The Art of the Unpolished Game 

honey, wake up, some obscure RU-vid channel uploaded an 1+ hour analysis about an obscure videogame topic

Congratulations the algorithm has chosen you for success ! great video too

Mr bones genuinely one of the most slick talkers in any game, we have yet to recapture the bones rizz

I loved the fake ad break lead in during the neverhood section

the vpn fakeout. I had to pause to cackle. You're a bastard, I love you immediately.

I love how you say "his mission is admirable" about Banana's quest to... gather fruit and find his daughter-in-law

RU-vid always showing random good content from underrated channels from time to time instead of popular channels I don't have any interest. Typical RU-vid algorithm ☕.

I think pikmin 1 has the same vibes as some of these games. It contrasts a lot with the later games that go for realism. I think forest navel shows this the best. Apparently its supposed to be a cave? It has cliffs that lead to endless darkness. There's two really weird bosses. One jump scares you and shakes it's knees at you one of them mind controls your pikmin. Bread bug is there as the only roaming enemy. There's also just a lot of weird design choices, like why does olimar look like that in his health bar or what are the gates supposed to be, they look like they are made from packing peanuts. I think it's also a game filled with mystery. There's a bunch of enemies you could miss seeing in a playthrough, there's rumours like beady long legs escaping it's arena. There's beta footage in the game with completely different enemy placements. It basically has it all

deadly premonition is one of my favorite unpolished games, and the fact they made a sequel that was even more unpolished 10+ years later will forever be the funniest shit to me

mr bones coverage and hylics background music, radical ass video

on the topic of claymation being pretty rare, mason lindroth (hylics) is probably my favorite claymation animator. love the way he plays with claymation not just as a medium, but brings attention to the clay as a material through animation but also the writing and "lore" of hylics. its a game thats in a weird way about clay

I'm surprised you didn't go over early ROBLOX, early ROBLOX has objectively one of the most unintentionally weird atmospheres it had super sharp high quality lighting and low quality textures mixed with random stolen sound effects and obscure music and remixes and it had probably one of the worst physics engines made by any company in the past 20 years.

I'm only about halfway through this video, but I think I know exactly what you mean. I've always had a soft spot for unpolished games, and sometimes I feel a little bad that I don't enjoy the more popular 'sanitized' ones that come out nowadays. The visual progress is impressive, and a lot of games of the last decade are downright gorgeous, but I think I'll always prefer the low res, pixel-y, weird style of the past. Janky mechanics are another quick way to endear me to an older or indie game, but they tend to just be annoying when coupled with modern graphics. I dunno, maybe I just focus too much on aesthetics. I'm really, really excited for your channel to get the attention it deserves. Your videos have this really calming vibe about them that I can't quite put my finger on, but its made you one of my favorite RU-vidrs since the FNaF design video. The way you insert your persona into different settings is SO cool, I don't think I've seen anyone do that before. I hope the numbers don't get to you, but if they do, remember that there are people who really enjoy what you're doing. Social media can make us forget that 50, 100, 1,000 people seeing something you made is still a lot! As long as this is making you happy, please keep it up! I'll be waiting eagerly for the next video :]

holy cow the amount of hard work put into this video is insane for someone with such a small channel, you seem to be putting 100% effort right from the start and this video is super enjoyable to watch, keep up the AMAZING work dude seriously

OG Animal Crossing legit mentally prepared me for life in America lol

The 'moog city? HATSUNE MIKU!?' bit made me laugh out loud hahaha

this is my first time learning about mr bones and holy shit the ost. you werent kidding. really glad to see a neverhood mention too, that game is so weird but i cant help but love it.

Enjoying the video! But if I can offer a bit of critique? Any time you're gushing about how cool some super jank game is, I'm having a great time. But you lead into each one by putting out a little disclaimer about how bad it is. It feels like a preemptive defense, like you're afraid someone will scorn you for finding something worthwhile in a weird game. I think just letting your joy flow uninhibited would make for a cleaner script and a better viewing experience.

I love recognising a fellow viewer of Hazel through the music choices - also holy HELL this was so good! Super well made, super interesting, I think I could listen to you talk for ages!

The animal crossing town being named redwall… nice touch!

I don't really know what I expected from this video, but boy did I get it.

44:37 the fake sponsor bit got me lmao

Damn, I was just using this as background audio at first, but I ended up stopping what I was doing and just watched the whole thing in one setting. This was really good. I'll have to check out more of your stuff.

32:41 I've developed a trick to getting them, where I put a creeper in a boat, then have that boat between me and a skeleton. On Bedrock, a Skeleton in a boat can shoot the mob in the driver's seat, meaning that it'll basically do all the work itself; on Java, it's a bit trickier because that doesn't work, so you either have to finagle with strafing to make sure the skeleton doesn't enter the boat, get a second boat to put the skeleton in, or wait until it's day so the skeleton will only run around shaded areas, drastically reducing its mobility.

I got kidnapped in Peru by five dudes, please help me yellow building Cuzco YELLOW BUILDING

I adore the creative mode music in Minecraft. Biome Fest specifically sounds bizarrely ethereal. It's so hauntingly beautiful.

Hearing the same guys who made Metal Fatigue did Mr bones is honestly so funny and yet again illustrates how video game development is truly a journey. May the algorythm bless you further and may your discoveries in gaming be many

“That’s pretty quirky… uh, okay, Japan! But if you’re Japanese then it makes total sense in context” proceeds to pull up an image of Edo-era Japan being EXTREMELY quirky

44:20 Oh man, I was already loving your sense of humor through most of the video, and then you pull this shit? I think I have a new favorite RU-vid channel.

calling classical music boring is a crime, like listen to anything by shotsakovich and tell me thats boring

already falling in love with the aesthetic of your channel! Can't wait for more from you!

what a lovely video! I especially loved the section about animal crossing. As someone who grew up playing the animal crossing games as they were released, I can say I do miss some of the bold swings they took creatively with the older games, but I also sort of feel like the series grew up alongside me in a way? The jank of gamecube AC hits even harder when you're a kid with no internet and games are still kind of a black box. The experimental music, the claustrophobic ambience, and some of the un-intuitive game design all lead to this very visceral experience, like you're really moving to a new town all on your own. I can't say I'm resentful of losing that with the newer games. There are definitely design choices in new horizons and even new leaf that I dislike compared to gamecube and DS, but even if they went back and added dialogue or missing game features, they could never add back in that mystery. I don't need to ask my mom to buy me a game guide anymore or trust playground rumors, I can just google what my chances are of seeing the whale on kapp'n's boat, or how to gain access to the lighthouse, or what art is real or fake. I get different joys out of NL and NH, like the satisfaction of managing my town and befriending my villagers and expressing myself creatively through decorating. I'm glad you went back and revisited GC for this video and got to experience at least some of the feelings that the game conveys, even if a lot of older AC fan's memories of the game, of that experience, are now essentially lost to time. And on top of sharing your experience so well with words, the editing and music were just wonderful! I especially loved the animation you made of the radio. thanks for posting something so thought provoking and well made! liked and subbed!

You got Hazel-core down to a science

I just started watching the vid and I already know this is my shit, ypur comentary is very informative while also getting your opinion acrsoss, every clip is so carefully selected, the ost showcase for the Animal Crossing is so tastefull with your own art all around the screen, this feels like it comes from the heart and its so impressive, new sub fosho

A really cool twitch streamer called Mae played the Games4Boys game featured at the end of the video!! Her streams cover similarly obscure games, some with the RU-vidr Hazel. I only mention them here as they both have a similar style of content!! 100% the reason RU-vid showed me your video, this stuff rocks!!

I think Mr. Bones and Space Channel 5 are the two extremes of why I love SEGA. Both are insane in their own way. Mr. Bones with... well, everything. And Space Channel 5 with... also everything. Both feel like weird fever dreams, but they also have their own kind of class, y'know what I mean?

The nord vpn fake out got me fkgkgkglg

I love that your town is named Redwall. God that series was a big part of my childhood.

Mr Bones kicks ass. I know the actual gameplay is not the greatest but everything else about it is excellent.

It’s cool to see someone put into words what drew me to video games since I was a kid. My fascination with novelty and experimentation above all else led to fixation on games like the first Wario Ware and Animal crossing, even before release, just from promotion in Nintendo Power. Like many other late-millennials who got an N64 for Christmas ‘96 and GameCube in ‘01, I played the Mario/Rare games, and all the other major releases that sadly trickled out. But the weirder third-party games like Mischief Makers always compelled me the most when friends were drawn to the Final Fantasies and Resident Evils and Time Splitters. As a High School senior in ‘09, disillusioned by the Wii and jealous of my PS3-owning friends, I read about Shenmue and bought a Dreamcast, which led to the rabbit hole of the Saturn and Sega-CD. All consoles that every kid heard about but never encountered; making them all the more fascinating in retrospect. To this day, that run of Sega consoles is still my favorite part of gaming. Strange unique snapshots of cutting-edge technology that lost a corporate arms race, now only embraced by obsessive enthusiasts. Successors of the Genesis, predecessors to the Xbox. Each with a library of masterpieces and experimental gems that are still being discovered and translated.

The ad fakeout is so good. Your video is a piece of art indeed

HOLY SHIT WHY DOES THE MUSIC OF MR BONES GOES SO HARD

Very good writing and delivery. I ADORE your style of editing the footage and the character expression. It keeps my destroyed attention span intact. Keep it up buddy. You shall be big.

This is an excellent video. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it :). I hope you continue to create and share videos with us!

underrated channel tbh... keep up the great work!!

Thanks for putting King's Quest on the list. It's awesome to see these old pc games getting recognized today :-)

Minecraft's End Poem is so meaningful because it's so existentially comforting and uplifting. The fact that the writer was offered millions of dollars by Microsoft but not only turned the money away, but put the poem in the public domain after having an existential awakening after tripping out in the woods is such a crazy thing to think about, but I wholeheartedly respect Julian Gough for not selling out and understanding that the game's end poem touched a lot of people and is genuinely emotionally moving even divorced from the game itself. It's really existential, but is also empowering and genuinely sweet. The phrase "And the universe said 'I love you', because you are loved" is such a beautiful message to the reader.

MR BONES + MR BONES WILD RIDE MENTIONED AT THE SAME TIME 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

This is one of the best videos I’ve watched in a while. Can’t wait to see more from your channel :)

Dude this is a phenomenal video, I never rarely like videos and pretty much never comment, but after coming across this randomly in my feed I’ve done both and subscribed. I was repeatedly positively surprised by the production value, the cleverness of certain jokes (like the fake out ad read- which I fully admit I skipped immediately, got confused, and had to rewind to), and the aspects of the games you chose to highlight. This video was a crazy breath of fresh air in an unfortunately kinda stagnant genre rn, keep your work creative, keep your work passionate, and most of all keep posting it for me watch!!!

i cant describe why but this video has such a 2016 feel to it. i am watching at night in a position that is bad for my back and this video just adds to the vibe. the boarder around the content is something i haven't seen in so long and i think that adds to it but there is probably more that i just cant pinpoint, would love to see more like this!

Here before this blows up :) Went into this with 0 expectations, but this is a great video

I absolutely vibe with your style of editing and presentation. Really keeps you entertained and engaged throughout the whole video!

You earned a subscriber! This just popped up randomly in my feed and I watched the whole video! I look forward to seeing more videos!

Im so glad to have stumbled upon you I love you man this video is great

The editing is top notch on all of your videos, I will be coming back to see what's next!

thank you for spending so much time talking about the music and overall vibes, your eye for art is great :>

this has major early jschlatt video essay energy

This was an amaizing vid! Loved the editing and use of music (Also thx for putting it in a playlist, more youtubers should do that)

Mr Bones is one of my favorites of all time. Glad we skipped over the ice levels lol, Also for the first guitar level, it works similar to the joke telling level - you have to figure out what the correct sequence is, when played correctly, every riff transitions very nicely into the next

one of the greatest videos i've seen in quite a while. thank you

you specifically clarified unpolished does not refer to a lack of quality but most of every non iconic game youve introduced youve offhandedly labeled as sucking

I feel so much joy when i get recommended stuff like this. Fantastic Video!

This was such an awesome video! Great job man!

Incredible insights in this video! Looked to the comments earlier and saw people talking about underrated channels, looked up, and now I’m wondering how you don’t have more subscribers?! Thank you for introducing us to Mr. Bones’s soundtrack. The music rocks! (No pun intended)

Thoroughly enjoyed this video and am definitely looking forward to future content.

smt 3 seriously is so cool looking, i havent seen yer vids before but they rock. you rock! thank you !

your timing and rythm is on point, really nice and funny storytelling

Great video! Editing is awesome and the animal crossing segment was fire.

Damn this video rules. Instant subscribe. Thanks for bringing these obscure aspects of obscure games to light!

Dude this video is insanely quality stuff. You will blow up soon dude. Keep putting in the effort

Dude awesome video, please keep makin em cause this rocks.

If this guy had a bag of milk he might put it outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk

brother, your channel is so unique. 1 hour video with an awesome script and authentic editing ! loved it, continue to do it, everything is looking so fucking cool

This is an amazing video im so glad i found it, i cant wait to delve deep into your channel :)

Omg I saw the title and heard the first ten seconds and immediately knew this video was made for me. Unpolished games give off this sense of intrigue for myself that I can't pull myself away from like in the era of super hyper polished games from triple AAA to indie you see these games in between that you can't help but become invested in? My fav definitely is Quest 64 and I'll champion that game to my grave even though it's not the most fun to play the world design and the music really make it for me.

There are a lot of remarkable moments in this titan of a video you've made, most of them were already pointed out by others, so I will just say that I loved your self awareness, your dedication to research on these topics, and the fact that this video, despite being an hour long, manages to be a smooth ride from start to finish. Kudos, I'm hoping to hear you again soon.

man this channel is pretty underrated, i love the soft casual convo vibe it reminds me of that other channel hazel where she talks about anime and older games. good stuff!!

This video is incredible, excellent work man. That minecraft section definitely came from the heart.

Absolutely obsessed with the musical transition at 14:13, so neat and clever!! I adore your editing style, insta subscribe >:3

a video essay so good it prompted me to finally make my video essay playlist :) in all seriousness dude this goes HARD easy subscribe. and from one artist to another i love the 2d persona in a 3d (game?) environment. i dont know what it is recently about video essay creators with less than 5k subscribers utilizing the most creative means of showing their persona emoting but its kind of awesome

dude this video was so fucking good. never before have i heard anyone perfectly describe how i feel about games but like,, damn, this is exactly what ive been thinking all these years and you put it into words. and now i desperately need to play mr. bones and woody poko. great work on this, i cant wait to see what other stuff you have in the works :]

Subbed off this one video like 10 minutes in, your video style is so great

Woah, less than 1k views!? My god istg youtubers are more and more dedicated each time. Keep it up man this was amazing!

Such a fantastic deep dive. Really elevated by a great script and well placed bgm. Love it.

i glance at the channel cause i let this autoplay and i thought it was gonna be a bigger channel, wow quality shit dude (cried at the glass shard music genuinely)

Great video, i subbed. Was shocked to see you’re not a 100k+ channel… yet

I think part of why ACGC leaned into such a low poly style even compared to it's contemporaries is because of the sheer amount of furniture / items.from the perspectives of both design and console memory / polygon count, the art style makes perfect sense in my eyes.

LOVE YOUR STYLE, KEEP UP THE QUALITY CONTET

Fantastic video. Glad it showed up on my recommended

now this, this is the art of a small underrated content creator

This is so rad i love it. Excellent work

Whenever early Minecraft gets talked about i always get emotional, new Minecraft is fun because of the friends i have but old Minecraft is something that i don't think will be replicated

this video was amazing man. it hit different watching it at nighttime. I need a full video of you covering video game OSTS

Another unpolished game I really enjoy is Harvester, Its almost like mr. bones with the live action cutscenes but its a point and click horror adventure.

really cool video ! hope this channel gets more attention

luv the vibe of this video :] feels so personal to you. like u talking about things u experienced, rather than trying to be about General Human Experiences or like. ur generation or whatever...i love how much of it is ur opinion and ur voice

Couldn't help but listen to the whole video. You remind me of FunkE's video style and it was nice to revisit old games I have never seen before. Mr Bone's use of like two guitar melodies creating jams was inspiring to hear. Also I felt your pain watching those Neverhood clips. The main character is so damnn slow it's unbearable, felt like an hour just watching him move at a snail's pace. It certainly makes a unique experience that way when the game conjures that feeling.

i feel like i just had a profound experience I wouldn't have had if i didn't click ob this video. this one deserves to be in my "favorite videos on youtube" playlist keep it up!!

THE NEVERHOOD MENTIONED! wait my eyes might be playing tricks on me