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Showing posts from July, 2019

Trine: Enchanted Edition - Introduction and Part 1

Trine is a side-scrolling platforming game with light action that is developed by Frozenbyte Inc. in 2009 originally for PC. An updated version of the game, Trine: Enhanced Edition was released in 2014 and is the version that we're playing. In this game, the player switches between three characters, a thief, a wizard, and a knight, to complete platforming puzzles and defeat monsters that stand in your way. The Thief uses a grappling hook to swing from objects to be able to cross large gaps and a bow to take care of long distance enemies. The Wizard can create boxes to activate switches or access higher ledges and he can use telekinesis to move boxes or planks so the player can climb up on them. Finally, the Knight uses his sword and shied to destroy enemies and bounce projectiles, such as fireballs, to destroy platforms that block his way. Each of the characters becomes fused when they touch the Trine, an artifact that fuses their souls so that only one of them is present in

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Introduction and Part 1

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a turned based strategy game developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo Games and published by Nintendo. The fifteenth entry in the long running series, Three Houses marks a return to home consoles from it's hiatus since 2007. In this game, we play as a mercenary turned professor at a prestigious Garegg Mach Monastery that stands at the nexus of three nations: the Adrestian Empire to the south, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus to the north, and the Leicester Alliance to the east. These nations are maintaining a perilous balance in which they send their talented young leaders to the Officers Academy at the monastery so that they can learn the skills they need to lead their country and meet the other children from the other two countries. The game starts with the three heirs of the each of the kingdoms on the run from bandits and our father's mercenary company has to save them. The three heirs, the ax-welding daughter of the empire Edelgard v

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest Review

A follow up to 1994s Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, released on November 20, 1995 and developed by Rare, is a platforming game staring Diddy Kong, the side-kick of Donkey Kong, and his girlfriend Dixie Kong. In this sequel, Donkey Kong is kidnapped and it's up to Diddy and Dixie travel through seven distinct worlds up through Crocodile Isle  to confront the now pirate captain K. Rool. Diddy Kong returns with much of the same mechanics, such as the cartwheel attack, carried over from the previous game, which gives returning players a sense of familiarity. The newcomer, Dixie, uses her hair to strike the enemy and hover over danger. Together they also create a team-up attack where the Kongs can attack enemies safely from a distance or reach far off ledges that they can't normally reach. The new mechanics allows Rare to require that both Kongs be utilized to complete some optional challenges without affecting the ability to complete the

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Finale

We finish Donkey Kong Country 2 with the secret area, Lost World. This world contains the hardest levels in the game where each introduces new mechanics that are only found in that single stage. The initial level, Jungle Jinx, introduces large tires that the Kongs to bounce off to avoid landing upon spikes that litter the ground. One tough section in the level involves two barrels rotating 180 degrees quickly and getting the right timing to cross the gap can be difficulty. The obligatory ice level is Black Ice Battle. In this level, you must navigate down a slippery vertical shaft while avoiding Zingers, Klampons and Spinies. The next level, Klobber Karnage has, as it's name suggests, uses many Klobbers to block the way to the end. The most interesting parts of this level are two rotating barrel rides in which you must fire to other stationary barrels to dodge Zingers. Fiery Furnace, the fourth level, adds in movable blast barrels that you must maneuver over lava and betwee

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Part 6

We reach the final world, The Flying Krock, and confront Captain K. Rool to save Donkey Kong and the return the banana riches that K. Rool stole.  The first of two levels in this stage is a bramble stage where you are suppose to race a bird called Screech through the level. However there is a glitch in the game where, if you fly over Screech, the race doesn't start and you can travel through the level normally. The final level is the boss fight with Captain K. Rool. This fight is divided into three phases in which you must through three cannon balls into K. Rool's blunderbuss which damages him. First, the Kongs must jump over K. Rool as he goes from one end of the room to the other while avoiding spiked cannon balls on the floor. After K. Rool gets back up, the second phase is K. Rool shooting spikes at different heights and speeds from one end of the room and finishing with a barrel that contains a cannon ball to throw at him. The last phase starts with K. Rool firing

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Part 5

Reaching the penultimate level, the Kongs travel through the trecherous tower of terror, K. Rool's Keep. They brave perilous frozen moats, race against crushing floors, and outrun rising toxic waters all to reach Donkey Kong and punish the villainous Captain K. Rool. While there isn't a great unifying theme across the area (3 castle levels, 2 ice levels and a mine level) the general gist of the area is that each level uses vertical platforming to make the player feel that they are on the final climb to the finish. The first level of the area, Arctic Abyss, is a ice level with that transforms the Kongs into Enguarde to traverse up the shaft as the water rises to the top of the level. Knowing when to use Enguarde's charge will allow the player to get to all of the secrets. The next level is Windy Well. This mine level uses the wind gimmick to propel the Kong up the shaft where they dodge Zingers and Krooks throwing their hooks. Carefully controlling the speed in

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Part 4

Diddy and Dixie make their way through the terrifying timberland of Gloomy Gulch. Besides the first level in the game, each level in this area except one fits perfectly into the melancholy and almost haunting atmosphere that this area emphasizes. The first level is Ghostly Grove, in which they must use phantom ropes to travel through the level. These phantom ropes only stay on screen for a small amount of time before they despawn and the Kongs fall off. The phantom ropes have a little ghost head on them to help set to ghostly mood. The second level is Haunted Hall. This is another roller coaster level in which the Kongs must keep time on a timer unless the Kackles (large ghost Kremling) damages them. The bonus levels in this stage are also annoying because the fast cart is hard to control. The next level is Gusty Glade. As the title suggests, the level is about using the wind to move through the level across large pits. The wind at the start is controlled by your horizontal posit

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Part 3

Krazy Kremland is where the game starts turning the corner and starts introducing harder mechanics to the game. This area is bifurcated into two separate screens, the first is entrance where the beehive and the last bit of the swamp is, and the second is the carnival area, where the final level type is introduced, the roller coaster levels. The beehive type levels are well themed where Diddy and Dixie have to avoid multitudes of zingers while contending with the sticky honey that hinders their movement. The amusement park levels consist of two roller coaster rides, one that introduces the concept of barrels that either open or close a path or a race in which the Kongs have to pass other Kremlings that are on the track with out being pushed off into the abyss below. Another notable level is Rambi Rumble, this level starts as a normal beehive level but half way through Rambi is introduced  and the player has to use Rambi to outrun a giant zinger while avoiding the smaller zingers in

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Part 2

Entering the next area, Krem Quay, Diddy and Dixie travel through the swamp to start their ascent up Crocodile Island. This world has us traveling through a perilous bayou using rotatable timed barrels and crocodile head to  travel around a sunken ship (again calling back to the game's pirate theme) to get to the other side of the quay to meet the boss, Kudgel. This area contains 7 levels: two dedicated bayou levels, Barrel Bayou and Krockhead Klamber, to handle the horizontal platforming; one underwater level, Glimmer's Galleon, which uses limited lighting to create a feeling of suspense as they travel through the sunken ship; and, finally, one vertical platforming level in Slime Climb. This world also introduces two new level types: Animal Buddy Levels in the form of Rattle Battle, and Bramble Levels, i.e. Bramble Blast. Animal Buddy levels transform the Kongs into the Animal Buddy and has that animal buddy travel through the level with the addition their specific power s

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Part 1

Hello Everyone! I'm starting my second playthrough with another one of my favorites, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. When I was a kid, we had a Super Nintendo and would borrow games from our neighbors and this was a favorite of both my sister and myself. We are aiming to get all 75 Kremcoins and 40 DK coins in this run giving us a 102% completion percentage. Each level will have all Bonus Areas completed and DK Coins collected before moving to the next level. This will ensure that we get all collectibles and enter the Lost World in one go. I hope you enjoy the playthrough and please let me know in the comments either here or on YouTube. Part 2 Gangplank Galleon is a great introduction that uses the full pirate ship theme in each of the levels. Using the ship's deck, the ship's sails and masts and the ship's bowels in each of the different levels really give a great variety and thematically gives each level type a unique identity. For Example,

All the Games I Own

If I'm going to try to go through every game I own, I need to be able to quantify and track the games I have and my progress through them. I have found a site that will help:  https://backloggery.com/_unf Backloggery allows me to list all the games I own by system and allows me to specify if the game is unplayed, played, beaten or mastered. It even allows me to track games that have specific ending like MOBAs or TCGs (such as League of Legends or Artifact). I have found it helpful and would encourage you to take a look. UPDATE: I have finished updating the game list with all games that I have. I am still updating the statuses. In that I have the following: Nintendo: 97 NES Games (19 Owned, 78 Emulated) 159 SNES Games (33 Owned, 126 Emulated) 55 N64 Games (7 Owned, 48 Emulated) 41 GameCube Games (21 Owned, 20 Emulated) 38 Wii Games (38 Owned) 40 Wii U Games (40 Owned) 125 Switch Games (125 Owned) 80 Game Boy/ Game Boy Color Games (10 Owned, 70 Emulated) 5

Super Mario World Review

Super Mario World, released for the SNES in 1990 as a launch title and developed by Nintendo, is my second favorite game of all time. A follow up to the last main line Mario game Super Mario Bros. 3., Super Mario World (SMW) builds upon the game play of the previous titles by using familiar gimmicks such splitting the levels into separate worlds in which the player can choose which levels they play in which order, using many familiar power ups in the Mushroom and Fire Flower, and ending each world with a fight with one of Bowser's children. However, new additions allow the game provide a fresh experience for players of the previous games in the series. The biggest addition is the Mario game debut of Mario's dinosaur companion, Yoshi. Hatching a Yoshi egg allows Mario to ride the dinosaur and command Yoshi to eat enemies, fruit and gain new abilities when they eat the shells of the Koopa Troopas. The shells correspond to the powers of the colored Yoshi's: blue grow

Super Mario World - Part 4

Closing in on the final battle, we travel through the tricky Special World and take on Bowser. We also achieve 100% of the game with finishing the 96th goal. This took a while to beat because I keep dying on some of the Special World Levels (particularly Tubular, Mondo and Outrageous) Notable Levels: Tubular - Uses the worst power up in the game: the P-Balloon to traverse across a large bottomless pit with a bunch of hard to avoid projectiles Way Cool - Easiest Special world that gives you both a Yoshi and Yoshi's Wings Mondo - Has a water rising and falling mechanic that turn the fish from harmless enemies that you can walk into to defeat to annoying obstacles. Also includes a bunch of Hammer Brothers Outrageous - Fun level that contains jumping fire, wigglers and Bullet Bill's that make a particular jump hard to do Update:  Review Levels in this Part: Special Zone: Gnarly Tubular Way Cool Awesome Groovy Mondo Outrageous Funky Also we beat

Super Mario World - Part 3

After finishing the Chocolate Island and unearthing the path to Bowser, our hero ventures into the Valley of Bower to finish the journey to save Princess Peach. We also conclude this part with a quick stop in the Star World. Next time we will finish the Special World and enter Bower's castle. Edit: This post was super frustrating because I lost all of my footage the first time I went through this due to the stream unexpectedly dropping frames. I had to quickly rerecord each of the levels I cleared and it seemed like I did better the second time I played. Notable Levels include Valley Ghost House - This has the hardest secret level to get to. You've got to Lead a coin snake and hit a P switch so that you can climb up and duck thorough a one block opening . Valley Fortress - I would call this the hardest Fortress with the amount of instant kill spike poles Valley of Bowser 4 - Secret requires Yoshi to get the key Star World 2 - Only level to get a Blue Yoshi (not co

Super Mario World - Part 2

Continuing where we last left off, our hero continues through the Vanilla Secrets to the Vanilla Fortress, conquers the Butter Bridge area, unravels the Forest of Illusion, and consumes the delectable Chocolate Island. This part is some what long because there are a lot of secret areas that the player can discover. Notable levels include: Vanilla Fortress - The only underwater castle/fotress in the game Cheese Bridge Area - Clever Secret goal where the player needs to be skilled at flying Forest of Illusion 1 - In my opinion, the best level for grinding lives (get a star at the power up block after the mid-way point and run through each of the enemies until it runs out, Wigglers give 2-ups) Forest Ghost House - Easy to forget that this level has 2 goals Forest of Illusion 4 - First level where the secret level is required to continue Chocolate Island 2 - Interesting level in which different parts of the level show up depending upon how much time is on the clock or how man

Super Mario World - Part 1

Here is the first part of my first playthough of Super Mario World. Released in 1990 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the game follows Mario on his quest to save the princess from the evil Bower. Traveling though 7 main worlds and 2 extra world, Mario will overcome each of the 7 Koopa kids and difficult platforming challenges to save the princess and unlock all 96 exits. This part covers Yoshi's Island through the end of the regular path of Vanilla Dome. Part 2 Review This covers the following Levels: Yoshi's Island: Yoshi's Island 1 Yellow Switch Palace Yoshi's Island 2 Yoshi's Island 3 Yoshi's Island 4 Iggy's Castle Donut Plains: Donut Plains 1 Donut Plains 2 Green Switch Palace Donut Ghost House Donut Plains 3 Donut Plains 4 Top Secret Area Donut Secret 1 Donut Secret 2 Donut Secret House Morton's Castle Vanilla Dome: Vanilla Dome 1 Vanilla Dome 2 Red Switch Palace Vanilla Ghost House Vanilla D