Drakesgameroom

Drakesgameroom was a channel created by Blockmblock21 on November 23, 2012 to host gaming related videos. The channel was designated as the new home of Blockmblock21 (Drake) on youtube. The channel struggled to find a consistent image, as the type of video uploaded and worked on for the channel varied. The channel went through multiple rebrandings, until finally settling on Criticalcade in 2017. All original Drakesgameroom videos are now private, except for one, "Drake plays Super Mario Bros with a Crazy Game Genie Code".

History
Drake had ambitions to make videos about video games, a lifelong passion, since about the time he began making videos as Blockmblock21. Even while he was making plush videos, he filmed let's plays, with a few even making it onto the Blockmblock21 channel.

When Drake discovered the retro gaming community on youtube (such as Peanutbuttergamer and JonTron) it inspired him to make videos in the same vein. Drake decided against uploading the new videos onto Blockmblock21, wanting a fresh start he created the DrakesGameRoom Channel. The first things intended to go the channel were a series of low-quality let's plays titled Friday Night Gaming in which Drake and his sister played various games, but no videos made it onto the channel.

He initially began to upload less humorous content inspired by Classic Game Room, which were supposed to be more formal reviews. The titular show on DrakesGameRoom was low quality however, featuring little in-depth analysis, incredibly low production values (pointing the camera at a TV), and no script. These reviews gained no traction, but were the only videos uploaded (aside from 2 room tours) the first few months of the channel, ending in January 2014.

That winter, Drake first began to try to finally getting around to making the humorous game reviews which were the original intention of the channel. Deciding to call the show Drake The Duck, he worked on his first review: Balloon Fight, however it was abandoned after filming began. Around this time, Drake acquired a capture card to make videos properly and recorded a let's play 'Drake Plays Super Mario Bros with A Crazy Game Genie Code" which became his most popular video on the channel. Shortly after, he attempted to review Super Mario Land, and it was nearly completed but the files were corrupted due to a hard drive failure.

In Fall 2013, Drake began to upload occionsal game hunting videos inspired by PatTheNesPunk and The Game Chasers. 3 episodes of "Goodwill and Thrift Store Game Hunting" were uploaded, with a fourth filmed but not completed in which Drake went to a flea market. However, these stopped in January 2014. Another review attempt, Activision Classics (PS1) was created in January of 2014, but it failed to be finished. Following that, Jet Moto 1 and 2 review for the PS1 was scripted but made it no further. A few months later, yet another video game review attempt was made, American Gladiators on the NES, the video was nearly completed, but the editing took so long that Drake no longer liked the video so it was never completed. By that time it was nearly 2015, and Drake lost interest in gaming video because he felt he had wasted all that time and had not produced a single complete video. A few small attempts were made at reviving a game review series, but they fell short.

In summer 2016, Drake became interested in making video game reviews again, and rebranded his old channel to Criticalcade that summer, and took all the old videos down. He worked on a review of Action 52, however the files got corrupted because of improper Fraps use, and drake abandoned the idea of making game videos yet again.

In summer 2017, Drake again began to work on another video gamer review, of all 4 versions of Lego Island 2, but it was never completed. In winter 2017, drake and his friends filmed a video of them playing Sonic Gems Collection, and it was finally uploaded in June 2018. At this time, Criticalcade was established to be a mostly group Let's Play channel, with reviews being secondary.