COMPLETE: Adventures of Lolo 3
Mar. 25th, 2017 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoThis one was the first product of a few new systems I'm trying. It's the first game of any actual serious length I started and fininshed after adopting this whole book report thing (everything else I'd either started ages ago and am just finishing up now, or it was like half an hour long anyway.) It's also the first since the creation of a Google spreadsheet where I'm keeping track of my actual backlog (it's... immense) versus the two or three games I'm currently actively playing, and trying to remain focused on the latter without touching the former (as opposed to my former strategy of WHEEEE-ing about and getting like fifteen minutes into every single entry on the list.)
In other words, this was a trial run for whether I could really sit down and start an actual real game and see it through to completion, something for which my track record up to this point has been somewhat less than stellar. I chose Lolo 3 because it wasn't too long (the timestamp on my NES:CE save says I beat it in 22:46,) and being a puzzle game like Hanano, it was similarly bite-sized. I could put in maybe ten minutes a day trying to figure out one room, rather than having to clear out my schedule for a three-hour dungeon slog between save points. Also, I'm a huge fan of the Lolo series, and Lolo 3 is probably one of the best games in it, and yet I'd actually never beaten that one before! I came close several times, but other games always happened and I always got sidetracked.
Well, no more. After... what... four attempts? I finally beat this one. It's done. There. Whew. I feel like I can put to rest something that's been haunting me since childhood.
As I said, Lolo 3 is probably my favorite Lolo game, narrowly edging out the also-excellent Revival of the Labyrinth because the former doesn't have any of those fucking "?" rooms. It does still have some aggravating hidden information as per standard Lolo protocol (currents, alternate enemy respawn points, "which of these hearts give you shots," etc.) However, it also has several quality of life features that make it by far the best of the North American NES releases: there are world maps with rooms grouped into levels to sort of break up the flow and make getting through a total of 100 rooms feel less tedious, lives are no longer finite, and for extra variety, you can freely switch between and play as Lolo or Lala (until a hopeless boss fight at the end of level 13 leads to you being kidnapped, and levels 14-17 consist of whichever one you weren't using taking over on a quest to rescue your former main.) It even has a new enemy, the tractor-beam-like Moby that can add a wrinkle to the underwater-themed levels. Good stuff!
So yeah. I just wish Lolo games didn't have so much trial and error hidden info bullshit on certain levels, because other than that this is one of my all-time favorite series and this was probably the best game in that series.
In other words, this was a trial run for whether I could really sit down and start an actual real game and see it through to completion, something for which my track record up to this point has been somewhat less than stellar. I chose Lolo 3 because it wasn't too long (the timestamp on my NES:CE save says I beat it in 22:46,) and being a puzzle game like Hanano, it was similarly bite-sized. I could put in maybe ten minutes a day trying to figure out one room, rather than having to clear out my schedule for a three-hour dungeon slog between save points. Also, I'm a huge fan of the Lolo series, and Lolo 3 is probably one of the best games in it, and yet I'd actually never beaten that one before! I came close several times, but other games always happened and I always got sidetracked.
Well, no more. After... what... four attempts? I finally beat this one. It's done. There. Whew. I feel like I can put to rest something that's been haunting me since childhood.
As I said, Lolo 3 is probably my favorite Lolo game, narrowly edging out the also-excellent Revival of the Labyrinth because the former doesn't have any of those fucking "?" rooms. It does still have some aggravating hidden information as per standard Lolo protocol (currents, alternate enemy respawn points, "which of these hearts give you shots," etc.) However, it also has several quality of life features that make it by far the best of the North American NES releases: there are world maps with rooms grouped into levels to sort of break up the flow and make getting through a total of 100 rooms feel less tedious, lives are no longer finite, and for extra variety, you can freely switch between and play as Lolo or Lala (until a hopeless boss fight at the end of level 13 leads to you being kidnapped, and levels 14-17 consist of whichever one you weren't using taking over on a quest to rescue your former main.) It even has a new enemy, the tractor-beam-like Moby that can add a wrinkle to the underwater-themed levels. Good stuff!
So yeah. I just wish Lolo games didn't have so much trial and error hidden info bullshit on certain levels, because other than that this is one of my all-time favorite series and this was probably the best game in that series.