Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, ZombiePie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the important staff and site news as well as the best user-created works from the previous week!
Well, we have a TON of news related to the site to go over this week and a lot of it is incredibly exciting! As indicated in this announcement thread, Chuck deployed a Game Tracker where premium users can track, review, and classify games in and out of their playing rotation. Again, this is presently undergoing a beta test for Premium users only, but right now people can use the Game Tracker to classify games as being "Unplayed," "Played," Beaten," and "100%." You can also send games to a handy "Backlog" and even click a "Rate / review" button to write up a quick or long assessment of any game in the wiki.
If you encounter any issues with this feature, again, understand that it is still in beta form but also feel free to share your input in the announcement thread. But more importantly, tell your friends about this and if you notice that a wiki page for a game that you rated high isn't so detailed, consider using that as an excuse to give the Giant Bomb wiki a shot! The feature has already led to a wave of reviews and wiki edits which is incredible to see.
Chuck is aware that sometimes games don't have images even if they have images on their wiki pages. For the most part, attaching images to wiki pages to game pages that say "I need an image" seems to work. If you want to help but don't know how, the steps are to go to a wiki page, click edit, and there's an upload image field. Also, if you accidentally reviewed a game and want to delete it, you need to find it and delete it from your My Reviews portal. Chuck is working on making the ability to delete star reviews on the modal possible with a future deploy.
Related, making lists, tier lists, and user reviews are now open to ALL USERS and not just features Premium users can play with! So, if you have been dying to make a copy of a tier list ranking the games in your favorite franchise to "set the record straight," now is the time to do that!
As mentioned last week, Drew Scanlon, the blinking white guy himself, is raising money towards Bike MS, a charity that works with the National MS Society to fund research into new treatment and therapy for people combatting Multiple Sclerosis. So far, they have raised $27,321.00 of their $30,000.00 goal and I think the Giant Bomb community can certainly help him reach his donation goal.
Dan recently announced they will be competing for $250,000 on Fox's The Floor gameshow, and it’ll air on Wednesday nights starting on 9/23 (next day on Hulu)! If you watch the preview for Season 6 of The Floor, you can even catch a few cameos of Dan!
Art
Dan Norted (By: Sacul64)
Speaking of Dan appearing on The Floor, after he shared the headshot photo he took for the show, some Giant Bomb community members decided to have some fun at his expense. The first of these came from Secul64 over on the Giant Bomb Discord, which the link above send you to in case you haven't already joined.
With this series of images, Sacula64 imagines what Dan would look like as a character in Kingdom Hearts and even what he would look like if he got Norted.
Dan Running Away From A Burning Building (By: Alex Orona)
Joining in on the fun, Alex Orona, also from the Giant Bomb Discord, found one of the full body images of Dan from that trailer and edited it next to a burning building almost to suggest that Dan is always up to no good.
Considering what the man has done to get rid of his wasp problem, using fire seems "tame."
Classic Clip of the Week
Now That's Hot Soup (By: jearum)
Transcript:
Brad: Just keep quoting Transformers.
Jeff Gerstmann: Autobots, let's... I'm a sick-ass robot and then we're going to roll out!
And I've got an axe for a hand and now I'm going to turn into a truck.
I'm going to open up my chest and pull this thing out and you're going to go 'Awww, SHIT!'
And then we're going to fuck up this guy who turns into a gun... until ALL are one!
Brad: Holy shit...
Ben: Oh my god!
Jan: Is that hot soup, thought?
Jeff Gerstmann: Now THAT'S, hot soup!
What more is there to say than RIP Peter Cullen?
Community Articles
Introducing: They're Taking Over - A Series About Kidz Bop +
They're Taking Over #01 - Muzak, But For Kids (By: allthedinos)
Against all good judgement, allthedinos is doing a new bi-weekly feature on the Kidz Bop album series and will be listening to and reviewing every single Kidz Bop album ever made. What inspired them to do this and what was the first album like? Give either of their articles on the site a read to learn more.
64 in 64: Episode 53—Plats All, Folks! Part Five +
Indie Game of the Week 483: Nobody Wants to Die (By: Mento)
Mixing Earthworm Jim 3D with Banjo-Kazooie seems like a crazy idea, but that's exactly what Mento did. How much enjoyment with either game were they able to extract after only playing each for 64 minutes? Read to find out!
Likewise, Mento has another edition of their "Indie Game of the Week" feature and this one tackles Nobody Wants to Die. Were they impressed by this noir detective game and its cyberpunk world? There's only one way to find out!
SuperHarman's August Journal (By: superharman)
The end of a month means that superharman is back with a write-up of all their gaming highs and lows! Are there any games from the month that they recommend? Unfortunately, they confirm the collective disappointment with Beasts of Reincarnation.
Forum Posts Worth Checking Out
Announcements
If You Have Giant Bomb Premium, You Can Now Test The Giant Bomb Video Game Tracker (By: chucktowski)
Once again, if you have Giant Bomb Premium, give the site's new Game Tracker a shot and play around with categorizing games and even giving them reviews! If you encounter any bugs, feel free to drop a comment in the thread and Chuck will try to get to you as soon as possible.
General Discussion
The GB Album Club 123 - The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (By: unclejam23)
The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe is the latest pick for the Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club! Are any of you familiar with Monáe's debut studio album? Is this still the BANGER it was called when it first dropped?
Who Are Your Favorite Voiceless And Voiced Protagonist (By: chocobodude3)
What are your favorite voiced and voiceless characters in video games and how do they stack up? What makes a good voiceless character and how do you prevent a voiced character from being too imposing?
Fields Of Mistria Discussion, Anyone? (By: doubledaddydan)
The game has been out for a while, but did any of you pick up a copy of Fields Of Mistria? Is it an easy recommendation for Harvest Moon or Stardrew Valley fans? Share your thoughts with other members of the community that are playing it or are interested in giving it a shot.
Patron of the Arts (By: gyratyne)
The thread where Giant Bomb users talk about their favorite gaming Patreon/Kickstarter experiences has been revived to talk about Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight 2026 project! Have you lent your support to DoubleFine's latest initiative?
What Are You Playing/Finishing/Abandoning This Week (August 30, 2026 Edition)? (By: laughingman)
How did you kick off the first days of September? Are there games you are still hoping to cram in before we all get swallowed by Game of the Year season? Regardless if the game you are playing is big or small or new or old, share your experiences with it in the thread linked above!
Suggestions & Bug Box
Community Article Stuff (By: atheistpreacher)
In this thread Chuck shared some of their thought process about the state of Community Articles and their visibility and how to help community members writing and publishing on the site. They left no stone unturned regarding the issue so, if that's a feature on the site you care about, definitely give it a read and feel free to share any additional thoughts that you might have.
Reporting Missing Videos on Site (By: trace17)
Just a friendly reminder that if you notice any missing videos or VODs on the site, whether it be a random missing video in a "classic" Giant Bomb program or a recent livestream that never got posted, drop a comment in the thread linked above and try to be as specific as possible about the feature or stream name and the episode number if it is part of a series. Chuck or someone else will try to be on the case as quick as possible.
Premium
90's Game Rental Vibes (By: mafuchi)
So, Giant Bomb recently debuted its new "Weekend Rental Club" feature and that has the community thinking about games they would like to see the staff play as part of the feature in the future. Can you think of any Blockbuster or Hollywood Video rentals that seem destined for this series?
Grubbsnax Question Thread (By: jeffgrub)
For those of you with Premium subs, you can head on over to the Premium-Only board and possibly get a question answered during Grubbsnax if you write and post it in this thread. Huge props to Grubb for taking the time to engage with the forums to whip up some community engagement!
Lists/Tier Lists
Ratchet And Clank Tiers (According To Me) (By: spellz2113)
spellz2113 tried their hand at making a Ratchet and Clank tier list and this is how things panned out! Is there a game you'd rank different? Well, now that making lists is open to all users, consider making a copy and editing it for you own list over on!
My Top 10 Games Of 2020 Revisited (By: mocbucket62)
It’s been a while since mocbucket62 made their Revisted Top 10 Games of 2019 list. For this week, they went ahead and made one for 2020 on Giant Bomb! Now with the site’s updated thumbnails to show the 4 highest ranked games it's a fun and entertaining read.
A Somewhat Belated GOTY 2025 List (By: businessisblooming)
businessisblooming joins the handful of users from last week that made the effort to finally publish their BELATED but still welcomed 2025 GOTY list. If you want to join the fun and also haven't published your GOTY list from last year, let me know and I'll be happy to showcase it.
Mech Games (By: chadcialist)
chadcialist had a crack at Giant Bomb's tier list-making system by making a tier list in which they ranked all of the mech games they have played from best to worst! If any of you are Virtua-On or Armored Core fans, now's your time to shine!
User Reviews
Author's Note: For my own self-preservation, I'm going to be fairly selective of user reviews on the Spotlight. While I am going to share Grubb's funny but short review for Super Mario Bros., I don't plan to showcase reviews like that in the future. Part of it is that I don't have the bandwidth and also while I'm excited that people are publishing the amount of reviews they are, I want the ones shared here to be really "special" or at least go one or two steps above tersely saying if a game is good or bad.
rowsofcaststeel played and finished Mortal Shell II, and as they convey in their review, they think the game solves some issues or quibbles they have with FromSoftware's Souls games while also having some new ones itself.
Adhdsnorlax reviewed 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim after everyone told them they HAD to give the game a shot and as this review shares, they can't help but feel like the game doesn't live up to the GOTY hype that it got and continues to get.
metalwahl played and reviewed The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants as Grubb seems to be lurching closer and closer towards needing to play the game as their adventures in Cyberdillo continue to drag. They share some humorous anecdotes before confirming it truly is as bad as you've heard.
blazefuz reviewed Sonic CD and decided to put their childhood nostalgia for the game to the test. Read why they think the game MOSTLY holds up if it were not for a couple of levels and design choices that still feel incredibly mean-spirited.
presidentevil also joined other users in reviewing games from their childhood, and in their case, they played and reviewed Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. However, they went an extra step in actually writing more than a few fleshed out paragraphs!
linksocarina is back reviewing every single Guitar Hero and Rock Band game in chronological order and this week looked at the highest of highs and lowest of lows. The games they reviewed were:
Jeff Grubb's review for Super Mario Bros. Are EGM's quick 200 character or less reviews coming back? Only time will tell!