What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Digital Dance Mix Vol 1: Amuro Namie (Saturn)

January 28th, 2024

I half-attentively played a lot of games yesterday, so I actually get to do a good post now.

The most interesting thing, for me, at least, was Digital Dance Mix Vol. 1: Amuro Namie. I recently found a super cheap JP Sega Saturn, but didn't want to write about it in case it didn't work! Yesterday, I got a few games I'd ordered for it off of eBay, though, and was able to play a bit.

When I was first getting into stuff from Japan, way back in junior high, Amuro Namie was one of the first J-pop artists I really got fixated on, and I had an online ordered CD of Break the Rules that I played so often I wore out the clear plastic slipcover it was over-packaged in. Then, when I was living in Japan, she was doing her retirement tour, which resparked my interest. I got her 3-disc greatest hits album at 7-11 with a little tote bag and a clear file, and ran around used shops grabbing her entire back catalog dirt cheap. It was fun, and I've certainly gotten 300 yen worth of plays out of my copy of Concentration 20.

Because of all that nonsense, I'd wanted to play her Saturn game for a long time, so it was the first thing I ordered when I scored the console. It's barely a game, but I wasn't disappointed at all. There's a karaoke mode, a mode to dress her up and watch her slightly off-putting CG model dance- both limited to two songs- and some minigames named for bad puns based on her song titles. It's aesthetically excellent, though- weird fonts, flashing lights, bright candy colors, and way too much stuff moving on screen at once. It looks like a Lisa Frank designed motion capture demo and it makes me extremely happy. It will 100% pop up here again, as a bonkers way to play memory match feels like a top level "I can't get to sleep!" game.

At night, I was both extremely tired and totally unable to sleep, so my Switch got some playtime. I went through quite a few levels of Kirby's Adventure and kind of arbitrarily stopped. I think I'm pretty close to the end.

I got back to the current event in Fashion Dreamer, too, and crossed its halfway point. The Lunar New Year photo frame I unlocked is really nice, but I was too lazy to make my character a good new outfit for it! It's not going anywhere now that I have it, though, so that's not so bad.

From there, Love Colors is what finally got me ready to sleep. I am thankful for very boring games.