Last fall I discovered a terrific video game video podcast called The 1-Up Show that’s put out by a group of video game magazine reviewers. The show has great production values, and alternates between game footage, comedy skits, and hardcore gamers hanging out and talking about games. These guys definitely know their stuff, they swear a lot, and overall it’s a lot like just hanging out with a bunch of friends, and in my opinion is a lot more successful than other video game video podcasts I’ve seen that try to parrot the formal conventions of a television news broadcast. The show even features a theme song I like more than most Top 40 (“Hey, I don’t wanna go to work today / Just wanna stay home and play / all my videogames”). The 1-Up Show stopped updating in December, and I figured they were just taking the holidays off, but I recently learned that the whole staff was laid off and the show is no more. Damn. Some of the cast members are trying to keep the show going as an indie production under the name Co-Op, and it’s even got good theme music too (“The thing I like about you most is / You run away with me / So pack your bags and your shotgun too / We might run into zom-bies”). If you have any interest in video games at all, check it out. They could probably use the eyeballs right now more than ever.
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