Zero Punctuation - Format

Format

In Zero Punctuation, Croshaw usually reviews a game or games using rapid-fire speech delivery (which was the inspiration for the name "Zero Punctuation", although he states that his fast talking was "by accident"). This is accompanied by minimalistic cartoon imagery on a distinctive yellow background, illustrating what is being said or providing ironic counterpoint to it. The videos are typically around five minutes in length and formerly featured commercial songs at the beginning and end, which were usually related to the game context (although sometimes only tangentially, such as Croshaw using Dave Matthews Band's Crash Into Me for the Burnout review). Other reviews have an opening song completely at odds with the game in question (such as Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven for Painkiller, a game which revolves around a man in Purgatory, or Leslie Gore's Sunshine, Lolipops and Rainbows for the overtly dark and violent game Manhunt). These have since been replaced by a single, standard opening sequence consisting of clips from past reviews and metal music, as composed and performed by Ian Dorsch. The end credits often feature humorous notes about Croshaw's reviews such as "Systematically alienating every type of fanboy" in GTA IV, and often also contain characters from the review engaging in slapstick.

Croshaw, who uses his "Yahtzee" nickname while reviewing, appears in the videos wearing a trilby (much like the main character of his Chzo Mythos games). A recurring character in the videos is a small imp-like creature (who also appears in one of the Zero Punctuation logos) who usually plays various supporting roles in the video as either the antagonist or the sidekick, often taking the place of enemies in the game being reviewed. The imp is in fact a stylized version of a "darkling" from the first game Yahtzee reviewed, The Darkness, that he referred to as an "Evil Imp". Croshaw frequently anthropomorphizes video games and game companies in his reviews, using them as characters by adding legs and arms to the game's box art or logo.