Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Four player racing play on this. I came first or second in most of the races, except for one embarrasing 4th place race which was CLEARLY the fault of the controller. Or the TV. Or something.

But not me.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Four player racing play on this. I came first or second in most of the races, except for one embarrasing 4th place race which was CLEARLY the fault of the controller. Or the TV. Or something.

But not me.

Donkey Konga

Two player bongo-tastic hand slapping action! And my hands hurt now. And I've managed to cut myself.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

RUBBISH. No-one is online, Nook will only give me 49 bells each for my turnips, and I had no other choice.

I gave in to his CRIME, and sold them. Making a 50% loss. Rubbishrubbishrubbish.

Just you wait, Nook. JUST YOU WAIT!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

DAMN YOU, TOM NOOK. Today is the day I must sell my turnips, or they'll rot overnight and I'll lose out. And 42 bells is all he'll offer me! KILL.

Not only that, but the Nintendo WFC is down so I can't even visit someone else and sell my turnips there. DOUBLE KILL.

Spent a while selling fruit as my trees were all full, and went and talked to some of the animals and the mayor (who has started the New Year countdown). Also took a few fossils to the museum.

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland: WASTED! AGAIN!

And now Classic Mode is complete as well. Ho hum. That means I'm all out of Tony Hawk games.

I had managed to reach The Ruins (the last level on Classic) when playing earlier, but even after getting all of the goals, the game didn't "complete". Going back and doing some of the goals on previous levels (mainly Kyoto, in the end) did trigger the end sequence, however.

After that, I played a few games of Trick Attack on Xbox Live. Didn't win, but didn't do too badly.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

And once again Tom Nook tries to rip me off. 55 bells was his best price today.

Anyone know if there are any weapons in this game I can use to hold up his shop? Or some kind explosive to plant in his face?

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland: WASTED!

Game number 53 completed! Hurrah!

Found the last of the pro skaters, and found the entrance to the casino. Once in there, I had to snag a load more pieces for the skate ranch (some of which were pretty hard), and then the police chased me all the way back to the ranch.

I expected to have to do some "final task", like in THUG and THUG2, but no - that was it. Guy gets Dirrrty Mindy, Skate Ranch is saved, video shown, party, credits, etc. The End. Finished off the "trick on the pieces" thing Mindy gets you to do in the ranch, before moving on.

So I made a start on Classic Mode. Which seems somewhat easy. I don't recognise all of the levels (such as the beach one), but The Mall and Chicago seem to be from THPS or THPS2. Or both. Made it up to The Ruins, and have done the score goals, but can't find more than one of the five doughnut boxes, am missing two SKATE letters, can't do the COMBO letters, have no idea where the Secret Tape is, and can only find four of the five road kills I have to collect. Boo!

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Carried on from where I left off yesterday. I spent most of my time wandering around finding new bits for the Skate Ranch, including some velvet ropes, a shark's head, and a big dome thing. Unlocked some new areas on the way, and had to do some board, bike and graffiti "missions" for the local "cholo" gang, The Black Widows. Had to get myself a tattoo as well, so as to fit in with them.

After that, and some skating round an oil rig (as you do), I had to round up a load of pro skaters and do some tricks and stunts for them to convince them to take part in a skate video. Yes, just like in American Sk8land. I think I've found them all now, and the next task is to find a deserted casino and break in...

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Just popped into Cheese to see how much Nook-the-Crook was trying to buy turnips for. 62 bells today, which is rubbish. I hope he dies.

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Getting into this now. I've done most of the training bits (which are irritating as I already know how to ollie, kickflip and breathe in and out, thanks - just let me get on with it), but still can't perform flatland tricks. And I like to pivot, me.

Collected a few more items for the Skate Ranch, like a giant pool ball and the tower from the top of a cinema. Nice.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land

Managed to improve my scores even further today, with almost all of my levels now with 2 million+ scores. Not only that, but I've even managed a few 2 million point combos, and one 3 million point one. Go me!

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land

Score-attack-tastic! Thought it a good idea to firstly, go back and finish the few remaining goals I hadn't done (there were only about three in total), and after that, I went round all the levels on Classic Mode to try and get scores of over a million on each.

And I managed it! I can't seem to get as many vert tricks in as I could on previous Tony Hawk's games, and the vert-land-revert-manual combo is still a bit hit and miss, but I'm getting there.

Super Princess Peach

Worked my way through World 8, which is a bit harder than the others (none of which have been especially difficult so far), only to find myself stuck.

I have the Boss Level available, but I can't select it. It is greyed out, and I can't get in. I have no idea what to do (it's all in Japanese) and I'm a bit annoyed. Bah.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Just wandered round a bit, collecting and selling fruit, getting stuff from the recycling and lost and found and selling that, and added a few more fossils to the museum.

Super Mario Ball

Picked up enough stars to progress a bit further today. So much further, in fact, that I managed to get the remaining three keys and unlock the entrance to Bowser's Castle.

And met Bowser. Now, I know how to actually beat him (you wind cogs to raise Thwomps which you then drop by hitting a switch and then Bowser falls over and you hit him), it's just that every so often Bowser jumps up and down, stunning your flippers to you can't use them. So the ball goes down the "drain" and you have to start again. Gah.

Super Princess Peach

Have played all the way through World 7 now, none of which was especially hard. There were quite a few auto-scroll sections, which I don't like, but nothing too taxing.

Onto Bowser's Castle now. I've also unlocked another mini-game, and also bought a load more jigsaw pieces. Haven't got all of the pieces for any puzzle yet though, and it won't let me buy any more.

Super Princess Peach

Picked up from World 3, Level 2 where I'd previously made it up to. It, like all good (and bad) Mario-derived games has, is a Ghost House type level, so there were Boos and dark bits and stuff. And an irritating pick-a-door puzzle bit on one of the levels. Shockingly (or rather, not), the end of level boss was King Boo. He was pretty easy though, and I killed him first go.

World 4 was the obligatory lava world, and had Wiggler (another Mario perennial) as the boss. He took a few goes as I couldn't figure out how to hit him, but once I had he was easy.

World 5 was a sort of beach-and-underwater world, with fish and stuff. Nothing too difficult here to deal with, either. The boss was the giant Blooper from Mario Sunshine and other games, and was really simple to beat. He did have a way of recouping lost health though, unless you were quick, so the fight went on a bit longer than I expected.

World 6 was, as is the law in platform games, included simply to provide the obligatory ice world. Snow, ice, snowmen, slippy floors, and all that sort of thing. And at the end? A strange wolf-dragon-fairy-monster in an ice bubble. Who was probably the easiest boss so far.

I've now done the first level on World 7 (another Mario-mainstay - the Up in the Clouds world) too. I also played three of the minigames I've unlocked, although the one where you're Toad running towards a Spiny Beetle thingie stumped me. I can't make him jump, or make him (or the beetle) do anything, in fact. Bizarre.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Been playing off and on for much of the day. Planted a few more trees, sold some fruit, did a bit of fishing, and was visited by three spirits other players. Turnips prices were pretty crap until Stanley from Harrumph declared his branch of Nook's was buying for 495 bells each. OK, so it wasn't the 832 I was hoping for locally, but it was certainly better than 121, the best price I'd had so far.

This evening, then, I went over there and sold my turnips, making almost 45,000 bells. Gave Stanley three oranges and three apples for his trouble.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

66 bells! RUBBISH!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Yes. Again. No, I don't have a problem. Yes, I can quit when I want to. But not just now.

Fished some more, then went and visited Rev and JonnyBoy. Nothing new going on in either of the two towns, so came back again and did some more fishing and a few errands.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Well, Pinky came over, said my room was messy as I had stuff all over the floor, and gave me a two-star rating. She commented on my Christmas Tree, and said she'd had a great time and I was the BESTEST PERSON EVER!

And we didn't even go upstairs!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Planted a few more trees and did a bit of fishing. I then went online, and Cossie from Coraland joined me. I watched her use my toilet. It was grate.

Gave her some oranges, and she gave me a lilypad table. Then she left.

Went over to see Snivitz in Bim. Yes, that is his name and town. I don't know why. His branch of Nook's was selling turnips for less than mine was (down to 63 bells now), which was rubbish. He also has oranges, so there was no point passing any of mine on to him.

Moved on to "Gayville", where JonnyBoy lives. He didn't seem to be around (physically, at least - his character was there but didn't move or talk). Sold my oranges in his Nook's for 500 each (as they're forn fruit), and found the turnips to be 60 bells there. It gets worse! Since he didn't want to do anything, I dug holes around JonnyBoy so he couldn't move. Since he's only just moved in, I'm guessing he doesn't have a shovel yet either. Left him my designs, a note on the town board, and sent him a letter. Also bought a bug net from his shop.

Back to my town then, and did a bit of weeding, fishing, and talked to the animals. I seem to have stolen Bones from Coraland. Hurrah! I've also arranged a hot date with Pinky for 4.28pm. I don't know if Caroline the Squirrel will be impressed, since I just sent her a love letter. Caroline keeps pestering me for pink furniture too, but I can't find any.

Super Mario Ball

Played this for about 20 minutes today while I was in a waiting room. I don't know why, but it looks so much better on the Game Boy Micro than it did when I played it on my SP briefly a few months ago.

Anyway. I've killed Petey Pirahna, got about 4 stars, and opened up a few cannons. That's about all though, so far.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

72 bells! Nook is a crook, I tell you. I bet him and Joan are having a right giggle at me behind my back. Hate them.

Planted a few apple trees and dug up a fossil. Also bought a blue Nintendo bench for 120 bells from Nook, simply because it said "Nintendo" on it.

Super Princess Peach

Stupidly, I had deleted my saved game last time I played this. So I had to start again. Luckily, it didn't take long to get to the point I was at previously (the end of first world boss).

Defeated him, and worked my way through all of World 2. Bought a few power-ups on the way, including the floaty-umbrella one, and some more energy and "emotion bar". I've also done the first level of World 3 too.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Planted loads of trees today, since my "new" fruit trees had started to bear "foreign" fruits. Plenty of cherry and peach trees should now be on the way. Also found a few fossils and sent a message in a bottle.

Turnips were selling for 75 bells today, and no-one was online, so I couldn't even try somewhere else to sell them. Tch.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

The Great Globe Trotting Turnip Selling Adventure begins!

Firstly, checked at my local Nook's, to find turnips were bought for 79 bells each. I bought them for 104, so that was no good. Then I onlined my DS up, and visited Red in Lancre. Her Nook's was shut for remodelling. As was Deckard's, he said when he turned up to visit.

I left Lancre and went to Venture to see Rev. His Nook's was buying for 70-something bells too, so that was rubbish too. Satsuma turned up then, and said his Nook was also buying in the 70-something region. Left Venture to roam elsewhere.

Stumbled across Luffer in Hippvile. His DS clock was an hour fast, and since Nook's closes at 11pm, and his clock incorrectly said 11.15, there was no turnip selling going down in that town either.

Nook 1, deKay 0.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Must... resist... Animal Crossing... addiction.. mounting...

Popped over to see "Gerplex" (the artist formally known as Chibi) in Cockland. Yes, really there. Filled with, well, I'm sure you can guess.

Took some pears from his trees, and gave cherries in return. Put my filthy design in his Mable and Sable shop, and had a wander round and a chat before returning home.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Gah! It seems I hadn't won at the fishing - I'd just beaten my personal best! Jitters managed to get a Red Snapper in at 0.5 inches longer than mine in the dying minutes of the tournament.

He must die.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Andy Herbert was about this evening, so I popped over to his town, stole some cherries, dug up some gargaloids and fossils, gave him a few oranges and an apple, then dug holes everywhere. He can't fill them back in, as he's not got a shovel yet.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Assorted Multiplayer DS Games

A friend of mine recently bought a DS, and brought it round this afternoon. Amongst other things, we played Mario Kart DS (which I won), Meteos (uh, which I also won), and Sonic Rush (again, I won).

Which was nice.

Sonic Rush: RUSHED!

Had just one attempt this time, and it was enough! Was out of rings with just one hit left to land, and I although I had no idea what he was doing, he pretty much killed himself. EXCELLENTIA.

So, he's defeated, the cut scene with the now traditional Amy-chases-Sonic bit was shown, and then the credits rolled.

As well as being completed, Sonic Rush marks the 52nd game I've completed since I started this gaming diary back in January. That's 52 games in less than 52 weeks. I do play a lot of games, don't I? :)

Animal Crossing: Wild World

It's the fishing tournament today, so I spent a while catching fish. It seems Sea Bass and Red Snappers are the way to go, and my 42.5 inch Red Snapper took the tournament and won me a robo-table. Uh, great.

Sonic Rush

Back to this then. And back to Eggman Nega at the end of the game. And back to "gah!"ing at him.

Managed to get his health down to just two notches remaining on one of my many attempts, but that was about the best I could manage. His laser attack is too random to successfully avoid every time, and the electricity attack (especially the four-beam variety) is a pain too. The fact that you lose your rings for good if you drop them too many times doesn't help either...

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Sunday morning is the day the Sow Joan comes and sells turnips. Turnips for you to buy, and sell on the Stalk Market, hopefully for a huge profit. You may notice that "Sow Joan" sounds like "Dow Jones" and "Stalk" is like "Stock". This is no coincidence.

After searching the whole of Cheese three times, I finally found here. I had enough bells to buy 90 turnips at 104 bells each, which is a bit more than I was hoping for. Still, there's a chance they'll sell for up to 832 bells at some point this week, and I can always visit someone else if they have a high sale value in their town.

Also this morning, I did an errand for Apollo, and bumped into another new resident in my town - Caroline the Squirrel. Shot down a present (which turned out to be a clock) with the slingshot Stejay gave me yesterday. Had three letters in the post as well, all with presents from assorted people in other towns. One was a toilet. Er, thanks. Probably.

Planted a couple of apple trees too, but I really need an axe now as some of the trees need to be cut down to make for a better tree arrangement. I'm running out of space to plant trees at the moment.

Final Fight: FINALLY FOUGHT!

I completed this many years ago on the Amiga, and thought it was pretty good back then. I've just been playing (and completing) it on Capcom Classics Collection on the Xbox, and the arcade version is about ten billion times better. The controls, the animation, the sound - everything.

I suppose that's what you'd expect, but still...

Anyway, the final boss was actually one of the easier ones in the game. Three Andores at the same time, with assorted fat men and kicking girlies wasn't easy at all. No.

It was interesting to see the baddies and levels which were later used in the Street Fighter Alpha games - Rolento and Sodom, obviously, but also the lift level Rolento is on, and outside a nightclub too.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

More fishing and stuff. I'm back up to about 9,000 bells now, which should get me a few turnips if nothing else.

Went over to see Richard, and was soon joined by Rev and Satsuma. We waited until 8pm, for K.K. Slider to show up in the café under the museum, but he didn't. Then the game kicked me out. Luckily, I didn't lose anything, and back in Cheese K.K. was ready to play for me. He gave me a bootleg of K.K. Steppe after the performance.

After that, I popped in to see Deckard and his missus Red over in Snooch. They didn't have much there for me to pilfer, and they only wanted an orange from me. Did leave my lovely tasteful shirt design in their Mable and Sable shop, though.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2: GROUNDED 2!! AGAIN!!

Yes, well. I went back to Classic Mode, and finished it off. The rest of the game was pretty easy - even getting 1,500,000 points on the final "The Triangle" level wasn't too hard. Nothing as hard as Downhill Jam, anyway.

Levels along the way included Los Angeles and Canada (from THPS3) and Boston. It was a bit bizarre playing through all the old levels again.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Fishing and shell collecting again. I'm sure you'll spot a trend occuring in these posts about Animal Crossing, you know.

Bumped into Lyle, a slimey little man in cahoots with dodgy geezer Crazy Redd. Lyle forced me to buy insurance for 3000 bells. I don't really know what that will mean, now, but I don't expect to ever get my money back.

Also saw Apollo, an eagle who has moved into my town. He's was "on patrol", "protecting the innocents of Cheese!", or something. I found my apple and peach trees that I'd planted the other day are now giving fruit as well, which is good. At least one of my cherry trees seems to have died, though.

After selling all the fish I'd caught, I had just enough money to pay off my mortgage. Hurrah! I'm loan-free! Or at least, I would have been if it wasn't for the fact Thieving Nook convinced me to expand my house, and so got a new mortgage to go with the expansion plans. He also informed me he'll be shutting up shop tomorrow, so I'd best do more fishing today to get enough bellage for turnips tomorrow morning.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2: GROUNDED 2!!

It seems I wasn't quite as close to the end of the game as I'd thought. There was actually more to do in Skatopia. Bam had to trigger five sets of giant fireworks by doing assorted tricks on them (the giant roman candle and the stacked boxes being the hardest), and after that I had to skate Tony from the top of the level to the bottom, collecting dogs on the way. Yes, really.

And that STILL wasn't all - my character had to escape the now-burning Skatopia by skating from one end of the level to the other, all in one combo. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard. And then it was Credits Time.

BUT! After that, there was even more! A new level, set on a Battlestar Galactica-type space thingie, complete with aliens and fighters and stuff, opened up. There were a few goals to do here, which when completed, opened up a warp hole to a Mayan temple. More goals in there (including spraying grafitti on some Monkey Idols), and the Gateway To Hell opened up. Yes. You have to skate in Hell.

A few more goals there, and I opened up the entrance to the Devil's lounge. Where the Devil himself was. In a smoking jacket. And he dances if you press X. No, I'm not making this up.

And that was it. I'm not sure what else there is to do now - no more goals, and the warp hole just past the Devil sends me back to the space station place. So it's done, I think. Hurrah!

I then made a start on Classic Mode. For no real reason, other than that I'd found out a load of older Tony Hawk's levels were in it. Completed about half of the levels, including Barcelona, Skatopia, Berlin, the Airport from THPS3, the School from an other game (but I'm not sure which - it looks like maybe the very first one, since I haven't played that), and Downhill Jam, which is just RUBBISH.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Fishing, collecting shells, digging up fossils, talking to animals.

That's pretty much all you do in Animal Crossing. Every day. And it is BEST. Today, I planted some more trees with the fruit I'd gained from other towns, and dug up a Tall Gongaloid, or something with an equally stupid name. Didn't earn much in the way of Bells (AC's currency), so I didn't knock much off my mortgage.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2

Skatopia done! Almost! Nearly! Probably.

I managed to find two more characters, and complete a few more goals that I previously couldn't do. That gave me enough points to move on to the next bit - fireworks with Bam. Didn't get time to do that though, but hopefully that is all that is left.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Did a bit more fishing and shell collecting, and had a look in Nook's to see if there was anything worth buying. There wasn't. Got a letter from the HRA, but nothing else. Rubbish.

Then I visited Rev again, and dug him some holes. He thought they were ACEBEST. Bless. I did bury a few things for him too.

After that, it was all round to Richard's, where I stole some of his cherries and gave him some oranges. And caught a fish. Sent rude letters to lots of people, and then sent a message in a bottle when I got "home".

Animal Crossing: Wild World

No visitors this evening, but I did make a snowman! And it spoke to me! And asked me to make a Snow Lady for him, which I couldn't do as there were no more snowballs to roll up. Got a couple of letters, including one from Monique in Rev's town, and another with a gift from Pinky, who obviously likes me again.

Fished a bit, and gave the walrus bloke one of them. He gave me a Left Design. Which was, er, rubbish.

Also noticed that one of my animals is now wearing Stejay's shirt wot he was wearing yesterday.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Just went back to Cheese briefly, to see if anyone had sent any letters in my town, or posted anything on the Bulletin Board. Rev had mentioned something about the Gorilla Mafia, but no letters. Sent one myself to Pinky, but then lost her trust when I opened and read a letter addressed to her from Stitches. She hates me now. Rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

And so the life draining exercise of doing absolutely nothing of worth begins again. I spent three months, playing almost daily, on the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing, and this is just the same. Only with more to do, and online play.

Firstly, I had the task of moving in, meeting Nook (and selling my soul to him, or something), then he employed me for a short while to meet everyone, deliver things, plant stuff, and that sort of thing. I'd soon completed his slavish tasks, and was free!

Except for the huge mortgage, of course.

Went and collected a load of shells, and sold them. Bought a shovel and a fishing rod with the proceeds, and then caught some fish and dug up some fossils. After that, I went and drew a constellation in the Observatory, and handed my fossils in. Also designed a shirt, which proudly shows my character's sexual preference. How childish.

Then it was time to take it online. I was soon joined by Rev and Stejay, from the ugvm group. Rev brought me some apples, and I gave everyone oranges and they took away copies of my tasteful shirt. I didn't see them cut down my trees, but you never know.

I went over to Rev's town then, and he gave me peaches. How kind he is. I now have three fruit! Also sent him and one of his animals letters, wrote on his Bulletin Board, and put my shirt design in his shop. Excellent.

If you wish to join me online for Animal-related fun and frolics, you can find me as deKay in Cheese, and my Friend Code is 257 759 125 534. And if you chop down my trees, you're in for a nasty letter.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2

Finished off N'orlins, witch involved waking the dead again, and breaking some signs and jumping over rubish and mowing down zombies. And stuff.

I then had to do a mini-challenge thing, with acid dropping from a helicopter and transferring over it again later. Luckily, it wasn't too hard.

After that, it was on to "Skatopia" (which is "skate-opia", before you suggest something else). It's not easy at all. After an hour, I'd managed 50/1000 points, and I can't even see how to get about 6 of the goals, let alone actually go about beating them.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2

After Berlin was Australia (note it doesn't tell you where in Australia), and amongst other things I got to ride a go-kart, set fire to some builders, scares some seagulls, and skate around as a guy with a barbeque stuck to his front and a parasol on his head.

Then it was over to New Orleans (pre-flood, it seems) where I had to wake the dead, skate in Hell, and then scoot around as a Papa Lazarou-type character on a tricycle. No, really.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2

Gah. It seems that you can jump up and grab the top of the billboard, by holding down the R button, and then you can tag it while you hang there. Tch.

I now have enough points to move on to the next city, but I might just try and get a few more here before doing so - I only have one more fag machine to destroy (them evil smoking Germans, eh?) and I've just found the "tourist trail" goal, so might do that as well.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2

Moved on to Barcelona, and completed enough goals there to move on. Some were pretty rubbish, and Steve-O on his Rodeo Bull was just ridiculous. Not really liking it as much as THUG at the moment. Perhaps I should have played Classic Mode and not Story Mode. Ah well.

Then it was off to Berlin, and despite the racial stereotypes grating after about five seconds (and the worst faux-German accents ever), I've only got a couple more goals to do. Grafitting the roof of a church was a little strange, and the odd neon mice in the nightclub are somewhat disturbing.

I can't figure out how to grafitti tag the billboard, though. I can't stand directly in front of it, as it is too high, and if I try to tag while jumping, I switch to a grind instead. Hmm.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2

After the success of last weekend's Hawking, I started up this one today. Well, since American Wasteland is out now, I'd better get on it anyway.

You start off in the Warehouse. Again. Never seen that level in a TH game before. Racked up most of my stats while I was there, and did the "training" things, which were somewhat menial given the number of TH games I've played over the years. "Perform three Ollies!". How difficult.

Then moved on to Boston, where there is a bar called Jeers. Ohohohoho. And Jesse James, with his rocket-powered Segway thing. And you can skate as Ben Franklin. I have no idea why.

Finished enough of the goals to progress to the next level, but haven't moved on just yet.

Touch de Rakushou Pachi-Slot Rio de Carnival

Still not entirely sure what I'm actually doing in this game, and I don't understand why I keep getting "Bonus", "Reg Bonus" and "Big Bonus" rounds where I seem to win every single spin of the wheels.

Anyway, I somehow unlocked the next rounds of Blackjack, Spot-the-Difference, and Rub It! mini-games, so completed them. And lo - another naked girlie is unlocked, amongst other pictures.

How rude.

Sonic Rush

Had another go at "Dead Zone", Zone 7, and found and collected the Emerald again, then went on to complete the zone and defeat the boss at the end - who turned out to be Blaze the Cat, who was easy to beat.

Then "Final Zone" opened up on the map, and it's a boss fight with Eggman Nega (yes, it wasn't Eggman after all) in a giant mech suit. I tried a few times to kill him, but failed, as I couldn't see how I could make it up his arm to jup on his face after a few hits, as he kept shaking me off.

Figured it out now, so should do better next time!

Touch de Rakushou Pachi-Slot Rio de Carnival

Yes. It really is called that. And I haven't got much of an idea as to what I'm actually doing in the game, as it is all in Japanese. I know it's mostly a fruit machine game, but the top screen keeps doing things and people appear and twirl their moustashes or jiggle their breasts (as gender dictates), and sometimes I have to play blackjack at the same time as playing the slots and it all gets very confusing!

I did manage to unlock a few things in the galleries, by playing for a while, and playing the "spot the difference", blackjack, and Rub It! mini-games. One of the pictures is of a naked devil woman. Much like the naked devil women from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, in fact. Excellent.

Super Princess Peach

After waiting almost TWO MONTHS, and with Royal Mail losing the first delivery of this game, it finally arrived today. So I played it a bit.

It's pretty good. The graphics are a lot like Yoshi's Island on the SNES, and it's all cute and bouncy and everything. I've played through all of World 1 up to the boss, Petey Pihrana. Who you have to kill in an almost identical way to in Super Mario Sunshine. Didn't manage to kill him, though.

Sonic Rush

Went back to Zone 2 and picked up the Chaos Emerald there, before trying Zone 6 again. Managed to get through it this time, and beat the boss.

Then it was on to Zone 7, and shock! It's set on a spaceship, and there are gravity flippy things! How completely new for a Sonic game!

Found a Special Stage on Act 1, and failed to complete it because it's too hard. Luckily, there was the right sort of level structure around the stage entrance to boost my Trick Bar up enough to have another go. And another. And another. $hlmun tries later, and I finally managed to get the final Chaos Emerald!

Then I died on the level and it was Game Over, so I lost it again. RUBBISH.

Sonic Rush

Two more Chaos Emeralds GET!

Went through the first Act of the up-in-the-sky level again, stopping off to pick up one Emerald there. Then tried the second Act, but died a few times due to not looking where I was going. Tch.

After that, I went back to the first Act of the first Zone (Leaf Forest, or whatever it's called) and picked up another Emerald. That means I have five now, with only Zones 2 and 7 left to get one in. Hurrah!

Sonic Rush

Another Zone done. I can't remember the name (again), but it's the Metropolis Zone From Sonic 2 On The Megadrive One. You know, with the pipes and the steam and stuff.

And I got another Chaos Emerald too, which makes three. Go me.

Moved onto the zone after that as well, which is a whole lot of down. And died. A lot. I did manage the first Act (with hanglider!), but the second had too much sky and not enough floor for my liking.

Sonic Rush

This seems somewhat easier from where I left off, you know. Bizarre.

Anyway, completed two zones - the Sandopolis replacement, and the Carnival Night replacement, and defeated both of the bosses at the end of them.

It really is very fast. Very, very fast.

I also managed to get into the Special Stage a few times, and grab two Chaos Emeralds. Yes, I went in more than twice, but you can only get one Emerald per Zone, it seems, so I duplicated some of them.

Mario Kart DS

Just a quick go online (mainly to see if I really did appear in the "whos online" bit of www.nintendowifi.co.uk - I didn't), and played a Rivals game.

I don't know how it calculates the "rival-ity" of the people you play, but all three had 170+ wins, and less than 10 losses each. Rubbish. As in, I was. Scraped joint second, somehow, but only through luck in getting the right weapons at the right times. Pah.

Sonic Advance 3: ADVANCED!

I feel like a quadraplegic or something when I can't complete a 'simple' Sonic game without having to resort to $hlmun attempts at killing the end of game boss.

In fact, the boss wasn't actually all that difficult, it was the fact that every time you die, you had to kill the pre-boss boss, then the boss. Then, if you lose all your lives, you have to go back and do the boss from the previous level, then the pre-boss boss, and then the end boss. So I had to do it lots. Tch.

Anyway, it is done now, so I can move onto Sonic Rush properly. Yes, I didn't get the chaos emeralds, but then, I haven't a clue how to even go about finding them.

Tony Hawk's Underground: GROUNDED!

SUPARBEST!

The main levels were actually very easy. Alarmingly easy, especially as I'm sure I found it frustratingly hard when I played it last year. There were a few difficult goals to get, such as the get-all-the-cameras one in Moscow, and a skitching one in San Diego, but on the whole they were pretty easy.

Moscow was a bit odd though, what with the Skate Theft Auto girl-collection car bit, and the Tony Hawk's Splinter Cell goal, which was totally stupid and annoying. Why do games have to do this? It's a skating game. Why drive cars and have stealth sections? I was expecting a crate puzzle next, but thankfully it never came. I don't mind a cheeky poke at another game in games, but not when they're mandatory things to complete. And certainly not when they're stealth missions. Gah.

Anyway. Things all went a bit wrong after the "final" level. I set up my own skate team, and then you have to pick 5 really bloody hard goals from a list of about 8 or so. Each takes place in a city you've already been to. A couple of them were really easy (the get-the-8-gaps in San Diego one, for instance), but some are too hard. There's one where you have to get all 28 icons in 10 combos. I kept wasting combos by bailing or bumping into things. There was also a spine-transfer and do tricks one in Noo Joyzee, which was bloody difficult too. Eventually managed my 5 (including the "retro THPS" one, where you do four combos, one after another, each one removing things you can do now you couldn't in previous THPS games - the last combo meant no manuals, reverts, wallplants, and all sorts).

Then. The final level. Evil Eric (as the story made him out to be) skates around Noo Joyzee and you have to follow him and collect tokens. After $hilariouslylargemadeupnumber attempts, I finally did it. And completed the game!

That unlocked quite a few things, not least a Kiss concert in the desert. Skating round as Iron Man, I triggered a performance by the clown-faced freaks. Bizarre. Then I got stuck in a lighting rig, so turned it off.

Tony Hawk's Underground

Well, after completing the DS game earlier, I decided to go back to this, which I'd previously stopped playing after reaching Tampa some 15 months ago.

And it was alarmingly easy to just drop back into after all this time. Finished off Tampa, and made a start on San Diego after it, mainly just bumping up stats as I'd just been made an "Am".

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land: COMPLETAGE!

After managing some of the previously impossible goals, I had The Warehouse unlocked, and completed some of the goals in there. That's all the levels unlocked now, so...

Went back to Story Mode. And ripped through all of the rest of it! Bought all the bits for the Warehouse, earned a stack of money, and made the skate video. And won the game! Hurrah!