What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Kemono Friends Picross (Switch)

April 1st, 2025

Today got off to a weird start! I've been having weird dreams lately, so I was looking at my Neocities feed this morning and saw "this website," but with a different screenshot on it. My first thought was, "Oh, I played this in a dream where I go to a weird abandoned shopping mall and I'm not awake yet, but I'm in a different dream-zone. Got it!" I then clicked on it and it was Skep's website, so I realized it was probably not a dream, but did briefly assume it was an early "birthday prank," the normal thing everyone does and that I'm certainly experiencing annually. I realized it was an April Fools Day joke pretty fast from there, but it was a longer journey than it needed to be.

Aside from my being impressed that it was a pretty detailed and personalized match to this site, screenshotted below for posterity, I can't say enough nice stuff about Skep's site, which you can visit by clicking on these words! It's one of my favorite sites on here, and has a lot on offer: classic Chinese literature, pasta sauce, lizard noir, booze, and more! I can't recommend the site strongly enough, especially the fantastic in progress Romance of the Three Kingdoms piece.

Anyway, it was cool, and I was excited.

My gaming last night was not so exciting. I got really tired and decided that it would be a good idea to see if I could 20cc, or 20 credit clear, Space Harrier. I couldn't, as I am terrible at Space Harrier, but I did have a lot of fun. Tonight is the final night of Astro City Mini week for me, and I'll probably just give this another shot. I hit level 14 last night, so it would be nice to at least match that tonight.

I also tried Power Rangers: Dino Thunder for Game Boy Advance on my Miyoo Mini+ because I was in a weird rabbit hole after watching some Kamen Rider on Sunday. It's not very good, but it's also excellent. It's a mediocre beat-em-up/platformer where a guy tells you to believe in yourself over and over and then you can spam summon a dinosaur mech to kill everything on screen ten times straight. I didn't play this for a massive amount of time, but I felt I was truly gaming.

Before bed, I played some more of Kemono Friends Picross, but it's picross, so for today, I have no real notes on it. I clicked on some boxes and made some little pictures of anime girls.

March 31st, 2025

Yesterday afternoon, after a roughly five year break, I picked Kemono Friends Picross back up like I'd never put it down. I don't know why I quit, but I like picross and it's a cute theme, so I'm glad I went back to it! My gaming habits are normal and mega efficient.

I also decided to try The First Descendant, because I was itchy for something shiny and new but didn't want to spend any money. There's something very similar about all these big free to play semi-RPGs, and it seems bizarre to me that my giant demon-horned mech man in this felt the same double jumping in this as my tiny, fashionable girl in Infinity Nikki. I also forgot the gun controls and accidentally called for backup about 30 times straight in an early mission and felt guilty for interrupting people's monster shootin' time with all my nonsense. This is very okay, though, and I think I'll go back to it.

At the end of the day, I got out my Astro City Mini and actually had an excellent time with Fantasy Zone, wiping out some of my bad feelings about the system. The first stage gave me tons of trouble, but the second was way easier. Clearly, this was down to poor difficulty balance and not my skills improving as I went. This is a cool game, though. It's satisfying to knock out all the bases before a boss fight, and it made me feel like I was making good, steady progress, even as I repeatedly exploded. I don't know if I'll focus on it right now, but I definitely want to play more of this!