Kid Icarus first playthrough log part 2/2

The world 2 labyrinth was kind of tricky to find my way around, and I ended up beating it without saving all the allies (which turns out they are completely useless against this boss anyway). Hewdraw is a really annoying boss that jumps around the room and never stop. He's very predictable but still hard to hit and avoid.

World 3 goes back to vertical scrolling levels with horizontal wrap-around, and still the challenge just isn't there at all. It feels like I'm way overleveled. There are some tricky-ish platforming segments that might've made me actually use some of those feather items if I played this when I was younger and inexperienced at platformers... now though I breezed through these stages like it was nothing.

The world 3 labyrinth, holy cow what a confusing level that was... it took me forever just to find the map. By then I had memorized the path from the entrance to the closest shop and healing spot... Then while searching for where to go I ended up grinding to 5 reserve potions, 9 extra hammers, and 999 hearts... none of which were needed. I eventually cleared the entire map and saved everyone before finally finding the boss in the top right corner. Pandora is just a stupid bubble face that floats around with a couple other bubbles. All the allies got killed, but I was able to beat him without any trouble.

Then the 4th world.. which is just a single sidescrolling stage...

Captain Silver playthrough log

Decided to try and beat this game that I played a lot when I was a kid, but never managed to make it past the first couple levels... The fact that you die from anything in one hit probably made me not want to give it a serious try. The 2nd level where you're on a boat, I barely even recognize most of it... it completely changes up all the enemies by then. It's not actually THAT hard though, surprisingly... just getting the powerups and avoiding the easy predictable enemies enough to make it to the level boss with all your lives is enough to get through it... The bosses can get kind of hard though.

Star Wars (NES Namco game) playthrough attempt log

wow this is hard... only 3 lives, and 1-hit deaths...

I'm gonna want to try and beat this with savestates. keep retrying each stage until I can beat it without losing more than the amount of lives I gained from the stage.

... wow... so I got up to the death star level on novice mode. the level is a giant maze... all the obstacles are very easy to avoid once you know they're there. it feels like I'm playing a metroid game now. I didn't feel bad about save stating here, cuz the alternative would be drawing my own map of each room so that I'd know what to avoid and wouldn't die.

it turns out, in order to beat this level, you can't pick up the blaster. if you do, you won't be able to get into the garbage shute on the detention level. and since I was on my last life, I was permanently stuck...

I like this game though... I might try and beat it from the beginning on hard mode.

Attempt #2 - 3/25/2015

no. no. nonononononono.

I retried this again from the beginning.

First of all, the first boss kills me a lot just because you die in one hit, and this boss's movement pattern is stupid and you only get a tiny precise window where you can hit him and just barely get away. That's one part where I feel the need to use savestates even on novice.

Second, the space shooting sections rely on literal dumb luck to get through. It's practically impossible to get passed these on Hard mode without losing all your lives. That's another part where I feel like I NEED to use savestates even on novice.

Kid Icarus first playthrough log part 1/2

First of all, I noticed this game is taking notes from Castlevania, using hearts as currency... The only way you can heal is to buy items in shops or find the hidden hot springs. The shops sell health bottles and feathers that save you from falling... I feel like I shouldn't really need much of those, but I find myself spending a lot of time grinding hearts on all the respawning enemies I come across anyway.

It turns out that grinding hearts IS very important in this game. You can get health upgrades by gaining a certain amount of hearts at the end of a level. You can get new weapons and upgrades by completing special training rooms found in certain stages, but those new items can only be used after you reach a certain amount of health... was this all in the instruction book? Otherwise I have no idea how anyone would've been able to figure that out by then.

The first few stages are vertical scrolling stages where you die if you fall below the screen, like in Ice Climbers. It's pretty easy if you just keep moving forward, but if you stop and grind hearts, the enemies can easily overwhelm you. The 4th stage is the first dungeon, it's a non-linear Zelda II style maze dungeon where you just gotta find your way around.

Kirby's Triple Deluxe - playthrough log

This game is amazing... the visuals, the music... it's like the perfect thing to play while high...
And the gameplay... it takes the 3d/2d blending aspect of VB Wario Land and Super Paper Mario, and improves on it... this is just the PERFECT kirby game for the system it's on.

Intro: Kirby's home ends up in a giant beanstalk... Dedede's castle is also on it, and some bad guy comes and kidnaps Dedede...
Lv1 Fine Fields... extremely easy, almost impossible to die. missed like one sun star. the boss was a whispy wood iteration with stars for leaves... it hops into the background and attacks you with its vines... maybe would've been harder without a powerup. beetle power is the best btw.
Lv2 Lollipop Land... okay now this is getting really good. there was a circus maze stage where I only found one sun star on the first playthrough... the boss was a female painter, she was actually kinda hard once I lost my powerup. just barely won on first try.

Next is Lv3 Old Odyssey
I'm definitely gonna be doing 100% of the story mode during peak high sessions.

12/18/2014

That was... amazing... used the bulk of today's high session to finish the last 3.5 worlds of the story mode. This game has every bit the same amount of style and charm as the old kirby games had when they first came out... the controls are really tight and the abilities give the game tons of variety/replay value.

My fav world was probably world 6... despite the fact that it's mostly boss refights (and all the bosses in this game are super fun anyway), it also has the best level which is 100% hypernova gameplay, and a cute 2nd-last level where you save all the fairies who are the ones who planted the giant beanstalk... in order to get the hero of dream land to save their sky land. the villain mistook Dedede for the hero of dreamland and captured him instead of kirby.

The last boss had more phases than I anticipated... it ended with an epic hypernova battle where Kirby just ends up sucking up the last boss whole.

1/01/2015

Got high and started gathering up all the missing sun stones, then played through all the Extra levels...
The last few ex levels are actually legit hard to get all the secret stuff on... even beating them can take a few lives at first...
Ended the session by replaying that hypernova miniboss rematch level... that level kicks ass.

11/02/2015

so far I've beaten Kirby fighters on hard with sword and cutter. I can definitely beat the whole thing on hard eventually.

Then I tried Dedede Drum Dash again for the first time since I first played the game... It's actually really fun, but requires a TON of concentration and precise timing. Getting the gold medals mostly just involves collecting every coin and not getting hit. There's also a bonus for not missing any backbeats that I never managed to get, but was able to get gold without that anyway.

Actually, looking at the guide on gamefaqs, there's also platinum medals that are very hard and most likely DO require getting perfect backbeats ontop of perfect everything else. The FAQ even says the platinum medal on the extra stage is just too insane and you should just give up on it.

I did get gold on drum dash level 4 a bit later after taking a break.

12/03/2015

Finally managed to beat Kirby Fighters on hard with every power. Ninja was definitely the hardest to use. Others like the whip and parasol I got used to and managed to figure out a good strategy, but with Ninja I just had to mainly rely on getting lucky with items.

1/04/2016


Dedede Tour high session... that was alright... so far it doesn't seem changed up much aside from hidden portals that let you skip some big sections of levels... I guess because those sections require Kirby's copy powers? I'm still doing some exploring and getting tons of new keychains... I'm just not going for full exploration and still making an honest attempt at a good time.

It actually gets a bit tough, especially the bosses near the end. The last world took me nearly an hour to beat, while all the other worlds only took around 20 minutes...
overall time: 2:16:06

20.5 hours logged on this game so far.

5/19/2017

Tried the arena mode for the first time ever... almost beat it, got KO'd on the 2nd last match, against Sectonia.

5/22/2017

I figured out that Hammer is OP against bosses. It takes most of them out before they can even go through all of the attacks in their cycle.
Now I'm on True Arena, where all the bosses are much faster and there are less health pickups... and I can do everything nearly flawlessly up until the last 3 fights. Dark Dedede, Dark Metaknight, and Soul of Sectonia kick my ass. I can get up to the final fight but I haven't gotten enough practice on Soul of Sectonia yet to get very far on her...

Now I'm resorting to youtube... I see someone get through it with the beetle power. It seems very useful, especially its dash attack that can avoid a lot of Metaknight's attacks and get behind him... but it's also much weaker than the hammer, and Soul of Sectonia's 2nd form with the beetle looks very challenging, having to whittle it down very slowly...

I see a commenter say that stone form makes the True Arena very easy, but it also takes a while... not quite sure if that'd really be easy or not though.

Then I saw someone do a no damage run with the hammer.. wow this makes me want to keep trying using it.

hell yeah! after watching that no damage run, I was able to beat it on the next try. I still did terribly against dark metaknight, but I used the maximum tomato after that to have full health for the Soul of Sectonia fight... I kept the hammer through the entire first phase which made that phase much easier, and then the 2nd phase once you realize it's best to just take it safe and only use vanilla kirby, it's pretty easy. although I did come close to dying because of that part where she spawns a bunch of tough enemies.
beat True Arena in 19:04

Then I tried the normal Arena again and beat it in under 9 minutes...

lol I'm still missing a lot of keychains... I'm never gonna 100% this game unless I just casually replay through the story mode again every once in a while.

Disney's Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers - no continues attempt

I was SO close to 1cc-ing this game... most of it was very easy, but then it ramped up in the last couple levels, with fans blowing wind at you, and conveyor belts and nearly-undodgable enemies that take 2 hits... I got to the last boss on one life, and died right away because his pattern requires a very precise rhythm that you have to just know going into it.

Up until that last boss, the game is very fair.. too easy even. As long as you don't skip out on collectables it gives you plenty of 1ups... all the bosses involve throwing a red ball at an enemy that has one slow-moving projectile attack, well except for the last boss who has a really fast attack that you need to know about in advance.

The last boss took me about 4 tries. beat him on my last continue. at least getting to him again wasn't a problem. Probably not worth trying this again...

Wario Land 3 - high replay log

high session 1: 9/23/2014

Wario finds a music box, and gets transported inside it. The god that protects this world tells him about a wicked being that sealed away his power, and took control. Wario needs to find the 5 music boxes needed to break the seal, only then can he be sent back to his own world.

Graphics are mostly the same as 2...
Controls are almost exactly the same, but at the start you can't ground pound, can't pick up enemies, can't swim (only float), can't high-jump or bounce high off enemies... probably new abilities later on.
Enemies look different now... Captain Syrup's crew is no longer part of the story.
Taking damage doesn't make you lose coins... instead there's a lot of knockback and stun time... now coins aren't as plentiful and you don't get coins from the respawning enemies.
Looks like each level has 4 keys unlocking the grey/red/green/blue treasures, and 8 music coins...

Getting a treasure ends the level, looks like I can only get the grey treasure and 2 music coins at N1 right now.

Also it changes from night to day each time you go back to the world map... stages are different depending on the time...
N2 has zombies at night, and the normal enemies are asleep and wake up when you get near them... at day it has donut throwing enemies.

N3's grey treasure was the last piece needed to open the door to the Western part of the world

W1 Desert Ruins - at night, the path to the red chest is open, in the day, you can get to the grey chest...
yeah, coins are MUCH more sparse now... I'm actually destroying any block I can find hoping for grey coins.

Wario Land II - high replay log

Captain Syrup's henchmen broke into Wario's castle, stole some of his money, then flooded the place.

- instead of dying/shrinking from getting hit or dying from falling in pits, you can't die at all in this. getting hit only makes you lose coins, and falling in a pit always leads you to another area that you can return from.

- instead of powerups that you keep until you get hit or find a different powerup... you have stuff like
"being on fire until you touch water"
"being flattened and gliding through the air like paper, until a bat unflattens you"
"being a fatass that crushes certain blocks and makes certain platforms fall, until you walk off the extra fat"
"being a zombie and can't jump until you walk into light"

- instead of collecting treasures as a main goal, and coins as secondary... you're just collecting as many coins as possible while finding the one indistinguishable door that leads to a minigame (that costs coins) to win the treasure of that level... as well as post-level minigames to win pieces of a map...

- there's no level select... and there doesn't seem to be a way back into a previous level if to get a treasure/map piece that you missed...

- the enemies respawn, so it's always possible to grind for coins to meet the requirement for the next treasure/map...

Chapter 1: One Noisy Morning

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - high replay log

Instruction manual summary:

Wario can turn 10 coins into a weapon to throw... I forgot all about that. Some doors need a 10-coin weapon to open them.
- Small Wario: same as when Mario defeated derp Wario at the end of SML2.
Jet Pot: Jet Wario - Peach's glide combined with body slam
Bull Pot: Bull Wario - stronger body slam, can stick to ceilings
Dragon Pot: Dragon Wario - destroy things with fire instead of body slam
- any pot or garlic changes Small Wario to normal Wario, then to Jet, then Bull, then Dragon
- hearts are now like coins, 1up for every 100 of them, contrasting SML's heart=1up and 100coin=1up... now coins are for the game's ending cutscenes
- keys, skull doors leading to treasure rooms. treasure also goes toward the ending cutscenes
- all the world names of Pirate Island are named after food...
- there are harmless enemies that are basically like coin bags for Wario

high playthrough summary:

Rice Lake... stage 3 is the only one with treasure somewhere.. stage 5, enemies already getting harder now. this boss is probably a good/easy way to grind coins

Mt. Teapot
course 8 has a secret exit leading to Sherbet Land

Virtual Boy Wario Land - high playthrough log

Starting this playthrough during high session. I've never played this before.

14 levels... apparently there's a hidden treasure to find in each, except for the boss levels...

Intro cutscene... Wario notices some masked monsters taking treasure into a cave behind a waterfall... the door closes... 10 paintings in the wall pop out and scatter...

I'm missing the treasure from stage 3... I was sure I used fire on every wall and bumped every ceiling I could... this might be harder to 100% than I thought.

wow... I can't figure out the timing to hit this first boss... sometimes got lucky, but not lucky enough to hit him 3 times. actually, couldn't I go back to an earlier level, grab a dragon powerup, backtrack to the elevator, then kill this boss easily? of he's vulnerable to fire, that is... Wario Land bosses usually only have one way to hit them.

at a game over... a bat takes one of your treasures away so you have to go back and get it again.