Yup, this is the last entry that was copy-pasted with very little modifications from a diary of mine from AXA Forums. This one is about a NES game called Startropics II: Zoda's Revenge. As I said before, the next entry will about Air Zonk, a horizontal shooting game of TurboGraphx-16 (called PC-Engine outside of North America) with wacky presentation! Hope you'll enjoy reading the entry from below, which is a bit shorter this time around.
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January 8th 2014
Today, I got to play some more Startropics II: Zoda's Revenge. Amusingly enough, that makes another game that contains "star" in its title this week, along with Ristar. As I said before, the Americanized Zelda-like game starts after the events of the original Startropics occurred. Our main protagonist, Mike, sets out to gather 7 Tetrads (oh yeah, Tetris reference!) while time traveling through different eras. We also get to see various historical figures throughout the game like Cleopatra.
Before I progressed, I left off in the third chapter of the game. The first is just an intro with nothing but cutscenes, and the second is so easy it's merely there to get used with the game's controls. Speaking of the controls, I can actually move Mike diagonally on a NES game, unlike its predecessor. Isn't that surprising? As someone who played on the original The Legend of Zelda, this make fighting against baddies much easier. I also noticed that jumping is stiff due of not taking the momentum into consideration. So, running + jumping doesn't equate to farther and higher jump in this game. Also, the game prevents me to fall off a ledge by forcing me to jump if I want to cross over a chasm or jump down. That is very helpful, especially considering the somewhat stiff controls and numerous of gaps I'll have to negotiate throughout the quest. According to the first two levels, Startropics II isn't a tough NES game. Hearts can be respawned by entering and exiting a room, checkpoints are present and there are a enough potions in every dungeon. Heck, there are even storable invincibility stars that can be used anytime you want. However, beware of some deviously placed traps and enemies that can pose quite a good deal of trouble to any impatient gamer.
Chapter 3 is a highlight of the game's sense of humor, which takes place in the era of Cleopatra. That hungry woman appears to have ordered a pizza from Caesar's Hut, which took longer than a few days. The delivery guy must be doing a sloppy job for some odd reason... To find him, I had to go through a relatively easy dungeon to reach that part of the desert with a dagger found in an obvious enough secret area. Then, get a camel to ride for a very long while, only to find the delivery guy riding on a turtle that looks a lot like of Koopa. Why didn't he pick a rabbit instead is something we'll never understand. Once he handed me out the still warm pizza, he quickly ran away. Heh, conveniently broken logic! As soon as I delivered the pizza, the slices were disappearing quite fast. Did Cleopatra ate them all? Maybe it is the case... She then told me to approach closer to her. As I thought, the game was telling me on how pretty she is. I already sense that someone is making a fanfiction about shipping her and Mike at this point... You sneaky, sneaky lovey-dovey fellows! She then rewarded me with information on where the second Tetrad is located. Before going to the pyramid, we need to have a psychic power to destroy the magic barrier. So, we headed to north and followed the monkey on a tall grass maze and proceed to complete a couple of mini-dungeons along the way. And I certainly didn't forget to get a Life Up located somewhere in this place. I went back in the pyramid and brought the barrier to out of order. There are two things I needed to remember in this dungeon. For one, when I fall down a hole that leads to a floor below me, I can manage to not fall the other one just sitting on the exact same place. By moving Mike, I avoid falling through the second hole. Second thing is, there's a room with blue tiles shaping a snake, and there's a snake right next to the pyramid I'm in. The clue was so obvious for me I don't need to tell you how. The major boss of the chapter is an Egyptian-looking mask, along with the only tiles as slow conveyor belt facing to south. The boss has two faces, in which the latter only shows up if it moves a bit faster. It usually fire a row of projectiles at you. When its face is darker, it can shoot a laser that will chip away around 3 hearts from Mike. With predictable moves that are easy to dodge, I managed to kill it without dying once.
I'm now at the fourth chapter in the game. This is the era where Shelock Holmes is in, and is apparently one of the hardest chapters in the game because of a rather difficult boss. We will find out the next time I play this game. That's the game of that day. Hope you enjoyed this entry. Until next time, see you later for some Air Zonk madness!
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January 8th 2014
Today, I got to play some more Startropics II: Zoda's Revenge. Amusingly enough, that makes another game that contains "star" in its title this week, along with Ristar. As I said before, the Americanized Zelda-like game starts after the events of the original Startropics occurred. Our main protagonist, Mike, sets out to gather 7 Tetrads (oh yeah, Tetris reference!) while time traveling through different eras. We also get to see various historical figures throughout the game like Cleopatra.
Before I progressed, I left off in the third chapter of the game. The first is just an intro with nothing but cutscenes, and the second is so easy it's merely there to get used with the game's controls. Speaking of the controls, I can actually move Mike diagonally on a NES game, unlike its predecessor. Isn't that surprising? As someone who played on the original The Legend of Zelda, this make fighting against baddies much easier. I also noticed that jumping is stiff due of not taking the momentum into consideration. So, running + jumping doesn't equate to farther and higher jump in this game. Also, the game prevents me to fall off a ledge by forcing me to jump if I want to cross over a chasm or jump down. That is very helpful, especially considering the somewhat stiff controls and numerous of gaps I'll have to negotiate throughout the quest. According to the first two levels, Startropics II isn't a tough NES game. Hearts can be respawned by entering and exiting a room, checkpoints are present and there are a enough potions in every dungeon. Heck, there are even storable invincibility stars that can be used anytime you want. However, beware of some deviously placed traps and enemies that can pose quite a good deal of trouble to any impatient gamer.
Chapter 3 is a highlight of the game's sense of humor, which takes place in the era of Cleopatra. That hungry woman appears to have ordered a pizza from Caesar's Hut, which took longer than a few days. The delivery guy must be doing a sloppy job for some odd reason... To find him, I had to go through a relatively easy dungeon to reach that part of the desert with a dagger found in an obvious enough secret area. Then, get a camel to ride for a very long while, only to find the delivery guy riding on a turtle that looks a lot like of Koopa. Why didn't he pick a rabbit instead is something we'll never understand. Once he handed me out the still warm pizza, he quickly ran away. Heh, conveniently broken logic! As soon as I delivered the pizza, the slices were disappearing quite fast. Did Cleopatra ate them all? Maybe it is the case... She then told me to approach closer to her. As I thought, the game was telling me on how pretty she is. I already sense that someone is making a fanfiction about shipping her and Mike at this point... You sneaky, sneaky lovey-dovey fellows! She then rewarded me with information on where the second Tetrad is located. Before going to the pyramid, we need to have a psychic power to destroy the magic barrier. So, we headed to north and followed the monkey on a tall grass maze and proceed to complete a couple of mini-dungeons along the way. And I certainly didn't forget to get a Life Up located somewhere in this place. I went back in the pyramid and brought the barrier to out of order. There are two things I needed to remember in this dungeon. For one, when I fall down a hole that leads to a floor below me, I can manage to not fall the other one just sitting on the exact same place. By moving Mike, I avoid falling through the second hole. Second thing is, there's a room with blue tiles shaping a snake, and there's a snake right next to the pyramid I'm in. The clue was so obvious for me I don't need to tell you how. The major boss of the chapter is an Egyptian-looking mask, along with the only tiles as slow conveyor belt facing to south. The boss has two faces, in which the latter only shows up if it moves a bit faster. It usually fire a row of projectiles at you. When its face is darker, it can shoot a laser that will chip away around 3 hearts from Mike. With predictable moves that are easy to dodge, I managed to kill it without dying once.
I'm now at the fourth chapter in the game. This is the era where Shelock Holmes is in, and is apparently one of the hardest chapters in the game because of a rather difficult boss. We will find out the next time I play this game. That's the game of that day. Hope you enjoyed this entry. Until next time, see you later for some Air Zonk madness!
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