#3: Super Smash Bros. Melee

Alright, I love the Super Smash Bros. Series, and own and have played the first three iterations (not owning a Wii-U or 3DS keeps me from playing the other one(s)), and I have fully completed in everything in two of them. I have unlocked everything in the original Super Smash Bros., and after years of attempting, I eventually unlocked,completed, AND gathered every trophy, disc, virtual demo, and sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's become a real bother, however for me to complete Melee, and I am SO close. Years ago I unlocked every stage, character, and even the Score Display. In fact, I even gathered every trophy that you can get in the Lottery and most every challenge based trophy too. However, I had looked over and measured up my trophies by comparing them to a complete list earlier this week, and I was only missing three trophies: Diskun, Mew, Giga Bowser, Tom Nook, and Crazy Hand. In order to get Diskun, I looked up a list of bonuses, and finished all of the ones I didn't have, which simultaneously allowed me to obtain the Giga Bowser trophy, which requires you complete Adventure mode on Normal or higher in less than 18 minutes, and then beat Giga Bowser without using a continue. Mew wasn't too hard either, I just had to beat All-Star on Hard or Very Hard, however I was allowed to used a continue in that mode, and I did with the coins I had accumulated 4 or 5 times(40-50 coins). This leaves Tom Nook and Crazy Hand, and the undertaking is way more difficult than I anticipated. Tom Nook requires you to obtain 1001 coins total since you first started playing the game. Sounds easy, since I've had the game since around 2004, however, I get fed up grinding for it because my coin count is no actual indicator of how many coins I have left to go, having used most of them in the lottery early on, obviously. And Crazy Hand, whew, I literally just put the controller down in frustration before typing this out (slamming isn't good for them). This trophy requires beating Adventure Mode on Hard or Very Hard, similar to the Mew trophy, but you CAN'T use a continue. I've actually made it close to the end but lost to the final Bowser fight two times. One time, though, I actually beat Bowser and threw up my hands in excitement, screaming "YES!" and frightening my roommate playing Dark Souls 3 next to me. To my dismay, I apparently completed Adventure (on HARD, mind you) in the correct amount of time to trigger Giga Bowser showing up. I only had 1 life left and wasn't able to survive his onslaught. Basically, in an attempt to remedy this. I have been playing through it still, yet whenever I get to the end of a progressive level, like the first bits of Hyrule and Mushroom Kingdom, right before I end it, I run out the timer just to try and avoid Giga Bowser if I get to the end (this is known as the coward's way out). This keeps me from wanting to go back and play it though, since these levels have a 7 minute clock and I usually get right to the end a minute in. It's really discouraging to run out a 7 minute clock right at the beginning of the game and immediately lose 2 lives to some well timed item placement when versing Mario and Peach. I'm starting to get discouraged, as I was with Super Meat Boy, but at least I keep going back to SMB every now and then, even if only for an hour playtime. It makes me feel like I'm not completely throwing everything out the window. Hopefully I can get these last two trophies before I leave for Thanksgiving Break. Not for any particular reason, just so I can have ease of mind.

P.S. In response to my last blog, I played Kingdom Hearts again in an attempt to finish those trophies, played for 20 minutes, realized yet again how much I despise the damned Gummi Ship, and put it down again. Instead I started to play InFamous, a game I had never played before. Maybe I'll talk about that one next.