What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Ad SHOOt (Switch)

August 4th, 2025

Yesterday, I decided to see if I could get Hello Kitty and Sanrio Friends Racing over and done with. It wasn't very fun! The race opponent AI was so bad that I won the final race when every single one of them got stuck on a hill. Keroppi drove past the jam-up on the last lap, and then I watched his little car turn around to join them in the purgatory of gentle slopes. The boat controls made the apple collection missions on water really miserable, too, with turns that were difficult to control and godawful terrible drifting.

The graphics are cheerful and sunny, though, and as a proud cute-stuff-liker, I have to admit that I really liked a lot of the track details. The vehicle colors were all vibrant, all the characters got cute little race outfits, and it was all just very colorful and pleasant to look at. It's a shame it wasn't actually fun, but I can't say there was nothing I enjoyed here. I just wish all these cute designs had been used for blind bags and stationery, not a rubbish kart racer.

That being said, the slowness of Hello Kitty and Sanrio Friends Racing makes the 20 tedious missions a lot more doable than the unhinged speed at which Supersonic Tank Cats operates. I kind of like the races in Supersonic Tank Cats, but the controls are not well suited to the precision collection missions require, at least on Switch.

In non-racer gaming, Ad SHOOt got patched on Switch, so I gave that another try. It actually fixed up a lot of the slowdown issues I'd been having, so I got to the stage 3 boss in one credit last night. I do think the gimmicky bosses are more fun to play than the stages, so I'm not sure if I want to try and one credit clear this on easy yet. There's still enough slowdown present that I think I'd have to pick this up on Steam for a real chance. It's fun, though, so for now, I'll just enjoy it.

July 18th, 2025

I'm having a small adventure this weekend, hence the early post. I did play a couple of stages of a new shmup on Switch last night, called Ad SHOOT. You fight companies that put unskippable ads in front of videos in it, and I was pretty impressed by the art and voice acting! Some of the slowdown, I'm less impressed by so far, even as someone who isn't really bothered by performance issues. I'll see how this goes in later levels, though, and I do wonder if the Steam version runs better.