The Dunkeypocalypse Is Back After YouTuber Makes 'Sonic Frontiers' Look Bad, Enraging Fans
To read video game criticism discourse right now, you would think YouTuber VideoGameDunkey is the most powerful voice in all of gaming.
Two months after angering the Xenoblade Chronicles fandom with a video portraying Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in a negative light, Dunkey has seemingly picked a fight with a more formidable army — the Sonic fandom.
On Sunday, Dunkey posted a video about Sonic Frontiers,, Sega's ambitious attempt to make an open-world Sonic game. In typical Dunkey fashion, he juxtaposes quotes from trailers hyping up the game's "open-zone gameplay" and improved combat mechanics with clips of the game restricting his movement and janky combat mechanics. He ends with a joke showing Sonic Frontiers' 8.8 user score on Metacritic beating out the scores of some beloved games like Elden Ring and Super Mario Odyssey.
This was the apparent equivalent of a declaration of war for many Sonic fans, who accused Dunkey of manipulating footage to make the game look bad, intentionally breaking it and indirectly asking his fans to review bomb Sonic Frontiers.
Sonic Team poured their heart and soul into making #SonicFrontiers the best Sonic game ever, and Dunkey smeared the game in his video review to maintain the 16-year status quo of Sonic games being terrible. The user score declining from 8.8 to 8.4 proves that irresponsibility. pic.twitter.com/mv0osrinm1
— Cristina Alexander🦔👑🇺🇦 (@SonicPrincess15) November 14, 2022
him showing a bunch of user score review comparisons to other triple A games was effectively an invitation for his fans to review bomb to game, which is a very valid thing to get mad at it bc it's irresponsibleget his dick out of your mouth for two seconds and think https://t.co/DYR3KZr5bb pic.twitter.com/SbO3UUttgO
— gambito. (@GambitoSonic) November 14, 2022
It seems the biggest issue for Sonic defenders was the Metacritic score segment Dunkey tacked on to the end of his video. Some fans jumped to the conclusion that the segment amounted to Dunkey asking his fans to review bomb the game, and indeed, there were many new 0/10 user scores added to Metacritic in the following days, causing the score to drop .4 entire points from 8.8 to 8.4.
Some of these "0s" came from people claiming to be Dunkey fans with account names like DunkeyLover2005, writing "reviews" claiming they thought they liked the game until Dunkey pulled the blindfold from their eyes and showed them the light (to paraphrase). Some Sonic fans saw this at face value and directed their anger at Dunkey, while Dunkey thought it was Sonic fans trolling Dunkey's fans.
Sonic fans are review bombing their own favorite game to make my fans look bad. They really thought they were slick calling their account DunkeyLover2005 🤣(Twitter thought this was real btw) pic.twitter.com/Rqdl4gfGTG
— dunkey (@vgdunkey) November 14, 2022
Turns out, at least "DunkeyLover2005" was neither a Dunkey nor Sonic fan but a 4chan troll who simply wanted to add chaos to the mix.
well now it turns out that "DunkeyLover2005" wasn't a dunkey fan or even a sonic fan, they just wanted to start shit. still, dunkey should absolutely not be playing with fire like this, especially if he wants to be a respectable game publisher https://t.co/1BGoLLFgLu pic.twitter.com/udEikPkUN5
— IndiGhost 🐀 (@IndiGhost77) November 15, 2022
Metacritic has since removed reviews mentioning Dunkey, but the user score still sits at 8.4. Dunkey stated he had no intention of sending people to review bomb the game, but felt shocked to see the Sonic Frontiers user score so high when he didn't enjoy the game.
I just wanted to make an entertaining video on a game I didn't really like, and I was shocked by the user scores so I included it. I can't be alone in feeling crazy when seeing them.
— dunkey (@vgdunkey) November 14, 2022
Share Pin
Masterblader158
Dunkey making a bad review/whatever he calls his content is barely news at this point.
chausies
Obligatory
K E E P
S A Y I N G
I T
Bobbobbobbob
Dunkey really going the Arin Hanson route where he starts revealing he really doesn't know shit about what he was talking about in the first place.
Not to mention the whole "my rabid fanbase that has been proven to do things like this before would never be at fault this time."
Kevster99410
Cough, Cough.
toiletmunger
People take this kind of shit way too seriously.
"Oh no! The Metacritic user score dropped by 0.4 points!"
Cry me a fucking river!
Gumshoe
It's kind of weird how seriously people are taking any of this. A famous Youtuber doesn't like a game and makes fun of it in a video. Who really cares? It's just a game, and it's just one guy's opinion, which wasn't even that mean or aggressive or anything.
Even if the video is misleading, what's the actual consequence of that? Were people who wanted to buy the game now suddenly going to change their mind because of one review? He's not running some kind of campaign to stop them making any more games, or insulting you if you like the game.
And then if you don't get mad, people assume you're some fanatic follower who worships him. He's just a guy who makes videos about games that are usually (at least from ones I've seen) very lighthearted and silly. He's not a cult leader trying to shape the industry or bend it to his will.
Lonefirebearer
Dunkey is the Game Journalist definition of Schrodinger's Douchebag. I want somebody to review Dunkey like he reviews games like Xenoblade 3 and Sonic Frontiers, or just plain old beat the ever-loving shit out of him in the streets. Can you tell I'm not a fan of this douchebag?
Timey16
Is he though? When has he ever backpedaled on a review without specifically saying he changed his mind? I don't remember any specific instance at least.
HE LITERALLY LABELS HIS VIDEOS ON WHETHER THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SERIOUS OR NOT. So I really struggle why people think that he is a Shrödinger whatever when he quite literally says it upfront whether he's serious or not!
It's not a review. He has a series called "Dunkviews" and… well the rest. The former gets more depth the latter is "just random bullshit". At no point is it ever claimed or advertised to be a review. His video in Bayonetta 3 is titled a dunkview. Before that Stray and Neon White. They have more depth and detail. The Sonic Frontiers video and the others prior is not labled as such. They are not reviews.
It probably doesn't help that most videos get only one of the two, rarely both, which makes seeing the difference harder. The last one that got one of both each was Elden Ring.
But really: do people not even read the title of a video they are about to watch or what?
Lonefirebearer
It's doesn't matter if he labels his videos as "satire" or not. It's the principle of the matter. You try to call him out on being a douchebag and his army of White Knights, Cocksucker & Ball lickers come in to defend his douchebaggery under "satire" or "it's his brand" or other such excuses. It's only a matter of time until Dunkey attacks a fanbase that's bigger and can strikes harder than his fans can defend him. He is nothing more than one of those Game Journalists that he once criticized.
Rynjin
Newflash: stating your opinion on something is a review. "I liked this food." is a review. Not a good one, but a review. Expecting someone who is not a regular watcher of his content to be able to differentiate between "serious reviews" and "verbal diarrhea" is just silly. They're not literally labeled as "Serious" and "Not Serious", they're labeled "Dunkview" and nothing. "Dunkview" is a meaningless word out of context. The videos may as well be titled Florble and Schnarp for all it matters.
What you're really saying is that he often makes deliberately low effort, shit content and then gets his fanbase to line up to defend him over them "not being real reviews". Even though they apparently, admittedly by him in the above Tweet, contain his actual opinions. Making them reviews. Just…bad ones.
Personally I don't really care about Dunkey, or his opinions. The first and last I'd heard of him before these last two controversies was the "Thank you Dark Souls" soundbite. He's free to dislike the game and I think it's silly that so many people treat his bad review of the game like a personal attack.
But holy shit, what a damning take from someone I presume is a fan of his. "Yeah most of the time he just makes shit content and everybody should just ignore him."
view the rest of this conversation →