What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Columns (Astro City Mini)

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.