Gameoverse, Glitch’s newest pilot released today!
What is Gameoverse?
Gameoverse is a show made by the Australian artist Ross O’ Donovan, better known as RubberRoss, as well as his long time collaborator and friend Arin Hanson(Egoraptor)who is best known from his let’s play channel Game Grumps and their side channels projects.
The show is made by the Australian production company Glitch and is the latest in their lineups of pilots and shows.
As the name implies, the story is about the game multiverse but also what happens when the game is over. It follows Kit and Kaboodle, two heroes who won their game and got rewarded with the deletion of their world. They are working for the benevolent Farcade and travel across the Gameoverse to try to help stop heroes from beating their games so their worlds can keep living. In their mission they have to face the evil syntax that feeds of dying worlds.
The cast
Many well known online personalities also featured. The most obvious ones are perhaps Arin and Ross themselves who play multiple roles. Arin plays the learnosaurus Gobbles and Flappers the super dolphin who both tag along with the main cast after their worlds get destroyed. This is actually Arin’s second time voicing these characters as he was the main voice actor in the original Gameoverse miniseries from 2009. Arin also worked as the voice director for this production.
Ross plays the evil Folds who work as a dastardly guide that helps heroes complete their games as fast as possible. He also plays some background characters. Folds and the tutorial character Miss Information (Elise lovelock) works to help heroes win their games which destroys their worlds. Their boss is Warrick played by Christopher Sabbat who is most known for playing the English voice for DBZ’s Vegeta.
The protagonist, Kit, is played by Erica Lindbeck, a name well known in internet animation for her Role as Loona in Spindelhorse’s Helluva boss. Jschlatt plays Kit’s trusting sidekick Kaboodle, a robot backpack with a short temper.
Other notable names attached are Michael Cusack co-creator of Smiling Friends, Giwi Ross’ partner and collaborator, Lisa Reimold, Vinny from Vinesauce, Tom Fulp the creator of Newgrounds, and Matt Watson from SuperMega.
Grant Kirkhope known for creating the DK rap, among other things, is a composer for the show along with Jake Kaufman, another prolific composer for video games.
The show is dedicated to the late Monty Oum who is well known and loved for his work with online animation during the 2000s to his death in 2015. Monty is most well known for his show RWBY. Which was one of the first major animated shows online.
An awesome pilot
I’ve awaited the Gameoverse or something like it for a long time. I was a pretty big Game Grumps fan when I was younger. As I’m writing this there is a signed Starbomb album standing on my shelf behind me.
I know that these people have been wanting to do something like this for a long time. I sort of wondered if that dream was over after Arin’s pilot, Happyland Incorporated, failed to get greenlit but luckily enough it wasn’t!
The show borrows a lot from many different games but ads enough to them that it don’t just feel like stand-ins. Kit and Kaboodle is first and foremost inspired by Mega Man although it might not be obvious if you aren’t in the know. Gameoverse references the Mega Man’s health bar, kit is outfitted with an arm canon, and overall they borrow a lot of design ideas like the large boots the Mega Man cast has and a lot more.
Their villains, Malice and Mayhem, are dark versions of the main cast in the same way that Bass and Treble is the dark version to Rock(Mega Man) and Rush and they both transform to create super forms. Mayhem is seemingly inspired from Mega Mans most iconic enemy, the Yellow Devil.
As a Mega Man fan that’s really fun to see, especially knowing Arin’s connection with the franchise. Arin has previously taken part in preserving Mega Man artwork and is a giant fan of the franchise.
Ross has stated that the show used Mega Man Legends as the basis for the 2d art style of the show and it is clearly visible when looking at the stylistic straight lines used in the characters. The general art style looks amazing to me. I’ve been a fan by Ross’ work for as long as I’ve known of him and I really like his Social Monsters he made in the early 2020s.
I’d assume characters like Flapper the super dolphin is inspired by the Mega drive classic, Ecco the dolphin, but nothing outside of the fact that he is a dolphin really points to that.
The mysterious figure that saves kit in the start is clearly designed after Alucard from Castlevania. The credits is filled with references to the older show and game in general.
The music is amazing, the voice work is on point, and the animation is beautiful, the story is great, etc. I have a hard time imagining someone legitimately disliking this unless you know nothing of it.
Although I generally don’t see glitch as an “indie studio” even if they like portraying themselves as one I do think they are extremely good at making cartoons especially when they are targeting online nerds like me. Comparing Gameoverse to any other pilot made by one person or a small team is extremely unfair but I don’t think that should make you think any less of the pilot by its own right. It’s amazing and a lot of passion is clearly put into it.
The show also covers some darker topics like survivor’s guilt, which is the shame and regret one feels for being the sole survivor of a tragic event. All of the main cast in Gameoverse are the last of their worlds and Kit feels incredibly bad and blame themselves for what happened although they were only doing the right thing.
I think its a really twist on the idea of games. A world where winning is the true game over. If you lose a life you can always try again but the moment a game is beat, that is where the world ends. I’m really curios where they take this theme throughout the rest of the series.
Gameoverse loves games and is really good at showing that love and for someone who loves games, especially the ones they are referencing, that is wonderful. I don’t think you have to be the biggest videogame lover to enjoy the Gameoverse but the show is 100% improved by being a fan before starting.
It might be good to point out that the show bears close to no overlap with the original 2009 series by Ross outside of the name and some character appearances. Gameoverse is by no means reheated leftovers. I do however hope the sex-ed teacher Ovarysaurus shows up in the new show so the learnosauruses can create their super mech.
A really minor thing I thought about when watching the show that slightly annoyed me was the fact that you definetly should watch the trailer before the first episode since it contains Gobbles backstory. I think this probably was best for the Gameoverse pacing given that it is made the way it is but it just feels kind of odd that you sort of have to do homework.
This is by no means a major gripe and shouldn’t be a reason to write of the show.
I love Gameoverse and hope we will receive new episodes soon. Where all other Glitch shows sort of feel like they have a definite end in sight I can just see this show go on forever and I hope we get there.
Watch the pilot here
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