Retsupurae: YouTube’s Gamer Critics

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Let’s Play is not an uncommon genre for YouTube videos, big names such as TobyGames and Machinima dominate the home screen of the website. But there’s a standard to gaming. Behind the front page are video game superheroes, saving the Internet from terrible gamers, known as Retsupurae.

Retsupurae is a YouTube channel notorious for commentating over various YouTube videos. Infamous for cracking at YouTubers like PewDiePie and Seamus (SSOHKPC), Diabetus and Slowbeef have been at the criticizing games since 2008.

Little do most people know, Slowbeef actually invented Let’s Play as we know it today.  It all began on a comedy/forum site called SomethingAwful, where LP’s were usually commentary with images or screenshots of the game. The first Let’s Play video was made by Slowbeef in 2007, playing Metroid for the SNES.

Retsupurae also does Retsufrash — cracking at horribly designed games and flash animations from media website Newgrounds — and Wrongupurae, commenting over terrible video games. Retsupurae is not alone, many channels and friends of Slowbeef and Diabetus have sprouted up with a similar style, such as ChipCheezumSA and Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of SomethingAwful.

Some viewers don’t understand that Retsupurae doesn’t have any malice behind its channel; it’s all criticism on how to improve terribly made videos. Some YouTubers that they have riffed are ones that they’ve actually really liked, such as BillyMC and TheLimePopsicle, whose completely innocent attitudes, loyal friendship, and stuck-in-the-80’s interests are impossible to hate.

Retsupurae currently has 77,000 subscribers and occasionally the channel will have a Retsublitz, or a period of time where they publish several videos a day. Normally they upload one video every day.