A Gaming Diary
Posts tagged castlevania
Super Castlevania IV (WII)
Feb 14th
Goddamnit!
Decided to play Castlevania for a bit and the Wii locked up when I started up the game. So I turned the Wii on and off and went back, only to find my Castlevania save gone.
Now I have to do the first three blocks all over again to get back to where I was stuck.
Stupid Wii.
Super Castlevania IV (WII)
Feb 14th
While I had the Wii on to check the new channel I played a bit of this. I’m on the fourth “block” and I can get to the part where it goes all Mode 7, but then I die. Always. I don’t make the next jump, or the medusa heads kill me.
Every.
Single.
Time.
Play, Want, Bin
Dec 18th
PLAY
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) – It’s very good and I’m now enjoying the two-character mechanics more than I was initially, but I’m finding the bosses deeply annoying. I’ve not found a fun one yet, but I’ve found several whose difficulty is way out of line with the rest of the game and I’ve had to make some cash and stock up on potions and tonics to get past them.
Naked War (PC) – I won a game a few days ago! Yay! I’ve got a couple of games on the go right now, but I’m winding down for Christmas. I’ll probably be firing off some more challenges in the new year.
Assault Heroes (360) – It’s a shooter and it’s clean and crisp and very playable without being particularly inspiring. Not sure yet if I should have paid 800 points for it, but I when I got to the end of the demo I really wanted more.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (WII) – Got a good few hours in yesterday, after about a week off. I made a fair amount of progress, but got stuck on one boss for an hour or so before tripping over the solution. I’m currently in the, I think, third dungeon and I am utterly, completely, super-glue stuck. Still, RGB cable arrived this morning so maybe next time I play I’ll see something I missed.
Gunstar Heroes (WII) – I love this game. Since last playing it, though, I seem to have lost any skills I once had, as I haven’t managed to get past the Pink Roader yet.
Alien Crush (WII) – Argh! It’s a great pinball game and well worth a download, but on my first ever go I got 1,750,000 points and since then my best has been 1,112,000. I hate it when my first go at a game is my best ever.
Bonk’s Adventure (WII) – I’ve got to level 2-6, but that’s my best. It’s really, really difficult. Or I’m rubbish. Or both. I’ll keep trying, though it may be years before I make any progress.
Super Mario 64 (WII) – Played quite a lot of this. I’ve lost my cap and I can’t get it back. It fell down into quicksand when I tried to steal it back from the talons of the big bird. I’m sad. I love my cap. Also: this game is much more difficult than it was back in ’96 or ’97 or whenever it was I first played it.
WANT
Friday The 13th (360/DS) – I’ve recently been watching all the Friday The 13th films and I’ve been wondering how they could be turned into a game. (Yes, I know about the Spectrum version.) Should you be Jason, or run from Jason, or what? Anyway, inspiration hit in bed last night after The New Blood and my wife and I sketched out a plan for a game. You prepare a camp/house (depending on level), populate it with teen stereotypes and then trigger the arrival of Jason. You then control your characters RTS-style in order to either get them killed as quickly as possible, survive as long as possible, or disable Jason, thus winning the level. Setting time records unlock extras, such as lovely fluffy teddy-bear suit for Jason. Characters have “Jason attraction” circles round them that increase when they indulge in drug taking, skinny dipping or pre-marital sex. And stuff. It’s The Sims, with a Sim City-style disaster, with a movie-based level structure. Sort of. And if the interface worked and it could be balanced properly it could be brilliant. I want it very much.
BIN
Donkey Kong (WII) – Meh, I think. Either the NES version is a bit rubbish or I just don’t like Donkey Kong as much as I think I do. I know it’s missing a level, but the levels that are there don’t feel as fun as I remember. I still love the “jumping over barrels” sound, though.
Roboblitz (360) – Found it impressive for the size, but clunky and dull. Turned it off before completing the demo, which isn’t a good sign.
Getting old and worse at games. Bah.
Play, Want, Bin
Dec 11th
PLAY
Wii (WII) – Regardless of any, you know, games, the Wii itself is a fun toy. When first starting it up I did the boring stuff of entering settings, getting it online, learning how to use the pointer, downloading Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong, etc. (Pointer was all over the place at first, but became more natural very quickly. Both familiarity and clearing the coffee table that’s between the Wiimote and sensor did their part.) Then it was into the Mii Channel. I handed my wife the Wiimote and she made her Mii, then I made mine. Over the course of the weekend my wife and I made a lot of celebrity Miis, some better than others. Jason Voorhees didn’t look right, but was great nonetheless. I did a pretty good Asajj Ventress, given the parts available and my Count Dooku is okay. Wasn’t very happy with my Earl Hickey. Wife’s Marilyn Monroe and Sadako were ace. Also tried out the photo channel with a couple of photos we’d emailed over to the Wii. They didn’t look too great and I wasn’t sure what the point was, really. (Doesn’t handle GIFs, either.) Exchanged a few messages with friends, which was nice, but won’t replace email. And all the time I marvelled at how nice the image looked, despite being on a rubbish composite connection. Not sure how they’ve done it, but it’s really very impressive and much, much better than I was expecting. Anyway – games!
Wii Play (WII) – This was the first game we tried. Two player all the way. Games are simple and some are better others, but we had great fun and it was a nice introduction to the ways of the Wiimote. Wife really didn’t enjoy the cow-steering game. The best ones were probably laser hockey and fishing for us. Not sure which of them would be good in single player mode, if any. Maybe tanks and billiards. Charging full price for this would be a joke, for a fiver it’s excellent as an introduction.
Wii Sports (WII) – I tried golf in single player first, while my wife tended to her Pony Island ponies online. Took me twenty-eight shots to do the three easy holes first time I tried, took twelve the second time. That’s some improvement. Then – yay! – back to two players for the rest of the game. Bowling first. It’s awesome, really awesome. A bit too easy, maybe, but great fun. And suddenly spotting a Mii representation of one of my friends standing watching was a great moment. Tennis was okay, but we didn’t play long. Baseball was great fun and, after bowling, probably my favourite. Finally, boxing. It’s hard and tiring and wife beat me in both bouts and enjoyed the experience far more than I thought she should have done. And that was it. We played Wii Sports that once and haven’t since. Not because it was bad, but because other games took over. We keep telling each other that we need to play it more, we’ve just not got round to it. (It would be helpful if it was built into the console, instead of being on a disc. Moon, stick, I know.)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (WII) – This is superb. Absolutely superb. The levels are very well designed without any of the rubbish gimmicks of Super Monkey Ball 2, the jump mechanic fits in surprisingly well, it’s nicely presented, the bosses are quite fun, the credits are skippable and, most of all, the controls are perfect. Some people say they take a while to get to grips with, but I didn’t find that. Don’t know if it was my Wii Play and Wii Sports training or what, but I felt comfortable with them from the beginning. I’m not very good, but that’s my fault, not the control’s.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (WII) – The big game of the launch. The solid, sit-down epic. Didn’t dare start it up until 9pm on Saturday, but by the end of Sunday I’d put in eleven hours. It eats time. And it’s brilliant. I’m not the world’s biggest Zelda fan by any means, but this is just superb. I love the using hand motions for swordplay, fishing and aiming. The game, even through the Wii’s default composite connection, looks gorgeous. (I’d love to see it in 720p using upgraded textures, yes, and I really, really want my RGB SCART cable to arrive, but even as it is it looks wonderful.) It’s just captivating, with fun combat mechanics and puzzles that have stumped me just long enough, but not too long. (Though I had to leave the second dungeon with two chests unclaimed. No idea how to get to them.) I’ve just finished the second dungeon now with, as I said, eleven hours on the clock. I think this will be a big one.
And then there’s the virtual console games.
Super Mario 64 (WII) – Well, I can’t think of anything new to say about this. Though I will say that despite being pretty happy with d-pad controls on the original DS, having the analogue stick back is glorious.
Donkey Kong (WII) – Seems too easy to me. I had to leave my first game unfinished as it was taking so long and come back to lose my last life later. (At least the Wii saves the game when you quit out.)
Super Star Soldier (WII) – Not sure if it’s a great vertical shooter, but it’s a vertical shooter, which is enough.
Bonk’s Adventure (WII) – It’s a fun platform game. Not earth-shattering, but worth a look.
WANT
Rayman Raving Rabbids (WII) – Short, I’ve heard. I’ve also heard that not all the games are much fun. And it’s not in widescreen, incredibly. But I still want it. And since seeing the trailer, so does my wife.
Gunstar Heroes (WII) – Being added to the virtual console this Friday, according to a list I saw of upcoming releases. Don’t know how accurate it was, but I live in hope. Castlevania IV was shown as coming before the end of the month, too.
BIN
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (WII) – Yes, the main game is amazing, but the mini-games are appalling. Okay, not all of them. Monkey Wars is a nice tech demo and there’s a fairly fun flying game in there, with you flying a bird through glowing rings. The others I tried ranged from the boring to the broken. A lot of the one that relied on a pointer just didn’t seem to work at all and really should have been removed from the game. I’m sure they were there just so the back of the box could say “50 mini games!” because they’re just awful, terrible, broken things.
Wii (WII) – Some minor complaints. Using IR technology at all is annoying, meaning the remote has to have line-of-sight for pointing games. Not sure what else they could have done, but it’s annoying. Channels take longer to load than I’d like. Waiting for the Mii channel to load is painful, despite only being on a black screen for about five seconds. Very odd that it should be so annoying, but it feels wrong. And my Wiimote turned itself off when the channel was loading once, which was odd. The lack of better video cables at launch is very annoying, as are the supply issues generally. Apart from that, I can’t really think of anything to complain about.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 22nd
I was trying to watch Elektra.
I was trying and failing.
But I paid nearly two quid for the rental, so I didn’t want to turn it off.
So what did I do?
Exactly.
Handheld consoles are great.
(Julius mode is odd, though. I’m just whipping my way through the castle with gay abandon and no real purpose.)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 22nd
Julius Mode. It’s Dawn of Sorrow old school style.
Good stuff. Just jumping and whipping and slashing without any of those modern distractions like souls and potions and stuff.
I got stuck in a room under some of those icy blocks, though, so I turned it off.
I’m really not meant to be playing Castlevania still, need to play other games in the queue. But it’s just so good.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 20th
So, having over nintety percent of the souls I decided to go back to those spikes and try everything again.
And one that hadn’t worked first time I’d tried, one that had seemed an obvious way of getting past them, suddenly just worked. Why it didn’t before, I don’t know. But it worked. And I went through. So I cleared out that area, including secret wall and spinning door.
That done, I decided I might as well go see the final boss. So I did. First time I met him he killed me because I forgot to check my health, but second time I won easily. Even had a High Mind Up left over at the end of it. And hundreds of health items. Locusts rule.
So that’s done. Apart from two secret monsters – I’ve seen one of them once, but died before saving – to add to the list. And there’s a couple of rooms ‘ve seen, but I’ve not managed to save after seeing them. And then there’s the last ten percent or so of the souls.
Oh. And all the other modes that I’ve unlocked and not tried yet.
Whether I’ll do all that I don’t know, but I’d be very surprised if I didn’t at least try Julius Mode at some point in the future.
Oh, and I had sixteen hours and fifty-eight minutes on the clock at the end of the game. Call it eighteen or nineteen if you include times I died. I was level, oh, I dunno, sixty-something-low. Sixty-two, possibly.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 19th
FLAME DEMON!
GIVE ME YOUR SOUL!
Bastard. You’re only meant to have a two star soul rarity. So give it up, you fucker. Come on!
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 19th
I’ve got a few more souls. Skeleton Farmer, couple of others. Nothing very interesting.
I’ve just been back to those spikes to try and work out how to get past them.
I just can’t see a way. There’s a very narrow gap. A bat could get through, but they’re underwater.
It’s killing me. In a good way.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 18th
Three new souls got.
First up, Tombstone. I got over 10,000 experience points from killing them before one gave up a soul. As they only give out 48 points per kill, you can work out how many I had to dispose of. Took forever. I was playing by sound alone while watching TV for a good proportion of it.
Run left, wait to hear Tombstone noise, attack, turn around and head right, wait to hear door opening noise, turn left. Repeat. For ever.
After that, I just went for a run across the castle. Took some time out to get a Yorick soul, but that dropped quite quickly.
Then went and got one of the secret creature souls. Pretty easy, actually. The newspapers told me what to do and using a couple of souls I managed to trap and kill him. Soul dropped on about the tenth kill. Somewhere around there.
But none of those souls seem to have given me anything that will get me past spikes.