The Electric Underground - Arcade design champion and only true game reviewer

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
My personal favorite video of his would the review of some Konami shmup that came out last year.. and for some reason every youtuber was shilling this game. I was really close to picking it up until I saw this review:
It was enough to convince me that it was going to be a sloppy shmup.

For context: really big shmup enjoyer here
 
I like most of Mark’s stuff, though I feel like he isn’t terribly fair to the Arkham/Sifu style of beat-em-up or Sekiro. I understand that he’s conflating them with the parryslop trend but that’s kin to blaming Modern Warfare for holding the FPS genre back by blowing everything else in the timeframe out of the water. The industry being creatively bankrupt doesn’t necessarily make the shit they’re aping bad by proxy
 
Last edited:
umseriously said:
A lolcow in the making.
Click to expand...
He's a massive ADHD sperg, but he hasn't gotten himself into controversies, nor does he ever go on chris-chan style crusades when a series he likes does something wrong.

CreamyHerman’s said:
My personal favorite video of his would the review of some Konami shmup that came out last year.. and for some reason every youtuber was shilling this game. I was really close to picking it up until I saw this review: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Be8lS-nZjsw It was enough to convince me that it was going to be a sloppy shmup.

For context: really big shmup enjoyer here
Click to expand...
I really like his design analysis on shmups. Very few westerns can make such a comprehensive overview on what makes Japanese game design so good. His video on the Shadow of the ninja remake is very good if your into 2d-action games.
 
Takayuki Yagami said:
I understand that he’s conflating them with the parryslop trend
Click to expand...
Even such a venerated game Ninja Gaiden Black has elements of parryslop: an abusable iframe dodge, a very strong parry, homing attacks with massive range, and so on. Usually, the necessity of crowd management and the rewards for aggression are enough to overcome such potential weaknesses, but in the parts where you 1v1 an enemy that's only vulnerable during attack recovery frames, it's almost as boring as Dark Souls.

tbh, 3D is just inherently inferior: movement is less precise, distance and direction are harder to judge, etc, and so design tends to focus on timing button presses in response to animations or other visual cues. Sadly your modern indieshit seeks to retrofit the bandaids necessary to make 3D games playable onto 2D games and thus ruin them. I mean NGB is certainly quite fine and impressive in its spectacle but no substitute for a 90s arcade beatemup.
 
Maniacal Foreigner said:
necro because fuck it, why not
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mSre9IrPJpA
Click to expand...
Based Spikeout mention.
Anime=Tranime said:
I like his content but not gone lie for quitting his job and becoming a full time youtuber his upload frequency is way to low.
Click to expand...
Not looking forward to him making a YouTube poverty video like all those breadtubers.

This guy's editing is atrocious and he has a hard time elaborating on points he makes sometimes but he's ultimately a force for good in YouTube game reviewing. For years we've had to put up with assholes who think every game should either be Super Mario Galaxy, Celeste or Shovel Knight. Now we have someone talking real shit and conveying how cool arcade style games can be to the masses. He's not the best but he's still a good reviewer and a million times more watchable than any other YouTube reviewer.
 
Last edited:
bigsneedkaraokegod said:
Not looking forward to him making a YouTube poverty video like all those breadtubers.
Click to expand...
Well at least until know his Patreon has been on a straight upwards projectory.
image.png
bigsneedkaraokegod said:
He's not the best but he's still a good reviewer and a million times more watchable than any other YouTube reviewer.
Click to expand...
Yeah he's the only guy to really call out how little meaningful gameplay is in most games once you exclude all the sections that are essentially just holding forward and pressing jump a couple of times.
 
People who pursue very narrow and specific interests are always interesting to listen to. And I rather listen to this fag than the billionth Minecraft YouTuber or some pretensions 3-hour long video game essays about toxic masculinity. But he shat on Jade Empire so he is on thin ice.
 
Calandrino said:
How close are we to getting an AI summary of any YT video posted here? tl;dw but personally I pick:
  1. Night Striker Gear
  2. Silver Bullet
Click to expand...
You can watch it here and there, or just the segments that interest you. No idea why anyone would want an AI summary. Even though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, or that old school arcade design is the best way a game can be designed, I still rather listen to this guy sperg out for over two hours than anything else remotely gaming related in 2026. Not really aware of many other channels that are focused on a very specific niche without being twats or faggots.

As for the games mentioned, I want to play most of them. Especially Neon Inferno since I really like their previous game Steel Assault. Birdcage also looks pretty cool.
 
I Know 孤独のせい said:
You can watch it here and there, or just the segments that interest you. No idea why anyone would want an AI summary. Even though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, or that old school arcade design is the best way a game can be designed, I still rather listen to this guy sperg out for over two hours than anything else remotely gaming related in 2026. Not really aware of many other channels that are focused on a very specific niche without being twats or faggots.

As for the games mentioned, I want to play most of them. Especially Neon Inferno since I really like their previous game Steel Assault. Birdcage also looks pretty cool.
Click to expand...
I do agree that old school arcade design is pretty much the best way a game can be designed, but I really just wanted the list without the talking. YT videos are like cut scenes: usually hit "skip". Luckily he put the list in the description:
  • Terminator 2D: No Fate
  • Neon Inferno
  • BIRDCAGE
  • Earthion
  • Night Striker Gear
  • Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part III
  • NeverAwake Flashback
  • Sektori (Impression)
  • Lilac 0 (Reminder)
  • Silver Bullet
  • Emerald Blue
So he did include my top 2 at least, nice job
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom