Sam Brooks 
The latest from Sam Barlow pushes the form of both video games and TV – but the writing lags behind it, Sam Brooks writes. Back in 2015, I was a big fan of Her Story, creator-writer Sam Barlow’s award-winning game that precedes the recently released #WarGames. In Her Story, you were left to figure out … Read more
Sam Brooks continues his dig through the NZ on Screen archives and the history of New Zealand drama with 1978’s Radio Waves, a half-hour maybe-comedy about the travails of an Auckland radio station. After watching Close to Home, I was struck by three things. One, how indebted New Zealand drama (and this also extends to … Read more
Candid, considered and confronting, Three’s story of singer Stan Walker’s battle with cancer transcends the famous-person-facing-adversity form, writes Sam Brooks. “I went for a routine check about two months ago – a week later I found out I’ve got cancer. I know I’m gonna beat this …” He pauses. “… And then, nek minute, I … Read more
Before there was Shortland Street, there was Close to Home. Sam Brooks dug through the NZ on Screen archives and found the first episode of New Zealand’s first soap opera. It’s 1975 in New Zealand. Imagine the climate. Robert Muldoon is about to become prime minister, the population has just cracked three million and television … Read more
The new Tomb Raider film comes out this week with a bright new reboot and plot. Sam Brooks goes back eighteen years to see what made the first films so successful – and how they’ve ruined video game movies ever since. A blocky 540-polygon woman with triangular breasts wanders through a snowy hallway; she’s in a cave … Read more
Sam Brooks is a devoted consumer of Let’s Plays – to the point where he uses them to sleep. He explains what it is about narrated playthroughs, and one kind in particular, that he loves so much. If you’ve been living in one of the many corners of the internet where people don’t watch other … Read more
It takes a certain kind of obsessive mindset to want to play six degrees of separation – even more so to try and link fictional nobility to soon-to-be-actual royalty. Sam Brooks did it, and did it with Lightbox shows. You know that game six degrees of separation? No? Well, you probably mostly know it as … Read more
The tar-black anti-rom-com You’re the Worst hits Lightbox today. Sam Brooks explains why the show is the most authentic, beautiful and relatable romance on television today. What’s the difference between being a good person and being a bad person who is trying to do good? Even more crucially, what’s the difference between being a bad person who doesn’t … Read more
In January, Sam Brooks made a studio visit to Rare Studios outside Birmingham in the UK to play the studio’s game Sea of Thieves, currently in open beta. He tells the story of an enchanting and slightly bizarre trip with a group of gregarious goofs. You start off in a bar, with four strangers around you. … Read more
Romance of the Three Kingdoms addict Sam Brooks has spent a lot of hours on Dynasty Warriors 9 and it’s… not good. So why can’t he put it down? Dynasty Warriors 9 is not a good game. I know that. The critical drubbing it has received, even from fans, has been huge. A lot of these are … Read more
A new game from Mountains Studio aims to tell an authentic, full-bodied love story – and it’s all on your phone. Sam Brooks reviews Florence. Video games don’t have a great track record of showing people falling in love, historically. When you think of how video games represent love, you think of Mario rescuing Peach … Read more
From Close to Home to Shortland Street to Westside, New Zealand has a long and storied history of brilliant TV. Sam Brooks takes a look at the best local shows that you can stream on Lightbox right now. Cheryl West, the cute boy Jay Ryan played on Go Girls, Rita West, Ofa from Supercity. These are … Read more
The latest addition to the Metal Gear series, the non-canon zombie game Metal Gear Survive, is out tomorrow. The series has been around for an incredible 31 years – and oh boy, the things we’ve seen. The Metal Gear series is one of the most famous video game series for a reason. Mainly that the games are really … Read more
Season four of classical music comedy Mozart in the Jungle drops tomorrow on Lightbox. Longtime fan of the show Sam Brooks decided to read the book it’s based on and compare the two. Contrary to its title, Mozart in the Jungle is not a television show about the world’s best composer (according to people who know anything about classical … Read more
With the advent of trophies – and online gaming – we’ve also seen the decline of cheats. Sam Brooks remembers a time in gaming when cheats were seen as nothing more than a bit of fun, and why that’s changed. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. Even if you’ve never played … Read more
Shout Out, presented by RainbowYOUTH and part of Auckland Pride Festival, is an open-mic dedicated to the talents of young queer individuals. This piece on privilege, written by The Spinoff’s Sam Brooks, will be performed at the event. Privilege, at its core, is power. Privilege is something that’s on everybody’s mind as we move into … Read more
Deconstructerteam’s new point-and-click adventure game is a progressive riff on an old genre. Sam Brooks goes into what’s special about The Red Strings Club and why more games need to be like it. The Red Strings Club starts by cribbing one of the most famous film noir openings ever: Joe Gillis’ corpse floating in a pool on … Read more
It’s the biggest movie of all time – why on earth wouldn’t you go see it with a live orchestra playing the music? Titanic superfan Sam Brooks went last night and ascended to a higher plane of existence. Titanic is one of the last true phenomenons of pop culture. Nothing has saturated the populace of … Read more
Sam Brooks argues why Catholic Rebellion thriller Gunpowder is far more interesting than other dour dramas from the same period. I love a good political thriller. Stressed out people waiting for printers to print valuable documents, or wandering around with briefcases that cost more than your rent for the month – they’re my catnip. But it’s … Read more
On Friday little known developer Supremacy released a mobile game named Mongrel Mob Defence and the media, predictably, went nuts. Sam Brooks says this kind of controversy not only allows these kinds of developers to thrive – it’s what they need to survive. Thousands of games come out every year. As each year passes, more … Read more
Sam Brooks defies the ancient wisdom ‘never read the comments’ and goes deep into nine weeks of the TV Guide’s Mr Telly letters. Since the beginning of time, there have always been internet comments, whether they were some dude ring-a-dinging a bell in a town square, Martin Luther hammering a bunch of complaints to the … Read more
Little Red Lie is the misanthropic, dark-as-tar game from indie developer Will O’Neill. Gaming editor Sam Brooks played it – and was disturbed by what he found. Video games can get away with a lot that other media can’t. The interactivity and engagement with the content is unparalleled, and it creates an emotional investment that … Read more
Today it was announced that Stage Challenge, the secondary schools interpretative dance competition, is no more for this world. Sam Brooks crowdsourced people’s memories of Stage Challenge, and scoured YouTube for the best of the rest. As someone who went to a rugby-focused Catholic all-boys school, Stage Challenge was something that I’d always heard about … Read more
This week, Creative Assembly announced another spinoff to the Total War series, this time based around the Three Kingdoms War in China. Sam Brooks investigates why this period is a bizarrely popular one for video games. Dynasty Warriors. Dynasty Tactics. Dynasty Wars. Destiny of an Emperor. And now, Total War: Three Kingdoms. Some of these … Read more
Sam Brooks uncovers Watching Ellie, a Julia Louis-Dreyfus sitcom that got buried somewhere in her illustrious career between Seinfeld and Veep. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is an international treasure. She has three billion Emmys (fact-checked, and yes that is the correct number), she’s starred on several long-running shows and she’s managed to establish three iconic comic characters … Read more
Sam Brooks rewatched Friends in its entirety. Ten seasons, 236 episodes, and as many cutesy episode titles. But what if those titles were just a bit more honest? For a certain generation, Friends is an inescapable mainstay. I don’t think the show has ever left our screens since it started airing in 1994. Almost every night when … Read more
2018 is set to be another big year in gaming. Sam Brooks sets down his most anticipated games of the year, including one game he hopes to a higher power actually comes out this year. It’s the start of a new year, and time to put aside the games we spent too many hours on … Read more
The Good Wife is one of those shows that has always seemed to be around but you’ve probably never seen. Sam Brooks tells you why you haven’t watched it yet, and why you should fix that immediately. This story was first published on August 1, 2017. At some point in 2016 I decided I was … Read more
Like the rest of the internet-having world, Sam Brooks has been listening to Lorde’s new album today. Unlike most of the world, he writes plays for a living. Here’s his interpretation of his favourite song from the album. First published on 16 June 2017. * The following is what happens when you sit in The … Read more