How do you feel about the Angry Video Game Nerd?

[Leo656]

... There's four buttons, one of which is Punch and the other of which is Kick. Okay technically six because of the shoulder buttons but unless you really want to do a finisher you in theory don't even need them. It's cheap but it's possible to beat either game on the hardest difficulty by doing nothing but punching.

Like yeah, any game you haven't played takes a minute to figure out, but those two are by FAR the easiest wrestling games ever made and anyone who can't figure out the controls within five minutes probably also struggles with drinking through a straw. I really can't be any nicer about it than that. He's lucky he didn't pick up any of the newer ones; some of the controls are context-sensitive! If he couldn't figure out Royal Rumble for SNES then 2K-anything would give him a stroke.

Of course, there's the off-chance that, being a Nerd video, he just saw LJN on the label and was just doing shtick, and he was only pretending to have a hard time. One would hope so. But he genuinely seemed to be having trouble with the easier parts of Lion King and wasn't playing the Nerd in that one, so again, maybe he's just kind of not good. Who knows.

I like the guy but sometimes I wonder how much he really has on the ball.

[Voltron]

It depends on the video. A few of them are absolutely hysterical. Others he spends too much time doing the act.

I was hooked from the Simon's Quest video where he just blurts out "this game sucks" and then goes on a rant.

The one where Mike Mateo (or whatever his name is) shows up as Joker is just annoying as hell, though. And there's been a few that follow that format. I take a pass on those.

[Andrew NDB]

I love the guy but the Simon's Quest hate I could never abate. I loved that game dearly. It even enabled my elementary school crush and I to bond.

Plus it's like the basis for every 2D Castlevania game beginning with Symphony. It's the granddaddy.

[Voltron]

Granted. Most of the games he reviews don't strike me as bad as much as they are incredibly difficult. I had a great time with Simon's Quest, despite having NO idea what I was supposed to be doing and dying every other screen. Same with the original TMNT.

I remember, sometime in my early twenties, I had just crushed 3-4 PS2 games in a row. I figured I must've improved my gaming skills, and those old NES games weren't really that hard. . . I was just an inexperienced kid.

Nope. Tried original Castlevania and got my ass handed to me again and again and again.

Funny you should mention it being an influence on SOTN. I never made the connection. I'm friends with one of the guys who worked on SOTN. I'll have to ask him just how much influence was taken.

Also, kudos on the bonding. Pity that didn't last. I don't think I've ever had an SO with an interest in gaming beyond tetris.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Plus it's like the basis for every 2D Castlevania game beginning with Symphony. It's the granddaddy.

Wow, I never made that connection before but now that you said that it makes so much sense. I remember when I beat Castlevania 2 - it was almost on accident - I think you had to have an eyeball or something equipped just to have access to Dracula's tomb. I stumbled through most of the game and later found out that there were multiple endings. I think my ending had a gravestone, but IIRC there was a better one with someone standing next to it. I never went back to try it again.

I still love Symphony of the Night. I've also noticed that Lament of Innocence doesn't get any love, which is crazy because the game is basically SOTN with Metal Gear Solid camera angles and pretty decent graphics. I also remember the LOI cut scenes were pretty great, although I'm sure I'd have different opinions if I loaded it up today. It was Curse of Darkness that I couldn't get into at all. Loved Lament of Innocence though.

And then Lords of Shadow came out for the PS3 and that was an absolute masterpiece from the very first level where the raindrops hit the interior of your T.V. screen. I bought the sequel, and played it one time for 20 minutes and never loaded it up again - I can't even explain why, but I had no interest in it even though I loved the first. It'd be great to have some play time with Lords of Shadow again, even if only to complete an easy mode speed run.

[Voltron]

Originally Posted by IMJ

I still love Symphony of the Night. I've also noticed that Lament of Innocence doesn't get any love, which is crazy because the game is basically SOTN with Metal Gear Solid camera angles and pretty decent graphics. I also remember the LOI cut scenes were pretty great, although I'm sure I'd have different opinions if I loaded it up today. It was Curse of Darkness that I couldn't get into at all. Loved Lament of Innocence though.

May I ask why you didn't like Curse of Darkness? I played Lament and it was great. For some reason, I never picked up Curse of Darkness. Maybe I was put off by lack of Belmont, I'm not sure.

With the Netflix series, I'm interested in playing it. What was it that put you off?

[Reinako666]

Originally Posted by snake

I just didn’t think it was needed. Algorithms and the “shocked face” on the thumbnail look so jarring with the older, obviously made for fun videos. It’s something I’ve always associated with clickbait, and especially Doug/NC videos.

The past couple episodes have been so terrible, with the exception of Chex Quest. I don’t care whether or not James plays the games anymore, but it doesn’t even feel like AVGN anymore (references to things like framerates or walk-cycles take me out of the video). To be clear, I like some of the screenwave stuff, and the first batch of episodes post Megaman were awesome. But Aladdin Deck Enhancer, Life of Black Tiger, and Jurassic Park were so bad that not even r/cinemassacre is defending them anymore. Either let AVGN die off or improve the writing. The elaborate skits were never funny in CA videos, and they aren’t funny here. There’s a clear difference in having a character show up in an AVGN episode (which is a staple of the show) and the Jurassic Park episode. Pepsiman is a recent episode that does the skit aspect right, Aladdin Deck Enhancer is not.

Sorry I don’t believe in defending everything a channel does because they used to be great. The Screenwave management change has done more harm than good.

Oh, and Rental Reviews is just Redlettermedia without anything that makes that channel exceptional.

Screenwave changed ALL of the AVGN thumbnails...

[Reinako666]

Originally Posted by Voltron

I never picked up Curse of Darkness.

I have Curse Of Darkness.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

His newest video on Dennis the Menace for SNES has made me realize that the last video I properly enjoyed was the Tiger Electronics video, but even then that paled in comparison to videos around the time of Action 52

[Coola Yagami]

I still pretty much enjoy AVGN's videos because he changes things up but remains 'the same' enough to still be enjoyable.

The other day I realized the reason I cant stand Doug anymore but can't click on the newest AVGN video fast enough is because his videos are more few and far between. There is no set schedule except 'whenever he can' so when a new ep appears it's like that special surprise.

Critic has been pumping out vids every Tuesday or every other Tuesday non-stop and I just don't like the new format with each review being a mini-episode or mini-movie and him having to shoe-horn his cast and extra characters. It was.... kinda alright at first but then you noticed "oh..... so it's gonna be like this from now on, eh?" and I tuned out.

I'm sure that no matter how devoted to the Nerd I am, even I would have gotten sick of him by now if he released a new episode every week for years. The fact that he's been too busy to have any sort of set schedule actually helped him more than hindered him.

[Reinako666]

Last Nerd episode I probably enjoyed a lot was probably "Gameboy Accessories", most episodes following that, I had a bit of a mixed reception.

If I had to sum up AVGN, I would sum it up like this.

2004 - 2007: The Beginning
2008 - 2012: The Golden Age
2013 - 2018: The Silver Age
2019 - Now: Downfall

[Galactus]

Angry Nintendo Nerd is one of the few youtube reviewers of his ilk I ever really bothered with but since I never religiously watched him I can't say I've noticed a huge discrepancy in quality between his old reviews and his current ones.

The last one I watched was the Majora's Mask one which wasn't really funny but he never is when he's reviewing 'good' games. That being said I did agree with a lot of his complaints about the game, even back in the day I wondered why people thought it was one of the best Zelda games.

Loved his Twilight Zone parody in the beginning.

[Leo656]

I kind of agree, his reviews of games that aren't even bad can be a bit frustrating to watch because he has to really struggle for material.

I do like Majora's Mask a lot, BUT, I honestly couldn't find a single thing in his review that was false or even exaggerated. It's a really great game, but you can just tell that due to the compressed development time - coming out less than two years after "Ocarina" - they simply padded the game's length considerably with all the back-tracking, re-setting the clock, etc. Which I guess makes sense; that originally wasn't even going to be a stand-alone Zelda game so much as an "expansion pack" of sorts, then suddenly it had to be its own 50-hour epic and they had to get it out the door quick.

I always had fun playing it, but it's the mainstream Zelda I've played the least AND a huge chunk of the game is just artificial padding to extend the playtime. Couldn't really find fault with any of what James said in that video.

[Reinako666]

New Nerd Episode everyone.

[Leo656]

I never got into the Crash Dummies franchise, but I did kinda like the Crash Test Dummies band just a little so that bit kinda popped me.

Haha, the song at the end of the video was actually the best part of the whole thing.

[Reinako666]

New Nerd episode: Bad Final Fight games.

[ssjup81]

Wow, hard to believe the last time I posted in this thread was when I was defending James over the unnecessary, imo, Ghostbusters 2016 silliness. It is nice being able to regularly frequent and post here again.

I still like the AVGN content. I like how for some videos it's more reflective than angry. For instance, his Majora's Mask review. I really did like that game back in the day, but the review he did on it felt like an actual game review. This is what I like about James. Regardless of the game, whether it's considered good by the majority or bad, he makes an effort to actually review the content. As for more recent views in this era, I guess you'd call it, Majora's Mask is one of my favorites. I liked the Earthbound one too, but I like the Majora's Mask one more. It's interesting the criticisms he brought up in regards to the game that I'd forgotten about. I did get a bit frustrated with it back then. heard the 3DS remake made things a bit easier.

I'm glad that James still takes time out to make his videos while also focusing on projects he enjoys. Seems we he does put out an AVGN video, you can see that he took some time to put it together so when he does, it's generally a treat to see. I don't rush to watch them when first released like I used to, but I still do in due time.

The only aspect of the channel I do still have an issue with is Mike...but without Mike, we wouldn't really even have the AVGN. I never liked him much and found him a bit too annoying even when playing the character MF Mike. I found both the character and the person equally annoying.

Oh other thing I do miss about Cinnemassacre is the fact that Bootsy was pretty much allegedly ousted because of Mike disliking the fact that he garnered more attention than him or was liked more by viewers. I always really liked him.

[Leo656]

Man, we agree on a lotta stuff!

I too don't find myself rushing to watch his newest videos, but not because I don't like them; it's more that I've seen all of his AVGN videos so many times now, that sometimes I wait until he has two or three new ones out so the experience lasts longer. New ones come out so infrequently that I'd rather not just blow through a new one and then have nothing to look forward to. If I can watch two or three in a row I feel more satisfied.

I too feel like the more "mature" style isn't so much of a detriment. I mean he's going on what, 15 years of this? Even though "The Nerd" is just a character I feel like by now a little bit of evolution can only help. Even if he's all about being satirical, people DO respect his opinions, so being a little less bombastic and a bit more genuine can only help him endure, by this point. You can tell he realizes it, too; when he does tell an "old style" joke, he delivers it begrudgingly and it feels almost forced. Like "Yeah, here's a joke about donkey diarrhea, because this is AVGN and I know you expect that. Now that THAT's out of the way, let's continue..." But I almost feel like he's thisclose to being a "regular" reviewer anymore, and I gotta say, I don't mind. He's still funny. Frankly, now that he's 40 and almost bald, I think it might come off as kind of pathetic if he was still doing things the exact same way as he did in the early days.

I also like it when he's less "in gimmick" and more genuine because his criticisms of a given game actually make sense if they come from a valid place and not just him doing his gimmick. The Majora's Mask one being a great example; that's a great game, but EVERY single thing he listed as a criticism is perfectly valid and I don't see how anyone could disagree with any of it. Versus his wrestling game review, where he said games like WWF Raw for SNES were crappy because he couldn't figure out the buttons... which takes about 30 seconds to figure out. That was bad. It was an entertaining video, but I can't really stay engaged like I want to when a person is putting forth objectively bad criticism, whether they're "in gimmick" or not. It just takes me out of things. He usually DOES give very valid criticism, which is why when his points are invalid it hits wrong, and to be fair that tends to happen more often when he's trying to cram more jokes in.

I'unno, I think sometimes he's got a good balance in his newer videos. I should re-watch some of his older ones; I played Roger Rabbit for the first time in 20+ years recently and I kinda think he might have been too nice about it.

[Galactus]

So did anyone watch his crossover with Irate Gamer? Now there is something I didn't think I'd ever see.

Never liked the Irate Gamer mainly because he isn't anywhere near as good as a performer as James Rolfe but I did think people were way too harsh on him back in the day. Pretty much everyone ripped off James Rolfe he may have been the most blatant but James never seemed to care. Imitation is the highest form of flattery and I have little doubt he viewed it as taking inspiration from as opposed to ripping off until everyone called him out on it and he got defensive.

Strange to live in a time that there's been a turnaround of opinion and Irate Gamer is liked whereas Doug Walker is on the outs.

[ssjup81]

I watched the crossover. It was interesting. It's hard to believe that the two after all this time actually managed to do something together and that any bad blood between them (if there actually was from James' side) is water under the bridge. It would be nice to see them maybe collaborate on something again.

The thing I found the most interesting about that video, was the Irate Gamer's shade thrown Doug Walkers' way. He took shots at him. I wonder how people feel about Nostalgia Critic these days anyway...I grew bored of him a few years ago. His "reviews" disguised as Demo Reel just became tiresome for me...