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.

[BullfrogBill]

After watching the newest AVGN (the first new episode I've seen in two years I think) I got inspired to play Castlevania Chronicles (Original Mode, not pants pissing pussy mode like James played) since it's one of the few I never played and god damn, James is a fool. It kicks ass and it was a real treat because it's not every day you get to play a "new" Castlevania game. The OG mode of Castlevania Chronicles blows SC4 out of the water as a remake of the first game. As much as I love the graphics of SC4, CC takes the cake here, it's much more faithful to the NES game visually than SC4 was while still changing it up just enough that it's a new experience. This goes for the level design as well, faithful but changed just enough. The only thing I think SC4 did better was the music, still one of my favorite soundtracks. Overall Castlevania Chronicles is a lot of fun and it's hard as nails, which for a Castlevania game is a great thing. The fact that James refused to even try it out of fear that it was too hard makes me like it even more. As if James even played any of the games in the first place.

James should stop reviewing video games.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I got inspired to play Castlevania Chronicles (Original Mode, not pants pissing pussy mode like James played)

But he played Ghosts N' Goblins twice! Or so he claims... My pet theory is that Mike provided all the footage and James taking credit for it was one of many straws that broke the camel's back.

 

[Looney Troons]

I think his Castlevania lists have always been relegated to games he might have completed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big SC4 guy, I love that game, but he places it on the same pedestal that I would place something like Contra 3 on.

SC4 has got to be one of the easier Castlevania games to play through.

 

[BrunoMattei]

SC4 has got to be one of the easier Castlevania games to play through.

I would place the difficulty more on the Medium scale. Maybe bordering between Easy and Medium? This is why I think he either stole Mike's footage for Ghosts 'N Goblins or used Game Genie or some bullshit because that is undeniably one of the absolute hardest games on the NES. Even save-stating like a fiend won't save you all the time because you can just be in complete get fucked situations.

So, it's bizarre that James can beat one of the hardest games on the NES but struggles with everything else. And I don't even think it's a nostalgia autism muscle memory thing where you play a game so much that certain things about it are just rooted in your mind now because James didn't even beat Ghosts 'N Goblins.

 

[Looney Troons]

I would place the difficulty more on the Medium scale. Maybe bordering between Easy and Medium? This is why I think he either stole Mike's footage for Ghosts 'N Goblins or used Game Genie or some bullshit because that is undeniably one of the absolute hardest games on the NES. Even save-stating like a fiend won't save you all the time because you can just be in complete get fucked situations.

So, it's bizarre that James can beat one of the hardest games on the NES but struggles with everything else. And I don't even think it's a nostalgia autism muscle memory thing where you play a game so much that certain things about it are just rooted in your mind now because James didn't even beat Ghosts 'N Goblins.

You’re absolutely right. There is no way James beat GnG without some assistance. If he did manage to beat it without Mike’s help, he definitely used Game Genie or save states in an emulator to retry certain segments of the game over and over again.

No shame in the latter.

 

[BullfrogBill]

So, it's bizarre that James can beat one of the hardest games on the NES but struggles with everything else. And I don't even think it's a nostalgia autism muscle memory thing where you play a game so much that certain things about it are just rooted in your mind now because James didn't even beat Ghosts 'N Goblins.

Don't forget that he supposedly beat the japanese Star Wars and Transformers games on the Famicom which are arguably harder if not at least just as hard as GnG. I would bet my left testicle that Mike is the one who really beat those games.

Which I don't really have a problem with because those episodes were great regardless but I just don't see James actually beating Transformers on the Famicom without help at least.

 

[JoeyJoJo]

I'll just come out and say it.


NES Nightmare on Elm Street is not that bad. It's actually a fun game, sometimes.

TMNT 1 for NES is a great game, only issue is the difficulty but it's still easier than Castlevania 3 and Bayou Billy

 

[crunchy bits are the best]

After watching the newest AVGN (the first new episode I've seen in two years I think) I got inspired to play Castlevania Chronicles (Original Mode, not pants pissing pussy mode like James played) since it's one of the few I never played and god damn, James is a fool.

Played the original mode of CC when it was first released as well and managed to finish it. Hard but not impossible, I'd say. Weird that the Nerd has played harder games in the past yet bitches about CC's difficulty.

Nerd's getting too old to play hard games, I guess.

 

[RiceofSkywalker]

A clip of the vandalism incident that got James suspended in college has been found on a Blip.tv archive by TCT subreddit user u/Peee123.
(archive)
James talked about it in his book and described it on the Cinemassacre website video catalogue as:

Very intense documentary about the rebellion in the dorm rooms, which I did not participate in, but since I documented it, I was suspended from college for a year. How ironic that I’d get in trouble for my own art, filmmaking which is what I was going to the school for.

What little can be seen in this clip shows a bunch of students in a thrashed dorm room being filmed by James as they smash to pieces a fan of the asshole-ish variety. James can be heard laughing his ass off and kind of cheering them on, which goes a bit against his claims in his book that he didn't take any part in the vandalism and was just an observer.
The clip itself was originally posted by James on Cinemassacre as part of a compilation and became lost media after Blip.tv died.

Spoiler: Local archive

 

[curbside2]

I gave up on James a long time ago. Recently a Mike Matei live stream of Fester's Quest was recommended to me. I was doing some work-related busy work so I put it on as background noise. Turns out I enjoy Mike as a personality. He's somehow both chill and willing to rage and then poke fun at himself. It's pretty cozy. Also, it's illuminating how much of the AVGN character is just Mike. I wonder if those surreal Matei reviews (Minecraft, Inspector Gadget) were the result of Mike playing James playing Mike. Should have just been himself.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

A clip of the vandalism incident that got James suspended in college has been found on a Blip.tv archive by TCT subreddit user u/Peee123.
(archive)
James talked about it in his book and described it on the Cinemassacre website video catalogue as:

What little can be seen in this clip shows a bunch of students in a thrashed dorm room being filmed by James as they smash to pieces a fan of the asshole-ish variety. James can be heard laughing his ass off and kind of cheering them on, which goes a bit against his claims in his book that he didn't take any part in the vandalism and was just an observer.
The clip itself was originally posted by James on Cinemassacre as part of a compilation and became lost media after Blip.tv died.

Spoiler: Local archive

View attachment 5999750

Imagine how many times James must have tripped over the fan's legs. No wonder he was happy to see it die.

 

[Diggus Bickus]

James is gonna appear in Shrek 2 retold and I'm not sure how to feel about that.

of the asshole-ish variety.

This still isn't funny.

 

[demicolon]

I wonder if those surreal Matei reviews (Minecraft, Inspector Gadget) were the result of Mike playing James playing Mike. Should have just been himself.

Lol no that was 100% him, it's just that he grew up a bit after switching to streaming full-time. I remember around 2010 everyone thought Mike is James' house nigger retard friend from school and the cancer that kills AVGN, he was that much of a sperg. My favourite clip of Mike is when Claire dumped him so he got blackout drunk and cutting the stream shortly before beating Super Mario to presumably sleep it off.
Anyway, if you want oldschool AVGN content and don't mind 5 hour gameplay streams then check out Mike at Twitch, if you say something interesting in chat there's 90% chance of it getting noticed and commented. Pretty fun.

As for Ghosts 'N Goblins: there are no patterns in this. Some bosses, notably the dragon one, took me hundreds of tries with save states because for some fucking reason they'd behave differently every time so beating them was totally luck-based for me. Maybe I just suck at this, dunno, but I beat I Wanna Be The Guy without much trouble.

 

[Broseph]

A clip of the vandalism incident that got James suspended in college has been found on a Blip.tv archive by TCT subreddit user u/Peee123.
(archive)
James talked about it in his book and described it on the Cinemassacre website video catalogue as:

What little can be seen in this clip shows a bunch of students in a thrashed dorm room being filmed by James as they smash to pieces a fan of the asshole-ish variety. James can be heard laughing his ass off and kind of cheering them on, which goes a bit against his claims in his book that he didn't take any part in the vandalism and was just an observer.
The clip itself was originally posted by James on Cinemassacre as part of a compilation and became lost media after Blip.tv died.

Spoiler: Local archive

View attachment 5999750

I think it's pretty funny that James actually got suspended just for filming someone smashing a fan that was "vandalism" on account of it being school property.

Spoiler: Powerlevel Sperging

I actually got away with much worse in school since I "vandalized" this little plastic divider wall thing we had in the boys room by drawing all over it, even tho the night shift jannies would wash the wall clean every night I still kept drawing on it which encouraged other students to start doing the same thing until it got so out of hand that the dean of students brought it up during a school assembly and told us that he had already taken pictures of the graffiti in the bathroom and said he would "find out who's been doing it and they would be charged with defacing school property", even tho obviously he wouldn't be able to find out who's been doing it since they couldn't put cameras in the bathroom and I kept doing on and off for like two years and I never got caught

 

[Vulpes Mulpes]

18 years ago?!

I don't feel so good, fellow farmers.
Fuck me.

 

[BullfrogBill]

18 years ago?!

I don't feel so good, fellow farmers.
Fuck me.

Man, it really does not feel like 18 years ago when I showed all my friends and family this video when it was new and novel.

This is fucked up, what a bunch of cowabunga shit

 

[Sicko Hunter]

. I wonder if those surreal Matei reviews (Minecraft, Inspector Gadget) were the result of Mike playing James playing Mike. Should have just been himself.

Yeah no, Mike is an autistic manchild and the videos he's made without James are evidence of that. It's not any deeper then that.

 

[JoeyJoJo]

What screwed James over about the dorm vandalism video he made was James put himself on film saying "I don't care if I get expelled " or something. So while he didn't do the vandalism (that I remember) he did put his name, face and voice on video saying he was apart of it.

 

[COME ON OUT YOU RAPIST]

James is gonna appear in Shrek 2 retold and I'm not sure how to feel about that.

This still isn't funny.

Playing who? His head isn't yet egg-like enough to be Humpty Dumpty.

 

[Corbax]

What screwed James over about the dorm vandalism video he made was James put himself on film saying "I don't care if I get expelled " or something. So while he didn't do the vandalism (that I remember) he did put his name, face and voice on video saying he was apart of it.

His real problem is that he thought destroying a broken oscillating fan was the height of comedy. The way he describes it in the book is that it's an epic battle where the fan somehow disobeys the laws of physics, but it's really the lamest shit possible.

He also blatantly lies in the book, stating that he never preserved the video and left it to deteriorate on the original VHS, which we now know to be false. On some level he must know that the video is pretty bad and that he's in the wrong.

He wants you to think he's the victim and that this video is somehow "art." The full thing (which he no doubt has backed up) would reveal the truth. I don't think he could handle that.