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I'm not sure about you, but I'm a big fan of watching LPs (Let's Play). I can vicariously watch and follow along with the person as they work their way through the game. There's plenty of good ones out there and a lot of YouTube people got famous for such endeavors. I'm not too concerned about the internet famous status of people, just the quality of the LP.

I'm starting at the beginning with literally a game that came out at the beginning. If you've never heard of Zak McKracken you've probably heard of its sister game, Maniac Mansion. (Full playlist is found HERE, http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL18CBB27415DD0D36 )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8vX_2FNqXY

I just HAVE to pimp my completed Little Ninja Brothers (NES) LP, http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL696CE6454BA6B949 .

The one I'm currently working on now is a game that wasn't released in the US but only for the Famicom in Japan called Musashi no Bouken (aka Adventures of Musashi). It's one of those Dragon Quest type games with an ancient Japan and Princess Tomato In The Salad Kingdom (!?!) twist. My uncompleted playlist is here, http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1611615BC70DBBFB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJu6duAeJLs

Do you guys have some fav. LPs or game series that you enjoy?

Edit: I can't remember, but is there code to display YouTube videos in the actual forum posts?

This post has been edited by Kame on 7th February 2012 20:52

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kame, tortue, tortuga, schildkröte, tartaruga, turtle

"Arthur Dent?"
"Yes."
"Arthur Philip Dent?"
"Yes."
"You're a total knee biter."

I watched(and still watch) a lot of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as a kid, so the concept of riffing on a game while playing it appeals to me just so much. Most of the time the games I watch are ones that I will probably not have the chance to play or perhaps don't so much care for the gameplay of but enjoy the story.

I'll start off with the two guys that I consider to have the concept perfected: Chip and Ironicus Video Game Talky Video Bonanza. They run their LPs out of the Something Awful LP subforum. Their threads are always filled with a lot of discussion and awesome fanart. All of their LPs show off as much as possible about the game and employ good editing to cut out any unnecessary crap. Also the two are hilarious and have great rapport.

Speaking of the SA Let's Play subforum, check it out. There's always a lot of good LPs going on there. The usual conduct is to test post in the Sandcastle and get pointers on how to make your LP better before starting a thread, so the quality tends to be pretty good. Along with that, there's also the Let's Play Archive, which archives completed LPs from the Let's Play forum.

One of my favorites is Research Indicate's LP of Jurassic Park: Trespasser. There's no comedy to be had here, but it is interesting to see and hear about what was billed as one of the most groundbreaking games ever. The truth is that the game failed horribly and came out as a broken, buggy mess. I still love seeing what is vs what could have been with this game. The Freelance Astronauts did a funnier set of videos on the game.

Not every game lends itself well to the Video LP format. These are the dialogue heavy games and/or games that have little variety in the actual gameplay bits (pretty much any turn-based RPG fits this description). For games like this, it's usually better to go the Screenshot LP route. They show off the game through a series of captioned screenshots. And others still take a narrative approach, wherein the author tells of the game's events in first-person and captions their screenshots as if it were themselves interacting with the characters ingame. Probably the single best example is Chewbot's "The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing."

This post has been edited by Malevolence on 7th February 2012 21:37

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moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

I'm supposed to be asleep right now.

That said, that Animal Crossing LP was quite impressive. Now I want to get the game and play it myself... Honestly, my mind is reeling at the thought that even half of that could be in a game that looks like it's aimed at kids.

More on topic, are you up for just reading the Let's Play? The ones available on the Dwarf Fortress forums are often text (sometimes in-character) with screenshots from the game (warning: ASCII graphics abound, although some people use tilesets or visualizers), and I feel that the hilarity far than makes up for the lack of visual or auditory stimulation. In particular, I'd recommend Rockfalls the Depths of Volcanoes. I found it a hilarious read. Alternatively, poke about the Community Games section, explore the different types of games people post about there, and see if you find anything that tickles your fancy.

Of course, if you want all the best of Dwarf Fortress, do a Google search for Boatmurdered. Peek at the pictures, maybe read a little about it. If the read's too much, check out Bronzemurdered instead - it's entirely illustrated, and can be found on the Dwarf Fortress wiki.

Have you all watched Game Informer's Replays and Super Replays? They're hilarious, really worth watching. Check em out if you haven't yet.

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Praise Be To Helix!

I've recently watched a few LPs on the Let's Play Archive, and so far my favourite has to be the videos on John Romero's Daikatana. Not only is it fascinating to see such a initially hyped and ultimately hated game, it's also hilarious watching the two LPers fall victim to annoying enemies, game-breaking glitches, and the game's utterly insane arsenal of weaponry just as dangerous to yourself as the enemies--if not much more.

Although they're in screenshot form, the LPs for Space Quest, Uninvited, and Shadowgate are especially hilarious in reminding gamers of ye olde days of adventure games where there was the one true path that brought you to the finish ... and the countless other choices that only resulted in horrible, horrible death.

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