h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Finally. After a lot of trying and searching, I can say that I've collected every item in the first Banjo-Kazooie game for the N64.

All 100 puzzle pieces, all 900 musical notes, and all the extra honeycomb pieces. Turns out that all it takes is 864 notes to open the final (unecessary) note door, and 98 puzzle pieces to solve the final jigsaw puzzle (which doesn't do anything special....EXCEPT DOUBLING YOUR LIFE BAR!). All that really remains now is to beat the final boss, Gruntilda.

Stupid final boss....she can ride a broomstick, throw fireballs, throw me-seeking electric missiles, activate that shield of hers, and all I can do is peck her a few times and hope that I can shoot enough eggs the rest of the time. I've beaten her before, but never with all of the other stuff finished.

Truth be told, the second Banjo-Kazooie game was easier until you fight Gruntilda again. Instead of being a traditional hyper-powerful witch like in the first game, she attacks as a hyper-powerful skeleton witch (she died at the end of the first game before coming back to near-life in the second) inside what appears to be a nuclear powered drilling tank with lasers and a poison gas cloud surrounding it. Needless to say, for as easy as most of the second game was, the final boss battle was tougher.

And considering that I've got twice the health that I did the first time that I beat Gruntilda and I *still* can't pull it off yet I think that I can safely say that Grunty's among the harder boss battles out there (and before anyone says anything, yes I *have* heard of/played some of the harder bosses in the Final Fantasy games, I'm aware that many of those can be a bit arder than this)

Well, this video game talk has definitely eaten up some time. Maybe the diner's serving lunch now.