Shows With Their Own Pages
- Rich and Mike play Super VHS: The RLM Video Game!
might be the single most heartwarming video in the entire online history of RLM:- The story begins with a Fan Game called Super VHS which lovingly re-creates the warehouse "floor" area of the RLM studio in Milwaukee, inviting the player to collect all of the VHS tapes strewn about the sets: Plinkett's house and the VCR repair shop from Half in the Bag; the discussion table and Plinketto board from Best of the Worst; and the studio workshop where the Review backdrop is stored (along with props from Space Cop and Previously Recorded). The game was released as a free download on August 7, 2022, after over a year of development.
- Although the creator posted about the game to YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter, it was a big surprise when the boys — who are notoriously aloof from their fanbase — actually noticed the game and Mike (who runs the official RLM Twitter) retweeted the link. This unexpected magnanimous gesture, surely, was more than anyone could have hoped for. In the coming days, Ralph The Movie Maker and Vinny from Vinesauce, both acknowledged fans of RLM, posted Let's Plays of the game, praising it as a heartfelt tribute from an obvious fan.
- But the big shock was an actual upload on the official RLM YouTube channel the morning of August 13, 2022 featuring Rich playing the game blind, as due to his lack of social media presence he knew nothing about it, and Mike wanted to capture his reaction on camera as he experienced it for the first time (a fun, and much more wholesome, riff on their classic "Rich Evans Reacts To" series). Whenever anything happens in-game, Mike immediately glances over at Rich to get his reaction, even though he's set up a camera to record them for posterity, and his eagerness is positively charming. Jay, who is off-camera, has played the game already, and advises Rich on what to do throughout the Let's Play.
- The video description says it all:Seemingly out of nowhere comes a strange video game that takes place in the RLM studio. Normally we don't give attention to weirdos that take this much effort making something so utterly creepy, but this game is just so impressive, Rich and Mike had to play it and see what all the fuss was about.
- In addition to the praise in the description, Rich and Mike both continuously express amazement at how accurate the re-creation is, apart from being both cleaner and less cluttered than the real studio. They jokingly mock the designer for staging the Re:View backdrop in the workshop, but Jay defends this as "taking artistic liberty".note
- Rich and especially Mike seem genuinely tickled by the many deep-cut references to RLM lore. Their joyful enthusiasm is both endearing and infectious: several commenters have noted both that it's refreshing to see Mike so happy, and that both of them are reacting with the wonderment of small children. They both laugh hard at the Body Rap box (with Colin from Canada photoshopped onto the cover), Mike is delighted to see the acetone and the giant flask, and Rich even grudgingly admits the mistake he made when he finds the TUMS bottle... something he never actually did on Best of the Worst. At first Rich dreads the famous "Dick the Birthday Boy" polaroid, but both he and Mike laugh heartily at the description saying that this "mysterious artifact" made Julia Roberts a superstar and destroyed Ellen DeGeneres's career.
- When reading the creator's charitable description of Space Cop as an intentional comedy that should be appreciated on its own terms because movies are hard, Mike attempts to gracefully accept this compliment but Rich is having none of it, pointing out that they themselves are ruthless enough in critiquing others and that Space Cop doesn't deserve to be immune.
- Rich does manage to collect all 50 tapes, and when he unlocks the Space Cop laser gun, he takes a perverse joy in destroying the set with it... probably the first time he ever gets to do so without having to clean it up afterwards.
- Mike applauds Rich for collecting all 50 tapes, and once the game crashes after Rich's rampage with the laser gun, both of them applaud the game's creator for a job well done. Although they didn't reach the "true ending"note , the game's creator even acknowledged the crash as the next-best possible ending.
- The story begins with a Fan Game called Super VHS
- Displaying Our Exploded USS Enterprise D highlights the studio's acquisition of the remnants of an Enterprise D model that was used for a destruction scene in Cause and Effect and attempts to properly preserve and display it. While there have been many instances over the years of Mike and the rest being terrible stewards of the Gremlins props that they came into possession of (with the video even acknowledging that), the video shows Mike and Rich's care, effort, and improvisational skill in figuring out a display that can be done.
