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The Escapist's Unskippable Brings MST3K to Video Games

Posted by Bob Mackey

To the people who know me--online or in that magical place known as IRL--it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000; hell, for the past twelve years, my online nickname has been "bobservo." So obviously, I enjoy when the recorded mocking of entertainment, generally known as MSTing, is done well. But even with all of the countless awful video game cut scenes in existence, it's rare to see the MST3K format applied to such a deserving medium. It's true that the actual MST3K crew took video games down a peg for a Playstation Underground disc back in 1997, and 1UP unleashed their greatest wits on the worst of gaming with their Broken Pixels series, but the former was a one-time thing and the latter was a little too unscripted for my tastes. What to do?

The Escapist, home of the inimitable Yahtzee, has attempted to solve this MST3K fan's problem with Unskippable, a new series that gives video game cut scenes the MST3K treatment. And for their first installment, they couldn't have picked a more deserving game: Eternal Sonata, a JRPG with cut scenes so embarrassing that I often had to leave the room for fear that my brain would take its own life. The Unskippable crew's efforts aren't perfect with this installment, but this is definitely a series worth keeping an eye on--both in the future and right now. Give it a watch and remember that I played through this entire game:

Related Links:

Yahtzee's New Web Show is Pretty "Meh"
Yahtzee and the Webcomics Plague
Yahtzee Presents A New Angle On Nostalgia (Sort Of)

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Posted Jan 08 2009, 12:30 PM

Filed under: yahtzee, comedy, bob mackey, eternal sonata, mst3k, broken pixels, unskippable

Comments

Greg said:

That's two of the guys from Loading Ready Run, Graham and..uh, I forget the other guy's name. The one who had to shave his beard when Desert Bus hit a certain level.

January 8, 2009 2:36 PM

Apollo said:

I saw the advert for this show after Zero Punctuation and though, "Meh, poorly done MST3K knockoff."

January 8, 2009 2:55 PM

AlexB said:

I'd say it's a promising new series, but man, do they need to adjust their sound levels. And it's hard to even tell it's two guys, they sound so similar.

The pacing of the riffs could use some work, but I'm surprised that there were some good jokes...that's pretty rare in online MST3K knockoffs.

...I've got a hankering for some "Time Chasers" now.

January 9, 2009 12:01 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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