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.

[Gravityqueen4life]

It's so good, I've started thinking how it would become if James AVGN crew actually reviewed it today:
* No curse words because they are bad for the algorithm.
* Video would be 20 minutes long, the first five minutes would be talking about games doing homage to older days, afterwards five minute review with no sequential gameplay being spread on 15 minutes with other skits and references to other games spread between them.
* Absolutely abyssal timing on all the jokes, especially making them way too long.
* Ending will be some terrible action scene of James deleting the game off Steam.

found another one. not as good but still funny.

 

[skykiii]

Again, don't care, didn't ask. Cry back to Snoopy right now, Charlie Brown.

"Balls on the Dick, Charlie Brown" was always the weirdest special.

 

[CyrusHowler]

Hey, you're talking to me, Peter Griffin here.

“Hey Lois, remember the time I talked to @CyrusHowler on KiwiFarms?”
*cue cutaway*

 

[skykiii]

I was always really bewildered by this line in the HK 97 episode. After having read about his balls on a dick accident, it suddenly makes a lot of sense.
View attachment 4689944

Okay, I actually have to stand up for James here, cuz to me this line bewildering you just makes me think you didn't grow up in that era.

See a big thing about the NES days is.... games were seen as being for kids, meaning that as a kid there were just some things you knew (for the most part) could never happen.

I recall having a similar sensation about an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures where Babs actually mentioned God by name (context, her and Buster visited the Lincoln Memorial and she read the inscription). Back then, the only time cartoons mentioned God was if they were explicitly religious shows like that Hanna-Barbera thing with the time travellers, so hearing Babs Bunny say it was weird.

That's what I imagine was going on with James here--games back then just did not cuss, so it was weird when one actually did.

Cultures change, man.

found another one. not as good but still funny.

This feels more like an older Spoony video that just happens to have AVGN's voice actually. Jokes like "I'm not the bad guy here!" just have that Spoony vibe.

Going with the above discussion, a large part of AVGN's reactions was when games did something fucked up that you wouldn't expect in a game made for kids, so I imagine an AVGN version of that would actually be more like... "I'm playing a video game where the goal is to shoot up a school!"

 

[TVB]

“Hey Lois, remember the time I talked to @CyrusHowler on KiwiFarms?”
*cue cutaway*

American Dad is based

"Balls on the Dick, Charlie Brown" was always the weirdest special.

Was it weird as A Charlie Brown Kwanzaa?

found another one. not as good but still funny.

This actually does take me back to the mid-to-late-2000s, holy shit

 

[skykiii]

Was it weird as A Charlie Brown Kwanzaa?

Maybe, but the crown probably still goes to It's a Tranny, Charlie Brown.

EDIT: Okay, so I posted assuming that A Charlie Brown Kwanzaa was something you totally made up...

This actually does take me back to the mid-to-late-2000s, holy shit

Now you just have to play shitty games that suck ass!

 

[Dom Cruise]

Kind of off topic, but also related to James.

When he was starting off was the SNES and Genesis considered retro? Seems like for a few years all he covered was NES and below, I want to say he didn't cover his first SNES game until 2008 though I could be wrong.

Certainly by the end of the decade SNES and Genesis were considered retro consoles, but it seems like to me like in 2004-2006 "retro gaming" was exclusively 8 bit and below.

I was wondering if anyone else could weigh in on this, I could be wrong and 16 bit was considered retro by the start of the 2000s, but I'm not sure.

 

[byuu]

Kind of off topic, but also related to James.

When he was starting off was the SNES and Genesis considered retro? Seems like for a few years all he covered was NES and below, I want to say he didn't cover his first SNES game until 2008 though I could be wrong.

Certainly by the end of the decade SNES and Genesis were considered retro consoles, but it seems like to me like in 2004-2006 "retro gaming" was exclusively 8 bit and below.

I was wondering if anyone else could weigh in on this, I could be wrong and 16 bit was considered retro by the start of the 2000s, but I'm not sure.

On April 20th 2003, the International Gaming Institute declared SNES games officially to be retro.

AVGN already talked about SNES games in his very first christmas special in 2006

Here is the Retrogaming WP article from 2005 explicitly mentioning SNES and Genesis:

Retrogaming - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Jason Wynn]

Kind of off topic, but also related to James.

When he was starting off was the SNES and Genesis considered retro? Seems like for a few years all he covered was NES and below, I want to say he didn't cover his first SNES game until 2008 though I could be wrong.

Certainly by the end of the decade SNES and Genesis were considered retro consoles, but it seems like to me like in 2004-2006 "retro gaming" was exclusively 8 bit and below.

I was wondering if anyone else could weigh in on this, I could be wrong and 16 bit was considered retro by the start of the 2000s, but I'm not sure.

By the early 2000s you had the PS2, X Box and GameCube out. SNES and Genesis stopped production around 1995/1996, so only a handful of years by the start of the 2000s. I'd say they would have been seen as old, but not quite retro yet. Once we get to the end of the 2000s and early 2010s is when they could "officially" be seen as retro, but that's just my take.

 

[elastic eye]

I've watched AVGN for many many years. While I don't find some of the excessive descriptions of poop and piss particularly funny - I did find his content amusing and a great way to kill 15-20 minutes. I'd have on and off spells of watching and always catch back up. Something happened though maybe 6? 4? months ago. He started popping back up in my suggestions and I'm like oh shit new content. It sucked. Couldn't finish it. Tried twice even it's still 3/4 the way watched not even paying attention. Today's MATI explains EVERYTHING....no wonder it's seemed so fucking off.

Anyways - that's sad. Good bye another fond early Internet memory.

 

[Dom Cruise]

By the early 2000s you had the PS2, X Box and GameCube out. SNES and Genesis stopped production around 1995/1996, so only a handful of years by the start of the 2000s. I'd say they would have been seen as old, but not quite retro yet. Once we get to the end of the 2000s and early 2010s is when they could "officially" be seen as retro, but that's just my take.

I would agree and James seems to reflect this, in 2004 he's talking about Castlevania II, by 2009 he's talking about Super Castlevania 4, which is when it felt like 16 bit was fully "retro", but if you said "retro gaming" to someone in 2006 chances are the first things that'd pop to mind was NES and Atari 2600, though that rapidly started to change.

 

[skykiii]

I would agree and James seems to reflect this, in 2004 he's talking about Castlevania II, by 2009 he's talking about Super Castlevania 4, which is when it felt like 16 bit was fully "retro", but if you said "retro gaming" to someone in 2006 chances are the first things that'd pop to mind was NES and Atari 2600, though that rapidly started to change.

As someone who was there, basically anything two gens behind current was "retro." I recall the SNES and Genesis being called that in emulation circles.

I don't think that had anything to do with what James chose to review though... I think the reason he focused on NES games was just because it was easier to find material. While bad 16-bit games still exist, a bad SNES game tends to be more "average" rather than the kind of broken down nonsense he found on the NES.

 

[Pissmaster]

Kind of off topic, but also related to James.

When he was starting off was the SNES and Genesis considered retro? Seems like for a few years all he covered was NES and below, I want to say he didn't cover his first SNES game until 2008 though I could be wrong.

Certainly by the end of the decade SNES and Genesis were considered retro consoles, but it seems like to me like in 2004-2006 "retro gaming" was exclusively 8 bit and below.

I was wondering if anyone else could weigh in on this, I could be wrong and 16 bit was considered retro by the start of the 2000s, but I'm not sure.

The way I remember it, there was such a thick line in the sand drawn when the N64 & PlayStation came along that anything primarily 2D was pretty much considered retro by the early 2000s. I remember some hardcore cognitive dissonance back in those days surrounding the graphics, where the best looking SNES games were thought to have worse graphics than even shitty PS1 games, all because they're 3D.

Kinda weird to think about that. There are games over 20 years old now that feel uncomfortable to call retro, like Halo and Max Payne, but Chrono Trigger was retro by its 5th anniversary. Goes to show just how much games have stagnated.

 

[Stupid Sexy Flanders]

They can't just accept that it was a dumb internet show that never could have possibly lasted with their idea of quality forever. Even if you overlook that James isn't really a gamer, and he got through most of the actual games he played growing up, there are still only so many fucking retro games you can do before it either gets stale or you start hitting the "who the hell played this as a kid?" route.

Yeah, pretty much - I mean, there's only around 700 games in the NES library alone and while some are really bad (or really good), most are just kind of mediocre where they're not amusingly bad and just mostly forgotten for a reason. It was never going to be a lasting concept, even with expanding it to Hong Kong '97 doesn't work because there's no one who has any real nostalgia for that game.

He should retire the series, but of course it brings bread to the table so... meh. I get it, just like I get why The Simpsons keep churning out new episodes. With that said, he should've kept off revealing himself as a Chris Chan-tier tard.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Kind of off topic, but also related to James.

When he was starting off was the SNES and Genesis considered retro? Seems like for a few years all he covered was NES and below, I want to say he didn't cover his first SNES game until 2008 though I could be wrong.

Certainly by the end of the decade SNES and Genesis were considered retro consoles, but it seems like to me like in 2004-2006 "retro gaming" was exclusively 8 bit and below.

I was wondering if anyone else could weigh in on this, I could be wrong and 16 bit was considered retro by the start of the 2000s, but I'm not sure.

They were seen as retro back in 2001/2002 or so. It wasn't just x number of years passed but it was also the graphics that factored into it.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

They were seen as retro back in 2001/2002 or so. It wasn't just x number of years passed but it was also the graphics that factored into it.

One important thing in my opinion was that there weren't endless ports/collections of previous gen titles sold on every new systems. The only way(other than emulation) to play these games was to hook up an old system for anyone that wanted to play a hugely successful game like Donkey Kong Country, a game didn't have a version for modern consoles until the Wii. Same for the older Zelda's. Pure SNES games(not old arcade games) like FF6/Chrono Trigger coming to the PSX was a real "wow/what" moment for fans of the originals, that sort of thing never really happened.

 

[TVB]

By the early 2000s you had the PS2, X Box and GameCube out. SNES and Genesis stopped production around 1995/1996, so only a handful of years by the start of the 2000s. I'd say they would have been seen as old, but not quite retro yet. Once we get to the end of the 2000s and early 2010s is when they could "officially" be seen as retro, but that's just my take.

And yet the Dreamcast was discontinued by Sega in 2001, because they are shit at marketing their consoles.

 

[DinnerDates]

I've watched AVGN for many many years. While I don't find some of the excessive descriptions of poop and piss particularly funny - I did find his content amusing and a great way to kill 15-20 minutes. I'd have on and off spells of watching and always catch back up. Something happened though maybe 6? 4? months ago. He started popping back up in my suggestions and I'm like oh shit new content. It sucked. Couldn't finish it. Tried twice even it's still 3/4 the way watched not even paying attention. Today's MATI explains EVERYTHING....no wonder it's seemed so fucking off.

Anyways - that's sad. Good bye another fond early Internet memory.

While it does true that Mike helped with writing AVGN scripts, James also did it too. It's not the case where Mike carry all the heavy loads by himself. I think AVGN is at their best when James collabs with Mike on the script. Mike handle the game aspect while James handle the film aspect.

Still wish Mike would comeback on Cinemassacre channel and get rid the Slobwave guys. But for some godly reason James can't manage his own channel and still needs a fucking MCN on 2023.

 

[PeriodicTrouble]

While it does true that Mike helped with writing AVGN scripts, James also did it too. It's not the case where Mike carry all the heavy loads by himself. I think AVGN is at their best when James collabs with Mike on the script. Mike handle the game aspect while James handle the film aspect.

Still wish Mike would comeback on Cinemassacre channel and get rid the Slobwave guys. But for some godly reason James can't manage his own channel and still needs a fucking MCN on 2023.

James could manage the channel, but he doesn't want to because he's more focused on his family than on his videos. He makes easy money reading the scripts Screenwave gives him because of the AVGN videos still getting over a million views and also the sponsorship money. Sure some people say AVGN is not really good anymore, but if a lot of people keep watching and James is still able to feed his family and pay his bills, then he has no reason to change things. He only changed things when he got shit for the Monster Madness Plagarism controversy and that's about it. James got burned out doing AVGN after doing full time for over a decade so he let other people handle the hard work of playing the game, editing, and writing while he just has to do voiceovers and skits. Can't blame him on that, just sucks that the videos outside of AVGN are also dull and passionless.

 

[Super Nemesis 64]

I'm half way though the Kid Icarus review, and I think the problem is its length. Like if this thing was 10-15 minutes long instead of 20, it would be fine. Rolfe is trying to get his old energy back but he like an engine that will almost start.

I'd rather watch old school irategamer than current AVGN

You know, this video kind of feels like the Irategamer.