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Jimmy Fallon Making Good On His Promise To Gamers

When it was first announced that Jimmy Fallon would be taking over Late Night, I was unenthused. I never found Fallon to be funny or charming in his past work, and the flight to Florida wherein I watched him and Queen Latifa in Taxi was the longest and most uncomfortable two hours in my recent life to not involve work or girls. When he confirmed that his house band would be the Roots, I was simultaneously interested and disappointed. Hurrah, the Roots get a regular paycheck, but did they really need it so badly as to stoop to being a late night house band? When Fallon started talking asking the Twitter community for interview ideas and promised his show would treat video game releases as if they were movie releases, well, then my interest was officially piqued. Maybe this show will actually be okay. Better yet, maybe it will be worthwhile.

I watched the first week. Outside of "Slow-Jamming The News" and his interview with Tina Fey, it was not very good.

I wish I'd watched last night, though...

Video Game Television the Canadian Way, Eh?

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.

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.