Well, my actual website is now fully operational. I assure you, it is quite deadly. A lot of the content from this blog has been copied over there already, not sure if I'll move the rest or not.
Right now we have a couple of articles, weekly columns, bi weekly webcomic. Soon we'll have some videos up there too. So go there... go there now. Add it to your favorites. Share with your friends.
Please... I beg of you. For the love of all that is good, visit my site. Now back to the old and out of date blog you've somehow found:
Friday night, the people of Mega64 will have their own ‘Panel for the Soul’. I had heard of these guys before, but never really took the time to check out their videos. Until today!
So I read up on them a little bit, and was a little excited to find out that they’ve been described as “Jackass meets videogames”. I love Jackass! I love videogames! Surely these fellows are making a brand of entertainment just for me! Why don’t they call their troupe Mega-JustFor50%MoreTrash-64?
Unfortunately, they sort of fall flat with their delivery. Oh I mean, I get the comparison definitely, and if someone asked me what most of the videos are like, I’d probably respond with a similar description. I would say: “It’s sort of like Jackass but with videogame references, only sucky.”
Here’s a brief little description of some of their recent videos:
Rock Band: The Beatles: It’s them dressed as the Beatles running around like the video for Help singing the Beatles at people on the street... that's the joke.
Super Mario Bros 2: One guys is dressed as Mario and he's hold a key, a guy with a big mask costume chases him, but stops when Mario drops the key, just like in the game! They run through the streets being slight disruptive... that's the joke.
A Boy and His Blob: A guy with a bag of jellybeans throws the jellybeans at the floor saying "Ladder, Hole Hole Hole, Licorice” and obviously nothing happens, and people look at him funny... that's the joke.
Bayonetta: One of the guy's comments that he can summon demons with his hair and shoot guns from his shoes just like Bayonetta, the other guy is like "yeah right". This is followed the tubby guy in a wig sort of spinning around in public with gun blasts edited in over his feet to show that he's like Bayonetta... and you guessed it, that's the joke.
Halo ODST: Halo had the same release date as Cabela's Big Game Hunter, so they dressed as hicks (posing as the creator's of the Big Game Hunter) went down to game stop and demand that they don't sell Halo, then the manager came out, they sort of giggled and put up a little bit of a fight and ran away... the end.
PunchOut: The only video I found to be really and truly entertaining was where one of the Mega 64 guys dressed up as Doc Louis and had him rattling off some of the lines from the Wii version of the game at people.
“What’s your favorite flower? Mine’s chocolate.”
The only reason this one was continually funny was that Doc Louis’ lines are funny anyway, so they had very little to do with the comedic results. Still good times.
It took me a second or two to sort soak up the problems I have with these videos. The first thing that I noticed was how long they were, all the videos clock in at around 3-4 minutes… but as you can probably tell, there’s only really one joke per video. If they cut these down to about a minute, they might have been able to retain the comedy instead of beating it to death. The second thing was that most of the videos had the same joke: take something that’s a little bit weird in a videogame, then perform that same action in a public place… isn’t that quirky? No. It’s just an annoying guy on the street. The other thing that prevents these videos from ascending into Jackass type territory is the lack of any real danger. The Jackass guys are continually in situations where they could get actually hurt or arrested. Lowbrow? Sure. Engaging? Definitely. The lack of any sort of actual peril makes the Mega64 seem deflated in comparison.
Take the Bayonetta video, the guy just sort of gets near people and then does his Bayonetta moves, there’s even some shots where the people that he’s poking fun of are unaware that he’s even there. It would’ve been much funnier of him to try antagonizing them a little bit and then showing of his Bayonetta moves to try and intimidate them. A little more dangerous yeah, but probably more entertaining. It’s just a question of raising the bar.
I also checked out a couple of their videos that don’t involve live-action recreations of games and was equally unimpressed. Basically they just rehash jokes that the entire internet has already made (ie: Dante’s Inferno is a God of War clone, Sonic games are all the same but we’re still always nostalgic for them) a hundred times and then beat the joke to death. And there’s the same problem with time as in the other videos, they drag on too long.
One thing this has taught me is that, if I continue to make any youtube clips, they need to be punchy and fast paced (it almost makes me want to re-edit my unboxing video, but instead I’ll just take these lessons forward) or else the viewer will get bored. For that lesson I thank you, Mega64.
If the guys from Mega64 also learn that lesson, and make their videos a little more edgy and a little better paced, they might be onto something lasting and entertaing, but as it is right now it’s just not for me. One entertaining video out of six isn’t that good of a ratio; I think I’ll be taking a pass on their panel.
Me = Still Pumped For PAX East, and pumped that I’m not going to waste time with Mega64, sorry guys.
So I read up on them a little bit, and was a little excited to find out that they’ve been described as “Jackass meets videogames”. I love Jackass! I love videogames! Surely these fellows are making a brand of entertainment just for me! Why don’t they call their troupe Mega-JustFor50%MoreTrash-64?
Unfortunately, they sort of fall flat with their delivery. Oh I mean, I get the comparison definitely, and if someone asked me what most of the videos are like, I’d probably respond with a similar description. I would say: “It’s sort of like Jackass but with videogame references, only sucky.”
Here’s a brief little description of some of their recent videos:
Rock Band: The Beatles: It’s them dressed as the Beatles running around like the video for Help singing the Beatles at people on the street... that's the joke.
Super Mario Bros 2: One guys is dressed as Mario and he's hold a key, a guy with a big mask costume chases him, but stops when Mario drops the key, just like in the game! They run through the streets being slight disruptive... that's the joke.
A Boy and His Blob: A guy with a bag of jellybeans throws the jellybeans at the floor saying "Ladder, Hole Hole Hole, Licorice” and obviously nothing happens, and people look at him funny... that's the joke.
Bayonetta: One of the guy's comments that he can summon demons with his hair and shoot guns from his shoes just like Bayonetta, the other guy is like "yeah right". This is followed the tubby guy in a wig sort of spinning around in public with gun blasts edited in over his feet to show that he's like Bayonetta... and you guessed it, that's the joke.
Halo ODST: Halo had the same release date as Cabela's Big Game Hunter, so they dressed as hicks (posing as the creator's of the Big Game Hunter) went down to game stop and demand that they don't sell Halo, then the manager came out, they sort of giggled and put up a little bit of a fight and ran away... the end.
PunchOut: The only video I found to be really and truly entertaining was where one of the Mega 64 guys dressed up as Doc Louis and had him rattling off some of the lines from the Wii version of the game at people.
“What’s your favorite flower? Mine’s chocolate.”
The only reason this one was continually funny was that Doc Louis’ lines are funny anyway, so they had very little to do with the comedic results. Still good times.
It took me a second or two to sort soak up the problems I have with these videos. The first thing that I noticed was how long they were, all the videos clock in at around 3-4 minutes… but as you can probably tell, there’s only really one joke per video. If they cut these down to about a minute, they might have been able to retain the comedy instead of beating it to death. The second thing was that most of the videos had the same joke: take something that’s a little bit weird in a videogame, then perform that same action in a public place… isn’t that quirky? No. It’s just an annoying guy on the street. The other thing that prevents these videos from ascending into Jackass type territory is the lack of any real danger. The Jackass guys are continually in situations where they could get actually hurt or arrested. Lowbrow? Sure. Engaging? Definitely. The lack of any sort of actual peril makes the Mega64 seem deflated in comparison.
Take the Bayonetta video, the guy just sort of gets near people and then does his Bayonetta moves, there’s even some shots where the people that he’s poking fun of are unaware that he’s even there. It would’ve been much funnier of him to try antagonizing them a little bit and then showing of his Bayonetta moves to try and intimidate them. A little more dangerous yeah, but probably more entertaining. It’s just a question of raising the bar.
I also checked out a couple of their videos that don’t involve live-action recreations of games and was equally unimpressed. Basically they just rehash jokes that the entire internet has already made (ie: Dante’s Inferno is a God of War clone, Sonic games are all the same but we’re still always nostalgic for them) a hundred times and then beat the joke to death. And there’s the same problem with time as in the other videos, they drag on too long.
One thing this has taught me is that, if I continue to make any youtube clips, they need to be punchy and fast paced (it almost makes me want to re-edit my unboxing video, but instead I’ll just take these lessons forward) or else the viewer will get bored. For that lesson I thank you, Mega64.
If the guys from Mega64 also learn that lesson, and make their videos a little more edgy and a little better paced, they might be onto something lasting and entertaing, but as it is right now it’s just not for me. One entertaining video out of six isn’t that good of a ratio; I think I’ll be taking a pass on their panel.
Me = Still Pumped For PAX East, and pumped that I’m not going to waste time with Mega64, sorry guys.
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