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It’s October time, which means Shovelwarewolf every day! I’ve always loved the Shovelwarewolf and look forward to this every year (one of the many spooky month activities I love). To start with we have two alright episodes Goosebumps and Nat-Geo, nothing super special here and the production values are still kinda low but I love seeing it where it started. Plus that Nat-Geo narrator is still hilarious.

Shovelwarewolf Season 1 Review

Ah, Season 1. It’s definitely the weakest season of the show, but there’s a certain charm to the low budget and short episodes. For these reviews I’m just gonna break it up into categories and than give it an overall score.

Episodes:

Horrorland: Solid opener, had some weird quirks like SWW biting the tv. It takes a little while for Ivan to turn which is nice, helps introduce the character.

Nat Geo: Not much to say, the narrator slays me.

Ski Doo: Not much else to say, I love his description of the buttrock. That guy with the banana befuddles me to this day.

Six Flags: Pretty funny. The lil Donald Trump joke was funny (never stop making fun of him). I like his rant about moving the Wiimote. Also it ties into the next episode which is neat.

Duck Dynasty: Ah yes the mega shovelwarewolf everyone thought would come back at some point. Duck Dynasty the game is one of the funniest games of all time in my opinion. “John Luke, FORGIVE ME!!” Also the “Oh That’s Not Good” track sounds a lot like Stranger Things (probably the synth).

Rudolph: I love this episode. Santa has the greatest villain arc. SWW mimicking the Abominable Snowman gives me life. I also like the the little Carol of the Bells at the beginning.

Music rating: I also figured I’d rate the music used in each season since AJ wrote some pretty good tracks for this series. Plus I have strong opinions on the different variations of the opening and transformation themes.

Season 1 opening: I love it, very subdued compared to later ones. But this is a great composition of music that works any way you do it. Specifically I love the piano in this variation.

Season 1 transformation: Again like the last one, very subdued, I like this one fine it goes a little fast but uses the piano similarly to how the opening did which works really well.

Oh That’s Not Good: Like mentioned above it sounds a lot like Stranger Things in the best ways. I love how it’s used in the scene transition to show Ivan’s hopelessness. Great piece.

Trepak: Not an original piece, just a public domain song used in the Rudolph episode. It works for the scene but I don’t have much to say.

Couch Gag: This season’s couch gag was very simple, just SWW drawing on the whiteboard (on his stomach I guess?) I love it for its simplicity and just thinking of Ivan trying to pass the time in any way possible. I wish we could’ve seen what he would’ve drawn for Duck Dynasty.

Overall: This season was alright. It’s only the weakest since it hasn’t been thought as through as the later ones were and the production value is just a little bit lower. I think it works and provided a great platform for the amazing seasons we got down the line.

Shovelwarewolf Season 2 Review

Shovelwarewolf Season 2 Electric boogaloo, or the season where stuff finally goes down. I love that the story and production value jump in quality with each other in this season.

Sonic 06: Great episode to open with, we meet Susan (who definitely knows more than they're letting on), a cool season theme, acknowledgement (however brief) of the whole arm thing, and an Escape From the City parody, what's not to love.

Goldeneye: Solid episode, I think it has some of SWW's best one liners (Hell's Angels, The Mafia, GAMESTOP!). I learned to never insult Judy Dench, and that I should probably watch a James Bond movie.

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Another fine episode, Ivan mimicking the glitch was pretty funny. I don't have a whole lot to say about this episode so I'll just write here that Ivan and Susan have a great banter, and that Susan was just a great addition to begin with, but I'll get to that later. Oh and Test Your Patience was a good capper on the episode.

Duke Nukem: Just getting this out of the way, this game is pure trash but SWW's reactions are too funny. I also like the character development at the beginning with Ivan and Susan, she really was just the only one who was nice to him. Also I don't know why this occurs to me, but the company described the next game as, "A console with a Zelda game" I just remembered that the Switch came out with Breath of the Wild in the same year as this season, I don't know how that's relevant, I just thought it was cool.

Legend of Zelda Wand of Gamelon: Oho what an episode, great gameplay, great story, and great one liners. Susan got to be really cool in this episode, which leads me to believe that she definitely planned this in advance and the therapist bit was an act (she went from running from the room during a transformation to bursting in and rescuing Ivan/SWW without batting an eye in the same day, no way that just happened). I also just love this game's stupid clips and the SWW one liners to go with them: "(Recorder noise) THANKS, (same recorder noise) THANKS...FOR NOTHING" "You've killed me, GOOD. Dang, that's savage, who knew Zelda was such an OG" and "Link gave them to me. GASP! YOU KNOW LINK, LIKE OMG" such good writing. and The Shovelwarewolf's a Running is amazing.

Home Alone: Finally we've reached the finale, pretty great all things considered. First I just want to acknowledge this little scene from Death's narration, "With the help of his therapist" while panning on cool bada** Susan, just funny to me. I'd also like to acknowledge Ivan's TV playing AJ and Nate's weird Spider-Man and Batman Save Christmas Movie, wish they'd finish that someday it looked cool. I love the Home Alone parody for the cool ways it adapts the theme, like the Gamecube trap. Santa just having 180 in terms of character and going on a full fledged villain arc is so hilarious. The game itself is weirdly a cool take on a Home Alone game, like most licensed games at the time would take tons of liberties with the source material but this one was pretty accurate, even if it still sucked. Susan got to be cool again, but at the cost of a very forlorn scene. Oh boy now we get to meet our dude Biffalo Bub, simultaneously RE's most stupid but also most realistically scary villain. That silent clip montage at the end still unsettles me.

Music Rating:

Season 2 Opening: One of the best, that opening bass riff is still so mesmerizing. And the violins, and the soft piano, and the synth, oh so good. This opening feels a lot like a triumphant return for the character.

Season 2 Transformation: Conversely this variation of the transformation doesn't really do it for me. I like the way it closes I guess, but I just don't love it. It also has this weird repeating note that just bores into my skull.

SHOVELWAREWOLF! (Test Your Patience): Pretty good parody, I love the recap of the games he's played so far (except Goldeneye for some reason).

Shovelwarewolf's a-Runnin': Great parody, it introduced me to the Werewolves of London. I love it's use in the show and the vocals.

This is My Safehouse: Great composition for the Home Alone episode. Seriously AJ really flexed his composing powers here. The synth is really great, I love the little incorporation of the transformation theme.

Sleigh-Riding Sleazebag: Not much to say on the song other than the title, and it's use of random Christmas carols, but evil.

Couch Gag: I love this gag, Ivan dubbing over game footage is so funny. Like the last one it makes me think of him being so bored he just does stuff like this to pass the time. This time I'm happy he didn't have one for Wand of Gamelon, I feel like the dialogue in that game stand on its own.

The season is so good. It gave us a great SWW mask, a great character in the form of Susan, and excellent story development. And it only gets better from here. In addition, while others have described it better than me, this season has interesting symbolism in obsession and trauma.

Shovelwarewolf Season 3

Oh boy the season where things got really interesting, an actual antagonist with a face and everything?, a new location for our favorite angry werewolf?, ALIENS! Excellent season in my book and lets get into why.

E.T the Extra-Terrestrial: Great opener, I love the theme of this season being infamously bad games fits well with Biffalo's whole schtick. I love the back and forth they have with each other. I love the scene where Ivan resolves to get out of the pit, fails once and tries again, and then fails a second time and then rages, just felt really real.

Super Man 64: Another great episode, the Martha bit was maybe a little on the nose, but I still find it funny. I love SWW's commitment to this three-hole punch bit, it starts out as a regular SWW threat, but the fact that he keeps building on it slays me. I love SWW's dramatics in this episode. Plus we get more evidence on the Star Fox Adventures theory.

Night Trap: Ah yes, the game that would turn everyone into serial killing rapists according to the government. Solid episode, like the CDI Zelda games, the dialogue makes SWW's quips even better. I love that Biffalo finally acknowledges the whole glass shattering thing, and his random story about eating a run-over waffle. Gotta love SWW's total pettiness with the vase. He also gave a pretty solid "Reason you suck speech" to that weird general guy. Plus this is the first time we've actually seen Ivan playing a game as a human since Mortal Kombat Mythologies just thought it was cool. And of course the ending twist with Bubsy, so good.

Bubsy 3D: Oh my what a terrible game, it actually hurts thinking about playing it. This is a pretty ok episode, its best parts are in the beginning when we get Biffalo's true motives (seriously he wants to take pictures with kids someone stop him) and the ending when he's so pissed about losing his custom Bubsy Playstation. Plus his utter glee at Bubsy is pretty funny. We also get a solid cliffhanger at the end.

Link the Faces of Evil: Oh what an excellent sequel to last season, the dialogue is only funnier with the slam poetry, reused cutscenes, and SQUADALA WE ARE OFF! I love this episode so much it has great one liners and an acknowledgment of Susan (I remember watching the episode and thinking the exact thing when he said it). I also Love the Shawshank tribute and the chase through the dessert that ends with him being abducted, it probably made no sense to people at the time, but it's so freaking funny.

The Grinch: We've now arrived at the season finale, it's pretty good I like the animations for Mr. Wolf. The setup is decent, not revealing too much of the aliens yet while still giving us a plausible way for him to play games (of course his coma dreams involve shovelware). I know it was meant to serve the Grinch parody, but SWW without a lab coat or otherwise just looks wrong. So Cindy Lou Rareware is a neat character, but she reminds me so much of this girl I knew in middle school it's a little jarring. The ending always makes me feel a little hopeless, like dang the guy is just stuck.

Music:

Season 3 Opening: Oh what a great intro. The strings in the beginning and the banjo, folksy style really sell the creepy vibes of Buffalo Bub and the season's setup.

Season 3 Transformation: It's pretty good, I like the guitar in it. It doesn't really do a whole lot but it serves the purpose very well.

Demented Furry: Excellent villain theme for Biffalo. It gives off a great mistrusting and creepy feel that goes great with our Bubsy obsessed hillbilly.

Demented Furry (Choir Version): Same song, but with a slower piano and an awesome sounding choir behind it. Very foreboding.

Live or Die: Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. This song man. THIS SONG! It goes so freaking hard. The metal guitar riffs, the brass, the synth it all comes together so well. I never paid much attention to it until now and I fell in love. It completely creates a great climatic tension to a very tense scene.

Mr. Wolf: It's a Grinch parody. Does a great job especially when coupled with the animation. The singer is so petty with lines like, "Someone should through you back in a 39 and a half foot hole" like dude that probably traumatized him, lay off.

Couch Gag: This is a pretty good one, just Biffalo Bub being Biffalo Bub and playing with action figures (I feel like AJ improvised these, not in a bad way just that this feels like stuff he'd come up with on the fly). The last one was honestly so real, like you'd think that you'd make your "if you're watching this I'm dead video" a little funny to lighten the mood, but I mean, it would probably just bum me out too.

So ye overall, I love the season, great set, great tension, great villain, and horrible games. It also sets up a very good season coming up.

We're back in October, thus the Shovelwarewolf must be brought back. I'm not gonna fully review the first three seasons again, but I will add any additional thoughts I may have on them this year. Not much for season 1, my opinion has stayed roughly the same on it, except that the Dead-Ringer voice may become a reference I make out of context.

Also ye, I will be putting out reviews for season 4 and season 5 this year, sorry I didn't finish them last year. The season 4 review has been sitting in my drafts, half-done for close to a year now.

Shovelwarewolf Season 1 Review

Ah, Season 1. It’s definitely the weakest season of the show, but there’s a certain charm to the low budget and short episodes. For these reviews I’m just gonna break it up into categories and than give it an overall score.

Episodes:

Horrorland: Solid opener, had some weird quirks like SWW biting the tv. It takes a little while for Ivan to turn which is nice, helps introduce the character.

Nat Geo: Not much to say, the narrator slays me.

Ski Doo: Not much else to say, I love his description of the buttrock. That guy with the banana befuddles me to this day.

Six Flags: Pretty funny. The lil Donald Trump joke was funny (never stop making fun of him). I like his rant about moving the Wiimote. Also it ties into the next episode which is neat.

Duck Dynasty: Ah yes the mega shovelwarewolf everyone thought would come back at some point. Duck Dynasty the game is one of the funniest games of all time in my opinion. “John Luke, FORGIVE ME!!” Also the “Oh That’s Not Good” track sounds a lot like Stranger Things (probably the synth).

Rudolph: I love this episode. Santa has the greatest villain arc. SWW mimicking the Abominable Snowman gives me life. I also like the the little Carol of the Bells at the beginning.

Music rating: I also figured I’d rate the music used in each season since AJ wrote some pretty good tracks for this series. Plus I have strong opinions on the different variations of the opening and transformation themes.

Season 1 opening: I love it, very subdued compared to later ones. But this is a great composition of music that works any way you do it. Specifically I love the piano in this variation.

Season 1 transformation: Again like the last one, very subdued, I like this one fine it goes a little fast but uses the piano similarly to how the opening did which works really well.

Oh That’s Not Good: Like mentioned above it sounds a lot like Stranger Things in the best ways. I love how it’s used in the scene transition to show Ivan’s hopelessness. Great piece.

Trepak: Not an original piece, just a public domain song used in the Rudolph episode. It works for the scene but I don’t have much to say.

Couch Gag: This season’s couch gag was very simple, just SWW drawing on the whiteboard (on his stomach I guess?) I love it for its simplicity and just thinking of Ivan trying to pass the time in any way possible. I wish we could’ve seen what he would’ve drawn for Duck Dynasty.

Overall: This season was alright. It’s only the weakest since it hasn’t been thought as through as the later ones were and the production value is just a little bit lower. I think it works and provided a great platform for the amazing seasons we got down the line.