What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
September 2025
September 28th, 2025
Nothing I try to do is quite working today, so I had to fight general frustration to get myself to post. I just want to go to bed, but that's probably a bad choice before dinner.
Last night, I spent my RPG hour with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Sword of Light, which was fine. I don't know if it'll make my rotation right now. I feel like I accidentally killed too many potential party members, just by not really knowing how things worked, and like I should restart the whole thing. It's not bad, but I wasn't having much fun, either.
Earlier in the day, I picked Hidden Shape: Lovely Cats back up and powered through to what I thought was the end. I then found out I was only halfway through to a small amount of distress. This isn't difficult or bad, just a little boring, so I'll chip away at it a little at a time.
On the same note, I did a couple of the hard puzzles in Zodiacats, too. I'm even less excited to finish this off, so I do not know if I'll work on it very steadily.
September 27th, 2025
Today, I am kind of sleepy and antisocial, and I bought myself a coffee shop cinnamon roll as a reward for accomplishing absolutely nothing. It's not a bad day.
As far as games go, I had my RPG hour with Raging Bytes. I had a lot of fun with it, even if it did feel goofy to level grind by throwing rocks at one zombie at a time. Zombie fiction is an interesting setting for an RPG, though! I honestly have no idea why I dropped this after one play session. It's quick paced and I like the pixel art, so my quitting was my own fault, not the game's.
I needed some sleepy casual gaming before bed, so I played some puzzles in Zodiacats. The art in this game is super lovely, but all the images are so similar that it isn't a ton of fun as a puzzle game. I cleared all the zodiac puzzles on normal mode last night, but still want to tackle them on hard more. It's important to get the most out of a two dollar game.
I played Baking Time for a few minutes, too, which is what finally put me to sleep. It was not notable other than that.
September 26th, 2025
I picked Sephirothic Stories, another of the cheap Kemco RPGs I had in progress, back up last night. I wasn't nearly as far as I thought I was in this game, and kind of think it drags a little. During last night's play session, though, I got the story moving forward and finally went to an area that wasn't just using the standard path-over-grassy-fields background. Plus, I fought a dragon. That was at least somewhat neat!
My thought right now is that if I have a few RPGs in rotation to play about an hour a night, I might be able to focus enough to get through them. My attention span is terrible, but I really enjoy playing RPGs, so defeating my bad brain is as much of a challenge as the gameplay itself! This might not work, but it feels at least somewhat worth a try.
September 25th, 2025
Last night, I did end up with some time to play an RPG! I have 4 decently standard Kemco RPGs I've started and am interested in finishing, so I started with Isekai Rondo, which I'm playing on my phone. I'd only played about 50 minutes so far, so I more than doubled my playtime during last night's session. It's a cute game! It's nothing ground-breaking, but I've read enough "reincarnated in another world" novels that the jokes were landing for me. It's extremely stress free to play, too. I'm still trying to decide how to tackle this set of games, but for yesterday, Isekai Rondo was an okay choice.
I also played some Bomb Cat before bed, but mostly just got irritated at how quickly this game hands out a reversal of fortune. The bomb mechanic just isn't all that fun.
September 24th, 2025
I wanted to enjoy some RPG time last night, but I got distracted and couldn't finish my apartment chores in time for that. Instead, I got through a few levels in Fit My Cat, until I hit a number of cats to fit that I didn't want to deal with.
I then played a few rounds of Bomb Cat to get myself to sleep. I'm becoming ever more convinced that seeing the final piece in this game is impossible, but that's fine. I'm just playing this to get to sleep.
September 23rd, 2025
Last night, before failing to sleep, I also failed to clear any stages in Fit My Cat. This is just how some nights are.
September 22nd, 2025
With a couple games cleared on Saturday, I spent my game time yesterday trying to settle on some other games I could polish off. Valis II actually didn't seem like a bad candidate. My hands were shaking really badly yesterday, but I still enjoyed finishing off stage 3. This series is maybe a lot less intense, difficulty-wise, than I'd expected it would be before starting. Clearing this seems doable.
I played quite a few stages in Fit My Cat, too, which I'm not sure why I quit. I kind of like this game, and when I picked it up last night, I was well over the halfway point. Even though I was frustrated by my own bad attention span, I had fun with this yesterday.
September 21st, 2025
I'm having some trouble getting going today, but I got a pot of applesauce on to cook and am posting here now. I'm on a very underwhelming roll!
Yesterday, though, I did manage to get some games wrapped up. I tossed a couple hours into getting all the unlocks bought in Candivity, which was a perfectly ok experience. I felt like I was actually starting to get good at it by the end, but the way the pieces kind of moved on their own still bothered me. This wasn't something I really minded playing, but I'm relieved to have it done.
I finished off Cat Survivors by the end, too, getting 100% of the Steam achievements. By the end of the game, I was so overpowered I could stand in one place until a stage event went off, in most cases. No one forced me into the final grind. I just had some misguided determination here. The main part of the game was definitely more engaging, though.
Right before bed, I played a couple of stages of Summer Paws, a 3D hidden cats game. It had been so long since I did the first bit of this game that I totally forgot how it worked. It's not super complicated, though, so I caught on fast and got to cat-finding. The camera controls in this are a bit touchier than I'd like, but it's super cute, too.
September 20th, 2025
Since I'm trying to play games I've got in progress until I get some cleared, I'd actually like to clear some this weekend. I've made no progress towards this goal so far today, but that won't stop me from trying.
Last night, I kept up with the same puzzle games I've been trying to chip away at. I spent about half an hour on Mermaids of Atlantis, but wasn't lucky enough to clear any levels last night.
I also played a few perfectly acceptable rounds of Candivity, but went to sleep instead of picking up more cosmetics after I finished. This might be a good candidate to finish off if I'm not too forgetful to keep my Switch charged between rounds.
September 19th, 2025
Last night, I just played another hour of Mermaids of Atlantis. Sometimes I just get fixated on a mediocre to bad puzzle game and that is what is going on here. I did clear a few stages last night, which felt productive, but I think a big part of that was just getting lucky combos of pieces. Certainly, I don't feel like I'm improving at the game at all.
September 18th, 2025
I haven't done a morning post for ages, but it feels good to know I'll have this out of the way early today! I don't have a ton to write about, though. I got locked into Mermaids of Atlantis last night, and despite playing over an hour, I didn't clear a single level. It's a janky unlicensed game, and I could still relax in the face of my countless losses, so this was completely fine. It was not a setback that robbed me of my determination to someday clear this game.
September 17th, 2025
When I came home tonight, I looked at the puzzle I was working on and got really set on finishing it. It has some big "empty" spaces, so it's been dragging on for a bit and I want to show it off! I like cutesy Halloween stuff, and since this is a plastic puzzle, I can pretty much use it as decor right away. Even though this is a bad photo, behold my accomplishment!
I'm still set on finishing games I've already started, and last night I landed on the PSP version of SSX On Tour. This didn't click with me the best the first time I tried it, years ago now, but I had a blast last night! Even towards the start of the game, it's got good speed, the tricks are crazy, and it feels great to get big air. The soundtrack was too good to play before bed, though! I got too hyped from LCD Soundsystem and Bloc Party and became too peppy to sleep. I might wait until the weekend to come back to this.
I tried to get myself chilled out enough to go to bed with a few rounds of Candivity, but it didn't work so well. Oh, well! I'll get better sleep tonight.
September 16th, 2025
I'm not very focused tonight. Outside of games, I'm trying to read all of the manga by CLAMP, an artist team that was really popular when I was in high school and college. I don't mean to be dismissive of them now by saying that, it just seems like they were really at their height for US fans then! Some of their stuff has never made it to ebooks or current printings here, so I've been picking up what I can on Thriftbooks and eBay. It's really fun to see the lists of manga available in the US in the backs of these books, or the goofy taglines on the ads in the back of Tokyopop manga in particular.
Besides just the used book nostalgia, though, I have to pick up my Japanese learning! I got an eBook of HIGH & LOW: G-Sword, a manga CLAMP worked on based on a big multimedia project that I barely comprehend. I can read Japanese, slowly, and with a dictionary, but I want to up my skill level and speed. Maybe I'll do some more gaming in Japanese soon. Practice is tedious and it sucks right now, but I'm never going to get better without putting any effort in.
Anyway, I mostly just chugged away at games I've got going yesterday. I did a couple runs in Cat Survivors, still chasing my final Steam achievement for getting all upgrades. Since this game gets easier the more upgrades I score, it also gets more boring the more I grind. I'm still determined to clear it, though!
My item merging grind dragged on, too, with several rounds of Candivity. This might be a game that's better played in short bursts, but unlocking everything in the base game seems super doable.
On the other side of that coin, I'm not sure getting to the final merged item in Bomb Cat is even possible, but repeatedly failing is kind of fun. Blasting pieces sky high seemed like an irritating gimmick to me at first, but it's enjoyable with smart play and pretty funny when I'm sleepy. This is a decent little merge game.
September 15th, 2025
This week, I want to try to chip away at some of the games I have going instead of starting new ones. I didn't get off to a very effective start. I played Vampire Survivors a little, messing with some of the unlocks in the Contra DLC for no particular reason.
I got back to grinding away at Sonic Wings Reunion, too. I was doing a pretty horrendous job last night, but got another character ending and found out that once I get my one credit clear in easy mode, normal isn't going to be too bad of a step up.
I tackled some of my Switch Suika Game knockoffs, too. Candivity is going to be the easier one to finish, just because it's more of a grind than anything to get all the characters and accessories unlocked. I saw the biggest item you could merge to in this last night, which was satisfying, but remain a little put off by how magnet-y the physics in this are.
Bomb Cat plays a little better, but the permanent risk of blasting pieces out of the playfield and losing the game on a dime makes me suspect this'll be the tougher of the two to finish. My end goal here is just to see the biggest cat you can merge to, since there's no unlockables.
September 14th, 2025
I went to Taco Bell instead of eating an acceptable dinner last night, but I did manage to play some shmups. The first of the two I tackled was Sol-Deace, a Sega Genesis game that felt rather challenging. It was not unfair, though. It took half an hour or so to get through the first level, as I am more determined than talented in this genre. It feels like memorizing where to put my ship and when is key here, and that's fine! It felt good to make progress here, so I'll probably try it again.
I also tried Macross: Shooting Insight, which I've had parked on my PS4 for a while. It is a sparkling train wreck in a way that I found kind of appealing. I was often not sure what I was looking at, losing to a boss kicks you back to the start of the multi-part level, idol songs suddenly get cut off by cutscenes full of character art in mismatched styles, and it just kind of feels crummy to play. Despite that, I had a decent time playing around with this! I have little to no interest in getting good at it, but the story is goofy enough that I'll probably keep going.
Before bed, I played a little of I Love Finding Cats to relax. While I do, in fact, love finding cats, the thought of playing Baking Time again made me want to scream, hence the sleepy game switch-up. It was completely fine.
September 13th, 2025
There was some noisy car rubbish going on outside last night, so I'm super sleepy today! I was originally going to have an intense crafting day, but my goals for the evening have shifted to zoning out with some shmups and eating a halfway acceptable dinner. I just dozed for an hour, so this feels very doable from here!
Last night, I indulged in some fighting game tourism, which is when I put fighting games on easy and zip through arcade mode a bunch of times. It's very silly and casual, but a lot of fun! I was playing Garou: Mark of the Wolves last night, which is a delight to just have on my Switch. The animation in this game is so beautiful, and it feels so excellent to play! I'm planning on buzzing through this as every character, so I started off last night with Terry. I got a little hung up fighting Kain at the end, even with the continue services to make my retries easier, but it was fun! I'm much better at pulling off specials than I used to be, which is satisfying, and I like this design for Terry. His coat looks comfy.
I ran through as Jae Hoon, too, a character that I'm less familiar with. He was okay, though! I had a lot less trouble with Kain, just from getting back in my groove with the game overall, and pulled off some satisfying kicks. I used to just use the same characters in this over and over, so it's fun to branch out a little.
I played Baking Time some from there, too, but it wasn't very interesting. It helped get me back to sleep after a particularly noisy patch of the night, though, and I'm glad for that.
September 12th, 2025
My post tonight is late because I sat down to work on a cutesy Halloween jigsaw puzzle to decompress after work, and I got extremely locked into it. This was a good feeling, so I'm not frustrated with myself in the slightest.
Last night, I just played stick figure games anyway. I spent some time with Mars Survivor, getting to a point where it became a very simple little dungeon crawl. I don't really want to play this for long periods of time, but it's not a bad little game, either! I'm having a decent time with it.
I also turned on Baking Time for five minutes and then fell asleep. It was fantastic. I know when I talk about this kind of game making me go to sleep, it sounds like snark, but it genuinely is not. It is amazing whenever anything helps me shut my brain off and get some good rest.
September 11th, 2025
I wasn't in much of a gaming mood last night, so I just played Baking Time for a few minutes before bed. I was so sleepy I didn't even grab a screenshot, but since nothing remarkable was going on in the game, I'm not too worried about that.
September 10th, 2025
Yesterday, I was happy that Bubsy: The Purrfect Collection finally came out, so I downloaded it onto my XBox when I got home from work. I'm not going to make an argument that the Bubsy games are great or anything. When I was in grade school, though, my family rented the first one for SNES until we just bought Blockbuster's pre-owned copy of it, presumably because no one else was renting it. I'm having fun playing it again with save states, a crucial weapon I could not access at age 7. I'm saving checkpoint to checkpoint, just because it's a game more generous in terms of enemy placement traps than it is in terms of continues. It's cool to see more of the game than I could when I was little!
I also played more of Baking Time, and duplicate cookie and tart islands have kind of sprung up out of nowhere. It seems so random that I'm not sure if the game is glitching out or not. I paid 20 cents for it and just want something chill to play before falling asleep, so ultimately, I do not care. It's pleasant, intriguing confusion.
September 9th, 2025
Yesterday was a work from home day, so I snuck off during my half hour break to drill the later stages of Deathsmiles 2. When I went back to my desk to finish out the day, I kept blinking and seeing the sparkling pink bullet spirals behind my eyelids. It might not have been my best idea, as it made jumping back into spreadsheets a bit disorienting.
From there, I skipped out on games until right before bed, when I went back to Baking Time on Switch. I want to finish up some of the simpler games I've got started, and dumb or not, I think it's funny that this game lets me carry 50+ croissants at once and then feed them to disturbing little not-Pokemon friends. It's best when the numbers go up as a result of confusing cause and effect.
September 8th, 2025
I got really fizzy brained and excited about playing shmups before bed yesterday, so I dug into Deathsmiles II out of curiosity. I know I played the first stage over 4th of July weekend, as is normal at a family event, but I gave it a real try last night and had an excellent time. I mostly played through the stages at the lowest difficulty, but cleared the game with the standard boss battle with just one continue. It gave me too much confidence and now I think I can get a 1-credit-clear while also beating the true last boss! It seems easier than a lot of shooters, so maybe I can.
In the morning, I also played quite a bit of Mermaids of Atlantis, really feeling like I hit some kind of groove in it. For me, it got a little easier when the blocks sped up, as I had less time to think about what I was doing. It got more fun, too! I am excited to eventually reign over bubble chaos while watching painfully slow but charmingly pastel cutscenes.
September 7th, 2025
Most of my game time yesterday was spent with the Super Pocket, which was fun! I spent some time messing around with El Viento, which seems like a cool little Genesis action game. It is fun to make an anime lady chuck boomerangs at gangsters on exploding motorcycles.
I also tried and got very locked into Mermaids of Atlantis, a cleaned up version of a NES porn puzzle game called Bubble Bath Babes. The difficulty levels were Easy, Normal, and Stacked, so they didn't work on the cleanup very hard. I am kind of enjoying this, though. The piece shapes are poorly designed, and it has a brutally unfair approach to garbage bubbles. Bad and mediocre puzzle games speak to me, though, and save scumming gets rid of the continue system while the stages themselves stay infuriating. It's a good balance!
I also finished the puzzle I fell asleep during in Milky Way Jigsaw Puzzles, but I forgot to get a screenshot of it.
September 6th, 2025
I got some Evercade cartridges for my Super Pocket yesterday, and ended up playing Valis: The Fantasm Soldier to give them a go. I was doing extremely poorly, though, and it was late enough to shrug and decide I was just too sleepy for an action game at that point.
After that, I bounced to Milky Way Jigsaw Puzzles, which was just a nice little jigsaw puzzle program. I like the sparkly space images and have no real complaints about the interface, so it was a nice game to relax with. I got a Steam bundle of these cheap little jigsaw games and am looking forward to playing more.
September 5th, 2025
I did a run-through of arcade Double Dragon last night, which was pleasant and breezy. I'm not saying this is a really excellent game that holds up well, but I find it kind of soothing to play every few years. It feels clunky, and the enemies towards the end are tedious damage sponges, but I like it anyway. The Super Pocket is a decent place to play it, too, weird screenshot aside.
I played through my energy in Super Kirby Clash, too, and had a nice time doing that. I was in a mindless 2D violence sort of mood last night, I guess.
September 4th, 2025
Last night, I went to play Legendary Hero Survivors, but fell asleep before I could finish a run. This is not a fault with the game at all. I was really happy I could get to sleep quickly!
September 3rd, 2025
I have my gaming so together that last night, I started Hidden Memory: Neko's Life because I had it mixed up with Hidden Shapes: Lovely Cats. I realized that I'd started up a game I wasn't a few puzzles into quickly, but there was still cat stuff going on, so I rolled with it and played half of the game. A quiet cat puzzle game is a quiet cat puzzle game when it comes to trying to relax and get some rest.
I also tried the arcade section of Section Z, which was much less relaxing, but still fun. It bounces you back to a checkpoint when you die, so I feel like even credit feeding my way through this could be something of an accomplishment. I think I'll come back to it.
September 2nd, 2025
Last night, I was lazy, so I just chased some secrets and unlocks in Vampire Survivors. I got two goals down, and got ever so close to clearing Boss Rash with one weapon only! Losing in the last minute was frustrating, but I have a plan to win. Sure, that plan is to load my favorite character up with another stack of stat-boosting eggs, but it doesn't have to be a clever one, just functional!
September 1st, 2025
Yesterday was super busy, but a lot of fun, too! I got to spend some nice time with family, eat lots of delicious food, and make progress on the cheapie corss stitch kit I keep in my purse.
I only played games for about 15 minutes before bed yesterday, but I got a Hyper Mega Tech in the mail. It seems to just be a low end Evercade, which is a game console that takes licensed cartridges of retro and indie games. I like gadgets, and want to support game preservation when I can, so this is really neat!
I ordered a few carts for this that haven't arrived yet, but the machine itself has some games from Technos built in. I tried Renegade first, since it was a game I was curious about, but found it clunky and a little frustrating. I didn't give it much of a chance, so I'm sure I'll try it again later. It's nothing I'm super excited for, though. I have better beat-em-ups around.
From that, I was worried the machine had crummy controls, so I switched to the arcade version of Double Dragon. Luckily, that felt completely fine. I wasn't in the mood to credit scum my way through last night, so I got to the third mission and shut it off. I think I'll run through it this week, though. I've never played the arcade versions of the second or third Double Dragon games, both of which are on the machine, and it would be fun to do a casual little series run!
I've mostly just been reading today, so tomorrow's post won't be so good. I'm sure I'll play something before bed, though, so I'll be back tomorrow!
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