Kirby's Dream Land 2 high playthrough part 1

New characters that help Kirby in this game: Rick the Hamster, Coo the Owl, Kine the fish...

hamster is okay, just for the silly different versions of the transformation powers he does but nothing else... you can't float with him but the levels never really require floating...

owl is totally broken, but the levels that you're supposed to use him in at least have a lot of moving flying enemies and gordos to deal with...

fish has mostly less useful versions of each power, but they are actually more useful when you are underwater... and the levels you're supposed to use him in have a mixture of underwater and above water platforming...

I think of the little stars as 100% collectables, even though they don't do anything except give you a 1up for every 7, it's fun to try and collect all of them anyway... and there's also a hidden collectable in each world that looks like some kind of cosmic star item...

Super Mario Star Road (SM64 romhack) playthrough log

I started playing this spontaneously... Never played a SM64 romhack before, but I'm very familiar with the SM64 engine.

First I explored around a bit and found the outdoor pipe leading to Course 3. It's a grassy river area similar to the hub.. I had a bit of trouble at first getting that water cave star... I set the analog range to the usual 67% but I think I might need to adjust the controller's deadzone too.

Then I wandered into the tower and jumped into a realistic looking painting that is on an actual paint canvas... That is the proper world 1. it's a place with a king bobomb boss and a very odd layout.. you can't die from falling off, most of the time you'll just fall in the water... I got the 100 coin star and a bunch of others, and I'm stuck on the "top of the sunken ship" star on this world...

Then I went into a vase and found world 2... it's a floating resort where it's VERY easy to fall off and die.. the whomp boss is here, and getting around this place involves some puzzle solving and some pretty advanced maneuvering skills...

As soon as I gained 8 stars I went through one of the 8-star doors and entered course 5, a level with boos and SM3DW aesthetic, and I think SM3DL music though I'm not sure... here I found a grave that you can push to reveal a whole that leads into the hidden stage containing the blue switch on some rotating gears.. it seems like there's more to do at this stage but I couldn't figure it out at all... just died to exit... got another star at course 5, then went back to course 2 and 3 and got a few more stars there, including the 100 coin star... I'm a bit stuck at course 2, but could probably progress more in course 3 and 5...

I could've checked out course 4 now too, but instead I explored the hub a bit more, and found a pipe behind the tower that leads to a secret course. This place looks like some toad village.. you can race koopa the quick up a mountain... I raced him without even exploring the mountain yet, and just barely managed to beat him on the first try... That mountain path is really crazy, it's like the same difficulty as tall tall tower, and you have to hurry.

This secret stage also has 8 red coins... including one that was insanely hard to get to. I managed to get it by doing a divebomb at the peak of a triple jump... I'm pretty sure that's how you're meant to get it cuz I don't see any other possible way... also you can't get 100 coins in this stage.

Metroid Fusion high playthrough log part 2

Sector 4 - AQA

The commander tells me about Serris, the powerful creature being held here, that is probably now under the control of the X.. it has gone rampaging around and now the place is flooded with high voltage water... This place really is more maze-like than the previous areas up until now... even the grey/pink parts of the map require a lot of attention to block formations and stuff to figure out the way forward...

Eventually got to this water serpent monster, in Serris's breeding ground... is that Serris I dunno... it was a really easy boss fight.. it goes down in like <15 a="" able="" access="" all="" and="" appreciate="" as="" back="" backtracking.="" being="" bombs...="" boost="" br="" can="" come="" doors="" dots="" explore="" few="" for="" gained="" game...="" have="" helps="" here="" hidden="" hollow="" i="" including="" item="" level...="" lot="" lowers="" m="" map="" missiles...="" need="" new="" of="" on="" other="" paths="" power="" really="" regular="" s="" see="" seeing="" speed="" starting="" system="" terminal="" that="" the="" then="" there="" this="" to="" uncollected="" uncovered="" up="" ve="" water="" when="" where="" you="" your="">
back to Navigation room... commander guy says that I can get the (power bombs I think?) in the data room here, but it requires the red doors to be unlocked... he says that is the highest security level and they should avoid unlocking it until absolutely necessary...

Kirby's Dream Course log

I've never really fully played through this before. Now I'm starting over fresh, gonna get high on edibles and attempt to complete it. Started by reading this really nice concisive review: http://www.consoleclassix.com/snes/kirbys_dream_course.html

Then I watched the in-game gameplay demos that teach you how to play... there are 20 of them in total.. the first few just show kirby on linear straight courses to demo the ground/fly shots... then there's a demo with a dpad picture that is a full diamond-shaped course that shows how to aim your shots.

I really like how L and R are used to quickly adjust angle by an exact 45 degrees.

It seems like going for the middle of the power meter is what you need to land a straight unobstructed ground shot at exactly where the end of the guide is... but for fly shots you have to stop the first meter in the middle, and the 2nd meter at the top to land exactly where the guide shows... (er, actually it looks like you actually want both meters to land in wherever the white line happens to be... I just got confused by the redundant bar meter on the right, when you actually need to look at the crosshair meter where Kirby expands/deflates across both axis)

Ground curving seems pretty simple too... just the same as aiming except you have to hold B... the guide shows the exact curve you'll make if you stop the meter in the middle.

Metroid Fusion high playthrough log part 1

This intro story is really good...
Samus was sent a research mission to SR388, where she first met that hatchling, along with some federation people... she got attacked by a thing that turned out to be the "X parasite".. it made her unconscious and her ship crash-landed in an asteroid belt.. the federation people found her and tried to save her, but the parasite started merging her suit with her body, and they had to perform surgery just to get some parts of the suit off her...

finally they came up with a cure, injected her with a Metroid cell so that those cells could fight off the X parasite... now her power suit has become a part of her body called the Fusion suit... she also has a new ship now, cuz I guess the old one got destroyed in the crash.

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 5

just about at 6 hours of game time now... I tried Ridley again and beat him on one try while coming up on edibles. He's not that hard once you get into a good rhythm. I used up all my missiles first, usually only shooting 2 or 3 at a time... then I switched to super missiles, hoping to finish him off with these during his harder phases.. but ran out just when he was red... you really have to focus on making every super missile count... then I beat him with a few more charge beam shots after that. during his last phase, he gets really mad and mostly just stays near the bottom shooting and whacking you with his tail, not even trying to dodge you anymore...

Found an energy tank hiding in the empty room after Ridley... the path leading out of the Ridley part of Norfair, with another one of those fake walls you can't see with the Xray visor, followed by a bunch more xray visor puzzles.. the transition back to normal Norfair is very gradual... finally made it all the way back to the Brinstar elevator... that one blue area left in Brinstar where I needed the gravity suit, is the only other missing thing I can easily find before Tourian... there's another energy tank there...

I now have 12/14 energy tanks, 160 missiles, 40 super missiles, and 40 power bombs... the other stuff I'm missing, I have no idea where to look. I'd seriously have to use a guide or otherwise just literally scour the entire game looking for doors or xray paths I might've missed.

EarthBound high playthrough log part 1

I've played through this once before, but I was kinda just rushing through it back then, and a lot of the details never stuck with me. Now that I've done a playthrough of Mother 1 while high and I'm a lot more into the story of this series, I'm gonna do a full high replay of this game.

First of all, to get fully immersed in the game, first I gotta read through the intro part of the player's guide.
http://earthbound.nintendo.com/playersguide

lol this guide is great... even the description of the controls have a lot of charm and flavor to it...
the R button's only function in the entire game is ringing the bell when you're on your bicycle. the only use of the Start button is to start the game... the only use of Select/B is to cancel out of menus (also it shows your HP/PP/money when you're out of the menu)... L is the shortcut button for talking and checking... A is the open menu/confirm button... L also works as the confirm button, and since R is unnecessary and Select can be used instead of B, that means you can basically play this game with one hand... although you do need the A button if you want to access items/PSI powers outside of battle.

The 4 playable characters:
Ness, the balanced one with mysterious psychic abilities.
Paula, the famous psychic whose mother is a preschool teacher.
Jeff, the son of a famous scientist, a mechanical genius who can repair/use items that nobody else can use.
Poo, the prince from the east, very mentally, physically, and spiritually strong and has his own unique psychic powers and unknown weapon/equipment preferences.

oh cool, there's a chart showing all of the default name/fav entries for when you pick "I don't care"

Your "Guts" level is like "Luck" in other RPGs, it affects the frequency of critical hits
"Vitality" and "IQ" are kind of like Pokemon EVs... affect how much your HP/PP increase with each level
"Luck" is your accuracy. the rest of the stats are self explanatory...

Evil people can be distinguished because their faces will be blue... and the people/animals you defeat don't actually die, they become "normal" again and leave.

It also explains how the battle command menu is different for each character...
Paula has the unique "Pray" command, it has mysterious unknown effects.
Jeff has a "Spy" command that tells you what PSI powers enemies are vulnerable to, if any... Jeff is not very strong and has no PSI command, but he's the best person to use items with and there are some battle items that only he can use.
Poo has a "Mirror" command that is like Ditto's transform...

Phones, ATM, Colds and medicine.. these all work just like in Mother 1.. although there are now pay phones that charge money.
Also in addition to just calling Dad to save the game, now you can also call Mom or Ness's sister Tracy... Tracy works for a delivery company, and you can get items delivered or picked up from wherever you are, instead of having to going all the way back home...
Doctors and Healers are the only way to recover from certain status conditions... Nurses are the only way to revive unconscious characters...
Hint Stands are like fortune teller shops in Zelda games...

Sometimes you can find butterflies out in a field or cave, that restores 20 of everyone's PP.. they're basically like the equivalent of healing houses that you'd randomly find out in the fields in Mother 1...

omg I love this player's guide

Wonder Boy in Monster World playthrough log

The 3rd game in the Monster World series, and the 5th game in the Wonder Boy series... This starts off very similar to Wonder Boy in Monster Land. It's the same starting area with the tree stump houses and everything... there's an old man in the first house that tells you about the town up ahead that is being attacked... you can buy faster boots at a shop... like in the 2nd Monster World game, the monsters give infinite money if you just keep respawning them, and in this game they respawn much faster so it takes no time at all to buy everything in every shop that you come across.

The next screen has a castle wall with the door blocked by guards... passed that is the familiar water platforming section... then you get to the first town which has mushroom monsters roaming around everywhere and all the villagers are hiding in their houses. The girls of this village all seem to have fairy wings, and one of them tells you to press UP in between the two fairy statues to go to where the fairy queen character is...

The fairy gives you a helper fairy named Priscilla, but you can only use it as long as you stay in this village. It doesn't seem to do much except sometimes make hearts appear when you kill enemies... One of the villagers says that the cave where the monsters come from have doors that are sealed by music, and she lost the ocarina in that cave... you can find it easily as soon as you go in there... then you bring the ocarina back to that person and she teaches you 3 songs that you have to memorize in order to open up all of the cave doors.

At the end of the cave is the first boss, a giant mushroom monster who jumps around and spawns little mushroom monsters.. it was really hard, because he jumps right on you and your current boots aren't fast enough to dodge him usually. I barely managed to beat it using the spear after using both my elixer and potion. I don't think there was any reason to go with the weaker sword and shield for more defense instead, since the spear can kill him that much faster.

After you defeat the mushroom boss, the village becomes safe again and all the villagers now have different dialog.. if you go back to the fairy queen's place, there's now a passage opened up in a hollow tree, and that somehow leads to an underground sewer passage... this game's geography makes no sense at all but whatever...

Wario: Master of Disguise playthrough log

I played this for the first time today... got through the first 2 stages in about 1.5 hours..

The gameplay itself isn't bad... but holy shit this game has WAY too much talking. I just want to explore and move on, but the game keeps on interrupting me with lengthy dialog scenes... and it's not like in a Paper Mario game where the dialog is actually entertaining. here it's just a really mediocre story about Wario creating a device that lets him go into a TV show and steal the spotlight from a thief character.. he steals the thief's magic wand that lets him transform, and then uses it to look for treasure. also the wand is a character who accompanies Wario and gives you tutorials on pretty much everything.

It's basically just a Metroidvania style puzzle platformer, with the world divided into several stages where you explore and collect treasure while finding your way to the main objective... Each treasure chest has a random minigame that you have to complete in order to open it. These are kinda like Mario Party minigames that use the touch screen, and they only take 30 seconds or so to complete. Some of the treasures you find will give you a new disguise power. You have to switch between disguises by drawing a shape ontop of Wario, which seems really pointless, it could've just been done with a pause menu.

Each disguise has its own ability that lets you get to places you couldn't before. The main thief disguise lets you jump high and tackle. The astronaut disguise lets you shoot lasers and have low floaty jumps... I hate the artist disguise, it makes Wario stand still in front of a canvas and lets you draw a block anywhere on the screen to use as a stepping stone. This ability is used a lot in stage 2 and it gets REALLY tedious when you are backtracking trying to find out where to go. There are also upgrades for each disguise that you supposedly unlock by collecting enough gems, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Even ignoring the annoying boring cutscenes, this game is nowhere near as good as the Wario Land games. The puzzles are very simple and just more of a time sink than an actual challenge.

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 4

Maridia part 2

The big middle sections of Maridia has some wall-jumpable skips... actually feels like these paths were intended by the developers...
holy shit that epic discovery... while wall jumping up some part (I'm a lot better at that now btw), I saw a crab enemy walk into an invisible morphball sized path that I wouldn't have even thought to look with the xray scope otherwise... they totally placed that enemy there on purpose. found super missile upgrade.

huh... there's a one-way shortcut back to Brinstar (the east Crateria exit) at an unmapped path at the northwest...

I'm actually really impressed with the design of this place... it just hits so many if my "amazing level design" things. The hidden paths are well hidden, but aren't unreasonable to find at all with all of the tools given to you at the point in the game that the developers expect you to be at...