Too niche for the hive mind?

November 21, 2009 7:52 PM

Recommendations for "let's play videogame X" videos?

I'm enjoying some of the "let's play" videos on youtube - it's like movie commentaries on dvd, but for videogame playthroughs. It can be fun! This is good, for example - first timers doing Gunstar Heroes, not knowing one thing about it, discovering things. Do you have recommendations about interesting, funny, outrageous, surprising "let's play videogame X" videos?

posted by Baldons to computers & internet (11 comments total)

I really enjoyed this series on Bungie's Myth: The Fallen Lords. Unlike some of the less serious videos I've seen, these were produced by a very knowledgeable and skilled player of the series. He provides a very good analysis of the game mechanics and plot, and after each video he includes a recap with a graphic of the cumulative bodycount. There are also links to clips from the soundtrack, unused artwork discovered in the game, and other interesting bonus material.
posted by Amaterasu at 8:40 PM on November 21, 2009

This isn't a 'lets play' but this reminded me of a video of someone playing one of those 'hardest mario levels ever' with running commentary. Hilarious. Ah, here it is.
posted by GleepGlop at 8:42 PM on November 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

Dig into Let's Play archive and/or join Something Awful.

I like medibot's Kirby LPs, Kaizo Mario World, Dwarf Fortress: Boatmurdered, most of the ones by Deceased Crab like La Mulana and Cave Story, GOD HAND, The Immortal (and most of slowbeef's stuff), Monster Rancher, Oregon Trail.

Oh, and Treasure Master. For this.
posted by fleacircus at 8:48 PM on November 21, 2009

Dead to Rights is a pretty good one. I also liked cryostatis.
posted by johnstein at 10:43 PM on November 21, 2009

In fact, if you haven't already found it, check out this LP archive site.
posted by johnstein at 10:44 PM on November 21, 2009

Two of my favorite Let's Play creators on YouTube are Deceased Crab and Raocow. DeceasedCrab plays a lot of indy action-adventure games like La Mulana and Eversion. Raocow plays a lot of Super Mario World hacks, some of them brutal, some of them crummy. He's got a French Canadian accent which combined with his absurd stream-of-consciousness narration style somehow combines to be really funny.

Other videos I liked watching are E.V.O. by ssskinner and Prenumbra (and other survival horror games) by Helloween4545.

If you like the let's play videos, you might try the "Quick Look" feature at Giant Bomb. They have one guy who has played the game before playing a section over again and explaining it to a second guy. It's interesting for learning about new games, and can be very funny with less-than A-list titles.
Giant Bomb also has a highly entertaining run through of Persona 4.
posted by demiurge at 10:48 PM on November 21, 2009

The best one of these I've seen is the multi-person playthrough of the brutally difficult Kaizo Mario World (discussed in this post). The levels are insanely hard, and impossible to accomplish without using an emulator with a "save state" function that lets you attack each obstacle over and over again without having to go to the last checkpoint if you die. The players have some amusing accents and colorful commentary, and it's fun seeing how they manage to get around the more despicable traps.
posted by Rhaomi at 10:56 PM on November 21, 2009

There's also the much-celebrated and much-reviled Retsupurae, a couple of SA goons (including the mod of the SA Let's Play subforum) who viciously mock low-quality YouTube LPs. My favorites are Let's Play Mirror's Edge As Soon As Possible, some generic Deceased Crab video, Wizardry V, Bowser's Evil Test, and LP Mario 64... very slowly
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:42 PM on November 21, 2009

Deceased Crab is great, of course.

I also enjoyed Spoony's Let's Plays of Phantasmagoria 2, Final Fantasy VIII and Ripper (that one's ongoing). Keep in mind, though, that these are done mostly for humor value; he isn't trying to give people a walkthrough of the game so much as make fun of the games.
posted by Target Practice at 2:59 AM on November 22, 2009

My son (who's nine, YMMV) looooooves ChuggaaConroy.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:15 AM on November 22, 2009

The most awesome part of the op's example is teh ZAPPA.
posted by cmoj at 11:02 AM on November 22, 2009