What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
April 2023
April 30th, 2023
Today is the last day of April, and as I drink my cinnamon dolce latte and somewhat watch Morbius, I feel like, at least in game terms, I did well for the month. I cleared a few shorter games- Gokuto Jihen, Harvest Festival, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, and today, can add Feeding Frenzy to that list- even if I didn't make much progress in any of the longer games I have going.
For May, I might keep going on the same path. I'd at least like to finish off Vengeful Heart in the next few days, and there's a few other short games I'm considering. I'd also like to clear at least one of the many Sonic games I've gathered, which might get its own page at some point. (I need to add people's buttons somewhere on the site, too! Maybe I'll also make website progress next month.) I had fun with the games I played last month, though, and am looking forward to more.
As far as yesterday's gaming goes, like I said, I did finish the basic game for Feeding Frenzy. The story mode style map is fairly easy, but enjoyable, and had a really good sense of progression. Even if it was a trick of perspective and reused sprites, rather than changing the base gameplay, I still felt very powerful mowing through sharks in the last level. I'll probably come back and try Time Attack mode a little more than I did last night, but think I might try to tackle Feeding Frenzy 2 first. It's exactly what Game Pass was meant for.
Most of my game time yesterday, though, was spent on trying to clear an entire event in one day in Disney Tsum Tsum. They're currently running a scratch card event where you clear missions to get scratches, and it's more of a grind than a challenge. This is somewhat against my best interest, as I played so much yesterday I was seeing the Tsum Tsums behind my eyelids when I went to take a bath. My play sessions are pretty short, though, so it's hard to be too frustrated with myself.
I'm off to enjoy the rest of my day, hopefully with better movies than Morbius ahead. I hope all of you have pleasant Sundays (or whatever day it is as you read this) ahead, too!
April 29th, 2023
It was really nice to get out of work on time last night and be done with my week! I kind of crashed, and am still there today, but that is okay. It's fine to have a low maintenance weekend.
I've been popping on more DVDs and Blurays lately, which alerted me to the fact that my PS4 has been continually refusing to update. Last night, I figured out how to fix it through a manual, USB update, which was kind of a hassle. Once I got that done, though, I played Sonic Frontiers with some of the patches that had installed since I bought it and absolutely demolished the boss that had been giving me trouble when it first came out. Still, though, I'm not sure how I feel about this game! I don't dislike it, and it feels good to zip around on the rails, but something seems weird and off about it to me. I'll keep going, even if it's not an immediate thing, but will probably finish several far less admired Sonic games first.
From there, I was going to go to bed, but since my building was noisy I played a couple of levels of Mort the Chicken instead. It was kind of weird and frustrating to bounce from a modern, major release platformer to a cheaper PS1 platformer with no buffer, but I got my bearings pretty quickly, buzzed past the level that had crashed in my last play session, and cleared the next one, too. 'Twas pleasurable.
April 28th, 2023
This was a long and exhausting week, and I have no reason to believe today is going to let up. Last night was okay, though. I watched a 1960s anime, Flying Phantom Ship, which was wild, and then played a few more levels of Feeding Frenzy. The game treats having the angler fish as a hardship in the pre-level info screens, but I think the slower speed makes it easier to control.
April 27th, 2023
It took me a long time to get through all the stuff I needed to last night, so I sat down before bed intending to only play three more levels of Feeding Frenzy. I played more than three levels, but it helped get my mind off stuff, making it an overall net benefit.
April 26th, 2023
Last night, I used my fancy XBox and Game Pass subscription to play Feeding Frenzy, a nearly 20 year old casual PC game. It was super fun and a great idea. I do think I'll end up whipping through this game in just a few sittings, but it was relaxing and somewhat nostalgic, and I loved seeing all the old XBox 360 interface stuff pop up when I started the game. Maybe I thought a bit too hard about this game making me the architect of a ruthless, gluttonous fish massacre, with the obvious support of wealthy mermaids, but I'll come back to this very soon.
April 25th, 2023
I did really badly with games last night, playing about half a level of Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins before giving up and going to sleep. Today, I'm gonna go get a fast food breakfast and get through the day.
April 24th, 2023
This morning, I feel really worried about nothing in particular for work, so I'm moving slower than I'd like to be. Hopefully, it'll be a good day, but if it's not, it's not.
Last night, I felt kind of overwhelmed, too, but in the interest of actually getting games finished, I picked up Vengeful Heart for another chapter. I have no problems with where I am in this visual novel, but during last night's chunk of reading, I found myself getting unnecessairly anxious on Josephine, the main character's behalf, to the point that I almost turned it off to not see her "bad choices" play out. I kept it on, though, and it was a page turner, or, maybe more appropriately to the story's form, text-box-advancer. I'm hoping to finish this in the next couple of days, but am also not the most eager to see it end.
April 23rd, 2023
I'm kind of scattered this morning, but managed to get some back end stuff done for this site this morning. It's nothing fancy, but it's not nothing, either.
Yesterday, I sat down and finished The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, which was very entertaining. I didn't expect a free, April Fools Day visual novel to be any good, but it was cute and funny, with some nice artwork, and I also didn't predict the ending, which is fun. I did 100% cheat and turn on the built in assists for the action levels, since I didn't really want to mess with platforming during a VN and also don't like isometric setups that much. I didn't feel like that detracted from my enjoyment of things at all, though, and I'm hoping Sega tosses another of these out next year.
After having dropped it for over a year, I hooked up my Sega Genesis Mini to play Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse for a little bit, too. I don't remember why I dropped this game, but I didn't really have a good concept of where I'd last placed a save state, so I just started over. The controls maybe feel a little strange to me, especially Mickey's weird bouncy jump, but not bad.
I'm off to do crafts and eat a sandwich, both classic Sunday activities.
April 22nd, 2023
It's been a big morning so far- I crawled out of bed, bought an overpriced latte, and paid my bills, a flawless trifecta of tasks to complete for a Saturday morning. There's no telling what further wonders today shall hold.
Games-wise, I played Umurangi Generation for a few minutes last night. I really enjoy this game so far. It feels super easy to get a cool looking photo, and it's an interesting game world. I get super motion sick playing it, though, which is disappointing! I might try to keep it up one level at a time, with some mint tea at my side, but I'm not sure. Oh, well.
April 21st, 2023
Last night, I was able to leave work on time, so I did my grocery shopping for the next week or so. It's been such a pain in the butt week, more because of not feeling well than anything, that it is somewhat calming to have even my errands done ahead of the weekend.
Anyway, I ended up playing a bit more of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog last night, as I'd like to defeat my own poor attention span and finish some of the shorter games I have going. It got at least one very good laugh out of me, and I think, just by process of elimination, that I'm getting close to the end here. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.
April 20th, 2023
I got trapped in late work again last night, this time being very complicated, and am so tired today. There's nothing to be done, though, at least not at the moment.
I played Mort the Chicken for a bit last night, since mascot platformers make me happy, and had a lot of fun. The game had a nasty crash halfway through the second level I was in, though, with Mort freezing in midair, the music switching to a single tone, and my controller rumble going wild. I just kind of shut it off and'll try the level again later.
April 19th, 2023
I was able to work yesterday, but got a purposefully placed late task, due to bad luck of the draw, and totally burned out. I'm a little worried about today, but that is okay.
Last night, my gaming was a total bust. I played two rounds of Disney Tsum Tsum and went to bed.
This morning, though, I opened the bag of gingerbread coffee that I was saving for a rainy day and am hoping things will go better. I hope okay days are ahead for all of you, too.
April 18th, 2023
My cough wasn't under control enough to do phone work yesterday, so I had to leave work really early. In its stead, I ended up doing crafts, doodling, and watching Cocaine Bear. I did play another level of Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins right before falling asleep, though.
April 17th, 2023
I'm still pretty wobbly this morning, but went to the doctor yesterday for help. It turns out I had a nasty sinus infection and bronchitis, so right now, I'm forcing myself to eat a big breakfast in order to take my medicine without a stomachache. I already do feel somewhat better, but the somewhat is operative. Today's post will still be fairly short.
On Nintendo Switch Online, I wanted to play Super Mario Land because I remembered liking the music as a kid, but that game isn't in their Game Boy library! Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins is, though, so I played that for a bit. I'd never tried it before, and it was fun.
I worked on the current event in Disney Tsum Tsum a bit more than I should have because it requires zero power from me.
I also turned on Pac-Man Museum+ to decorate my arcade and ended up playing Pac'N'Roll Remix, which ruled. Please expect more on this game in future posts.
April 16th, 2023
I still feel super rubbish, and am having trouble keeping my coughing down. Even posting here feels a little tough today, since I'm running myself short on sleep, but I played Goat Simulator on Game Pass for a while last night. It was fun, and much easier to play on XBox than on an early generation Kindle Fire.
April 15th, 2023
My conditions today are not ideal. I had to get up early because of coughing, but my throat was so bad I had a miso soup packet for breakfast rather than cereal or granola, to make sure I had something in my stomach before taking cold medicine. That's passed, so I'm feeling slightly better, but a lot of my time last night was eaten up not quite by working, but by trying to do a work task, where I needed to download a big file from one system and upload it to another. It wasn't hard, and I wouldn't even say it was really work, but it took me until 11 at night to get it accomplished. I don't have to struggle to get it done Monday, though, so that's something.
My game time last night was really awful. I played Pac-Man Museum+ on my XBox for a few minutes right before trying to sleep. I gave Pac in Time a shot and really bounced off of it, so most of my time was spent with Pac Mania. I'm not sure I love Pac Mania. It's a little sluggish feeling, and I don't like how little of the screen is visible at once. It's not awful, though, and it was an okay way to kill ten minutes.
April 14th, 2023
I meant to read quite a lot more of Vengeful Heart again last night, but was tired enough that I somehow convinced myself my air conditioner was broken. It absolutely is not. After I took some more cold medicine, though, I got through another chapter. I can't decide if, with the named and illustrated supporting cast, I like the in-character clarity or dislike the lack of subtlety the game takes in contrasting different methods of resistance. It's a pretty engaging story regardless, but that stuck out to me last night.
I also played some Disney Tsum Tsum, but only three or four rounds throughout the day.
It's almost the weekend! With any luck, in nine hours, I'll be free and clear of work for two whole days!
April 13th, 2023
I'm coming down with something of a cold, so last night, I took some generic Nyquil and played Vengeful Heart until I flat out fell asleep. It's been 100% passive gameplay so far- not even any branching paths- and I think I made quite a dent in it last night. The story is interesting, though, with a lot of privately owned utility and for-profit healthcare problems going on, and I am in a spot where just reading is the perfect gameplay mechanic for me. I'm trying to use my corresponding generic Dayquil to get through the work day and, hopefully, I'l be able to play a bit more tonight.
April 12th, 2023
Last night, I worked late and went to bed early, which wasn't the best for exciting and in-depth gaming. I did download Tron Identity, because I'd been looking forward to that for a while, but I ended up starting another visual novel, Vengeful Heart, instead. I picked that one up for $1.99 in an eShop sale on Switch, thinking it looked cool. Even though I've only just started it, so far, it is cool. The pixel art is really neat, and if I didn't have to work today, I'd sit down and binge play a big chunk of it. Alas! I do have to be mildly responsible, so I'll pick it back up tonight.
April 11th, 2023
Today, my computer is doing better, but I'm still a bit wrecked by sleepiness. I tried to go to bed way earlier than normal last night, but it didn't help a lot. I'll wear a mask at work in case I'm coming down with something, since my head is really stuffed up, and warn my friends that I may be a plague rat.
Because my primary interest last night was sleeping, I just played a few games of Disney Tsum Tsum, which was fun. It's nice to have a nothing game for when I just need to relax. Still, I want to play a bit of something better tonight.
April 10th, 2023
My computer is so angry about being on this morning, and I can't say that I blame it for freezing up and refusing to work. It seems like a good idea. I played a small amount of My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess last night, but that's all.
April 9th, 2023
Tonight, I'm back from a trip to Chicago, and have just done so much background and tidying work on the site that I missed during the week that I'm starting this post a bit tired. It was a fun weekend, though, and I'm glad I got some background stuff squared away, too.
Yesterday afternoon, I relaxed and played Switch for a while, hoping to avoid anything too intense. I started with an Arcade Archives game I'd picked up out of curiosity a while ago, Touki Denshou Angel Eyes. It's a mid-90s Tecmo fighter, and I was curious to see how their stuff played in 2D. I had fun playing it for a bit, even if it felt a bit unfair, but it looked very strange! Some of the characters were rendered 3D sprites, and others were traditionally drawn, so despite feeling smooth, it looked somewhat slapdash. I had fun, though, and I'll try it again! I'm motivated to defeat the super cheap final boss, since I was making progress against her.
After getting a little tired of that, I played Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ until my Switch battery got too low. I'm still not very good at it, and it's still fun.
I haven't been sleeping super well for quite a while, so I'm probably going to sleep rather than playing many games tonight. I feel pretty cheerful, though, so that's not so bad.
April 8th, 2023
I'm posting from my phone today, and it doesn't even want to copy paste text, which is weirdly infuriating! It's not even noon, though, and I've already been on a full trip to a Japanese bookstore and supermarket, so having small problems with Neocities is an okay trade off.
Yesterday, before taking off for a weekend on the road, I played Harvest Festival 64, a very short game I'd seen on the itch.io homepage and in some Youtube thumbnails. There wasn't much to it, other than "what if Animal Crossing was messed up," but I liked it. The N64 look was dead on, and it was short enough to not overstay its welcome. The spookiness was more vibes than jump scares, too. It was slight, but not bad.
I also got frustrated trying to start Castlevania: Circle of the Moon in a car, but that was a bad idea in the first place.
I will do formatting fixes, a link to download Harvest Festival, sorting and such on this post tomorrow evening. Until then, I hope you are all having a lovely day!
EDIT: If you are interested in playing Harvest Festival 64, too, download it here!
April 7th, 2023
Today's post isn't going to be very good. While I was talking to one of my friends last night, I found an interesting looking game, Discover the Ocean, on itch.io. I couldn't make it run, though, and spent a lot of time trying to make it work well on my honestly pretty weak computer. I wonder if it got tripped up because the VHS effect was rendering in real time rather than as a filter? I'm honestly not sure. At any rate, though, I'd get to the gameplay part, it would start stuttering and crash, and then I'd have to restart my whole computer. If you have a real, grown-up computer and want to try Discover the Ocean, you can download it here. As for me, I am keeping it in mind as something to try when I get a better computer.
April 6th, 2023
I had to work late again last night, and went to bed so tired that when I got up, I'd forgotten to plug all of my devices in to charge and had left a half cup of tea sitting by my desk. Today, I have a very major stress point, but since I have tomorrow off, hopefully I won't mess up quite that badly again.
Even sleepy, I did play Puzzles & Survival again, clearing the 5th chapter of the campaign and doing a weirdly anti-climactic rally against a zombie den. It counted down for 15 minutes, but then I ran to the bathroom and missed the whole thing! All the little moving parts designed to get microtransactions got a little overwhelming, but, again, I was exhausted last night, so it might not be as much as I'd felt like it was. Plus, the weird dissonance of fighting swimsuit zombies in a quiet Asian village raised more questions than answers in an amusing way.
I'm trying to do Duolingo again, but I don't really think it'll come up much here.
April 5th, 2023
I'm somewhat down this morning, and missing my exercise goal for the morning due to a stomachache and general distaste for being awake. I haven't been able to sleep well for a while now, and I think it's getting to me. That is ok, though, and I think I will feel better soon!
I was able to finish Gokuto Jihen last night, since I only had a little bit left. I thought I was only able to get the standard ending and would have to start over to find more items, but my friend told me I was actually good and had to backtrack to talk to someone in order to get the true ending. It felt a little obscure, but I was satisfied with the "real" ending. It was an interesting spooky game, more exploration based than skill based with some very strange and interesting character moments, and I'm glad I played it.
On the other end of the monetization spectrum, I started playing Puzzles & Survival, a mobile game that's currently sponsoring Gummy over at The Gumball Machine. My being gobsmacked that it's precisely the same setup as Cookie Run Kingdom aside, just with match-3 levels jammed where the runner levels are in its cookie themed cousin, I don't mind it. The legally-distinct-from-The-Walking-Dead soundtrack and somehow simultaneously polished and grungy aesthetic are not unappealing, and the constant stream of numbers going up is an ok distraction while I am feeling incredibly stressed. The vibe is different enough from Disney Tsum Tsum that this might stick on my phone for a bit.
April 4th, 2023
It's an office day today, with severe storms to boot, so I'm lucky there'll be a break in them when I have to drive in. Driving home, I might not be so lucky, but the office is as safe a place as any to take cover.
Last night, I was playing the English version of an RPG Maker horror game, Gokuto Jihen. It's available for download here, if you're interested in playing, too. I thought it was interesting, but am not very familiar with this game type and felt sick about the incoming storms and some trouble I have to deal with today, so I tapped out at about the two hour mark. If everything is okay, I'll finish tonight, since it'll even be okay to play with no power. I'll write more about the game itself when I can clear it.
April 3rd, 2023
Yesterday ended up being pretty nice! At the end of the day, I picked up Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior on XBox as a birthday gift to myself, but I was so sleepy that I could only play for a few minutes. The sprite work and animation in this game are so interesting, though, that I don't mind being awful at it. I missed having this game, and I'm going to play more today for sure.
I also played Disney Tsum Tsum, which was as low intensity mobile game-y as ever. I was still working on the coloring page missions, but by the time I went to bed, the event for the month had started.
I'm so glad I have today off, and I have Friday scheduled off, too! A three day week will be good for me.
April 2nd, 2023
Today is my birthday, which is really exciting, right? As far as games go, it's made all of Amy's "birthday girl" stuff in The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog very funny to me, though I haven't beaten the game quite yet. It's cute and fun, even though the "action" bits drive me a bit loopy, so I don't mind milking it for all it's worth.
I made some small, but decent headway in Dragon Quest X Offline last night, too. The mission I got involves going into the center of the village and talking to more NPCs, so I was slightly disheartened by that. I can do it, though!
I also played more Disney Tsum Tsum than I should have, chipping away at the coloring page missions. This month's missions are for the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers movie from last year which, given that it was a straight to Disney+ movie from nearly a year ago, feels like a very odd choice. It doesn't matter, though, and could just be an international server event delay sort of thing.
I don't know how much stuff I'll play today. In a little bit here, I'm off to eat Mexican food and watch the Tetris movie in an Apple TV enabled household. It will be a nice, calm, and work free day, though, and that is what matters!
April 1st, 2023
It's the first day of a new month and a three day weekend for me here. Plus, my allergies have improved a bit, alongside a massive temperature drop. Yesterday was extremely stressful and I felt like rubbish, so, again, it wasn't a very good games day. I did play a bit of Sega's free April Fools Day visual novel, though, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. So far, this is really cute, and I'm excited to play more of it today! I was just too tired for anything yesterday, charming and easy joke games included. Today will be better!
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