WIP: Super Smash Bros Brawl – Episode 1

Episode 1 – Another Peaceful Day, Or Is It?

It was another peaceful day in Toadtown. Toads were busy doing what they always do. But, at the castle, Princess Peach was worried. That’s why she sent for Mario and Luigi. “Thank you for coming,” she said as they walked down the hall, “I hate to bother you, but the fact that Bowser hasn’t attacked in a while has me worried. I fear something terrible is going to happen.”

“No problem, Princess. And you shouldn’t worry, if something bad happens, Mario and I will protect you,” Luigi said he seemed pretty confident. Mario nodded his head in agreement.

“Thank you, Mario, Luigi, that means a lot to me.”

Mario moved his hand like he was swatting at a flying insect. “Don’t’a mention it.” Just then they heard a loud sound, causing them all to turn to the window.

“That sounded like an explosion,” Luigi exclaimed.

“Let’s’a go see what caused it,” Mario said even though he had a good idea what the cause was. The two brothers dashed out the door.

“Be careful,” Peach whispered after them.

============================================================================

The two arrived at a devastated town square. “What’s’a going on here,” Mario asked a Toad that was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

He stopped running and looked over towards Mario and Luigi. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here! Bowser attacked just a minute ago. You must protect Princess Peach. I’m sure that she’s who he’s after,” He told them before he went back to freaking out.

“PRINCESS,” The Mario brothers exclaimed as they ran back to the castle.

When they arrived Toadsworth was already freaking out. “THE PRINCESS, HE KIDNAPPED THE PRINCESS! OH, WHY DID I LEAVE HER ALONE FOR 10 SECONDS?” Mario was just asking himself the same question, minus the 10 second part.

Mario and Luigi rushed to the hallway where they last saw Princess Peach, and looked around to see if their foe had left any clues as to where he had taken the princess. The window was broken, but that was about it. The floor wasn’t cracked, there were no burn or claw marks on the wall, there wasn’t even one or two Goombas waiting for them, just a broken window. This was so unlike Bowser.

“It’s surprisingly clean in here, considering Bowser just attacked,” Luigi commented as he looked around.

Mario walked over to inspect the window. What if Bowser wasn’t the one who did this? What if we have a new enemy? If that is the case we will have to be on our guard.

Sudden movement outside the window caught Mario’s attention. “I think I might have just spotted the culprit. Luigi, let’s’a go,” Mario said as he jumped out the window and started to chase the figure. Whoever they were chasing was fast. Even though Mario had started running as soon as he hit the ground, he had already lost sight of the person, or Koopa, or Toad, or whatever they were chasing.

Eventually the two brothers came across a cave. It was large and menacing on the outside. And dark and creepy looking on the inside. “D-do you th-think he went in th-th-there,” Luigi asked while shaking nervously.

“It looks like the kinda place Bowser would hide. But there’s only one way to find’a out,” Mario replied calmly.

“I was afraid y-you’d say th-that,” Luigi said as he followed Mario inside.

Once inside they found that there was a lot of lava in the cave, another trademark of Bowser. The glow from the lava caused the walls to have a reddish tint to them, and the heat was almost smothering. There was a single straight walkway going across the room, with a door at the end opposite of where Mario and Luigi were standing.

“We should be careful, Bowser must have some preety good traps’a here for there to not be any Goombas or Koopas around. And the door isn’t locked so he’s probably preety confident that no ones’a gonna get in,” Mario stated as they cautiously started walking to the door.

“Or maybe he just got lonely, and wanted some company, so he made sure it was easy to get to his room,” Luigi said hopefully. Mario turned to face Luigi with an “Are You Serious?” face. “It could happen,” Luigi said as he shrugged.

The two reached the door without setting off any traps. Mario cautiously pushed open the door. The room inside the door was huge, circular, and empty.

“Well, what have we here? Nice to see you two showed up.” That wasn’t Bowser’s voice. A figure then dropped from the ceiling, the same figure Mario had seen through the window. It was tall, slender, and. . .Furry. Now that Mario had a better look at it, he realized it wasn’t a person at all, it appeared to be a large anthropomorphic wolf. It raised itself up slowly and
menacingly. “We’ve been expecting you, and personally, I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show up, or if you had chickened out,” It got a terrifying smirk as it said that last part. If it was trying to be creepy, it was doing a VERY good job at it. It turned to the Parakoopa that had followed it down from the roof. “Tell the king, ‘The peasants have arrived’.” The winged Koopa gave a salute and flew off.

“Who are you, and where have you taken Princess Peach,” Mario asked trying to ignore
Luigi’s whimpering. It didn’t seem to hear him, in fact it didn’t even really seem to acknowledge that they were still in the room. “Well, ANSWER ME,” Mario demanded slightly angered by the creature’s behavior.

It chuckled. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” It had turned its head and was looking at the brothers over its shoulder. Suddenly there was a loud crash as the roof caved in, and
in dropped Bowser. The wolf then leaped into the air and grabbed on to a rope ladder that was attached to a helicopter. “See you later, heroes,” It said mockingly as the helicopter ascended and flew away. That left Mario and Luigi with Bowser.

“So glad you could stop by, I was looking forward to stomping you like the bugs you are,” Bowser said tauntingly. Considering all the times Bowser’s plans had failed, Mario found that statement to be very false.

“Where have you’a taken the princess,” Mario asked knowing that Bowser was so talkative and boastful that he would probably answer.

“I’ve taken her to my new hideout, not that that information concerns you seeing as this will be the last day you ever live,” Bowser stated. Mario was right, he would give them an answer, and seeing as this was Bowser’s hideout, that meant that Princess Peach must be in the cave somewhere.

“Let’a her go,” Mario demanded.

“Who’s gonna make me?”

“I am.”

“A-and I am too,” Luigi spoke up starting to not tremble as much.

Bowser just simply laughed. “Very well then. I’d like to see you try,” He said. They got into their battle poses.

“Let’s’a go,” Mario shouted to Luigi as they charged toward Bowser. Bowser leaped into the air with surprising speed, and counter attacked with a fire-ball while still in the air. Mario and Luigi easily dodged, and leaped into the air. Luigi grabbed Mario, spinned, and hurled Mario higher into the air. Mario kicked Bowser with his most powerful kick that he would use when playing soccer with his friends. This sent Bowser into the wall, then crashing to the floor. But he didn’t seem to have felt the attack at all, and got back up with no problem at all.

“Is that all you got?” Bowser asked, acting disappointed, “My turn.” He then charged at them, and swiped with his claws. The attack sent the brothers flying through a door at the other side of the room, and into another room similar to the one they where just in, except the roof was up way higher and there where ramps on both sides of the room that wound up and around the room to the roof.

Mario and Luigi started running up one of the ramps, while Bowser entered the room. When Bowser saw that they were running up a ramp, he shot a fireball in their direction. But he missed, and hit the wall instead, causing rocks to fall and block him from going up the same ramp. So instead he went up the other ramp, firing more fireballs at Mario and Luigi as he went. And Mario and Luigi dodging every single fireball as they continued to run up the ramp that they were on. Suddenly Mario turned and leaped into the air. With some movement of his hands, he launched twin fireballs at Bowser. They spun as they went, creating a sort of vortex between them. The fireballs hit their target, and pushed Bowser against the wall. Mario had hoped to land on the ramp but it was too far away for Mario to reach. When Mario realized this he started to flail his arms trying to reach the edge of the
ramp, but his efforts were in vain, and he began to fall.

“MARRRRRRIIIOOOOOO,” Luigi yelled as his brother fell.

Mario thought for sure he was done for, when suddenly something caught him. He looked to see what it was. It was a green lizard with a white underbelly and a red back and a pair of white wings. “Yoshi,” Mario exclaimed joyfully, “Boy, am I’a glad to see you’a.”

“Yo, Yo,” Yoshi responded happily as he carried Mario back up to the level where Luigi and Bowser were. Mario waved to Luigi as they flew up. Luigi was having a little party over at the ramp he was on, he clearly thought he would have to face Bowser on his own, and was relieved when he saw Mario was okay.

“Yoshi, do’a you think you’a could’a help us defeat Bowser,” Mario asked. Yoshi nodded his head and made his signature record-scratching sound. He then turned in mid-air and started firing fireballs at Bowser while circling him in the air. He continued firing until he couldn’t see Bowser through the smoke left by his fireballs after they hit. Then he landed on the platform Luigi was on, and lost his wings as he landed.

“Alright, now you’ve made me mad,” Bowser said angrily. Everyone turned toward where Bowser was standing. As the smoke cleared they could see him standing with an angry look on his face. “You dare think you could defeat me, Bowser, the King of Koopas, with a few puny FIREBALLS? You will pay for your insolence,” Bowser said clearly enraged. He then started to grow larger, his shell turned blue and got spikier, his horns, teeth, and claws also got longer and sharper, the scales on his face turned blue, and his eyes looked wild and furious. Bowser had gone giga.

A puff of smoke escaped from his mouth as he growled, he was definitely more powerful now. Bowser roared and as he did the sound of turning gears could be heard and the ramps
turned into a platform that made a perfect battle arena. Mario knew they couldn’t defeat Bowser the way he was now, but they didn’t need to. Bowser couldn’t hold his giga form for long, so all they needed to do was keep dodging his attacks and wait for him to get tired.

The monster rushed forward and swiped with his claws, the three friends dodged and took off in separate directions. Yoshi ran to the side of the room opposite to where Bowser was, and stuck out his long tongue while pulling down his right eyelid with his finger. Bowser roared loudly and charged at Yoshi. Yoshi tried to jump over him, but Bowser had grabbed his tail and threw him back down to the floor. Yoshi gave a yelp of surprise.

“Yoshi!” Mario and Luigi yelled as they charged at Bowser. They jumped and gave Bowser a hard kick on both sides, but it didn’t seem to hurt him.

Then, all of a sudden, they heard an angry yell coming from the other side of the wall. The wall crashed down as a man in purple overalls and a yellow hat and shirt burst into the room.

“WHERE’S MY GAAAARRRRRLLLLIIIIICCCC?!” he shouted. It was Wario.

His entrance was just what Mario and Luigi needed to turn the battle around. It had distracted Bowser long enough for him to run out of energy, causing him to turn back to normal.

“WHAT?” Bowser exclaimed, “This can’t be! Oh, well. I don’t need my Giga power to stomp you insects”. He seemed pretty confident. Too bad he was so busy boasting that he didn’t see Wario leaping towards him ready to punch.

“I’LL SHOW YOU WHOSE AN INSECT!” Wario yelled as he hit Bowser right in the face. Bowser flew through the wall opposite of where Wario entered, and fell. Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi ran to the hole in the wall to see if Bowser survived. When Bowser suddenly hovered to the window, thanks to Kamek.

“You got lucky this time,” Bowser growled. “But I’ll be back, and next time you won’t be so lucky. Soon, I will be treated like a king! And not just in this world. Bwah-ha-ha!”

Suddenly, a huge hole opened in the sky with a bunch of different places mixed together in it. Bowser and Kamek quickly flew into it.

“What do you’a mean?” Mario yelled. But it was too late-the hole had already vanished, and with it, so had Kamek and Bowser. Mario turned around and thanked Wario for his help, but Wario was too busy looking for his garlic to notice. Mario sighed and turned back to the hole in the wall.

“So, now what’a do we do?” Luigi asked his brother.

“I’a guess we should’a go to Yoshi’s Island and ask’a Professor Elvin E. Gadd for help’a.” Mario replied.

“I’m’a coming too, Bowser’s’a going to pay for stealing my garlic’a,” Wario said, to the surprise of Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi.

Mario nodded, and stared off into the distance. We’a have to be ready for anything. He thought.

~Later at Yoshi’s Island~

“Why’a do you’a think the Professor came to Yoshi’s Island’a?” Luigi asked as they walked to the Yoshi’s Village. Yoshi turned around and started waving his arms up and down, and desperately tried to tell them something.

“What’s’a wrong with the overgrown gecko?” Wario rudely asked.

“He’s a Yoshi!”, Mario stated, then he turned to Yoshi, “What is wrong?”

Just then the group was interrupted by a familiar voice, “Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and…Wario? What are you doing here?” the voice asked, sounding confused. It was Professor E. Gadd.

“We’re’a looking for you’a.” Mario said. He then proceeded to tell the Professor everything that had happened.

“Hmm. It sounds like Bowser has taken the Princess to another world,” the Professor said when Mario had finished.

“Another world?” Luigi said, seeming totally lost.

“Yes, another world. There are many other worlds besides this one. And each contain different creatures, lifestyles, and people. So, it stands to reason that Bowser has found a way to travel to these worlds and has teamed up with other villains from these worlds. If this is true, you may have to find heroes from other worlds to help you stop them. But first, you will need a way to travel to these worlds.”

“Can you’a figure out a way we can do that Professor?” Mario asked.

“Well, I have an invention that should do the trick, with a few modifications. It will be entirely experimental, of course, but I wouldn’t worry about that.” The professor replied. Luigi shivered has he remembered the last time he had been the guinea pig for one of the Professor’s inventions, it was not fun.

————————————————————————————————————————–

This isn’t the end of the first episode, but it is as much as I’ve wrote so far. I started writing this long before I even thought of writing Trainer Strawberry, so my writing skills in this probably aren’t as good as they are now (they really aren’t that good now, but I feel pretty confident they’re an improvement compared to what they used to be). So, what do you awesome readers think? Is it worth finishing? I should probably mention, though, that even if it is finished, it will probably be awhile before it is posted because I am working on Trainer Strawberry right now. Speaking of Trainer Strawberry, I posted this as an apology for not posting a chapter of Trainer Strawberry last week like I had planned on doing. I’m really sorry about that. I got busy. 

Super Mario RPG – Legend of the Seven Stars: Part 4

It’s been a couple of weeks since I made a video game journal. I honestly forgot what I was even doing in Super Mario RPG. The first area I went to was this strange, one section plain. The only thing in this area was a single warp pipe. Upon entering the pipe, I found an area that had lava everywhere. I tried to jump across the area, but it was too far. So, I left the area, and moved on to the next one.

The next place I went to was a town called Moleville (I hope I spelled that right), and the inhabitants were (that’s right, you guessed it) Moles. Not long after I entered the town, I was told that a star had fallen into the mine, trapping a father and his children inside. After talking to everyone I could, I headed to the mine, which was conveniently at the edge of town.

On the way, I heard an extremely strange noise. To be honest, it nearly made me jump out of my seat, I thought it was a monster coming to get me and drag me away to its lair, where it would eat me. But it was just Bowser. He and what few minions he had left were regrouping. As Bowser is trying to reassure his troops, he mentions that if Mario found out he was kicked out of his own castle, his reputation would be shot. Well, it’s a little too late to worry about that, Bowser.

After Bowser and his troops left, I continued on to the mine. Once inside, I found out that the Moles couldn’t dig their way into the mine, and that Mario would have to jump off of their shoulders to reach the other entrance into the mine that was above the rubble (convenient entrance is convenient). After jumping off their shoulders, I was in the mine. And there was moving rocks, and living fireballs, and it. Was. Scary.

After I went through a few areas in the mine (and ran in fear for my life from the living fireballs), I came to a three-way crossroad. One of the ways that could be taken was a spring, and being the type of person I am, I tried it first. Which turned out to be what I was supposed to do. Upon trying the spring, Mario hits his head on the ceiling and passes out, leaving him vulnerable to the thieves that come along and steal all of his coins. But at least, in their haste to escape, they cleared the blocked paths in the mine with the bombs they brought along. That’s good, right? While I was chasing them, Geno leveled up, and I realized that he is two levels lower than Mario and Mallow.

 

Eventually, I caught the thieves and fought them until they gave me back my money. After that, I went deeper into the mine and found the father who had gotten trapped down here. He then tells Mario that his kids are deeper in the mine (of course), and asks if Mario can save them for him. Mario agrees to help (like all heroes do), and deeper into the mines they go. While I was trying to find the kids, everyone leveled up. I also had to cross a bridge with four Bob-ombs marching across it, which I found pretty intimidating.

Next came the boss fight. In my opinion, this was the easiest boss fight so far. I mean, yeah, the HUGE Bob-ombs that he had were definitely startling, but he still wasn’t hard to defeat. In an attempt to keep himself from losing, Punchinello brings out the biggest Bob-omb in history. Which, despite Mario and co’s best efforts, exploded. But, at least, the explosion knocked the Star Piece loose, allowing us to claim our third Star Piece. Four more to go!

After defeating the boss, I went even deeper into the mine and found the kids I was looking for. The next step was getting them out of the mine in one piece, and the only way to do that was to ride a mine cart out of the mine. My game glitched while I was riding it and the camera angle was fixed like it is in Donkey Kong Country. The track went up and down like a wave. But, as I was riding here, the track straightened itself out, but Mario and the cart kept going up and down like they were still on the hills! Anyway, after reaching the end of the track (and crashing through the Mole family I was helping’s roof) I stepped outside to find three Snifits trying to catch a beetle. They said they were catching it for Boomer. I’m pretty sure I’ve run into Boomer before (or at least heard of him), but I don’t remember for sure. That’s what happens when I stop playing a game for a while.

Well, that’s all I played today. Hopefully, I’ll have a new chapter of Trainer Strawberry up this week. Then I should stay on track for a while.

Later.

A New Game! Super Mario RPG – Legend of the Seven Stars: Part 1

This post is one day early, but I don’t think anyone will mind. Anyway, I asked if anyone had any requests for games they wanted me to play, and Stina of JaNanamation requested that I play either The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker or Super Mario RPG – Legend of the Seven Stars. I decided to play Super Mario RPG, so here is the first installment of my video game journal of Super Mario RPG.

So, this game starts off like any other Mario game, everything is peaceful and happy. Suddenly, Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach (or Toadstool, as she’s called in this game)! My, what a big surprise! Never would’ve seen that coming.

Anyway, Mario chases after Bowser, and ends up right outside his castle. When Mario arrives the doors are closed, but as he gets closer, they open automatically for him. Wait, what? Okay, I’m going to call it. It’s a trap!

For the entire first three rooms (and a while after that) the battle system in this game was totally confusing to me. I’m not sure why, I mean it’s almost exactly like the one in Paper Mario. But during these first three rooms, I was constantly thinking “Okay, what am I supposed to do?”. I think I have it figured out know, so hopefully my confusion won’t be repeated.

Once you get to the third room, you will find Peach hanging from the ceiling. The camera will slide upwards, and you will see Bowser hanging out on one of the chandeliers. Mario will then do an impossible feat, and jump right onto the other chandelier. Once he’s up there, the fight against Bowser begins! I honestly thought that this battle would go exactly like it did in Paper Mario, with Bowser showing that he’s way too tough for you right now. But that wasn’t the case. After hitting Bowser a few times, Peach will tell you to attack the chain. After hitting the chain, it will let go of the chandelier Bowser is on. But before he falls, he attacks the chain holding the chandelier Mario is standing on. This was kinda weird, though, because from how fast the chandeliers were falling, and how much of a drop it appeared to be, you would think Mario and Bowser were fighting at the same height as a skyscraper.

Mario manages to jump back up to where Peach is, and I thought I was done. I was wrong. I don’t remember what it was that knocked Mario out of the castle, but something did. And seven stars started shooting all across the sky before a giant sword stabbed the castle. After being sent flying out of the castle, Mario conveniently lands in his house by falling through his chimney (which looks like a warp pipe by the way). A Toad happens to be waiting for Mario when he crashes into his house. When the Toad walks in to see what is happening, he gives one of the best witty remarks I’ve ever read, “Hey, Mario. Lots of people use something called a ‘door’ to go in and out of their houses…”. I’ve heard/read that remark before, but somehow, when the Toad used it, it seemed ten times funnier.

Once you walk outside, you are able to go back to Bowser’s castle. At this point I’m thinking “There’s no way it’s this easy”, and I was right. When you go to Bowser’s castle this time the doors do not open, and instead the giant sword that stabbed the castle earlier starts…talking to you? Yep. A talking sword. I bet he’s the bad guy. The sword informs you that the Smithy Gang (I think that’s their name, I knew I should’ve wrote this down as I went) would already be ruling the world if it wasn’t for nosy people like Mario. After that, he destroys the bridge, making the castle completely inaccessible.

This is what Mario’s house looks like.

Since you can’t get to Bowser’s castle, the only thing you can do is go back to Mario’s house. Mario then tells the Toad that he can’t access Bowser’s castle anymore. The Toad immediately panics and tells Mario that they need to inform the Mushroom Kingdom Chancellor ASAP. You then have the option of viewing a tutorial of how to use items from the start menu, and how to perform timed attacks. Unfortunately, my game kept freezing every time I tried to view the menu tutorial, and I didn’t even try to view the timed attacks one. I’m not sure if it was the tutorial itself, or if it was the menu screen, but something was causing my game to freeze, and I’m assuming it was the tutorial. Needless to say, I’ve skipped every tutorial since then, but I get this feeling that it’s going to cause me trouble later. Anyway, the Toad then takes off to go to Toad Town. Unfortunately, the path is overrun with Goombas, and it doesn’t take long for the Toad to get captured. I should probably mention that I actually died to a Sky Troopa here. Yeah. Not one of my best moments. Anyway, after you save the Toad, he gives you some Honey Syrup, an item that restores ten HP.

 

In the next area, the Toad is once again captured, but this time by a Sky Troopa. Upon saving him, he will reward you with a Flower Tab, and I have no idea what that does. I probably should’ve checked. It might have come in handy. You know, I think this Toad needs a name, don’t you? How’s about…Bob. Yeah, I think that’s a good name. After Bob gives you the Flower Tab, he rushes onward…

 

…Only to get captured once again. This time by a Hammer Bro. After the Hammer Bro tells you not to come any closer because “My hammer and I don’t like you” Bob warns you that this is one tough cookie. And he was right! Or at least, I thought he was tough. I actually died from this guy-twice! I leveled up on my way back to him, though, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

I think I’ve found Bob’s problem.

After finally defeating the Hammer Bro, you get his hammer. Finally! A weapon! Now Mario doesn’t have to punch the enemies! Speaking of which, does anyone know if Mario takes damage from jumping on spiked enemies? I know he does in other games, but from what I’ve seen so far, spikes don’t seem to have too much bearing in a battle in this game.

After you get the hammer, you finally reach Toad Town. Now, I don’t know if any of you awesome readers do this, but when I get to a new town (and sometimes when I revisit a town), I talk to everyone I can. While doing so, I entered the Toad Town Inn, and in the back corner was the gem of a Toad that I put a screenshot of above. All I could see was Mario walking up to the Toad and saying “Hi’a, Buddy! How’s it’a going?”, and the Toad giving his response. I’m not sure what he’s doing, but he definitely isn’t happy about it. I personally think he’s either washing or drying dishes. What do you think he’s doing?

After talking to everyone in Toad Town, I entered the castle. Once I explored all around it, I walked straight back to where the Chancellor is. I’d just like to mention that, ever since Star Wars, I do not trust Chancellors. So, I’m going to be watching my back whenever this guys around. Upon arriving, Bob joins the line of castle guards, which I guess means Bob himself is a castle guard. I believe I have found the root of the Mushroom Kingdoms problem, and the reason Bowser is able to kidnap Peach so often. It is also during this section that I found out that Mario is the best storyteller. Ever. He would also be great at charades. Anyway, after asking where the Princess is, and finding out that she has been kidnapped once again, the Chancellor gives you a map. I’m not sure if this is the overworld map, or if it’s some sort of town map. Do any of you awesome readers know which it is?

Upon leaving the castle, a creature that appears to be a cloud calls for help. He has just been robbed by some sort of Reptile (one of the Toads in town says it’s a Crocodile, but I think it looks like a Raptor). When the cloud is unable to catch the thief, he begins to cry, causing it to begin raining cats and dogs. After Mario agrees to help him, the cloud reveals that he is actually a…frog? I’m not sure what to say to this. Anyway, the frog, whose name is Mallow, then joins your team in order to catch the thief. As you near the edge of the town, you will see a Toad bouncing up and down. He tells you that he just saw the thief run out of town, and points you in the direction that he went. When Mallow asks the Toad why he didn’t stop the thief, the Toad gives the best answer I’ve ever read a Toad give, “Because I left my bazooka at home! Sheesh… Give me a break, here.”

When you find the thief, he will run to the next area, but not before teasing you and saying that there’s no way you’ll ever catch him. And as of right now, I still haven’t caught him. Although both Mario and Mallow have leveled up during the chase, and Mario learned Fire Orb, which is something that I have no idea how to use. Seriously, how do you use it? Anyway, hopefully I’ll catch that thief in the next part of Super Mario RPG.

Later.