PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 6 of 19

Man, that final level took forever. But we did it! Now on to Episode 2...

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Level 14: Spelunking

You'll need to leap off to the left at the top of that tall later to enter that closed-off room with the warp and get the items inside.

Level 15: The Ice Cave

In this level, you'll have three sets of numbers from 0 to 9, and you'll have to collect all three sets to get the key.

Jump through the wall to the right of the exit to find a secret area.

Once again, there's an area without a "Danger" sign that really needs it, and it's left of the start. If you fall into the gap left of the two garbage can lids, you'll fall into a bottomless pit. To enter the secret area near the beginning, you'll need to go through the wall to the left of the ladder at the start.

Love how I missed that sailboat and never went back to get it at the end.

Ending

When you beat Level 15, the first episode ends.

With the help of your mysterious butterfly companion, you have defeated the number stealers for now! But what did they want with Earth's numbers? And are they really gone?

Meanwhile...

On an outer arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, the planet Glixer II glints purpley in its orbit like a tiny galactic eggplant...

In the Grand Hall of Glixer, the Glixerian Commander sits in eggplanty gloom, attended by one of is captains.

"How dare those miserable Gruzzles return before the conquest of Earth is complete?"

"I will send the Gruzzles back to Earth immediately, Your Slimyness!"

Oh, no! The Gruzzles are back! And they're overrunning the space station! Find out why these pesky Gruzzles are stealing numbers!

Don't miss the next exciting episode...

Be sure to order the final exciting episode! In episode #3 you journey to Candy Land in order to defeat the Gruzzles once and for all (well, maybe not)!

Don't miss the surprise ending!

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 5 of 19

We go spelunking in this entry. Also, heads up: the first episode of this ends next time.

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Level 11: Cave of the Ice Worms

Compared to previous levels, everything is a lot more linear. As for that secret area leading to all those items and garbage can lids, it's directly below the start. Just go through that wall on the right hand side.

Level 12: The Crystal Cave (Where's Milo?)

Shout-out to the obvious Crystal Caves reference.

If you're looking for the secret area, it's to the right of the area with the truck at the bottom of the level.

Level 13: Phosphorescent Cave

Watch out in the lower-left corner of the level. That drop off past the small platform to the side is a bottomless pit, and the game doesn't provide a danger sign telling you that it is indeed a dangerous pit. Boo!

There's also a secret area to the left of where you start. It's the only one in the level, and it's easy to miss.

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 4 of 19

In this entry, we continue our volcanic exploration before entering some caves.

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Level 8: Red Hot Volcano

The door out of the level is just to the right of where you start. Make sure that you find all of the warps so you can easily find everything that the level has to hunt down.

Level 9: The Volcano In Spring

Compared to all the other levels that we've been in, the trucks are all in one place: the place all the way to the right of where you start where you can warp. The trucks can be taken care of from bottom to top.

The second "6" is near the lower-right warp, away from the other numbers that come after it.

Level 10: Climbing The Volcano

Be careful where you're going in this level, as you'll have to go out of your way to get some of the numbers and a few of the numbers will be in your way as you're trying to get from one part of the level to another.

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 3 of 19

Once you get past the underwater levels, the graphics start getting a little more varied.

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Level 5: Tricky Secret Entrance (Down)

You'll need to press Down somewhere on the floor at the top of the level where you start to get down to the rest of the level. That coral you can climb on can be a little hard to notice if you're not paying attention.

So that's the tricky secret entrance the game was talking about.

Level 6: The Volcano

Oh, hey, a new background! Be careful where you are going, because you will be moving up and down quite a bit in this level just to get to all of the numbers. 

Level 7: The Lava Fall

Compared to the last level, it's easier to tell where you are here. 

There is a secret area with a warp above the exit; just enter that walled-off area from the left through the opening.

Keep the warp in the upper-right corner of the level in mind, as you'll need to go through it to get all the numbers in order at one point.

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 2 of 19

Now that we've covered all the bases on how to do things in the game, let's explore some more levels.

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Level 2: Find the Secret Passage

Be careful at the start of the level if you want the "0-9 in order" bonus points, especially if you're going for the trucks. The second truck will be a little bit lower than the third.

Other ways of knowing something can be a subtraction problem is the mentioning of things leaving or being removed. This sometimes happens in the subtraction problems. As for addition problems, if someone is collecting multiples of the same kind of item, you can tell that the numbers are going to be added up. 

It's a good thing that you have the choice of replaying a level after you finish it, as it can allow you to look for all the secret areas. Be sure to check the walls on the way to the exit door. Not only will you find a few of the numbers, but you'll find secret areas that lead to warp panels.

Level 3: More Undersea Secret Passages

There's a secret area right under the start. Just jump into the left side of the wall underneath where you start to find it.

Compared to the first two levels, this is where you'll start jumping a lot. Don't forget that the Gruzzles can jump just to get to you, too!

In addition to jumping on the submarines, you can also climb down off of them, too.

Also, using the numerical pad for the bonus round rules.

Level 4: Neptune's World

At this point in the game, you'll need to be ready to jump over Gruzzles, even though they can also jump. It's better than running out of slime often, and you'll have more than enough slime for the later levels. The points are tempting, but the Gruzzles do get more annoying when they keep coming back.

Also, you'll be going back and forth if you're going to go from 0 to 9 twice. Once again, jumping over Gruzzles whenever you can definitely helps with saving slime.

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 1 of 19

Since I've already played Word Rescue, it only made sense to play the sequel.

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As soon as you start the game, you'll be able to put in your name (eight letters max), then you'll be able to choose between the boy and the girl as the character that you'll play as. You'll then choose between Easy, Medium and Hard for your difficulty, then choose what kind of math problems you'll get. Multiplication and division don't show up until Episode 2. You'll then choose how much of your math problems will be word problems, or you can choose to skip the math problems altogether.

You'll then get the story. A bone-chilling crisis has struck the world! Reports are pouring in from all corners of the globe: missing numbers! Numbers were missing from speed limit signs and the frantic highway patrolmen couldn't stop speeders. On Wall Street, stock brokers were throwing up their hands in despair. The Dow Jones wasn't down, and it's wasn't up, it was gone!

Your own mother has closed herself in the bathroom and won't come out because her paycheck is inexplicably blank. You start to call your best friend, but the buttons on your phone are blank, and you can't remember your friend's number. Where will it end?!

Glancing out the window, you suddenly freeze with horror. A creature that looks like a giant nose with arms is standing in your driveway! It's stealing the numbers off your street address and loading them into a robot controlled garbage truck! Speechless with shock and rage, you point a quivering finger...

Before you can say "mystic intervention," a huge butterfly appears in the air and dumps a bucket of slime on the nose. In a flash, the nose disappears! You have discovered the secret to stopping the number stealers!

Grabbing a nearby garbage can lid for protection, and hoping the butterfly will continue to help you, tou embark on your mission to recover the stolen numbers and outwit the mysterious aliens. Yes, the fate of the world as we know it is in your hands!

Left and Right let you move left and right. Up and Down lets you climb ladders, and you can jump or climb up with Up or the Alt key. Space and Ctrl let you slime enemies in front of you, and you can use + and - to speed up and slow down the game, respectively. S toggles the sound, H brings up the help menu, Esc brings up the main menu, and Q lets you quit the game. 

The object of the game is to reunite the numbers with their answers. You do this by jumping up and bumping a number icon. You will then get a math problem. Jump up under the numbers to input the digits for the answer from left to right. Answering questions correctly will give you more slime as well as reveal part of a picture of a key to the door leading to the next level. When you have the full key, find the door and press Up or Alt in front of it to enter the next level. Answering questions incorrectly will cause an extra Gruzzle to appear, which you'll have to avoid or slime.

There will also be a math problem at the bottom center of the screen. Finding the garbage trucking with the answer to that math problem and touching it will net you points. If you touch one with the wrong number, you'll lose a garbage can lid.

There are also secret bonus points that you can get in the form of various items such as watermelons, sailboats, crayons and more. Pick up toys and foods for points. You'll also find garbage can lids, which will act as extra hit points against the Gruzzles. You can carry up to 20 garbage can lids, and you'll lose one whenever a Gruzzle touches you. If you have no lids when a Gruzzle touches you, or if you fall into a bottomless pit, you'll have to replay the level from scratch. Thankfully, you have infinite lives.

When you see a Gruzzle, press Space or Ctrl to point the Gruzzle out to Benny so he can slime them, assuming you have any slime. If you have no slime, or if there is no Gruzzle in your direction, Benny will just appear and shrug before disappearing again. Keep answering math problems correctly to get more slime.

On Easy, you'll need to answer ten math problems before getting the key to the door to the next level. You'll get a slime for every problem you solve, and Gruzzles will not be very good at chasing you. Gruzzles will re-spawn on this difficulty. Medium is much like Easy, except you must complete all twenty math problems and Gruzzles do not re-spawn when slimed, and Gruzzles will be a little bit smarter. Hard is much like Medium, except you get a slime for every two problems solved, and garbage can lids come into play. The Gruzzles will be at their smartest, and unlike on Medium, they will re-spawn after being slimed.

There are secret passages throughout the levels. Be ready to look around and explore the level to find them.

Sadly, Gruzzle Puzzles and Invaders From Glixer were never released.

Level 1: You Follow the Gruzzles Undersea

If you collect all ten numbers from 0 to 9, you'll get bonus points for collecting them in order. 

Watch out for "Danger" signs, as they usually indicate that bottomless pits are nearby. If you fall into a bottomless pit, you're restarting 

For word problems, words and phrases such as "the sum of" or "altogether" indicate addition problems. "How many are left?" or "How many did you lose?" indicate subtraction. 

White panels with the word "warp" on them will warp you to other areas. You'll need to use these panels to find everything.

After every level is a bonus round. You'll have 30 seconds to get as many math problems correct as you can. You'll always get one type of math problem (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), which makes things a little easier. The more you correctly solve, the more garbage can lids and slimes you'll be able to get. You'll get one slime for every four and one lid for every eight, and unlike Word Rescue, you can carry a lot more slimes.

PrinceWatercress plays The Grinch (PS1) - Part 22 of 22

Just when you think you're done...

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The "2500" door leads to a Grinch Copter mini-game where you have to have to fly though all the ring and get to the goal as quickly as possible. The "1500" door takes you to the Pankamania mini-game, where you'll have to pancake as many pumpkins as possible within 45 seconds to get the best score. Much like the swinging mini-game, these mini-games don't do anything useful.

Now for the sleigh. When you enter it, you'll play the final part of the game. You'll also notice before you get on the sleigh that there is a cavern entrance-sized hold behind the bookcase. Anyway, get in the sleigh, and you'll be chasing Santa Claus. Santa throws gifts out of his sleigh, and you'll need to use the D-Pad to steer the sleigh and grab all the giftboxes. If you miss one, you have to start all the way from the beginning. To make matters worse, the steering on the sleigh is absolutely horrible. It's like you don't ascend or descend fast enough and doing either feels slightly delayed. 

When you managed to get the ten presents, you'll have sixty seconds to shoot Santa ten times. Keep the fire button held down and watch where your machine gun for a Rotten Egg Launcher is shooting so you can easily pull this off. If you fail to shoot Santa down enough times, you have to do the present-grabbing again before you get another chance to shoot at Santa. I'm not kidding. The last part has to be absolutely miserable, as if getting some of the collectibles wasn't miserable enough already.

When you take down Santa, you'll finally ruin Christmas. Of course, just like in the book, the animated movie and the live-action movie this game is based on, the Whoville are still happy and caroling, and in a moment of weakness, The Grinch gives the presents back.

This should be the end of it...but for doing everything else in the game and getting 100%, we suddenly see The Grinch in a black leather jacket riding a motorcycle. The bookshelf moves, revealing a cavern leading into...a motorcycle race. X accelerates, Square brakes, R1 performs a wheelie and Left and Right on the D-Pad steer. You'll have to do three laps through a course, which you'll have to memorize as you go from lap to lap, as each lap is different from the last and you'll be avoiding more things such as logs, barricades, falling rocks, falling trees, the cops, and oncoming ramps. If you place anywhere under than first, or if you get caught by the cops, you have to start all the way over from the first lap. It also doesn't help that you lose so much speed and momentum if you run into anything, so you'll really have to get good to get in first early and maintain the lead the whole time. If you have to pause and press Triangle to leave and then re-start, do it. As for the ramps, you're forced to press R1 to pop a wheelie and jump off them, especially near the end of the third lap. If you miss that second ramp, you'll run into the cops, and you'll be starting the race all over again.

When you finally win the race in first place, you'll finally be able to roll credits...and that's it. You don't get an extra scene beyond the absolutely rotten motorcycle race. But at least we're finally done with this, and we can finally say that we beat The Grinch for Sony PlayStation 1!