Ninten Speaks

NintenSpeaks (Ninten Speaks, or just Ninten) is a YouTube account following the re-imagining of the character Ninten from the MOTHER video game (also known as Earthbound Zero), where he speaks freely on issues of today. His topics range from current events to simpler things such as math or music. The series was created by Stephen Georg (xfisjmg1), and the first 10 episodes are on that account. When the series started, it was audio-only and could only be listened to through iTunes podcast, but eventually was added to YouTube. Realizing that a weekly Ninten Speaks episode would smother his other videos, Stephen decided to create a separate account just for Ninten Speaks.

In late January 2009, it was announced on Earthbound fansite, Starmen.net, that Ninten Speaks would be moving to video. The account was registered on the 4th of February and started gaining comments immediately. Two days later a promotional video showed up on YouTube, primarily to enable subscriptions. Within 48 hours, the Ninten Speaks account had over 100 subscribers. To coincide with the promotional video release (and to move people to the new account), Stephen's 10th Ninten Speaks episode (the last audio-only episode) was about Ninten purchasing a video camera. The video also used an annotated link to send viewers to the new account.

Despite the video series focusing primarily on a character from an obscure video game, Ninten Speaks appeals to a wide audience because of his broad topics. Very rarely are his video game roots mentioned or hinted at, and the few times they are are too subtle for the casual viewer to catch.

Ninten's particular character and attitude come from an improvised radio play of the same game, also co-created by Stephen Georg. In the radio play, Ninten was given an incredibly high voice and a low IQ. He generally rambles on until another voice actor stops him. This carries over into the video version, where quick cuts give Ninten the same effect he had in the radio play.

The videos are all primarily filmed in Stephen's college dorm room. All of the Ninten Speaks videos are shot in HD.