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.

[Battlefield2142EU]

Why is this guy dressed up like a Jewish Nosferatu knockoff with dick fingers?

Pretty fitting for someone who white knights Mr Beast online don’t you think?

 

[Lone Star]

I'm hoping the glitch episode coming up will be good at least. I do enjoy the more anthology-type episodes, assuming it's similar to the first one. The review itself was fine, but like everyone else, I hated the A.I. bit, it was entirely unneeded.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

His chrome dome is so distracting.

 

[innocent jogger]

I'm hoping the glitch episode coming up will be good at least.

Since his "glitch goblin" character was almost as stupid as his "AI Man" character, I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[Smar Mijou]

Since his "glitch goblin" character was almost as stupid as his "AI Man" character, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Nah, Glitch Goblin is a classic AVGN episode. But bringing it back with Current Year AVGN? I'm not holding my breath for it to be any good either.

 

[BrunoMattei]

An actual decent episode. That's how I'd describe this one. The writing isn't that bad. It's not horrible cringe (at least until the neighbor is forcibly made to be a new character) but it does feel plodding and stretched out. Switching to 20 minutes as the new minimum for episodes has done the channel no favors. It feels like an ai wrote it but that's just modern AVGN. 5/10 episode. Now as for the game...

I think the original Blaster Master is overrated. I said it. I don't care who I piss off. I love half of it, specifically the sidescrolling parts in the tank. The top-down areas just aren't fun. It's also horribly overlong (this is one of the non-RPG NES games that will take at least an hour and a half to two hours to complete -provided you know what you're doing) with too much backtracking. Yes, you can use an emulator or whatever and save your game now but it doesn't change up that the gameplay is very tedious by a certain point.

Blaster Master 2 on Genesis is overall better... But, the top down sections are somehow worse than the original with even more frustrating controls.

 

[demicolon]

The only bad part of Blaster Master is when you get the wall-clinging upgrades, which make steering the tank a pain in the ass especially in the last area.

The review was so forgettable I already forgot it even existed.

 

[BrunoMattei]

The review was so forgettable I already forgot it even existed.

They missed a golden opportunity to cover a few of the sequels/remakes and doing that would have justified the 20+ minute length and the scripts won't consist mostly of filler.

Blaster Master 2 is better in a lot of ways than the original and it's very amusing to see the devs give the series a Genesis-makeover and make it more edgy and focusing more on horror and gross imagery.

The rest of the games are either straight up terrible like the PSX one or (most amusingly) they mostly consist of remakes of the original. The GBC game is a remake with some changes but mostly everything has the same spritework as the NES original. Overdrive on the Wii is a painfully average experience, improving on the original only when it comes to the technicals and it was part of that era of low budget Jap gaming where it looks like it was almost impossible to grab a guy who could do 2D art and instead they just rely on some ugly 3D art assets that kind of look like the original but it's overall an uglier experience.

Then there's the 3 Inti Creates games and for the most part they're fine. Not much to say about them only if you're into Inti Creates and haven't played them then you most likely should.

 

[demicolon]

Right, I've read on hardcoregaming years ago how bad some of the sequels were. They'd make good material but Mike has to play them and record footage first.

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

People hated Glitch Gremlin at the time and now it's a classic. it was the thing of its time

 

[BrunoMattei]

All this Blaster Master discussion made me revisit Fester's Quest. Specifically the Eurotrash version that fixes the issue where the bullets for your weapon stop at walls and edges. Plus enemy health was reduced across the board.

It is a better game but it still has issues. If the Eurotrash version became standard it would have been regarded better. 7/10 game. It would have been one of those weekend rentals or a gift game where you arrive at the conclusion that "Yeah, that was alright. Not bad."

I wonder how long before James/Screen Wave revisits Fester's Quest with this new revelation that the Euro version is good? I assume this is an episode already in the making or maybe they plan to use it as a backburner?

 

[innocent jogger]

I think the original Blaster Master is overrated. I said it. I don't care who I piss off. I love half of it, specifically the sidescrolling parts in the tank. The top-down areas just aren't fun. It's also horribly overlong

I agree.. and don't. lol The tank sidescrolling is the best part but I like top-down stuff too. It's not as well done but I still like it.

As far as "overrated and overlong"? I completely agree. About a year ago I did a full play through using emulation, cheat codes, and a walkthrough for reference. It took me around two hours and I got bored from all the backtracking and redundancy.

Overdrive on the Wii is a painfully average experience, improving on the original only when it comes to the technicals

I never heard anyone talk about that one before. I have that .wad (lol), I installed in on the Wii (lmao) a few times and I never get that far in without being bored. Eventually I just remove it to install something else. I haven't played any of the other ones. I didn't know it was a ip until now.

I wonder how long before James/Screen Wave revisits Fester's Quest with this new revelation that the Euro version is good? I assume this is an episode already in the making or maybe they plan to use it as a backburner?

How long until Slobwave just fucks off and leaves already?

 

[demicolon]

I agree.. and don't. lol The tank sidescrolling is the best part but I like top-down stuff too. It's not as well done but I still like it.

Problem with top-down stuff is that 90% of it is completely fucking pointless. All doors that don't lead to the boss are useful only for powering up your weapon, as some bosses are night impossible to beat without maxing it out, and only if you fuck up somewhere along the way.

How long until Slobwave just fucks off and leaves already?

Slobwave fucked off some time ago.

 

[deeman]

All this Blaster Master discussion made me revisit Fester's Quest. Specifically the Eurotrash version that fixes the issue where the bullets for your weapon stop at walls and edges. Plus enemy health was reduced across the board.

It is a better game but it still has issues. If the Eurotrash version became standard it would have been regarded better. 7/10 game. It would have been one of those weekend rentals or a gift game where you arrive at the conclusion that "Yeah, that was alright. Not bad."

I wonder how long before James/Screen Wave revisits Fester's Quest with this new revelation that the Euro version is good? I assume this is an episode already in the making or maybe they plan to use it as a backburner?

THAT'S why i don't agree on his take on it, interesting, i've always wondered if the dam level in Turtles also had some fixing because i've never seen that level as hard...

 

[BrunoMattei]

THAT'S why i don't agree on his take on it, interesting, i've always wondered if the dam level in Turtles also had some fixing because i've never seen that level as hard...

The Dam level in the original TMNT is iconic in the same way that Turbo Tunnels has become for Battletoads: it's an early and extremely frustrating level deliberately made to gatekeep and stop kids from beating the game over a weekend. It's not the hardest level in the game but it was the one that made the majority of plays say "fuck it" and either pray to the gods at Game Genie or just cut your loss.

Imagine my shock and awe when years later I play Battletoads legit on an emulator and we all thought as kids that the Turbo Tunnels were the only insanely difficult level and the rest of the game would be easier... I still say the hardest level in Battletoads is when you're being chased by that circle of death followed by the Rat Race level.

The one thing James used to do really well was setup how back in the day, especially as a kid, you didn't have a lot of means for entertainment and unless you were well off to an extent you most likely didn't own a lot of games. I only owned maybe two dozen games on the NES and the rest were rentals. It sucked so much more experiencing a bad game because of that and like James said: "There goes your weekend!" The $4 you spent renting the game just got pissed down the toilet and the most fun you had at the rental store was just looking at the games and hopefully renting something else that wasn't terrible?

 

[demicolon]

i've always wondered if the dam level in Turtles also had some fixing because i've never seen that level as hard...

It's not hard if you know where to go and have some hp to spare, but it's full of bullshit to make you go back to the push start screen.

Imagine my shock and awe when years later I play Battletoads legit on an emulator and we all thought as kids that the Turbo Tunnels were the only insanely difficult level and the rest of the game would be easier... I still say the hardest level in Battletoads is when you're being chased by that circle of death followed by the Rat Race level.

Battletoads to this day doesn't work well on emulators. I've played it, dunno, 3 years ago in retroarch under fceux iirc and the water tunnel level (the one with the sharks and ducks) bugged out constantly. The circle chase and rat race are notorious for being night impossible on an emulator due to timing bugs, both the circle and the rats move faster than on original hardware.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Battletoads to this day doesn't work well on emulators. I've played it, dunno, 3 years ago in retroarch under fceux iirc and the water tunnel level (the one with the sharks and ducks) bugged out constantly. The circle chase and rat race are notorious for being night impossible on an emulator due to timing bugs, both the circle and the rats move faster than on original hardware

I use PUnes which is like 97% accurate. Try one of those ultra accurate emulators that might fix it.

Playing Punch Out should be the standard for testing emulator accuracy.

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

The Dam level in the original TMNT is iconic in the same way that Turbo Tunnels has become for Battletoads: it's an early and extremely frustrating level deliberately made to gatekeep and stop kids from beating the game over a weekend. It's not the hardest level in the game but it was the one that made the majority of plays say "fuck it" and either pray to the gods at Game Genie or just cut your loss.

Imagine my shock and awe when years later I play Battletoads legit on an emulator and we all thought as kids that the Turbo Tunnels were the only insanely difficult level and the rest of the game would be easier... I still say the hardest level in Battletoads is when you're being chased by that circle of death followed by the Rat Race level.

The one thing James used to do really well was setup how back in the day, especially as a kid, you didn't have a lot of means for entertainment and unless you were well off to an extent you most likely didn't own a lot of games. I only owned maybe two dozen games on the NES and the rest were rentals. It sucked so much more experiencing a bad game because of that and like James said: "There goes your weekend!" The $4 you spent renting the game just got pissed down the toilet and the most fun you had at the rental store was just looking at the games and hopefully renting something else that wasn't terrible?

I remember some breadtuber, Sarah Z, in trying to say that angry reviewers were all meanies who attacked art tried to say the original point of Nostalgia Critic and AVGN was getting angry at things made you a loser. Now for the media literacy crowd it's amazing they dont listen to what James actually had to say, the Nostalgia Critic sure the point of him was he's a Daffy Duck but James has always said the series was catharsis for how these companies scammed kids and ruined their weekends. That's a pretty noble thing to shit on, being on the side of the kids who shouldve gotten a fun game and not a cash grab. Ofc. breadtube would be nothing if it wasnt shilling for big corporations in the name of socialism because they made good slop to consume

 

[BrunoMattei]

but Mike has always said the series was catharsis for how these companies scammed kids and ruined their weekends.

Fixed that. I'm sure James has experienced that same level of disappointment but Mike seems like the one who has the most experience with it.

 

[skykiii]

but James has always said the series was catharsis for how these companies scammed kids and ruined their weekends.

Am I the only one who almost never had this experience?

Yes, some games have bullshit moments, but as a kid, you adapted and overcame it.... or you got a Game Genie.

My own memory is that on the NES I used Game Genie as a crutch, but then the 16-bit generation came along and I actually started beating games legitimately (though Ducktales NES was the first game I remember beating without help). Then I went back to the NES later and a lot of games I used to think of as super hard... really weren't.

Though to some extent I wonder if that's because James Mike just happened to pick bad games. I mean, even as a kid I knew Simpsons games sucked, and the only time I ever ended up playing them was because of my mom buying/renting them for me at a time when I wasn't around to tard wrangle her. I imagine that's how a lot of crap games ended up in people's libraries. As a kid I knew for sure I cared nothing for Bart's Nightmare but I wound up playing it because of my mom.