Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the site-related news and best community creations from the previous week!
First and foremost, let's give a huge congratulations to the staff for pulling off the Giant Bomb-A-Thon! The 24-Hour Marathon Stream delivered on laughs and thrills. But, best of all, the Giant Bomb community utterly SMASHED every donation target the event had! Jan and Bakalar are planning their Giant Bomb themed tattoos, fishing week is on the menu, and so much more. Also, massive props to the person who dropped $15K to help support the site; that's downright amazing stuff.
If you missed the event or want to re-live the magic, I'll include the VOD below. However, never lose sight of why the Bomb-A-Thon was hosted. If you can still support the site and everything these duders do, please do so however you can. If you haven't maxed out your premium subscription, that's always an avenue. Likewise, the Giant Bomb Ko-Fi page isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But, something I really loved seeing were the people buying gift subs for people or friends they encouraged to create accounts for on the site. That's the sort of creative thinking that will ensure this site really continues on for years to come!
Additionally, the BOMB-A-THON might be over, but you can still get some INCREDIBLE Bomb-A-Thon merch! If you want a t-shirt or hoodie with re-imagined versions of the staff, check out the new character design on the store! There's also the non-character hoodie and t-shirt for anyone that doesn't want cartoon versions of the gang!
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Most importantly, mugs are back in the store! After so many of you complained about the lack of mugs, now's the time to show you all meant what you said. Also, please be patient while the staff plan for how to implement all of the donation goals that were met. For example, I know the planning process for the zine is already underway.
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From one major Giant Bomb-led event to another, I'll talk more about in the dedicated section for Extra Life below, but as I stated last week, I'm going to be your Team Captain this time around. You should tune into Giant Bomb's podcast and streams this coming week to learn more about what the staff have planned for the charity drive. If anything, I really need any and all of you that haven't joined the team to do so. Even if you have zero intentions of streaming, we're still asking everyone to create pages because we usually have donation incentives and matching activities were even empty team pages get donations. The more the merrier as they say!
And once again, with the end of the year drawing nigh, don't forget about communicating with everyone you know that they need to log into their Giant bomb site accounts between now and the end of the year. If you really want to check to see if you're all squared away click this link.
You'll only see a disclaimer with a button to click if you haven't already opted into the account transfer process.
If you still are not able to log into the beta site and have premium, DM chucktowski on Discord with your username and email and he can sort it out.
Extra Life 2025
Art
Giant Bomb-a-Thon Coffee Art (By: @sir5000)
In honor of Mike getting their melon played like a pair of bongos, sir5000 decided to grace us one again with some excellent coffee art! The fact they were able to NAIL Mike's grimace with coffee foam is downright incredible stuff if you ask me.
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Bakalar's Island + The Bombathon Couch (By: Pickle Giraffe)
Pickle Giraffe isn't quite ready to drop the next “official” season of Giant Bomb Blight Club Animated, but they have shared plenty of snippets and art assets that confirm that the next season will be an absolute BANGER! To fully appreciate what I mean, click the links to see what artistry they have been up to recently.
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Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/danryckert.com/post/3m4dq5vmfis2x
https://bsky.app/profile/janochoa.bsky.social/post/3m4g5are3h22d
https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3m4f5ibcwhk2k
https://bsky.app/profile/heyderekstone.bsky.social/post/3m4foqjhmrs2o
https://bsky.app/profile/marinov1.bsky.social/post/3m4a6x254ik2s
Activities
The GB Album Club 102 – The Newest Joke by Veltpunch (By: @unclejam23)
Hey! The latest pick for the Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club is The Newest Joke by Veltpunch! Have any of you heard of this Japanese alternative rock band? Join the fun over here and as this cycle nears its end, the group is looking for new blood to revive the groups ranks and bring in even more album recommendations.
Creatures Of Ava Is The 10th Game Of UUGPGC Year 4. Spoilers OPEN! (By: @bigsocrates)
Creatures of Ava by Inverge Studios and Chibig is this month's pick for the Giant Bomb Game of the Month Club! This week the discussion thread has officially opened its talk to everything and anything related to the game's story and final batch of levels. Do any of you have juicy takes about how the game wraps up? Share them NOW!
Blogs
The Myth of a Conservative Halo (By: @linksocarina)
LinksOcarina wrote an essay on why they think it is important to push back on the growing narrative that Halo is by design a conservative game that espouses conservative ideals. Do you have any thoughts about this topic in light of the Trump administration's recent appropriation of Halo?
Tuesdays* of Terror: Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead +
Indie Game of the Week 443: Maid of Sker (By: @mento)
Mento has a smattering of blogs for you to enjoy this week! Halloween might be over, but they have one more retro horror game blog and this one tackles War of the Dead/Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead. Does the first true survival horror game still hold up?
Likewise, with the conclusion of Halloween marking the end of the month, Mento has their usual monthly wrap-up sharing what they loved playing and watching last month. If you're interested in getting some indie game or anime recommendations, this is the blog for you!
Finally, the topic of their “Indie Game of the Week” this time around is Maid of Sker! Was this a great way to round off their spooky October?
Double or Nothing?: Buckshot Roulette and Lethal Gambling (By: @gamer_152)
Moderator Gamer_152's latest essay is all about Buckshot Roulette and in it they explore the history of Russian roulette, the topic of addiction, and how Buckshot Roulette opens up a greater discussion on how you can make a game of luck into a game of skill.
Some TMNT Brawlers, Ranked in No Particular Order for No Particular Reason (By: @ford_dent)
Ford_Dent makes a glorious return to blogging by publishing what they consider the most definitive ranking of every single Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brawler ever made! If you have any thoughts, share how the “science” works for you.
Let The Record State, The Xbox Series X Was Genuinely Great Hardware That Deserved So Much Better Than This (By: @zombiepie)
As the title suggests, with the mood about the future of new Xbox console hardware at an all-time low, moderator ZombiePie can't help but feel like the Xbox Series X|S really got shafted. In their opinion, they really think the console was an incredible piece of hardware that deserved a better fate than this.
Moosey May Cry Part 1. (By: @mooseymcman)
Between the Netflix series and recent interviews with the people that made the series coming out, MooseMcMan decided to start a new retrospective where they look at the Devil May Cry franchise. Obviously, they start with the game that started it all and you can read what they thought of the game's “stylish action” combat.
Discussion Threads
Fishing Week Suggestions (By: @doowaygee)
First Giant Bomb did Golf Week and now thanks to Jan and his chicken nugget eating abilities, there will be a Fishing Week! What sorts of games would you like to see played as part of this feature? Share away in the thread linked above!
RECOMMENDATIONS: Need Mobile Game To Play With My Bestie! (By: @jnerd)
Where have all the multiplayer and co-op mobile games gone? Are there any mobile games that allow others to play with each other that you recommend? If you can think of a game, feel free to share it in the discussion thread by jNerd!
Simpsons Games Retrospective (By: @matabus)
Mike mentioned YouTuber honestom23's retrospective on every Simpsons video game ever made and here's a fun thread where you can share your appreciation of the retrospective on the forums. Do you have any strong opinions about the gaming highlights and lowlights of the Simpsons IP?
High Resolution Screenshot Sharing Thread (By: @simplestrobot)
The old screenshot thread has gone long abandoned, so, I'm more than happy to promote this thread as a new alternative. Have you taken any fun high res screenshots of your games? If so, feel free to share them and the system or rig you took them on in this thread!
Lists
GOTY 2025 (By: @cardgameenjoyer)
Yup, it's that time of the year again! How are everyone's GOTY lists shaping up? Do you know what your top five games from the year are? Are you struggling with the placement of any of your games and what are going to be the best games that don't make the cut? If you make a list, don't forget to keep me posted!
10 Favorite Games of All-Time (Alphabetical Order) (By: @finalboss)
With this quickie list, FinalBoss decided to update their old “Favorite Games of All-Time” list, but they struggled with a proper numbered list so they went with alphabetical order.
User Reviews
@djcube‘s PK Out of The Shadows review takes us back to a time when Disney games were allowed to be weird… really weird. Check this review out to learn all about the Donald Duck-led game based on an Italian comic series!
@djcube‘s Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom on the GameCube looks at one of the more forgotten Yu-Gi-Oh! video game outings and tries to see if there's any reason to give it a second gander beyond just good old fashioned nostalgia.
Wikis Of The Week
Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the PS2's North American launch. With that anniversary in mind, it seems more than appropriate to point you all to our downright INCREDIBLE wiki page for the console. Marvel over every conceivable detail about the console and also the site's massive image gallery for the platform that rocked the world!
With the discovery of our very own Jeff Grubb being listed in the special thanks section of Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection, that means he qualifies for a Person page in the Giant Bomb Wiki! So, get in there and do your worst best with filling out his page.
