The idea of people playing a video game, recording it, making commentary and getting paid for it originally seemed stupid to me. When friends told me they were fans of Total Biscuit, The Yogscast, and other Let’s Players it seemed pointless to me. Video games are an interactive medium, I thought; What’s the point of watching someone play a game for extended periods of time then?
The Super Best Friends, a group of four former QA testers and avid gamers in their early to late twenties, are generally funny guys who have pretty in-depth knowledge of not only video games but also the industry behind them. Matt, Pat, Woolie and Liam comment on current events in the video game industry and apply their knowledge of game development while playing games and making plenty of jokes.
The Super Best Friends Have a Devoted Fanbase That Makes Tons of Art and Videos
I first encountered the Best Friends while looking for gameplay of Metal Gear Rising on YouTube early last year. I had no intention of getting the game and it looked awesome and ridiculous in the trailers so I searched for gameplay videos. By some twist of fate I clicked on the first video in Matt and Pat’s playthrough of the game and from there I was hooked.
The mix of MST3K-like commentary and their knowledge of the Metal Gear series as a whole made me laugh pretty hard. Those who have played through Metal Gear Rising know just how absurd and amazing the love child of Platinum Games and Hideo Kojima is and how much potential for comedy there is.
This is the First Level, and it Gets Exponentially Crazier From There
Since then the Best Friends Zaibatsu, as they like to call themselves, has expanded its empire into podcasts, merchandise, annual top ten games lists and videos where they just watch all the cutscenes in a game and riff on them. Every day I check their channel for new videos to watch or podcasts to listen to while getting work done.
Some people don’t really enjoy their videos because there’s a heavy reliance on references to video games, pop culture and in-jokes that originated amongst the four members. From the start I was able to get most references and I don’t mind looking up the ones that go over my head. The Best Friends introduced me to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Deadly Premonition, Kill La Kill and many other things I had never heard of before. Thanks to them I now understand the place that Lets Players have in video game culture and I look forward to any content they release in the future.
