Virtual Console Thoughts (Nov. 2013)

Less irritated than before.

Over the course of the past few months, I've been forced to re-evaluate my opinions on Nintendo's Virtual Console service. All the way back in January of this year, I was annoyed that there weren't more options available to Wii U users, including the elephant in the room that is the GameCube. The trickling pace of Wii U VC titles was frustrating, especially when games such as Yoshi were chosen over other, more-worthy options.

However, after viewing the Nintendo Direct presentations over the past year (which are a brilliant way to keep the customers in the loop), I've had a partial change of heart. It is obvious that Nintendo is focusing on the indie scene, and working hard with up-and-comers to ensure a successful future. As stated before, Nintendo is a long-term thinker. Their eShop digital policies and ease of development is very generous to parties looking to release their games on a big-name console. New blood is more important than ever in this gaming industry. Nintendo and Sony both know it, and are pushing resources accordingly. Shuhei Yoshida (President of Sony Worldwide Studios) recently stated in an interview that "Sony needs Nintendo to succeed." And he's right. What industry better prospers than one with experienced, competent, and skilled competitors? The fact that both Nintendo and Sony, two of the biggest names in the business, see indie game developers as a huge part of the industry speaks volumes about their strategies and the future of the industry itself.

I agree with Nintendo's stance to focus on helping new, innovative titles. Fostering developers of the future will definitely pay off in the long run. Super Mario Bros. 3 isn't going anywhere. All of Nintendo's classic library can be put on hold, or at least moved to the back burner. There are far more pressing matters that need attention. When the delight of the classics finally wear off (if they ever do), Nintendo is going to need somewhere else to turn. I'd say it's a pretty good move to start building those relationships now. It would be fantastic to see a partnership as accomplished as the one Nintendo and Rare used to have.

The whole three-pronged approach seems to be a pretty good one. Focusing on fostering future talent and success, focusing on developing quality first-party titles, and letting the classics trickle out a little at a time so they don't overshadow something else Nintendo wants us to look at. While a small part of me is still irritated that I can't plug away at all the SNES titles I want, I know that Nintendo is doing what they think is best for the company's future. And I have to admit, I think it's a good idea. They have a pretty good track record too, so I'll trust them with this one.

Although I do wonder how long the Wii Mini will stick around in stores after the holidays.

(Not really) new!

EarthBound on Wii U!

Excuse me while I shut all real-world productivity down for a while. I must go play my favorite game in the entire history of the world. Again. And probably again after that.

What are you waiting for!? Go buy it!

Yoshi

Yawn.

Yoshi came out for the NES in 1992 (N. America). It's a basic puzzle game where enemies fall into four columns, and Mario is forced to keep swapping columns in order to prevent the stacks from reaching the top. Like enemies will cancel each other out. The main way to score points is to use a Yoshi egg. The bottom half falls, you get a bunch of enemies inside, then drop the top half of the egg. More enemies equals more points.

There are two modes: A is endless (a la Tetris), B requires you to clear the stage entirely. Settings include speed and initial enemy pile. There's also a competitive mode. Same deal as single player. Whoever hits the top first loses.

That's pretty much it. I was surprised that Nintendo included this game on their "30 Years, 30 Cents, 30 Days" promotion. The game isn't that renowned (or good, for that matter). It gets old really fast, and the limited settings don't offer much variety. The visuals are mostly frozen, and the gameplay is repetitive and unexciting.

Notably, the game was developed by Game Freak (before their Pokemon brilliance), and the music was composed by Junichi Masuda (before his Pokemon brilliance). Although I never would have guessed Masuda's involvement in a million years, because this music is rather bland. This was Game Freak's first partnership with Nintendo, and Yoshi had just been introduced in Super Mario World one year earlier as an exciting new character, so maybe the big N was playing it super safe. Unfortunately, the result was a boring game. Even the title and victory screens are lifeless.

So much solid color. Keep in mind the NES had been out for 7 years, and the SNES for 1, so there's no excuse.

I am sure that Nintendo's main focus was on the newly released SNES, but I don't feel that's an excuse for a subpar game on any front. If Nintendo wanted to release a Yoshi-themed puzzle game for the NES on the Wii U Virtual Console, why not Yoshi's Cookie? That game is so much better, in terms of multiplayer, music, visuals, and just plain having a personality. The game in general has more substance, not to mention a less static look.

If Nintendo wanted to go all out awesome though, they would have put Dr. Mario up there. Talk about one of the best puzzle games of an era. I was just playing earlier today, in fact. Everything about it (visuals, music, challenge factor, intensity, etc.) is near flawless.

Hmm. I guess it takes more than just a checkered background after all.

But I guess the big N felt that Yoshi would be a good choice for whatever reason. As it is the penultimate release for their "30 Year" campaign, I am very disappointed.

Yeah.

GameCube Virtual Console Thoughts

Still a long way away.

Since the launch of the Wii U, there's been a lot of hype and speculation about the future of the Virtual Console service. Even eight months into the release, the prospects are still very much uncertain. Nintendo tides over most people with news about moving Wii to Wii U, MiiVerse compatibility, GamePad play, and the like. Titles move over at a snail's pace. Why is this? To keep interest flowing consistently? For better long-term profits? Both, most likely. But a huge issue always comes to my mind whenever someone brings up the Virtual Console: the inclusion of GameCube titles.

Without a doubt, the GameCube can be placed into the category of a "legacy console". It's twelve years old and three console generations past. Even the later model Wii took out GameCube readability. So no issue in terms of it being "not old enough." Even when the Wii U was announced, there was excited whisperings of GameCube games being available for download.

But (and I know Nintendo is already moving towards a proposed solution), the internal memory is meager at best when compared to even last-generation consoles. Retail games take up a large amount of space, and even with the Deluxe Set, your internal memory is full before you can blink. eShop titles take up less space, but with consistent updates and patches, they quickly grow in size as well. The Basic Set (8 GB) is sitting on shelves gathering dust while the Deluxe Set (32 GB) is constantly in demand, but it's still not enough. Nintendo introduced the ability to connect an external hard drive to your console for additional storage space. This "solution" was, I feel, a short-term fix to a long-term problem. Even after it was hastily introduced, updates came quite often to improve and expand upon it. The whole thing reeked of afterthought.

With E3 upon us and the holiday season coming up shortly afterwards, Nintendo has to have some kind of hardware solution in their bag of tricks. Releasing consoles in a variety of colors only goes so far, and can only distract the consumer for so long. Even now, it was just announced that a 32 GB version will be released in White as well as Black. So what? That doesn't fix the underlying problem.

There is a possibility that Nintendo will release their own external hard drive. This will allow them to fix their initial faux pas while at the same time making money off of it. To sway people to their side further (other than just having an official "Nintendo brand Wii U External Hard Drive"), they could offer some included software/game/DLC/etc.

Another option (and this is the one people want the most) could be releasing another batch of consoles with a bigger stockpile of internal memory right off the shelf. If I can buy a used Xbox 360 with 320 GB storage space or a PS3 with a 500 GB storage space, why shouldn't I have the option to buy a Wii U with more than 32 GB? Would it cost too much?

Thus, we hit another roadblock. The GamePad replacement price has been valued by Nintendo at approximately $150 (It is not being sold as a solo item yet, it is only available as a replacement by Nintendo directly). Yet, the whole Basic Set is priced at $300. Could this mean that the base console itself is only valued at $150 by Nintendo? That's cheap. So what if Nintendo says, "Hey, let's release a Wii U with lots of memory." The only problem is, everyone who already bought their console is stuck with 32 GB max, and they sure as hell don't want to buy a new one that is going to cost even more than they paid the first time. And Nintendo can't sell a base console by itself for cheaper than a full set, because many games need the GamePad to function. You can't return only part of your purchase.

Or can you?

Since Nintendo has recently started selling refurbished hardware firsthand, why don't they make some sort of offer where you can send in your unit, have it upgraded with all your data transferred over, and then send it back to you? Since you won't need a new GamePad or anything, it can be done for a way smaller fee than buying some bundle brand new. All you would have to pay for is the price to upgrade your internal memory. Then it gets sent back with all your data intact, since Nintendo is doing it themselves and can easily navigate their own security measures (which is a big deal to them, for obvious reasons). This way, people that jumped on the purchase right away can have just as much storage space as people buying the upgraded console off the shelves brand new. And since Nintendo would then have consoles with less storage space that had been sent in, they could offer them, refurbished, at a way lower price. There would definitely be consumers that would not need that large amount of space, and the lower price would most likely sway them even further.

The increased storage space would mean that there would be no problem in people downloading lots of Virtual Console stuff directly to their Wii U, which also means there's way less of a chance of people passing around software through illegal means, which scares Nintendo to death. It's way easier to stick something on a tiny, portable hard drive and take it somewhere else to fiddle around than to pick up your whole Wii U setup and drag it around behind you. So Nintendo kills a lot of birds with one stone.

Bringing us back to the main focus of this post: GameCube games on the Virtual Console. NES, SNES, and N64 titles do not take up that much space. N64 would be the most, and that has a max of 64 MB. With only those options (aside from Genesis, Turbo-Grafx, etc.), you're not filling up even the Wii's internal memory any time soon. And since the Wii U is such a big step up in terms of storage, no way you're filling it up with those. However, Nintendo realized they had hit a huge snag after offering full, new retail titles to be downloaded on the Wii U without fully considering the space requirements. GameCube games are the same way. With a maximum disc capacity of 1.5 GB, you're looking at a lot of space used up just for GameCube titles.

Bottom line is, Nintendo needs to open up that space, and I think the "send in, upgrade, send out" model is their best bet. They aren't going to move ahead with something that takes up a lot of space, but requires a non-Nintendo supplier. They want to, logically, have control of their own products and services. So until that happens, GameCube games on the Virtual Console are not going to be a high priority. If they are announced before some sort of storage increase, I will be slightly surprised.

Super Metroid "Woes"

Play the game the right way.

Super Metroid (1994, Super Nintendo) was just released as part of the Wii U Virtual Console library a few days ago. Fans of the series everywhere rejoiced, and many picked it up and got to work. I haven't played it in years, so it was a great, fresh experience. What a masterpiece. It is definitely one of the best games of its console generation, and I would rate it in my top fifteen of all time. Everything about it is genius. And for 30 cents, how could anyone pass that up?

Almost immediately, Miiverse was bombarded with posts like these:

It's great that Super Metroid is available and so cheap. It's great that so many people want to experience it for the first time. But it's nauseating how incredibly helpless and disabled people become as soon as a single obstacle pops up that they can't pass immediately. Let me give you a word that might help:

E-X-P-L-O-R-A-T-I-O-N

Let me show you a picture of the map of this game:

Does that look like a linear path to you, where you can only go one way all the time? For most of these posts, this is how far they had come before giving up and expecting someone else to help them:

So they got out of their ship, walked down a hallway, and then most likely accidentally fell down that pit.

Ridiculous. It is sad to see how quickly some people playing video games have learned to become helpless. Is it really their fault though, or is it developers/publishers/etc.? Who can say? Regardless, Metroid games are exploratory in nature! That's how they work! You have to look around, hard as it may seem. Why do you think the term "Metroidvania" is used to describe many games today? Because games like Super Metroid set those standards, that's why. Here's a simple example:

1. There's a red door in front of me
2. Shooting it with my regular shot doesn't open it like the other doors I've encountered thus far
3. I just got a missile upgrade with a big music fanfare, instructions on how to use them, and everything
4. Why don't I try shooting a missile or two at the door?
5. Wow! It worked! Now I know how to open red doors!

Yet for some reason, there are people posting on Miiverse that they can't open red doors. Looking at their screen-cap, they have indeed acquired the missile upgrade. They get to step 3 above, but then they say to themselves, "Man, this is hard. I should look on the internet for how to do this." I have even read posts on people asking if the game has glitched, or if their copy is broken. Unbelievable.

Super Metroid is enormous, and requires backtracking at many points. Just because you went through an area doesn't mean you got everything there. Not even close. There are even things in plain sight that with your current abilities, you can't reach. You might walk into a room and not be able to do anything yet, so you have to just turn around and keep exploring. You have to come back later. Imagine that. The game is designed that way intentionally, because it fits the story, gameplay, and everything else! But people just complain complain complain that they need someone to tell them what to do.

You answer your own question, but still ask it anyway.

If nothing you currently have works, then try another of the five doors you passed instead.

If you can't do it yet, then you're not supposed to do it yet. Move on.

Try stuff. Go to a different room. Explore. Look at the manual. You've been playing for five minutes.

Going slightly off-topic, there's this mentality among some people that play video games, I've discovered, that think that all older games are very easy and simplistic. These people only play current-gen games, and casually at that. Yet they claim to be huge fans of longstanding IPs, such as Mario, Mega Man, Kirby, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, etc. They haven't played any of them from before 2012, but "Yeah man, they're so good." Dropping one of these older games in their laps results in them having a crisis, because they're afraid to admit they don't know what to do after they've proclaimed to everyone and their mother how big of a fan they are. So they hit buttons aimlessly until they die four or five times, then state something like, "Yeah, it's been so long. I'm not as good as I used to be. I think your controller might be busted. Let's play something else."

Firstly, why are these people afraid to admit they haven't played these games? Are they ashamed? Do they feel it makes them less of a person? Because the games are known to be "good", and they haven't played them personally, does that mean they think people will laugh at them? That certain people won't be impressed? I honestly don't understand. Are they scared someone will find out? And who cares anyway? I would think that the people that hold them in less esteem because they haven't played "good" games are even more idiotic. Did I miss some competition titled, "WHO HAS PLAYED THE MOST GAMES AND IS THE BIGGEST FAN"?

I do love hearing someone of any age talk about wanting to get into an older franchise or earlier game in a series. Look at this guy:

You'll notice there aren't any hate comments responding to this post. There's no ban from Miiverse or death threats.

THAT GUY HASN'T PLAYED SUPER METROID!!! OMG!!! N00B!!! NOT A TRUE FAN!!! GO BACK TO COD YOU NEWB!!!!!

There isn't any of that. I shouldn't have to thank this guy for saying something so simple, but I will anyway. Thanks for just being a regular person, Miiverse guy.

Secondly, just because games are older does not mean in any way that they are easier or more simplistic than current-gen ones. The only concession I will give is in terms of visuals, because of the hardware used at the time. But even so, some SNES games look incredible (e.g. Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy VI) for their time. Super Metroid is a prime example of this fact. Just because it's on the SNES does not mean you can sit down and beat the game in a casual twenty minutes, and that it will mostly do it for you. Why do you think characters like Samus, Mario, Mega Man, etc. are still around and so highly regarded? Because their games throughout history have for the most part been well thought-out, had a lot of effort put into them by good people, and are generally excellent. You don't reach 25+ years by having a bunch of crap. There are RPGs from almost twenty years ago that have more complexities than ones today, and platformers that developers today try valiantly to emulate as much as possible.

Thirdly, if you truly do want to experience a game for yourself, then do it. But make sure that you actually experience the game yourself. It has been my rule to never look up help from anywhere or anyone until I have beaten the game at least once by myself, and I still hold to that today. Don't run to GameFAQs or YouTube the instant you can't figure something out, especially in a game like Super Metroid. You have to use your brain. If you really want to play it, then you have to have some sort of resolve. The game will not play itself, and will not help you just because you've been stuck for thirty seconds. I can't even imagine how un-fun the game would be if you've never done it before, but during your first time you watch/read a walkthrough while playing. You're not even playing the game, you're just mimicking someone else like a damn monkey. The part to enjoy is the game itself, not being able to make the statement, "I beat that game." If saying that statement is all that's important to you, then you didn't really play the game at all. I will also point out that most of the Miiverse posts on needing help are from within the first ten minutes of gameplay. If they are whining at that point, there's no way they're going to even make it halfway through.

There are so many things I could say to this person.

Let's look at some of Super Metroid's awards:

9th highest ranking game on Game Rankings

Game of the Month (May 1994) - Electronic Gaming Magazine

Editor's Choice Award - Electronic Gaming Magazine

Best Action Game of 1994 - Electronic Gaming Magazine

Best Game of All Time - Electronic Gaming Magazine (in 2003)

7th Best Game of All Time - IGN

Player's Choice Label - Nintendo

Ratings are consistently at 90/100 and above. The awards are there for a reason, but they shouldn't be the only reason someone should decide to play the game. It's the same for movies and books. If everyone says they're super-awesome, you can let that influence your decision, but doing it just because of that (and not enjoying it), and then stating that you read/watched/played it just to be able to say that is laughable and pointless.

Back in the day, there wasn't time (or the ability) to release patches or updates, or for the internet to solve your problem for you. The game was exactly the way it was intended to be when you bought it. It was also much harder and more expensive to make a game overall, which meant certain standards were much, much higher. If it was a AAA title such as a Metroid game, then you could be sure it was going to have a lot of effort put behind it.

So let's say you're in 1994, a young kid, and stuck. What do you do? Your options are limited:

a) Use your brain
b) Ask a friend/sibling/parent who had done it already
c) Play the game with somebody, and try to figure it out together
d) Find a Player's Guide
e) Call a hotline phone number
f) Walk away (and maybe come back)

Many of those options weren't even available to a lot of people. Many games today do not involve thinking/trying very hard to succeed. I'm not talking simple apps, either. I mean real, bonafide, tons-of-money-put-into-them-AAA-console-titles. Even Nintendo isn't in the clear. New Super Mario Bros. has a "Super Guide" option, where the game will ask if you want it to literally play a level for you if you die too many times. It's embarrassing that such a thing even exists. Since Super Metroid was released in the mid-90s, one has to think in that mentality while playing it. This game is nearly twenty years old. It will not be the same as a game you bought that just came out last month. It's a mistake to expect it to be. JUST STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT! I won't claim for a second that I've never been stuck in a game, but figuring the problem out on my own was the only way worth doing it at all. If you don't have the patience to do something so simple, then play something that requires less thought. No one will think less of you, but don't make up some other reason why you decided to quit. Deciding to quit a game is not a sign of weakness. Making up lies about why you quit is.

Lastly, let's talk about starting a game. As stated above, this game is almost twenty years old. You cannot expect it to play like a current-gen game. Looking at the manual might be helpful. It frustrates me to no end that people don't even bother looking for a manual anymore. They just dive right in and say, "I'll just figure it out." Some of these people actually finish games without even knowing certain key plot points, basic/advanced controls, or main characters' names, because they're too lazy to read a couple of paragraphs. Then they'll watch someone else play and exclaim, "Hey! How did you do that basic move that would have helped me play the whole game instead of me complaining how dumb the mechanics are?!" It's to the point where publishers feel it's a waste of time and money to even print a manual. This is part of the reason why far too many games are not as complex as they could and should be. Publishers are afraid that people won't play the game because it's "too hard to figure out." They'll put in controls and such that are slightly more complicated than pushing one button (God forbid), but won't make it a requirement to actually know or complete the game, because then it might overload the player's brain. Give me a break. Even today, I don't even start the damn game on until I read the manual front to back, sometimes twice. This prevents me from not knowing what the heck is going on at every turn.

With the limited space of cartridges at the time Super Metroid was released, there was no room for a bunch of tutorials in-game (plus it would have completely ruined the atmosphere of the game). That's what the manual was for! And when the game then builds on previously established content that an uninformed player didn't even comprehend in the first place, it's painful and confusing. It would be like asking kids to do algebra when they kind of just glanced over addition and subtraction without really getting it. The "dilemmas" presented by people playing Super Metroid are pretty much equivalent to asking things like this:

Laughable, but accurate. So let's say you want to check out the manual. If you want to be a purist about it, you can easily use the internet as a tool, not a cheating device, by typing in "Super Metroid Manual" into any search engine. You'll get a scanned PDF within the first three results. But what if you don't want to go through all that grueling work? Well, hey, check it out. You know that HOME button on your controller? Press that, then look at that box on the right with a question mark in it labeled "Manual":

You don't even have to get up. It's right there, made all modern and sleek by Nintendo itself. They did the work for you. How hard is it to at least glance over it so you know the freaking basic controls?

Apparently still way too hard for some.

I am totally for introducing and helping people play older games, but I'm not going to do the work for them. Statement A:

"Hey, I haven't really played any of the games from this series, and it looked interesting, so I wanted to try it out. I've been playing it for a couple of days, and I like it, but it's harder than I expected it to be. I'm working it out, but there's still some stuff I'm having trouble with. I'm not sure I understand it all. Maybe you could give me some tips without ruining anything so I can experience it for myself? The game is fun, but challenging. And I like a game that has a good balance of both, because then I feel like I'm accomplishing something, and can feel some pride once I do figure something out. I wouldn't want to just mash buttons mindlessly and not enjoy or understand a game, you know? What a waste of time that would be. And if I end up not wanting to finish it all the way through, then I just won't. It was cheap enough for me to give it a try."

Of course I would be totally willing to help that person out. Hell, next time I picked up a new co-op game, I'd ask if they wanted to try it out with me. In contrast to Statement B:

"Hey, everyone knows I'm a huge fan of Metroid. I've played almost all of them, and they're all so good, man. This one is so old though, it's just not the same, you know? The newer ones are so much better, because the graphics are incredible. Anyway, I'm stuck in this room right now, I'm pretty sure it's a glitch, but what else can you expect from these old games, right? Can you do this whole section for me? I've done it before, probably five or more times, but it's just been so long, and my thumb has been acting up lately. I'll just watch you do it and tell you all the stuff I read on YouTube while you're doing it. Then later we can talk about how we're both veterans of the whole series. I'll agree with you and say things like, "Oh, yeah, totally." Then I can tell you all the awards this game has won, and some cheat codes I always use, because the whole control scheme is so screwed up, it's practically unplayable with the default settings. I guess they're just lucky that true fans like us can still stand old broken games like these, right buddy? Metroid is one of my favorite game characters of all time. I know he's won a bunch of awards by fans like me."

I would be walking away in disgust before they even finished talking.

Super Metroid's story, gameplay, visual style, music, cinematic nature, and overall design were incredibly well thought-out. The game is truly beautiful. I have loved every second, and it impresses me at every turn even though I've done it before. I'm not just speaking as a Nintendo fan right now. As someone who tries to play all kinds of games from all kinds of developers, genres, publishers, teams, and times, Super Metroid is a fantastic game that really showed how the series could blossom. I hope tons of people decide to at least try it out, and hopefully a lot of them will discover why people that have played it love it so much. If you don't prefer it, that's totally fine, no one will think anything less of you. There are certain games I don't care for either (even though they might be heavily acclaimed). But please do not claim to have played it and loved it as much as people who actually have and do. It's insulting to real fans.

If you do decide to play it, then have some resolve, be ready to contemplate situations, and do it the way it was intended to be done: without millions of people you can annoy by demanding they tell you what to do at every single turn. It will do nothing but detract from your enjoyment as well as theirs.

Adventures of Lolo

Adventures of Lolo was a puzzle game released in 1989 for the NES. Japan didn't get this one. They received the second and third iterations, but since our countries didn't really bother to use correct numbering based on regional releases at the time (a la Final Fantasy):

                                       U.S.                                                      Japan

                           Adventures of Lolo 2                             Adventures of Lolo

                           Adventures of Lolo 3                             Adventures of Lolo 2

It's especially ridiculous in this case since all three installments share practically everything except level layout. Most of this game's puzzles were taken from the Eggerland series. It's a common occurrence for HAL to recycle things in their games (see: the entire Kirby series). Normally, I'd be opposed to such a practice, but for HAL, they use it intelligently and it works, so it doesn't bother me.

As stated above, the history of the series can be traced back to the Eggerland games, which were released exclusively in Japan for the MSX, MSX2, Famicom, and Famicom Disk System. Japan never received our Adventures of Lolo because it was a mishmash of past Eggerland puzzles. The differences between the series is that Eggerlands had more rooms (up to 162, including hidden ones), level creation tools, timed rooms, bonus rooms, multiple path choices, maps, Gods who grant you special abilites, the ability to remove certain obstacles (such as trees), and other things. Also, the FDS Eggerland got this packaging:

We never get anything cool.

The numbering system for the Eggerland series in Japan is also nonsensical. For instance, Eggerland 2 for the MSX2 was re-released as Eggerland on the FDS, which is different from the previously-titled Eggerland on the MSX. Eventually they just started using the format Eggerland - (insert subtitle here), but by then it was too late. Plus they messed up all the numbers once the series reached the U.S. (as shown above), so whatever. Anyway, back to this super-lame Lolo game (when you compare it to Japan's Eggerlands).

Adventures of Lolo's setup is simple. Lolo is with Lala. She is taken by King Egger. Lolo has to go to King Egger's castle and rescue Lala.

Dramatic storytelling at its finest.

Lolo walks to the castle, but lo and behold, all 50 rooms are constructed as puzzles, each needing to be solved to reach the apex and fight King Egger (referred to as the Great Devil in the U.S. version).

Lolo can move in four directions and has an action button. The goal of each room is to pick up all Heart Framers, which then opens the Chest containing a Jewel, which unlocks the Door to the next room (or staircase to the next floor). This is easier said than done, since enemies are trying to stop Lolo, each with their own method of attacking or getting in his way. I should point out though, that the greatest enemy is the player, as most stages can only be completed in one way, requiring that things be done in an exact order. One screwup means you have to restart that room. This is the reason why one button on your controller does nothing except kill Lolo, so that he may try again.

Or maybe you're just stuck and taking out your frustration on Lolo.

The enemies are as follows:

Snakey

This creatively named character just sits there and can't hurt Lolo, which doesn't sound too bad. More often than not, however, they're not there to be a threat, but rather a pawn in your strategic quest. Snakeys can be put into Eggs, which can then be moved or ridden upon (when needing to cross water, for instance). Players must move quickly though, as Eggs will hatch after a short period of time and the Snakey will not be able to be moved again (unless put in another Egg). Do you want the Snakey to block another enemy? Do you want to use it to cross water? Do you want to use it for both? Better move fast. For being the most basic enemy, Snakey is definitely the one you have to think about the most more often than not.

Leeper

Leepers move quickly around the room, usually hugging the walls. They can't hurt Lolo, but as soon as they make contact, they fall asleep and cannot be moved or put inside an Egg. There is a reason that nothing in the room will move until you start to move Lolo. You have as long as you want to take in everything and try to formulate what you want to do before everything starts moving. Leepers often run into you at the most inopportune times, such as Lolo trying to exit a narrow passage. Whoops! Well, you're stuck. *Suicide*, try again.

Skull

Skulls don't do anything until Lolo picks up the last Heart Framer, at which point they wake up and travel quickly in seemingly random paths to try and stop Lolo from reaching the Chest. It is usually necessary to block in Skulls before picking up all Heart Framer for this very reason.

Medusa

Medusas are one of the most annoying enemies in the game. Walking in their path of sight on any side causes them to shoot and kill Lolo. You can't outrun it either. Once Lolo walks into their sight, he is frozen in place and will get hit. Medusas prevent Lolo from getting otherwise easily obtainable Heart Framer, as well as pushing things from certain sides. Extreme care must also be taken to also leave yourself a path to the Chest/Door. Medusas suck.

Gol

Gols are asleep until Lolo picks up the last Heart Framer. Once the Chest is open, they wake up, and walking in front of one causes them to shoot a fireball. This enemy is different from Medusas in that they can only shoot in the direction they're facing, and Lolo will not be frozen in place.

Rocky

Rockys walk slowly around the room, but if Lolo moves into its path, Rocky will charge and attempt to block Lolo in. If unsuccessful, Rocky will then start moving and try again if able. He is kind of wild card, and can be used to your advantage if the player is skilled enough.

Alma

Alma moves fast and will kill Lolo upon making contact. Usually Alma will start in an isolated location, and ideally the player will be able to block them off and not have to deal with them at all. In contrast to Leeper and Skull, Alma will seek Lolo out directly.

Don Medusa

Best for last. Don Medusa is basically a Medusa that can move. He is a nightmare. Don Medusa can only move up/down or left/right from his starting location, but he moves quickly. If Lolo walks into Don Medusa's line of sight, he is frozen in place and shot.

Apart from enemies, there are also various obstacles you need to utilize in order to pick up all Heart Framers and Jewels safely:

Rock

Rocks can't be moved, and are placed along with Trees at the beginning of each room. Rocks are your saving grace. Enemies can't shoot through them and will turn around when the run into them. Lolo is also unable to walk through them. Because they're rocks.

Tree

Trees are almost the same except for that enemies are able to shoot through them. Lolo died a lot because I kept forgetting.

Emerald Framer

Emerald Framers are basically blocks that can only be pushed. They block enemy sight and shots, and are placed meticulously because there's only one way they can be pushed to succeed. The suicide button is there for a reason. Don't be afraid to use it.

Terrain

Grass repels enemies, giving you a little sanctuary to think, while sand slows down Lolo's movement. Usually sand is present when fast-moving enemies are around. Water can't be crossed (by Lolo or enemies) unless a Bridge is built. Lava cannot be traversed at all.

Arrows

Lolo can't walk against an arrow's direction. He can, however, walk into it from any other direction. For example, if there was an Up Arrow, he could still walk through it from the left, right, and bottom. He can also leave by any direction, but once he leaves the way it is pointing, he cannot walk back. It doesn't sound too complicated, but then you have rooms like this:

Oh.

There are also power-ups Lolo can obtain, but it should be noted that they are only in specific rooms, can only be used in that room, are needed to complete that room, must be collected through Heart Framer gathering, and can only be used once. Simple enough, right?

Bridge

They go across water, naturally. Again, it can only be placed once, and only one spot will work for the room to be solved. Better think about it.

Hammer

The Hammer can break one rock, then it is gone. Better think about it.

Change Arrows

Lolo can get the ability to change the direction of one arrow, in order to be able to pass through or push an Emerald Framer, etc. Better think about it.

Heart Framer

All Heart Framers need to be collected to open the Chest and obtain the Jewel. Heart Framers can also provide Lolo with Eggs (two per Heart Framer). It is rather annoying, however, because all the Heart Framers look the same, and there is no way of telling which ones (if any) will give you Eggs. And the Eggs aren't there as a crutch, they are also needed to complete a room. It is a rare exception to have an extra Egg after collecting the Jewel. But it doesn't carry on to the next room anyway. The Ladder, Hammer, and Arrow Changer are also obtained by collecting Heart Framers, but a certain number (pre-set by the room) need to be collected in order to have access to them.

Chest and Jewel

Collecting all Heart Framers cause the Chest to open. The Jewel makes all the monsters disappear and the Door open. This means that in your quest to get all the Heart Framers, you must leave Lolo a safe path to get to the Chest itself. Sometimes preparation pays off and no enemies are free to move, but other times you have to make a mad dash to beat the enemies.

The game itself is really good. It forsakes going for the best graphics and other bells and whistles for a simplistic, challenging puzzle game. It is fun as long as you like that sort of thing, but I'd encourage everyone to give it a chance. There is a gentle learning curve, as different enemies and elements are gradually introduced. There is definitely a thinking factor, and it becomes very addictive as time goes on. If one approaches this game as, "Well, I'll just push stuff around and solve it eventually," then that person will be playing for a very, very long time. They probably won't enjoy doing it either. It probably isn't the game for them.

Each room can only be completed one way. They are ingeniously designed in order to be so. You are given exactly what you need to reach the next room, although at times you would kill for an extra Emerald Framer or for that one enemy to not be right where it is. Everything must be done in a specific order as well. You pushed an Emerald Framer too far? Well, you can't push it back because there's a Medusa on the other side. *Suicide*. You picked up the easily obtainable Heart Framer right away. Oops, later you realized you should have gotten that one last, since the one you did get last is right in a group of Gols, and they just woke up. *Suicide*. You Egged that Snakey, pushed him into the water, and walked across to get that Heart Framer, but you missed riding him again to get to the other section of the room, and he sunk. Now you're trapped. *Suicide*. You made a choice to pick up the left Heart Framer? Oh, should have gotten the right one because it gave you two Eggs which you needed to get the rest. *Suicide*.There are a million and one things you can do wrong, and you'll probably do most of them early on.

I recently played this on a DS, which worked out great, because it was a good way to spend a couple of minutes here and there on the go when I had a break. Unfortunately, it's not available to purchase on the 3DS eShop, only the Wii Virtual Console (since it was originally an NES game). I would still highly recommend giving it a try through whatever means. Adventures of Lolo 2 is also available on the Wii Virtual Console, but the third installment (which has 100 rooms instead of 50) is only available on a good old NES cart.

The final boss battle (against King Egger/Great Devil/Whatever) is slightly unconventional. In this game, Lolo simply walks up to him, traps him in an Egg, and watches him hurtle out of sight. The End.

Okay.

I found this pretty funny, but I like the FDS Eggerland boss battle even better. You literally play Jankenpon (Rock Paper Scissors) against King Egger. Whoever reaches four victories first wins.

CAN YOU HANDLE THIS INTENSITY!?!

The series also got a big head start on the trend seeming to happen more and more of "hacking a game to have a female protagonist." Starting with Adventures of Lolo 3, the player can choose to play as either Lolo or Lala. The prequel game/demo is also titled Eggerland Episode 0: Quest of Lala. HAL has been ahead of the curve for quite some time. Lolo and Lala also made a reappearance in the Kirby series (HAL recycling again) as antagonists Lololo and Lalala. Kirby fights against them in a castle, which could imply that Lolo and Lala were just chilling in the castle they took away from King Egger when Kirby shows up and just started taking everyone out. Lolo just can't catch a break, I guess.

Even though the next two installments share the same graphics and gameplay, they are an improvement over this game, with Adventures of Lolo 3 widely considered being the best out of the three. That isn't saying the other two are bad. On the contrary, I enjoyed this one just as much as I did ten years ago. If you're willing to think about what you're doing, not be afraid of making a few little mistakes, and enjoy a good mental challenge, then this series is right up your alley. If it hurts when you think, then you should probably find something else.

The only complaints I have are the lack of knowing which Heart Framers will give you Eggs, and the music being slightly repetitive. By slightly I mean that the one 16-bar track will play for all 50 floors on repeat, no exception. Your only relief is the completing-a-floor jingle and the ending track. The room music isn't really that annoying (see: Bubble Bobble's endless loop of sugary madness), but I did find myself playing the game in silence at times.

Another complaint is having a set number of lives. It doesn't really make sense, as after losing all five, you are given the option to simply continue right from the room you left off from with five lives again.

The game has a simple, four-character password system consisting of a limited alphabet. This is wonderful considering other games of the period with complicated, 32-or-more-character passwords using letters, numbers, and symbols. And since it was originally on a home console, it was a quick process to turn on your NES, put in your password, and go. And again, if you can do this, why have the set number of lives?

Bottom line? Play it. It hasn't lost its charm, and has aged well. Good puzzle games often do. It didn't take an extremely long amount of playtime to reach the tenth floor, but I did it in small fragments here and there, so it was spread out a little more. Depending on your level of puzzle-solving skills, you might not find yourself scratching your head right away. But at some point you will, and it's good for a game to present a challenge without being impossibly infuriating at the same time.