[Puella]

So, my favorite reviewing community is pretty much TGWTG.com, and my favorite reviewers are Nostalgia Critic, Todd in the Shadows, Brows Held High, Paw Dugan, Spoony, Film Brain, Nostalgia Chick, and Maven of the Eventide.
Really, for me it's hard to go wrong with anyone on there, and there are so many others I enjoy (Linkara, JesuOtaku, Lupa), I just want to see more of them! And they aren't the only community of reviewers out there! Plus, I know there are single reviewers floating around out there.
Basically I'm curious who your favorite media reviewers are from anywhere on the internet, and why others should give them a look ^_^ (For my own selfish ends, I'm trying to expand my numbers of reviews to watch while I'm working during the day.)

This post has been edited by Puella: 06 July 2012 - 02:01 AM

[Exophase]

I dunno, I watch TGWTG too (with friends) but usually just Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick. I mostly just see the others in the specials, although I used to watch a few of them. I watch various things that get put on Cinemassacre too, mainly by James Rolfe and Mike Matei (who picked up most of the content while James was out doing the AVGN movie)

[Puella]

Exophase, on 05 July 2012 - 04:37 PM, said:

I dunno, I watch TGWTG too (with friends) but usually just Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick. I mostly just see the others in the specials, although I used to watch a few of them. I watch various things that get put on Cinemassacre too, mainly by James Rolfe and Mike Matei (who picked up most of the content while James was out doing the AVGN movie)

Need to keep those in mind! What sort of movies do they review?

[Lachesis]

TGWTG: I used to really love Spoony's old reviews (up to and including the first few parts of FFVIII), but at some point he started making nothing but wrestling vlogs and ripoffs of Doug's characters started showing up. Doug's high-pitched screaming and meme-forcing got to me, but I still watch his out-of-character videos. Nostalgia Chick is by far my favorite from the site, especially with Nella! Maven of the Eventide is also pretty great. I'm not really sure why, but I've been watching Rap Critic recently too -- might have something to do with the Will Smith crossover.

The only other reviewers I really watch are Mike Stoklasa and Jay Bauman, great reviewers (especially Mike in Plinkett Reviews) but their comedy can be really dark. Their videos also run on the long side, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours in the case of the Star Wars prequel dissections.

[Exophase]

Puella, on 05 July 2012 - 06:26 PM, said:

Need to keep those in mind! What sort of movies do they review?

The central focus is game reviews. AVGN (Angry Video Game Nerd) was the main schtick and was sort of like the gaming version of Nostalgia Critic (to the point where there was a big joke feud involving some of the first crossover specials). He reviews awful old games, playing them while getting really frustrated. They never came out as much as NC; used to be bi-weekly, then monthly, then on a long hiatus while he was working on the movie, although I expect them to resume as monthly soon. But you can tell a lot of work is put into them, with lots of bad gameplay having to be endured.. probably harder than reviewing bad movies!

Of course they do some movie reviews on the site too, but they tend to be more of the "bad but amusing" flavor. Lots of other odds and ends as well, like board game reviews.

ZeroPunctuation (http://www.escapistm...ro-punctuation) is pretty funny, although I've only seen a few of them. Also, this: http://redlettermedia.com/

[Spectere]

Oi...lessee...

I watched TGWTG.com since there was only one reviewer. :] I used to watch Doug's 5 Second Movies on YouTube, then naturally gravitated toward the Nostalgia Critic. I still watch NC regularly (he cut back on the wailing, Lach -- might be worth giving him another look if you haven't recently, but avoid his Transformers review unless you like overly long, boring, unfunny random spiels) and I've been kind of going through the other reviewers to check out their material. I've become a fan of Phelous as of late. I recently started watching the Rap Critic and Todd in the Shadows, and I've been drawn to Obscurus Lupa as of late. Oh! Can't forget the Cinema Snob! I also enjoy watching the Nostalgia Chick's (and Nella's!) reviews as well.

I love when Spoony does reviews. He had a great deal of personality on screen, so it's always entertaining to watch. The recent Twitter shitstorm that he was involved in was pretty troubling, though. <_< Kinda worried that he might be taking the Spoony character a bit too far (or that he's suffering from a mental breakdown, either or).

I've been an AVGN fan since his TMNT review. I believe I was introduced to him from someone here (pretty sure it was Luke Drelick).

And, of course, Zero Punctuation. Always classy, that Yahtzee is.

[Lachesis]

I don't remember if I started watching when it was just Doug or if it was when Spoony started getting featured. I remember the Nostalgia Chick contest, which was pretty early on. Glad to hear he stopped screaming all of the time, I'll give him another shot.

Phelous-- Another case where I used to like the reviewer until I felt like they started getting too annoying and Doug-rip-off-y. Kinda funny since everyone else complained about him being "boring"

Spoony-- He's been taking the character too far for a long time. Also, I didn't realize he got kicked off of TGWTG until just now.

[Spectere]

I can't really say that I agree with Phelous getting Doug-rip-off-y. I don't think he really forsook his original style by much. He did get livelier, but to be perfectly fair he sounded like he was falling asleep in his older reviews. I think the Child's Play crossover with him and Doug highlighted their differences nicely.

I've been following Spoony for quite a while on Twitter, and I don't recall things getting too horrid until recently. He's always had a bit of an ego (okay, a lot of an ego) but the thing that got him suspended from Channel Awesome for four weeks were insulting and threatening his fans. It was so awful to read that I temporarily unfollowed him until things settled down.

As for leaving TGWTG.com, that was his decision. Channel Awesome gave him a temporary suspension due to the complaints, but Spoony himself quit the site. There doesn't seem to be any hard feelings between the two entities at this point (Spoony still stays in contact with many of the TGWTG contributors via Twitter), but I suspect that it's more because they decided to part ways when they did instead of letting things continue to escalate.

[Puella]

Definitely need to have a look at all these people! Thanks!

Zero Punctuation is HYSTERICAL, even though I often don't know much about the games he's talking about.

AND WAIT OMG.....Spoony isn't part of Channel Awesome anymore????



That's just...I'm going link hunting to find out the whole story, but, omg...it just seems so wrong!

This post has been edited by Puella: 06 July 2012 - 03:21 AM

[Lachesis]

Re: Spoony: I read up on what happened... I don't think I'm going to be watching his videos any time soon. He's always been pretty awful to the more outspoken of his fans but I've never seen him say anything like that to his co-workers.

[Spectere]

Yeah, that's pretty much what makes me think that Noah Antwiler is literally becoming The Spoony One. In a way I feel sorry for the guy. Things definitely can't be right upstairs.

He went through a pretty messy break-up with his previous girlfriend, and that's what a lot of people believe one of the major catalysts were. Another thing that definitely isn't helping are the legion of rabid fanbots who are swooning at his every word. I am not a psychologist, but there's no way that can be helpful for someone who appears to already be a bit egotistical.

[Puella]

Spectere, on 05 July 2012 - 10:24 PM, said:

Yeah, that's pretty much what makes me think that Noah Antwiler is literally becoming The Spoony One. In a way I feel sorry for the guy. Things definitely can't be right upstairs.

He went through a pretty messy break-up with his previous girlfriend, and that's what a lot of people believe one of the major catalysts were. Another thing that definitely isn't helping are the legion of rabid fanbots who are swooning at his every word. I am not a psychologist, but there's no way that can be helpful for someone who appears to already be a bit egotistical.

Yeah, it sounds like there are a ton of factors. It just makes me sad cuz it seemed to be chugging along well, but hey, I guess things can't stay the same forever, especially on the internet. It's just the end of an era. *le sigh* OH well, just hope both sides are ultimately happy with the result.

[Old-Sckool]

Doug is the only guy I can stand on TGWTG.

Since everyone's already mentioned Zero Punctuation and AVGN, I'll mention Retsupurae. It's two guys (Diabetus and Slowbeef) who started making LPs and decided to riff on terrible let's plays, flash games, long plays, Metroid Other M, and the occasional tv show. Some of their best stuff are the BillyMC series, the Gaming in the Clinton Years stuff, "True Shit", "Let's 'ave a carriage ride!", "Super Bummerman 2".

[Lachesis]

Those are the guys that did "Let's Point at Super Metroid", aren't they?

edit: search says 'yes'

edit 2: wow, Kayin was the person who recorded the original

[KKairos]

TheUberHunter.

Roguelikes. On Youtube. More of an LP than a straight-up reviewer.

I also appreciate the Indiegames Blog and Craig Stern of IndieRPGs.

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

Puella, on 06 July 2012 - 03:46 AM, said:

*le sigh*

Le peuple français n'apprécient pas leur langue qu'on égorge, donc s'il vous plaît s'abstenir de le faire.

Je vous remercie de votre considération.

[Puella]

Baby Bonnie Hood, on 06 July 2012 - 07:04 AM, said:

Le peuple français n'apprécient pas leur langue qu'on égorge, donc s'il vous plaît s'abstenir de le faire.

Je vous remercie de votre considération.

Well! You know what I say to that? "La souris est en dessous de la table, le chat est sur la chaise, et le singe est sur la branche." XP

This post has been edited by Puella: 06 July 2012 - 02:35 PM

[Exophase]

Alarmed to hear about the whole thing with Spoony. I saw some of his early stuff, like the FF8 review, and didn't really like it.. but I liked his work in the crossovers and specials I've seen that had him. I read through the whole thing on Twitter and it made me feel really sad, he was obviously going through a difficult time and everyone was pretty much egging him on. Yeah he was being a fuming jerk to everyone (although a lot of that looked like he was half-joking) but I can swear where he's coming from, I'd be tired of all these strangers constantly dropping in tell me I needed to "get help" or "snap out of it." He went into full don't give a fuck mode (which of course makes it really hard to actually come off like you don't give a fuck) and it looks like that blew up stuff he probably didn't want to be blown up.. must kind of suck now.

Glad he at least got to be in the fourth anniversary special, still looking forward to that.

And meh French ~_~

[mzxgiant]

+1 to both Zero Punctuation and Angry Video Game Nerd.

That's really about all I watch in terms of reviews, though I have watched my fair share of "Top Ten ______" on GameTrailers.

[Spectere]

Puella, on 05 July 2012 - 11:46 PM, said:

Yeah, it sounds like there are a ton of factors. It just makes me sad cuz it seemed to be chugging along well, but hey, I guess things can't stay the same forever, especially on the internet. It's just the end of an era. *le sigh* OH well, just hope both sides are ultimately happy with the result.

I wouldn't worry much. You can still find his material on his site: http://www.spoonyexperiment.com/. He's not part of Channel Awesome anymore, but he's going to continue as an independent producer, and considering he still seems to be buddy-buddy with Linkara, Angry Joe, and several other TGWTG producers, I'm sure you'll see him in crossovers.

He's been discussing the upcoming Ultima 9 review on Twitter, so he definitely hasn't given up.

Exophase, on 06 July 2012 - 03:05 PM, said:

Alarmed to hear about the whole thing with Spoony. I saw some of his early stuff, like the FF8 review, and didn't really like it.. but I liked his work in the crossovers and specials I've seen that had him. I read through the whole thing on Twitter and it made me feel really sad, he was obviously going through a difficult time and everyone was pretty much egging him on.

The one line of advice that I thing was pretty solid and justified was, "take a break from Twitter." I find it hard to believe that some people would be so ignorant as to think that you can just "snap out of" depression and other mental illnesses.

He seems to have calmed down in his tweets and seems pretty enthusiastic about the Ultima 9 review, so hopefully that's a sign that he's improving.

[Exophase]

Spectere, on 06 July 2012 - 07:14 PM, said:

The one line of advice that I thing was pretty solid and justified was, "take a break from Twitter." I find it hard to believe that some people would be so ignorant as to think that you can just "snap out of" depression and other mental illnesses.

I agree that it was good advice, but really at that point the best thing to do would have probably been to stop giving him advice altogether and either leave him alone and let him calm down or at most try to do something positive or nice that isn't related to what he's going through.

No question that he has internal problems but people in these situations are probably going to feel like they're reacting to a lot of external things and aren't going to want to be told that on top life shitting on them they're broken and need to be fixed, or at least need to change their behavior. Especially if it's coming from strangers. No matter how good the intentions are. And most especially after they've already shown over and over again that they don't want to hear it - it's hard for me to feel sympathy for the people who were upset that he responded to them exactly like he responded to the last several people.

[Spectere]

That is a very good point. It's also kind of easy to forget that he has 20k+ followers on Twitter. For every one person that would make such a suggestion to you or me, he would have a thousand.

It's kind of an awkward situation for a concerned outsider. It was weird watching everything happen, because on one hand I was genuinely concerned, since I don't recall him ever blowing up that badly during the entire time I followed him, yet at the same time I didn't want to get involved because it really wasn't any of my business.

[duvel]

I like Nostalgia Chick because she doesn't just go scene by scene and say "WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT." She instead take an approach that carefully examines what the movie is about overall, and I feel that's better for a real review.

I still watch Linkara even though I think the character bits are getting too goofy and hammy and his comic reviews aren't QUITE as good as they were before. Still has excellent choices of comics to review though.

As for anyone else I don't really know but I remember watching a review of like Game Heroes? or one of those reviewer sets of dudes reviewing Street Fighter 3 Third Strike Online Edition, and they mentioned it was one of the most balanced Street Fighter games. Being the fighting game snob I am I immediately decided never to watch them again.

[Puella]

Other than Cinemassacre and TGWTG and The Escapist, I know there are other reviewer sites out there, but I keep forgetting their names. Does anyone remember more?

[Puella]

Old-Sckool, on 06 July 2012 - 12:46 AM, said:

Doug is the only guy I can stand on TGWTG.

Since everyone's already mentioned Zero Punctuation and AVGN, I'll mention Retsupurae. It's two guys (Diabetus and Slowbeef) who started making LPs and decided to riff on terrible let's plays, flash games, long plays, Metroid Other M, and the occasional tv show. Some of their best stuff are the BillyMC series, the Gaming in the Clinton Years stuff, "True Shit", "Let's 'ave a carriage ride!", "Super Bummerman 2".

I'll have to look into those! Also, YOUR PIC OF THE COOKING BIRD IS SO CUTE! Where did you find it?

[djtiesto]

So I heard people talking about Spoony on NeoGAF, though I didn't really get the gist of what happened. Anybody care to give me the cliffsnotes version?

My favorite review site... well I'm not sure if you can really consider it a "review" site, per se... but Chrontendo is THE SHIT. It's a video retrospective of every single Famicom game ever, in chronological order. (he also has series for the Sega Master System and PC Engine/CD) He's currently up to March 1989 with the series, and it's really informative. Not only does he discuss the games in detail, but tells about their importance in the pantheon of videogaming and reveals lots of interesting tidbits and developer links (like, did you know that Atlus of all people was behind those shitty LJN games like The Karate Kid and Jaws???). All in a really calm voice. Just the way he says "ninjas" is so awesome, it's worth watching his videos just for that.

Fuck, if you have any interest in retro games/the NES, you really owe it to yourself to watch his stuff.

Also, I'm a big fan of Hardcore Gaming 101. Great insights to lots of obscure series, I've actually met Kurt Kalata (the host of it) before at Otakon!

[Spectere]

djtiesto, on 07 July 2012 - 01:39 AM, said:

So I heard people talking about Spoony on NeoGAF, though I didn't really get the gist of what happened. Anybody care to give me the cliffsnotes version?

In a nutshell, his tweets started getting a bit on the nasty side. As Exo and I discussed, some of his fans were oversimplifying the situation and telling him to "snap out of it," which obviously only provoked him. To add fuel to the fire, some of the Spoony fanboys were literally feeding the flames and encouraging him to lash out.

There was a bit of a scuffle when Obscurus Lupa had finally had enough of the negativity and remarks against other TGWTG staff members (about a month before the Twitter shitstorm hit, Spoony had made a tweet aimed at JesuOtaku implying rape, which was brought up) and publicly unfollowed him. Not long after that, Channel Awesome suspended Spoony for four weeks, citing complaints from fans. Spoony tweeted saying that he agreed with the decision.

Soon after that (a day, maybe?) it was announced that he and Channel Awesome had parted ways amicably. It seems like things have calmed down since then, with all involved parties stating that they wanted the fan-fighting to cease.

[weasel]

My main picks for online reviewers are Dr. Ashen (though he hasn't done video games in a while; he seems to be mainly focusing on Poundland action figures and such) and Guru Larry.

I sporadically update my own Youtube video review series, but I'm pretty sure nobody watches that stuff anyway...

[Spectere]

weasel, on 07 July 2012 - 09:09 PM, said:

I sporadically update my own Youtube video review series, but I'm pretty sure nobody watches that stuff anyway...

It's not exactly a video review, but I did happen to come across the video that you uploaded of the Zone 66 intro.

[Old-Sckool]

Puella, on 07 July 2012 - 01:18 AM, said:

I'll have to look into those! Also, YOUR PIC OF THE COOKING BIRD IS SO CUTE! Where did you find it?

A long time ago I decided on a whim to let the community pic my avatar. This was the winning entry.