Kid Icarus: Uprising playthrough log

Angry Kirby syndrome with that American box art...

Started playing this today.. went straight to 5.0 intensity and decided to stay there, since I was still just barely beating the early levels without dying. Playing with the autofire turned on makes it more fun, but sometimes I still have to shoot manually because it doesn't autoshoot at some enemies that have some kind of guarding ability.

6/08/2015

Defeated Medusa at stage 9, after a bunch of boss refights. it really fools you into thinking it's the final stage... Dark Pit comes along and helps us defeat her... But it's not even the half way point. Then the real final boss, Hades, reveals that reviving Medusa was all his doing, and that his real plan is to steal the wish seed... The underworld forces cause the Phoenix to lash out, and after defeating it, the Phoenix creates a beacon. Pit hopes that this will inform the human world that the Wish Seed is a fake, but Hades says this will trick the humans into thinking the Wish Seed is real. Palutena realizes that defeating the Phoenix was a huge mistake, and fell right into Hades plan.

Now, the humans are destroying each other and wreaking havoc on the earth to get to the Wish Seed. Viridi, the goddess of nature, doesn't like this, so she attacks the humans and imprisons them in her labyrinth.. Pit rescues them and defeats one of Viridi's guardians...

Aquaria playthrough log

Just started a new game on this today... I'm really enjoying it.

Naija, the Zora-like character, narrates the story to you as you progress... She lives in this isolated underwater cave area and has never thought about trying to leave... she says that she can hear the "verse" that calls out to her in this area... After some really chill exploration, I found a new verse, which teaches Naija the ability to lift rocks with her mind.

Now, all over this first area there have been rocks that could have cooking materials or new recipes hidden under them... but in order to go back and find them all again I'd need to re-explore the whole first area, and I'd have to remember which parts of the map I've re-explored, which is kind of annoying.

I also found a large stone tablet thing, which was connected to a statue of Zora people in another area that showed a four-note verse. Playing that verse at the stone tablet thing, opened up a portal to a small alternate world type area, with nothing much in it... wtf

I explored a bit deeper, and found the 2nd verse which transformed Naija into a being of pure energy... in this form, you can shoot homing fire shots at enemies, and charge up a really strong attack that can also light up those orbs which unlock certain doors. The door closed behind me after I got this ability, and I was stuck in the Energy Temple. I explored every nook and cranny of this area, but all I found was a single white orb that I could light up with energy, and I don't know what that opened up.... I retraced through the whole area, and didn't find any new passageways opened up...

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters playthrough log

This game seems tougher than the NES one.. finding your way around is harder because of the smaller screen resolution, and I got game over at the first boss cuz he takes like hundreds of hits.

I missed a "beat this test for an upgrade" thing in one of the earlier levels... will try again later. this time I'll grind up some hearts/potions and try to get all the powerups I can before the first boss...

You don't have angel allies in this to help you against the boss. instead, all statues just reward health or map/pencil/torch items.

Attempt #2

I started this over again later that night... really the only hard part of this game is the beginning, where you need to make sure you grind enough to get all the bottles and powerups. I got lucky and won a barrel at like the first vase room (didn't even need to cheat for it either), so now I could grind for all 8 bottles.

I got to the minotaur boss again... his pattern is simple, but I still find it really hard to dodge him. However, with all my strength powerups and bottles I was able to beat him.

DKC Tropical Freeze hard mode high playthrough log

I'm loving the atmosphere and music of this game even more than the SNES ones. Also, once you start completely ignoring the puzzle pieces, and think of the K-O-N-G letters as optional but nice to have, the game plays a lot better. it basically feels like playing DKC1 except generally harder all around.

The difficulty on hard mode is just right... On normal it was too easy, there were checkpoints and heart refills all over the place. On hard, there are no checkpoints and you only have one kong and one hit through the whole level, you really gotta carefully navigate all the obstacles.

Worlds 1-3

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...