Line #129 ZeroPunctuation/TropesMToP


1	[[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Main page]] \| [[ZeroPunctuation/TropesAToD Tropes A-D]] \| [[ZeroPunctuation/TropesEToH Tropes E-H]] \| [[ZeroPunctuation/TropesIToL Tropes I-L]] \| '''Tropes M-P''' \| [[ZeroPunctuation/TropesQToT Tropes Q-T]] \| [[ZeroPunctuation/TropesUToZ Tropes U-Z]] \| \| [[ZeroPunctuation/ReviewedGames List of reviewed games]]
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3	* MagicFeather: "Don't you see? The [skill/object] was in you all along!" One episode had him saying there was a ''reverse'' magic feather ("Ha, ha! Don't you see? The fuck-up was in you all along!")
4	* ManicPixieDreamGirl:
5	** Brought up in the ''VideoGame/SimCity'' [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7053-SimCity review]], with reference to the trope's poster girl:
6	-->"Listen to me, EA! Not every introvert is longing for the day that [[Creator/ZooeyDeschanel Zooey fucking Deschanel]] kicks their door down and forcibly drags them to a roller rink!"
7	** Invoked by name for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'', or as he preferred to call it, ''"Cloud Strife vs. The Manic Pixie Dream Girls".''
8	--->'''Yahtzee:''' It starts with him being dragged into an eco terrorist group by manic pixie dream girl number 1, big-titted [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood friend girl]] who, if this were a DatingSim, I would have classified as “the freebie.” He gets [[SexualEuphemism manic pixied by her for a few chapters]] before another terrorist bombing goes awry, he falls off a high thing and lands almost literally in the lap of manic pixie dream girl number 2, [[InnocentFlowerGirl flower seller]] [[MysteriousWaif with mysterious past who drives the rest of the plot.]]
9	* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: Has teamed up with [[Creator/BobChipman Moviebob]] and [[WebAnimation/ExtraCredits James Portnow]] to form [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extraconsideration Extra Consideration]], a panel in which all three discuss the state of the gaming scene. Jim Sterling of WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} has now joined the panel as well.
10	* MasterOfNone:
11	** One of his major complaints about AAA games is that he sees many of them as this; they are meant to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and so end up often including [[GameplayRoulette tons of different gameplay styles]] without managing to nail down a single style that works, and without making any of those styles truly essential or important. He brings up the trope by name when discussing ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', which is a hybrid of a wide-open sandbox, a real-time-strategy, and a hack-and-slasher, but he felt it didn't do particularly well at any of the above (partly because those gameplay styles don't mesh well). It's also an element of his critique of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', a game that tried to be a shooter, a base-builder, a crafting-and-survival game, an open-world game, an RPG, and a narrative experience, and so ended up with an easy shooter, a token base-builder, a boring crafter, a repetitive open-worlder, a shallow RPG, and a weak narrative experience.
12	** The complaint resurfaced in his review of ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', where he said that he believed the game failed because it tried to achieve a balance between being a story-heavy ''Fallout'' RPG focused on the singleplayer experience, and an MMO survival game where players make their own story and work together with others a la ''VideoGame/{{Rust}}.'' The result was a game with a lot of story and RPG elements too underdeveloped to work, while the multiplayer and survival aspects felt shallow and gutted and he rarely even saw other players.
13	** He ultimately codifies this model by describing what he calls the "Jiminy Cockthroat" subgenre: open-world games that incorporate elements of stealth, crafting, collecting, and RPG elements. As one might expect from the name, it is not complimentary. The defining idea to him of the subgenre is that these games are designed such that you can "play it your way", which typically means that the systems involved are neither fleshed-out enough to stand on their own nor interconnected enough to meaningfully cohere.
14	** "Three Things, Somewhere, Quarter 4 2027" focuses on over-ambitious Kickstarter MMO projects that promise a game that lets the player "do anything" with all sorts of systems, and end up failing on all fronts. In contrast, successful games are more focused on what they want to be and deliver a better experience for it.
15	* MeatMoss: He calls it "jam" in his [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent review]] of ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent''.
16	-->"Oh, pissing BLIMEY, there's JAM coming out of the walls!"
17	** And this was years before Yahtzee's [[ThereAreNoCoincidences novel about a jam-based apocalypse]] came out.
18	* MedalOfDishonor:
19	** He spent some time of his review of ''Alone in the Dark'' slagging off on its heroine. This particular tangent opens with an awards ceremony wherein the heroine cleans up at the "Horrible Game Character" category, taking home '[[RomanticPlotTumor Most Obviously Crowbarred-in Love Interest]]', '[[TheScrappy Most Irritating]]', '[[ArtificialStupidity Least Useful to Gameplay]]', '[[SatelliteLoveInterest Least Necessary to Plot]]' and '[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Lifetime Achievement]]'. [[invoked]]
20	** The ''Zero Punctuation Lifetime Achievement Award For Total Abhorrence'' went to ''Ride to Hell: Retribution''. Notably it did not win for 2013, but for infinity -- unless an even worse game happens to come along.
21	-->"That should roughly be around the time apes have retaken the Earth."
22	** The "Turd in a Turd" Award for Unsurprising Poor Quality went to ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', his reasoning being that Creator/SonicTeam is deliberately trying to be awful and hitting the mark perfectly.
23	* MediumAwareness: During his review of ''VideoGame/WolfensteinYoungblood'', he comments that he could count the games which made a success of ''Youngblood''[='s=] approach on the fingers of one hand -- "and I don't have any fingers on my hand, 'cause it's a featureless white circle".
24	* MenDontCry: Parodied in his ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS 2}}'' [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/3611-Infamous-2 review]].
25	-->"I'm not to proud to admit that I was welling up at ''[=inFAMOUS=] 2'''s good ending, a little bit. Well, not much at all really. It was more like stoically nodding my head while doing squat-thrusts and grunting."
26	** Hilariously subverted in his review of ''VideoGame/{{Spiritfarer}}'':
27	-->"In contrast, I played ''Spiritfarer'', got to the part where [[spoiler: an old hedgehog with dementia remembers who I am in the brief moment before she disappears]], and ''I CRIED''. [[subscript: I actually did; fuck you.]]"
28	* MercyKill: What he says must be done with ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''.
29	* {{Metaphorgotten}}: Frequently, considering how many strange metaphors Yahtzee uses.
30	-->"It's like wrestling an excitable dog in a paddling pool full of disembodied breasts. {{beat}} Don't think too much about that simile, I certainly didn't."
31	** Especially when it's a hot summer day and his AC isn't working. "Really good like... something... [[BuffySpeak good]] that's... made out of chocolate..."
32	** [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/8892-Extra-Punctuation-Action-Is-Not-Finisher-Porn This]] ''Extra Punctuation'' takes the metaphor of "[[TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup Too many cooks spoil the broth]]" and keeps stretching it until he reckons "I think this is already the best metaphor I've ever written."
33	** In his ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' review, to illustrate the importance of keeping D-list villains ''out'' of a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' game, he explains how his greatest villains all reflect an aspect of the caped crusader.
34	-->"ComicBook/TwoFace reflects his duality, [[ComicBook/TheScarecrow Scarecrow]] his use of fear and psychological tactics, ComicBook/PoisonIvy his-- er, shapely buttocks.(?)"
35	** From his review of ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'', when commenting on the way the game makes several {{Take That}}s towards other, better shooters:
36	-->"People who live in glass houses, ''Duke Nukem Forever'', shouldn't make ugly, frustrating, poorly-optimized games."
37	** His review of ''VideoGame/GravityRush'' described the gravity-shifting mechanics thus:
38	-->"The first press cancels your gravity and puts you into hover mode, the second picks a new gravity. It's like having to stop the car and put it in neutral before you can change gear. And your car [[{{Stripperiffic}} dresses like a whore]]."
39	** From his review of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'':
40	-->"Hey America... people who live in glass houses... should probably get around to closing Guantanamo Bay one of these days..."
41	** And from his review of ''VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon'':
42	-->"Still, the range of elemental powers on display are pretty creative, although the word "elemental" is getting stretched like a mozzarella bumhole at the novelty sausage gala-- ''what am I on about?''"
43	** From his review of ''VideoGame/QuantumConundrum'', when talking about the glove that lets you switch between alternate dimensions:
44	-->"It's kind of like a glove-mounted cocktail dispenser except it alters the physical properties of things other than your own legs. There's the piña colada dimension, where everything is light and fruity; the Black Russian dimension, where things sit much more heavily and you start clutching your head complaining about your ex-wife; the absinthe dimension, where everything floats off into the sky to come crashing apocalyptically down the following morning; and the slow motion dimension, where this analogy kind of breaks down."
45	** "I feel like making a game in ''VideoGame/{{Dreams}}'' would be like cleaning a bathroom floor with the eyelashes of a horse. Impressive, yes, but there were much easier ways. And you'll have very little use for all that horse-wrangling expertise you had to learn if you want to move into cleaning bathroom floors on a professional level. Even moreso after Creator/{{Sony}} inevitably decides it can't be bothered to support clean bathroom floors anymore and turns the servers off, sending everyone's hard work right down the bathroom drain. Yes, I have completely lost the fucking thread of this metaphor."''
46	** His review of ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' has him come this with WhoWritesThisCrap, following his complaint about the Switch's Joy-Cons giving him difficulty with certain button combinations:
47	-->"But isn’t that largely my fault, for not having gotten around to paying kindly Uncle Nintendo another seventy bucks for a pro controller that doesn’t stick drift like a glue tanker on a wet road-- Jesus Christ, when did I write that?!"
48	* MetaTwist: Discussed - he feels that the "shocking" moment in the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' games has become so token that by the end of the third game, it'd be more shocking if there wasn't one.
49	* MoneyForNothing: He brings this up in his reviews of both the later ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' games and the ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' series, saying that useful items are either fairly cheap or can't be bought, and the biggest {{Money Sink}}s provided no real advantage except even more money, resulting in situations where he buys up way too much stuff just to have something to spend the money on, and then ends up with more than he started.
50	* MonsterCloset: His lambasting of the trope in ''Dead Space 2'' provides the page quote.
51	* MonsterClown: He suggests that there must have been one working at Airtight Games who the staff were too frightened of to say no to, explaining why there are so many bad decisions in the design of ''VideoGame/MurderedSoulSuspect.''
52	* MoodDissonance: While not a deal-breaker for Yahtz and he admits that this is very much a subjective quibble for him, tonal clash between the gameplay, story and other elements of a game can take him out of a game fairly easily. He especially took ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' to task for setting itself in environments that look like ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'', but then making you play through them as Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog, "a blue cartoon mouse in sneakers with eyes the size of hubcaps".
53	** He elaborates on this further in his ''Extra Punctuation'' video "We Need To Have A Conversation About Your Tone", where he rags on ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'' for interrupting a silly haggis anecdote with violent brutal combat, only to pick the haggis story right back up again.
54	* MoodWhiplash: Feels that the cutscenes in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' causes this, with the incredible silliness of VehicularCombat contrasting with a VERY dark story that he admits is a bit frightening.
55	* {{Mordor}}: Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s corporate HQ in ''Bowser's Inside Story''.
56	* MoralGuardian: In his [=3DS=] review he states how he's trying his best to not sound like one of these while criticizing the potentially malicious acts people can do with the "[=StreetPass=]" feature.
57	** One of his "Occasional Guide To Special Moments In Gaming History" videos focuses on these people and the controversy surrounding the Hot Coffee mod from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas''.
58	* MoreDakka: His review of ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' shows the civilization stage as imps strafing other imps' cities from the air, with the caption "Dakka Dakka" under the war planes.
59	* MotorMouth: "Zero Punctuation" comes from how he has a tendency to ramble on and on so quickly that his speech has almost no pauses, and thus there is ''zero punctuation''. More or less.
60	** He has said he edits out the pauses, but definitely does not speed up his voice.
61	** He was strangely slow in his delivery of the review of ''Lego City Undercover''; this may be ascribed to the post-''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' melancholy he claims to be suffering from.
62	** This is taken a bit further than usual in the end of his ''FIFA 13'' review, after getting distracted from reviewing it by several other downloadable games:
63	--> "How much time do I have left? [[OhCrap 8 SECONDS? FUCK!!]] Uh, FIFA 13 is a game in which you and your burly friends help a small leather sphere realize its dream of being in a net, and I think we can all agree that that's basically a positive thing. Nighty night."
64	** In the past few years, he no longer tries to emulate [[https://tinyurl.com/y4wjp6xr John Moschitta]], and speaks at a fast, but not nonstop, pace -- especially when he wants to make something PunctuatedForEmphasis.
65	* MuggingTheMonster: In his ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' review, he mentions that it occurred to him that it might be a good idea to stop stealing things. After getting attacked by bandits and taking their stuff, he mentions it is not stealing because they attacked him, which makes it his by the international law of "Go Fuck Yourselves."
66	* MundaneMadeAwesome: When talking about the wet clothing feature in ''Uncharted'', he talks a bit too much about it, considering it means absolutely nothing in terms of plot or gameplay. He realizes this, of course, stating at the end of his praise "Well, ''I'' think it's interesting!".
67	* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Despite being a MisanthropeSupreme in general, he often displays sympathic views towards people of color, particularly those in the developing world. One of his common complaints with the "Spunkgargleweewee" genre is often being forced to kill dark-skinned foreigners for no apparent reason other than America being xenophobic. He also once mocked the idea of white Americans being offended by a joke from a race they once enslaved.
68	* MythologyGag: During his ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' review, Yahtzee separates each hour he played the game with a brief break showing a black screen with the unit of time and then which unit he's on (Hour 1, Hour 2, Hour 3, etc.). He used a similar mechanism with three of the games in the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos''.
69	* {{Nerdgasm}}: Has made a few references to getting erections at really good games.
70	* NerdsAreVirgins: Has made quite a few jokes about that. Especially notable on his review for ''{{VideoGame/Catherine}}'':
71	-->(Increasingly amused) "... there's a moral choice aspect where you answer questions based on your own substantial experience with relationships stifled laughter " (accompanying visual is of a fat glasses-wearing guy sitting next to a blow-up doll.)
72	* NewerThanTheyThink: [[invoked]]He argues this is why it would be misplaced to claim the popularity of ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' proves that ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' holds up--while it does call back to the original, most of the reboot's core design elements were tried and tested in later games, and the two really don't play much alike. In particular, he cites the heavy focus on aerial maneuvering, claiming that the ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' games were the actual pioneers on that front: as he put it, "''DOOM (2016)'' would be nothing without verticality, so if I were to pick its primary influence, it wouldn't be a game that had no fucking "Jump" button."
73	* NightmareFuel:[[invoked]]
74	** The ''Kinectimals''' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kinectimals.jpg box art]] is "the most terrifying thing I've seen all year. It looks like what would happen if [[MonsterClown John Wayne Gacy]] went to Disneyland."
75	** Also makes this comment about the cutscenes in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'', feeling they seem better suited for a horror film that an over the top VehicularCombat game.
76	** Discussed regarding his review of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1'' as how it's possible to be ''too'' scary. Yahtzee found the game and its genuinely paralyzing dread of the unknown to be "a remarkable recreation of the kind of logic one encounters in a nightmare," but that was to its detriment as it stopped making it a horror ''game'' with some level of entertaining catharisis and more just a masochistic exercise of anxiety.
77	* NightmareRetardant:[[invoked]] He states that ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'' made {{Creepy Doll}}s not creepy just by the fact that the game uses it constantly to the point where players just get used to it.
78	** In a similar vein, once the player "attuned to TheCaligula mindset", Splatterhouse is surprisingly boring.
79	** He also takes this view of ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', as he found [[spoiler:Sayori's suicide]] to be such a real and heartwrenching depiction of a traumatic event that the more fantastically spooky things like [[PaintingTheMedium creepy "glitch" effects]] or characters going crazy and stabbing themselves or [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the villain messing with the game's code]] came across as a relief.
80	* NintendoHard: Yahtzee prides himself on as having been playing video games since early childhood and frequently recalls how hard they were back then. He routinely mocks prospective critics who complain about the difficulty level in games these days, as well as people who accuse him of [[ItsHardSoItSucks not liking a game because he finds it too hard]][[invoked]]. That said, games with [[VideoGame/SonicUnleashed ridiculously impossible sequences]], he blasts with both barrels.
81	** He felt that ''[[VideoGame/DemonsSouls Demon's Souls]]'' offered too much of a challenge without a sufficient reward, and gave up after trying to get across the Red Dragon-guarded bridge leading to the Tower Knight.
82	*** Surprisingly averted with its [[VideoGame/DarkSouls spiritual successor]], which he actually turned out to quite like.
83	** However he did enjoy ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'', though he states that no person, unless it's for charity should ever try [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Impossible difficulty]].
84	*** This trope is why he quit playing ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2'' - and to be fair, he played it when enemies could knock Geralt down mid-swing (and [[CycleOfHurting KEEP knocking him down]]), and ''before'' a tutorial was added to acclimatize players to the controls.
85	* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity[[invoked]]: {{Discussed\|Trope}} in "Acclaim Entertainment Hall of Shame", with the central subject being {{Creator/Acclaim}} and their various publicity stunts from the late-90's/early-2000's that Yahtzee considered a relentless -- and ultimately, failed -- attempt to test the adage. Yahtzee's conclusion is that controversial or messy marketing stunts can only be truly effective if the product being sold is actually any ''good'', as while Acclaim's antics did get them the attention and headlines they were looking for, nobody was actually sticking around to buy their games because the products themselves were hashed-out junk with little ambition or innovation, leaving them a subject of widespread mockery ''and'' bankrupt.
86	* NoahsStoryArc: During his story of the "Corrupted Blood" incident in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', he imagines this scenario in which "Blizzard had no option but to contact one of the figureheads of the quarantine effort and have him construct a giant wooden boat in which he was directed to place two of every monster so that they could send a rainstorm for forty days and forty nights" before fessing up with a "Nah, I'm fucking with you; they just hard-reset the servers. Bit anticlimactic, really."
87	* NoFourthWall: Technically doesn't qualify as there's no suspension of disbelief, but a review still pushed back the boundaries when Yahtzee addressed the viewer as "Adrian", and noted that while that's not particularly likely to be any given viewer's name, "it was worth it to freak out all the Adrians in the world."
88	-->"If you've been paying attention, you'll notice that all these games are sequels. And if you haven't... claps twice OI!"
89	-->"Stop watching my reviews, Dad!"
90	** The ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' review has the distinction of genuinely breaking the fourth wall, as Yahtzee suggest pausing the video, while his avatar points to the pause button on the video player.
91	-->"I shouldn't have to talk about the core gameplay, I consider that an insult to you and me. My review of ''Mario Galaxy 1'' hasn't gone anywhere, why not pause this video, pour yourself a glass of wine and go and enjoy that. I'll just wait here slapping myself in the face until you return. cut to black, slapping sounds and Yahtzee groaning, then cut back, Yahtzee now with a bruised face Finished? Right, well, ''Mario Galaxy 2'' is more of that."
92	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: At the end of most reviews, there's a couple of still shots during the credits and theme-music with a little joke about the game. In the case of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', there was no punchline, just Yahtzee beating and shooting Vanille to pieces in increasingly elaborate ways.
93	* NoJustNoReaction: How the [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/869-The-Conduit review]] of ''VideoGame/TheConduit'' began.
94	* NonIndicativeName: Not long after coining the phrase "Creator/{{BioWare}} Bro Buffet" to describe games that are mostly about building a squad of TrueCompanions, it occurred to him that Creator/{{BioWare}} actually seemed to be fairly bad at it, as he liked the companions of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Pyre}}'' a lot more than those of any recent Creator/{{BioWare}} games, and spent much of his ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' review talking about how he loathed the game's cast.
95	** One of the ways in which the ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' remake remained faithful to the original game is that "it's still fuck all to do with Triads".
96	* NoodleImplements: The ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' review: ''...and whistled for a baboon.''
97	* NoodleIncident: The end of the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' video says "I hope the war in Las Vegas destroyed that ice machine I threw up in".
98	** "Now I've never invaded Europe, except for that one time..."
99	** "I know I can't speak for everyone, at least not until ''the device'' is completed, but..."
100	* NostalgiaFilter:
101	** [[DiscussedTrope Yahtzee often cautions his viewers against this]], as nostalgia is often used by triple-A developers to trick the buying public into accepting formula over innovation. He also tends to deride fans who wear nostalgia goggles for particular games, especially those that have aged poorly, and one of his main gripes with crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter is the overabundance of spiritual sequels or nostalgic retreads that gain massive success and popularity. That said, [[NotSoAboveItAll he’s not afraid to admit when he himself is falling into to the same trap]]. He caught himself really ''trying'' to like ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' despite its many horrendous flaws, as he enjoyed the original ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' and desperately wanted the new game to be good after thirteen years of development hell.
102	** Admits to be have suffered from it himself in his review of ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', where he admitsthat he had fewer other games growing up and can recite the game from memory. He not only admits to have ignored flaws in the game, though he still enjoyed it, but also that it represents aspects of retro-shooters he hates, like platforming sections, from a first person perspective. Conversely when he did a retro review of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' he found that it didn't hold up quite as well as he'd remembered.
103	** This is mostly the joke behind the running gag of naming ''[[VideoGame/{{Dizzy}} Fantasy World Dizzy]]'' to be the greatest game of all time - it's a slow, shallow, clunky, ugly, obtuse Platform/Commodore64 platformer that has aged like milk, but because he played it when he was a kid, that makes it the standard all games since have failed to meet.
104	** He brings this up in his discussions of games like ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' or ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', with him pondering what it means that he appreciates them so much despite no nostalgia for the genre. Indeed, part of his interest in retro games is figuring out whether they can still hold up to the eye of someone who didn't have much experience with them in his youth.
105	* NotHelpingYourCase: Yahtzee felt that ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' wasn't helping with gamers' attempts to convince the public at large that video games aren't MurderSimulators.
106	-->"Here's me living for the day the mainstream media understands that video games aren't just mindless violence for twelve-year-old future Unabombers, and ''Mortal Kombat'' isn't helping my case. It's like a sitcom moment wherein Character X defends the intelligence of Character Y while in the background Character Y is [[TooDumbToLive busy snorting Drano off the back of an enraged lioness]]."
107	* NotHimself: Wait, what's this? ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}} 3'' has no regenerating health? A sum of weapons greater than 2? No chest-high walls? "Erm... Creator/{{Sony}}, are you alright?"
108	* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer:
109	** Describing the ending of ''VideoGame/Condemned2Bloodshot'', and says "I ''wish'' I was fucking kidding!"
110	** And revealing the final boss of ''Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days''.
111	** In his review of ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'', he brings up a Mickey Mouse comic where he ''[[http://ridz.sg/blog/2008/04/mickey-mouse-loses-minnie-attempts-suicide/ tries to kill himself]]'' after Minnie breaks up with him.
112	** Uses this in ''Painkiller'' when describing a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning. This is a rare positive example, as he states that "the only way this weapon could be more awesome would be if it had tits and was on fire!"
113	** After mentioning a particularly [[invoked]] {{narm}}ful line spoken by ''VideoGame/RememberMe'''s protagonist, he then states that, yes, it really is in the game as displayed verbatim.
114	** In his review of ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', as he's talking about Raiden's robotic dog companion, on the screen are, in big letters, "NO REALLY" and "A THING THAT HAPPENS".
115	** He points out that you really can "bully the monsters into giving up and take their lunch money" in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}''.
116	** In his Creator/{{Acclaim}} Entertainment 'Hall of Shame' video, he clarifies that Creator/{{Sony}} really did parade a dead goat around at ''VideoGame/GodOfWarIII'''s launch party.[[note]]Although he was actually misremembering, as it was really at ''VideoGame/GodOfWarII's'' launch party.[[/note]]
117	** In his review of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'', when he reveals that there is a boss fight against a Hole Punch, something he had sarcastically suggested in a previous ''Paper Mario'' review.
118	** When he was briefly mini-reviewing ''VideoGame/CodeVein'' in his "2019 Game I Haven't Reviewed Roundup" he pointed out out that your homebase really does have a built-in hot spring, where sexy girls in {{Modesty Towel}}s will come in and join you when you sit in it. "This is a thing that happens. It built a {{Fanservice}} HotSpringsEpisode into its fucking mechanics."
119	** In his review of ''VideoGame/AmnesiaRebirth'' he criticises the time the protagonist "takes the public subway train in the evil Lovecraftian dimension and misses her stop because the map was confusing" and insists "No really, this happens".
120	** In his review of ''VideoGame/NiNoKuniIIRevenantKingdom'', he describes it as a "twee cartoon fantasy JRPG". When he gets to the story, he describes the opening as gritty and realistic: "The president of the United States is on his way to a summit of the UN when the city he's driving through gets hit by a direct nuclear strike." He then reassures the viewer that, yes, this happens in ''Ni No Kuni II''.
121	* NotSoAboveItAll:
122	** As much as Yahtzee mocks the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanbase for never knowing when to move on from a FranchiseZombie[[invoked]], he eventually admits that he's no better when it comes to the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series.
123	-->'Every time they bring out another one I go "Maybe this time it'll be good again!" and dutifully jam my dick in the beehive, and I'm beginning to think that the one time I didn't get stung on the pisshole might've been the outlier.'
124	** One recurring joke he makes [[TakeThat at the expense of mainstream, shounen-skewing anime and animesque games]] are that their respective fandoms exclusively discuss "waifus" and arguing over who is the "best girl". In his Extra Punctuation on "Why I Like Persona in Spite of it Being A JRPG", he brings this topic up again, expressing annoyance in how despite the likes of ''VideoGame/Persona4'' and ''[[VideoGame/Persona5 5]]'' sincerely winning him over on a critical and emotional level, he still finds such discussions about who is the "best girl" insipid and tiresome... and that it's [[VideoGame/Persona4 Chie]].
125	* NoTrueScotsman: Jokingly, he explains that he doesn't consider the ''Mario'' [=RPGs=] to be [=JRPGs=], because "a JRPG just isn’t a JRPG unless it ends with [[KidHero teenagers]] using the PowerOfFriendship to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu kill God.]]"
126	** He references the trope in his review of ''VideoGame/TheSims'', where he admits that he wanted to use the excuse of not liking casual games to avoid reviewing it.
127	** He also namedropped the trope as reason he ''didn't'' simply use the "the majority of players of ''VideoGame/TheSims'' are all casual gamers and therefore don't count" argument to cover his distaste for the series in his review of ''VideoGame/TheSims3.''
128	* ObligatoryJoke: Yahtzee begins his review of ''VideoGame/{{Maneater}}'' by [[MotorMouth rapid-firing]] the chorus to Music/DarylHallAndJohnOates' song "Maneater" and then saying "okay, now that that's out of the way, let's start this review".
129	* ObservationOnOriginality: Numerous reviews allude to this concept. His running metaphor about Branston Pickle (to describe something so original and distinctive that it must be appreciated in spite of its flaws) more or less amounts to this trope.
130	* OhCrap: In his ''FIFA 13'' review, after he's been distracted from reviewing the game throughout the video:
131	--> "How much time do I have left? 8 SECONDS? FUCK!! Uh, [[MotorMouth FIFA 13 is a game in which you and your burly friends help a small leather sphere realize its dream of being in a net, and I think we can all agree that that's basically a positive thing. Nighty night.]]"
132	* OnceAnEpisode: Tends to draw characters skipping hand-in-hand, ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''-style frequently.
133	* OldShame: Yahtzee has admitted at least twice he used to watch ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' when he was a kid. While some people might not consider this shameful, he certainly does. [[invoked]]
134	* OneHundredPercentCompletion: DefiedTrope. By his own admission, Yahtzee has trouble understanding the completionist mentality and tends to think lowly of games like ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' that bank on it as their selling point. This also extends to games like ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' and ''VideoGame/TemboTheBadassElephant'' that emphasize the need to find all the secrets to "properly" complete a level.
135	--> "Striving for 100% completion is for unemployed psychotics and Koreans."
136	** In his ''Videogame/YoshisCraftedWorld'' review, he darkly suspects that introducing HundredPerCentCompletion to video games was the origin of the industry exploiting the obsessive instinct of completionists, which itself indirectly lead to the modern-day proliferation of lootboxes and live service games. Although he admits he might be being "a touch hysterical" about that.
137	* TheOner: {{Discussed\|Trope}} as the subject of heavy criticism in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar2018'' and ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'' (which famously scripts all the gameplay and cutscenes in seamless, unbroken fashion), which he saw as emblematic of the games' core problem of [[invoked]][[{{Padding}} not cutting anything out and being far too excessive and padded for their own good]]. Yahtzee specifically complained about the overuse of DynamicLoading by forcing the player to squeeze through narrow caves in name of preserving the shtick, which he just saw as an increasingly obvious trick, and annoying enough that by ''Ragnarok'', he was sincerely asking for a traditional LoadingScreen.
138	-->'''Yahtzee:''' What's with this obsession with never cutting away? Cutting away is fine! Remember in ''Film/TaxiDriver'' when Creator/RobertDeNiro decides to shoot up a pimp's house, and they just cut to him doing that? Remember how they didn't show him buying a subway ticket to the pimp's house and sitting on a train for half an hour, muttering about how much fun he's going to have shooting it up?
139	* OnlyOneFemaleMold: Criticizes both ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' and ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' for this.
140	-->"...universally identical bodies that leave Hawke's elderly mother with the same massive, curvaceous bosoms as a table dancer, [[FreudWasRight Freud Freud]]."
141	-->"...the male orcs, trolls, and undead are all hunched, twisted monstrosities while the females are basically just discolored human hotties with bad dentistry."
142	* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: In-universe, he has taken this attitude with regards to several franchises, most notably the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series, for which he criticized every Western-developed entry in the series for missing the mark or failing to live up to the standard of the original four Japanese games (with ''Silent Hill 2'' in particular being one of his favourite games of all time). This became particularly ironic when he named ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' his game of the year for 2012, despite it being an entry in an established franchise which none of the original creators had any involvement in. Then again, prior to ''The Line'' he'd never given an ounce of freeze-dried shit for the ''Spec Ops'' franchise anyway (a not-uncommon opinion, as even our very wiki doesn't even have a page for the series apart from ''The Line'').
143	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
144	** ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' depressed him so much that he actually took a huge ''pause'' near the end of the review and sighed wearily before wrapping up. The game went on to be his pick for Best Game of 2012.
145	** Yahtzee's reviews of most games tend to be fairly long and descriptive, even ones that he says are decent. For ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', however, his review of the game consists of only one sentence: "''Undertale'' is a good game." The game went on to be Yahtzee's Game of the Year for 2015. [[note]]When he crowned the ''Undertale'' GOTY for 2015, he admitted he didn't give the game a "proper" review because it was one best experienced without foreknowledge.[[/note]]
146	** Although Yahtzee has a well deserved reputation as an [[AccentuateTheNegative angry]] [[CausticCritic guy]], most of his many criticisms and jokes are done in a mildy annoyed, deadpan voice, showing more disinterested disgust and burnt-out disappointment. As such, when he shows genuine anger, it is both surprising and a sign that whatever he's taking about goes beyond "the usual bullshit". At the same time, it also makes his moments of sadness or ([[WhenHeSmiles rare]]) happiness stand out like a sore thumb.
147	** Yatzee held off on swearing to emphasise that he genuinely hated the ''Battletoads'' reboot.
148	** Yahtzee generally doesn't say whether viewers should or shouldn't buy a game. As such when he goes out of his way to clearly say to ''not'' buy a game, such as with ''VideoGame/MindJack'' and ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}} Soulstorm'', his hatred for the game is obvious.
149	* OohMeAccentsSlipping:
150	** Happens a fair deal with his ridiculous Irish accent in the ''Tales of VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' episode.
151	** Also the ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' episode, where he switches back and forth from his normal English accent and a horrible South African accent.
152	* OrphanedPunchline: "...and whistled for a baboon!"
153	* OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope: Parodied.
154	-->The problem is that this isn't a ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' game. It looks like one, it wears the skin of one, but that doesn't make it one! I am not a fat woman, even though I've- I've just been advised not to finish this sentence. (with the accompanied image of him [[BlackComedy wearing the bloody skin of a fat woman]].)
155	* OutOfTheFryingPan: In his [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/739-Velvet-Assassin review]] of ''Videogame/VelvetAssassin'', he notes that the bullet time mechanic in the stealth sections is--unless used under precise circumstances--liable to backfire and leave the player worse off than before.
156	-->...then the "fuckup remedy" has instead resulted in what we experts call "boomerang fuckkup".
157	* OverlyLongGag: See BigNo.
158	* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: A joke he pulls out occasionally, perhaps most triumphantly when he called ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' "the ''second'' best [[VideoGame/{{Bioshock}} atmospheric narrative horror game with philosophical themes set at the bottom of the ocean with an existential plot twist in it]]...of all time."
159	** He also described ''VideoGame/{{Tunic}}'' as "The greatest game since ''VideoGame/TheSacredArmourOfAntiriad'' to be named after the entire contents of the main character's laundry list."
160	* ParrotExposition: A parody of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'''s famous tendency for this:
161	--> '''Otacon:''' Metal Gear\
162	'''Snake:''' Metal Gear?\
163	'''Otacon:''' Metal Gear!\
164	'''Snake:''' Bugger me!
165	* PartingWordsRegret: Invoked metaphorically when talking about ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash''. He beings up how he was hard on ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' and ended that review by suggesting the game was evidence that the series should be put to bed [[VorpalPillow and then smothered to death]], and the graphics showed him doing so. But now that the series has in his eyes gotten ''several orders of magnitude worse'', he finds himself thinking about all of the things he now wishes he had said to Super Paper Mario before doing that.
166	* PanderingToTheBase: [[invoked]]
167	** He calls ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' "[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools the good kind of pander]]" in his review of the game.
168	** He calls ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'''s characters as "archetype cynically designed to pander to some section of the audience." in his ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} vs. VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' video.
169	** He describes ''VideoGame/{{Homefront}}'' as "a [[WishFulfillment wish-fulfilment]]-for-[[{{Jerkass}} assholes]] modern shooter" in his ''Top 5 Games of 2016'' video.
170	* PetPeeveTrope: [[PetPeeveTrope/ZeroPunctuation He's got a few.]]
171	* PetTheDog:
172	** In an ''Extra Punctuation'', although he couldn't sympathize with gamers who cried at Aerith's death in ''FFVII'', he said that the emotions they felt were real and no one could call them fake or wrong.
173	** In his "review" of ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8789-The-Legend-of-Zelda-A-Link-Between-Worlds The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds]]'', he reveals that despite all the vitriol he's given Nintendo over the years, he's actually on their side in the next generation if only because they're the only ones who "released a game console, not an inferior gaming PC for people who dream of being the sub in an unhealthy techno-masochistic fantasy." By the same token, in his ''The 2010's Most Significant Games'', he admits to having come around to the Platform/NintendoSwitch and using it frequently on his own time, due to the ease of setting it up and the curated library of indie titles on it.
174	** A number of reviews, even he bashes the game, he will sometimes give it credit for doing something well, like in his review of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', he admits that Chapter 3 was hilarious.
175	** He acknowledges that the rank-and-file members of the ''VideoGame/HogwartsLegacy'' dev team were probably just as upset at J.K. Rowling stirring up controversy as many of the potential player base are.
176	--->'''Yahtzee:''' ...but dammit, I have a job to do and I feel bad for the no doubt hundreds of ground-level people on the dev team who probably think she's a c-word as much as any of us at this point.\
177	'''Exhausted dev sprite:''' [throttling the monitor] STOP FUCKING TWEETING
178	* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: Does this quite a lot in-universe, praising a game's gameplay but criticizing its storyline. Examples of this include ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' and ''VideoGame/JustCause2'', both of which he named his game of the year for the year in question. Notably he praised the classic mode of ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' as he hated the story despite liking the gameplay and art design.
179	* {{Portmanteau}}
180	-->"Essflawcondodgeckindesimudstorliketersockity."
181	* PowerTrio: With Bob Chipman and James Portnow. Yahtzee is the Id, Bob is the Superego and James is the Ego.
182	** In his ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' review he considers Mario, Peach, and Bowser a FreudianTrio. Bowser is the Id, Peach the Superego, and Mario the Ego.
183	* PrepareToDie: Used as a CreditsGag.
184	* PressXToNotDie: [[TropeNamer Named it]], see RunningGag.
185	** Since ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' had none of these, Yahtzee instead used "Press X to '''KICK ASS'''."
186	** ''Creator/TomClancy VideoGame/{{HAWX}}'': "Press X To Make The World Safe For Democracy."
187	** "Press X to Put Off Going to the Gym" (''Luigi's Mansion 2'')
188	** Ah, [[VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld Mario can turn into a cat]] now. Press X to Curl Up And Lick Your Own Balls. (''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7595-E3-2013 E3 2013]]'')
189	** ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'': "Press X to Nurby Durby Durr" (This particular "Press X" gag is repeated in other videos)
190	** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'': "Press X to exaggerate financial standings" (In [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/48-Grand-Theft-Auto-IV reference]] to the game's over-reliance on realism -- "What next, the Write-a-letter-to-your-mum mini game?")
191	*** The hilarious thing is, at one point you do have the option of having Niko write an email to his mother.
192	** ''50 Cent: Blood On The Sand'': "The prerequisite quick-time experiences..." [caption: "Press X To Brutalise This Poor Fellow"] "... are thankfully not mandatory." ["Or Don't, Whatever's Cool."]
193	** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': "[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1461-Mass-Effect-2 Press X To Not Care]]" ("You can't just spend the whole game knocking back Singapore Slings on a beach all day")
194	** ''[[VideoGame/TombRaider2013 Tomb Raider]]'': "Press X to I'm Not Even Going to Fucking Touch This One" (describing the use of a quick-time event in an "attempted rape" scene).
195	** At the start of one video, when he mentions the game he's reviewing being a good basis for his psych profile after he starts his inevitable serial murder spree, a forensics team is shown investigating a crime scene with a dead body on the ground and the trope name scrawled on the wall in the victim's blood.
196	** In one video, he takes a moment to appear in-person to explain his exact opinions on Quick Time Events in more detail, during which a prompt appears on-screen telling the viewer to Press X. Shortly after it appears, something flies at Yahtzee's head which he then dodges (as would presumably happen if this were a video game cutscene and you successfully pressed X).
197	* PretenderDiss: In his review of ''VideoGame/LetItDie'': "But I know my ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and you, sir, are no ''Dark Souls''!
198	-->'''Let It Die:''' ''<to ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII''>'' [[ImplausibleDeniability I think he's talking to you.]]
199	* PretentiousLatinMotto: The CreditsGag for ''VideoGame/RyseSonOfRome'' suggests that Yahtzee's should be "Audacter calumniare, semper aliquid haeret"; this is a Francis Bacon quote meaning "[[CausticCritic Slander boldly, something always sticks]]".
200	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: He actually explains a couple of the reasons why licensed games tend to do poorly [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1815-Prince-of-Persia-The-Forgotten-Sands while reviewing]] ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'', released to promote the ''[[Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime Sands of Time]]'' movie, citing that most of them put too much focus on the story or license (as opposed to gameplay) or get rushed enough to where notable issues don't get fixed (both of which, he says, are evidently the case with the 2010 Prince of Persia games). He still finds the game enjoyable despite having the look and feel of a licensed game.
201	* ProductPlacement: Branston Pickle or '''GAME TRADERS ROBINA'''.
202	--> "Your one stop shop for games and the trading thereof...''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment in Robina]]''."
203	* PromotedFanboy: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in-universe (for lack of a better term) several times, most notably in the ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland'' review. Yahtzee actually takes a generally negative view of this, as he feels that fans-turned-writers tend to be too reverent of the source material, resistant to evolving the work in favour of celebrating the parts they like.
204	* PropellerHatOfWhimsy: Children are often portrayed as characters wearing propeller hats.
205	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: In the "Top 5 of 2010" episode, Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" plays in the background of the Top 5 games list, while Henry Purcell's "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary" plays in the background of the Bottom 5 games list.
206	* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: The best games of 2019 are pulled out of a magician's hat, while the blandest games of 2019 are pulled out of a cardboard box and the worst games of 2019 are pulled out of a rusty soup can.
207	* {{Pun}}: On occasion, not just of the [[VisualPun visual variety]]:
208	--> "You only get to see like one second of bare arse anyway so it's hardly going to make your [[Franchise/MassEffect mass erect]]" ... immediately followed in the credits with: [[LampshadeHanging "Yeah, this whole review]] was [[OverlyPrepreparedGag leading up]] to [[LampshadeHanging that horrible pun at the end."]]
209	** In the ''VideoGame/RedFactionGuerrilla'' review, he says in the end that game could have went pretty well if it really was based off sneaky guerilla warfare, as opposed to its focus on [[StuffBlowingUp smashing stuff]] "... which is less guerilla and more chimpanzee." Followed by the credits gag "Spent ten years thinking up that last pun."
210	** [[Franchise/BaldursGate "...Balder's Gait."]] (''VideoGame/TooHuman'')
211	** "''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', that is!"
212	** "''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''-llout.
213	** The ''[[VideoGame/JustCause Just Cause 2]]'' review starts by lampshading this to allow him to make "Why? Just 'cause!" jokes "ironically".
214	*** It's then subverted the {{third time\|sTheCharm}} with "Why? Fucked if I know!"
215	** "Bits of it were so boring that I almost had a ''VideoGame/NieR''-death experience! Boosh!"
216	** "I [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/3652-Alice-Madness-Returns don't see]] ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'' making mad returns, [[{{Pun}} meheh myeh]]."
217	** In his review of ''Monster Hunter Tri'' "You play an adventurer-type showing up at the prerequisite village of immobile retards in a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth to try to be a hunter of monsters. A Monster Hunter Try, if you will."
218	** Not to mention his credits pun in ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator'': "Alias vs Editor".
219	** "You like numbers? How about FOUR, as in '''FOUR-K YOU'''!"
220	** In the [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5323-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic credits]] of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': "I'm so force sensitive I clean my swimming pool with midichlorine."
221	** In ''VideoGame/SniperEliteV2'' he calls it at one point Sniper Elite Wee Poo, then chuckles at it.
222	** Inevitably scattered everywhere in his review of ''VideoGame/{{Risen}} 3 Titan Lords'', but the crowning came in his closing joke:
223	--> It's too dull to get irate about. Or should I say '''P'''-irate. Ha haha haha, hahahaha!
224	** His ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' review has "Still I th-'''ink''' there'll be an '''ink'''-rease in the number of Wii U sales with this '''ink'''-redible new title! God knows why it keeps making ink puns, though, when everyone's very clearly throwing paint around, but that's hardly a complaint. Com-'''paint.'''"
225	* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
226	** Regarding Darius of ''VideoGame/RedFaction''; "Not to dampen your sense of victory, Darius, mate, but why didn't you [fix the terraforming machine] three years ago right after it broke? You DUMB [dopeslap] BALD [dopeslap] TWAT."
227	** Also when criticising ''VideoGame/MyFriendPedro'' for "ironically" having a sewer level, while simultaneously [[PunctuatedPounding smacking it with a rolled-up newspaper]]: ''"If! Ya know! It's bad! Why? Are ya? Doing it?!"''
228	* PuppeteerParasite: Derisively refers to the protagonist of ''VideoGame/DeadCells'' as "a lump of snot on a corpse." Said bogey is in fact a gelatinous parasite driving around a dead body.

Context ZeroPunctuation / TropesMToP