What I've Been Playing! April 2026

Hey all! I realized it's been almost exactly a month since my last post here, and that just won't do, so I figured now was as good a time as any to start a new series of posts that I want to make, titled "What I've Been Playing!" Every month, whether it's right at the start of one, at the end of the last, or anywhere I feel like dropping it, I'll make a post like this where I talk about what games I've been sinking my time into, whether I'm trying to clear a bunch off my backlog or just take it slow, etc. I think it'll be fun to write and keep up with, and maybe someone out there in Internet Land will have some fun reading about it. So, let's talk about March and what's already passed of April!

1. Cave Story - Nintendo DS

Yeah, I'm back on my Cave Story bullshit. This really might be my single favorite game of all time, and the more time goes on, the less of a contest it is. I have a lot of games that I adore in my life, and a lot that I would consider "my favorite games of all time", but I think Cave Story takes the crown. I've played this game a lot, and on as many different platforms as I can, but so far my favorite way to play is the Nintendo DS port by tilderain. It looks great, feels great, uses the Aeon Genesis translation, has both a standalone app and a data folder version that is compatible with some mods, and is just a fantastic bit of DS software. I've been playing it recently, as I've never fully played the game with this version, and I've been in the mood to do a full replay instead of dropping it when I get through Egg Corridor.

tilderain is an incredibly talented programmer, they're also responsible for an alpha build of Cave Story for the GBA, and recently getting the engine running on Super Nintendo. Very cool things being worked on, in addition to having already made my favorite way to play Cave Story. Definitely check them out.

2. Animal Crossing: Wild World - Nintendo DS

As indicated by the last update of my Wild World journal, it's been almost a month since I last picked up Wild World. I adore this game a lot, and I think in the future when I get the urge to play Animal Crossing this will be the game that I pick up and continue. I just underestimated the time dedication that progressing in Animal Crossing can be, and overestimated the amount of downtime that I'd have while trying to write on a consistent schedule. I barely have the time to write for fun, let alone water my digital flower beds. Unfortunately, that means that Wild World essentially gets paused indefinitely until I get the urge and the free time to continue my progress. I'd still like to hit all the completion marks, fully upgrade my house, etc. I just don't know when I'll be able to do that. I do want to load it up sometime soon, maybe over the weekend, and play Day 40 for the journal and wrap that up on a nice round number.

3. PICROSS e, PICROSS e2 - Nintendo 3DS

I love picross, and so does my girlfriend. I've had all 9 of the PICROSS e games downloaded on my 3DS for a while, but I've only ever dabbled in the first one. I played a decent bit of Picross DS via TWiLight Menu a while ago, but paused that until I can get a physical copy, so I was away from picross as a whole for a while. I decided recently to pick up e again, and my girlfriend and I have been sharing puzzles and ripping through them! We cleared e together and started on e2, but we've got plenty of puzzles left to get through. It's been really fun! I'm reviewing them individually on my Backloggery page, but when we've finished them all I may write a comprehensive review of all 9 of them together. Maybe I'll tack on "Twilight Princess Picross" as a bonus, we'll see.

4. Balatro - PC

I met someone in the last couple of days, and one of her favorite games ever is Balatro. I was reminded of the fact that I adored it when I played it consistently, but I dropped it a bit back for reasons I don't remember. Surprise, I hadn't played it since November 2025 and I still don't know why! I loaded it up and did a few runs, I've been having a ton of fun just like before! I'm not the best at it, but I enjoy it a lot and I like playing, it's a fun and casual way to unwind and just no-brain a game for a while, watching TV with my girlfriend or waiting for dinner to cook. Maybe I'll actually get to gold stake?

It's been a chill kind of month! I'm trying to take gaming easier, and while I do want to have more grand adventures and progress through more franchises and such, I want to give myself the space to just play little fun things that take 10 or less hours if that's what I'm in the mood to play. I'm replaying my favorite game, doing puzzles with my girlfriend, grinding a roguelike, just simple things. I am looking forward to getting the new Tomodachi Life, as it's one of only two game releases I'm waiting for before completely moving on from them as a company in the modern era. Maybe that'll be on next month's "What I've Been Playing!"

~ Alex Amelia Pine