Apparently this is an old game but since people are still playing it, I’ll post this here, if only as a mental note to myself!! Especially since we lost the stupid insert that came with it.

For those of you with the original Xbox who have made the unfortunate purchase of the most annoying game on the face of the earth, I have found something based on a tip from a “Blinx” forum. I can’t remember which forum.

In Deja Vu Canals, there are cat medals that seem impossible to find or at least reach. What you need to do is get the ice sweeper and jump into the small pools of water with trap doors in them - near the frog in the first stage and to the left of the up ramp in stage two. At least I believe it is the second stage for that other unknown one. After you obliterate the prickly monster, you go down a set of stairs next to the stream/river/thing, shoot the guy on the star wars style tricycle and then walk past the up ramp and turn right. There’s only one ramp in that particular spot so if you go past it and turn right, you should see another square pool thing with a trap door. Sweep up the water in both of those little pool things, follow where the trap doors lead and there ya go. However, you will not be able to vacuum heavy objects until you rebuy the shiney vacuum.

Stay tuned! I will be posting an amateur walk through with spoilers if ever I can convince my children to cooperate. This has got to be by far the most annoying game on the face of the earth. For you novices like myself, you need all the help you can get.

The first thing you need to know about this annoying game is that it is nearly impossible, if not impossible, to get all of the cat medals in one 10 minute period. When your sweepers are limited, you might have to move forward until something new shows up in the shop.

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When a monster doesn’t go away after the first hit, wait until it stops flashing. Flashing = nearly invulnerable.

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Some people are wondering about the cat medals. I’m not sure what specifically, whether it’s location or how to get to them once you find the location, but I’ll tell you what I know.

I don’t have the game right in front of me but I have blog time so I’m winging it here. Forgive me if my terminology is wrong.

Plan on making the first couple of rounds of each stage (if you complete every stage the first time, don’t bother reading this!) a fact finding mission of sorts. Go with the intention of seeing everything you can see and don’t worry about making it all the way through. If you do make it all the way through, great!

Make sure you have 5 or 6 pauses minimum. It can be very helpful to go to the very first stage of the first level (Time Square somethingorother) and stock up on retries and pauses. When you get the chance to purchase time holders, buy as many as you can. The more time holders you have, the more pauses you can keep without knocking other essential time capabilities out of your … stash, for lack of a better word.

For most of the levels, there will be at least one cat medal behind one of those gigantic things that require the super duper sweeper. You might want to consider how you want to aqcuire those because you probably don’t want to come up with 4,000 to buy the powerful sweeper every other five minutes.

In Deja vu Canals, there are medals that require the freezing sweeper. You use that to freeze the water in the pools where there are trap doors. The trap doors will then open and you will be able to go get your cat medals. Take pauses and ammo with you.

When you have the freezing or flaming sweepers, you will not be able to pick up the big heavy thing. The freezing thing makes quicker work of flaming monsters. The flaming sweeper makes real quick work of the gelatinous mass of slimeyness encountered throughought the game.

A quick way of obliterating the persistent blowfish morphing monsters is to jump over them as they’re rolling toward you all prickly and stuff, swing around and shoot. By the time you land and turn around, they are usually unpricklified.

Where ever there are ledges, look down to see if a cat medal might be floating just out of sight but not out of vacuum cleaner range. If there’s not a cat medal floating, there may be steps to somewhere else useful.

I hardly ever use the fast forward but it is useful in the Time Square level. One of the difficult to find cat medals in one of those levels is hidden behind the goal gate behind one of the super-duper-sweeper-requiring-heavy things. The next time I play, I’ll take note of specifics but suffice it to say that you should never just jump right onto a functioning goal gate if you have time to spare and don’t have all of your cat medals.

Well, that’s all for now. Now go take your blood pressure medication and have fun.

January 2, 2007

Happy New Year and welcome back to the Blinx Annoyance Post!

I have just finished the Everwinter level. It’s really annoying, just like the rest of the game.

The first stage is loads of fun. It’s sure to give you loads of laughter and enjoyment with the added challenge of slipperyness. Be sure you have a gazillion pauses and maybe a rewind.

The first monster on that level is a tornado nightmare. Quickly vacuum up a piece of trash before it starts spinning, two if you can manage, and smack the thing down at your earliest opportunity. Pause if you must but try not to use your pauses yet if you don’t have to. Once you get that one out of the way, go vacuum up big stuff and head to the second monster nearby.

The second monster on that level explodes after it’s hit but the catch is that you have to get close enough to it that it stops flashing and stands up. When it does that, either waste a pause and hit it (with something big) or hit it and jump back quickly. Those monsters blow up like bombs. Pick up as much trash as you can and head to the next area.

Whatever you do, don’t go down the slide thing. It’s a waste of retries unless you’ve figured out how to manuever those slides. I could be just an idiot. I could not negotiate the curve and finally decided to look for another way to get into the next area. Helpful hint: Forget the slide. jump over the side into the room with the doors, just below where the goal thing dropped you off.

Once you get into that room, the little non-english speaking guy on the scooter shows up. Hit him until he leaves. Pick up whatever trash you can get to make your count 10. Go jump on the button. (Remember this room as you will visit it a couple more times. There may be time crystals in it that you need. Good luck getting them without getting a bad crystal combo but anyway …) Use a pause and go through the door that just opened.

At this point, you may need to use another pause but don’t if you can help it. There’s floating ice and if you pause it at the wrong time, you could go hurtling from the slide into the drink. There are four monsters here, three of which are the flying balloon squid things. A pause may be in order but imho it is best to wait until you’re on the floating ice and are able to get hte most bang for your pause. It is possible to hit all four within the span of that pause. If you can get maximum smackage, then vacuum up as much trash as you can get to without the pause ending with you getting nailed by a trash vomitting squid balloon.

Once you get all of the monsters you can see, get more trash if you’re running low and then jump over to the steps. Go up the steps ready to shoot at another floating squid freak of nature. Once he’s taken care of, very carefully work your way to the edge nearest to where he came from and look right. You should see the first cat medal. It should be vacuumable from there. Go up the steps and pick up as much gold as you can.

At the top of the steps, you’ll find yourself on a ledge above the room with the doors by a log and another blue button. Pick up the log, then jump on the blue button which opens a door down in the room, and try to look at the monsters on the across from you. If you’re careful, you can pause, shoot the log and hit at least one of the prickly blowfish guys over there. Quickly jump down and make your way to the door that opened. It’s slippery and you will probably fall on your rear once or twice. I think the game is programmed to do that so don’t panic. Just calmly make you way to the door and the next slide.

The next area is another multi-monster extravaganza. This is an area where the judicious use of pauses comes in handy but don’t waste them!

Beware of the blow fish prickly guy, the blinking and then exploding thing like the one we met at the beginning of the stage, another squid monster or two and tornado girl. Oh, and there’s more of that floating ice. Something that may work to your advantage is one of those bullseye “slot machines” that you’ll find affixed to the wall, just in case it drops bombs.

The prickly blow fish guys are tougher in that they take three hits to get rid of. I can’t remember if that’s new to this level or not.

Anyway, once you obliterate all of the monsters, pick up trash and head for the stairs. Proceed with caution because this area has a tornado girl, two prickly blowfish guys and a squid monster. There are two cat medals up here so don’t lose your composure. Using as few pauses as possible (2 should give you a good advantage but make sure you have at least 1 left) and then head towards the ledge by the water. There’s the second cat medal. Try to vacuum it up without falling off the edge.

Heading back inland, if you haven’t seen it already, there is another button. To the right of the button is one of those gigantic weights blocking a doorway. If you don’t have your sooper dooper vac., you’ll have to go back. There’s a cat medal in there.

Okay, getting back to the button. Making sure you’re loaded up with trash, jump on the button, look for the middle door below and check the position of the water that you do not want to jump into, hit your pause and make your way down into the door room and to the open door. Hopefully you’ll be able to do it in time to have some pause left to shoot the prickly guy you find in the final fight. Get rid of him as quickly as possible. There one monster left and it’s the floating thing that is usually the easiest to get.

Before you get that monster, consider whether you want to risk getting all the way there without getting the last cat medal. You don’t want to turn the goal gate on too soon or you may inadvertantly leave the level when the last medal is right below you. If I had at least 30 seconds left, I’d look over the ledge for the nearest non watery spot and jump down there. The cat medal is behind some large trash. The large trash is almost providential because it will make quicker work of the floaty monster.

Get your medal and, if you haven’t already, take care of the floaty monster and get outta Dodge.

Thus ends the first stage of Everwinter, if I recall correctly.

The second stage is equally fun but you’ll need to have your flaming vacuum in order to defeat the slime monster in time. Speaking of time, I don’t have time for this. I’ve got dishes to wash, children to train and snack food to graze on.

‘Til next time, Happy Time Sweeping!