If you’re a fan of either the Mario & Luigi or Professor Layton series, you’ve probably come across AurumAlex’s video essays online. The Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam video is probably the definitive review of the game, while the Layton videos have to be some of the most detailed analyses of the series on YouTube.
They’re amazing videos, and some of our favourite takes on their respective games.
So, why not learn more about them? Why not interview the person behind these classics, and learn what goes into a video essay channel like this?
Let’s get this show on the road!
The Interview
So, first things first? Who are you?
Hello! My name is Alexander (shocking, I know), and I’m a 24-year-old YouTuber who writes video essays about video games, primarily Nintendo-published games.
Where did that username come from anyway? Why ‘Aurum’?
I considered just putting my full name at first, like plenty of other YouTubers have done, because I didn’t want to be stuck with something I’d cringe at every time someone said it out loud. I ultimately decided against that, but there’s truly no special meaning to the “Aurum” part. It was short, had a decent cadence to it, and I liked the alliteration. The channel name was something I tried to settle on as fast as possible and not worry about it too hard.
How did you get into gaming? What was your first game?
The first game I can remember playing was New Super Mario Bros. DS. My older brother and I only had one DS, so we would take turns playing it, and I would get really impatient waiting for my turn. A lot of my gaming tastes when I was little were downstream from my brother. Once I got my own DS, we spent a lot of time playing the minigame collection that came with the game, the same ones I’m pretty sure are in Super Mario 64 DS as well.
This was AurumAlex’s first game
What ones are you playing at the moment?
Currently I’m playing through Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I didn’t get around to it last year, but I really like RPGs with Action Commands anyways, so it wasn’t a hard sell. That, and (fittingly with the last question) my brother played it and said I would like it. I’m a ways into the second act right now, and so far it’s good. I’m honestly in it more for the combat than I am the story, which is maybe not what I was expecting.
Onto YouTube now. What made you decide to start a channel?
It had been brewing for a while. I grew up watching a lot of video essays, and I often imagined hypothetical videos I could make, but I never pushed myself to go through with it. I’ve always been a reserved person, so the idea of posting anything about myself online was nerve-racking. In late 2020, I decided to write this massive ~15,000 word document on Paper Mario: Color Splash, thinking I would try to do something with it, but I still didn’t have the courage at that point. I wrote what would become the script for my Ring Fit Adventure video in January 2021, but I didn’t enjoy the process of writing that one nearly as much as Color Splash, so I stopped worrying about making a channel altogether.
Things started to change in August 2022 when I beat Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I absolutely hated the ending. It was maybe the strongest negative reaction I’ve ever had to a video game. And when I looked online… there was no one else who shared that opinion. I spent a solid two months stewing about it to myself, looking for anyone who could articulate what I felt, until I just decided to open a Google Doc and spew ~7,000 words about my feelings. That was when I looked at what I’d done and thought, “what’s the point of writing all these long essays if no one’s ever going to see them?” So I looked for a free editing software (DaVinci Resolve) and finally worked up the courage to start learning how to video edit. I rehabilitated the Color Splash script only because I didn’t want the first proper essay on my channel to be such a hater video, haha.
But, yeah. I feel that me making videos was inevitable. If it hadn’t been Xenoblade 3, I’m positive something else would’ve done it. It very well could’ve been the new epilogue Xenoblade Chronicles X got last year, considering how I felt about that one too.
Did any other creators inspire you there?
Oh, plenty. Obviously I was inspired by a lot of gaming video essayists: KingK, shoogles, Jacob Geller, Joseph Anderson, Transparency Boo, Daryl Talks Games…. I could go on for a while.
The other strand I feel is important to mention is that I’m a big Star Trek fan. I would watch/read a lot from creators on that front as well, like Lorerunner’s Rumination Analysis videos, or reviews from websites like Jammer’s Reviews and SF Debris. My favorite Star Trek content was a podcast called The Pensky File, who were often very critical of the franchise but always insightful, I thought. In the early days of the show, the host Wes would have a rotating cast of guests, and one of his guests for Deep Space Nine was critic Darren Mooney (he hosts “The Backdrop” on Second Wind). The Pensky File is how I discovered his work, and I would consider Mooney’s writings on TV, film, and culture to be the biggest influence on my channel, particularly the reviews for Star Trek: Voyager he put on his blog. It was just a kind of style and analysis I hadn’t really encountered before, and I really loved it. It expanded my view on what art is and how it fits into the cultural moment it is created. I wanted to see if I could bring that kind of analysis to video games, even though I was (and still am) far behind in terms of skill and experience. If you visit the first few scripts I wrote for the channel, you’ll see they are styled the same way Mooney wrote up his blogs (I don’t do that anymore).
What made you decide to start making video essays? Your first few videos have a very… different style…
Yes, this is related back to that late 2020, early 2021 period when I was testing the waters. I had asked for a microphone and capture card for my birthday with the hopes of starting up a channel, but I wanted to test my new equipment first. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury had just come out for Switch, and it had online co-op, so I convinced my high school friend who went to a different college to play through it with me. It was a lot of fun, but it evidently did not convince me to start a channel. I didn’t record anything prior to the first video uploaded to the channel, though I still have several hours of unedited Champion’s Road footage sitting on a hard drive. Maybe if I’m ever feeling motivated, it’ll see the light of day….
Regardless, one of your big topics is the Professor Layton series, with essays on most of the series so far. How do you get into that franchise?
I got into the Ace Attorney series with SuperJeenius’ playthrough of the first game. That LP convinced me to buy the rest of the series and play through them as quickly as possible. Coincidentally, the LP was also around the time Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright was coming out in the States, so I picked that one up too. I loved it so much that I decided to give the Professor Layton series a try next. While Curious Village didn’t do a whole lot for me, the rest of the series was great, to the point where I would consider myself a bigger Layton fan than an Ace Attorney one.
Do you generally prefer the first trilogy of games, or the series of prequels that followed?
If you’d asked me this years ago, I’d have probably said the prequels. Nowadays, I’m a little more split. I think Diabolical Box and Unwound Future are better than all of the prequels, but I think all of the prequels are better than Curious Village. So that kind of balances the scales out. If I absolutely had to choose a favorite, I think I’d go with the original trilogy, mostly because I’ve mellowed on Curious Village a bit. But it’s still a very close call.
What are your thoughts on the New World of Steam so far? Are you excited for the game?
My excitement has never been lower, to be honest. I made a video about my concerns for the game over two years ago, as I felt the decision to bring back Layton and Luke for another adventure was directly contradictory to what the series had been trying to communicate to us, and that it was more of a nostalgia ploy than an inspired creative decision (again, this opinion is heavily influenced by my familiarity with Star Trek and where that franchise has been going the past decade). They keep showing trailers for New World of Steam, but it’s a bit of a Metroid Prime 4 situation for me: what about this game is supposed to be exciting or compelling other than it being… another one? I really can’t answer that question based on what I’ve seen.
Are there any aspects you have any reservations about?
This gets to the real reason I’m bummed about New World of Steam: Level-5. They have completely bought into the generative AI hype. It’s not just flirtation with it – it’s a full-on make-out session. I’m not sure people grasp how integrated it’s become in their game development pipeline: they’re using it for concept art, they’re using it for title screens, they’re using it for map design, they’re using it as placeholder voice acting, they’re using it to generate quests and characters. I strongly recommend reading this article where Level-5 themselves lay out their AI usage. While GenAI has not been explicitly confirmed in New World of Steam, it seems unlikely to me that they’d be willing to use it for every other game they’re developing except this one, for some reason. I suspect it’s not that they haven’t used GenAI in Layton, it’s just they haven’t told us about it yet.
For that reason, my current thinking is that I’m simply not going to buy the game. Professor Layton co-written by ChatGPT (genuinely, this is a real possibility based on the aforementioned article) sounds like my nightmare. I’d rather not.
You’re also well-known for covering the Mario RPGs too, especially the Mario & Luigi games. How did you learn about those titles?
This one I’m not too sure about. I know the first one I played was Bowser’s Inside Story, but I can’t remember how I learned about the series or when I got it. I do know that by the time Dream Team released, I was caught up on all the games.
What made you decide to cover Colour Splash and Paper Jam first anyway? Why not say, Sticker Star and Super Paper Mario?
The worst thing I can do is make a video full of talking points you’ve already heard before. To that end, I try to pick games I’m interested in that don’t already have a lot of coverage on YouTube. In terms of Mario RPGs, I perceived Color Splash and Paper Jam as having the least discussion around them, or alternatively, felt that those games are where I could add the most. In Color Splash’s case, that’s because I thought people didn’t fully appreciate the level-based structure of the game offered by the World Map, nor had I heard anyone speak about the game’s combat in terms of a puzzle-and-solution set up. In Paper Jam’s case, I simply felt people were being too nice to it. The common refrain about Paper Jam was (is) that it’s “the worst Mario & Luigi, but still a Mario & Luigi game, 7/10,” and I couldn’t disagree more. I think it’s an awful video game in an absolute kind of way, not just in relation to other Mario games. An almost total failure to articulate what makes Mario, RPGs, and video games in general engaging in the first place.
Either way, your video on Paper Jam was a massive hit, and probably the definitive take on the game. Did you expect so much interest in that particular video?
There’s the famous saying, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I feel the Paper Jam video was a perfect example of that. I’d been working on it for nearly a month, and then three or so days before it was scheduled to be released, Mario & Luigi: Brothership was revealed. Without that reveal giving the series some renewed interest, I doubt my video would’ve done even one-tenth as well. It helps that I think it’s a solid video, but after seeing the response to it, there’s some things I’d probably change. I feel like the video overemphasizes the bad comedy of the game (and it is bad and deeply hypocritical in more ways than I got into) to the point where some people were getting the impression I dislike Paper Jam simply because of a few lines of meta-humor or because they made fun of Luigi one too many times. I think I could’ve done a better job explaining that the issue with the game’s humor is that it is another instance of Paper Jam lazily copying aspects of previous Mario & Luigi games without investing in any of the proper setup or understanding that made those aspects work. Which is kind of the general thesis of my video on the game.
Are other Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario games on your essay backlog too? Are Superstar Saga and Partners in Time getting videos at some point?
Yes, I plan to get through all of the Mario & Luigi games at some point. I want to cover more Paper Mario too, but I’m unsure as to what extent.
What about the side modes? Bowser’s Minions and Bowser Jr’s Journey have some interesting story themes and character arcs, even if the actual gameplay is boring as all hell…
I doubt it. I have the Superstar Saga remake, but I couldn’t make it more than an hour into Bowser’s Minions. It might get more interesting later, but nothing I’ve heard about it makes me compelled enough to do so. I don’t even own the Bowser’s Inside Story remake because I already have the DS version and nothing about the remake seems that transformative. Plus, I’ve already done a Bowser’s Inside Story video, so I’m disinclined to go back just for that one mode. But, y’know, never say never. Maybe I’ll find a way to squeeze those in at some point.
AurumAlex is not particularly keen on covering side modes like Bowser Jr’s Journey
How about the other RPGs in general? Do the original Super Mario RPG, Mario + Rabbids games, etc seem like titles you want to cover?
Super Mario RPG is a strong possibility for the future, the Mario + Rabbids games less so. I actually haven’t played either Mario + Rabbids, but neither are really on the list of games I want to get to currently.
What other non Mario or Layton games do you think could make for interesting videos in future?
I’d like to get more into the Zelda and Dragon Quest series. I’ve only made one Zelda video years ago, and none on Dragon Quest so far. The current video I’m working on gave me an in to start with Dragon Quest I hadn’t considered before.
Were there any video ideas you had that just didn’t work as well as you’d have liked?
Mostly in hindsight. I thought my Galaxy 2 video was great when I finished it. I’m not so sure now. I think my thesis is stronger than the video does it justice for, but I either left some compelling evidence out (because I didn’t think of it at the time) or didn’t explain the stuff I put in very well. Like, I have a point where I argue the order of Galaxy 2’s Worlds makes more sense than Galaxy 1’s Domes, but I never explain why 2’s Worlds are ordered the way they are. That’s a silly omission, because there is a clear throughline in a way the Domes don’t have.
That said, I’m concerned by the fact that the Galaxy 2 video has 13K more views than the Galaxy 1 video. A lot of what goes on in the Galaxy 2 video is me resolving punchlines set up from the first one. I wonder if a lot of people spent the Galaxy 2 video super confused, or they weren’t even paying attention in the first place….
Oh, I also have several qualms with my Miracle Mask video. But that’s its own can of worms.
On the other hand, what videos are you most proud of and why?
I’m most proud of my DELTARUNE, Pokémon: Sun & Moon, Pokémon: Legends Z-A, and my Wizard101: Darkmoor videos. In each case, I feel like I was able to communicate a perspective on these games you wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere. For DELTARUNE, that came as a surprise (since there are already so many videos going over every minute detail); for Wizard101, that’s because there really isn’t anyone talking about that game on YouTube the way I do. I accomplish the goal by default in that respect.
Generally, though, I’d say the videos I’m consistently most proud of are my Pokémon videos. I think I have a really developed take on the series that offers an alternate reason for why the series resonantes with people other than what’s advertised on the box (that is, more than the thrills of catching and battling with others).
Regardless, it’s clear that interest in your work is quite high, since your essays have mostly all gotten tens or even hundreds of thousands of views. Did you expect this level of popularity on YouTube?
I was hopeful. It took about a year-and-a-half before I got my first hit with Super Mystery Dungeon. Before that, I would make videos that got around 30-50 views, little to zero engagement. It could be pretty discouraging at times. And unlike the Paper Jam video, I have no theory for why the Super video did as well as it did. It didn’t coincide with anything. Are people really that hungry for PSMD takes? I’m not sure.
I figured if I kept producing videos of at least decent quality, eventually I’d build something of an audience. While my channel was in its doldrums phase, I was taking a philosophy course on rationality and life choices. One of the readings that week was on the rationality of committing to unlikely goals. We’re tempted to call out the folly of the struggling actor or artist for not responding appropriately to the low odds of success in front of them. Yet at the same time, we often explicitly admire the perseverance and fortitude of the actor/artist who has made it. Is there a way to distinguish between the two cases clearly? Can an artist/actor accurately determine if they’re on the path to success or doomed to remain struggling well before the struggle begins? A point at which we can say: “you really should know better than to continue?”
Unfortunately, I think the answer is in most cases, probably not. You do just have to blindly keep trying. And if that makes you look the fool in the end, well. At least you tried.
Do you see yourself running your channel full-time in future?
I would like to see that. I’m not sure if it’ll ever happen. Making the videos I do now already requires (at minimum) part-time effort on my end, so it’s a lot of work.
Are there any other kinds of videos you want to make in future? Like ones not related to essays or game design?
I’d probably want to talk about TV. Not necessarily Star Trek (though I would be interested), but more Science Fiction in general. I like the genre and think I have a decent grasp on it with respect to that medium. I can’t promise anything, especially since copyright on YouTube is a much bigger headache when it comes to gathering and showing footage from TV shows.
How about other creators you want to collaborate with? What would your dream collaboration be?
I haven’t given that much thought, to be truthful. I’m still pretty reclusive online, so I’ve always just imagined myself making videos in my own little bubble. So, the answer right now is, I don’t have a dream collaboration. But maybe that’s something I should work on.
Finally, what advice would you give someone looking to start a YouTube channel?
If you’re going to make videos doing media analysis, you should be the one guiding the conversation, not the media you’re covering. If you’re ever clicking on a video and wondering whether it will be a substantive analysis or a summary of, let’s say a game, a good rule of thumb is see whether the video covers the game in the same exact order you’d experience it if you were playing. That’s a red flag because it means the video creator is letting the game control what elements get spoken about and when. Since analysis is the act of reconstruction, a good analysis will be the one that re-orders the events of the game according to an argument (i.e. your opinions on the game). A good analysis will show how seemingly distant parts of the game are actually more related than they seem. So the structure of the video itself is often a good predictor as to its quality.
There are naturally exceptions – one of the channels I mentioned earlier, shoogles, famously has two very, very long videos on Pokémon, which do go through their respective games linearly and do manage to stake out substantive positions on almost every aspect, but this is hard to do well, and – as evident by the sheer length of those videos – requires a level of discipline most won’t have (I start to get cranky when the video I’m working on passes the 40 minute mark. I will never make a seven hour video).
Also, as someone who’s been guilty of this: you do not need to start a video, or even go over at all, the production history of whatever media you’re talking about unless it is directly relevant to your argument (Darren Mooney’s critique of “Alliances” is a great example of incorporating production history into his interpretation of the episode. Again, cannot recommend his work enough). Analysis can seem overwhelming at first, but once you understand that you don’t have to talk about everything under the sun, only the parts that are relevant to you, it can actually be quite freeing.
That’s actually a really interesting point right there. Going through the work in the order you’d experience it definitely seems like a sign that an ‘analysis’ piece is more of a recap than anything else. It’s why the reviews made by folks like the Nostalgia Critic feel more like a Cliff’s Notes version of the movie with some jokes thrown in rather than anything particularly meaningful.
It also reminds me a lot of how many amateur game development projects tend to make the mistake of building the game in level order, so the best content ends up in the finale and postgame and the most uninteresting, low stakes stuff ends up in the first few levels. Given that the first level is usually someone’s first impression of the whole game, that usually hurts the game more than it helps.
Either way, thanks for the interview! It was interesting to hear more about your channel and what inspired it, as well as what goes into those awesome essays. We can’t wait to see what other games you look at in future, as well as what other kinds of videos you end up making outside your usual niche.
Regardless, what do you think of the interview? Are you a fan of AurumAlex’s videos, and someone who enjoyed hearing more about them and their work? What questions do you think we should have asked, that aren’t already present in the interview?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!