The First Weekly: Shadow of the Colossus, Donkey Kong, and Beach House

Hey y’all! I’m trying this new thing where I write a little bit about movies, games, music, and whatever other types of media I’ve been spending my time with every week. More than anything, I’ve wanted an avenue to talk about the things that have an impact on me in a way that’s a little more regular and informal than the articles I’ve been writing. So I’m going to eventually settle on the best day to post a ‘weekly’ and have them rolling out pretty regularly after that.

With that out of the way, this first weekly is actually going to cover the last two weeks or so since I’ve been dragging my feet a little getting started with everything. These last few weeks I’ve been doing some 2D and 3D platforming and have been beating myself up by continuing to struggle through some roguelikes.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

Initially I totally ignored the February release of the newest incarnation of this game, but I found myself missing the story since I’ve played it once each on PS2 and PS3, so I hopped in over the last week.

Shadow of the Colossus is so… powerful. The gameplay is clunky and imperfect, but those mechanics and its straightforward structure reflect its weird twist on games’ power fantasies in such an elegantly understated and affecting way. Its themes build around a very simple but effective fable that’s more or less a twist on the hero’s journey, made engrossing by this slowly-building feeling of dread that seeps through your actions and the sights of the world as it, over time, becomes clear that you aren’t the hero in its story. Of course, the PS4 remaster is beyond gorgeous — it might be the prettiest game I’ve seen on the console, something that’s tough to pull off for semi-realistic graphics. The pacing is inconsistent and exciting in its balance between periods of action and periods of reflection, but the game length is absolutely perfect.

I have really fond memories of playing this with my best friend in his basement in 8th grade, and there’s really just something so magnetic about its atmosphere and story. This playthrough I was really struck by how subtly it builds a feeling of disconnect between the player and the protagonist’s quest as his skin loses color, ominous rifts fill the skies, and the temple sequences become more and more unsettling, making the game’s final gameplay sequence equal parts horrifying and cosmically satisfying.

Wizard of Legend (PS4, PC, Switch, Xbox One)

Okay, this a kind of uninspiring name, but I’m a sucker for nice pixel art and am cursed to be drawn to roguelikes even though I never like them as much as I want to. Something about my brain loves when a game has solid progression — where you feel like you’re building up a character, filling out a collection, or have something else to work towards beyond just progressing in the world. Luckily, Wizard of Legend is stacked with hundreds of spells to work your ways towards collecting that serve as a motivator for me to keep collecting while I try out different playstyles and spell combinations.

Discovering different spells, building a loadout, and chaining attacks together is such a solid concept for a roguelike that leads to really satisfying moments in combat, and the aesthetic package it’s wrapped in is really nice… although, like in all roguelikes, the story is essentially nonexistent. It does lead off with one of my favorite tutorial sequences ever, which does about 90% of the world-building for the entire game. If you’re into spell-tossing power fantasies, it’s great. If you’re into roguelikes… it’s good, if a bit content-light if you’re good at them — which, of course, I’m not. Somehow, against all odds, I made it to the final boss, but I was destroyed and need to motivate myself to try again soon.

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze (Switch)

I played this back on the Wii U, and for some reason I remember the controls being much less tight than they are… But I’m coming down off of playing a decent chunk of Rayman Legends, and any other platformer feels pixel precise compared to that. I’m only a few worlds into Tropical Freeze, but it’s gorgeous and has more level variety than I remembered, which is great. It has this weird balance where a few of the levels are incredibly punishing and others are wildly easy, but it feels great when you finally clear those challenging stages despite a couple dozen cheap deaths.

I tried typing in the Konami code to unlock hard mode right off the bat,(something along the lines of only being given one hit point per level with no checkpoints), but no dice. I seriously can’t wait to get to that point, though, since Celeste has reawakened some sort of platformer masochism in me.

Mitski — Geyser

I hit a huge Mitski phase in the first weeks of this month that peaked right when her new song came out. Geyser is Mitski at her most melodramatic: irresistible rising action in the verses and an overwhelmingly cathartic chorus. It’s perfect.

Beach House — 7

I’m still not sure if an album can beat Teen Dream’s place in my heart, but 7 is probably Beach House’s best yet. The variety of the tracks from Lemon Glow through Black Car immediately breaks the album out from some of the similar sounds of their others, and that stretch contains some songs that I’d immediately say are in the running for all-time favorite of theirs.

I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately too, but I’m saving a few to write about next week. In the meantime, I’m logging all the things I watch here, along with at least a few words on each.

Thanks for bearing with me — see you next week!