Before I begin I'd like to first say that I was partially inspired to create this list by a similar article written by fellow GameSkinny author RobotsFightingDinosaurs called "The 7 Best YouTube Gaming Channels You're Not Already Subscribed To".
It lists several great gaming YouTube Channels that you should check out just in case you haven't done so already.
I thought that it was a great idea, and a great list of people on YouTube who could use some more attention than they were getting. But it also led me to want to create my own list, and this time shine some light on a few YouTube gamers who aren't quite like the typical lot you see on YouTube's front page.
These YouTubers are all pretty different from each other, and I cannot guarantee you'll like all of them, but if even one person finds a new favorite because of this list, I felt I've done my job.
Oh, and one last thing. Some of these channels have typical output that contains high amounts of cursing and mature content of a wide variety.
On that note, let's get started.
Super Best Friends Play
Do you have a friend that hollers like a madman when their favorite character in a show they love does something cool? Imagine four people like that in the same room together. Now imagine that they are doing a thing together. And they all like that thing. A LOT.
Super Best Friends Play, which was originally just Two Best Friends Play over on Machinima, is just what the name implies -- a group of really good friends that love to get crazy hyped about stuff, sit down, and play some video games together.
Their main channel TheSw1thcer harbors dozens of different let's-plays of all kinds of different games, all of which have different combinations of friends on them. And all of which are entertaining, with constant commentary about the game, or whatever just happened to be on their minds at the time.
The Machinima episodes are plenty entertaining and worth a look, but nothing quite beats a good hour or so of uninterrupted commentary that many of their other videos provide.
If you want a good want a good Machinima episode (although you can't really go wrong with any of them), I'd recommend the early Two Best Friends episode on L.A Noire.
If you want a good session of all four members of the Best Friends Zaibatsu, then I'd recommend their video on Shovel Knight.
They also have an excellent podcast called The Super Best Friendcast, which is also absolutely worth checking out. It's where you go if you want around three total hours of Video Gaming, Anime, Super Hero, and Wrestling nonsense in one sitting.
If you enjoy Game Grumps, you may very well enjoy this (they've actually guest-starred on each-others channels) so give them a look if they interest you at all.
Oh yeah, and they also happen to have their own original character as one of the bosses in Shovel Knight. So that's pretty cool. (Can you feel the storm?)
Kilian Experience
It's hard to explain a channel like Kilian Experience. The easiest way I could describe it would be if Videogamedunkey was more cynical, had an even dryer sense of humor, and had a thick Swedish (possibly Estonian) accent.
Kilian "reviews" all sorts of games in an extremely dry and sarcastic manner, all the while intentionally lying about the actual quality and content of the games he talks about, and purposely getting fact-checks wrong in order to confuse and irritate the audience.
And it's hilarious.
He also manages to cut deep with occasional topical humor about things other than Video Games. His video "A Garbage Guide To Old School Runescape" for example, is an homage to the film Forrest Gump -- which takes about five minutes to become apparent, and manages to create contextually relevant jokes about the Bird Flu epidemic and the 2008 US Housing Crisis, among other things.
And don't even get me started on his occasional parody of Game Theory called "Game Theory-zing". If you're familiar at all with the former, then you'll find the latter putting you in stitches.
He does curse quite a lot, so if that isn't for you, be warned. But other than that, I can't think of any other reason that you shouldn't be watching him.
Jordan Underneath
Jordan Underneath fills a niche in Video Game entertainment that had existed for years. While it is a show that is mostly made for entertainment that can be very funny and very joyous, it is a show that is very often steeped in sadness.
Jordan, the channel's titular host, covers pretty much whatever he wants to talk about -- which includes books and movies, but it mostly consists of video games, and most of them Horror games.
Jordan's favorite topics tend to be atmosphere, world-building, and good writing over gameplay, although he does still touch on gameplay like a typical reviewer. But what really separates Jordan from most other YouTubers is his show's deep basis in human nature.
Jordan Underneath is a show that is not afraid of emotions or anxieties or human flaws. It is a show that celebrates them, treats them as natural, and attempts in some fashion to start a dialogue about the stigmas of mental disorders and illnesses in society, and that's pretty cool.
He's a man who concerns himself with emotions and art, as well as what effect the two can have on each other, and he does it pretty darn well.
Despite his macabre exterior, he is also a guy who loves cute things and being silly quite a lot. He loves to paint his face and pretend to be various monsters, as well as play around with props and pieces of art he made himself.
Really, it's hard not to look at his enormous grin without letting out at least a little bit of a chuckle. He's such a goofball.
You can also find him talking about cute and innocent games on his channel on occasion when he isn't talking about horror games. He discusses Ratchet & Clank, Super Mario World, and Yoshi's Island just to name a few.
He also has a separate channel where he uploads original Ambient Music, which you can find here.
If you can't make it past his depressed presentation and subject matter, that's understandable, but please don't hesitate to try him out anyway. You may just end up learning something about yourself.
Also, I'd like to make a brief special mention of his excellent Silent Hill 2 video. While it isn't his funniest video, it's probably his best. I'll say nothing more about it and let you take a look for yourselves.
Dex The Swede
If I had to pick just one word to describe Dex the Swede, that word would be silly. This man, and his show, are very, very silly.
Dex The Swede (whose real name is Simon) is like a lot of typical review shows on the Internet, but with a few major differences. One being that Dex is mostly clean, with only a few obscenities and curse words here and there. But the biggest difference is the cartoonish antics that Dex puts himself through.
It's as if he's trying his very best to actually turn into a cartoon character. While the review and analysis part of the show is entertaining in itself, where it really shines is in the constant physical comedy that comes with it.
Dex moves around with an almost rubber hose-like strut, and he tosses and tumbles himself around to all sorts of different (and typically unfitting) cartoon sound effects, some of which I'm not sure I've heard anywhere else before or since.
Dex doesn't upload very often, but no two videos ever feel alike, despite all of them carrying his very distinct bouncy style of presentation. For example, in his "Ruff Retro" video on Bubble Bobble, he manages to give a full review of the game while also acting staggeringly drunk.
He's the kind of guy you watch more for laughs than anything else, but everything here is good. Load up any one of his videos and I guarantee you'll be smiling by the end if nothing else.
On a side note, he's also a pretty good singer. Watch his Shrek (Xbox) video if you want to see for yourself.
Balrog
Sometimes you're just in the mood for something simple. Perhaps a little sentimental. Something safe you could show to your grandma and not be nervous (for once).
That is where Balrog comes in.
Balrog is, in both personality and subject matter, completely clean in all of his videos. Now his streams or social media aren't clean, but his regular videos? You're all good. It's cool.
Balrog's stuff is pretty much all reviews, aside from his aforementioned streams, but they have a distinct style. He reviews the good and the bad, and has brought exposure to a few lesser-known titles that deserved a bit more attention throughout his time on the interwebs (*cough* Mibibli's Quest *cough*).
He is the closest on this list to being a typical YouTube game reviewer, but it would still be unfair to call him average. His critiques take every aspect of a game into account that they can, and he is both thorough and unbiased.
If you wanna see him being REALLY unbiased then you should watch his video on A Boy and His Blob.
Plus, as previously mentioned, he is completely clean and almost all of his videos are safe for work -- barring one or two rare exceptions (*cough cough* Mibibli's Quest *cough*). The little cursing there is gets spread out and bleeped out completely, and most of the games he discusses never have an ESRB rating higher than E10+.
He has a distinct style, a great sense of self-deprecating humor, and he picks topics he is passionate about every time.
Check him out why don'tcha?
Video Game Fun Time
(This particular show is a little bit extra NSFW.)
Of all the channels on this list, without a doubt, Video Game Fun Time is the absolute hardest to describe or explain why it's good. But I'll try my best.
Video Game Fun Time is, in the simplest of terms, a parody of amateur video game reviews on the Internet. The acting and voice-work is typically terrible, bad jokes and bad takes are left in on purpose as if they were always meant to be there, it is occasionally actually filmed using a VHS camera -- the list of amazing garbage details just goes on and on.
The show even contains original musical tracks and riffs from the creators of the show, most of which are simply slipped into the normal episode as yet another juicy background detail. If you end up liking what you hear, you can actually check out their Soundcloud.
In general this show feels like a genuine effort to make a Video Game review show that was taken by two guys who don't even like Video Games that much. And that is a riot.
I would say that the first episode is the weakest, and that the episodes which come after it only get better and better, but it's still worth your time to watch the first episode.
If I had to pick a favorite episode... I couldn't. But since I have to, I'd say that the third episode "The McDonald's Massacre" showcases a lot of the best that the show has to offer.
Honestly, the fact that the first episode is the worst may have been yet another intentional action taken in order to make the show look more like a real amateur's first time. If that is indeed the case, then bravo gents. Bra-vo.
Basically, here's the skinny (the GameSkinny hehehe I'm not sorry). If you sit through the one-minute-long first episode and you laugh even once, and if you aren't easily upset by immature humor or cursing, you should keep watching Video Game Fun Time and never look back.
Well that was my list. I hope you all enjoyed it, and don't forget to check out this other article that lists some more great Gaming YouTubers. Have any other interesting, unique or obscure YouTubers you'd like to mention? Comment below and let us know! We'd love to hear about some more underappreciated talent -- and who knows, we may do another one of these lists!
Published: Aug 1, 2016 09:55 am