What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
May 2024
May 18th, 2024
This won't be a very exciting post today. I was sleepy and my stomach hurt yesterday, so I only played casual-style games. Fitness Boxing 2 probably got the most focus out of me, and that wasn't a ton. I did a few free workouts just to get my third fitness game session for the week under my belt and called it a day.
I officially hit the halfway point of Merge Pixel yesterday, though, and am perhaps now even more determined to see this mind-numbing idle grind through. The daily login bonuses have really been carrying me here, in terms of currency boosts, so going back to the start of that 7-day cycle has been a temporary slowdown. I might leave it running across the room while I do crafts and chores later, just to get some sweet imaginary gold.
To finish the day off, I played Love Colors until I passed out again. It didn't take long.
May 17th, 2024
I'm scumming a quick post before work this morning, with a lot of relief that it's Friday. Last night, though, I cleared Super Mario Land! It gave me a lot of satisfaction to beat a game as an adult that I could not clear as a seven year old. It is a charming, strange little game, and I like how different the worlds are from normal Mario games. The horizontal shooter final boss had me swearing like crazy, though!
I kept up my quest to 100% the achievements list in Fitness Boxing 2 as well, switching trainers to get started on a new set of daily workout rewards.
Before bed, I also did a few screens of Love Colors, which knocked me out fast. I did wake up a lot from there, but getting to sleep was nice.
Lastly, I have my daily update for Merge Pixel. I made minimal progress yesterday, but might leave it running a bit more today. It's not like there's a lot of actual gameplay to engage with.
May 16th, 2024
Today's game report won't be very exciting. I played a few more levels of Super Mario Land last night, but decided it was getting me too pepped up when I wanted to sleep soon and stopped. I was really enjoying it, but got tense about clearing levels!
After that, I worked on some screens in Love Colors, since I needed the help relaxing. It was fine.
I kept Merge Pixel running while I did other stuff as well. Currently, I think this is going to take a few weeks to clear, but since it's really light on actual play, that still feels like nothing.
May 15th, 2024
Being awake is still proving to be a big challenge for me, so this'll be a quick post.
First, I played Super Mario Land for a few minutes, since it hit Nintendo Switch Online and I hadn't played it since I was a kid. I like the world 1 music in this game quite a lot.
I kept on with a few more chapters of Destiny's Princess: A War Story, A Love Story, too, but I don't actually like the character whose route I targeted first very well. I'm halfway done already, so it's fine. The affection meters are way touchier than I expected, too! I might need to start taking notes.
I didn't do much in Merge Pixel yesterday, but still made some progress. I'm getting close to the halfway mark.
May 14th, 2024
I wanted to keep playing Altered Beast last night, but I was too dizzy and couldn't sit in front of my TV. It was unpleasant.
Instead, I had been wanting to try an otome game for a while, since I keep reading novels where girls die and get reincarnated into them to dramatic effect. I had a couple of lower-tier looking ones from deep sales stashed on my Switch, so I tried Destiny's Princess: A War Story, A Love Story.I only played the first 15 minutes or so of this, though, so I have no real opinion on it yet.
I plugged away a bit more at Merge Pixel, too, making another big jump at the daily login bonus.
May 13th, 2024
I was knockout level sleepy yesterday, but still tried to do quite a lot. My biggest accomplishment was a Wal-Mart run, where I picked up a super cute Brickcraft tape deck, in neons with some MTV branding. Some of the non-Legos I've had feel a little funky to build, like they take too much effort to snap together. This was really nice and click-y, though, and I was so pleased that the little tape fits in the deck for display! For less than five dollars, I was pleased with this.
Games-wise, I didn't do anything too exciting. I think I have a consistent path through the second level of Altered Beast now, since I was getting to level 3 with a lot less effort last night. I'd still like to be taking less damage in level 2, but I will get there.
I did some free exercises in Fitness Boxing 2 as well, pushing myself over the 51% of in game achievements earned line. The second half is going to be super time consuming, though. It looks like it requires 100 exercises with each trainer. Since I do 2-4 a day, that will take a bit.
I kept Merge Pixel running, too, but thanks to daily login bonuses, had a major progress bump. I suspect that I'll be stalled out a bit on that front today, while my per-second earnings catch up to the upgrades I can afford.
May 12th, 2024
I didn't feel my best yesterday, and my efforts to take it easy ended in my having a lot of stuff to post about here. Right after making yesterday's post, I bounced over to my XBox and finished off Adios, which only took 20 or so minutes. I felt like the Cooking Simulator style controls on the last bit kind of undercut the seriousness of the game's tone. I'm done now, though, and am glad I took the time to play this.
For the first time in a while, I did a couple off brand Lego kits, too. Both of these are from FiveBelow, and ignoring the scale issues, I think they make a cute pair. The flower shop had a misprint in the instructions, so I was glad this was simple enough to reverse engineer from the box photos. The Hello Kitty ice cream truck was ok all around, though, and I think the block colors are really good.
From there, a friend mentioned Altered Beast, and since I'd never messed with that much before, I got my Genesis Mini out and played it quite a lot. I definitely feel like I can beat it, especially if I crank up my lives and HP on the secret options menu. I'm pretty terrible at it, though, so it might take a while. Right now, I'm at the point where the first level is pretty breezy, but the second boss's patterns are still eluding me.
I also let Merge Pixel run for a while, and am documenting it here just to see how long clearing it will take.
May 11th, 2024
I didn't quite get back up to where I should be, but I was able to catch up a little on sleep last night. It meant I didn't want to get up, but when do I ever?
All things considered, I probably spent most of my gaming time idly swiping at Merge Pixel while I did more important things. I'm very determined to finish this, despite the fact that it is mind numbing, and have over a fourth of the little pixel people collected now. I've already half-heartedly been at this today, so it'll make another appearance here tomorrow.
I wanted to finish off Adios last night, but even a first person game this slow and low on action has the power to give me motion sickness. I'm interested enough to finish it off today, but if my stomach gets wobbly again, finishing it Sunday will be fine, too. I just can't abandon this quiet little character study.
To finish the day off, I went back to Love Colors before bed, too. I actually got quite a few screens cleared and felt a little accomplished. No, coloring in the little pixels does not take any skill, but it is still satisfying.
May 10th, 2024
Yesterday, I had to take my asthma inhaler a couple times, which makes me very peppy and almost totally unable to sleep. Breathing is worth it, but today is gonna be a challenge. It's Friday, though, so it's okay.
Buoyed by pharmacuetical pep, I had a pretty good session of Fitness Boxing 2 last night. I'm starting to put together a long term plan to hit all of the game's achievements, and should get about three of them in my next session. It'll take ages, but since they're more of an endurance test than a skill one, I've got this.
I played a couple more scenes in Adios, too, impressed by both the genuinely conversational tone and the fact that I got to feed a horse an apple. The horseshoes minigame was confusing, though- I played the whole thing and am not sure how the controls worked.
My final game of the night was Merge Pixel, an Android play-in-browser game I was hoping would put me to sleep. It did, eventually, which was an accomplishment. All you do in this game is wait around and drag little pixel buddies on top of each other to form more "valuable" little pixel buddies, but it seems to have a clear ending and isn't very nasty about ads. I'll come back to this one.
May 9th, 2024
Today's post'll be another short one, since I'm trying to get it done before running for some before-work errands.
Last night, I started playing Adios, an old Games With Gold download that had been sitting on my XBox for a few months, as it sounded interesting and I wanted a quick sense of accomplishment. So far, it has big relax-and-watch-things-unfold-vibes, but there's a lot of ways things could go wrong for a guy trying to stop working with a hitman, so I'm not sure it'll stay chill.
I also played a tiny bit of Threaded last night, but only made it through a puzzle and about a fourth of the next one. There's nothing to brag about here.
May 8th, 2024
I had an internet outage this morning and a busy day, so this post is super late! I'm within two hours of midnight in my time zone. Last night, though, I just played a couple puzzles in Threaded to get to sleep, though, so at least it's a low intensity posting situation. Hopefully, tomorrow will be an internet outage free day- that was my second one this week!
May 7th, 2024
I'm doin' a quick post today, because I did a poor job of getting out of bed today! My main game yesterday was Yoshi's Crafted World, and I buzzed through three more levels.
I also did some free exercises in Fitness Boxing 2, getting a fitness game session in while working towards some in-game achievements.
For a sleepy-time game, I tried Threaded again. The puzzles aren't bad, but shortly after this screenshot was taken, I accidentally found the "erase all your progress on this puzzle" button. It's not a feature I loved.
May 6th, 2024
I didn't have a very major gaming day yesterday. I did, as I'd wanted to, play a few levels of Yoshi's Crafted World, though! It was still very cute and nice, and I got the first of five gems I'm supposed to be after. It felt like something of an accomplishment.
I played a little of Calm Colors, too, which was fine. I might dig through my backlog and see what other before-bed possibilities I've got, though.
May 5th, 2024
Right after doing my post here yesterday, I went over to my craft table and finished off Tiny Number Hunt. I actually liked this, even if the "find 1-9 in 30 pictures" concept made for a very short and simple game. It was relaxing, and a lot of the art was really pastel and cute. In the last 10 puzzles, the art style did totally change, which was jarring, but not terrible. I liked the first style better, but that's personal taste.
The control scheme for it was very strange, though! I'd actually gotten this when it came out to play before going to sleep, but the recommended control scheme is popping off the joycons and popping the Switch stand to play vertically. There's touch screen functionality, too, but that felt a little awkward to me. In and of itself, this isn't bad, but needing to get things set up made this a little harder to play on a whim.
Later in the night, I started Yoshi's Crafted World and ended up playing for over an hour longer than I'd intended. It's so cute, and since my family had an SNES when I was in grade school, I always have room for Yoshi. Chucking an egg at a Shyguy gives me great satisfaction. Getting through a few more levels of this is my only gaming goal for today.
Right before bed, I then switched back to Calm Colors as my "come on, let's pass out already" game. It's still a color-by-numbers, from the same developer as Love Colors, no less, but I just don't like it as well. It's fine, though, and I'll stick with it a few more days.
May 4th, 2024
Yesterday, I played casual games only, but not in casual amounts. I spent a lot of time last night playing a cute little hidden object game I had stashed on my Switch, Tiny Number Hunt. One of my goals today is to finish it, so I'll talk more about it tomorrow. The whole game is just finding the numbers 1-9 in drawings, though. The numbers aren't super well hidden, but the art is cute and I felt like I could zone out nicely playing it. Since I was irritated about my internet being out, a laid back game was good.
I did a daily workout in Fitness Boxing 2, too, which went well. I unlocked some new clothes for my trainer after the session, which was very satisfying, so I'll toss her in them next time I play. Plus, this means I met my fitness game goal for the week!
I also played Love Colors for a few minutes, and my interest in it hit a sudden wall. Oh, well! I have other games to play when I need to get myself to sleep, so I'll switch to something different for a bit.
May 3rd, 2024
Lately, I've felt overwhelmed by having too many games to play, so I am considering a game buying freeze until the end of the year. I buy them way too often, leaving me with more games than I'll ever play, and since this wouldn't block borrowing games or anything on GamePass, it's not even bad. I do think it'll be hard, since I shop way too much, but since I've successfully been able to cut down on getting crummy takeout for dinner, this is next.
As for actually playing stuff, I did a couple of missions in Mega Man Zero last night. I feel like I should start over and be less wasteful with my subtanks, or even just play normal mode. I'll decide in a few days, though.
My fixation on Love Colors continued, too, and I've become set on filling in all of the images in the base game. It's not an exciting goal, but it is an attainable one.
May 2nd, 2024
It's a stormy morning, and I feel sleepy and slow. Last night, though, I started in on Mega Man Zero, on a series compliation on Switch. I picked the "casual scenario mode" with no shame, as I'm not getting graded based on my ability to play Mega Man games, but just giving players all the unlocks and upgrades from the start seems like a super lazy way to balance things! I'm still having a great time, appreciating the interesting level design and some lovely sprite work, but I was a little surprised to see how Capcom handled that.
After stopping Mega Man Zero for the night, I played a bit of Love Colors to go to sleep, too.
May 1st, 2024
My May is not off to an auspicious start here. Last night, I played somewhat utilitarian games. I did a daily workout in Fitness Boxing 2, since it just seemed like it would be good to exercise. I'd like to try harder to play fitness games a couple times a week. They're kind of a time sink, with warm-up and cool down stretches included, but they're good for me.
I also continued to use Love Colors as a shockingly effective sleep aid. At this point, it's fine if it's all placebo. Being able to go to sleep easily is great.
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