What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
March 2025
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.
March 25th, 2025
I finished my Sims 4 quest last night, and it all went disappointingly well. It was fun to embrace the chaos of the game on a track, so I think I'm going to keep up with goal-setting, whether it's provided by the game or not. I don't want to buy any game packs or expansions yet, though, so I might just do some fishing next.
My XBox was already on for Sims 4, so I played KOF: Sky Stage for a little bit once all that was over. I'm not sure how much I like this, but once you reach a level, you can just select it as your starting point. I might use that as a cheat to get through the game as every character, but I don't know yet.
March 24th, 2025
I had a doctor's appointment at 7:40 this morning, which is much earlier than I am usually up, so I am zoning out right now. Yesterday, though, I played many games. In the afternoon, I got it in my head that it was time to finish the arcade modes in Tekken Advance. Gunjack was my first character, and that went pretty badly. I had to use my most continues of the whole game, as Gunjack is sluggish and not fun to play as. I got my clear, though, and that was what counted.
After that, though, I ran through as Hwoarang, who is my most frequent Tekken main. I obliterated everyone in that run, and it was good and satisfying. Kicking is fun.
From there, I unlocked Heihachi and did my final run, which was solidly fine. Overall, though, I was pretty impressed by this game. It's simplified, with a small roster and some repeated backgrounds and music, and the AI is really weak. It looks and plays like Tekken, though, which is really cool for the Game Boy Advance! It's not perfect, but I'm glad I took the time to replay this. It was a really good time.
I also had a decently long Sims 4 session, which went chaotically. My main Sim died of a metorite, so she lost her job because ghosts can't work fast food in this game. She's a ghost astronaut now, to get her revenge on the space rocks, so she's fine, as far as being dead goes. I moved another Sim into the house to help pay the bills while that career got up and running, though, and then made all the girls grind their logic skill through game after game of poker to progress in the time limited quest. I'm going to keep going with this tonight, but don't particularly think it'll go smoothly.
I also started a hidden cats game on Switch called Summer Paws, where you spin little diorama islands to find sleeping cats. They are round, cute and good cats, so I'm eager to play more, despite some control weirdness.
March 23rd, 2025
Yesterday, most of my game time went to Sims 4 again, which was a lot of fun! I'm still working on the time travel storyline, so I got to invite people to the park and abandon them to dig holes, or visit friends and rummage through their couches. I'm still not even at the halfway mark of this event, so I'll probably toss some more hours into it today. It's fun, so I'd like to see it through!
In less fun gaming, I played and "finished" a cat game I'd gotten in a Steam bundle, Slide Stories: Neko's Journey. It was super cute, so I could get through it, but I don't like slide puzzles! I just wanted to get this over with, so I sat down and ran through it on the easiest mode in one sitting. As a hater, it was not my favorite, but if you do like slide puzzles, this is very calm and charming.
I played Esp Ra.De. PSI for a little bit before bed, too. This Switch port has some very nice "learn the game" features, chopping the levels into bits to use for managable practice sessions, so I messed with those and made a couple super easy arcade mode runs last night. It was nothing special, but I want to eventually clear normal mode without spamming credits, so I'm cool with having a slow start.
March 22nd, 2025
I'm having a very laid back Saturday, and relaxed after work last night, too. I got it in my head that I really wanted to play Sims 4 yesterday, and since it's a little easier for me to play on my XBox, I kind of abandoned it on my Legion Go. When I turned it on, I had a "time travel" event in progress, so I just kept going with that for a while. The guided story stuff is kind of fun and gives me a sense of purpose as I play, but I only have 10 days to finish! I think I can do it, but am not sure how hard I'm going to try.
I went back to playing Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade for Miwa's event that just started, too. Naturally, I kicked that off by running the game for 3 and a half hours to play a different event. My event winnings scored me Miwa's limited gacha card, though, so I'll be getting her smaller event off to a good start. I got to gloat about my good luck, too, and that was probably the best part of the whole thing.
March 21st, 2025
I didn't get done with things until really late last night, and had to talk myself out of trying Castle of Shikigami at 1:30 in the morning. Instead, I tried Esp Ra.De. PSI, which, in the light of day, seemed to me to be a completely lateral move. I want to get good at shmups so I can enjoy extremely anime arcade style games, and Esp Ra.De., with its flying psychic battle teens, is exactly what I want. I want to start off in this by getting a 1CC, or one credit clear, in super easy mode, which seems very doable. It wasn't doable last night, but I played it until I flat out fell asleep last night and got my first good night worth of sleep all week. This might not be a good long term strategy, but it made today easier.
March 20th, 2025
There's still an hour left in Thursday, but I've got Friday style burnout already. I wish I knew why these past couple weeks were challenging me so hard! Last night, though, I was able to relax with a very half-asleep play session in Fit My Cat. The difficulty outpaced my ability to think after just a few levels, but that's okay. I am thankful for super casual games.
March 19th, 2025
About six months ago, one of my work friends recommended that I play the Game Boy port of Bonk's Adventure, and last night, I finally remembered to try it. I did spend a lot of time messing with the color presets in Retro Arch, because I was tired and that was shiny and pretty. The little bit of it I played was fun, though. Bonk himself is a weird little meat fiend, and it's pretty satisfying to ram his head into dinosaurs. The bosses were a little baffling, but I think that's because I was tired, not because it's a complicated game. I think I'm going to give this another shot tonight.
March 18th, 2025
Yesterday, I thought I was having a day long panic attack, but it turned out I was just having normal trouble breathing. I didn't realize that until 3 or 4 in the morning, though, so I only slept for three hours. It is making today challenging, which is too bad, because I had a fun gaming day yesterday! In the name of working on my game completion bingo cards, I tried Marsupilami: Hoobadventure last night and loved it. It's a 2D platformer, and I thought it had a good, satisfying speed, nice controls, and a bright, colorful look that made me happy. I'm too sleepy to articulate anything past that, though! It's bad blogging about a lovely game.
I also did a playthrough in Tekken Advance, clearing Law's arcade mode. I perhaps had not used Law at all since I was unlocking everything in Tekken 3, so I spent most of the playthrough reflecting on that rather than the game. The AI in these portable fighters is so dingbatt-y that it's easy to get distracted and still win.
March 17th, 2025
My anxiety won't stop bothering me, so I'm having trouble focusing on longer games the past couple days. I'm trying to enjoy some shorter ones, though! Yesterday, I played Planetarian: Snow Globe, the very short prequel to Planetarian. It's a kinetic novel, so there's no gameplay, but it was to the point and worth the 30 or 40 minutes I spent with it. It's interesting to see a short story in video game form, and it still makes me wonder how far the kinetic novel format can be pushed. I should play more of them.
I played a few levels of Pocket Quest to try to shut my brain off before bed, too. It wasn't exactly fun, but it was relaxing.
March 16th, 2025
I feel extremely, almost intolerably nervous today, so even though I played a lot of games yesterday, I want to make today's post easy on myself. I wanted to play Sonic Chaos start to end yesterday, but I ended up doing some other things and abandoning it after the first four zones. Sonic Origins Plus has game saves, so this is no big deal. I'll probably finish it off soon. It's always good to make full use of a PS4 with some Game Gear emulation.
When I decided I didn't want to finish off Sonic Chaos, after realizing I'd left my PS4 on for 8 or 9 hours, I switched over to Virtua Fighter 5 for a little bit. My first playthrough of the night was as Brad, who was ok, but not all that interesting at that moment.
After that, I did a run through as Vanessa, who was more interesting. I was a lot worse as playing as her, but that didn't mean I was having less fun.
After skipping the credits, I jumped right back in to do another Vanessa playthrough in a different costume, getting marginally better. From there, though, I shut the PS4 off for the night.
Before bed, I played an extremely cheap Steam game I'd picked up months ago called Horses.io. It's a normal little game, where you guide a horse around to build a big herd of horses, all of whom have weirdly human screams for their neighs. I don't mind this, though. The two minute playtime keeps things zippy, so I'll probably at least brave the bots to unlock everything here.
March 15th, 2025
Today has not been a bad day so far. I spent a lot of time on this site, doing some background work, and went to the movies. It's a decent Saturday!
Yesterday, I got a very strange Tetris themed Famicom-on-a-chip mini arcade system pretty cheaply. A lot of the games on it seem to be the strange off-brand rubbish I saw on the commonly sold Famiclones when I lived in Japan. I'll write about some of those later, and maybe give some of them a fairer shake than I have in the past. No matter how bad any of the "extra" games are, though, the version of Tetris included is pretty decent. Rather than being able to speed pieces to the bottom, the pieces just kind of plunk down with no control if you're looking to speed them up a bit, which was my only real irritation with it. The Famicom, or at least Famicom-esque hardware, gives it interesting vibes, and I like the version of the Tetris song it's using. This wasn't as bad a buy as I thought it might be.
I kept playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, too, doing a somewhat filler-ish dungeon between story beats. I can add extra Pokemon to my party now, which is nifty, and I'm pretty pleased to have Magnemite first.
I haven't forgotten about fighting games, either, and I did Sonic's classic mode playthrough in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I play too much Sonic, so I got frustrated when I couldn't do a homing attack against a band of Kirbies. I think that speaks well to the gameplay, though. Characters feel reasonably accurate enough in Smash Ultimate that I get thrown when something is missing from their "moves," which is more than I'd expect from a game balancing so many cast members. It's neat!
March 14th, 2025
Earlier tonight, some storms missed my area, making me feel extremely lucky. Even with some overtime today, I'm more awake than I usually am on Fridays. Yesterday was a laid back gaming day, though. I just played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team again, clearing the first dungeon with a boss. I'm still so charmed by this game! I love that there's a Kangaskhan that talks to me like she's a diner waitress, and it's just so sweet overall to see the Pokemon living in their little woodland community! This game is absolutely the cutest!
Last night, though, I also did some shopping in the Steam Spring Sale, and am setting up a special section of my site to track how much playtime overall I get from that haul. I don't know when I'll start it, but since I wanted to play with page design tonight, it seemed like a good night to get the base page done. I'll figure out how I'm going to link it all up later.
March 13th, 2025
I'm so close to the weekend, but so far away! Last night, though, I tried Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team on Switch Online and was really zeroed in on it. It's so bright and charming, and I can stroll away in the little random dungeons to my heart's content! I played this a little bit for DS, years ago, but didn't get very far. It would be fun to clear this now.
March 12th, 2025
I got up early for a blood test today, and then had a busy day at work, so my brain is soup. Last night, though, I tried Aquatic Store Simulator and ended up shutting it off before I was finished with the tutorial. It wasn't too clumsy to control, though, and I think I'll play more. I want to see the fish themselves before I make a big judgement on it.
March 11th, 2025
I'm still run down, so things might be boring here for a couple days! Last night, I didn't want to do much of anything, so I just played a mobile game called Fish Collector. It was okay, and the fish and mermaids were cute. I don't know if I'll stick with this long, though. It was just a nice game to mess with when I was too tired to function.
March 10th, 2025
I'm so sleepy it feels strange to eat snacks or turn my head, due to unreasonable nervousness making it hard to sleep last night. Now that today is over, my brain has collapsed. This will be an easy post today.
I did a playthrough of Super Smash Bros Ultimate last night, and I used Banjo and Kazooie. I have no particular thoughts on the experience, though I might go back to figure out what they do a bit better. Playing with the in game camera was a blast, though.
I played through another free hidden cats game from Steam, Apartment Filled With Cats, because I had "clear game" on my to do list for the weekend. The first time I turned it on, it had some nasty control issues, but it was fine once I restarted it. It wasn't the best of these, nor was it the worst.
I finished my weekend to-do list, at 101 out of 116 items completed, too, and put Spirit City: Lofi Sessions away for the next few days. I'm trying to convince myself that was good and productive, not terrible, but Spirit City was really helpful in my quest, at any rate.
March 9th, 2025
I don't do well with time changes, so I'm even sleepier than usual today! Yesterday was good, though. I spent a lot of time cooking, and ran Spirit City: Lofi Sessions all day to keep track of what I was doing. I unlocked my last spirit creature while I was at it, a lovely fairy frog. I checked and only have two Steam achievements left in this, which I'm sure I'll hit just through daily life. This is really useful to manage to-do lists when I get overwhelmed.
Other than that, I just played portable fighting games. I tackled an arcade mode in Guilty Gear X Advance Edition, using Potemkin to get it over with. He's not a bad character, and I've seen him played well by the right players, but I really don't love slow characters in fighting games. Even with this game being easy, I had a bit of trouble. His arcade playthrough is over now, though, and no one else will be quite as bothersome.
I got two more Tekken Advance arcade playthroughs taken care of, too, starting with Nina. She felt really limited to me in this, but I don't know if that's down to this game's limits, or because I didn't really start using her more until Tekken 4 or 5. It was fun, though. She was properly zippy.
I did Paul's playthrough, too, which was almost totally neutral. I had an indifference inspiring time with him!
It's not game stuff at all, but I have some not-Legos from FiveBelow to show off, too. I forget why I wanted to wait until all three of these were done to post. They're the same brand, but I didn't buy them at the same time or anything. Nice armchairs aside, the Spy x Family living room doesn't fit so well with the Strawberry Shortcake cottage or the Hershey's shop. At any rate, though, I finished the living room this morning after doing the other two last month, then promptly broke the Hershey's shop after taking this photo. Oh, well! I'll fix it eventually.
March 8th, 2025
I'm trying to have a good, productive weekend. Naturally, this means that it's 3pm on Saturday and I'm already wanting to doze off. I do have a lot to type about today, though, so I'm going to make an effort at energy!
Last night, while I was exercise biking, I ended up playing a bit with the roms on my long lost Miyoo Mini+. I left it in a craft bag and then abandoned the craft contained within- it was quite tragic! I'm in such a fighting game mode, though, that I ended up turning on Tekken Advance, the Game Boy Advance version of Tekken 3. I had this back when it came out, and played it a moderate amount. I'm a lot more impressed by it now than I was then, though. Sacrifices had to be made, especially in terms of the roster, but it's pretty wild that they made this work on GBA.
In single player, though, it's pretty easy. I buzzed through four arcade modes last night, starting with Xiaoyu. I was being extremely cheap and spamming her ground kick against the AI, but it still seemed to go quickly.
After that, I ran Jin's arcade mode less cheaply, still having fun. I never used Jin all that much back in normal Tekken 3, so I don't know his moveset so well. This felt reasonably good, though, and was fairly easy, too.
Yoshimitsu was less easy, because I don't really like playing as him all that much and never got any skills with him. I managed to make him do the thing where he twirls around with his sword in the air a bunch of times until the credits rolled, but it's not a performance I was proud of.
My last arcade mode for the night was with King, who I knew I'd have to play as eventually. It wasn't that bad, though! I relied on his throw a little too much, but he wasn't as sluggish as I'd remembered. It was okay!
I did some survival mode while I finished exercising, but after that moved onto Guilty Gear X Advance Edition, the most normal way to play Guilty Gear in 2025. I'd had this for Game Boy Advance, too, but remember playing the Tekken cart a lot more. This, too, is pretty impressive, though! Some of the music is a little questionable, but it looks great and plays smoothly. This one is a bit on the easy side, too, though, which seems strange to me. I intended to mess with survival mode for a few minutes, but made it up to about survival level 80 with Johnny, who I've never really even used that much. If you haven't played Guilty Gear X, that's not as impressive as it seems- it was only about 19 fights. It was still enough to unlock Dizzy and Testament right off the bat, though, so I guess I'm ready to tackle the arcade modes here, too.
Other than hanging out in my fighting game rabbit hole, I used my Legion Go for some much cozier gaming pursuits. I'm trying to use Spirit City: Lofi Sessions to help with my productivity this weekend, so I had it on to unlock some spirits last night. I did pretty well, and might be able to get the last one today, before the DLC comes out later this month.
I played a few minutes of Luna's Fishing Garden before I went to sleep, too. It was really just a few minutes, though, so I spent them finishing off my fishing rod upgrades. It was fine, but uneventful.
March 7th, 2025
I wasn't bluffing about being tired last night, so I just did a single playthrough of classic mode in Smash Bros Ultimate to allow for more sleep. It was a good one, though! I went with Kazuya from Tekken and was super charmed that for his opponent ladder, they faked a traditional fighting game arcade mode using one on one matches on flat surfaces with HP meters allowing for normal knockouts. They even did a two-form final boss instead of a big monster at the end! Plus, it had the yodeling music from Tekken 6 on one stage, which was a delight. It's all silly fan service, but I'm good with that. This playthrough was an excellent time.
March 6th, 2025
It has been a crazy week so far, and I've still got one day left after this. I'm inexplicably tired, but can sleep late and not work on Saturday. I'm almost there!
In terms of games, I started a charming cozy game I'd gotten in a bundle last night, called Luna's Fishing Garden. You play as a girl helping some spirits rebuild islands after a storm by fishing, tidying up, and planting stuff, and it's very nice! It's simple, chill, and I've been excited to play more of it all day.
I used Yoshi for a pretty excellent Smash Bros Ultimate run last night, beating my current high score and just all around feeling rather powerful. Yoshi is a very solid character in this game.
It's not a game, but I finished the sticker scene I was working on right after posting here last night, too. It was relaxing and made me happy. All of the little cats seem to be having such a lovely time, napping and sipping tea. I wish I was there, too! My allergies could handle it, at least for a little while.
March 5th, 2025
I'm super sleepy again tonight, but I can kind of relax now that work is over! Last night, I finally cleared Lost Grimoires: Stolen Kingdom, which had a pretty decent final half hour. I made potions, melted a robot, and fought an alchemist- you know, all the basic stuff a game should be covering! Snark aside, I really have fun with these hidden object adventure games, and they're nice to play to keep my brain busy while I'm exercising. I'll probably play something else like it soon.
I also tried Fistifluffs, a game I recently picked up for 2 dollars with my Switch eShop gold points. It's a game where cats brawl, and it got middling to bad reviews, I liked what I played last night, though, especially considering how little I paid for it. I might not tackle this immediately, but it'll be fun to play it more in the future.
My Smash Bros Ultimate character last night was Fox, who I do not like and suck at playing as. It wasn't that fun, and I'll still have to deal with Falco and Wolf. These, however, are but temporary inconveniences.
As for today, I've been squirreling away time during work breaks and while cooking dinner to work on one of the little sticker scenes I have stashed. This one is a "cat's loft cottage," as the package says, and it's pretty pleasant to make. I'd like to finish it tonight!
March 4th, 2025
I'm super sleepy tonight, and am posting after some classic coming-home-and-spacing-out. Luckily, my gaming wasn't very wild yesterday. I tried a free Steam shmup before bed, called ImageStriker. It's from the same developer as Raging Blasters, Terarin, and there definitely are similarities. It was very enjoyable, too. I kind of got wrecked in stage 5 last night, since I was having trouble not ramming my ship into walls. It was fun, though! I'll be happy to play more of it.
Other than that, I just kept up with the stuff I've been playing. I put another half hour into Lost Grimoires, in which I rescued a king and seemed to launch him out of a hole in the ground in a minecart. I'm curious to see how tonight's play session goes.
I also did another Super Smash Bros Ultimate playthrough last night, clearing classic mode as Samus. She's an excellent character, and probably one of my favorites in the series. My true excitement, however, came from unlocking Incineroar, a weird and large cat Pokemon! Incineroar isn't even close to the best cat Pokemon, but I'm still pleased to have any sort of cat in Smash Bros. I'm not sure if I forgot it was there, or if I just never knew. Still, a cat is a cat.
March 3rd, 2025
I'm doing a lunch break post today so that I may more effectively be useless later. I'm excited for it!
Yesterday, I got around to trying the Astro City Mini that I'd gotten a pretty good deal on the week before last. It's a really nice little machine, which an excellent clicky joystick and quite a few games to explore. Yesterday I tried Sega Ninja or Ninja Princess- the title was different on the game selection and title screens- but I didn't enjoy it at all. Having different shooting buttons for shooting shuriken straight ahead and shooting them in 8-directions felt really strange and confusing, and the one-hit kills felt rough. I might come back to this because I'm mad at it now, and wish to see it defeated, but it won't be a priority.
While I was on my exercise bike, I picked Lost Grimoires, a hidden object adventure game I'd dropped for a few months, back up. The story is simple enough that I was able to get back into it fast, and even though it's pretty easy, solving the simple puzzles makes me feel like a smart cookie. I've heard this is a shorter one, so I might finish it tonight. I have a couple of other games in this vein lined up, so that would be totally fine.
I was able to continue my fighting game character clearing streak, too, running through Kirby's classic mode in Smash Bros. Ultimate. I spent more time messing with photo mode than fighting. Kirby is so cute, and it was really important to take the time to appreciate him! The camera mode is very neat, too, with a lot more options than I expected. Of course I'm looking forward to more classic mode clears, but the screenshots will be just as fun.
March 2nd, 2025
Yesterday, I found more hidden objects than I expected I would. I'd been saving the Steam freebie 100 March Cats for yesterday, as March 1st seemed to be as good a day as any to play it. It was really cute, so I ended up picking up the DLC, too. This wasn't extraordinary for a Steam hidden cats game, but I like spring and flowery garbage, and the cats in this were round and cute. I don't play these sorts of games with a very serious attitude, so I was happy with this one.
I didn't intend to play Tiny Treasure Hunt DX start to end, though! I started it while I was on my exercise bike, hoping it would get me through around an exercise session and a half, but it didn't even last half an hour! I still enjoyed it, and the art in this one was extremely cute, too, but it was way shorter than the first game in the series.
With two little hidden object games cleared, though, I was able to knock a couple more spaces off my game clearing bingo cards. I think I'll post of a photo of how messy I've made my corkboard for this every three games closed. It's as normal as something like this can be right now, but I know I can make a mess of it.
I did a couple more playthroughs of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, too. I'm running through the original characters before I think about tackling the unlockable ones and DLC, so I started with Donkey Kong. Usually, I don't like slow characters so well, but it's so satisfying to pick up the opponent, stroll over to the side of the stage, and toss them off.
My other playthrough was as basic Link, which was fine. He wasn't really funny or exciting to play as, but strikes me as a pretty decent character. I just haven't played a ton of Zelda games, so some of his moves are a little lost on me.
March 1st, 2025
I can't believe it's March already! I didn't do so great at clearing games last month, only managing to get through three: the cute but slight Tiny Treasure Hunt, the cool and very retro 3D3D, and the Switch port of a portable fighter that was SNK Gals' Fighter. It's not the topic of my blog, but I also buzzed through two manga series: Suki: A Like Story, which was a minor branch of a Clamp binge, and the manga version of Kill la Kill, which I read as a refresher before I eventually play the fighter. Overall, I didn't hit as many nerd goals as I would have liked, but this month might be better.
As far as last night goes, I decided to see about finally getting into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I bought this on release day, and had the first fighters pass, but never really did much into it! When I turned it on, I had piles of challengers to unlock, too, so I must not have been doing so well with what I did play. When I lived in Japan, I wasn't always doing my best, so this wasn't very surprising, but it still gave me a lot to get through last night.
Last night, I sat down with the game, picked up the second fighters' pass out of a desire to eventually play through classic mode as every character, and selected Pikachu for my first try. It was then that I realized I did not remember the controls at all, and proceeded to get Pikachu repeatedly killed. I got a better handle on it pretty quickly, though, and was able to get through classic mode.
After going back in to unlock some of the challengers I had waiting, I did another classic mode playthrough as Mario. I don't really like his Sunshine themed moves, but since games are not designed for me specifically, I do respect that he can attack by making opponents soggier than they might be otherwise. This was a much easier clear than Pikachu, since I knew what I was doing a bit better, and made me feel more confident about getting through classic mode as all 80+ characters. This will be fun!
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