Groomple Gramps Play Brutal Mario World

[AUS]

I enjoy the Game Grumps (when I watch them) when they aren't stupid or getting way too sexual for my tastes.

I agree, the Game Grumps are pretty sexy.

[Bwarch]

Oh Christ they're doing Duke Nukem Forever.

Dis gon be good.

[Davybot]

Watching Arin trying to play Wind Waker is the most cringe worthy thing. Especially during that hookshot room. How does one mistaken a firefly with a fairy.

[Money]

Watching Arin trying to play Wind Waker is the most cringe worthy thing. Especially during that hookshot room. How does one mistaken a firefly with a fairy.

To be fair it's been months since they played wind waker, and they're kinda easy to mistake for each other. Still doesn't stop me from yelling at the screen, though.

[Bwarch]

I think I might have pinpointed why I'm not religiously keeping up on all things Game Grumps anymore:

It's becoming less real and more character driven.

There's this concept in the LP scene wherein if you play a certain character people will like it more. So you have people like Pewds, the Yogscast, even a few of the Mindcrackers where their aim in commentating is to try and commentate as a character with set traits.

In Jon era it always seemed that they were playing it totally real, off the cuff and just saying whatever came to mind. But in Dan era they've been playing up personas more than anything else.

This kind of LP style isn't really my thing so that might be why I've been giving Grumps more and more of a miss.

Almost makes me miss Jon even if he could be a bit of a jerk sometimes, at least that was the real deal instead of playing stage-like.

[Davybot]

To be fair it's been months since they played wind waker, and they're kinda easy to mistake for each other. Still doesn't stop me from yelling at the screen, though.

Didn't they say Arin practiced playing during their break though? I swear I heard them say that.

[Ivy]

It's becoming less real and more character driven.
There's this concept in the LP scene wherein if you play a certain character people will like it more. So you have people like Pewds, the Yogscast, even a few of the Mindcrackers where their aim in commentating is to try and commentate as a character with set traits.
In Jon era it always seemed that they were playing it totally real, off the cuff and just saying whatever came to mind. But in Dan era they've been playing up personas more than anything else.
This kind of LP style isn't really my thing so that might be why I've been giving Grumps more and more of a miss.

My thoughts exactly... I used to watch Yogscast and even Pewdiepie in my Minecrafting days; I've since turned away from both due to the rather silly "roleplay" style of let's play that just feels incredibly corny and sometimes cringe-worthy.

[Capnbones]

It's got to the point that I usually just have Grumps on as background noise when I'm cooking food or playing Hearthstone or something. They're still really funny guys when they're being natural, treating it primarily as a podcast just cuts out the frustration of watching them not having a clue what to do or (more recently) hamming up their anger.

The new pokemon series is the worst offender of the unnatural reactions and I think it's where Arin really started to overact things. Like, we all know you think Pokemon is boring to LP, you made that abundantly clear from the Jon episodes, so why are you even trying it again? Be real with us if you're bored and just have a conversation about some other stuff, don't shout to compensate.

The other thing about Arin being drama-angry is the it's a waste of Dan. I don't go into every episode expecting Jon-Era antagonism between the two, I don't think anyone believes it's a requirement of the show, and Danny is such a genuine and nice guy that I feel like he's being made uncomfortable. I know that he's taking it entirely as a joke but why go down that route in the first place when you've got great chemistry without forcing it? (See Jackal, Mario Bros 2). The best thing about early Grumps is about how wholeheartedly real and genuine it was and it's sad to see it lose that a bit.

There's definitely good stuff in fairly recent Grumps though. I've been watching since Goof Troop and Go Go Nippon might be my favourite series of the lot.

[strongbadman]

The new pokemon series is the worst offender of the unnatural reactions and I think it's where Arin really started to overact things. Like, we all know you think Pokemon is boring to LP, you made that abundantly clear from the Jon episodes, so why are you even trying it again? Be real with us if you're bored and just have a conversation about some other stuff, don't shout to compensate.

That's a good question. Why are they even doing pokemon if one of them doesn't even like the game. Is it for views? They could do pretty much anything and it would get about the same amount of people watching it. I highly doubt that there's a significant people watching for Fire Red that wouldn't tune in for a different game. Is it because they want to finish the game and not just drop it when they get bored of it? Why start now? They've already abandoned god knows how many games for better or for worse. Personally I hope they just stop the Dark Souls playthrough completely. I really don't know what would motivate them to do this.

Honestly I have no idea why I'm still subscribed to Game Grumps. I actually had to look through their videos to se which one the last one I watched was. I think it was Gunsmoke, and even before that I watch them very sporadically.

[Ometeotl]

That's a good question. Why are they even doing pokemon if one of them doesn't even like the game.

It was so Arin could look like the knowledgeable one who has to teach plebeian Danny about everything Pokemon related, since Danny's usually the interesting one telling stories and educating Arin about everything else. Problem is that it turns out that Arin sucks at Pokemon, too, so that didn't work too well.

[darkychao]

Personally I hope they just stop the Dark Souls playthrough completely. I really don't know what would motivate them to do this.

It's a new game, guaranteed to get lots of views which means more monies.

Sad, really.

But Dark Souls II gets consistently fewer views than most other Steam Train games.

[Davybot]

I really enjoyed their vs of Mario Golf, I'm kinda sad it's over.

[sedron]

It's a new game, guaranteed to get lots of views which means more monies.

Sad, really.

But Dark Souls II gets consistently fewer views than most other Steam Train games.

I don't know how true that actually is. It's a bit lower than some other recent Steam Train playthroughs by virtue of being newer, and I don't think it's as high as one would expect, but it outranks a good number of other series in terms of views. There was also a tiny spike when they added all the MLG parody stuff onto the title card a few episodes in.

I tend to not watch much Steam Train lately just because I don't think Arin and Ross make a great combo. Danny works well as a Straight Man to both Arin and Ross, so that helps a lot when he's around. Arin and Ross just don't play off each other as well. They still have good series (VVVVVV was actually pretty neat,) but on the whole I'm not as interested.

[Bwarch]

VVVVVV and Spring Fling were amazing though.

[trepmaws]

Disney Princess has ended up being one of my favorite recent playthroughs. The game is silly enough to give the Grumps plenty of material to work with, and simple enough (and seemingly impossible to lose in) that they're not out anything if they stop paying attention for a bit. It's basically the perfect game for them.

Edit: And on the topic of Arin Train, I do like it if only for the fact that Arin is more himself around Ross. It still has the "two friends playing shiz and being themselves" dynamic that GG has been a tad short on as of recent.

And yeah, it resulted in VVVVVV and Ride to Hell's playthroughs, and I definitely got no complaints with those.

[darkychao]

And on the topic of Arin Train, I do like it if only for the fact that Arin is more himself around Ross. It still has the "two friends playing shiz and being themselves" dynamic that GG has been a tad short on as of recent.

This is a thing times 10 with Danny and Barry (see Single Train) it's super fun to watch them.
Also, semi-off-topic but this was also present with Jon and Barry in the final episodes of PBG's first HardCore.

[Bwarch]

Pholtos once upon a time told me that he fell off watching Game Grumps because he didn't like how bad they were at games, so for his convenience (and others) I have put together a list of the Game Grumps playthroughs where they're actually good at the game! I do not expect this to be complete or in fact totally accurate, so if you have any complaints let me know.

The series marked with an asterisk are also "Best Of" series, series that REALLY hit a sweet spot.

Dan Era. Also including Steam Train.
*Super Mario Bros 2
*Punch Out (NES)
Jackal
*Out Of This World
*Space Quest IV
Offspring Fling
*Super Mario Sunshine (NOTE: Arin sucks during the beginning of this LP, once he practiced and came back it was much smoother, and overall it's my favorite Dan Era playthrough.)
Leisure Suit Larry
Maniac Mansion
VVVVVV (<- As well as anybody normal CAN be good at VVVVVV, honestly)
Super Mario World
King's Quest V
*Ribbit King
Katamari Damacy
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Karate Kid

Jon Era
*Castlevania
*You Don't Know Jack
*Goof Troop
Aladdin (Both the SNES and Genesis version they were decent at, iirc)
Link To The Past
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Incredible Crisis
Joe & Mac
Typing of the Dead

ABSOLUTE BEST OF SKILL SERIES:

Games that the Grumps REALLY excelled at, if you absolutely REALLY care about skill gameplay this is what you want to watch:

Jon era
Castlevania (Not to be confused with Castlevania III, they sucked at III because they didn't understand the game and they acknowledge this in a later series)
Aladdin (SNES)

Dan era
Punch Out (NES)
Out Of This World
Super Mario Bros 2
Karate Kid

Overall, if you care about skilled gameplay you do want to stick with Dan era. They played much more games that they were good at.

[Sebby19]

I'm surprised Kirby Super Star isn't on there.

By the way, they've returned to Wind Waker, and beat the earth temple. Took them an hour and a bit. As in, that is how long they made the episode.
Arin got lost a lot, tries to parry Darknuts without a sword, but hey, PROGRESS!

[Bwarch]

I'm surprised Kirby Super Star isn't on there.

I honestly didn't put it on there because of all the arguing on whether to get secrets or not. And getting lost. And that one part with the jetpacks where they REALLY WANTED TO GET THE THING and didn't know how.

It's a swell series otherwise, but it does have elements of the kind of thing people would get irritated about wherein good gameplay is concerned.

[sedron]

I'm surprised Kirby Super Star isn't on there.

I honestly didn't put it on there because of all the arguing on whether to get secrets or not. And getting lost. And that one part with the jetpacks where they REALLY WANTED TO GET THE THING and didn't know how.

It's a swell series otherwise, but it does have elements of the kind of thing people would get irritated about wherein good gameplay is concerned.

Don't forget the part where they just flat-out don't know how Milky Way Wishes works at all. =P

[swirlybomb]

If they had paused even once off-camera, they would've found out immediately that they could choose powers, but somehow they managed to not do that at all.

...And they were literally right at the end of Great Cave Offensive but they quit >_<

[Capnbones]

Nice list man!

I'd mark Jackal as a best-of series, but basically everyone is going to have their own personal preference with that list and that's just my opinion so whatever. It's a pretty great guide!

[Bwarch]

If anybody has any Jontron era games they can think of where they were good at the game lemme know, I begin to forget a lot of that era and I feel a bit bad that the list was so short comparatively.

[Clamestarebla]

Holy shit! Barry grew a beard!

[darkychao]

Holy shit! Barry grew a beard!

Barry always had a beard.