Johnny Reviews Tonight

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Sometimes comes with extra Art Shift.

"And that’s exactly what games of this type should be about. Video Games are, after all, Escapism, so if you can, say, play tennis adequately in real life, a realistic tennis video game should eventually make you feel like Roger Federer." —Johnny Magrippis, on how Kinect Sports should have been.

A Video Review Show with surprisingly high production values, Johnny likes to overanalyze Video Games, to the point of each episode averaging at about 15 minutes, despite him talking in nigh-incomprehensible speeds.

The JRT Show focuses on current-gen stuff, but the videos never come out closer than two weeks after the game’s release, so they aren’t really meant to be a buyer’s guide. They always seem to include a brief history lesson and a couple of sketch bits, in order to be enjoyable even if you aren’t familiar with the franchise / genre and especially if you’ve already played the game in question.

Despite this, he always wraps up with a multiple choice verdict, guessing at the type of person you’d have to be in order to buy and enjoy the game and, for multiplatform games, he even compares the different versions against each other.

The review alternates between Johnny narrating over game footage and him getting in front of the camera to talk directly to the viewer. In either case, he talks crazy fast, but the audio quality during the narrated bits has been improving over the years.

Hasn’t settled on a "trademark genre", wildly going from Sports Games to Point and Click Adventures and RPGs.

Can be found here.

Tropes which Johnny Reviews Tonight provides an example of:

• Accentuate the Negative: A little. Johnny will highlight flaws in games he really likes about as much as he’ll highlight CMoAs in games he really doesn’t.
• Affectionate Parody: Pretty much the whole point of the timeline B & C openings of the Back to the Future : The Game review.
• A Worldwide Punomenon: Has gone on record saying he loves puns
  • Visual Pun: Sometimes does this with the background pics when narrating, such as with a nuclear explosion transforming to the shape of the Metal horns when he mentions Metal Gear.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun:

Johnny: Does Mass Effect 2 suffer the original’s sin?

• Berserk Button: When Maria thinks Johnny called her fat.
• Bilingual Bonus: He says a few words in an obscure language after transforming into Big Mac in the Punch-Out!! review.
• Boredom Montage: He becomes increasingly bored with the opening of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, to the point he starts dressing up and playing soldier until the game actually gives him something to do.
• Breaking the Reviewer's Wall: Right at the end of the MGS4 review, Old Snake seems to pay Johnny a visit.
• Brick Joke: The Portal 2 review opens with a potato flying through a couple of portals, which are seemingly forgotten right up until the end.
• Brief Accent Imitation: In the Assassin's Creed II review, Johnny does a horrible fake-Italian accent to mimic Ezio.
  • Just a Stupid Accent: He calls this “Accented English” in the AssCreed II review.
• Catch Phrase: Sentences in the form of: X is not about Y. It’s about Z...
  • He loves working in ""better, faster, stronger".
• Caustic Critic: Mostly averted. He sounds positively excited when describing the plot even in games he ends up disliking.
• Closing Credits: Throws in the occassional Hilarious Outtakes, Credits Gag, The Stinger.
• Colon Cancer: Shows up often in the episode names, perfectly lampshaded in this tweet.
  • Almost parodied in the very first scene of the very first episode:

Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots Tactical Espionage Action That’s not a Title, it’s an eye exam

• Double Entendre: Most obviously done in the Punch-Out!! review.
• Double Take: Wait, what?
• Double Vision: In the “Timeline B - C” versions of the Back to the Future: The Game review.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: His name is Johnny, and, Tonight, he will Review something.
• Face Palm: Does this when Samus is reduced to a little girl when fighting Ridley in Metroid: Other M, despite having faced him numerous times before.
• Fan Service: Subverted when the Wii Fit Girl parody in the Punch-Out!! video cuts right before we find out if Maria got back. This may also count as a Brick Joke & Ironic Echo, as these “X minutes later” cuts were beneficial to the viewer when they first appeared on the MGS4 episodes.
• For Science!: Opens up the Portal 2 review with this.
• Four Point Scale: Averted in that he doesn’t score the games, but offers a “multiple-choice recommendation”.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus : Some of the images flash by too quick, and the in-game subtitles are usually impossible to read without pausing.
• Funny Background Event: The cardboard box moving towards him in the end of the MGS4 review.
• GIFT: Shown briefly in the Portal 2 review.
• Hypocritical Humor: He explains in the BttF: The Game review that simply referencing the source material doesn’t make you funny, then proceeds to directly quote Back to The Future.
• It Gets Better: Johnny seems to be getting more comfortable in front of the camera, and using better and better microphones as the series progress.
• I Will Show You X: When Maria takes offense to Johnny saying all of his friends can’t throw a decent punch. He was talking about multiplayer fighting games though, Maria took it rather literally.

Maria: Was that punch good enough for you?

• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "And that’s how you break the fourth wall, my beloved videocamera!"
• Let's Play: Hasn’t done any so far, but the MGS4 review is pretty close to being one.
• Mid Review Sketch Show: All of the reviews have at least one sketch, with Maria usually filling in additional roles as needed.
• Motor Mouth: He claims to be making an effort to talk slower during the videos. This means his real life voice is a notch or so faster.
• Narm Charm: Loves the “I’m no hero” scene from MGS4 because of this.
• Oh Crap: When he realises who he’s up against, when “researching” real life boxing.
• Padding: Does a rant about it when mining for minerals in Mass Effect 2. Also views Level Grinding as this.
• Pillow Fight: Backfires in the New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review.
• "Previously On...": Does one in the style of Battlestar Galactica for Mass Effect.
• Recycled in Space: In Mass Effect 2, he brings up BioWare’s comment that Shepard is Jack Bauer IN SPACE!
• Right-Hand-Cat: In Part 1 of the MGS4 Review.

Johnny, stroking the Right-Hand-Cat:: How Evil.

• Running Gag: Mentioning power-point presentations throughout the MGS4 review.
• Shout-Out: When he has an issue with a game, he usually points to earlier games that dealt with it better.
  • Has sometimes done this with things unrelated to Video Games as well, such as Dinosaur Comics.
• Shown Their Work: He actually tries out every featured sport in Real Life as well, to check if they’re as “Just Like Real Life ” as advertised, in the Kinect Sports review.
• Smoking Is Cool: Played with in the MGS4 review, as his cigar is actually made of chocolate.
  • Parodied in the Mass Effect 2 stinger.
• Story to Gameplay Ratio: He has played MGS4, so it’s no surprise this comes up.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: He claims this is the reason he might sometimes do a joke that has been done before, and assumes this instead of Follow the Leader when another reviewer does a joke he already did.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: At the end of each part of the MGS4 review, there is a disclaimer citing the “Reviewers I tried not to rip-off”. Namely James Rolfe, Noah Antwiler and Doug Walker.
• Take That: Done ocassionally, the Portal 2 review has quite a few on FirstPersonShooters.
• That's What She Said: Prevalent in the Dance Central review.
• Trademark Favorite Food:

Johnny: Chocolate: My only weakness.

• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Apparently loves saying these Exact Words in a sarcastic tone, as seen in the Mass Effect 2 and Back to the Future: The Game reviews.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Good luck placing Johnny’s accent.
• You Fight Like a Cow: Appropriately, in the Monkey Island: Special Edition review.

Maria: You direct like a dairy farmer! Johnny: How appropriate... you act like a cow!