I adore a good passion project, especially one that punches above its weight class. Gamebreaker is a new game show with a humble origin – it’s a Youtube series, it has almost no budget, and it doesn’t have any major TV stars attached to draw in new audiences. In spite of that, episode 1 and 2 are a great kickoff to a highly entertaining series that does a great job capturing the excitement of game theory driven shows like The Genius and The Devil’s Plan.
Taking a step back – what is Gamebreaker? Gamebreaker is an online game show, pitting a set of friends against one another to manipulate their way to the top of the pile through thought-heavy games designed to be a little unfair. It’s clearly inspired by the original Korean Genius Game.
The first two episodes are delightful. Both have a major “twist” of sorts, where player agendas aren’t necessarily what they seem, and it’s not until the results are revealed that all the stories from the games become clear. This kind of hook was one of the best parts about The Genius, and it’s great that these stories materialized from the competition.
On the heels of The Genius Game UK, Gamebreaker also demands a comparison with the recent attempt to launch Korean-style brain games in a non-Korean setting. A few differences are obvious early.
From the very beginning, Gamebreaker makes it clear that the players are a group of game-loving friends. This differs from The Genius’s core draw of bringing together world-class intellects to go head to head. Even The Devil’s Plan and Time Hotel draw almost exclusively from participants with deep accomplishments or top tier academic credentials.
It’s interesting that cutting out the credential requirement doesn’t hurt the show. In some ways, this might even yield a better product than some other attempts at Korean-style brain games. You can immediately notice that the Gamebreaker players play loosely, not afraid to look dumb for making a bad call, not afraid to backstab or lie, and not afraid to take a big risk and go home early if it doesn’t pan out.
I’m not saying there’s no value in having a show built around world-class intellects. I truly get a rush watching players put together feats of memorization or figuring out complex ways that rules interact to create an edge. But even on The Genius, a lot of the feats are social, and it’s great to see that a casual group of friends can live up to the standards set by rooms full of Ivy League grads and professional poker players.
I noticed that the players’ approach to the game is quite different from The Genius UK. Often times in The Genius UK, especially early in the show, the dominant strategy is to stick to the majority’s plan, leading to comparatively few twists and turns per episode – it might be a good strategy, but it’s less entertaining for the viewers. Later episodes got much more interesting in this regard, but Gamebreaker gives us shifting alliances and wild gambits from the start. Even when the games in Gamebreaker are set up to reward cooperation, players are hungry for a chance to betray for the slightest advantage. Part of the equation might be Gamebreaker’s lower stakes, but it’s something for producers to think about when setting up scenarios for programs like The Genius.
As someone who really enjoyed both The Genius (all versions) and Gamebreaker, I’m happy to see more content materialize in this genre. Different versions of the shows can learn from each other, and the shortcomings of one can build into the success of the next. Genius-style shows have a bit of an uphill battle because they demand a lot from the viewer, but hopefully someday soon we’ll find a way to break through to English-speaking audiences.
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