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Game Informer is an American based gaming magazine (website here) that started in 1991. It features articles, news, and strategy relevant to games and the industry and reviews new and old video games on the PC and consoles.

There's a new issue every month. Each issue features previews for upcoming games, reviews of recently released games, and opinion segments.

In 2010, GI started a Lets Play called Replay on their website which airs every Saturday morning. The editors play through older games and see if they stand the test of time. While originally intended to feature only the best games, they quickly developed a fondness for obscure So Bad, It's Good games. Every episode features two segments, each segment highlighting a different game. They also started Super Replay, in which they play through the whole game. Replay now has its own page.

They also started a Let's Play of new games in Test Chamber.


This magazine contains examples of:

  • Affectionate Parody: The yearly "Game Infarcer" and the Sacred Cow Barbecue.invoked
  • Ask a Stupid Question...: The section "Short Answers to Reader's Burning Questions" often does this.
    "Your April issue had articles on the fourth installment of Thief, Assassin's Creed IV, and the PS4. April is also the fourth month. Coincidence?"
    Yes. -6/13 issue

    "Is anyone at Game Informer married?"
    Yes. -7/13 issue

    "Is there any truth to the rumor that Watch Dogs on Xbox One will allow you to hack to Kinect cameras of other players and spy on them?"
    We're pretty sure that's illegal, so probably not. -9/13 issue
  • Call-Back: The Gold cover for the June 2022 issue that features Sonic Frontiers is a homage to the very first cover of the magazine, which featured the Blue Blur shortly after the release of his first game.
  • Couch Gag: While the rest of the descriptions for their review scores are always the same, the "1" rating is always something different that usually makes light of something that happened in the gaming industry within the month. For example, the August 2018 issue's says "Sorry, your global account is not visible on this platform.", seemingly a jab at how Fortnite's Epic accounts that are linked to a PSN account are barred from being used on or cross-playing with the Switch by Sony.
  • Four-Point Scale: Averted for the most part, though played straight more recently, with very few things ever getting below a 7.
    • Few of the games that get full reviews in the magazine, that is. Lower scores are seen more often in the many online-only reviews.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Reiner and Phil before Phil got a job at Polygon.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: This was a feature from 2000-2001, hosted by the Vidiot.
  • Only in Florida: The March 2013 issue had the Game Over segment "RPG or Florida?", in which you are given multiple weird stories and have to guess whether they happened in an RPG or in Florida. Play it here.
  • Paperworkaholic: In the 4/06 "Game Infarcer" April Fools prank, they had a parody reviewer who listed, among his list of favorite games, "Microsoft Word" and "Paperwork." Listed among his dislikes? "Fun."
  • Sarcasm-Blind:
    • Judging by the letters, readers often have trouble recognizing sarcasm, and often these letters would be answered with more sarcasm. This is most notable in the June issue. Its guaranteed that more than one person will write in complaining about fictional editor of their April Fools issues' Game Infarcer section, Darth Clark, failing to realize he's not real and the article is meant as satire. The fact that they use the same picture of him year after should be a dead giveaway.
      • One notable example was a response to the 2015 Game Infarcer where the reader noted that she knew it was a parody but also thought it was meant seriously. Even Darth Clark couldn't figure out what the hell she was going on about.
    • Ditto for the Sacred Cow Barbecue.invoked
  • [Trope Name]: The April 2016 Game Infarcer has a review for a game called "(Licensed Property): Ep. 4 - (Clichéd Phrase, But With A Pun)" which pokes fun at Telltale Games for being Strictly Formula.
    When Telltale announced plans to create an episodic adventure based on (licensed property), fans were (adjective). The (Circle one: TV Show / comic / game) certainly has a unique vibe, but does it work as a game? (Sort of.)
    The story picks up after last episode's cliffhanger, which saw
    (Hero) cornered in a (type of factory), with a (predatory animal) inching closer. That situation is resolved (Circle one: immediately / within minutes), so you don't need to worry about any consequences. The (banter-like noun) between (crabby lady) and (dopey guy) is still the highlight, even though fan-favorite (character from licensed property) makes a brief appearance!
    We're still waiting to see the payoff for several threads, like saving
    (dumb kid) from that (brand of strip-mining excavator), or encouraging (character who will die in the next episode) to pursue love with a childhood crush. On the technical side, if you've played any other game in the last (1-10) years, Telltale's signature graphical style is underwhelming. Even so, I can't wait to see if everything comes together in the finale.
  • Unexpected Character: invoked Their top 10 list in Issue 313 (May 2019) is all about calling out unexpected characters in fighting games (as it's The Fighting Issue), including Mokap, Yoda, and Bad Box Art Mega Man.
  • Video Game Movies Suck: Brought up and parodied in their April 2016 Timeline, in reference to Ratchet & Clank (2016). invoked
    The problem with video game movies is they are never faithful enough to the source material. That's why we're hoping Ratchet & Clank finally gets it right. The movie better have hours of mindless box smashing, and hours more of shooting the same enemy types over and over. The script also needs to focus on finding pointless collectibles, and the cinematographer should periodically invoked lose control of the camera to replicate the gameplay experience.
  • What Is This, X?: In the November 2002 issue, Matt Helgeson's review of Shox starts off with: "What is this, National Mediocre Games Month?"

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