What Did We Play Yesterday?

I've been meaning to return to Disco Elysium for ages, and now that I can play it curled up on the couch, I think I'll finally make the time. My new game started off with a number of missed rolls, so my empathetic Harry is even more pathetic than usual (no shoe, no tie). I've been walking around without a shoe for a while and no one has questioned it. I previously played the game about 10 hours, and it's been long enough I'd forgotten a lot of the details, so there's a lot to discover.

I've been bouncing around a bit over the weekend, poking at various games and digging holes. I finally picked up a copy of Monster Train at steep discount. I played this on Game Pass a while back and it didn't grab me, but I've been meaning to revisit. I'm on the cusp of accepting I'm not a digital deckbuilder player. Deckbuilding is my favorite mechanic in physical games, but in digital form it often feels more like going through motions than actually playing a game. These games always end up being in a weird place between "video game" and "board game" that I don't like. I also dislike the art style and presentation, but for $2.50 I can see if it grows on me.

I love digging mechanics, so it seemed like a no-brainer.

The funniest thing about this one is it actually has a setup. You buy a house that is advertised as having treasure in the back yard. You buy an automatic shovel to aid in this. If your battery runs out, the shovel blows up (meaning you lose your ore).

As ores are gathered and sold on the internet, you gain money to upgrade your shovel size, inventory size, battery life, and jet pack ability. You have treasure detecting equipment that goes off if you get near an object of interest, guiding you to it.

A Game About Digging a Hole doesn't really get satisfying until you unlock the larger shovels. My first hole was such a sprawling mess I decided to start over and focus on building a very tidy, organized hole, and I've only just gotten to the point where my shovel is big enough to be fun. I needed a game I could mindlessly play to blow off steam, and if you're into games like Powerwasher Simulator you'd probably enjoy it, since it is essentially that with some exploration mechanics. As time wasters go, I like it okay. I'm generally going to prefer a survivors like or puzzle game to eat up my time, but once you get some upgrades under your belt and the digging opens up it can be satisfying.

Took a stab at a re-translated version of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest that offers better hint transparency and a map (Bisqwit's Castlevania II English Re-translation (+Map)). I played this on NES back in the day, and still have the cart, but got nowhere near beating it. I've always really liked the graphics in this game, so for now I'm content to scamper around grinding for hearts and dying. I did manage to snag the white crystal, thorn whip, and holy water in the first town.

This game handles object collision differently than Castlevania III and I've got a post about it somewhere but basically, you can bang your read on platforms in this game, which leads to jumps that are trickier than they should be, but so far it hasn't been too much of a problem.

Unlocked another captain, Rosanova, who specializes in the super nova. I've found this weapon to be extremely useful overall, and use it in almost every build because it's such a reliable long-range weapon. I need to achieve champion with each captain to unlock the last one, so I'll let this one rest for a bit. I've enjoyed about 10 hours and have only hit 33% of the cheevs, so I am sure there will be more Time Wasters in my future.

Juste's adventure continues. The Merman boss is pretty straightforward. I was killing the mermen he summons until I realized if you back off, they will attack and move offscreen. The Max Slimer is truly the most boring boss I have ever encountered in my entire life. It is basically, "Here, hit a sponge for three minutes."

I'm at 82% and have met Death again, but I've also completely finished exploring the area I opened up after beating the Devil. I keep teetering on the edge of shelving this game. I want to play a Castlevania game but this one is pretty damn mid, so I may switch over to one of the other handheld games for a bit.

I figured out I missed this bastard, so I went back for him. The bosses have been straightforward to this point, but Devil has a few extra moves and is spongier. He wasn't particularly difficult to beat, but the battle took a while. Beating him leads to the night goggles, which means I can now explore pitch-black areas.

Continuing to do the thing, and enjoy wasting time. Unlocked the Ram guy. I'd like to unlock at least one more captain.

Hanging out in bloody rooms in Castlevania, and also thoroughly lost. I've doubled back over what feels like the entire castle and I'm at 71% but I'm not sure where to go next, as I keep encountering locked doors. Next time I play one of these, I'm going to take notes so I can remember why the various dead-ends are not traverseable.

Spent some time backtracking in HoD, and finding empty rooms I have no idea wtf to do with. Some sections of the castle have elevators, which helps. I beat the Minotaur, who looks badass but has a pretty basic attack pattern, and came across those creepy impaled guys again (if you stand still, they don't hurt you).

Maxim admits that when Juste was chosen to be the vampire slayer, he went on an expedition to find Dracula's remains so he could take Juste's place. He gathered the remains, but lost them "somehow" and has amnesia. Obviously we know what happened THE DRACULAS GOT HIM

I came across the eye in a high tower, but I need some sort of flying or wall jump ability to get it. According to the game I've discovered 50% of the map. I assume the second half of the game is collecting Dracula parts and then putting them together an elaborate cosplay. Here for it.

I've been trying out a New To Me classic, Kid Icarus. I like this game, and I'm sorry I didn't discover it sooner! I would have dug this one back in the 80's. I went into it cold and the game doesn't tell you anything, so I dug up the manual which is very informative. The main character, Pit, must traverse Angel Land across four levels to obtain the three treasures, so he can help the goddess. The password stores strength, possessions, hearts, and points. I've mostly been bumbling around but now that I've read the manual I'll give it a proper try this weekend.

I've been playing Timewasters a bit every day but I don't always remember to take a screenshot. More recently I've been playing with Luna, who's primary power is the Wolfgang, and Doc, who utilizes the stasis field, and combining those two particular weapons. I got close to the endgame with Luna, but it's hard to defend against late-stage enemies with Stasis and Wolfgang as the primary weapons. I'd upgraded Stasis to include the Boxing Gloves with mixed results, because as fun as it is to fly around with massive boxing gloves attached to your ship and bop enemies, it's easy to make mistakes and lose shielding, even if you have boost upgrades. Stasis plus Nova has been a much stronger weapon combination for me, and when I work on Doc's champion medal that's probably what I'll do.

I was having a bad time, and after trying and failing to calm my brain down I started digging through my Steam library trying to find something that would distract me. Mountain isn't a game, it's a toy. You poke it and look at it, and spin it around, and occasionally, something unexpected happens.

So I flipped the mountain upside down and examined the roots. I zoomed out and admired the peace of space. I zoomed back in and touched trees and flocks of birds escaped, so I kept doing that. I figured out how to play music and made some songs. Eventually, an umbrella popped up, and I poked that. I was circling the mountain and just sorta vibing when I heard a car horn, and a bus floated through the sky and landed on the mountain. I poked it, and it beeped.

This game did exactly what I needed it to do, and about 25 minutes later I felt so much better. IDK if I'll ever play it again, but this game did exactly what I needed it to do in the moment. That is the value of experimental games, or game-like toys, or game experiences. Some reviewers have called Mountain a digital pet rock or a rock tamagotchi and that's a good description.