Topic: What Games Are We Playing

[maximumchaos12]

I am currently playing Donkey Kong country Returns and Disney Epic Mickey for the Wii.I ocasionally play mega man 1,2,3,4,x1,x2,x3,9,10,7,battle network1,super mario galaxy1 and 2,and super smash brothers brawl.Also,I play aqworlds.

[Peardian]

Over the holidays, I received Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem. Having played the two previous Lemmings-style games, let me say that this one is easily the best. I wrote a big ol' review for it on another board, so let me just copy/paste it here. Needless to say, I've found another game I want to map.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is the fourth game in the MvDK series and the third in the Lemmings-style games based in controlling the Mini-Mario toys. It is quite polished compared to the previous games in the series, offering more interesting and lengthier gameplay. It builds on some of the elements changed and introduced in the previous game, the DSi-ware title Minis March Again. Most notably, you can no longer control the Mini-Marios after they are activated. In addition, all Minis are required to make it to the goal in order to pass. This means that you have to me more careful in managing your toys to ensure that none of them perish and that all of them make it in the door before the countdown timer ends.

New gimmicks added to the game make for interesting puzzles. The most notable new feature is the ability to draw and move girders between anchor points, which replaces the purple goo blocks from the previous two games. A set number of these iron beams are located on the map, and players can tap the rivets they are connected to to remove them, adding to the girder bar count. Each bar represents a single block worth that can be placed. In order to place a girder, the player presses down on a rivet and drags. Time freezes while the other rivets are highlighted. A girder can not be placed if the player does not have the full amount of bars required to link the two rivets. This is the most common puzzle element, and probably the most enjoyable. Later levels change things up by introducing conveyor belt beams and ladders which change things up and require players to think in new ways about the puzzle. Another fun addition is the use of slopes. Minis can walk up and down them like ramps, but if the slope angle is too steep, they will slide down it and change their direction. Frequently, girders will be used to create ramps for the Minis.

A number of gimmicks were removed that slowed down gameplay. Elevators and pipe joints that completely stopped the Minis are gone. Enemies are used much more sparingly, since Minis cannot be commanded to avoid them. Minis can no longer ride on top of Shy Guys, but they can now defeat them by sliding into them in addition to the usual method of smacking them with a Hammer. Item Blocks are gone, too, so no Fire Flowers. Don't worry, though, the gameplay is fine without these elements.

The gameplay has been changed up for the better, making the game flow better. The level select format now resembles the original Mario vs. Donkey Kong instead of Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2. Instead of picking one of the nine levels available, players have to go through each of the 8 level in order. Levels come in three flavors, each with a different way of solving the puzzle. Normal stages simply require getting all of the Minis into the goal within a short amount of time of each other. Every fourth level in a world features multiple types of Minis. Players start with a Mini-Mario and must free other Mini toys from their capsules, leading each one to its respective door. Timing doesn't matter with this one, so Minis can enter the doors independently of each other. The eigth level in each world features a lock and key, like in MvDK2. One Mini has the key, and that Mini must unlock the door before the others can enter it.

The boss and bonus levels have been changed as well, being more like regular gameplay than touch generation mini-games. Instead of firing a cannon at DK like before, boss levels play out more like normal levels where the player must guide automatically-activated Mini-Marios up to the top of the screen, where they will hurt DK. Collectibles can also be found in the level, for anyone who wants to risk spending time to get them. Bonus levels now feature Minis dropping in from pipes above. Randomly sorted toy boxes at the bottom of the screen carry different multipliers and shuffle around. Players must draw girders to guide the falling Minis into the positive boxes while avoiding the negative ones. It's pretty enjoyable, and novice players can use the time freeze from the girder placement to think. Activating the bonus level requires collecting all of the MINI-MARIO cards, which are divided up among the levels in the world.

This game has a surprising number of levels, even more than the first MvDK. Special "M" Coins can be found in each level, and are collected to unlock Special levels. There are 20 special levels, with a hefty requirement of 100 coins to unlock the last one. Special levels are unique in that the Minis all activate simultaneously once the player hits the START button. The levels are also more challenging than normal levels, often involving very little solid ground and lots of girders and spikes. As if that wasn't enough, beating the final DK battle unlocks the Expert levels, and they certainly live up to their name. These levels are unlocked by collecting trophies, which are earned by getting high scores on levels instead of the usual Gold/Silver/Bronze Star system. Beating the final DK also opens up Plus Mode, which doubles the previously explained level count. In Plus Mode, players are given different types of Minis. The catch is that players have to guide them to the goal in the correct order. The plus levels themselves are largely unchanged, with tweaks here and there to keep things from being too easy. What's more, the Coins and Trophies earned in Plus Mode only count for Plus Mode, so you have to unlock the Special and Extra levels over again to prove you can handle them.

The art style of the game is also more polished than the predecessors. The level tilesets were improved, making solid ground look a little more pleasing than just a solid mass of identical blocks. The backgrounds have forgone the "colored glass shapes" style in favor of a stylized render look, sometimes with backgrounds having 4-5 layers of depth instead of just 3. The whole game has an Amusement Park theme, with worlds being called "Attractions" and different park rides being seen in the scenery. The music is also all new. Like MvDK2, it mostly relies on remixes of past Mario themes. Some of the same themes from MvDK2 are used again, but with a new remix. My favorite is world 1's music, which uses remixes of SMB2 music, including the boss theme for the DK stage. Surprisingly, they either pulled from more obscure music, or half the game uses original melodies. Unfortunately, these songs are more designed to fit the level (which they do quite well) but are not very memorable.

I think that covers about everything. My only annoyance with the game is that Pauline's screams during the boss fights make me feel awkward when playing at my dorm. If you're into Lemmings-type games, or if you liked MvDK2, then I recommend getting this game. It's a good way to pass the time and tease your brain.

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[JonLeung]

It's been a while since I posted in this topic...time for a big one.

Played Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii), got 100%, but that doesn't include getting all Gold Medals (for getting enough Beads), and I still have a few Silvers.  One of them is for Frigid Fjords, a vehicular stage that doesn't seem to have much room for error, and has really frustrated me.

I've only finished GoldenEye 007 (Wii) on the Agent difficulty so far, and despite throwing a couple game parties, certain people haven't shown up while we were playing that game in multiplayer, so I think I haven't enjoyed that as much as I feel I should, and then in the last one I think we ended up putting in the N64 one and playing that a lot more.

I got to the end in Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii), though I recall I lost a ridiculous amount of lives on the last boss, but though I've been meaning to do the Time Trials and get all the collectibles, it seems to have fallen low on the priority list.  Not that it's a bad game, I think I'm just often not in the mood, and that's also on hold anyway (more on that later).

I love Back To The Future: The Game (PC), the latest episodic point-and-click adventure series from Telltale Games.  My brother got the whole season for me for Christmas, but I've only played the first episode so far.  I think the second is scheduled for February, not sure if it's released yet or not, if it is, I should make time for it.  It's very true to the series while also having the kind of humour and shenanigans and puzzles you expect from the Monkey Island or Sam & Max games.  Just one quirk I feel a need to point out; the explanation for why the DeLorean's still around was mentioned in an easily-missable dialogue choice, and seemed a little lame, so I hope it's elaborated upon in a later episode.

I finally got the means to play DreamMix TV World Fighters (J) (GameCube), intended to be a Christmas present for my brother, but my order of the Freeloader from Play-Asia.com got lost in transit, and though I maybe gave them an unnecessarily hard time about it, I guess stuff does happen.  I ended up getting an Action Replay from CodeJunkies instead, which includes the Freeloader.  Not much to say about the game other than that it's a Smash Bros. clone with a crazy roster of Konami/Hudson/Takara characters (Solid Snake, Bomberman, Optimus Prime, etc.), but it's really short, you can finish the game with each character in ten minutes if you don't lose.  But I suppose with the Action Replay, I can now cheat in games that have bugged me for years, like the impossible F-Zero GX.  Now there's a possibility...so I already ordered that, used, from JJGames.com, which, among other old multiplayer games, I should be getting in the mail any day now.

Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2) is on hold, and being in Chapter 4, which primarily consists of looking through CommSpheres just to do surveillance on every location in the world, is kind of boring.  I do have intentions to finish this eventually - I took the time to max out the dresspheres that I have, and all three girls are at Level 99, after all.

I guess I played some Super Scribblenauts (DS), too.  Awesome that they fixed the controls for directly controlling Maxwell, but there are way fewer action/platforming stages and more of it is just about what the game is about - writing down words to summon items to solve puzzles.  The addition of adjectives is neat, but often felt underused.  I just have to get a few more Starites to hit 121, but the remaining stages - the action ones I mentioned - are frustrating, as I have to do them three times with totally different words, and if I kill Maxwell, destroy the Starite, or fail in any other way, I either have to think up more words or restart, which is especially frustrating if I fail on the third try.  So that's on hold too.

The reason for many games on hold is Pokémon: SoulSilver Version, which I put on hold for far too long.  At the start of the year I told myself I'd catch them all again before Pokémon Black/White come out.  I'd already done so in one game in each and every generation, including all 493 in Diamond, but since it sounds like most aren't present in the upcoming Black/White Versions, I figured I'd catch them all in SoulSilver and transfer them all into whichever fifth generation game I play, without having to take any out of my Diamond game.  SoulSilver is a remake, and therefore doesn't require that I keep all 493 in there after I catch them all.  Neurotic logic, I know.  Anyway, at the start of the year I had about 100 caught, so I calculated that I should catch a quota of six and a half Pokémon a day to have caught them all before March 6 (the release date for Pokémon: Black and White Versions), so I maintained a minimum of catching seven a day, and often caught more, which was a pretty good pace and doable until recently.  The fifty-some I have left require the Safari Zone to be set up a certain way for X number of days (20-110 days) so I'm definitely not catching all of those ones until at least May.  There are a couple I need the daily "Swarm" - so that's dependent on luck and time - and finally, there are some that require using the Pokéwalker, and let me tell you, getting to 2 million steps (equivalent to 100000 Watts, if I don't get any bonus Watts) is going to take an unknown (but definitely long) amount of time.  Seeing as how I can't do much more in SoulSilver itself other than wait, I should very soon be able to return to some of the games above.

...

I'm actually surprised I played all the above, because all I really wanted to come here to do was recommend the current game that I'm having trouble putting down (fittingly, the ninth game that I mention here)...  999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS).  It's a visual novel - with some "escape-the-room"-type point-and-click puzzle-solving, but it's the story that is so engrossing.

The premise is that you are one of nine people, apparently kidnapped and brought aboard a cruise ship.  After waking up and escaping the first room, you meet up with the other eight, and learn from your captor, who calls himself Zero, that you have to find a door with a "9" painted on it, within nine hours before the ship sinks, to escape.  Everyone is equipped with a bracelet with a single digit displayed on it (from which everyone but you derive a codename), and a mathematical relationship determines which people can go through each of the numbered doors.  As one would expect, there are deadly consequences for not following Zero's rules, and as the time ticks down the characters become desperate to escape and tensions rise.  I guess it is kind of like Saw (film series) meets Myst.

The characters are quite a diverse mix, including a young girl, a blind man, a dancer, an amnesiac, among others.  It's implied that there's a connection between all nine of the players, which is part of the mystery to unravel.  You'll soon find out that you can't fully trust the others, and a lot of the text in the game is the dialogue between characters as they debate and argue over what to do.  Unlike other horror games where the biggest threat is usually something obviously monstrous or evil, here you feel constant tension as you know that it's likely that you'll be betrayed eventually, but by which of your allies?  Because of the nature of the numbered doors, you'll have opportunities to work through a puzzle room with each person at some point, so when it's clear that something is wrong and someone you know could be responsible, the suspense amps up.

What is really interesting is the concept of the doors - basically you can enter a numbered door if your party (of three to five)'s "digital root" equals the number painted on it.  You learn very early on in the game that you find the digital root by adding up the digits on your bracelets, and if necessary, adding up the digits in the sum, until you're left with a single-digit number, which is the digital root.  Due to the progression of the game, you're usually able to choose to go through any door when given a choice, but when people disappear, or are suspected of doing their own thing, you'll always be thinking about how and when certain people might have gone through the doors...at least if you like numbers.  The numbered doors are clever obstacles that divide and mix up the teams, and the explanations for who went where and when, and even how some doors are circumvented, make you go "aha!", especially if you figure them out before the game explicitly states so.

And if you like paradoxes and scientific mysteries, there are many.  It seems like every character has some crazy theory or story that they want to share, based around science or pseudoscience, some inspired by actual historical events - or at least supposedly happened - from real life.  I won't spoil too many - and I certainly won't explain their relevance to the plot - but I did like the paradox of Locke's Socks/Ship Of Theseus (which is one of my favourites even before playing this game), or the metaphysical idea about how our brain may not be a processing unit but a receiver for instructions from somewhere else.  Given the limited nine hours that the characters are in, it does seem like an odd time for such discussions, even when most are actually brought up with some context.  But some feel especially forced, like when you're trapped in a freezer discussing the mystery of glycerin crystallization, you'd think the characters could at least wait until they got out...but it's mostly easy to forgive when some of the stuff they talk about is so interesting.

The M-rating on this game is accurate.  The dialogue is realistic, in that people will swear when they're angry, scared, or tense, and for the most part it is within context and not gratuitous.  What is disturbing is the level of detail in the descriptions of certain dead bodies.  While the worst of each dead person isn't shown on screen, usually just an extremity, the body as a whole - or what remains - is vividly described.  Reading these details feels much more intense than if they simply showed you the gore.  As for sex, there isn't any that I've seen so far, but I saw a couple instances of innuendo (unintended by an oblivious character), which are light-hearted comic moments that are welcome as they break up the seriousness and tension prevalent in this adventure.

As a visual novel, there is a lot of reading - you'll actually spend a lot more time reading than working through the rooms behind the numbered doors, as most of the puzzles (at least that I've seen so far) are very easy.  Even if you think you read quickly, there are tons to read - I got my second ending yesterday, but that took an hour and a half between escaping the last puzzle room and the start of the credits.

Speaking of which, there are six endings.  You can't get "game over" from the puzzles, so you steadily make progress towards one of six endings based on the rooms you choose to go through.  My understanding is that most endings are bad, though that is unsurprising.  Ironically the first ending I got (called the "coffin ending") was apparently on the path to the "true ending", but because I didn't get the "safe ending" first, my first playthrough ended prematurely.  I didn't want to follow a walkthrough due to the risk of seeing spoilers, but a handy flowchart on GameFAQs explains what rooms to take to get the various endings, so I got the "safe ending" last night, which as I mentioned took an hour and a half, explaining so many mysteries.  Makes sense that it's the most important "bad end" to get, but it still left, and introduced, a lot of questions.  Guess I won't be putting this down until I get all the endings!  As creepy as the game can get, I feel spurred to keep going.  Thankfully you can speed through text you've seen before on subsequent playthroughs, so it may yet end sooner than I want it too.

I'm not sure why I picked this game over Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations or Ghost Trick, but now I don't regret that decision.  I'll eventually play those two at some point, but for now, I'm raving about 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  Perhaps it's because I'm still playing it, but I think this is among the best plot-heavy games I've ever played, and is most certainly one of the best games of any genre for the DS.  Highly recommended, so please play it and soon, if you haven't already, as it's hard to rave about this any more than I have without spoiling anything.  You can tell I like it if I take this much time out of a work day to write this.  

(I also got to my 1000th day in Wii Fit (and/or Wii Fit Plus) yesterday, and I think it may be a good time to stop.  I'm healthy, so this habit of weighing myself can die, and then I can save a couple minutes each day, which could add up.)

[Peardian]

Speaking of Ghost Trick, my bro is letting me try it, and I already love it. I was hooked since the start of the first cutscene. Sure, I'm only at chapter 4, (busy busy) but so far its great. All the characters are wacky and unique, the art style is awesome, the animations are so smooth and fun to watch, and Missile is the most adorable dog ever. For those of you who don't know about it, it's a detective game from the makers of Phoenix Wright. However, the twist is, you're the murder victim. You play as the spirit of a recently murdered man, trying to solve your own murder. As a spirit, you use your powers to jump from object to object, possessing them and making them do things (when possible). The gameplay itself is like a rube golberg puzzle, where you have to intereact with characters using the right objects at the right time, such as possessing a flag being raised in order to get higher. This wonderful combination of puzzle and story is quite charming, and I highly recommend it.

[JonLeung]

Just got the "true ending" of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  

From the point in the story where the game ended in my first playthrough (the so-called "coffin ending"), to the very end, was three hours and forty minutes.  That's a long end.  Well, technically there were two more rooms to escape from and a final puzzle on top of that, but that's still a long - but very satisfying finale.  Some twists, many unexpected, and ultimately the end is worth the goosebumps and tension.  Probably one of the best endings to a game...ever.  Yes, I said it.  Ever.

If you play it, I don't think you need all six endings...the "coffin/dummy ending" is just the premature ending if you didn't do the "safe ending" first...but there is an interesting idea behind why both are there, and you'd have to play the game to understand.  The "sub ending" is interesting, and of course the "true ending" rocks.  The "axe ending" is unnecessarily disturbing and the "knife ending" is kind of like a weak version of that.

Well, it's 3 AM...guess later this weekend I can get back to my backlog.  Though I did pass the stupid Frigid Fjords stage with a Gold Medal in Kirby's Epic Yarn this morning...or I guess, technically yesterday morning.  And in the afternoon - a single afternoon - I beat all my Just Dance 2 scores in Just Dance 2: Special Edition (Best Buy Exclusive Version) (stupid that you can't just transfer the save - the Special Edition just has three more songs - kinda silly), which was pretty fluky as I did that on my first try in most cases and even got nine scores over 10000 when before I only had three...    And my brother installed the second episode of Back To The Future: The Game so I should get to that...

Anyway, time for bed...

[JonLeung]

I just finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective just a few minutes ago, watching the credits now.  You're right, Peardian, this is an awesome game!  Love the puzzles, animation, and the story!  At first, I figured it'd be like a combination of Final Destination and Geist.  But it's certainly it's own thing, very fun, very cool!  The downside is that you can't do much with it after you've finished it, other than to recommend it to others!

Between this, the recently-finished 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, the Professor Layton series, and the Ace Attorney series, I think the DS is an incredible platform for games with great stories, and it's really too bad there are so many people who don't play handheld games for whatever silly reason.

Ah, the credits are wrapping up.  I guess, speaking of Ace Attorney, I should tackle Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.

[JonLeung]

Not sure that I really want to get into all the details of what I've been playing since my last post, but I just wanted to say that after several years, tonight I will finally be hosting a session (the first of two or three) of four-player The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube.  While normally using a GameCube with four GBAs connected to it, I'm replacing the non-SP GBA that I have with a "GameCube/Game Boy Player/TV" combo, and then using my Wii as the "main" GameCube.  An interesting mix of Nintendo hardware, and with two TVs.  Cycling between twelve players with varying levels of Zelda game experience, this will certainly be an interesting night!

[JonLeung]

Just finished The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D!  I should probably go to bed...

I'll play Master Quest, but likely not right away.  I should return to Pokémon: Black Version...

(Oh yeah, and today (technically yesterday) I got a microphone for my Wii and both Karaoke Revolution: Glee games...  Shhh...)

[JonLeung]

It's been a while, so I likely forgot about some games...

Earlier this year, Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) was something I started and really wanted to get into, but I'm probably not far in it - I only just got out of the Bionis's Leg.  It was hard to boot up since I only had packets of time to play games lately and wanted to dedicate longer sessions.  I will definitely return to this someday.

My video game playing has been spotty at best in the past few months, but I made up for that very quickly in the past week and some.

Professor Layton And The Last Specter (DS) got me teary-eyed at the end...though I wasn't bawling like at the end of Unwound Future.  Good as always, don't know yet if I should make time for the supposedly-50-100-hour RPG "London Life" that's included with the game (ironically in all but the European versions).  I cleared all 170 puzzles, and didn't find them too difficult this time around, though I admit to consulting walkthroughs when it comes to some of the tricky sliding puzzles.

Kirby: Mass Attack (DS) kept me occupied on the plane both ways, so I got through most of the game while airborne.  I finished the game back on solid ground, but I still have to go back and get some medals.  I generally don't like games where you don't have direct control of the main character (or characters, in this case), but the game turned out to be more fun than I expected.

I somehow blazed through Kirby's Return To Dream Land (Wii) by myself this weekend, primarily on Saturday, and finished it yesterday, though I still have some Energy Spheres to get, as well as the entire "Extra Mode" to do.  I hope to play this multiplayer one day.  Though on the short side (if you don't count the Extra Mode which is basically the whole game again, but harder), it sort of feels like a spiritual successor to Kirby: Super Star which is a very good thing.

Picked up Super Mario 3D Land yesterday, and because of a birthday brunch buffet, I didn't get home until 4 PM (!) and even then I felt I had to finish Kirby first.  So it was probably between 5 PM and midnight yesterday that I played it, even with having to go out to dinner.  I made it to Princess Peach when the clock struck midnight (literally), and...well, not to ruin it, but I'm not done the game yet.  Making it through most of World 8 I guess is good progress, but obviously this means the game is short.  It's easy to blaze through a stage and get the Star Coins and be done with a stage.  Though I did have trouble with 6-Airship and 7-Airship, which, though the Star Coins were easy, were hard to even pass...  The former of which was really annoying - for some reason I couldn't judge where Pom-Pom's head is - ironic for a truly 3D game - and almost always got hit each time I tried to stomp, and when each of us can only take three hits, well, that didn't work out well for me, even if I had a Tanooki Suit.  I think New Super Mario Bros. Wii had better 2D level design, and the console (psuedo?-)3D games (64/Sunshine/Galaxy) had more reasons to revisit stages.  This game kind of finds itself in between (stage format like 2D games, but 3D gameplay) which is a little weird.  Though I shouldn't complain about new content on the 3DS, this isn't the perfect Mario game if I could have finished it in a day if I didn't have real-life things to attend.  EDIT: This game is longer than I expected...

I have another Nintendo Night this Saturday (to celebrate the GameCube's 10th and the Wii's 5th), so I'll be practicing games before then, or maybe I'll finish Super Mario 3D Land and make progress in Extra Mode in Kirby's Return To Dream Land, to free up time for The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword which comes out Sunday.  Hopefully that won't let me down, but I haven't been watching recent gameplay videos - mostly because I'm busy - so I might as well keep that up and allow myself to be surprised.

[austnappies]

I have so much with DOTA, the frozen throne.... hehehe

[JonLeung]

Just finished The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword and had trouble holding back the tears.  I'm turning into a big softie.

[TerraEsperZ]

I tend to accumulate stuff for months on end, and every once in a while I'll just blow through everything within a few weeks. Right now, I still have these games to either finish or just plain start playing:

-Sonic Colours (Wii)
-Sonic Generations (PC)
-Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)
-Transformers: War for Cybertron (PC)
-Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Trilogy (PC)
-The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
-The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Considering I'm in full mapping mode, I probably won't even touch anything on that list for another couple of months. Glad to know that Skyward Sword manages to have a touching story. I admit I'm a big softie too, and nothing feels better than a game that ends on just the right note. I remember finding the credit sequence for A Link To The Past very moving, if not quite to tears. That piece of music remains one of my all-time favourite, and I'm looking forward to the latest Zelda attempting something similar .

[gRE3N744]

Just played Hook on the SNES for the first time since it's release. I think it's the only game I've actually sat down and played start to finish since last December. The game is so bad I wouldn't have played it for more than a minute if I wasn't feeling nostalgic towads it specifically.

[alucard]

Just bought Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land on 3DS. I am almost done beating all the regular tracks on MK7, then I will start playing online multiplayer.

I will start on Super Mario 3D Land in a few days, after I finish up Dragon Quest 6 on DS.

[JonLeung]

I just cleared Super Mario 3D Land with 100%!

I deleted my post where I was whining about the last stage.  I tried again today, cleared it with Mario on my third try and cleared it with Luigi on my first and only try.  I didn't have any trouble whatsoever after passing the one part I kept screwing up (where you have to jump off of Toad).  The trick is to just hold on to that Tanooki Suit and make use of all three of its abilities.  (Though I almost did screw up with Luigi, as I did get hit once - if you defeat Pom-Pom first, don't stand at the ledge above Boom-Boom laughing at him - because the upper ledge will drop down.  >_>  Luckily I had another Tanooki Leaf in reserve...)

Funny how leaving something that is frustrating and coming back another day, with a clear head, you can just do so much better.  Like when I got the last Piece of Heart in The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  That stupid Fun Fun Island...  I wasted almost an hour the night previous, then the next day, I got it on my second try.  I think frustration just puts you on a slippery slope; when it starts not being fun anymore, do something else.

Anyone else playing the Find Mii II game, in any 3DS that's got the recent update?  I cleared the first Find Mii without having to hire any heroes, but I'm tempted to do so for Find Mii II.  You can now hire anyone you've previously StreetPass tagged.  So I checked the colours of the Miis I have...as of this morning, I had three or more of every colour, except for zero Yellows and only one Brown.  I've actually StreetPass tagged over 70 people (not counting the Miis you get by connecting to the Mario Kart Channel) and no one likes Yellow?  Sheesh.  There are new spell combinations in Find Mii II involving two Miis, and I read ahead and saw that I need two Yellows in a future room, so I talked with my co-worker (who I usually StreetPass twice a day if he remembers to bring it) and we gave each other two Yellow Miis today.  In the past, we just changed our main Mii's colour to help each other get past specific parts, but when hiring Miis, it's only going to have them at the last colour they were seen as, so making different Miis of different colours will give us the edge if we resort to hiring.  More people need to update their 3DSes...all I have for puzzle pieces are the Donkey Kong Country Returns ones...which, aside from the starting piece, I spent exactly 100 Play Coins to get all the buyable ones...what else am I going to use those Play Coins for?  (Thank goodness I got the "three identical pieces in a row" achievement for that, too...though that seems a little unfair as that's based on luck...)  Now how am I going to get the new, unbuyable pieces?  Are some people lucky enough to start with one of those?