La mulana (PC, Steam):
Yesterday, i read a wikipedia description on some other unrelated game (
Alien Soldier). It's said that this game is known for having "unprecedented" number of boss battles. Whopping 32. I don't want to doubt a game that i didn't played (yet), but why La Mulana isn't as known for it's boss battles then, if it has
more sub-bosses and that's WITHOUT counting 8 main bosses? And you can't dismiss them because they're "sub" bosses: some of them can easily be final bosses in some 8/16-bit game.
Ah well.
Chakram (ring boomerang) is amazing, i should have used it more last time, it's VERY powerful and it comes back to you after bouncing off the wall so you don't have to buy many of them (1-2 is more than enough). Very useful against sub- and main bosses.
Chi Yu and
Neptune sub-boss were extremely hard to beat with regular weapons as i remember. It became much easier to kill them with chakram rings.
Beat final boss again. It is rather easy now that i remember all the patterns. So my final time is 14+ hours (this time doesn't count replays, so actual total time should be longer, around 30 hours, because sometimes i redid some parts trying to make better time). Couldn't get achievement for beating the game in 10 hours but making it in less 20 is nice enough.
I set up the ideal software combination that upgrades my character to the max. NOT coincidentally it fits computer's entire memory exactly, leaving zero MBs. Very cool, very japanese design, everything just falls into place.
Final boss itself. Some of her forms and
the way she ultimately dies are VERY disturbing. Entire game is kinda like that. A mix of religions and myths all over the world with a bit of "ancient aliens" story to spice it all up. Cool and kinda scary.
Of course as you kill the final boss entire ruins start to crumble and here the funniest part starts because you need to run for your life across all the levels back to the surface.
OF COURSE the most obvious exit gets blocked, then you remember one random hint NPC says to you and go there.
OF COURSE the most obvious route to this place also gets blocked. I laughed as my body got crushed by a trap that wasn't there before. Oh La-Mulana, you so crazy!..
I figured it out on third try, though i think i used an other way year ago when i beat it on Wii. And it's one of the great things about the game, extreme non-linearity, huge sprawling levels all interconnected with each other in mind-bending ways.
And this final escape is the ultimate test of your knowledge, because you need to figure the fastest way through different levels. I remember how i went for groceries yesterday and kept making routes in my mind while i was going to the market.
And with final boss gone here starts the actual reason i started replaying the game on PC.
Hell temple. It wasn't available on Wii release.
I unlocked it. Read the instructions how to do it from the wiki and as per usual with this game, there is NO way one can figure it out by himself -- SUPER obscure and arcane stuff. Even simply getting there is nearly impossible.
If you can't tell by it's name it's an extremely hard additional level. Well it's not that bad. The moment where you fall down in the pit the first time and the writing HELL gets written on the wall is even pretty funny.
Enemies while tougher than usual, are not that bad, puzzles as per usual are the hardest part. I figured out the puzzle with a grenade and but now i am stuck on the room with four pillars.
At least i after i beat the game i can forget worrying about time and just keep solving Hell Temple room after room at my own pace.
Shinobi III (Genesis):
The game is kinda "cinematic". I really love the beginning, when you first go in the forest, leaves are flying around, and then you enter a cave and torches light up on the walls. And the entire game is like that: forest, then cave, then horse chase, then volcano and so on. Great variety of environments.
Jumping is kinda stiff and wall jumping requires some practice. Took me some time until i learned how to do the elevator level.
Also i constantly forget i can block in this game.
Flying brains in the lab level really like to exploit your moving deficiencies, constantly doing "
cross-ups" and flying at you when you jump from below and can't block.
I got to Alien brain boss and it killed me. Pattern is kinda hard.
Ninja Gaiden II (NES):
Hey, i can actually scale walls up and down! That changes EVERYTHING.
I was having a lot of trouble on wind level because i thought i have to jump to scale up the wall because that was how it was in the first game. But now i can just freely scale up and down everywhere!
I got to the level with water streams flowing everywhere. Yet another mechanic to screw up my movement, ugh...