Dear Readers,
In this mode of tanks there are three more levels and you fight with a friend against a bunch of enemies at once. In the final level there's also a huge boss to fight. So far, everything's been a breeze for me except for the boss fight which I've tried a few times and haven't beaten yet. I'll get it sometime in the future when I'll play again.
Dear Readers,
This isn't foosball but it's very similar to it as an idea. The figures just move differently. It's awkward and difficult to get used to, though I only tried it once. I didn't really like it very much.
Dear Readers,
I never heard of this one before but it feels familiar, like pool or marbles, and it uses pieces that look like draughts pieces. It's very nice and easy to play, with a similar aiming to the billiards game that's on here.
I got on very well sinking my pieces, but I forgot to sink (or is it pocket?) the queen before doing my last one so I lost. I'll do it properly next time I play it!
Dear Readers,
Here's a very nice version of billiards! You can do nine ball, eight ball and the simple rules where they're all the same colour and you just need to sink a certain amount. It doesn't have the red and yellow ball pool rules that I'm used to seeing, but eight ball is more or less the same as it.
I had a go of the simple rules and won it very quickly. Then I had a go of the eight ball rules and had a very nice time. The assist is very nice and it shows a little aiming guide which I appreciate. In real life I was never good at pool and I just went along with friends who played and they were really good. I never had much interest in the game.
Dear Readers,
Never played this before and it hits like a more exotic chess with more rules. Lots of familiarity at least but I wanted to fly through it for the first go without paying too much attention to strategy so I could get a feel of the flow. It's strange how there aren't any queens.
I could get used to it but then I'm not really in the humour for chess-like games right now.
Dear Readers,
Here's Othello! Or reversi or as it's known here, renegade. It probably has a whole bunch of other names. Also, the other names may have slightly different rules?
Anyway, I've played many computer versions of this and when I played the one session of this one... I lost. Ah well, no worries!
Dear Readers,
The famous backgammon! I never heard of anyone in real life play it but from the sounds of it here it seems to be very common and very famous. This is my very first time playing it and it seems to be very strange and unfamiliar, going into different sections and doing a big U-turn to reach the goal. I absolutely needed the aid feature to show me where I was able to move. I won the game which was nice but I still feel very much like a beginner. I notice many more features and rules in the game too that I haven't even tried yet.
Dear Readers,
Here's a game that always seemed too exotic and complicated for me to play, but in this video game form it's very helpful to learn. It's kinda weird how there are more than 2 players on the board but it's fun. It's also quite fun to do so much leapfrogging. I played just the one session and I won! On the easiest setting of course!
Dear Readers,
I thought this was Othello at first, but no you have to make five in a row with your colours. I played one short game of it so far and I won, so that was good. Might be a good one to try on higher difficulty. It's easy to mix up with Othello because they look very similar to begin with.
Dear Readers,
Here's a nice simple short game with figurines. I played a few times - as hounds and then as hare. The hare has chess queen-like movement ability so it's tricky to win against, whereas the hounds are a bit more like pawns I suppose. I won with both and it has a different feeling. I feel clever for winning as the hounds, but I feel like I've won against the big lads when I win as the hare.
Dear Readers,
Another game where the strategy hit me pretty quickly and I lost just as quickly. I wasn't paying much attention in the start to the opponent's path making and suddenly they were blocking me and making their own path to win. I played once and might play again if I feel like it.
Dear Readers,
I've played a version of this before on the Macintosh and I think it was called Masterguess. It had lovely sound effects. Actually I think I may be mixing it up with a game that has very similar gameplay. It took a long time for me to suss the game out.
Now that I play this version it's like I have to learn how to play this game all over again. I remember cues like something belonging but in the wrong place or something that needs to be swapped with a different thing. It's a nice throwback but of course doesn't have the same exciting sound effects. I only played one game of it so far and I didn't win.
Dear Readers,
Here's one that it feels like everyone knows! It's a nice way to play it too with its scribbling and affirmation sounds. I did the normal strategy of drawing just enough lines that I don't let the opponent get a chance to fill boxes. I could only do this so many times of course and I was lucky enough to get many boxes in a row that gave me a significant win.
Dear Readers,
Just a nice miniature version of golf. Looks like it's taken inspiration from the NES Golf as well. I haven't played much of it yet but I think it's very nice and easy to get into.
Dear Readers,
This is another cute and fun mechanical game that's very much like the tabletop ones where you have to knock your opponent out of the ring. I played a very brief session and I had a nice time of it. It reminded me of playing those kind of tabletop games as a kid too.
Dear Readers,
In this game you just have to swing and pitch. It's cute with the players running around the bases by themselves and the little areas where the ball can land. There's a little bit of strategy where you can tilt the analogue stick but it's all very simple and playable. This is nice because baseball is another game that's a bit of a culture shock to me.
Dear Readers,
I was inspired to try this out after watching a video about it. The thing is, it's a complete culture shock of a game for me. The solitaire type is okay because you're mostly making matches but this is just so strange to me.
What I can say for now is that there is a big learning mode and I only did one of the lessons. I'm seeing a lot of terminology and I'll probably have to repeat the lesson. I'm glad I got to see some bit of what it's like.
Dear Readers,
It's Scalextric! It captures all the fun of it and all the risk of flying off the corners if you go too fast. There are a few different tracks and a mode where you can play through all of them in a big competition. This is another one with extra screen options but I just have fun with the one screen.
Dear Readers,
Here's a version of a puzzle found in many video game minigames. It seems to pop up in many Konami games and it feels like a variant of Pipe Dream. It's presented here as a mechanical turtle crawling along a path and you have to keep the path going by sliding the tiles around. It's probably based on an old mechanical toy. I didn't get very far but it seems nice enough.
Dear Readers,
The piano is a nice little distraction in this collection! You can change it to an electronic style as well, which is nice. There's some logo on it and I'm here wondering if it's a Famicom keyboard maybe? I'll have to look it up. It's not a game but it's a nice little thing.
Dear Readers,
Here's another matching game but in a different style with different rules. I learned how to play this a few years ago when I used some form of Linux(I think it was Ubuntu) and it had a version of this built in.
With this version there are all these puzzle preset levels which is a very nice treat! Quite a bit of replayability here.
Every now and again a person figurine will show up with a curated list of games based on a theme. I like the 1-player game guy.
Dear Readers,
Here's a fun and simple one that comes presented with clashing weapon sounds. All you do is present cards and the one with the higher value wins. Very accessible with fewer rules than some of the other card games.
Dear Readers,
Here's a fun one with a circular arrangement of cards and pig squealing sounds. I don't have a full grasp of it but it seems fun enough, having to play cards and not end up with too many at the end.
Dear Readers,
It's concentration! All about matching cards and trying to remember the ones that don't match. It's a very common minigame in other video games. In general I find that the presentation of the game is very important. In Mario 3 I like to skip it if I'm in a hurry, in some other games it can be presented in a very exciting way. In some games you're forced to play it and it can be a slog in that sense. On TV I love the game show Classic Concentration because it's so fun to watch and it's got that rebus puzzle underneath.
This version of concentration has the very nice unlockable of its own Mario cards, different from the other regular Mario themed playing cards I also unlocked. The illustrations look lovely.
The game also refers to the fact you can play it in a solitaire way, but it doesn't have the option of playing it that way as far as I can see. Ah well.
Dear Readers,
It was my first time trying this one. I didn't know it was a variant of poker and it seems to be a tidier form of it since it uses fewer cards. It seems nice enough. I don't know if I'll play it much though.
After playing a bunch of these card games and getting on ok at them, I unlocked some Mario themed cards! They look pretty nice!
Dear Readers,
This one seems nice and easy enough to understand. 7 is like the midpoint in the ranks and you see all the cards laid out on either side so it seems neat. I only played this once so far so I haven't really done that retaining strategy.
Dear Readers,
It's 21 and it's the casino style with the chips and all. I played this back in the day but didn't do the betting thing. It's normally associated with betting though and that's the case here with casino chips. You play against three others and it's not bad at all. Way shorter than the solitaire card games and that's kind of a relief.
Dear Readers,
Here's one I remember from the DS original! I had a lot of fun back then playing this with a friend of mine and since you're using reflexes (like with snap) I imagine it's way safer playing this in video game form than with real cards. There must be so many accidents with hands bumping together with the non videogame version!
Dear Readers,
Here's a derivative of Uno or "switch" (on my Switch!) that I played with family, except this is its own version. I played a very short session where I got in about 2 cards before I lost to one of the three computer players, or at least I think it was three. I wonder if I can play against just one other player like in real life? It seems nice but I don't have a fully developed impression of it so far. I'll play again later.
Dear Readers,
Nice little miniature fishing game in this! I was trying to play it like the Animal Crossing fishing, but there's also reeling with the analogue stick. You can use buttons or motion controls and I chose the endless mode, which seems to be easy-going and non-competitive. It tells you what fish you caught in the moment but there doesn't seem to be any collection or "bestiary"? At least none I can see so far. That multi Switch set up might be something worth looking at later.
Dear Readers,
I played Ludo as a kid but I had no idea there was an ounce of strategy involved. This version showed me you can knock an opponent back to base by landing on them. Other than that it's a fairly easy-going dice rolling race game. This version is nice and simple too with its little tips and taps, though the white background can be a bit overwhelming.
Dear Readers,
I really dove into the deep end with the hanafuda. I looked at general tips but I ended up not learning the game properly so I just pressed buttons to start with, playing some kind of pair-making, positioning thing with really pretty and tall cards. I played against the computer and eventually lost. I'll come back to this and maybe learn how to play properly. For now, I enjoyed the pretty cards. In general I like the chatty voice-acted figurines introducing the games too.
Next time I play this I'll have to look at the instructions more carefully.
Dear Readers,
I had a bunch of Koroks to find in Cora Lake, south of the Lake Tower, so I went there.
Most of them were easy to find and some were fun to find like the diving ones. There were two in particular that were almost impossible to find. The first was on the west side of the lake in a very narrow passage between cliffs. It was on a ledge and showed up with stasis.
The main one that caused me so much trouble was in the middle of the lake. It didn't snow up with stasis because it was a metal block puzzle. The block showed up with Magnesis but I had no idea where the puzzle was. I eventually found the puzzle on one of the surrounding cliffs. I reached it with cryonis. It was almost impossible to see because it's so murky here, even during good weather in the daytime. It's one of those times when the game really doesn't look good.
Dear Readers,
I stayed in the stable in Faron for a while. There were a bunch of Koroks to find around here.
Many of them were on the road to the horse god's place, or at least on the surrounding cliffs. I did a lot of climbing and pushing of rocks into holes. I made the mistake of bringing a horse as well that got spooked by the rolling rocks. I put it away when I got back to the stable.
I found some more Koroks in the very steep cliffs to the west. One of them was very hard to find because the cliff was so steep and I was looking at top down map. I spent a lot of time looking on high ground but in the end I found it at the very bottom of the cliff behind some blastable rocks.
Dear Readers,
After the waterfall puzzle, I headed west along the main road to collect Korok seeds littered all along the way. I say littered, but they were of course hidden well enough, and I wouldn't be able to find them if I didn't have the online map.
I got attacked by Yiga constantly. At one stage I was attacked by a big Yiga and a regular Yiga at the same time. I'm experienced enough and strong enough to hit them head on without much hassle, thankfully.
Besides them, I encountered red Bokoblins and green Lizalfos and it was lovely to beat them up quickly. I hope to see many more early game difficulty enemies! I'm getting tired of getting tangled with silver enemies that take forever to beat up.
Anyway, one of the puzzles along this road involved metal balls that were chained together. I had to use stasis to keep one in place while getting the other into place.
Dear Readers,
While I was in the area I decided to continue west along the coast to collect more Korok seeds.
I got attacked by Lizalfos and Octoroks but I was well able to handle them. Most of the Korok puzzles here were metal block and under stone ones. There was the odd diving one which is still one of my favourite types of Korok puzzle.
I'm not sure but I think I can use the Zora attack to deflect Octorok rocks? I might have done that by accident. If that's the case then it's a game changer.
It is nice to walk along the beach looking for seeds. Sometimes it gets murky and I have to use Stasis to make the stones visible.
I finished up on the beach and fetched the Nautelle Wetlands Korok Seed. I spent the night in the tree, watching the blood moon pass by.
