Welcome to bonus stage
Take note of the “100 X COINS” line in the above screenshot. Interestingly, your bonus score is calculated with a multiplier that reflects the number of credits deposited during the on-going game.
Best forex bonuses
Welcome to bonus stage! #2 gauntlet (arc)
Developer: atari
publisher: atari
year: 1985
players: 1-4
also on: tons of consoles and computers
If you were gaming during the ’80s and have never come into contact with gauntlet, you’ve definitely missed out. Before konami blessed us with their excellent teenage mutant ninja/hero turtles coin-up and followed it up in identikit licence fashion with the simpsons, gauntlet was the greatest 4-player party in town. Turned loose in a mysterious dungeon master’s maze, up to four players were tasked with progressing as far as possible into the endless, monster infested labyrinth, lightening your host’s treasure horde as you went.
It’s easy to reach the treasure rooms as they appear automatically after approximately 10-12 levels (it varies for a reason I can’t quite work out but may be score linked like many of the hidden variables) and then every five levels after that. Spooky disembodied voice man will inform you in his southern accent that you’ve found his secret “traysure”. This is your opportunity to get one over on your clandestine patriarch by snaffling as many treasure chests as you can before making a dash for the exit. No enemies are found here, only a relatively small maze, the occasional upgrade potion and lots of cash money. The usual special caveats found in other levels can also apply here, the most riotous in multiplayer mode being that players are susceptible to being stunned by shots. Anyone who’s ever played gauntlet knows that this is the funniest thing in the whole world (read: leads to shouting, swearing, pushing and possibly even storming out) especially when you shoot someone else before ducking into the exit and they fail to make it.
Warrior has 19 seconds to get in, grab everything and get out.
Like a man doing clothes shopping.
Should any players fail to reach the exit, they’ll greeted with this rather drab screen advising that their efforts are rewarded with bugger all. On the whole, it doesn’t matter, as you don’t lose a life or anything except the minimal health expended in the short time limit, but it is a minor disappointment if you see the exit and don’t reach it in time. The alternative, well-worn path is to find the exit early on and go off grabbing treasure before diving into the exit with less than a second left. This is particularly tempting given that there’s no bonus given for time remaining and you can feel quite foolish if you get too greedy and the timer depletes while you’re still filling your pockets.
Straight from the school of stating the bleeding obvious.
Successfully locate and enter the exit and, once everyone playing has either jumped in or run out of time, we are still greeted with an exceedingly dull screen, but this time there’s a points reward attached! And we all know that points mean prizes. Or at least an opportunity to enter your initials when you inevitably become a small pile of bones and keys.
That really should say ‘traysures’.
Take note of the “100 X COINS” line in the above screenshot. Interestingly, your bonus score is calculated with a multiplier that reflects the number of credits deposited during the on-going game. In modern, DLC-centric gaming, particularly on mobile phones, there’s a tendency to allow the player to purchase features and upgrades for a small fee instead of earning them through good or repeated play. While this otherwise results in a health boost in gauntlet, allowing for longer survival without an explicit continue screen appearing, is this the earliest example of gaining a points bonus in return for paying more?
There are a couple of examples of gauntlet’s treasure rooms below, the second featuring one of the upgrade potions which occasionally appear.
Multiple paths to the exit in this relatively simple maze.
This is a nasty little wraparound map that can easily confuse in the short time allotted.
Is the treasure room worth your time to explore and grab treasure? In a way, not really, as the main event in gauntlet is to progress as far as possible. However, given that the game never ends, so progress is ultimately fruitless, the only real bragging rights to be had are getting your name onto the top of the high score table. The treasure room helps greatly in this, especially if you’ve been credit feeding for extra health and a multiplier, but is that an achievement over someone who survives for longer on less initial energy? Is gauntlet existential commentary in video game form? Anyway, it’s generally an enjoyable and memorable bonus stage, especially with multiple players, but it’s a shame that the maps are quite small and the time limit so tight.
Bonus room
A bonus room [1] [2] (also known as a bonus area [3] [4] [5] , bonus level [6] [7] , bonus stage [8] [9] [10] , or bonus game [11] ) is a hidden area in the donkey kong franchise games; particularly the donkey kong country and donkey kong land games.
Bonus rooms are usually revealed by finding either a secret passage or by jumping into a bonus barrel. They usually have a challenge that the kongs must accomplish to earn a prize needed for 100% completion. In donkey kong country games developed by rare, after the player has uncovered all the bonus rooms of a given level, an exclamation point is added after its title; in the donkey kong land series, an exclamation point is still marked but is not appended to the end of the level title.
Contents
- 1 history
- 1.1 donkey kong country
- 1.2 donkey kong land
- 1.3 donkey kong country 2: diddy's kong quest / donkey kong land 2
- 1.4 donkey kong country 3: dixie kong's double trouble! / donkey kong land III
- 1.5 donkey kong 64
- 1.6 donkey kong country returns / 3D
- 1.7 donkey kong country: tropical freeze
- 2 names in other languages
- 3 references
History [ edit ]
Donkey kong country [ edit ]
Bonus levels first appear in donkey kong country. Here, they are entered by either breaking open certain walls with barrels or animal friends to reveal secret passages, or by jumping into certain blast barrels (changed to bonus barrels in the game boy advance port). In oil drum alley, there is a bonus level entrance hidden within another bonus level, which can be entered by using a barrel to smash open its entrance. These rooms can only be entered once (except in the game boy advance port).
Bonus levels appear in every level except for the underwater stages and mine cart carnage. There are usually two or three bonus levels in a level, although five of them appear in orang-utan gang, which has the most bonus levels out of every level.
Unlike in subsequent appearances, the main idea of bonus levels is to obtain common items, such as bananas, animal tokens, or even a life balloon. The kongs do not have to complete a challenge or collect the items within to add to their completion percentage—this occurs by simply entering the bonus level itself. There are 67 bonus levels in the game.
In the game boy color port, candy kong hosts a challenge in each world. The challenges are very similar to bonus levels, except for an award at the end (a banana bunch coin); the challenges even have the same theme as a bonus level.
There are several types of bonus levels. In the game boy advance version, each type received its own distinct title and splash screen:
| Image and type (GBA) | level appearances | description |
|---|---|---|
| bash the baddies! | (B) vulture culture temple tempest (B) torchlight trouble (B) trick track trek manic mincers | the kongs must jump on a klaptrap, sometimes two or three, for it to release bananas. Each time it is jumped on, the klaptrap moves faster and releases one more banana (always in the shape of banana bunches) than it did the previous time. They must be jumped on about ten times to be defeated, when they release a whole banana bunch. By defeating the klaptrap(s), the kongs are usually rewarded with a life balloon. If a klaptrap bites donkey kong and diddy, they are sent back into the main level. In trick track trek's bonus level, the klaptrap is purple. |
| Collect the bananas! | Reptile rumble (2) (B) bouncy bonanza stop & go station (B) tree top town forest frenzy (B) snow barrel blast (B) slipslide ride (B) ice age alley oil drum alley (B) trick track trek elevator antics (B) mine cart madness | the kongs must collect as many bananas as possible, usually by blasting from a series of barrel cannons and blast barrels. |
| Collect the prizes! | Barrel cannon canyon (B) winky's walkway stop & go station (B) millstone mayhem orang-utan gang (3) (B) blackout basement | the kongs are in a barrel cannon and have to shoot themselves upward to collect various prizes. There always are three vertical lines of individual bananas. Above the bananas are either an animal token, a life balloon, or a banana bunch. |
| Find the exit! | Jungle hijinxs (B) ropey rampage reptile rumble barrel cannon canyon vulture culture temple tempest orang-utan gang (B) snow barrel blast (B) rope bridge rumble (B) oil drum alley elevator antics mine cart madness manic mincers misty mine loopy lights | the kongs must go through the bonus level and reach the exit on the other side. |
| Spell it out! | (B) millstone mayhem (B) vulture culture (B) tree top town orang-utan gang slipslide ride oil drum alley elevator antics (B) necky nutmare (B) platform perils | K-O-N-G letters either spin in a circle or switch around in barrels. In the case of the latter, "KONG" is always the word in the barrels. Each letter spells out a word, and the kongs have to jump at the ones in the right order to win a prize. |
| Stop the barrel! | Jungle hijinxs (B) ropey rampage bouncy bonanza millstone mayhem (B) forest frenzy (B) snow barrel blast slipslide ride (B) ice age alley torchlight trouble (B) rope bridge rumble oil drum alley (B) trick track trek (B) tanked up trouble manic mincers misty mine (B) mine cart madness blackout basement (B) platform perils | an item (banana, banana bunch, animal token, or life balloon) rapidly moves through multiple barrels. Once the item stops moving, the kongs must jump at the consisting barrel to win that prize. Sometimes in this variation, the kongs have to match three barrels depicting the same prize. They have to respectively jump and hit the same object on all of those barrels. |
* levels with a (B) are accessed via a bonus barrel. Levels with a number (e.G. 2) tells how many of that type is in the level.
There is also a specific type of bonus level that features an animal friend, either rambi, expresso, winky, or enguarde. Each animal friend's stage has a unique theme and layout, and some are based on their most common environment. Additionally, just like regular bonus levels, each of the animal buddy ones also received their own splash screen and title in the game boy advance port. The bonus levels revolving around animal friends do not reappear in any of the subsequent donkey kong country or donkey kong land titles.
An animal friend's bonus level can be accessed by collecting three animal tokens of the same animal friend. Upon collecting the third token, the kongs are warped into a bonus level, where they play as the corresponding animal friend. The goal of these bonus levels is for the animal friend to collect as many mini animal tokens within the time limit. A big animal token is also hiding in the location, which doubles the kongs' mini animal token total. When the time runs out, the mini animal tokens are subtracted, and the kongs receive an extra life for every 100 mini animal tokens they have collected (similar to bananas). Additionally, if an animal friend manages to obtain 600 mini animal tokens (400 for enguarde), a photograph of that animal friend is added into the scrapbook.
| Image and name (GBA) | setting |
|---|---|
| enguarde bonus! | Underwater |
| expresso bonus! | Jungle |
| rambi bonus! | Snowscape |
| winky bonus! | Cavern |
Donkey kong land [ edit ]
Bonus levels reappear in donkey kong land. Just like with donkey kong country, the bonus level variations do not have a name, and every bonus level must at least be accessed to add to the 100% completion score. While many of the bonus levels are accessed via the same methods, some are accessed via a new method: by falling on a ground patch from a height, causing a vertical rope to fly out. By grabbing on the rope, the kong is dragged up into a bonus level.
A new type of bonus level is introduced in the game. In it, the kongs' collected kong tokens are shot out of a revolving barrel cannon. The cannon fires out one kong token a time, if DK or diddy jump on a ground switch. By collecting a kong token, the kongs win an extra life. The only other type, which is also the most common one, involves the active kong trying to reach the end goal, much like "find the exit!" from donkey kong country.
Donkey kong country 2: diddy's kong quest / donkey kong land 2 [ edit ]
In donkey kong country 2: diddy's kong quest, bonus levels are entered much like in its predecessors, except that the blast barrels leading to a bonus level were replaced with bonus barrels. Every level has between one to three bonus levels. The types of bonus levels were narrowed down to three, none of which reappeared from donkey kong country. Each type is a time-based challenge that the kongs must complete to be rewarded with a kremkoin. In the lost world, every level only has a single bonus level, with a DK coin as a reward (given that kremkoins' purpose is to unlock a level of the lost world). Unlike in the first game, bonus levels can now be reentered. Bonus levels were also featured in donkey kong land 2 where their role is unchanged, and the same three types were retained.
Uniquely in donkey kong land 2, no collect the stars! Bonus stages used in the game have any enemies, and no destroy them all! Bonus stages have any bananas. This is because the star counter for collect the stars bonus stages is shared with the enemy counter for destroy them all bonus stages, and collecting stars/bananas and defeating enemies all affect the counter, regardless of which type of stage is played.
The bonus level types first received their own title card each in donkey kong country 2, and the title cards were retained for donkey kong land 2:
Welcome to bonus stage: A ‘link’ to the past
It’s january, and that means no games are coming out. That can make things more difficult from my perspective, so that means it’s time for a series!
Luckily, I’ve got the perfect topic. Inspired by a friend who gave me a bar of soap modeled to look like the cartridge for “the legend of zelda: the ocarina of time,” I have been doing a 100 percent run of that game. I have not been trying said run using the soap cartridge. I feel that would be a bad thing to put in my nintendo 64.
And now that has morphed into following up “ocarina of time” with a 100 percent run of “majora’s mask,” so that’s a whole bunch of columns on two of the most celebrated games ever. These two games have been covered to death, so I’m going to focus on some more specific topics. These also the assumption that you’ve played both of the games. So if you haven’t, you should probably do so right away.
Today’s topic: is the water temple really that hard?
The “zelda” series has had more than its fair share of difficult dungeons (hi, “oracle of ages” jabu-jabu!), but for whatever reason, the water temple in “ocarina of time” has ascended to almost diabolical status. Having run “ocarina of time” countless times since 1998, including a minimalist run I dubbed “iron link” back in law school (did you know you can beat the game without the lens of truth? Because you can.), I’ve seen the water temple a lot. But I’ve never gone through specifically with the goal of deciding whether it’s particularly hard. So let’s get to it.
Determining difficulty can be divided into two main categories: combat and puzzles. The older “zelda” games are considered hard primarily because you get flooded with enemies who can drain your health very quickly.
Newer games in the series tend to eschew that and derive more difficulty from puzzles, but combat can still be challenging. Regular enemies aren’t going to be pushing you too much, so let’s focus on the mini-boss and boss of the water temple.
First is the boss, morpha, a “giant aquatic amoeba” that controls water and creates tentacles that can whip link around into the wall or spikes that surround the boss arena. While this is an awesome idea, morpha isn’t too difficult. Your strategy is to use the hookshot to pluck morpha out of the water so you can hurt it with your sword. As it turns out, you can actually trap morpha in a corner and kill it in about 25 seconds, if you’re lucky. So, no, it’s not that hard. Still one of the best “zelda” boss concepts, though. The water temple’s miniboss, dark link, though, is a different story.
You may remember dark link as the final boss in “zelda 2” for the original nintendo. Well, here he has been downgraded all the way to being an apparent bump in the road. However, he’s way more of a pain than morpha, especially if you’re not the patient type. Dark link obviously has your sword and shield, so he blocks. A lot. You’ll have to keep your guard up and wait for an opening against him. Again, I wouldn’t classify him as hard, but you will actually have to think and not just rush in against him. In any event, you probably won’t be dying a lot in the water temple. No, most of its difficulty comes from the puzzles.
Like all “ocarina of time” dungeons, the water temple has a big gimmick. The gimmick here is changing the temple’s water level. This can only be done at three specific spots where you’ll have to play your ocarina. And you’ll have to keep coming back to these spots. As you might surmise, some rooms are only accessible at certain water levels or are different when filled or drained. Here are some excerpts from my notes on this.
“oh no, I forgot to move that one block. Have to fill the temple again.”
“don’t forget about that key that shows up when you change the level in the tower.”
“did you do everything you needed to before raising it to the top again?”
if you do everything perfectly, you only need to change the water level six times. But here’s the thing. You will screw it up once. There is one key everyone forgets. There’s a bombable wall that you won’t notice. Before you switch that water level, you better make sure you’ve done everything or you’ll have to go switch it back again.
So that’s the big challenge. You’ll have to remember where you’ve been and check out all the levels of the temple each time or you could get stuck for a long time wondering where you went wrong. And the water temple is not forgiving.
Is it that hard? I guess so. It’s not hard in a classic obtuse way, but it is very challenging as a dungeon that doesn’t tell you where to go and hopes that you notice what passages have opened up at any given time. This is especially true as back in 1998 when the game came out, everything was not readily available online. Some say the water temple is a joke, as if you remember what I said almost a year ago, the most important thing in life is impressing people on the internet, so obviously it was too easy for mensa members like random people on the internet.
Verdict: believe the hype.
Hope is a local attorney and video game enthusiast. This is the first of a four-part series on the two N64 “zelda” games.
Welcome to bonus stage: A ‘link’ to the past
It’s january, and that means no games are coming out. That can make things more difficult from my perspective, so that means it’s time for a series!
Luckily, I’ve got the perfect topic. Inspired by a friend who gave me a bar of soap modeled to look like the cartridge for “the legend of zelda: the ocarina of time,” I have been doing a 100 percent run of that game. I have not been trying said run using the soap cartridge. I feel that would be a bad thing to put in my nintendo 64.
And now that has morphed into following up “ocarina of time” with a 100 percent run of “majora’s mask,” so that’s a whole bunch of columns on two of the most celebrated games ever. These two games have been covered to death, so I’m going to focus on some more specific topics. These also the assumption that you’ve played both of the games. So if you haven’t, you should probably do so right away.
Today’s topic: is the water temple really that hard?
The “zelda” series has had more than its fair share of difficult dungeons (hi, “oracle of ages” jabu-jabu!), but for whatever reason, the water temple in “ocarina of time” has ascended to almost diabolical status. Having run “ocarina of time” countless times since 1998, including a minimalist run I dubbed “iron link” back in law school (did you know you can beat the game without the lens of truth? Because you can.), I’ve seen the water temple a lot. But I’ve never gone through specifically with the goal of deciding whether it’s particularly hard. So let’s get to it.
Determining difficulty can be divided into two main categories: combat and puzzles. The older “zelda” games are considered hard primarily because you get flooded with enemies who can drain your health very quickly.
Newer games in the series tend to eschew that and derive more difficulty from puzzles, but combat can still be challenging. Regular enemies aren’t going to be pushing you too much, so let’s focus on the mini-boss and boss of the water temple.
First is the boss, morpha, a “giant aquatic amoeba” that controls water and creates tentacles that can whip link around into the wall or spikes that surround the boss arena. While this is an awesome idea, morpha isn’t too difficult. Your strategy is to use the hookshot to pluck morpha out of the water so you can hurt it with your sword. As it turns out, you can actually trap morpha in a corner and kill it in about 25 seconds, if you’re lucky. So, no, it’s not that hard. Still one of the best “zelda” boss concepts, though. The water temple’s miniboss, dark link, though, is a different story.
You may remember dark link as the final boss in “zelda 2” for the original nintendo. Well, here he has been downgraded all the way to being an apparent bump in the road. However, he’s way more of a pain than morpha, especially if you’re not the patient type. Dark link obviously has your sword and shield, so he blocks. A lot. You’ll have to keep your guard up and wait for an opening against him. Again, I wouldn’t classify him as hard, but you will actually have to think and not just rush in against him. In any event, you probably won’t be dying a lot in the water temple. No, most of its difficulty comes from the puzzles.
Like all “ocarina of time” dungeons, the water temple has a big gimmick. The gimmick here is changing the temple’s water level. This can only be done at three specific spots where you’ll have to play your ocarina. And you’ll have to keep coming back to these spots. As you might surmise, some rooms are only accessible at certain water levels or are different when filled or drained. Here are some excerpts from my notes on this.
“oh no, I forgot to move that one block. Have to fill the temple again.”
“don’t forget about that key that shows up when you change the level in the tower.”
“did you do everything you needed to before raising it to the top again?”
if you do everything perfectly, you only need to change the water level six times. But here’s the thing. You will screw it up once. There is one key everyone forgets. There’s a bombable wall that you won’t notice. Before you switch that water level, you better make sure you’ve done everything or you’ll have to go switch it back again.
So that’s the big challenge. You’ll have to remember where you’ve been and check out all the levels of the temple each time or you could get stuck for a long time wondering where you went wrong. And the water temple is not forgiving.
Is it that hard? I guess so. It’s not hard in a classic obtuse way, but it is very challenging as a dungeon that doesn’t tell you where to go and hopes that you notice what passages have opened up at any given time. This is especially true as back in 1998 when the game came out, everything was not readily available online. Some say the water temple is a joke, as if you remember what I said almost a year ago, the most important thing in life is impressing people on the internet, so obviously it was too easy for mensa members like random people on the internet.
Verdict: believe the hype.
Hope is a local attorney and video game enthusiast. This is the first of a four-part series on the two N64 “zelda” games.
Welcome to bonus stage
The BBFC guidelines don't
add up with UK law
Introduction
the BBFC decide what's appriopriate for people in the UK to watch and play, and they decide on age restrictions for various content. However, when compared to the UK laws which determine what you can actually do at certain ages, it doesn't quite add up with what you are allowed (and not allowed) to watch at certain ages.
Sex
the legal age for sex is 16 in the UK. This means that you can legally have any kind of consentual sex at that age, with another person who is 16 or over. In addition, you are allowed to get pregnant (or get someone else pregnant) at 16, meaning that you can become a biological parent at 16 years and 9 months. UK law deems people to be responsible enough to care for a child, and to have consentual sex at this age.
The BBFC however, will rate non-simulated sex as R18, meaning that you have to be at least 18 to buy it, and to add to the safety, it can only be sold in specific adult sex shops. Other detailed sex scenes, which are simulated, are rated 18.
Why the difference?
It doesn't quite add up to me. You can have sex as many times per day, in as many positions as you like, and view it from a first person perspective at the age of 16, even with multiple partners at the same time, yet you aren't allowed to watch a film in which sex happens, if it's in too much detail. What is the point of this? If you are allowed to do it, why aren't you allowed to watch it? What do the BBFC hope to achieve?
Sex and violence
in addition, there is much more control over sexual content than there is over violent content. As you can see in my list of what content the BBFC will allow, you can have an absolute tonne of violence in 15 rated works, and even in works rated below 15. However, graphic, detailed sex is rated as 18. You can have some sex in a 15, but the BBFC say on their website
"nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour."
So, you can show extreme violence, heads being sawn off, people getting their necks cut open, people stabbing other people in the genitals, and torture, but you can't show detailed sex.
A difference in priority?
Why is it better to see someone being tortured than it is to see two people having consentual sex in detail? Even if you go into the murky realms of suggesting that games and movies some how make people immitate what they see, surely it's better for them to try to have consentual sex than it is for them to kill or torture?
Saying that "15-year-olds shouldn't watch sex, because it's illegal for them to have sex" is one thing, however, if that attitude is taken, then surely any illegal activity should not be watched by anyone, given that it is illegal. If that's the reasoning, that it's illegal, then why are more serious crimes like murder and torture allowed be seen by 15-year-olds? Even if you limit this way of thinking to just 15-year-olds (if the BBFC think that 18-year-olds can deal with watching crimes without replicating them), then still, why are serious crimes okay for a 15-year-old to watch, but not sex? (the sex we are are talking about isn't even illegal sex, it's consentual and with adults).
Welcome to bonus stage! #2 gauntlet (arc)
Developer: atari
publisher: atari
year: 1985
players: 1-4
also on: tons of consoles and computers
If you were gaming during the ’80s and have never come into contact with gauntlet, you’ve definitely missed out. Before konami blessed us with their excellent teenage mutant ninja/hero turtles coin-up and followed it up in identikit licence fashion with the simpsons, gauntlet was the greatest 4-player party in town. Turned loose in a mysterious dungeon master’s maze, up to four players were tasked with progressing as far as possible into the endless, monster infested labyrinth, lightening your host’s treasure horde as you went.
It’s easy to reach the treasure rooms as they appear automatically after approximately 10-12 levels (it varies for a reason I can’t quite work out but may be score linked like many of the hidden variables) and then every five levels after that. Spooky disembodied voice man will inform you in his southern accent that you’ve found his secret “traysure”. This is your opportunity to get one over on your clandestine patriarch by snaffling as many treasure chests as you can before making a dash for the exit. No enemies are found here, only a relatively small maze, the occasional upgrade potion and lots of cash money. The usual special caveats found in other levels can also apply here, the most riotous in multiplayer mode being that players are susceptible to being stunned by shots. Anyone who’s ever played gauntlet knows that this is the funniest thing in the whole world (read: leads to shouting, swearing, pushing and possibly even storming out) especially when you shoot someone else before ducking into the exit and they fail to make it.
Warrior has 19 seconds to get in, grab everything and get out.
Like a man doing clothes shopping.
Should any players fail to reach the exit, they’ll greeted with this rather drab screen advising that their efforts are rewarded with bugger all. On the whole, it doesn’t matter, as you don’t lose a life or anything except the minimal health expended in the short time limit, but it is a minor disappointment if you see the exit and don’t reach it in time. The alternative, well-worn path is to find the exit early on and go off grabbing treasure before diving into the exit with less than a second left. This is particularly tempting given that there’s no bonus given for time remaining and you can feel quite foolish if you get too greedy and the timer depletes while you’re still filling your pockets.
Straight from the school of stating the bleeding obvious.
Successfully locate and enter the exit and, once everyone playing has either jumped in or run out of time, we are still greeted with an exceedingly dull screen, but this time there’s a points reward attached! And we all know that points mean prizes. Or at least an opportunity to enter your initials when you inevitably become a small pile of bones and keys.
That really should say ‘traysures’.
Take note of the “100 X COINS” line in the above screenshot. Interestingly, your bonus score is calculated with a multiplier that reflects the number of credits deposited during the on-going game. In modern, DLC-centric gaming, particularly on mobile phones, there’s a tendency to allow the player to purchase features and upgrades for a small fee instead of earning them through good or repeated play. While this otherwise results in a health boost in gauntlet, allowing for longer survival without an explicit continue screen appearing, is this the earliest example of gaining a points bonus in return for paying more?
There are a couple of examples of gauntlet’s treasure rooms below, the second featuring one of the upgrade potions which occasionally appear.
Multiple paths to the exit in this relatively simple maze.
This is a nasty little wraparound map that can easily confuse in the short time allotted.
Is the treasure room worth your time to explore and grab treasure? In a way, not really, as the main event in gauntlet is to progress as far as possible. However, given that the game never ends, so progress is ultimately fruitless, the only real bragging rights to be had are getting your name onto the top of the high score table. The treasure room helps greatly in this, especially if you’ve been credit feeding for extra health and a multiplier, but is that an achievement over someone who survives for longer on less initial energy? Is gauntlet existential commentary in video game form? Anyway, it’s generally an enjoyable and memorable bonus stage, especially with multiple players, but it’s a shame that the maps are quite small and the time limit so tight.
Welcome to bonus stage
If you like ari S. Gans/colin chandelier, you may also like:
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Welcome to bonus stage: A ‘link’ to the past
It’s january, and that means no games are coming out. That can make things more difficult from my perspective, so that means it’s time for a series!
Luckily, I’ve got the perfect topic. Inspired by a friend who gave me a bar of soap modeled to look like the cartridge for “the legend of zelda: the ocarina of time,” I have been doing a 100 percent run of that game. I have not been trying said run using the soap cartridge. I feel that would be a bad thing to put in my nintendo 64.
And now that has morphed into following up “ocarina of time” with a 100 percent run of “majora’s mask,” so that’s a whole bunch of columns on two of the most celebrated games ever. These two games have been covered to death, so I’m going to focus on some more specific topics. These also the assumption that you’ve played both of the games. So if you haven’t, you should probably do so right away.
Today’s topic: is the water temple really that hard?
The “zelda” series has had more than its fair share of difficult dungeons (hi, “oracle of ages” jabu-jabu!), but for whatever reason, the water temple in “ocarina of time” has ascended to almost diabolical status. Having run “ocarina of time” countless times since 1998, including a minimalist run I dubbed “iron link” back in law school (did you know you can beat the game without the lens of truth? Because you can.), I’ve seen the water temple a lot. But I’ve never gone through specifically with the goal of deciding whether it’s particularly hard. So let’s get to it.
Determining difficulty can be divided into two main categories: combat and puzzles. The older “zelda” games are considered hard primarily because you get flooded with enemies who can drain your health very quickly.
Newer games in the series tend to eschew that and derive more difficulty from puzzles, but combat can still be challenging. Regular enemies aren’t going to be pushing you too much, so let’s focus on the mini-boss and boss of the water temple.
First is the boss, morpha, a “giant aquatic amoeba” that controls water and creates tentacles that can whip link around into the wall or spikes that surround the boss arena. While this is an awesome idea, morpha isn’t too difficult. Your strategy is to use the hookshot to pluck morpha out of the water so you can hurt it with your sword. As it turns out, you can actually trap morpha in a corner and kill it in about 25 seconds, if you’re lucky. So, no, it’s not that hard. Still one of the best “zelda” boss concepts, though. The water temple’s miniboss, dark link, though, is a different story.
You may remember dark link as the final boss in “zelda 2” for the original nintendo. Well, here he has been downgraded all the way to being an apparent bump in the road. However, he’s way more of a pain than morpha, especially if you’re not the patient type. Dark link obviously has your sword and shield, so he blocks. A lot. You’ll have to keep your guard up and wait for an opening against him. Again, I wouldn’t classify him as hard, but you will actually have to think and not just rush in against him. In any event, you probably won’t be dying a lot in the water temple. No, most of its difficulty comes from the puzzles.
Like all “ocarina of time” dungeons, the water temple has a big gimmick. The gimmick here is changing the temple’s water level. This can only be done at three specific spots where you’ll have to play your ocarina. And you’ll have to keep coming back to these spots. As you might surmise, some rooms are only accessible at certain water levels or are different when filled or drained. Here are some excerpts from my notes on this.
“oh no, I forgot to move that one block. Have to fill the temple again.”
“don’t forget about that key that shows up when you change the level in the tower.”
“did you do everything you needed to before raising it to the top again?”
if you do everything perfectly, you only need to change the water level six times. But here’s the thing. You will screw it up once. There is one key everyone forgets. There’s a bombable wall that you won’t notice. Before you switch that water level, you better make sure you’ve done everything or you’ll have to go switch it back again.
So that’s the big challenge. You’ll have to remember where you’ve been and check out all the levels of the temple each time or you could get stuck for a long time wondering where you went wrong. And the water temple is not forgiving.
Is it that hard? I guess so. It’s not hard in a classic obtuse way, but it is very challenging as a dungeon that doesn’t tell you where to go and hopes that you notice what passages have opened up at any given time. This is especially true as back in 1998 when the game came out, everything was not readily available online. Some say the water temple is a joke, as if you remember what I said almost a year ago, the most important thing in life is impressing people on the internet, so obviously it was too easy for mensa members like random people on the internet.
Verdict: believe the hype.
Hope is a local attorney and video game enthusiast. This is the first of a four-part series on the two N64 “zelda” games.
Bonus room
A bonus room [1] [2] (also known as a bonus area [3] [4] [5] , bonus level [6] [7] , bonus stage [8] [9] [10] , or bonus game [11] ) is a hidden area in the donkey kong franchise games; particularly the donkey kong country and donkey kong land games.
Bonus rooms are usually revealed by finding either a secret passage or by jumping into a bonus barrel. They usually have a challenge that the kongs must accomplish to earn a prize needed for 100% completion. In donkey kong country games developed by rare, after the player has uncovered all the bonus rooms of a given level, an exclamation point is added after its title; in the donkey kong land series, an exclamation point is still marked but is not appended to the end of the level title.
Contents
- 1 history
- 1.1 donkey kong country
- 1.2 donkey kong land
- 1.3 donkey kong country 2: diddy's kong quest / donkey kong land 2
- 1.4 donkey kong country 3: dixie kong's double trouble! / donkey kong land III
- 1.5 donkey kong 64
- 1.6 donkey kong country returns / 3D
- 1.7 donkey kong country: tropical freeze
- 2 names in other languages
- 3 references
History [ edit ]
Donkey kong country [ edit ]
Bonus levels first appear in donkey kong country. Here, they are entered by either breaking open certain walls with barrels or animal friends to reveal secret passages, or by jumping into certain blast barrels (changed to bonus barrels in the game boy advance port). In oil drum alley, there is a bonus level entrance hidden within another bonus level, which can be entered by using a barrel to smash open its entrance. These rooms can only be entered once (except in the game boy advance port).
Bonus levels appear in every level except for the underwater stages and mine cart carnage. There are usually two or three bonus levels in a level, although five of them appear in orang-utan gang, which has the most bonus levels out of every level.
Unlike in subsequent appearances, the main idea of bonus levels is to obtain common items, such as bananas, animal tokens, or even a life balloon. The kongs do not have to complete a challenge or collect the items within to add to their completion percentage—this occurs by simply entering the bonus level itself. There are 67 bonus levels in the game.
In the game boy color port, candy kong hosts a challenge in each world. The challenges are very similar to bonus levels, except for an award at the end (a banana bunch coin); the challenges even have the same theme as a bonus level.
There are several types of bonus levels. In the game boy advance version, each type received its own distinct title and splash screen:
| Image and type (GBA) | level appearances | description |
|---|---|---|
| bash the baddies! | (B) vulture culture temple tempest (B) torchlight trouble (B) trick track trek manic mincers | the kongs must jump on a klaptrap, sometimes two or three, for it to release bananas. Each time it is jumped on, the klaptrap moves faster and releases one more banana (always in the shape of banana bunches) than it did the previous time. They must be jumped on about ten times to be defeated, when they release a whole banana bunch. By defeating the klaptrap(s), the kongs are usually rewarded with a life balloon. If a klaptrap bites donkey kong and diddy, they are sent back into the main level. In trick track trek's bonus level, the klaptrap is purple. |
| Collect the bananas! | Reptile rumble (2) (B) bouncy bonanza stop & go station (B) tree top town forest frenzy (B) snow barrel blast (B) slipslide ride (B) ice age alley oil drum alley (B) trick track trek elevator antics (B) mine cart madness | the kongs must collect as many bananas as possible, usually by blasting from a series of barrel cannons and blast barrels. |
| Collect the prizes! | Barrel cannon canyon (B) winky's walkway stop & go station (B) millstone mayhem orang-utan gang (3) (B) blackout basement | the kongs are in a barrel cannon and have to shoot themselves upward to collect various prizes. There always are three vertical lines of individual bananas. Above the bananas are either an animal token, a life balloon, or a banana bunch. |
| Find the exit! | Jungle hijinxs (B) ropey rampage reptile rumble barrel cannon canyon vulture culture temple tempest orang-utan gang (B) snow barrel blast (B) rope bridge rumble (B) oil drum alley elevator antics mine cart madness manic mincers misty mine loopy lights | the kongs must go through the bonus level and reach the exit on the other side. |
| Spell it out! | (B) millstone mayhem (B) vulture culture (B) tree top town orang-utan gang slipslide ride oil drum alley elevator antics (B) necky nutmare (B) platform perils | K-O-N-G letters either spin in a circle or switch around in barrels. In the case of the latter, "KONG" is always the word in the barrels. Each letter spells out a word, and the kongs have to jump at the ones in the right order to win a prize. |
| Stop the barrel! | Jungle hijinxs (B) ropey rampage bouncy bonanza millstone mayhem (B) forest frenzy (B) snow barrel blast slipslide ride (B) ice age alley torchlight trouble (B) rope bridge rumble oil drum alley (B) trick track trek (B) tanked up trouble manic mincers misty mine (B) mine cart madness blackout basement (B) platform perils | an item (banana, banana bunch, animal token, or life balloon) rapidly moves through multiple barrels. Once the item stops moving, the kongs must jump at the consisting barrel to win that prize. Sometimes in this variation, the kongs have to match three barrels depicting the same prize. They have to respectively jump and hit the same object on all of those barrels. |
* levels with a (B) are accessed via a bonus barrel. Levels with a number (e.G. 2) tells how many of that type is in the level.
There is also a specific type of bonus level that features an animal friend, either rambi, expresso, winky, or enguarde. Each animal friend's stage has a unique theme and layout, and some are based on their most common environment. Additionally, just like regular bonus levels, each of the animal buddy ones also received their own splash screen and title in the game boy advance port. The bonus levels revolving around animal friends do not reappear in any of the subsequent donkey kong country or donkey kong land titles.
An animal friend's bonus level can be accessed by collecting three animal tokens of the same animal friend. Upon collecting the third token, the kongs are warped into a bonus level, where they play as the corresponding animal friend. The goal of these bonus levels is for the animal friend to collect as many mini animal tokens within the time limit. A big animal token is also hiding in the location, which doubles the kongs' mini animal token total. When the time runs out, the mini animal tokens are subtracted, and the kongs receive an extra life for every 100 mini animal tokens they have collected (similar to bananas). Additionally, if an animal friend manages to obtain 600 mini animal tokens (400 for enguarde), a photograph of that animal friend is added into the scrapbook.
| Image and name (GBA) | setting |
|---|---|
| enguarde bonus! | Underwater |
| expresso bonus! | Jungle |
| rambi bonus! | Snowscape |
| winky bonus! | Cavern |
Donkey kong land [ edit ]
Bonus levels reappear in donkey kong land. Just like with donkey kong country, the bonus level variations do not have a name, and every bonus level must at least be accessed to add to the 100% completion score. While many of the bonus levels are accessed via the same methods, some are accessed via a new method: by falling on a ground patch from a height, causing a vertical rope to fly out. By grabbing on the rope, the kong is dragged up into a bonus level.
A new type of bonus level is introduced in the game. In it, the kongs' collected kong tokens are shot out of a revolving barrel cannon. The cannon fires out one kong token a time, if DK or diddy jump on a ground switch. By collecting a kong token, the kongs win an extra life. The only other type, which is also the most common one, involves the active kong trying to reach the end goal, much like "find the exit!" from donkey kong country.
Donkey kong country 2: diddy's kong quest / donkey kong land 2 [ edit ]
In donkey kong country 2: diddy's kong quest, bonus levels are entered much like in its predecessors, except that the blast barrels leading to a bonus level were replaced with bonus barrels. Every level has between one to three bonus levels. The types of bonus levels were narrowed down to three, none of which reappeared from donkey kong country. Each type is a time-based challenge that the kongs must complete to be rewarded with a kremkoin. In the lost world, every level only has a single bonus level, with a DK coin as a reward (given that kremkoins' purpose is to unlock a level of the lost world). Unlike in the first game, bonus levels can now be reentered. Bonus levels were also featured in donkey kong land 2 where their role is unchanged, and the same three types were retained.
Uniquely in donkey kong land 2, no collect the stars! Bonus stages used in the game have any enemies, and no destroy them all! Bonus stages have any bananas. This is because the star counter for collect the stars bonus stages is shared with the enemy counter for destroy them all bonus stages, and collecting stars/bananas and defeating enemies all affect the counter, regardless of which type of stage is played.
The bonus level types first received their own title card each in donkey kong country 2, and the title cards were retained for donkey kong land 2:
so, let's see, what we have: welcome to bonus stage! #2 gauntlet (arc) developer: atari publisher: atari year: 1985 players: 1-4 also on: tons of consoles and computers if you were gaming during the ’80s and have at welcome to bonus stage
Contents of the article
- Best forex bonuses
- Welcome to bonus stage! #2 gauntlet (arc)
- Bonus room
- Contents
- History [ edit ]
- Welcome to bonus stage: A ‘link’ to the past
- Welcome to bonus stage: A ‘link’ to the past
- Welcome to bonus stage
- Welcome to bonus stage! #2 gauntlet (arc)
- Welcome to bonus stage
- Welcome to bonus stage: A ‘link’ to the past
- Bonus room
- Contents
- History [ edit ]
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