PixlBit

I only had half a day to game this week because of jury duty in the middle of the week. Still, I ripped through quite a few different titles. I kind of like playing games this way because it's like going the arcade back in the day. I play a little of this and a little of that. Fun. 

Figment: Puzzle/action adventure game on Game Pass with a very interesting art style. Take a look:

I was hooked for a long while after I got the needed Game Pass rewards points for achievements but then got stuck trying to find a sprout. Puzzle games always stump me at some point which makes me mad. 

Spirit of the North: Also on Game Pass. You are a fox in a wintry world. There's some mystery going on but you are mostly just trying to keep moving forward. I only did the first puzzle before I left it 'til next time. Take a look:

Minecraft: Watched a bunch of speed run videos and tutorials on youtube which gave me some good ideas. My friend Mad Krammer couldn't care less about this stuff, but I need a goal in this game, and so I'm keen to figure out quick ways to find the Fortress, get certain matterials and minimize the amount of mind numbing block chopping. 

Arkan: The Dog Adventurer: Got the 90 star achievement. I'm replaying levels for full 3 stars. Some levels are really hard because they have pits and small platforms. I can only take so much of that sort of thing. 

Peggle: On the last few levels of Adventure mode and still can't complete it. I'll keep trying up until the end of the month, though, then I'm done for the year. 

Lost Artifacts: Time Machine/Gnomes Garden 5: Halloween/Royal Roads: I'll bunch these together because they all have the same resource gathering/building mechanics. I just did a single level each as I was running out of time for the day. 8Floor, the developer, has yet another new series on the Xbox store using the same game mechanics. They're like a factory churning out these $5 games. 

Zaccaria Pinball: I play the older electro-mechanical tables. At some point in the late 70s, pinball started to use circuit boards and less mechanical parts. I made some progress on one of the tables. There are six challenges for each table in the collection. 

Pinball Arcade (by Farsight Studios): I tried to discern which tables were older by the table art like Central Park and play them. You can record high scores on a leaderboard and play to complete all the goals for each table. The goals are just what is spelled out in the rule set, which I've read, but which I have forgotten and can't be bothered to review right now. But I managed a few more goals just by aiming at glowing targets. 

TV on Youtube:

I thought I'd mention TV because Mad Krammer and I will often check out youtube videos in between games. I love that I can quickly go to youtube on my Xbox these days. 

Jose and the Pussycats: In keeping with my console Generation 1 plan for January, I looked up interesting TV shows of the '67-'76 period. I used to watch Jose and the Pussycats ('70) as a kid, especially the Jose and the Pussycats in Space. I found out that was the new title of the third season. I watched episode 1, season 1 on youtube. It's okay, but doesn't really interest my adult mind. 

UFO (Gerry Anderson): Also out in 1970 but in Britain (later in the US) and I never saw it as a kid. This is live action with lots of model sets for special effects. I was a big model builder as a kid and so these shows are kind of cool to me now. The writing in this is a bit dull though. A fantasically great looking show, but dull writing. UFO went 26 episodes and then became Space 1999 with a whole new cast. Take a gander at UFO:

And that's a week. February starts next Wednesday and my deep dive into Console Generation 2. I'm not leaving out arcade and PC games though. It'll be everything that was out in the years 1977 to 1983.