Dip this thread in water to reveal - Let's Play StarTropics!

♪Dungeon♪
In we go.



This dungeon seems a lot more open than the last, until you realize that you're confined to a 1-tile-wide path for most of it. All that water is for enemies to pop out of and attack you, like this mudfish. Also seen is a baseball bat, a powerful weapon but too slow and awkward to be of any real use.



This is our first submerging tile. It sinks in an out of the water with a distinctive sound, and we must time our jumps right or face a watery grave. Jump as they rise and get off right away, and you'll make it with time to spare.



A few meaningless rooms later, and we find these guys. They don't spit rocks, but they can jump from tile to tile. They only take one hit, so you don't need to worry if one jumps on the tile you're about to land on.



Our first walk-through walls, marked by a black shadow at where you can enter. Like all well-designed games, StarTropics introduces dungeon elements clearly, one at a time before throwing them together into puzzling gauntlets.



If you get into the center of the Spinistars quickly enough, they can all be killed with a single swing of the bat. This is the only point in the game the bat is useful.


♪Danger Zone♪
That's our cue that things are getting thick. Puffs emerge and shoot a few bullets at us. They're slow, so just keep moving.


♪Dungeon♪
The music has returned to normal! Am I being toyed with?



Sometimes, not every enemy needs to be killed to proceed.



These next four rooms loop around, scoring us a med in the process.



The real exit is through the hidden passage to the right.



Inside the chest is the second greatest (and most adorable) item in the game, the Magic Snowman.



Not far beyond, we can see the kidnapped child. Looks like he needs help! We can probably find a way to free him in the next room.

♪Boss♪
We've found our calf-napper. Must've been in the mood for some light chunk dolphin in water (tuna-free!!). He'll move back and forth spewing bullets at your location, so jump back and forth until, for whatever reason, he moves into range.



He's not there for long, but we have an ace up our sleeve. Bust out the friendly Frosty to not only keep him still but cover the screen in a nice cool blue. Then pound him with your Yoyo�.



He'll probably thaw before he dies, so just repeat until he bites it. If you can time the Snowman during his approach and freeze him so he's just in range of the Yoyo�, you can maximize your damage time, possibly getting him in a single use.


♪Victory!♪
Free of his octo-prison, the victim swims out and chirps out a thank you.



♪Sub-C♪

The grateful dolphins navigate us out of the reef, that we may continue our search...


(Years later, the Octos get their revenge: )

I thought Agricola was the name of one of the villages. In retrospect, it was probably a bit erudite for the audience Nintendo was aiming at. Also, I had the dungeon music in my head the rest of the night.

I loved startropics and this just reminds me why.. of course when I played it I got my mom addicted as well and since we rented the game when it came to the "note" not having it lead my mom to staying up all night figuring it out.

I love the music links, it really puts me in the game. How long is this game anyway? It's only $5 on VC, right?

It's a pretty short game when you know the tricks. 2 or 3 hours? Definitely only an afternoon. But if you're getting your hat handed to you repeatedly (like in this grueling chapter) it could take a few days.


♪Shipwrecked♪

The life of a sailor is a dangerous one...

♪Stranded♪




♪Overworld♪
How did we end up outside a sub? Well, let's see what we can do.



A generous man living nearby gives us a drink, which is good, because:


♪Dungeon♪
Not too far is a dungeon. Looks like there's a village on the other side. According to the coconut man, under their thatched roofs and grass skirts they have the means to fix a sub!



Rare dodo birds! Now I know why they went extinct: they had to be killed to open doors. You or me, buddy.



Some Bolos for us. Bolos have the same power as the Yoyo, but can fly the range of the whole screen.



These next two rooms contain deadly Ninja Monkeys.
Yes, that sounds rediculous. I admit to making it up.

(they're not deadly at all)



The chest will block the first Looper from getting you, and can easily be dispatched before you open it. Time a good jump as you pick up the bolos to avoid the rush of the other two.



A new dangerous yet ubiquitous obstacle, the next room contains three cascading, submerging tiles. Jump on the first on as it rises, like all submerging tiles, and move quickly onwards. When in midair, release and then hold in the A button to jump immediately upon landing. If don't think you can make it to the end, you can rest on one the tiles to the side.



Yes, those are ostriches with human skulls. They will jump across water to persue you, but pause briefly before they do. That's the opportunity to attack them.



The game's first dark room. As you enter, you can get a quick glimpse before the lights go out, so try to memorize the layout.



If you're too afraid to jump in the dark, you can take the exit to the left. If you go up the stairs, though, you'll leave the tunnel and have to start over. Just turn around to get a second chance at seeing the room's layout.



It takes a leap of faith to look for the switch that opens the north door. Remember, the game works on a grid, so it's not hard at all to make sure you're in the right place. When we land on this tile, it glows red and restores the lights. This was just an introduction; later dark rooms are more devious.



That must be Miracola, and beyond that, a tall mountain. I get this feeling that it's going to be a long chapter.

♪Town♪


Have you noticed the (awesome) naming pattern yet?



I didn't want you around anyway (*sniff*)


Why does everyone ask me that?



Did I say Coral? I meant Mira!





Anyone care to guess what we're going to be concerned with in this chapter?



The people on this island are all right!



I appreciate you trying to help, but we all know how things like this work. The fact that I shouldn't go means that it's essential to my adventure. Thanks for trying, though.



Now that everyone in the village has had a chance to bend my ear, let's head to that palatial hut in the middle of town.



It's really the silly things like this that make me love this game.

♪Southern Cross♪


Let's take a look. Oddly enough, the princess's room is accessible only via secret back door.



She doesn't have much to say, naturally.



What kind of strange things will happen on our journey to the mountain hermit?
I'm sure it will be pretty straightforward.

Probably.

I'm not sure which chapter is longer and/or more ridiculous; this one or 6.

This one. 6 seems longer than it really is since it's pretty much the only time the game lets you break loose from the rails and do a semblance of free exploring.

Chapter 3 is just a gauntlet.

♪Dungeon♪


The first dungeon this chapter was just a warm up. Now it kicks into gear.



Step forward, jump. Repeat twice and exit.



These guys are dealt with the same way as last time.



Moving on, we-



Click!



This room scrolls, and so we're only able to get a glimpse part of it before the darkness fell. We have to rely on other means to navigate the room.



This is one of my favorite rooms. You have to know how the monsters behave in order to get through it. The Loopers charge as normal, but they can't swim. When it can't go on, it'll turn around. Only one comes within one tile of us, revealing the safe place to jump.



Similarly, watch the Octo move around. He can jump across water like Mike, but must land on solid ground.



Killing the Octo opens the west wall, and the third tile shows us just what we managed to navigate in the darkness. Before we go on, though...

♪Sanctuary♪


Stand on that tile and manually jump down. You'll land in a secret room with some medicine. I'd posit that this room would be impossible to find the first time through the game, since a first-time player has so far only gone room to room in pre-defined passageways. A transistion like this would not yet have occurred to him.

♪Dungeon♪


These Gadfly enemies are a bit irritating. They fly back and forth for a bit, then charge at your location diagonally, making them deceptively hard to avoid. A switch opens the door.



Cascading tiles again, but the "rest" tiles are at the end. Since you could just as easily leave the room from the top tile, why are they there? Landing on one of them makes hearts appear, that's why.



This dungeon is getting deep...



Is it getting hot in here?


♪Danger zone♪
It's getting serious, now.

This cute sign with Mikey's face is a "Try-your-luck" sign. It will randomly give us one, two, or negative(!) one lives. Without lives to spare, it always grants a bonus, so don't be afraid to pick it up if you're on your last one.



Yet another thing borrowed from Link's first excursion, the Stopwatch will either stop or slow the enemies in the room, converting them to a keen greyscale in the process. It doesn't last long, so get Yoyo-ing.



There are some ugly lava monsters in this room that managed to evade my screenshot attack. They pop up, fire twice, and sink back down. According to this monster's instruction manual entry, we are now in the Lava Swamp. Let me repeat that:

LAVA SWAMP.

Every game should have a lava swamp.




This room has some bolas, but more importantly, two ways forward (three if you kill the Mad Muddy, but...).
I'm thinking... right.



Looks like the left way had some hearts. Dang. Let's stubbornly go on.



Well, looks like I went the right way after all!
(Brick's 2nd favorite room!)
I'm going to go back for those hearts, though.



There's horizontal cascading tiles here, but if you've made it this far you should be able to handle any direction.



The door behind closes and the door ahead opens. This empty room is sort of pointless...


♪Boss♪
Unless, you see it as a Mega Man style boss-gate.

Magma the Fierce will fire two streams of bullets to either side of you, and finish with a single shot on your location. Combine that with the two fires circling around the room and the awkward nature of tile-to-tile travel, movement in this room is very stop-and-go. Always wait for that last shot before moving to the next tile, combining the necessary jumping with dodging.

Weapons have no effect, even those bolas we picked up in the last room. So we need to try something else. Better have a look around.



This tile in the corner reveals a switch for us. Luckily, M. Fierce can't fire behind himself. However, to compensate he fires *all* his bullets straight to the left, leaving a very small window to hit to the switch and the get out of the way.



Hitting the switch removes one of the red supports. There's still another support left, so we need to find another switch.



Oh, there it is, RIGHT NEXT TO HIS FLAMING BODY OF TERROR. Dodging his shots while that close is tricky; depend on your sense of timing. Use the same careful movements throughout the battle to reveal and trigger each switch.



Both supports gone, his platform slowly disintegrates, plunging him into the water in what I'm sure is a very cruel and agonizing death.
Did you ever notice how some video game bosses die in incredibly gruesome or inhumane deaths without a second thought?
Never mind where that water came from in a Lava Swamp, or why he chose this room as his lair.

♪Victory!♪

Thus victorious, we make our way back to surface level and out of the cave.

Next time: Girls and Ghouls!

God I hate the next dungeon something fierce.

The next dungeon is where I stopped with the VC release.

I'm sorry, but it's not a very fun place!

Oh man, I remember the dark room with the loopers. I forget if there's another room like that in the game or not, but that's one of my favorite challenges - you get to see the path that leads to the next screen, and then have to know something about the enemies in order to keep going.

The set of rooms with two paths, though - that's just cruel. I know I've died there more than once because I forgot which way the "right" path was (PUN).

I remember being stumped by the upcoming dungeon, but it wasn't too bad. My big qualm was the constant reusing of the mirror/revealer object for every room.

♪Overworld♪

Nearby is a castle. Didn't someone say something about a castle?



Right. We'd better enter.

♪Shecola♪



Harsh.



Let's try the back door.




That's a camp? One person, underground, and in someone else's castle? These islands are weird.



G-G-Ghosts!? Wicked!



The Ghost Village is probably on the other side of this tunnel.



Two rooms in, a dead end. There's a switch, but it doesn't seem to work.
"Oh well. Guess you better head on back."


Boy there sure are a lot of mountains there i bet we cant go there oh look a secret passage
<Intentional bad Grammar? -Chris><'Tis. -Alex>


Radicola!



That green, sickly looking building must signify the Ghost Village.

♪Graveyard♪


This music confirms my suspicions. Oh, and the headstones, too.
Oddly enough, they bear crosses. You know, the same crosses that weren't allowed on to be on hospitals or used against vampires?
Anyway, that lake holds the Crystal Ball. It's just a matter of retrieving it somehow.



One of these tombstones is a little different than the others...

♪Dungeon♪


You guys don't like this dungeon? I think this is my favorite one. But I'm also drinking hot chocolate out of a Spider-shaped mug right now, and I hang up the same spider-lights for both Halloween and Christmas.



Bonedogs! Adorable and a little troubling. They rush you, but can't cross water.



Skulls are identical to Octos, except they take 2 hits. And have 2 eyes. And they're undead. But otherwise identical.



Going through the obvious north exit gives us two hearts, but forces us to take the stairs and leave the dungeon. Devious.



Go around the bottom to reveal and reach this switch, opening the way south.



There seems to be some sort of mysterious damaging force here. Just more of the game's cruelty, I suppose.



Hey Link! Why are all your enemies in my game? These "Muumus" are so identical to Gidbos it's not funny: Mummies that slowly lumber along, take 8 hits to kill and do 2 hearts of damage? Boot up the first Zelda, and take on a Gidbo with the wooden sword and no ring. IDENTICAL.
<I'm sure you verified this. -Chris> <Yes. -Alex>
These are dangerous enemies, but easy to handle: let one (one!) approach you head on and go wild on it with the Yoyo. Each hit stuns it, and the closer it gets, the faster you can fire. You should kill it before it touches you. In a bind, attack from across the water.



Killing them opens the door, but don't leave without opening the chest, revealing this awesome item, the Rod of Sight.



An ordinary looking room, but:



The Rod tells a different tale. These ghosts, Minies, if you will, are what were hitting me two rooms ago. Taking damage mysteriously is a good clue to use the Rod. They move back and forth rather quickly, making them even more likely to hit you when you can't see them. Now given form, they can be seen and easily defeated.



If you go through the only exit to the south...



Now you have even more to do over than the first time!



Instead, blow open this wall.

More ghosts here. Kill them all to open a way east.

♪Sanctuary♪


A sanctuary with no medicine, but two hearts.



Aw, what the heck!? A staircase? I went through the secret exit in the last room and only got a few hearts for my trouble!



Wait, this slug was hiding a secret passage! If you're not paying attention, you'll miss this and end up leaving for no reason, thinking you did something wrong again. Very devious.



On the way to pick up the hearts down there, something hits me. You know what that means...



Defeating them all opens a sanctuary with four more hearts.



This room with a cannon marks the checkpoint.



More darkness. However, this room has the ominous sound of submerging tiles. In the dark, you can't tell if they're down or up!



This switch opens a way south.



After fighting through a room full of mummies later and we find a room with a prize: a Lantern.



Back in the dark room we walk through a false wall, then use our Lantern.
The light lasts for about 5 seconds, and the Lantern has limited use, but it's more than enough to get through the room and past the submerging tiles. Also, here are some more Rod charges.



Mr. Armstrong here pops out of the ground to chuck a bullet at us. Jump over the bullet and attack.

♪Danger♪


Two cannons, two mummies, dangerous music and a big skull. Let's just get moving.



There's nothing here! At least they didn't boot me out of the dungeon again.



No enemies, no switches; what do I do?

You can see a bit of land on the top of the screen. Remember that hidden room last dungeon? This is where you learn the trick. Go to the top and manually jump into the next room.

♪Dungeon♪



This would be a good time to mention that Muumus, unlike most other monsters, can walk onto and across tiles like they weren't there. Don't let them catch you off guard.



These next few rooms have ghosts to kill. There's a Rod in the room to the left if you need more charges.



This is a magic mirror, needed to kill the enemies in the next room (borrowed from Zelda 2?). It has 80 charges, more than more than enough.



This room has 6 Mummies and nowhere to hide. It can be deadly if you're not careful. As they chase you around the room, they sort of clump together into a conga line. Attack two or three times, step away, turn around and repeat.



This room has some bolas and little else. The switch opens the way south, but...



This lone Minie in the corner opens a room with 4 hearts when defeated. Unlike the other rooms with ghosts, this one can't hurt you. You'd only find him using the Rod on a whim.



A more Skulls, Wizards, and Rods.



Four cannons and nothing. Of course, in this dungeon, we know that nothing really means:


♪Boss music♪
Yes, the boss music doesn't start until you use the Rod. Another little detail I love.
Maxie flys back and forth, pausing occasionally. Meanwhile, the cannons fire and Minies will materialize from the corners of the room to make a beeline for you.



Dodge the bullets and fire the Bolas at him.
If you run out, or if you're daring, he comes into Yoyo range at the sides of the screen.



It doesn't take much to bring him down, but he's hard to hit.
♪victory♪

One pointless room later:
♪silence♪
The music stops and we're trapped with this sepulchre fixture.

♪victory♪
Jumping on the top tile three times causes the skull to spew water and the music to return.


♪graveyard♪
With the lake drained, the lost Crystal ball is accessible.

♪Shecola♪
Back at Shecola castle:


Why, yes. What do you have in mind?



*Girlish squeal*





I'm going to take a moment out to mention that "Radicola" is my favorite thing to say, ever.



Ever use a female Warrior in Draqon Quest III? This is where they live. They just ship out as needed, since there's really nobody in the Coral Sea to declare war on.



Note the weightlifting women here.



Let's go see the Queen.
♪Queen Shecola♪


Ah, peerless beauty. (You probably saw this one coming.)



The Yoyo was cute, but now we can do some real damage. The Star is twice as strong, and fires spikes beyond the range of the physical weapon.



Our job here done, we can ditch our drag.

With the magic word in tow, we return to the small tunnel.
♪Dungeon♪


ABRACADABRA!




If your life falls below 6 hearts, the Shooting Star reverts back to the Yoyo, so try to be careful.



This dungeon is extremely short and uneventful; absolutely nothing to note.

♪Overworld♪


Finally, our destination. First, the hut.



No, I don't think I do like your poems, Po.

♪Dungeon♪


This is the fifth and final dungeon of this long, long chapter.





Those two tiles up top can't be reached! What a pointless, miserable existance!



You insidious bastards.
These tiles won't reveal themselves until you jump onto them, an even greater test of faith then the dark rooms. Unfortunately, all we get out of it is a worthless bat.



With the extra range and damage of the Shooting Star, these guys are nothing now.



These happy tiles will sink when you land on them, so get those toes moving!



A first time player wouldn't think anything of two unreachable tiles a few rooms back, but she'd be scratching her head here.



We get some Bola to reward our daring jump into oblivion.

I know what this means.

♪Danger♪



These Kappa hop out of the lava and make a mad dash for us. They can be somewhat troublesome.



Stepping on this tile to the left makes a double heart appear, but it'd be impossible to get them with the way the tiles submerge. Picking up the clock will stop the tiles long enough to claim the prize. Just make sure that you time the pickup correctly, with the tiles in the right position.



This room has a deadly combination of submerging and sinking tiles. You can jump straight up and down on a sinking tile to stall, since it will float back up before you land. Just don't hold still. Don't panic, or it's curtains for you.



The top exit is a dead end, but you can head left for some pick-me-ups.



Head right to make progress. Don't let the floating bones here scare you, just kill a few Kappa.



These green Mover-like enemies are pretty mellow.



Until you hit them. Then they bug out and charge you. Use the range of the Shooting Star to give yourself enough time to dodge.



♪Dungeon♪
Almost out, folks!



Mad Muddies can live in non-lava swamps, too.



These big purple guys always reminded me of The Maxx, but there's little actual resemblance beyond being big and purple.

They're slow and have no ranged attacks, but they have more HP than Muumus, so don't go toe-to-toe without the Star.



That waterspout is the goal (remember Po's poem?) but you can't get there from here. Looks like the top and bottom entrances are no good, either.



These final rooms go around in a loop, and if they were a NumPad this room would be the 6 key. Killing the monsters opened the way south, but there's no switches to open the way west.



Sometimes you just gotta be stubborn and force your way through the wall.

♪Southern Cross♪





♪Awaken♪


Isn't it touching, folks?




♪All ahead full♪

And thus closes the longest chapter in the game.

I bitched about it a lot, but it's not so bad.

Quite enjoying so far, especially since I'm horrible at most NES era games and know I'd never make it to the end if I tried to play it through myself. Keep it up.

I remember first playing this game at a lock-in when I was probably all of twelve or thirteen years old (that would be fourteen or fifteen years ago now), and I got it and the sequel for Christmas a couple of years later. Reading this has made me go dust off the cartridges and start playing again.

Incidentally, are you planning a Let's Play of the sequel?

Though I'm not as familiar with the sequel - I've only played it once, as a rental, long ago when I was 9 or 10 - I was considering it.

The leap-of-faith jumps aren't as bad as the insta-kill death trap rooms, but I still declare them to be some ol' bullshit.

I seem to remember liking the sequel a lot more than the original, but then I played it several years before as well. It must not have turned me off of the basic StarTropics gameplay because, you know, if it had I'd never have picked up the original.

I do remember a Wild West stage where you have to find gold nuggets, and one of them says "THIS IS NOT A GOLD NUGGET IT IS A CHICKEN NUGGET! YUM!" or something like that, which caused me to laugh hysterically.

The sequel does away with a lot of what you've described as bullshit in the original game. I always did dislike being killed for my greed in the first dungeon, but the leap-of-faith jumps never bothered me much, for whatever reason. To the best of my knowledge, though, there are no leap-of-faith jumps or sudden and unavoidable deaths in the sequel, and in general, the jumping puzzles have been toned way, way down. You still do a lot of jumping, but there's very little switch-hunting like the first game, so it's more like straight platforming. And while the game is still laid out in a grid, you aren't restricted to it the way you are in the original.

That said, there are still some frustrating bits in StarTropics 2, but they're tedious instead of arbitrarily fatal. I'm looking at you, Wild West-themed chapter.

Basically, I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you liked StarTropics but were frustrated by its bullshit, you might want to take a shot at the sequel.

Startropics 2 suffers from the "fixes some of the problems but loses a lot of its charm" problem that seems to plague a lot of sequels.

It's a miracola! I'd also read an LP for the sequel. I tried it on an emulator a while back, but I don't remember how far I got before I lost interest. I think I might have been locked in jail. I do remember being able to walk diagonally, that was a trip.