Fire Emblem (GBA)

Chapter 18 was attempted today. It was a Fog of War mission, but was actually pretty simple. However, some other Pegasus Knight appeared, who I assume I need to get Florina my Pegasus Knight to talk to in order to get her on my "team", but unfortunately I hadn't chosen Florina as part of my group so couldn't.

Was considering restarting the chapter, and then one of my characters died at the hands (or rather, sword) of Uhai, the "boss" of the chapter. Rubbish.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll (DS)

New game day! Well, almost every day is New Game Day at the moment, but anyway.

Played through the first world, completing it without much difficulty (and with ten lives spare afterwards), and then moved onto the desert world. Got to level 9 I think, and lost my last life there.

I played all of the party games then, including a full round of Monkey Mini Golf on which I scored 55. It would have been much lower, but Hole 16 is a pain and I went 7 over Par on it. Gah.

In terms of the other party games, Monkey Hockey is one of the best, although doesn't have much to do with monkeys, I noticed - it's just Air Hockey. Fun though. Monkey Race and Monkey Bowling are much the same as they ever were, but Monkey Fight is broken due to the silly control method. Monkey War is just some rubbish simple Doom-style deathmatch, but with really crap controls.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Sold even more fruit today - about 45,000 bells worth. I've been putting the money into my post office savings rather than on my mortgage as I might as well gain a bit of interest on it before paying the mortgage off. Found three fossils (all of which I had already), and turnips were a pretty poor 74 bells today.

Caroline the Squirrel is still ill. Took her more medicine, but I think she might die. Well, possibly. Why can't one of my other animals get sick and die? I'd even dig a hole to put them in.

A cat called Kaitlin turned up today, and says she's lost her daughter in Venture (where Rev lives). That means I'll have to arrange a time when he's online to nip over and sort it out.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Stacks and stacks of fruit have grown again. It's handy as a way of getting unlimited money, but just takes ages to harvest and sell. Sold a bit though, and then went and paid Crazy Redd for his "exclusive membership". Bought a Kiddie Clock from him for my clock collection, and got a Dainty Painting too, which turned out to be a fake. Bah. At least I'd bought insurance from Lyle at the weekend, so I might get some of my money back.

I have a new animal today too - a yellow bird whose name I've already forgotten. Bells were pretty rubbish as well - just 81 bells today.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

Either I'm just rubbish, or there's really no proper way of telling which way you're supposed to go in this game half the time. You go through the same rooms so many times that it's easy to get lost.

And lost I got, and after twenty minutes of going in the wrong direction I realised I wasn't doing what I was supposed to and so reloaded an earlier saved game. Then I found the Woman in Red again, got a sword that opens bridges or something, and then set off somewhere new - some kind of giant clock tower by the looks of it. Killed a huge rock baddie by climbing up his back and knifing his neck a bit, and then made it into the clockwork itself. After getting up quite high, I jumped off one platform onto another, only to find it wasn't a platform but a ray of light. I plummeted to my doom, and as I had no sand, died. Tch.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Decided to go back to Chapter 16 and pay the fortune teller 50 gold to let me know what I'm supposed to do to "turn" Raven. It seems I needed Priscilla the Healing Horse Woman Person and get her to Raven quickly, talk to him, then get him to talk to Lucius. And so, I gained them both. The rest of the chapter was really simple as I knew exactly what was going to happen (including the "surprise attack" from the south-west after about 6 moves).

Then it was on to Chapter 17 (set on a pirate ship) properly, and I was glad to have rescued Lucius as his Light Magic was somewhat helpful with the $hlmun of evil magic monk things. This chapter was pretty easy, and was made even easier by heeding the fortune teller's advice of not moving very far. I only had to survive 11 turns, and looked on my way to wiping the enemy out after 7, but reinforcements came in. Twice. Dispatched them all and won in the end though!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Today was turnip day, and thanks to the huge amount of fruit I'd sold in the last few days, I had easily enough bells to buy 1000 of them. In fact, I could have bought 2500, but I don't to risk that much on them just now.

It seems that Agent S has moved out. I'm not sure why, and there was no clue to him/her leaving, but there shouldn't be another sex faux pas as far as that particular squirrel is concerned.

Visited Nook to see if there was anything worth buying too, but there wasn't. Did, however, dig up a few fossils but haven't had them identified yet.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Completed Chapter 14, and then 15 after a couple of attempts. Knowing that reinforcements were going to come from the north-west after so many turns (which essentially led to me losing a character the first time) really helped. With that out of the way, it was on to Chapter 16, in Caelin Castle. There were two characters there, Raven and Lucius, both of whom I couldn't get to come over to my side (Raven was a baddie and died really early on, and Lucius wouldn't talk to any of my characters).

As a result, I think I'll replay the level again, even though I won it with relative ease.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Sold even more fruit having found it on some trees I'd missed, and dug up yet another two fossils, both of which I sold. Was a bit panicky about my turnips for a while - 83 bells was all Nook offered, but finally found Andy in Burville online and stopped off at his Nook's for 154 bells each. Hurrah!

After that, it was off to the café to see K.K. Slider (as it was gone 8pm on a Saturday), who played K.K. Faire for me.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

You know, I'm just not enjoying this as much as Sands of Time. I don't know why. It isn't anything specific, it's just that there's a load of small niggles and issues I'm having with it which together just makes it feel, well, wrong.

Managed to get past the room I kept falling down holes on last time I played, only to run into the Dahaka, and then run from him. This took multiple attempts, as it's like a speed run with holes to jump and poles to swing on. Mis-time anything and you die. Eventually, I got past that bit and ended up in another room, where I had been previously in the present. After a few tries at finding a route through to where I needed to go, I finally did only to have another Dahaka chase. Luckily, it only involved a couple of jumps and then a waterfall prevented him from getting any closer, and it was off into a portal back to the present.

Once there, I ran into a guy in black who looked a bit evil and chucked an axe at me before running off. I've been here before too. Had a switch to hit to get outside, and then found another route back inside (with a time-release switch gate thing). Once back inside, in a corridor of traps, I promptly died over and over again as a combination of floor spikes, a spinny blade, and a crusher that leaps out of a wall made short work of me. Turned the GC off in disgust. Silly game.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Noooooooooo! The snow! It's all gone! Spring has gesprungen in Cheese, and everywhere is green. It all looks nice and everything, but it does mean I didn't get all of the Snowman furniture in time, so will have to wait until December or so to do it again. Bah.

I also have turnips left to sell, and am only being offered 83 bells each for them. Looks like I should have sold them in the week for 187. My only hope is someone online will have a better price and will let me visit.

Caroline is still ill. I forgot to go and buy her medicine again though, being sidetracked by finding six fossils (one of which I didn't have), ditching a load of letters as my post office "box" was full, and by selling fruit. Again. I also have a "new" resident - Punchy. I'm sure I've had him before, but he doesn't recognise me. Must be a clone.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

After three more attempts, I finally managed to complete 13X without a) Erk dying, and b) anyone else dying through my own idiocy. Hurrah, eh?

And there I was, plowing through Chapter 14, obliterating everyone and stocking up on weapons galore, when I attacked a huge Knight (who had only 3HP left) with Erk who then promptly missed him TWICE and was killed on the counterattack. Gah!

Lyndis is back now too, it seems, as are Wes, Sain and Kent. It's like some kind of reunion. Only Erk keeps dying.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Only 40 bells today for turnips. After having reasonable (well, 100+ bells) prices for them all week, not it comes to the penultimate possible sales day and they drop to such an unacceptably low level. Nook plainly hates me. Death to the evil Tanooki.

In other news, Caroline the Squirrel was unwell today, so I bought her some medicine and she was soon much better. I also noticed that almost all of my fruit had grown back for some reason, so sold it all and made just over 60,000 bells. Got about 4,000 more from stuff from lost property and the recycle bin, and from a couple more fossils I found but already had. I only have five fossils left to get now, I think.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (GBC)

Oh lordy lord. What a pile of rubbish.

Not that I was actually expecting much else, but my thirst for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater knows no cure, so I had to quench it for a bit by buying the Game Boy Colour versions of whatever THPS games I could find for sale. So far, that's only the third (and final GBC) one. And it's not actually very good.

Much of the problem is only having two buttons. OK, so the GBA version of THAS squeezed six controls into four buttons, but squeezing four into two just doesn't work. Not only that, but you can only skate left and right, so it's basically 2D.

Admittedly, I haven't spent very long on it, but I haven't even managed to get over 10,000 points in a run yet, and the score to beat is 300,000. Clearly impossible.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Completed Chapter 13X without too many problems, and moved on to Chapter 14, which is much, much harder.

Well, I say it's harder, but it actually isn't. Unless, of course, you want to help Erk, who acts for himself until you get Serra to chat to him. The problem lies in that Erk gets himself killed far too easily, so you have to get Serra on a horse and ride to him as fast as you can before he does so, talk to him, take control of him, then make him act sensibly and not just run off into battle. Which of course, is easier said than done.

It took about five attempts to get that bit right, but then I misjudged another enemy later and Rebecca died instead. So I started again, again, and I'm back to having issues saving Erk. Rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Was tempted to sell my turnips today, as Tom Nook was offering 187 bells each for them. I didn't though, as I'm convinced there'll be a better price up before the week is out.

Caught up on my weeding, talked to some animals, and built another snowman. Sadly, he wasn't perfect this time so no more presents for the time being. Did get a letter from my perfect snowman from yesterday - a snowman lamp!

Had some fruit grow back (I've obviously missed some at one point or another as they're growing back staggered), so sold them, and also sold the three fossils I found - all of which I already had.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Gah. After a pile of really easy missions, I stuffed up Chapter 13 (naturally) five times before getting it right. It wasn't so much that it was difficult, it's just that I had to get Matthew to talk to Guy (one of the baddies) to "turn" him. This wasn't as simple as it sounds, as getting them to meet without one of them dying, or one of the other characters (who I hadn't been paying so much attention to as I was concentrating on Matthew) pegged it unexpectedly from a rogue arrow or something.

So, due to me not wanting to kill off any characters (remember - when they're dead, they're dead!), I restarted each time.

Somehow, I've now unlocked a side-quest. I wasn't going to bother with them in order to get through the game a bit more quickly, but I changed my mind last time I had one to do, and so agreed to it anyway. 13X awaits!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

With my new room now added to the house, I visited Tom Nook to find out the damage to my bell bag my next room will cause. Some 828,000 bells. Ouch.

Arranged some furniture in my house, and put my Snowman stuff together. I'd got a Snowman fridge today from a perfectly built snowman from yesterday, so now have three Snowman items. Hurrah!

Sold some fruit too, and had a look in Nook's for anything worth buying, but there wasn't anything.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Chapter 12 today, and it was actually pretty easy. Didn't have many problems, especially after Hector and the seemingly-indestructable but stupidly-named Knight called Oswin turned up after the first few turns. I'm really enjoying the game so far - perhaps more so than Advance Wars, mainly because you only generally have a set number of units and both sides don't keep churning out more all the time. There are occasional reinforcements, but it doesn't drag the levels out so much and so they're reasonably short.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Super Happy Fun Time Fruit Sale! Sold enough fruit to make about 90,000 bells (and there's still about another 25,000 bells worth left), meaning my mortgage was paid off! That's another room on my house tomorrow, and no doubt an even more ludicrous mortgage to start working on.

Found a few fossils too, but I already had them (again). I must have almost all of them now but I keep forgetting to check.

Turnips were 188 bells. I'm sure Nook can do better though, so I'm holding out.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Just a quick play this evening, to check turnip prices. Sadly, 97 bells each was the best Nook had to offer. Offloaded a load of duplicate fossils and a few fruit to make a bit of money, and have about 25,000 bells in my pockets with 120,000 left on my mortgage. Didn't have time to sell the rest of my fruit, but I reckon I have enough to sell tomorrow to become debt free. For all of ten minutes, anyway.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Plowed through loads of chapters this afternoon, finally getting to Chapter 10, where Lyndis finally gets to the castle and defeats her evil great-uncle. Well, actually I did, but never mind.

My saved games says almost five hours played. And guess what? Lyndis' mission is pretty much just a prologue. How huge is this game?

So I'm on Chapter 12 now, after completing 11 with new "hero" Eliwood. The man-with-an-axe, whose name escapes, me has joined my new party, as have a few other people including a useless archer called Rebecca and a couple of knights. We're on a mission to find Eliwood's dad, or something.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

This is one of those games that's kind of difficult to describe where I've got to in it, especially since there's some backtracking (albeit in different time zones). Got past the bit I was stuck in before, and moved on through more traps and stuff to a circular area where the almost nude woman in leather was fighting a remarkably similar looking almost nude woman in a red almost-dress. I'm guessing at this point that the woman in leather is the future self of the woman in red, but then I have no idea why they'd fight.

I intervened, and seemingly killed the woman in leather whose corpse then tried to stand up and promptly exploded. As you'd expect.

A load of walls and pillars and stuff then collapsed, separating me from the woman in red, so I had to find another route. Along the way, there was a circular room full of strange bondage ninja girls who attacked me, and plenty of spikes and stuff. Then I found a portal back into the present time, and spotted the dark evil monster thing that I suspect is trying to kill me. It didn't see me, however, though it might as well have done, as I died soon afterwards.

I have the power to slow down time now, though. Which is nice.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Decided that killing off the main characters just wouldn't do, so went back to an earlier saved game and retried them. Got through Chapters 3 and 4 this time without losing anyone, although I had to retry 4 again, again, since Sain died. Again.

I've just started Chapter 5 now, and have gained a Mage and a Cleric. Woo!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Joan was back today, after a week off, so I went and bought 600 turnips from her. Visited a load of my animals too, and did a few errands. Whitney-who-isn't-Whitney has moved (back) in from someone else's town. She's (or is it he?) been here before, but this isn't the same Whitney as she/he didn't know me. Either that or they're just stupid. Hopper wondered who I was too, but that might just be because I hadn't spoken to him in about a month.

No fruit to harvest yet, and my attempts at building a snowman were foiled by a tree destroying the snowball I was rolling. Found a few fossils too.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

It's just like Advance Wars! Only with swords and lances and axes, and not guns and cannons and rockets! Not really all that surprising, since it's written by Intelligent Systems, who also did Advance Wars.

One major difference, however, is that each of your units have characters and names. And, if they die, they're dead and gone for good - you just don't get them back. Ever.

With this in mind, I promptly killed off Sain inadvertantly in Chapter 3, and then Florina the Useless Pegasus Knight pegged it in Chapter 4. Rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

A quick play this evening to go and see K.K. Slider in the café. He played Rockin K.K., or something to that effect, and I took the bootleg home. Had a bit of a tidy up in my house, and chatted to a few on my animals. No fruit to harvest yet.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

Oooh. He's so dark. And he has attitude. And stubble. And a scar! Wow. And he swears. A bit. Well, he says "You bitch!".

I'm not really sure what to make of it so far. I've got off the beach, into the big building thing, fought a man-made-of-evil-ravens, killed some pigmen things, got warped into the past and evaded a load of spiky spinny things. It's much like the original, only with less "here is a platformy bit" then "here is a fighty bit", and more "here is a platformy bit with fighting in it". Which is different, but all too easy to do a fancy somersault attack over a baddie's head and off a precipice. Which is exactly what happened several times, and once my Sand Of Magic Time Reversal ran out, I died.

I've smashed a few chests that tell me I've unlocked artwork too, although nothing spectacular yet. I've also gained the Spider Sword, which doesn't appear to have a lot to do with spiders.

Super Mario Ball (GBA): COMPLETED!

After $hlmun attempts at the boss, and managing to get to the boss's "second stage" many, many times only to lose the ball through no fault of my own, I finally managed to launch Bowser out of the castle and into the sky. Which, unsurprisingly, completed the game.

I've never known a game to be so easy all of the way through, and then have a boss so difficult (and very much reliant on sheer luck) at the end. Thankfully, though, this thorn that has been in my side for months is now removed. If only I could figure out what to do to get Super Princess Peach to allow me to play the end of game boss...

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Today was just going to be a brief play, to sell the fruit that had grown since my last play, but it seems that ALL my fruit had grown. As a result, it took some 45 minutes to harvest and sell them all. Did make enough bells to drop my mortgage down to about 120,000 bells, though, which means I should be able to get another room in my house in the next few days!

I also found five fossils, four of which were duplicates.

Mario vs Donkey Kong (GBA): COMPLETED!

Finished the last two worlds today (5 and 6, unsurprisingly), and then defeated the final boss that comes after them. The credits rolled, and the game was over, but then...

Then two new modes were opened up - Expert and Plus. Plus is a bit like a cross between the standard levels and the mini-Mario levels, whereas Expert is just a load of difficult levels. Had a go at a few, and may well plough through some more, but for now the game is complete!

Mario vs Donkey Kong (GBA)

Rattled through quite a few more levels today, completing up to World 5. Haven't had too many taxing levels yet, although 4-MM was difficult until I realised that the Mini-Marios would jump a gap if I jumped it first. Until then it was looking pretty impossible. Tch.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA): COMPLETED! AGAIN!

Well, that's all of the Classic levels out of the way now too. Only one goal gave me any grief - the COMBO goal on the final level (The Warehouse). After getting the C, you have to jump, then grind an invisible rail, then jump again and grind immediately. Obviously, they thought adding an invisible rail would up the difficulty somewhat. Tch.

Anyway. That's all of the GBA Tony Hawk's games completed now. Make a new one now please Activision. KTNX.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA)

Just did the School level on Classic. I'm really missing the non-generic goals, though, as it makes the game seem a bit "soul-less". Didn't have many problems on this level, although I couldn't find the K from SKATE for a while, and getting COMBO was difficult. However, I found that getting OBMOC was much easier so did that instead.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Early morning animal visiting this morning. Gracie was about, and she gave me (after some personal questions) a Future Shirt. All my trees have grown (and are fruiting) now too, so much of my town is like a giant fruity forest. Didn't harvest any (yet), but did find a few fossils.

Mario vs Donkey Kong (GBA)

Mario vs Donkey Kong is the sequel (pretty much) to the original Game Boy game Donkey Kong, which in itself was a sort of huge expansion for the even older Donkey Kong arcade game. The GB game was actually the first non-Japanese game to take advantage of the SNES Super Game Boy add-on too. And it was ACES.

Mario vs Donkey Kong is also ACES. Basically, you have to travel through puzzley-platformey levels, finding keys to open doors and rescuing Mini Mario toys. Then you get a short Krusty's Super Fun House level, and finally a boss fight against Donkey Kong himself. And then it's off to the next world!

I've completed the first three worlds so far, getting the three "present" pickups on each so far (but not getting the "high score star" on them all yet), and it's really good. Not very hard yet, though, but there's still at least three worlds yet...

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA)

Well, I made a start on Classic Mode, and completed the first two levels. And, oh dear. They've removed all the "non-generic" goals from this mode. What you're left with, is high/pro/sick scores (easy), pro/sick combo scores (easy), find the hidden tape (easy), SKATE (easy) and COMBO (usually easy). Nothing else. What a waste of an opportunity.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA): COMPLETED!

I've been playing this a fair bit today, and would you believe it - I was only about ten goals away from completing it when my game was wiped! Argh!

Anyway. I unlocked everywhere again, and had to do "five old-school lines", which I'd previously found three of accidently. Basically, there are pairs of "stickers" on each of the five levels, which denote the start and end of the lines. I was stuck with the one in the School for a while, until I realised I was grinding the foremost part of the benches and rail and not the backmost ones as required (although the stickers seem to suggest otherwise).

With them done, I'd impressed Tony Alva and the warehouse was complete. The credits rolled, but then there were six more goals in the warehouse (simple combo score ones) so finished them off soon enough.

So, completed! Although I have "classic" mode to do now...

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA)

After an hour's play, I'm about two-thirds of the way back up to the point where disaster struck. I've found it much easier this time through, as I didn't bother with the not-possible-yet goals, and finding items and people was made more simple by virtue of the fact I knew where they were anyway. Bizarrely, I've stumbled across about five goals I'd missed the first time through as well.

Oh yes, and most importantly, I'm now playing as a girl who skates around in her bra and knickers.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA)

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I just came to play it again, while it was charging, and it has wiped my saved game! Argh!

That means I need to start again! Rubbish.

At least I know where things are this time round, so it shouldn't take half the time to get to the point I was at, but still. I'm crying now.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA)

I've now unlocked Vans and San Francisco, and have completed loads more goals. Some have been a bit irritating ("Oh no! I've lost all my tools and nuts and screws and nails and stuff! Find them for me across these four areas!!!11" in particular), and some have been too hard requiring me to up my stats before trying again (such as the liptrick-the-big-blue-thing).

I'm a bit stuck in San Francisco now, as I have to do some kind of special grind across two benches. I can do it, but it doesn't seem to register as done. I might be doing the wrong benches (there are a lot of them), but I've tried loads of combinations and still can't get it.

My battery has just died on me, so I can't play any more for now anyway.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Where the hell is Joan? I have almost 300,000 bells burning a hole in both pockets, some bags and my house and she's nowhere to be seen. Gah.

Sold some more fruit that had grown overnight, and dug up three fossils. Bashed the Rock o' Money too, and talked with the animals (and walked with the animals) for a bit. Found out Caroline the Squirrel won the "Bright Nights" house competition. Tortimer told me to tell her the news, but it wouldn't let me. She did give me a kiddy carpet for free though so it wasn't a waste of time.

Tom Nook is in a funny mood today. He started talking about how everyone thinks he's just after money all the time and that's all he's ever concerned about. I told him that that was generally the case, and he agreed.

Found a message in a bottle on the beach this morning as well. It was from Spanky, warning me that "Rod" has "wandering hands". I'll keep that in mind.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Blimey. I have a lot of fruit. Well actually, I don't any more as I collected almost all of it up to sell (making almost 65,000 bells) and buried the rest to grow more trees. Found a few fossils and gargloid thingies, and talked to a few animals. I have a new resident - Antonio the Anteater. At least, I assume he's an anteater.

Alice showed me a letter she'd got from Rev at some point. It basically said "Dear Alice, What the hell are you, you hideous freak?! Love, Rev.". She said it made her feel fuzzy inside. She's a KOALA, you fool.

8pm was K.K. Slider time in the Café. He played K.K. Soul for me, and I took the bootleg of it home. ACES.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (GBA)

This is the last GBA Tony Hawk game I have left to play. In fact, it's the only one left at all. Bah.

Unlike the other Tony Hawk GBA games, this one's levels (so far) bear little resemblance to the console versions. That isn't really a bad thing - just a bit odd. In fact, it has at least two levels completely different so far - a school level (with bits similar to the College level in THPS2) and Los Angeles (a bit like the one from THPS3).

Graphically, the game is excellent. Much, much better looking that THUG and THUG2, and almost cel-shaded like the DS game. Sort of. Nearly.

Stats are now earned by completing goals, of which there are loads. There's more variety than in THUG2 as well, without (so far) silly minigames. I've done all of Hollywood, School and much of Los Angeles, although I expect I might need to return to one or more at some point. There was a funny "Leeroy Jenkins" moment in Hollywood too.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA): COMPLETED! AGAIN!

Well, Arcade (or "Classic" as it should really be called) was a bit of a let down. Not only did I manage to walk (or, er, skate) through it in about an hour, but it posed no challenge whatsoever. Worse, was the "selection" of goals - every level was almost the same. Basically, you have the High/Pro/Sick scores, Pro/Sick Combo scores, SKATE, COMBO, and Find the Hidden Tape. That's fine. That's what Tony Hawk games are for.

However, you'd then normally get four or more other goals, usually tricks or trick combos, to complete per level. In this, you get TWO. And one of those on each level is "natas spin the four hydrants/bins", so that's only ONE, really. And several of them are just slight variations (usually easier variations too) to them completed in Story Mode. It's just lazy! There's LOADS of each level barely touched. They could have easily added twenty or more unique goals to each level, but no. Tch.

Anyway. All done now, and so it's on to Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, also for the GBA, next!

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA)

Went back to Story Mode to see what (if anything) I'd missed. It seems there were three more challenges I'd not seen in Skatopia (including a very hard Tony Hawk Indy 900 one - why can't you bump up the pro skater's stats? That's rubbish), so completed them.

Not that it did anything. Still no game credits or "Game Over" or anything. Pah.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA): COMPLETED!

At least, I think so. I completed Australia, Suburbia, New Orleans and then made it onto Skatopia - the final level. Completed the usual "starter" goals, then the "tag team" irritating goals, and then moved on to the Pro goals (or, since I only had the one pro, the "Tony Hawk Goals".

After doing a few of them, I got a "text message" from Tony to say "Well done! We won the tour!" or something to that effect, and that was it. No credits, and I could carry on skating (although there's nothing to do). I can only assume that's Story Mode over and done with. Probably. Hurrah?

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA)

Oh. I see. Basically, you have to do the tricks right in front of them to get "ped props". And then I had to do it again with a pro skater. Tch.

After that, and some Segway and shopping trolley "action", it was Flame On for a 100,000 point on-fire combo, and a few other bits. Now it's off to Australia!

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA)

Barcelona came and went without any problems. One annoying niggle with the game did become apparent though: some of the challenges have to be done twice - once by "you", and then again by a "pro" chosen by you. This just seems like some cheap way of lengthening the game without offering variety. Luckily, there aren't many challenges like this that you have to do.

After Barcelona was Berlin, and I conpleted ten or so challenges there before becoming stuck. There's only one person to talk to, and he says "Go and impress a cop!". So, I go to the cop shown, and nothing happens. I pull off a huge combo in front of him, and nothing happens. I try another cop - nothing. What the heck am I supposed to do?

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Just 66 bells today. I didn't even have a lot of fruit to harvest and sell, and what little I did have I buried to grow more of my uber-orchard of fruity delights.

I did find the Rock 'o Money, and two fossils I already had, so made some bells there. Went and paid off some 80,000 bells of my current mortgage too, although I still have a long way to go...

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

And today's turnip price is... just 75 bells. Another rubbish day on the Stalk Market.

Not that it matters much now, as my fruit orchard is pretty huge, and was almost entirely in fruit today. After selling it all, I'd made 50,000 bells in just a few minutes. What is even better, is I have more trees on the way, and next time I have fruit I'll be planting even more. Maximum bellage!

Oekaki Logic Battle (DS)

Oekaki is another new game today, and is a puzzle game often called "Hanji" or "Picross". Basically, you start with a grid. On the end of each row and column are numbers that tell you how long a line of squares in that row or column is, and you have to fill them in to fit the rules. It usually gives a simple "pixelated" picture.

For some reason, this DS variation seems to have a sort of card battle mode. Bizarre.

Anyway, I completed the first puzzle in "Easy" mode.

Shanghai (DS)

This arrived today, so have a quick go on some of the modes. It basically consists of three main types of game: Shanghai, Shisensho, and some sort of "falling" Shanghai, where there's "gravity" at the bottom of the level and removed tiles allow others to fall.

Completed a "standard" Shisensho level, but failed the others.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA)

I've now completed enough goals to take me on to Barcelona. They are very easy so far, but I expect that'll change nearer the end of the game. Something else I've noticed over the previous GBA Tony Hawk games, is that proper actual real songs (with singing and everything) are played rather than just chip tunes. OK, so they're tinny, distorted and about 15 seconds long each, but still. Quite impressed.

I've also maxed out my stats too, after a marathon grind around the park in Boston.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA)

Haven't yet got into it "proper", much like with the previous game, as there are too many training goals to achieve first. "Do a kickflip!", "Do a manual!", "Do a tailgrab!", etc. Do me a lemon!


Anyway, finished a load of them, and bumped my stats up a bit more. I only have Air, Ollie and Rail to max out now, I think - the three hardest too. Did a few other goals as well - simple stuff like skitch a car for a bit, and finsh Paulie "Wheels of Fury" Ryan's "foam hand". Er, ACES!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnips were at 80 bells today, so I went and harvested some of the fruit bounty that had grown since yesterday. I also added some more to my ever-growing orchard. It's now getting somewhat cramped in the south-east corner of Cheese, what with all the trees and stuff.

Also finally picked up the Exotic Wall for my house. I have most of the Exotic set now, I think.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA)

Yes! Yet another Tony Hawk game! Hurrah! And, once again, I'm surprised at how close to the "grown up" console version the GBA version actually is.

I started Story Mode, in Boston, and like Underground before it, I built up most of my stats to full by doing a few tricks and stuff as required. Haven't actually done any goals yet, but have explored the level a fair bit.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

And a new week of Turnip (not) Selling begins! And Nook was offering just 87 bells today, so I tolk him where to shove his bells.

It's "Bright Nights" week, it seems. That means all the houses (bar mine) are covered with twinkly lights. I don't know why, but that's how it is. Ignored them and just went and harvested and sold some fruit instead.

It also seems that Static has moved out, and Jeremiah the Frog has moved in. He's a blue frog. Obviously.

Lunar Dragon Song (DS)

With KOTOR out of the way, I decided to start on another "long" game. And I chose this - Lunar Dragon Song. And I wish I hadn't.

I've only played it for 40 minutes so far, and it has already irritated me beyond belief. The graphics (specifically, the menu, item and text fonts) are awful, you feel like your character is walking on ice, and if you try to run anywhere (and you want to, as you walk so slowly), you lose hit points. Not only that, but navigating towns is more than a bit awkward, and characters you want to speak to keep walking through you when you try to talk, and sometime you have to repeatedly talk to them to get any information out of them. Vague information at that.

So, I started a job delivering a package to a nearby village, which was stolen in the Thieves Woods en-route. Well, duh. Talked to a load of people in the village who didn't tell me much of any use, so went back into the woods. And that was it.

I think I might just give up, to be honest.

Tony Hawk's Underground (GBA): COMPLETED! AGAIN!

Started Classic Mode (well, it's called Arcade Mode, but I know better) this morning, and completed it this afternoon - getting all the goals and racking my stats all up to 100%. It was certainly easier than Story Mode, with only a couple of COMBO lines having any real difficulty. At least it didn't have the stupid "restrict your skating to a portion of the level until you unlock more" thing going on that Story Mode did.

Onward to GBA THUG2 now, then!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Sunday is Turnip Day, but I only had about 35,000 bells to buy turnips with this morning. Luckily, quite a lot of fruit had grown back, so between selling them, a bit of beach combing, finding the Money Rock, some fishing, and tree-shaking, I managed to get about 88,000 bells - enough to buy 800 turnips at the 108 bell each asking price. Hurrah!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Saturday night in Animal Crossing is K.K. Slider night. Every Saturday between 8 and 10pm, he appears in the Café in the basement of the museum and will play you a song. You can request one, or just get him to play a random one. When he's finished, he'll give you a "bootleg" tape to play back in your "pad". Today, I got a copy of "K.K. Aria".

Since tomorrow is Turnip Day, I also went round and sold the rest of the fruit from trees to make a bit of money. I didn't have any bells at all, as I'd paid off my mortgage with what I had. So, although I now have a nice three roomed house (the new room in which I've already decked out with a couple of items from the Modern range), I have no money for turnips. And my new mortgage is now almost 800,000 bells.

To make some more money, I took my oranges (which are only worth 100 each in my town) over to Lancre and sold them. Also popped in on Red, who was also being visited by Deckard. He was after a Tricera Skull - the last remaining fossil for his museum. And guess what I happened to have a spare of in my pocket? Hurrah for him!

Today was also "Flea Market Day", meaning everyone's houses were turned into shops, and anyone could try and buy any item inside. I picked up a Modern Desk from Yuka, and she bought a Green Lava Lamp and a Red Sofa from me. Caroline the Squirrel visited too, but I didn't sell her anything as she only expressed an interest in stuff I wanted to keep!