Is it just me, or does it seem that James Rolfe seems to be suffering from Creator Fatigue recently? His first Bible Games review had a nice Christmas theme song and plenty of excellent commentary on several bad games. The Angry Nerd Christmas Carol was a hilarious and even somewhat heartwarming special with a dash of Wii games. Bible Games 2 was, well, a sequel, but the Color Dreams / Wisdom Tree Useful Notes were great and so was the review of Menace Beach / Sunday Funday. This year, his Winter Games review was...just like an ordinary episode and a rather underwhelming one at that. It seems like several of his videos this year had a half-assed feel to them, despite the good episodes being really good (especially the CastleVania 4-parter).
I suspect that James Rolfe wants to put his filmmaking as a higher priority, but the Angry Video Game Nerd show is just too popular to stop at this point.
Yeah, I could believe that. And yeah, I guess you're right, I didn't really think about it when the new one came out but the Winter Games one is a little disappointing compared to his other Christmas videos.
I have found that a lot of his recent videos have been a bit disappointing. I really like the Red Hood one, and the Castlevania 3 parter was great, but some of the other ones (the Wayne's World one comes to mind) didn't really stand out.
I missed this avatar.
I really liked the Wayne's World one, and I'm not sure why.
"Hey Mr. Donut Man, who's trying to kill you?" "I dunno, but they better not."
I wish I knew why that little exchange amused me so much.
I know what you guys mean though. It was a pretty standard episode on its own, it's just hard to stand up to the really well-done Christmas specials from the past few years. Maybe he was just busy and had no ideas?
WHO IS THIS LOSER
Sapient Blob of Tofu
Also he seems to have the whole Unpleasable Fanbase thing I can see how that would fuck with anyone's head.
I really just like anything he does. Mainly because he reminds me so much of myself.
Again with the data mining, dear Aunt?
I think he's just lacked a really strong deep end of bad for a while. Earlier he could easily roll from the C Di to the Virtual Boy to the Sega 32X, but he's running out of the obvious titles, and he's really going into the more b landly bad than outstandingly bad games.
His review of Plumbers Dont Wear Ties was pretty funny.
Seemed weird to me. The game itself was trying to be so bad its good, so mocking it for being bad just seems weird. Penny Arcade said it, its like trying to make fun of a clown.
Oh dang. I have to give him props for digging up that, since it's probably the worst game in existence if it even counts as a game. Heck, it barely even counts as an interactive novel.
Which reminds me, one thing I really like about Angry Video Game Nerd is his talent for visual humour. Often his shocked expression or reaction to something totally wacked-up is worth a thousand snarks.
It's unmistakable. He's not having fun making these anymore.
I'm not if that was sarcasm or not, but it sure was a good way of getting people to watch the newest episode.
Hmm...it seems like part of the reason he chose that game in particular was to shut up everyone that claims he's a terrible gamer or he's a wuss for knocking games just for being Nintendo Hard. I think the original Street Fighter assessment should have been its own review (not to mention now we might miss out on a more thorough Turbo-Grafx assessment), but it was good overall.
Oh hey. The Top 10 Worst Movie Cliches
according to the Nerd.
It feels like some of these haven't even been troped yet.
Your army sucks.
Well some of them are filmaking tricks, we don't have that much on those.
edited 21st Jan '10 4:50:25 AM by Neo_Crimson
Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!
The newest Ninja Gaiden review was perhaps his greatest one yet. Also, I loved how that guy played the ninja master. He's proof Tropes Are Not Good because when he was a Large Ham as the Joker he was awful but he was actually kind of cool in a more subdued performance.
After seeing his review, I looked up gameplay videos of how to beat the final boss. I did the same thing when he did Castlevania III. Funny how the solution to both involves being patient enough to see a pattern in the attacks and exploit that accordingly. Of course, he wouldn't be the Angry Video Game Nerd if he did that, and it wouldn't be quite as funny.
Dang, James Rolfe almost feels like a spokesperson for Nintendo's Virtual Console in the way that he makes me want to go download the games he talks about.
edited 5th Feb '10 3:47:25 PM by Cliche
He's proof Tropes Are Not Good because when he was a Large Ham as the Joker he was awful but he was actually kind of cool in a more subdued performance. They're not the same person (Joker and the other guests = Mike Mattei, Ninja = Kevin Finn).
I missed this avatar.
I liked the Joker! I thought he was the best "character from game comes in to fuck with the Nerd" they've done, because that was the only one where the character was kept, well, in-character (at least when it comes to the corny, over-the-top version the Nerd was parodying), rather than having Bugs Bunny and the Cowardly Lion come in all FUCK FUCK SHIT BITCH WHORE COCK
WHO IS THIS LOSER
Back to the Ninja Gaiden episode, a Crowning Moment Of Funny:
Ninja: Ninja Gaiden. I haven't heard that name in ages.
Nerd: Really?
He had a great one recently. No comedy at all but learning about Sword Quest and the crazy swords incrusted in diamons, rubies, saphires and emeralds for prizes left me in awe.
Literally A Princess
His last couple videos have been more like history lessons than comedic negative reviews...and I kinda like that.
Heapers’ Hangout
Slay foes with bow and arrow
The badly setup hardware for the Pong Consoles did seem to piss him off though.
Those triangular control sticks with the three axes of motion seemed pretty cool. (Which always means they're patented and we'll never see them again.)
Eclipse the Moon
Too bad half of them didn't work.
It would be cool if the world's biggerst nerd have EVERY SINGLE CONSOLE AND HANDHELD (Including Pong Consoles and Game & Watch Consoles) EVER MADE.
BADASS NERD.
edited 1st May '10 4:37:14 AM by PippingFool
I'm having to learn to pay the price
The newest AVGN video is out.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/angry-video-screwattack/59650
I thought this one was great. I laughed a lot during it. I think it's one of the best ones in months. It's a little like the Milon's Secret Castle one.