Where did I play it?
When I was in filmschool in 2008 I played it a whole Saturday with a buddy and classmate there who had bought it on Nintendo Wii. I’m not sure I ever played it before that or how we started playing it. It looks like Nintendo World Cup, a game I owned as a child, but this plays like a beat’em up game.
Did I beat it?
Yes, we actually spent the time to beat it. I think it must have been a long Saturday. I remember it was exhausting beating it one sitting. I still remember it as a great game. Especially for a 2 player game.
Its really about rescuing a girlfriend of the protagonist from gangmembers. You have to fight quite a few bosses, and then there's a final boss at the end. Its a bit different because you have to eat and go to a sauna at several parts of the cities he game to increase stats. There's special moves to be bought and several weapons to use.
Later experiences:
I kind of wanted to wait so I could have the friend come and play it with me, as he already helped beating Bubble Bobble and Double Dragon 2 with me for the run. Him living in another country at the time made it kind of tricky to arrange, but I got him over finally. Sadly things happened, and he only had time to stay one day. We started playing River City Ransom and it was fun playing at again, we got perhaps 1/3 in, but we didn’t find enough time to actually beat it. A little bit bitter, but fine.
So I ended up just playing the game for myself.
As a challenge I played the game on the Advanced Mode and not Easy Mode. (Its quite possible we played it on Easy in 2008.) I beat it in a couple of days, and while I normally keep myself from not playing too much in a day(I consider gaming just a side-hobby and I never sit all day playing a game), but this time I spent quite a few hours. I couldn’t put it down. I kind of dislike the game for being too addictive, but from a gamedesign perspective thats probably a compliment. Its me too. I get OCD when it comes to grinding and buying everything, doing everything. Just like in 2008 I was also quite exhausted playing it.
I leveled up maximum on absolutely everything before going to final bosses. You don’t need to do that at all. I was a bit overpowered but I still managed to die a few times. I may not be an expert at these type of games.
The game is a bit unique. Mixing rpg and beat’em up is at least something I hadn’t heard of before. Its a pretty game. Not much more to say.
Difficulty:
6/10 on Advanced Mode / 3/10 on Easy Mode.
Where did I play it?
There was this friend of a friend that owned it. Lived in a street next to mine. I never played the two first Lolo games, only the third one, although remember seeing it in Nintendo magazines. It looked different -- and it was different from most Nintendo games.
Did I beat it as a child:
Not close. I only remember barely playing it. Its POSSIBLE I borrowed it a some days, but that couldn’t have been long. If at all. I probably beat the few first rooms or something, or saw the guy who owned it show off beating a few levels. I didn’t play it much. It was however very memorable. I never forgot it. It looked so good for its time and it was very unique. I also remember it being hyped in the Nintendo Magazines a lot. Lolo was almost like semi-mascot for Nintendo, just on the row behind Mario and Zelda. The game seemed a bit 'adult' in the sense that it was a bit quite complex for children, still I presume I would have had fun had I owned this game as a child. Actually, if there’s one game I would bring back in time to give myself as a kid its possibly this though, because this is mindexpanding stuff. Beating some of the harder levels in a Lolo game is like is quite the braingymnastic session!
Later experiences:
Since this was the VERY last game in my Nostalgia Run for NES, and I wanted to go the extra mile, so I thought I’d beat Lolo 1 and Lolo 2 before going on to Lolo 3, despite I never played the two first before. The rumour on the street was that Lolo 3 was extremely hard, and also a big game, so I saved it for last. I can confirm the games are hard, at least when you get past the initial levels. This is not a game you’re supposed to beat in a single afternoon. If you beat a room or two every day that can be quite enough as a playing session. At least it was for me.
After beating Lolo 1 I went on to the next one: The Adventure Of Lolo 2. This game is in many ways the exact same game as Lolo 1, but a variations of levels. Everything else is the same. It didn’t bother me though, because Lolo 1 was so much fun I didn’t mind more of the same. Storywise its the same too. Lala has been kidnapped be King Egger, and you have to rescue her by running through the rooms collecting pearls. Some very small updated sprites on some of the enemies from Lolo 1, but I didn’t notice any difference at all beyond that. Well, there is one difference. Lolo 2 is harder. The end levels of Lolo 1 made me sweat a little bit, but the same level of difficulty starts in Lolo 2 just half way in and gets more and more difficult from there on. The bossbattle with King Egger was also different. In Lolo 1 we only saw a cutscene which was more of a joke, while in Lolo 2 there actually is a bossbattle.
Once again the level design is very impressive. Perhaps even more impressive than in Lolo 1.
I’m proud to say I didn’t use walkthrough on any levels on Lolo 1, but on Lolo 2 I had to use it twice.
There’s also tutorial levels where an old-grandfather-Lolo teaches you some game mehcanic. Not needed at all if you played the previous games, but quite neat either way. There’s last but not least frequently boss fights now. Last level on Lolo 2 included a bossfight with the King Egger, but in Lolo 3 you’ll see a variation of boss fights on most levels. Its typically just larger versions of the smaller enemies, like the snakes, the medusas and so on. The boss fights are perhaps not very challenging, they're often very easy to beat, but they serve as a welcoming breather in a game thats more about strategy than reflexes. They're quite easy, but still fun.
The most interesting part storywise is you don’t have the goal to rescue Lala this time, and you can choose to play as her as a playable character as both Lolo and Lala tags along the world. Unfortunately, she plays exactly the same way as Lolo, but its still a nice feature and another thing that sets it apart from the two previous games. Lolo 3 is also TWICE as large as both of the other games when it comes to the amount of levels, and this is presented with a false ending half-way through the game. So when the player thinks he might have beaten the game, in reality the real challenge has just started. (Not least because the second part of the game includes some really really hardcore puzzles.) There's also a twist that the character you're playing will be kidnapped by King Egger, so you'll have to use the remaining character to rescue Lolo or Lala depending on the one you used. So if you used Lolo you'll be forced to use Lala in the last part of the game. (I used Lala for the most part, so she ended up being kidnapped, so I got the traditional run of using Lolo in the second half of the game to rescue Lala.)
For anyone who has played these games you know it can be quite a challenge. Its sometimes very easy to give up, because sitting down with the same level every day if you’re completely out of ideas can be extremely tedious and even depressing. Although on the plus side its a huge relief when you figure out a room you’ve been struggling with forever. Few things top the experience of figuring out a level that has been bugging you for days. Luckily for me having both Lolo 1 and Lolo 2 behind me the first half of Lolo 3 wasn’t very problematic. After that I have to admit there was many puzzles that proved to be daunting. The difficulty goes up from there on, although I have to admit the ordering of the difficulty could seem uneven. Sometimes a near impossible level would be followed by a sequence of easy ones. No rhyme or reason. Its possible certain puzzles are more difficult for others though.
My goal was to not use a walkthrough once. I really insisted I would take my time instead.
I ended up using walkthrough twice still. First 9-4 appeared. That means Level 9 Room 4.
15-5 was the second room I had to use walkthrough on. I hated this room so much. Kind of the same deal as with 9-4. I felt like I had exhausted everything so many times, and thought I had it figured out, but one small block seemed to be missing, and I couldn't figure it out. After over a week of on and off playing I gave up. I was quite depressed just sitting down with the level. It didn't help that other things going in my life made it difficult to concentrate. I finally gave in and looked online at what you were supposed to do. When I saw the answer it felt like I had been lazy and not exhausted the order of the process as much as I should have had. Its too bad. That was the second room I had to use a walkthrough on. I now feared I was getting lazy. Another problem: At this point I also realized I had been playing the Lolo games for 4 months and I was growing very exhaused by Lolo. I still had at least many many rooms. I took a break for a couple of weeks.
Then I came back with a fresher mind. I remember being stuck forever on an early room on Level 16 as well for a while, but I figured it out. When I finally got to Level 17, the LAST LEVEL, it was exciting, but I expected the final rooms to be puzzles that would kick my ass completely. Luckily no, the rooms were challenging, sure, but I beat a room or two almost every day. None of the rooms were as difficult as some of the earlier ones from my point of view. I eventually met the Final Boss, and he was as expected not super tough. None of the bosses in the game is tough, but there’s some that had more challenging and unpredictable patterns than King Egger. It was almost like a dessert beating him to a pulp.
