Startropics: Curse of Monkey Island

[Weird Goonie]

To deal with those gray balls you'll want to hit them so they move together as one. (Hit one, get it moving then hit the other when they are right next to each other)

I can always remember Do, Re, Mi, but forget was comes after. I often think it's "So" which is why I always screw up the music puzzle. Good job nailing it on the 1st try.

[Coryman]

yeah, I learned 'fixed do' ( I wasn't aware there even was another kind! ) and in french, uhm... using the letters is just a thing that doesn't exist, you use do re mi for like everything related to music.

So you mean if you were getting lessons on some sort of instrument, they might tell you to play a "ti flat" scale?

[raocow]

yup!

[Ditocoaf]

I learned an instrument as a kid, and yeah we'd use CDEFGABC for "objective" note names like I guess this is common in most of the world. I only ever really used "do re mi" in a summer camp once where all the musicians, no matter what we played, had to participate in a camp-wide choir thing. We'd sing scales to practice, and "do re mi" started with "do" no matter which scale you were singing.

But the point I'm trying to get to is, that I've always been curious how well known "do re mi" stuff is to the general population, considering I barely had to use it while learning an instrument for 15 years. So this discussion has been really neat!

yeah, I learned 'fixed do' ( I wasn't aware there even was another kind! ) and in french, uhm... using the letters is just a thing that doesn't exist, you use do re mi for like everything related to music.

So you mean if you were getting lessons on some sort of instrument, they might tell you to play a "ti flat" scale?

yup!

Woah. Now that's interesting.

[Tenlade]

I keep wanting to step in with a 'to be fair to the game' in these! All the time! I can't stop wanting to defend the game for some reason!!

The thing is, this game came before a link to the past and such, but you can sorta see like the early example of legend of zelda logic, of teaching the player. youre in a grave yard, you have to use the scepter to reveal ghosts to kill to progress, teaching you if you get a scepter, you need to use it to find the ghost to progress. later on, youre in a pirate cave, get a scepter and sure enough, to progress you have to find and kill a ghost using the item. If youre astute, you can notice the room with the two behemoth monsters has that tile forming a gap in the statues, leaving a spot where a passage can open, hinting there's something there.

It teaches you what to do, doesn't leave it opaque, and everything always follows the same consistent rules. enemies even are locked to the same grid movement system as you are, so it seems fair.

The problem is its also an early NES game, and follows that wonderful 80's dev idea of giving you limited items that screw you over if you use them up , and having you trial and error things that in addition, also require practice and timing, with making you start over the whole thing if you fail or so much as pick the wrong door.

So its very much an example of its time, that transition phase where "we dont need to be obtuse to sell a players guide , but we need to be extremely hard so people dont just rent the video game and return it to blockbuster after the weekend"

TL;DR version: It's clearly a zelda game and teaches you like a zelda game and the combat plays fair, but it still really difficult and got that dumb retro "gotcha" traps that make you start over if you mess up.

[Garlyle]

"This level is like, kinda the worst, but it's really good at being the worst"

Yeah. That was chapter 5's dungeon in a nutshell.

[Voltgloss]

raocow: In one or two of the upcoming dungeons, you will find a weapon that looks like a throwing star. To use this weapon properly, press the attack button once to throw it, and then press the button again while the projectile is still flying through the air. You'll understand once you've done it once. (This feature is not explained in-game, but is described in the game's manual.)

[Weird Goonie]

Mike got suicidal all the sudden last episode guess he just didn't want to face the bowling balls of doom.

So when I first faced off against the red bowling ball I didn't know you could stop them with your weapon. Guess how
much fun I had trying to pass by it without that knowledge? I managed to still do it somehow, but it was extremely hard and nerve-racking.
Eventually years later I figured it out by accident, makes that chapter a lot more bearable.

I mean it doesn't really make since does it? Indiana Jones can't stop a bolder with his whip!

[Nathan the Talkmaus]

And now I understand why it plays the boss music when those giant boulders are onscreen.

[Piter Lauchy]

Indiana Jones can't stop a bolder with his whip!

He never tried.

[Grounder]

Today's episode of Scream at raocow: Jump Directly to the Hearts, Already, Sheesh!

[Dragon Fogel]

Couldn't you just jump north from the south button in that last rom to get onto the middle strip of land? Or does the Anklet skip over that, I don't actually remember.

[Tenlade]

raocow couldn't tell the difference between octopi and squid, I am so offended right now.

Couldn't you just jump north from the south button in that last rom to get onto the middle strip of land? Or does the Anklet skip over that, I don't actually remember.

Yes, he could have just jumped directly to the hearts instead of taking the long way around.

The anklet is surprisingly hard to handle because youre so used to making one tile gap jumps that when it increases, your brain cant seem to wrap its head around the rule change.

[thatguyif]

So I just noticed: StarTropics is being played Tuesday during SGDQ. If they have a filename donation incentive, does anyone want to do what we did with Bunny Must Die and snipe for raocow?

[Jesuiscontent]

You mean Milk right

Also I'm wasn't aware of that whole letters thing for the musical notes as I also learned Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do, and in retrospect that might be why I always had so much trouble in the music minigame in Mario RPG

[Weird Goonie]

Oh god the rinkas followed you from MaGLX2!

Just ignore those upper platforms when fighting the boss with the statue of liberty palette, they're pointless during the battle.

[KobaBeach]

I'm catching up with this LP and the game is really poorly designed at times
I'm at vid 5 so it might get better who knows

Still enjoying the LP though
MaGLX2 isn't really interesting me much, I'm kinda burnt out on contests and SMBX

[raocow]

I'm at vid 5 so it might get better who knows

ha

[Grounder]

holy ragecow, batman

at least you realized that you could just jump to those hearts?

[KobaBeach]

I have seen the invisible platforms and all I have to say is why.jpg

Also the whale dungeon is giving me FF2 flashbacks

[Voltgloss]

That second death on the Moai head was the most literal example I've ever seen of raocow bashing his face into a problem.

[Telamon]

That second death on the Moai head was the most literal example I've ever seen of raocow bashing his face into a problem.

He was just looking for invisible walls.

[S.N.N.]

That second death on the Moai head was the most literal example I've ever seen of raocow bashing his face into a problem.

As someone who has never played StarTropics, my first instinct when I saw the boss was "maybe the guy is hollow and you're supposed to walk into his open mouth".

I don't think I'd be very good at this game.

[Xirix]

Holy hell that new item caught me off guard... so Matt can't jump into water, but he can defy gravity to kick all enemies in the face... sure.

[Dragon Fogel]

Worth noting, you can use the spike boots in the mummy room and I think that's what they wanted you to do.

They don't die in one hit like the enemies in the room where you get the boots, but it's not like you have a lot of other places to use them.