Black Sheep Game Reviews: Castlevania Judgement (Wii)

After what's been done with everything in the game, it's no wonder Castlevania fans (including myself) have judged it so harshly. Here's a slightly less harsh take on an obvious black sheep of the series from me.

Future Plans Regarding Videos

     Once again I find myself actually using this blog for once to update on things for anyone that watches my stuff on Youtube to stumble across. Lately I've been on a lot of down time for videos, mostly because I've been busy with my personal life and my internet got bad to the point I needed a replacement modem. But now I should be back on my feet to a point where I can provide more frequent content. These include reviews, let's plays, con videos, and well, misc. I'm just going to list these and give out a few plans and ideas I have regarding them.

Black Sheep Game Reviews:

     When it comes to making reviews now, I'm pretty much set with my capture method and new camera even if it's not HD. This recently added "name" was just added with the upload of the long-at-work review of Killer 7. For as long as I reviewed I pretty much only titled my reviews as they were, "Insert game here (system) review." But lately I felt that if I want to have a certain "catch" to my reviews, I should name it something as if it was a show, to give it an identity among the internet and potentially draw people in. My close friends like SCXCR and Angelhalo have something like this with Five Dollar Gaming and Trials and Errors respectively. Plus, looking at what I usually review in the first place, I find that I review slightly obscure games and/or games that may be unconventional. Now the brilliant thing about this name of a review show, is that I intentionally leave it to interpretation.
 
     The definition of what games are considered "black sheeps" can be vague. It can mean something completely out there and unconventional in gameplay and story (ie, Killer 7) or it can be something that doesn't fit and can be disregarded in comparison to the rest of a series (Castlevania Judgement). It can be an old movie lisence game hardly anyone remembers, something that's a gem but relatively unheard of, a bad game no one wants to play, etc. This leaves me with pretty much open to what I usually review while at the same time avoiding games that are too mainstream to be considered. And that includes mainstream "black sheeps" like Zelda II, Castelvania II, and Super Mario Bros. 2...a lot of NES games that are considered "black sheeps" were sequels now that I think about it...

Now I just need to try and regularily make these reviews for once.

I Feel Like Playing:

     I've always been a reviewer before a let's player, but lately with my LP of Jurassic Park for the Sega CD, I, if you excuse the pun, feel like playing games to LP. These include both on-the-spot commentary of games with my brother and doing some LPs post commentary style, simular to what SCXCR and lately, Wellunreal have been doing with theirs. These will be easy to make as I just need to arrange time with my brother and get around recording game footage for solo stuff. I'm going to try and "fill in the gaps" between reviews with these since they're fairly easy to edit and make.

Byte Sized Reviews:

     These I don't make very often, but they are always the quickest to make obviously. I will still make these "in-five-seconds" style of videos for any game I have a Byte Sized Review idea for. In fact, as of this writing, I may have an idea for another one. So these will be still around, just as "spurr-of-moment" kind of videos.

Conventions:

     I won't lie, I love going to cons, they're a great buzz of geek culture. However, besides Anime North and ConnectiCon, there really isn't many other cons I can go to. But there are still at least two more I plan on going to.

     ConBravo is one that's two and a half hours away and is actually happening very soon as of this blog and I plan on going to it for the Saturday and/or Sunday with my brother. It'll be another new convention I'm going to for the first time and my bro's first EVER and I'm sure it'll be fun, but the main reason we're going is to (hopefully) meet Doug Walker (Nostalgia Critic), Noah Antwiler (Spoonyone) and Joe Vargus (Angry Joe) as they are among my top inspirations for making videos. Wish us luck!

     But there's still one more convention later this year and that's Youmacon in Detroit again. Since it's only an hour away from me, it'll be a good chance I can go again. Whether or not it'll be for the full weekend or just one day again, I'm not sure at this point, but we'll see.

Misc. Videos:

     I'll still make the occasional "random filler" that are usually completely nonsensical. I obviously won't indulge in these too often, but sometimes my creativity in video making goes in weird tangents. As for game fillers or whatever else I may upload, those will only show up if I feel like it.

Closing Thoughts:

     That about does it for this update blog. Hopefully at least a few of you will read this and look forward to new videos. Until then, enjoy the newly uploaded Killer 7 review if you haven't seen it yet:

So I've Been Retsupurae'd...

     If you know what retsupurae is, then you should know what's coming, if not, I'll explain what it is. Retsupurae is an intentionally engrish take on the words "Let's Play," which is a term people use when playing a game alongside commentary and upload those recordings on YouTube (usually). The actual definition of Retsupurae is taking a poor quality let's play and riffing it ala Mystery Science Theatre 3000 style. It started on the Something Awful forums and since then it's been a substantial hit, reaching thousands of views every video. I'm not exactly sure who started, but the main guys that usually do these videos are Slowbeef and Diabetus. Here's an example from someone I actually know who got Restupurae'd:

The YouTube comments tend to be mostly about the argument over how "herb" is pronounced though

     Of course, these aren't the only two guys that do this. Also from SA are Chip and Ironicus, who started out making Let's Plays (same with the other SA Retsupuraers if I'm not mistaken) and started doing them too with ChipCheezumSA. They do nearly identical types of video, but cover their own findings. Here's a fairly recent example of these two:

Do not adjust your monitor, what you are seeing is real

     Now as a fan of MST3K and riffing in general, I enjoy their work and been subscribed to both channels for quite a while. It's amazing sometimes on what they find and hilarious with not only how baffling the person's commentary and/or the person's game quality can be, but also the Retsupuraers commentaries as well. And it's not just let's plays either, they do riffs on other types of videos too, including reviews which, again, you should know what's coming. Remember my Evil Dead Regeneration review? Well...

Yeah...

     ChipCheezumSA did a retsupurae on one of my old reviews. How did I feel...hard to describe. You see, I actually can't stand to look at my older videos I did over two years ago. And this review is no exception. I was an amateur at video and film making like just about everyone who started posting videos on the Internet. I used a very bad quality digital camera as well as my web cam that wasn't really any better, used basic editing programs, stuttered and looked awkward on camera, the script dialog didn't flow at times, I did terrible voice acting during the ending skit, and it was the first time I did live action skits in a review in the beginning and end of the video and it showed. The only decent things that stood out for me was using a capture card for game footage (for retsupurae sake, since most videos that get retsupurae'd have people using camera recordings of game footage), being one of the first scripted reviews, and actually covering most of the game without spoiling the ending. Though it was clear they didn't like that fact I summarised the game instead of giving out more reasons why the game is fun for what it is. Don't worry, I can actually take that as criticism towards future reviews, believe it or not.

     Normally people watching my old shit wouldn't bother me, because despite being one of my most viewed videos, I tend to be obscure, but now I'm exposed to a mass of people that will no doubt ridicule me for this bad review despite the fact the I have improved greatly since Regeneration. However, I have to realise that if I'm going to be exposed in this manner, I might as well try and get my point across and to at least let everyone know that I actually support this in admitting it's a bad review if I want to salvage any dignity and respect. I posted a comment admitting that the review I made was bad and deserves a riffing as well as prove how much I actually despise my old videos. I also explained the lack of proper filming equipment and experience and did the noble thing of saying I didn't get upset by this and that I still enjoy and respect Chip and Ironicus. It's what they do after all. And you know what? It was the highest rated comment and is poof that if you're reasonable, you can still be respected. Hell, I even gotten replies complimenting how noble I was being understandable. Not everyone in the retsupurae community is pack of ravenous hyenas. Let it be known that if you get retsupuraed, try not to get mad or upset, just realise this is entertainment and admit why it was deemed riff-able. It makes you look and feel better, trust me.

     While I may have been surprised and embarrassed by this sudden video in my subscriptions, I've learned to take a grain a salt. In fact, this inspires me even more to shrug off my old habits and focus on improving myself as a reviewer even more. It might be difficult since now my greatest claim to Internet fame is being Retsupurae'd, but I'm still going to press on. Truth be told, as much as my viewers liked my goofy, cheesy antics of my old reviews, I hate it now more than ever and I want nothing to do with them and try to be at least a semi-respective and mature game reviewer. Not to say I won't stop having fun and make jokes in my reviews like my latest ones, it'll still be more or less the same. I just need to do some cleansing, that's all. In fact, I already unlisted or deleted most of my older videos in an attempt to not only cut off people that want to ridicule me even further on my similarly amateur videos, but also to give myself a new image. I don't want "so bad it's funny" I actually want to be legitimately entertaining. I plan to not only redo Regeneration and the whole Evil Dead games arc, but some of the other games I "reviewed" in the past too. Of course, those might take a while to make since they're on top of the other million games I want to review. But hopefully this will get me even more motivated. All I can really do is just get back on the saddle and move on. No need to grovel.

     I guess the final question you might have is; did I find it funny? Again, hard to say personally. It's the usual standard riffing fair and I'm sure others will find it entertaining. But honestly, this was one of the hardest videos I had to force myself to watch. Not because I found it insulting or anything, I was just embarrassed. Though I will admit some of the remarks were amusing to help ease my embarrasement slightly. So to answer the question:

I'm so confused...

     That's about it really. Like I said, I won't try and let this get to me, I'm sure it'll all blow over soon. Hard to believe I finally use my blog again only to tell something like this right?