PixelLinkr #210: The Story Behind the Puzzle

SegaSonic the Hedgehog makes you steer Sonic with a trackball. There is a separate jump button, but direction and speed come from rolling the ball under your hand. I would like to apologise to every controller I have ever accused of being an unreasonable way to drive a hedgehog.

---

🟢 Easy: Professional wrestling matches in the ring

Games: WWF WrestleMania 2000 · WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain · WWE 2K24 · WCW/nWo Revenge

WrestleMania 2000 came out in 1999. The title booked the event ahead of time, which seems appropriate for a game whose Road to WrestleMania mode involves matches and feuds. AKI also developed WCW/nWo Revenge, so the rival wrestling brands have a closer relationship inside the cartridge than the logos might suggest.

Here Comes the Pain brings rope breaks and Elimination Chamber matches to the PS2. WWE 2K24 supplies a modern anchor, including gauntlet and special-referee matches. The rosters and match options change, but the ring keeps this row easy to recognise. WWF and WWE belong to the same licensing history; WCW/nWo is the rival promotion, rather than another name for it.

---

🟡 Medium: Grow crops on your own farm

Games: Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon · My Time at Portia · Sun Haven · Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns

Portia's workshop is the reason to be careful with this label. Building and commissions take the main job, but the official game description explicitly invites you to grow crops beside it using planter boxes and semi-automatic irrigation. The farm qualifies even if you spend most of your day thinking about something you need to build. I can accept a workshop with a vegetable department.

Rune Factory 3 has growing space beneath Micah's home tree. Sun Haven lets you grow fruit, vegetables and flowers with farming tools and magic. That last option feels like the correct use of a fantasy setting: if I have spells, I should be allowed to spend them on the garden.

Trio of Towns lets you water twice a day to help crops mature sooner, according to its crop guide. Its 2016 date and Rune Factory 3's 2009 date refer to their original Japanese releases; the English versions arrived in 2017 and 2010. This row asks whether you can cultivate your own crops, so Portia fits without pretending that all four games divide their working day the same way.

---

🔵 Hard: Traverse with a fired grappling line or web

Games: Just Cause · Batman: Arkham Origins · Spider-Man 2 · Bionic Commando Rearmed 2

The original Just Cause has a narrower grappling hook than its sequels might lead you to remember. IGN's release review describes hooking vehicles, parasailing behind them and reeling in to take control. Rooftops and cliffs are off the menu. Rico needs something with an engine before he can start making travel decisions that would upset an insurer.

Batman: Arkham Origins uses a retracting grapnel line to reach ledges and extend flight. The 2004 console Spider-Man 2 uses physics-based web swinging. Those webs belong to the selected GameCube, PS2 and Xbox game; a different handheld version with the same title would need its own gameplay check.

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 gives Spencer scenery to latch onto with his arm. Releasing it carries the swing's momentum, so an attachment can help even after you let go. The arm is a route through the level, not merely something to point at an enemy.

The connection clicks at the attachment. You fire a line, then use it to move yourself through space. Pulling toward a ledge and swinging beneath an anchor feel different, but both meet that test. Professional wrestling also has grapples; none of those holds makes the wrestler a fired traversal cable. I am relieved we do not have to explain that to the referee.

---

🟣 Tricky: Original arcade controls use a trackball

Games: Missile Command · Marble Madness · SegaSonic the Hedgehog · Crystal Castles

Missile Command puts the trackball in charge of the crosshair, with three buttons for launching counter-missiles. Marble Madness uses it to steer the marble. If you remember a home version played with a directional pad, you have remembered a real version and concealed the answer from yourself at the same time.

SegaSonic the Hedgehog uses the ball for speed and direction, plus that separate jump button. It also introduced Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Crystal Castles puts Bentley Bear under trackball control as he collects gems across its playfields. Sonic and Bentley have very different reasons to be moving, but the cabinet asks your hand to do the same kind of work.

The useful mental move is to picture the control panel instead of the screen. A missile crosshair does not roll down a course like a marble, and a bear does not need a web to get around. Their original arcade cabinets share the physical input. Later ports can erase that resemblance without changing the title, which is why "original arcade" does so much work in the answer.

Mark Cerny designed Marble Madness. I like knowing who to blame when a marble looks manageable right up until it leaves the course. In this row, though, the object on screen is the distraction: the ball you needed to notice was under the player's palm.

---

Sonic under trackball control is going to stay with me longer than any reasonable agricultural advice. My wrist would like to play Portia next.

If Batman and Spider-Man have filled your superhero quota, CineLinkr's May 18 puzzle has a row of graphic-novel adaptations without superheroes.