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.

PrinceWatercress plays Astyanax - Part 2 of 6

In this entry, we face a few more bosses while also tackling our first strictly vertical level.

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Round 2-1: Redroad

The pink skeletons not only shoot projectiles, but they will also strike low in case you're ducking.

Watch out with the small platforms. There's a plant shortly after the beginning, and another one at the end. Both spit fireballs. If you know what you're doing, you can land at the edge at the end, duck down and kill the plant in one shot if your swing is powerful enough. Otherwise, use magic.

When possible, let the flying blob enemies you've been seeing since Round 1-1 move past you. Whatever you do, don't stand where they spawn out from; otherwise they'll come back the instant you kill them or let them leave the screen.

The boss here is a green, one-eyed blob monster who travels across the floor. When you strike him, he rises and strikes back. Keep your distance and strike with your most powerful blows at all times. Thankfully, jumping over him does not put you in any peril, so feel free to do so as long as he's moving around.

Round 2-2: Inazumi

This is your first vertical level. Always jump straight up first before advancing, as this will show more of the level and also reveal some enemies ahead of time, such as the blobs that move back and forth and occasionally rise from the floor to throw spears at you. 

Keep holding the direction you're wanting to go in case you get caught on a platform while jumping from place to place; you'll get to where you need to go more often than not.

When you reach the top of the stage (you'll know it when you see it, as it's all floor with nowhere else to jump to), go all the way to the center, then jump. You'll trigger the mini-boss, which is a dragon-like creature that divebombs you. Avoid the projectiles that it shoots out in diagonal directions by keeping your distance, and strike it enough times with powerful blows from your weapon so that it backs up to the top of the screen. By doing this, you can stay on the ground and the mini-boss will have less of a chance to hit you. Be ready to back the mini-boss up to the top again after it attacks.

The boss is some sort of Medusa-like creature. You'll want to attack the purple jewel on his stomach by crouching down and striking it, and you'll want to be close enough so that you can duck under its hand when it claws at you  and still attack. It will also send two snakes at you, but you can turn around while ducking to strike them both down easily. After this boss sends out four snakes, it immediately disappears and come out from the other side of the screen, alternating between the left side and the right side each time. Thankfully, this boss is deceptively easy if you know what to do.

After the boss battle, Astyanax gets homesick, and Cutie apologizes for putting him through that, as Thelenea - where we need to go to face Blackhorn - is so far away.

PrinceWatercress plays Astyanax - Part 1 of 6

Didn't think I would play and beat this one, but after seeing a Let's Play of this game while moving house yet again last year, I had to give this one a shot.

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"Astyanax...Astyanax...I'm waiting..."

That same dream again...strange.

I'm Astyanax. The name comes from Greek mythology, I think. I'm a freshman here at Greenview High.

I don't understand what the dream means.....and who is that girl??..

The other day I was walking to school.....

"Astyanax. Astyanax."

What the heck....

And from here, we get teleported to another world, and the game begins.

Interestingly, the name is from Greek mythology; Astyanax is the son of Hector of Troy and Queen Andromache from The Iliad.

Round 1-1: Remlia

As soon as the game begins, Astyanax finds himself in Remlia, and he meets a fairy named Cutie. Cutie brought Astyanax to Remlia to rescue Princess Rosebud, who has been captured by the evil wizard Blackhorn and has been appearing in Astyanax's recurring dreams, as he possess "the miracle power." Cutie also reveals that only Rosebud has the power to return him home. Cutie gives Astyanax the magic axe known as Bash, which will be his weapon for the adventure, and Astyanax is soon on his way.

Left and Right move Astyanax left and right, Down ducks, A jumps, and B attacks. Start pauses the game, and while the game is paused, you can switch between one of a few magic spells with the Control Pad. I stick to the default magic throughout the game. Magic spells are cast by holding up and pressing A. You have three spells: Bind, which freezes enemies for several second (represented by a circle); Blast, which damages all enemies on-screen (represented by a flame); and Bolt, which kills all-on screen enemies and can severely damage bosses yet uses more magic than Blast does (represented by a lightning bolt).

At the bottom of the screen is all of the important information. From the left, you have your current score, the current amount of lives that you have left, the current round that you are on, and the current spell that you have equipped. To the right of all that is your power gauge, your life meter and your spell meter. The power gauge empties and slowly refills after you strike with the B button, and the more it is filled up, the more your next attack will be. The life meter shows how much health you have. The spell gauge decreases when you use your magic.

You'll meet your first enemies here. The flying enemies will just fly past you, and unless they are directly in your way, you won't need to attack them. The jellyfish drop projectiles that won't damage you, but if you hit them, you'll be stunned for a few moments before you can move again. You'll want to attack only the jellyfish with the most powerful strikes that you can. The skeletons will pop out of the floor; you'll want to let them come to you, then strike them when they are in range of your weapon.

The statues contain power-ups. The glass container will increase the maximum power of your power gauge, allowing you to strike more powerfully with your weapon. Keep in mind that the more of these you pick up, the more time you'll need to wait before it slowly fills all the way up. This is a good thing, as you actually don't want to rush your way through the rounds. You'll want to move through this game slowly and carefully. Unless you're on the exact point that a flying enemy will spawn, you can easily stay in place and wait for your power gauge to fully refill so you can get past some of the enemies that will be in your way more easily.

Be careful when jumping over pits; you never know when you might run into a plant enemy that will sprout out and spit projectiles upwards. You'll want to fight them from a short distaance with your weapon or with your magic. If you can do it with your weapon, do so; it saves magic for the boss battles.

Grabbing the axe item lets you change the axe into a sword. The sword not only makes your physical strikes more powerful without adding to the power meter, but it also powers up your magic at the expense of using more of the spell meter. It is possible to get a spear, but it is less powerful.

The red potions give you three hearts for your health, but the blue potions refill all of the health meter.

The mini-boss is a bouncing boulder enemy. Grab the power-up at the end before the boss battle is over, then keep your distance as you strike while the boss bounces around. You'll want to keep your distance from the mini-boss and walk past him when the opportunity allows for it. When he opens up and stands still, get close to him and keep striking him with powerful physical attacks while ducking down.

The power-up that looks like a shield is really a pair of wings, which allows you to attack more quickly with your physical weapon.

The boss is a knight on a giant creature. You'll need to attack the head of the giant creature first. Jump over the head when it flies around in a circle, and watch out for the projectiles that it spits out, which won't be much of a problem as long as you stay close to the boss and duck. Once the creature is defeated, you have the knight left. Attack with your physical weapon and trap the knight against the wall, then duck and keep striking repeatedly from a short distance when the knight is backed to the wall.

After the boss battle, Thorndog will tell Blackhorn that Caesar, the boss we just defeated, has been killed. Blackhorn will soon notice that Cutie has brought Astyanax here, and demands Astyanax be destroyed.

PrinceWatercress plays Venture for Atari 2600 - The Longplay

...and now, Venture for the Atari 2600, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Venture is a game by Exidy in which you go through a world with several buildings that you need to enter, get the treasure out of and then get out of in one piece. The game was ported to a good amount of systems back in 1982, with the Atari 2600 being one of them.

You start out in front of a bunch of purple buildings. The single lone purple pixel that looks like it is out of place is you. Yes, you actually control this pixel. This pixel is you. By going into the gaps in the walls of the buildings, you can enter the buildings proper. Here, you can move around, but you can also press the fire button to fire arrows at enemies - something you can't do in the overworld where you're one small, tiny pixel. The arrows have limited range, but you have an unlimited amount of arrows and you can never run out. The dot near the happy face that represents your character indicates where you will fire, and that dot will change position every time you move in a different direction, and the direction that you last went will be where you fire your arrow. Enemies hurt you not only when they are alive, but also when their corpses are still on the screen; if you touch the enemies' corpses before they disappear off the screen, that will cost you a life. As mentioned before, you'll want to get the treasure in the building, then get back out through any of the gaps in the building walls, which counts as both entrances and exits. If you take too long, an indestructible demon that can travel through walls and will always take the shortest path towards you will show up, and if it touches you, you're losing a life.

At the top of the screen, you have your current amount of points in the center, and your lives will be the squares in the upper-right corner. Lose all your lives and the game is over. Sadly, you cannot get points out of extra lives in this game.

The hardest part of the purple buildings is the building in the upper-left part of the map. Here, there are moving red walls, and if any of them touch you, you will lose a life. You'll need to line yourself up with the gaps and make your moves quickly in order to get in the center, grab the treasure and get out before the indestructible demon shows up and ruins your day.

Once you collect all of the treasures in the purple buildings, you'll move on to the blue buildings. This is more of the same, and sadly, there isn't any moment on the blue map that matches the building with the moving walls on the purple map. Once you collect everything in the blue buildings, you'll have completed one loop of the game, and you'll go back to the purple map, but this time, the enemies will be faster and will move around more randomly. The second loop is also much more difficult compared to the first one.

The game does not seem like much, but it does make history as one of the first, if not the first, popular adventure-style games (other than Rogue) to be played from a top-down perspective, and even predates the very first Zelda game by a few years. The graphics are very simple and very identifiable, and gameplay is pretty simple, and while the first loop of the game is easy enough to get through, the second loop and every loop after that is a lot harder to clear. While this port is much more scaled down compared to the arcade original (there are two maps instead of three, graphics are more rudimentary, far less treasures are available to collect, and no music plays at all), it is still a decent effort and well worth putting in your Atari 2600 library.

PrinceWatercress plays Venture for Atari 2600

Welp, time to play yet another game from the pre-Nintendo Entertainment System days of yore. Interestingly, this one is a little more up my alley.

Longplay

Venture is a game by Exidy in which you go through a world with several buildings that you need to enter, get the treasure out of and then get out of in one piece. The game was ported to a good amount of systems back in 1982, with the Atari 2600 being one of them.

You start out in front of a bunch of purple buildings. The single lone purple pixel that looks like it is out of place is you. Yes, you actually control this pixel. This pixel is you. By going into the gaps in the walls of the buildings, you can enter the buildings proper. Here, you can move around, but you can also press the fire button to fire arrows at enemies - something you can't do in the overworld where you're one small, tiny pixel. The arrows have limited range, but you have an unlimited amount of arrows and you can never run out. The dot near the happy face that represents your character indicates where you will fire, and that dot will change position every time you move in a different direction, and the direction that you last went will be where you fire your arrow. Enemies hurt you not only when they are alive, but also when their corpses are still on the screen; if you touch the enemies' corpses before they disappear off the screen, that will cost you a life. As mentioned before, you'll want to get the treasure in the building, then get back out through any of the gaps in the building walls, which counts as both entrances and exits. If you take too long, an indestructible demon that can travel through walls and will always take the shortest path towards you will show up, and if it touches you, you're losing a life.

At the top of the screen, you have your current amount of points in the center, and your lives will be the squares in the upper-right corner. Lose all your lives and the game is over. Sadly, you cannot get points out of extra lives in this game.

The hardest part of the purple buildings is the building in the upper-left part of the map. Here, there are moving red walls, and if any of them touch you, you will lose a life. You'll need to line yourself up with the gaps and make your moves quickly in order to get in the center, grab the treasure and get out before the indestructible demon shows up and ruins your day.

Once you collect all of the treasures in the purple buildings, you'll move on to the blue buildings. This is more of the same, and sadly, there isn't any moment on the blue map that matches the building with the moving walls on the purple map. Once you collect everything in the blue buildings, you'll have completed one loop of the game, and you'll go back to the purple map, but this time, the enemies will be faster and will move around more randomly. The second loop is also much more difficult compared to the first one.

The game does not seem like much, but it does make history as one of the first, if not the first, popular adventure-style games (other than Rogue) to be played from a top-down perspective, and even predates the very first Zelda game by a few years. The graphics are very simple and very identifiable, and gameplay is pretty simple, and while the first loop of the game is easy enough to get through, the second loop and every loop after that is a lot harder to clear. While this port is much more scaled down compared to the arcade original (there are two maps instead of three, graphics are more rudimentary, far less treasures are available to collect, and no music plays at all), it is still a decent effort and well worth putting in your Atari 2600 library.

PrinceWatercress plays Coconuts for Atari 2600 - The Longplay

...and now for a longplay of this game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Coconuts is a really simple one-screen game for the Atari 2600 from 1982. You play as jungle explorer Stanley I. Presume, and you have to move around to avoid coconuts thrown by a monkey at the top of the trees. That's it. That's the game. You move left and right with Left and Right on the joystick, and those are your only controls. By holding the stick in a direction, you move faster. The fire button is used to start the game and is used to start playing again when the monkey takes a break from throwing coconuts, which also allows you to take a breather for as long as you need. Stanley moves more quickly on B/Novice than he does on A/Expert. You have three points of protection: the umbrella on top of your hat, the hat on your head and your head itself. If you get hit on the head without any head protection, the game is over. If you reach 500 points, you'll recover the last piece of head protection that you lost, and you'll be able to do it again if you reach 1500 points, which can be pretty difficult to do. Points are awarded by dodging coconuts. You'll get five points at first, and that will slowly increase in five-point increments all the way up to twenty points.

It's a simple and fun game and there's not much to it, and what you see is what you get. This could have been considered a classic if it were released a couple of years earlier, but by 1982, there were much more complex games around, and by this point, you had a lot of the Atari classics such as Centipede and Missile Command, and even Nintendo's own Donkey Kong kicking around in the arcades. Still, if you're looking for a simple game for the Atari 2600, this one is a good place to start.