VideoGamePhenom is an American gaming YouTuber. They focuses mainly on Nintendo games. VGP has been involved in career roadblocks and setbacks, such as being a victim to cyber harassment due to having videos being taken down regarding false copyright claims by fellow YouTuber NintendoGamingHD.
Career beginnings: 2011-2013[]
VideoGamePhenom was first founded as VideoGamePhenomHD on February 27, 2011. The channel was named after fellow YouTuber GuitarHeroPhenom, but VGPHD mainly focused on gaming and not music. Their first videos were the main Pokémon games from Generation I to V. In the month of June, VGPHD started doing other games such as Mario, Zelda, and Mega Man. By 2013, VGPHD began expanding even further with 3D games from the N64 and so on. By late November of 2013, VGPHD closed its channel due to lack of production, citing poor video and audio quality, despite receiving a decent amount of viewership.
Comeback: 2016-2017[]
In April 2016, they returned as VideoGamePhenom and started posting content just like its previous channel, and this time, with a frame rate of 60FPS. It did the same games as it did before. However, by August 2016, a user known as NintendoGamingHD began flagging videos owned by VGP for copyright infringement, resulting in the takedown of around 60 videos. Prior to this chaos, VGP blocked NGHD because it posted a comment containing personal information. NGHD did not take it very lightly and started creating multiple accounts to harass VGP (with some impersonating and making personal attacks towards the latter). As per YouTube's terms of use, making false copyright claims could lead to termination of the claimant's account. VGP's videos were reinstated after counter notifications succeeded and continued to post content. VGP closed its channel in March 2017, citing personal reasons and fear of being a target of false copyright claim attacks.
Multiple foiled comebacks: 2018-2019[]
VGP made another comeback by around April 2018 by posting videos of Super Mario Bros. for the NES, but shortly thereafter, NintendoGamingHD, having a new channel, VideoGameCollectionHD, responded by making claims again, thereby resulting in the shutdown of VGP. VGP kept making new channels to post content in a effort that NGHD or VGCHD would not respond, but on all accounts, VGP still lost everything due to false copyright claims by both opposing channels again, all spanning between April 2018 and March 2019.
Starting new and fresh: 2019-present[]
Contra and a few others (March 2019-June 2019)[]
By April 11, 2019, VGP began posting content that did not link to its previous content, such as Contra, LifeForce, and a select few others.
Super Mario Bros. and ROM hacks (July 2019-August 2019)[]
During the summer of 2019, VGP did Super Mario Bros. and more than 100 graphics hacks.
More Mario madness (September 2019-December 2019)[]
By September of 2019, VGP continued to post retro gaming content with games for the NES, SNES, GBC, and GBA, which featured more Mario retro games and a few ROM hacks.
Pokémon games and Donkey Kong Country trilogy (February 2020-June 2020)[]
By February 23, 2020, VGP began posting boss battle clips of the Pokémon games in seven different languages; English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Japanese, and Korean, marking the first time in YouTube history that a gamer posted content in multiple languages. Around the same time, a coronavirus outbreak was affecting the world, but VGP decided to keep posting content as planned. After it completed the Pokémon games, VGP reached 10,000 uploads. It also concluded its session by posting all three Donkey Kong Country games for the SNES and GBA respectively.
Pokémon Emerald Version and more ROM hacks (July 2020-August 2020)[]
Not too long after completing the Donkey Kong Country original trilogy, VGP announced that it would being doing all six languages of the Pokémon Emerald Version and select other games, including some Mario hacks. It officially began its session on July 5. By mid-July, mid-way through doing the French language of Pokémon Emerald Version, VGP was marred by technical problems and a shoulder injury, thereby delaying the session. VGP announced that it planned to finish the French language of its current doing and put the remaining two languages of Pokémon Emerald Version on hold when the time came, and that it would do some ROM hacks of some Mario games. VGP resumed activities on July 31. VGP completed the French language of Emerald and then began doing ROM hacks, just as it did the previous summer. After doing a few ROM hacks, including some Mario Kart custom-made hacks, VGP announced that it would take a break from gaming, so that it could get its main computing unit back from repairs. It announced that it would resume the Pokémon games on September 12, 2020. On August 17, VGP received its main computing unit from repairs and resumed its duty on gaming, but would still put Pokémon on hold until its desired date. Its next batch of games were from the Nintendo DS platform, including New Super Mario Bros. and Kirby: Squeak Squad.
Pokémon make-up and Generation IV (September 2020-December 2020)[]
VGP announced that it would make up with the remaining two languages of Pokémon Emerald Version starting September 12, 2020. The remaining two languages of the Emerald Version were completed on September 20, 2020. Shortly thereafter, VGP began doing the Generation IV games of Pokémon. VGP did Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum in all seven languages until November 16, 2020.
Random games galore (February 2021-May 2021)[]
On February 24, 2021, VGP intended to do Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, but because of syncing issues, it had to cancel the project, but still intended to do other games aside from Pokémon. Unwilling to do anything big for the next few months, VGP found itself demoting to shorter games, especially 8-bit titles for the NES and Game Boy. On May 27, 2021, VGP announced that it would be taking a break from posting content.
On June 3, 2021, videos owned by VGP were taken down after it was revealed that NintendoGamingHD flagged videos for copyright infringement again. A total of 451 videos were taken down, but were later reinstated after successful counter notifications.
Summer activity & Pokémon Generation V (July 2021-August 2022)[]
VGP originally intended to make up Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, but still put it on hold, and instead began doing some ROM hacks of various NES titles, retroactive July 5, 2021. On July 20, 2021, VGP began doing Pokémon Generation V games. On July 21, 2022, VGP reached a milestone of 17,500 uploads.
On August 2, 2022, VGP had one of its videos taken down due to copyright again, but by a different user, identified to be Ricardo Vargas de Santos. The video that was taken down was the first level of Kid Dracula for the Famicom. It was the first time any video by VGP was falsely claimed other than NintendoGamingHD. The user who made the claim was a channel known as Arcade & Games Brasil. VGP completed the Pokémon Generation V games on August 22, 2022.
HeartGold & SoulSilver makeup (September 2022-November 2022)[]
On September 7, 2022, VGP began to makeup with Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver. All seven languages for both versions were completed on November 27, 2022.
Continued freelancing activities (February 2023-present)[]
By February 24, 2023, VGP did game mostly on the NES console, including a few Mega Man hacks. By April 27, its channel reached a milestone of 20,000 uploads. Between April 27-29, 2023, VGP did a ROM hack of Adventure Island titled Ben Roethlisberger's Big Adventure, which served as a promotion during the time of the 2023 NFL Draft.
VGP did some ROM hacks of Super Mario World and other known Mario series games for the remainder of the year until it announced that it was taking an indefinite break from posting new content.
On February 29, 2024, VGP began doing a series of JRPGs, starting with Final Fantasy. It did all six original Final Fantasy games, especially the remakes, and the Legend trilogy. Its last game of the season was Super Mario RPG for the SNES, which was completed on May 15, 2024.
VGP began doing the Dragon Quest games on July 5, 2024.
On October 17, 2024, VGP had one of its videos removed for violating the site's terms of use for the first time in its career. The video was identified to be part of a series of Super KKK Bros., a ROM hack of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The reason why the video was removed was due to potential hate speech, but portions of the video and description didn't contain any such hate speech. VGP appealed the takedown and was immediately rejected, so it had to delist all of the other videos featuring levels from the rest of the game.
Translations[]
VideoGamePhenom has been capable of translating descriptions of its videos in other languages to boost its audience. It was deemed to be entirely self-taught by using Google Translate, especially when it first did the Pokémon games in other languages.
Trivia[]
- VideoGamePhenom was named after GuitarHeroPhenom, a channel that did songs from Guitar Hero games and various covers of songs.