Hey guys, welcome to another TV Tropes article. I'm your host Trope-tan and this time we are joined by Alice and Bob as well as special guest Tropey the Wonder Dog to discuss all the tropes revealed by the latest GameXplain videos. So, let's get started!
GameXplain
is a YouTube channel specialized in Video Games news coverage (mostly Nintendo-related), hosted by André Segers, Derrick Bitner, and Ash Paulsen (with also Tom Arnold mostly working in the background). They are mostly known for their analysis videos of preview trailers to find hidden details and their looooooooooong discussions about various news topic.
Outside of media coverage and the aforementioned discussions and analyses, they also have several themed ongoing series:
- "Cool Bits": A showcase of various secrets, Easter Eggs, and other Shout-Outs from classic and modern video games.
- "Know Your Enemy": A show dedicated to showcase the various appearances and variations of classic video game Mooks.
- "Missing in Action": A show bringing the spotlight on old video game characters and locations victim of the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.
Since 2016, they also have started a weekly podcast called "Real Talk" on SoundCloud, where they talk about their personal week, some minor news not covered on the channel, then 3 topics asked by Patreon backers. In late 2017, they were officially joined by Jon "NomComms" Cartwright and Daan "NintenDaan" Koopman, the former hosting a new show called "Under the Super Scope" where he analyses the game design from classic games.
In mid-September 2020, Jon left the site to join Hookshot Media (consists of Nintendo Life, Push Square and Pure Xbox). In October 2020, Joey Ferris of Commonwealth Realm, Chris Carpenter and Tris Valbuena joined the site. In November 2020, Derrick, Ash, and Steve left the site to found Good Vibes Gaming, with Jon joining in February 2022 following his departure from Nintendo Life. In November 2021, Chris left Game Xplain to become a filmmaker.
Tropes found by the Old Analysis Machine include:
- Aborted Arc: They made one video about the locations of the collectible gears in the first few levels of Code Name: S.T.E.A.M, but never made a video for any other level. Due to the game being a flop, they most likely determined it wasn't worth finishing.
- Ascended Extra: After being presented for years as "NintenDaan from Nintendo World Report", Daan finally joined the team in late 2017.
- Ascended Meme: In their second bi-weekly The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild discussion, they mention how the top comment on a photo published by Nintendo is the old 'I can't wait for the 50-minute GameXplain discussion.'
- Awesomeness by Analysis: They analyze every bits of video game trailer to juice out any valuable information hidden in the background or find out how exactly the gameplay mechanics would work (of course, there always is an healthy dose of Wild Mass Guessing in the mix). One of their most notorious video is a 9 minute The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildnote analysis based on 13 seconds of footage! They now have an even more Egregious one, an eleven minute analysis of a 6 second clip of Super Mario Odyssey that was shown in two seperate scenes in the trailer for the Switch.
- Berserk Button: Don't talk to André about Paper Mario: Sticker Star. To a lesser degree, he is not a fan of Twilight Princess, Super Mario Sunshine or The Subspace Emissary (a hatred also shared by Ash for the latter). As revealed in an episode of Real Talk, Megabus is also this for Andre due to a bad experience with them.
- Clickbait Gag: After GameXplain was accused of clickbait while covering a rumor about Shovel Knight in Super Smash Bros., their followup discussion featured a tacky title and the word "click" literally put on the thumbnail◊."Digging into the Smash Bros. Shovel Knight Rumors (Insert Clickbait here)"
- Crazy Enough to Work: Due to his surprisingly accurate track record regarding off the wall theories, Jon's predictions are now considered this by the rest of the GameXplain crew."Rayman Space Adventures, baby!"
- Cute Witch: Derrick's main in Pokkén Tournament is Braixen.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Derrick's PlayStation handle is "VirginWolf", based on a Signs of Disrepair joke about British author Virginia Woolf. He considers it an Old Shame but unfortunately can't change it.
- Famous Ancestor: Ash Paulsen is the son of Rob Paulsen. Though he is a fan of his father's works (like TMNT and Animaniacs), he said that he is kind of annoyed when people only see him as "the son of Rob" and talk to him to ask about his father.
- Fan Boy:
- They all have a huge fondness over some games like Banjo-Kazooie, Mega Man, and Chrono Trigger. More specifically, André is also a fan of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (and still dislikes that
they dropped it in the sequels), Ash is huge on the Rhythm Heaven series and Derrick loves the Kingdom Hearts games. - Final Fantasy is a funny case, as both Ash and Derrick are fans, but André doesn't know anything about the games. When it is brought up in a discussion, André suddenly goes silent for several minutes while the other two passionately talk about it.
- They all have a huge fondness over some games like Banjo-Kazooie, Mega Man, and Chrono Trigger. More specifically, André is also a fan of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (and still dislikes that
- Flanderization:
- The channel started as an addendum to their website, and they often talked about video games in general. They've since mostly dropped the website to focus only on their videos, with their fondness of Nintendo eventually giving them a status of being an "Nintendo-centric channel". Whenever they cover non-Nintendo news (usually around E3 or PSX) most of the audience is confused, while those who have followed them since their early days Forgot Flanders Could Do That. The comments of one of their Uncharted discussions is a huge example of this.
- The discussions and analysis are also this in a sense, as they were experimenting with new formats for fun between their usual video guides at the time. Seeing the popularity of those, they eventually stopped doing guides to focus on those.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the "Play the ARMS Testpunch Whenever You Want...Sort Of (Exploit)" video, one of the neighboring wi-fi connections is "Annie's Boobs." Needless to say, viewers picked up on this.
- Hit Stop: Played for Laughs when André puts the Paper Mario: Color Splash disc in his Wii U.
- Idiosyncratic Ratings Scale: The channel abandoned its original numbered rating system in favor of terms like "loved it" and "liked-a-lot", to communicate that the reviews are purely the subjective opinion of the reviewer. They haven't given an official list of their ratings as they didn't want people to correlate them to a numbered system, and it gives them the freedom to add new ratings when necessary.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Andre admitted to going to a bar to have a drink after 2019's lackluster Game Awards presentation.
- Logo Joke:
- For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate-related videos, when the intro finishes, the logo turns into flaming variant, similar to the flaming Smash Bros. logo from the game's reveal trailer.
- For Super Mario Maker 2-related videos, the intro finishes with a Mario Maker-themed logo.
- Same goes for videos related to Pokémon Sword and Shield and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with their themed logos, as well as logos for the Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda series in general. More logo variations can be seen here.
- The Medic: Derrick's favorite role in Overwatch (Mercy and Lúcio) and Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
- Missed Him by That Much: André revealed that the first time he went to E3 when he was 16, he completely missed Shigeru Miyamoto while the rest of the Nintendojo team was taking pictures with him, despite being in the same room than them. Even funnier: he can be seen in the background of the pictures!◊
- Pungeon Master: André is definitively guilty of this. (In this situation he would probably say something like "guilTV Tropes?!")
- Running Gag: Because GameXplain regularly covers leaks in the past, some audiences complained that the silhouette in the thumbnail would spoil the surprise of the leak. It originated from when Castlevania content was leaked before the August 8, 2018 Smash Ultimate Direct, with the thumbnail featuring a silhouette of Captain Falcon with a question mark in it. The later video thumbnails related to the Smash Ultimate rumours/leaks had a similar Captain Falcon silhouette. Apart from a few sarcastic complaints, this garnered positive reception with the audience. Since then, various thumbnails have a hidden Captain Falcon, and uploaded a leaked trailer of a Switch game called "Captain Falcon's Space Adventure" as an April Fools' joke in 2019.
- Sedgwick Speech: In one of their Color Splash videos, André meets a Shy Guy delivering a heartwrenching speech about What Measure Is a Mook?, ending it with "I'm sure we'll meet again...maybe as enemies." only for André to get up, immediately turn back and smash him with the hammer.
- Signing-Off Catchphrase: Some variation of "And of course, stay tuned to/be sure to subscribe to GameXplain for more on [video topic] and other things gaming too/as well. Until next time, bye!"
- Special Guest: They occasionally have special guests from other review blogs and YouTube channels appearing on some discussions. Some of the most regular include:
- Rogers Base
- Chuggaaconroy (mostly for Xenoblade Chronicles 1 related news).
- Kirbopher (mostly for Kingdom Hearts related news).
- Joe Merrick from Serebii.net (mostly for Pokémon related news).
- Ted and SomeCallMeJohnny from BrainScratch Commentaries (mostly for Sonic the Hedgehog-related news).
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel:
- André considers Paper Mario: Color Splash to be this to Paper Mario: Sticker Star and praises the former for fixing many of the problems he had with the latter in his review.
- Jon considers The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks to be this as he considers its predecessor Phantom Hourglass the worst Zelda game.
- Taught by Experience: They caught some slack from their fans after doing some mistakes, and later apologized for their decisions and eventually learned from them. Namely, they used to directly show leaked pictures and information in the titles and thumbnails of their videos, and many people were reproaching them to spoil the surprise ; they continue to cover leaks, but now have "spoiler warnings". Another time, they covered a rumor about Shovel Knight being in Super Smash Bros., and a lot of people accused them of crossing the "Clickbait Event Horizon" ; they immediately changed the title and even made fun of it in their following discussion◊.
- That Came Out Wrong: The "Under the Super Scope" episode about The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was initially titled "Spirit Tracks: Improving Upon the Worst Zelda". Many people interpreted it as clickbait and another roasting, not realizing that "the Worst Zelda" was referring to the Phantom Hourglass episode where he called it the worst main Zelda game —this video being its followup praising the sequel's additions— resulting in a huge dislike ratio. Many of the initial dislikes were however reverted after people actually saw the video, and the name was changed to "Getting Zelda Back On Track".
Thank you guys for watching, and of course stay tuned on TV Tropes for more on GameXplain and other things tropey too. Until next time, bye!
