Mother 1 high playthrough log part 3

Re-explored the Thanksgiving area to make sure I'm not missing anything... there's another dot just a bit north of the Duncan Factory, but I can't get there...

Also it seems like I can walk through the whole train track tunnel to the next town if I wanted to? Unless maybe the enemies in that tunnel are way too tough or something. There's a skeleton inside the tunnel:

You'll end up like me if you don't take the train.

Yeah.. that's not worth it after all.. the enemies aren't impossible, but they are hard, and the tunnel is VERY long...

- Snowman -

That pretty much covers everything I'm able to do here. Now off to Santa Claus Station, on the tracks north of Thanksgiving... If you go a bit beyond that, there's a weird maze of terrain that eventually leads to the area behind Duncan Factory, and you can see a cave but I can't see any way to get to it... oh wait, yeah, that was the first Magicant cave... And you can also explore a giant mess of trees and random terrain, that just seems to stretch out across the whole empty parts of the map where there are no towns or dots. and ultimately leads you nowhere... The bridge to the east is broken, so the train can only go to Reindeer, Halloween, and Snowman. all these seasonal themed areas...

I'll go to Reindeer first...
An old woman asks me to return a hat to a girl in Snowman. It has the name "Ana" on it. I don't really see any reason not to go there right now, so that I can get a new party member and start having some more inventory space... Reindeer exploration can be a bit later I guess.

Snowman is a very small self contained area... Here there's a couple that wants to go to Easter to look for their son, but the tracks are broken..

I heard the people of Easter were spirited away.

People telling me about Ana who lives in the church, and hasn't been to school.. also coughing at me and making my party sick...

Talked to the phone, and instead of asking me to save, Ninten's dad asked for my own name (as in me the player).

Ana says she saw Ninten in her dream.. and joins me to help find her mom in Easter.. she's very weak, so I just warped back to Magicant to train her... Oh wow..

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - high playthrough part 3

Went back to worlds 4-6 to get all the energy spheres I missed, didn't take long at all.

Dangerous Dinner

This volcano area has an amazing art style...
7-1... Used Snow Bowl ontop of a volcano... just barely beat the sphere doomer first try... had to shoot some heavy blocks at the dimensional curtain to push it back...
7-2... lava elevator... carrying a candle while floating across the water... a grey section with moving walls that crush you... beat the sphere doomer easily with Leaf power.
7-3... Weird cosmic area with sun/lava balls moving across... This art style keeps getting better....
The floor is moving in a loop... ceiling doesn't move...
Starting to get really tricky with these huge areas that expand vertically and horizontally... having Bird Kirby makes these parts way easier since you can fly a lot faster...

Metroid II high playthrough log part 1/2

Wow this backstory in the instruction manual is really good... looks like the enemy variety is very unique and huge compared to the first game...

In this you go to SR388 to destroy all the metroids... You start off with the long beam, the last game's high jump, and morph ball ability already.

- Level 1 -
- Metroid #39 down easily.. now the lava has fallen a bit, and this next area splits into 2 separate side areas.

- Level 2 -
- The first split path is a slightly complex Brinstar-like subsection with the bomb, 1 energy tank, ice beam, spider ball, some missile paks ... and 1 metroid... and a refill way up on the ceiling...
The spider ball is teased if you go to the dead end past the missile pak that you can't reach yet... have to back track here after getting it.

This game is deceptively linear... I'm gonna have to try doing a non-100% blind run while sober later on.

wow yeah... the spider ball makes exploring on your own way more fun... at the end of Level 2 you face 3 alpha metroids in a row with a bit of health refills (unless you grind)

- Level 3 -
omg this fortress submap is SO complex... tuuuuuubes

Wonder Boy in Monster Land playthrough log

Starting playing this while high... first read through the manual... it shows a drawn world map and names all the areas..
- Rack up points to get extra heart containers...
- an hourglass timer starts to remove health if it runs out...
- pause has Zelda-style status screen.. has slots for the hint items "Scroll to Catherine" and a "Letter to Betty" that you can find
- Guantlet and Helmet are like Link's Awakening powerups.. Wing Boots are like the Kid Icarus wings, guessing potion works like fairies..
- Flute, Star Charm, Hero's Emblem, Bell, and Ruby I don't know, the manual is very vague on what those do
- Shops become harder to find later in the game, and some shops become traps, some are even invisible to hide from the villains
- Boot upgrades allow faster running and higher jumping
- Some bosses have sword upgrades instead of the level exit
- Taverns flip the hourglass over to give you more time if you're running out... and something happens if you have 2 drinks apparently?

Playthrough attempt #1
Round 2.. found a guy hidden in the wall who tells me that the Emblem is needed to defeat the dragon... and he tells me to give a letter to Catherine in Boroboro.. that hint shows up as a reminder in the pause screen

wait really...? I died at round 4? the enemies there get kind of fast and hard to hit... your sword has very weak range.. and items/upgrades are expensive given what little money you are able to get (money doesn't respawn but enemies do)... I guess that was 1/3rd of the game?

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - high playthrough part 2

White Wafers
Slippery ice stages... Mega Hammer ability is fun
Snow Bowl... ice cream hat...
4-5 is non-linear... has weird waddle dee genies
Used Fighting Kirby (with some of Ryu's moveset) to beat the easy snow monster boss, got the ship's emblem back.

Missing 4 gears in this world... getting pretty hard now.

Bomb Challenge - Got bronze with 16230 points first try

Nutty Noon
6-1... omg this game looks AMAZING... there's something about these aesthetics, I don't know why I love it so much.
Cloud/beanstalk area... this part reminds me of the Triple Deluxe overworld...
When you get up high enough you can see the planet skyline in the background... wow... a tower that ascends into outer space...

Wonder Boy 1 playthrough comments

This is one of those extremely simple old platformers. I love this kind of simplistic, but tight platforming. Every obstacle is designed so there's a relatively easy way to avoid everything even when you don't have the hatchet attack... but if you do have it you can make things easier, or screw up and die while trying to do so...

The skateboard powerup is always useful to have when you can get it... You are way more likely to die by getting hit than by falling in pits in this game, and while the skateboard makes it more likely for you to fall off if you aren't careful, it also protects you against a single hit.

The Tawna bonus rounds you get from the accessories only appear once, and if you restart the level from a continue they're gone.

The bosses at the end of each level are all exactly the same, it's just a matter of hitting their head a variable number of times while avoiding their slow attacks.

This game starts out very easy but it ramps up in difficulty very consistently through the 10 worlds (called Areas). Area 4 is where I had to start being more careful. I was still keeping most of my lives at that point though... Area 8 is where the game starts to get serious.

Mother 1 high playthrough log part 2

- Magicant -

The bridge east of the zoo is the next place I went to check out. There's a strange rock in a mountain cave past here. You can use telepathy to talk to the rock, it just asks you about the god's tail.. I think you're supposed to bring the diary here with you?

That which was left behind by the ship that soars the heavens.

Suddenly I teleport to this strange magical candy land... the characters here have really strange dialog.

I'm a swimming cat. Have you heard of a candy that gives courage and strength weaklings? You're a strong boy, so I doubt you need any.

Also most of the villagers are witches?

I had a dream that Magicant vanished into thin air. My heart's still pounding, even now.

Heard about a fountain that turns items into magical items..

There's a guy in this one house (houses are seashells here) who imitates talking to your dad on the phone.

If you need to see a helpful old man, go to Mary's Fountain. He'll come if he hears a cry from the heart.

Deep in the forest there's a guitar player who likes solitude.

Outside? What is this "outside" you speak of?

Happiness won't just walk into your life on its own. But neither will unhappiness. So if you don't want trouble in your life... then you'd best stay still and never move a muscle.

This is so weird... some NPC asks you if you've seen the NPC who talks about happiness, and then says:

You can't part if you've never met.

...then another NPC asks if you've seen the "can't part if you've never met" guy....

I fixed a kid's spoon by unbending it, and he let me stay the night.. there's actually a bunch of places where you can heal.
This whole village is just surreal...

Exploring outside the town now...

I'm an unsinging monkey. But monkeys don't normally sing anyway. Any questions? You look kind of like Queen Mary, I wonder why that is.

I've heard about a man who was forgotten, but I forget what his story was.

I'm a cat that swims in the ground. Can you guess what I'm holding in my paw?

... uh... dirt?

Top of far left area.. found the guitar playing guy.

I was just in the middle of pondering philosophical questions. It's hard for me to focus with all this guitar music, though. Oh! Whoops! I didn't realize I was the one playing the guitar! How careless of me! ... This is a secret between you and me: come back here when you're stronger.

hmm... okay