Top 10 YouTube Video Game Reviewers - TopX Ep.11

- ProJared is a channel hosted by Jared Knabenbauer (Na ven bower), and it is certainly a channel that is heavily host driven.
- Jared’s signature videos are his “1 minute reviews”, which, not surprisingly, are quick 1-minute reviews of recent games. As you can imagine, these are pretty good if you want to get a quick buy-or-not-buy rundown of a game. What’s surprising about these short little reviews is that he actually touches upon a lot more information than you’d expect, making the reviews feel comprehensive and complete despite their short length.
- Jared’s also got what I’d call a good balance of humor. He jokes around and a jab at the game, but his humor doesn’t feel forced or smarmy. He’ll often use the final score he gives a game as a vehicle for a joke, so while one game might get a normal 10 on 10, another might get “1 bucket full of tears out of 10.
- Also, Nuptup. I’ve been told that’s a thing.

- For #9 we shift gears from a grass roots, host driven channel to one of the bigger names in videogame journalism. Many of you will probably already be familiar with Gametrailers and their website, and if you are, chances are you’ve already caught one of their in depth video reviews.
- Those of you that want to sit down and watch longer, more extensive reviews of your games will enjoy the extra time that Gametrailers devotes to their videos. Their reviews are usually in the 5 to 10 minutes range and consist entirely of gameplay footage, often captured specifically for the purpose of the review itself. The editing, the bumper graphics and the solid writing all make for a very professional package.
- On top of their reviews, Gametrailers’ YouTube channel has an enormous amount of other content and shows, and then even have a second supporting channel devoted to News, so they’re definitely worth checking out.

- Okay, so #10 was short reviews. #9 was long reviews. Or at least, so I thought, because just when I thought that Gametrailers was about as in depth as you could get with a video review, I landed on this channel.
- The Completionist a.k.a. Beardman starts with a simple concept: complete a game, 100%. Simple, but not always easy.
- As you can imagine, playing a game back to front gets you pretty familiar with it, so the completionist videos serve as a comprehensive everything-and-the-kitchen-sink analysis of the entire game and as a guide to completing it yourself.
- Aside from the epic level of dedication this takes, the videos are noteworthy for their funny editing. Quick cut-aways and pictures spice up the videos, helping them to not drag too much over their staggering runtimes.

- Back again to another big name in gaming journalism. Coming in at #7 is IGN, one of the biggest players in the ...uh…game.
- Rather than rely on a special gimmick or style, IGN’s video reviews are very cut and dry, often serving as a counterpart to a full written review on their website. That said, being a big company, they use the privilege that comes with the higher status to great effect. Their videos are slick, well edited, professionally written and most notably, are always published in conjunction with the release of the game, sometimes on the same day or a few days before.
- Much like gametrailers, pretty much all of the video content produced for their website ends up on their YouTube Channel. As such, IGN Entertainment is a channel that contains a ton of content outside of reviews, like previews, gameplay footage and news segments.

- Okay, time to take a break from all the triple A games, high production value and straight laced professionalism and just have a bit off fun. Finishing off the first half of our show is the PeanutButterGamer, coming in at #6.
- To be perfectly honest, it’s rare that you’ll find a game reviewed by this guy that you’ll actually want to play. He specializes in torturing himself with terrible, terrible games, some old, some new.
- Now, when he’s not ripping on the inane and obscure, he’s got a number of other videos on his channel, as is the custom it seems. These include a large focus on all things Zelda, especially in November of every year, and a decent helping of Top 10 countdowns, which I understand is a …popular format these days.

- Following in the trend of unconventional reviews of really bad games, we have the JontronShow, hosted by the eccentric Jon Jarafi.
- Like PeanutButterGamer, Jon does not produce objective, structured reviews of triple A releases, but instead focuses on often forgotten mistakes of the video game industry.
- Now, the JonTronShow is part of the Normal Boots network, which the PeanutButterGamer also belongs to, and this will make sense once you see a few of his videos because their styles are actually somewhat similar. However, JonTron takes the random-flash-cut stoner style you’d see in PBG and reeeeally runs with it, making his videos a lot more surreal and well…random.
- Because of this distinctive style and focus on older and more obscure content, JonTron’s channel is sort of a hybrid between review and a let’ play channel. One thing that’s undeniable is that his clips are super watchable, in no small part thanks to his strong delivery and crazy editing.

- Coming in at #4 we have a personal favorite of mine. While there’s a ton of great content on the Escapist’s channel, there is one show in particular that stands heads and shoulders above the rest: Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s Zero Punctuation.
- A ZP video is instantly recognizable by several obvious trademarks. They’re very simply animated clips that always feature a yellow background. Yahtzee, who narrates the videos, is the second trademark that’s instantly recognizable, not only for his quick wit and British accent, but also for the titular super speed with which he delivers his reviews.
- Finally, the last thing that’s notable about Yahtzee’s reviews is the brutal way in which he rips apart recent releases. While he doesn’t hate everything, he often focuses on the negative or more absurd aspects of games he’s reviewing, and the results are nothing short of hilarious. It’s also interesting to see his take on popular games, because he is rarely in line with the status quo when it comes to the big name titles.
- Yahtzee has become such a force in the gaming community that he’s spawned a few expressions that have become almost mainstream, such as “mmorpager” and, most infamously, “spunk-gargle-wee-wee”.

- At #3, we have someone who’s channel is, on the surface, very simple. Total Biscuit a.k.a. the Cynical Brit does videos that are pretty bare bones by YouTube standards. His reviews are generally unedited footage of him playing, with his commentary overtop, and then run anywhere from 15 minutes to somewhere under an hour.
- So, why does his banner describe him as the #1 YouTube PC Game Reviewer? Well, his videos are consistent and professional for one thing, which is super important when it comes to reviewers. People have come to know his tastes and style well, and can thus be confident in his recommendations.
- As I’ve mentioned before, his videos are very simple. This may be just what you’re looking for. Everyone we’ve seen today has some sort of gimmick or stylistic trademark, TotalBiscuit boils it all down to just the game, and his opinion.

- By now, you’ve probably noticed that a common theme among the channels on this list is examining really bad old games for comedic effect. However, nobody does this better than our #2 entry, the Angry Video Game Nerd.
- AVGN is hosted by James Rolfe. As you could probably gather from the name, one his most notable trademarks is the unbridled anger and frustration he spews towards the games he’s playing. He’s not flat out insane and doesn’t SWEAR NON STOP throughout the whole routine, but suffice to say he drops a few f-bombs and isn’t very nice.
- Like some of the other more humorous channels we’ve seen today, these videos obviously don’t work as a buyers guide for recent games. Even if you could still get these games in store, it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that since they’re being reviewed, they are definitely pretty bad. Angry Nerd still ranks so high because he’s been such a trendsetter in the YouTube/Videogame realm, and is still going strong today.

HM #1 Caddicarus
youtube.com/Caddicarus

HM #2 Jeremy Jahns
youtube.com/JeremyJahns

HM #3 Classic Game Room
youtube.com/InecomCompany

HM #4 GameSpot
youtube.com/gamespot

- Often the pick we have for #1 here on TopX is one that combines many of the elements we’ve seen in the other entries into one cohesive, solid package. This week’s #1 is one of those, with Joe Vargas’ Angry Joe Show.
- Like I said, Joe’s show combines a lot of the elements we’ve already seen. Quick cuts, insides jokes, crazy expletive filled rants and triple A titles. Joe pretty much covers all the bases and covers them well.