What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Super Kiwi 64 (Switch)

September 13th, 2024

I overslept this morning, hence the late afternoon post. It's Friday, so I'm not too mad at myself.

Last night, I cleared Doomsday, the free expansion to Super Kiwi 64. The final boss level had a nice challenge boost without being too frustrating, and the item-collecting level just before that had nifty space Western vibes. It was a strong set of extra levels, and I'm glad I finally remembered to play them! Now I just need to steel myself to go back and finish off Toree 2...

I played my daily fitness game, too, with a light workout in Fitness Boxing 2. It was a little boring, and I really dislike the front-back step exercises, but I made it through.

I ran Merge Pixel for a lot of the day, too, actually making notable progress! I'm still not as close to the end here as I'd like to be, but since I'm just using this to focus, it's hard to care.

September 4th, 2024

I felt empowered by clearing Catlord last night, so I decided to tackle the free expansion to Super Kiwi 64, Doomsday. I only did one level so far, but it's more Super Kiwi 64, so I enjoyed it. It feels good to control, the level designs are neat, and it's both cute and vaguely unsettling! It looks like this is only two levels, so I'll probably try to finish this tonight.

October 22nd, 2023

Yesterday, I did end up playing a decent amount of games. Before I'd even posted here, I went and got the last gem in Super Kiwi 64, since leaving the game at 98% was really bothering me. I really enjoyed this game, so it wasn't much hassle to call it completely done, and it was a nice sense of accomplishment, too.

I went to do a little more of Sonic Generations in the afternoon, too, but just ended up doing a couple of challenge levels and the first boss. The challenge levels, where you go back to complete special goals in levels you've already cleared, do feel like transparent padding, but they're fun enough that I don't dislike that yet. The Amy Rose "pop Sonic sky high with a hammer" level I played was kind of a delight.

Lastly, I got a Miyoo Mini+ on a pretty big sale recently, and it came last Monday. I'd been a little too tired to play with it during the week, but I browsed the ROMs on it in slight disbelief that Amazon was sellling something so wildly outside of copyright law and set it aside. Last night, though, I was talking to a friend about Dragon Quest and, though I have the Switch port of Dragon Quest II, I hated the bad scrolling in the Switch version of DQI so much that I decided to play the old Game Boy port instead.

Anyway, I turned the machine on intending to play Dragon Quest and then ended up playing the Game Boy Advance version of Britney's Dance Beat, which I'm sure is normal. I actually don't have any interest in piling on this game- it's more competent than I expected for a GBA rhythm game, and the motion captured digitized sprites are kind of impressive. It is mildly deranged to make the songs full length when they're just midis with a single line of vocals popping in every so often, but I felt like it was responsive and fair about registering my button presses. I played a little last night, but I'll probably see this game through. It's not great, but it is interesting.

I don't know what I'm going to do today, but my big goal is to defeat my sleepiness and cook a real dinner with some vegetables.

October 21st, 2023

This morning, I've been trying to be productive. Over the last couple weeks, I got a new medication I'm trying to adjust to, and it's making me really, really tired. After nine or ten hours sleep, I still don't want to move the next day, so it's been hard to eat decent food. Because of that, I went to the grocery store this morning and tried to pick up a good variety of freezer meals, to avoid last week's dreaded "hot dog week." I don't think the frozen food is truly any better for me than the hot dogs were, but it's at least less monotonous for zero effort.

Games-wise, I got up to 49 gems in Super Kiwi 64 last night, which was lovely in that I got to witness a top level video game sunset, pictured below. It's certainly an easier than average game, but I like the atmosphere and aesthetics of it so well! These colors are wonderful.

I have definitely already done some game stuff today, but I want to do some practical chores and crafts stuff today, too. Today is going to be a nice Saturday, even if it puts up a fight.

October 20th, 2023

I went to a craft store instead of posting before work today, so I'm doing a quick post during break. I just played a couple more levels of Super Kiwi 64 before bed, though, which was nice and relaxing. It's a super short game, so I feel like I'm hitting my stride with it just as I get into the second half! That's okay, though. I'm enjoying my time with it. It's fun to drill Kiwi's beak into a wall and bounce up the side of an entire tower. Going up the sides of structures that way feels powerful, like I'm cheating somehow. It is a delight.

October 19th, 2023

Last night, I just kept going with the games I'd been playing the night before. I tackled two more levels of Sonic Generations, which I'm having a lot of fun with so far. I think the two gameplay styles work decently well together, and it really does have a good sense of speed. I'm surprised there hasn't been a boss fight yet, though!

With Super Kiwi 64, I'm not so sure how I feel about it yet. The gameplay feels good, but the camera is driving me crazy. It's a point of N64 accuracy I'm not sure needs to be recreated. It's still enjoyable, though.

October 18th, 2023

I sat down to finish A Castle Full of Cats last night, but the last room was only an item room, not a hidden object room, meaning I'd basically already finished. I did fight the final boss again, which ended up being worth it, with some cute extra details for having gotten through everything else. It was a little deflating, though. I'd definitely been ready to find some cats! It was a cute and fun little hidden object game overall, though, so it was fine.

I'm still set on clearing some of the games I have around, so I dug into a couple more short ones last night. One of them was Sonic Generations, which I'd picked up in a sale on the XBox store. It's really cute so far, and I felt like maybe it had some ridiculous speed even for a Sonic game. I only played the first four levels, though, so I don't have much opinion yet.

I played the first stage of Super Kiwi 64, too, and it was as dead on with the N64 vibes as Macbat had been, if not more. This'll be very short, I think, but I'm looking forward to playing more.