Go 8-Bit: Potential Wasted

Like many gamers, the announcement of a mainstream TV comedy panel show to be focused centrally on videogames was something of a delight for me. I was even happier that the frontrunner was set to be Dara O’Briain, a very likeable and funny comedian who also happens to be an avid gamer himself.

However, upon watching the show when it was being aired on Dave in the UK, I was greatly disappointed by Go 8-Bit. For many reasons, the show fell flat, felt stale and was even offensive at times.

From the moment that Go 8-Bit first aired and I saw the panel, I felt a sense that most of the celebrities that were being featured did not want to be there, seemingly thinking that their careers had sunk to their lowest point. Only a couple times did I sense genuine enthusiasm. The first time was from an intense moment watching David James play Tekken, which only served to magnify my disappointment with the show. The panellists were actually invested in the game and determined to emerge the winner. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the match. It proved that at some level the format could work, which made it such a shame that it just didn’t.

Another time I experienced the promise from Go 8-Bit was when watching Russell Howard play a football game on the show. Russell Howard is an excellent comedian and his popularity speaks for itself, and he rightfully lauded the chance to show off and work his magic through video game form, ultimately making the sense of fun come from his innate silly character.

It is such a shame then, that this show presents such a missed opportunity. Dara O’Briain, as a well-known gaming enthusiast and popular comedian, was wasted. Rarely did he get a chance to show off his best, overshadowed by unenthusiastic panellists and relegated to the role of some sad, quiet commentary from the sidelines. This proved to be the biggest disappointment of the series for me, as he just didn’t engage well enough at all to be entertaining. It seemed like he was simply going through the motions.

Another odd gimmick with the show I disliked was the spinning stage. While at first, the way the stage would turn so that the audience were facing the same way as the gamers was somewhat charming, after three or four times of being subjected to this per episode I was fatigued from this gimmick, and very visibly so were the comedians on offer.

The comedians form the next part of my argument. It was clear that there was a sense of laziness attached to the show. Many of the guests just didn’t care about video games. This should have proved amusing as audiences would get to watch them learn more about the hobby and maybe even enjoy it in spite of their outsider status, however, most of them were content to just run through the motions, make a few jokes at the expense of gamer stereotypes (the amount of times I heard the old ‘middle-aged man living in his mum’s basement’ joke was downright offensive), and maybe drop a reference to a mobile game that bore no relation to the excellent and engaging hobby I know and love.

The games were fun and had neat ideas, but I felt that they were let down by the sheer lack of enthusiasm from the guests. This is, in a nutshell, why I was so annoyed by Go 8-Bit. There was simply so much potential and effort wasted, and oftentimes a frustrating lack of understanding or effort put in place.

Another irksome example was when Rocket League was being played in the series. I love the game and it is always loud, noisy fun, but the celebrities playing it were oddly quiet, didn’t really care and didn’t nearly evoke the spirit of many a drunken rowdy night shouting at each other while badly playing car football. I actually felt that I have had more entertaining nights playing the game with my own friend than watching professional comedians being simply unfunny. The most frustrating thing of all of this, though, was the amateur editing, as the video had not been cropped and I could see the play bar along the bottom of the screen. It’s particularly irksome knowing that someone would have been paid a very high salary to edit the footage for this show.

Go 8-Bit was a show that ultimately was a missed opportunity. I would have loved as much as anyone else to see my beloved hobby get some decent treatment on the small screen, but amid bored-looking celebrities wondering how their careers went so wrong, guests who knew nothing about the world of video games, and lame, oftentimes offensive stereotypical gamer jokes, Go 8-Bit just fails to engage at all for me as an experienced gamer, and for all the time suffering through three minute-long ad breaks and bad gimmicky decisions, I would much rather just watch someone do a Let’s Play, or play the game myself.