Mario Party Like It's 1998 | Video Games Monthly October 2023

In this episode, we're going to party like it's 1998 Mario-style with our unboxing of the October 2023 Video Games Monthly box & address some criticism of the channel.Show more

For those of you not familiar with Video Games Monthly, it is a monthly subscription service where you can get 3, 4, 5, or 10 retro video games delivered right to your doorstep. Best of all, this is not a rental service, you get to keep the games. This month, I changed up my selections a little bit, adding Wii And Wii U games to the mix, & removing PlayStation & PlayStation 2 games. That's one of the cool things, you can pick & choose each month what systems you get games for.

What we got:
N64
Mario party
Value: $30

Lego Jurassic World
Wii U
Value: $5

De Blob
Nintendo Wii
Value: $6

Total games value: $41

What we think:
Man this box started out so strong, a $30 game is one of the highest individually valued games I think I've ever gotten from Video Games Monthly. I have never played any of the N64 Mario party games, but I'm excited to try this out.

Lego Jurassic World is a fantastic game, & I know this because I already own it! Yes, I forgot to add any of my Wii U library to my Video Games Monthly library. They had nothing to go off of & that was my fault. Getting De Blob for the Wii U is exciting as well, I've heard this is a really good game I've just never played it.

Finally, I wanted to take a moment & address a video that was recently released which was highly critical of myself, this channel, & how I run things. While not called out by name, a thumbnail of one of my videos was shown, & references to things that I do were also referenced. This was done by someone I had considered to be friendly with, but it fell flat. Let me explain.

#VideoGamesMonthly #MarioParty #Nintendo64

References about me:
Using a digital microscope:
For a few months used a digital microscope to inspect the pins on games from Video Games Monthly. The reason? I've shared my Bell's Palsey story in the past. One side effect that, to this day have still not recovered from, has been a loss of vision. Specifically I can no longer see fine details. I had to use a digital microscope until I finally got a proper set of glasses to use for fine detail work because I simply couldn't see things. So the fact that he took a shot at me over a medical issue is really crummy.

Criticizing the cleanliness of the games received:
I will complain if games that I get through a paid service are filthy. Somewhere in the handling there's the potential to simply run a Clorox wipe over the face of the disc case, the game, whatever. I also appreciate the fact that Video Games Monthly will run scratch discs through their resurfacing machine, but there have been many months where excess polishing compound is left around the spindle of the game. This should be removed before sent to the customer. I've also talked to VGM about the fact that they generally don't clean the pins on their cartridges, I wish they would. Part of me is glad that they don't because I get to show you how to clean your games each month.

Getting value for what you spend:
This is one I did not understand, people should not be bothered if they don't get value for what they spend? Opening a blind box has no value to me, it's what's inside that has value. Value is where you find it. This box, For example, was about 6 bucks light versus what I paid. That's not to dump on VGM, it's simply to show the facts. And even though I paid more for this box than what the street value of these games are, I was thoroughly thrilled with this box, these are 3 great games.

Clickbait titles & thumbnails
This is what I took the biggest issue with because thumbnails from a video of mine & friends of mine were used to show how bad & evil we were. There's a difference between trying to encourage people to click on your video to play it & having something that is factually inaccurate. My thumbnail used was accurate, the games in that video were discussingly filthy, but somehow I'm the bad guy for pointing that out?

In the end, I can't control how anybody else runs their channel or produces their videos, nor do I want to. I do something different than others, & that's fine, & it's fine that others do things differently than me! I have mentioned what a great service Video Games Monthly is, & I enjoy the games that I get from them more or less. That being said, you can't ever improve if you're not given feedback on areas where improvements can be made. That is always the strategy that I take, I never attack anyone, & frankly I was very disappointed in the individual that took these cheap shots. Regardless, this is the last time I am bringing up.