Viewfinder & My Friendly Neighborhood (Zero Punctuation) 

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Side note on "My Friendly Neighborhood": While it isn't outright stated, Gordon is heavily implied to be a war veteran, especially given his Purple Heart (medal for being wounded in battle) in his truck. This is also why he stops Ricky from talking about the war. So, yeah, a bum leg would explain the mobility issues.

It's weird how expertly My Friendly Neighborhood set up expectations, even from just looking, as some creepy horror experience. Like they knowingly made the characters like a fusion of Bugsnax and Hello Neighbor to set everyone up for the rugpull.

This is my first time hearing tweets rebranded as X-crements and it's another reason to keep coming back for more. Thank you!

Of course Yahtzee would identify with the Muppet who has a pet worm.

I want to point out every enemy in Silent Hill also loudly announces itself by screaming into your radio, so it got that part of survival horror correct

the way he keeps breaking games down from beginning to end without spoiling it is impressive

Yahtzee has more in common with Statler and Waldorf than he'd care to admit.

The best part about "My Friendly Neighborhood" is that you can actually help the enemies your fighting.

Justice for Oscar the Grouch (and Grumpy Bear, while I'm at it). Curmudgeons in children's entertainment don't get enough love.

I like how MFN taps into the uncanniness inherent to the premise of Sesame Street-it being a show within a show-and brings that to the forefront! Constantly scurrying about the behind-the-scenes areas and offices while running into puppets that are actually just like the characters they play is a fascinating juxtaposition. It’s intentional that the game isn’t very scary. It’s a reverse DDLC game, if anything! But it goes to show that the gameplay loop of survival horror games works without the fear, and I’m looking forward to more faux-horror games in future.

The problem with the Jaws analogy is that by the time Jaws came around, studios had already moved away from most of the expensive historical epics thanks to films like Easy Rider, which cost less than half a million dollars, and made around $60 million. Also, Jaws was anything but a cheap production. It was budgeted at around $3.5 million, went wildly over budget and wound up costing about $9 million. It also went even more ridiculously over schedule, so the filming took about 3x longer than expected. Jaws wound up costing even more than The Man Who Would Be King, a historical epic more in-keeping with Yahtzee’s idea of an expensive production, which came out the same year. (Although, of course, Jaws wound up making lots more money and was ultimately more profitable, but not because it was cheaper and easier to produce.)

_viewfinder_ and _My Friendly Neighborhood_ both really subverted my expectations. The former with how impressive the difference visual styles were and how they meshed together, and the later for being a lot less scary than you'd think, but was still a fun time while it lasted. Both of them were.

Funny Yahtzee should make a comparison between Portal and Viewfinder, since Portal 2 originally was based on a whole new mechanic called F-stop that more or less IS the precise central mechanic that Viewfinder has.

The "payoff" for My Friendly Neighborhood requires faffing about the game after the final boss to access and help the puppets you didn't in the main thread. Basically, beat the boss, then back up into the rest to 'fix' what's going wrong. Only once you've gotten around everything, does it truly unlock the final ending... which is really just a nicer version of the 'meh' ending you can get if you don't. The endings kinda needed some work, honestly, but that's really the only bad thing I can say about it.

I'm actually kinda glad that we agree on the Viewfinder take. I was suprised to beat it when I did since it never really felt that they actually used their mechanics that much. They have a really really awesome idea but never really do anything too crazy with it despite the initial shock factor of it working in the first place.

I think my biggest issue with Viewfinder is that there was no connection between the story and the gameplay. Your main gameplay mechanic is taking pictures with a camera and placing them back into real space along with various other perspective related puzzles. And the story is... about climate change? Set in a virtual research lab? Exploring the personalities of the long dead research team? The only reason the camera thing is even there is because one of the researchers was an artist who made the whole camera that can place photos thing as a fun side project. Said artist is the only member of the team who seemed to be actively playing around with the idea of perspective in a virtual space, and his area is the tutorial zone. So for the rest of the game, you're running around with a camera solving perspective puzzles that are completely disconnected from any of the story the game is throwing at you. Its very hard to get invested when there's this huge disconnect between what you're doing and what the game tells you is happening. Even more so when the plot is so very bland.

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree that MFN could have used just... a bit more. Not a lot, but something. And the end area being longer and adding a bit more lore or something may have been the bulk of what it needed. Bit more dialogue, like, say, between the puppets, to provide more individual personality / context. But what the game does do is done pretty darn well, I gotta give it that.

I'm definitely calling tweets "X-crements" now, thanks Yahtzee

You want Duel for that Spielberg analogy, not Jaws.

My Friendly Neighborhood definitely feels rushed, like it was missing its 3rd act, but the game has a lot of heart.

[Spoilers ahead] My Friendly Neighborhood is a subversion of the horror genre. It's intended to end up wholesome. It also sounds like Yahtzee didn't quite get the full ending by helping all the puppets.

I think my biggest quibble about MFN was the fact that I knew it was a "mascot horror" style game, and I expected there to be some horrible twist like "oh all the puppets are trying to kill you and make you into a puppet" and...it never went there. It stayed uncannily wholesome the entire time.

While the final section is something to be desired and the minigun doesn’t get a lot to do outside of the final boss, I feel MFN does succeed at just being a short but sweet game with a heartfelt message and stands out amongst other “mascot horror” games by having the gameplay of a horror game with an atmosphere that is anything but scary, to put it simply the game charmed me As for additions I feel like it would have been cool if we got to go through the sets of the other movies that you saw posters and reviews for throughout the game maybe as you escaped the sets below the studio as a bit of a last hurrah, and not just the pirate one that’s in a secret area and is sadly very barren except for 2 enemies

Yahtzee is just mad he doesn't know how to be a friendly neighbor.

Having watched a couple of playthroughs of My Friendly Neighborhood and then the Game Theory episode on it, the game has a surprisingly nice message that it's trying to convey. I appreciated the way it was kind of a "what if" on Sesame Street (with a touch of supernatural added to make the puppets come to life, literally). Of course, they "hid" a lot of the stuff in documents and reading (namely the dates and info that make the comparisons), so it can be easy to miss, especially if you don't know the history of Sesame Street. It's even got a Mr. Rogers-style send-off message at the end.

The last boss was supposed to be some bit about how TV is awful and watching too much modern news and such will twist into a grumbly old bastard, or turn you into a psychopath, and that we should appreciate honest, innocent things more. But then, they gave us the minigun.

Just wanted to say thank you for putting the guitar riff exit right after the ending of the episode again, really appreciate it

Mfn is actually really sad when you realize the puppets are only hurting you because they don't know their own strength and because they are stuck following every intrusive thought that pops into their heads as a result of abandonment and trauma

Also "Friendly"|"Evil" "Neighborhood"|"Resident". MFN does a lot of great twisting.

2:25 That is indeed quite unique mechanic.

Honestly after all the build up and intrigue to Superliminal I completely forgot about it until now. Shame to hear Viewfinder is similar in that regard.

I love the visual of a "unique mechanic" being represented by an imp with a wrench having hot takes about cinema.

I agree there was untapped potential and some lack of polish in MFN. It's saving grace is that after playing it you feel good, especially after unlocking the best ending that will age well

I'm glad to see MFN getting attention, anywhere, it deserves it, so it makes me smile to see it end up on ZP. I wasn't expecting that, honestly, considering how Yahtzee rarely acknowledges mascot horror games, so this is a pleasant surprise. :)

I've heard one middle-aged streamer mention that MFN hits a lot of points in its writing similar to post-Vietnam stories. In a way, it makes disillusionment out to be a bigger monster than anything you're meeting in the studio.

I wish viewfinder did more with non-diagetic spaces. I loved the little easter eggs where you can project a map or retro game screenshots or a blueprint into a 3d space and I wish they did more with that.

“He loves trash” C’mon Yahtzee, don’t be so hard on yourself…

Sounds like Viewfinder may have taken plot inspiration from The Quiz Broadcast from That Mitchell & Webb Look.

I haven't played VF but it reminds me somewhat of a little VR game called Shadowpoint which I really enjoyed and which I thought kept finding fresh ways to use its central gimmick (although "short and you don't think about it much afterwards" does apply)

"I've rediscovered Sesame Street from watching it with the kids and I gotta say that Oscar guy talks a lot of sense." That had me laughing way too hard!

Can confirm, machine guns do get you out of awkward happy birthday situations.

I just like My Friendly Neighborhood because it's not the usual indie horror plot; No dead children, no evil spirits, no satanic rituals. It's just a nice story of puppets wanting to bring smiles and joy into a dreary world, it just involves duct taping puppets that won't shut up about eating your own hands.

With regards to that Vietnam flashback, have you ever watched "Meet the Feebles", Yahtzee?

4:42 what kind of loon would be reading classified documents in a bathroom?

I came into this very intrigued by Viewfinder and I think the game mechanic is going to get a lot of hype (rightly so because, having seen a brief playthrough of the first few levels, I am amazed and puzzled as to how on earth you get something like that to work as well as it does), but MFN has me very curious. I can't help but wonder if it's a similar case of COD vs Spec Ops: The Line - a deliberate subversion of a genre in order to present a different viewpoint or tell a different kind of story.

Yahtzee makes a mistake in using Elon Musk as an example of a genius tech-bro in his visuals. His backstory is basically that of buying himself into important positions in innovative companies while making himself the poster child of the company in question.

One of the latest featured Itchio games is a Viewfinder ripo- err, INSPIRED game called Liminal Gallery, which has a more horror-y vibe but somehow managed to nail that camera perspective mechanic. (Not as seamless, since you can clearly see where stuff gets cut out from the original geometry whenever you place a photo, but still pretty dang impressive given how recent Viewfinder is!) And despite being much shorter, it also manages to wear out the cool mechanic pretty much right away, so... yeah, there's only so much depth you can get from that one mechanic.

What does it say about my mental state if I found Oscar the Grouch's crazy look at 3:22 hilarious to the point of hurting my sides?

I would love to hear Yahtzee review Bramble: The Mountain King. Think Limbo/Inside meets medieval German fairy-tale

I just wish there were a pair of Statler and Waldorf in that game. They were the original troll.

Never stops making me giggle

Serious question, could the Portal formula ever be bettered? The humour and plot twists set the bar for which so many FPS puzzlers follow, but Portal was the first and nobody was expecting it because it was one 5th of the Orange Box

I LOVE IT BECAAAAUSE ITS TRAAAAASH. I’m old enough to remember the Mac browser extension that made your ‘trash can’ play those two lines every time you put something in, and the fact that they had to build in an option to play the sounds without deleting stuff after some kid emptied their dads work PC of all files feeding Oscar.

Yahtzee all these years and you've still got it where it counts (the very last line of our review)

1:51 Said support NPC being a cat named Cait. (Or Mittens if you ask Angory Tom) He's such a chonky boy!

Nice Blue Peter reference!

Interesting note: My friendly neighborhood's VA work was directed by Brendan Blaber, AKA Jello Apocalypse, AKA the mind behind Epithet Erased, So This is Basically, and Welcome to X.

Im a very happy boy right now. Two of my favorites in one package

great to hear about these 2 games

Having neat ideas is fine, finishing them is challenging, finishing them into something worth the time is VERY difficult. Wasn't surprised both games were planting seeds they never tended to, fine games but are still scratching at that peak of "actually paying off"

Your observations are exactly my issue with My Friendly Neighborhood and why I don't see why everyone is so jazzed about it. Yeah, it's got some good level design, the puzzles are kind of fun and the writing clearly has a lot of love, but it's selling itself as a horror game. And as someone who grew up on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, it isn't at all scary. I don't understand how ANYONE finds the Muppets scary.

Fun Fact: The voice director for this game is JelloApocalypse(My Friendly Neighborhood)

Realizing Yahtzee's gatling gun prop was not a gag and was actually a weapon in the game I never found A little bummed I never found it

Viewfinder sounds like a game that I would play, wanting it to be as clever and mind-bending as Antichamber, only to be very disappointed. I had that experience with Manifold Garden.

Unusually for me I'm going to ignore the obvious negatives and drool at my pictures becoming reality 🎉 Hope it's really not a literal one trick pony .... But at least expectations well tempered 😂

"Can't I read these classified documents in peace" lolololol

4:20 Funny thing is... Popgoes the weasel is actually a fan-spinoff FNAF copy that's being officially published by Scott Cawthon soon. LOL

Could you review Trepang2 at some point? Curious to see what a video on it from you would look like

3:00 Bg3 may be longer than trumps term as president felt but goddamn it is GOOD!

I thought it was funny you kept comparing Viewfinder to Superliminal, because that's exactly the comparison I made - they both make the exact same mistake, spending the whole game teaching you individual mechanics one at a time in puzzles that only use that one mechanic, but then never giving you puzzles that use them all, together

Double bonus points for mentioning Neal Stephenson.

I haven't actually gone through My Friendly Neighborhood, BUT, seeing as how it's made by John Szymanski (Yes, David Szymanski's brother), I am willing to bet good money on there being more under the surface that isn't just Le Spooky Basement Beast. It's probably one of those show don't tell stories where you have to dig through all of the game to figure out the whole narrative, considering it's also published by DreadXP and they're pretty well known for show don't tell plotlines, so I think there's probably more value to it than can be given justice in one 2 minute segment.

The unique mechanic joke caught me off guard :D

The whole "dying world explore simulation" plot was done better in Talos Principle

FYI the captions are all messed up at the start of the video

oh god the subtitles showing everything right at the start scared me lol

Jokes aside about OMGWTF YAHTZEE HAS KIDS TIME HAS PAST years after that happened already it is kind of amusing when you notice how before he was just talking about them as babies and now they're old enough to enjoy tv shows, in this case sesame street. Weird to kind of get those glimpses into his personal life n how it changes over time

I legitimately think that High on Life and My Friendly Neighborhood are connected someway, even if it’s not a behind-the-scenes connection. Maybe it’s the concentration of really good voice acting in a short game with wet farts as endings. (And I mean wet farts as trying to connect to Yahtzee‘s Apathy towards both endings.) maybe it’s in a similar enough tone for how much talking there is that’s more humorous than Borderlands for example.

True a lot of the smaller puzzle games lack the super cool writing of Portal

Yahtzee is evolving his cynicism into "annoying but correct dad from britland" and its kind of fun

Glad to see the comments back to discussion of the video instead of how off-putting the ad placement was. Shout-out to the editing team for taking criticism and fixing the product

Never played My Friendly Neighborhood, but I know JelloApocalypse directed the voice cast and it's cool to see it praised here.

I don't know where he's getting his information about Jaws, but it did the opposite of what he's talking about. "[Jaws] brought an emphatic end to Hollywood's five-year recession, while ushering in an era of high-cost, high-tech, high-speed thrillers."

Wait, viewfinder is an enviromental game? ‘’Protecting the Enviroment is a Crime.’’ -Snoop Dogg

Didn't think I'd catch a "Run For Your Wife," reference in a ZP video, but there you go...

Thanks

So next Extra Punctuation might be about "How to stick the landing". I reckon that would be interesting. :)

I was only just introduced to that @Jordan_Mallory quote this week by Steph Sterling. It's funny to me how it keeps popping up but you know what, I'm here for it too.

Look Gordon’s basically a non-graying 55 year old veteran who has seen this shit before

Played the demo, definitely enjoyable and hope it comes out as VR

MFN is more of a survival therapy game then horror, learn to deal with intimacy and sad feelings while also not getting smash upside the head by discount Oscar the grouch

Yahtzee me old mucker. You've been away from blighty too long good chap. MICROWAVING a Pot Noodle? I know they don't have kettles across the pond but surely you haven't forgotten what one is!? Dear me.

Love and peace for the algorithm! 💜

I'd love to see Yahtzee do a double review of Night in The Woods and Fall of Porcupine. Both are fun story based walking sims with interesting realistic characters, a nice warm art style, and both aren't relatively that long sporting a great soundtrack to boot. Ik Yahtzee talked about NITW in one of the Ghost Recon games, but with there not being that many interesting game releases (imo) or games that are just remakes and remasters it'd be a nice breath of fresh air to see two great story based indie games. Especially since I believe FoP deserves more attention.

"he loves trash" I appreciate the Oscar The Grouch shout

The idea that Yahtzee might be aware of garten of ban ban fills me with immense dread.

Yahtzee's favorite character being the grouch who lives in a garbage can feels like a rather bleak call for help on how his job feels.

Oscar does make a great deal of sense. His epithet should be "the Pragmatist" rather than "the Grouch".

Wow the cutaway gags were insane this episode. Reminded me of Family Guy