The Magic of Let's Play

A curious thing has come out of the blossoming of the internet. With high speed connection and advents of "Youtubes", gamers have gathered to basically just watch dudes play some video games. Sometimes these guys are informative, sometimes they're entertaining and once in a great while, you'll get those who do both. I'm going to just take a little bit of time and try and explain why I enjoy some of my favorite LP'ers and boy, it'[s not going to be pretty.

The first on my list is to no ones shock DeceasedCrab. His style goes more upon the comedic side of the spectrum and tends to play indie games and the occasional old game. He's probably best known for his Cave Story and La-mulana series, although he does have quite a few other gems. I'm quite fond of his Balloon Kid playthrough just based on how well he knew the game and how he still had trouble with it.

Second would probably Brickroadbrickroad who specializes in just plain being better at the games than you without being overly smug; Sure, there's some gloating, but it's in good spirits. His specialty lies in superspeed playthroughs of older games like Megaman 3 and Castlevania 4. Personally, I think he was at the top of his game when he did the Super Metroid playthrough. He was full of information that not only showed you how to play the game, but really gave a deeper, more thought out perspective on things. His Bionic Commando playthrough is another classic that you should definately check out. I would go into deeper detail, but come on, it's Bionic Commando at super speed, do I really need to try and justify that?

Kikoskia is the next on my list, and for good reason too. Maybe it's just me, but the combination of both his voice and his accent attuned with his personal game choices make it quite enjoyable. Kiko's forte lies in a few different fields, namely old PC games and Taiwanese Pirate Games. The pirate games are probably my favorite to watch, just to see how bad the games are and to hear his utter disgust while playing through them -- Mortal Combat 5, Megaman 8, and Super Mario World are pretty much THE reason to watch.

Now, I saved my absolute favorite LP'er for last and that would be HCBailly, whom I've linked once before. Bailly tends to stick to the classic jRPGs of yesteryear, when they were still viable. Stylistically, he has managed to combine comedy and information to a level that I personally don't think anyone else has reached yet. For the most part, his LP's are as clean as the games, so if he's playing something like the original Final Fantasy, you won't hear too many expletives, but say Final Fantasy VII, don't be to surprised if you hear language that wouldn't be suitable for infants. Chrono Trigger is probably the pinnacle of his LP's, though most are spectacular.

I myself have tried to get into LP's, but there is no possible way for me to compete with these guys. If anyone deserves your time, it's them. I'll end this post with this note; it's still odd to me that I have a fascination with watching other people play games when I could be playing them myself.