Splash No. 40
Video Games
Beyond being the title of one of my favorite Lana Del Rey songs, video games have been an important part of my life since I was a small childboy. I’ve already written at length about my love for Pokemon specifically, but there’s so much more than that. Pokemon may have taught me to read, but Freddie Fish and Putt-Putt the car taught me a lot around the same time. Later on, video games enabled me to interact with my favorite characters from TV shows like Digimon and Bob the Builder.
A lot of my earliest memories of spending time with my brother have to do with playing video games with my brother. From when I was a toddler to now, the go-to way my brother and I hang out has always been video games. Because a lot of great games are single player, I fell into the exhilarating younger sibling role of watching my brother play. Looking back, it seemed like it would be boring, but it was actually quite a lot of fun spending time with him, working with him to solve problems, all while unfolding the narrative. Whenever we would play Zelda or Mario or any other story-based game, my brother would take all of the main in-game actions, and I would help him to solve the puzzles, or read the GameFAQs or just help in some way. It always felt so important and I always felt so close to him.
As we got older, we played more competitive games, like Super Smash, Halo, and various sports games. I got really good at losing and throwing tantrums, and he got good at pretending like he wasn’t letting me win to keep me from getting upset. Nowadays, we tend to be more even in most games, but we stay as competitive as ever.
To this day, I find watching someone else play video games more interesting than playing a game by myself. Every time I watch a video game stream or some other form of commentary, it feels for a second like I’m six years old again, helping my big bro navigate the Water Temple.
Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week
Playlist
bando - I’m getting back into trap music so I made a playlist for the songs I’ve been discovering..
Design Site
NY Train Project - cool site compiling all of the train signs from throughout
Article
“The Japanese Art of Lounging” by Rebecca Huval - this is a really interesting read about a uniquely Japanese activity of just laying around in bed as a common activity.
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:~)
Love,
Nikhil