61 Frames Per Second

Video Game Television the Canadian Way, Eh?

Posted by Nadia Oxford

All this talk about Video Power and Gamepro TV has made my phantom leg-warmers itch. I watched both religiously. In fact, Gamepro TV deserves a hearty "thank you" for spoiling the twist near the end of Mega Man 4. Yeah, so maybe it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Dr Wily was manipulating Dr Cossack, but I was, like, ten at the time. That's serious shit when you're ten.

Unlike most of you, I had one more video game show in my Saturday roster: Canada's own Video & Arcade Top 10. It debuted in 1991 on YTV and, if I'm not reading my sources incorrectly, it still endures.

There's a definite charm to Canadian television that I would sorely miss if I were to follow up on my life's dream to live among penguins. Canadian television is terribly low-budget, but goddamn if it doesn't try hard. And, more often than not, it comes out smelling beautiful in its own funky way, like the smell of a dog you loved through childhood. If a Canadian show reaches cult status in America, it's a hit. Kids in the Hall got lucky, as did ReBoot--and both wholly deserve(d) the success they receive(d). In all, Canadian television reflects a relaxed culture that ~~smokes a lot of marijuana~~ isn't as uptight about censorship and sponsors. That's why Video & Arcade Top 10 is as cheesy as France, but doesn't try to be anything spectacular. Its theme song was ripped straight from Crash Man's stage in Mega Man 2.

Video & Arcade Top 10 is based around competition. A bunch of kids get called down from the audience to play whatever pity-game the producers manage to weasel out of whatever company and whoever meets the specified criteria (highest score, highest energy) wins. Prizes range from yesterday's hottest games to a pat on the back (preferred).

I don't know what the future holds for video game television, but I do know the cable package that brought me G4 expired a long time ago and I never bothered to renew it. Morgan Webb's voice drawls up and down so often, it makes me seasick. Favoured Video & Arcade host Nicholas Picalous never wore the hippest clothes and he had more pounds on him than what's normally allowed on American television, but I bet he'd be awesome to have a beer with.

"So this one time, this kid with stage fright threw up on my pants. They were ten bucks from Goodwill. I don't get to see that kind of money often."

Related Links:

Video Game TV: Can It Ever Be Good?
Horrors That Time Forgot: Gamepro TV

+ DIGG

+ DEL.ICIO.US

+ REDDIT

Posted Aug 22 2008, 02:59 PM

Filed under: television, g4, video & arcade top 10, gamepro tv, game television, morgan webb, nadia oxford, video power

Comments

Roto13 said:

I used to love that show. Apparently the world has forgotten it exists, though. The Wikipedia article is like one line long. Also, I've come to the conclusion that there are no pictures of Nicholas Picolas anywhere in the world. I want to make him my MSN picture now.

Oh, hey, I found one. Apparently he has a morning radio show somewhere. He looks the same as he ever did.

http://www.kiss985.com/

That show was great because the hosts didn't try to be cool. Probably because it's very hard to make four-year-old games cool. I remember a few times they played T- or even M-rated games. I was like "None of these kids are more than ten years old."

Oh, those kids. I'm pretty sure they had a checklist they used on every episode. "Alright, let's get one kid giving a thumbs up, one with his arms crossed (either to try to appear badass or just to cover up his boy bossoms), one Indian kid, and one with his mouth hanging open." That was their formula for entertaining contestants, apparently.

August 22, 2008 4:23 PM

Dan said:

How about Kids of Degrassi Street? And Degrassi Junior High... both those made it here to England. Goddamn they were depressing. But refreshingly so.

August 24, 2008 11:39 AM

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.