Holiday Specialtacular: Smashing Through the Snow!

everyone is ready to smash

Giant Bomb eSports HQ

Concentrated Dan is the best.

Is the audio out of sync for anyone else from about 02:06 onwards?

@sir_loin_of_beef: Sadly yeah

@sir_loin_of_beef: Yes it is! It hurts!

The audio is fine once the gameplay comes back :)

I want more Alex as stereotypical sportscaster.

@sir_loin_of_beef: I did as well but it corrected after a few more minutes.

I think, this feature failed to deliver as much as last years because of the game selection. Like, last year both players at least somewhat enjoyed the game (at least if this is a follow up to that NFL arcade thing from lasy year).

As it is, this was quite humorous and funny..through to the end of the first match. After that, the one-note joke of "Ha ha we don't actually like this game" felt too much like the 'haha we are taking the e-sports casting thing very tongue in cheek.

Instead of being playful fun at the expensive of a good game (or at least one the players enjoyed) we get the same basic joke of "The e-sports of melee is silly" told for the entire length of the video. As a 10-15 minute gag, that can work. As an entire best of 5 feature, it wears super super thin to the point of ceasing to be funny at all.

Like, at that point you've got to ask "Who was this for?" The people who like Melee would be turned off by the lengthy joking about it. The people who don't like melee are not likely to even stick with the feature once the matches start, and the majority of us (maybe) with no heavy opinion either way have no reason to keep watching past the first match. There is only so much of "no one is having fun, everyone is making fun of the entire proceeding' etc.

So yah...B+ for effort, D- for going way to long.

@bladededge: I agree, we don't get to see the entire gang together for the majority of the year and these videos should be just them getting together and have fun. Shorter videos are fine but there are only finite hours in the two weeks they get together so I'd rather see them in a video they would have fun in.

As for the smash thing, I agree. The joke isn't that good to hold up for 45+ mins and I'd rather see them play ultimate with a few of them in a tournament, or something completely different that everyone would enjoy joining in on.

Upset there's no Jackbox video this year, they did play on UPF a few weeks ago but a three-hour video with lots of games would have been fantastic.

@bladededge: huh.. thats funny, I thoroughly enjoyed it !

A+

I can do it too!

It must be the shoes.

I give it SSStylish

"My favorite slice of life anime is King of the Hill."

Fantastic.

I wasn't ready for how funny this video turned out to be for me.

I don't even play smash but why is this not called wave dashing through the snow, ya know, like the song.

Yoooooo

I can't believe Dan banished DK to hell.

For a moment I hoped Alex was going to tell Ben what his weirdest fetish is.

@bladededge: I cant stand Smash and I enjoyed a 40 minute video making fun of how ridiculous Smash players are.

Alex talking into random things on the desk was a pretty good bit heh.

This was hilarious. Thanks guys.

GOTY content has been a blast this year. Love the different dynamics between east and west. I got two UPFs with the whole gang and that was enough. Kinda glad we don't have them all together in EVERY video.

This is art.

I love this! The stream layout is on point and I love how Jeff and Dan get into it. Ben and Alex also do some great banter with each other in this.

Every sport would be better with Alex commentating it. Fun video, guys!

Esports rules, especially when the commentary raises the hype levels to this degree.

I thought the joke was going to be Ben explaining rules for 45 minutes and Jeff and Dan never getting to play.

I agree somewhat with some of the comments on the choice of game (Why not choose Ultimate, when Jeff seems to actually like that one?).

That said, Alex's continued fucking bit with the microphone was very very good.

I can't download this video on Video Bomb. Did something break when it got re-uploaded?

Swing and a miss on this one.

@darthlex said:

Ultimate came out Dec. 7th, which was the last day that the Beast crew was in SF for the GOTY stuff. Even if they did have early access to it (I can't remember if they ever mentioned that), between the GOTY schedule they have and the process of unlocking all those characters, it wouldn't have been nearly as simple as firing up Melee is. And Melee is the primary game if you're going to be making fun of esports anyways, which is what they are doing.

They did do a Quick Look for the game during the GOTY stuff, though I don't know if they had it when they were working on this.

is ben wearing pants?

Really funny and enjoyed it immensely. Alex never fail to get a laugh out of me with random things he picks up and commentate on.

As someone who is very aware of and immersed in the Smash community; this is the best thing I have ever seen.

More Smash? It's a Christmas miracle! :D

I'm digging Alex and the microphone gag.

Fantastic stuff guys, please do this again so we can know who will be slightly better at Smash for another whole year

This was really funny. Alex's parody of a sports commentator is very clever, and the microphone gag was top notch improv.

I think this was my favorite video this year. :D

This video didn't strike me as funny or interesting. Not everything has to be for me and that's ok.

This is soooo boring. I hope they bring back Rocket League like the previous years.

Really leaning into trolling the smash players, I love it

@bladededge:You clearly don't watch much GB content. They don't even know HOW to make 15 minute videos at this point. Only if they absolutely have nothing good to say about a game they're being asked to Quick Look "For The Site".

You raise good points but also fail to understand the source of the content or the audience. Either that or you choose to ignore both in favour of attempting to impress any people new to the site. This is typical of their content and pointing that out in detail only makes you look like a trihard.

Enjoyed the feedback regardless. :)

I'm a HUGE fan of all the additional content you made (like this, Hitsmas, etc) that you've been making during GOTY. Thanks for making it!

This was very enjoyable. Thanks Duders.

Lowkey my favorite video of this end of year batch. Ben and Alex banter is so good

Holy shit, an entire series of Alex and Ben being commentators, it's so goddamn good. I didn't watch the video itself, just listened to the delightful banter. Loved it.

watching this made me want to buy smash ultimate