What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Parappa the Rapper Remastered (PS4)

July 31st, 2022

It's the last day of July, and I got five more game specific pages set up today! I've already been to Bed, Bath and Beyond this morning, too. I'm unstoppable.

Last night, for important reasons, I got my old PS3 out, cleaned up, and ready to play, with a stop at the console's Playstation Store. I had never had so much trouble getting a company to let me give them a stack of money. I had to set up an app-specific password through my phone to log into the console at all, which gave me dreadful work flashbacks, then, in order to add funds to my Playstation wallet, I had to get a digital PS Store gift card on Amazon and then add it to my account externally. It was all such a hassle that after getting the new set of games downloaded, I went back in and backed up all prior PS3 purchases, effectively turning my PS3 into a very specifically targeted version of a preloaded classics console.

From there, though, I took a hard turn from what I'd intended getting the system out and dug into Sonic the Fighters, which is a really excellent game because it lets you make the Sonic characters pummel each other. Actually, I do really like this game! It plays well, especially for a 1996 3D fighter, the smooth polygons are really cool looking, and I like how much personality it has, both in terms of characters and stage backdrops. I played through Amy's arcade mode last night, because it's fun to use the squeaky hammer.

My one point of bafflement, though, is that in one playthrough and another quick trophy scum, I got 100% of the trophies for this game! No doubt it made me feel powerful, but I felt like it was kind of lazy to make every trophy such an easy target as "Beat Stage 1," "Beat Stage 2." I'm still going to play it more, but I was surprised at that.

Speaking of trophy scumming, I also played Parappa the Rapper Remastered some more last night. I grabbed the easy mode trophy quickly, then got the basic game clear one, too. I do enjoy playing this, but going back to it now, it feels more like Dragon's Lair, or just an FMV game in general, than a normal music game. The buttons matching up to syllables and words on the player end gives it a weird feel that, at least for me, makes it hard to get back on rhythm when I got thrown off. It's still fun, and this won't be the last I play of it, but it's a much stranger game than I remembered it being.

Alas, I must go to Wal-Mart now. If I become lost in the aisles, please let my affection for obsolete games with cute animal friends stand as my final testament.

July 24th, 2022

This morning feels way more difficult and frustrating than it should, so I'm somewhat distressed! My internet is cutting in and out, my phone is acting weird, and my eyes are puffed up from allergies. The new nitro cold brew from the coffee shop across the street is solid, but I want to go back to bed and also not show up at work tomorrow.

Anyway, a new event started in Ensemble Stars, and though from the outside, the set number of lives (or rhythm game stages) to complete makes it look more doable, the fact that each song takes 3 BP (the game's energy) to complete makes that veneer of possibility a deception. I'm still going to go for it, as it might be possible with some good timing and the energy refill whistles, but I don't think I'll be able to do it, especially not with an in-office day this week. It's a little frustrating, but when I'm in a better mood, I'll be better able to appreciate the amound of event rewards I'm racking up regardless. I already have 3 of the event cards after one day of play, which is pretty great.

In Pikmin Bloom, I got my 20k steps for the week, but the chess Pikmin I unlocked was just the purple one again! It was a little disappointing, but the purple Pikmin are so good at fighting mushrooms it's hard to be frustrated.

I didn't play it much, but I did a small amount of trophy scumming in Parappa the Rapper Remastered, nabbing the training mode trophy before I passed out from being awake for 18 hours. I'll grab the easy mode one, today, probably after lunch, just because I can.

July 23rd, 2022

Yesterday at work, one of my co-workers put a Parappa the Rapper gif in our work chat, so, naturally, I had to figure out the quickest way to get playing it after work ended. I ended up going with Parappa the Rapper Remastered on PS4 because the price point seemed reasonable enough, and I didn't have to hook up any out of the standard rotation systems to play it.

Going through the first few levels before the chicken defeated me and I realized I had other stuff to get done made me feel powerful, and I'm not sure if it's just because I have the game memorized, or because since Parappa, even free to play rhythm games have gotten so much more difficult that the one-line-at-a-time style makes it easier from a modern perspective. It's still a lot of fun, and the characters and music are still charming, but I was surprised that the moose driving instructor didn't instantly destroy me.

That being said, it's not very shiny for a remaster! The in-level stuff looks pretty great, but the cutscenes before and after levels look blurry and terrible, with massive amounts of the screen taken up by a frame.

The picture above is an overall view of the cutscenes, and for the photo below, I'm slightly breaking my own crappy images for the aesthetic rules to complain about someone else's crappy images. Look at how blown out the black outline around Sunny's eyes looks, though! I know Sony probably didn't want to dump all of its resources into a quick port of a game that takes less than an hour to beat, but it feels pretty lazy.

Anyway, aside from that, I also played Ensemble Stars for longer than I probably should have. I got one of the idols looking distressed, dressed up in a bee hoodie, with cash crumpled in his hand in the gacha, which, make no mistake, was my goal. His outfit is weird and I identify with his despair. He has supplanted a much rarer, more powerful character as my player profile card so other players know what I'm all about- crying because I have one piece of paper money and someone has made me put on fake antenna. If I were to be generous and call this a playstyle, I would say that this playstyle is, in fact, why I have not done well at events yet. My character is the crying bee, though, so see if I care.