ScrewAttack

ScrewAttack Entertainment LLC

Current logo (2011-present)
Industry	Video games
Genre	Video game reviews and entertainment
Founded	February, 2006
Founder(s)	Craig Skistimas Thomas Hanley
Headquarters	Flower Mound, Texas, United States
Products	Web shows
Owner(s)	Craig Skistimas
Website	ScrewAttack.com

ScrewAttack, officially named ScrewAttack Entertainment LLC, is a company that creates video game entertainment, including original content, on their website. Owned by Craig Skistimas, ScrewAttack.com has been operational since 5 January 2006.

The site features various original content as well as a variety of third party content from partners. The name and logo is derived from the Metroid video game series, in which the player can employ a "screw attack" function.

History

ScrewAttack was created in 2006 by Craig Skistimas and Thomas Hanley. The first show featured on the site was an audio podcast called SideScrollers. Viacom Media Networks acquired rights to some of ScrewAttack’s programming (Top 10's, Video Game Vault and the Angry Video Game Nerd) adding it to their GameTrailers service. Since working with GameTrailers, ScrewAttack's features have been downloaded over 245 million times.

In September 2011, ScrewAttack.com launched its new version, "The New ScrewAttack", which features several overhauled interfaces and designs to the website. Another website version, "Phase 2" was officially launched on May 22, 2012. Some of the new features of Phase 2 include the ability to customize profiles and the ability to "subscribe" to other members. Also included is the ability to create shows by uploading videos from the user's preferred video player. On the new profile is the "wall" (similar to the Facebook "wall"), allowing users to post items or comments in a similar manner to social networking sites. There is also a "feed" tab, showing the recent activity of other users that the user has subscribed to. ScrewAttack also created the popular YouTube series "Death Battle."

Divisions

ScrewAttack

The ScrewAttack World Headquarters is located in Dallas, Texas, US. The site’s creator, Craig Skistimas, and employees, shoot and edit most of the ScrewAttack videos in the company's headquarters. ScrewAttack often features hired interns in the site's videos, with many of the current personalities on the site having started out in this manner.

Current staff

• "Stuttering" Craig Skistimas — Owner
• Ben Singer — Program Director/Content Producer
• Chad James — Merchandise Director, News Anchor
• "Nervous" Nick Cramer — Content Producer
• Bryan Baker — Community Manager/Promotions Manager
• Sean Hinz — News Director
• Lauren Moore — Reviews Editor
• Sam Mitchell - Merchandise/Partner Show Coordinator
• Drake McWhorter — Trailer Wizard
• Ryan Conway — Weekend News Editor
• Sean Capdeville - Mobile Games Reveiwer

Former staff

• "Handsome" Tom Hanley
• "Newschool" Mickey Paradis
• "Perfect" Liz Luehrs
• "Cameraman" Joe Schneider
• "Announcer" Geoff Blair
• "Maxifent" Corey Petit
• José "El Mexicano" Mejia
• "Daily" Destin Legarie
• "Professional" Jared Knabenbauer

ScrewAttack Europe

Guru Larry's Retro Corner Logo.

Introduced in late-2006, ScrewAttack Europe, located in Northwood, London, United Kingdom (UK), was the name used by video game enthusiasts and TV presenters, Guru Larry (Larry Bundy Jr) and "UK" Wez (Wesley Lock), for voluntarily-created, video game-related content for ScrewAttack.com. ScrewAttack Europe was the first official international feature and the only outside group to have "ScrewAttack" in their title. Alongside The Angry Video Game Nerd, ScrewAttack Europe was one of the longest lasting associates of ScrewAttack and second most popular partner provider after the AVGN.

Their programs included:

• Games Yanks Can't Wank, a series showcasing and making fun of video games never released in the United States or Canada
• Hack-Job, a machinima-based sketch show
• Pop-Up Review, a review show which posts false facts about games, parodying television shows such as Pop-Up Video.
• Guru Larry's Retro Corner, from December 2007-April 2010, ScrewAttack.com aired episodes of ScrewAttack Europe's XLEAGUE.TV television series Guru Larry's Retro Corner.

In September 2010, after discrepancies of not being paid and accusations of them being bullied by staff members^{[citation needed]}, Lock and Bundy left ScrewAttack and Screwattack Europe was closed. They now currently provide the same shows for Channel Awesome and Machinima.com.

Current shows and featurettes

Original Shows

• Hard News - a daily news program shown on the site, often accompanied with humorous comments. Created by Destin, after leaving it was hosted by Jared, but now it is hosted by Chad.
• VGR (Video Game Review) - a show on ScrewAttack, similar to The Scoop. However, instead of talking about the highs and lows of the game in question, categories of story, gameplay, sound, etc. are reviewed. At the end of the video, viewers are given a recommendation by the reviewer to Buy it, Rent it, or F' it. With the release of Version 5 website, the ScrewAttack staff have also started posting written reviews for games.
• Real Trailers - a show where a custom trailer for a video game is made to parody/tribute the original trailer.
• Video Game Vault - hosted by Craig and Nick, the series aims to provide viewers with a nostalgic, informative and humorous look at classic video games; games that are infamous for a particular reason, or obscure games that are considered enjoyable.
• ScrewAttack Top Ten - Stuttering Craig and Nervous Nick tries to keep the Top 10 lists non-traditional by focusing on games which might not have received as much critical acclaim as others
• SideScrollers - a weekly video podcast covering activities at ScrewAttack and general video games news. Until February 15, 2011 the show was available in audio format only.
• Out of the Box - previews of recently released games and snippets from upcoming releases.
• Evil Craig - a profane, adult swim-like show where Craig gives a certain amount of reasons why he hates the game. Debuted in 2012.
• Screwin' Around - a live streaming show, featuring random ScrewAttack members playing video games for 1 to 2 hours. New episode every Friday.
• Mario Party After Dark - a live show that featuring staff members in a game of Mario Party, where they constantly swear and insult each other.
• The Best Ever! - A show that debuted in 2012. Each time it tackles a different subject similar to Top Tens but instead of ranking the elements several staff members talk about their personal favorites.
• Death Battle - similar to Deadliest Warrior, is hosted by Ben and Chad playing the characters Wiz and Boomstick, who guide the viewer through the arsenal of two fictional characters before pitting them against each other in a bloody fight to the death. Each episode showcases a custom-animated fight scene between the two characters.
• Clip/Quote of the Week - also known as "Quote of the Week", it a series of vignettes which posted weekly, showcases offbeat and strange commercials, movie clips or promotions for products. On October 2012, it was announced that the Clip of the Week would be redone, and renamed simply "The Clip", dropping its weekly format in favor of higher production values.
• Classic Sunday - this is a nostalgic show where ScrewAttack posts one of the older posts from former versions of ScrewAttack.
• Love/Hate - a show where ScrewAttack give a number of reasons why they like the topic or why they hate it. This show is more family friendly than Evil Craig.

Partner Shows

• The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) - a series of farcical retro gaming reviews by James D. Rolfe, an independent filmmaker and professional video editor.
• CineMassacre Mailbag - James Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd) reads fan e-mails.
• Talking Classics - mockumentary that follows video game fan Keith Apicary, starring and created by comedian Nathan Barnatt. Keith Apicary (called the "Borat of the gaming world") is a 28 year old gamer who favors Neo Geo, Virtual Boy and Sega.
• brentalfloss - a New York-based musician who makes videos for ScrewAttack. His most famous creation is his "with LYRICS" series, were he takes a classic retro gaming song and gives it lyrics, typically referring to the subject matter of the game itself.
• Game Theory - Coined as "Mythbusters for gamers", Matthew Patrick's goal of Game Theory is to separate fact from fiction in video games and support topics in video games that may seem fantastical with real world facts.
• Game Overthinker - Bob "moviebob" Chipman rants and speaks about video game phenomena purposely in too much depth. Chipman also has shows titled Escape to the Movies and The Big Picture, hosted on The Escapist . In his show, the Game Overthinker chooses to talk about topics ranging from how originality in modern games are more of an exception than rule, violence in video games, the longevity of video game characters, racism in games and more.
• Black Nerd - André "Black Nerd" Meadows rants or has opinions on Pop Culture, News, Current Events, Geekdom, and even 80s-90s Nostalgia. The show features ScrewAttack appropriate Rants on the website. The show has a lot to do with Nintendo based stuff since André is a big Nintendo Player. A little similar to Channel Awesome's Nostalgia Critic
• The Completionist Jirard Khalil reviews classic games, placing heavy emphasis on their replay value, what getting 100% completion on a game gets the gamer and whether or not its worth it to complete the game, ending each review with a rating of Burn it, Play it, Finish it, Finipete it, or Complete it.
• Free to Play Weekly brings viewers the most important news of the week about free-to-play online games and the latest releases.
• Extra Credits

Prior shows

• Newsroom, a comedy sketch show featuring Lauren and Jared focused on the conversations of two gaming news writers working in the same office.The show ended when Jared left screwattack.
• Reboot or Retro - review show which took games that have been remade/rebooted and compared them to the original.
• The Art in Gaming - a series of short videos that focus on the visual art in gaming.
• The Scoop! - highlighing the highs and lows of games and usually focuses on the "Top 3" of both aforementioned categories.
• Awesome Video Games - moved to Blistered Thumbs.
• GameJew - a former ScrewAttack series featuring Jonathan Mann, a Jewish fan of Mario. In the story, The GameJew dons his red Mario hat and his red overalls, all while existing in real life situations and composing songs relevant to games.
• Jose's Puntos is a short program hosted by Jose El Mexicano where he gives gaming tips.
• Metal Gear Ben - based on the character 'Metal Gear Ben' (a recurring character on the Clip of the Week) this show was produced with help from the g1 community.
• Nametags - a sitcom that follows Jared and Dom in the daily grind at the video game store at which they work.
• RetroRemix - hosted by DJ Axis, a half-blind musician, the show featured remixes of old video game soundtracks
• Toilet Tuesday - a series of shorts created relating to people sitting on the toilet and playing video games. Movies were submitted by users to be featured on the site.
• The Armory was a feature in which the best weapons known in video gaming are detailed.
• Life in a Game was a comedy/adventure series produced by Jonathan Tran from Enemy Crab Productions.
• Unaware Steve, having not played a game since 1992, the last game he played was Cool Spot, goes to gaming conventions and interviews gamers.
• "WTF Is That?" a feature where users are shown a still frame from a video game, which is zoomed in to the point of being almost completely illegible. The purpose is to run a contest on which video game the screenshot is from.
• Safety First was a show starring Michael Donnel (Paul McDonough) and Manuel Riley (Steve Gregson). Michael and Manuel's primary task was to keep the world safe from the ever growing dangers of the internet.
• Retro Hunters - a show starring Rob and Josh where they go to various swap meets and flea markets looking for good deals on classic games. At the end of the video, they will show all of the games that they bought and compare it to the average eBay price to show how much they saved (or lost).

Events and other media

The Iron Man of Gaming

The Iron Man of Gaming is an annual gaming tournament, hosted by ScrewAttack, to find who is the best all-round video gamer. Unlike traditional video game tournaments where participants compete on a single title, competitors are given a raft of video games from various genres to compete on. The winner is decided on a points-based system; the contender with the most points is declared the winner.

The 2007 tournament was held at Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, between August 30 through to September 2. The winner was advertised to take home $1,000 US dollars and a ScrewAttack championship belt. First place was awarded to Chris "Kumachine" Delp. Second place was awarded to Louis "Big Lou" Hughes.

The Iron Man of Gaming hosted its second year at the Grapevine Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from June 19–22, 2008 and advertised itself as "all consoles", "all genres" and "all eras". Contestants competed for $10,000 in cash and prizes. Registered ScrewAttack members were eligible to vote on which games are being played at the event; five classic games, four current and one secret mystery game were played during the tournament. The event was documented by PBC Productions. The winner was Harrison Fluster, with the prior year's champion Chris Delp as runner up.

The 2009 Iron Man of Gaming took place during the Screwattack Gaming Convention in early July. The winner was Jamal Nickens and runner-up Joshua Wiegand, with the prior year's champion Harrison Fluster finishing eleventh. The 2007 champion, Chris Delp, did not compete. According to the June 23rd edition of SideScrollers, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was intended to be one of the mystery games at the 2010 event, but whilst they had permission from Capcom USA, Capcom Japan did not give them permission to showcase the game due to short notice. It was replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, making SGC 2010 the first time the game was playable at a public event.

2011's Iron Man of Gaming took place at NekoCon in Hampton, Virginia from November 4–6.

Mobile game

In 2010, ScrewAttack released a game for iOS called Texting Of The Bread. The object of the game is to type words which will kill incoming Gingerbread men. The game includes the Angry Video Game Nerd as a character and will soon include another ScrewAttack personality, brentalfloss. An Android version was originally planned, but was eventually cancelled.

External links

• ScrewAttack.com