Earlier this week, I flag I would post reviews for the unit and solo tracks from Golden Child’s second studio album, GAME CHANGER, ahead of the actual album review which I will be posting this weekend. To date, I have only posted one (the review of POPPIN’ by Y and Jangjun). But the rest are coming and the album review will definitely be posted this weekend! So, I better get cracking. Next up is the unit release of GAME, which features members TAG and Jibeom.

To me, GAME feels slightly inferior to POPPIN’, simply because it comes off as your more typical dance pop track. It is still a decent side track off the GAME CHANGER album, and its elements (which I will go through in a second) helps the song stand out. But it just doesn’t live up the same standard as POPPIN’ had set. I just don’t find GAME as striking as the previously reviewed song, with the typical nature of the song coming out more throughout the track, and I feel that this atmosphere was the only aspect that hold backs the song for me. To me, the standardness comes from two elements within GAME – forgettable verses that just didn’t stick in my mind, and similarly unmemorable vocals/rapping. Sure, the rapping was powerful and the vocals were nice in GAME, but neither really struck me. Unlike POPPIN’, I am not amazed as I had hoped to be. We did get some memorable hooks (i.e. the ‘LALALA‘ hooks following the choruses), but these felt unoriginal, and I couldn’t really bring myself to say that the vocals/raps were the cause of the memorable factor. However, as mentioned above, I was impressed with the brassy centrepiece of GAME. The heaviness from the piano in the chorus and the bass also gave the song some depth and oomph, which I definitely appreciated. But overall, GAME just didn’t live up to standard set by Y and Jangjun.

TAG and Jibeom play rivals in this music video, and they choose to settle their differences with a bit of gambling. After putting everything they have in, both members were more interested in showing each other who is better (big egos here). So interested that they didn’t see or hear the third person in the room, who knocks them both out (with a very soft tap from the looks of it). Once tied up, they realize that they were played and shouldn’t have worked against each other. Now, both of them have lost everything on the table and someone else (unknown to us all) has run off with both TAG and Jibeom’s money. Aside from the plot, I quite liked the visuals from this music video, particularly the various photo shots we get throughout the video and how they were intertwined with the video’s scenes.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.4/10