Indie animation studio “Glitch Productions”, in collaboration with YouTuber Ross O’Donnovan (more commonly known as RubberRoss), released the pilot episode for a new action-drama series called “Gameoverse”, which is currently taking the internet by storm. But is it that good, or does it have too many flaws?

“Glitch Productions” has a reputation for releasing high-quality animated series such as “Murder Drones”, “The Amazing Digital Circus”, and the recently greenlit “Knights of Guinevere”. Because of this, it’s no surprise that Gameoverse received heavy praise on release. But what is Gameoverse even about?

The plot revolves around a multiverse of planets, each of which functions like a video game. When the game’s protagonist defeats the game’s villain, that “game world” is annihilated, destroying everything in it. Basically: Hero wins, everyone else loses. The main characters of the series, Kit and Kaboodle, must venture into different game worlds to stop the hero from defeating the villain and to prevent the planet’s heat death.

The animation quality is astonishing and the plot is interesting, especially if you play video games often, the entire world being built on game concepts as if they were a part of everyday reality. Kit steers her spaceship with a game controller; the interface for firing laser cannons is a literal arcade shooter booth, characters heal themselves by eating food, coins float in the background, and antagonists fight like video game bosses. Gaming concepts are part of the worldbuilding, and that alone sets “Gameoverse” apart from other shows, because it doesn’t treat them as mere references; they are literally how the world functions. 

The show’s art style is highly distinctive, as it’s animated entirely by hand and draws inspiration from early-2000s media like “Ben 10”. Just looking at it, the pilot feels like a Saturday morning cartoon from a childhood you never had. The characters feel unique and fit the show’s style so well, which makes their interactions with other characters add to their development rather than feeling like an interruption to the plot.

Now, while it is still a good show, “Gameoverse” isn’t perfect. After the episode’s exposition, a character named Gobbles is shown, who has no prior appearance in the episode. The pilot takes place after the events of the show’s trailer, where Kit and Kaboodle are too late to stop the heat death of Gobble’s game world and barely escape, rescuing Gobbles by the end. The problem with this is that you would have no idea who Gobbles is or why he’s there if you haven’t watched the show’s trailer. Though Gobbles is originally seen as a character who is more scared and confused about the current situation, he randomly changes tone and delivers a serious (albeit cheesy) speech halfway through the episode. 

The pacing feels a little quick, with how much in between is composed of “level montages” and constant PTSD shoo-ins of Kit’s backstory feel repetitive, especially when her backstory was already explained at the beginning of the episode.

Another concern I have is how future episodes will play out. If each episode will revolve around a different game world, then they’ll have to balance the number of times a world is saved with the number of times a world is destroyed per episode. In the pilot episode, the game world is destroyed, and the main character is rescued and seemingly added to the roster of main characters. If a world being destroyed is going to be a key focus of most episodes, then a new addition to the main group almost every episode might bloat the roster.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the show was greenlit for more episodes, which seems likely given that Merch is being produced to fund it. Overall, “Gameoverse” shows plenty of promise in the indie animation scene.