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ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack logo
Current logo (2007–present)
GenreVideo game, reviews, entertainment
Created byCraig Skistimas
Thomas Hanley
Country of originUSA
Original languageEnglish
Production
Production locations United States
 United Kingdom
Original release
NetworkYouTube
Revver
blip.tv
(own embedder)
ReleaseMarch, 2006 –
present (hiatus on YouTube from November 25, 2009 to April 19, 2010)
ScrewAttack
HeadquartersFlower Mound, Texas, United States
OwnerCraig Skistimas
URLwww.ScrewAttack.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional (required for posting on the message boards, commenting and rating videos and blogs, making a blog, and uploading videos)

ScrewAttack (officially known as ScrewAttack Entertainment LLC.). is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Its content is also shown on GameTrailers and IGN. The name and logo comes from the "screw attack" ability from the Metroid series.

History

ScrewAttack originally started in 2006 with one program, SideScrollers, an audio podcast hosted by the site's creators "Stuttering" Craig Skistimas and Thomas "Handsome Tom" Hanley (who is no longer with ScrewAttack). Over time, additional shows have been added and removed. Current programs on ScrewAttack.com include The Angry Video Game Nerd, ScrewAttack Europe, Video Game Vault, Top 10's, Jose's Puntos, Hard News, Talking Classics, Metal Gear Ben, The Game Overthinker, VGR, SideScrollers, Underbelly, "brentalfloss", Safety First, Brotherhood of Leet and The Armory.

Past features include Art in Gaming, Life In A Game, Nametags, Pwned!, and Captain S and to a lesser extent a webshow called "The Scoop". In February 2007, MTV 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.[1] Since working with GameTrailers, ScrewAttack's features have been downloaded over 200 million times.[2]

Putting an emphasis on community, ScrewAttack's users are referred to as "g1s". All g1s are encouraged to participate on the site by creating their own original blogs and videos and submitting them to the website. ScrewAttack.com relaunched with its fourth version, known as "version 4", in November, 2009.

Staff

Current

US

  • Craig Skistimas ("Stuttering Craig")
  • Corey Pettit ("Maxifant Corey")
  • Destin Legarie ("Daily Destin")
  • Ben Singer ("High School Ben"/"Metal Gear Ben")
  • José Mejia ("José El Mexicano")
  • Chad James ("Chad")
  • Nick Cramer ("Nervous Nick")
  • Bryan Baker ("Freelance Bryan the Intern")
  • Jared Knabenbauer ("Professional Jared")
  • Adam Teterus ("Adam the Intern")
  • Ryan Stout ("Ryan the Intern")

UK

Associates

US

UK

  • Paul McDonough (AKA Michael Donnell, star & co-creator of Safety First)
  • Steve Gregson (AKA Manuel Reilly, star & co-creator of Safety First)

PBC Productions

  • Chad Williams (star & creator of Captain S)
  • Brett Vanderbrook (star of Captain S)
  • Lindsey "Z." Briggs (star of Little Miss Gamer)

Divisions

ScrewAttack

The ScrewAttack World Headquarters is located in Dallas, Texas. The site’s creator "Stuttering" Craig Skistimas and staff shoot and edit most of the ScrewAttack videos from there.

They hire several interns, that are often featured in the videos on the site. Many of the current personalities of the site started out as interns for the company.

ScrewAttack Europe

(Now with TGWTG)

Guru Larry's Retro Corner Logo.

The European office of ScrewAttack located in Northwood, London, UK is being led by Guru Larry (Larry Bundy Jr) and "UK" Wez (Wesley Lock), both of whom are TV presenters in real life on various video gaming shows and networks in Europe, such as XLEAGUE.TV, Rapture TV and Game Network.

Their programs include:

The Iron Man of Gaming

The Iron-Man of Gaming is a yearly gaming tournament presented by ScrewAttack. The concept was announced on SideScrollers and advertised as "big news" leading up to the final announcement.

Tournament

2007

The starting date of the tournament was August 30 and lasted until September 2 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. The winner was advertised to take home $1,000 US dollars and a ScrewAttack championship belt.

The tournament consisted of six games (three modern games and three classic games) to be decided on with a points-based system to decide the winner. The contender with the most total points is the winner.

The following games were at the Iron Man of Gaming tournament of 2007:

First place was awarded to Chris "Kumachine" Delp. Second place was awarded to Louis "Big Lou" Hughes.[3]

2008

The Iron Man of Gaming hosted its second year at the Grapevine Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from June 19-22, and advertised itself as "all consoles", "all genres" and "all eras".[4] 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.[5] The event was documented by PBC Productions.

A list of the 1892 games follows:

Classic Games

Current Games

Mystery Game

The winner was Harrison Fluster, with the previous year's champion Chris Delp as runner up.

2009

Since SGC, the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention, was announced, the Iron Man of Gaming took place during the convention in early July.

Classic Games:

Current Games:

Mystery Game:

The winner was Jamal Nickens and runner-up Joshua Wiegand, with the previous years champion Harrison Fluster finishing eleventh. 2007 champion Chris Delp did not compete.

2010

As of July 4th, 2010, all of the games have been revealed. According to the June 23rd edition of SideScrollers, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was intended to be one of the mystery games, but whilst they had permission from Capcom USA, Capcom Japan did not give them permission to showcase the game due to short notice.

Classic Games:

Current Games:

Mystery Games:

ScrewAttack shows and featurettes

SideScrollers

Craig and other ScrewAttack members host a series of podcasts in radio style, updating g1s on new game info, weekly occurrences in the ScrewAttack domain and general news around the world. The usual features on the show are "Hard News" (which spun off into a daily version, starring Daily Destin), a look at the latest news in the gaming industry, "The SideScrollers News Desk", which is filled with unusual news from around the globe and "Forum Questions", where they answer forum questions from members on the official forum.

SideScrollers runs contests with the forum members which originate directly from the show. For instance, in the feature "Name That Video Game Tune", the hosts play samples of short musical clips from often obscure video games and let the fans guess its origin via e-mail. Winners are entered in a contest drawing.

The show frequently runs short promotions and commercials to advertise new content on the site, often using it as a segue into the next discussion topic.

Video Game Vault

The Video Game Vault (VGV) is a series of approximately two-minute-long or shorter videos by Stuttering Craig. VGVs usually do not follow the typical pattern for it to be entitled as a review, but rather the Video Game Vaults serve as a nostalgic, informative and humorous look at games; particularly looking back at classic games or video games that are infamous for a particular reason.

Hard News

A daily news program shown on the site which is hosted, and edited by Daily Destin. Its purpose is to inform viewers on the gaming news highlights of the day, often accompanied with humorous comments (mildly like Weekend Update and The Daily Show, which described the story, then presented a humorous comment). Every now and then, Maxifent Corey will be there as well to present a story as well (usually on Thursday, with her segment "Corey's Corner"). The show is roughly 3 minutes long and is branched off of the Hard News segment on SideScrollers. Hard News is posted on ScrewAttack's website (usually posted at 6:30pm Central time). It has once ceased postings on YouTube since November 30, 2009, but has resumed on April 19, 2010, as confirmed by Destin on his Twitter account.

ScrewAttack Top Ten

Stuttering Craig tries to keep the Top 10 lists non-traditional by focusing on games which might not have received as much critical acclaim as another, instead citing facetiously that because it is their list, the list is automatically great (an example comes from the "Top Ten Worst Fighting Games", where after Handsome Tom stated that everyone's list would be different, Stuttering Craig said "and besides, we're right anyways"). As well, they will have Top 10 lists (such as the Top Ten Fighting Games) which only allow one game from a given franchise on to the list to allow more variety. Airing on GameTrailers, the Top 10 lists generally receive over 300,000 views. The most popular Top 10 list to date is “Top Ten Boobies [in Video Games]”, which has received over 1,000,000 views since February 2007.[6] Other favorites include "Top Ten Douchebags of Gaming" (more than 750,000 views[7]), “Top Ten Worst Fighting Games” (more than 690,000 views[8]), "Top Ten Worst Mario Games", and “The Best and Worst Gaming Peripherals” (more than 650,000 views[9]).

The Angry Video Game Nerd

Main article: The Angry Video Game Nerd
File:Avgn logo.png
Angry Video Game Nerd logo.

The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN; formerly "The Angry Nintendo Nerd") is a series of farcical retrogaming reviews by James D. Rolfe, an independent filmmaker and professional video editor.[10] He reviews games for older systems, such as Atari 2600, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, PlayStation, SNES, Nintendo 64, and NES. The series' original music is played on guitar by Kyle Justin with lyrics by Rolfe. On August 8, 2007, Rolfe’s character was featured on the Opie and Anthony radio show.[11]

The titular Nerd character is an over-the-top video game fanatic, who tends to belittle the games he reviews, although according to his FAQ he plays games that are purposely bad for comedic purposes. He derives comic appeal from his loud New Jersey accent, his excessive use of profanity, frequent displays of explicit gestures, and his heavy drinking of Rolling Rock and Yuengling beer. A particular characteristic is his comparisons of repulsive scatological acts to playing the game. He also uses varying amounts of physical comedy and occasional special guests: Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Spider-Man, Bugs Bunny, Leatherface, Michael Myers, the Cowardly Lion, a Klingon, a Metron, and The Joker. These character parts are sometimes played by Mike Matei (who also draws the show’s title cards) or Kyle Justin, who sings the theme song.

There have been three DVD sets released.[12][13]

Clip/Quote of the Week

Under the direction of Ben and starring the entire SA staff and some rare cameos, the "Clip of the Week" (also is branded as "Quote of the Week") is a series of vignettes posted weekly that showcases offbeat and strange commercials, movie clips or promotions for products. Originally, the "Quote of the Week" was merely used to spotlight a specific quote from the featured clip, but after evolving into the 'Clip of the Week' it began to feature the SA staff in a skit inspired by the featured clip. After the departure of Hanley, the skits began to become more extravagant, to the point of full-fledged productions in some cases.

g1 Submission Sunday

A segment in which fans of ScrewAttack submit their own videos to the site. Created by g1 SWAT Doctor[1], the segment evolved into a standard feature on the site. The videos vary from user created Video Game Vaults, spoofs of the site’s characters, Flash animation and other video game related material.

Unaware Steve

Unaware Steve, having not played a game since 1992, goes to gaming conventions and interviews gamers. The interviewee usually ends up agitated with Steve as he is quite annoying when he wants to be. The last time he went to QuakeCon he wore a "sophisticated" outfit which was just a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume. More recently he has started a new series "Unaware Steve's Video Game Extravaganza." He reviews an old game, usually giving obvious hints or adding in a different game somewhere down the line. The character is played by Brad Skistimas, Stuttering Craig's brother. According to his interviews at Quakecon 2008, he once drank lots of Sprite after playing Cool Spot (which actually endorses 7 Up), passed out and woke up in 2007 which may explain why he hasn't played a game since then.

Currently, Unaware Steve has been put on hiatus while Brad is promoting his band's new album.

WTF Is That?

"WTF Is That?" is a feature where a still frame is paused and zoomed in to the point of blurriness and near absolute unclarity on a screenshot of a particular game. The purpose is to run a contest on which video game the screenshot is from. The winner usually receives a T-shirt or some other merchandise from the ScrewAttack store. Recent installments, however, ask what the games featured have in common.

Jose's Puntos

Jose's Puntos is a short program hosted by Jose ElMexicano where he gives gaming tips to the g1s. Puntos include Pokémon Red and Blue, Halo 3, Uno, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: World at War, Fable, Fable II, Gears of War 2, and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

VGR

VGR is another video game review 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. For example, Super Mario Bros. Wii had gotten a Buy It, Green Day Rock Band officially got a Rent It, and Dead To Rights Retribution got a F' it

The Armory

The Armory is a feature created 100% by host Daily Destin in which the best weapons known in video gaming are detailed. As of December 11, 2009, the show is hosted by IGN.

So far, added to The Armory have been:

REJECTED

Out of the Box

Directed by Ben, this is a weekly live show that previews recently released games and sneak peaks at upcoming ones. Stuttering Craig and the rest of the ScrewAttack staff play and express their thoughts about the game they're playing, while Maxifent Corey answers G1 questions about the games on the show.

Metal Gear Ben

Based on the character 'Metal Gear Ben' that appeared in a few Clip of the Week's, this show was set to come out in 2009, and was going to be made with lots of help from the g1 community.

The first episode was showcased this summer at SGC 2009, and the series officially launched on November 23, 2009.

The series finale of Metal Gear Ben was posted on May 15, 2010.

Talking Classics

As of May 2009, ScrewAttack is the home to this mocumentary that follows video game fan Keith Apicary, starring and created by comedian Nathan Barnatt. Keith Apicary is a 28 year old gamer who favors Neo Geo and Sega. Nathan was kicked out of the 2009 Comic Convention in San Diego for jumping on stage as Keith during Peter Jackson and James Cameron's panel to get a drink of water. He was recently kicked out of E3 2010 for interrupting a G4 interview, asking where the Sega Dreamcast 2 was. Barnatt is currently developing a TV series for Keith Apicary based on Talking Classics for Comedy Central.

The Game Overthinker

On July 4, 2009, it was announced at the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention that the "Game Overthinker" was the winner of the finals round of the "my vids don't suck" contest. In this tournament style contest, average users submitted videos with the object of becoming the next featured ScrewAttack show. As of December 20, 2009, five episodes have been released officially as features. "The Game Overthinker" was an already active show on Youtube, where user "moviebob" rants and explains about video game phenomena purposely in too much depth. Moviebob also has a show on The Escapist called Escape to the Movies.

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 much more.

Previous shows

The Art in Gaming

A series of short videos that focus on the visual art in gaming. This show is more serious and an educational approach, compared to the usual easy-going and humorous, sporadic paces as seen in other ScrewAttack shows and features. As of 6 March, four episodes have been released, Rygar, Vigilante 8, Bionic Commando and a feature over geometric shapes in gaming.

The Scoop!

The Scoop! is a short program hosted by Highschool Ben. The program highlights the highs and lows of games and usually focuses on the "top 3" of both aforementioned categories. Once in a while a clearly terrible game is reviewed and is given ironic praise from Ben. It aired on ScrewAttack for quite some time but now has been merged with VGRs.

Awesome Video Games

Awesome Video Games was a show on ScrewAttack which featured Chet, Ace and their father. After many negative reviews, it separated from ScrewAttack. It aired on ScrewAttack from September 2006 to March 2007.

Although the series separated from ScrewAttack, Chet and Ace still continue their work by putting videos on Newgrounds, YouTube, That Guy with the Glasses and their own personal site FFStv.

Bebop and Steve

This short-lived show featured Bebop, a hardcore gamer, and his roommate Steve, who hates video games. In response to the lackluster support from the g1 community (a poll on the site revealed a majority of g1's wanted the show altered or removed), there was only one episode ever shown before the series was taken off the site.

GameJew

GameJew was 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.

GameJew took part in the Austrian Big Brother Awards[14], produced the Mario Opera[15], and was featured in the January 15, 2008 edition of EGM Magazine after serenading video game guru, Shigeru Miyamoto[16].

From July 2006 to August 2007, the GameJew made videos.

As of February 27, 2008, Mann has recommenced production of GameJew videos which air Wednesdays.

Nametags

Nametags is a sitcom that follows Jared and Dom in the daily grind at the video game store at which they work. In addition to dealing with moronic customers who embody common gamer stereotypes, the pair must often contend with their blunt, mysterious manager, Josh. Several episodes also revolve around Jared's love interest, Cheryl. The show is done in a style similar to that of Scrubs, including brief glimpses into the minds of the characters. It also uses various video game music for its soundtrack.

The store of the show, which has remained unnamed (but is meant to parody GameStop), is filmed in the club house of Jared's improvisation comedy troupe, while all the scenes in the apartment are done in the actors' actual apartments.

RetroRemix

Hosted by DJ Axis, this show features remixes of old video game soundtracks, with a more modern sound and rhythm (similar in execution to OverClocked ReMix). It often contains short interviews or information about the game at the beginning. However, with the departure of DJ Axis, the series has ended.

Toilet Tuesday

A series of shorts created relating to people sitting on the toilet and playing video games. Movies were submitted by g1s to be featured on the site.

The New Adventures of Captain S

The New Adventures of Captain S is an online web serial created by PBC Productions which parodies cartoon and television shows of the 1980s and 1990s, particularly Captain N: The Game Master, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, Saved by the Bell and Full House (opening credits).[17] The show follows the adventures of high school junior, and major Sega nerd, Chad Belmont after he happens upon a magical Sega Genesis cartridge that enables him to enter into Video-Land through his TV. When he arrives in Video-Land, he is briefed by its benevolent keeper, the Giant Blue Head. Prophecies foretold his arrival, and from that moment forward he would be known as Captain S, Video Defender. He must keep the world safe from the evil clutches of the Game Genie and his minion NES. He is joined on his journeys by his best friends Lunk and Becky, and he pines after the sweetheart of Bromley High, Stacey Newfeld. Usually, Chad must use lessons he learns in Video-Land to help him become a better person on the other side of the screen. Season One contained ten episodes, which aired from January to May 2007. The series premiered at MAGFest V in Vienna, VA.

A second season had been planned, and was indeed announced by show creator Chad Williams at MAGFest VI on January 6, 2008. To fill the gap until the second season airs, the writers produced a Captain S web-comic that is available to view on their website.

In May 2009, PBC officially announced the second season of Captain S had been canceled, the second season having never left early preliminary development stages. In addition, the Captain S web-comic has not been updated in quite some time, indicating the concept has been rested entirely.

Main Cast
Chad Belmont/Captain S - Brett Vanderbrook
Nigel Edmund Silverman/NES - Devon Riley
Lunk Stogsdill - Shael Riley
Becky O'Connor - Ivy Hong
Stacey Newfeld - Kitty Ostapowicz
Head, and Game Genie - Chad Williams

The effect of Video-Land is achieved through stop-motion animation, where the image of Captain S is super-imposed on the game sprite. In the season one finale, a more free-form style of animation, mimicking Mortal Kombat's motion capture style was used.

A special episode of Captain S was released in August 2007. In this episode, Captain S meets the Angry Video Game Nerd to join forces and save Christmas in July. Since Captain S is considered a family-friendly show, the AVGN's language is heavily toned down (only using the word crap), although at the end, he slips and curses (but it was censored), to which the Captain S characters react in shock.

While the title of the episode says it is non-canonical, an AVGN video seems to continue from where that episode left off.

Life in a Game

Life in a Game is a comedy/adventure series produced by Jonathan Tran from Enemy Crab Productions. It first aired on ScrewAttack in March 2008.

The show stars Guy, a normal person who realizes that classic video game items, characters, and music have begun affecting his everyday life. After fighting and destroying the Jackal, a mysterious boss character who had been stalking him, Guy is thrown into ever-stranger circumstances, from deadly chases to dance competitions. After defeating the reincarnated Red Jackal, Guy meets Frog of Chrono Trigger fame. The reasons for Guy's peril, the threat of the Jackal, and the arrival of Frog are all tied to an as-of-yet unexplained force known as The Haxx.

On April Fool's Day 2009, Enemy Crab Productions & Jared from Nametags pulled a prank on the g1 community, with the season finale of LiaG revealing that the show to that point was just a dream, and in fact, the characters had personalities & lives very similar to the Nametags characters, before it was eventually revealed as a prank at the end of the episode by Jared, and that the real final episode was shown at SGC.

Future goals

On May 23, 2009 Screwattack had openly announced to the g1 community, that they have absorbed ownership of the previously "GameXchange" video game store in Highland Village, TX. They had a contest where g1s can submit what they think the ScrewAttack store should be named. On June 29, 2009 ScrewAttack revealed the name of the store would be "GameAttack" and the store manager would be Jared Knabenbauer, creator of the ScrewAttack show "Nametags".

References

  1. ^ "MTV Networks' GameTrailers Acquires Exclusive Rights To ScrewAttack Programming". GameTrailers. 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
  2. ^ Gametrailers.com - The Source For Video Game Media
  3. ^ “The Iron-Man of Gaming 2007 is complete!” at ScrewAttack.com
  4. ^ http://www.gametrailers.com/player/31203.html Iron Man of Gaming Promo
  5. ^ http://www.ironmanofgaming.com/ Official Iron Man of Gaming website
  6. ^ Top Ten Boobies at GameTrailers
  7. ^ Top Ten Douchebags of Gaming at GameTrailers
  8. ^ Top Ten Worst Fighting Games at GameTrailers
  9. ^ The Best and Worst Gaming Peripherals at GameTrailers
  10. ^ Resume at Cinemassacre.com
  11. ^ James Rolfe (August 8, 2007). "Opie and Anthony". Cinemassacre. Retrieved August 14, 2007.
  12. ^ Craig Skistimas. "Official AVGN Merchandise". ScrewAttack, Yahoo!. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  13. ^ AVGN DVD FAQ
  14. ^ Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical - Boing Boing TV
  15. ^ CD Baby: JONATHAN MANN: The Mario Opera: Act One
  16. ^ Article Detail - Nintendo Wii News - QJ.NET
  17. ^ Sega-16.com Interview: PBC Productions


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