Bare Knuckle Besties Ep. 1: Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
Starting Fresh
Bare Knuckle Besties is a brand new long format video series housed over on the AGD Gameland YouTube channel, with its first episode covering the oft-forgotten Capcom classic: Cadillacs & Dinosaurs. This will be an ongoing series produced by Matt Berry (creator of AGD Gameland) and yours truly.
In earnest, I’ve been hesitant to do anything with video games after letting go of my own creation, the lapsed (mildly accomplished) Hardly Casual website and podcast, which spanned two seasons, a few video series, and one very successful Extra Life event under its belt. Hardly Casual’s abandonment troubles me more than it should, but nothing good lasts forever, and having had the chance to raise money for our local children’s hospital by marathoning games with friends for 24 hours was worth it all in my book.
I believe what killed Hardly Casual for me was treating it like a business, managing deadlines, schedules, expenses, etc. I also made the realization I don’t want or need a personal following or fanbase; I’m a “create it and throw it into the ether kind of guy” at this point. It may not work for everyone, but to stay invested and maintain whimsy in side projects, it needs to come from my heart (siloed from the internet masses), and not regulated by self imposed restrictions.
Additionally, if I’m going to make room for something in my busy life, I still need a goal in mind, with the understanding that work and family will always supersede any personal project, no matter how much I enjoy it.
The Mission
So, why do anything at all? Long story short: I’m doing it for the ‘lulz’. I stay almost insanely invested in work and family, to the degree that I never truly unplug from either. I never thought of this as an issue, as I adore my family, and I love my job/career path…but it’s come to my realization (thanks primarily to wife and close friends) that I never take “me time” anymore.
Personally, I have no issue maintaining family and work in a 50/50 type scenario, but upon further consideration, I do feel that subconsciously it is possible to wear me down should I not make the effort to insert more fun into the equation. We all need to detach and decompress now and then, and this series, getting together with Matt and burning through one of my favorite video game genres is like soul food.
On the channel side, more official level, we will be ranking every beat em up, ad nauseam. All this in an effort to figure out which is the best game in the genre, period. We will be utilizing a surprisingly well fleshed out ranking methodology that will give each game an official score, only after we have spent enough time with the game to feel confident in our ratings. On the front end, videos will be in the “Let’s Play” style format with commentary as we go, with the second half of each video splitting hairs on scoring and ranking process.
This series, hearkening to that of Ranking of Fighters, presented by GiantBomb.com; we hope any similarity comes off as an homage, rather than format/idea theft. Earnestly, Matt and I also believe no one is will ever even attempt to do a full ranking series on this now neglected genre, from a bygone era of gaming when Beat Em Ups ruled supreme.
It’s About the Journey, Destination Secondary
We have a massive amount of enthusiasm about this endeavor, and a ton of ground to cover. With hundreds of titles in the genre, ranking them all will be a huge undertaking, so if you enjoy our dulcet tones, attempts at humor, my own mild-to-moderate profanity, mixed with the occasional sacrilegious slip…then come join us on this adventure!
All said, the content side of things, to me, is supplemental. Sharing the laughs, and enjoying myself doing something “dumb”, that’s the goal. It’s about tapping into the nostalgia laden side of my brain, and for a time, holding onto some semblance of childlike bliss.
Now let’s get out there and ‘BEAT EM UP‘!!