What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Kirby's Adventure (Nintendo Switch Online)

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.

January 22nd, 2024

Late last week, I got some new medicine to help with some problems I'd been having, which I am very grateful for. I feel alert for the first time in ages, which I took advantage of by reading, like, 500 pages of violent manga last night. However, everything I am taking is also making me massively sleepy, and the combo is leading to a voice in my head howling that I need to be asleep. Because of that, my posts might not be great for a few days.

Last night, though, I started Pikuniku on GamePass out of curiosity. It was strange and brightly colored, so I enjoyed it. Between this and Turnip Boy, I wonder if Microsoft is going to start specifically recommending cute critiques of capitalism.

I played a few more levels of Kirby's Adventure, too. It's still fun.

Before bed, I'll at least play Kirby's Adventure for a few minutes. Hopefully, I'll post before work instead of after tomorrow.

January 21st, 2024

Even though I was very tired yesterday, it ended up being busier than I expected! I did some real bowling, which meant I didn't have to play a workout game, and was just generally out and about.

Before I get into game stuff, though, I want to post about the book of the month over at Bookbug, a Neocities book club. This month's book was Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata, which I buzzed through pretty quickly. It's been a couple weeks since I finished it, but I wanted to think about it a bit before posting on it. Structurally, it felt kind of short story-ish to me, with a limit on subplots and a pretty foregrounded focus on self-acceptance versus the acceptance of society, which isn't a complaint at all.

A lot of my impressions of the book, though, came from the fact that I got a Thriftbooks copy loaded with notes from someone who judged the characters very harshly. Seeing a critique of the heroine's lack of emotion in sunny bright blue letters in the margins was kind of like having a Greek chorus with very cute handwriting standing in for the society she couldn't fit into. It was an interesting reading experience, and I think it highlighted the protagonist's bafflement at what people wanted from her. Of course, that means I'm judging the book on more than itself, but since I'm not being graded on this, I'm not going to worry too deeply about that.

Overall, I did think it was an interesting character study, and one that left me curious to read more of Sayaka Murata's work. It was cool that the heroine was outside of societal norms without inviting pity, and I felt like, at least in translation, the quick, unadorned style provided a very readable reflection of her inner voice. Reading this made me glad I jumped on the Bookbug bandwagon.

In terms of games, I didn't play a ton yesterday. On my XBox, I started Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, which I'd been looking forward to quite a bit. I'm not sure how I feel about the rougelike structure yet, but I was able to grind out enough upgrades to beat the first boss and get a bit more into the story. Also, I got to do graffiti with a big crayon, and that was good stuff.

After that, I did not want to play Fashion Dreamer, so I dug through the Nintendo Switch Online apps and ended up turning on Kirby's Adventure. This is a replay for me, and since I came to the NES really late, in the 00s, I think it might be the only game I've ever beaten on real NES hardware. It's really cute and pleasant to play, though, and the graphics are so bright for the console! Since it's a late release, it's not so strange that it's impressive, but I still love the look of it. I'll probably run through this pretty quickly.

This was a longer post than I expected to make, and today will be a little busy again. I'm sure I'll play something, though, and'll be back tomorrow either way.