A Game Within A Game

Good morning! I, for one, am glad that we’ve generally moved past saying [thing]-ception any time someone says “a [thing] within a [thing].” I’m not here to ick your yum or whatever the kids are saying, so if you still love doing that, I won’t fault you for saying “Gameception” after reading the title of this crossword. I wouldn’t mind a rewatch of the movie, though.

This week’s puzzle is another case of me asking myself whether I could, and not whether I should.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

A Game Within A Game by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

Remember how last week, I mentioned a puzzle that didn’t cut the mustard so it got shelved? That was this puzzle. It didn’t have the revealer along the bottom row, instead relying on an alternate title to give context. Medium story short, it didn’t hit. A few iterations later, I transformed it into the one you solved today, which felt much better.

Of course we have to take a listen to Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” after completing this puzzle.

Today’s Theme

The revealer for today’s theme is the three answers along the bottom row. 41-Across says [With 42- and 43-Across, the game that's being played in this grid].

Whether you consider crosswords a game is another day’s discussion, but today, solving this yields TIC TAC TOE. There are 9 circles spaced in a square evenly throughout the grid, and each one has an O or an X in it. Which side won? You’ll have to solve the puzzle to find out ;)

Behind the Clues

13A. I was happy to sneak [Rap group consisting of "Ad-Rock," "MCA," and "Mike D"] into this puzzle. With no long theme answers to contend with, I have carte blanche to put whatever fun answers I want - and BEASTIE BOYS happened to fit perfectly. So many iconic songs, but Intergalactic will forever be my favourite. “I like my sugar with coffee and cream!”

26A. It’s important, as a longtime YEGwords solver, to understand how I still haven’t healed from the heartbreak of [The __ (Cancelled Netflix show featuring a contemporary dance called The Five Movements)]. Don’t @ me if you thought it was cheesy, etc, I totally get it. But man something about THE OA just lodged in my core and stuck there.

40A. Millennials rise up! If you used Limewire, this one is for you. [Ending to a file that definitely is not the Linkin Park song you were "obtaining through legal means" and definitely is a virus] is EXE, the Windows “executable file” extension. Which I hope gave a few people flashbacks.

3D. I’m not going to say this is revolutionary, but it has real shower thought energy. [A sandwich is just a food one, if you think about it] is a STACK. No, I wasn’t making this puzzle in the shower, but if it yields more clues like this one, maybe I will.

14D. Few things make me feel more Canadian than ["Just gonna sneeeaak past you here"]. I love doing it and I love it being done to me. If you didn’t want to say that, you could say ‘SCUSE ME instead, but that’s no fun.

18D. [Open a pack of Pokémon cards, say] is RIP, as you rip open the packaging to get at the cards (you might have also heard someone talk about ripping packs). I haven’t gotten into the Pokémon card scene for a few reasons, but the virtual TCG app really got me hooked for a few months there.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

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