Recommendations beyond Mario and Zelda
YouTube has been a very interesting site to watch grow over the past decade for gamers. While certain types of content share some crossover with mainstream television, the do-it-yourself nature of YouTube has allowed for some genres to succeed that could only gain popularity on a social media platform as opposed to a traditional broadcast media. One such genre is “Let’s Play,” a style of content focused on a person or group of people playing a video game for the entertainment of others.
While this trend was kicked off by Minecraft videos and videos of players reacting to various horror games, it has expanded to include all sorts of games. This includes, but is not limited to, simulation games, party games, stat-heavy roleplaying games, such as Dark Souls or Final Fantasy, and choice-driven story games. If you have a favourite game, someone has probably played it on YouTube. Which leads to the question: why would someone be interested in watching somebody else play a video game?
While there are series where people play a game with no commentary at all, most of the fun of a Let’s Play comes from the hosts’ reactions and interactions with the game. The Let’s Play genre also has some crossover with other forms of video game-based content. For the sake of this recommendation list, runs of a game focusing on speed, challenges, or fan-made modifications have not been considered. While all of these are great, the nature of the player’s and audience’s relationship to the game fundamentally changes with the implementation of outside goals or modifications.
To start, here are a few recommendations from one of the best-known Let’s Play channels, Game Grumps. While they do have series where they play more story-driven and stat-driven games, they are at their best when working together or pitted against each other. One game that manages to have elements of both is their series Wacky Golf. With limited control and some of the most phenomenally weird animated sequences, what starts as a fairly reasonable battle of skill quickly becomes two adult friends trying to beat a game for children. At only five episodes in length, they never finish the game, but it is a zany good time throughout.
If you would prefer to watch an actual round of golf but still want that “what is going on” energy of Wacky Golf, the Grumps’ Ribbit King series might be for you. Affectionately referred to as “Frolf,” a portmanteau of “frog” and “golf,” the objective is to gain the most points on a given stage while working toward the goal to end the level. Other recommendations from this channel include any Mario Party game, Monopoly, or co-op games.
If you prefer a more family-friendly gaming experience, the Play Frame channel may be more your speed. Former voice of the Extra Credits channel, Dan Floyd, has played through a number of games, both while with Extra Credits and on his own channel in the past few years. If you are interested in getting into the Kingdom Hearts series, Play Frame has a story-focused playthrough dedicated to it. As a bonus, Floyd’s Kingdom Hearts playthrough also includes many asides giving insight into various Disney trivia. Another of the long-running series includes Side Quest, the overarching series name given to games that Floyd plays through that focus on story. Beginning life as a blind playthrough of the Dark Souls series, Side Quest has expanded to include another From Software game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which trades the dark European fantasy aesthetic for one from feudal Japan, and the adorably dark Hollow Knight. While many of the playthroughs feature Floyd as a solo host, there are on-going series he does with his wife, Carrie, or with his friend, Dan Jones.
If you have an interest in the Dark Souls series in particular but are craving a heavy dose of analysis along with gameplay and hilarious editing, The Boss Designs of Dark Souls is for you. Starting as a blind playthrough so he could get into the series, host TBSkeyn has made it through the first two entries in the Souls series and has just started Bloodborne. It is very satisfying for a long-time fan of Souls to watch his steady progression to loving this series, and it is equally inviting for newbies. Skeyn also has a very good series on his second channel where he plays joke decks, card decks often focused on ridiculous plays, in Legends of Runeterra.
The last recommendation is likely the most niche. The Let’s Fight A Boss podcast played through Shenmue, a game where nothing happens. This series feels the most like playing games with friends. While this Let’s Play has no face cameras, the often over-the-top vocal reactions to various events in the game suffices in entertaining its audience.
This is by no means an extensive list of the best Let’s Plays to check out. Each channel is incredibly entertaining, even when the game in question is not. This is also only a small selection of Let’s Plays as a whole, and these are also recommendations with a certain comedic flare to them. The genre offers what seems to be infinite content for any game imaginable. That amount of content also skyrockets if you include speedruns, challenge runs, and fan-made mods, all of which offer their own variant on a game you may have come to know well.
