Gameoverse Pilot Review
In a little over a month, The Amazing Digital Circus, the insanely popular indie series produced by Glitch Productions, will be airing its final episode on YouTube. Less than a week from now, it will release in theaters as a movie. And while I, like many people, are sad to see it go, I understand that it needs to end before it wears out its welcome. However, the end of Digital Circus means that Glitch is going to need a new flagship series. And while we have two fairly promising series in the form of Gaslight District and Knights of Guinevere, this next show technically outdated them both, as well as Glitch itself. And it’s a series that I think gamers everywhere are going to enjoy, and it seems like one that Glitch has a lot of confidence in, given how it dropped merch right as a pilot ended. It’s a little show by the name of Gameoverse.
I’m RJ Writing Ink, and this is my review of the pilot for Gameoverse, and I have to say, I think that this series has potential. The question is, will it be the next Digital Circus? My opinion might surprise you.
Origins
The first thing to know about Gameoverse is that it’s existed as a concept since 2009. Originally created as a series of web shorts for YouTube and Newgrounds by a YouTuber named RubberRoss, the man spent years trying to turn it into an actual series. Unfortunately, he and his partner in crime, Arin Hanson from Gamer Grumps, kept getting rejected. It wasn’t until they showed the idea to the founders of Glitch, the Lerdwichagul brothers, that they finally got the backing needed to get it off the ground.
The second thing that you need to know is the concept. Set in a video game multiverse, Gameoverse is all about twisting the concept of winning the game from something good into something bad. When the hero of a game ends up winning, their entire world gets erased, killing everyone in the process. As noted by the show’s page on TV Tropes, this feels a lot like a commentary on how players tend to abandon and delete a video game once they’ve beaten it, rather than replaying it for fun or completion. And as a gamer myself, I can assert that this is a pretty accurate assessment. It’s hard to find the time or motivation to go back and finish a game you’ve already beaten! Now imagine how that must feel like from the perspective of the characters themselves? That has to be traumatizing, which is why it’s depicted as such in the form of the main characters.
Amazing Voice Actors
As Glitch has grown in popularity in the 2020s, they’ve been able to use that to get more well-known voice actors to work on their shows, and I think Gameoverse has to have their most impressive roster to date. Besides RubberRoss and Arin Hanson voicing different characters in the show, they’ve also got Erica Lindbeck (Helluva Boss, Dragon Ball, ETC), Jschlatt (various Minecraft SMPs), as well as long-time Glitch-affiliated VA Elsie Lovelock. The biggest win, though, has to be the fact that they have Chris Sabat as the main villain! Even if you don’t know who he is personally, if you’ve watched anime long enough, then you have to have heard the voice of Vegeta, Zoro, All Might, and so many other characters in it! All told, the cast is very well-rounded in terms of talent, and it shows in how each character is played in the pilot.
For our protagonists, we have Kit the humanoid catgirl, Kaboodle, her robot backpack and companion in the style of Clank, and Gobbles the Learnasarus. Once the hero of their own game worlds (or heroes, with Kit and Kaboodle), they now work for Farcade, a group whose goal is to save worlds by stopping the heroes from winning. I doubt that the irony that they have to do good by being the villains is lost on any of them, either. What’s most interesting about the group, though, is how it doesn’t skimp on is how the trauma that their role in destroying their world has affected them. Kit tries to be heroic and optimistic, but we see her keep getting PTSD flashbacks as she blames herself for what happened. Kaboodle acts like a snarky jerk as a means of coping with the loss. He cares, but is trying to surpress his emotions. Since Gobbles is from a kids edutainment game, he’s very childlike and seems to react to everything like a child would: scared. But at the same time, that childishness lets him learn things very fast. And he’s very quick to become as brave as Kit is.
There’s also a dolphin named Flappers, but that’s another story.
On the opposing side, we have the Syntax, led by Chris Sabat’s character of Warrick. They work to ensure that the heroes win so their worlds are destroyed and they can collect the float data from its remnants. The main antagonists, though, are Miss Information and Fold, voiced by Elsie Lovelock and RubberRoss respecitvely. They’re basically the personifications of the tutorial and the tip mechanics found in most video games. Normally, that’s a good thing, but not in this context. They also remind me a lot of Jessie and James from Team Rocket!
So, with the characters out of the way, what about the other aspects?
The Art is Awesome
I’m just going to cut to the chase about the art: I love it.
When I saw the initial teaser trailer for Gameoverse, the big thing that stood out to me besides the premise was the art style. Whether intentional or not, it reminded me a lot of these PC games I paid when I was a little kid from a company called Humongous Entertainment. They made these point-and-click computer games that were the first ones I ever played, with examples including Freddie Fish, Putt-Putt, and Spy Fox. The way the characters move and interact with each other in Gameoverse feels like something out of those old PC games, and it tickles my nostalgia bone something fierce. Beyond that, though, the art style feels a lot like retro RPGS that have become super popular in recent years.
Then there’s the characters themselves. Their designs with thick lines are just as appealing as the rest of the series. Particular mention should go to the design of Kit, in particular. Apparently, she has already become the subject of a lot of fan art, and after seeing the episode, I can understand why. Her design is very appealing, both in terms of how she moves and acts, and for fanservice. There’s gonna be so much degenerate fan art of her!
But what about the plot? How good is the story?
The Story is Good for a Pilot
So, this pilot does not require any prior knowledge about the early incarnation of Gameroverse from way back when. That being said, it’s a little disappointing in hindsight that the pilot doesn’t show us how Kit and Kaboodle met Gobbles, or how they failed to save his world. On top of that, the story of how Kit and Kaboodle’s own world was destroyed and the immediate aftermath is only shown in a brief flashback at the start. I get that they’re probably going to dive deeper into it in future episodes, but maybe it would’ve been cool to have the pilot spend more time on that, as well as they’re processing what happened and the part they unwittingly played. They were trying to do the right thing, and that got their home destroyed! That’s not something you can experience and then walk away from without mental scars!
That being said, I do think that the pilot does show us how Kit and Kaboodle handle the aftermath of this tragedy fairly well. Or rather, how they’re not. Kit suffers from PTSD as she looks at Flappers and sees her past self in him. Kaboodle channels his grief into a bitter and sarcastic persona, but it’s clear that it’s just a coping mechanism for what he went through. They both went through something that can’t be gotten over so easily, and I think that the series will likely explore how this affects their mental state.
The biggest surprise, though, was Gobbles. He seems like the useless tagalong at first with no real powers. However, as the episode progresses, his ability to learn comes in extremely handy, as he’s the first to realize that Flappers is the hero of his game. More importantly, Kit and Kaboodle’s bravery rubs off on him as he’s the one who gets Kit to calm down after a panic attack. Never underestimate the power of learning.
Unfortunately, though, the Farcade agents efforts are not enough. Flappers manages to defeat his villain, triggering the destruction of his world, with only himself, the villain, and a seagull escaping it. And much like how Kit and Kaboodle felt, he’s devastated to learn that his good deeds led to his home being destroyed. As for the Syntax, they try to recruit Flappers’ villain, only to have to destroy him. Even worse, it’s revealed that Kit and Kaboodle’s own villains are alive and out for blood as the episode comes to an end.
This is a good pilot episode, you guys. And I mean a really good pilot. In a few days, it managed to surpass the number of views that Digital Circus got in the same span of time. In addition, the fact that Glitch is already releasing merchandise for the show on its website is a sign that they have a lot of faith in the show. The question is, though, can it become the next Digital Circus?
If I may be so blunt, no. No, it cannot. But there’s a good reason why.
Cut RubberRoss some Slack
When the pilot for The Amazing Digital Circus released almost three years ago, it was like the perfect storm for indie animation. It came out at the right time, got an early boost off of Glitch’s previous success with Murder Drones, and before that, SMG4’s own channel. And it was one of those videos that went viral overnight, and before long, it was in every corner of the Internet. Not to mention how the merchandise has appeared in stores around the world! It’s made Gooseworx a household name online, with each new episode getting millions of views.
That’s great and all, but there’s a downside to it. A really big downside.
I didn’t want to mention it, but I have to: the Digital Circus fandom has become pretty toxic. From people getting mad when their theories are proven wrong to harassing the people who work on the show, it’s not the kind of community that you want for a hit show. And it’s negatively affecting the mental health of the series creator, Gooseworx. All she wanted to do was make a show for people to enjoy, and she never imagined it would become so popular right out of the gate. The expectations put on her are almost impossible to meet, and no matter what she does, there are going to be haters making her feel bad. I normally stay away from fandom toxicity, but even I’ve heard about how stressed out Gooseworx has become. It’s gotten to the point that when the series finale recently leaked online, Gooseworx shrugged her shoulders and basically said “I don’t give a ****.” Do you have any idea how bad it must be for her to say that about her own creation? I’m worried that this might turn her off from ever making another show again, and the world would be a poor place for it!
So, to answer your question, no, I don’t think Gamoeverse can be the next Digital Circus. Nor do I want it to. Digital Circus became almost too big for its own good, and it’s nearly ruined the life of its creator. I would much rather that Glitch has several shows at once that are equally great than let one become more popular than the other. People are going to love them because Glitch is producing them, and I think that should be enough.
So please, for the love of all that is holy, people, can we just cut RubberRoss and the others some slack and let them cook? There are plenty of other shows out there to obsess over if you don’t like it!
