Category: Godzilla Replay

Hey there, it’s me again. Before I start on World 6, I want to talk a bit about a conversation I had with Zach. I hadn’t talked to him in a while, and I think we got off on the wrong foot, so I was attempting to remedy that. I wanted to maintain a good relationship with the only other person (that I know of) who has played this cart. We had a much longer conversation this time, and he shared some things of a more personal nature that I’m not going to post here. What I will post is this –

Zach: As far as what’s happening with your game, if I were you, I’d just stop. You don’t need me to tell you that Warlock character has bad intentions. All things considered I think you had a pretty good run, you had a very interesting experience. I’d just let it be, and not press my luck any farther.

Me: I get where you’re coming from. But I just can’t do it. I really want to see this through to the end.

Zach: Why? What are you expecting to get out of it? At least for me, I had the excuse of not knowing what I was getting into. You’re aware of it, you know you’re putting yourself in danger, and you’re still keeping at it anyway.

Me: If you didn’t want people playing it, why did you sell it?

Zach: It wasn’t because I wanted to “spread the experience”, I couldn’t bring myself to destroy it. I just wanted to be rid of it. It’s yours now, and you can do what you want with it. But you asked me my opinion and I gave it to you.

Me: Well, I’m not expecting a reward or anything. But in some weird way, I’ve grown attached to it (the game’s setting). Especially my little buddy Usol. If nothing else, I want to try and help him out.

Zach: Your “little buddy”? Have you considered this is a setup? For all you know, Usol, or whatever he is, is part of some kind of trap, and this “game” ends with you dying of an aneurysm.

Me: It’s crossed my mind before. But I didn’t get that vibe from him. You know the sort of sensations you get from certain characters? He felt real to me. Like a scared little kid.

Zach: You’re setting yourself up to be manipulated.

Me: Yeah, maybe. But I can’t just abandon him. If the situation was reversed, I think he would help me. And besides, aren’t you even a little curious about what’s behind that gate?

Zach: “Curious” isn’t the word I would use to describe it. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach every time you upload one of these. Have you considered that whatever is behind that gate, is locked up for good reason? It bothers me how little caution you have about this. But whatever. Do what you want.

Me: Let me ask you this: do you feel that playing through the game was a mistake for you?

there was a long pause

Zach: I don’t know. I still don’t really know how I feel about it. Part of me wants to think that ultimately, those other worlds are better off for it, and she’s in a better place now. Another part of me feels like I was just being tricked into doing someone else’s dirty work.

If you’re implying that this is getting personal for you in a similar way as it did for me, I might be able to understand. If you must do this, so be it, but proceed with caution. There’s nothing I can do to help you besides talking about it.

It continued on a bit after that, but we changed topics.

Sometimes I do feel a bit stupid keeping with this, having no idea what I’m really doing or what sort of danger I’m putting myself into. I could just call it quits and be done with the stress of it, but… No. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering “what might have been.” It’s never been about getting anything out of it. I may not understand what’s going on in that world, but anyone can see that it needs help. If I don’t help them, who will?

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s finally delve into World 6: Alkali.

Pretty cool name.

Whoa. This board is enormous! Easily the biggest one I’ve encountered yet, tons of unique level types too. I’m a little intimidated. Let me list them off –

*SUN-BAKED WASTES

*VABA’S WALL

*EXCAVATION SITE

*BRONZE CITY

*BRONZE FACTORY

*SLUMS

*MARKET

*TOWN

*BATTLEGROUND

*SILVER FACTORY

*IRON FOUNDRY

*SILVER CITY

*MUSEUM

*RESEARCH LAB

*GOLD CITY

*GATED COMMUNITY

*COMMAND CENTER

And last but not least, the ever-welcoming SIN.

Three bosses, Mechani-Kong, Moguera, and Mechagodzilla. All robots, probably tying into the theme of this world, which seems to have a strong industrial vibe.

Wait a minute, what the hell-

It’s not letting me move past those Vaba Wall tiles! I’ve never seen the game do that before! I don’t know what that’s about, but I don’t think it would be wise to start with one of those levels. It could be some bullet hell endurance thing. The only other level type available to me now is the “Sun-Baked Wastes”, so I’ll start with that.

Okay, that’s different. I’ve never seen anything like this come up before either, a new control scheme? Nice of the game to let me know at least, this looks more complex than the original game.

WHOA. Now it’s a top-down perspective, like the original Zelda. This is neat! I wonder if all of Alkali is like this? It’s trippy see this smaller Godzilla sprite moving around like this, I didn’t expect it at all. There’s a new thing on the heads-up display, a counter labeled “Daru”. No idea what that’s about yet. This level’s music is minimalistic, I’d call it “desert ambience”. Not much to it.

Fortunately, this level gives me a lot of wide open space to run around and get used to the controls, which are smooth and responsive. My whole body tensed up the first time I tried jumping over the chasm, but it works. I checked out the inventory screen, but there’s nothing in there yet.

It’s our first enemy, a bronze robot that I’m assuming is called “Dirgun”. And they know Godzilla’s name!

The Dirgun can walk around in 4 directions like I can, fire a little bullet from their mouth, punch and kick. Slow, and easily dealt with. Though he doesn’t drop health or energy when destroyed, but little coins that add up on the “Daru” counter. A bronze coin is worth 5 Daru. You can find them lying around in some areas.

That’s great and all, but I’m not seeing any health or energy capsules., which is worrying me. How am I supposed to regain my health here? I’m going to have to play this very carefully until I figure that out.

Two more enemy types – A hovering bronze drone and a little silver walking robot. Both are just simple turret enemies. I also found out you can destroy the rocks in these levels. I was hoping they’d have health capsules, but they only have Daru coins. I did find one silver coin, which is worth 20 Daru.

That’s a really big skull up there, I wonder what creature that belonged to. I hope any living ones don’t ambush me on a precarious land bridge like this one.

I reached the end of the level, but I was just wandering around. I don’t know if I found the exit, or if there is no exit and the level ends on a timer, or what. I’ll try Vaba’s Wall now.

That’s quite a wall indeed. I’m guessing the Humpty Dumpty looking fellow on the rails is the titular “Vaba”. Let’s see what his deal is. He has a strange musical theme. It’s like jaunty classical music, but more intimidating. It reminds me a little of “Montagues And Capulets” by Prokofiev.

Oh great, you have to pay a toll to get through. I figured it would be something like that. Back into the wastes to grind for some more money. At least the toll isn’t that bad…Though this is just the first Wall, and there’s at least two more after this one.

Got the 300 Daru, now back to Vaba’s Wall.

ID Card?

Oh come on! You couldn’t have mentioned that before? For Pete’s sake. Fine, I’ll go grind again so I can get a damn card. But first, we might as well see if we can get any useful information out of this guy. Namely, where the health power-ups are at.

That’s what I suspected. Nice to have a straight answer, though I’m not thrilled at the prospect of having to pay to regain my health every time. That does make me wonder though – At the moment I’m barricaded outside the Bronze Sector, and can’t reach the Market. I’m not too worried for myself, but what happens to someone else who doesn’t have the money and is desperately low on health?

Sheesh, that’s cold. Just straight up “Pay my entrance fee or DIE.” What a lovely place Alkali must be. And I’m not even through the gate yet!

After going back and forth to the Wastes to grind, now I can pay the fee for ID Card. This feels like I’m at some kind of Alien DMV in Purgatory, where instead of waiting in lines, you have to fight giant robots that want to kill you, and then pilfer pocket change from the debris.

20,000 Tons? Does the Godzilla I’m playing actually weight that much, or is that just statistics from the movies or something? Whatever, this part was ridiculous. Now I can FINALLY enter the Bronze Sector.

Gotta say though, it does feel damn satisfying seeing Godzilla stride in through that gate. I hope entering the Sin Gate later feels as nice.

Godzilla’s finally in, but Rodan –

In the midst of all the grinding and dealing with Vaba, I completely forgot about Rodan.

*Oh no.*

Please tell me that Vaba isn’t going to do what I think he’s going to do…

Oh God, I’ve got to do all of that AGAIN? You’ve got to be kidding me! Maybe I can reason with him.

That went over about as well as I expected. I don’t think he realizes that Rodan and Godzilla are both controlled by *me*, but it doesn’t matter. Welp, back to the grindstone! I’m going to get a drink and some snacks, something is telling me that Alkali is going to take a while. Just a feeling.

I suppose it’s probably a good idea for me to get used to playing Rodan with this new control scheme anyway. I think Godzilla will be fine for the moment just sitting where he is, so I’m going to do what I need to in order to get Rodan past the stupid wall.

He handles pretty much the same as Godzilla. Oh, I can’t believe I hadn’t mentioned this before now, but this is Rodan’s energy attack. It’s a blast of mist from his mouth. It reminds me of the Fire Breath in the Kirby games. Speaking of fire – the mist is flammable. If it gets hit by enemy fire, the clouds of mist burst into flames. So that’s fun.

He can also fly, though you can’t reach a high altitude in this top-down view. Handy for getting out of an ambush, but not much else.

Hey, wait a minute. Rodan can fly. I’ve got an idea forming here. A wonderful, awful idea.

I have to do this right in front of him, so better move fast! Go go go!

Aw crap.

The screen even scrolls upward to show the 6 drones that have been on the other side of the wall this entire time. I get the impression they could be stacked side to side across the entire length of it.

This was totally not worth it.

Ugh. Of course “mercy” involves giving him more money. This sucks, but it’s better than having Rodan get shot to death. It was my own fault for trying to cheat. I should have known better.

Went back through the Wastes, didn’t see anything new to document. Here’s Rodan getting his ID card.

And with that, I’ve finally got both monsters past the Wall. But doing so used up nearly all my money. So you know what that means- I need to get more! Back to the Wastes. The two other icons on the board send me to slightly different versions of the level.

There wasn’t anything new, until I got to the end of the level and encountered a miniboss guarding the exit. It’s some kind of blue snapping turtle creature with snail eyes.

He doesn’t have any attacks besides chomping at you, and launching himself at you with rockets from his feet. This new tackle ability is good for getting out of the way, which is good because I really don’t want to lose any more health.

I’m mostly running away from him and using the heat beam as much as possible, to keep Godzilla away from his beak. He doesn’t drop any Daru after death, oddly.

The other variation doesn’t have anything different besides the colors.

Time to head to the Market to stock up on supplies.

I get straight to the point and tell him what I’m here for.

What? That’s dumb! Why do I have to buy things I don’t want or need?

Alright, fine. I just have to roll with it, this is the only Market the Bronze Sector has. At least it’s just one per order. I proceed to look through Dohnbar’s inventory.

These three toys are called “Dhynk”, “Pinky” and “Radon.” A typo for Rodan?

And another three, called Eyebis, “Freind” which has to be a typo for “friend”, and Wooly.

Rather sparse selection, but that doesn’t matter. All I need is the health stuff, which is represented here by “PACAKAGED MEAT” and “ENERGY DRINK”. I’m assuming the meat replenishes the Health meter, and the drink replenishes the Power meter. The plushies are all 5 Daru each, which is great! I’m not going to go broke having to buy them.

I bought 3 meat packs, 3 drinks, and 1 plush. I would have bought more, but he ran out of the meat and drinks.

I’m not being subtle about the fact that I’m just buying all the supplies I can get and only 1 plush each time. Hey, I’m complying with his store policy! He’s not complaining. My only concern now is how often this guy restocks.

Heading into the Slums next.

As soon as I started up the level, I paused and went to the Inventory screen. I do like the way that the Inventory organizes your items by alphabetical order. Anyway, it’s the moment of truth, we’re going to find out just how much of a pain Alkali is going to be. Selecting the Meat Package and…

It replenished 5 blocks! That’s not bad at all, 10 Daru for restoring half my health. I just hope I won’t need to use them constantly. I’m not loving this change in gameplay mechanics, but I was expecting much worse after dealing with Vaba.

I’ve stood here for a couple seconds and there’s no sign of anything attacking me. Just some very soft, melancholy music. It suits this dismal looking place. While I’ve got some time to breathe, I want to see if the plush toys are capable of doing anything.

I choose you Pinky! Go forth and attack!

…Well, it doesn’t do anything it seems. It really is just a plush toy.

Some guy just ran up and stole it! “Hey! That’s mine, you little asshole! Get back here!”

Is he running back to his parents?

Oh damn. That looks like it hurt.

Fine, it’s not that a big a deal to me. Why do they assume I’m going to hurt them over this? Especially the grandma, who had nothing to do with it?

“I would like to know more about Alkali”

I’m not sure how to answer that question in a way that will make any sense to her…I’ll just say “I’m from Planet Earth, it’s in another solar system.”

“Can you explain why Alkali has Sectors, and big walls between them?”

“Avidus” sounds like one of those SIN monsters I’ve been fighting on each world. So they aren’t native, but an invasive force of some kind. The story she’s telling strongly suggests Avidus came here intentionally to carry out a plan. Until now, I had the impression they were just mindless beasts. Though Exalton having his face carved into the bricks of his area was a detail that didn’t fit with that idea.

I’ve got more questions, but I just realized I haven’t even asked the name of our new friend here.

“My name is Carl, and don’t worry about what happened earlier. I forgive Yad. In fact, he can keep Pinky. Consider it my gratitude for the information you’ve given me.”

“What do you mean by that?”

So in Alkali, if a child steals something, it’s common to retaliate with murder! Goddamn, no wonder she was so tense. Does that qualify as “legal execution” like Vaba was talking about? The farther I go, the worse this place gets.

“What can you tell me about Avidus?”

It’s giant and “lives at the eastern edge of the Gold Sector” -exactly where the SIN icon is on the board. That confirms what I suspected.

“What happened to the rest of your family?”

“That’s awful! What do they gain from preventing someone from seeing their deceased family?”

In her position, I wouldn’t either. Poor Arba, she didn’t deserve this. I considered telling her that I’m here to destroy Avidus, but I decided against it. I noticed that satellite in the sky over her tent, I don’t want to risk saying something that could cause trouble for them.

“Thank you for your help. I hope things will get better for you and Yad.”

I feel bad for them, but at least they were able to give me some useful information. I tried to talk to some other residents, but they either ignored me or asked for money.

I feel it’s time to move on, so I’ll try the Excavation Site next.

The site is enormous, with 8 more layers ascending into the background. The music has a heavy industrial mood, fitting with the image of robots hauling thousands of tons of dirt and stone. The first one I encounter is yellow, with striped armor plates, pipes on its back, and arms like an excavator. His only attack is to wave it’s arms around. Like the Dirguns, they drop 4 Bronze Daru when destroyed.

The next type looks like a bulldozer with arms and legs. Clearly these robots are designed for construction, but they’re programmed to defend the site from intruders as well. This type doesn’t walk, but rolls forwards on treads within it’s legs. The spikes on the frill beneath their head, and the big sickle shaped blade on the tail kick up clouds of dust as it charges at me. It takes more damage than the first robot did.

It may be hard to see, but there are silver pods in the background behind the robots. I’m not sure what those are for – maybe recharging stations?

As you may have noticed, there are more robots in the background, walking around on the background layers. The machine in this center of this screenshot appears to be a gigantic escalator that they use to travel up and down the layers. I also notice a silver robot up in the sky, flying with propellers.

The third robot type resembles a long-necked dinosaur with 4 tread-feet and a drill for a mouth. The long neck gives it a greater range of attack than the previous two. I focus my attacks on the head, and keep my distance from it.

The fourth type is the most annoying, and the only one that uses a projectile. It has the same body as the first robot, but gray, with a large barrel on the back and a different head. It spits goop that hardens on contact, temporarily immobilizing whatever body part gets hit. It’s similar to the Frost Breathers from Gelid, but these guys don’t have to get up close to attack.

These are the last two types, a chunky green robot with a dump truck bed on it’s back, and a variant on the long neck which has a hook on a wire instead of a drill. The green robot doesn’t have any weaponry, but does have the toughest armor, and takes the most hits to defeat. The yellow long neck isn’t much different to the red, but being able to throw it’s hook on a wire gives it an even longer range of attack. I save up my heat beam to use on them.

Another mini-boss! A humanoid robot twice the size of the others, with a claw on it’s back holding a wrecking ball.

He can fire the wrecking ball out on a chain, similar to the yellow long neck with its hook. I dodged the first time, but he hit me on the second try. I didn’t time my jump right, and he cut a bar and half off my health.

I’m down to less than half my health, no more playing around. I let off a full-powered heat beam, and he staggered for a second. Now he’s getting in close and trying to punch me. I’m faster, so I dodge those and alternate between punching him in the face and using tail whips.

I keep dodging until my power meter fully restores. The claw on his back waggles before he uses the wrecking ball attack. I use that moment to fire off another full-powered heat beam, and that takes him down. He drops 100 Daru!

The Bronze City reminds me a lot of the Mecha City levels from Monster of Monsters, though this place has structures that look like buildings and houses. They also look like they’ve been shot at on a regular basis. For a technological marvel, it’s very poorly maintained. I’d guess this city got hit hard during the war Arba mentioned.

The first enemies I encounter are Dirguns and those flying drones from the Sun-Baked Wastes. Aside from the change in perspective, they’re the same as the ones from before.

Two new enemies appear soon after that. That silver robot with the propellers that I caught a glimpse of in the Excavation Site is here! It holds boulders with it’s 4 claw-like limbs and wires, then drops them when it gets close enough. It can’t do anything other than that. Its easy to avoid as long as I’m paying attention.

The other is a green ape looking cyborg thing with bronze armor and a turret on its back. It walks around, jumps, and the turret auto-aims to match Godzilla’s position when it sees me.

Most of the enemies in this level are Dirguns. That little silver thing with the tentacle on the front also reappears here. Only other thing I have to comment on here is the music – this is probably my favorite track so far! Heavy industrial beat similar to Excavation Site, but this is quicker and more upbeat. It gives me a feeling this city used to be a very productive place, before it became a wreck.

The last level type in this sector is the Bronze Factory. Like most everything else here, it’s shabby and dirty. It looks like the floors haven’t been cleaned in weeks. Everything but the lights hanging from the rafters have some sort of stain on them. The music is a steady beat of thumps and clanks with an intermittent sound that makes me think of a deep brassy horn. It sounds like an anthem for prolonged hours of repetitive labor.

In the background, there are windows revealing an odd purple sky, and a huge circular fan. I guess that’s meant to cool down the workers? That seems really inefficient. Speaking of the workers, they panic and try to run away as soon as I enter the level. But some unknown voice puts a stop to that.

The workers get back to the assembly line, and attempt to ignore the brawl happening in front of them. I’m facing the same enemies as the Bronze City, with the exception of the cyborg ape thing. Just when I get to thinking this will be an unremarkable level, something alarming happens.

One of the workers suddenly drops dead, only to be immediately replaced. That one-eyed robot with the propellers grabs the body and takes off. This must have been what happened to Arba’s son and daughter-in-law. What are they doing with them?

After walking through the end of the assembly line, I end up in this area. There’s a shoddy brick background and no windows, it looks like I’m in a lower region of the factory, underground perhaps. The floor is a collection of conveyor belts that keep me moving forwards, and there are large crushers striking down from the ceiling. My path got blocked by this one, and I had to punch it until it retracted.

Only one enemy type here, some strange orange robot with a jackhammer piston in place of legs. Its only attacks are trying to stab me with its piston spike, and punching. It has an odd movement when it gets hit, as if it’s trying to correct its balance.

Oh God. They’re taking the dead workers to a slaughterhouse?! Is this where the packaged meat comes from?!!

That is absolutely horrid. This is the worst thing I’ve seen yet. Is Alkali society comprised of cannibals? Or worse still, do they not even know this is happening? Are they making them eat their own family members without realizing it?! I really don’t want to think about that.

Alerted to my presence, the blue butcher robots start attacking me. All they can do is run, jump and stab. But they’re fast, and those knives hurt. I take out four of them before exiting the level.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that genuinely sickened me. I’ve lost my appetite. What do I even do with this information now? Do I tell Arba?

…No. Nothing good would come of it. I couldn’t imagine what it would do to someone, knowing their child got literally butchered. I hate that I’ve been been buying the end product of this. Sadly, as repulsive as it is, I really don’t have any choice if I want to get through Alkali, I HAVE to keep buying them.

Eugh. This went from semi-enjoyable to horrific very abruptly. But I have to remind myself that “enjoyment” isn’t what I’m here for at this point. There’s a friend of mine who still needs help. I’m trying to get what I’ve just seen out of my head, moving onto the first boss.

I’m worried about this one. Kong gave me a lot of trouble back on Corona.

His special attack is a glowing pink ball of light that he emits from that bulb on top of his head. It arcs downward and is easy to dodge by jumping.

Another special attack! He creates a swirling purple spiral in front of his face that waves up and down. It stays in position with his sprite as he moves, as if he’s emitting a spotlight.

I got hit by it and it turned Godzilla purple, and left me unable to move for a few seconds. Mechani-Kong gets some cheap shots in while I’m trapped.

This battle is getting dangerously close, so I’m hitting him hard. In response he reveals one last special attack – he can pull grenades from his belt and throw them. This one is the hardest to dodge, but I can hit the grenades with attacks to knock them off trajectory.

The robot gorilla’s all out of tricks, and I send him down to Davy Jones’ Locker I didn’t need any bizarre glitchy assistance this time! Now we’re heading into the Silver Sector… After another lovely visit with Vaba. I can hardly wait.

Instead of immediately heading into World 3, I’ve decided to play around with the password screen today. I don’t know what results I’ll get (if any).

password

It’s the same creepy music playing, but the password input has been altered. “LEFT”, “RIGHT”, and “END” characters are gone, B and A move the 2nd selector around while Start inputs the code. There’s a new icon in their place, which is in some language I haven’t seen before.

First I’ll try world names from Zach’s playthrough:

Pathos: Didn’t work
Trance: Also didn’t work
Dementia: Nada
Entropy: Screen turned white for a second, but then went back like nothing happened. I entered the code again and it was rejected.
Extus: Nope
Zenith: Didn’t work (but I’m not sure I wanted to go there anyway)

So I can’t access any of the worlds that Zach did. Not only that, I can’t even get to the worlds that I’ve already played – “Gelid” didn’t do anything either. That leaves trying passwords from the original game and guessing. I’ll have to google search to see what those were…

*5 minutes later*

The sound test and “Destroy all monsters” codes both worked.

soundtest

The CD player guys don’t do anything (as far as I can tell). The Sound Test is only playing songs that I’ve heard in the game so far. It probably updates the song library as the player progresses.

destroyallmonsters

The “destroy all monsters” code sends me to this area where I’m a robot that uses a club to kill little monsters. There’s no health, time limit, or anything. The password music plays in the background.

This made me feel uneasy so I didn’t play it for long.

Now that I’ve gone through all my other options, I’m going to see what that new language icon does.

letters

Woah.

I don’t understand this at all. I’m glad I still have the option of going back to English. But first I’ll input a password using this and see what happens.

inject

To my surprise, that random input got a result. Another odd game, the only objective is to get blood samples from each of these monsters to put in the beakers. Don’t know what the 120 means, it was there the whole time.

After doing so, it goes back to the password screen.

Tried another combination, and got yet another little game.How many games are in this thing?

boatmouse

This time I’m a little yellow mouse in a rowboat on the ocean. Just swimming along. Row row your boa-

boatmouse2
why did everything go dark?

 

 

boatmouse3

Damn!

How was I supposed to avoid that?

I input the same code, trying to start over, but it didn’t work this time. So much for that one. I’ll try one more;

tricycle

I have no clue what’s going on here. Maybe it’s a race, but I don’t seem to be getting closer to anything? When I back-pedal, the flying thing follows me.
I rode around for a few more minutes but nothing else happened.

These password games are interesting, but fruitless. There’s still one word I want to try out though, but I’ll need to go back to the English screen:

password2

 

 

And it had a result!

 

 

project
Now I’m intrigued. It looks as if this might give me some answers as to what this game is about. What really caught my attention is the blood red text stating “DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE THIS CARTRIDGE”. Clearly someone did not want this game being passed around.

It’s a bit too late for that, but as the current owner, I really want to know why shouldn’t it be redistributed.

youdidntsaythemagicword

Goddamnit! Just when I think I’m getting somewhere, it wants ANOTHER password. What does this thing need authorization for? What the hell is a “Transcendence Project”?

I guess I won’t be finding out, at least not right now. Maybe another creature will give me the authorization code.

Today we go into World 5. The Gate has 7 slots on it, so this is the halfway point.

tempest

tempboard1

The board is a dark bluish color, 3 level types;

TOP

SWAMP

FOG

top1

“TOP” takes place on the top of a mountain range. You can’t see in the screencaps, but this area has very strong winds. I’m going to need to pay attention so I don’t plummet while moving.

top2

There’s an eerie feeling to this place. Rather low-tone music, but it’s hard to hear over the sounds of howling wind.

There are 2 kinds of gross bug enemies, they seem to be related. Both of them try to stab me with the face spikes. I’m starting to see body parts flying across the screen when the wind picks up…

top3

I’m running into these odd lump-things with holes all over them. The bugs hover around it, sticking their spikes into the holes, and they attack me whenever I get close. So I have to destroy all of them before I can get across. It’s getting difficult to avoid these things.

top4

I can see the bodies that had been flying past earlier – they’re covered in circular holes, likely stabbed to death by the bugs. There are also pink eggs bound to the mountains by a sticky web-like substance. Small larval bugs leap from the eggs and drain health, but I’ve also seen them emerge on their own to feed on the bodies.

top5

I’ve gotten to a clearing that seems mostly free of bugs. And look who shows up – Usol!

sadusol

Oh god. That’s terrible to hear.

Wait, what is that thing?

ranigan speak

top6

top7

top8

That hairy asshole grabbed Usol and disappeared!  And I liked the little guy, so this pisses me off. I hope I can get him back.

tempboard2

Huh? There’s a new monster on the board. I didn’t unlock one in the level. I guess it’s just the game being weird, who knows. I’ll try him out in the swamp level.

swamp1

The name is “King Caesar”. He’s some sort of dog monster, might be made of rock. The swamp is like a combination of the forest and ruin levels. Don’t know about the water but I’m staying it out of it. I’d rather not take my chances, and I don’t think a rock dog is going to be a good swimmer.

The music has a primordial sound, it’s like a slow knocking on wood. Lot of background noise, gurgling and whistling sounds.

swamp2

The lump things are here, but the other enemies are different. One is a long necked creature with spikes that tries to stab me from the water, the others are toads that jump everywhere. They aren’t strong and they give health when defeated, but they show up frequently.

King Caesar is fairly conventional for a playable monster, though jumping is weird. He falls slower than Godzilla, and seems light on his feet. But that’s a not big issue. One thing I really like is that he can aim his beam up and down, which should come in handy.

swamp3

A tree with syringe needles coming out of the branches? I’m just going to jump over it.

warp

What the hell?

I got hit by one of the needles, and  it looks like it’s injected Caesar with psychedelic drugs. Everything’s wobbling rapidly and changing colors, and the music has messed up. I can’t play the game like this, have to wait for this to wear off.

warp2

Ugh, this is making me dizzy.

Alright, 2 minutes and it wears off. Definitely avoiding these trees.

Going through the swamp, encountering more of the same.

swamp4

I think we’re at a boss.

swamp5

toad1

toad2

Definitely a boss.

toad3

The Giant Toad is trying to eat Caesar, and his tongue is both his primary weapon and his weak point. Striking it just gets me stuck to it, so I have to use the beam. Though it’s arsenal is limited, the toad can birth many smaller toads out of the holes in it’s back.

toad4

After taking enough damage, the Giant Toad retreats momentarily to let it’s spawn wail on me. They come at a constant rate, but by unrelentingly beating the hell out of them, it’s a good way to gain health before the big one resurfaces. After doing this about 3 times..

toad5

And the Giant Toad goes kaboom. Look at those fireworks!

King Caesar is quite effective, though these levels seem a bit easy. I was expecting things to get harder by this point.

megag1

“Megaguirus” is a monster dragonfly. You might notice it starts out with an empty power meter, which had me confused at first.

megag2

megag3

It turns out that Megaguirus gains energy by draining yours, and then uses your own beam against you.

megag4

An annoying trick, but Megaguirus lacks in real strength. So it’s just a matter of getting enough hits in.

fog1

“FOG” is another ruined temple. This one is somehow floating in the sky, along with several large rocks. This area has less gravity than normal. There’s music playing that sounds like a whistle, but it’s hard to hear over the wind.

Having some trouble with these lizard-esque enemies. They stab with their tongues and will chase me around until I get rid of them.

And here’s where the level gets it’s name from; every now and then the fog rises up from the bottom to obscure the view. Which is the last thing I need when I’m trying to jump across flying rocks. I have to fend off enemies while waiting for the fog to go back down. And some of the lizard things can fly.

fog4

Thankfully this level is rather short. At the end there is this thing, which blocks me from getting through. It’s not much of a mini-boss, all it can do is wave it’s tentacles and call other enemies.

fog5

I met another denizen here and- wait what is he doing

goaway

Huh? Well, whatever.

Anyway, time for the boss…?

tempboard3

What the hell? The world boss icon has moved to another part of the screen? How does that happen?

Going back through some of the levels again, not taking more screencaps because it’s the same stuff. I got through to where the icon had moved and…

tempboard4

It moved again.

Something is wrong here.

*break*

Alright, I thought it over for a while. I think the cause of this is King Caesar. He wasn’t unlocked like the others, he just showed up. It could be that his inclusion was a trick.

I’m going to try getting rid of him and seeing if that solves the problem. I’m going to feel like a real dumbass if I’m wrong, but I don’t know what else to do. Here goes…

bye

tempboard5

That did it! I knew something was off about him. I’ll use Rodan to go up against the boss now.

It resembles one of the lizard creatures from the fog level, except much larger. The first thing I notice is that it moves very fast, faster than any of the previous bosses.

This boss has numerous tricks up it’s (her?) sleeve; lashing out a tongue that drains health, tornado blasts form the wings, and heading offscreen to let the kids have a turn.  It’s proving to be a hard battle.

Salaac hits Rodan with the tongue again and health is going into critical lows. But now we’re close enough that I can lay on the damage and prevent it from flying off.

It’s a very close match, but I succeed.

And I thought it would end there, but it doesn’t. It takes me back to the map again.

tempboard6

King Caesar is back, where the Boss Icon was. I think he’s mad about that “dropping him into an abyss” thing.

caesar1

Fortunately he only has as much life as he did when I got rid of him. This should be easy.

caesar2

caesar3

“That’s what you get for working for that grey bastard!”

reveal1

reveal2

reveal3

Uh-oh.

warlockspeak1

warlock1

Shit, I didn’t even think I’d be fighting him now, I wasn’t prepared for this! This might be as far as I get, but I’m going down fighting.

warlock2

warlock3

This guy is tough. Very tough. Godzilla is the strongest monster I have, and I’m just barely holding him off.

warlock4

warlock5

We’re both getting low on health, and he’s getting serious – now he’s destroying the mountaintops so I have less places to stand!

warlock6

He absorbed my heat beam! He’s gaining a lot of power, better duck!

warlock7

This is it! Gonna blast him with all I have left-

warlock8

warlock9

warlockspeak2

And “Warlock” floats away again. So he can regain his health and prepare for another attack, no doubt. And he knows about the journal? What exactly is he?

Do I even want to know?

Guh. Well, I’m physically and mentally exhausted now. This game threw a lot at me that I wasn’t ready for. I don’t think it’s going to get any easier from here, but I can’t quit now. Not until I find Usol.

I’m still having trouble getting to sleep. Ever since starting the game I’ve had this weird anxious feeling, like I needed to be ready for something. I’m not entirely pleased with what I’ve seen, that grey creature gives off a very bad vibe. But I’m not ready to quit just yet.

World 4, Amorphis.

amorphis

amorphisboard

Green board with 4 level types;

RUIN
FALLS
REEF
DEPTH
“RUIN” is a level of flooded temple ruins. It has a dismal atmosphere to it. Some of the platforms sink into the water after being stepped on. I don’t know if the water is harmful or not, but I won’t chance it.

ruined

I’ve noticed a pattern: creatures that stand still when you walk up to them are usually okay to talk to. The things that are constantly moving around either don’t respond, or they attack. Right here is a something that’s standing still so I’ll say hello:

ruins2

strong
He seems bitter. Since I’m conversing with one of these, I’m going to ask it something I’ve wanted to find out. Which is how exactly these creatures can hear what I’m saying.

ears

He’s a little smartass, apparently. I doubt he’ll be saying anything useful so I’m moving on.

ruins3

The level is sparsely populated by creatures, most of them are these things that leap and bite. I’m glad I’m going through here with Rodan because I can fly over them.

After browsing through the level for a minute I found Usol! Let’s see how he’s doing.

ruins4

usol1

He’s not doing too well. The poor guy’s lost his home from the sound of it. I don’t know what to do other than say I feel bad for him. It’s a really strange feeling trying to comfort something that lives in a video game.

Then I ask him if he knows anything about a password.

usol2

I feel conflicted by Usol’s response. While I’m happy that I got a password, I’m also worried by this “They” that he mentions. Who are “they”, and why would they come after him? I try to ask him to explain, but he starts to fly away.

ruins5

Might as well see what this password does. Heading back to the Transcendence Project and…
We’re in!

It’s rather strange that Usol got a code that works for this. I was under the impression that his “world” was separate from this game menu stuff. Makes me curious as to how he got it, but anyway, let’s see this “Project”.

proj1

It appears to be some kind of journal, with separate entries as readable text scrolls..

This…makes no sense. Why is there a written document about the cartridge IN the cartridge? How did it get there? Did this doctor disassemble it and encode his own journal into the game? Why would he do that?

Nothing to do but start reading.

proj2

proj3

Seems as if someone donated this game to a lab and some scientists ran tests on it. The journal doesn’t say who the donor was or how they knew where to send the game. Nor does it say what exactly the problem with the game is, it’s only referred to as an “Anomaly”.

The rest of the entries describe tests done with the game. I’ll post screencaps of some of the more interesting ones.

proj4

proj5

proj6

proj7

proj8
The last two entries are alarming.

proj9

proj10

To be honest I didn’t really believe a lot of Zachary’s testimony about his game ended, with the paralysis. I figured he was playing some weird modded game and was getting caught up in his own imagination. But this bit about “Jeremy” having a seizure is making me rethink it. And judging from this, Zach is the only person to have completed the game in it’s “anomaly” form.

“Group Test Day 13”, dated September 21, 1997, is the last entry in the journal. Either the project was abruptly ended at this point, or the rest of the journal has not been recorded on this. While this does give a bit of insight about the game, it raises more questions than it answers. Assuming that this is even legitimate, that is. These entries are very short for what’s supposed to be a professional experiment.

But real or not, I still don’t understand how it’s even in the game. The journal itself isn’t lending me any answers, and I don’t see anything else to look at on this page except the journal entries. So I’m going back to Amorphis to complete it.

waterf1

“FALLS” is a waterfall level. Mostly the same as RUINS, just walking through and jumping over pits. Enemies here are the 1998 Godzilla, a giant lobster, and some more of those jumping creatures. The music is faster in pace and sounds more threatening.

waterf2

waterf3

The end of the level has you right at the waterfall, having to jump across blocks that come down the falls. Very much like those parts in Mario Bros 2, except it’s a little harder because Godzilla’s jumping is awkward. Jumping creatures come down from the top of the screen every few minutes.

waterf4

Time for another boss!

dag1

“Dagahra” is an aquatic reptile that alternates between crawling and flying around. When he flies, he releases starfish that attach to Godzilla and then explode.

dag2

dag3

His last trick is to spin around rapidly, creating a whirlwind that blocks the heat beam, and makes it hard to attack him. The only thing that works against this is the tail whip.

dag4

From there, it’s onto the Reef.
reef1

In this underwater stage, Godzilla can actually swim! I don’t recall him doing that in the game before. I’m very glad to see more health boosters, that bastard Dagahra nearly took out Godzilla.

Godzilla actually handles better underwater than he does on land, although there are some drawbacks. He can’t kick or tail-whip, unless you go to a surface and stand on it.

The fish are peaceful but the octopus will try to grab Godzilla if he gets too close, and there’s more lobsters. They also move faster underwater.

reef2

An unsettling sight- a creature tied to a rock. He must have gotten on someone’s bad side and they decided to drown him.

reef3

At the end of REEF is a mini-boss, a long necked aquatic dinosaur. He fights a lot like Godzilla, but doesn’t have a heat beam. Instead he opens up his tail and knocks back with a blast of air/water/something. Lack of ranged weapons makes him easier to deal with than Dagahra.

reef4

“DEPTH” is another swimming stage, this time at the ocean floor. Very eerie music, and it’s hard to see. Not a good sign.

depth1

I don’t know what this is, but I don’t like it.

depth2

Uh-oh. Looks like the drowning wasn’t an isolated incident..

depth3

At least there’s spare health laying around(These enemies doesn’t give any after being destroyed). God only knows what I might run into down here.

depth4

Like this dragon. I thought this was going to be a problem at first, but when I went to cross, he just stood there. Which is nice.

depth5

Maybe if I keep going left I’ll find the exit.
depth6

NOPE.
Alright, after about 10 minutes of swimming around, I seem to be getting somewhere. I figure I’m at the ocean floor, nowhere lower to be, so the direction to go is up. Freakish mermaids have started swarming on me, so I must be close.

depth7
Going up led me out of the depths and into a waterfall stage, this one is set at night. I ran into this green character and then this happened:

greenguytext

conf1

conf2

conf3

I think I know who Usol’s afraid of.

toldyou

Let’s see how he likes getting blasted.

conf4

conf5

lastwarning

 

I wonder why he left after being attacked. Too cowardly to stay and fight? I doubt it.

 

odia1

odia2

This fight was fairly easy until “Odia” gave me a surprise-

odia3

Turns out it can shapeshift. What’s worse is not only it’s heat beam is as powerful as mine, now it moves even faster.

odia4

It switches between Godzilla and it’s true form every few seconds. After losing a lot of life, it dives downward towards some underwater caves.

Odia hides inside them and sticks it’s head out to spew green spheres, which stick and make it hard to move. Then Odia rushes forward to ram Godzilla into spiked walls.

odia5

odia6

It’s an interesting tactic, in fact I’m going to use it myself.

odia7

Another one bites the dust.

3rdsymbol

And there’s another world completed. I wonder what happened to those people who were part of the project…

I should have gone to work today, but I decided to stay home “sick”. I’m not really that sick, but I haven’t slept very well for the past few days. Not because of nightmares (I haven’t remembered my dreams for a while), but because I can’t stop thinking about the game.

I’m enjoying the game somewhat, but I got this feeling that if I keep playing I’m gonna see something that I shouldn’t.

Anyway, I don’t see much point in messing around with the password screen any longer until I have some combinations that will get real results. And the only way to get those is to go through the game, so onto World 3.
corona

coronaboard

World 3 is “Corona”, it has a purple board and 4 level types. This world probably won’t take long to complete since the boss is only 3 spaces above my starting point. That strikes me as a little odd since the Gelid boss was 15 spaces away. Since the path is so short I could get through in a few minutes, but I’m going to try not to rush it. The levels here are;

POWER PLANT
REFLECT
PATZER
FOREST

And one boss, which is King Kong. It surprises me to see such a big name character showing up. I’m not aware of any connection between Godzilla and Kong but I guess it doesn’t matter.

5lxvn9

The Power Plant is a dark, ominous looking level of granite bricks, storm clouds, and power poles. The efficiency of this place is questionable since the power poles lack connective wires. The music has an electronic synth to it.

Going further on I encounter some peculiar enemies, and see that a few of the power poles have electric chairs connected to them, some of which are occupied by dead (or soon to be dead) creatures. Every minute or so a bolt of lightning will strike down and light up the screen.

powerplant2

The power poles appear to function as a combination of a lightning rod and a generator, getting their power from lightning strikes which kill the creature in the chair as the electricity surges downward. So it’s both a power plant and an execution field (lovely).

Since these poles attract the lightning, the only danger of being shocked is if I stand right next to one when it gets hit.
Not too hard to get around, but with all these sad things screaming in pain as their brains get fried, it’s not a welcoming atmosphere. The level is a straight walk to the right, so with no potential for exploration I make my way through quickly.

reflect1

“REFLECT” is a castle-esque level with a lot of mirrors. It has a strange background, and equally strange music. Like the crystals in Isolation Zone, the mirrors here serve as teleporters.

reflect2

It takes some guessing as to which mirror to go through, but the level doesn’t seem very large. I can only hope I’ll be shown some indication that I’m progressing towards the end instead of going around in circles.

The mirrors are different from crystals in that creatures can come through the mirrors at random. Usually it’s those little flying creatures made of broken glass. I hate those bastards because you take damage if you touch them.

While traversing i found another creature that talks:
reflect4

pretty

I tried to get it to tell me a password but it was too preoccupied.

reflect3

It took a little while, but I eventually got to this mini-boss, who I assume is guarding the exit. He moves quick but he can’t do much damage. I’ve got the advantage this time since there’s a lot more space to move around, so his lightning bolt is easily avoided.

reflect5

What do we have here?

rodanunlocked

Ah, Rodan! A monster I actually recognize! That’s great, can’t wait to test him out. I just remembered I haven’t fought King Kong yet. I’m tempted to use Rodan, but I’ll use Godzilla for this one. Don’t know what to expect.

kong1

kong2

kong3

Damn, he’s tougher than I expected. He’s dodging my attacks and knocking off too much of my health.

kong4

In the middle of the fight the game suddenly started to glitch very badly:

kong5-1

coronaboard2

Weird, but I’m not complaining. Now it’s Rodan Time! Onto “Patzer”….
Before the level starts I’m told to “seize a king”?

seizeaking

chess1

Oh, I get it. It’s a chess-themed level.

chess2-1

It doesn’t involve actually playing chess though. That’s a damn good thing, because I haven’t played chess in 8 years.

Rodan’s a great addition, does almost everything Godzilla can and he can also fly. It’s only my first impression, but he seems like a promising character and I’m sure the flying will come in handy later.

As for the level, the black and white chess guys can’t pay much attention to me since they’re also fighting each other. So that makes flying around and looking for one of the kings simple.

chess3

I don’t think it matters which king I get, so I’m just gonna go after the first one I see.

chess4

Ah, there’s one!

So I go up and hit him and then the level ends with another info screen.

blackteamwins

That’s great for the Black Team. I’m glad that level’s over because it was starting to mess with my eyes. Let’s see what the Forest is like;

vem2xk

Yup, looks like a typical forest level. The music is unnerving. Going to the right, as usual…

116jqk5

Out of nowhere these huge bat things start divebombing from the trees. They’re hunting down the brown creatures. Trying to get out of the way before I get bit.

14e8gec

I got away from the sideways mouth bats, there weren’t many of them. Not much of anything down through here.

5vdsw4

…why did everything lose color? And the music changed, but-

35n7891

2rcu6hl

dg2u7s
…I don’t know what the hell that was.

Maybe I should just turn this thing off.
Then again, all I had left to do was the boss fight…

 

exalton1

exalton2

This guy is a lot more mobile than the previous boss was, also uses his ranged attack almost constantly. Normally this would just drain his power down to nothing-

exalton3

-Except that he can go up to the top of the arena, get hit by lightning, and become re-charged. I can get in some easy hits while he does this, but once he get powered back up, he immediately does a lightning attack that fills a length of the screen.

exalton4

He doesn’t seem to have any attacks other than lightning, so I wait for that power meter to go down and then hit him with everything. It’s just a matter of time.

exalton5

And with one good kick to the face he’s done!

2ndsymbol

I don’t know why, but for some reason it feels good to see another symbol in that wall. I would like to see the thing complete, but then maybe that’s not such a good idea. That ….thing in the forest gave me a really bad feeling. And it’s not going to be happy if it knows I’m coming back.

I’m not sure what to think about this game. I sent my Chapter 1 write-up to Zach to get his thoughts on it, to see if he could give an insight on what it was doing.

“I told you before, I don’t know how the game does these things.  If you’re suggesting I put these graphics in the game myself, you’re mistaken because this is the first I’ve seen of any of it.

It looks like the game has recreated itself again since I played it. That’s not a good sign.

Not a very helpful response, but oh well. I don’t know what I expected him to say anyway. As for the game, I’m heading into World 2 today.

19164852

It’s called “Gelid”. No more actual planets?

gelidboard

And here’s the Gelid board. Glad to see that I have Godzilla! There’s quite a variety of levels here. That evil looking symbol at the bottom right must be my exit. I hope I don’t meet up with Red in here.

By pressing Select on the level icons I discovered that these levels all have their own names, which are:

“TUNDRA”

“ICE CAVE”

“ISOLATION ZONE”

“LOST WAY”

“TEMPLE OF SILENCE”

“SIN”

The first two sound reasonable enough. But the others, I have no idea. I’ll start with a Tundra level.

TUNDRA

tundra1

The Tundra is about what I expected. It’s quite pretty to look at.  Godzilla plays like normal, but he moves slightly faster, which is nice. The music here is a new track which has a subtle yet foreboding vibe to it. It has a definite “wintery” sound, and seems more advanced than the usual NES music.

tundra3

Stage creatures are no longer dinosaurs, instead the Tundra is populated with various weird beasts. I suspect this will be the case for the rest of the game, but I don’t know.

There’s not a whole lot going on in here. I don’t have to use many attacks because most of the creatures here are non-aggressive. It’s rather calming.

tundra2

The snowfall has turned into a blizzard. It’s hard to see and I’m coming across more and more bodies buried in the snow.

tundra4

The snow went berserk and made it almost impossible to see when I reached the end of the level. When it started coming down like this I could tell that that my observation time was over, so I got to the end quickly.

There wasn’t much resistance from enemies. Actually, I didn’t come across anything living near the end.

ICE CAVE

icecave1

After having to deal with the blizzard, I’m somewhat glad that this level is “indoors”. I can’t go left for obvious reasons, so I head on to the right. The music is very odd – somewhere between “relaxing” and “mind-numbing”.

icecave2

These blue creatures are enemies that chase me around. They don’t deal much damage but I prefer to outrun them, trying to conserve my health.

There are numerous spiked pits I have to jump over, it’s a tricky to do so without running into the beasts. You can see me failing at that in the screenshot.

icecave3

I also have trouble with these things that use freeze breath. They seem to hone in on my presence and wait to attack at the most inconvenient spot.

icecave4

The level ends with a mini-boss fight against this crystal covered creature. There’s very little room to move without getting stabbed by icicles, though the boss doesn’t seem affected by them. He moves fast and can spin in the air, but he’s not much tougher than the other enemies.
ganimesfight1

The 1st real boss is a crab called “Ganimes”. Maybe that’s a Godzilla monster, I’ve never heard of it before.

ganimesfight2

Fight was quite easy. The crab moves forward and back while snapping with it’s claws, then jumps and spits. I made short work of it by constantly kicking it in the face.

Things are going pretty well so far, but I’m only halfway through.

ISOLATION  ZONE

zone1f

This level is some kind of platform in space surrounded by floating crystals. Very slow, lonely sounding music playing in here. Some of the crystals have baby-like things inside them, which I can knock out by punching the crystal.

zone2

zone3

When I punch an empty crystal, it takes me to a small, boxed-in area. I went into 4 crystal rooms, the first was the screenshot above, the second was the same except the room was empty.

The third sent me to a frozen corridor where I had to run past snake monsters that emerge from holes in the wall.

zone4

zone5

And the fourth sent me to this little character. I walked up to him and a text screen came up, he had something to say;

zanderfruit

Um….citation needed? No seriously, I don’t get it.

And that was the end of the level apparently.
Another boss fight, this time the opponent is a giant turtle called “Kamoebas”.

kamoebasfight1

It’s slower than Ganimes and doesn’t have any ranged attacks. But it’s more damage resistant, and doesn’t seem to move in a set pattern.

kamoebasfight2

Sometimes it extends it’s neck out to bite me, but it’s easily avoided. I’m getting a little concerned by how low my health is. I can only hope the game increases my life meter soon.

LOST  WAY

lostway1

Lost Way is also a floating level like Isolation Zone, except with a cloudy background and numerous platforms. The music is gentle and calm, sounds like a lullaby. I proceed in the direction of the arrows (though I would have gone to the right anyway).

lostway2

This level has me on edge because I can’t always tell if I’m going to land on a platform when I jump or if I’ll just make Godzilla fall to his death.

It might seem like the platforms are densely packed from the screenshots, but it’s more like there are clusters of platforms throughout the level, some of which have wide spaces in between them. I’m having to make many “leaps of faith”.

lostway3

There are plenty of creatures here, some of which are enemies from previous levels. Among them is the ice breather(damn it). It’s easier to get rid of them here than it was in the caves, because I can make them fall off the blocks. I kill all the ice breathers I see to prevent having one of them freeze me mid-jump.

After wandering around for a few minutes I found this platform of gold blocks that moves up and down. It took me down to an area with a blue dinosaur (why is everything blue in Gelid?), which I thought was an enemy at first, but instead of attacking it started following me around.

lostway4

As the dinosaur and I march on, we see many other creatures wandering around, looking just as confused as us. That’s when I realized that the arrows don’t actually lead anywhere, they’re intended to lead the occupants of this place into dead ends.

lostway5

So now I’m ignoring the arrows, and instead looking for the gold blocks. I’ve got no idea which direction the exit might be, but I have a hunch that those will lead me to it.

There’s also something that looks a floating blob of snow. Don’t know what that’s about.

lostway6

After using two more gold elevator blocks we found this little guy, who spoke:

usol1

I felt sorry for the poor whatsit, so without even thinking about it I blurted out “Sure.”

usol2

He responded to what I said, and that freaked me out. I hadn’t pressed any buttons or anything, but “Usol” heard my voice…somehow.

It made me jump, but Usol seems harmless enough. So I’m gonna keep on looking for the exit.

lostway7

Aaand we found the exit. Took about 6 minutes of backtracking, the exit ended up being somewhere behind the spot where I started.

TEMPLE OF SILENCE

silence1

Right from the start, an enemy comes crawling at me. It’s a slug looking thing with it’s arms tied and mouth sewn shut. It has no attacks except running at me. There is no music, or any other sound here.

silence2j

There’s lot of enemies in this level, I’m attempting to jump over/run past them. The temple appears to be nothing but a hallway of enemies.

silence3

Got to the edge of the hall. There was a drop which put me at another hall beneath the first one, going back to the left.

I don’t have a lot to say about this level, except that it has some damned strange looking enemies in it, and the complete lack of sound gives me an uncomfortable feeling. Not to mention the statues.

silence4

Here I am going through the end of the level. Lots of those ugly multi-face head things are floating around.

And that’s the last of the Gelid levels. Well, almost. Still have get through “SIN”.

Before I dive in there, I’m trying to figure out what this might be. The name is very vague, but suggests that this will be something unpleasant. The level icon doesn’t give me any hints.

..Yeah I don’t know. Here goes nothing –

lethar1

It’s a boss fight! I should have known. As soon as I heard the music I could tell this would be a boss.

lethar2

Got up close and heat beamed, but he kicked me. It didn’t do much damage, but I’ve only got 4 bars left so I can’t take too many hits.

lethar3

I try to run up and hit hit and get smacked aside, if I’m too far away he starts using a freeze beam out of his eye. The only way to beat him is to keep moving constantly.

lethar4
The “hyperactive squirrel” method of battle proved to be a winner. Lethar eventually grabbed Godzilla, and that’s when he got a heat beam to the face.

lethar5

After Lethar died, an image of a gate appeared on the screen. It had 7 holes, one had Lethar’s icon in it and the other 6 were empty…

thegate

After pressing Start I’m sent back to the Title screen. Turning the game off for now.

Well, that was….insane. While playing the game I got so wrapped up in it that I sorta forgot that none of this should have been happening.

The game does seem to follow specific themes, with everything in Gelid being cold and blue, but for the most part… agh. I feel like there’s a traffic jam going on in my brain. I need to take a break.

The connection between the tv and computer is all set and ready to take screenshots.  I guess I’m ready to begin too. Here goes nothing…

79185042

Okay, the opening screen looks the same. If this is like Zach’s game there won’t be anything noticeable until the first boss fight, but I’m gonna be disappointed if this whole game ends up playing normally.

23837873

Only a few seconds in and already something’s off. I almost didn’t notice, but the “Last Game” option is gone.  I don’t know why, as usually it would have done the same thing as “New Game”.

Oh god, I really hope this doesn’t mean that I can’t save.  I don’t want to have to play this entire game in one sitting.

Maybe the world titles will work as passwords or something. No way to know until I start playing.

21905280

It skipped the Solar System Intro entirely. That’s a shame, I like hearing that music.

46672575

…What the? What is this? This isn’t what the Earth board is supposed to look like. And I don’t have Godzilla or Mothra?

95918043

Holy shit!

Looks like I don’t have to worry about not seeing anything new. Nothing in that above screenshot was in the original game, besides the life meter. I don’t think any of it was in Zachary’s playthrough either. The only other thing that seems to have remained the same is the music.

My lone playable character is this dinosaur. Since the meter refers to it as GODZILLA, I assume this is him prior to getting mutated.  So no heat beam (yet). It can only attack by punching and biting.

37611798

There isn’t much in this jungle aside from other dinosaurs. The pterodactyls divebomb me when I get close, most of the others either attack or run away. Sometimes when I kill one of these I get a health power-up, (which looks the same as the original).  It’s a short level, I got to the end in less than 2 minutes. I’ll try the blue and yellow icon next.

26622552

This level is a beach, as you can see. Those little crabs are a pain, they jump and latch on while draining health. But they don’t take much punishment and give health when they die, so it balances out. Only problem is that they’re everywhere in this level. I try to jump over them when I can.

49704648

In the second half of the level, there’s less of the crabs and more of these aquatic dinosaur/fish enemies that emerge from pits. I’ve played quite a few platformers in my day, so this is nothing difficult. It isn’t scary either, but it’s giving me a weird feeling. It’s hard to explain. It’s like if I hadn’t tried out the real game before, I might not have known anything was out of place.

For a “supernatural game”, so far it’s just playing like a normal game. But not the game that it should be. None of these dinosaurs or levels are supposed to be here, and I have no idea where they came from.

33972213

This 3rd level is very glitched. No enemies at all, and my Godzilla dinosaur is flashing and his body parts are rearranging themselves with every step. The music is similarly distorted, it’s slowed down and has a lower pitch.

97231370

I was going through the level, trying to figure what went wrong with it, when I suddenly got attacked by a very glitched Ghidorah! I almost freaked out because there was no way I would win a fight against Ghidorah like this. But then the game froze and made a loud buzzing sound, then it returned to the board like nothing happened. Weird.

64291168

The last level type is another jungle. It has the same graphics, but this time its set at night. The dinosaurs here are different, and a lot more aggressive. They come from the left and the right sides of the screen, so I have to pay attention to both.

I’m attacking the small dinosaurs for the power-up and avoiding the rest, because I’m fairly certain the triceratops at the end of the board is a boss fight. I don’t know what to expect from it, but I don’t want to be low on health.

35214633

The level is longer than the others, and I notice a strange kind of teamwork occurring with the enemies. The blue raptors will follow my dinosaur around and keep jumping at him, knocking me back into the path of the larger dinosaurs.

There’s another large dinosaur of the same color that does a similar thing, charging at me and inflicting damage until I either get away or kill them. It’s like these dinosaurs hate me for some reason!

68925589

Here I am at the boss fight. There’s a nuke going down in the background, and the battle is timed at 1 minute. This must be the decisive hour when the dinosaur becomes Godzilla. I guess this triceratops must be the strongest animal on the island, a rival. Better take him down now, or else a very different King of The Monsters will arise.

He doesn’t have much attack variety, he seems to be limited to charging. I jump when he does it and then assault him with everything I got (which isn’t much).

He went down with only 4 seconds to go. No time to outrun the bomb, but it seems I wasn’t supposed to. A “cutscene” starts to play:

90607855

98013051

When it ends, the game goes back to the Game Select menu. “New Game” has been replaced by “Continue”.

40576659

And that’s World 1. For my first impression…. I’m not sure what to say. I feel a bit overwhelmed. Where did all of this come from? And why?

PROLOGUE

Hello everyone. My name is Carl, and I have just obtained a game with quite a story behind it. Maybe you’ve already heard about Zach and his NES Godzilla cartridge? I wasn’t aware of it until I saw the eBay auction, and it really grabbed my interest.

I skimmed through the recounting of what the game supposedly did. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but something about the whole thing just captivated me, and I decided to buy the game. I thought if nothing else, I’d get a new game and a nice conversation piece. I used Buy-it-now and got it for a decent price, $10 including shipping.

Zach sent me an e-mail and we talked for a bit. He seems like a decent guy despite being a bit loopy and dramatic. He made it clear that he was dead serious about the game being unnatural and dangerous. I still wasn’t entirely convinced, but I played along.

About myself and the game: I actually never played NES Godzilla, at least not with the actual cartridge. After I won the bid I played the game on an emulator a bit to see what it was like, and also so I could point out noticeable differences (if there were any) later on. The first 2 worlds were decent fun, but it got boring pretty quick.

I’m not a Godzilla expert. I liked watching the movies when I was a little kid, but that was a long time ago. I hardly remember any of the monsters except for the really famous ones like Rodan and Mothra. So if the game starts throwing a bunch of obscure Godzilla related stuff at me, I might not catch it.

And here is the game cartridge itself:

4c06706c61dad112420n

There’s nothing visibly wrong with it, no weird marks or anything that would make it stand out. If it got misplaced and sorted in with some regular games, you’d never know the difference.

I haven’t actually started playing the game yet. I’m still in the process of hooking up the tv to the computer so I can take screencaps in the event that things get interesting. For now, here’s a photo I took of the title screen starting up:

titlephoto