You’ve got opinions. You want to complain. You also want to know that there are like-minded people out there that might be able to gather some halfway decent, coherent arguments to the table regarding society and entertainment.
I already know that I was inspired by a very select few of webcritics and webshows to try to do something of my own eventually. These might help you out with coming out with really good, solid reviews and arguments for or against things you like.
One of the first ones to look at is Noah Antwiler, aka “The Spoony One” or just “Spoony.” His webshow, The Spoony Experiment, at http://www.spoonyexperiment.com, has been around for the past three years. He does a lot of movie reviews but also a lot of reviews on games, specifically bad ones. Some of the reviews that he did, like his notable 11-part bash of “Final Fantasy VIII,” are done in a very “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (MST3K) style of commentary. He’s very tongue-in-cheek and expressive which is one of his biggest gifts. Still, when he’s trying to be witty, it occasionally doesn’t work but he is very passionate and he’s just a lot of fun to watch. This is especially true in his reviews of “New Moon” and “Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen” because he takes it to such a level of irritation and anger that you really can’t help but find some humor in it.
Then there’s “That Guy With The Glasses,” a Chicago-area native with technically three different webshows. He can be found at http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com. As stated earlier, he has multiple shows that are specifically his own and the most notable ones are “Ask That Guy with the Glasses,” “Bum Reviews with Chester A. Bum” and “Nostalgia Critic.” “Ask That Guy” is essentially Doug Walker, aka That Guy, Chester A. Bum and Nostalgia Critic, answering really stupid and bizarre questions in equally bizarre, stupid and generally worse ways. The premise for the “Bum Reviews” is that everything he sees is “the greatest movie ever” even though you find out what he truly thought through the general presentation of why “IT’S THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER!” And then there’s Nostalgia Critic. It’s Doug doing “MST3K” style reviews of all movies and shows from the 1980s and 1990s. He also has a feud with another notable webcritic known as the “Angry Video Game Nerd” that is incredibly nerdy but in a way that works.
Then there are multiple other reviewers on http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com that are of note. For example, there’s Linkara with his show “Atop the Fourth Wall.” He does a lot of comic book reviews. Yeah, I know, it sounds dorky, but hey, it actually works since he approaches them like regular book reviews and art (painting) critiques. I’m probably digging a deeper hole for him. He’s a good reviewer who knows quite a bit about what he’s reviewing. So which would you rather have doing reviews: a passionate nerd who knows what to praise or complain about or just some random critic who doesn’t know about what they’re reviewing and is pretty much a cardboard cutout who might be able to string together some coherent sentences.
There’s also Nostalgia Chick, Lindsay Ellis, who covers all things nostalgic and girly. This little nerd beauty is the female counterpart to Walker’s Nostalgia Critic persona. The presentation of reviews is very similar. There are also running gags that occasionally promote each other and encompass an entire string of Michael Bay-based bashes turning into a fun yet uncomfortable review of the movie “Bratz.” She’s funny, sarcastic and was a quickly accepted staple too in the reviewing talent that makes up the site of “That Guy with the Glasses.” If I say anything else I might end up sounding like a creepy loser. So let’s leave it at that.
That being said, there were also two others who tried to earn the title of Nostalgia Chick when that contest popped up. Sure, they didn’t win but they were good enough to warrant their own shows on Walker’s site. “Marzgurl” and “That Chick with the Goggles” are very matter-of-fact and do very similar style reviews as that of Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick. However, the difference between Nostalgia Critic/Chick and Marzgurl or Goggles is that the latter half focuses almost exclusively on videogames and animated series. However, the difference between Marzgurl and Goggles is pretty much the amount of material either one has. Marzgurl has a lot more stuff. Beyond that they cover very similar things and have very similar senses of humor. If it wasn’t for the fact that they are obvious, in video, completely different people you might actually get the impression that the person doing either show is an absolutely incredible voice actor who decided to do two completely separate shows with two different personalities.
There are numerous others webcritics and webshows that Walker’s side poses as a host for. There’s Bennett the Sage, which does video game reviews. He’s passionate but levelheaded so when his rants come out, he keeps the language clean. It’s a bit strange but ultimately a bit more professional. There’s also Benzaie who has a couple of shows, one of which happens to be a bit of a tips & tricks style show titled “FAQ You.” He’s a funny guy who works on making things sound dirty without them actually being dirty. He does the entire show with one of these ridiculously thick, overacted French accents. It makes quite a few things sound either really insulting or really perverse when it wouldn’t sound that bad if he spoke normally.
As brought up there is the Angry Video Game Nerd. He can be an acquired taste as he focuses specifically on old games that were or weren’t failures at the industry craft. One of the few things that he has that can be found that isn’t specifically a game review is a movie/game review covering the movie “The Wizard” and the game “Super Mario 3.” He seems like a bit of a one-trick pony in that regard, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He has his focus. He has some humor behind his rants and he actually shows you what he’s complaining about. In terms of some of the other reviewers, like Spoony, sometimes it’s the reviewer sitting in front of the camera telling you what’s right or wrong with a game most of the time. Sure, you can check this stuff out if you can find the games that the reviewer happens to be covering but that would entail you hunting for, spending money on and playing a potentially horrendous game. So he’s got some things that make him halfway worthwhile to watch. He can be found at http://www.cinemassacre.com/new/?page_id=13.
G4 actually has a couple of good webshows that also occasionally show up on their specific shows like “X-Play.” “Sessler’s Soapbox” is an example of one of their good webshows. Adam Sessler, co-host and according the “X-Play” website Editor-in-Chief for “X-Play,” gets up on his soapbox to review and debate different topics that directly affect gamer culture. He’s knowledgeable after years in the industry and very straight-forward. Any of G4’s shows can be found at http://www.g4tv.com.
There’s still a lot more that might be able to pull you in but these are just some of the best ones to pay attention to. Remember, if it’s Spoony, Nerd or from http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com, it’s quality. You can also expect multiple different webshows and critics to pop up at one time or another. So if you keep your eyes open for things that catch your attention, you’ll always be able to find something new that will catch your attention.