Secret Level, the animated video game anthology series, is getting a second season.
The show has been a big success for Amazon, claiming the title for the biggest debut for a new animated series. It makes sense that the company would greenlight another batch of episodes.
The show features episodes each based on a wide range of video game properties, including Pac-Man, Sifu, Spelunky, and the ill-fated Concord. A handful of famous PlayStation faces also appear in the show's final episode.
Unfortunately, there are currently no details about season 2; we imagine it'll focus on exploring a new range of games, but it could also revisit some worlds from the first run. It's probably also quite far away.
Are you pleased to learn that Secret Level will return in the future? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source x.com, via thegamer.com]
Comments 33
I've only watched the Warhammer 40k episode three times, probably below average on their telemetrics.
Yes!!!! Hopefully we get Mega Man part two, and that it’s way longer than the 5 minute episode he was given in season one.
Joust, Marble Madness, Balloon Fight, Q*bert, Bentley Bear would also be some fun stories.
They've all been really good, especially the Crossfire and New World episodes.
I didn't watch them, but would be open to being convinced.
The D&D and Armoured Core episodes were pretty good.
Concord was interesting. Maybe that's what the game should have been.
The final episode was fun too.
I haven't watched the others yet.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I feel like Love, Death + Robots was better.
With Secret Level, Miller has been given carte blanche to tell stories based on various IPs, some of the episodes reimagine and explore different parts of characters we know, while some play it safe and show us nothing new. Take the Sifu episode for example - if you're even vaguely familiar with the core mechanics of the game, you know every time Sifu enters a new fight in the episode, he's going to die and come back older and wiser. And that's the episode. Nothing new, nothing about the characters history explored, nothing outside of 'Sifu has a goal and will die multiple times fighting his way to it'. Its too safe. Compare that to the 40K episode which gives us the forging of Titus, and the Sifu episode looks bland and unimaginative.
Love, Death + Robots though didn't have any existing source material, so every episode had to be unique, to live and die on its own merit, which made it far more engaging and consistently interesting.
Enjoyed what little I've got round to so far.
Looking forward to the “Scalebound” episode.
@ZeroSum agree with you on that one (still to watch the remaining non-Sony episodes from the 2nd half, though!) From what I’ve seen so far, it’s mostly safe stories and tropes, Pac-man being the most daring. Even Wh40k, for all its graphical glory, is just another “Space Marines endure!” episode.
Pushsquare, hoping you’ll publish an editorial about the series this weekend, so can properly exchange impressions!
Glad to hear this since it took about an hour to binge the whole season.
Fairgame$ in season two I'm guessing
Its ok but expected more. Was super hyped for Sifu being a big fan of the game only to be super disappointed at how bad that was.
Dude, PAC-Man is a vicious predator.
I binged the first 8 and I got a bit tired of them by the end but it started strong. I think 2 or 3 eps at a time is the sweet spot.
@Vovander the Pac-Man episode was one of the more wild and enjoyable episodes, but it's also an outlier - other episodes are based on existing IPs/games, Pac-Man is both based on an existing IP and a yet to be released game - Shadow Labyrinth, so it sits in this weird space of being not a true reimagining (it's someone else's reinterpretation of Pac-Man) and also being a new interpretation to most as not a lot of people know about Shadow Labyrinth. Great episode nonetheless!
I didn't care for most of it, but that PlayStation episode at the end was ironically the worst one, in my opinion. It was so offensively awful that it made the Concord episode look decent by comparison.
The only objectively bad one was funnily enough the PlayStation finale, felt like the worst kinda ad with no soul or personality
Just wish they were longer, Mega Man for one
Every season should have a Concord episode as a running joke.
Astro Bot level please!!!
Less sci fi next season please.
@ZeroSum love death and robots is definitely the better anthology series. For some reason zima blue remains my favourite episode, but bad traveling was also really good.
Strangely the episodes I expected the least from being new world and pacman were my favourites in secret level, though I still need to watch the 2nd batch tonight.
CONCORD 2: PLAYERCOUNT BOOGALOO CONFIRMED HERE WE ***** GO BOOOOOOOOOOOYS
@ZeroSum Couldn't agree more. Hoping this is just small distraction and they get to do more of the stuff akin to LDR.
I've watched the first 5 or 6 episodes so far. It's been a mixed bag so far, but I really enjoyed the Unreal Tournament & Warhammer episodes, while a few others have come across as nothing more than a proof of concept.
Don't really dig what they did to Pac-Man either. The great thing about anthologies is that you can pretty much do whatever, but they somehow turned it into yet another dark bloody sci-fi thing when they already had a lot of other (more fitting) properties for that theme already. I know it's based on an upcoming game, but honestly that looks pretty naff as well (like a Bomberman: Act Zero level misfire from the late 00's when Japanese developers were taking all the wrong lessons from the western gaming market).
My favorite episodes were the robot tournament and Warhammer with pac man one being a huge surprise.
My least favorite was definitely cross fire and the "I'm not the bad guy" line.
Still need to watch the new episodes.
What I want for season 2 is a metro or mass effect episode.
@Anke I was watching those in disbelief of how good they were.
I only watched Mega Man, Armored Core, Warhammer, and Sifu episode.
Mega Man only got 4 minutes duration is a crime. It needs longer episode at least 15-20 minutes. Heck, Capcom should just throw the money to make a full CG movie.
Sifu only a repeat of the game story. But the fight scenes still looks great and i like what they did with that granny who sell dumpling asking "is it worth it?" question to the protags who became old man.
Warhammer and Armored Core are amazing. Armored Core games usually doesn't focus on story for AC pilots or show in detail how the pilot performs inside the cockpit. So it's nice to see a story about AC pilots with nice lore behind him and how they perform in the cockpit. The combat also looks awesome with Keanu Reaves did a great job with VA and mocap.
For season 2, i want more Mega Man, Warhammer, Armored Core, and maybe new ones like Street Fighter or niche game that most people doesn't recognize.
My wife and I (mostly) loved “Love Death & Robots” but we’ve been really disappointed with Secret Level. Other than the “New World” & Crossfire episodes (oddly two games we couldn’t care less about), we thought the rest of them have been pretty terrible so far (only seen episodes 1-8). They’re so completely lacking any sort of narrative or context. They seem more like overly-long trailers.
@bestuardo This was my impression, too... only watched the first three and Exodus and while the Exodus ep made me even more excited for the game, I didn't feel the story gave me much (other than explain the time dilation mechanic, which I already knew about). The others were just empty calories (though I did chuckle a few times at the one with Arnold)
@DonJorginho My goodness, that PlayStation segment was bottom barrel corporate trash!
I can imagine some pr corp bigwigs sitting together, combining all their out of touch ideas of "what do the cool kids like". Adding some board mandated, disingenuous representation and you have 9 minutes of pure garbage that cost several million for sure... for the players.
So, it's a bunch of different episodes of different IPs ? I was going to say it reminded me of Love Death Robots and then I read it was by the same people 😅 I liked that series but never finished it. I think I'll probably just try the episodes of the IPs I like here.
On a side note, I was kinda hoping for something nore documentary, a la The Toys that Made Us. That was great and insightful, but nothing like that for the games industry yet, I believe?
@ZeroSum I did not know that, awesome!
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