Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

 “Feel like shit just want Gamestation back” indeed.

Recently, I've been feeling really nostalgic for the second game shop which opened in my home town and lasted about a year. We had, and to my delight when I visited last year still have, an inependent store called Insane Games. Its a chain of about three or four stores in the Somerset area and they do new and used games for decent prices with friendly staff. Love it.

However, for a brief spell another bloke opened a game shop at the opposite end of town, down a bit of a side street. It didn't even have proper shelves for most of the time it was open, just games on the floor and some tables. The bloke was a proper games enthusiast though, and even though he had comic-book guy energy, for 13-year-old luke he was cool and it made me feel like someone actually respected me and listened to me when he would ask me questions about finidng specific obscure game boy games.

I can't remember what it was called, though.

TCK wrote:

Which character do you go? I usually pick Sarah “Fucking Arsehole“ Hill.

That's who I went for in the end too as I really struggled with the turning in Excitebike 64, so going her made it a wee bit better.

Aw, man, I've got to get in on Excitebike 64. I'm trying to play Paper Mario like a good boy eating his turn-based RPG veggies, but y'all sound like you're having a blast.

I'm actually excited to play Paper Mazza but my stupid brain insists on waiting until it's played SMRPG first.

Jimbob wrote:

Aw, man, I've got to get in on Excitebike 64. I'm trying to play Paper Mario like a good boy eating his turn-based RPG veggies, but y'all sound like you're having a blast.

This is only because I haven't even tried Excitebike 64, else I'd be moaning about how I wish I was eating my turn-based RPG veggies instead.

Would this change your opinion? No.

If turn-based RPGs were a vegetable they’d be brussels sprouts – the ones that leave you glued to the pan for two hours in the middle of the night. But Paper Mario is like a Golden Brussels Sprout that’s got tenners stuffed in it instead of flatulence.

But the even golden-er sprout that is Thousand Year Door is re-releasing, so... dunno, man.

Last N64 review for a while, ending this run with perhaps my longest post ever...



N64 Magazine said: “After the excellent Mystical Ninja 3D adventure, Goemon steps back to the days of the SNES for this average 2D platform romp. Disappointing.” 69% in Issue 29, ⅖ in Issue 59.
Nintendo Official Magazine said: “Cool 2D ninja adventure. Loadsa fun play styles”. 80% in Issue 96.

The first Mystical Ninja game on N64 had a fair bit of success, with a mental Japanese ‘quirkiness’ that helped it carve out its own niche next to the Super Mario 64’s and Banjo-Kazooie’s of the Nintendo 64 world. The highly complementary magazine reviews aided it’s cause, as did the word of mouth that told it was a far better 3D platformer than many of its other contemporaries. Hindsight tells me that Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon was a massive departure for the series, which had traditionally been a side-scrolling 2D platformer designed for two players. For whatever reason - maybe just sticking to what they knew? - Konami returned to that SNES-era type of gameplay for Mystical Ninja 2: Starring Goemon. The result was a game that seemed bit too old-school and esoteric compared to what N64 Magazine and its peers were reviewing at the time. Fairly middling reviews meant that I didn’t bother picking it up when it was new, and I trust many others didn’t either; Mystical Ninja 2 wasn’t a game you’d ever see new or pre-owned in the shops, or available for rental. Years later though I knew I had to jump on it when I saw its price creeping upwards. Getting a complete-in-box copy of this for £20 is one of my greatest bargains ever, but it’s only now that I’m getting to sit down and actually play it all the way through.

Mystical Ninja 2: Starring Goemon is a weird as PAL N64 games get, with deep roots in Japanese culture and mythology. This can all be quite difficult to understand, but the uncomplicated stage-by-stage gameplay helps to overcome that barrier. Basically, you control four different characters with their own unique abilities, and traipse through forests, castles and other locales set in Feudal Japan. You start with Goemon (the all-rounder with the double-jump), and then discover his slow-but-powerful sidekick, Ebisumaru. It’s this tandem that provides a lot of the game’s comic relief, though neither are as versatile as the two others who eventually join your adventure. Shortly into the game, Sasuke the robot ninja joins your party, and he brings agility and upgradable weapons. Lastly, Yae the sword-fighting green-haired ninja becomes playable, and she can turn into a mermaid that carries a bazooka gun. With your companions, you collect Entry Passes to move through levels on five overworlds and gain access to each kingdom’s boss, so that you can retrieve a stolen time machine from an evil nun who’s actually a bloke. There’s sometimes more than one Entry Pass in each level, though usually it’s just a case of going left to right. That sounds simple, though it’s anything but.

This game is a seriously intense challenge, and it’s definitely one of the hardest I’ve played on the N64. That’s not be saying that it’s flagrantly unfair like Mortal Kombat Trilogy or anything like that, it’s just that Mystical Ninja 2 is fiendishly designed. This design, I feel, does let it down just a little bit. My feeling is that while enjoyable, Mystical Ninja 2’s levels are a wee bit too long, and fraught with just a bit too much danger that they can often become an exercise in frustration. I suffered many Game Overs here, even a couple in the first round of levels. I appreciate that I played a co-op game by myself, but apparently the challenge is proportionate with the number of players: it’s supposed to be a proper as-kicking when you’re playing alongside a pal. Thinking about it, Konami could have calmed down with the difficulty in Mystical Ninja 2. It’s as complex as it is challenging a lot of the time as well. I’ve emphasised that Mystical Ninja 2 is mostly a 2.5D platformer, but the adventure is broken up with 3D sections where you speak with townspeople and gain new tasks. There’s RPG elements to this too, like upgrading your weapons, buying inventory and resting up to recover health, which is all fair enough. Where it becomes challenging though is that Konami didn’t really translate these environments for a Western audience. I learned this with a walkthrough and then through trial and error: basically, if you don’t know what a Japanese hotel or café looks like, you’ll need to find out, otherwise you can’t heal, save, or essentially do many of the things that you’d assume would automatically happen in a game from 1999. The towns are large, complex and spaced-out, which I feels compounds that problem of poor signposting.

I don’t feel that these are so much complaints as they are annoyances though, as everything else about Mystical Ninja 2 is absolutely first class. It’s a very colourful and fluid platformer that’s brimming with confidence and imagination, and it’s surreal sense of humour gives it tons of likeable personality too. It controls reliably, the levels are plentiful, varied and interesting, the giant robot boss fights are really clever - and it’s basically everything you’d hope from a 2.5D platformer. Yet for me, the game’s massive surprise was its soundtrack. Mystical Ninja 2 has, without exaggeration, one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard on a cartridge-based game. It takes loads of inspiration for the game’s setting and uses many traditional strings, gongs and chimes, but the actual beats are a lot more contemporary, and the harmonies are almost all very catchy. It’s a really hummable songlist that’s got a totally unique vibe. Even if you don’t ever play the game, I urge you to give the soundtrack a listen.

The Mystical Ninja franchise have been out on its arse in the West for the best part of twenty years now, with Goemon himself only being kind-of-sighted as a Mii Fighter costume in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate since the days of Konami Krazy Racers. There’s seems to be no prospect for the franchise to return, which is a shame. With a few alterations to the difficulty and a updated graphical coating, I think it would have been ripe for a release on Wii – Mystical Ninja 2’s got that old-school gameplay that would have made it sit very nicely alongside New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Kirby’s Adventure Wii. Of course, you’d think Konami could straightforwardly compile many of the translated Mystical Ninja games for a digital release today, much like they have with Contra and Castlevania. As it is on N64, I’m still very impressed. Mystical Ninja 2: Starring Goemon is a massively underappreciated game and one of the console’s very best third-party releases. 9/10.

Ah go on, I'm too directionless/lazy to listen to more than ten seconds each of an entire soundtrack. Post us some of the best ones please?

What a write-up though for a 69%-er (and an uncomfortable reminder that NOM used 'words' like 'loadsa' with a straight face). Presumably one of those cases where a game just gets marked down because it's 2D. I can understand it in this case a bit, what with the sheer love N64 Mag had for Goemon 1, but it's interesting to read a completely different take. Good stuff.

If ever there was a game they needed to bring to NSO its Snowboard Kids but then after that it's Mystical Ninja, it's such an oddity that I've always wanted to try and I can't wait to shove it in the face of the "nobody asked for this" brigade.

Balladeer wrote:

Ah go on, I'm too directionless/lazy to listen to more than ten seconds each of an entire soundtrack.  Post us some of the best ones please?

I’m struggling to remember everything as I played Mystical Ninja 2 and typed most of that write-up over three years ago, but these two stood out (maybe because they sound similar-ish in parts?).





Generally speaking though, it recall it being a consistently excellent and hummable soundtrack.

Treesmurf wrote:

If ever there was a game they needed to bring to NSO its Snowboard Kids but then after that it's Mystical Ninja, it's such an oddity that I've always wanted to try and I can't wait to shove it in the face of the "nobody asked for this" brigade.

I hold out slight hope that Konami will compile the Mystical Ninja games someday. It’s not just that we’ve seen what they’ve done with Contra, Gradius and Castlevania, I’m also clinging onto the fact that The Legend of the Mystical Ninja on SNES appeared very quickly on the Wii, Wii U and 3DS Virtual Consoles, yet remains absent on Switch’s SNES Online…

Okay fair play, that's a couple of bangers right there. I mean, I always go a bundle on anything with traditional Japanese instruments, but those are very good. Special shout-out to the guitar riff at 2:00 in the first one.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

As it is on N64, I’m still very impressed. Mystical Ninja 2: Starring Goemon is a massively underappreciated game and one of the console’s very best third-party releases. 9/10.[/size]

That's a strong take, but I'll take your word for it! I played the original at the time, but never got on with it. Definitely a series that's ripe for a return, and one I'd like to revisit to see if 13-year old gjones was as stupid as I recall.

Speaking of forgotten 3D masterpieces...



Sonic Adventure (1999)

Considering this is still an early example of 3D platforming, I reckon Sonic Adventure gets a bit of a bad rap. The game initially launched in 1998(!), and looks ridiculous compared to what was on the PS1 and N64, but ultimately suffers by not being just a Sonic game. His mates are largely a bunch of twats that make the kids at the back of the bus blasting grime out of their phones seem like highly respectable citizens of society. In that sense, it's a frustrating experience, but it's one that has stuck with me since putting it down.

Sonic Adventure isn't really an adventure. It's a selection of levels scattered between a city location and a tropical island, that inexplicably have a railway connecting them. The plot is predictably barmy, with Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) using Chaos Emeralds to make his latest creation, a liquid monster, become increasingly powerful. The story isn't why you're playing a Sonic game, and the cut-scenes all end with you getting an emerald, and then Robotnik pinching it back anyway. Levels vary between characters, as you have the choice of six different styles of play. I imagine this was a unique selling point in the late 1990s, but it varies wildly in reality. Sonic's adventure is enjoyable, with some solid platforming, and impressive set-pieces and occasionally has a good sense of rhythm once you get a level down. Tails has similar levels but they are much easier because he can only do a close-up swing of his tail (aside from flying really high). Knuckles does this weird hovering move to prolong his jumps and can dig into the ground. They aren't great, but don't outstay their welcome. I couldn't get past a certain level of Amy's adventure, because the camera swings around and you're forced through some poorly designed levels. It was harder than I expected. Big the Cat though, fuck me, what else is there to say? He is a large purple lad, voiced (presumably) by Bert from Horrid Henry, and he has to be one of the most useless characters in video games. He’s slow, heavy, irritating, and all he does is carry a fishing rod around to cast his line. Yuji Naka will likely claim he’s a metaphor for the modern man, but he needs his head checked for shoehorning bad fishing mini-games into parts of Sonic’s levels. You literally have Sonic at the end of Big the Cat’s story saying “I’ll take it from here” because Big the Cat is absolutely useless. I didn’t even play as the last character, ED-209 (or whatever he’s called) because I’m not a masochist.

I had fun with eight of the ten stages - Casinopolis is crap thanks to poor pinball physics and repetitive aims (collect cards, collect rings). Sky Deck is another that was irritating, with it involving slow, precise platforming in the sky (lots of deaths ensue). Emerald Coast and Windy Valley are lots of fun and still look lovely, but it was Lost World that took me by surprise. There is a bit in it where you can sprint around a large forest (albeit made of tunnels) with no loading times, that was impressive. The last level is epic as well, a good ten minutes of navigating 3D platforms. I can see why it was reviewed positively at the time, despite the obvious flaws.

The music is oddly enjoyable. Granted, I have a degree of nostalgia for this period of SEGA, but I always dismissed Sonic Adventure as having corny nu-metal that took itself too seriously. And it does have that, but wandering around the Mystic Ruins was made tolerable by the chilled music. Graphically, the game is colourful and has aged better than I thought it would. The problem is the bad camera and shoddy clipping. There were times when I fell through a platform to my demise, through no fault of my own. These were always on boss battles, almost as if it was intentional to make the game a bit more challenging.

There are still parts of the game (like any Sonic game) that involve you holding in one direction before the camera suddenly switches and you veer off to your doom - it’s frustrating. But there’s some DNA here that is from the Mega Drive games whereby you do need to start learning the levels. This is proven by the fact each level requires you to first complete it, then to race against Sonic to the end, and then to race a faster version of Sonic. None of it is hard, aside from the Amy bits, and I didn’t engage with the Chao mini-game, as without a VMU it just wouldn’t have felt right. I’m 36 years old, for fuck's sake.

Despite my criticisms, I really enjoyed working through this ancient Dreamcast game on my Series X. Naturally, I asked myself why, after it was all said and done, and I doubt I'll go through the DX DLC that's available, but I am more interested in trying Sonic Adventure 2 in the future. Sonic Adventure is clearly flawed in hindsight, but it still offers enough fun to justify a replay. Just don't play the Big the Cat bits.

7/10

Great review.

There was a fair amount of revisionism about Sonic Adventure when they re-released it digitally, lots of folk were saying that it was never any good. I’ve never felt that though, and going off of the memories of my last playthrough of it (maybe five years ago?) I think Sonic Adventure’s highlights more than compensate for the downsides brought on by its camera, bugs and odd duff stage. I’d maybe have preferred a full game of the Sonic stages, but the six different styles of play with the six different characters is all right with me. This is where we fall out gjones: I don’t mind the Big The Cat stages, they’re a good break and they add to the game’s variety.

The music is definitely one of those highlights for me. I know most of it is remixed from Sonic 3D on the Mega Drive, but that’s fine, that’s a great soundtrack in itself. Open Your Heart (the opening theme) is genuinely brilliant, without exaggeration it’s one of the best songs in video game history.

I definitely recommend playing Sonic Adventure 2 too. I’ve been meaning to replay it for years, but I’ve been half-expecting a remaster of the two Adventure games for yonks. Unless that’s what’s being worked on, it’s amazing that neither is on Switch. They’d be permanently planted in the bestseller’s lists if they were.

~

I completed the DX DLC when the first re-released Sonic Adventure on the GameCube. That was basically my whole school summer holiday of entertainment there. I remember it coming out on the last day before the end of term, and I skived school so I could head into town to get it bought. I’ve even kept the receipt in it's box:



You could unlock the Sonic Game Gear games by collecting emblems and finishing new missions that had been added in. I remember these being pretty obtuse though, so that’s why I bought the Official Prima Guide, to help me suss out what they actually were and how you’d actually complete them. £12.99 in HMV, but that guide must be worth about sixty, maybe seventy pence nowadays. I don’t remember a lot about the missions twenty years later, but I can definitely recall that the effort to unlock utter toilet like Sonic Labyrinth and Tail’s Sky Patrol absolutely wasn’t worth it.

Back with my usual October-time scary and unscary retro patter.



Looking back I feel like I’ve finished everything that’s worth experiencing on the Wii U, as well as plenty that’s not. I’d say I’m equally familiar with your Tropical Freeze’s and Pikmin 3’s as I am with your Funky Barn’s and Turbo Stunt Squad’s. ZombiU was my only outlier; I’d always heard that it was an interesting and intuitive game that, while ported elsewhere since, was best experienced how it was originally intended.

Folks that know my tastes will appreciate how a slow-paced and harrowing first-person survival-horror game is about as far outside my comfort zone as I can possibly get. That’s definitely the main reason why ZombiU didn’t appeal to me back when the Wii U . It all felt a bit too tense and unnerving for me in my Turbo Stunt Squad world. That’s ultimately why I only played it twice and for a total of about forty-five minutes. For over a decade it was £49.99 poorly spent. Seeing that Ubisoft were removing all aspects of its much-lauded online support – and knowing that I’m far more open-minded about the games I’ll play than I was a decade ago - persuaded me to give ZombiU another try last year.

A prophecy that foretold of a Blight that would transform London into a ruined wasteland of burning and abandoned buildings in the Lord’s year two thousand and twenty twelve. It’s called “the Fog of Death”, which has swarmed London with undead and infected locals that have ravaged humanity, bringing civilisation to its knees with escalating wanton violence. The few remaining survivors are the randomly-generated humans who you control, with little else other than your wits, limited supplies and infrequent communications to count on. Cliched as they are, ZombiU’s rules of survival are basically to stay healthy, to stay safe and to escape the zombie infestation.

Where I think ZombiU unquestionably succeeds is in creating an oppressive atmosphere, one that makes you feel weak and vulnerable the whole time. Armed with just a cricket bat and a pistol with six bullets at the start, your exploration and looting for items becomes more difficult in the midst of the game’s many zombie outbreaks – and even more so when your player is murdered and you have to track that newly-deceased character down with your new survivor. You don’t come across guns, crossbows and projectiles too often in ZombiU; it’s a far more rigorous game than I’m used to playing. The idea of ZombiU, I think, is a cracking one.

Yet ZombiU’s melee combat and gunfighting just feels really sluggish in play and unrefined to control. While seemingly moving in slow-motion at all times, leathering wave after wave of zombies with your cricket bat gets wearisome quickly. Fair enough, there’s guns, crossbows and explosives to occasionally be found, but even so I didn’t think ZombiU diversified the player’s range of attack nearly enough throughout its ten hour runtime. The game’s big problem here is that it never inspires creative thinking, it unsatisfyingly programs zombies to amble along at you in small groups that you pick off one by one, usually with three whacks of your cricket bat. For that reason I felt that there was little reason to bother with the game’s upgrade system – the gameplay is so basic that it felt superfluous to do so. Going back to the unrefined controls, while I wonder if they’re deliberately clunky I also remember that they felt unresponsive and that they didn’t reward you with the tactile feedback that even Ubisoft’s Red Steel did then that launched on the original Wii. Furthermore, the inventory management system that was supposed to set ZombiU apart from its peers is just a fiddly pain in the backside, it’s not a good selling point if you ask me. Coupling these combat and control issues with the rough-around-the-edges visuals, lengthy loading times, overused character models and the glitchiness of the whole thing, it just gives off a feeling that ZombiU was an overambitious underachiever.

I played through ZombiU with an open mind, and I’m sort of glad I did. Countering what I’d previously read and heard, I don’t think it’s always an interesting game, and I honestly don’t think the Wii U GamePad adds much to the overall experience. It’s certainly suspenseful and it gives me a more well-rounded view of the Wii U’s games library as a whole. But a lot of the time it didn’t work for me, and it clearly didn’t work in reinvigorating the genre or attracting a different audience to the family-focused Wii U. It’s not great. 5/10.

I played Zombi U on the Wii U's release and at the time, especially as someone who hadn't played anything beyond the Wii, it made a strong impression. It looked and sounded great, it played reasonably well and it was one of the tensest horror experiences I've ever had.

I'm sure if I returned to it now, as someone more familiar with these traditionally non-Nintendo genres, it would leave a lot to be desired.

I will give one recommendation, though: the multiplayer mode with someone spawning zombies on the gamepad and another playing the shooter on the TV makes for a really fun time, especially if you're playing (as I was) with a non-gaming friend who likes zombies. My friend Roma would cackle with delight as she tried to drop a fast one around a corner or whatever to spook me.

That is genuinely a shame to read. While I never played ZombiU and never would, it represented something really strong at the start of the Wii U era: hope. Hope that third parties would be on board this time around. Maybe seeing the game being slated, now that we know how things turned out on this front, is apposite - but it's still a real shame that one of the Wii U's main remaining killer games hasn't held up as well as I might have wanted.

Still, at least it's not The Conduit eh?

I played the MP with Ibbsters, it was pretty fun but I thought the main game was rubbish back then. I can see the PS4 etc versions being worse still without the gamepad but don't think it's a killer game for the Wii U in anyway especially in 2023.

Buskalilly wrote:

I will give one recommendation, though: the multiplayer mode with someone spawning zombies on the gamepad and another playing the shooter on the TV makes for a really fun time, especially if you're playing (as I was) with a non-gaming friend who likes zombies. My friend Roma would cackle with delight as she tried to drop a fast one around a corner or whatever to spook me.

I never had the chance to play local multiplayer with any Wii U game. Sound like that I’ve likely missed out on a lot of ZombiU’s brilliance, as well as that of Nintendo Land, Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros. U and plenty of others. Maybe the multiplayer is what would have turned Turbo Stunt Squad into a Breath of the Wild-beater; I guess I’ll never know.

Balladeer wrote:

While I never played ZombiU and never would, it represented something really strong at the start of the Wii U era: hope.

You mentioned about hope at the start of the Wii U era. It was ZombiU’s introductory E3 trailer that gave me so much of that sense of hope in 2012, showing violence and drama I don’t think I’d seen on any Nintendo console to that extent before:



I thought it would start a new direction for the Wii U, I thought it was the coolest thing.

I actually enjoyed my time with Zombi U back then, but it is absolutely an example of a double A game that hovers at a 6/7 out of ten. The online feature of being able to find folk from your friends list who had died was neat as you had to weigh up the choice of taking them out so you can loot their stuff or avoiding it just to survive.

Balladeer wrote:

one of the Wii U's main remaining killer games

It's also been released on Playstation and Xbox, so . . .

The_Jaster wrote:

I actually enjoyed my time with Zombi U back then, but it is absolutely an example of a double A game that hovers at a 6/7 out of ten. The online feature of being able to find folk from your friends list who had died was neat as you had to weigh up the choice of taking them out so you can loot their stuff or avoiding it just to survive.

That seemed like a smart feature, but I can't remember bumping into too many folk from the friends list after the first couple of hours. That led me to believe that a lot of people didn't stick ZombiU out, just like I didn't until ten years later.

~



I’ve been doing these little write-ups for horror themed games for the last few Octobers now, and I’m not struggling for choice of what to play. Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare on the Game Boy Colour was an oddity that I simply knew I’d have to get round to one of these years though. While a demake of a more popular PS2/Dreamcast game, it was nonetheless renowned as being one of most technically impressive games released up to that time in 2001. A murder/mystery game that attempts to shrink a sixth-generation game onto a handheld that’s got the same processing power as a Halloween pumpkin, Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare’s excellent visuals boldly stood out in magazine screenshots. It’s sheer ambition jumped off the page so to speak.

When Nintendo announced the launch of the Game Boy app for Switch Online, you’d have won no prizes for guessing that Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Kirby’s Dream Land and Tetris would quickly appear. As they should of course, they’re classics. Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare was a properly WTF choice though, coming from nowhere and being wishlisted by nobody at all. Except for muppets like me, of course; I was genuinely interested in giving it a try.

On reflection, Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare was a couple of hours decently spent, and a better game than I thought it would be. The standout thing that would have amazed – namely the graphics – doesn’t have that same effect anymore, but still, there’s enough to compliment beyond the impressive-for-the-hardware visuals. The navigation around the environments is fluid, the environmental and situational puzzles make logical sense and the intermittent use of sound helps create a fittingly spooky atmosphere. While I have no experience of the home console versions of the game, I have to think that it’s a fairly reasonable albeit watered-down translation. There’s no question that the isometric battle sequences (where you almost exclusively shoot spiders and dogs for some reason) could have been better. They’re rubbish in fact, but you can just about excuse them: I have to think that the game’s visual presentation meant that there wasn’t room left on the cartridge for much action.

It's not exactly brimming with imagination and it doesn’t excite often, but on the whole I’d say it’s worth booting Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare up on your Game Boy Switch Online app, even if only for a curious look. 5/10.

Buskalilly wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

one of the Wii U's main remaining killer games

It's also been released on Playstation and Xbox, so . . .

Yeah but it's always going to be one of those that's most at home on the Wii U, right? Never feels quite right anywhere else? Like Rayman Legends I presume.

I recall NGC (I think?) giving AitD on Game Boy a 1/5 or some comparative utter drubbing. Still I guess it's free for us now, which changes things.

Rayman Legends is great on VITA

For some reason I did

as I loved Picross on the DS, and haven't actually picked one up since; given the SNES one was essentially free*, I thought I'd rattle through it.

64 hours later. 64. They kept hiding extra puzzles around the place. First there were the 120 regular ones. Then Wario turns up with his fiendish puzzles (which are actually less fiendish, never mind Nintendo). Then there are special levels. Then ultra levels. Then it kicks you back to the title screen but the filmstrip border is actually hidden levels (which, if I wasn't trying to get off this train, I'd say I quite admire). And Wario's face has three more levels in it.

Thoughts? You don't my thoughts, it's Picross. I just needed to tell someone I finished, to justify the time I spent.