Pokémon Sapphire: aimless wandering again

My main team's all at around level 40 or just above now, and I very much doubt that's good enough to face the Elite Four. So instead I've been exploring, clearing the sea routes of trainers and so on. Then I went around the map to the daycare centre, to see how the poochyena I'd left there was getting on. It had gone up to level 20, so I took it out and battled with it to level it up once more so it would evolve. Which it did.

I really don't know what to do now. I don't want to go to the Elite Four and fail over and over again like I did in LeafGreen. But it's a bit dull with no aim. I did think of trying out the pokémon contests, but I can never do very well at those. I really don't understand what goes on, and I think that pokémon who are good for the battles may not be the best for the contests.

I get the feeling that there's loads around to do - I've heard about breeding, for a start - but really I'm going to have to go and get stuck again, aren't I?

Pokémon Sapphire: what's a shell bell?

I finally caught a relicanth, and then my adventures took me to a cave just off of Route 125. Inside was a man who told me that if I found four salts and four bells in the cave, he'd make me something. So I went exploring. All through the cave were staircases that started halfway up the cliff face, and I couldn't find any way of getting to them. I looked around and found four salt piles, and a few other goodies, but I was sure I'd missed something since there was no way of getting to the blue ball things (which I assumed were the shells). I explored loads, made more annoying by the frequency of pokémon attacks.

In the end, after a long time of looking, I gave up and went back out of the cave. And then I had a change of heart, and went back in to check the old man wouldn't just accept the salt. For some reason the cave was flooded. I have no idea why.

But this meant I could just walk up the top staircases and collect the shells, and on giving them to the old man he made me a shell bell. Whatever one of those is.

Canis Canem Edit: tasks in town

I'm now doing tasks in and around the town, not confined to the school. Since I've now completed art, English, chemistry and gym, I get two days off of lessons and then the third day has both photography and workshop in it. Workshop's hard. The problem is that I'm always losing track of which day it is, so have to wait around to see if I should have lessons before leaving - reducing my time in town. It was worse before I completed English, because then I had to wait until after lunch ...

Anyway, the posh kids don't like me, and all the missions I'm doing at the moment seem designed to piss them off. Interesting survival technique. On the other hand, the posh girl does like me, and she's almost as nice as the redhead. I managed to get them to have a catfight over me by snogging them both in turn in front of each other. Much fun.

Singstar: we'll get Matt playing this

After all, I need someone to be worse than me. And that takes some doing.

Pokémon Sapphire: to the Pokémon League

Maybe not yet.

Sootopolis City gym offered little resistance to Manectric, with a little help from Gyrados and Kyogre, so I've now completed the gyms and can control any pokémon going. And I can walk up waterfalls, which apparently will be very useful in getting to the Pokémon League.

But I'm not going there yet. My pokédex stands at 80 owned, 126 seen, and there are some big gaps. I've been exploring the sea routes (some of which have changed since the storm, I think) and fighting the swimming trainers. Again, Manectric can take things down in one hit, but I've instead been using Gyrados in order to beef him up. Combusken had the Exp Share, and he evolved into Blaziken this morning.

As well as the sea routes, I've been exploring the sea bed. I've caught a few pokémon there, but at the moment I'm on the hunt for a relicanth. I've seen one a couple of times but both times was unable to catch it. It's pretty rare, it seems, and I'm having to fight loads of clamperls in my hunt.

Still, at least Gyrados (and Blaziken) are getting experience from it.

Canis Canem Edit: I like the redhead

There are, it seems, no blonde girls at Bullworth Academy. But the redhead is lovely.

I'm now 15.63% through the game (it helpfully tells me) and ... well, it's good. It's not amazingly great, but it's very playable, with a good sense of humour, and nicely put together. There are some annoying aspects, like the fact that the bully gang just tries to beat you up all the time, and when you first start seemingly nobody likes you at all. There's the rigid lesson structure, which at first I found a bit constraining but now it's actually suiting the game a lot more - partially because I've realised that trying to complete the lessons gives you more spare time in which to do the missions.

I also like the timed aspect - the way that Hallowe'en came around and there were special themed missions. I've no idea whether it would have stayed Hallowe'en until you completed those missions, mind - whether it's properly timed in terms of number of days played, or if it's based on mission completion rates. But anyway.

I've completed the chemistry and gym classes, and have unlocked the photography and workshop classes. I'm really bad at English - making words out of random letters (those who've played Scrabble against me in the past can confirm that) - and I've failed the last art class once, so it should be possible. Other than that I've run one errand into town, and lots of errands for nerdy type people. And I've got the redhead to snog me. Several times.

Pokémon Sapphire: Kyogre owned

As in, I own him. He didn't give up without a struggle, though. I stated off with Manectric, and spark, which not only took off around a fifth of his energy each hit but also paralysed him. Kyogre had a few tricks of his own, including hydro pump which killed any pokémon faced with it - even when it wasn't very effective. Ouch. After a few turns I had Kyogre down to a tiny bit of energy, paralysed, with low attack levels. And I threw ultra ball after ultra ball at him, alternating that with reviving another of my pokémon so the battle didn't end. And the seventh ultra ball captured him.

Hoorah!

So it's stopped raining, and all is well. Now I can go to the Sootopolis gym.

Pokémon Sapphire: it's raining!

Since Diamond and Pearl have just come out in the US, it won't be too long before Nintendo of Europe decides that they might want to think about starting to localise them. So I've gone back to Sapphire to try and actually get to the end of a pokémon game. It was a choice of this or LeafGreen, and LeafGreen is currently unaccessible .. and I still can't bear to face the final four again.

So, I picked up after beating Norman; five gym badges down. I've completed two more gyms now (one against bird pokémon and one against psychics), and chased Team Aqua around the world a bit. I've caught a Manectric, and he's great - his spark attack one-hit-kills loads of enemies. Combined with Gyrados's surf, and we're an unbeatable team. I've been around the safari park a bit, and caught some very odd pokémon. I've dived to the bottom of the ocean and found Team Aqua's hideout.

And then everything went funny. Team Aqua had a red orb; I had a blue one. It started to pour with rain. Everything flooded. Now I'm on the way to an undersea city where it still rains. Gulp.

New Super Mario Bros: completed!

Well, to all intent and purpose. I've not only got to the end of the game, but have also unlocked worlds 4 and 7, and completed each of the levels in those. I've not got three coins for every level yet, but some of them just seem pretty impossible. And I think I've missed some exits, since some bonuses like the warp cannons remain locked off.

I love the game, but I think I've played it too much now. Maybe sometime I'll go back to it and find the other secrets. Not yet, though.

Unexpected absences

I've not been posting here, I know - real life stuff had me not in the mood to do so. But I'm getting on with it now, and as a result I've got lots of stuff to update. I'll try and write more on each of these over the next few days, whenever I next play them, but for now:

• I've completed New Super Mario Bros - unlocking all worlds at least.
• I'm completed a few more levels of Jungle Strike, even a level set in the pitch black.
• I've completed the bronze levels of Excite Truck.
• I've made nearly six million dollars in my US Theme Park.
  
• I'm on the fourth world of Sonic and the Secret Rings.
• I've gained the sixth badge in Pokémon Sapphire and got rid of Team Aqua from a research institute.
• I've attained a fitness age of 22 ... once.
  

Theme Park: Americans are easy to please

After losing quite a lot of money in Japan, I sold my park an moved instead to the US, where business has been brisk. I've made over two million dollars now, and have a huge park with an awesome roller coaster. And lots of people being sick.

Sonic & the Secret Rings: following the pterodactyl

Onto Dinosaur Jungle now, which is a lovely stage with cacti everywhere and some strangely Starfox-Adventures-alike dinosaurs. Really pretty though, perhaps more so than the desert. I've still got qquite a few stages locked on both the tutorial level and Sand Oasis, but I'm going for the storyline now and will come back to those later.

The storyboarding is really well done - the artwork harks back to Sonics of old (not quite the chubby Sonic 1, more Sonic 3 era) and Sonic always looks better drawn in 2D. The story's really quite cliched and dreadful, to be honest, but that's hardly why I wanted the game in the first place ...

Am enjoying this indeed, whatever deKay may say.

Theme Park: trouble in Japan

Oooh, I'm near bankruptcy in Japan. Visitor numbers are dropping, and my rides are all starting to blow up, despite me having loads of mechanics. I'm able to place a few things around that I couldn't in England, which seem to be drawing in more crowds, but they're expensive and I'm really constrained for funds. I might have to go for a few years not buying anything just to get out of debt.

But even though it's much harder than before, it's still the best version of Theme Park ever.

Sonic & the Secret Rings: phew, just made it

Gosh.

It's a Sonic game, in 3D, that's not got the word "Adventure" in its title, and it's, well, good.

Really good, in fact.

It started off a bit iffy, with an overly-long story board, and then some tutorial missions which were meant to be in the pages of a book but instead just look brown and really really boring. they only took 20 minutes to get through, though, and I've now finished most of the Sand Oasis stage, which is very pretty indeed.

The developers have realised that the whole fun of Sonic is that you're barely in control, going fast and just missing obstacles, and this game's essentially an on-rails into-the-screen running game, where you can move left and right across the track but can't really choose your path. And it works really well with the remote controls, tilting to move and pressing the button to jump. Although I do wish you jumped when you pressed the button, and not when you let go of it.

I've now built up a nice library of special skills, though it took me a while to realise that you have to equip them in your skill ring before you can actually use them. I was doing the mini-turbo move like an idiot and getting nowhere for ages before I actually turned the skill on.

I'm getting bronze medals on most of the stages (resulting in the "phew" line in the title - oddly, when you don't get a medal at all, Sonic says "no problem", which is rather more upbeat), though I expect I'll be able to get the silvers later once I've got more skills available. In the meantime, I'm working my way through the levels.

Theme Park: no blurgh yet

The DS has been out for over two years now. How can it possibly have taken this long for EA to realise the potential of releasing Theme Park for it? It's an obvious application for using the stylus and twin screens. It's be really hard for it to go wrong, you'd think.

And you'd be right.

This is the best version of Theme Park ever made. Everything's just so intuitive. You can see the stats for all the rides on one screen while still seeing what's around the ride on the other screen. You can just drag the stylus across the screen to lay a path and a queue. Setting the handyman's zones is really simple, something which always seemed a chore before. You can instantly see what your visitors are thinnking by tapping them. Tapping your mechanics makes them work faster!

I went through the tutorial first, and didn't have to be told how to do what was being asked of me. It just all works. And it works on the train, or even on the sofa while watching something on TV.

I've not made anyone vomit yet. But given the amount of litter on the ground, it can't be far off.

Yoshi's Island DS: Completed!

On the way home my train was delayed, and I managed to complete the main story line of the game. The last few levels were really hard, and I ended up with only 50 lives left. That being said, though, the final boss was disappointingly easy. In retrospect, all of the bosses were easy to defeat once you understood what you had to do. With the final boss - or rather, the final three bosses, as is traditional in Nintendo platformers it seems - it was immediately apparent what to do.

I'm not sure I'll go back to complete the secret levels I've unlocked now - I ought to give the game back to Stewart after all! - but there seems to be a fair amount of content I've left locked. Certainly a worthwhile game, but I'm not going to buy it for myself ... I don't fancy playing through the whole thing again to get to the same stage! Memory cards are such a good idea ...

Yoshi's Island DS: baby Bowser

Baby Wario's gimmick of having a magnet was bad, especially since it often didn't actually work. Baby Bowser's gimmick of being able to fire fireballs is pretty good, apart from the fact that I keep on melting the platforms I want to stand on.

And the fact that he's used in an ice world, which involves slippy platforms and lots of deaths. I lost 25 lives on one level section alone. Not fun in the slightest.

I'm on to world five now.

Yoshi's Island DS

I've been away for the last week, and my friend Stewart lent me Yoshi's Island DS to take away with me. Actually, shouldn't that be Yoshis' Island, given that there's more than one Yoshi? Hmm.

I completed the first three worlds while away, and the fourth is full of some very nasty levels indeed. It uses the two screens well, it's lovely to look at and some of the platforming puzzles are really tricky. I've died loads, but have over 90 lives in reserve at the moment, and never have I thought that dying wasn't my fault. It's really great.

Which is surprising, given the poor reviews it's been given, and the fact that it's not an in-house Nintendo production. It's by Artoon, who are a bit of a mixed bag. This must be one of their best, though.

It's not all good, though. The most used button is B - for jumping. So why when you get to a menu screen, does B cancel the selection? Stupid. The multi-baby switching which gives you different skills is used in some places to good effect, but often you need to choose your baby before you see what's ahead. Daft.

Other than that, it's a really good game, definitely a worthy sequel to the SNES original (and GBA port). After I finish it and give it back, I'll be back onto New Super Mario Bros.

Jungle Strike: my goodness, it's difficult

The first level's harder than the last level of Desert Strike. I'm dying all the time. Ouch.

Desert Strike: completed!

The last level was rather hard, with big gun things all over the place, and I died lots. Well, I say died, but whenever my helicopter started to explode, I'd reload the last save, so as to keep playing. A few clever missions, with blowing up a nuclear weapons factory being a little bit dubious in terms of safety. I dropped my copilot off to capture the madman (not Saddam at all, oh no), but instead he got captured and somehow transported to the runway in the northeast corner of the map, where he was loaded onto the bomber.

I went up there and blew a big hole in the side of the bomber, and he ran out to be rescued. Then the bomber started to roll down the runway. Now, I may not be an aeronautical engineer, but surely taking off in an aeroplane with a hole in the side isn't such a good idea?

I didn't give him a chance to find out though; I hit the plane with hellfires and hydras, and just as it started to explode I got hit by a tank and my helicopter started to fall from the sky ... but too late, as the final cutscene came up.

Rah rah rah go America aren't we great.