For those of us using the aforementioned "legal gray area" method, are savestates allowed? I'm assuming they're not, since they would really uneven the playing field.

OK I'm back...had to wash the raw chicken off my hands. Back to the game buying!

Aw crap...I only have 200 Wii points leftover...I guess this game is actually going to cost $10. Stupid Nintendo.

So wait...if I don't have enough Wii points when I buy a game I have to back all the way out, buy them, and then go back to the game listing...this is seriously fucktarded.

Putting my credit card number in on a Wii feels like putting real money into a Fisher Price cash register...and why do they ask for County for my billing info...County??? Do those even matter any more??

ANnnnnnd we're done. Well, that's enough Wii for me tonight. Just downloading the stupid game was enough to lose my interest. That's how far I got, what about you guys?

Evan

I love this idea, I saw your article posted on GoNintendo and I think I'm gonna do it, i joined your forums and so forth. I have a wii (duh) and I'll download it soonish,though I'm rather busy job-wise so it may take a while for me to sink into the game. Anyway, can't wait!

Ok.
The family just suffered RROD number two.

It looks like I will have plenty of time this month to partake of this Crispy adventure.

Okay. Playing via Wii. It took less than a minute to DL.

Initial impressions.

Ahhhh, nostalgia.
Cute music. Bright colors. Doesn't look terrible on a big LCD; dare I say retro? Dialog box too small so 'speach' seems uneven. Writing is silly. Par for the course.


Questions:

What was added to the genre by jumping on green boxes instead of swording trees and rocks and such? I think, "Not much." Please don't let this be their attempt at adding platforming to the mix.

Why open a secret passage to a room full of water and insta-death? Remember this room for later(?)


Comments:

Not a bad mix of monsters at all. Nice and immediate variation on toughness, speed, movement, etc.

Boss snake killed me. Can I yo-yo the fireballs?

Going back to movement in four directions took getting used to but that new fangled jump thing helped out.


So far so good. I enjoyed the experience but will have to see why. Nostalgia or good game?

Well the Wii uses a savestate to indefinitely pause the game, if you go to the wii menu while playing it will save your moment in the game, though there's no way to backup this point without excessive and obnoxious SD card swapping.

Anyway, started it out last night, amazingly similar to Zelda, already stuck in the first dungeon, there's two identical room and I can go in a nd out of them by killing enemies/switches, but I don't know what else to do. I feel stupid, maybe I'll try when I'm awake.

Played a bit last night. Like w1ndst0rm mentioned above, that music's really awesome. In this modern age of gaming, you forget what it was like to have to ploddingly talk to everyone in a village. But, it also creates an air of mystery and anticipation, like "I wonder what this one's gonna say..."

Gotta say that when the bats showed up I gasped. And, then when I saw how fast the snakes move, I knew I was screwed.

More later.

That's not a star, that's a yo-yo.

I'm stuck in the beginning of Chapter 2, the bit with the lighthouse keeper and his apparently estranged wife. "She loves company." I bet she does.

And yet, when I come back for another clue, she's all "Oh no, not again!" Whatever, lady. Soon as I find this boy dolphin, you're dead to me.

Filing my first report. I'm playing on Wii Virtual Console with the Classic Controller. I've played the game before. I got it in the summer of 1991 and loved it. Finished it at least a couple times back then.

Re: "Island Star" -- I was stunned by this because I thought for sure it was called a yo-yo back in the day. And it was. A little Googling reveals that Nintendo changed it for VC release because of trademark worries. Lame.

Re: The music -- I'm delighted how the music changes the instant you get out of the sub and step onto land. Both themes are very catchy tunes. I'm not crazy about the music that plays when you're nearing a boss, though. Pretty repetitive. But the boss music really gets your blood pumping.

OK. So, I've made it most of the way through Chapter 3. I'll try to catch up with these posts. Note: spoilers to follow. When it's especially spoilery, I'll put it in lighter text. But you have been warned

It's funny how the game so willingly dates itself with "Miss Coral 1990" introducing herself. The game came out in December 1990, after all -- it only had one month of timeliness. This Coralcola / Miss Coral thing seems like a non sequitur, but it has a funny payoff in the next town.

What struck me about the first "dungeon" -- if that's what we want to call it -- is that the game is entirely willing to say "f*** you" from the get-go. There is very little hand-holding. Early on, I accidentally jumped into the water for an instant death. We've gotten pampered by modern games -- most of which, I think, would simply have disallowed you from making that jump. StarTropics doesn't care. If you want to kill yourself, go right ahead, moron.

I love the attitude this game has. It pops up all over the place. There aren't any 1-UPs, but there is a spinning sign (???) that can give you a life but might just as easily take it away. Some of the jumping tiles have secrets hidden in them, but the only way to find out is to jump on them, and there are a staggering number of decoy tiles. Nothing comes easy.

The ghost dungeon in Chapter 3 has to be the high point so far of this "we are just going to mess with you for the sake of messing with you" attitude. It seems like every room has some misdirect or red herring designed to throw you off the real trail.

I enjoy this because StarTropics does more than create difficult puzzles for the player. Again and again, at pivotal points in the ghost dungeon, there are two ways to go: the easy way and a hidden way. The game lulls you into thinking you're on the right track and then jerks you back to reality -- either by kicking you out of the dungeon entirely or making you fight through some side challenge (usually a room full of obnoxious enemies). You're encouraged to question what you see and look for the road not taken, so to speak. Very clever design.

Some other side notes:

- "1492" and "1776" are the first two codes for the sub. It's probably not great security to lock down your cutting-edge submarine with 4-digit PINs that correspond to major dates in American history.

- After you defeat the snake in the first dungeon, the next room has skeleton pieces from the snake's tail. Nice touch.

- Another clever misdirect: A woman tells you about a bottle on the shore. "I wonder if it's a clue to the lost dolphin," she says. I rolled my eyes at this classic, painful bit of game dialogue exposition. Except it turns out the bottle ISN'T a clue to the lost dolphin. Again, it's subtle, but a nice touch.

- The big octopus is just a jerk. If he wanted to eat the "boy dolphin," OK, that's nature. But he just wanted to keep the dolphin in a cage and taunt him? Total dick move.

- The writers really enjoyed the "Americola" joke. Between that and the 1492/1776 stuff, they really try to kiss American ass. Look, we get it, OK? The game is designed for AMERICANS. You don't have to lay it on so thick.

- How do the points work, and why does a game that came out late in the NES cycle -- after points had become pretty passe -- have a meaningless point system, anyway?

More TK.