I always thank my brother for introducing me to video games. He’s a 90s baby and the oldest sibling, so by the time I was born he had a Gameboy Color with Super Mario Land and Pokémon Red. I spent countless hours playing those games and I still have the Gameboy and copies at my desk. Even though I don’t play it like I used to as a kid, I love looking at the chips and wires inside the Gameboy.
Growing up, my family didn’t have the money for my siblings to have all the shiniest video games in the world, so we had to make do with what we had, waiting for Christmas to get our hands on video games that would keep us busy for the year. We had to share everything and rent games from the store and borrow consoles from our friends. My earliest memories are all tied to gaming, especially Nintendo.
New Playthroughs
Recently, I’ve been really digging going to used/ retro game stores to pick up on all the games I missed out on growing up. Some new playthroughs include Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon for 3DS, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze for Switch.
Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon – I played the original Luigi’s Mansion on Gamecube like ten years ago and I absolutely fell in love with the game. Capturing ghosts through a haunted mansion was such a creative story. In Dark Moon, instead of exploring one mansion like the original, you explore multiple different haunted buildings finding pieces of the broken Dark Moon. The game is mission based which works well on the 3DS, as it is a handheld, made for on-the-go gaming, so I do appreciate that. The puzzles are fun and the atmosphere is filled with character. My gripe so far with the game is the linearity and lack of difficulty. It’s challenging, but the final boss for the second mansion was extremely underwhelming. I’m happy that I bought it for $15 because playing the remastered Switch version for $60 would not be worth it.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze – Super Mario Land was one of the first games I ever played, so of course I’m going to love a good platformer, and DKTF is a great platformer. The game has tight controls, challenging levels and amazing design. Tropical Freeze is the follow up to Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii, which I also loved. The multiple player on that game was fun and I eventually got it on my 3DS too. So far, Tropical Freeze has been great and the Donkey Kong series is known for it being a more difficult platformer compared to a Kirby or Mario game. Honestly, no complaints, I’m excited to play through this one try to 100% it.
OTHER GAMES I’M PLAYING AND WILL TALK ABOUT LATERRR
Slatoon 3 is awesome, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is always great with the homies, and Metal Gear Solid is hard, I’ve never played a stealth game before, really excited to get into this one.
Okay, quick little music dive for the week. I was able to listen to a lot of new music at work this week (it doesn’t happen often).
Blush – Girl Ultra : Girl Ultra is an artist from Mexico City that mixes r&b with dance and electronic music. At times throughout the album, I was also getting some emo vibes. The tone of the album felt kind of sad, but the quick beats get you through each track. I really love her voice and honestly, I’m biased, but singing in Spanish is so beautiful. Fav was the 2nd track blush, give it a listen, I’m going to go through her stuff later.
The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) : I admit, I’m not the biggest eminem fan in the world. That said I can appreciate his impact on hip hop and his ability as a storyteller and lyricists (This compliment is mostly directed toward ems earlier work). Many of my favorite rapper’s list him as one of the goats. I’ll also admit, I haven’t listened to much of ems music post-hiatus, this was my first full listen of his most recent albums. I’ve heard that he’s fallen off and this and that, but I never got around to listening to hear for myself, and that that I have I can say that this album just didn’t do it for me. The concept is interesting, Marshall Mathers kills his crazy alter ego, Slim Shady, but the execution just doesn’t do it for me because I can’t get through some of these songs without rolling my eyes. Eminem is trying to be funny with “woke gen z humor” (I hate that I’m writing this out) but I really wasn’t laughing. I enjoyed the songs at the end of the album that weren’t so rapity rap, “Somebody Save Me” was listenable because it was a song for his daughter and it was personable, it just came too late in the album. I think Tlyer, the Creator said it best when talking about rappers getting technically good as they age, he mentions Lil Wayne and how he got better, “Marshall got too good that it’s like gross, he’s like too technically good that bro we can’t even fathom it”.
Last but not least, Clairo’s Charm. Coming in at a sweet 38 minutes run time, I loved each second of it. Clairo’s production has gotten denser, incorporating intricate string sections and fuller guitar melodies. Her voice is so smooth too. At times the production gets jazzy. My favorite moment on the album was Clairo on Thank You. This track reminds me of a Thundercat song in a great way. She’s singing her true emotions and it sounds like she’s talking to a friend about this past crush. Overall, very heartfelt lyrics sung over drums, woodwinds, keys and chords that unravel themselves nicely.
Other good albums I got to this week, Boldly James & Conductor Williams – Across the Tracks and 42 Dugg 4eva Us Neva Them. More thoughts on those soon.
Thank you for getting this far, appreciate the support!
P – Bajo El Sol
Bajo El Sol 
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