Pikmin 3 Deluxe: completed!

I knew the Formidable Oak was to be the last level, but I wasn’t expecting quite how different it would be. Travelling to the top of the tree, I found Olimar being tended to by a strange gold being. This was, of course, the boss battle; I jumped into the clearing, and faced up to the newly-grown golden blob.

I had come prepared with a varied party – 20 of each pikmin. In the end, this wasn’t needed, because after a short pounding with red and rock pikmin, the golden blob died and dissolved into the ground. This was probably the easiest boss in the game. So, let’s get Olimar back to the Drake and we can set off home.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe: I found a raspberry

In fact, I found all the fruit. Rather than go off to the big oak tree and find (I presume) Olimar, I spent a few days wandering around the other areas finding the fruit I’d missed.

This involved quite a lot of journeying underground, as these were the areas I naturally avoided previously, with a tendency to get lost. It was only at this late stage in the game that I realised the utility of the Go Here function, where you can point to a position on the map and the party will head directly there. This was a godsend with the hidden entrances to underground areas, and also meant that the issue I had with the controls – that my characters would occasionally just stop moving forwards because the game didn’t think I was pressing up enough – disappeared.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe: I found an avocado

I foresaw one plot twist – that who the crew believed to be Olimar was in fact Louie – but did not foresee the other one, with Louie scarpering as soon as he could, taking our food supply with him. Suddenly there was a fresh urgency about finding fruit, and with the game urging me to chase Louie but me being aware that I was one tropical smoothie away from starvation, I found myself pulled in two directions. Not only that, but shortly after I landed in the Garden of Hope I was introduced to the blue Pikmin, and so I had a third objective – build up the blue population.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe: I found a pear

I have a tendency to come to the Pikmin games late.

I completed the first game on the GameCube, over two years after it released, due to people on uk.games.video.misc enthusing about it. I previously on this blog said that I played it twice, the second time in order to come in under the 30-day limit, but I think I was mistaken on that point; my first playthrough on the GameCube came in at 29 days, and my second playthrough was on the Wii version a while after that came out. I bought the second game relatively soon after release, I recall, because there was a sale in Woolworths. I put it into my GameCube in 2005, but never actually played it until I got the Wii version many years later, and finally completed it in 2014, after Pikmin 3 came out, spurring me onto playing it. I bought Pikmin 3 for the Wii U in 2015, but never played it past the first half hour; and then I bought Pikmin 3 Deluxe in 2021, intending to play it and then … not. When Pikmin 4 came out on the Switch, I added it to my wishlist, and then received it for my birthday this year. Which is a longwinded way of saying that it’s finally time to play Pikmin 3.

Portal: completed again, and the boss battle

I have now lost count of the number of times I’ve played through Portal. The last time I posted about it, back in 2010, I said I’d completed it on four platforms; by now I must have completed it multiple times on each of those, and additional platforms since. This latest completion is due to the Portal collection (both games) being cheap on Switch, and the desire to try playing through Portal 2 on a convenient platform. But I couldn’t let the first game just sit there.

Metroid Prime Remastered: completed!

The very first time I ever posted to this blog, back in 2005, was to talk about Metroid Prime.  Reading back, my writing skills were a little lacking, with the post being almost entirely descriptive.  It appears that that was my second time of playing the game; the first time I’d got to a “plant boss” which I couldn’t defeat, whereas the second time I progressed past this for a couple of hours.  Assuming that the plant boss was Flaahgra, that means that I’d hardly touched the game either time; I’d have managed to explore most of the Chozo Ruins, maybe, but probably barely got to Magmoor Caverns. It’s all speculation; I can’t remember 19 years ago.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: completed!

It has been a long time since I have written on this blog, and that is largely down to one game – Breath of the Wild.

I completed this last November, after around 160 hours of playing.  I would frequently turn the game on with every intention of heading for the next waypoint, but then get distracted by a side quest as I passed some stables.  I’d notice something odd from the top of a mountain; I’d see an opportunity to fight a few enemies to collect some loot; I’d notice a shooting star in the sky and chase it.

Sonic Mania: pause for another game

At the end of the second zone, you are expecting a boss battle.

You get, instead, this.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: speechless

My posting on here has been limited, largely due to one game.  I have completed Gravity Rush and Assassin’s Creed III, I have tried once again to play Chaotix (and actually progressed a little, for a change), I have started Super Mario World on a new emulator, I have worked my way half the way through Puyo Puyo Tetris.  Each time I have come to the blog to write something about those games, I have left without publishing anything.The problem is Zelda.  Since I got the Switch on 3 March, I have played it for over 90 hours.  It is a magnificent game and an amazing achievement, and I feel that I should be prioritising it over any other game.  But it is so expansive, and there is so much to do and write about, that it became too daunting to do so.

Daunting to write about, but daunting to play as well.  Due to life getting in the way, I don’t have too much time to play long story-led games at home these days; I get an hour or so in the evening from time to time, and much of that is still taken by Rocket League.  The portable nature of the Switch means that I have been able to devote much more time to Breath of the Wild, and I estimate at least 80 hours of the total have been on the train.  I don’t feel rushed playing it, I don’t feel constrained in needing to get any part of the game finished.  I get near my stop, press the power button, and the game sleeps until the next journey when I can continue instantly.  It’s marvellous.