What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Steam Spring Sale '25

Pretty Girls 2048 Strike (Lenovo Legion Go)

April 18th, 2025

I was worried about the weather last night, so I played Pretty Girls 2048 Strike through to the end. It took hours, which I don't usually do on a work night, but I needed to turn my brain off. I came out of this still really liking 2048 as a battle system, though, even though I wasn't too enthused about the art. Some of the character special moves felt pretty cheap, especially the one that sorted all tiles from smallest to largest, but the final set of levels was tough enough that it stayed satisfying.

I grabbed a few stars in Super Mario 64, too. They were all decently easy, aside from my struggles with the camera, since I'm still really early in the game.

April 16th, 2025

I played several games for just a few minutes last night, starting with Cats Hidden in Paris. The Travelin' Cats games I've played, including this one, have been pretty decent, and I was tempted to buy the Steam bundle of them last night. Buying a bunch of new games would defeat the purpose of my 100 games cleared in 100 days nonsense, though, so I resisted. I can go on an unreasonable, but ultimately low cost shopping spree after I've found thousands more cats!

In Vampire Survivors, I actually reached a new level last night, which made me happier than it should have! The library does not seem as good as the forest so far, but I'm excited to see what comes next!

I also played some casual games with PG-13 anime girls pasted on top. Bishoujo Battle Mahjong Solitaire is well paced with a good timer, nice layouts, and challenges that don't feel like they waste a lot of my time. The anime girls in it feel like they're from something, which would make more sense than their just being chosen at random, but I don't really care. I like mahjong solitaire, and this is a decent version of it. I'll probably keep playing.

I did a few stages of Pretty Girls 2048 Strike while I was at it, too. I'm getting close to the end of this game, but the battles are still fun. I'll have to find another version of 2048 to think about when I should be doing something more productive after this.

April 10th, 2025

Yesterday, I felt stressed, so I turned on G-Mode Archives+: Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi DX because I thought it would be interesting to play a Japanese feature phone port of a bullet game on my Switch. It was choppy, somewhat blurry, had muffled sound, and was extremely fun. I've never played a normal version of Ketsui, but I got very locked into this, collecting the little scoring cubes and dodging hundreds of lovely pink and blue video game bullets. I was using easy mode for the auto-bombs and got to level 3, making me feel like I can definitely see the end of this. Plus, it just stops after one credit, so I'm about to have a very weird first-ever 1 credit clear.

My game clear yesterday, which is less interesting in retrospect, was 100 Robo Cats, a find-the-cats Steam game where cats frolic with mechs. It was good because of the theming, but a little lame because the cats weren't actually hidden. This is such a common issue with these games that it feels a little rude to complain. I know what I'm getting into.

I fought through a couple more levels of Pretty Girls 2048 Strike, too, getting unnaturally fired up at my ability to match numbers. This is such a fun battle system that I'm still taken aback by it being in such a silly anime girl exploitation game. Even after I clear this, it will stay on my Legion Go forever.

April 6th, 2025

I don't feel very creative today, so it was hard to get myself hyped up for a post here! I tried inZOI last night, though. It was my birthday present to myself! It feels way more fishbowl-ish to me than Sims, which I'm completely okay with. My character, a trainee K-pop idol who chain eats bowls of yellow soup in her studio apartment, is very self-directed, and I kind of like that. I feel like I could run this game while I did crafts or even worked on this site without all hell breaking loose. It was peaceful and slow-paced.

I'm still sticking to the "100 games in 100 days" concept, too, so I played Where Birds yesterday. It wasn't nearly as good as Where Ghost Cats, which I'm not just saying as a joke. The art is a little less cute, but as far as the side objects, go, the humans are too easy to find while hiding a balloon in a coconut tree just feels a little unfair. It was okay, but pretty mid-tier for a Steam 100-hidden-whatever game.

I kept going with Pretty Girls 2048 Strike, too, hitting some higher difficulty battles and merging numbers until my eyes lost their power to focus. I'm maybe not responsible enough to have 2048 with a battle mechanic on hand, so I am taking a break from this today.

Other than that, I did a few battles in Fire Emblem Heroes. It was fine!

April 5th, 2025

I had to work late last night, which is my favorite thing to do ahead of a long weekend, so I buried myself in casual games after a late dinner. I had it in my head that I could clear 100 games in 100 days, which is certainly true if I mostly play hidden cat freebie games on Steam. It would be satisfying, if not a bit silly.

That being said, last night I did play an extremely charming hidden cat game, Where Ghost Cats. The title is a little funky because it's a mostly unlocalized Chinese game, but that doesn't bother me at all. Finding cats is universal. This one had really cute art and a couple of side tasks, so though it was still super short, I enjoyed it. This one wasn't a freebie, but I got it in a bundle with quite a few other hidden animal games from the same developer. I'm looking forward to playing the others!

On a less cute note, I also tried Pretty Girls 2048 Strike, which I picked up in a different bundle after becoming fascinated by the idea of accompanying extremely casual, old fashioned games with PG-13 anime pinup girls. I don't really like the art here, and want to know why my military girls are fighting vaguely fantasy themed girls in such a calm and orderly way. 2048 makes for a really solid battle system, though, and I'm enjoying the balance between merging existing blocks and trying to get in position to deal damage. This is totally ridiculous, but I'm having a good time with it.