PrinceWatercress plays Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue (PS1) - Part 1 of 16

Compared to the games based on the first movie, this one is a little easier. It's just as enjoyable, however, and shouldn't be missed.

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Yep, it's Toy Story 2. Which means it's based on the movie. Given that it's on the PS1, it's going to be a 3D platformer, although you could make other kinds of games out of it.

When the game begins, Woody is kidnapped by Al, the owner and founder of Al's Toy Barn. It's up to Buzz and all of his friends to rescue him. 

Level 1: Andy's House

You start the level - and the game - in Andy's room. You move around with the D-Pad, you shoot lasers with the Square button to attack enemies, and you jump - and double jump - with the X button. The Circle button will allow to perform a spin attack. Holding Circle down lets you charge it up, but you'll get dizzy for a few seconds after you let it loose.

Exploring Andy's room will teach you how to play the game. Jumping up to the desk will take you to the numerous help cubes that are in this level. Jumping into the help cubes will give you hints for the level you're in.

Some items in the environment will have a green hand that acts as a push icon. If you see that above an item, you can move into it to push it. Some items will have black trails with red smaller lines inside of them that show you specifically where you can push them, and these locations you can push items to will prove to be useful when getting through the game.

After double jumping from the bed to the dresser, you can climb a pole. Jump into a pole then crab on, then climb up and down with Up and Down on the D-Pad and spin around with Left and Right. Pressing X lets you jump off. Keep in mind that when you do that, you'll jump forward in the direction you're facing.

Jumping into zip lines allows you to slide down them. Jump to jump off before you reach the end.

Once you land in the crib, you'll learn how to enter first-person mode and aim your laser. Press L1 to enter first-person mode and look director through Buzz's visor. From here, you can look around with the D-Pad, press Square to shoot your laser and press the R1 button to lock onto nearby enemies. If there are multiple enemies nearby, you can keep pressing R1 until you lock on to the one you want. By using the lock-on ability, you can shoot down the catches holding up the side of the crib to get out. Just be near them, press R1, and the green reticles will lock on and show you where the catches are so you can shoot them down.

Enemies in this level include red robots that bounce around and flying robots that drop bomb. Using the lock-on ability and the charged laser works wonders in taking them out. Enemies also leave coins when defeated, so make sure you pick them up.

First-person mode has some interesting details, too. You can see Buzz closing his left eye to improve his aim, and you can also hear him breathing. That second part makes no sense, given that he's a toy, but it's still a nice detail.

Speaking of the laser, you can hold the Square button to charge up your laser for a more powerful shot, just like with the spinning attack. Keep this in mind, because you're going to use this pretty often.

The gold coins that you pick up will be necessary for getting one of the Pizza Planet tokens in each level. There are five Pizza Planet tokens in every normal level, and they serve as the main collectible for the game. There are 50 altogether, and we'll be getting every single one of them.

The green coin with Buzz on it is an extra life. Pick it up for a 1-Up.

When you're standing still, you'll see the amount of lives you have in the upper-left corner, your current amount of energy in the upper-right corner and the current amount of gold coins in the lower-left corner. If you're charging up your weapon, the charge gauge will be in the lower-right corner.

Rex is near the entrance to the attic. If you talk to him, he will tell you what you need to do in every level to get the five Pizza Planet tokens. If you pick up a token, he won't mention that mission. If you've picked up all five tokens, he will tell you that you've completed the level.

Above Rex is the attic. Here, you'll learn how pushing things like boxes works even further, but you'll also fight the tin robot. You'll need to beat this tin robot to get a token. To beat the robot, charge up your laser and run away when he charges at you. When he slows down and eventually stops, be ready to fire on him. The boss enemies will have a health meter in the top center to show how much health they have left, and when you empty it, you'll beat the boss. The tin robot takes six shots - three if you charge them up - to defeat, and when you beat it, you can get the Pizza Planet token that shows up. After collecting a Pizza Planet token, you can choose to keep playing or head back to the world map.

Horizontal rods can be jumped into, and if you do that, Buzz will swing around before jumping forward. Be ready to hold Up on the D-Pad and, if you need to, double jump. This will be important for later in the game.

The rest of the attic leads to the top near the roof, and the narrow platforms don't leave much room for mistakes, as you will fall down to the floor if you walk off the edge. Thankfully, there's nothing in the way of fall damage for this game. Thankfully, you can enter the pause menu with the Start button and select "Camera Mode," then select "Active Camera." Active Camera will always keep the camera behind Buzz. It also changes the controls a little bit. Normally, under the Passive Camera, L2 and R2 will rotate the camera left and right. In Active Camera mode, L2 and R2 rotate Buzz left and right. This lets you line Buzz up so you don't walk off edges, and you'll also be able to use the buttons to spin around on poles. It's a nice feature.

You'll find one of the sheep on the other side of the top of the attic. The sheep are the level collectible, and you'll see how many of them you have in the upper-right corner. When you collet all five, you'll be able to return them to Bo Peep, who is on the kitchen table.

Going downstairs leads to the garage as well as the rest of the house. To beat the RC car in the race, you'll need to take three laps around the car. Keep jumping while moving, as it allows you to move slightly faster than if you just run. Double jump over the oil slick, as it is slippery and will cause you to lose control. Also, don't run into enemies. Even though this race is easy, you can lose almost enough momentum to lose the race if you touch an enemy just once. Placing first against the RC car will net you a Pizza Planet token. If the RC wins, leave the garage, then go back in to do the race again.

The path to the top of the garage is full of poles you can grab as well as some obstacles of its own, such as the power drills that can drop down and hurt you as well as buzzsaws that can slice you. You'll eventually end up on top of the family car, and from here, you can jump onto the nearby light fixture to get to the higher shelves. The hint cube will tell you about the horizontal bars you can jump into and swing off of, which I mentioned earlier. At the end of the path at the top of the garage, you'll find another sheep.

Along the way, on top of the family car, you'll find the green laser. The green laser is as powerful as a charged red laser, and if you hold the button down, you'll get rapid fire. You only have a limited amount of ammo, which is indicated by the gauge in the lower-right corner, so use the green laser sparingly, as it is pretty powerful.

Hamm is on the living room couch. If you give him 50 coins, he will give you a Pizza Planet token. Remember that number, as it stays the same every level. 

The two downward-pointing green triangles are the stomp icon. To stomp, jump into the air, then press Circle to stomp. If you stomp on certain things, you can not only hit buttons, but you can also activate shortcuts to places you couldn't normally access. Stomping on the couch with the white X on the seat will launch you to a high corner shelf above the bookcase. You'll be able to jump your way to a battery (which refills health), a 1-Up, and the third sheep. Also, underneath where you land is Mr. Potato Head's ear. You'll need to hand that off to him elsewhere in the level.

PrinceWatercress plays Bomb Jack (ZX Spectrum) - The Longplay

Of course I would do better with the longplay after relearning how to play the game during the Let's Play. Of course.

Let's Play

Bomb Jack is a 1984 platformer-style arcade game from Tehkan, which would later become Tecmo. In this game, you play as Bomb Jack, and you have to avoid enemies while picking up all 24 bombs on the screen. Some of the bombs have lit fuses, and as you pick up lit bombs, more will be lit, and you'll have to pick those up, too. Those will usually be in the line of bombs where you find a lit bomb. The more lit bombs you pick up, however, the more bonus points you'll get...if you get more than 20 in total when you complete a stage by grabbing all the bombs, that is.

Left and Right on the Kempston joystick allow you to move around, while the fire button jumps. Pressing the fire button mid-jump lets you stop rising upwards and start dropping, and if you keep tapping the fire button repeatedly, you'll be able to float in mid-air, which makes it easier to grab bombs and avoid enemies. If you hold Up before jumping, you'll perform a high jump.

As you grab the bombs, enemies will pop up. You'll be avoiding mummies and birds that both move back and forth and fly around the screen respectively, but eventually the mummies will tumble to the bottom and turn into flying saucers and slugs that will seek you out and destroy you if they get to you. The birds are just as bad as the transformed enemies, as they will constantly take the shortest path towards you and constantly get in your way because of that.

As you play, power-ups will also show up. The B icons will give you bonus multipliers up to 5x that will multiply the amount of points you get from grabbing bombs, while the E icon will give you an extra life if you're lucky enough to encounter one and grab it. Unfortunately, the E icons are the only way to get bonus lives in this game, as you cannot get any off of points. The P icon is the most important, however, as it turns the enemies into bonus coins for a short period, and if you can grab these coins before they turn back into the enemies, you'll get rid of the enemies for a brief time and you'll get points for it.

There are five backgrounds in all, and once you see all five, they will loop. As for the level designs themselves, however, they do not seem to loop like the backgrounds do, and there is also no ending.

Despite my initial misgivings with the game, I ended up enjoying it. You can tell which bombs are lit just by paying attention a little bit, and it's actually easier than I expected to see where both I, the enemies, the bombs and the platforms are despite the obvious limitations in the ZX Spectrum's hardware. The gameplay was pretty responsive and did not give me any trouble, and once I learned how to high jump, control my jumps, and even float, things got a lot better. Even the gaming press in the UK loved this port, with Crash! giving the game a Smash award and a 92% rating, calling it a great arcade conversion. It was also #2 on the UK sales charts in 1984, kept off the top by Green Beret, only to make it to the top of the all-formats chart two years later when it received a budget re-release. If you're looking for arcade action for the Speccy, this is a really good place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Bomb Jack (ZX Spectrum)

I haven't played a ZX Spectrum game in a long time. Let's fix that!

Longplay

Bomb Jack is a 1984 platformer-style arcade game from Tehkan, which would later become Tecmo. In this game, you play as Bomb Jack, and you have to avoid enemies while picking up all 24 bombs on the screen. Some of the bombs have lit fuses, and as you pick up lit bombs, more will be lit, and you'll have to pick those up, too. Those will usually be in the line of bombs where you find a lit bomb. The more lit bombs you pick up, however, the more bonus points you'll get...if you get more than 20 in total when you complete a stage by grabbing all the bombs, that is.

Left and Right on the Kempston joystick allow you to move around, while the fire button jumps. Pressing the fire button mid-jump lets you stop rising upwards and start dropping, and if you keep tapping the fire button repeatedly, you'll be able to float in mid-air, which makes it easier to grab bombs and avoid enemies. If you hold Up before jumping, you'll perform a high jump.

As you grab the bombs, enemies will pop up. You'll be avoiding mummies and birds that both move back and forth and fly around the screen respectively, but eventually the mummies will tumble to the bottom and turn into flying saucers and slugs that will seek you out and destroy you if they get to you. The birds are just as bad as the transformed enemies, as they will constantly take the shortest path towards you and constantly get in your way because of that.

As you play, power-ups will also show up. The B icons will give you bonus multipliers up to 5x that will multiply the amount of points you get from grabbing bombs, while the E icon will give you an extra life if you're lucky enough to encounter one and grab it. Unfortunately, the E icons are the only way to get bonus lives in this game, as you cannot get any off of points. The P icon is the most important, however, as it turns the enemies into bonus coins for a short period, and if you can grab these coins before they turn back into the enemies, you'll get rid of the enemies for a brief time and you'll get points for it.

There are five backgrounds in all, and once you see all five, they will loop. As for the level designs themselves, however, they do not seem to loop like the backgrounds do, and there is also no ending.

Despite my initial misgivings with the game, I ended up enjoying it. You can tell which bombs are lit just by paying attention a little bit, and it's actually easier than I expected to see where both I, the enemies, the bombs and the platforms are despite the obvious limitations in the ZX Spectrum's hardware. The gameplay was pretty responsive and did not give me any trouble, and once I learned how to high jump, control my jumps, and even float, things got a lot better. Even the gaming press in the UK loved this port, with Crash! giving the game a Smash award and a 92% rating, calling it a great arcade conversion. It was also #2 on the UK sales charts in 1984, kept off the top by Green Beret, only to make it to the top of the all-formats chart two years later when it received a budget re-release. If you're looking for arcade action for the Speccy, this is a really good place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Astyanax - Part 6 of 6

In this entry, we finally beat Blackhorn, rescue Princess Rosebud and return to our world.

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Round 6-1: Thelenea

This level is a maze. The first door that you see is obviously where you want to. Just stand in front of it and hold Up on the D-Pad until you enter the next section. (Thankfully, this is also mentioned in the game's manual.)

From here on out, you're on your own. Here's where you figure out where you need to go: look for the skeletons. If you see a skeleton, fight it, then go through the door it spawned next to. Keep doing this until you reach the final area. You'll face a slime knight who will teleport in and out and strike with his weapon. You'll want to hit him with the most powerful strikes that you have, and you'll want to get the health that is in the statue just before you kill him.

You'll then meet Thorndog. Destroy the hand whenever it spawns, then strike at the purple medallion in the center as powerfully as you can while avoiding the purple orbs that move around in sine wave patterns. If you need to use your magic, do it.

Once you beat Thorndog, Thorndog will curse Astyanax so that when Thorndog dies, so will Astyanax. Cutie breaks the seal on Thorndog's curse by sacrificing herself.

Round 6-2: Tower

You'll face a boss rush as soon as you enter this level. The bosses you'll face are the boss from Round 1-1 (the bouncy guy), the boss from Round 2-1 (the slimy guy with the eye), the boss from Round 3-1 (the minotaur), the rock throwing boss from Rounds 1-2 and 3-2, and the hawk and lion boss from Round 5-1. The same strategies apply, and there will be a platforming taking you to the next fight whenever you beat a boss.

Unlike the first time, however, I focused on the hawk instead of the lion for the last boss. I just kept attacking the hawk with powerful jump attacks while jumping over the lion. For some reason, it made that fight easier for me. Regardless of which enemy in that combo you defeat first, they both eventually combine into the same second phase.

You'll then get a full health refill and a range increase before you face Blackhorn. After a cutscene, get away from Blackhorn so that he strikes with his magic instead of his sword. You'll know when he is attacking with his magic when he stands there with the electricity flowing between his hands. You'll want to keep striking him with powerful attacks so that he doesn't hit you with a full-screen magic attack. Blackhorn will also keep teleporting in and out, and if you're too close to him, he will slash at you with a sword instead. It doesn't have a good amount of range, and if you get away from him, you can avoid it.

After doing enough damage, you'll then face a transformed Blackhorn. Blackhorn is now a dragon, and you'll need to strike the red jewel in his chest while avoiding or slashing at the fireballs that he spits out. The jewel will keep moving in and out of existence, so if it disappears, stay away from Blackhorn and keep avoiding or striking the fireballs. If the fireballs land on the ground, they will move towards you, and you'll need to jump over them as they travel across the floor. Blackhorn starts out silver, but he turns gold after enough damage and turns red when he is near-death. When he turns red, hit him with the fire magic while the jewel in the chest is out. It will usually take him out and make this fight go a little faster at the end.

Once you beat Blackhorn, you'll save Princess Rosebud, then Astyanax will be teleported back to his world. When he is, he suddenly runs into a girl who turns out to be Cutie in human form. This ends up being a reward given to Cutie by Princess Rosebud for her bravery, and Cutie ends up staying in the real world with Astyanax. The game then ends. You just beat [i]Astyanax[/i]!

PrinceWatercress plays Astyanax - Part 5 of 6

We have one more short stage before entering the final stretch...

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Round 5-1: Telugamn

You'll want to keep your strikes as powerful as possible when fighting the monsters, which are mostly the same as Round 4-1. Also, watch out for plants. You may have to use magic to take care of some of those plant enemies.

The boss here is a lion and a hawk. The lion runs back and forth while the hawk flies back and forth while performing the occasional divebomb. You'll want to take the lion out first, as it's much easier to defeat than the hawk. The hawk will start carrying the lion around, and you'll want to strike it so that it's high enough up in the sky so that you can duck under the divebomb attacks.

Round 5-2: Cliff

You have another vertical level full of the blob and plant enemies, so use what you learned in Round 1-2 and use it here. Make sure you jump all the way up at the center when you reach the top. The boss is the mini-boss as from Round 3-2; the only difference is that if you've been doing well, you may be able to take him out even faster.

You'll then find out that you're in the castle maze. Rosebud tells you to pay attention to the signs so you can reach Blackhorn, but at this point, her magic weakens.

PrinceWatercress plays Astyanax - Part 4 of 6

If you can persevere through the swamp, you'll make it into enemy territory. Onwards!

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Round 4-1: Marshy

To take care of the enemies that hide in the water below, let them come to you, then strike them on their way up and again on their way down, assuming that you have enough power to do it. If they land, they will follow you around and spit projectiles. If you can, move far enough away so that you can off-screen them out of existence. You'll want to do the same for the ones that leap in and out of the water between smaller platforms, who can also throw spears in mid-air.

The piranhas bounce around. You'll want to move a little further to keep them from re-spawning, then hit them when they're at the right height when they're in front of you. You may have to move yourself into position in order to make that happen without getting hit.

A plant will spawn to the left of one of the power-up statues; you'll need to be on the edge and crouch strike it repeatedly to get rid of it.

If you find Cutie inside of a power-up statue, jump up to her to talk to her. Press Down if you want to change your weapon or Up if you want to refill your magic. Good thing I needed the magic.

The mid-boss is a gold skeleton. He just fights like the rest of the skeletons in the game and just takes a lot more damage than the rest of them. That's it.

Round 4-2: Grave

The butterflies are just like the floating blobs; the only thing different about them is their appearance.

The skeletons can also perform a huge flying leap in addition to attacking and throwing out projectiles, but it won't exactly save them from getting smashed.

There are a couple of plants in this level. I hit the first one with magic, but the other ones can easily be taken care of with your weapon.

The mini-boss is a purple wraith who can freeze you in place for a few seconds in addition to tossing projectiles. You'll want to move back and forth to avoid the mini-boss teleporting on top of you, then get right up to it and hit it with powerful weapon strikes. This will help off-set any times that the mini-boss is able to freeze you in place.

You'll then fight the boss: a tree beast that moves back and forth and throw out green seed projectiles that roll forward and turn into plants while also stopping to hit you with some sort of vine tongue. Keep jumping up and hitting him in the face with powerful strikes, and take out those green seeds before they become a problem.

You'll then arrive at Blackhorn's lair in Thelenea. The end of the game is in sight...

PrinceWatercress plays Astyanax - Part 3 of 6

This is the last easier level in the game. Things are going to get a little more difficult from here on out...

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Round 3-1: Ryogoku

Be careful with the platforms at the start. Make sure you move just a little bit to the right of the spawn points for those flying blob enemies, because some of them will fly at ground level and you will definitely need to get rid of them. There's also a plant on one of the platforms, and you'll need to get rid of it as well when it pops up.

If you've been doing well so far and you've gotten your power meter to a considerable level, you can take out the skeletons here in one shot.

Land at the edge of the platform with the third power-up statue, then immediately duck and strike. This will kill the plant that shows up right away.

The red potions refill just three hearts, but the blue potions are a full health refill.

The mini-boss here is a minotaur with an electric charge around his horns and a full-screen thunder attack that rains down, much like Magical Stardust from [i]Actraiser[/i]. Keep hitting him with powerful strikes at regular intervals so he attacks as little as possible, and if he goes over the side of the screen, he will wrap around to the other side and you won't be able to hit him in time before he attacks. Thankfully, you should be able to do more damage before you meet him on the other side to repeat the process.

Round 3-2: Rent

It's another vertical section, but this time, you're going downwards instead of upwards. The tiny dragon enemies you'll encounter here may be nothing to worry about, but they can pop up when you least expect them as you make your way downwards, and you can lose a little bit of health from touching one. Those hits can add up.

The mini-boss here will move towards you and throw rocks every so often. You'll want to jump over him immediately after he throws a rock so you don't get hit. Keep hitting him with powerful strikes and you'll ensure that you spend as little time with this guy as possible, even if you can easily anticipate where his rocks will go.

The boss is some sort of rock creature with a spiky face in the middle. You'll want to avoid the spiky balls that it throws: one completely overhead, which is only a problem if the boss is far away when it fires it, and the other one that has less distance and bounces along the ground. You'll want to jump over that ball when it is low to the ground. Keep striking the face, but be ready to avoid the spiked balls every so often. When you expose the pink face behind it, you'll only need to hit a few more strikes before the second phase.

For the second phase, the pink enemy in the rock flies back and forth and shoots bubbles downward that move in a sine wave pattern. Avoiding the bubbles while striking with powerful attacks at regular intervals is harder than it seems, and every so often, the boss will speed up for a second and potentially ram into you as it flies around. If you run low on health, use your magic; it'll get you out of a jam here.

After the round ends, Blackhorn knows that Astyanax and Cutie are getting closer. Thorndog assures Blackhorn that they will not make it any further and that he has strengthed the spell he has cast on Princess Rosebud and has now stopped her from communicating with Cutie telepathically. Rosebud says that Astyanax and Cutie will show up, but Blackhorn sees them as just a speed bump in taking Rosebud's power and ruling the world.