How do you feel about the Angry Video Game Nerd?

[Leo656]

I wouldn't even attempt it without the 30 lives. I don't claim to be "hardcore", especially now that I'm older and have less patience than ever. I just wanna play stuff.

[Prowler]

Yes. I agree. You're bound to get hit several times. And since you die with one hit only, you have to be practically perfect to beat Contra without the 30 life code. I don't even count the Konami code as cheating in a game like Contra.

Anyway, I just watched the episode and it was good. To think James beat the original Contra on a school morning before breakfast when he was in 3rd grade or something... that's crazy. I didn't manage to beat a NES game until I was a teenager when I beat Mega Man 2.

The ending of the episode with the reminiscing was pretty nice. When he told that story of selling Contra for 7 bucks to buy a sandwich... man, I'm glad I never sold my games. I'd regret that so much to this day if I were James.

As for games with friends from our childhood... well, I never really played video games against other kids. So I can't really relate to that. Closest I can think of is making CAWs of HS classmates on DOR 2 and Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 when I was in 10th grade. CAWs of people I haven't seen since 2007 or so. And looking back, those guys were never really my friends. So when I booted up those games again a few years ago I deleted their CAWs to make CAWs of actual wrestlers and fictional characters I wanted to add to the roster.

[Sumac]

Contra 1 and 2 are relatively easy, if you have the right weapon (shotgun).
Starting with Contra 3 series becomes incredibly tough.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Contra 1 and 2 are relatively easy, if you have the right weapon (shotgun).
Starting with Contra 3 series becomes incredibly tough.

It didn't take me that many attempts to beat the original with the 30 life code tbh. But it's still a bit challenging nonetheless. You're always going to lose several lives.

I haven't played other Contra games except for Contra 4 on the DS. Haven't beaten that one though. I gotta fix that sometime.

[Leo656]

Oddly enough, I've had Super C since I was a kid but not the original Contra. I don't think I own it, even still.

((Checks)) Nope, somehow don't have it. I somehow missed picking that one up so far. I'll have to correct that when I have money again.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Oddly enough, I've had Super C since I was a kid but not the original Contra. I don't think I own it, even still.

((Checks)) Nope, somehow don't have it. I somehow missed picking that one up so far. I'll have to correct that when I have money again.

I own Top Gun 2 on the NES. But never owned or played the first one.

I wish I don't have Top Gun 2 either tbh. That game sucks. Always die a minute into the game.

[Leo656]

Haha, that's funny as I actually do own Top Gun but never cared for it. Like most people I can't beat the first level.

A ton of the NES games I had as a kid were stuff people just gave me when they were sick of them. So I didn't have a ton of "gems" but I had a lot of mediocre-to-bad stuff, like Heavy Shreddin' and Bad Dudes.

I did have a lot of fun with Bad Dudes as a kid but it's a very bad port of a game that wasn't incredible to begin with. When I finally played the original arcade version on the Data East Arcade Collection for Wii it was pretty stunning how much better it was than the NES version I'd beaten a hundred times.

You made the best of what you had, as a poor kid. "Can't even scrounge up a buck to go rent something? Well, guess I'll beat Bad Dudes again."

[Prowler]

My older brother hasn't always been wise at choosing games. I didn't have it too bad as far as bad games go.

...but we own Top Gun 2, Bart vs. the Space Mutants and Bart vs. the World. And tbh, a lot of people who grew up with the NES own at least one of the games mentioned above.

I'm guessing the Top Gun NES games sold pretty well because the Top Gun movie was very popular and a big box office success. And this was at a time where we still didn't catch on how games based on movies were usually ****.

The Simpsons? Like anyone who grew up in the 90s, my brother loved the series. It's honestly kind of sad how The Simpsons are pretty much irrelevant nowadays and how there's probably more bad Simpsons episodes than good ones nowadays.

[Leo656]

Yeah, The Simpsons is another show my wife insists on watching every day, and I don't mind it SO much, but it's gotten REALLY awful. I've said many times - and stand by it - that people complaining about The Simpsons having gone to sh*t annoys me more than the show itself does, but that's more about the fact that people never shut up about it and we all KNOW already it's a bad show.

But that doesn't mean they're wrong. It's f*cking terrible now. There's a daily marathon on FX and sadly they insist on running far more newer episodes than old ones. I've seen the ones about Lady Gaga and Moe's stupid dish rag and the one where Homer starts a '90s grunge band more than I ever wanted to, and it amazes me that once upon a time we thought that the episode where Skinner turned out to be an imposter was surely as bad as it could ever get. Pretty much every single episode they make nowadays makes that old chestnut seem like a classic. And that's just terrible.

I get that it's "comfort food" and just a show people watch because it's always on, and seemingly always has been on, but there's just no point to it anymore.

The only thing worse than new Simpsons episodes... are those awful NES Simpsons games. But yeah, obviously I played the hell out of them as a kid like everyone did, although I only ever rented them. As a kid, you don't understand that some games are bad, and when you're not having fun you kinda think it's just you. But those were some of the first where I started to realize that some things are just poorly-made. "This CAN'T be me, I kinda think these games are bullsh*t."

And just like new Simpsons episodes, we just put up with those terrible games because "Hey, it says 'Simpsons' on it." I wish people could overlook brand loyalty more than they do. But I guess people aren't wired that way.

As for Top Gun, I kinda think I thought it was the opposite as a kid, I had the game before I had even heard of the movie. Movies about ambiguously gay Air Force pilots were not at all on my radar as a little kid. I'm pretty sure Little Kid Me assumed the movie was somehow based on the game, and not the other way around.

I never even knew they made a Top Gun 2 game. Although I certainly wouldn't have been looking for it.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Yeah, The Simpsons is another show my wife insists on watching every day, and I don't mind it SO much, but it's gotten REALLY awful. I've said many times - and stand by it - that people complaining about The Simpsons having gone to sh*t annoys me more than the show itself does, but that's more about the fact that people never shut up about it and we all KNOW already it's a bad show.

But that doesn't mean they're wrong. It's f*cking terrible now. There's a daily marathon on FX and sadly they insist on running far more newer episodes than old ones. I've seen the ones about Lady Gaga and Moe's stupid dish rag and the one where Homer starts a '90s grunge band more than I ever wanted to, and it amazes me that once upon a time we thought that the episode where Skinner turned out to be an imposter was surely as bad as it could ever get. Pretty much every single episode they make nowadays makes that old chestnut seem like a classic. And that's just terrible.

I get that it's "comfort food" and just a show people watch because it's always on, and seemingly always has been on, but there's just no point to it anymore.

The only thing worse than new Simpsons episodes... are those awful NES Simpsons games. But yeah, obviously I played the hell out of them as a kid like everyone did, although I only ever rented them. As a kid, you don't understand that some games are bad, and when you're not having fun you kinda think it's just you. But those were some of the first where I started to realize that some things are just poorly-made. "This CAN'T be me, I kinda think these games are bullsh*t."

And just like new Simpsons episodes, we just put up with those terrible games because "Hey, it says 'Simpsons' on it." I wish people could overlook brand loyalty more than they do. But I guess people aren't wired that way.

As for Top Gun, I kinda think I thought it was the opposite as a kid, I had the game before I had even heard of the movie. Movies about ambiguously gay Air Force pilots were not at all on my radar as a little kid. I'm pretty sure Little Kid Me assumed the movie was somehow based on the game, and not the other way around.

I never even knew they made a Top Gun 2 game. Although I certainly wouldn't have been looking for it.

When I was a little kid in the 90s, I had no idea Top Gun was a movie either. I just assumed it was an original NES game. In fact, after all these years, I'm yet to watch Top Gun.

I could never get too far in Bart vs. The Space Mutants. Bart vs. The World I believe I made it to the last stage. But I doubt I've beaten it.

My brother didn't learn his lesson at the time and bought one more Simpsons game. Barts Nightmare for the SNES. It's a little better but still not a particularly good game.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Prowler

It didn't take me that many attempts to beat the original with the 30 life code tbh. But it's still a bit challenging nonetheless. You're always going to lose several lives.

I haven't played other Contra games except for Contra 4 on the DS. Haven't beaten that one though. I gotta fix that sometime.

I think, I've beaten Contra in about a week and Super C in 3 days. My versions were not normal, however, and allowed to keep shotgun throughout the game.

I have completed every game in the Contra series, even trash-tier like PlayStation 1 ones. The only exception are Hard Crops: Uprising, since I forgot it was a Contra game and the recent Chinese crap with playable Panda, whatever its called.

I've played both Top Gun games on NES, but I only have second. Never was fan of flight sims, so I never put any effort into them.

[Prowler]

I recently watched James video where he talks about VHS.

Really nice video. He also raises an interesting point near the end. Back then we had much less movies at our disposal at home. Even if we owned a bunch of virgin VHS tapes to record movies on TV eventually we'd run out of tape and would need to record new stuff over old stuff.

Nowadays we can watch any movie or TV show on a place like Netflix, HBO, Disney+, etc. But is it as fun as enjoyable? After all we don't own a physical copy when we do that.

Back then we had some of our favourite movies and cartoons on VHS. And we watched them and appreciated them often.

Perhaps it is better to have less and appreciate it better than having more but not appreacting it as much.

[Leo656]

He's definitely gotten more and more "zen" in his old age.

Must be all the extra sunlight coming down on his bald f*cking head.

[Prowler]

I mean, that was bound to happen. His whole channel is built on nostalgia, after all.

Even if he had a full mane of hair still, I'm sure he'd be just as zen.

[Andrew NDB]

I was waiting in suspense for his opinion and then it came: he says "The Batman" is the best Batman movie ever made. I turned it off right then.

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I was waiting in suspense for his opinion and then it came: he says "The Batman" is the best Batman movie ever made. I turned it off right then.

I enjoyed it, though I disagree that it's the best Batman movie ever made. I guess maybe to someone who's only ever seen the live action ones, maaaaybe? But in general? Even then, I don't think it's the best LA one.

But then again, I...don't care about AVGN, or most other reviewers aside from Red Letter Media and maybe one or two others.

[Leo656]

Finally got around to watching the latest AVGN video. It's always fun to see him review some more "modern" stuff for a change, like Wii games in this case.



I own about 50 games for the Wii so there's definitely enough good games for that system to build a decent library, but there is definitely some absolute garbage for it, too. Hopefully he'll do some more.

Also his cat is adorable. This video really brought back a lot of memories. I still think about my poor cat 'Nique every day since she passed away in 2019, and I can't bring myself to change my FB pics. Might never own another cat, at least not for a while, as Zoe is only 5 and so God willing we'll have her for a long time yet. And she'd probably eat a cat. But yeah, this video was funny and reminded me of all those little "quirks" that only cat owners will really understand.

[NeonTurtledude]

I love his cats, that review was adorable and funny, it was nice when boo would occasionally appear in the old videos like NES accessories.

as for the nerd himself, I discovered his videos back in 2012 and he (amongst other online creators) taught me a lot of what I know now about film theory, James Rolfe is a cool dude, I like his early videos but the new stuff is occasionally entertaining.

I haven't seen his movie but what I've seen looks underwhelming, his Rob the robot special was cool though.

His perspective on movies and shows fascinates me.

[Leo656]

I "like" his movie reviews but sometimes they're pretty shallow. Like depending on the subject, sometimes he has really good insights and other times it's like he barely paid attention to the movie and struggles to actually come up with anything of substance to say. And sometimes a lot of really obvious stuff goes way over his head that might reframe his entire opinion if he were aware of it.

But I guess it depends on the movie. I've only seen a few of his movie reviews, but enough to notice that he's wildly inconsistent. I'd love to actually sit and talk to him at length about a few of the movies he's reviewed, or games for that matter.

It sucks because I think he's actually from Jersey but I've never met him.

[NeonTurtledude]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I "like" his movie reviews but sometimes they're pretty shallow. Like depending on the subject, sometimes he has really good insights and other times it's like he barely paid attention to the movie and struggles to actually come up with anything of substance to say. And sometimes a lot of really obvious stuff goes way over his head that might reframe his entire opinion if he were aware of it.

But I guess it depends on the movie. I've only seen a few of his movie reviews, but enough to notice that he's wildly inconsistent. I'd love to actually sit and talk to him at length about a few of the movies he's reviewed, or games for that matter.

It sucks because I think he's actually from Jersey but I've never met him.

yeah, that's understandable, when that's the case and I'm looking for movie/show review content that will give me a deep dive on the themes, I'll just look at other creators, I've only seen some of his movie reviews because I haven't seen much horror cinema myself (aside from American Psycho and The Corpse Vanishes), (I saw a bit of rear window but that was just for a homework task)

But it does depend on the movie, he got me to get more interested in the production side of film and how symbolism works.
I'd also love to meet him and talk to him about what he's reviewed, but ni doesn't have many conventions so it's highly unlikely that he'd visit here, the book he's planning sounds like it would be an interesting read.