The Community Spotlight 2025.07.19
Written by admin on July 20, 2025
Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look at the site-related news and best community creations from the previous week!
@turboshawn was busy this week! First, they went ahead and posted the entirety of Burgle My Bananas on YouTube FOR EVERYONE! Due to YouTube being YouTube, the series had to be broken into two parts rather than a single video. But, rest assured, everything is there and freely available.
On top of that, Shawn has uploaded a treasure trove of emotes from the classic Giant Bomb chat to Giant Bomb’s Twitch account. If you are willing to buy a subscription or use your Amazon Prime sub on Giant Bomb’s Twitch channel, you’ll find many of the emotes that made the old Giant Bomb chat the fun place it once was. A couple of the classics are entirely free.
To reiterate a cool thing from last week, huge props to Cody_Summers over on the Discord automating a system for helping people making community best of videos. They set up a weekly task on an AWS to grab a bunch of times from a Google sheet submitted by a form that collates all the submissions and creates one video from them. If you want to submit clips to help them out, here’s the link. If you want to examine the code they have made thus far, here’s the link to the current GitHub page.
As I shared last week, Giant Bomb will be participating in Hard Drive’s Woke And Gay Charity Stream for Trans Lifeline! Here’s the donation link and if you want to be there when the streams start follow Hard Drive on Twitch. Giant Bomb’s contribution will be from 8PM-10PM ET on 7/25 and it will feature Mike Minotti playing The Lion King for the SNES!
Art
Minotti x They’re The Same Photo (By: Lazycon)
From the Giant Bomb Discord, which the link above is an invite to, Lazycon took a verbal slip from Minotti and decided to have a field day with it with this photoshopped goodness.
Bluey x Pimp My Ryckert (By: @jearum)
Why not take the largely wholesome and family-friendly Bluey and mash it up with Dan Ryckert as a pimp, ala Pimp My Ride? That sounds like a horrifying idea but that did not stop jearum this week!
Giant Bomb Badanza/Bajanza (By: NickToilet)
People are going CRAZY for Donkey Kong Bananza and NickToilet decided to have some wordplay fun using Dan and Jan’s names while also keeping in-line with the game’s color scheme and font. As always, NickToilet also has a time lapse video showing how they made this work on bsky.
Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/hard-drive.net/post/3lub7ioqeok2n
https://bsky.app/profile/nicktoilet.bsky.social/post/3lu76fjds3c2f
https://bsky.app/profile/michaelroleary.bsky.social/post/3lu4ahwbzk22k
https://bsky.app/profile/giantbomb.bsky.social/post/3lu6gx5mgec2s
https://bsky.app/profile/gbdudersfeed.bsky.social/post/3ltuihak5dc27
Videos
GB Retro TEST (By: GeneJacket)
Over on YouTube, GeneJacket had some fun doing a transitional “Please Wait” screen/animation for Giant Bomb with a deliberately retro vibe.
Activities
The GBTrainers Club For Uma Musume Pretty Derby (By: @propagandapanda)
Once again, our Uma Musume Pretty Derby community has a topic for everyone to mull over: what are the best supported cards in Uma Musume Pretty Derby? Also, how can one “responsibly” partake in the horse girl gacha game? Share away in this thread!
The GB Album Club 089 – Judgment Night Soundtrack by Various Artists (By: @unclejam23)
The latest pick for Giant Bomb’s Album of the Week Club is the Judgment Night Soundtrack Immortal Records and Epic Soundtrax! Is this an all-time movie soundtrack album? Many people hold this specific soundtrack in high regard, but is that reputation warranted? Share away!
The Alters Is The 7th Game Of UUGPGC Year 4! Finish By August 1! Mark All Spoilers! (By: @bigsocrates)
Once again, The Alters has been selected by the Giant Bomb Game of the Month Club as its next game pick, but it should be noted that voting closed before the AI art stuff broke. As a result, all forms of discussion about that and the game itself are welcomed in the thread linked above.
Blogs
Desire and Despair in the Persona 5 Gacha (By: @jeremyf)
The internet seems to be dunking on the “Subway Slammer,” but is Persona 5: The Phantom X any fun or have any creative merit? That’s at the heart of jeremyf’s latest blog!
Choke Point: Geoguessr and Navigable Cities (By: @gamer_152)
In what ways can you learn about questionable city planning in the United States, it deteriorating mass transit systems, and issues with walkability via Geoguesser? Check out Gamer_152’s deep dive to learn more.
Entry-Level: The Mystic Quest to Make the Easiest Final Fantasy Game Actually Challenging+
Indie Game of the Week 428: Ultros (By: @mento)
Moderator Mento has taken it upon themselves to “fix” one of the most common complaints about Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: the game is too easy. So, they tested out challenges to ramp up the difficulty!
And as expected of them, Mento also has a new entry in their “Indie Game of the Week” feature but this time they played and reviewed Ultros! Do they think this indie Metroidvania deserves the GOTY buzz it got from some? Read to find out!
The Merits Of Lethal Company-Likes – Part 1: What Is A “Streamer Game,” And Assessing Content Warning And Kletka (By: @zombiepie)
Moderator ZombiePie penned an essay about the rise of the modern “Co-op Streamer Game” while reviewing their merits and defining features alongside reviewing Content Warning and Kletka as case studies on where the genre is going.
Should Have Been Gilroy Part 1 of 3 The Iliad (By: @infantpipoc)
infantpipoc this week looks at the enduring legacy of The Iliad on games and all media and why they think Tony Gilroy’s treatment of the epic is still worthy of outright scorn.
Discussion Threads
Donkey Kong Bananza Impressions Thread (By: @bigsocrates)
How is everyone finding Donkey Kong Bananza? Are you enjoying DK’s glorious return to 3D platforming? Is there anything in the game that you disliked or wished was different? Join our discussion about the game in this thread!
Steam’s New Rule Prohibiting Games Disapproved By Payment Processors Is NOT GOOD! (By: @zombiepie)
Have any of you been following the news about Steam changing its rules and that impacting adult games? Do you have worries about the future impacts and the amount of sway payment processors like Visa and Mastercard hold?
Personal Connections To Games/Movies/Shows (By: @tartyron)
Hideo Kojima is a person with Hollywood connections; that much cannot be disputed anymore. However, do you have any game/movie/TV connections worth talking about? Have you had any encounters with the rich and famous?
Some Of You REALLY HAAAATE The Term “MetroidBrainia.” So, “Research Action” Seemed Like The Best Alternative (By: @zombiepie)
Some of you really really REALLY HAAAAAAAAAATE the term: MetroidBrainia So, the Giant Bomb wiki moderation team has opted to use the term “Research Action” instead. If you hate that even more, share away in the thread!
Lists
100 Best Standalones of 2001-2025* (By: @mento)
What if you took Giant Bomb’s “100 Best Games of the 21st Century” list but disqualified sequels and pre-existing IPs and only allowed new standalone titles? That’s Mento’s latest list in a nutshell!
Best Of The Century So Far (By: @bp0708)
Games of the Past 25 Years (By: @alphawolfy)
bp0708 and Alphawolfy tried making “Best Games of the Century” lists in response to the site’s final results. Give either a read and if you feel like making your own rebuttal list as well, Giant Bomb’s list feature is here for you!
Top 10 Games of 2024 (By: @bladeblur)
BladeBlur finally got around to making a 2024 GOTY list and judging by some of the games they included you get the delay. And remember, it’s NEVER to late to make a GOTY list, especially on Giant Bomb.
Most Overwhelming Games Of All Time (By: @redfoxbennaton)
redfoxbennaton got to listing and annotating the games from their past that overwhelmed them either through gameplay or storytelling. Have you ever been in the middle of playing a game and said “Man, I don’t have time for this?”
Reviews
@geimers‘s bad retro fighting game reviews are BACK in action! This time they reviewed Time Killers on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive! What makes this weapon-based Street Fighter II clone so rancid?
Wiki Of The Week
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
Man how time flies, OG MechWarrior 2 is turning 30 soon and that seemed like a good enough reason to have it as our Wiki of the Week, but also, our wiki page for the game is just amazing in its own right! If you want a trip down PC-gaming memory lane, give this wiki page a gander!
