Mood: 
Thoughtful
Listening to: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - See Me
Doduo going CRAZY.
I've been thinking of adding a section to my site where I make small reviews of the picross games I've played. There won't be many paragraphs to write about them, but there are some things that make some of them more enjoyable than others. Something I really enjoyed with Pokémon Picross is the stylization when you mark squares - you "hammer" them out with a chisel and hammer, similar to how you do it in Mario Picross for the SNES (available to play on the Switch if you have Nintendo Online!). It adds some nice flavour and "tactileness" that many modern Picross games lack.
Adorabs...
The pictures you solve look really nice for being on the GBC, I assume because it's a pretty simple game and they could make the pictures more detailed.
And now for something completely different.
Senua
I was hesitant when I first heard that Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was getting a sequel. The first game felt like a self-contained story that didn't need a follow-up, but since I enjoyed it so much I wanted to keep an open mind. Team Ninja had made a very special game with the first Hellblade, after all.
In Hellblade: Senua's Saga, the titular Senua doesn't struggle as much with her mental illness - to say she doesn't isn't right, but it's clear that she's learned how to handle the "voices" better after the first game, which makes sense from a story perspective. It would be odd to go back on that progress without a good reason, and even then I think it'd risk feeling forced, like trying to relive one of the things that made the first game so great but ultimately feeling unsatisfying for re-treading old patterns, and even exploitative in having Senua lose the progress she made and go through the same things again. Not that this is inherently unrealistic - learning to deal with one's mental health issues is, more often than not, far from a straight and narrow path. But I think it needs to be handled carefully in fiction as to not feel like torture porn.
So, Senua's Saga overall feels less... focused. It's far from a bad game, and it looks great (although I remember being more amazed by the first game's graphics, but that might be because I had no expectations back then, and I didn't play the sequel on the highest settings), but I would not say it's a must play like the first one. If you play and enjoy the first game, then get the second on a sale - after all, you might enjoy it more than me and find things to like about it that I didn't! It has some good/cool moments, and some horror elements that I enjoyed. But ultimately I can't help but feel like it was a game that didn't need to be made. Perhaps it's unfair to judge it against Senua's Sacrifice, but it's difficult not to, seeing as it's such a special game to me. I hope Team Ninja continues to make games - I'm not sure if I'd like to see another game about Senua, but I'd love for them to do something new and fresh. I've also eyed their version of DmC, which I remember scoffing at way back when it was released, and I remember a lot of people talking shit about it. But in recent years I've seen more people praise it, so I'm curious... It also runs on the Steam Deck, so even better.