Course Number Two

A quick check of the castle doors revealed that there was only one place I could actually go next.

Normally this doorway would lead to Princess’s Secret Slide.

Instead, the randomizer had other ideas.

Course number two was Rainbow Ride.

Yep. Second course of the entire playthrough and already I was dealing with one of the game’s final levels.

At that point I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy run.

I spawned on the platform that would normally contain the first star in a regular playthrough. Unfortunately the star wasn’t there. What was there was the immediate problem of figuring out how I was supposed to get down.

There was really only one option available, so I checked where the platforms below were, took a leap of faith, and jumped.

I survived the landing.

My health bar didn’t come through quite as well.

Half of it disappeared on impact.

Exploring Rainbow Ride

After that less-than-ideal introduction, I worked my way towards one of the seesaw platforms and found my first star of the session.

I grabbed it and started exploring the area around me, collecting whatever coins I could along the way. Rainbow Ride is not the sort of course where I want to be careless with health, especially when the first thing it did was take half of it away for landing.

A Fly Guy decided to get involved as I reached the falling log platforms on the way towards the triangles. That gave me another hit to think about and a reminder that this course was not short on ways to become a problem.

The triangles were useful at least, since that seemed to be where the red coin star would appear. I made a mental note of that and kept moving.

Once I was satisfied there was nothing else useful nearby, I started working my way back up and spotted another star.

This one was floating above the first carpet route.

I also caught a glimpse of another star over by the maze.

So at least I knew where two of the remaining stars were.

Knowing where they were did not make them comfortable.

Backflips And Bad Ideas

The star above the first carpet looked awkward straight away. The carpet moves, the space is limited, and there wasn’t much room to stand around thinking about better options.

I only had one idea, and no real confidence that it would work.

I went for a backflip.

Somehow, it worked.

I collected the star and landed back on the carpet before the whole idea could become evidence against me.

From there I headed for the maze and used the same basic approach for the next star. Another backflip, another brief moment of concern, and another star collected.

At that point I had exhausted the stars I could clearly see. I checked the maze properly, grabbed the coins available, and looked around for anything else the randomizer might have hidden nearby.

There was nothing obvious left.

Which meant my options were starting to narrow.

The Big House In The Sky

With the easier routes running out, I headed for the big house.

That did not go well.

I failed the route twice and ended up down to two wedges of health. At that point, forcing the issue started to feel less like persistence and more like offering the castle a written invitation to end the run.

I decided to cut my losses and try again later.

There was still another route available, so I changed direction and headed for the floating ship instead.

That is probably the first point in this run where The Hostile Castle Protocol really felt like it was doing what it was meant to do. This was not just about collecting stars. It was about deciding when a route had become too expensive to keep pushing.

The big house could wait.

My remaining health could not.

The Floating Ship

The journey up the carpets towards the floating ship was tense, but it also gave me time to notice something I wasn’t expecting.

Rainbow Ride actually felt better with the background the randomizer had given it.

The music, unfortunately, did not have the same effect. It felt out of place, which is a shame, because the course itself already had enough going on without the soundtrack making things feel stranger.

Still, the route paid off.

I found another star on a box on the platform before the floating ship. Naturally, this one also required another backflip, because apparently Rainbow Ride had decided that was the theme of the session.

The ship itself had plenty of coins, which finally got me back to full health. After spending so much of the recording one bad hit away from serious trouble, that felt like its own reward.

I checked the crow’s nest and looked around the ship, but there was nothing else waiting for me there.

End Of Entry Status

By the end of the session, I had four of Rainbow Ride’s seven stars.

That sounds decent on paper.

It felt less decent while actually doing it.

Three of those stars were in awkward places, and the big house had already taken enough out of me to make it clear that charging ahead was not the smart choice.

Eventually I had to admit there was no getting around it. The big house in the sky would need to be dealt with.

Just not immediately.

After the amount of work it took to collect those four stars, I decided to stop there, pause the run, and compose myself before continuing in the next entry.

Jolly Roger Bay gave me a friendly start.

Rainbow Ride has corrected that misunderstanding.

• Stars Collected: 11 / 119
• Lives Remaining: 7
• Courses Cleared: 1
• Rainbow Ride Stars Collected: 4 / 7

Continue The Journey

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The Hostile Castle Protocol Hub
Super Mario 64 Randomizer – Survivor Edition