What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS)

May 27th, 2023

No one came back to fix my air conditioning yesterday, making the fact that it is a holiday weekend now seem mildly regrettable. It'll be okay, but last night, I had to run out to the store and pick up a big fan to try to compensate. It worked pretty well, but I'm bad enough at sleeping that "there is a barely detectable difference in my environmental conditions" meant that I barely slept at all. Tonight should be fine, though.

Last night, I ended up just playing more Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal since it was too tiring a day to play anything more intense. It is a very collectible-laden game, which is an odd feel for a Sonic game. The main platforming levels are sprawling and slightly mazelike, with 6 blueprints and 5 crystal shards to find in each of them. I actually like running around to gather them. After a couple hours of play, I unlocked the ability to have them pop up on my lower screen map, making the game feel more like a "how do I get there?" puzzle than an endless hunt. There's a player character swapping mechanic that, combined with the map based exploration, makes it feel a bit like an RPG concept pasted on top of a 2D platformer, which I don't dislike at all.

It has a lot of seams showing, though, the biggest of which is that it appears you can't finish the game without finding every last one of those blueprints and crystal shards. For me, an adult lady sitting down at her desk with a nice cup of herbal tea to do some slow paced exploring, that's fine, but I don't know that it's the right vibe for a Sonic game. I'm having a nice time, but I can also see it as relatively infuriating.

There's also a third collectible stacked on top of that, figurines from a gacha machine, that you can get by earning tokens. These don't seem to be required for anything, but I think they push it over the edge into too-much territory. You can get them by getting good clear times or ring counts in levels, or by stopping in daily and playing the head-empty-button-mashing minigame with Knuckles pictured below. It's not bad in and of itself, but putting a daily gate on earning so many of the tokens makes the gacha figures feel like blatant, unnecessary padding, and I'm not so motivated to track them down.

There's two other level types I'd like to write about, too, but since I'm about to hit both of them in one play session, I'll save it. This relatively minor game has inspired many thoughts for me.

May 26th, 2023

I had some relatively detailed stuff I wanted to say about Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, but was up last night with bad dreams and am dealing with a broken air conditioner today, so I am sleepy. I'm still enjoying this game, and talking about it in more detail will be just as good another day. If I can make it through today, I'm almost to a three-day weekend!

May 25th, 2023

It's another short post today, half so I can leave a little early and pick up a fast food breakfast before work, and half because my allergies are so wild that I woke up this morning with my eyes totally swollen shut! I don't love it. I played Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal some more last night, though, and felt really relaxed trying to figure out how to get to all of the squirreled away items that popped up on the map. If I have the energy, I want to play more tonight, at least as of now.

May 8th, 2023

Today was super busy, but it's still May 8th in my time zone, so I haven't missed this post yet! I had to go into the office for work due to internet problems, but it turned out being okay. I'd like to go in every day, to keep work out of my apartment and help with my general nervousness. Plus, I'd get my desk back to myself! I put in the request for that, and think it'll be okay. After work, my mom invited me over for a salmon and spinach dinner, which was amazing, and then I went to Wal-Mart to buy groceries, including the normal grocery of a 10 dollar set of all the Final Destination movies.

In short, even though I thought today would be awful, it was pretty great.

Yesterday, my internet got taken totally offline due to some storms, so I played a bit more stuff than usual. I think I spent the most time on Dragon Quest X Offline, and finally have the items I need to get out of the village in my next couple play sessions. I feel super smart and very studious.

From there, I watched some anime, and since my blu-ray player is my PS4, I ended up turning on Kandagawa Jet Girls, a game so easy that, despite forgetting the controls and briefly going backwards my first race back, I came in a breezy first. This is perhaps the first game to have ever seemed too easy to me, but I might make some more headway on it while it's fresh in my mind.

I wanted to go to bed from there, but ended up playing Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal dead tired due to some apartment noise and got lost in a level that even half asleep seemed too straightforward to be lost in. It was still fun, though.

Tomorrow's post will be pretty mobile game heavy. Either dread or look forward to it, depending on your personal preferences!

May 7th, 2023

I feel a lot better today than yesterday, with yesterday's grocery shopping having taken a wild amount of time and effort. The coleslaw that I make a lot has ramen noodles in it for crunch, and the flavor packet as part of the dressing, so I wanted to find a vegetarian ramen for one of the people who would be eating it. It's suddenly become very rare, though! I found the soy sauce flavor Maruchan at the fifth store I stopped at, but most places had cut back to chicken and beef only. Those flavors are fine, but once I finally found a better variety in the 33 cent brand, I stocked up on the chili and creamy chicken ramen packets, for my own fine dinners. It was quite a surprising problem to come across!

Anyway, game-wise, I wasn't very out of the ordinary yesterday. The main thing I played was Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, which I've discovered is going to make me find all of the collectibles hidden around the stages in order to let me access the last area. Right now, I'm still finding this pretty pleasant, so I don't know how irritating that'll be yet. As you find one type of the collectibles, though, some blueprints, it unlocks map markers to make finding stuff a bit easier. My guess is that this is going to be more time consuming than egregious.

I also did some NPC chatting in Dragon Quest X Offline, a task made challenging by the fact that I was playing after midnight and after a good chunk of time spent petting cats, to which I am allergic. (It was worth it and I'll do it again.) I also found an NPC that went on and on, both about the relative peace outside the village, the monsters outside it, and some controls. It was decent world building, and I'm glad I know how to run now, but he was the only character I talked to. Still, progress is progress and practice is practice!

Today, I'm hoping for a relaxing Sunday, and not a lot seems to be standing in the way.

May 5th, 2023

My job is fairly relentless on Fridays, so I am writing this with apprehension towards the day ahead. If I anticipate the worst, though, it'll probably be better than I expect, so I have that going for me.

Last night, I played a few more levels of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal and did find it pretty enjoyable. The race and tunnel levels had a better "Sonic feel" than the normal platforming and exploring levels, which was fun, but I don't feel like the normal levels are bad, either. I'll backtrack and see if I can pick up all the junk in them when I have all the characters. Knuckles should be the last one left to get, since I unlocked Sticks the Badger, who looks like a cat, last night. This game isn't an all time great so far, but it's interesting.

May 3rd, 2023

Today is a glorious Wednesday off work! I made some cinnamon toast for breakfast, will go get a cinnamon coffee when I'm done posting here, and think I'm going to walk to the strip mall theater near me to see the Dungeons and Dragons movie this afternoon. It's not very productive, but I'm looking forward to my day.

After work last night, I considered the Sonic games I had stashed carefully and decided to give Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal a shot, just out of curiosity. I only played the first level so far, but had the impression that the levels feel super long and sprawling, with maybe a more deliberate pace than I expected. That's not really a bad thing, and I'll probably have a stronger opinion on it as I go. I know that's anticlimactic, but I only played for 20 minutes. I'll give it another shot today.