The Ultimate Detective and The Ultimate Hope

It took me a few sessions, but I’ve finally completed Donkey Kong for the original Game Boy! Not quite a remake, it expands on the original arcade game. With Donkey Kong having kidnapped Pauline again (possibly during the events of Mario Bros), Mario has to go after the giant gorilla.

The game starts with the original four arcade stages, thankfully made much easier than their arcade counterparts. Where it goes off the rails, however, is when Donkey Kong gets back up after falling off the girders and runs off with Pauline again. Mario is left to give chase across nine different worlds. After leaving the construction site, Mario must pursue Donkey Kong across the city, into a forest, on a sailing ship, in a jungle, across a desert, boarding an airplane, sliding across an iceberg, over a rocky valley, and finally, ascend a giant tower for one, final showdown. And this time, Donkey Kong Jr assists his papa to make trouble for Mario.

In addition to being able to survive larger falls (though a high enough drop will still kill Mario), the plumber can also do handstands and flips, pick up and throw items, and spin from hanging wires. The game’s style also takes a dramatic shift. Instead of a pure platforming challenge, Mario must find and carry a key to a locked door in each stage, turning each level into a miniature puzzle box of sorts. Every fourth level will feature some confrontation with Donkey Kong, whether it’s making it to Pauline like in the arcade game, or a straight up fight where Mario has to throw things at Donkey Kong.

After having our first taste of battle and leaving home, your player character takes Route 1, the only way out of Pallet Town at the moment. As they make their way to Viridian City, they end up having some impromptu training fending off the wild Pidgey and Rattata.

Viridian City, while still having Pallet Town’s problem of not having enough housing for its residents, or things like kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms allow them to live in comfort, does at least have sever new community amenities. In addition to a couple more residential buildings, Viridian City also has a Pokémon Academy, a Pokémon Center, a PokéMart, and a Gym. However, the Pokémon Center doesn’t charge any fees for its services, making one wonder how they stay in business. In addition, the Gym seems to always be closed, making one wonder why it hasn’t been demolished and replaced with something more economically lucrative. Regardless, the presence of these businesses does at least provide some financial opportunities for the people who live in Viridian City.

A trip to the Pokémon Academy allows you to learn about the importance of weakening Pokémon before capture, as well as what the different status ailments are. Attempts to leave Viridian City and go north are blocked by a cranky old man who apparently hasn’t had his coffee yet. Being forced to explore the city, we enter the PokéMart, where we are immediately accosted by an employee and asked to deliver a package to Professor Oak.

With nothing better to do, we make our way back to Pallet Town, jumping from ledge to ledge to avoid most of the tall grass. After delivering Oak’s package (a custom Pokéball, though we’re never told what makes it so special), our rival bursts in and Oak gives both you and him a PokéDex. Oak elaborates that he wanted to record data on every Pokémon in Kanto, but given his advanced age, he can no longer do it. You and your rival accept, with the rival boasting how he doesn’t need you. To add insult to injury, he says that he’ll borrow a Town Map from his sister, and that he’ll tell her not to give you one.

After procuring a Town Map from your rival’s sister (guess she was either never told not to give us one, or just ignored her brother), you’re now free to buy some PokéBalls and start catching some wild Pokémon. After catching and training some of the wild Rattata, Pidgey, Nidoran, Spearow, Caterpie, Weedle, and Mankey, you end up meeting your rival again on Route 22. He explains that the Pokémon League is up ahead, but they won’t let anyone through without Gym Badges.

Skyrim is a game I’ve had in my collection for a while, but I’ve never gotten the hang of it during the couple of times I tried to play it. For now, I’m giving it another go as a Male Nord (I’m guessing that’s the term for human, Elder Scrolls is a series I have no knowledge of).

The game opens up with your avatar being carted off with several other prisoners who were caught in an Imperial Ambush and are being sent for execution. One of the guards notes your omission on the list, but the Captain insists on executing you anyway. What I’d like to know is if anything resembling judicial procedure exists prior to sentencing people to death, or if soldiers have free reign to kill people on a whim. I’d also love to know how you ended up caught up in the ambush in the first place.

As the headman is about to bring his axe down on you, a dragon suddenly attacks the village, inadvertently saving your life in the chaos. After escaping through a series of underground tunnels, fending off attacks from soldiers and giant spiders, you manage to attain freedom near the town of Riverwood. You’re then asked to ask for help from the Jarl of Whiterun on behalf of Riverwood, since the dragon could easily just burn down the place.

After meeting with the Jarl and informing him of the dragon attack, he agrees to send a group of soldiers to help defend Riverwood. Not sure how much they’ll be able to help against a dragon, but I guess it’s better than nothing. The Jarl in turn recruits your talents and introduces you to his wizard.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been taking a nostalgia-fueled blast to the past and replaying the first generation of Pokémon games. That’s right, we’re going back to the original version of Kanto with Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow! Both games have you start as an 11 year old boy (canonically named Red, but as with series tradition, your name can be customized), with nothing to your name but $30 (actually 3000 Pokédollars, but $30 USD is probably more comparable to real life) and a single Potion in your PC. After playing your SNES and saying goodbye to your Mom, who only laments that all boys leave home someday, you finally leave your house and venture into your hometown.

Let’s take a moment to talk about Pallet Town. Although there are several NPCs wandering about, there are only two residential homes and Professor Oak’s Laboratory. Where do all these other people live? Do they just sleep outside? Plus it seems you’re the only one with a bedroom or an actual bed. Even your Mom doesn’t seem to have sleeping arrangements. Plus there are no bathrooms, no kitchens, nothing to indicate either of these dwellings are up to code. Does the Kanto Region have a homelessness crisis that everyone just sweeps under the rug? No wonder boys leave home at the age of ten. Almost anything would be better than those living conditions.

Okay, worldbuilding rant over. Anyways, with nobody having anything useful to say, you try venturing north to Route 1, only to be stopped by Professor Oak. While in Red & Blue, he simply brings you back to his lab, Yellow Version has you both get attacked by a wild Pikachu, who Oak subsequently catches. Upon entering the lab, Professor Oak decides to give you and your rival (canonically named Blue, but can be named anything) your starter Pokémon. In Red & Blue, you get to choose between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, and your rival chooses the one with a type advantage. In Yellow, however, Oak tries to give you an Eevee, but your rival pushes you aside to take it for himself, leaving Oak to give you the newly caught Pikachu instead.

The rival’s actions depict him as a stuck up and intentionally annoying character. His whining about being kept waiting and pushing you aside to claim the Eevee first indicate impatience as a dominant trait, and his starter choices in all three versions show his win-at-all-costs mentality.

As you leave Oak’s lab, your rival challenges you to a battle with your newly obtained Pokémon. However, none of the three traditional starters know any moves of their type yet, and Pikachu’s Thundershock attack is neutral against Eevee, so type advantages don’t even come into play. With only a neutral attack and a stat-lowering move, the most strategy boils down to is making the rival’s damage negligible or lowering their defense to the point that your attacks deal massive damage.

After the battle, your rival vows to make his Pokémon tougher and bids you farewell with his classic “Smell ya later.”. With your own Pokémon, you are now free to explore Kanto properly.

It took me a good couple of days, but I finally completed the original Mario Bros. arcade game, which introduced Mario’s brother, Luigi. Having given up carpentry in favor of becoming a plumber, the Mario Bros are tasked with clearing the sewers of a pest invasion. One has to wonder if becoming a plumber was Mario’s only career change before his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom.

This game is actually the most enjoyable and skill-based of Mario’s pre-console days. However, Mario is still unable to actually jump on enemies; he would have to wait a couple more years before he could do that. Instead, he has to jump beneath the platforms enemies are walking on to stun and flip them over. At that point, Mario can run up and kick them into the sewer water below. This gameplay loop, combined with the iconic POW Block that could flip over all enemies up to three times, gave Mario Bros a much more reliable way to deal with threats.

Mario Bros contained three types of enemies: Shellcreepers (not to be confused with Koopa Troopas), Sidesteppers (basically giant red crabs), and Fighter Flies. Adding more chaos and mayhem are spawning fireballs (they spawn a LOT), and Slipices (sentient, moving ice monsters that can freeze platforms if left alone.

I’ve been trying to complete the original Mario Bros arcade game, but it’s rather difficult to make it to the necessary phase and I didn’t have a lot of time after I got home to play (late night at work). So I settled for another chapter of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.

In the first proper chapter of Lyn’s story, she and Mark stop at a large city in the Sacae region, Bulgar. While shopping, Lyn meets a knight from Lycia named Sain, who wastes no time in hitting on her. Neither swooning nor silent, Lyn doesn’t pull any punches, meeting his advances with a witty tongue of her own. One must wonder if she’s had experience having to ward off Sacae boys who tried to curry favor with her from being the Chieftain’s daughter.

It isn’t long until Sain’s partner, Kent, approaches and admonishes Sain for his womanizing. Apologizing for Sain’s behavior, Kent seems to recognize Lyn. Mistaking his confusion for more romantic advances, Lyn storms off with Mark in tow. The two knights follow, coming to Lyn’s aid when she and Mark are outnumbered by a group of bandits.

The mission in question takes place on a much more varied battlefield. While there are still grassy plains about, sparse forests pepper the area. The game uses these forests to teach about the advantages and disadvantages different types of terrain offer units. In this case, forests offer higher evasion to units in them, since it would be more difficult for opponents to see into them and strike their prey.

The game also uses Sain’s blunders in trying to impress Lyn by attacking the axe-wielding bandits with a lance to teach the weapon triangle. In most Fire Emblem games, weapons follow a rock-paper-scissors type system. Swords have combat advantages against axes, lances have advantages against swords, and axes are effective against lances. Sain’s attempts to slay the bandits with a disadvantageous weapon leave him injured, leaving Lyn to take pity on him and offer a vulnerary (healing item). This in turn teaches the player how to trade items between units.

After slaying the bandits’ leader, Zugu, Lyn and Mark become properly acquainted with Sain and Kent. Kent explains that they had actually been in search of Lyn herself, who was secretly the daughter of the Caelin Marquess’s daughter, Lady Madelyn. After learning that the bandits were likely sent by her granduncle, Lord Lundgren, to prevent her from inheriting the title of Marquess, she reluctantly agrees to accompany the knights back to Caelin and meet her grandfather.

This chapter gives us more insight into Lyn’s backstory, revealing her full name to be Lyndis as well as her status as not only the Lorca Chieftain’s daughter, but also granddaughter to the Marquess of Caelin. It also gives us a clear antagonist for her tale in Lord Lundgren, as well as a motivation to progress the story in the revelation of a surviving grandfather. 

The tutorial also gives us a peek into Kent and Sain’s relationship with each other. Sain’s womanizing blunders imply that Kent has a history of cleaning up after his partner, backing him up and mitigating his mistakes. The dialogue also implies that Sain does actually possess skill as a knight, if only enough for Kent to justify keeping him around at the cost of his sanity. The duo resemble two brothers, one irresponsible and popular with women, while the other is much more serious and almost takes the role of parent with them.

After successfully beating Donkey Kong Jr, I then moved on to complete the Donkey Kong arcade trilogy with Donkey Kong 3. One of the more obscure Donkey Kong titles, this game doesn’t even feature Mario as either a playable character or as an antagonist. Instead, players are put into the control of a completely new character, Stanley the Bugman (who hasn’t appeared in another game since).

From what I could find, the story involves Donkey Kong breaking into a greenhouse for reasons unknown. The lone guard, Stanley, attempts to chase him away, but Donkey Kong disturbs the bugs living there in the chaos. Armed with only a pack of bug spray, Stanley must repel both the bugs and Donkey Kong before any of them can destroy the flowers contained in the greenhouse.

Donkey Kong 3 is unique in the trilogy in that there is hardly any platforming to speak of. Stanley can jump up or down two or three levels of platforms (depending on the stage), but there’s no danger of him falling to his death, and ascending the screen isn’t actually the win condition. Donkey Kong 3 acts more like a classic Galaga-type shooter, with various bugs (and Donkey Kong) descending from the top. Stanley has to shoot them with spray before they can abscond with the flowers on the ground floor. 

If Donkey Kong makes it to the bottom, Stanley will lose, presumably by getting beaten up by the giant ape. Similarly, and morbidly, if one of the bugs touches Stanley, not only will Stanley die (must be deathly allergic, why did he work in a greenhouse then?), but the swarm of bugs will seemingly devour his corpse.

To win, Stanley has to either kill all the bugs, or force Donkey Kong to retreat to the top of the screen by constantly spraying him. On the third and final level, Stanley has no choice but to confront Donkey Kong and force him into the bugs’ nests, at which point the bugs will attack the ape and render him unconscious.

The dual victory conditions give Donkey Kong 3 a much more strategic gameplay style, something Donkey Kong Jr attempted, but this game executes much better. It feels much less like a game of luck and more like a skill you can get consistently good at through practice.

The NES port and arcade original are much more similar to each other than its predecessors’ counterparts, with graphical quality really being the only differentiating factor. While I have a slight preference for the original, due to its slightly higher graphical fidelity, one can’t really go wrong with either version.

It took many, MANY tries the other night, but I finally managed to 100% complete Donkey Kong Jr. After Mario defeats Donkey Kong and rescues Paulie, he imprisons the giant gorilla and whisks him away. His young son, Donkey Kong Jr, resolves to beat Mario and save his Papa.

Similarly to its predecessor, Donkey Kong Jr takes place across four distinct platforming levels. Junior must first use his climbing skills to swing from vine to vine, avoiding Snapjaws as he makes his way to the top platform. As he continues to give chase, the young ape must then ascend numerous vine-like chains, dodging birds Mario sends to stop him. 

Once Junior catches up to him, Mario then flees via helicopter to his secret base. As the young ape follows him, he has to navigate a series of mechanical platforms, avoiding the electrified portions so as to not get zapped. Finally, Junior must use a set of keys to unlock the chains keeping Donkey Kong’s cage secured. Doing so not only unlocks the cage, but causes the entire bridge he and Mario were on to collapse. Junior rushes to catch his freed Papa, while Mario is briefly stunned from the sudden fall, giving the gorilla duo time to escape. Mario attempts to give chase, but is kicked away rather easily by Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong Jr is admittedly a more difficult game than its predecessor. Junior is much less nimble than Mario, making jumping over threats more difficult. In addition, unlike Mario’s hammers, his only means of attack is the one-time use of dropping fruits. This makes the gameplay much more strategic, focusing on how to optimally climb surroundings to avoid enemies rather than face them head-on.

Like its predecessor, Donkey Kong Jr, also received an NES port. Like its predecessor, the port’s difficulty is overall easier, due to more room on the screen, less chaotic enemy patterns, and less enemies present on the screen at once. There’s also the lower quality in presentation, including duller graphics, audio, and the removal of cutscenes. Unlike Donkey Kong, though, the NES port keeps all four levels intact, ensuring one can experience all the game has to offer regardless of which version they’re playing.

Despite being another simple arcade game, Donkey Kong Jr can serve as an allegory for how nature inevitably conquers the technological superiority of humanity, given how Junior managed to chase Mario to his own base and defeat him. That theme of nature overcoming humanity and technology is definitely one that can be explored in future works. In addition, environments such as natural vs human-made jungles and electric themed labyrinths are ones I could attempt to reimagine or flesh out in later stories.

You’d think that after clearing Donkey Kong, I’d immediately follow up with Donkey Kong Jr. I genuinely tried last night…but I kept dying in the first two levels, and I want to save a post on it until I actually complete it. So, for now I started the first Fire Emblem game ever released outside of Japan.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (at least, that’s its translated Japanese name, its official name in the west was simply “Fire Emblem”), follows three main characters. One tells a prologue story of sorts, the other two are essentially different points of view of the same story. Today, I’ll be talking about the Prologue of the “Prologue Story” (Prologue of a Prologue, heh), starring a nomadic swordswoman named Lyn.

The game opens with a tactician named Mark (that’s his default name, it can actually be chosen by the player, along with their gender and birth month) being found unconscious by Lyn in the Sacae Plains. After nursing him back to health, their initial conversation is interrupted by the impending arrival of two bandits approaching her Ger (a round hut used by nomads).

Lyn sets out to stop their advance, leaving Mark compelled to offer his assistance. It’s through Mark that the player commands units in each chapter, as each character follows his commands with complete trust due to his tactical expertise. 

In an initial tutorial battle taking place strictly on a grassy plains area, Mark and Lyn end up teaching the player how to:

Move Units

Initiate Battle

Use Items

Gain Experience & Level Up

Seize Strongholds

Lyn ends up victorious and slays the two bandits, though the battle end up being unexpectedly difficult. Lyn suffers minor injuries that need treatment and her duel with the bandit leader, Batta the Beast, becomes an open question of who will prevail. After realizing her victory only came from a critical blow that had a 1% chance of actually succeeding, she vows to become stronger.

After a well deserved rest in her ger, Lyn asks Mark to let her accompany him on his travels. Concerned, Mark requests permission from her parents, only for her to somberly explain that her parents and most of the Lorca tribe were murdered half a year ago in a bandit attack. With her father being the Chieftain, Lyn would have been next in line to lead the Lorca tribe. However, Lyn’s youth and gender meant nobody would follow her, and the remains of the Lorca scattered. This tragedy and abandonment left Lyn completely alone, desperate for both companionship and vengeance for her parents’ deaths.

Moved by Lyn’s tale, Mark agrees to let Lyn accompany him and train her as best he can. The two companions soon leave the remains of the Lorca village behind, setting off for lands as of yet unknown.

We have a relatively short and simple prologue, but even simple openings give plenty to work with in terms of narrative creativity. The grassy plains level is admittedly rather limiting, fitting for an introductory level, but not leaving much to draw from for creative scenarios. It’s a good thing only two bandits accosted Lyn and Mark, for with no natural structures to take advantage of and Mark not actually able to fight, two adversaries was probably all Lyn could handle on her own with her lack of experience.

As my first game in my collection to be 100%’d, I began with something quick and easy: the original Donkey Kong arcade game from 1981. The story needs very little, if any explanation, especially by today’s standards. Donkey Kong kidnaps Pauline, and the carpenter Mario (this was before he became a plumber) climbs a structure to rescue her.

I ended up playing three different versions:

Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong, on Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Entertainment System port on Nintendo Switch Online

The Nintendo Entertainment System port on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console

The NES port had a couple notable limitations compared to its arcade counterpart. The most glaring omission is the missing second stage. The second omission of note was of the three optional pickups, one of them was removed from the game. Other differences include lower quality audio and graphical fidelity, an easier difficulty due to a wider screen and less chaotic barrel/fireball movements, and lack of cutscene animations.

Moving on to the game proper, the game features an endless loop of four main stages:

A girder staircase with broken ladders between levels and a wall of fire at the bottom caused by a barrel and oil explosion

A Pie Factory with conveyor belts (what kind of structure were they building?)

Another girder staircase with elevators separating different platforms and bouncing springs descending them

What can only described as a girder jenga tower with different platforms held in place with various small pegs

The fire also appears to be sentient, following Mario up each level, as evidenced by the wandering fireballs in each stage. His only weapon to extinguish them is a hammer that I presume is magic (how else could whacking a flame make it go out?)

Lastly, Mario can also collect Pauline’s belongings that she’s left behind:

Parasol

Tissues (Arcade Only)

Purse

As far as fictional inspiration, a girder staircase/jenga tower, and a pie factory in the middle, are both interesting settings to play with. And having sentient flames as an antagonist of sorts sounds like an interesting character study to flesh out. And of course, the climax where Donkey Kong collapsed due to his own weight is a classic finisher that can be applied to multiple stories. Also, it’d be interesting to explore whether or not Pauline dropped her items by accident as she was carried, or if she intentionally dropped them as a trail for Mario to follow as he rescued her.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dangan Ronpa Series, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Asahina Aoi/Kirigiri Kyoko Characters: Kirigiri Kyoko, Asahina Aoi (Dangan Ronpa) Additional Tags: commission, kirihina - Freeform Series: Part 57 of Commissions Summary:

Kyoko wakes up, only to find her girlfriend not by her side. Where could Hina have disappeared to? And what's that delectable scent?

“So…I take it this means you’ve reached a decision?”

Yui sat on the armchair in the Naegis’ living room, facing Kiki and Shuichi who sat on the sofa opposite her.  Makoto and Kyoko stood nearby, pensive as they waited to hear their daughter’s decision.