Zelda: Link Between Worlds – Eastern Palace

I resumed my game and headed off for the first dungeon, the Eastern Palace. Once I got there, I saw a symbol that showed a bow and arrow on it. A sign told me I had to go to an “item shop” where Ravio would let me rent one! Rent? Don’t you know who I am?

z-rentThe item shop was actually at my own house, and Ravio is a rabbit that I let stay there last time. But he agreed to lend me the bow for free, at least this time. The interesting thing is that the bow doesn’t use regular arrows that you would buy or pick up. Instead, it uses an energy gauge. Shooting an arrow will lower your energy gauge, and you can shoot until it’s empty. However, the gauge refills itself, so you won’t have to be without arrows for long.

With my bow and infinite magical arrows in hand, I returned to the Eastern Palace, where I was able to unlock a door to progress further. Once I reached the palace, some old guy with a ponytail named Osfala was there. Link told him what was going on (wait, how does Link tell people things if he doesn’t talk?) and he revealed he’s one of the original seven sages. He went inside the palace, and I followed behind. I soon reached an area I recognized from A Link to the Past: Bowling balls!

z-bowlingThis room was an awful lot like A Link to the Past, but to be fair, the dungeon overall is not identical. There are new puzzles, new rooms, and new traps all around. Once I made it to the boss room, the bad guy Yuga was making Osfala hover in the air in apparent discomfort. Yuga then turned Osfala into a painting. It was time for me to fight Yuga!

z-galleryI fought him and beat him, but then he did something unthinkable: He turned ME into a painting. Oh no you didn’t!

z-paintingWell, at least this is one way to slim down after eating big holiday meals. But then, a bracelet I was wearing (from Ravio) saved me somehow. I popped out of the wall and felt human…err…elfy again! I now have the ability to merge into walls by turning into a painting. I can then fit through cracks in the wall to reach new places. But this ability uses the energy gauge, so I can only use it for a limited time before allowing it to recharge. Even though I collected the heart container from beating the boss, I wasn’t done with the dungeon.

I was in a new area on the outer walls of the palace. I got a bit lost for a few minutes, but I eventually found my way back out of the dungeon. Sahasrahla met me there, and I filled him in on the details. After hearing a loud crash, we automatically made our way to Hyrule Castle, which had a mysterious barrier around it. He told me I needed to get the two other pendants, one in the House of Gales and the other in the Tower of Hera. So I’ll be headed to one of those locations next time. But for now, I saved my game and quit. See you next time!

Super Mario 3D World – World 3

I’ve resumed my adventure in Super Mario 3D World for Wii U, this time heading off to World 3. It appears to be an ice world as it starts out with an awesome first level filled with surprises, Snowball Park. The snow-covered trees lose their snow when you climb them, and snowmen pop out of the ground. Knock the snowmen apart, and you can pick up their…uh…snowballs and roll them at other enemies. There are also propeller blocks which you can pick up to soar high into the air.

But my favorite part of the level is the ice-skating Goombas. Stomp them and you can hop into the big ice skate and skate around! It reminds me of Kuribo’s shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3, although this isn’t quite as useful since it doesn’t work very well once you leave the ice. It’s a whole lot of fun while it lasts, though. Another cool feature of this level is the return of the tanooki suit! Even though it doesn’t let you turn into a statue this time around, it’s awesome to hop into a tanooki suit once again.

World 3-2: Chain-Link Charge ramps up the challenge. This is the first level I’ve really had some trouble with. It’s a forced-scrolling obstacle course with lots of hazards such as moving gates that block your path and donut blocks that start falling after you land on them. The cat suit comes in very handy, thanks to Cat Mario’s ability to climb walls. But even as a cat, some of the jumps are quite tricky. I had trouble with the depth perception; it can be difficult to see where your character is at when you’re in mid-air. I lost a number of lives here that I felt were cheap deaths. World 3-1 may have been my favorite level of the game so far, but World 3-2 is my least favorite level.

sm3dw-32World 3-3: Shifty Boo Mansion is the first ghost house. There are branching paths and plenty of ghosts. Things aren’t as they seem here, with some fake items and even a fake exit. But this level is really cool; there’s even a part where you go outdoors in the rain on a balcony. This is quite an enjoyable stage.

sm3dw-ghostEven though World 3 first appeared to be an ice world, it’s really not. World 3 is surprisingly diverse and enjoyable. Aside from the levels I talked about above, there’s also a level with a short 100-tick time limit, a train level called the Bullet Bill Express, a Mario Kart themed level (complete with the Mario Circuit music), and a very cool beach/underwater level. Super Mario 3D World seems to get better and better as it goes along. I’m looking forward to see what kind of surprises lie ahead in World 4. Join me next time as I continue my adventure.

sm3dw-water

Super Mario 3D World – World 2

I continued my adventure in Super Mario 3D World, this time heading off to World 2. This is the desert world…it seems like World 2 is always the desert world in Mario games, doesn’t it? Anyway, after clearing the first level of this world, I was given the option to enable the Miiverse features of the game, as well as ghost Mii characters. I didn’t look into how the ghost Mii characters work just yet, but the Miiverse features became apparent immediately. On my world map were some Miis belonging to people on my Wii U friend roster, with some posts they made about the game. The first one I saw was this drawing of Mario “pooting” on a Goomba Cat.

sm3dw-pootWorld 2-3: Shadow-Play Alley is an interesting level that makes use of shadows. They may help you find a secret or they may distract you into making a mistake. In some parts of the level, you’ll see both your character and your shadow; in other parts, you can only see the shadows. It’s a fun level.

sm3dw-shadowJust another note about the Miiverse features. After completing a level, various Miiverse posts about that level will scroll across the top of the screen. These aren’t limited to people on your friend roster. Here are some of the posts that scrolled by after I completed World 2-3:

sm3dw-miiverseI then headed off to World 2-2: Puffprod Peaks. (Yes, I played 2-3 before 2-2). This level introduced some new gameplay mechanics that involved using the touch screen on the Wii U GamePad (much like Rayman Legends) or blowing into the microphone near the home button. It was a bit gimmicky, sure, but it worked well (in this level at least). It remains to be seen if later levels go overboard with the gimmicks.

sm3dw-blowThe most interesting level in the desert world is World 2-5: Double Cherry Pass. It introduces the cherry power-up, which makes a duplicate of yourself. So if you’re Cat Mario and you grab a cherry, you’ll now control two Cat Marios. Find another cherry and you’ll have three Marios. I managed to get FIVE Marios in this level, and it’s all sorts of crazy fun. I can’t wait to see how these multiple Marios are used in later stages. But for now, here’s a video of this level:

The desert world comes to a close with World 2-Tank: Bowser’s Bullet Bill Brigade. You have to make your way past an army of tanks armed with Bullet Bills, spikes, and of course some enemies too. It reminded me of the tank and airship levels in World 8 of Super Mario Bros. 3, but in 3D of course. This level wasn’t as challenging as those levels in SMB3, but this is only the second world and the levels are still pretty easy. It’s still quite a fun level to play through, though!

sm3dw-tankNext time, I’ll be off to World 3, which appears to be an ice or crystal world. I’m sure it’s going to be fun!