[Storm Eagle]

I was playing on Sunday and got up to 7-5/Cog Jog. I had already gotten all the letters and puzzle pieces in that stage and the others before it. So after I got home from work, I just decided "what the heck" and went and completed all the remaining levels. So I finished it all last night. Even the Golden Palace.

In the Cliff area, 6-K/Perilous Passage has got to be the worst K level of them all. I mean, trying to escape all that lava while ascending, and those bats that follow you. Talk about a pain in the neck. Treacherous Track wasn't all that bad. Actually it must have been the only K level that didn't frustrate the hell out of me. I'm just glad that the game doesn't make you retrieve puzzle pieces again after losing lives in the stage in which they're found, like it does the letters. In 8-K/Five Monkey Trial, I NEEDED to get Diddy for this one, because it's way too easy to take hits in the last two parts. So the more hits I'm able to take while trying to finish that one, the better.

The rocket barrel stages are a pain, but 7-4/Gear Getaway and 8-2/Hot Rocket might have been the easiest ones for me to finish while getting all the puzzle pieces.

I tried finishing the Golden Palace with all five of its puzzle pieces. I can't believe how hard it was for me to get past the part with the three pillars with the exploding cherries on top. I only had Donkey Kong and I just couldn't make the jump with him. So I decided to get Diddy Kong from one of the levels and return to the Golden Palace level with him. Jumps from platform to platform were much easier that way. Now that I've finished the Golden Palace level, I've unlocked Mirror Mode, which I don't think I'm going to bother with. The levels were hard enough, and now they're reversing them, and making it so that only one hit can take you out, you can't use any items before going in the stages, and no help from Diddy? Yeah, no thanks. Though at least they don't make you get all the puzzle pieces and letters again.