What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
August 2024
August 31st, 2024
It's the last day of August, and I am very sleepy! I had trouble focusing yesterday, so I ran Merge Pixel for a few hours. I didn't make any progress, but having it there as a screen to clear after meeting my goals was decently useful. Clickers are a decent focus tool.
Speaking of clickers, I also tried G123's Space Battleship Yamato: Voyagers of Tomorrow, which is another anime skin on what seems to be their most common game. I put this one on my phone, so I can play it "on the go," and it feels a bit cluttered on the smaller screen. There's a button to fire a cannon, though, and the explosion is pretty satisfying.
I did a 15 minute long single workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star, too. I got to the end and forgot what I'd done for the past five minutes, but my score was good, so it was fine.
August 30th, 2024
Despite my reader-facing pep on here, I wasn't feeling good yesterday. I picked up another G123 clicker game, WIXOSS Multiverse, and got really zoomed in on it. It does seem suspiciously similar to their other clickers, but the menu design is decently intuitive here.
I kept playing Prison Noctis, too, and am still pretty amused by it. So many employees of this prison seem to be in dire need of sponges and brushes from me, a prisoner that is clearly misbehaving, that I'm starting to think of it as a story of institutional collapse.
As for more standard gaming, I did another run in Balatro. It was pretty unremarkable, and I lost at ante 5, not even to a boss blind.
August 29th, 2024
Today my company gave all of its local employees lunch at a high-end brewery, so I ate some junk food and slammed back a non-alcoholic IPA on their patio before wandering away to come home and play with my website. I'm set up for September now, and also got a new layout and index going for G123, the money grubbing browser game developer I'm currently fixated on It's nice to get stuff done!
All my gaming yesterday was those aforementioned browser games, though. I tried one called Prison Noctis, or Merge Prison, according to the title screen. It is notably different from the two G123 anime clickers I've been playing in that it uses the trappings of an escape room to guide players through basic item merge screens and some mahjong solitaire-esque tile matching screens. There's cats, too. Energy runs out fast in it, and it tosses up the "buy this item!" screens just as often as the anime games I've tried, but it's a little more interesting than I'd expected it would be.
I did keep up with the anime clickers, too. In King of Prism: Sparkling, I rushed my dailies before work, to make up for the previous night's internet loss, and then before bed, too. Mostly, though, I'm stocking currency and EXP for another in-game grinding session right now.
I remained confused by Magical Circle Guru-Guru: Stardust Adventure, too, getting caught in a loop of auto-battling I couldn't escape. I feel like this game is saddled with some unintuitive menu designs, but am sure I'll find my way around if I keep playing.
August 28th, 2024
Yesterday was an unpleasant work day, and I came home to quickly lose my internet. I did clear my first run in Balatro, though, and that was a nice boost! I did it by getting extremely lucky on what boss blinds I got and when, and also by stubbornly and repeatedly levelling up two pair as a hand, until I became nigh unstoppable. I mean, I was ultimately stoppable shortly after clearing Ante 8 and entering endless mode, but that doesn't sound as good.
August 27th, 2024
I actually managed a daily workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star yesterday, which I haven't been good at lately. I got so bored during the stretches that I thought I'd end up bailing five minutes in, but I did make it to the end! This isn't really an accomplishment, but I was still pleased.
My bigger gaming deal yesterday was that, as I played King of Prism Sparkling, I became convinced that every game the company behind it, G123, made was likely the same game. I did spend quite a bit of time on my jpegs of ice skaters yesterday, even saving up my free tickets for a lovely gacha draw where I got three SSRs.
From there, though, I tried Magical Circle Guru-Guru: Stardust Adventure, which was, as I suspected, an idle/clicker game with way too many systems for its own good. It was kind of pleasantly confusing to play a game based on a property I know next to nothing about, and the art is super cute. Since I like to leave games like this running while I'm doing stuff I actually need to get done, I was more delighted than offended by the whole ordeal. If I have time, I might try another one tonight.
August 26th, 2024
Yesterday was somewhat busy, so I didn't play any games until right before bed. I tried a couple rounds in Pool Pro Gold, since I'm still weirdly fixated on video game billiards. This was a Switch freebie from a couple years ago, and it wasn't terrible. The game moved at a snappy pace, but I felt like the controls were really strange.
I also kept going in King of Prism Sparkling, since a zero effort mobile game is great when the work burnout stretches so far you're still feelin' it on a Sunday. I tried to participate in a guild event, but it said we hadn't actually entered, so I got confused and gave up. It was heart pounding stuff for sure!
August 25th, 2024
Yesterday, I got it in my head that I have accidentally gathered so many billiard games that I ought to actually play some of them. Not knowing the basic rules of pool or billiards didn't seem like a problem, so I dove in with Deep Pockets: Super Pro Pool and Billiards for the Intellivision. The whole thing seemed very impressive for an Intellivision game, with a lot goin' on, but it was also very confusing. After reading how to play 8-ball on WikiHow, though, which is not a joke, it became somewhat less confusing, but I then realized that I was really bad at it. This did not really dampen my enthusiasm.
After a craft break, I also tried Side Pocket 2 for the Saturn, which moved much faster, made satisifying noises when the billiards balls smacked into each other, and had lots of FMV sequences dubbed by Japanese actors who seemed more acquainted with the art of acting than the people they were dubbing over. I was still terrible at this, too, but got to a point where billiards itself started to make slightly more sense to me. I'd kind of like to keep going, to see if I can get a grip on the genre at all.
I also played King of Prism Sparkling until I was so sleepy I became disoriented, then fell asleep stunningly well. It was a highlight of my day.
August 24th, 2024
I'm feeling very accomplished as I post today, having gotten my Intellivision Flashback page customization done a small bit ago and having cleared Sudocats last night! Overall, Sudocats was maybe a bit easy, which is fine for a game I mostly played while dozing off. It was very short, too, especially compared to the massive Sudoku collections that were around in the DS era. That's basically fine, though. This was a 2 dollar game that I picked up because cats are good, and I definitely got two dollars worth of puzzle solving out of it. This was fine.
While thinking about the Intellivision for today's design work, I plugged in my little Flashback console and played some of Space Armada which, legally, is 100% not techically Space Invaders. The first round of this I played felt really terrible, making me wonder why Matell would even bother releasing such a bad knockoff cart, but as I kept restarting, over and over, it kind of grew on me. The sprites feel way too big to me, but the controls got more tolerable as I went. It still felt "off," but it wasn't as bad as I first thought.
I did quite a lot of level grinding in King of Prism Sparkling, too, mostly letting it run and clicking every few minutes so I could gather EXP and level up my skaters. I'll likely do this some more today.
August 23rd, 2024
I was immensely sleepy last night, so I just played Sudocats a little more. My goal for today is to finish this off, which seems very doable.
August 23rd, 2024
I was immensely sleepy last night, so I just played Sudocats a little more. My goal for today is to finish this off, which seems very doable.
August 22nd, 2024
Today's post'll be another quick one because I was just playing Sudocats again. I really do only have a few puzzles left at this point, so I'll probably finish it in the next couple of days. The cats haunt me, though. I'm way better at this during the day, when I can remember all 9 cats I'm dealing with, than at night, when I never quite have that down, but night's when I've got time to play.
August 21st, 2024
I was ultra tired and still zoomed in on manga last night, so I had a very casual gaming night. I did a couple more stages in Sudocats, finally finishing the bonus puzzles and getting steered back towards the main game.
I also spent just a ridiculous amount of time on King of Prism Sparkling relative to what this game actually has on offer. It was shallow, but really relaxing, too! It's nice to chill.
August 20th, 2024
I wanted to read manga last night, so I didn't do much gaming. I did play a couple puzzles in Sudocats, though, then fell asleep until I heard a weird noise at 4am and became weirdly convinced that it was aliens destroying my mid-sized Midwestern city. Luckily, that doesn't seem to have gone down.
August 19th, 2024
Yesterday, though it wasn't intentional, I only played anime games. This was not disappointing.
I had it in my head that I needed to be linking progress in level-based games to my productivity during the day, so, based on what I accomplished yesterday, I played six fights in Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash. I'm not still sure if this is a good idea or not, but I do like mediocre anime fighting games, so it was an okay payoff.
I did another long exercise in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star, too, as these seem like an ok way to get back into the fitness game groove. I'm still not 100% past my bout with being extremely sleepy at all, so I may stick with this playstyle for a bit.
I got very set on clearing screen after screen of quests in King of Prism Sparkling, too, which led to a really nice false sense of accomplishment. With work back on the table today, I'll almost definitely do this again.
August 18th, 2024
I'm posting today just after a Trader Joe's run, which is going to allow for some delightfully millenial-scumbag-coded work lunches this week. I've been cutting down on takeout meals by shoving bento boxes full of bits and bobs I'm grabbing at grocery stores on Sundays, and even without being thrifty about that at all, it still saves a ton of money. Fast food costs way too much lately, and this is a bit more fun anyway.
On the actual topic of games, though, I played a few more levels of Barbie and the Three Musketeers, getting extremely relaxed by the slow pace and pleasant music. I wish Barbie games had been made this decently when I was a kid.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I also tried Smash TV, since Midway Arcade Origins went on sale for a price I was willing to shell out on XBox. Usually, arcade shooters do not click with me well, but I had a blast playing this! I need to get better at the twin stick controls, so I stopped after a stack of continues rather than just continue scumming my way to the end. I know I can do this with a few less eyeballs flyin' out of my character's skull at every turn! It was fun, though, and I'll definitely end up seeing this game through.
Through the day, I also clicked away in King of Prism Sparkling, but didn't really make any notable progress at all. I'm fine with that.
August 17th, 2024
This morning, picking up a prescription became a 4+ hour ordeal, so I made that struggle up to myself by spending some extra time on this site today. Originally, I was going to do a new page design for the Intellivision Flashback next, but since I had a Wii game to post about and a pretty clear vision of how I wanted the page to look, I redid the Wii game pages instead. Right now, I'm pretty pleased with how they came out.
The Wii game I played yesterday was, naturally, Barbie and the Three Musketeers, because I saw it on Youtube and thought it looked neat. It is neat- a low difficulty WayForward 2D platformer- and it lets you play as the cat. So far, I can't imagine this'll be anything world changing, but pleasant is enough sometimes. Also, I learned that my tablet's camera can't pick up blinding Barbie pink while getting "screenshots," and that struck me funny.
I had to shut my Wii off sooner than I wanted, as my Wiimote battery died. After that, I played Disney Illusion Island for a few minutes. All of them were spent figuring out where I needed to go next, as I'd totally forgotten what I was doing here. I think I'm back on track, though.
I also played some King of Prism Sparkling throughout the day, because I had a lot to do and my interest in this game is directly proportional to how many other things I ought to be doing. I got my first UR Prism Star, which was exciting for a few seconds, until I saw how much it would cost to level him up. In such a low-effort game, though, it's not very daunting to let the game run and gather EXP.
August 16th, 2024
I was super frustrated by work last night, so I really got focused on clicking away in King of Prism Sparkling. I made no notable progress, but I was at it longer than I should have been as a responsible adult. I got so many big numbers, though, it was satisfying.
I did another "hard mode" exercise in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star, too, which was fine. The hard mode just makes the exercises longer rather than making them more difficult, so it's fine even at my crummy level.
From there, my attention span was pretty poor, so I tried Atari Mania. At least late last night, it felt really difficult for a Wario Ware imitator, with games that were just a shade too complicated. It wasn't awful, though, so I'll probably try this again.
I tried Diamond Painting ASMR on Switch, too, because I do diamond art in real life and 49 cents was a decent price to see how it was represented. This wasn't terrible, but it felt weird that the game's setup was slightly less impressive than my own. I regularly use a tool that lets me place seven gems at once, but the game only goes up to three, rather than going wild with a 50 placer or something. Plus, these in game kits have inconsistent gem shapes and the cheaper type of adhesive! It's very weird to do a pretend version of a craft and then make the in-game craft the cheap dropshipped level kits, but I am amused by it.
August 15th, 2024
It was kind of hard to get moving and do anything yesterday, so I ended up just doing another puzzle and a half in Sudocats. I was so sleepy I couldn't remember what all 9 of the cats I was dealing with were from line to line, so that added some challenge. I'll have this game done soon, though.
August 14th, 2024
I didn't really have time for it last night, but I wanted to play games on my Saturn a lot, so I did! It wasn't a very practical choice, but who cares. I ended up trying the first couple of levels of Clockwork Knight, which proved to be an aesthetically overbearing but reasonably fun 2D platformer. I imagine I'll play this more in the future.
August 13th, 2024
I'm doing a quick post ahead of work today, and since I had to work late last night, there's not much to write about. I got back to Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star with a single 15 minute workout session. It wasn't awesome, but it was better than nothing, too.
I did two more puzzles in Sudocats, too, finding that a game of this sort is harder if you take your glasses off and subsequently forget you have done so.
August 12th, 2024
Last night, even though it is a mediocre game that runs badly on Switch, I spent a bit of time on Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, honestly having quite a nice time. Low expectations helped a lot, and it's also casual enough to play when I'm stressed or tired.
I knocked out another bonus puzzle in Sudocats, and am definitely getting two dollars worth of play out of it.
I played King of Prism Sparkling for a while, too, but am a little disappointed there hasn't been another event yet. Yes, it did break the game when they tried to implement the last one, but still, it would be fun to have another minigame like the match-3 from the first event to play.
August 11th, 2024
Today's post is going to be kind of lame! I bounced around between Saturn games for a while yesterday, feeling that everything I tried was cool enough to play a bit more in depth later. This was fun for sure, but left me without anything notable to write about for the day. I did play Sudocats a notable amount yesterday, though, and since I did so during the day, I made some actual progress.
I'm feeling some weird stress about my weekly work lunches, so defeating this is going to be my main challenge for the day. I'm sure I've got this, though!
August 10th, 2024
I am struggling super hard with focus today, so getting this post done has been an uphill battle involving lots of looking at recipes, playing video games, reading fifty pages of Dickens, and trying to make a good cup of instant coffee. It was all decently successful, but not what I set out to do.
I mentioned it at the end of yesterday's post, but I suddenly got my hands on a way to play many Saturn games. There's a lot of good, interesting games in the set I now have at my disposal, but I jumped at Street Fighter: Real Battle on Film, or, more elegantly, Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game. I spent most of my playtime complaining that Chun-Li was in a red outfit and not a blue one, which is clearly a crime against humanity which may never be forgiven. Honestly, though, even though it's a clunky game that looks dumb, I had fun. It's cheesy enough to be kind of charming, and it definitely played all right. I want to check out some of the other Saturn games I've come into, but will probably come back to this at some point.
Before going to sleep, I played a little more of Sudocats, too. It occurred to me this morning that a puzzle game requiring some amount of logic probably isn't a good choice to play when I'm dead tired, but this is simply how things sometimes go.
August 9th, 2024
Today, I'm starting to feel slightly better, but am at an enthusiasm level of zero. It's not the best circumstance for doing a blog post, but that is okay.
I did start playing Long Live the Queen last night, which was a lot more interesting than I expected. From the look of it, I thought it would be a cute, fluffy raising sim, but the second it allowed me to, I became such a power hungry, murderous tyrant that I truly felt I deserved my bad end. I'm excited to see how else I can meet my destruction in this game!
Everything else I played yesterday was pretty par for the course. I did some guild events in King of Prism Sparkling, since it's nice to destroy other magical ice skaters for the common good.
I finished the puzzle I've spent days emptily struggling against in Sudocats, too, only to find that this bonus puzzle seems to have been miles harder than the rest. Oh, well!
Anyway, halfway through doing this post, I got a very above board Sega Saturn memory card with a lot of games loaded onto it, so I might have some strange games to post about tomorrow. Not coincidentally, I have regained some of my enthusiasm for being awake. It's strange how that works!
August 8th, 2024
I'm still way under the weather today, which kind of sucks for a day off work. I'll do my best to enjoy it, though.
Honestly, I played King of Prism Sparkling the most yesterday, because half-hearted clicking is easy when I'm tired. Even there, I skipped some of the training mode stuff that asks for more screen taps or faster screen taps, but I kept my little idol town running for another day.
I played Sudocats for a few minutes, too, but shut it off pretty fast again. I'm not focused enough for sudoku right now, cats or not.
Today, I want to see if I can get peppy enough to play a workout game for at least a few minutes, so I can meet my weekly goals. If I can't get there, though, I'll try for multiple play sessions Friday or Saturday. I'll see how it goes!
August 7th, 2024
I didn't post this morning because I wasn't feeling well, but, blaming allergies, went to work thinking the filtered air in the office would help me feel better. It didn't, and my brain went to absolute mush pretty fast. Even worse, I sniffled while doing customer support, and my super nice caller noticed that I wasn't feeling well. I went home halfway through the day, grabbed some sudafed on the way, and am pepped up enough to do this now.
I wasn't feeling good last night, either, though, so I just stared blankly at Sudocats for ten minutes or so before rolling over and trying to sleep. It doesn't make for a rip-roarin' blog post, but it wasn't a bad choice.
From here, I'm gonna try to take it easy, but I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow with something! I have the next two days off, so of course I'm feeling crummy ahead of that. Oh, well!
August 6th, 2024
I'm starting to have nights of bad sleep stack, which is never great. This'll be a short post today! I did do about a puzzle and a half in Sudocats last night, getting a little dragged down by my own sleepiness.
I spent a little time with King of Prism Sparkling, too, exhausting all my energy in the higher than is reasonable stack of game systems before trying to sleep. The event that was causing trouble on Sunday had totally vanished yesterday, so I'm curious as to if it will come back.
August 5th, 2024
Today is a quick before-work post, both because I overslept and because I honestly didn't do so much gaming yesterday. I played a lot of Balatro while chatting with one of my friends, but did badly because I wasn't really paying attention. Even though I wasn't really engaging with the game so well, it's nice to have something like this to play.
I stuck with King of Prism Sparkling yesterday, too, even though I spent most of the day thinking that the game was down. Instead, a new event had popped in and trying to click on it busted the rest of the game, making it seem like the whole thing was broken when it was really just that event. I figured that out and made some progress right before bed, but didn't feel like it bode particularly well for the game as a whole.
August 4th, 2024
Today, I wanted to do crafts when I got up, so I did! It's a great story, right? That's why I'm doing an after lunch post today.
Yesterday was not much of a games day for me, though. I did play a slightly longer than normal session of Earthbound: Beginnings, heading down into the graveyard, but since the random encounter rate in this game is extremely high, I didn't get any further than normal. I had some battles be a single step apart while playing last night! It's not bad in and of itself, but it does make moving forward a little sluggish.
I kept going in King of Prism Sparkling, too, burning off the funds that I gathered while my tablet was off and chasing down some other in game rewards. It wasn't anything great, but I was just using it to give myself a break from productivity. On that front, it was definitely enough.
August 3rd, 2024
I stayed up too late last night because I simply did not want to go to bed, and even though I'm sleepy today, it was worth it. The only thing I need to do today is make a (slightly fancied up) chili dog casserole, and even doing the chili from scratch, that'll be nothin'.
Games-wise, I continued my extremely incremental trek through Earthbound: Beginnings, finally going south of Podunk to find there was a healer there who could have restored my Psi points the whole time. Doing things the hard way did net me a good amount of EXP, so I don't regret the path I took. I am super irritated with myself for not exploring harder, though.
I did another short daily workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star, too, and it is a much worse game on a hot and humid day than it is in any other sort of weather. Finishing without giving up or swearing at no one in particular made me feel accomplished, though, so I was happy.
From there, I did my somewhat less fancy mobile gaming, too. I left Merge Pixel running for a while, but got sick of it even as a focus tool at around lunchtime and clicked it off again. After a few days of login bonus scumming, I'm sure I'll give it a couple more days.
King of Prism Sparkling got more of my attention than it deserved, though, as I tried to figure out the somewhat baffling mascot system. Materials for levelling them are pretty limited, and their skill levelling system feels mysterious and random. It's not really a game system I feel like I need to engage with to succeed, but the point bonuses from them seem decent enough that it might be worth investigating further. If I don't figure it out, though, I'm not going to worry too much about it.
August 2nd, 2024
I'm doing a late and underwhelming "lunch break" post today, since I didn't have time to comfortably post this morning.
I kept going with Earthbound: Beginnings for about ten more minutes last night, walking back to Podunk, but forgot to take a screenshot! I was dead tired, so this isn't shocking, but I am annoyed at myself over it.
After watching Olympic gymnastics and seeing the athletes do some truly superhuman feats earlier that night, I went and did a light workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star. It was somewhat less impressive than anything at the Olympics, but I really aced pretending to punch things for a little bit.
Aside from that, a lot of my gaming yesterday was using mobile games as fidgets when I needed to focus on what I was doing. I autobattled my way through an entire event in The Tale of Food, albeit a small one, and felt rather powerful for it. It was brain dead, but kind of satisfying.
I kept on clicking in King of Prism Sparkle, too, getting more "rare" cards and becoming ever more curious how the company running this game intends to make any money off of it. It's nice that I can play and succeed for free, even if it is mostly just a clicker game, but it makes this all rather mysterious.
I also had the urge to run Merge Pixel for a while, letting it run for a bit without making any real progress. At this point, the daily login bonuses are going to be more key to winning than actually letting the game go. I will defeat it yet.
I'm off to tackle the last couple of hours of work before the weekend from here! Hopefully, it'll go quickly.
August 1st, 2024
It's the start of a new month, and I feel like I want to do my best to be better sorted out in August! I don't know that I'll succeed, but I'm going to try scumming my weekly to-do list to knock off 25 items, including craft and hobby stuff, today. If I can, it'll be a big accomplishment for a weekday!
Last night, though, I didn't do anything special in terms of gaming. I played Earthbound: Beginnings and got Ness back to his house for some curry and a PP refill, and beat the zombie I thought was a mini-boss, too! Next up, I'm gonna tackle the graveyard.
I was really scattered and unfocused yesterday, though, so I played more mobile games than anything. I messed around with the simple afterthought of a match-3 game buried in King of Prism Sparkling, somewhat baffled as to why the game is a clicker and not just a more polished version of this.
I also played a few levels in Mary's Mahjong, only to find out that Mary's father's insurance company won't pay out on the storm damage to his boat. I also matched some tiles.
With that, I'm off to (hopefully) kick butt at getting through the day! I wish all of you this level of enthusiasm, too.
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