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Our 24-Hour Extra Life 2014 Livestream Marathon Is Complete!
Update #2: It's been a long, fun 24 hours, but this year's Extra Life marathon has drawn to a close. The wonderful news is that we broke last year's record of ~$16,000 raised for Children's Miracle Network hospitals by raising over $17,500. That number falls quite a bit short of our $25,000 goal, but we've got something to shoot for next year. Also, Extra-Life as a whole broke its previous records by raising over $5 million dollars this year, so congrats and thanks to all the supporters and donors out there. We want to thank everyone who tuned in to watch, donated to Extra Life (YOU CAN STILL DONATE), and put up with our rampant goofiness. Thanks and see you next year.
Update: Our Extra 2014 livestream is now live! Help us on our journey to raise $25,000 for Children's Miracle Network hospitals by watching our Twitch stream, winning awesome prizes, and donating.
WATCH THE ARCHIVED STREAM HERE
Remember that at any time you can donate $150 to choose whichever game you want us to play for segments at scheduled times below (look below). Just be sure to include a note with your $150 donation and three different games you'd like us to play. Please avoid obscure consoles. We'll do our best to find your top pick in Game Informer's vault of games. We have almost everything, but not everything. Also stay tuned for information on how you can donate to dress us up in dumb hats and even force me to eat hot peppers via your altruism.
ORIGINAL STORY: It's that time of year again. Every fall, tons of people put aside their weekends to marathon video games for Extra Life. Last year, Team Game Informer raised over $16,000 for the Children's Miracle Network – a humble but helpful drop in the bucket of the overall $3.3 million earned across all participants. This year we're raising our goal to $25,000, and along with upping the bar we're also boosting up the volume of fun and sheer nonsense we'll be livestreaming for 24 straight hours.
The mayhem starts at 9:00 am CT on Saturday, October 25 through the following Sunday, October 26. We've got a lot of fun stuff planned for the livestream, which includes everything from Super Smash Bros. slugfests to Twitch-driven Pictionary games to a live script reading of George A. Romero's canned Resident Evil film (if viewers donate enough cash). We have the whole crazy, nonstop 24-hour event scheduled out below, so take a peek at what we've got planned.
Prizes are a huge part of our livestreams, and we've got games and a ton of stuff to give away from publishers and developers like Turtle Rock Studios, Sony Santa Monica, Double Fine, Ready At Dawn, Respawn Entertainment, and many more. We'll be peppering in giveaways throughout the livestream, so you'll have to stay tuned if you want a chance to win awesome stuff like special collector's editions and other swag.
Image taken from our Extra Life 2013 marathon, with Zachary Pligge, myself, and former GI intern Jack Gardner (left to right)
We're allowing our most generous donors to choose what we play during certain segments – assuming we've got it archived in GI's massive vault. We'll also be spinning a Wheel of Misfortune intermittently through the livestream, filled with some of GI's lowest scoring games ever. We've lined up plenty of wacky ways viewers can interact with us, like paying to have me (Tim) eat increasingly hotter peppers live or donating to dictate what goofy hats or other accessories we have to wear on the stream. It should be very dumb and very fun for everyone.
Our Extra Life 2014 livestream will have plenty of goofy antics to keep viewers and donors entertained, but you can also participate by joining Team Game Informer. Head over to our Extra Life page to sign up and you can play alongside us in spirit the weekend of October 25. Additionally, you can already help us reach our $25,000 goal by DONATING NOW. All proceeds go to the wonderful, life-changing Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare.
Last year we scheduled out our 24 hours of mayhem, and this time around we're filling our day with twice the amount of crazy. Check out the schedule below to see what we'll be up to and when. Keep in mind that the schedule is up for rearranging as the marathon marches on.
| Saturday, October 25 (Schedule listed in Central Time) |
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| 9:00 am - 10:00 am | Sunset Overdrive with Tim Turi and Ben Reeves A play session with Insomniac Games' bonkers, colorful third-person open-world game. |
| 10:00 am - 11:00 am | The '90s Cartoon Game Hour with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, and Joe Juba Wake up like you did when you were a kid by watching us play games based on classic shows like Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life |
| 11:00 am - 12:00 pm | Family Feud with Ben Reeves, Tim Turi, Kim Wallace, Joe Juba, and the GI Interns The team boots up a PC version of the iconic TV game show to see if we can guess what the "survey says" without making asses of ourselves |
| 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm | RPG Grind Time with Kim Wallace and Joe Juba Kim and Joe boot up some Dragon Age: Origins and discuss the upcoming DA: Inquisition for this bite-sized episode of Grind Time |
| 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm | Wheel of Misfortune with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, and an Extra Life Special Guest The GI crew is joined by Tyler, a kid who loves games and received help via Extra Life, to play some bad games |
| 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm | Game Informer Trivia with Andrew Reiner and Joe Juba Reiner, Joe, and others attempt to guess pixelated covers from GI's history along with a round of Back of the Box Trivia |
| 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Super Smash Bros. with Tim Turi, Ben Hanson, and the GI Interns Smashin' time begins during the afternoon with an hour of heated battles in Nintendo's fighting game, which is sure to fracture some bones and relationships |
| 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm | Generous Donors' Choose What We Play with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, Jeff Marchiafava, and Kim Wallace Two donors that contribute $150 to Extra Life get to choose what Team Game Informer plays for two half-hour slots. Will the chosen games be amazing or awful? |
| 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm | Indie Local Multiplayer with Tim Turi, Ben Hanson, and the GI Interns We fire up some frenzied local multiplayer games like SpeedRunners, Towerfall, Gang Beasts, Nidhogg, etc. |
| 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | Heads Up, Space Team, and Fibbage with Tim Turi, Ben Hanson, and Kim Wallace The GI crew attempts to guess the video game-related words held above their heads in Heads Up and clumsily manage a spaceship in Space Team |
| 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Multiplayer Showdown: Game Informer vs. The Nerdery with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, and Nerds from The Nerdery GI faces off in Halo 3 against The Nerdery, a Minnesota-based interactive production company. Expect some silly modes |
| 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm | Wheel of Misfortune with Bryan Vore, Kim Wallace, and Dan Tack Woe returns as we once again spin the wheel, which will determine which awful game from the past we must endure |
| 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm | Game Informer Watches Old VHS Game Promo Videos with Tim Turi, Bryan Vore, and Ben Hanson The GI vault is filled with hidden treasures, like piles of old, goofy VHS promo videos for games like Super Mario RPG, Neo Geo Pocket, and Tomb Raider. Watch us make fun of them! |
| 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm | The Criminally Underrated Multiplayer Session with Tim Turi, Ben Hanson, and Ben Reeves Not everyone talks about it, but games like Conker's Bad Fur Day and Driver San Francisco have awesome multiplayer modes, so it's time to take a look |
| 11:00 pm - 12:00 am | Game Informer & Twitch Play Pictionary with Ben Hanson, Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, and the GI Interns The livestream chat gets to put our artistic skills to the test by shouting out words for us to draw and guess in this live game of Pictionary |
| Sunday, October 26 | |
| 12:00 pm - 1:00 am | Wheel of Misfortune with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, and Bryan Vore Woe returns as we once again spin the wheel, which will determine which awful game from the past we must endure |
| 1:00 am - 2:00 am | Rock Band Jam Hour Donation Jukebox with Ben Hanson, Ben Reeves, Tim Turi, and Bryan Vore The music game genre may be dead, but it's still a blast. We boot up Rock Band and let viewers use their donations to decide which songs we play and who sings |
| 2:00 am - 3:00 am | Generous Donors' Choose What We Play with Ben Hanson, Bryan Vore, and Tim Turi Two donors that contribute $150 to Extra Life get to choose what Team Game Informer plays for two half-hour slots. Will the chosen games be amazing or awful? |
| 3:00 am - 4:00 am | The Wii Hours with the GI Interns GI interns Sam Stewart, Jason Dafnis, and Matt Stolpe endure the loopy early/late hours with goofy Wii games like Jaws: Ultimate Predator and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law |
| 4:00 am - 6:00 am | Live Script Reading of the Abandoned Resident Evil Film with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, Ben Hanson, and GI Interns If donors help us raise $20,000 by 4:00 am, the GI crew will perform a live script reading of George A. Romero's canceled (and supposedly awful) Resident Evil film. |
| 6:00 am - 7:00 am | Intern's Choice with Game Informer Interns Sam Stewart, Matt Stolpe, and Jason Dafnis play whatever they want, which could include Battletoads & Double Dragon or Sunset Riders. |
| 7:00 am - 8:00 am | Wheel of Misfortune with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, and Ben Hanson Misery returns as we spin the wheel again, which will determine which awful game from the past we must endure |
| 8:00 am - 9:00 am | Nintendo Land Grand Finale with Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, Ben Hanson, and GI Interns Team Game Informer completes the home stretch with some fun in Nintendo Land's Mario Chase, Luigi's Ghost Mansion, and more. |
For even more information, please visit the blog of Zachary Pligge, friend of Game Informer and intrepid Extra Life champion.
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