. But then I found a note on my phone that had the passwords to all of the game's levels. xD (but on Easy difficulty) So apparently I had beaten it before, but I don't remember at all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, the game surprised me! It was more fun than I remembered. The level layouts did seem really uninspired, until I realised that they were procedurally generated, and are different on each playthrough. That's actually pretty cool, and makes me a lot more forgiving of the level 'design'. Overall, I ended up giving it a 7/10. I also played through World Championship Sports on Wii. This is more of a party game, with lots of sports-based mini-games designed for multi-player. You can play the games single player, but except for the final minigame there's no AI, so I thought there wasn't really an objective to go for. However, when I had almost finished playing through all of the mini-games, I realised that after completing the game, there were three possibilities: either your character would play a disappointed animation, or an 'I did it!' animation, or it would simply stick with the idle animation. Which of the three animations played depends on the score you got in the game. So then I decided to play through all the games again and go for the 'I did it!' animation. It was fun to actually have some type of goal. However, I did not enjoy most of the mini-games. The challenge was in figuring out how the controls were supposed to work, and I did not find most of the games satisfying. I ended up giving the game a 4/10. It's probably better with friends, though! Although if you've got it, I'm sure you had better play Wii Sports. (I do not, though!)
Sorry for the double post, but I just completed another game! This is The Smurfs: Dreams, from Ocellus Studio. I really enjoyed their first game, Marsipulami: Hoobadventure, so I was quite excited to play their second! I was not expecting to enjoy it as much, as it is a 3D platformer rather than a 2D platformer, and I tend to prefer 2D platformers in general, and moreover it is harder to get a 3D platformer right, in my experience. But they did a good job! I did indeed not like it quite as much as their first game, but it was quite a good experience! The time shown is off, by the way, it took me less than 15 hours to complete the game. I think I left my Switch in sleep mode once because I wasn't able to finish the level before my train journey ended, and then the timer kept on counting overnight.
I beat the Pit of 100 Trials in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch! I wasn't really expecting to, as it was my first serious attempt, but I have beaten the game already, so I am high level and have good badges. However, I wasn't paying attention as I was approaching floor 100, and as such I accidentally encountered the boss while I had my badges optimised for defeating several small enemies, rather than defeating one strong enemy. But I was able to survive! And I also beat Super Mario Bros. 3 for NES on Switch Online! I'd previously beaten the game on Game Boy Advance.
I got back to Super Monkey Ball Jr., which I played when I was around 14 years old. It's a very challenging game, but quite fun. What makes it doable is that you can unlock infinite continues. However, to 100% the game, you need to beat the first three difficulty levels (and in particular Expert, which is the longest and the hardest of the three) without using a single continue, to unlock the extra levels. As a kid I don't think I got very close, but I'm not sure. I thought now that it would be doable, but it might take me quite a long time. But it did not! I completed it with under two hours of playtime from picking the game back up again, I think. My playtime was divided over practising the hardest levels in the practice mode, and three actual attempts, of which the final was successful. Well, I really enjoyed getting back to this game! I might even get back to it later to try to beat all 30 stages without using a single continue, as this time I used all warp exits, which are harder to get to but let you skip levels. The European version of the game, like many European releases of the time, supports English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. The fun thing is that all of the languages have voice-overs. As a kid I tried them all out and preferred the sound of the Italian announcer. So I set the game to Italian! PS: It did probably help, perhaps a lot, that since playing this game ass a kid I've played Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania on Switch. The engine and controls are quite different, but the general gameplay is the same, and if I had not played it I might have been a lot more rusty.
I mostly 100%ed Kirby's Nightmare in Dream Land on GBA about a year ago, but I needed to do one final mode, in which you cannot save. Last week I had a three hour train ride (which I had anticipated), so I was saving it until then. I was going to tell more, as there are some interesting details, but I can't really be bothered to explain the entire game. But here you go, I completed the Meta Knight mode, and 100%ed Extra Mode (and also the Normal Mode, but I think you don't unlock Extra Mode until you do). I also did the Meta Knight mode 100%, I don't think it shows on the picture. The game is a remake of Kirby's Adventure for NES, the first Kirby game where you could copy enemies' powers. I played the original on Wii U VC (I would not recommend Wii U's NES VC, it has muffled sound, dull graphics and bad input delay) before. The remake was good, and the game is fun in general. It's not too challenging, and going for 100% is quite doable too, although I found some secrets on the obscure side. The Extra Mode is quite an artificial way to lengthen the game, but oh well. 7/10! It did take me about 6 years to beat it, but that's not because it's so hard or long, but because I took long breaks.
One of my childhood favorites. Loved that and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror! (Also Warioland 4, but that's not really the topic lol)
I don't have Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and I probably won't get it, as it's rather expensive. Nightmare in Dream Land is actually one of the more expensive games I own, but when I got it for my birthday 7 years ago it was still fairly cheap. I do have Wario Land 4, and have not 100%ed it yet. I'll probably get to it at some point! Might have another go at Wario Land 3 first (I did complete Super Mario Land 3 and Wario Land II, multiple times).
I own a physical copy from way back when, but as with most GBA I just use emulators for it all. Assuming you want to stick with authentic physical copies.
Yeah, I don't pirate games. I use BizHawk (a Nintendo emulator) sometimes when I want to record YouTube videos, or play around with a game's RAM or password system. I have a device with which I can rip the ROMs of GB, GBC and GBA games.
I lost the post that I was writing. :| I 100%ed Disney Illusion Island again, after three free updates were released. I didn't like the first one initially and shelved it, but as I got more into it now I started enjoying it. The second one wasn't super interesting, but the third one was pretty cool. Overall, I gave the game a 7/10, which I would've given it without the updates as well. A high 7, though, probably around 7.3/10. I also 100%ed Super Mario Sunshine, of which I have a picture: This game is notoriously hard to 100%, and almost impossible without a guide. I used a video walkthrough on YouTube, although I tried to get ahead and only continue watching when I got stuck. For the blue coins I didn't bother looking around too much, though, as I knew I wouldn't be able to find them all anyway. I gave the game a 5/10, which is the first time I rate a Nintendo-published game with a failing grade. The game's physics are cool, but I found most challenges either too obscure, too frustrating, or both. There were few parts that were good fun, to me.
I beat Kirby's Epic Yarn on Wii yesterday. I did not get a picture, because the game moved on automatically while I was getting out my iPad. <.< I might get a photo when I 100% it, though! I already 100%ed several levels (on my first playthrough, but I also started working on 100%ing world 1 at some point, having forgotten that I hadn't yet beaten the final world ), and everything seems quite doable, so I don't think it will take too much effort. There is one mini-game level that I've been stuck at, though. Which is annoying, as you can't move on to the next level without beating it. I guess I'll have to look up a walkthrough at some point. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Pizza Tower was released physically by Fangamer last month, and I beat it in a few weeks. It was even faster than I expected, but it is quite fun! I intend to go on with it, although I am afraid 100%ing might be infeasible, which often demotivates me. There are two tiers, though: there's getting all achievements (which includes getting all S ranks, which I think it might be challenging to even get one of), and there's getting all P ranks. It might also be fun to just get all collectables, without getting the S ranks. In any case, I should probably spend some more time with the game, as it's quite fun. I do regret that so many recent indie games are so hard to complete, though... :/ I guess it gives people more value for their money, but as an adult, money is more available than time. xD I don't wish to spend 100 hours on a single game if I have a dozen other games I'd like to get to.
That's a classic! I've never played it, though. Did you play it on the original console, or ...? I just completed Rayman 2 Forever. I bought the game around 2019 I think, but lost my save file when a ROM ripping device malfunctioned. It took me a while to get back to it. A similar thing happened to me with the original Rayman on GBC, where I mistyped the password and had to start over. Both games are very similar: rather easy, not super impressive, but (to me) quite charming and relaxing. I gave this one a 7/10, like the first game.
It was emulated on a Steam Deck! I played a lot of it sitting in a chair outside on a balcony. It was a fan-translation of the original game. I didn't play Dragon Warrior or the remake because I didn't know about them, and I probably wouldn't have played them because they were made to be easier than the original. The only game I've beaten since then was Minecraft almost a week ago
