PrinceWatercress plays Super Mario Odyssey - Part 1 of 92

Hey, kids! Are you ready to spend hours upon hours collecting anything that isn't nailed down in an expansive game world while playing as Mario? Then this is the game for you!

Next | End

When you start a new game, you'll be allowed to start a normal game or a game with Assist Mode. If you play on Assist Mode, arrows will guide you to where you need to go, and you'll also start with six hit points instead of three (and get nine hit points with a Life Up Mushroom). You'll also get back into the game more quickly should you lose one of your infinite lives.

The game starts with Mario fighting Bowser, who looks like he is dressed for a wedding, aboard an airship above the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario gets his butt kicked and then launched into the stratosphere almost immediately, and Bowser stomps on Mario's hat before kidnapping Peach to forcefully marry her. Mario's hat flies off and gets ripped up by the rotors at the back of the airship, and a white, ghost-like character wearing a white top hat flies towards Mario's hat and grabs it.

Meanwhile, Mario ends up landing someplace completely different from where he was, with the ghost-like character near him. Use the right analog stick to move the camera around and center it on Mario, then press A or B to jump and wake Mario up. When Mario wakes up, the ghost-like character flees. Use the left analog stick to move around. You'll also be able to jump with A or B and move the camera with the right analog stick.

If you jump three consecutive times while running, you can perform a triple jump, just like in Super Mario 64. If you hold ZL or ZR and then jump while running, you can perform a long jump.

Follow the ghost-like character to the nearby hill, where he will then run away again, this time to the arch leading to the nearby village. Catch up with him at the arch, and he will stop running. The white, ghost-like character will admit that you startled him, then tell you what has happened: You've landed in the Cap Kingdom, which has also been under attack by Bowser. You'll also find out that Bowser has not only kidnapped Princess Peach, but also Tiara, the ghost-like character's little sister, who Peach was wearing like a crown in the beginning. He had hopes to go after Bowser, but Bowser has destroyed all of the Cap Kingdom's airships. He is certain that there is a functioning ship in the next kingdom over, but the top of Top-Hat Tower is being guarded by Bowser's henchman, who are flying over the tower in their own airship. He ends up teaming with Mario, and we finally learn the little guy's name: Cappy.

Cappy not imitates Mario's hat, but also acts as a weapon, which you can throw at enemies with X or Y. Holding the button for longer allows Cappy to spin for longer before he returns back to you like a boomerang. You can also tilt the Right Joycon forward to throw, and you can also throw Cappy in a circle by shaking the Right Joycon around. If you shake it upwards twice, you can throw the cap upwards, although I never find much of a use for that. For this Let's Play, the Pro Controller is used, but the same motion controls apply.

Cap Kingdom

Some of the citizens of the Cap Kingdom will say things when you just walk up to them, but if anyone has anything really important to say, the game will have you press A near them to talk to them.

By throwing your cap at certain things, you can sometimes get hidden coins out of them. Be sure to experiment.

Throwing your cap at wooden posts in the ground will remove them, and you can sometimes find hidden things that way. You can also pound posts down by jumping while directly above them and pressing ZL or ZR to perform a ground pound.

If you run in one direction, then immediately snap the left analog stick in the other direction and then jump while Mario is putting on the brakes, you can perform a side somersault. Just like all the other special moves I've mentioned, this one makes a return again, and you'll be needing it.

Sometimes going particular places will cause coins to suddenly appear. Some coins are invisible, and if you move or throw your hat to where they are, you can uncover them. Touching them in any way again will allow you to collect them.

You'll see posters plastered about announcing Bowser's marriage to Princess Peach. You can remove them with your hat, and sometimes, you'll be able to uncover things behind them, too.

Sometimes you'll see a group of flower buds in the ground. If you throw your hat at them, they become flowers, and if you get them all to bloom at once quickly enough before they turn back into flower buds, you can get something out of it. It will usually be a heart that will recover one of your hits points (which gives you ten coins if your health is full).

At the upper-left hand corner is your current amount of coins and your current amount of regional coins. Both are used for stores, but the regional coins are only good for the kingdom in which you've collected them. If you die and lose one of your infinite lives, you'll lose ten coins. (If you die without any coins in your possession, nothing happens. You'll get brought back, regardless.) At the upper-right corner is your current health, the compass which shows where you're looking (the needle) and where the camera is looking (the red part of the ring inside the compass). That corner will also tell you that the Plus button will bring up the menu (which pauses the game), and the Minus button will bring up the map (which you'll be using a lot, as it is part of a sub-menu that allows you to keep track of everything you have done in the game). The lower-left corner is used for the auto-save prompt whenever you've done so much as collect a useful in-game item to cause auto-save to kick in.

If you hold the left analog stick towards a while after jumping into it, you can then jump to perform a wall jump. If the walls are close enough to each other, you can wall jump your way to some place higher.

Pressing ZL or ZR while in mid-air allows you to do a ground pound. If you press B or Y in the middle of a ground pound, you can do a dive move. If you throw your hat in mid-air, do the ground pound and then quickly hold and press Y to do the dive, you can keep your hat in front of you so that when Mario dives towards his hat, he will bounce off it. You can also use the left analog stick to guide Mario towards the hat before the dive. You'll be needing that move for later.

Leaping into ledges lets you grab onto them. Tapping the left stick towards the ledge to pull Mario up; tapping away from the platform allows Mario to drop down.

One of the citizens of the Cap Kingdom will ask you if you know about the Action Guide. The Action Guide can be accessed by pressing Plus to enter the Pause menu, then using the left stick or the D-Pad in conjunction with the A button to select the Action Guide. This is where you can learn all of the controls for the game and even get a few useful hints at a glance.

Holding ZL or ZR lets Mario crouch. You can move while crouching to crawl. If you jump while crouching, you can perform a backflip.

Press A near signs when prompted to read them. They will usually give you gameplay hints, but they may tell you other important things.

By throwing your cap at a switch, you can move the switch and cause things to happen. The switch in front of Top-Hat Tower will bring up the bridge, which will cause Cappy to bring up its strange absence.

To beat the golden mini-Goombas, who act as your first enemies in the game, you can either jump on them or hit them with your hat. Enemies in this game will do contact damage in addition to actual attacks, much like in other games Mario has starred in.

To open the red door with the gold top hat on it, throw Cappy at it. This will cause the door to open (and also cause the game to auto-save).

If you spin the left analog spin fast enough, Mario will spin around. If you throw your hat while spinning, Cappy will spin around in a circle. Do this to hit all the flower buds near the entrance to Top-Hat Tower to get another Life Up Heart.

? blocks can be jumped into from below or ground pounded from above, but you can press and hold Y if they are on the ground to hit them multiple times. You can get a lot of coins that way.

The platforms in the water will sink if you're on them long enough, but if you keep running and jumping, that should not be much of a problem.

By throwing your hat at one of the frogs, instead of defeating it, you'll take control of the frog itself. Since this is your first time doing this, you'll get a trippy cutscene where Mario's physical form warps right into the frog and takes control of it (and gives it both a small Mario hat and a tiny black mustache at the same time). If you see a small, white top hat icon above something, you can throw your hat at it.

As the frog, you can move around faster by holding Y while moving around with the left stick, and you can press B to jump. Shaking the Right Joycon or Pro Controller will allow you to perform a high jump. If you go back to the start, you can get even more coins that are easy to miss. You can jump while on the surface of the water, too.

The gold hoops give you more coins if you coins.

The gold mini-Goombas won't be able to hurt you as a frog; you can even run into them to defeat them. If they touch you while you are standing still, however, you will take damage.

When you reach the red top hat door, Cappy will tell you to press ZL to return to normal. You can also press ZR. When you leave an enemy, they will be stunned, and if you change your mind, you can still throw your hat at them to possess them again before they come to and disappear in a puff of smoke.

To open a chest, throw your cap at it. The heart with the crown on it is a Life Up Heart, which gives you three extra hit points. You can refill any of the hits from the second set of hit points that you now have at any time by finding hearts, contrary to what I say here, but once you get knocked down to three hit points (six hit points in Assist Mode), you'll need to find another Life Up Heart to get those extra hit points back.

The black flag with the Bowser icon on it is a checkpoint. Run into it or hit it with your hat to turn it to a red flag with a Mario icon, which will activate the checkpoint.

By running up the slope against the wall, you'll reach the top of Top-Hat Tower and meet the Broodals, mercenaries who have been hired by Bowser to keep you from getting to Princess Peach. As soon as you get on the platform, you'll face Topper.

Throw your hat at Topper to remove all of his hats, then avoids hit hates as you chase him down and jump on his head. After the first hit, Topper will disappear. Throw your hat at the three green hats spinning around. The last one that remains will be topped. Throw your hat at him to remove all his hats again, then jump on his head. After two hits, he will be gone.

You'll then see a power line in the center of the platform. Jump up and throw your hat at the power line, then press Up on the left analog stick to travel across the power line and get the title logo on the way to the Cascade Kingdom.

Cascade Kingdom

When you reach the Cascade Kingdom, Mario will shoot out of the powerline and land on the ground with a faceplant. Cappy will then introduces Mario to the Cascade Kingdom. From here, you'll need to find a working airship.

PrinceWatercress plays Metal Force - Part 1 of 7

I've seen this one from time to time, but I've never played it. Time to fix that.

Next | End

Believe it or not, this game was made in South Korea, which I know more for PC games and the Pump It Up series by Andamiro than I do for console games (even though I've played the first three Super Boy games from Zemina, which was also from South Korea).

I later found out halfway through making this Let's Play that the game was not released for the South Korean version of the NES, also known as the Hyundai Comboy; the game was only ever released on the Famicom. Nevertheless, I do cover Samsung exporting all the Sega systems up to and including the Sega Saturn to South Korea and Hyundai doing the same for the Nintendo consoles up to and including the Nintendo 64.

Mission 1: Space Colony

Left and Right let you move left and right, Down ducks, B attacks and A jumps.

Some enemies will give you power-ups in the form of domes with spinning objects. The dome with the spinning chip will switch between the default wave attack and the boomerang attack. The wave travels to the end of the screen, but the boomerang has less range as the expense of being able to return to you after being thrown. The dome with the pill in refills 50% of your energy, which is at the top center of the screen. The dome with the lightning in it increases the amount of projectiles you can have on-screen at a time, up to four. The dome with "1UP" in it is an extra life. The dome with what looks like a bamboo rod in it is a continue that you can use in case you lose all of your lives. You can see how many weapon power-ups, lives and continues you have by pausing with the Start button. 

Landing in spikes will cause you to lose half of a full health bar, so don't do it.

The orb enemies will shoot at you if you get close enough to them, and they are only vulnerable when they open up to shoot a bullet, so you'll want to be fast and shoot them. The humanoid enemies will jump at you for a flying kick or slide if you get close enough to them, so you'll want to hit them from a distance. Enemies have a brief period of invincibility when you hit them, but once you get used to the timing on the invincibility, you can easily take them out. 

The boxes with the X on them contain power-ups, all of which we've mentioned earlier.

When you go down after the start, head to the right for an extra life.

To climb a ladder, jump into it, then press Up or Down to grab on. Up and Down will allow you to climb the ladder up and down, respectively. Unlike the Mega Man games, you cannot attack while on a ladder.

The orb that keeps opening its mouth will slowly fly towards you, but it goes down in one hit. The robot enemy that stays still and blocks your shots with its shield will let down the shield and open up to shoot a bullet at you if you get close enough, and it is only vulnerable when it is open.

The white-and-orange discs are platforms that will whisk you away in a certain direction if you land on it. These platforms will be able to take you to places you normally wouldn't be able to go.

The small things that look like robot heads are fall-away platforms. You've seen one at the start, but you'll see more here. Be careful when on them, as you do not want to fall into spikes. They can come at you from seemingly out of nowhere, so be ready to hit them, especially when some of them can contain health or extra lives.

The tanks take two hits to defeat, and as they move back and forth, they will turn towards you and fire at you at regular intervals. 

The domes with the two laser cannons that move across the ceiling will fire lasers downward if it is next to you. Once the lasers are out of the way, immediately move past it so you don't get shot.

The spinning spiked cylinders move up and down and cannot be destroyed; like all enemies, they can do contact damage if you run into them.

Near the end of the level, take the platform on the right so you don't have to deal with the spike pit below.

Each level has an end boss, and your first boss is this robot that looks like a Mouser from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Keep away from it, and when it stops to open its mouth, shoot at it as you jump over the projectiles and use the platforms above the floor to your advantage. After attacking twice, the boss will briefly move faster before returning to its regular speed. Once you know how it moves around, it's a pretty easy boss.

PrinceWatercress plays Power Strike II (Master System) - Part 1 of 8

After playing GG Aleste, I had to play my way through another one of these games, and thankfully, I was able to do just that.

Next | End

Note: this version of Power Strike II is its own game, while the Game Gear version is the Western version of GG Aleste 2. 

In the early 1930's....people have lived in poverty since the Great Depression in 1929. Being laid off from their job, a great amount of pilots become the sky pirates to survive...the sea and the sky near Italy have been plundered by them. 

You play as a pothunter who earns his living by shooting down those poor pirates. It's time to start today's work.

When you start the game, you can select one of seven weapon types. You can start with the default weapon (Shell Up, aka Type 0), but you can also start with one of the other six weapon types, as well. 

Shotgun (Type 1) covers a wide angle forward, but the shots will get further apart the more it travels forward and spreads out.

Missile (Type 2) shoots missiles out from the sides. They can be powerful, and they also home in on enemies, but they can leave you wide open forward and behind, especially.

Burner (Type 3) shoots a flame thrower forward, but you have to move around for it to be truly effective. If you get Spin Shields, the first two that you get will become options with flamethrowers, then you'll start getting shields.

Absorption (Type 4) is a homing shot. The tracking isn't perfect, but it can help do damage to multiple opponents at once while you focus on one. However, being lined up with an enemy still does the most damage.

Destroyer (Type 5) shoots forward two missiles from each side, and those missiles shoot out quickly to the front and sides. It has the weakness of spreading out much like the Shotgun.

Napalm (Type 6) brings out two massive explosions. They destroy anything they touch, but the range is limited.

I stick to Absorption throughout my Let's Play.

Continue lets you continue in case you lost all of your lives, assuming you haven't reset the console or turned the power off.

Options lets you play around with the sound test, change the player speed (1 is the slowest, 4 is the fastest), turn the option to pause/unpause the game when you press Button 2 on or off, and Rank lets you switch from five difficulty settings, with 1 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest. I keep P. Speed at 1, keep Trigger Pause off, and play at the default Rank of 2.

Stage 1

The D-Pad lets you fly around in eight directions. Button 1 fires, while Button 2 (which I never mess with), selects special weapons, changes flight speed and pauses the game when Trigger Pause is on.

The yellow tabs with the P on them that are dropped when the grey tabs with the P was shot are Power Pods. You can also get these for shooting down certain groups of enemies. These will increase the strength of your default shot as well as your special weapons.

The robot carrying the numbers gives you special weapons. Different numbers will give you different special weapons, which were mentioned earlier.

The red, blue and yellow crystals are Spin Shields. They not only protect you from enemy fire - which is a good thing, since one hit will cost you a life - but they also have different properties depending ont he color. Red increases your standard gun's power, blue gives you piercing shots, and yellow fans out the standard gun's shot. (If you have the Burner special weapon, the first two Spin Shields you pick up will be Options that also shoot the Burner weapon. Once you get the two Options, you can then pick up and obtain Spin Shields for your own use). They do disappear after taking enough abuse, so pay attention.

For best results when fighting enemies, line yourself up with them and fire. You'll do so much more damage if you use your standard guns along with your special weapon than if you let the special weapon do all of the work. This is especially true of some of the enemies, such as the gold spiked balloons, the turrets, the rocks that come out of the volcanoes that will suddenly sprout out of the ocean, and some of the planes that take more damage to destroy than others.

The bubble with the light blue starburst in it is a screen-clearing bomb that will take out any and all enemies currently on-screen.

You can shoot down the light blue projectiles that are fired by enemies, but you'll need Spin Shields to protect yourself from the red and gold shots. 

The boss here is a giant fish plane. Stay back and to the side to avoid it when it dives, and keep on shooting. Watch out for that red multi-way shot, as you cannot destroy it and only Spin Shields can protect you from it. Thankfully, you can shoot down the massive amount of missiles that it tries to blast you with.

You'll always want to hold down Button 1 at all times so you can be ready to shoot. If you power yourself up enough, you can let go of Button 1 to let out a super shot. It does a lot of damage, but lasts for only a brief instant, and it takes a while for it to charge back up. I usually save it for bosses.

PrinceWatercress plays Dragon Fighter - Part 1 of 6

I've seen this game a couple of times, and now I've gotten the chance to play through it myself. Looks like a game that would feature on Nick Arcade, although it actually didn't.

Next | End

Eons before, when the elders were still children, the fabled land of Baljing was home to a cheerful and trusting race. The Baljing people were generous and looked after each other throughout their lives. Everyone prospered, and hunger and homelessness were unknown. The great Dragon Spirit that protected and nurtured this land was so pleased with this enlightened attitude that it presented them with a splendid dragon statue for their town square. The word of the wondrous statue, and rumors of its magical properties, spread to other kingdoms, and its fame soon established it as the very symbol of Baljing.

Now to the north of Baljing, high atop Mount Gia, there lived an envious and malicious warlock named Zabbaong. And it came to pass that Zabbaong was jealous of the thriving community, since he governed only the monsters and worthless wretches who inhabited Mount Gia and its surrounding area. Nothing but evil reigned in Zabbaong's domain.

Spurred on by his jealous hatred and malevolent passion, Zabbaong and his monstrous armies attacked Baljing and set the city ablaze. Many lives were lost and the land was left in ruin. All hope was gone, and despair settled upon the inhabitants of Baljing. Enraged by Zabbaong's attack, the Dragon Spirit filled the skies with dark and foreboding storm clouds.

Through the thick, black clouds, the Dragon Spirit sent a gigantic lightning bolt to strike the legendary statue in the town square. Wondrously, the statue was transformed into a great warrior who began to strike back at Zabbaong's murderous hordes. In response, the warlock's armies retreated fearfully back to Mt. Gia with the warrior in hot pursuit, determined to vanquish all its evil forces. YOU are that valiant warrior, and your mission is to defeat Zabbaong's sinister crew, stop his reign of terror, and return Baljing to the protection of the great Dragon Spirit.

Stage 1

Left and Right moves left and right, Down ducks, A jumps and B attacks. If you hold B, you'll be able to charge up a fireball that you can then toss at enemies, but you'll have to hold the button down for a few seconds before you can let the fireball loose.

There are two gauges in the upper-left corner. The top one is your health, and it's pretty small (for now). The bottom one is your Dragon Energy. You'll need to find blue jars to fill up your health whenever you get hit. As for the Dragon Energy, you'll fill it up as you defeat enemies. 

There are two enemies prevalent in this stage. There are the green beasts that will run around, jump around and throw the occasional snowball at you. Sometimes they will take one hit, while other times, they will take two. There are also the snowballs that come down from the top of the screen and slowly home in on you in a stop-start fashion. While the green beasts will fill up the Dragon Energy meter, the snowflakes do not.

Your best bet to go through this stage without dying is to rely more on your sword and only attack with the fireball from far-range. You only have three continues to beat the game with, and when you lose them all, it's back to the beginning for you.

The boss is a white creature similiar to the green ones that you've faced the entire stage. He will spawn green enemies, jump high in the air and roll into a snowball while creating projectiles that get knocked upwards into the air that you'll also want to avoid. If you press Select when your Dragon Energy gauge is flashing, you'll turn into a dragon, and your Dragon Energy will slowly decrease. While in dragon form, you can fly in any direction with the D-Pad while shooting out projectiles with B, and you'll want to hammer the boss with a ton of projectiles to take him and his minions down. Charging up your attack also gives you a more powerful attack, and in this face, you'll shoot out a three-way shot.

Usually, while in dragon form, the game turns from a platformer into a shooter, and you'll move to the right automatically, but if you're fighting the boss, the screen doesn't move at all, as you've reached the end of the area. As a result, I usually save the Dragon Energy for the end.

When you beat a boss, they will drop a sorcerer's staff. Picking it up will increase your health, making it easier to survive...if you can fight the enemy!

PrinceWatercress plays Brave Fencer Musashi - Part 1 of 33

After so long, I finally play this one in time for Let's Play #400.

Next | End

The game begins with Princess Fillet, Steward Ribson and Butler Livers. escaping deep into the castle to the Binchotite Crystal, which is larger than usual. Alchemist Leanman tells the Princess she must perform "Hero Summon." Scribe Shanky is also there, waiting to meet Brave Fencer Musashi.

The Princess successfully casts the spell, and everyone is disappointed that Musashi is not who they expected him to be. Musashi is asked to go to Spiral Tower to get Lumina before the enemy does. Musashi gets a samurai's blade known as Fusion. When it pierces an enemy, it absorbs and assimilates an enemy's power. You'll also get Lumina's sheath, which you'll need for Lumina.

Chapter 1: The Journey Begins

The controls are pretty simple. Press X to jump and Square to swing Fusion. If you hit an enemy, keep mashing Square and you'll be able to perform a four hit combo with it. Sometimes you can stun enemies, too. If you press Square while you're right on top of an enemy while it's stunned, you can pick them up and carry them around. Press Square again to throw the enemy forwards. Any enemies in the trajectory of the throw will also be bowled over.

As you fight enemies, you'll be able to pick up items. Coins will give you money, which are known as Drans in game. The larger the coin, the more it's worth. Hearts will restore some of your health, while the translucent yellow spheres will refill your Bincho Points, or BP. This is used for the abilities that you absorb from enemies with Fusion.

Your path will be blocked by three rocks. Move into the center rock and use the Control Pad to push it out of the way.

Watch out with some of the traps that the enemy soldiers have. Jump over the column lying on the ground that the three soldier push towards you, and keep going forward when the soldiers push the columns to your right down in an attempt to flatten you when you're near the end.

You'll come across a stream that's too wide to jump over. You'll soon learn the Assimilate ability at this point. To use it, hold R1 until the speed gauge at the lower-left corner of the screen is full, and press Square when you're facing the enemy you want to assimilate the ability of. While holding R1, you'll block, and you'll be able to protect yourself as long as you do so. Keep tapping Square repeatedly after the sword makes its mark, and you'll soon get the ability when the lower-left gauge is run. Here, you'll practice this against a blue soldier, who gives you the Gunshot ability when you assimilate him. Use Gunshot to hit the logs at the other end of the stream, and you'll knock the logs down to form a bridge. Strike the statue that blocks your path soon afterward with your sword to get rid of it.

If you go back to use Assimilate on the flower enemies, you'll get Perfume, which reduces damage taken. I believe this is the only time you can get Perfume in the entire game. Absorbing a red soldier will net you the Stun ability, which we'll be able to use later. It lets you stun an enemy in front of you temporarily.

If you see a red glow after hitting an enemy, you just scored a critical hit. Critical hits do more damage than regular hits.

You'll soon be at Spiral Tower, but there's no tower. Destroy the four statues surrounding the perimeter, and avoid being shot at by the rotating statue in the center. When you destroy a statue, a floor switch will be uncovered. Step on all four of them to make Spiral Tower rise up.

Now that Spiral Tower has risen from the water, it's time to go up the tower. Hug the tower wall and keep heading to the right, and avoid the rolling wheels that come down the hill to squash you. They'll alternate from one side of the spiral pathway to the other, and even though the camera pans upward as you run up the path, you'll still be able to dodge them without a hitch.

You'll eventually find the entrance to the tower at the top. Go in.

When you enter the tower, you'll get another hint: "When the Guardian Flame is blanketed with darkness, a light will lead you above." To do this, climb up the spiral path. You'll eventually see a bell above a flame, and Musashi will get the idea of covering the fire with the bell to put it out.

Aside from the soldiers, you'll also see bats fly at you in groups of three. When they come at you, strike them with your sword. They leave plenty of power-ups, especially money that you'll really need.

Use the Gunshot ability to shoot at the rope near the door at the top. To do that, just face the rope and press Circle to use Gunshot. This will cause the bell to drop onto the flame, and cause light to flood the inside of the tower. The doors that were blocking your path earlier will now open for you. Step into the light, and you'll be teleported to the top of the tower.

Now that you're at the top, all you have to do now is to get Lumina. There's just one problem: that stone head that you had to deal with earlier is here at the top of the tower, and this time the jewel on its forehead has formed a barrier that protects Lumina. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of red soldiers with swords are pouring out of the doors.

There is a plate in front of Lumina, and if you stand on it, the barrier surrounding Lumina will disappear. Of course, when you step off, the barrier is reformed. You'll have to get one of the enemies to do the work. To do that, hold R1 and press Square when you're facing one of the red soldiers. When the sword latches on, keep mashing the Square button to get the Stun ability. Stun one of the soldiers, then move them onto the plate and get Lumina before the soldier you stunned comes to. Lumina is now yours.

Of course, when you do that, the stone head will have a mind of its own and shoot its eye beams at the platform leading to Lumina, blowing all the soldiers away in the process and causing Musashi to fall. This causes the stone head to topple down the side of the tower, causing Musashi to run down the side of the tower away from it. Jump when Musashi gives you the prompt to do so, and you'll be back at the bottom of the tower...but the stone head will still roll towards you!

At this point, dodge any boulders that are in your way, and jump over the pillars in the ground when you see them. Don't worry about the soldiers, as they'll try in vain to run faster than you when they see the stone head coming their way. Near the end, you'll get one last prompt from Musashi to jump. Do it so you can clear the stream. At the end, you'll reach a doorway in a wall that the stone head can't break through. You'll be back at Allucaneet (pronounced "All you can eat") Castle.

When you enter the castle, you'll find Princess Fillet...but a man in an iron mask is holding her hostage! This is Rootrick, and he wants Lumina in exchange for the Princess. Musashi isn't going for this, and when he advances towards Rootrick, a flame trap drops from the ceiling, surrounding Musashi with flames. The Princess tells you to use Lumina. This leads to a tutorial on Lumina Rotation.

To use Lumina Rotation, hold R1 until the gauge on the lower-left is full. Keep R1 held down after this and press Triangle, which is the button you'll be pressing to use Lumina. This will cause Musashi to spin around with Lumina in front of his, taking out anything or anyone near him. If this attack reminds you of the spinning sword attack from the Zelda games, give yourself a pat on the back because I'm pretty sure this is what it's lifted from.

By performing the Lumina Rotation, Musashi is able to extinguish the flames, but Rootrick knocks Princess Fillet out and teleports away with her. You'll then fight your first boss of the game: the Steam Knight, which stomps through the roof of the throne room and lands a couple of yards away from Musashi.

Thirstquencher Empire

Steam Knight

You may remember this as the Easy Mode mission on the demo version for this game.

When you fight the Steam Knight, you'll see arrows pointing at the legs of the Steam Knight. Wait for the steam to stop coming out of the legs, then pound on the legs with Fusion. When the steam stops shooting out, however, you'll have to deal with the ball and chain that the Steam Knight swings at you, which homes in on your current position at the time it throws it out. Stay on the move and this won't hurt you.

Sometimes, you'll see chandeliers come down during the battle as the Steam Knight attacks with the ball and chain. Stay away from them so they don't fall on you.

If you need to, press the Triangle button to swing Lumina and do some more damage. Unlike Fusion, a short, thin blade that has fast strikes and can lead to combos that do wicked amounts of damage, Lumina is a large sword that just does one vertical strike and has no opportunities for combos. However, since you can perform Lumina Rotation to deal even more damage (and on multiple nearby enemies, at that), the sword's not all bad, so using both swords is essential for beating the Steam Knight as well as the entire game.

As you do damage to the legs, the legs will show wear and tear. When you complete destroy one of the legs, the Steam Knight will then be temporarily stunned. Tear off the flag underneath the torso by attacking it, and you'll expose the Bincho Crystal in its core. While it's exposed, attack it repeatedly with Lumina until the Steam Knight gets back up. This will cause the Steam Knight's life bar to go down. From here, you'll have to use the same strategies of waiting for the steam to subside and avoiding the ball and chain before attacking the other leg. Remember that the steam will damage you and knock you into the air if you run into it.

The Steam Knight can also shoot out fire that can turn into a flame ring when it hits the ground around you, similar to the one you extinguished when you confronted Rootrick. Like last time, use Lumina Rotation to put it out. You'll have to be faster than last time, though, as the ring of flames will soon try to converge on you and damage you if you can't perform it in time.

When the Steam Knight's life bar is emptied, it will be knocked to the other end of the throne room, unable to move. Go up to the center of the Steam Knight (where you attacked the Bincho Crystal) and pick it up with the Square button. Press Square again to toss the Steam Knight through the wall. This starts the second part of the fight.

Stay away from the Steam Knight after you throw it into the wall, as it will crush you while turning around and exposing its other two legs. From here, you'll be using the same strategies to fight the Steam Knight once again, but this time you have the additional dangers of falling pillars, as the Steam Knight will attack them with its ball and chain, causing the pillars to come down and potentially squash you if you're under them before they land. The Steam Knight can also grab them and throw them at you, but the Steam Knight lifts it up for a moment before tossing it, giving you enough time to run to the other side of the path to avoid them.

When you destroy the other two legs, you'll be able to toss the Steam Knight the same way you tossed it out of the throne room.

For the third part of the boss battle, stay away from the Steam Knight's shadow when the Steam Knight jumps around so you don't get squashed. Whenever its Bincho Crystal is exposed, strike the crystal. You'll still be avoiding the ball and chain attacks from the first two rounds. Use Lumina to do more damage per strike.

When you beat the Steam Knight this time, it'll be for good. The ball from the ball and chain will come off, and after the Steam Knight is thrown through the town wall, Musashi will crush the steam knight with the ball to destroy it once and for all. Musashi then falls asleep as he wonders where Rootrick took Princess Fillet.

PrinceWatercress plays Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - Part 1 of 28

It's been a while since I played the first game. Might as well play the sequel!

Next | End

The story begins after the bad ending in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain takes place. Kain is now in control of Nosgoth, which is in a horrible state. We are introduced to Raziel, the first-born of Kain's vampire lieutenants, who we'll be playing as. One day, Raziel reveals newly-grown wings while in front of Kain, who immediately decides to tear them apart before throwing Raziel in the Lake of the Dead as punishing for surpassing him in vampiric ability. Raziel is destroyed by the whirlpool, but he is resurrected as a wraith by The Elder God and made his "Soul Reaver."

The Elder God tells Raziel that he must kill Kain and avenge his own death, and to do that, he must also destroy his brothers. The Elder God controls the Wheel of Fate, a cycle of reincarnation of souls that circle the Wheel in a loop of fate. Since vampires are immortal, however, their souls do not spin with the wheel, and as the Wheel stalls and is unable to spin, the land of Nosgoth falls further into decay. By killing his brothers as well as Kain himself, the Wheel of Fate will be able to spin again and fend off the decay of Nosgoth. Along with that, Raziel will be able to avenge his own death.

Unlike the first game, this game is entirely in 3D and works much like the usual 3D platformer of the day. The D-Pad moves around, X jumps and Square attacks. Circle lets you absorb souls (more on that later. R1 lets you sneak while moving. R1 and R2 together allow you to go into first-person mode and look around with the D-Pad while the buttons are held. Select lets you select spells, while Start pauses and also allows you to save the game.

By following the path in front of you, you'll run into the first of many gates in the game. You'll want to find and activate all of the gates in the game, as they will allow you to go from one place to another quickly and easily. Just stand on the plate in front of the arch, and you'll activate the gate. You can press Square to engage the gate, but this is the first one you've found so far, and you won't be able to teleport anywhere else...yet. You can see the other gates by pressing Left and Right, but you won't be able to enter them with Up because you haven't activated all the other gates yet. Pressing Square again lets you exit.

Beyond the gate, you'll learn the game's controls. You'll find out that instead of hungering for blood, you will now be requiring souls for sustenance. Whenever you see a green light flying around, you can hold the Circle button to attract the soul towards yourself and then absorb it, refilling the spiral gauge in the lower-right corner. 

When you fill up your health gauge (or what passes for one), the barrier beyond the soul fountain opens, and you'll be able to continue on. You'll then learn to jump with the X button. If you jump into a ledge, Raziel will grab on, and you can pull yourself up with Up on the D-Pad or drop down with Down.

Holding L1 lets you crouch, and if you jump while crouching, you'll be able to perform a high jump, which lets you perform a jump straight up into the air that is higher than your normal one. This will let you grab some ledges that your normal jump will not allow you to reach. If you move while holding L1, you can do a duck walk, but enemies can still notice you, so it's better to sneak with R1.

Pressing X a second time and holding it while in mid-air allows you to glide. From there, you can use the D-Pad to control yourself as you slowly descend, if you need to.

You'll then learn to fight. Holding R1 while facing an enemy will allow you to focus on them. From there, you can beat them up with the Square button. You can also dodge by pressing X while moving in any direction as you hold R1. The two enemies here are lost souls who cannot find rest, and you'll need to hit them until they turn transparent, which will cause them to run away from you. From there, you can hold the Circle button to absorb them and their souls, which in turn will refill your energy.

The blue lights on the ground are portals that take you from the spectral realm, where you are now, to the material realm, which is the land of the living. When your energy gauge is glowing, it is completely filled. When your energy gauge is completely filled, press Select while standing on one of these blue lights, then use the one spell that is available to you by moving it to the center with Left and Right on the D-Pad and pressing the Square button to cast it. This will bring you to the material realm.

When this happens, your gauge will go from straight and angular twists to a perfect, circular spiral. The gauge will then slowly trickly down as time passes, but that will change later in the game. Until then, keep beating down enemies and maintain your strength.

Your energy bar not only goes down from the passage of time, but also from taking too much damage from enemies or hazards. If you lose all your energy, you'll be kicked back to the spirit realm, and you'll need to refill your energy back to full in order to return to the material realm. Some hazards, such as water, will outright kill you and send you back to the spirit realm. You'll want to avoid going completely into deep water. Thankfully, you don't die in this game. Water will have no effect on you while in the spirit realm, and you'll be able to move around in like on dry land.

You'll soon run into vampire-like creatures that are the children of Dumah, one of your brethren and one of Kain's vampire lieutenants, feasting on a corpse. You'll need to defeat them like you did the undead enemies from earlier, but fighting enemies in the material realm is a bit different. The controls are the same, but this time, you'll need to beat them up until they are stunned, then you'll need to do something to kill them.

There are multiple ways to kill stunned enemies. The first is by impaling them with something such as a pole weapon. If you can grab a pole weapon, you can fight with it, and then press Triangle in front of a stunned enemy to impale them. When an enemy is dead, you must feed on their soul with the Circle button, or else they will be revived and you'll have to fight them again. You won't be seeing this until a little bit later, 

You can also throw them into things such as water, fire, sunlight or sharp objects protruding from the wall. To do this, beat up an enemy until they are stunned, then you must hold Triangle to pick them up. Keep holding Triangle to keep them above your head, then release the Triangle button after facing something that will kill the opponent. From there, you can absorb their soul with Circle to feed on their soul and regain strength. You must be unarmed in order to pick up and throw stunned enemies.

As you fight enemies, they do show wear and tear and start getting bloodied, which I find a nice touch for a game from the late 1990s. 

Sometimes, you will be able to move blocks. To move a block, walk up to one and hold Square. Raziel wlll dig his claws into them. While holding Square, use Up, Down, Left and Right on the D-Pad to drag the block around. There will be times when you will have to move blocks around to get to other places. You can only move blocks in the material realm; blocks will be frozen in place in the spiritual realm.

This is where learning to use first-person view mode will come in handy for the first time; as a matter of fact, you'll be using it everywhere you go just to see where you can go. It's up to you to figure out how to get there.

You'll soon reach the outside world, and you'll find out that Nosgoth is truly in ruins and that centuries have passed since Kain killed him. The Elder God then explains the events at the end of Blood Omen where Kain condemned Nosgoth to doom and destruction by destroying the Pillars of Nosgoth instead of sacrificing himself to restore them. It will be up to us to change things...

PrinceWatercress plays Desert Speedtrap Starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (SMS) (Normal) - Part 1 of 6

I finally played a Road Runner game! And it's not crap!

Next | End

Yep, it's a Road Runner game. Thankfully, I had plenty of fun with this one, and I found it somewhat playable, unlike Death Valley Rally.

Left and Right move left and right, Down lets you duck, Button 1 pecks and Button 2 jumps. If you move left or right for long enough, which isn't long, you'll pick up speed and go fast.

Level 1: Cliffs and Ledges

You'll need to collect stars for more points when you get to the exit.

You'll have four hit points, which are shown in the upper-left corner. Pecking at birdseed allows you to refill health, and the bigger the pile of birdseed, the more you'll need to pick and the more health you'll get back. Some of the birdseed plates act as checkpoints signified by checkered flag signs with the Road Runner head on them, while others act as traps that shake the screen and cost you two of your hit points. 

You'll also have a timer in the lower-left corner. Collecting stars will add to the timer for each one, but you'll need to collect a lot at one time to really add a good amount of time back to the timer.

By moving left or right for long enough, you'll be able to pick up speed. This will allows you to more easily avoid swaths of hazards, including man-eating plants, water that will slow you down, and other things.

The water dripping from the stalactites will damage you.

The buzzards will lower towards you when you get close enough to them.

Watch the arrow signs. They will tell you where to go next...and there's a lot of them.

Crabs can be jumped on, but watch out for their projectiles. The robots near the teleporters will try to shock you if you get close enough to them.

The teleporters take you to bonus areas where you can get a ton of stars. There are 250 stars in a level, and if you collect them all, you'll get a nice score bonus at the end. You'll only be in these areas for so long before you're forcefully teleported back out again, so make an effort to get everything in these areas. Also, while you're in them, time will stop until you teleport out.

Enemies will drop pick-ups that float upwards into the air when you defeat them. Pick-ups include rockets that will cause you to speed up a bit (which I end up avoiding because the extra speed can become a bit of a headache), score multipliers that multiply your end-of-level point bonus by ten, halos that give you temporary invincibility and clocks that add 30 seconds to the level timer.

At the end of every level, you'll have to dodge Wile E. Coyote as you get to the exit sign. For the first two levels, Wile E. Coyote will be flying around on a rocket, and you'll need to pay attention to where he comes in from on both sides of the screen and jump and duck and avoid accordingly.

When you beat a level, you'll get a level bonus (which increased with each level cleared), a superstar bonus (which you only get for collecting all 250 stars in a level) and a time bonus for each second left on the clock. If you picked up the 10x bonus multiplier, it will be applied after all the points are tallied up. Sadly, you cannot get extra lives off of points.

You do get your health refilled upon completing a level. Take advantage of that.

Level 2: Cliff Chase

Go down at the start of the level for a teleporter to a bonus area. Be sure to get the halo from the nearby robot. The top path is the way to go in this area, but don't forget to go down, especially when you don't have to, for stars. There's a ton that you can run through for a good amount of bonus time near the end.

Be careful jumping to the exit when you see Wile E. Coyote, as you do suffer knockback whenever you get hit.

PrinceWatercress plays Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics (Genesis) - Part 1 of 4

I've seen this game so often on TASVideos that I thought giving it a try and playing it for the Internet would be a swell idea.

Spoiler alert: NOPE!

Next | End

This game is based on Tom and Jerry: The Movie from 1993. The 8-bit Sega versions on Master System and Game Gear were actually called "The Movie," but they were not based on the movie, and were named such just to get more people to buy the game. After that, the movie tanked. The Game Boy and Sega Genesis versions were released after this happened. The movie was so bad that they had to change the subtitle from "The Movie" to "Frantic Antics" to - whaddya know - get more people to buy the game, this time without being reminded of the movie. 

One-player mode alternates between characters when necessary, while two-player mode allows Player 1 to be Tom and Player 2 to be Jerry on the same screen. Two-player mode is a lot more chaotic, but I sadly won't be able to play that, so one-player mode it is.

The Street

Get back home! But watch out for Spike!

Left and Right let you move left and right, while Down ducks. A lets you run when held, B lets you jump and C lets you throw certain objects that can be used as weapons. If you don't have any weapons, you have to press Down while moving to perform a rolling attack, as jumping on enemies does not work and also damages you. You're going to perform the rolling attack a lot, and I'm just going to get it out of the way now: the attack absolutely sucks, and I'm going to explain why later.

At the bottom is the HUD. You have your current amount of lives, followed by the current amount of time and energy, followed by the heart that indicates the current amount of lives you have. Tom picks up fish, while Jerry picks up cheese. The amount you have will be noted at the bottom of the screen. If you pick up 100, you'll get an extra life. Also, picking up the fish or the cheese will net you a slight amount of energy, but if you're getting hit a lot, it doesn't always help. If you pick up a big fish or big cheese, you'll get a lot more health, and you'll add to that collectibles total by ten. Don't expect to find those often, though.

You'll be seeing a lot of the rat enemies carrying shotguns, commandeering mopeds or riding tricycles. Other enemies include grandmothers who shoot their false teeth at you and fire hydrants that spray water at you.

Footballs can be thrown as weapon at enemies. Just remember that you only have a limited amount of them if you grab one.

If you lose a life, either by falling into a pit, running out of time or losing all your health, you'll get a nifty animation of Tom or Jerry becoming an angel and flying upwards. You also get sent back to the beginning of the level, since the game doesn't believe in checkpoints. This makes the later levels even tougher than they should be.

You'll see the dog near the end, and you can tell it is there just from the white picket fence. Make a running jump over Spike the Dog - who doesn't even look like Spike from the cartoons - to get to the end of the level.

Press Start to get past the end of level message.

Living Room

Find Jerry before the house falls down!

The owners of the house have moved and left Tom and Jerry behind, and now the house is strangely set for demolition for whatever reason. The wrecking balls will instantly kill you if they hit you, so you'll need to jump over them.

Interestingly, the falling debris does not damage you, and is just there for show.

Enemies include bowling balls, birds flying around, falling chandeliers, falling pots, TV sets that explode, angry vacuum cleaners. The falling debris actually does not hurt you.

The cookie pieces will give you an extra life if you collect four pieces in a level. The hearts will also give you extra lives. 

You can slide down the bannisters by jumping on them, but watch out for enemies. Couches can launch you into the air if you jump on them.

There are some walls that you can jump through to find hidden power-ups. 

Some of the shelves break when you land on them.

The light bulbs are the throwable objects for this level, although they can be hard to notice

Sometimes, when you pick things up, you might get two of that thing instead of one every so often. This happens completely at random, and there is no explanation as to why except for a lack of quality control. As a matter of fact, I end up getting two lives from collecting the heart in the same place part of the time, which is interesting, because I should not have been getting such a net gain while dying so many times in this stage.

Speaking of a lack of quality control, sometimes when you roll into an enemy or a hazard that can be destroyed, you can sometimes lose more energy from attacking an enemy with a rolling attack than just by running into them, and if you don't have enough energy, you die. The game has weird collision detection that is so bad that it causes you to get two of an item and also causes cheap deaths from out of nowhere. Because of that, the rolling attack is complete garbage and the game makes it so that doing it is a gamble for basically no reason, which makes it all the more surprising that I beat this game for the Internet. Jesus Christ.

Finally, you'll reach Jerry, and you'll head to The Alley.

PrinceWatercress plays The Blues Brothers (SNES) - Part 1 of 7

Hey, a Blues Brothers game! This game was as every bit as interesting as I expected it to be.

Next | End

This is a game that I've seen time and again on YouTube for years, and I've decided to take this game on myself. Interestingly, I didn't have as bad of a time as I thought I would, and I ended up completing it.

Stage 1

When you start the game, you can select between Elwood (the taller, thinner brother) or Jake (the shorter, rounder brother). Elwood runs faster, but Jake jumps higher. If you select both characters, Player 1 will be Elwood and Player 2 will be Jake. 

At the top of the screen is your HUD. The amount of records you have will be up there, and it will be different at the start of every level. By throwing records, you can defeat enemies. You'll also have your current amount of lives and health in the HUD. There is also a time limit, and you'll lose a life if you run out of time before completing a stage. You have three continues in case you lose all your lives, so be careful.

Left and Right move left and Right, Down ducks. Down-Left and Down-Right let you crawl. Y runs, B jumps, and A and X throw records. If you hold the throw button down, the picture of the record in the HUD will spin, and at the cost of five records, you can throw a super-charged record that can go through enemies and give you a more powerful attack. Collect more records to get more ammo. You'll need them to get past the bug enemies in this stage.

While running, you'll be a little more slippery than usual.

The red note is a checkpoint; grabbing one keeps you from starting the stage from the beginning when you die. The small red jukebox gives you temporary invincibility.

Spikes do not kill you upon contact, but they do take a lot of health away, so stay off of them.

For this stage, you'll need to avoid the spikes and the spinning spiked balls while jumping from platform to platform. Some of the platforms swing back and forth, but others spin in a complete circle. There are some stationary ones, and you don't want to dilly-dally on those as some of them will fall if you're on them for too long. You'll also need to take out the bugs, which fly in a circle at first and then track you when you get close enough. They only take one hit to kill.

The big gold jukebox is the goal. Touch it to clear the stage.

Stage 2

The mushrooms act as trampolines when you jump on them.

The cars take a few hits with the records to defeat, but a charged-up attack takes them down in one shot.

The cakes make your character super-buff and give them an extra hit. This extra hit keeps you from losing health, and can be quite useful. You can only have one extra hit at a time.

The small hearts refill one heart on your health, and the Blues Brothers dolls will give you extra lives. You'll need to be big to get the extra life here.

Stage 3

The snails take two records to defeat. 

The bear traps require you to duck to hit them, and they take multiple hits to defeat. They will repeatedly clap down, and while some of them will jump in place, others jump back and forth. They are among the enemies that you will see the most in this game, and you'll need to watch them to see where they go, as they are bad news.

There are mushrooms in the trees, and you'll need to hold B to jump from one mushroom to the next. Remember that you need to bounce twice for more height. When you reach the checkpoint, be ready to repeatedly run and jump to the left to get to the goal.

Stage 4

If you go to the left and follow the path at the start, you can get an hourglass. This will give you 50 more seconds.

The smaller, darker crates can fall if you spend too much time on some of them.

The electricity is instant death even if you have an extra hit! Don't touch it!

The bicycle pumps act as trampolines, much like the mushrooms from the earlier stages.

If you see a big chain, press Up while immediately in front of it to grab it. 

Be careful near the end. You do have knockback in case you get damaged, and while it's not Castlevania levels, it can make things a little dicey.

Stage 5

Once again, you need to get to the top and use the mushrooms in the trees to get to the goal. If you fall down near the end, head left to grab an hourglass for 50 more seconds. 

PrinceWatercress plays Quartet (SMS) - Part 1 of 3

This one is hard, but it's fun.

Next | End

Believe it or not, not only is the Master System version of this game different from the arcade version, but it has a completely different story, too.

It's thousands of years into the future. And by now mankind has established space colonies throughout the galaxy.

Most of them are peaceful, productive places to live. Most of the time. But once every few centuries or so, something somewhere goes amiss.

This time it happened on the beautiful Colony Number Nine, renowned for the contributions of its late, great ruler, Queen Cynthia.

What's happened? The colony has been invaded by a group of awesome ALIENS of the nastiest kind. Despite state-of-the-technology protection, the ALIENS have entered Queen Cynthia's tomb, confiscated her casket, and are about to destroy the rest of the colony.

There's very little time left.

But there's still a lot of hope. Hope placed in the spiritual powers of the famous MARY and her partner, EDGAR.

Together only they can wipe out the ALIENS. And purge the colony of their vicious evil. For good.

Round 1

Player 1 is always Mary, while Player 2 is always Edgar (spelled "Edger" in-game).

Left and Right let you move left and right. Down crouches. Down-Left and Down-Right let you duck walk. Button 1 shoots. Button 2 jumps.

You start out with two lives and 10,000 units of energy that go down in units of 10, and you'll lose quite a bit of energy if you touch an enemy in any way. If you get sent to zero from an enemy hit, you'll lose a life. 

Stay low at the beginning and defeat the enemies by shooting at them. By shooting enemies, they will leave point balls; always collect the point balls, as you'll need them for skill upgrades and bonuses. Get the jetpack as soon as you see it; you'll want to keep the jetpack on you to make it easier to get around and more easily avoid and shoot things, as there will be a ton of fireballs being shot into the sky by the mushroom-shaped turrets in the stage. You also won't risk falling into pits, either. Make sure you don't get hit with the jetpack, as you will lose it and have to get it back.

There is a yellow star out in the open. Pick it up, as you'll need all five starts in the game to enter Round 6 and beat the game.

The yellow clock freezes enemies for a brief amount of time, allowing you some easy shots to increase your score and get to another rank. (More on that later.) A good amount of the enemies are pretty easy, though some are a bit difficult; the more difficult enemies will get a mention.

The Phoenix-like bird at the exit door flies up and down, and it will shoot eight bullets at you at various angles if you shoot it. Take it out from a fair distance so you can avoid the projectiles. When you shoot the bird down enough times, you will get a key, and you can press Up at the exit door to go through the exit and enter the next round. If you have the jetpack equipped, you can press Button 1 instead, but only if you're wearing the jetpack.

When you complete a stage, you'll get a medal for defeating the boss, then see your current and total score. 

Round 2

From here on out, there are two worlds in each round: the normal world and the underworld. You'll start out in the normal world, and you'll have to make your way to the underworld.

You'll need to head to the far right to get to the underworld at the start. Along the way, there are a few enemies worth mentioning. The eyes with the red orbs in the corners are called Mabacks; they will open up and fire immediately when you are lined up with them.

The brown medicine bottle gives you temporary invincibility, but certain ones can also increase your energy level.

The yellow item that looks like a water bottle is really a screen-clearing bomb; grabbing it will get rid of all enemies currently on-screen.

When you see the ventilation shaft at the far right end, press Up to enter the underworld. The normal world has brown walls here, while the underworld has blue. Go left and stay low. Get the jetpack and fight the boss. You'll want to fly around and shoot it down while also avoiding the many projectiles that the boss spits out. When the boss is defeated, grab the key to unlock the exit. 

Near the boss are three Mabacks. You'll need to carefully take out the ones at the top and middle, then head left to get some more energy from the medicine bottle as well as the second star. You must take out at least the top Maback in order to get the star. I just get rid of two to make it easier to move. From here, you can head back into the normal world and then head for the exit.

Before I leave, I bring my score to 40,000 points to go from Sergeant to Captain. At Captain, your gun's range is extended.

At 80,000 points, you'll reach Major and earn an extra life. At 120,000, you'll reach Colonel, and your gun's range will be extended again. At 200,000 points, you'll reach General, which increases the speed of your bullets. I don't get all the rankings in this game, as I want to keep my energy high.

PrinceWatercress plays Lucky Luke: Wanted! - Part 1 of 9

Didn't think I'd be playing another Lucky Luke game, but here we are.

Next | End

Believe it or not, this is a port of the Super NES game from 1997 - which was Europe-only - for the Game Boy Advance. Not surprisingly, this port is also Europe-only.

In the menu, the red bullet in the chamber is pointed at what you are highlighting, and the background will move towards what you are highlighting.

Normal is the easier of the two difficulties, while I want to believe that Difficult is the original Super NES difficulty.

The story begins with the newly-elected President of the United States granting general amnesty to all felons. This allows the Dalton Brothers, Lucky Luke's most persistent nemeses, to be free men, and not surprisingly, they start committing crime again the moment they get out. After being freed from prison, they rob the Yuma City Bank, which gets the attention of our hero Lucky Luke.

Yuma City

Left and Right moves left and right, Down ducks, A jumps, B shoots, and Up on the D-Pad can be used to shoot upwards with the B button. You can also aim diagonally upwards and fire in those directions, but you'll also have to deal with moving and shooting at the same time. If you press L, you can switch between walking and running, and that will allow you to aim diagonally upwards more easily.

If you press Up in certain spots, Lucky Luke will super jump to the platform above him, Rolling Thunder style. You'll need to be under the edge of a platform that is above Luke to be able to do this.

Your current ammo will be in the upper-left hand corner, You'll need to pick up six-shooter cartridges in order to get more bullets. The bullets left in your current cartridge will be in orange on the icon in the upper-left, and you'll reload if you have a free cartridge. You can have up to nine cartridges on stand-by at one time.

Your current amount of lives and health will be in the lower-left hand corner. Any lives that you pick up will only be good for the current stage; you'll be knocked back to the default of three lives when you reach the next stage. To get more lives, look for white cowboy hats throughout the current level. As for the starts, you have four hits, and when you run out, you will lose a life. Pick up stars to refill one unit of health if you get hit.

If you have maximum health, bullets or lives, you won't pick up the item that you already have maximum of if you move into it. 

Enemies will pop out of windows and other things. Be ready to shoot them before they shoot you. If they shoot, duck or jump to avoid their bullets. The hands with the gun that poke out of certain areas are hard to shoot, as their hitboxes are pretty small, but you can hit them.

When you reach the well, Lucky Luke will notice that the well has been bricked up. Press A to stop reading the dialogue bubbles and get back to the game. When you're reading dialogue, a red X will flash where your ammo is; it will disappear when you get rid of the on-screen dialogue.

There are four playing cards that you can pick up in each stage that takes you to a bonus area. These playing cards were not in the original Super NES version. Any cards that you pick up will appear in the lower-right corner, but they will all be face down. You'll need to remember which cards you picked up as you go through each level. The bonus areas are not needed to beat the game, and you'll get nothing from them, but some of them are more beatable than others and there's a bit of satisfaction in beating them.

If you jump into the covered wagon shortly after the start of the level, you'll get the Ace of Hearts. Go left and jump to get it.

If you go inside any place that the game considers a room and then leave, all the enemies you defeated and all the items you picked up will re-spawn. This will allow you to get more bullets, health and lives. 

Shoot down the haystack to drop it onto the see-saw. This will allow you to jump on the see-saw and get launched towards the rest of the level. When you do that, remember to head back and get the Ace of Spades.

Jumping on the vulture allows you to get the nearby extra life.

You'll find Rin Tin Can (originally named Rantanplan in the French language version) near a stick of dynamite, which you can collect. When you have dynamite, it will appear next to your ammo in the upper-left corner. You'll also meet the bank teller, who will tell you that the bank manager has been thrown down the well that has been bricked off. You'll need to head back to the well, then press R to light the stick of dynamite and lay it down while standing on the well. Back off so you don't get hit by the explosion, then go down the well when it's open. When the platform goes down, jump to the right when it stops so you don't drop into spikes, then head right and talk to the bank manager to free him. 

After this, you can take the platform back up and jump straight up when it stops after moving upwards. Head back to the bank and jump onto the covered wagon to continue, then jump to the second level of the next building and jump to get your third card, the Ace of Clubs. The fourth card, the Ace of Diamonds, will be above the next building directly over the coffin. You'll need to jump on the platforms on the buildings further to the right to double back and get it.

The see-saw near the end is used to get another extra life, if you need it.

The boss here is a gunfight. Press A after being told to fire on the signal to get the dialogue off the screen, and when the mortician brings his hand down, fire your gun. After three bullets, you'll shoot the other guy's belt off and you'll beat him. You'll then find out from Jolly Jumper, Lucky Luke's horse, that the Dalton Brothers have started a mutiny at the prison in Casper. You'll need to head down to the prison and stop the mutiny.

The bonus stage after this level is a trip to the canyon. Move Jolly with Left and Right on the D-Pad, press A to jump and press L and R to lower yourself and grab dollars bills to your left and right respectively. You'll need to get through the canyon and collect all the dollar bills while also getting through the canyon without getting hit too many times. The amount of dollar bills you've picked up will be in the upper-left corner, while the amount of hits you have left will be in the lower-left corner. If you run into holes, rocks or cacti three times, the game tells you that you are unlucky. If you survive the canyon but fail to get all the dollar bills, the game will tell you that you avoided the canyon trap. The game will congratulate you if you survive with all 50 dollar bills, but you won't get anything else out of it.

PrinceWatercress plays Surround - Part 1 of 3

It's time once again for one of the launch games for the Atari 2600.

Next | End

Long before they were called "Snake games," you had a ton of games backed on Blockade by Gremlin Industries. Not surprisingly, this Atari 2600 launch title was one of them. And back then, instead of running around running into a lone dot without hitting yourself or the wall, you played against another player in an attempt to trap each other, with the first person to run into a wall or part of their or the other player's being the loser. And it was fun. And we liked it.

Game Mode 1 is the standard two-player mode, while Game Mode 2 is one player against the computer, with the human player controlled with a joystick in Controller Port 2. The joystick moves your square around, with different colors used to tell the two players apart. Player 1's score and color is at the top left, and Player 2's score and color is at the top right.

As you move, you'll leave a trail that stays on the playfield for the duration of the round. The aim of the game is to get the other player to run into the wall, their own trail or your trail without doing the same to yourself.

The controls are simple. You don't use the fire button for anything in Game Modes 1 and 2; instead, you just move your square around and leave a trail with the joystick. That's it.

Both players need to strategically move around in order to trap the other player without accidentally trapping themselves. Whenever someone runs into a wall or a trail, the other person scores a point. The first to ten points wins.

The left difficulty switch controls the difficulty of the computer controlled opponent, with B/Novice giving you the easier difficulty and A/Expert giving you the harder difficulty. The right difficulty switch acts as a failsafe that keeps both players from accidentally backing into themselves. B/Novice keeps players from accidentally moving opposite their current direction and backing into their own trail, while A/Expert allows for it.

PrinceWatercress plays Woody Woodpecker in Crazy Castle 5 - Part 1 of 18

It was only a matter of time before I closed the series out with the fifth and final handheld game.

Next | End

Two years after the release of the fourth handheld Crazy Castle game, the fifth game in the series came to Game Boy Advance. Instead of using Garfield, the Ghostbusters, Kid Klown, Go! Go! Kid, or even Bugs Bunny - the last of whom they did not have the rights to, they used Woody Woodpecker, as they had gotten the rights to the Universal Studios license for Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure on the GameCube, which is considered one of the worst games ever made.

The controls are the same as ever, and you can get used to them in the tutorial. Left and Right let you move left and right, and Up and Down allows you to climb up and down ladders. However, you have some new moves. Double-tapping left or right lets you run in that direction, and double-tapping Down on the D-Pad allows you to slide down ladders. Up-Left and Up-Right lets you walk up slopes. Pressing A allows you to peck at blocks to break them (unless they are made of metal) and get them out of your way.

If you bounce off a cloud while falling onto it, you can change your direction in mid-air and get to other places, which is pretty nice.

The mission in each level is the same as ever, too: open all the doors you can find and get the eight keys needed to unlock the exit door with the padlock on it and move on to the next level. Press Up to enter a door, then walk into the treasure chest to open it. If a treasure chest is moving on its own accord, don't open it. It's a Mimic, and it will damage you. If there are two chests, you can only open one of them.

When you get all eight keys, the music will change, and Woody will remind you what the exit looks like. Get to the exit and open it to get to the next level.

The cane openings, which sometimes have stairs, will let you go higher and lower in the area.

You have an inventory now. Cycle through items such as dart guns with R, and press B to use it.

To look around, hold A while crouching, then use the D-Pad to look around. If you want to look at the whole level, you'll have to pause the game and select Map to scan the whole level with the D-Pad. You'll need to un-pause to get out of the map. You can also get in and out of map mode with the L button.

You have three hearts in the upper-left corner and you have six hit points altogether. A small heart replenishes one heart, while a big heart replenishes all of them.

Unlike the other games, enemies re-spawn! Enemies come back, and this can be a hassle, especially when there are limited attack items in each stage. Also, watch out for hazards such as steam. If you get caught by enemies like spiders, wiggle free by rocking the D-Pad left and right.

The jar with the fairy in it gives you a special power when used. The special power is different depending on which world you are in.

When you start the game, Woody will be asleep at his house when Mother Nature wakes him up. She tells Woody that monsters have appeared in her world and have captured the legendary Crazy Castle. She asks Woody to help take care of the monsters, and in exchange, he will get the legendary treasure of Crazy Castle. Woody agrees upon hearing about the treasure. Mother Nature teleports Woody to her world, then Woody's niece and nephew appear, wonder where Woody went, and never factor in the story in any way.

There are five elemental worlds representing the five elements of nature: wind, wood, water, fire and sand. You'll start out in Sand World and go through all of the elemental worlds to get to Crazy Castle.

Sand Stage 1

Here, you'll get used to moving around. The white jars with the red lines can be broken with the peck attack, and the white awnings with the red and yellow stripes can be used as trampolines. Remember that you can hold Left or Right on the D-Pad to change direction in mid-air to get more control as to where you can go.

Enemies will not be showing up...yet. Use this stage to get used to moving around and learning how to do what you need to do.

PrinceWatercress plays American Gladiators (GEN/MD) - Part 1 of 3

Here's yet another game that I didn't think I'd ever play for the channel. I didn't know about the games based on this show until years after they came out.

Next | End

Oh, look, it's American Gladiators! I caught this show during the tail end of its run, and it wasn't until years later that I learned there were video games based on the show. This one...could be better, due to the one music track that the game has and...Assault. I wish Assault was better, too.

Anyway, there are six games that you'll have to play three times each in order to get through all three rounds of the tournament to get a terrible one-screen ending. Here they are.

Player One is the blue player in the one-player mode, while Player Two will be red. 

Also, while you don't really see the Gladiators' actual likenesses in this game, their names are still there. For the men, it's Gemini, Nitro, Turbo, Thunder and Laser. For the women, it's Ice, Blaze, Lace, Gold and Zap.

Assault

D-Pad moves. B mans the weapons station. Use the D-Pad to get to the weapon, and press C to use the weapon while aiming with the crosshairs in the upper-right corner. One point is scored for every weapon fired, five for hitting the red part of the target, and ten for hitting the white part of the target. If you don't fire all the weapons, you lose this game. If you get hit by the Gladiator, your turn is over, and that's dead easy to have happen since the computer is absolutely bloodthirsty.

Joust

D-Pad moves. If you're holding B, you'll be in offensive mode. If you're not holding B, you'll be in defensive mode, which allows you to block hits. While holding B, different directions on the D-Pad will allow for different kinds of strikes. Ten points are scored if you beat the Gladiator. Five points are awarded for lasting the full 60 seconds. If you lose or get knocked off the platform, you get no points. 

If I get half of my right foot off the platform, then hold B and Up-Right at the same time, the other guy goes down in seconds every single time. Easy ten points!

The Wall

Keep pressing B while moving with the D-Pad to climb the wall without getting grabbed by the Gladiator. If you get caught, you get no points. First place gets ten points, while second place gets five.

Be sure to roll your thumb when you reach the end of a row so you can easily climb upwards.

Atlasphere

D-Pad moves. If you can land cleanly on a landing pad, you'll score one point. Be sure to move around in a circle to maximize your scoring opportunities and get credit for landing on the pads cleanly. If you see the steam come off a pad, you've scored a point. The more points you score, the more points you get at the end of the event.

Sometimes, you'll have to be knocked off a pad by a Gladiator in either of the gray spheres in order to get off a pad, as the bump gives you enough momentum to get off the pad in the first place. Also, the game can be rather picky as to whether you score or not at times.

Powerball

Grab a ball with the D-Pad and the B button. You'll need to hold the D-Pad towards the bins where the balls are before pressing B to get one. You'll then need to do the same thing to put a ball in one of the bins in the playfield. If you can get it in the center bin, you'll get two points; the others just give you one. The more you score, the more points you get for your grand total at the end of this mini-game. If you get hit, you will lose your ball and you will have to get another one, so you'll have to be quick on the draw with this game. You'll have to alternate between both ends of the playfield in order to keep getting balls.

Eliminator

Keep mashing A and C alternately to run. This will allow you to get up the ramp. When you get on the handbike, stop pressing buttons, then start mashing A and C alternately again to get the handbike going.

At the platform with the blue bags that move back and forth, keep mashing A and C alternately, and make sure you don't run into the blue bags. If you get knocked down to the floor, keep mashing A and C so you can run to the end and climb up the wall.

Climb up the wall with A and C. When you get on the zip line, stop mashing buttons, and wait until you reach the red part of the line to press B and drop down. 

To jump over the hurdles, you'll need to press B. (I forget to mention this in the video, so I'm mentioning it here.) You'll need to be at the right distance so you can jump over them and not knock them down.

You'll soon see a number on the upper-left corner of your half of the split-screen. A and C cycles from 1 through 4, and press B to confirm. Three lanes are empty, while the fourth contains a Gladiator. If you run into the Gladiator, keep mashing A and C to push past him and reach the finish line.

The first person to reach the finish gets more points than the other person, so make sure you win with as much time left as possible. Make sure you do things correctly, as you will be docked points if you mess things up such as the red balance bar, the zipline or the hurdles.

Whoever has more points after the Eliminator event is the winner, and in the case of the Tournament mode, goes to the next round.

PrinceWatercress plays Silent Assault - Part 1 of 4

I'm surprised I never played this one earlier, to tell you the truth.

Next | End

It's been a while since I played an unlicensed NES game...and hoo boy, is this game a quaint one. It's a clone of Contra, albeit not a very good one. A jumps, B shoots, D-Pad moves left and right and ducks and aims and whatnot.

You start with six hits, but the game only lets you have to five of them while refilling health after you get hit. You also have three lives, and there's no way of knowing how to get extra lives. I just know that you can if you can destroy enough enemies.

Stage 1

Aside from the soldiers and their bullets, you'll also have to shoot things that fly around in triangular patterns. You'll need to shoot them down for the weapons that they drop, and they'll constantly bother you throughout the game. You start with a rocket launcher (which looks like a knife, which is why I call it the knife at first), but you can also get a three-way shot as well as a shotgun that does more damage with its single shot. Sadly, it's hard to tell the last two apart, so I just grab a gun and hope I get the three-way shot. If you get shot enough times, however, you'll go back to the rocket.

The circle with the smaller circles around it gives you temporarily invincibility. This is good in case you don't want to jump over the lumps of pizza dough that are actually landmines, which instantly kill you if you run into one. Hearts will refill one hit point if you pick one up. Power-ups disappear almost as quickly as they show up, so you'd better be ready to nab them!

Also, enemies turn into demons shortly before they're wiped off the screen from being shot. I'm not sure why.

There is a boss at the end of every stage. To beat the first boss, avoid the firepower from both the cannon above and the turret below as you shoot at the turret in the wall. The turret fires slow-moving arrows regularly, while the cannon shoots down an orb that travels across the floor when it lands, so you'll need to be ready to jump over both at the same time. Once the turret is down, you can take out the cannon.

Stage 2

For this stage, you'll need to the upper path for most of the stage, but you'll eventually need to make your way back down. The worst thing you'll have to deal with on the upper path is the soldiers that throw wrenches flashing funky colors at you (which reminds me of Final Fantasy 6), but once you're forced down there, you'll have to deal with all of the spiked crushers that you avoided previously, and sometimes moving past those can be hit or miss.

If you get stuck on the upper path from not going down, you'll die if you jump over the wall. The game takes it as you looping from the top of the screen to the bottom and instantly offs you, as if the game is saying "Next time, drop down, dumbass!"

As you make your way towards the end, gently tap the A button to jump low and get up the stairs without getting hit by any obstacles. You'll also have to be super close to the flames in order to jump over them without taking damage once, and that can also be touch and go.

The boss is a set of gears that fires smaller gears at you that travel across the floor when they land. Jump over the gears and shoot at the brown cores of the two gears in front of you. When you take one down, that's fewer gears you'll have to jump over. Once the other one goes down, it's on to Level 3.