Gameoverse: Pilot Episode - a rambling review

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]I don't want to make any grand promises about this and generally this kind of stuff uh treats reaction channels better than uh review channels and I'm not going to start doing that. Trust me, the the editing load on a reaction video is actually a lot heavier than what I do here. But uh regardless, Gameverse the latest pilot from Glitch Productions, the um YouTubebased Well, it's I say that as if they have a studio on you like that. That's where they primarily release stuff right here on YouTube. They are known for Murder Drones, The Amazing Digital Circus, um Nice of Guyavir, which I talked about uh the pilot last year. Was it last year?

[00:00:43]Was that pilot? regard when I talked about that when that came out. Um, and this is their latest. Um, I I first thing I I'm gonna I'm going to issue my pettiest grievance.

[00:00:59]I really would like if they just put dashes on either side of the O. Now, to be fair, the actual logo of the thing is designed in such a way where like game and verse are kind of like coming to a point and the O is extra big. So, when I'm looking at the logo, I read it fine.

[00:01:15]But when I just read it in normal text, I see game right next to the O and my brain wants to relate it to another word that looks similar. So, I think cameo and then I want to say gamoverse or gameoverse. That's what my brain wants to say because you don't have a dash on either side of the O. And I know I'm not literally the ONLY ONE WITH THIS problem because here >> people saying gameoverse.

[00:01:42]>> So yeah, petty doesn't matter. And like I said, the logo design fixes it, but I don't always see the name as the logo.

[00:01:54]Regardless, this is a 2D animator. So this is Glitch's second go at 2D animation following Knights of Gwennavir. It follows uh well a number of characters, quite a few. Uh, actually, it follows primarily our heroes of Kit and her sidekick Kaboodle.

[00:02:11]Uh, if that sounds very sort of 90s, early 2000s action platformer sort of names. Yeah, that's on purpose. Um, Kit is a catgirl. Kaboodle is her sentient uh electronic high-tech backpack. And we start with her defeating the big threat to her world and seemingly, you know, in terms of a game, winning the game.

[00:02:38]However, for some reason, her defeating the final boss doesn't save her world.

[00:02:43]It dooms it to destruction. And she manages to escape. and since then has found herself on one side of an ongoing battle between those who are trying to preserve game worlds by actually preventing the heroes from beating the final boss and those who want the destruction of the game worlds by encouraging the heroes to beat the final boss. If you find yourself with a fair amount of questions such as why do these people, you know, these two groups have investment one way or the other? Exactly why are these things being destroyed?

[00:03:16]answers are they're not absent, but they're a little thin. And it I'm going to make a criticism that I'm hoping will not hold true for uh this going into a full series, which is that it is overcrowded, which is a pretty common pilot problem.

[00:03:35]Pilots are really difficult to balance because you have to simultaneously sell the concept of your setting, your characters, your concept, your plot and your lore while simultaneously telling a story that's actually interesting while you are trying to lay all this stuff out. It is a lot to do in a single go and it's very hard to balance properly.

[00:03:58]Very common problem for pilots is either telling you virtually nothing about what's going on because it's hoping that say the action or uh just the character presence alone will get you invested and they and they plan to explain stuff later or almost nothing happens in terms of plot because they're too busy dumping lore at you. And trying to find the balance between those can if you don't get it quite right result in something that feels a little oversted because the strength of this thing is the action.

[00:04:27]The action scenes are actually great.

[00:04:29]They're wonderfully choreographed.

[00:04:31]They're real fun to watch. Um, I enjoy those a lot. They are by far the strength. That's not to imply that everything else is the weakness, but you can tell that everything else had to kind of be crammed in around the really great action scenes. And as a result, the amount of lore that is going on here makes it feel like I I got told a lot, but also not quite enough. Um, and I'm I'm sure as with the case with a lot of these types of shows, not even just exclusively glitch shows. This is something that I've said about Hasbin Hotel in specific, but I I don't doubt that if I were to go digging for like behindthe-scenes stuff, things the creators have said, you know, uh preliminary sketches or any supplemental material that may or may not exist. I'd probably get answers to some of the questions I have. I don't feel I should have to do that to fully understand what your show is. Um, if you want to do that and that enhances your experience, awesome. Happy for you. But as somebody who does not have unlimited time in my life, um I'm here to watch the show and I kind of need the show to stand on its own. It's not that this doesn't it it stands on its own slightly wobbly. The voice acting is good. Some of the voices were they like I was a little bit when they first started talking cuz like that's not a voice I'd fully expect to come out uh out of that body. That's not the case across the board, but it's the case in a couple of instances and and it I am assuming it's deliberate. Um, the big ones being Kaboodle didn't quite sound like how I expected him to. And there's the uh little magenta dinosaur uh did not talk like I expected to at all. And again, I expect that contrast is very much a deliberate choice, which cool, fair enough. The there's been Oh god, I can't believe I'm gonna have to try and address this. So, there's been a weird nontroversy um and ongoing bizarre debate with the nent fandom of this thing about whether or not it has fan service and or goon bait.

[00:06:45]So, oh god, I at some point down the line when I talk in full about The Amazing Digital Circus after the final episode comes out and I see the thing, I'm going to have to address how bonkers that fandom is. But seeing what's already happening with Gameverse, I'm starting to suspect it's not just an Amazing Digital Circus problem. It might be a problem for Glitch Productions as a whole. or at the very least the amazing Digital Circus fans are bleeding over into future Glitch production um releases because that's from the same studio as this other thing that they really got into and so they just shift over to another thing and bring all the nonsense with them. So I suppose to address that in the most basic possible way.

[00:07:32]There are two women characters uh female presenting characters in this. Both of whom are shown in bikinis. This is not done with no context. They are literally swimming in the ocean for most of this.

[00:07:45]Uh no, they don't have to worry about breathing. It's video game logic. Don't worry about it. Now, I could make an argument that I am personally not of the view that Kit, the main character, is fanervice. Is she designed exaggeratedly, a bit curvy? Yeah. So are most cartoon characters? Like I It's one of those things where if you're tired of seeing characters designed like that, fair enough. oversaturation can be a problem, but like treating it like an automatic and absolute negative strikes me as very strange. Now, when it comes to the villain character of misinformation, all right, there's not nothing there because uh she doesn't really have to be there like plotwise. There there's there's three main villains that we are dealing with um at least who are active. There's other background ones like crab girl who's just kind of there as a joke at least so far. But we have, you know, the sort of big horned helmeted leader guy and we have sort of the two minions. We have this and forgive me I'm for I'm losing names cuz it's my brain and I watched this a day ago. So I I I I made the mistake of going to bed. So names have already started to leave my head.

[00:08:58]But there's a guy who's kind of made of paper and can fold himself to different shapes which visually I really like. I really like the fact that he's just kind of this origami man. Like I like him a lot and he does a lot. He's very active in the plot and misinformation is just kind of there to be snarky and bouncy.

[00:09:16]Now again, if you don't care for that, that's fine. But there's this weird moralistic streak that's happening in this freaking fandom. And here's what I'm going to say. whether or not it is fan service or goon bait or whatever else. To me, at most what that should determine is whether or not the show is for you. Because if you see that and you decide, oh, this is aimed at a different audience than me, that's fine. That's fair. Walk away. But like you're starting to act like the uh entitled outrage merchants in the video game sphere who get mad at literally any game that clearly has a target demographic that isn't them. If you see it as Goonbait, cool. Don't watch it. It's for an audience that either enjoys or doesn't mind that. Speaking of someone who largely doesn't mind that unless it's super egregious, and I don't think it is in this case. Again, is misinformation bouncier and um presented in a way where she doesn't really need to be there for the plot, but is there kind of jiggling a bit? Yeah, a little.

[00:10:21]Sure.

[00:10:23]And again, if that's an issue for you, don't watch it. Okay. Sorry, I spent way more time talking about that. The the the fandom around Glitch Productions is uh super normal. super normal and very reasonable in all ways.

[00:10:44]So anyways, this um has a fair amount of things that happen that feel like they are there uh for the sake of a joke.

[00:10:52]like they run into uh in this ocean setting this uh hero dolphin um who is very dim-witted and it turns out he actually kind of can't read which I don't think actually makes sense in universe because while it is true that the little paper foldy guy is trying to like present himself as a note to trick him and like the joke is he can't even read except there's also signs up and around like to potentially direct this guy as a lead character in a game. So, I'm not sure that even makes sense, which again isn't necessarily a problem, but it is an indication of priorities that they may potentially be willing to set logic aside for the sake of the joke. And sometimes that works, like the fact that, as I said, they're underwater most of this and nobody once brings up breathing. that I take as a pretty solid video game related joke because video games have a tendency especially this the sort of era that this is often evoking which I'm going to say mid9s into early 2000s for the most part they tended to treat water either as instant death or don't even worry about it and this takes the don't even worry about it approach and there's like a couple little cutaways with very sort of 16bit style representation of characters moving from one setting to another so it's it like them not having to worry about breathing underwater just gives me like Donkey Kong Country vibes cuz you didn't have to worry about it. Yes, he's he's a gorilla underwater and don't worry about it. He doesn't need to worry about breathing. So like jokes like that one could argue are at the the sake of the plot because logically it should be a problem. Except that within video game logic, no, that's totally a thing that actually happens. Um, but like I said, some of the humor feels like it is it was selected because it was funny in the moment and there wasn't a lot of thought given to the potential implications of that joke, which is not an invalid way to handle humor. It's not for me, though. My my own personal approach to comedy is I want you to tell me a story that I would be interested in, even if you stripped every single joke out of it. And when you start um ignoring or even kind of like sideswiping at that plot and setting for the sake of a joke, you tend to um you tend to lose me a little. Not fully because as I said, the strengths of this are very good. I do like the character designs. Um I love the action. Like that's the main thing.

[00:13:19]I want to I I want to come back it if and when this gets um a full season just to see if it is as action forward as the pilot is. Cuz if it is, I'm here for that alone. And I will stick around at least for a few episodes to see, you know, what they can build in terms of getting me to better understand the overall setting. um and maybe see what they can build in terms of character journeys or arcs or whatever else.

[00:13:48]Because you don't have to sell me on everything in your pilot, but you do need a hook. You do need at least one thing where I'm going to go, that's the reason I'm coming back. That's the thing I'm going to come back for and go, "Yeah, more of that and I'll see what else you've got in addition." And for me, that's the action in this. So, on the action alone, I am willing to come back and see what um what a full season might entail, but it I I mean, I have notes, but also I'm me, so of course I do. I have notes on almost everything.

[00:14:23]Welcome to the channel if you're new here. But it's it has potential for sure, and I guess we will see. Glitch has yet to put out a pilot that has not done well enough to get a full uh season order. And they've already produced a pretty decent amount of merchant for this. I It feels like they're very confident in this. So, we'll see. And uh yeah, that's it for now. Gameverse pilot episode. Have you seen it? What you think about it? Whatever your thoughts are, drop something down in the comments. Let's talk about it. Patreon pays the bills. Enables me to do this as my living, even if you can't help me out that way. Like, share, subscribe. They all help out. Don't worry too much about it, though. We take a relaxed attitude around here. So, just come on back next time you need a break.

[00:15:09]And now to thank my highest supporting patrons. Robin Moore, Jared Boyce, Zuben Lfoula, Auntie Kate 808, Mera G, Angry Casper, Dave Hall, Snark Shark, Oliver B, Mystic Shadow, Shawn Miller, Welsh Wrestling Geeks, Melissa Person, Becky Sparks, Twiord, Tracy Scrabbit, Palabogle, Magdalena, and Sir Ditimus is my favorite. Additionally, to thank some folks from the lower tiers of support, Lee and Andy, Gavin, Hinden, and I am Orcus. Uh, we have some new friends. We have uh Peppercorn and uh where' the other one go? Where'd you go?

[00:15:51]Ah, coriander has gone behind my head. Um, they are very young and they haven't been integrated with the other rats yet, but soon. Okay. Okay. Yes, maybe you weren't quite camera ready.