Bomberman

More playage, and I'm up to World 4-5 now. It's still fun, but there isn't much difference between all the levels. They do occasionally throw in a single screen, filled with blocks, and you have to clear the baddies in under 90 seconds, which breaks it up a bit. Not much else though.

Bomberman

Yes, just plain "Bomberman" - the DS version, mind, but it's still simply called "Bomberman". Keeping in with this simple name, the game itself has shed much of the excess baggage from over the years. There are no kangaroos and no minecarts. Most of the powerups are still here, but many of them are only "active" for the level you're currently on. The levels are much more like those on the original Bomberman games too - blocks to blow up, baddies to blow up, and powerups and an exit to find. No bridges, warps, conveyors, seesaws or switches here.

But it is still great. It always is (except Atomic Bomberman, but we'll ignore that one just like Hudson have). The powerup system is pretty good too - you can cache them all and use them when you want, rather than when you pick them up. This is handly, as you can save them for when you die, and then use them - especially useful as you lose all your "active" powerups when you die.

I've played through to level 3-5 so far, with there being 9 levels, a bonus level, and a boss level in each "world". Hasn't been too difficult so far, and the bosses have been pretty easy too.

Another Code: Two Memories: REMEMBERED!

Gosh - that was quick! According to the game clock, it took me five hours 43 minutes in total, but the story was so good it was still well worth playing. I've found out about both D's and Ashley's pasts, used Another, found Jessica and Richards, and seen the credits. Hurrah!

Another Code: Two Memories

The story in this is great, but I don't want to reveal too much here for fear of spoiling it for anyone. Ditto the puzzles from here on in.

Which I realise leaves me not very much to talk about while I'm playing it, but that's the way it is. So there. Anyway, I'm up to Chapter 3 now, and am finding more and more out about the Edward family who lived in the mansion. I have a few ideas who D might be now too, but I am expecting a twist later on.

No sign of Jessica, or Ashley's dad yet, and I'm stuck on a puzzle involving a photo frame. I was stuck earlier on a bit using some woodcut stamps, but solved that by thinking "outside the game", as it were. I wonder if the photo frame puzzle is similar?

Another Code: Two Memories

Inside the mansion, there are more puzzles to solve. They're not that difficult yet though, still. I had to takes some photos and superimpose one over the other, I had a slide puzzle to do, and some books and to rearrange. I just need to find some more books...

Another Code: Two Memories

In an unusual step, Nintendo released this game here in Europe before the US release, so I had to break my 20-odd strong run of imported DS games and buy my first European title.

And, it's very good. It is pretty much a Myst-like point and click adventure, with a story involving a young girl named Ashley who has found her not-actually-as-dead-as-she'd-thought Dad is actually alive and well on an island. Taking a trip over there, she loses her aunt, and finds a ghost named D.

I've done the first chapter so far, which had a few fairly simple puzzles. I've also taken some photos in game just in case I'll need them later on. You never know. I'm now about to enter a mansion, where Ashley's father supposedly is...

World Championship Poker

I'm now up to almost $30,000 - even higher if you don't count the money I spent on more stats upgrades.

I need to enter some tournaments now, but I can't seem to find any.

World Championship Poker

I'm back in the black! About $10,000 back in the black, in fact. I spent some of my Texas Hold'em winnings on bumping up my stats.

World Championship Poker

Hooray! I've started making money now, and even paid off $5000 of my loan! "Texas Hold'em" seems to be my best variation at the moment, and I've found that if my two dealt cards are not a pair, then I just fold. If they are, then I bet high, and after The Turn if I have a three-of-a-kind or two pairs, then bet really high - if not, "check" and hope :)

I have -$9000 now, which isn't bad considering I had almost -$15,000 yesterday!

Pac-Pix

Yes, I know I've completed it. Someone emailed me asking how to defeat the end of game boss, and, since I couldn't exactly remember, I had a go at it again. The game is certainly a lot easier than when I played it previously, for some reason!

Anyway, you blow up the goop, eat the shadow Pac-men, fire arrows at the white thing, repeat all that three times, then draw Pac-Man after Pac-Man, quickly, to eat the black thing that appears. And Game Over!

World Championship Poker

The third of the games that arrived today. Played a couple of quick games, then went into the Career Mode and started losing money left right and centre. Rubbish.

I even had to take out a loan for $10,000, most of which I have also lost. I did find the Darts and Air Hockey games though, but you don't seem to make much money on them - $100 a time? No point!

Devilish

I never had this game in either of its original incarnations on the PC Engine and the Megadrive, but remember wanting it when I saw a review of it. I think the UK version either never existed or was ub3r-l@@k-r@re.

It's Breakout with two bats and zombies, basically. And it is pretty good too, making use of the second screen to see further up the level as you progress. Graphics are pretty poor though - no improvement on the Megadrive version, really.

Got through the first World, and stopped there.

Guru Guru Nagetto

This is one of three DS games that arrived from Play Asia for me today, and is the most bizarre of the three. It uses elements from Ribbit King, Hypersports and adds witches and weird floating bunny things. The aim is to throw your bunny thing along a path which has slopes, walls and drops on it. Get to the end (and not past the end) in fewer "strokes" than the other players, and you win.

You throw by drawing spirals on the touch screen, and can make your bunny thing flap its ears by scribbling on the screen too.

As I said, bizarre. I played a four player game against three CPU controlled characters, and came second overall.

Rayman DS

I don't know why, but I picked this up to play again this evening. It's awful. And I hate it. I must like self-harm or something, I suppose.

Anyway, I finished off a few levels, only to find I can't go any further as I need more Lums. "You need 6735472 more Super Happy Seeds of Power to progress!" is one of my least favourite game mechanics, so you can imagine my joy that I had to go back and wade through the previous dull levels again to seek out more Lums. Hooray.

Thank god my battery ran low so I could stop playing.

Yoshi's Universal Gravitation

More levels on this one now. I'm up to World (or Page, or whatever) 4, and it has got quite tricky. Some of the "targets" I have to achieve (such as "Get 45 Coins!" or "Destroy 15 Enemies!" are hard as it is too easy to mess them up and then you have to start over. Not only that, but some levels have dual targets - get 60 coins and finish in under 75 seconds, or whatever.

And Yoshi has turned into a boat a few times as well. For no real reason, except it provides a use for the tilt mechanism, I suppose.

Rayman DS

What a poor game. The pre-PS1-era visuals don't exactly help, but the collision detection, pop-up, clipping, low quality textures and awful camera basically kill it. That, and the fact it was almost half an hour between save points - not good for a handheld game really, is it?

I set about the first level - well, the first bit before the first level and the first level itself. I knew Rayman DS was just a port, but I didn't realise it was of the Dreamcast Rayman 2 game - which I have a demo of somewhere, so I'd played this bit before. It was reasonable on the DC, but that was mainly due to the lack of most of the problems described above. Regardless, I plowed on through the game until I'd rescued Ly and got to a save point.

At least it doesn't suffer from Crap Control Syndrome like Mario 64DS does.

Drifter / 2003 / Miner

Ah yes, a trio of awful, shameless ripoffs on a handheld with a design like the PSP, but with the power of a VMU. Excellent.

I am of course, talking about my new Gameking II. It's like a Gameking, only shaped differently and has a screen light. Not that the screen light is a lot of good, as although it illuminates the screen pretty well, there is now a "backdrop" to the screen - a picture of some mountains - which makes it hard to see the "action".

The "action" being the three built-in games - Drifter, a Wonderboy clone, 2003, a 1942 clone, and Miner, a Bomberman clone. They're all almost playable, actually.

Kirby Canvas Curse: CONCLUDED!

Yes! Already! I only got it yesterday, but it is already over and done. It seems World 7 didn't have a boss at the end, and World 8 wasn't really a level, just a quick run through a couple of easy things and then the boss - Drawica. Once his (or her, probably - it is a witch after all) patterns became clear, she was pretty easy. And then, as was pretty likely going from most games these days, there was another boss afterwards, who was a fair bit harder. The final, final boss has about 2903749823759 different attacks, but after a few lives I'd figured out how to avoid most of them, and then it was deaded.

After the credits, I found I'd unlocked "Waddle Dee Ball" mode, where you play the whole game again, as a Waddle Dee (one of the baddies) instead of Kirby. I had a quick go, and found it to be much the same as before, only the Waddle Dee can't take on the abilities of baddies.

I then went did some Time Trials, and some Ink Trials, and gained loads of Medals. You "spend" the medals on secrets, which are mainly bonus levels you unlock. One secret, however, was an extra chunk of energy. Tch - I could have done with that before I completed the game!

Kirby Canvas Curse

Really plowed through this today, and I'm now up to World 7 (out of, it seems, 8). In fact, I only stopped playing due to the battery in my DS coming close to running out. Things are getting somewhat harder now, with lots going on at once to worry about - things flying at you, electrified walls, spinning spikes and all sorts all at once. Luckily, there are plenty of restart points, and lives are easy enough to pick up. One annoying thing, however, is that all the lives you've gained are lost if you quit the game. So, when I go back to playing, instead of the 20 or so I've racked up, I'll have three.

Kirby Canvas Curse

It's like Yoshi Touch & Go, but with actual proper levels! And Kirby! The levels I've done so far (the first two worlds) have been pretty good - varied, nice graphics, but very easy so far. I'm only "4.7%" complete though, it seems, so I'm sure things will get harder.

The bosses are a bit different to your usual games too. You have three to pick at the end of each world (the same three each time), and you have to perform tasks to defeat them. Each time you do, they will be harder to kill next time. So basically, if you think King Dedede is easiest to defeat, choose him each time - but later in the game he'll be really hard. Alternatively, pick each the same number of times, and they won't be as hard at the end. Or something

Yoshi's Universal Gravitation

Ludicrous name aside, this is actually a pretty good platformer. See - it is possible to make decent 2D platformers in this day and age.

It's a shame the tilt sensor is either "on" or "off", however - there's no analogueness to it. And my brain doesn't work backwards well enough to work out I need to tilt left to move everything right, and vice versa. But anyway.

Completed all of the first two "worlds", which involved turning into a balloon at one point (as Yoshi often does, obviously) and riding pirate ships and stuff. Nice.

Setline

This game is too hard, and based too much on luck. Much like game-card-mate Cool 104 Joker then, really. I managed a whopping 164 points on this today, but it would have been much higher if it wasn't for the fact I got a "blocker" tile, which I had to use to kill off three potential lines. I have unlocked another "theme" though, which doesn't alter the game in any way but makes a change nonetheless.

Under the Skin

Not a particularly successful play today on this. I did managed to complete the Pharoh level on my second attempt - once I'd figured you could smash the huge gold boulders, my coins racked up pretty quickly.

Sadly, I had less luck in Frontiersville, although I did come pretty close. As for the Resident Evil Racoon City level - that's just plain impossible. FACT. You have to get Nemesis to drop all of his coins, but you have to hit him five times to do so. And in the meantime, you have to avoid all the zombies. And you can't become a zombie, as they move too slowly and Nemesis catches you. And you die. Grrr.

Pac-Pix: OVERDRAWN!

Oh ho - what hilarious punnage. Yes, anyway - I had a few goes today, managing to storm through the actual level (Chapter 12) I was stuck on and making it to the boss. Who was hard. Not hard as in, bloody difficult, but hard as in "I know what I need to do and it seems to hurt him but even though I keep doing it he doesn't die and whoops I've run out of time Game Over".

Finally, though, I managed to up the pace a bit, and finish him off (literally just kept plugging away with what I was doing, only faster), and then he died. And the game was over - in the good way!

Pac-Pix

Chapter 12... is a bit hard. Well, 12-1 to 12-4 are easy enough, but 12-5 is difficult. There are so many switches you have to keep active, things to shoot, things to bomb and it gets pretty cluttered leaving you without much room to actually draw things. I had one ghosty left, and ran out of time. On my second go, I ran out of Pac Men (mans?) due to so many of them getting jammed between explodey ghosties, which causes Pac Man to spin off out of the game. I hope this is the last level, as it's a bit hard.

Pac-Pix

Chapter 11 completed now. Struggled a little on the last round, with it's clutteredness - there was nowhere to actually draw stuff. Managed it in the end though. Now, Chapter 12... which seems to be the last level in "Book I".

Pac-Pix

Chapter 10 defeaterat0rized! I just can't do arrows in any direction other than up. My brain can't rotate the shape you need to draw, so I have to rotate the DS instead - not ideal in the heat of the game. Anyway, this chapter is bombtastic, and you have to kill the boss at the end by use of the bombs too. And he is dead. And eaten.

Under the Skin

Finished a few more levels. I think I'm getting the hang of it now. First up today was Booty Bay again, which I found pretty easy. One trick I've found is to try and "prank" the same group of people several times in quick sucession. Also, the sharks are an excellent weapon if you have a hoover - let them out, run and hide, and suck up the coins from a safe spot.

After that was the Casino level, which was a little different in that I had to get more coins than someone else, rather than just get 500 coins. This proved tricky on my first couple of goes as there are "evil aliens" who nick your coins if you're not careful. On my third attempt, I "broke the bank" during Panic Time, and nipped ahead in the dying seconds.

The last level I completed was Pranksylvania - in which I actually teamed up with someone else to get 500 coins. This wasn't as great as it sounds though, as he was crap and kept losing them all. Become the priests rather than the zombies was obviously the way to go, since only they can destroy Death (who is somewhat nasty), and in doing so can rack up the coins.

That's four levels down, four more to go. I think - there may be unlockable levels afterwards, I suspect.

Space Invaders DS: INVADED!

I did wonder if I was nearing the end of the game when the "level select" markers seemed to fill the entire map. Some of the final few levels are bloody hard though, or at least would be, if I hadn't have played Original Mode for a fair while and unlocked some useful power-ups.

Level 19 was the hardest by far. It looks like a "normal" Invaders screen, but the invaders move up rather than down - trying to escape. That isn't a problem to begin with, but once you only have one Invader left, it moves further away very quickly and is much harder to hit than when it would normally move towards you. Luckily, a combination of Rapid Fire and Support (two extra drone ships that shoot at the same time as you) both make it easier to shoot down.

Finally, the UFO Mothership, who wasn't especially difficult, just a bit time consuming to destroy. And then it was dead, and the (shootable) credits rolled. End!

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: PASSED!

It seems I was pretty close to the end of Ganon's Tower when I died previously. I hadn't explored all of it, but seems I didn't need to in the end. A little further than I reached last time, there was another giant snake thing like at the end of another dungeon (as well as the three not-so-giant snakes from the Desert Palace), so it had started to become a bit SuckySuck(TM). Even more so when I reached the end boss of the dungeon - Agahnim again. OK, so he split into three this time, but was actually much easier to kill. And then - [spoiler]!

End of game boss time. Before that, I nipped over to the witches to get some potions, and then it was into the hole in the top of the pyramid. Ganon was waiting!

I died once on him, mainly because I wasn't actually watching my health and didn't realise it was about to run out. He was pretty simple to kill, though, taking only a few hits and being easy to avoid when he attacked. The only hard bit was not being knocked "out of the arena", and out of the pyramid - meaning I had to start again once too.

And then he was dead. The Tri-Force was mine to command, the Maidens were all saved, and peace and happiness yadda yadda yadda. WIN!

Family Mahjongg II: Shanghai e no Michi

And, magically, the 72-in-1 also has a Famicom cart slot (although you have to put the cartridges in upside down). So I played this for a while. Actually did pretty well, managing some 18 rounds before I was finally out of points. Normally I struggle to last 5 or 6. One hand of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 Characters / 7-8-9 Bamboo / Pair of Green Dragons was most impressive, until I found I got only about 5,000 points for it, and not the 20,000 or so I anticipated.

Duck Hunt

Yes, the 72-in-1 has a light gun, and Duck Hunt is one of the built in games! It's a lot easier than I remember, though, managing to get to Round 22-ish, with a score of over 560,000 on my first go. I only missed three ducks in total, and by Round 22 you can't miss any. And I did.

Pocket Monster

My "72-in-1 V-Com Console" (from GBAX) arrived today, so I set that up. Of course, it doesn't have 72 actual games, only about 12 and then variations on them. Pocket Monster is the first on the list, and surprisingly, isn't a hacked copy of another game. OK, so it's pants - a crap side scrolling platformer with rubbish graphics and sound, but at least it's a "new" game. And yes, it does star Pikachu.

Cool 104 Joker

Hurrah! 36 card "run"! Then of course, I chose Double or Nothing, and got... nothing. Bah. Had several more goes though, but didn't manage anything near 36 cards. 15 was about the limit after that.

Cool 104 Joker

A helpful young lady on Usenet explained what I was supposed to do in this game, and so I started having more success with it. It seems you pick a start card, and from then on, all cards you place down must be either the same suit, or same value. And that's pretty much it. I did manage a run of 24 cards, which was pretty good, I thought.

Space Invaders DS

I'm really quite impressed with this game. I've managed about 12 stages so far, with Million Invaders being the most taxing. There are about four times as many invaders as usual, all 1/4 of the size. It takes quite a while to kill them all, plus you've got more to shoot at you!

I found out that getting hiscores on Original mode also unlocks power-ups for New Age mode, so I played that for a bit too. And only managed some 1,800 points. It did unlock "Speed Up" though.

Space Invaders DS

Yes, I got some new games today! Space Invaders DS is, in one game mode at least, exactly what you would expect - a port of the original arcade game. In "New Age" mode, however, you get all kinds of bizarre layouts, patterns, screen "widths" and other such stuff. I completed one zone in this mode, and most of a second zone, before dying.

Setline

Technically, this is the same title as Cool 104 Joker, since they're on the same card and you share "Ruze" points between the two games. It is entirely different to play, however, coming up like a cross between Glocal Hexite and Pipe Mania. I also understand how to actually play this one too - line up pipes across the board to get points. It isn't easy, but at least I know what to do!

Cool 104 Joker

But only for 15 minutes or so, as I have no idea what you're supposed to do. I mean, it's a bit like Video Poker to look at, but them rules don't seem to apply here.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Taking a detour via the bomb shop (for a Super Bomb) and then the hole I made in the Pyramid wall (to get to the fairy inside, who gave me upgraded arrows and the Golden Sword), it was off to Ganon's Tower.

And it's HUGE. And, although not especially difficult (yet), you need one hell of a lot of magic for it. Which I didn't have. So, about half way through the tower, I was stuck. I couldn't go forwards (as I needed magic to open a door) and couldn't go backwards (as there was nowhere else for me to go, and no magic to collect). So I saved and quit instead. Tch.

Under the Skin

It did click! Well, a bit, anyway. I completed the first level fairly easily this time, and then decided on the Pirate level. The "booty" puns were, quite frankly, filthy.

I didn't complete it this level though, but I was only 30 or so coins off the required 500.

Under the Skin

"Erm" is probably the best way to describe this game. Either that or "Cel Damage meets Jet Set Radio meets Area 51". The fact that one of the characters seems to be Mojo Jojo in a different body is also disturbing.

I've only played one level so far, and that had involved randomly "becoming" people, laying giant yellow drawing pins, vacuuming up coins, and punching people with a huge spring-loaded boxing glove. And some rollerskating.

I failed the level, but I'm not sure how I could have done all that much better, actually. I read the manual to see if I was missing anything, but there's only about three pages of gameplay information, and that is pretty limited and full of spelling mistakes. Maybe it'll "click" next go.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Before going back into Dungeon 6, I had a wander round outside, and found some more pieces of heart. Then it was back inside...

It was a shame that I'd only had one heart left at the end of Misery Mire last go, since the end boss was actually very easy. He threw eyeballs at me, which I had to kill, and then a giant eyeball bounced around the screen. It took loads of hits, but wasn't difficult.

Then it was off to Dungeon 7 - Turtle Rock, via no end of caves and caverns in both the Dark and Light worlds. Entry to the dungeon required use of a Medallion and some World swapping. Once inside, it was pretty straightforward, although two rooms of pipes you could go through did seem really confusing. So I ignored the layout and it turned out that there was only one route. Plenty of moving platforms (using the Cane of Somaria I'd picked up in Dungeon 6) and a few puzzles, as well as a dip into the Light World to get more fairies, and it was boss time. He was fairly simple, although I needed several of the fairies in the process. It was a dragon with three heads - the first two of which were Fire and Ice heads, so naturally needed Ice and Fire to kill. My magic meter was drained several times, but luckily it dropped more magic energy vials occasionally. Once the first two heads were dead, the third head turned into a giant snake thing with a sword-slash-able belly. And then it died.

If I remember rightly, there's only Ganon's Tower and then the end of game boss left now...

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I quickly zapped over to the Witch's hut to stock up on potions before attempting to kill Blind again. I don't know why I bothered though, as he was really easy this time. I didn't even need one potion, let alone the three I picked up.

Anyway, with Dungeon 4 finished off, I did some more exploring. I came across a strange frog person, who it turned out was a blacksmith in the Light World. I took him back to his house, and him and his partner tempered my sword for me, making it more powerful. That should help me in the Dark World, certainly, as some of the baddies there take loads of hits. After that, I went back to the fairy in the waterfall, to see if any of my other items I'd since gained could be upgraded by her. I must have missed out with my shield previously, as that was upgraded this time. I also found a wishing well-type cave which I threw rupees into. After 100 rupees, a fairy appeared and offered to upgrade the number of bombs and arrows I could carry. I did that a few more times until I ran out of rupees.

Then it was off to Dungeon 5, which although being in the Dark World, could only be reached from an island in the Light World. It was all ice and snow and stuff in there, so the Fire Rod I'd found the other day was more than useful. The dungeon did loop round and round a lot, and there seemed to be a hell of a lot of backtracking and stuff. I found the "Blue Mail", more powerful armour, in there too. The boss at the end was really easy. He starts off as a block of ice (gosh, I wonder what you'd need to kill him there?) before turning into three cloud things that drifted round waiting to be smacked with my sword.

And then, Dungeon 6 - Misery Mire. Although the game had hinted it was "impossible to get into", it was in fact blatantly obvious to find. The dungeon itself was pretty hard though - mainly due to the number of things that shot fire at me which couldn't be killed. I spent ages working my way around it, but finally found the end boss. Sadly, I had only one heart left by that point, and no potions or fairies to help me regain any energy. So I died.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Did some more wandering round, finding more items. I picked up the Magic Cape, which makes me invisible, and two more heart pieces. I also found the Quake Medallion and the Magic Powder. Not only that, but I've now had my magic meter effectively doubled too - just as well, since the Magic Cape drains it somewhat quickly.

Then it was on to Dungeon 4. This dungeon was pretty small, and fairly straightforward. The "weapon" was the Titan Mitt, which will lot me lift really heavy stuff, apparently. I then found a woman locked up in a jail inside the dungeon. But no! It was really Blind the Thief, the boss! Smacked him about a fair bit, but failed to kill him and died instead. Rubbish.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

It seems I was right near the end of Dungeon 3 after all. There were just a few more rooms to go through, and then the boss - a giant moth thing. The main difficulty with him, was the fact that the floor moved constantly, and there were a load of moving spikes on the floor too. I hit him a lot with the Fire Rod, although I soon ran out of magic power so had to resort to my sword. He's dead now though. Onward!

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Well, Dungeon 1 is more like the sort of Zelda dungeon I've become used to up until now. There was no mid-boss, but the end boss was as predictable as I'd anticipated - I'd picked up a Hammer in the dungeon, and this was required to kill him. By smashing his face in, obviously.

After a brief chat with the first rescued-maiden-in-a-crystal, who marked on my map where the others all are, it was off to Dungeon 2. I had to nip back to the Light World to flip a switch that affected the Dark World's water level in the dungeon, and then most of the dungeon involved flooding and unflooding bits to get around. Picked up the Hook Shot in there too, and guess what? I needed it for the end boss! Hooray!

With the Hook Shot and Hammer, I was able to get around much more of the Dark World, so I went exploring. For my troubles, I picked up more pieces of heart (I have 11 full hearts now), did a sub-quest to get a flute which warps me around the place, found another medallion (Bombos) to go with the Ether one from earlier, and maxed out my Rupees. Oh yes, and I have the all important Spade too.

Then it was off to Dungeon 3, which is a bit confusing. Parts of it are in different places in some woods, and there are several entrances and exits. Annoyingly, most of the rooms contain Wall Masters, which grab you and take you back to the last place you entered the dungeon. I have got the Map and Big Key so far, and have also picked up the Fire Rod. Haven't finished the dungeon yet though.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

It was obvious where I needed to go once I actually looked properly rather than guess wildly. The quick jaunt into the Dark World (as a bunny) and back and I could get into the Tower of Hera, the third dungeon.

It was pretty easy in there too. Although there were lots of barrier switches and floor-hole toggle pressure pads, for the most part I didn't need to bother with them. The item in this dungeon was the Moon Pearl, which, so it said, allows me to remain as Link rather than turn into a bunny when I enter the Dark World. Just as well, really. The boss at the end was a giant snake, although he was pretty easy. And then I had all three Pendants, and it was off to find the Master Sword in the Lost Woods.

I'm sure it was bloody hard to find when I played it all those years ago, but no. The Lost Woods were not the maze I remembered, and I soon had the Master Sword. So I can shoot out beamy light things now. Also, since I had the Master Sword, I could now get another weapon from a stone tablet near the Tower of Hera - so it was back up the mountain to get it. It's some Ether thing that acts as a kind of smart bomb.

Then I'm told that Zelda has been kidnapped again, and I have to scuttle off to the castle (again) and rescue her (again). There was a short sort-of-dungeon, actually the castle tower, to contend with before I got to Agahnim. When I arrived, he was about to sacrifice Zelda, and with that done (I bet she isn't dead really), it was Round One: FIGHT! But he was easy. Very, very easy. Soon he was defeated, and he dragged me off into the Dark World.

Here I was told about the seven maidens being trapped and needing rescuing, yadda yadda. Wandered around for a bit, and, eventually made it to the first dungeon "proper" - those first three were obviously just a warm-up or something. Saved and quit for now.

Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

Didn't play this for very long, mainly as the 15 minute intro used up a fair amount of game time. Played in two player mode to start with. It's pretty good, although you have to get used to looking at the GBA screen every time you go into a cave or shop or something, and then looking back at the TV when you come out again. And you only seem able to hold one weapon (besides your sword) at once - so no Fire Rod and Boomerang at the same time, unless you have one each of course.