Greetings from the Wooden Block Labyrinth!
Hello, faithful subscribers! It’s been a minute since we last reached out to you, and we hope that everyone is staying cool and safe within another unpredictable summer. This email blast is going to take a slightly different form, one that we hope will stay weekly and consistent throughout the year.
Hopefully you're reading the new and improved Wooden Block Labyrinth website, which is where all of our long-form pieces will live from now on. Winamp Wednesday will be on the move from this newsletter to the main site, but we’re looking forward to many more surprises that will be only for subscribers to this newsletter, so keep an eye on your inbox!
Each week we’ll provide links to the newest in new from The Wooden Block Labyrinth, like these fine articles…
Our Newest Articles:
What We’re Reading
I’m halfway through Kathleen Hanna’s new memoir and I scarcely want to put it down. The fury of her upbringing made me gasp in horror as often as I was lifted by the euphoria she conjures when speaking about music. It’s horrific and beautiful and joyous and heartbreaking.
What We’re Playing
Bill and Ted’s Excellent (Game Boy) Adventure is a simple one-screen platformer, one that plays more like BurgerTime than any other game released in 1991. Small sprites, repetitive gameplay, and limited options made it feel regressive on first release. (It didn’t help that I got this game for Christmas when my brother got the superlative Metroid II: Return of Samus. We eventually shared the Game Boy library but it still felt like a bit like I asked Santa for the wrong thing.) Now it plays charmingly retro, a fun pick-up-and-go experience that is occasionally way too difficult without feeling super cheap. Plus it has these great cutscenes!
Apparently this game made a very short appearance on the Nintendo Switch eShop a few months back, an impossibly strange choice out of all the Game Boy games to appear there. What’s next? That not-actually-The-Real-Ghostbusters game?
Coming Soon to the WBL
We love to hear from you! Simply reply to this email, or find us on Facebook or Bluesky, to let us know what you think and what you’d like to see inside the Labyrinth. And now, our parting shot…
