What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Pokken Tournament DX (Switch)

November 21st, 2022

Today is a fast post before work day! I have a three day week ahead, thanks to Thansgiving, so I hope I can start it off without too much stress and trouble. Since I had Friday off, though, today will be double the desk work, which is a little iffy.

The first of the three games I played yesterday was Activision Anthology for PS2. I'd like to get all of the high score patches in this game, which is a compilation of Activision's 2600 games. I started off yesterday with Kaboom, where I needed 200 points for the patch. I'd never played Kaboom before, so I don't know how the controls are with real hardware, but on PS2, the baskets you use to catch bombs revert to the middle every time you let up on your joystick, making bomb catching exceedingly tricky. After about 45 somewhat pathetic minutes, though, I got my 200 points and'll move on to the next game.

I did the daily challenge in Pokken Tournament DX, then did the first set of the game's league battles to try and up my trainer ranking. Chandelure is my Pokemon of choice because I like the design, so I'll learn to use them effectively out of misguided determination.

Lastly, I played Wild Arms for a while, exploring the port city I reached on Saturday and starting a dungeon delightfully called the Maze of Death. I saved halfway through and'll finish that up on my next play session.

November 20th, 2022

I'm posting after doing a Sunday morning grocery run today, having gone with Aldi over Target this week. I almost have everything I need for Thanksgiving cooking, but Aldi didn't have any gravy! I'll stop by a more normal grocery store early in the week to get that figured out.

Wild Arms ended up being the main thing I played yesterday, with my going in and clearing the next dungeon while I had a pot of soup going. The boss took forever to fight, but was weirdly not difficult at all despite that, so it felt a little tedious. Getting through that and the post-dungeon story stuff felt like a good chunk of gameplay, though.

Later in the night, I cleared the character story I was working on in Kandagawa Jet Girls. Just like with the first team, it took until the final race of the story to hit an interesting track with some mildly challenging elements, which I then absolutely destroyed without really knowing what was going on. From here, I have to go back up and do the main rival team's story, which is fine. Having cleared five races last night makes clearing all of the team stories here feel less daunting than it did at one race a night.

I did the daily challenge in Pokken Tournament DX, too. I don't think I'd ever really used Gardevoir when I was playing this before, but they were a decent character.

With that, my whole Sunday lays ahead. I have a dream that my nose will stop running (not likely) and another dream that I'll be able to eat some fast food (very likely!). I hope you guys all have decent days, too.

November 19th, 2022

Yesterday did end up being decent, and despite some busy parts, both optional and compulsory, I got to play many games and do many crafts. As a prize to myself for not screaming in despair at work, I went to my neighborhood's used game store, too, and picked up a cheap copy of Sonic Riders, which I'm hoping will be either fun, strange, or aggressively misguided. Getting one of the three feels like a safe bet.

My set up yesterday was to play games between rounds of crafts, and Pokken Tournament DX was the only one I didn't end up playing way longer than I'd intended. I did the daily challenge and won, getting some skill points to toss to my Pokemon so that when I actually do sit down and play seriously, I'll hopefully be a bit overpowered.

I then played a few races in Kandagawa Jet Girls, clearing the idol team's story and going back to the gyaru team. I'd kind of like to clear their story this weekend, which is a very "doable goals are nice to have" sitation.

My last game of the night was Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix, which I played both casually and much longer than I'd planned. I didn't mess with the dress up parts of the game or buying any new outfits at all, but got into an "I love this song, I can't bear to shut my Switch off before playing it!" loop that kept me amused for a pleasant amount of time. I'm happy that this is in my game rotation.

November 12th, 2022

Last night was really bad for focusing again, so I'm hoping to play Wild Arms a bit more today. This is a small and achievable dream.

I did have fun last night, though. With my Switch out for other stuff, I decided to get out Pokken Tournament DX, the first game I bought for my Switch. When I got it, I was living in Japan and they were still super hard to find, so I banked some cash and kept checking different stores until, right before a teacher's holiday party, they had one at the entertainment store on the way to the restaurant! I sat through the whole drinking party with a Switch sticking out of my tote bag, and my mentor teacher was super stressed out that I'd get mugged biking home with it. I did not share this risk assessment, and, luckily, I made it home safely, bones and Nintendo Switch intact.

Anyway, Pokken Tournament is fine. I'd like to beat the league mode in it, but last night, just did the daily challenge and a quick battle.

In Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix, I played three songs and bought a couple of accessories as prizes. It was pretty riveting stuff.

Then, even more thrillingly, I played Mahjong Story 2, which is false advertising, as this game certainly does not have a story. It was fine, though. It's a very tolerable game to plod through when I'm half asleep.