James Rolfe / James D. Rolfe / Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) / Rex Viper and Cinemassacre / Screenwave - Now with not much grieving about a 41-year old man still making videos on YouTube. We're the balls on the dick.

[The Penultimate Warrior]

I will say, the ending to that episode was both sincere and in a way, kind of touching. I know how much Contra means to James, and even though the rest of the episode was pretty meh, I will say the ending did a good job at tugging at my heart strings, which I can't say AVGN has done for a long while.

So, kudos James.

I won't lie, that last part got me in the feels. my grandparents bought me Contra 3/Super Probotector, and to this day I still remember plugging my SNES into their TV and having my mind blown when that bomber comes down and napalms the opening stage, or the first time that skeleton boss breaks through the wall. Then me telling them how this was the most awesome thing ever, whilst they did the adult thing of pretending to be impressed whilst having no idea what I was talking about.

They're both gone now, and the house was sold to a new family. But the game helps serve as a memory of that time, and the fact it still holds up as a game makes you want to revisit it.

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

If I remember correctly the COVID lockdowns prompted James to put J&M Mondays on hold for a few months. After that Mike just decided not to come back since he had to commute a fairly long distance to James's house every week and was just tired of it since they had been doing J&M Mondays for 7 years.

oh I know about all that, and his eventual departure. just thought maybe others knew more behind the scenes shit. the truth sub had speculated some other theories other than burnout

 

[deeman]

oh I know about all that, and his eventual departure. just thought maybe others knew more behind the scenes shit. the truth sub had speculated some other theories other than burnout

At least it was the right decision. the skype episodes sucked

 

[CyrusHowler]

Mike could do a lot worse than Erin I suppose.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

like how Hard Corps' endings are difficulty based, which kinda sucks

Wat

Your ending depends on the route you take.

 

[Least Concern]

Mike is looking a little rough, Is he really 41 already? That feels too old for somebody like him, I dunno why. It's got me feeling some type of way knowing that he's in his 40s now and I'm still watching stuff he makes.
View attachment 3229048

I wonder if he's got any major plans for the future. How fucked would it be if Mike had a kid? I can't imagine this dude being a father for some reason, as much as I appreciate him.

Yeah, imagine being over 40 lol. Pretending as if his body and mind are still functioning correctly and he still has wants and needs and desires. Ha, as if! Disgusting. Everyone should just kill themselves after they turn 39 to save themselves the indignity.

 

[José Mourinho]

I honestly thought we're getting a new AVGN episode pretty soon, but turns out it's been like a month and a half since we got one. The episode is alright, not as great as "The Last Ninja" episode, but still one of the better modern AVGN episodes. You can see James is really into this video in terms of reviewing the game and the jokes even when apparently Mike is doing the gameplay footage (this one is unconfirmed, but if anyone has proof that Mike is doing the footage please let me know).

I'll just post my notes I typed down when watching the video, it's kind of all over the place:

1. I know people usually skip the sponsorship ads but one thing I noticed is that James this time doesn't mention the part where ExpressVPN was the #1 most rated VPN program unlike the previous ones. Guess that's not the case anymore?
2. AVGN referencing a short video movie he made as a kid about the monkey's paw is so random, but I'm fine with it. It reminds me of JonTron (the old gaming review ones) or Scott the Woz where the videos start off with something completely unrelated with the game or at least tangibly related.
3. A rare appearance of Shit Pickle. Thankfully this episode doesn't borrow too much old AVGN episode references unlike the previous one, I got a chuckle from this.
4. Minor nitpick, and even though James' childhood memories with Contra was interesting, I wonder who even wakes up early in the morning to play Contra for like one hour before rushing to eat breakfast and got on the bus and went to school.
5. He spent like 15 minutes and 30 seconds talking about Contra (NES) and Super-C (NES), but only spent 6 minutes about the other Contra games. The 6 minutes of him briefly talking about the other Contra games isn't bad though for the most part, sometimes less is more.
6. I get why there's a transition from heart rain to shitstorm when he was playing Contra Force, but it's badly executed. This is really my only major problem with the review. And the shitstorm effects appear again for the two PS1 games which he didn't elaborate on how bad they were (though he did say he might go more in depth about the bad ones).
7. Outro of the episode is really good, like a really good way to end an episode. Yeah, it's another one of these nostalgic moments, but it's still executed really well. Don't know why he sold his old Contra NES cartridge for 7 bucks to later use it for a sandwich however.

Overall once again an alright episode. Definitely would watch again compared with the other modern AVGN episodes for the past few years.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Don't know why he sold his old Contra NES cartridge for 7 bucks to later use it for a sandwich however.

James was never a hardcore gamer. He was probably in his late teens to early 20's at this point, hard up for cash and probably hadn't touched the game for at least half a decade and hadn't reached his "nostalgia" point for video games yet.

Hasn't he flat out said that meeting Mike in college was what brought him back to video games?

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Minor nitpick, and even though James' childhood memories with Contra was interesting, I wonder who even wakes up early in the morning to play Contra for like one hour before rushing to eat breakfast and got on the bus and went to school.

I used to do that shit if I really liked a game when I was a kid. Remember mostly doing that with the original Resident Evil.

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

my minor nitpick is when he has the machine gun, he (or mike) is still button mashing because the gunfire isn't constant as if it would be if he held down the button.

1. Minor nitpick, and even though James' childhood memories with Contra was interesting, I wonder who even wakes up early in the morning to play Contra for like one hour before rushing to eat breakfast and got on the bus and went to school.

I never had to take the bus, but woke up early enough to play at least a couple hours of games/watch cartoons. One of my fondest memories was beating Mario World before school (not the entire game, but the last few levels + bowser)

 

[Pissmaster]

Very good episode. This really comes off like something James actually wanted to make, all the way up to how he stopped with discussing the series at PS1. I figured he'd mention the widely eviscerated Contra: Rogue Corps, but I don't mind that he didn't. It'd be interesting to see his reaction on that future episode he teased, though.

Minor nitpick, and even though James' childhood memories with Contra was interesting, I wonder who even wakes up early in the morning to play Contra for like one hour before rushing to eat breakfast and got on the bus and went to school.

I'd try to squeeze in a bit of vidya before school. I really, really appreciated the N64's lack of loading times over the PlayStation taking ages to load a disc, so I could still run around a bit in Mario before school. You could go from zero to in-game in a few seconds, whereas so many PlayStation games had lengthy developer intros, title screens, having to load your save from the memory card, all with long loading times in between. When you have less than 10 minutes to squeeze in a game before it's time to go, every second counts, and you can't afford to waste your seconds on some gaumless developer's logo slowly flying in.

 

[Travoltron]

TLDR Erin looks like a Cabbage Patch Doll. Is a 1/10. Deserves to be criticized like an object. And Mike fucked up Cinemassacre for her.

There were two "gamer gurlz" vying for Mike's attention at the time. Erin was easily the better of the two. The other one literally looked like a pig whenever seen without clever camera angles and photoshop.

 

[Sexyphobe]

Wat

Your ending depends on the route you take.

I thought it was one of those games where if you're on a lower difficultly it says "Get bent loser, to get the true ending pick hard"?

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

There were two "gamer gurlz" vying for Mike's attention at the time. Erin was easily the better of the two. The other one literally looked like a pig whenever seen without clever camera angles and photoshop.

didn't see bare it all on the truth sub

 

[Point Blank]

i didn't discover angry video game nerd until a few years ago and since then i fell completely down the cinemassacre rabbit hole. truly one of the greatest film makers on the internet.

i think it's also safe to say that i grew up during the downfall stage of james rolfe, reddit and youtube fully turned on cinemassacre with accusations of racism against mike mattei and hatred towards any project that was slowing down board james and avgn episodes. despite all of this i can't say i know a single person on the internet who hates james rolfe, every time people rag on avgn they're always talking about the content itself or screw attack. James Rolfe is the antilolcow simply because in the 20 years he has been active posting videos online never once has he personally been involved in a controversy( besides those retards who thought he was misogynist just because he didn't like ghostbusters). no matter how bad angry video game nerd becomes james rolfe will never become a lolcow because he has the most mature internet footprint of any online personality.

 

[CyrusHowler]

I wonder who even wakes up early in the morning to play Contra for like one hour before rushing to eat breakfast and got on the bus and went to school.

He talks about it in a video called “Contra Memories” from 9 years ago.
https://youtu.be/erx1deZJT8Y

 

[Megaroad 2012]

I thought it was one of those games where if you're on a lower difficultly it says "Get bent loser, to get the true ending pick hard"?

Nah, you'd be given choices like chase a badguy or head to lab under seige straight from the get go.

There's also the secret jurassic park ending if you climb up a secret passage.

I don't even think it had difficulty options outside of literally physically getting the Japanese version that includes a health bar or the Murican option where it's one hit deaths.

 

[Sexyphobe]

Nah, you'd be given choices like chase a badguy or head to lab under seige straight from the get go.

There's also the secret jurassic park ending if you climb up a secret passage.

I don't even think it had difficulty options outside of literally physically getting the Japanese version that includes a health bar or the Murican option where it's one hit deaths.

Ah, it was Contra 3 I was thinking of with the "Play the hardest mode" stuff.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Ah, it was Contra 3 I was thinking of with the "Play the hardest mode" stuff.

Yeah Contra 3 tells you to man up if you play on anything less than hard mode but only difference is an additional final boss.

 

[Shieldman]

I wonder who even wakes up early in the morning to play Contra

I consider myself a lifetime gaming fan but when faced with the choice to get extra sleep or game a little, I would pick sleeping every time.

Rolfe is the antilolcow

lmao no. Screenwave era might as well be the lolcow era. He's still and always was a turbo autist, but he and his wranglers finally got the presence of mind to know how handle him.

And judging by the recent episodes being decent, it seems lolcow era might be over.

I wonder if that autobiography is ever coming out.