What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Sonic Generations (XBox Series S)

October 28th, 2023

Yesterday, I didn't play many games because I was up late watching Vincent Price chew up the scenery in a movie on TCM. Back in January, I wanted to watch 100 movies this year, and as of last night, I'm at either 74 or 75, depending on how nice I want to be to myself about watching one movie twice. A little over two months to hit 25 movies isn't bad at all, so I still think I'll make it. I really lost a lot of time feeling crummy during the summer, though, making it harder for myself now.

After the movie last night, I played a few levels of Sonic Generations, hitting some Dreamcast era areas. The Adventure games were my first experience with Sonic games, since I'd never had a Genesis or Saturn as a kid, so seeing the City Escape and Speed Highway levels were way more nostalgic for me than the Green Hill Zone type stuff. I maybe think that some of the setpiece recreation is a little lazy, being able to come at it from an angle I recognize better, but since the whole game seems to be nostalgia triggers, that might be a sentiment that expects too much.

This weekend, there's nothing that I have to accomplish, which is a good feeling. I don't know what I'll play yet, either, so I'll see how it all goes!

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 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.