Yoshi: Touch 'n' Go

As I previously said, Sprung's taken a back seat to Yoshi. This is a marvellous game, if a little misunderstood. Using the graphical style of Yoshi's Island (on the SNES), people were expecting this to be a progressional platformer, where you had to clear each stage to get to the next. It's not - well, with the exception of Marathon mode. It's really an arcade game, where you have to get the highest score possible.

The game's split into two sections:

• Baby Mario falls from the sky, and you must draw clouds to guide him to coins and stars, and to trap enemies so they cannot hurt him.
• Yoshi walks from left to right (or right to left, if you're left-handed) constantly, and you must draw clouds to ensure he doesn't fall off the bottom of the screen, get hit by enemies, or die in any other way. You can throw eggs at enemies, or to pick up coins.

It's all controlled using the touch screen, and works superbly. I've managed to get over 3000m on the Marathon mode, and over 300 points on Score Attack, which means I've opened up a further two modes. Both of which are very hard indeed.

Quick update

Other games which are ongoing:

Zelda: Oracle of Ages
I can't find Jabu Jabu. Stupid monster thing.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I'm now a grown-up, going through the forest dungeon bit by bit. I've come across four fire-stealing ghosts and am trying to track them down.

Halo
I can't remember where I am - I got through the library, at least. I must play this again soon before I forget that it's quite good.

Sprung
Some way through Becky's story, but I've been distracted from it by Yoshi's Touch 'n' Go, which I bought on Friday.

Goldeneye: Rogue Agent
I've given up on the entirely unfair and poorly-structured single-player. I played John over Xbox Live on Friday, and it was OK - apart from the fact that we were the only two people on it, and every time a game ended we were dumped apart and had to try and find each other again - no game lobbies or so on.

In Memoriam
The problem is that I sit at the computer, go to play In Memoriam, and instead end up playing on the Internet for two hours instead.

Populous: the Beginning
Still trying to get past all three of the worlds that make up the ninth level. They're not easy.

Well, there you go. There's lots of other games that I'm part-way through, but I don't want to guilt-trip myself too much.

Project Gotham Racing 2: silver arcade completed!

Yes, that time is correct. I've just completed the Kudos World Series at silver level, which I've been trying to do for the past year and a half. This evening I just burned through the last eight challenges with very little hassle at all, after not playing the game for about six months. I've unlocked three new flashy cars, and feel good about myself. No way that I'll ever manage to get all golds, and there are two other modes - arcade and time trial - which I doubt I'll ever progress much on.

But at least I feel like I could play PGR3, when it's released.

Sprungo away

So much for it being short - it's instead pretty painful. So far there've been quite a few memory tests which got very dull indeed, and even more absolutely random responses which appeared wrong but were in fact the right path to take. I've now finished one half of the story, and have started on Becky's side. I'm guessing that there were no attractive females on the programming or story team, since nobody seems to know exactly how men react to an attractive girl asking them questions. Some of the replies are utterly implausable, and it's therefore even more difficult to choose the correct response. Sigh.

Sprung

It's a "dating game". In fact, it's a "choose the correct response from this limited list and we'll let you progress" game. It's dull and poorly thought out and overly random. The thing is, though, you get the idea it's going to be quite short, so it's worth just trying each choice until you get the right one in the knowledge it's one step closer to the end of the game. I want to complete it, even if it is really quite crap.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of ... no, Oracle of Time. Ages. Something

I'm not half getting confused between the two. I wanted to use the boomerang in Ocarina of Time last night, and then realised I haven't got one. And the switch shot would be a lifesaver in a lot of places. Equally, in Oracle of Ages, I keep thinking that I need to use my catapualt, and then realise that I've only got a seed shooter, which isn't quite the same.

It's made worse by the fact that last night, in Ocarina of Time, I was battling through Jabu Jabu's stomach for a while. With a very annoying whiny girl who won't even walk anywhere, so you have to carry her. Idiot. And then on the tube this morning, in Oracle of Ages, I managed to find the kindom of the Zoras and was sent on a trip ... into Jabu Jabu's stomach. Great.

However, Ocarina of Time is growing on me now. Trying to find the Zoras' place was frustrating, as the only thing you know about them is that they're a water-loving people, so I went and searched around the massive lake that appeared on the map screen. And they weren't there. But anyway. At least there seems to be some purpose now.

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

Driven by my relative lack of success with Ocarina of Time, I've picked up Oracle of Ages again to try and finish that. My last save was just after I got the fifth Essence thingy, so after wandering around aimlessly for a bit I found new places to go and the sixth dungeon. And it was pretty easy - no lives lost at all, and it only took me two tube journeys.

And then when I got outside I was easily able to pick up the story again - there's this fairy type person called Nayru who's a goodie but is currently a baddie because the evil spirit witch thing has possessed her body. And so she's currently being held in the castle of Queen Ambi, who doesn't let Link into the building on account of his female rescuing tendancies. But when you come out of the fifth level, Ambi's gone for a walkabout and you can try and sneak in. Even though there are still guards around.

I like this game.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

I never played Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64, but I now have two copies of it for the Gamecube - one which came with my copy of The Wind Waker, and one on the Collector's Edition. The only Zelda game I'd played before I got my Gamecube was Link's Awakening on the Game Boy, and I hadn't finished that at that point.

So, I played The Wind Waker, and was absolutely amazed. It's a great game, with a gripping story and superb gameplay. I loved it. I played it through to completion, beating both John and Kieron to the end. In fact, Kieron's still not finished it. He should be ashamed.

After that, I managed to finish Link's Awakening despite having left it alone for over two years. Two down.

And I started Ocarina of Time. Everyone has always said that it's a better game than the Wind Waker, and still overshadows anything since. And I have to say, I think that's a load of rubbish.

As I said, I started Ocarina of Time after completing Link's Awakening, around a year and a bit ago. I've just got around to carrying on with it, because I was rather underwhelmed with it. It doesn't have the elegance of The Wind Waker, or the pacing, or the drive to it. There's nothing that's compelling me to carry on, other than the promise from so many people that it's a great game.

Maybe I'm not being fair - I'm not that far through the game (I'm up on Death Mountain, in the cavern, trying to find something nasty). I'm going to put another hour into it now. But I'm still more compelled to play Oracle of Ages, since with that I can see what I'm ultimately trying to do.

In other news, Lego Star Wars is still great.

Pokémon LeafGreen

No idea why I bought this over the Ruby or Sapphire versions. I used to have Pokémon Yellow, and of course this is basically the same game but with some different pokémon to collect and starting with a different one. But anyway. I only ever play this a little bit at a time, which doesn't help with remembering which pokémon types beat other types. Or what I'm meant to be doing. Or where I'm meant to be going.

But I can't play it for massive long periods, because I find it gets rather repetitive. And I don't have the time. Which is a shame, since it is a great game, and one day I hope to have caught them all.