History WebVideo / ExoParadigmGamer

* AprilFoolsDay: His 2015 review of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''.

** In earlier years, Exo was more abrasive and willing to attack opinions he disagreed with, particularly towards Creator/{{Egoraptor}}. In recent years, he's mellowed down and acknowledged that these attacks were very unprofessional.

** In his reviews of ''Spyro 2'' and the ''Banjo-Kazooie'' games, he criticizes the game forcing you to backtrack to earlier stages with new abilities, arguing that they didn't need to hold back those abilities to begin with. Again, he has less of a problem with ''Year of the Dragon'' doing something similar with the playable allies, as each of them unlock new areas in those earlier stages and you unlock shortcuts to more quickly and easily access the new content on your second visit.

* SelfImposedChallenge: For his ''Metroid: Zero Mission'' review, he completed a 9% run.

* ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}: Door to Phantomile'' (Usefulnotes/{{Playstation}}) vs ''Klonoa'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoWii)

* TakeThat: Several reviews have had him criticizing certain antics from Creator/{{Egoraptor}}, in particular verbally assaulting a cartoon representation of ''Skyward Sword'' in a ''WebVideo/{{Sequelitis}}'' video, and deliberately triggering glitches in his ''Sonic Adventure DX'' WebVideo/GameGrumps videos.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' vs the GBA remake (with some discussion on ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords''

** Previously, Remake and Rebreak were the only two potential ratings. In 2014, he added the "Re-Meh" and "Replace" ratings and in 2020, he overhauled the rating system

** In earlier years, Exo was more abrasive and willing to attack opinions he disagreed with particularly towards Creator/Egoraptor. In recent years, he's mellowed down and acknowleged that these attacks were very unprofessional.

* ContinuingIsPainful: He {{Ragequit}} ''Sonic Genesis'' because if you don't begin Labyrinth Zone with a decent stock of extra lives and continues, it's almost impossible to get through it.

** Exo's earlier videos were much shorter ranging from about 15-30 minutes. These days 40 minutes is likely to be the MINIMUM amount of time he'll spend on a game
** In earlier videos Exo stated that the process of 100% had little impact on his opinion of a game when these days he's the opposite
** Previously Remake and Rebreak were the only two potential ratings. In 2014 he added the "Re-Meh" and "Replace" ratings and in 2020 overhauled the rating system
** In early videos Exo was willing to emulate games for review. Following his opinion Kirby's Adventure being warped by poor emulation Exo has made using authentic hardware a top priority.
** In earlier years Exo was more abrasive and willing to attack opinions he disagreed with particularly towards Creator/Egoraptor. In recent years he's mellowed down and acknowleged that these attacks were very unprofessional.

* NostalgiaFilter: Brought up several times when he calls out {{Double Standard}}s in the ''Sonic'' fanbase, making the point that the original games were far from perfect and could be a lot more frustrating with regard to TrialAndErrorGameplay than later games such as ''Sonic: Lost World'' that weren't so well-received by Classicists.

** In earlier years Exo was more abrasive and willing to attack opinions he disagreed with particularly towards ''Creator/Egoraptor''. In recent years he's mellowed down and acknowleged that these attacks were very unprofessional.

** When introducing the ''Donkey Kong'' marathon, he stated ''Donkey Kong 64'' would be reviewed "someday, but not today". Six years later and we still have yet to see it. Likewise, he alluded to the possibility of reviewing the Game Boy Color version of ''DKC1'' and the two Retro Studios developed games.

* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Exo has described himself as a semi-completionist who enjoys the CollectathonPlatformer genre, as well as hunting for collectibles such as Star Coins in modern ''Mario'' games and Red Star Rings in modern ''Sonic''. As such, he will often criticize a game that doesn't adequately reward you for putting in a frustrating amount of effort to complete it (such as the Chaos Emeralds in the first two ''Sonic'' games) or make it convenient to keep track of collectibles (such as the Dragon Coins in ''Super Mario World'' or the scoring system in ''Yoshi's Island''), and will praise a remake for addressing such problems (such as ''Super Mario Advance 2'' adding a status screen to keep track of exits and Dragon Coins). Exo has also made it clear with games like ''Sonic Unleashed'' that if the process of getting 100% is especially or tedious or grueling it can taint his enjoyment of the entire game.
* AbortedArc: In his earlier years Exo promised reviews of many games that have yet to come be it out of technical difficulties or losing interest.
** Exo stated in his 2014 review of ''VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus'' he planned to review every "Sly Cooper" game... he's yet to review a single game in the series since
** Likewise Exo has yet to review ''Videogame/Jak3'' or re-review VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy
** When introducing the Donkey Kong marathon he stated Donkey Kong 64 would be reviewed "Someday but not today" six years later and we still have yet to see it. Likewise, he alluded to the possibility of reviewing the Gameboy Color version of the first game and the two Retro Studios developed games
** Exo planned to review ''Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon'' after the first game but felt too burned out to continue
** Exo stated he wished to review the entire ''Ratchet and Clank'' series but has yet to progress past the [=PS2=] era

** Exo stated he wished to review the entire ''Ratchet and Clank'' series but has yet to progress past the PS2 era

* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Exo has described himself as a semi-completionist who enjoys the CollectathonPlatformer genre, as well as hunting for collectibles such as Star Coins in modern ''Mario'' games and Red Star Rings in modern ''Sonic''. As such, he will often criticize a game that doesn't adequately reward you for putting in a frustrating amount of effort to complete it (such as the Chaos Emeralds in the first two ''Sonic'' games) or make it convenient to keep track of collectibles (such as the Dragon Coins in ''Super Mario World'' or the scoring system in ''Yoshi's Island''), and will praise a remake for addressing such problems (such as ''Super Mario Advance 2'' adding a status screen to keep track of exits and Dragon Coins). Exo has also made it clear with games like ''VideoGame/Sonic Unleashed'' that if the process of getting 100% is especially or tedious or grueling it can taint his enjoyment of the entire game.

** In earlier years Exo was more abrasive and willing to attack opinions he disagreed with particularly towards ''Creator/Egoraptor''. In recent years he's mellowed down and acknowled that these attacks were very unprofessional

* Early Installment Weirdness

* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Exo has described himself as a semi-completionist who enjoys the CollectathonPlatformer genre, as well as hunting for collectibles such as Star Coins in modern ''Mario'' games and Red Star Rings in modern ''Sonic''. As such, he will often criticize a game that doesn't adequately reward you for putting in a frustrating amount of effort to complete it (such as the Chaos Emeralds in the first two ''Sonic'' games) or make it convenient to keep track of collectibles (such as the Dragon Coins in ''Super Mario World'' or the scoring system in ''Yoshi's Island''), and will praise a remake for addressing such problems (such as ''Super Mario Advance 2'' adding a status screen to keep track of exits and Dragon Coins), though he also makes it clear in a few videos that this kind of optional content doesn't affect his overall opinion of the game.

* ''VideoGame/Metroid1'' (NES), with a ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'' (GBA) comparison still to come.

** the Game Boy Advance version of ''Pac-Man World'' narrowly earned a Rebreak score because of Exo's frustration with having to farm for extra lives after a Game Over. "The absolute worst thing a game can do is waste my time."

-->"Imagine if you were playing ''Banjo-Kazooie'' but Gruntilda didn't actually do anything until the last hour, nor had any palpable presence throughout the game. Meanwhile Brentilda was still there and would show up every hour or so to tell you that Gruntilda is bad but never actually tell you anything about why you should hate her? That's pretty much the plot of ''Ripto's Rage''.

* AllThereInTheManual: During his criticism of Ripto in the ''Spyro 2'' review, he points out that while the manual may claim that Ripto is responsible for the problems in the stages, the game itself never mentions him outside of the Hub worlds, despite numerous opportunities to do so in dialogue.

** In his ''Super Mario 64'' review, he defends the controls in both versions as "functional", because the levels are designed around their limitations. He contrasts this with the fan game ''VideoGame/SuperMarioStarRoad'', which suffers from PlatformHell level design that doesn't work with ''Mario 64'''s control scheme, as well as ''Super Mario 64: The Green Stars'', which suffers from the CameraScrew issue even more than ''64'' does.

** ''Pac-Man World'' narrowly earned a Rebreak score because of Exo's frustration with having to farm for extra lives after a Game Over. "The absolute worst thing a game can do is waste my time."

** In the ''Sonic Adventure'' reviews, Exo looks at each of the playable characters' playstyles and argues that most of them fit well enough with Sonic's core gameplay: the characters are reasonably fast, there's an emphasis on platforming, the levels have all the familiar ''Sonic'' elements (eg, rings, springs and bumpers) and the objectives are straightforward. The only character who completely fails the test is Big the Cat and his fishing sidequest.

* VillainsActHeroesReact: In several videos, Exo discusses what he calls the "Gruntilda Effect" (adopted from a WebVideo/JonTron video, "Top 10 Boss Battles"), where a game motivates and contextualizes gameplay by building up to a confrontation with a compelling villain the player loves to hate. The effect is named for SelfDemonstrating/GruntildaWinkybunion in the first ''Banjo-Kazooie'', and he cites the Sorceress from ''Spyro: Year of the Dragon'' and Ganondorf in ''Ocarina of Time'' as great examples. In contrast, villains such as Ripto in ''Spyro 2'', who suffers from ShowDontTell regarding what damage he's done to Avalar (most of which isn't even really Told to us, at least outside of the manual) and OrcusOnHisThrone, fail to pull off the effect.

[[caption-width-right:236:Grrrr-retings and welcome to another fantastic episode of TV Tropes!]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' (DC) vs ''Sonic Adventure 2 DX'' (GCN and PSN)

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' (UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis) vs the UsefulNotes/IOSGames and UsefulNotes/AndroidGames remake. (privated)
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' (Genesis) vs iOS/Android. (privated)
* ''VideoGame/SonicCD'' (UsefulNotes/SegaCD) vs iOS/Android (privated)

* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' (UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast) vs ''Sonic Adventure DX'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoGamecube and UsefulNotes/PlaystationNetwork) (privated)
* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' (DC) vs ''Sonic Adventure 2 DX'' (GCN and PSN) (privated)

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' (UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis) vs the UsefulNotes/IOSGames and UsefulNotes/AndroidGames remake.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' (Genesis) vs iOS/Android.
* ''VideoGame/SonicCD'' (UsefulNotes/SegaCD) vs iOS/Android

* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' (UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast) vs ''Sonic Adventure DX'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoGamecube and UsefulNotes/PlaystationNetwork)
* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' (DC) vs ''Sonic Adventure 2 DX'' (GCN and PSN)

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem) vs ''Super Mario Deluxe'' (UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor), with some discussion of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels''

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' (UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis) vs the iOS/Android remake

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' (SNES) (SNES) vs GBA
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble''(SNES) vs GBA

* ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' (Genesis) vs ''Sonic Genesis'' (GBA)
* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' (UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast) vs ''Sonic Adventure DX'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoGamecube and PSN)

* ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon1998'' (Playstation) vs ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' on PC and UsefulNotes/Playstation4 Pro

* AllThereInTheManual: During his criticism of Ripto in the ''Spyro 2'' review, he points out that while the manual may claim that Ripto is responsible for the problems in the stages, the game itself never mentions him outside of the Hub worlds, despite multiple opportunities to do so in dialogue.

* ClipShow: "Everything that Sucks About Classic Sonic Special Stages", a compilation of his rants from the previous Sonic reviews.

* NostalgiaFilter: Brought up several times when he calls out {{Double Standard}}s in the ''Sonic'' fanbase, making the point that the original games were far from perfect and could be a lot more frustrating with regard to TrialAndErrorGameplay than later games that weren't so well-received by Classicists.

-->"Imagine if you were playing ''Banjo-Kazooie'' but Gruntilda didn't actually do anything until the last hour, nor had any palpable presence throughout the game. Meanwhile Bruntilda was still there and would show up every hour or so to tell you that Gruntilda is bad but never actually tell you anything about why you should hate her? That's pretty much the plot of ''Ripto's Rage''.

* VillainsActHeroesReact: In several videos, Exo discusses what he calls the "Gruntilda Effect" (adopted from a WebVideo/JonTron video, "Top 10 Boss Battles"), where a game motivates and contextualizes gameplay by building up to a confrontation with a compelling villain the player loves to hate. The effect is named for SelfDemonstrating/GruntildaWinkybunion in the first ''Banjo-Kazooie'', and he cites the Sorceress from ''Spyro: Year of the Dragon'' and Ganondorf in ''Ocarina of Time'' as great examples. In contrast, villains such as Ripto in ''Spyro 2'', who suffers from ShowDontTell regarding what damage he's done to Avalar (most of which isn't even really Told to us) and OrcusOnHisThrone, fail to pull off the effect.

* VillainsActHeroesReact: In several videos, Exo discusses what he calls the "Gruntilda Effect" (adopted from a WebVideo/JonTron video, "Top 10 Boss Battles"), where a game motivates and contextualizes gameplay by building up to a confrontation with a compelling villain the player loves to hate. The effect is named for SelfDemonstrating/GruntildaWinkybunion in the first ''Banjo-Kazooie'', and he cites the Sorceress from ''Spyro: Year of the Dragon'' and Ganondorf in ''Ocarina of Time'' as great examples. In contrast, villains such as Ripto in ''Spyro 2'', who suffers from ShowDontTell regarding what damage he's done to Avalar (most of which isn't even really Told to us) and OrcusOnHisThrone, fail to pull off the effect.