The second frustrating game of last night. I had a go at the purple coins in freeze flame galaxy, I got to 98 coins easily enough (now that I know how to get the summit), but unfortunately I think the last two coins can only be reached by a well timed long jump and I’m absolutely useless at them.
I completed Sea Slide Galaxy by getting the Purple coin star. Getting this star was a bit tedious really; lots of flying in a bee suit from purple coin to purple coin, none of which were hidden away.
Hidden star in freeze flame, turns out this requires me to go exactly the same path I’ve been struggling with on the purple meteor. The only real difficulty is getting ice mario to jump high enough fairly near the start.
3 more stars: speed run (simple although my arm was left aching from all the spin attacks) and the hidden star (although “hidden” is overstretching) in dreadnought, and a purple coin star in melty molten galaxy (fairly straightforward). The hardest star was definitely the hidden star, just because the time limit was fairly tight (30 seconds) - if I’d been given 5 seconds more I’d have completed it fifteen minutes earlier.
Over in the corner sits another Mario game feeling all unloved (Super Paper Mario since you asked), since Super Mario Galaxy has taken over my gaming life. In one sense I’ve completed the game, Mario has rescued Princess Peach, but in another more real sense I’m not yet there. So far I have 106 stars, all that is left is a handful of hidden stars (two of which I’m completely unsure of) and several meteor stars (including the purple coin star in a toy galaxy and I swear it is impossible). So far I’ve avoided the lure of gamefaqs and I’m hoping that’s the way things will remain.
I’ve completed Paper Mario (just ahead of one of the kids), defeating Bowser wasn’t so much hard as time consuming. Despite being very linear I enjoyed myself (obviously! if I hadn’t I’d have given up a long time ago). The end of game credits seemed to go on forever.
Edit: somehow this post is being hacked, I guess I’d better keep an eye on things
Paper Mario is really good, good enough that I don’t normally notice the N64 era graphics and the extremely linear plot (although with its RPG elements - that is not entirely surprising). I’ve recently finished Chapter 6, I wasn’t really prepared (Mario didn’t have much in the way of HP, FP or stars) for the encounter with the boss Huff n Puff and consequently it was quite a tough battle.
I’m currently working my way through the sewers under toad town opening up warp pipes back to other areas, but Chapter 7 (and the final star) beckons.
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I may have been neglecting the blog, but needless to say I have been gaming.
Paper Mario is currently my main game on the Wii, and it is really good. I never played on an N64 so it is all new to me. I’ve just started Chapter 3 (having already defeated Goomba King, Koopa Bros and Tutankoopa), Mario is currently standing outside a haunted house, and if the preceding forest is anything to go by there should be the odd light fright.
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I’ve unlocked another couple of labs Electro and Geo, although I’m yet to make a start on either of them. Currently I’ve completed all of the levels in the Astro and Bio labs and half finished the Cryo lab levels (I’ve got to the end of most of the levels, but I’ve got several objectives left). I love the way the four objectives (beat the clock, save all the mercury, collect the bonuses and beat the high score) do not have to be completed together, although the way to get the best high scores is by attempting to complete all the objectives simultaneously (my usual technique for a high score is beating the clock with a high percentage of mercury and the odd bonus.
I got this as an anniversary present from R and it is good. It is a puzzle game with similarities to Marble Madness and Super Monkey Ball and as such the fact the graphics don’t seem that good doesn’t really matter; what is important is the gameplay is suitably addictive, levels need to be cleared in a couple of minutes (often significantly less) and I’m constantly promising myself that I’ll stop after the next level.
The levels are divided into “labs”, so far each lab has 16 levels (plus a bonus level). I’ve completed Astro lab and unlocked Bio and Cryo labs; labs are slowly unlocked as levels are completed, but happily you don’t have to complete every level in a lab to unlock a new lab which means I shouldn’t suffer from the Monkey Ball trap where because I encounter a level I can’t do I can’t make any more progress and shelve the game.
I’ve also unlocked some “Party games”, but they’re not that impressive and I suspect were included because of the perception that Wii games should have party games.