Many SPOILERS are contained throughout these posts. You have been warned!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Star Fox 64 3D high session 3 - hard path

Mission 1: Corneria - Enter Star Fox
136 points on the hard path... not terrible, better than last time at least.

Mission 2: Sector Y Combat Zone
138 points
Falco dropped out here, damn

Mission 3: Aquas Ocean
113 points here
I used to have so much trouble with this level, but I can beat it easily without dying now.
another level with a "bioweapon" boss, which i guess is just an excuse for having a boss that doesn't talk

Mission 4: Zoness - Toxic Waste Area
228 points... pretty decent
gotta hit those searchlights.
Kat: "You trying to hit my pretty face?"
yes you dumb bitch get outta the way.
this bouncy toxic water messes you up so much if you run into it... why is the water on this planet so bouncy?

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 4/4

The warp stone guy says the last Spellstone is at Dragon Rock, and the gatekeeper is a random character here in Thorntail Hollow... "The one who has no voice has plenty to say."

Dragon Rock

This area is the most action packed part of the game... it's a big red Mars-looking area with drones flying around that shoot at you if you go near them. but you can take them out by shooting them from a distance... After you free the Thorntail here, you get to ride on him and take out the 4 guard towers while avoiding being shot at. Then you can free the big Hightail character, and then ride him across the area while shooting all the oncoming missiles... this part is kinda fun.

Then there's some puzzle involving turning off switches to prevent an exploding barrel from getting hit by fire, and then taking it through a flamethrower-filled platforming section... pretty sure the game already did something like this several times before.

Saved a cloudrunner, and he flies Fox to where the SpellStone is... another rail shooter segment just like when riding the hightail, except this one is way more frantic and difficult.

Even the boss fight of this area is a rail shooter segment...

Friday, March 16, 2012

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 3/4

LightFoot Village

That place that was just an empty passthrough area up until now, actually has stuff going on this time when you head back from Cape Claw. The LightFoot characters think that Fox stole their treasure and captures him... then a cloudrunner comes to help and there's a weird awkward first-person combat minigame sequence against the LightFoots... This convinces them to let you go... Next Tricky says there's a Krazoa Spirit nearby (he can sense them?) and you get to explore the actual village, which is a bunch of treehouses in a shallow swamp.

Another "gather all the things and take them to the central area" section like in Cape Claw... wtf it seems like there's random water currents in this swamp for some reason?

The LightFoot Village leader helps Fox find the Krazoa Spirit only if you can complete their tests... the first test is just more busywork, where you gotta explore the village and find all the totem poles in a time limit... the 2nd test is a Mario Party "Mash A" minigame.

Found the teleporter to the next Krazoa Shrine... again like the last shrine, it's another linear obstacle/puzzle course.
Test 3 - The Test of Fear... while a cutscene happens you have to try and keep the bar in the green part of the meter. so many tests...
Got the 3rd Krazoa Spirit. Obviously next is the part where you go back to Thorntail Hollow and warp to Krazoa Palace again.

Also there's a really boring annoying sidequest you can do where you have to round up all the LightFoot babies and for doing that you get access to some new areas around the village, with just some minor stuff to collect like fuel cells and a cheat token.

back to Krazoa Palace...

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 2/4

Thorntail Hollow 3

Next you have to gather some firewood and light some torches back up... just pointless padding to get you to explore this area again for the 3rd time. Then a dinosaur gives you the Moon Pass Key... and that lets you go to the next area where the first Force Point Temple is located.

Moon Mountain Pass / Volcano Force Point Temple 1

The enemy spots Fox and starts rolling down a bunch of barrels down the hill at you... lol this is nothing... just a simple linear path straight to the Volcano Force Point Temple.
There's some cool puzzle at the temple door where you have to shoot fireballs through some flames that change color, so that it hits the switch when the flame is a certain color.
Got the Freeze shot, which can be used to put out torches.
Fire keese enemies ripped straight from Zelda lol...

Peppy's floating head comes in to explain a bit about how these Force Point Temples work... each one had two SpellStones placed inside them to help keep the planet from falling apart...
There's a lot of points where you think "Oh, this must be the place where I have to return the spellstone", but no, it's just a mechanism where you use the spellstone to unlock a door or something...
Found a teleporter that leads to the central SpellStone hub... there are slots for 4 SpellStones... I guess this place is connected to both of the Force Point Temples... or something

Left the temple... as I'm heading back, suddenly I hear Krystal's voice crying out for help... saying she needs Krazoa spirits to survive... and a Krazoa ghost shows up out of nowhere... Tricky convinces Fox to help her...
I guess this is what Krystal was doing before she got captured... so the SpellStones and the Krazoa Spirits are the 2 separate ongoing main missions... the Spirits just come out of nowhere there, I don't really get it...

Got the Ground Quake staff power... it's needed to kill certain enemies in the ground.
Explored the Moon Mountain Pass some more... there's this dumb geyser rock puzzle... a lot of annoying repetition... kill ground enemy, get a moon seed, use it to grow a vine to climb up a wall, rinse repeat...
finally found a Krazoa Shrine teleporter... in this shrine is a linear obstacle course that tests all of your abilities... then the Krazoa Spirit at the end makes Fox complete a test of combat in order to collect it.
It then warps me back out to Moon Mountain Pass. The Krazoa ghost from earlier tells Fox to return this spirit to the Krazoa Palace...

Star Fox 64 3D high session 2 - middle path

I think most of the hard levels lead to the middle path if you don't get enough points... whereas the middle and easy levels have other requirements for their alternate path.

Mission 1: Corneria - Enter Star Fox
115 points on the hard path... not even close
Falco leads us to the correct path... "incoming enemy from the rear"
despite this being the hard path, the Attack Carrier boss is so much more consistently easy to beat than the all-range boss.

Mission 2: Sector Y Combat Zone
107 points... I was actually trying to get a lower score than 100 here for the easy path to Katina... but I forgot that it lets you choose which path to take anyway when you clear the alt path.
Shogun is another all-range boss fight... you spend a lot of time searching around for him while getting called "Cocky little freaks"

Mission 3: Katina - Frontline Base
"Fox that's one of ours"
I learned pretty quickly that the friendly ships are the ones with visible blue fuel exhaust coming out of them...
when the Flying Assault Fortress Saucerer appeared, I spent too much time focusing on other enemies and missed the hard path...
163 points while not taking out the mothership
then I played the level again cuz I wanted to go to Solar instead... took out the mothership and got a measly 90 points

Mission 4: Solar
That area's an oven!
no shit... these guys are really badass, trusting Slippy's heat guarding technology as they fly straight into a star...

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 1/4

Krazoa Palace

I don't remember much about this game from the first time I played it, other than it's a decent 3D Zelda clone.

Starts off with some backstory... you play as Krystal riding a dinosaur, and there's a pathetically easy shooting boss fight... then you're at this really magical place called Krazoa Shrine... collected the first Krazoa Spirit... back to the less magical Krazoa Palace...

All of a sudden, Krystal gets captured and sealed in a crystal... like Zelda in OoT.

Thorntail Hollow 1

Star Fox is on a mission to restore Dinosaur Planet which is falling apart...
FIrst is a really easy pointless rail shooting arwing mission that is nothing like the original Star Fox games... you need to get 3 gold rings and survive to the end to clear the stage... anything more you do is just for high scores.
Fox lands at Thorntail Hollow, picks up Krystal's staff, and then sees Krystal's floating head talking to her... gets the fire blaster...
You need to shoot fireballs at certain switches, just like the eyeball targets in Zelda.
The Queen Earthwalker asks Fox to go rescue her son who got kidnapped and taken to the Ice Mountain... apparently the only way to travel this world is through warping, maybe because of the world falling apart...
The warp stone is a giant talking rock golem with a hilarious Scottish accent... you need to give him a rock candy in order to get him to warp you to the next area... so you need to collect scarabs, the currency on Dinosaur Planet, and buy a rock candy from the shop... you can also buy the map of the current region and the next region you'll go to...
The shop keeper has a hilarious voice lol... "Youuuuu pay THIS much"...

Star Fox 64 3D high session 1 - easy path

Started replaying this on 3DS while high.

First of all, 3DS mode vs N64 mode differences... 3DS mode basically just easier. You take less damage, losing a wing doesn't screw up your flying, less points required for Sector Z medal... may as well play on N64 mode. The voices and graphics are redone in both modes either way.

Mission 1: Corneria - Enter Star Fox
93 points on the easy path... lmao I am so rusty at this
I kinda miss the faces/text showing up on the same screen as the action so I can easily see the character faces when people are talking. I'm not usually paying attention to the bottom screen on 3DS.

Mission 2: Meteo - Into the Asteroid Field
177 poins... meh
Falco's the only one still in good health...

I'm starting to realize why this game is so great... it's like, it has the feel of a classic arcade shooter, but with the polish and quality of a full 1st party console game... the story and presentation are amazing... and the huge variety of paths to take... almost every level has 2 paths...

Mission 3: Fichina - Former Defense Post
18 points... wow terrible
intentionally failed to disarm the bomb so that I'd go to Sector X
Peppy is in repair now

Mission 4: Sector X - Combat Zone
146 points... decent I think?
Andross's secret weapon...
"I will terminate all enemies"
"Where is the creator?"
Slippy gets slapped... now I can't read the weapon's health bar...
also I noticed with Peppy gone, you miss out on all the strategic tips and little tidbits of background story he occasionally gives you throughout the level...