It is a long time since I last mentioned New Super Mario Bros, but during the holiday I got back into it.
A week ago I completed the last level and my save got a second star (The first star was for rescuing Princess Peach).
Tonight I’ve got the last of the star coins (which didn’t give me a third star). I then noticed some warp cannons had flashing red circles; so I used the cannons and now have three stars.
Game Over!
I’ve found and completed all 135 puzzles (number 135 took the longest - a sliding block puzzle that had me stumped most of yesterday evening).
There are just the weekly puzzles left and from what I’ve seen they’re not going to be that stretching.
In the end it was fun, but short - it would have been more challenging when I was a teenager.
A combination of addiction to Professor Layton and the Curious Village and sciatica has stopped me writing. Unlike most console games, DS games are ideal for playing standing up or lying down and this arrived midweek, I’m around 11 hours in and have finished most of the puzzles.
Unfortunately a lot of the puzzles are traditional, positioning queens on a chess board, getting animals to cross rivers without eating each other (that sort of thing), but it is very well executed and the downloadable puzzle of the week is a good idea (even if I am a little suspicious of the download speed - the puzzles downloaded so fast part of me feels they were already on the cart).
It took a few attempts, some of which were pretty close, but I’ve finally defeated Lord Bane and seen the game credits. It was fun while it lasted, but I think I’ve completed all the side quests so I think it is over for now.
I’m still playing puzzle quest, off and on, and am currently stuck on a battle against Lord Bane (who has vastly more hit points than me). I’m not sure if this is going to be the last battle or not, from the story so far it should be, but there is a lot of unexplored map which seems to indicate the opposite.
I’ve captured a Wolf Rider (which I found much harder than I should have) and a scorpion (which was insultingly easy). I’ve also completed lots of side quests for an ogre named Drong; he is one hungry ogre and so far has eaten spider, “crazy” goblin and ice troll meat and now wants me to get some wyvern meat for him.
I’ve finally defeated Dugog the double headed ogre. I’ve also completed a few quests set by dwarves (including defeating/capturing an Orc Lord), collected some runes and investigated some of the other game features. My wolf has moved up a few levels, learnt some spells and combined runes to make some equipment. It is a nice touch that using runes isn’t “combat bejeweled”, but more like “classic bejeweled” (i.e. a single player random grid) - to learn spells you have to capture enemies and that is done in a puzzle mode (you are presented with a non-random grid and have to figure out how to clear the board).
Aargh! I’m stuck, I’m helping a dwarf get into his city (Dhun-kor), but I’ve got to battle a double-headed ogre (Dugog) first and so far I’m getting nowhere - he can do much more damage than I can. I think I’m going to have to go do some side quests and hope that I can find a nice weapon for sale somewhere.
I bought Puzzle Quest with the intention of playing this while away over Easter. Unfortunately the game arrived after the weekend, but it has sucked me in. It is a simple RPG where battles are won by playing a Bejeweled-like game and, since I like Bejeweled and Zookeeper, I’m not exactly surprised that I’m really enjoying it. The touch screen response is not perfect, but I’m currently happy to overlook its failings.
My character is a druid and has just joined the knights of Siria - I guess it will take a replay to find out what difference those choices really make.
The Christmas gift token from work bought Zelda on the DS and it is really good - fairly easy (the puzzle quotient isn’t exactly high) - but fun. The game makes excellent use of the stylus and it is the first DS game where I have genuinely enjoyed using the stylus for navigation.
I completed the game after a couple of weeks of regular play, although I’m all too aware that somehow I missed out on getting a fishing rod for Link.