I got blanked in October, so I haven't made a fresh post in here for a while, but I made a lot of progress in November, so here we go!
I used November primarily to crank through some of the ol' Steam backlog, in large part to pre-emptively justify upgrading from my OG Steam Deck (which I sold for $460) to the new OLED model. As such, I didn't get any new platinum trophies, but I did beat and complete eight (8) games on Steam, knocking out some resolutions for the
year and the
decade.
December has just begun, so I haven't really knocked anything else off yet, but I have a little slate of games I can try to finish before the end of the year. Unfortunately, the ones I'm tucked into right now seem kind of long. Oh well! Fun!
2023 PROGRESS
FINISHED:
01-15 -
Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (PS5)
01-20 -
Firewatch (PS4 via PS5)
01-22 -
TOEM: A Photo Adventure (PS5)
01-25 -
Wandersong (PS4 via PS5)
01-30 -
Adventures of Pip (PS4 via PS5)
02-03 -
Doki-Doki Universe (PS4 via PS5)
02-05 -
Flower (PS4 via PS5)
02-10 -
Pic-a-Pix Color (PS4 via PS5)
02-15 -
Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS4 via PS5)
02-18 -
Valiant Hearts: The Great War (PS4 via PS5)
02-21 -
マリオのスーパーピクロス [Mario's Super Picross] (SFC via Switch)
03-07 -
Gris (PS5)
03-08 -
A Short Hike (PS4 via PS5)
03-15 -
Tembo the Badass Elephant (PS4 via PS5)
03-19 -
Pokémon Blue Version (GB via Analogue Pocket)
03-22 -
Super Mario Land (GB via Analogue Pocket)
03-28 -
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB via NSO)
04-05 -
Kirby's Dream Land (GB via NSO)
04-06 -
Baba Is You (Switch)
05-05 -
Picross S Genesis & Master System Edition (Switch)
07-14 -
Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
09-11 -
Langrisser I (PS4 via PS5)
09-12 -
Langrisser I (PS4 via PS5)
09-16 -
Final Fantasy VII: Remake (PS4 via PS5) - Hard Mode
11-01 - Dr. Mario 64 (N64 via NS) - Easy Mode
11-02 - カービィのきらきらきっず [Kirby's Super Star Stacker] (SFC via NS) - Story Mode
11-08 - Lyne (Steam)
11-11 - Fingered (Steam)
11-17 - Evoland (Steam)
11-17 - A Normal Lost Phone (Steam)
11-19 - Please, Don't Touch Anything (Steam)
11-21 - Actual Sunlight (Steam)
11-22 - A Bird Story (Steam)
11-23 - Aperture Desk Job (Steam)
COMPLETE:
01-20 -
Firewatch (PS5)
01-22 -
TOEM: A Photo Adventure (PS5)
01-25 -
Wandersong (PS4 via PS5)
01-30 -
Adventures of Pip (PS4 via PS5)
02-03 -
Doki-Doki Universe (PS4 via PS5)
02-05 -
Flower (PS4 via PS5)
02-10 -
Pic-a-Pix Color (PS4 via PS5)
02-15 -
Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS4 via PS5)
02-18 -
Valiant Hearts: The Great War (PS4 via PS5)
03-07 -
マリオのスーパーピクロス [Mario's Super Picross] (SFC via Switch)
03-07 -
Gris (PS5)
03-08 -
A Short Hike (PS4 via PS5)
03-15 -
Tembo the Badass Elephant (PS4 via PS5)
03-21 -
Pokémon Blue Version (GB via Analogue Pocket)
03-22 -
Super Mario Land (GB via Analogue Pocket)
03-28 -
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB via NSO)
04-05 -
Kirby's Dream Land (GB via NSO)
05-17 -
Picross S Genesis & Master System Edition (Switch)
09-07 -
Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
09-14 -
Langrisser I (PS4 via PS5)
09-16 -
Final Fantasy VII: Remake (PS4 via PS5)
11-11 - Fingered (Steam)
11-14 - Lyne (Steam)
11-17 - Evoland (Steam)
11-17 - A Normal Lost Phone (Steam)
11-20 - Please, Don't Touch Anything (Steam)
11-21 - Actual Sunlight (Steam)
11-22 - A Bird Story (Steam)
11-23 - Aperture Desk Job (Steam)
MASTERED:
03-07 -
マリオのスーパーピクロス [Mario's Super Picross] (SFC via Switch)
05-17 -
Picross S Genesis & Master System Edition (Switch)
PLATINUM:
01-22 -
TOEM: A Photo Adventure (PS5)
02-10 -
Pic-a-Pix Color (PS4 via PS5)
02-16 -
Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS4 via PS5)
03-07 -
Gris (PS5)
03-08 -
A Short Hike (PS4 via PS5)
09-07 -
Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
09-16 -
Final Fantasy VII: Remake (PS4 via PS5)
09-17 -
Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade (PS5)
PROGRESS 2020 2021 2022 2023
Finished 10 2 10 34
Complete 3 1 8 29
Mastered 1 1 1 2
Platinum 2 0 2 8
PREVIOUS 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Finished 36 59 57 96 58 7 14 17 17 11
Complete 12 27 27 46 28 7 10 9 11 10
Mastered 1 0 1 3 2 1 0 4 2 1
Platinum 5 3 2 13 8 3 4 5 5 4
2023-11-23 - Aperture Desk Job (Steam) - Basically a Steam Deck tech demo, as if people really needed something to demonstrate how a basically a controller works. 
But it was short, snappy, and fun enough. Writing and performances not quite up to Portal 1 & 2 standards, but I wasn't expecting that for a 30-minute short.
2023-11-22 - A Bird Story (Steam) - A cute, short, dialogueless story about a kid who rescues a bird and nurtures it back to health and learns about the power of friendship along the way. From the guy who made To the Moon.
2023-11-21 - Actual Sunlight (Steam) - This is a re-beat for me. I played it on Vita several years ago. It's Will O'Neil's game about suicide. A very small RPG Maker vignette with a lot of writing. Will is mostly a writer. Little slice of depressed life. I don't know if this kind of experience helps people... maybe the person who made it moreso than the people who play it.
2023-11-19 - Please, Don't Touch Anything (Steam) - This is a pretty cute little puzzle game from the Papers, Please guy. It has an irresistible hook: that title, and the fact that you start in an empty room with a big red button in front of you. There are a number of hints scattered around the room, and a number of endings to collect by solving the buttons in different ways. Some were pretty layered and tricky, but some were kind of silly.
2023-11-17 - A Normal Lost Phone (Steam) - This is another old backlog clear-out from 2017 I think. I was just under halfway through the game when I shelved it, but it's quite a short little narrative experience so it didn't take me long to catch back up with myself. It was cute.
2023-11-17 - Evoland (Steam) - This is a bite-sized (~4-hour) adventure game that unabashedly cribs from The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Diablo (unabashedly as in outright references them at every turn (every turn as in every turn)) to the point that it's actually annoying and takes away from the clever conceit of the game. Progressing from rudimentary 8-bit gameplay to 3D action as you unlock more gameplay features is a good idea, but they could have made their own game on top of that and it would have stood out more.
2023-11-11 - Fingered (Steam) - This is a guess-who kind of logic game where you have to narrow down a list of suspects and finger the right guilty party based on witness statements, all overlaid with Edmund McMillen's typical gross aesthetic. It's a fine time-killer, but it's not exactly deep. I think I got it on sale for $1 and that's about the right price.
2023-11-08 - Lyne (Steam) - This was a fairly nice line-drawing puzzle game. I wish there were a bit more hard logic to it rather than trial and error and pattern memorization, but it did its job. Some of the puzzles used the same layouts which made things feel a little repetitive after a while.
2023-11-02 - カービィのきらきらきっず [Kirby's Super Star Stacker] (SFC via NS) - Another in a line of bored in bed games. I cracked out the 2000+ stars needed for completion in challenge mode, and finished the story, probably on the easiest difficulty (I don't know, it's in Japanese). I'll probably pluck away at the puzzle mode for a bit because it's brainless fun enough.
2023-11-01 - Dr. Mario 64 (N64 via NS) - I was just lying bored abed and decided to browse through the various games available through the Switch Online scheme. Not keen on most N64 entries, but this was the perfect brainless relaxing game. Ended up being very short. I was expecting like 20 head to head matches, but it was less than that. I guess the real charm of the game is in endless play anyway. I doubt I'll do back to complete it on the various difficulty modes. It was enough to knock through it once.
To avoid clutter, I'll keep my mini-summaries/pseudo-reviews in my monthly update summary posts:
January // February // March // April // May // June // July // August // September
