Shmup videos: reviews vs strategy/longplay

[Captain]

So a friend of mine wants to start off a shmupping youtube channel and asked me the above question. All the shmup I ever youtubed was some boss runs, and I'm hardly experienced with YT anyway, so I'm really not the type of guy to answer this correctly. So I thought, why not just ask the people?

So yeah, what kind of video would you like to see more? One where a shmup is analyzed and reviewed, with recommendations given, or one where a shmup is played and commented on with tips for score/survival?

You may wondering what I answered...and I just told him he could just do both, hence I included the option in the poll.

[Strikers1945guy]

Well I never really watch reviews for shmups or any type of game. Shmup reviews would be helpful for newcomers but if you're already into shmups you can kind of tell based on the style of shmup if it's your cup of tea or not.

Gameplay / strategy videos I love. Stuff like STGWeekly is awesome having people breakdown what's going on in runs for people who aren't familiar with a certain games scoring system or tricks. Plus all the bits of history people talk about with a game or its development are always cool to hear.

Thing for me too is that if I've seen a few minutes of gameplay for a game I haven't played before, I can generally sense if I'm going to like it or not. A 10 minute review trying to convince me one way or the other I won't even bother watching. Some of the STGWeekly stuff has actually encouraged me to try a few games I may not have because when people discuss what goes into the runs they show sometimes I find interesting things that make me want to try out the game. Most of the time stuff that wouldn't have been covered in depth in a review.

[LordHypnos]

^I would agree with this. I used to like reviews when I was new to shmups, but now I mostly watch more strategy oriented things with a lot of depth when I watch shmup videos.

[Xyga]

10% review/trivia, 90% replay/strategy

the 'review' part would be a general introduction to the game + some trivia/comments scattered here an there.
and if he's going to give marks or just his opinion he can do it briefly after the run with some closing comments.

[Squire Grooktook]

I would be interested in reviews if someone with BIL's analytical and writing skill was doing it.

[Captain]

On an unrelated note we should get BIL to do reviews.

[trap15]

^ yes please. save us biru-sama

[ProjectAKo]

strategy because there is 0 world class information available for most shmups like no one even knows the specifics of how the WRs are achieved usually

[Bananamatic]

strategy because there is 0 world class information available for most shmups like no one even knows the specifics of how the WRs are achieved usually

you're assuming he actually he has anything meaningful to share in terms of strategy
90% of players don't

[ProjectAKo]

they could if they put effort into it

many or most of the scores didnt even have the advantage of studying mame savestates

[1up]

My favorite STG shows are Bulletheaven and STGWeekly. Bulletheaven is a nice and short reviewstyle video that tries to cover every aspect of the game. They're not superplayers but have an ok understanding of level design, score systems etc. They seem to review new titles as they come out so that's a plus.

STGWeekly has a lot of meat on it. They have people on with lots of knowledge and guests who are experts on the title being discussed.

[Jeneki]

For what I'm looking for in a game, I generally find in-depth strategy videos to be a more effective will-I-buy-or-not review than 'actual' reviews.

[Captain]

He's an okay guy who does his research before posting stuff :p

He also told me that he really likes the 10% idea, where he opens up with a really short, literal review and gets straight into gameplay and strategy for the rest.

[Stilghar]

Both. I think I'm the exception if I have to chose I would chose for a well done review.

[NTSC-J]

He's an okay guy who does his research before posting stuff :p

He also told me that he really likes the 10% idea, where he opens up with a really short, literal review and gets straight into gameplay and strategy for the rest.

I think what ProjectAKo and others, including myself, are interested in is real in-depth strategy, not simply how to play. If he does a video on Dodonpachi that just explains how the chaining works, it'll essentially just be like any other review. I would rather see how to reliably trigger the stage 4 boss freeze trick and how to achieve the theoretical max chains per stage, but it sounds like a bit of a reach for someone who isn't a very experienced player to make videos like that for a variety of games.

[DJ Incompetent]

1. Grab STGWeekly episode, any related commentary videos from Icarus, related multiple hi-score forum threads, and related strategy threads.
2. Harvest factual info from each source.
3. Record organized, edited, simplified, compact, mega-list-o-facts of spoken word.
4. Illustrate every fact with matching highlighted/annotated visual aid or replay clip.
5. Record Daniel Tiger jingles repeating worthy memorizable critical points.
6. Render video for greatest respect.

[Xyga]

Agreeing with bananamatic here in any case there's no point in targeting an already really experienced audience who already produced tons of excellent in-depht videos.

Introducing the n00b/n00b~ish to what individual games really are about (e.g. not just shooting stuff while credit-feeding) and taking time to introduce them to more subtle ways of playing, would be more useful.

I mean on youtube there's either stupid useless videos about games made by middle aged men for a kindergarten audience, or cryptic expert stuff where even the title reads like ancient runes.
Middle-ground is the rarest of things in theis world of absolutes.