The Spoony Experiment: The Thread

It's going to be the film Mazes and Monsters.

The thing to remember about Spoony is that his evaluations of a game's merit tends to be based primarily by its storytelling; he's willing to excuse bad gameplay if the story's good enough, but he'll ignore excellent gameplay if the story has enough Wallbangers. This is what happened with FFX. So, if you prefer story over gameplay, you'd best skip it; otherwise, give it a try.

If that's true, I think he'll enjoy his playthrough of Deadly Premonition. I've looked into that game. It's...it's not that good, but it tries really hard, which is something I can appreciate, and the story, while insane, is really interesting.

...Nah, Spoony will find it ridiculous regardless and will mock the crap out of it. Still, I'm looking forward to him continuing his playthrough. (At least, I hope he does...)

Ultima 0 and Ultima 1

Kinda liked those. There isn't much you can say or show about the early Ultimas so I guess he had to splice all that unnecessary stuff in (the Lord of the Ring scene was way too long especially when you already know the punchline going in) to show something more compelling then ASCII art.

I liked both of them a lot, though my brother found them merely okay. I'm looking forward to the rest of the retrospective.

Does Spoony have a friend who runs a costume store? Seriously.

Fuck early NES games. People saying there should be more insanity in games should point to this series. "You found a sword. You found a mace. You found a blaster. Cause fuck it, why not?"

But insanity like that is fun.

I think you mean "early computer games".

I would pay money to see some pull this kind of shit with modern gaming technology.

.....I'm sure they love you saying you wouldn't automatically pirate it.

Can't work these days, as it gets called inconsistent and an ass pull if someone does it. Look at Condemned 2. Superpowers by yelling at people and everybody called it evidence game writing is bad.

Only because they did it halfway through and in the second game. If the craziness had been from the very beginning A la, Killer7, there would not have been so many complaints.

edited 5th Jul '10 9:32:06 PM by Myrmidon

You might like to check out Kung Fu Riders.

I'm torn with Spoony, he didn't do a very good job at reviewing one of my favourite movies, Akira, with the non-Blade Runner Sci-Fi Channel pull quote critical eye it deserved. He does seem like a nice guy, but he seems to be misinterpreted a lot. In honesty I wish I could put together a show where I reviewed stuff like he does, but I just don't have the screen presence, or a field of expertise in which people would actually be interested.

The commenters on his site tend to be a bit hateful too. I don't know if Spoony is the same way, and he probably isn't - but I'm concerned that his style of reviewing has a Misaimed Fandom.

I do like his Vlogs about stuff since he shows his nicer side there, and Dr. Insano is fun.

^Spoony has repeatedly disowned his more jackass fans, so I think the answer is no. It's also important to remember that most of Spoony's reviews are done in character, and the views expressed in them are intentionally exaggerated for parodic effect.

edited 31st Jul '10 3:32:01 AM by Taelor

^^ The fans are also nice, like the one who donated the $2000 video editing software(I think)

Maybe I was just judging them by the anti-otaku trolls in the Akira review comments. But that review is pretty old, right?

I loved how thorough his Mazes and Monsters review was, he couldn't have possibly done that as a video because of how much personal experience as an old school D&D gamer he has. It's hard to put 1994 in a 2000s-2010 era New Media show, even if they used Linkara's 90s Kid.

^ We'll see about that. He is currently working on a Mazes and Monsters video review that gets constantly pushed back but will probably hit the site next week or so, judging from the few twitter messages I've read.

Overall I've mixed feelings towards Spoony. The whole Fan Hater shtick he has going isn't exactly helping the quality of his fanbase. And really, spending 20% of a review on an Overly Long Gag cameo where you know the punchline going in? Why? This is something I expect from the Irate Gamer.

edited 31st Jul '10 7:38:00 AM by Ana

Mazes & Monsters

I think that this is a definite classic.

What a movie. I mean, I guess I didn't expect a movie about how D&D... excuse me, M&M, is teh debbil to make a lot of sense, but whut? Well, fun review at any rate, his observation on the "GM thousand mile stare" was quite on the spot. Been there

I like how the movie just pulled the plot point about that one kid being suicidal out of its ass, and then just as quickly forgot about it.

Beware the sacrilege!

Jay Jay clearly had the most problems. Why wasn't he the one that went off the deep end?

So, it occurs to me that D&D M&M actually saved that one kids life: he was going to kill himself, but then he got the idea to go larping with his friends so he didn't. Far from causing you to commit suicide, the message of this movie is that is prevents it.

edited 1st Aug '10 6:18:34 PM by Taelor

Plus, every one of those kids except maybe Fred-from-Scooby-Doo-guy already had emotional problems, and only one of them went off the deep end. Hell, it helped the girl find a boyfriend who shared her interests and prevented Jayjay from commiting suicide.

It's like the movie was actively trying to undermine it's own message.

I like how the movie just pulled the plot point about that one kid being suicidal out of its ass, and then just as quickly forgot about it.

Yes, that bordered on the Wiseauesque. You're TEARING me APART, Robbie!

I think maybe my favourite part of that review was Spoony's freak out at the end: "this guy is BATSHIT INSANE! He STABBED PEOPLE!"