Zero Punctuation: Difference between revisions

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* [[Alas, Poor Scrappy]]: In-universe (for lack of a better term) example: Yahtzee said during his "review" for ''[[Duke Nukem Forever]]'' that the cancellation of the game wasn't the end of the world since it had been overshadowed by other franchises, most notably ''[[Half Life]]''. However, in his Extra Punctuation article, while reflecting on the plans of bringing it out in 2011, Yahtzee admitted that too many FPS have taken the cover-based combat route and he'd like a return to the basics with one guy facing armies all at once.

* [[All Men Are Perverts]]: Despite being an example himself, Yahtzee has expressed dismay at how widespread this trope is in real life, lamenting that all a crappy game has to do to become wildly successful is [[Fan Service|stick a picture of a busty scantily-clad woman]] on the cover.

* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: In-Universe: For a number of games he reviews, his viewpoint tends to cast the protagonist in an extremely negative light.

** His first instance of this is reviewing ''[[Tomb Raider]]'', where he portrays Lara as an irreverent, iconoclastic kleptomaniac.

** Drake of ''[[Uncharted]]'' is portrayed as a racist and hypocritical [[Smug Snake]].

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** ''[[Max Payne]]'' is actually actively looking for trouble.

** Mccall from ''[[Call Of Jaurez]]:[[The Cartel]]'' is over-reacting.

* [[Analogy Backfire]]:

** His reason for suspending judgment on the Kinect. "Pope Urban VIII probably thought ''he'' was very clever when he condemned Galileo, but who got the last laugh there? Well, he did when Galileo died alone and in poverty but what I'm saying is [[A God Am I|I'm basically like the Pope]]."

** Then there's this example from his [[Catherine]] review:

{{quote|''...men are all directionless tidal waves and women are all dikes built in the path of their raging floods. [[Lampshade Hanging|Blimey, what a badly worded metaphor]].''}}

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** In his Resistance 3 review, he accuses the game of copying [[Valve]]'s Half-Life 2. Amongst his accusations are identical mechanics, a straight Expy of the Ravenholm level, and "the scientist has a beard." Because, you know, Gordon Freeman has a beard.

** From his [[Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles]] review: "Umbrella Chronicles is a heavily cut down retread of three of the major [[Resident Evil]] games, starring [[Johnny Bravo]], a prostitute, an idiot, a mullet, a 9 year old boy, a brick shit-house, and Carlos."

* [[Asexuality]]: Has self-confessed issues with sex and/or kids, so games that rely on either for appeal get marked down severely.

* [[Audio Erotica]]: His opinion on [[Stephen Fry]] in ''[[Little Big Planet]]'' as well as [[Interactive Narrator|Rucks]] in ''[[Bastion]]''; he's a fan of famous voices in general, and feels that having them as [[One-Scene Wonder|One Scene Wonders]] is a waste of potential.

* [[Author Filibuster]]: Occasionally, if Yahtzee can't find enough to complain about in the game, he'll engage in one of these.

* [[Awesomeness Is Volatile]]: Yahtzee implied this would happen if ''[[No More Heroes]]'' were combined with Branston Pickle.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: A surprising amount of people write in with requests and then get offended when he rips into the game.

* [[Berserk Button]]:

** In the ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'' review, the mention of [[Shia LaBeouf]] sent him into a barely-restrained seething rage.

** [[Nolan North]]'s presence in a game tends to be a sour point for him (especially if he voices the [[Assassin's Creed|main]] [[Uncharted|character]]). However, he's stated that it's nothing against the man himself, though even cases of [[Playing Against Type]] will make him hate the character as long as he knows it's him.

** Quick Time Events. Enough so that he named a trope for them. (See: [[Press X to Not Die]])

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** The review of ''Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands'' ([[Blatant Lies|which totally wasn't made to cash in on a movie]]) starts with a [[Take That]] against [[Roger Ebert]]'s (then-recent) remark that video games couldn't be art. He then ignores it for the rest of the review until the very end when he yells at Ebert again.

* [[Brain Bleach]]: In-universe example -- it's a favorite reaction by Croshaw.

* [[Brick Joke]]:

** The ''[[No More Heroes]]'' review opens with the Stranglers song of the same name. However, the song's [[Record Needle Scratch|abruptly cut off]]: "No, no, that's a bit too obvious." This isn't mentioned throughout the entire review. Finally, in [[Credits Gag|the credits]], the songs used in the video are listed as normal, except that "No More Heroes" has been thoroughly scribbled out.

** Another one consisted of a spoiler warning in mid-episode, where Yahtzee told spoiler-sensitive viewers to plug their ears and wait for the credits. The credits mini-comic consisted of a series of famous spoilers from other works. ( {{spoiler|1=[[Citizen Kane|It was his sled]], [[The Usual Suspects|Keyser Soze = Kevin Spacey]], etc.}})

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* [[Butt Monkey]]: Yahtzee's avatar gets hurt in a variety of ways throughout his reviews.

* [[Call Back]]: As far as the eye can see.

** "[[Hello, Insert Name Here|Senor Koquonfaes and Gareth Gobelcoque]] are cousins by marriage."

*** It turns out that Gareth is a [[Continuity Nod|long-forgotten comrade]] of [[Mass Effect 2|Titty Shepard]].

** Plot summary for ''[[Dead to Rights]]'':

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** The Yahtzee/''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' [[Cargo Ship]] returns in his review of ''[[Silent Hill]]: Downpour'', when he and the game are shown wearing a bridal veil and groom's tuxedo respectively, and he admits that "Yes, maybe I ''will'' marry [[Silent Hill 2]], shut up!"

* [[Caustic Critic]]: The [[YKTTW]] for [[Caustic Critic]] was named "Parent Genre of Zero Punctuation"

* [[Chaotic Neutral]]: Yahtzee claims to be this alignment in his ''[[Spider-Man: Web of Shadows]]'' review and encourages his fans to argue on the forum as to whether he is or not.

* [[Chew Bubblegum]]: A [[It Makes Sense in Context|zombie Duke Nukem]] says "Time to kick ass and chew brains" in the ''[[Bad Company]]'' review.

* [[Clip Show]]: The [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2589-Holiday-2010 Holiday 2010 episode], after Yahtzee mocks the viewer for showing up when they should know that he gets that week off.

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* [[Country Matters]]: Good grief.

** To elaborate: Yahtzee is British and Australian and likes to [[Sir Swearsalot|swear a lot]], so the word "cunt" tends to pop up a lot in his reviews, sometimes in a rather casual context.

* [[Creator Thumbprint]]: Platformers and games that don't use bloom and [[Real Is Brown|brown gritty graphics]] earn a somewhat higher note in his book.

** "''[[Survival Horror]]'' is what I call a pet genre. A pet I keep in a tool shed and feed with broken glass."

** ''[[Saints Row]] 2'' is one of the few games that pleased him, resulting in a review that sounded like, in his own words, "an overlong wedding proposal" due to the fact that it entertainingly combines [[Rule of Fun]] and [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]] whereas ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' went for [[Real Is Brown]] and [[Darker and Edgier]]. See also ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause]] 2''.

** He also has a great love for anything that does things differently like ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' and ''[[No More Heroes]]''; he complimented ''[[Mirror's Edge]]'' for trying something new even after tearing the actual gameplay apart, and [[Assassin's Creed]] got praise for being original even though it was let down by highly repetitive gameplay. Similarly, he praised ''[[Dark Void]]'' for being an ambitious failure, and as such, better than "committee-designed sludge". He also liked ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]'', despite hating ''[[Silent Hill]]'' spinoffs and saying that the monsters and chase scenes weren't scary and the psych test gimmicks weren't enough, for trying something new. He raves about ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' for [[Trope Maker|creating]], [[Trope Namer|naming]] and [[Trope Codifier|codifying]] the [[Colossus Climb]], and ''[[Ico]]'' got a love note from him for making him ''[[Video Game Caring Potential|care]]'' about a [[Cute Mute]] [[Love Interest]].

** He also has a taste for [[Scenery Porn]].

** [[Cute Kitten|Cats]] seem to pop up a lot in his reviews (which [[Cats Are Mean|sort of]] [[Caustic Critic|makes sense]], as do [[Precious Puppies|dogs]]. In fact, he said that one of his three wishes would be a puppy.

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"THE BABY IS FINE THE BABY IS OKAY" (after someone was juggling several objects including a baby and a chainsaw, then drops them all.) }}

** Conversely, he decided to show a fairly, uh, ''graphic'' rendition of [[Convenient Miscarriage|a certain controversial strip]] from a [[Ctrl+Alt+Del|certain webcomic which shall remain unnamed]] followed immediately by the caption '''THIS IS THE WORST THING I HAVE EVER DONE AND I HATE MYSELF FOR DOING IT.'''

* [[Disposable Vagrant]]: Yahtzee keeps a spare vagrant chained in his basement -- in case he needs to review a co-op game.

* [[Dissimile]]

* [[Does Not Like Women]]: A [[Non Sequitur]] toward the end of the ''[[The Sims|The Sims 3]]'' review, brought on by minor [[Creator Breakdown]] over his girlfriend.

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* [[Eagle Land]]: In his reviews, Yahtzee portrays Americans as Flavor #2, and [[Author Tract|covered all aspects of that flavor]] in the span of two reviews (''[[Medal of Honor]]: Airborne'' and ''[[Call of Duty]] 4''). He's had a long history of this view, though, as seen in his writings on ''Fully Ramblomatic.''

* [[Eastern European Animation]]: Yahtzee claims to have grown up watching Russian cartoons ala [[The Simpsons|Worker and Parasite]] rather than [[Transformers]], which he states is the reason that he has no particular nostalgia for the series.

* [[Ending Fatigue]]: Discussed in his review of ''[[A Shadows Tale]]'' ([[Insistent Terminology|NOT Lost in Shadow!]])

* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: In-universe example: In his review of ''[[Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'', he notes that he's always preferred Luigi to Mario, since he at the least isn't Peach's personal gopher. He also wonders why Tails gets so much more hate than Sonic despite the fact that he's basically Sonic with flight.

* [[Escalating Punchline]]

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* [[Flat What]]: A visual example is used by his [[Author Avatar]] in his ''[[Condemned]] 2'' review, when he describes the unusual means by which you defeat the final boss: {{spoiler|shouting at it.}}

* [[Forgets to Eat]]: Mentioned in his ''[[Call of Duty]] 4'' review.

* [[Freeze-Frame Bonus]]: His review of [[~~Fifty~~ Cent Blood on ~~the~~ Sand]] flashes a picture of Yahtzee with the words NOT RACIST several times.

* [[Freeze-Frame Bonus]]: His review of [[50 Cent: Blood On The Sand]] flashes a picture of Yahtzee with the words NOT RACIST several times.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]/[[Start of Darkness]]: His ''[[Red Faction]] Guerrilla'' review pins all his negativity on bad experiences playing the original ''[[Red Faction]]'' when he was younger.

* [[Freudian Slip]]: His ''[[Bayonetta]]'' review is full of these.

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* [[Funny Background Event]]: In his ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' review, he shows the Dictionary.com definition of "game", with another tab open titled "Super Huge Tits".

* [[Gay Option]]: In his ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' review he mentioned having hooked up with Anders, more or less because Snarky!Hawke annoyed him and came off as gay to him anyway, though he later detailed that roleplaying played a major part of it and ultimately did [[Video Game Caring Potential|develop a genuine fondness for Anders]], even {{spoiler|forgiving him for blowing up the Chantry}} and naming his [[Pokémon Black and White|Tepig]] after him.

* [[Gratuitous German]]: Yahtzee apparently studied German and it frequently comes up in series.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Seeing an enemy with a bull's head in ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Forgotten Sands'', he correctly anticipates it to be a [[Bullfight Boss]]. He also claims "powers of clairvoyance" that mean he predict how the opening [[Cutscene]] of ''[[Singularity]]'' will play out.

** He is also aware of tropes, and knows that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]]. He may or may not be aware of this site, but at the very least he understands the principles of this wiki.

** He referenced it on his Twitter, so he at least knows of its existance.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: His ''[[Tabula Rasa]]'' character, Gareth Gobulcoque, was so named to test the game's name filter. It passed.

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** Arachnophobic prospective viewers should take warning that they're usually taken from photos of actual tarantulas.

* [[GIFT]]: Yahtzee actually cites the [[Penny Arcade|original formula]] then alters it by subtracting 'Anonymity' and 'Audience'. Or in other words, [[Humans Are Bastards|Normal Person = Total Fuckwad.]]

* [[Gosh Darn It to Heck]]: Whenever he swears in the narration, the animation will replace it with something far more innocuous.

** Sometimes inverted--he'll say something (relatively) tactful in the narration, and the animation will unleash what he REALLY thinks.

** For instance, in his Assassin's Creed review, he remarks; "This video review was created by a not particularly multi-cultural person, but who really loves religious extremists a big huggy bunch," where the text displayed reads "''...not particularly multi-cultural person who invites religious extremists to suck out his farts and die.''"

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* [[Heavy Metal Umlaut|Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut]]: He specifically [[Gratuitous German|pronounces the extraneous umlaut]] in ''[[Brutal Legend|Brütal Legend]]''.

* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]: Yahtzee loves to abuse this whenever possible, with such examples as "[[Mass Effect|Titty Shepard]]" to "[[Phantom Hourglass|Fagballs]]", "[[Ocarina of Time|Fuck Me]]", "[[Nie R|Twattycakes]]" or "[[Tabula Rasa|Gareth Gobulcoque]]".

** Tried "Tiddles" in [[Deus Ex]] but was slapped down by the game's system of using "JC Denton" as a "[[Hand Wave|codename]].

{{quote|''"The moment you put in your own name it goes '''"Wrong!''' Your name is JC Denton.""''}}

* [[He Panned It, Now He Sucks]]: [[In-Universe]], Yahtzee derides people like this and those who complain that his review ruined their enjoyment of the game, stating that if a person's opinion of a game ruins someone's fun, then maybe they weren't having as much fun as they first thought they were.

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** ''Mafia II'''s ending seems to come too soon:

{{quote|"The game just sort of cuts out halfway through resolving everyth-[END CREDITS]}}

* [[I Love Nuclear Power]]:

{{quote|"''[[STALKER|Ess-Tee-Ay-Ell-Kay-Ee-Ar: Clear Sky]]'' is set in the area surrounding an alternative post-disaster Chernobyl, where presumably the station ran on fairy dust before the meltdown and released a cloud of ''magic'' instead of boring old radiation..."}}

* [[Impossibly Cool Weapon]]:

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** The ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause 2]]'' review starts by lampshading this to allow him to make "Why? Just 'cause!" jokes "ironically".

** "Bits of it were so boring that I almost had a ''[[Nie R]]''-death experience! Boosh!"

** "I don't see [[Alice: Madness Returns]] making mad returns, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|meheh myeh]].

** In his review of Monster Hunter Tri "You play an adventurer-type showing up at the prerequisite village of immobile retards in a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth to try to be a hunter of monsters. A Monster Hunter Try, if you will."

** Not to mention his credits pun in [[Alien vs. Predator]]: "Alias vs Editor".

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** He also refers to [[Bastion]] as Sebastian.

* [[Irony]]: Now at the bottom of every ''Zero Punctuation'' video there are ads linking you to various online retailers prompting you to buy the game that Yahtzee just finished eviscerating due to scripts and other coding used on the site to bring up ads on whatever product keywords are on the web page.

* [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks]]: Joked about.

{{quote|One should always support the independents, at least until they start making money, the ''soulless sellout fucks.''}}

** Admittedly, averted by his ''[[Gears of War]] 2'' review, in which he admits that things are often mainstream because they're good (Or because [[Will Smith]] is in it).

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{{quote|"It's like wrestling an excitable dog in a paddling pool full of disembodied breasts. *[[Beat]]* Don't think too much about that simile, I certainly didn't."}}

** Especially when it's a hot summer day and his AC isn't working. "Really good like...something...[[Buffy-Speak|good]] that's...made out of chocolate..."

** [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/8892-Extra-Punctuation-Action-Is-Not-Finisher-Porn This] ''Extra Punctuation'' takes the metaphor of "[[Too Many Cooks]] spoil the broth" and keeps stretching it until he reckons "I think this is already the best metaphor I've ever written."

* [[Milestone Celebration]]: Spoofed with his 100th episode, where he decides to review... exactly the same game he would've reviewed otherwise (''[[Call of Juarez]]: Bound in Blood'').

* [[More Dakka]]: His review of ''[[Spore]]'' shows the civilization stage as imps strafing other imps cities from the air, with the caption "Dakka Dakka" under the war planes.

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* [[Nightmare Retardant]]: [[In-Universe]], He states that [[Alice: Madness Returns]] made [[Creepy Doll|Creepy Dolls]] not creepy just by the fact that the game uses it constantly to the point where players just get used to it.

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Yahtzee prides himself on as having been playing video games since early childhood and frequently recalls how hard they were back then. He routinely mocks prospective critics who complain about the difficulty level in games these days. That said, games with [[Sonic Unleashed|ridiculously impossible sequences]], he blasts with both barrels.

** Yes, we're [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1321-Demons-Souls looking at you], ''[[Demon's Souls]]''.

** However he did enjoy ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'', though he states that no person, unless it's for charity should ever try [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Impossible difficulty]].

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: Technically doesn't qualify as there's no suspension of disbelief, but a review still pushed back the boundaries when Yahtzee addressed the viewer as "Adrian", and noted that while that's not particularly likely to be any given viewer's name, "it was worth it to freak out all the Adrians in the world."

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'''Otacon:''' Metal Gear!

'''Snake:''' Bugger me! }}

* [[Pet Peeve Trope]]:

** [[Doorstopper]]: He tends to rag on games that are heavy on dialogue and cutscenes, like ''[[Mass Effect]]'' and especially ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''.

** [[Karma Meter]]: He argues that usually "you need to be all the way good or all the way evil to unlock the best toys" which eliminates choice and forces an evil player to do some really ridiculous things to maintain their evilness. He also argues that such meters are "just forcing us to play the game twice to see all the content."

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** [[Updated Rerelease]]

** [[Waggle]]: One of his key issues with Nintendo consoles, because how shoehorned-in it seems.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: In an ''Extra Punctuation'', although he couldn't sympathize with gamers who cried at Aerith's death in ''FFVII'', he said that the emotions they felt were real and no one could call them fake or wrong.

* [[Portmanteau]]

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* [[Product Placement]]: Branston Pickles or '''GAME TRADERS ROBINA'''.

* [[Promoted Fanboy]]: A college kid by the name of Daniel Floyd created a video heavily inspired by Yahtzee's show. A few months later, he was hired by ''The Escapist'' and started a show called ''[[Extra Credits]]''.

* [[Punctuated ~~for~~ Emphasis]]: [[Red Faction|Darius Mason]] triumphs by using his magic flashlight the fix Mars' weather inside of five minutes. ..Erm.

* [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!]]: [[Red Faction|Darius Mason]] triumphs by using his magic flashlight the fix Mars' weather inside of five minutes. ..Erm.

* [[Queer People Are Funny]]: Quite a lot. His ''[[Army of Two]]'' review even opened with him [[Discussed Trope|discussing]] his own over-reliance on gay jokes and how he'd been trying to cut down on them but the game he was reviewing that week was just [[Ho Yay|such an obvious target]] for them.

* [[Raging Stiffie]]: Mentions the trope by name when describing his [[Cargo Ship|nostalgic feelings]] for ''[[Silent Hill 2]]''.

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** Almost all instances mentioning time travel have a picture of the [[Doctor Who|TARDIS]], as well.

** Yahtzee is a fan of [[Eddie Izzard]], phrases like "small yappy dog", "running, jumping, climbing" and "buttocks for a hat" have all been used in Izzard's sketches. Confirmed on one of the podcasts for Australian Gamer, when Matt calls him out on saying that everyone in Britain has a country manor.

** One of the dungeons in ''[[Nie R]]'' takes the form of a text adventure game, illustrated with "This dungeon has been replaced by a series of [[Colossal Cave|twisty text screens, all alike]]."

** He's recycled one or two of [[Seanbaby]]'s jokes, but they may be more flat ripoffs than shout outs because the ones Yahtzee borrowed aren't particularly well-known.

** The plot of ''[[Singularity]]'' has "more [[Plot Hole|holes]] than [[The Beatles (band)|Blackburn, Lancashire]]".

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** "[[[Singularity]]] rips off the cutesy, '50's style ads from [[Bio Shock 1]], which [[Bio Shock 1]] ripped off from [[Fallout]]. It's like a magnificent [[The Human Centipede|Human Centipede]] stretching back through gaming history."

** In one of his Extra Punctuation articles he offhandedly refers to a generic supervillain minion as "Longshoreman X." A reference to [[Dead to Rights]] and almost certainly [[Slowbeef]]'s Let's Play of the game.

** Even the very first video for the Escapist features a reference to Halfbrick Studios, an independent game developer based in Brisbane.

** In the ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning]]'' review, one of the monsters "borrowed from European folklore" is [[The Moomins|a Moomin]].

** Says [[Twisted Metal|Calypso]] could only more obviously be Satan "if he had horns and [[Divine Comedy|was idly chewing on Judas Iscariot]]."

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** "[Fairly serious analysis]...and I can't think of a joke for that sentence, so here's a picture of a dog in a hat."

** In describing ''[[Heavy Rain]]'': "The zenith is a hauntingly visceral and ''[[Precision F-Strike|fucking]]'' ''hard to watch'' scene in which..."

* [[Spiritual Licensee]]: A lot of comparisons are drawn between ''[[L.A. Confidential]]'' and ''[[LA Noire]]''.

** He referred to [[Painkiller]] as "The unofficial [[Doom (series)|Doom 3]]".

* [[Spoof Aesop]]: The lesson of ''Catherine'' seems to be "men are all directionless tidal waves, and [[Accidental Innuendo|women are all dikes]] built in the path of their raging floods."

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* [[Starbucks Skin Scale]]: A [[But Not Too Black]] character is dismissed as "dipped in tea".

* [[Stealth Insult]]: His ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' review features "Killing in the Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine playing over the end credits, which becomes hilarious when you consider that he has spent most of the review telling people who suggest things to him to get fucked. He doesn't play the song long enough for the joke to become apparent, but anyone who's listened to it knows that towards the end the singer just keeps repeating "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" over and over again.

* [[Storybook Opening]]: ''[[Red Faction]] Guerrilla''.

* [[Story to Gameplay Ratio]]: Yahtzee's a bit hard to pin down on this one, but the important things are that the amount of story must fit the game and that [[Story and Gameplay Segregation]] must not intrude. ''[[Silent Hill]] 2'' is his definitive example of getting the balance right.

* [[Stout Strength]]: An odd example, he refers to any large muscular character as fat even if they have an impossibly fit and overmuscled build.

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* [[Take That]]: Various games -- not just whatever he's reviewing. He's made recurring insults against ''[[Halo]]'', its fans, Nintendo's fondness for its own franchises, [[Eagle Land|Americans]], Gamespot after the ''[[Kane and Lynch]]'' [[Four Point Scale|debacle]], and Japanese RPGs. Not to mention two of his videos, which were extended [[Take That|Take Thats]] aimed at, respectively, bad gaming [[Web Comics]] in general (and one [[Ctrl+Alt+Del|in particular]]), and ''[[Duke Nukem Forever]]'' (dedicated to insulting 3D Realms, their investors, and the fans disappointed by the game's demise).

** There's another [[Take That]] directed at ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del]]'' in his ''[[Mass Effect]]'' review.

** Yahtzee's review of ''Wii Sports Resort'' was a [[Take That]] to the fans who stop watching his videos because he pans the [[Nintendo Wii]]. He later [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the [[Internet Backdraft]] that will inevitably occur by bidding his Wii-owning fans a fond farewell. Yahtzee has a longstanding animus toward all things Wii (and some other things about Nintendo), and while he has praised a small handful of Wii games, he gladly indulges in that animus.

** An absolutely huge on at the start of his ''[[Borderlands]]'' review: tearing into people that demand he review a certain game, despite his highly critical approach, only to then be shocked and complain when he criticises it.

** He also makes constant Take That's to Australian censorship laws, Australian region release dates and people behind them.

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** At the end of the ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' review ([[Shocking Swerve|which he actually said could stand up on its own as a single-player experience, though not to the level of classics]]), he mentions that your enjoyment of it is dependent on your disposable income:

{{quote|"If you willingly parted money for the [[PlayStation 3|Playstation Move]], feel free to go nuts, because you probably already have done."}}

** "Will [''[[Symphony of the Night]]''] be one of those old classics that still hold up from a fresh modern perspective -- like ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' and [[Patrick Stewart]] -- or will it be like one of those embarrassing older relatives that survive on nostalgia and self-effacement, like ''[[Myst]]'' or [[William Shatner]]?"

** "...[[British Footy Teams|Manchester United]], nil."

** ''[[LA Noire]]'''s director asks a [[Motion Capture]] actor to "look like you're lying". His [[Speech Bubble]] is a picture of [[Tony Blair]].

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* [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]]: The female imps have red bows on their heads.

* [[Testosterone Poisoning]]: Yahtzee seems quite fond of making jokes about his masculinity, stating that it's one of the reasons why he cares little for the [[RTS]] Genre. The subtitle for his Fully Ramblomatic site is "The website for REAL MEN".

** Regarding the miserably scowling hero of ''[[Darksiders]]'':

{{quote|"If I threw a seven-foot demon into the air and cut it in half with one swing... I'd be like, ''fucking hell!'' Did anyone see that? I'm squirting machismo out of my ''nipples'' here! I am a monster truck that walks like a man!"}}

** He even claims the opposite in regards to playing [[JRPG|JRPGs]] for any length of time beyond [[Final Fantasy XIII|five hours]]. Like he did with ''[[The World Ends With You]]''.

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** All the way back at his [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7-Peggle Peggle review], you have the images on the pegs: busts of [[Simon Pegg]].

* [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?]]: By his own admission, he doesn't believe in it, even stating that "true love" is indistinguishable from brain damage.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Rebecca Mayes' love song to him, calling him out on the lowest-common-denominator parts of his humour then asking him out for a drink...[[Yandere|and threatening to stab him with a screwdriver]].

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Rebecca Mayes' love song to him, calling him out on the lowest-common-denominator parts of his humour then asking him out for a drink...[[Yandere (disambiguation)|and threatening to stab him with a screwdriver]].

* [[Whoring]]: Yahtzee both hates the very existence of and abuses the hell out of moves that can be used for extreme versions of this, including but not limited to [[Red Steel|a parry that automatically stuns the opponent]], [[Prototype (video game)|a tentacle attack with way too long a reach]], [[Soul Calibur|tossing his helpless AI opponent around like a ragdoll]], and [[God of War (series)|the "fuck you" button]].

* [[X Days Since...]]: Parodied in the ''[[Army of Two]]'' review as "X Hours Since the Last Gay Joke".