Syl's Blog

March Recap: Games and Books

I usually do separate posts for the games I played and books I read each month, but I barely finished anything in March, so I'm lumping them together this time. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself about it because I did make progress on some things, and I was disrupted by the flu for the last couple of weeks, but I don't have much to recap in either capacity.

Games

I managed to finish a few small indie games, but I'm saving my thoughts on those for the upcoming April edition of my indie recs zine.

I mastered a couple of retro games for my RetroAchievements profile (you might also see some spoilers for my aforementioned zine there): Air Zonk for the TurboGrafx-16 and Alice in Wonderland for the Game Boy Color. Both were a lot of fun and challenging in their own ways.

I had a harder time with Air Zonk, which is easy up until its gauntlet of a fifth stage. The difficulty curves drastically and it throws every boss you've previously beaten at you, along with regular levels, three more bosses, and yet another giant mecha boss at the very end whose attacks are a pain to dodge. I loved it, though, especially the colorful and zany graphics. The challenges of the final stage made it satisfying to finally beat. It's one of my favorite masteries, and one that I can be especially proud of.

Alice in Wonderland would be a piece of cake to beat if you're not going for 100%. Getting some of the collectibles is hard! It's a game I wish I'd played as a kid because I was big into Alice in Wonderland, and it's bright and whimsical and captures the Disney movie perfectly with both platforming and minigames.

Other than that, I'm currently playing Dark Souls Remastered and Hot Shots Golf, the latter being one of my childhood favorites. I've put Pathologic 3, Fatal Frame II Remake, and Threads of Fate on hold, but I plan to go back to all of them soon. I was enjoying them but just got distracted by other games.

Books

I didn't finish a single solitary book in March. I'm disappointed in myself. I usually read before bed every night, but last month kept me tired with the flu, family commitments, and other things, so most nights I just wanted to watch relaxing YouTube videos instead. I'm hoping to make up for it this month as much as I can.

I'm currently making my way through a crime novel with supernatural elements and a book of essays by E.B. White. My goal is to have at least five books finished by the end of the month, so let's see how it goes. Here's hoping I do better in April! We're already over a week through and I haven't finished any books yet, but I still think I can do it.

Other

Highlights from March:

Lowlights from March:

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