What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

April 1st, 2025

Today got off to a weird start! I've been having weird dreams lately, so I was looking at my Neocities feed this morning and saw "this website," but with a different screenshot on it. My first thought was, "Oh, I played this in a dream where I go to a weird abandoned shopping mall and I'm not awake yet, but I'm in a different dream-zone. Got it!" I then clicked on it and it was Skep's website, so I realized it was probably not a dream, but did briefly assume it was an early "birthday prank," the normal thing everyone does and that I'm certainly experiencing annually. I realized it was an April Fools Day joke pretty fast from there, but it was a longer journey than it needed to be.

Aside from my being impressed that it was a pretty detailed and personalized match to this site, screenshotted below for posterity, I can't say enough nice stuff about Skep's site, which you can visit by clicking on these words! It's one of my favorite sites on here, and has a lot on offer: classic Chinese literature, pasta sauce, lizard noir, booze, and more! I can't recommend the site strongly enough, especially the fantastic in progress Romance of the Three Kingdoms piece.

Anyway, it was cool, and I was excited.

My gaming last night was not so exciting. I got really tired and decided that it would be a good idea to see if I could 20cc, or 20 credit clear, Space Harrier. I couldn't, as I am terrible at Space Harrier, but I did have a lot of fun. Tonight is the final night of Astro City Mini week for me, and I'll probably just give this another shot. I hit level 14 last night, so it would be nice to at least match that tonight.

I also tried Power Rangers: Dino Thunder for Game Boy Advance on my Miyoo Mini+ because I was in a weird rabbit hole after watching some Kamen Rider on Sunday. It's not very good, but it's also excellent. It's a mediocre beat-em-up/platformer where a guy tells you to believe in yourself over and over and then you can spam summon a dinosaur mech to kill everything on screen ten times straight. I didn't play this for a massive amount of time, but I felt I was truly gaming.

Before bed, I played some more of Kemono Friends Picross, but it's picross, so for today, I have no real notes on it. I clicked on some boxes and made some little pictures of anime girls.

March 31st, 2025

Yesterday afternoon, after a roughly five year break, I picked Kemono Friends Picross back up like I'd never put it down. I don't know why I quit, but I like picross and it's a cute theme, so I'm glad I went back to it! My gaming habits are normal and mega efficient.

I also decided to try The First Descendant, because I was itchy for something shiny and new but didn't want to spend any money. There's something very similar about all these big free to play semi-RPGs, and it seems bizarre to me that my giant demon-horned mech man in this felt the same double jumping in this as my tiny, fashionable girl in Infinity Nikki. I also forgot the gun controls and accidentally called for backup about 30 times straight in an early mission and felt guilty for interrupting people's monster shootin' time with all my nonsense. This is very okay, though, and I think I'll go back to it.

At the end of the day, I got out my Astro City Mini and actually had an excellent time with Fantasy Zone, wiping out some of my bad feelings about the system. The first stage gave me tons of trouble, but the second was way easier. Clearly, this was down to poor difficulty balance and not my skills improving as I went. This is a cool game, though. It's satisfying to knock out all the bases before a boss fight, and it made me feel like I was making good, steady progress, even as I repeatedly exploded. I don't know if I'll focus on it right now, but I definitely want to play more of this!

March 30th, 2025

Right now, I've been posting so much about the Astro City Mini because I made a list of all my consoles and am using a random number generator to decide which to "focus" on for the week. Last night, though, I really started to burn out on the Astro City Mini. The tiny joystick is uncomfortable for action games, and it's frustrating to try to learn games when they're all cranked to the highest difficult, with no option to switch it up. To start my notes on last night's play session on a positive note, though, the tiny joystick is really good for playing Columns. It's pretty much just the same as the Sega Genesis version, which I'm more used to, but the joystick and arcade buttons are nice for it.

I probably spent most of last night's play with Wonder Boy, though, which was a bit of a disappointment. It controlled well and had some fun platforming, but one of the enemies was a gross racist caricature and I've got enough games on hand not to deal with that. My original plan was to just play it start to end, but I quit in stage one instead.

I also tried Cyber Police ESWAT, but thought it was kind of boring for a game with such a goofy title. This wasn't awful, but I only made it one credit and don't have a ton to say about it.

Other than my Astro City Mini headaches, I tried a couple of other games. Well, it feels weird to call My Dream Setup a game, Steam achievements included or not. It's more of a room design app, with everything being in nice, bright polygons with color sliders across the board. It was nice to fiddle with while I ate my little quesadilla and side salad for lunch, and I'll at least see if I can get all the achievements in this. It's pleasant!

As far as much weirder stuff goes, I also tried Cattails on Switch, a little pixel art game about a cat who is abandoned to live in an independently governed cat territory. I'm not at all sure what to make of this yet, but the hunting mechanics aren't bad. The cats act weirdly human, though, so it has a very weird vibe.

March 29th, 2025

I'm starting today with more posting on the Astro City Mini, with Rad Mobile up first. This is a great game that is just like real life because you can have a Sonic the Hedgehog on your rear view mirror and also go to jail. More seriously, I tried this because the title was funny, but then had a really nice time. It's a timer based racer, and it's not particularly easy, but I felt like I was getting better every time I restarted. It was fun.

On the opposite side of enjoyment, I tried Alex Kidd With Stella: The Lost Stars. I am not sure why I tackled this, as I don't really like Alex Kidd games and never have. Even though this game was very charming and cute looking, it was no exception- it just wasn't fun for me to play. I was considering credit scumming through it out of spite this morning, but even that's not likely.

I also played 10 more credits of Space Harrier, which is still really fun even if I'm not getting any better at playing it. More games should be this pastel!

In non-Astro City Mini gaming, I gave a rags-to-riches challenge a shot in Sims 4. My guy made over a hundred dollars learning piano in a nightclub and selling photos of a toilet, but then he went to the park and spent it all on grilling more hot dogs than he could eat. I respect his decision making, but it wasn't a successful run.

It was a little hard to relax before going to sleep, so I also played Farm Land until I passed out. This is just a very, very simple farm sim, but it's not bad for relaxation. I ambled around, bought some land, and fell asleep.

March 28th, 2025

My lack of pep today is severe, so I'm posting during my lunch break to stay awake. Last night, I just played another 20 credits on my Astro City Mini, putting the first 12 of them into Golden Axe. I'd never played this much before, but it wasn't bad! I got about halfway through level 3 before it stopped letting me continue, which seemed strange for an arcade game. I could have just pushed the wrong button, too, but I was playing this very badly. It was fun to ride fire breathing dinosaur lookin' dragons, though, and the attacks were satisfying, too! Playing badly is fine if it's fun.

I still feel bad about how many deaths by collision I'm causing the Space Harrier guy, though! I did feel like I was getting the hang of it last night, but stationary obstacles posed much more of a danger to me than enemy fire. Maybe in a few days, I'll be able to guide him through the trees without knocking him out.

March 27th, 2025

Last night, I was playing my Astro City Mini in a very specific way. I turned in on like I'd gone to the arcade with 5 dollars and allowed myself 20 credits to play whatever. Space Harrier was my first victim, and I played it very badly. You should not ram into trees and pillars in Space Harrier, but I did it anyway, many times, until I felt bad for my shooty guy and switched games.

After that, I went on to play Virtua Fighter for a few minutes, and got really fixated on Pai's hat flying off when she gets hit. I didn't clear an arcade ladder because it was 1am and the tiny joystick was making my hand cramp up, but I was delighted!

I was less delighted by Cotton because if she dies within the level, she can respawn where she was, but if she dies during a boss battle, she gets kicked back to the start of the level. I will play this again, but I have friendlier Cotton games to get used to the series with. I don't know if now is my time to focus in on this version.

Last, I tried Dark Edge, which was a weird sprite based 3D fighter. Your character can move kind of around a 3D circle with their sprite turning and scaling as they travel, and the look of it is amazing! Play-wise, it does take some getting used to, but I'm very interested in returning to this. It's strange and cool!

March 26th, 2025

I felt really burned out last night, so I didn't really want to play anything. I played a few levels of Fit My Cat to try to relax before bed, though. One of them had too many cats to fit, so I quit for the night because I didn't want to deal with it.

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