Indie Light

I wrote a far more comprehensive introduction to Steam Train in the companion piece to this Top 10, which you can check out here, where I discussed my favourite One-Offs so I’ll attempt a more succinct one now. Steam Train is a Let’s Play series, which operated under the banner of Game Grumps, itself a popular Let’s Play channel. Steam Train focuses on playing games on the Valve game distribution service, Steam, for which the series takes its name. It is hosted by musician and internet personality Dan Avidan (also known as Danny Sexbang – of Game Grumps, Ninja Sex Party, Starbomb and Shadow Academy) and animator and voice actor Ross O’Donovan (also known as RubberRoss, RubberNinja or CondomRoss). Steam Train debuted on June 25th 2013, and ran until mid 2017 when the show went into an extended hiatus, with no new content being posted since. So I think that’s plenty, now check out my list below, to find out my favourite Steam Train extended Playthroughs.

1. Spore (16 Episodes)
As much as Arin, Dan, Ross and the whole Game Grumps cast are all talented, intelligent, creative and awesome people, they are, and this is to their credit, not above simple dick and poop jokes, and they are in top form during their Spore playthrough because they are put in charge of the physical development of their Spore creatures and take the opportunity to make them look like the aforementioned male genitalia. This entire playthrough is great, and the back and forth dynamic between Arin, Dan and Ross really add to the whole thing.

2. Civilization V: Brave New World (4 Episodes)
Another game that’s enjoyable to play or watch playing but is truly brought to life by the dynamics and interactions between Arin, Dan and Ross. I’m also a fan of longer videos, and this is one of the longest videos on the channel (roughly the 8th longest) so it provides plenty of entertainment. Another thing that makes this playthrough hilarious that in a fit of rage, Ross manages to kick the computer, breaking it and thus ending the playthrough for good.

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (13 Episodes)
I am a fan of ‘creative’ gameplay so I thoroughly enjoyed this playthrough where rather than playing Skyrim the ‘traditional’ way he attempted to utilise various speedrunning techniques as well as glitches to cut through the game as quickly as possible. Frankly it’s super impressive to watch and to add to that, Ross had a mod enabled which makes all of the dragons look and talk like “Macho Man” Randy Savage, it makes one of the more imposing adversaries in the game funny. It was also nice to see a playthrough from the point of view of Khajiit as I invariably end up playing a Nord or an Imperial when I play myself. He also introduced me to the Infinite Sprint Glitch which I’m sure will help me next time I play Skyrim.

4. The Sims 4 (4 Episodes)
Everything I’ve seen from The Sims 4 was kind of mixed, so I wasn’t excited to play it, let alone see someone play it but I was thoroughly surprised by this playthrough, plus it made a lot of fans happy by in some way confirming all of the Game Grumps fan fiction.

5. Hustle Cat (4 Episodes)
This is one of my favourite PC games, and much like Arin I liked sharing it with my partner, me and Tori B Bearly completed at least three separate playthroughs, although I enjoyed watching Arin and Suzy play this almost as much as I did playing it myself. Also interesting side note Ross also played this one on Commander Holly’s channel, and you can check that out here.

6. Undertale (50 Episodes)
I couldn’t not put this on the list, I really deliberated on its position on the list, in nearly broke the top five, but since this is my personal list, I had to be honest and admit I liked a few other games/playthroughs better. Okay, what I really liked about this game is that they really explored the various runs, from the neutral and True pacifist run, to the genocide run a few months later. Watching this really made me want to play the game again myself. Ross played this with Barry on Steam Train, and later played in on Commander Holly’s channel and you can check that out here. But anyway, this game has everything from cute dogs, to homicidal robots, to awesome skeleton brothers, and and did I mention the dogs? Also cool side note there is an animator and illustrator called Tuyo (or Tuyoki) Chang (also known as Temmie) who made a cameo in Undertale as a character(s) also called Temmie but she also made a Game Grumps animated, and you can check that out here.

7. DreadOut (9 Episodes)
So what attracted me most to this playthrough was that despite being a little glitchy and potentially confusing, the game itself looked really interesting. I do feel sorry for Dan and Ross though as both have noted multiple times that they do not like horror games. Even though the first episode of this playthrough has them just walking down an endless, deserted road, it still managed to kick of an entertaining series. 

8. Lego Island (5 Episodes)
Lego Island was one of my favourite games as a kid, and I’d very nearly forgotten all about it until I saw this playthrough and I was inspired to replay it and relive some fun moments from my childhood. Other that the engaging and entertaining content, which works, but in different ways, depending on the hosts, I like Game Grumps and Steam Train because it either introduces me to or reminds me of awesome games. I also like the episodes where one of the hosts remembers the game and shares it with the other, it makes it feel like friends just playing games together, which for me has always been part of the appeal of then show.

9. Grand Theft Auto V (6 Episodes)
Despite some technical issues which fans complained about when the episodes were aired I enjoyed this playthrough, partly because they don’t tend to play these types of games but also because it was genuinely a fun series. I also enjoyed the bit about Will Smith in one of the later episodes.

10. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (9 Episodes)
As I mentioned above one of the most enjoyable aspects of a playthrough is when one of the hosts, in this case Dan, is really passionate, knowledgeable and/or nostalgic about a game and he helps to make it fun or engaging for the other host, who is in this case Dan. It helps that this game is funny, goofy and random on its own, but Dan and Ross also bring a lot to it.

Honourable mentions go to South Park: The Stick of Truth, YouTubers Life and Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree which I also really enjoyed but didn’t quite make the top 10 list.

I would also like to direct fans to a lovely fan made piece of content, it’s a spooky intro to Steam Train and you can check it out here.