P.N.03 (GC)

Three more missions completed this evening, including an irritating one where I had to kill two bosses (one of which was the train again), and then escape from the complex in five minutes. It would have been easy, except that there were loads of baddies in the way, and if you die you have to start the whole escape run again (rather than just the room again, like you would normally). Managed it eventually.

There was another repeat boss later too. And I've seen loads of recycled room layouts as well. Lazy...

Tetris DS (DS)

Hurrah! Wifi Tetris! On the DS!

And it's great! So far, anyway. Played single player "classic" mode, and made it up to Level 11, before Link appeared and everything went wrong and I lost. I then had a go on 4-player over Nintendo Wifi Connection, and, erm, came last. In my defence, everyone else had played 20+ games online already.

After that, it was a quick go on Catch Mode. It reminds me of another game, but I can't think what. It isn't really Tetris at all, but fun (and different) anyway. I found that you could press the shoulder buttons to speed up the falling of the blocks, which helped. Yes, that's probably in the manual, but who reads them, eh?

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Well, it looks like, once again, Tim Miller's suggestion that turnip prices were highest on Thursday or Friday was complete nonsense. 109 bells each is what Nook offered me today, making Wednesday the highest (so far) this week at 127. Gah. This now means I have to hope for a decent price tomorrow, or that someone is online with maximum bellage at some point.

Again.

Sold about 20,000 bells worth of fruit today, and bought a Blue Clock to go in my Blue Room. Friga was still sick, so gave her more medicine, and ran some errands for animals. Got some crap in the post from Caroline and Friga too, but still no bonsais.

Oekaki Logic Battle (DS)

I've now managed to do up to (and including) Level 19 on Easy mode. I also completed Level 1 on Normal, which isn't actually any harder than Easy - it's just four Easy puzzles arranged in a 2x2 square.

I'm sure that the "items" you unlock from completing puzzles eventually let you take part in some sort of super-deformed robot fight, but I can't figure out that bit.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Fruit galore! 80,000 bells get! Turnips 42 bells each! Tom Nook castrated! Sable talkative! Caroline greeting'd up with "Word up to yo momma"! Pierce moved in! Friga still sick! No fossils anywhere! Letters with shells attached sent! Animals chatted to!

Tune in tomorrow for more hilarious Animal Crossing stories, same bat-time, same bat-channel!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Still not much fruit lying around, and no fossils or gyroids or anything like that about either, so money making was somewhat limited today. Spent my time talking to the residents instead, and gave Friga more medicine. She so sick. I'm trying to make Sable and Brewster a little more talkative, by visiting them every day. It seems to be working with Sable (I actually had a conversation with her today), but Brewster still seems to be capable of only saying "Coo" or something sinister about his "special blend" of coffee.

Got some more letters and presents today, although they were more rubbish. Still, I sold them for bells, so they weren't completely pointless. Bought a Jasmine Bonsai and a Black Pawn from Nook's too, but turnips were just 127 bells so didn't bother selling them.

XIII (Mob): COMPLETED!

Er, cripes. That was a bit unexpected. I played just one more level, and it turned out to be the last one. It was a little more difficult than previous levels, mainly due to stupid mines you had to slide past or jump over, but still not too difficult. The end boss was another helicopter, who was, again, easy.

So after the credits, I was given a "secret code" (1984), which when typed into the Secret Code option on the title screen, unlocks "Carnage Mode". Haven't played that yet though.

Oekaki Logic Battle (DS)

For a change of pace (er, or not, since I've just played Animal Crossing), I thought I'd have a go at some more of the puzzles on this game.

I've now completed the first 12 on Easy. And yes, they were very easy. I did start one on Super-Hard, and thought I'd completed it. I then realised that the "grid" was just one of a 4x4 arrangement of grids, so I had another 15 to do. That'll learn me to look at the top screen...

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnips were 124 bells today. I will not sell that low! Must get more! Perhaps if I brutally maim Timmy and Tommy, Tom Nook might be a bit more agreeable with regards to cash for vegetables...

Got stacks of letters today, all with presents in. Sadly, most of the presents were crap (three lots of Imperial Wall, for a start). Not even one of Friga's many bonsai either. And I gave her medicine because she was sick! What a waste of time.

Not much fruit today, but I did manage to scrape together about 15,000 bells. Bought a painting from Crazy Redd, and was overjoyed to find it was a fake. Great.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Loads of fruit about today. 100,000 bells worth of it, in fact. Sold all that, and watered my red turnip. Went round visiting all my animals, giving Rosie a new shirt as she'd spilt chilli or something on the one she was wearing, and did a couple of errands. Sent letters to most of my animals, with shells in them in the hope I'd get all the stuff in their houses. Friga's house is full of bonsai, so I'd like some of them, really.

Alice moved out today too. And after I was so nice to her. Rubbish. Turnips were being bought for 125 bells. I was tempted, but didn't go for it. They're bound to be higher later in the week. I hope!

P.N.03 (GC)

Completed another three or so missions, without running into much in the way of problems. I've bought a new suit too - I forget the name of it, but it was 300,000 credits and is of the "Fusion" type. I was then plonked into a level with somewhat harder baddies to contend with, not least because many have these guardian shield things that protect them, and you have to destroy the shield first whilst the baddie gets its shots in.

The bosses have all been a bit simple so far too. The "train" one being the most surprising - I thought it was going to be really hard, what with is zooming around all over the place, often behind me, trying to run me down and shooting missiles. A couple of special moves and some random shooting later, and he was dead.

Had a go at Trial Mission 1 then, but it's just like the main game, only with seemingly random rooms from the main game bolted together.

P.N.03 (GC)

This game has been sat on my shelf for about 18 months now, I think, and I've never even opened it. I thought I knew about the game too - jump around as a german woman and shoot robots. Dodge into alcoves, do cartwheels, etc. But there's more to it than even that.

There's a combo system in place, which encourages you to quickly defeat baddie after baddie. This gives you stacks more points, and what do points make? Prizes! Prizes in the form of power-ups, new, more powerful suits, continues, and special moves.

So I've completed the first four missions, none of which were especially difficult. It took a while to get used to the turning controls, as they're Resident Evil-like, rather than, say Mario or Tomb Raider. You can't really "steer" when running, which makes "Vanessa Z. Schnider" feel more like a tank than a woman. Mind you, she acts more like a tank than a woman too...

FIFA Soccer 06 (DS)

Played anohter six or so matches in Career Mode today. Didn't have any trouble wiping the floor with such teams as Sheffield Wednesday, Southhampton and Wolverhampton. They were all easy enough to beat. Scores were of the rang 6-0 to 11-0. Easy.

I've gained a "Prestige" star too, now. When you get one, you can bump up your player stats in a chosen area. I picked Strength and Fitness, so I hope I can get a bit more stamina out of them. I tend to play with R (run) held down the whole time, so it is somewhat draining on the players' stamina bars...

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnip day! And, with one million bells in the post office, I decided to go mad with a bit of a medium-risk venture. I took 500,000 bells out, which added to my cash-in-hand bought me 6,000 turnips. I have them all over my house. I was going to leave them out the front of my house, but I was worried they might go "missing" at some point.

I also bought a red turnip seed. It was 1,000 bells, and I know you only get 16,000 for it, but I want the grown red turnip to give to Wendell. Assuming I ever see him again, that is.

Today is also Yay Day, so I complimented Caroline the Squirrel and Rosie the Cat.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Popped back to Cheese to visit K.K. Slider in the coffee shop. He played K.K. Blues for me this evening.

Also bumped into a new resident in my town - a blue cat called Rosie. She seems to be quite, quite mad.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC): COMPLETED!

Thank god for that. I was getting so angry with it, what with all the bugs and everything. I've just pleased it is now all over and done with. I'd like to play the third Prince of Persia game now, but only if it's bug-free, and more like the first game than this one.

Anyway, it seems that killing Kaileena was the end of the game. I was convinced I'd have to kill the Dahaka afterwards, but it seems not. He did appear, but [spoiler] and so I didn't need to. Probably just as well - I'd noticed some terrible graphical glitches when fighting Kaileena, and no doubt things would only have been worse with him too, and likely to crash again anyway.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

I'm really, really getting annoyed with this game now. Mainly the bugs (more on one of them in a bit), but also with the irritating way you have to redo large sections of the game for a second, and even third time. Even more if you count the Past and Present "versions" of areas. Who decided that would be a good idea?

So a minor couple of bugs at first. Well, I say minor, but they're actually game destroying fall-in-pit-don't-die-quit bugs again. Joy. Once past them, there was a mammoth trek through almost all of the play area that I'd been through previously in order to get back to the throne room, then on into the present, all around the map again, back into the past, through the prison, library and then the Water Tower, and back to the Central Hall. Again.

From there, it was back almost to the Water Tower entrance again, where another bug repeatedly appeared. On the path from the Hall to the Gardens, you have to trigger two switches to make parts of the floor appear. For each switch, you then have to slow time so you can run across the floor before it disappears again. The second switch is up a wall, and you have to swing round a pole, jump off, hit the switch and then jump back. Slow Time before hitting the switch, and you miss. Slow time afterwards, and you land on the pole again, where you have to drop down which loses you a couple of seconds. Hit the button, slow time, then land on the pole and reverse time, like I did several times, and the switch stays in and the floor stays out. Forever. "Great!" you might say. "That makes things easier!" Except it doesn't, as the floor is impossible to stand on. You just fall right through. And you can't hit the switch again, as it is already activated. So you have to kill yourself and try again. Hurrah!

Got back into the Present in the Gardens (finally) and found my way to the Mask. That turned me into the Sand Wraith, who has two special powers: he has infinitely regenerating sand, and best of all, he has the power to get rid of the can't-use-sand bug. I seemed to be able to use it constantly. It certainly helped when it came to the huge outdoor section, where you have to jump around a crumbling ship, leaping from mast to mast. Especially since when jumping from the first mast to the second, you have to jump out of the screen, even though the second mast is clearly behind the first. Escher-tastic!

There then followed a huge underground bit, not unlike the underground bit from the first game, and after fighting in the mist, killing a huge Griffin and running from the Dahaka yet again, I eventually found myself... back in the Clockwork tower. For the tenth time. Or so it felt.

Eventually, I made it back to the Throne Room (losing my mask in the meantime - hope I don't need sand any more!) and dragged Kaileena into the Present with me. The Prince-from-Before seemed to vanish for no reason too. Very odd.

And then. Another fight with Kaileena. She seemed to be much easier than before, mainly due to having no strange black ghosty things. I managed to kill her without too much trouble, and then a cut-scene kicked in, with me stabbing her through the chest. "I'm sorry", said the Prince, "I didn't mean this to happeBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT".

And the game crashed. Gah.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

It seems that I was wrong to sell turnips yesterday. In a shock reversal of the Law Of Tim, they were worth 284 bells this morning. Rubbish.

I did make 60,000 from fruit though, but there were no fossils to be found anywhere. With that money in the Post Office, I now have a million bells. RICH! RICH I TELL YOU!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Tim Miller insists that the best turnip prices are always on a Thursday or Friday. As I have noted previously, this has never been the case with me, with my best prices coming on Tuesday, Wednesday, and sometimes Saturday.

Today, however, turnips were selling for 222 bells - my highest all week. And yes, it is a Friday. So, for the first week in more than three months, Tim has been right! Unless, of course, I get a higher price tomorrow...

With that price, I made 200,000 bells. Added to that was another 50,000 from fruit, some shot-down furniture, and fossils. Quite a profit-filled day!

XIII (Mob)

Had 15 minutes to spare today, with only my N-Gage for company. Rummaged through the installed apps to find XIII. I have no idea where it came from, as I certainly don't remember installing it. It isn't really suitable for the N-Gage either, since it plays in the top left 1/8th of the screen and so is tiny.

Anyway, it's a bit pants. It's a bit like Midnight Resistance on the Spectrum. Assuming my memory of that game is correct. It's a laddery shooty crouchy slidey platformer, vaguely following the story of the "grown up" console versions. It's also very easy. So far, at least.

I've done the beach, the bank, found Jones, rescued Carrington, and escaped from his prison. All in about 15 minutes. I've only died twice so far as well.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

100,000 bells made today! Actually, more than that, but I bought a froggy chair and a ponderosa bonsai with some of the fruit/gyroid/fossil money I'd earned.

Then, of course, I shot down a present containing a ponderosa bonsai. Rubbish.

It seems that I am Caroline's best friend now. She keeps being dirty at me too, which I'm finding a little bit disturbing. She sent me a beach chair in the post. Her house is full of seashells I've been sending her too, and she has the fake Awesome Painting I mailed her proudly on display. I hope she doesn't find out it's a knock off.

Oh, and turnips were 126 bells. I know I'll regret not selling them when I get to Saturday...

True Swing Golf (DS)

Yes, yes. Another new game. I seem to be accumilating them at a rate of one a day at the moment. I wish they'd stop making new ones for a bit so I could catch up...

Anyway. True Swing Golf is, as the name suggests, a golf game where you "swing" the stylus to swing your club. And it works reallt well - far better than the "power meter" type systems in other golf games, and more realistic than the analogue-stick-flick method used in recent Tiger Woods games.

I played a round on the Bluebird course (I think that is what it's called, anyway), and found it really easy to get into and control, even without reading the manual or doing the tutorial. In fact, I ended up with a score of -2 after 18 holes, getting a few bogies but more birdies. And I have an ace hat on my golfer.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Not much fruit to harvest today, but what little there was, coupled with three already-donated fossils, sold for around 35,000 bells anyway. Quite of bit of that went to Crazy Pikey Redd for his fake "Awesome Painting". Sadly, I couldn't kill him with my spade.

Turnips were 88 bells today. Higher than yesterday, but nowhere near selling point yet.

Alice sent me an exquisite rug. How nice of her. I sold it. Caroline told me how I was her best friend, and then blushed a lot whilst explaining how she likes to be treated mean sometimes. She's dirty.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Chapter 18x was really easy, even though I took all the wrong units in to battle. I knew there would be a load of magic users to fight, so I took all my magic users in. Then, of course, after a few turns, someone casts Silence over half the map, and renders them all useless.

However, it also rendered all the enemy magic units useless too, and all of the huge knights dotted around were easy enough to kill off too, especially once I'd given Dorcas the Hero Crest to power him up.

The "boss" was even easier, since the only attack he had, was magic. And he couldn't use it. So he died easily.

Found a guy called Renauld in some ruins, and he gave me a Goddess Drop or Tear or Thing or whatever it's called. I forget. I had thought I could persuade him to join us, but didn't get that option. A creepy old guy (who I think cast Silence) also appeared, but I couldn't talk to, or kill, him and then later he disappeared. Odd.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Made almost 100,000 bells harvesting and selling fruit, and by selling a couple of fossils and some junk and fish I had left over from another day. Also went and spoke with all my animals, including Chow, a panda who moved in today. Alice the Koala came over to see my house, and gave me four stars!

Tom Nook was offering just 71 bells for turnips today, so I shot him in the face with a harpoon.

FIFA Soccer 06 (DS)

Played just one match this evening as my DS battery keeled over. I can't remember who I was playing, actually, but I won anyway. Didn't win by the huge margins I had previously on other matches, with the score at 5-3 at full time. They seemed to be much better at taking the ball off me than other teams had been.

Mr. Driller (WS): COMPLETED!

After just three attempts this evening (dying at about 350 and 650m on the first two attempts), I completed 1000m mode, and therefore, the game! I lost my first life at around 400m, and the second at 600m. When I got to 900m I made a dash for it, picking up just two easy-to-grab air tanks along the way, and making it with just 20% air left.

I then watched the credits, which made no sense whatsoever, and checked to see if any other modes had been unlocked. They hadn't. So, The End!

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

That bit in the tomb with the Dahaka is a bit of a pain, isn't it? It didn't help that my sand wasn't working AT ALL for this section. You basically run round three different route, being chased, and end up back in the same tomb each time. You then pull a switch each time too, and stuff moves, and then you run off again.

Although you can't save for any of it, if you die, you're only returned to the last time you entered the tomb. Still annoying, but anyway.

So I got past that, found-but-lost a sword (due to the Dahaka again), and then wandered through some kind of prison and into the past again, but not before yet another Dahaka chase. I hate them!

Once in the past, I worked back through the prison and killed loads of new, difficult baddies, and picked up the Scorpion Sword - the sword I couldn't get earlier. Then there was another golem to kill, only this one was a bit harder as he seemed to be made out of metal. So probably not a golem at all then.

After that, it was through a library, killing loads of strange bondage girls to whom "pleasure is so much pain!". Er, nice. There were a few puzzles here too. Then there was a load of beam-balancing and jumping to things I couldn't see, and finally I made it into... the Clockwork Tower again. Bizarre.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Ran round selling fruit and fossils for a bit before taking my earnings over to Joan for 900 turnips. I had plenty more fruit to sell, but ran out of time before she left. 900 will do, anyway.

After that, Tortimer announced the fishing tournament, and so I went catching fish for a bit. The best I could manage was a 43.8 inch sea bass, which was beaten by a 45.4 inch one from Walker. After that, all I could catch were octopii and olive flounders, so gave up.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

Finally managed to get past the Bugged Spikey Pits of Oblivion on my way out of the Clockwork Tower (although I did fall in once, and again, couldn't get out). Got back to the Central Hall, and the woman in red gave me another sword. Then it was off to the other tower - the Water Tower.

First, it was through some area with hanging gardens in it. I was stuck there for a while trying to figure out how I was supposed to get anywhere, and ran into a couple of stuck-in-the-floor bugs whilst leaping over walls and stuff. Luckily, my sand was working so I could rewind time and get out.

Then there was a bit not a million miles away from the Aviary in the first game, only with fewer ravens. Actually, what ravens there were, were also a bit bugged as sometimes they would just turn invisible, but still be able to attack me. Bizarre.

Worked my way into the present, got chased by the Dahaka again, then back into the past and after some head-scratching figured out how to activate the water. Worked my way back to the Central Hall again, where the Dahaka had managed to track me down in the past (up until then, he'd only chased me in the present), but luckily he was distacted by the black wraith bloke, killing him instead.

Then it was off to the throne room with the woman in red, who says she'd called Kaileena. And isn't actually on my side at all - she's the Empress! Killed her, she exploded and then... Game Over?

No. Not quite. I got to save my game, but then the Dahaka found me and chased me again. A lot. I managed to get into a tomb, but on escaping from that, there was another chase, taking me all over the place and back to the tomb again (albeit with some stuff shuffled round). And then, ANOTHER chase. I then realised that, despite having plenty of sand, I couldn't use it. I couldn't slow down or rewind time, which was making it very difficult to progress. With about $hlmun failed attempts in the bag, I gave up.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll (DS)

Had a go at completing two more worlds today, and failed. I managed to get as far as the last level on the Volcano World, but lost some 10 lives or more there failing to do it.

Much the same story for Ice Lolly Land, although I didn't have so many lives left at the end but failed to finish it anyway. The really narrow path at the end of the course got me every single time.

Played Monkey Bowling Challenge Level 2 again, and completed 6/10 layouts. Some of them are just too hard. After that, I had a go at Monkey Golf Time Attack, and was doing well until the last hole, which I messed up, took 8 shots, and the game decided it was over without recording a score. Rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnips bellage report for today: 80 bells. I was certainly right to sell in the week. Hurrah for me!

As usual, I went and harvested and sold most of my fruit. There wasn't a lot on the trees today, but I made about 30,000 bells anyway, and then about 20,000 more from gyroids and fossils. One of the fossils I found wasn't actually in the museum, so that was good. I also planted some more apple, pear and coconut trees.

Whitney moved out today. I'm not altogether surprised, since I haven't seen him/her at all this week. No-one else has moved in to replace them yet, though.

Skipping Stone (Mob)

35.83km this morning. Woo!

FIFA Soccer 06 (DS)

Yes, I'm playing FIFA again. I think I may be ill, or something. I don't generally like football games at the best of times (except for PES4 recently, and Sensible Soccer forever), not least FIFA titles as they're all crap, but for some reason I'm enjoying this. Maybe it's because it's a handheld game. I don't know. PES6 for the DS would be nice though.

Anyway. I've started Career Mode, which if I finish it, I will class the game as "complete". It's a five year campaign, with tasks and goals you have to complete and reach. For the first year, I have to take Norwich into the FA Cup semi-finals, be promoted to the Premiership, and score a certain number of some sort of points. These points are awarded for doing certain things, like winning a match by more than three goals, and stuff.

So far, I've played four league games and won them all. I bumped the game difficulty up from Beginner to Amateur (I didn't realise there was a difficulty, actually, but it explains why my play previously was so easy!) but it's still not that hard. My worst score out of those four matches was probably the one where I "only" won 8-2. I did get a 14-0 score though, too.

Skipping Stone (Mob)

This game was a freebie from some new mobile gaming website, or something. It's crap, in almost every single way, but not least that it takes SIX HOURS to load on my N-Gage. No, that is not an exaggeration for comedic effect - it really does take that long. And, seeing as the battery on the N-Gage lasts about that long when not in standby mode, you can see that I won't be playing it all that often.

Anyway. I managed 34.35km. Which is somewhat crap, much like the game.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnips (for recording purposes) were just 80 bells today, so I'm glad I sold them on Wednesday. Of course, they could be 984635296349 bells tomorrow, but I think not.

Sold 100,000 bells' worth of fruit, and dug up a couple of gyroids. I was expecting more gyroids, actually, as it has rained non-stop for four days and they tend to appear after rain.

Went and chatted with some animals, and upset Friga a bit as she's walked me into a corner and I had to push her to move. She didn't like that and shouted at me. Tch. Women.

Rez (PS2)

I got an "ASCII Trance Vibrator Pack" in the post today, for use with this game, so thought I'd best try it out.

And it really rumbles, and rumbles hard. If you hold it, it can actually get quite painful. Not that you can hold it, since you're holding the joypad. So I rested it next to my knee. In fact, just resting it on the other end of the sofa is enough, as it vibrates the whole thing.

As far as the game went, I completed Phase 3, which I hadn't previously been able to do. I also managed to get to the boss on Phase 4, and even got him down to one notch of energy, before he obliterated me making me lose all my "levels" one after another in the space of ten seconds. Gah.

My hands hurt from the vibrations now.

FIFA Soccer 06 (DS)

Oh my. I've bought a FIFA game. Worse, I've bought one and played it. Worse still, I played it for an hour and enjoyed it. Wrongness!

So I set myself up as the Mighty Norwich City, and played a quick friendly against Leicester. After realising that pass and shoot were actually the other way round to what I expected, I soon won 6-1. Not bad for my first ever go.

I then decided to take Norwich into the "England Cup", whatever the hell that is. The first round was against Chelsea, and I won 10-1. Easy. In fact, things got progressively easier, it seemed, what with Port Vale, Notts County, Birmingham City and Sunderland all falling by the wayside with scores like 14-1 and 12-0. I am clearly best.

The final, was Norwich v Newcastle. I let in two goals by being an idiot once I'd scored 6, but it didn't matter as it was 8-2 by half time, and 14-2 at the end of the match. I think I might put it on a harder setting next time I play.

Oh yes, next time. I will play a FIFA game again. I think I'm ill.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

With turnips already sold this week (quite rare for me not to leave them until the last possible moment on a Satuday), I felt a little lost when playing today. Nook was offering 81 bells for them today, although I didn't really want to check in case he was going to say "ONE MEEEEEELION BELLS! MUHUHUHUHUHUHAHAHA", but luckily he didn't.

Did sell all my fish I'd caught yesterday (and obviously forgot to sell), and then harvested all of my fruit, sold most of it, and planted the rest. None of my trees from yesterday had died, which is good.

Caroline sent me two lots of carpet, and then gave me a jack-in-the-box when I went and spoke to her. She also came to visit my house, and gave me three stars for it, but complained I didn't have enough furniture (even though there's barely room to walk in there).

Sahara was about too, and she gave me a carpet as well, once I'd run some errands for her. Also got a letter from Lyzzy with 10,000 bells in it, as a thanks for letting her sell turnips yesterday. ACE.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll (DS)

Finished another world today, without any difficulty at all. Not sure how I managed that, as it was one I was previously stuck on. Even had about ten lives left at the end of it. Didn't do so well on the end game thing though - only 193 bananas.

Played Monkey Bowling Challenge Super Happy Fun Mode for a bit then, and completed the first level. Tried the second level, but ran out of "throws", so failed.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Hurrah! Nook actually gave me a good price today - 215 bells per turnip! That's the highest it's been in my town so far, I think. As a result, I sold all my turnips, and made a 100% profit.

Went and visited Lyzzy in Scotton then, and bought a Modern Sofa from her shop and wrote on her noticeboard. She came back to my place (oo-er) to sell her turnips (although she forgot to bring them and had to go back for them - doh!). I also stole Robin from her.

Did quite a bit of fishing, and donated a red snapper to the museum. The rest of the fish were sold, for not nearly as much as I'd hoped. Stripped my trees of fruit and sold most of it, and planted the rest to make more fruit trees. Also sent my animals some letters, and sent off a message in a bottle.

Mr. Driller (WS)

Gah. MUCH. TOO. HARD.

I must have tried ten times, and the furthest I got was a feeble 672m. I don't seem to be able to get past about 300m without losing at least one life any more. Clearly, this is rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Played quite a bit this evening. Firstly, I sold all the fruit from my trees, and all the fossils I found. That made me about 80,000 bells. After that, I bought everything from Crazy Redd, including a (genuine!) Scary Painting, which I put in my museum.

Nook was buying turnips for 150 bells today, but (foolishly, I'll bet) I turned down his offer.

Went fishing then, and caught loads of octopii, only to find they're worth just 500 bells each and not the 15,000 or so I was hoping for. Got a few other fish too, including a Freshwater Goby that I didn't have in my museum, so donated that.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnips were only 81 bells today, but I'm not that bothered this week. I have HOUSE MAXIMUM now anyway, so there's no real incentive to work off the huge 950,000-ish bell mortgage. Did go and harvest and sell a load of fruit for about 60,000 bells though, and also bought a cardboard box off of Caroline the Squirrel but I'm not really sure why.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

I don't seem to have played this for quite a while. A million and one other games must have arrived and I forgot about it, or something.

Restarted Chapter 18 for two reasons - firstly, and most importantly, I died instantly on the "resume game" save, and secondly, I thought I'd need my idiot Pegasus Knight to recruit the other one that was flying round the map.

I was correct, and I went on to finish the mission "properly" without losing a single unit, although Dorcas very nearly died at the hands (or rather, sword) of Uhai. Thankfully, Oswin made short work of him whilst Dorcas escaped. Onward to 18x now!

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

Progressed quite a bit further today, getting past the spikes that had "killed" me previously, going back into the present, running from the Dahaka (I hate those bits) and returning to the past again.

There, I started doing some of the clock tower thingy, and then had another big golem to kill. I found that you can dodge him grabbing you when you're on his back my pressing A or X and left or right, which made killing him a lot easier. There was a bug in the game on one of my attempts (he's on a smallish platform, and kept throwing me off), where the camera angle became fixed, some way off from the action. It meant I couldn't see what I was doing half the time as I kept running "out of shot". Eventually, I must have fallen off the edge or something.

After killing him, I started up the central bit of the tower, and turned the last cog at the top which finished off the tower. Unfortunately, I then ran into another bug almost right away - I couldn't slow down or reverse time (even though I had plenty of sand), and I fell in another hole. Didn't die in there, but couldn't get out either., so had to reload my saved game, which was before the golem.

This time, I killed the golem, saved again, then went up the tower, turned the cog, and managed to get past the hole I fell in. Only to fall in the next hole, where exactly the same thing happened, and I couldn't even use my sand to reverse time and get out. This is REALLY starting to annoy me now.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnip day today! Only managed to get together about 65,000 bells to buy 600 turnips for 105 bells each, before it hit noon and Joan disappeared. I'm not too bothered, as I make much more from fruit as it is anyway. After buying my turnips, I did a bit of fishing, and also caught a ladybird that I saw on a flower. Dug up some "'oids" and some fossils (one of which I actually didn't have!), and sold some more fruit.

A new animal has moved in now - Walker the dog. Oh ho. ISWTDT. He said he was so happy, he could go fishing naked. And then said I'll be seeing a lot more of him.

Not naked, I hope.

Mr. Driller (WS)

Didn't do too well on this today. Averaged around 650m or so over about ten attempts, although my highest was 884m - not bad. I ran out of air, less than a second before an air tank thing landed on my head. Rubbish.

Also rubbish was how well I did on about another ten aborted attempts - losing two lives before 300m, so I restarted each one.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Yet another visit to Cheese today, but only because it's Saturday night, and K.K. Slider is about then. Tonight's tune was "Two Days Ago".

After that, I realised that tomorrow was turnip day, and I'd spent almost all my money on my mortgage. Ran round and sold the last of the fruit I had on the trees, and I've now got almost 50,000 to spend. With the money rock tomorrow, plus any grown back fruit, I should be able to buy a fair few.

Mr. Driller (WS)

Hmm. It seems my "760m-ish" was actually only 743m, and it took me a good ten or so attempts to better that today. Even then I only managed 771m.

I can get to about 600m without losing a life almost every single time now (except for the occassional slip up where I lose them all before I hit 200m - rubbish!), but then it all goes wrong and I lose three in quick succession. It's like I'm "in the zone", and then suddenly realise what's going on and it all goes horribly, horribly wrong.

However! On my last attempt for the day, I managed to get 843m! Hurrah!

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC)

Haven't played this in a while, and it really showed when I started it up again today. I seemed to have forgotten most of the controls, and kept falling off ledges, taking my sword out instead of running up walls, and generally acting like my controller was back to front.

Eventually got it sussed, and got past where I was previously (somewhere in the clock tower). I then had another huge baddie to kill, although he was the same as the last one so I knew what to do, and then ended up going round and round in circles because I missed a switch to open a door.

Finally went the right way, past a billion or so traps and spikes, and made it to a time sand warp bit, taking me back into the present. Sadly, I died soon afterwards as I fell down a hole into some spikes, but the spikes didn't kill me. I couldn't use my sand to reverse time though, as the game had assumed I was "too far gone", and so had to run around in the spikes for a bit before the game realised I was supposed to be impaled and then I couldn't move. The Prince just lay there making sexual noises, blood pouring out, and never actually dying at all. Turned it off.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

With time running out for the rest of my turnips, Kittana in Kittania posted on the ugvh newsgroup saying she was a new player and had a turnip price of 201 bells. Popped over there quickly with the rest of my turnips and a couple of each fruit for her. The price had dropped to 161 by then, but it was much better my my "local" Nook price of 71.

Got almost 200,000 bells there, and have Kittana 20,000 for her time.

ポケモントローゼ (DS)

Or Pokémon Torouze to you, if you can't read the Japanese. Yes, I am just showing off that I can type in katakana like on the box.

And, despite the Pokémon connection, it's actually a very good puzzle game. So far, at least. It's a sort of cross between Zoo Keeper and those slide puzzles. You have the usually puzzle-game-well, which starts partially filled with Pokémon heads. You slide the rows and columns to line up four or more heads, which then vanish. You can then trigger chains of just three or more, and and further chains of only two or more, groups (rather than just lines) of matching heads. There are also "joker" heads to act as any other head, and you complete levels by getting certain scores, "catching" a set number of each type of Pokémon, or by getting a particular chain length. Which one depends on the level. In Story Mode at least, and that's all I've played so far. Did some of the training missions, and then moved on to the proper missions. I've just defeated the first boss too, which went on a bit (probably as I didn't know what the "trigger" was to complete it - seemed to be a chain of 10 or something in the end).

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Had a bit of catching up to do, what with not playing Animal Crossing at all yesterday. Sold about half my turnips for 165 bells each, but I'm holding on for someone online to give me a better price for the rest. My Nook is buying at 71 bells now, so I really hope someone has actually got better than that...

Sold a load more fruit, and some fossils, and managed to pay off my next mortgage - all 848,000 bells of it. I haven't checked what my next one will be, as I'm scared to find out.

Lyle was about today, and I gave him the fake painting I bought from Redd earlier in the week. OK, so I'll only get 100 bells for it (and I paid about 4,000) but still, it's better than nothing. Just about.

Today is also Lah-di-Day, so all the animals are singing potential new Town Tunes. I chose Caroline the Squirrel's tune, although I suspect Alice the Koala might be a bit upset about that as she fancies the pants off me. Fluffy does too, it seems, and told me about how she'd "accidently" shrunk all her dresses in the wash, and would have to walk round naked. Tch.

Mr. Driller (WS)

With 500m mode out of the way, I had many, many attempts at 1000m mode instead. Although it seems easier than Drill Spirits on DS in many ways (although I'm not really sure why - it's the same game in essence), I didn't manage to do very well. 760m-ish was about my best run. Of course, unlike the DS game, you can't buy extra lives, power-ups and shields and stuff, so things are made somewhat harder that way. However, almost all of my deaths were completely avoidable, I was just stupid, careless, and/or not watching what I was doing properly. Again.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnips were 129 bells today, so I considered selling, but decided to hang on a bit longer and see if they improve.

Made about another 50,000 bells through fruit-and-fossil selling, and then went and did a bit of fishing, but didn't catch any "new" fish.

Alice the Koala came round my house too, and said it was great, but only gave it two stars. She also muttered something about closets being useless when the door is up against a wall, but that made no sense as none of mine are like that. Idiot animal.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll (DS)

Completed another two "worlds" today, having spent ages and ages trying to get past the Starfish level. It's just like one of the levels in Super Monkey Ball 2 on the Gamecube (as, in fact, many levels are), but for some reason, it's $hlmun times harder on the DS game. I think I might be due to the gap in the "star" being narrower, and the star stopping for a shorter time.

Anyway, with that level out of the way, I managed to clear the two worlds mentioned, and have two others unlocked too. Tried (and failed) them both. Bah.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Mostly just sold fruit (and a couple of fossil duplicates) today, making almost 100,000 bells, which I put in my Post Office account. I have some 650,000 bells in there now, so should be able to pay off my mortgage at the weekend.

Or sooner, if Nook decides to give me a better price than today's 71 bell high on turnips. Stab him. In the eyes.

Also bumped into Gracie, who slated my outfit (even with my ACEBEST tophat), but gave me a certificate of 1337 Dessing Skillz (or something) anyway.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Nook is bad enough, with his "67 bells per turnip, govn'r? Bargain at twice the price!" sales and his evil nephews that never sell Modern Flooring despite me looking for it every single day. But Crazy Redd is even worse!

Today, I bought a Fine Painting from him for 4,000-odd bells. Excited, I scampered off to give it to Blathers at the Museum who promptly proclaimed "Hoo HOOO! This is an EVIL PIKEY FORGED COPY!" and punched me in the face. Or something.

Great. So I'll get 100 bells from Lyle at the weekend, for a painting I paid 40 times that much for. I hate this game.

Mario vs Donkey Kong (GBA)

I went back to this game this evening, although I'm not really sure why. I should be working my way through Fire Emblem or Warrior Within or something.

Anyway. Decided to try and see how far through the Game+ mode I could get. Surprisingly, despite the first level on the first world appearing impossible last time I tried, I've managed to get to level 3-2 without much difficulty.

Had a quick try on Expert 1 again too, but failed. Rubbish.