Expert Gamer - Running Gags

Running Gags

Towards the end of Expert Gamer's run, the magazine has developed a series of running gags that were quite popular with its readers. These gags were typically discussed in the magazine's letters section, Gamers' Forum. They included such topics as the death of Aeris in Final Fantasy VII and some readers' desire for naked pictures of the cast of Street Fighter. Other gags were concepts born in the pages of XG, such as Choppy McChopp, the custom-created wrestler in the N64 game WWF No Mercy whose moves consisted entirely of punching attacks, Choppy's arm-hating rival, Kicky McKickk, and the catchphrase, "Ooh, it looks like school's out."

Readers also enjoyed searching for appearances of a particular screenshot of Final Fantasy VIII that debuted in issue #64 (October 1999) and was repeatedly reused in the magazine whenever the editors needed to show a picture of that game or provide a visual of the Final Fantasy series in general.

XG's sense of humor and many of its running gags continued after the magazine became GameNOW.