DVD Review: 'Code Monkeys' Season One

We're highlighting the DVD release of G4's animated series, "Code Monkeys", because Season One features the actual Steve Wozniak as the owner of GameAvision, the hilariously dysfunctional video game developer that is the focus of the show. Wozniak will also be featured in this season's "Dancing with the Stars", which starts tonight at 8pm on ABC - yes, the Woz will be donning dancing shoes to shake his booty and has been practicing diligently for months [vote for Woz tonight!!].

On "Code Monkeys", the Woz sells GameAvision to fund a fictional version of Apple, Inc. as he believes the personal computer is the wave of the future. The series is animated as an 8-bit video game and has many references to video games from the vintage 8-bit era: River City Ransom, Castlevania, Mega Man, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, and Super Mario Bros.

If you are a fan of old school 8-bit games, this is a great series, if you work in or know someone who works in IT, software development, or particularly in the video game industry, you should definitely check it out because it is so tied into those work environments and finds a way to laugh at some of the ridiculous situations that regularly come up. Also, the video game-pertinent guest stars boggle the mind: Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, God of War creator David Jaffe, Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax, Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning, and Doom creator John Romero.

The 8-bit visualization of the series would feel gimmicky if it weren't so dead on - "Code Monkeys" is also dead on with the shenanigans that go on in any office that has any kind of information technology in place. "Code Monkeys" had two seasons at G4 but hasn't been renewed for a third (yet) - we hope to get a copy of Season Two and we hope to see more seasons in the schedule.