What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Candivity (Switch)

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.

July 6th, 2025

I'm ending this holiday weekend with a mild headache and a renewed appreciation for kart racers, both of which could be worse. Yesterday, I really played a lot of Deathsmiles, and ended up credit scumming my way through the last couple levels in the 1.1 version as Rosa, after doing pretty well in the early game. Seeing the final stage here makes my dream of a one credit clear seem very daunting, but it'll be interesting to get there.

At one point in the day with family, I got the Switch 2 controller handed to me. One of my siblings had just speedrun Metroid: Zero Mission, so with nothing but the best games on my mind, I ended up playing a few rounds of Atlantis no Nazo. I don't have a screenshot today, since I wasn't on my own console, but it's an extremely janky Famicom platformer that I'd been fixated on in pandemic times. The jumping is bad, your little guy drops dead from anything, the level design is baffling, and it is just overall not great. I love it, and it was fun to make other people gaze upon its horrors, even if only briefly.

I also played a few rounds of Candivity to eat up some free time while stuff cooked. It was a little boring, but kept me from getting too interested in anything while waiting for timers to go off.

June 20th, 2025

Things did not line up properly to try the new game I'd been considering last night, but it was fine. Well, the dream I had about a guy cutting giant ants in half with a machete was not fine, but the rest was. I played a few rounds of Candivity until I got bored enough to fall asleep, getting ever closer to being able to delete this from my Switch.

June 5th, 2025

I got a package from Atari Age yesterday and went a bit too hard playing 2048 on my 7800+. I'm not sure about this as a good way to play 2048, aside from the novelty. When it generates new numbers, it only generates 2, rather than 2 or 4 like most versions of the game. It's a lot of fun, though, and I'm enjoying going for the 2048 tile in this version of the game! Plus, it's neat to have physical copies of weird homebrew titles. The Atari 7800+ is neat.

Before bed, I played a couple rounds of Candivity, too, because I hadn't had enough of merging rubbish. I think this is the worst of these games I have. The pieces kind of gravitate towards each other in a way I don't like that well. It has unlockables, though, giving it a concrete end, so I might press on with it so I can delete it off my Switch.

May 3rd, 2025

I'm having trouble focusing on posting today, but am working rather steadily to make a tiny diamond painting of Marian from the NES version of Double Dragon. It's a game related project, so it's fair game! I used to get the supplies for these at Jo-Ann's, and, luckily, have a decent amount on hand right now. When I was thinking about the background for this, though, I got so frustrated that I can't just go to the store and take a look at the available gem colors. These are still available to order online from the company that makes them, so it's not like I'm cut out, but I'll miss being able to try to eyeball things in person. It sucks!

Oh, this is a games blog, though, right? Last night, I played King of Fighters: Sky Stage for a little bit, and was still struggling with it. I'm struggling a little less now, though, especially playing as Kyo. I don't love this game, as it's somehow both boring and overwhelming at once, but I'll keep chipping away at it from time to time.

I tried W.A.N.D. Project on Switch last night, too, a wave-based survivors-like with magical girl vibes. It hasn't clicked with me yet, but it has a needlessly complicated power up system that I kind of like. The challenge level is pleasantly frustrating, too.

I also chipped away at the unlockables in Candivity, which was fine. I merged many sweets.

May 1st, 2025

I am feeling super crummy tonight, so I'm glad I didn't play much last night. I chipped away at unlocking everything in a couple of cheapo mobile game ports on Switch, starting with Hole.io. I played in the office level last night, which felt a little cramped, but satisfying. There were a lot of walls to take down. The mall stage is still more fun, though.

I played Candivity a little bit, too, and was impressed by how much the alternate stage changed the feel of the game. It was fun!

April 30th, 2025

Last night was low key for gaming. I played through a Samsung Instant Play game, which is like a phone-browser game, called Siberian Strike: Space Ops. It was such an easy shmup I only came close to dying once in thirty stages, so I don't feel like this was a major accomplishment. After finishing the story mode, there's some medals I can go back and collect for finishing my plane upgrades, but I don't really want to. It had ads after every level, it locks different planes to sets of stages, and it's so boring that at the end of one level, it just had me glide around the background for thirty seconds or so. If I were a passenger on a long car ride, I can see getting 100% in this game. As it is, though, I'm satisfied with just having gotten through all the levels.

I tried Candivity, another ultra cheap Switch game, too. Much like Bomb Cat, I am assuming this is a Suika Game clone, but I like this one a little better. I'm setting unlocking all the cosmetics in the base game as my "game clear" goal here, which should be fun!