What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
Love Colors (Switch)
June 21th, 2024
Last night, I did two playthroughs on SNK Gals' Fighters, because it was fun and I wanted to. I'm just running through the characters by column on the character select screen, so I tackled Yuri's arcade mode first. I like Yuri as a character- I think she's funny, and she has a nice, classic, not too overboard design- so I try to use her in a lot of games. This invariably ends in me getting wrecked, because for whatever reason, her moveset and capabilities just don't click with me. Last night was no exception. I did get through to her ending, though, so I felt a little accomplished.
Shermie was next, and as a high schooler, these Neo Geo Pocket fighters were the first time I'd seen her. King of Fighters '99 was my first SNK fighter, so I initially missed the Orochi saga games entirely. Back then, I didn't like her because her name was weird, she was slow, and she wasn't cute. As an adult, however, I understand that being able to confidently throw someone across the room is much more important than being cute. Shermie is actually great.
Past that, I did some good ol' utility gaming. Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star led me into another regular length daily workout, and I zoned out through most of it, forgetting the start of a workout by the time I hit the end. I got through it, though, and that's what counts!
I also got a little overexcited playing fighting games late at night, so I turned on Love Colors to go to sleep. I was out after two screens. Doctors should know about the powers of this game.
June 13th, 2024
I've been way lazy the last few days, so I'm going to try to get back on track today. I want to knock at least 20 items off my weekly to-do list, which is less daunting than it sounds, and even if I'm just eating canned soup or something, I want to eat both lunch and dinner at home today. I know I can do this!
Last night, I wasn't very hardcore about gaming. I did my "daily missions" in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star. The main one was to do three battle stages, and I got the "throw X number of perfect punches" and "get this many Great Combo" missions done while I was at it. Having a more game-ish feeling for basically the same workouts that Fitness Boxing 2 offered does work to switch things up for me, though I am curious to see what some of the other daily missions will be.
I was going to go to bed without playing more games last night, but my brain was way too buzzy to achieve that. I used a few stages of Love Colors to shut my brain up and got to sleep from there.
May 27th, 2024
I've got today off work for Memorial Day, and am very grateful for the day off! I was able to do some quick chores and errands before posting today, so I feel a little productive.
Yesterday, though, I was not terribly productive. I went to see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, ate too many BBQ boneless wings from my freezer for dinner, and played XBox.
I hadn't explored GamePass for a little bit, so I downloaded a couple games to try them. First, I gave Little Kitty, Big City a shot, but it really didn't click with me. I'll probably give it another shot at some point, but cute as it is, the controls felt weird and it made me a little motion sick. To be fair, tons of games make me motion sick, so that's not really a mark against it. It just wasn't anything I wanted to mess with yesterday.
Later in the night, though, I downloaded Venba and played the whole thing in one sitting. It's a movie-length game, so that in and of itself wasn't an accomplishment, but I got really into it! It felt good when the solutions to the game's cooking puzzles snapped into place for me, and I felt like the combination of visual novel-ish and gameplay elements were paced really well. It stuck out to me as an extremely nice example of storytelling in games, and I might officially pick this up for Switch later.
Speaking of Switch, I did use mine for some utilitarian games yesterday. I did a short daily workout in Fitness Boxing 2, but felt kind of disoriented and had quite a bad time. I'm not going to give up by any means, and I'm glad I didn't give up halfway through. Still, working out sometimes sucks.
I tried to knock myself out with a few screens of Love Colors, too. It didn't really work, but it wasn't bad, either.
May 26th, 2024
I'm posting here this morning fresh off of writing up my to-do list for the week, and am maybe vaguely energized! Yesterday ended up being a day for tying up some loose gaming ends, which was very okay. I finished this month's event in Fashion Dreamer, and despite having really buzzed through it, I'm okay with setting it aside for a few weeks. The events lately have been just the perfect length to stop things from getting too tedious.
I did my third Fitness Boxing 2 workout for the week yesterday, too, doing another regular length workout and really regretting it by the end. Still, I felt at least somewhat good about myself afterwards, which is nice.
From there, I had a lovely time playing the next three levels of Yoshi's Crafted World, even though I'm not sure if this'll have my full attention next or not. Even on a game buying freeze, it's exciting to know how many lovely platformers I have stashed away to play!
Last, I just played a few screens of Love Colors before bed. It wasn't super exciting.
May 18th, 2024
This won't be a very exciting post today. I was sleepy and my stomach hurt yesterday, so I only played casual-style games. Fitness Boxing 2 probably got the most focus out of me, and that wasn't a ton. I did a few free workouts just to get my third fitness game session for the week under my belt and called it a day.
I officially hit the halfway point of Merge Pixel yesterday, though, and am perhaps now even more determined to see this mind-numbing idle grind through. The daily login bonuses have really been carrying me here, in terms of currency boosts, so going back to the start of that 7-day cycle has been a temporary slowdown. I might leave it running across the room while I do crafts and chores later, just to get some sweet imaginary gold.
To finish the day off, I played Love Colors until I passed out again. It didn't take long.
May 17th, 2024
I'm scumming a quick post before work this morning, with a lot of relief that it's Friday. Last night, though, I cleared Super Mario Land! It gave me a lot of satisfaction to beat a game as an adult that I could not clear as a seven year old. It is a charming, strange little game, and I like how different the worlds are from normal Mario games. The horizontal shooter final boss had me swearing like crazy, though!
I kept up my quest to 100% the achievements list in Fitness Boxing 2 as well, switching trainers to get started on a new set of daily workout rewards.
Before bed, I also did a few screens of Love Colors, which knocked me out fast. I did wake up a lot from there, but getting to sleep was nice.
Lastly, I have my daily update for Merge Pixel. I made minimal progress yesterday, but might leave it running a bit more today. It's not like there's a lot of actual gameplay to engage with.
May 16th, 2024
Today's game report won't be very exciting. I played a few more levels of Super Mario Land last night, but decided it was getting me too pepped up when I wanted to sleep soon and stopped. I was really enjoying it, but got tense about clearing levels!
After that, I worked on some screens in Love Colors, since I needed the help relaxing. It was fine.
I kept Merge Pixel running while I did other stuff as well. Currently, I think this is going to take a few weeks to clear, but since it's really light on actual play, that still feels like nothing.
May 11th, 2024
I didn't quite get back up to where I should be, but I was able to catch up a little on sleep last night. It meant I didn't want to get up, but when do I ever?
All things considered, I probably spent most of my gaming time idly swiping at Merge Pixel while I did more important things. I'm very determined to finish this, despite the fact that it is mind numbing, and have over a fourth of the little pixel people collected now. I've already half-heartedly been at this today, so it'll make another appearance here tomorrow.
I wanted to finish off Adios last night, but even a first person game this slow and low on action has the power to give me motion sickness. I'm interested enough to finish it off today, but if my stomach gets wobbly again, finishing it Sunday will be fine, too. I just can't abandon this quiet little character study.
To finish the day off, I went back to Love Colors before bed, too. I actually got quite a few screens cleared and felt a little accomplished. No, coloring in the little pixels does not take any skill, but it is still satisfying.
May 4th, 2024
Yesterday, I played casual games only, but not in casual amounts. I spent a lot of time last night playing a cute little hidden object game I had stashed on my Switch, Tiny Number Hunt. One of my goals today is to finish it, so I'll talk more about it tomorrow. The whole game is just finding the numbers 1-9 in drawings, though. The numbers aren't super well hidden, but the art is cute and I felt like I could zone out nicely playing it. Since I was irritated about my internet being out, a laid back game was good.
I did a daily workout in Fitness Boxing 2, too, which went well. I unlocked some new clothes for my trainer after the session, which was very satisfying, so I'll toss her in them next time I play. Plus, this means I met my fitness game goal for the week!
I also played Love Colors for a few minutes, and my interest in it hit a sudden wall. Oh, well! I have other games to play when I need to get myself to sleep, so I'll switch to something different for a bit.
May 3rd, 2024
Lately, I've felt overwhelmed by having too many games to play, so I am considering a game buying freeze until the end of the year. I buy them way too often, leaving me with more games than I'll ever play, and since this wouldn't block borrowing games or anything on GamePass, it's not even bad. I do think it'll be hard, since I shop way too much, but since I've successfully been able to cut down on getting crummy takeout for dinner, this is next.
As for actually playing stuff, I did a couple of missions in Mega Man Zero last night. I feel like I should start over and be less wasteful with my subtanks, or even just play normal mode. I'll decide in a few days, though.
My fixation on Love Colors continued, too, and I've become set on filling in all of the images in the base game. It's not an exciting goal, but it is an attainable one.
May 2nd, 2024
It's a stormy morning, and I feel sleepy and slow. Last night, though, I started in on Mega Man Zero, on a series compliation on Switch. I picked the "casual scenario mode" with no shame, as I'm not getting graded based on my ability to play Mega Man games, but just giving players all the unlocks and upgrades from the start seems like a super lazy way to balance things! I'm still having a great time, appreciating the interesting level design and some lovely sprite work, but I was a little surprised to see how Capcom handled that.
After stopping Mega Man Zero for the night, I played a bit of Love Colors to go to sleep, too.
May 1st, 2024
My May is not off to an auspicious start here. Last night, I played somewhat utilitarian games. I did a daily workout in Fitness Boxing 2, since it just seemed like it would be good to exercise. I'd like to try harder to play fitness games a couple times a week. They're kind of a time sink, with warm-up and cool down stretches included, but they're good for me.
I also continued to use Love Colors as a shockingly effective sleep aid. At this point, it's fine if it's all placebo. Being able to go to sleep easily is great.
April 30th, 2024
Today is the last day of April, and I did okay with games this month! My goal was to clear four games, but I only got through three, all short, and definitely no RPGs in the mix. That's okay, though. Donut County had been in my backlog for a wild amount of time for something so short and breezy, and Pikuniku was a lovely GamePass choice.
For May, I'm going to set the same goal I have been, which is to clear four games, with one being an RPG, and one being a GamePass game. If I don't make it, that's fine, too, since it's just a hobby.
Right now, though, I'm really fixated on playing Love Colors before bed. Filling in the pixel-by-numbers screens knocks me out like no game ever has before, so I'm somewhat grateful to it. It doesn't make for scintillating blogging, but sleep is important.
April 29th, 2024
I took it super easy yesterday, so my biggest accomplishment was building these little block kits of Hello Kitty and Pom Pom Purin. I've made the whole set now, and am slightly distressed that the Little Twin Stars weren't included! Still, I'm happy with these. They came out looking like cute little robots.
My only game, though, was a bit of Love Colors before bed. I somehow managed to play a lot without accomplishing much of anything, but that was kind of impressive in and of itself.
April 24th, 2024
I'm super tired today, so this is a somewhat late post, made during a work break. Yesterday was a somewhat not-normal day, so I played a lot more video games than normal. Knocking another set of event missions out in Fashion Dreamer was my main goal, and I achieved that quite easily. I really like this bold blue cherry background for character photos, and had been looking forward to scoring it.
I also scored a copy of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition and did a lot of violence. I'd played the start of this before on Wii U, but hardly remembered any of it. I think I'd unlocked Young Link in that version, but am not even 100% sure about that. I'll see what happens, though! Playing this again was fun.
I played some Love Colors to try to get to sleep, too, but got too sleepy to keep playing without actually being able to sleep. Oh, well.
April 21st, 2024
I actually have a somewhat busy, in a nice way, day today, so I tried to do a bunch of chores before posting here. After lunch, I'm going to go see Spy x Family: Code White at a local "bigger than a normal screen, but not by any means an IMAX, don't get your hopes up" theater, and after that, it's a Dungeons and Dragons night. I play as a barbarian, so I keep reminding myself to remember to use rage tonight. These constant reminders probably won't work.
Anyway, my current gaming goal is to finish Pikuniku before it leaves Game Pass at the end of the month, as it is fun and I'm not sure why I put it on the back burner. I did a couple boss fights last night, using my total lack of pine cone kicking skills to take out some robots, and felt like I was really moving the story along fast.
I did a couple of mission sets for the monthly event in Fashion Dreamer, too, and am hoping to get this event done this week. If I actually play it instead of messing with offline mode, that should be super attainable.
Before bed, I also filled in ten images in Love Colors to relax and knock myself out. It worked, and I actually slept decently. Having something as slow as a pixel color-by-numbers game on hand is sometimes magical.
February 10th, 2024
After work last night, I was super burned out, but immediately jumped into a grocery run and then a one-on-one RP session for D&D. Both were good, but from there, I achieved Hyper Ultra Burnout.
In this rare state, I played two stages of Toree 2, propelled by the ultra bright colors and a top notch vocal track in the water slide stage I played. This game is a complete delight.
Mainly, though, I zoned out and played Love Colors for an hour, clicking little dots with no challenge at hand. It was worthwhile, and being able to relax so well means I could get a refreshing night's sleep.
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 27th, 2024
I just played Love Colors again last night. It's not very exciting! In lieu of games, though, I did feel pretty good about my Japanese language study time. Right now, I'm very slowly plodding through a kids' novel, but I'm really happy that I don't have to look a ton of stuff up. Small progress is still good progress!
January 26th, 2024
My sleepiness had not subsided yesterday, and I had an early doctor's appointment this morning, so last night, I just played a few more rounds of Love Colors. I'm not tackling it in a very organized fashion, but there's not enough to it to worry about that.
January 25th, 2024
Yesterday, I was so tired it was difficult to function. I dozed off at a work happy hour, while drinking a diet coke, no less, and came home to stay up too late staring slack jawed at Youtube. When it came to actual bedtime, though, I couldn't sleep, so I went through my no-effort-to-play Switch games and found Love Colors, a game that I'd gotten in a "relaxing games" bundle a while back. It's basically a pixel by pixel color by number, like the "cross stitching" apps on phones, but it was pleasant and satisfying, and it helped me relax enough to get to sleep. It was what I needed.
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