Russ Pitts said:
There were plenty of ways we could have gone with the intro, but a live-action, Friends-style montage of Yahtzee in his apartment, for example, just didn't seem to fit the bill.
Oh dear God, please do that, if only for one video. Yahtzee (or his "Trilby" caricature) and the Imp, jumping around in a fountain, holding umbrellas? Why not!
I can completely understand the decision to change up the intro. The previous song picks were a a nice added joke (in most - in other reviews it seems like they were just picked randomly for the words in the title), but I'd be a bit iffy with the legal stand point as well. Not to mention you occasionally just want something new. I don't quite agree with Yahtzee's "professional" comment however. The old intro was fine, it was brief, did the job, good appearance, not unprofessional at all - it wasn't like it was drawn in MS Paint and narrated on a bad microphone. It suited the web-review market. The new one, unfortunately, just misses the mark a little. For the best example, it comes across like a decision by a meddling television CEO with no clue rather than a stylistic choice by the creators, which is disappointing for a review series which has generally done it's own thing.
The visuals are ok, little bit too "whiz bang" for my tastes, but I think it's the music choice that causes that feeling. The "squealing guitars" as it was put just scream "serious business," whereas the ZP reviews probably suit a far more cartoonish style choice. Someone above mentioned the Colonel Bogey March - I wouldn't suggest that, but it definitely gives a ZP feel that we'd be seeking....A sort of cheeky, irreverant nature, and decidely British (look up it's use in Bridge on the River Kwai, or as "Hitler's only got one ball" if you're not sure what the song is). All in all I'd say it's not so much "bad" as "not as good as we would have liked it." It's not going to affect the quality of the reviews, which is why we all come, but it definitely feels like a tack-on, rather than part of the whole package as the old intros used to feel like. If it was going to be changed, I'd suggest an altered attempt, rather than a return to the old ways like many are suggesting. That would just feel like a step backward.
I must say, the number of "Oh wow, how can you all care so much" comments in this thread is suprising. No-one is going to jump off a bridge at the loss of the old intro, but there's nothing wrong with a discussion about a noticable change in the reviews. Even if all we do is give some feedback, at least it could be put to use in future decisions.
