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.

[José Mourinho]

Pretty mediocre episode. Also maybe it's me but the sound quality can be off at times (in the ad for instance) like there's no quality control.

He should've just at least detailed about his opinion about the Shrek movie but nah, he didn't and ranted on about the Game Boy Advance player which is fine, but at least give your review of it, instead of just saying it's overrated without even saying your opinion at all.

The game you can clearly see there's really nothing he can talk about to begin with and he should've just stick to all the Shrek games. The GBC one has really nothing special and the only bad things the Nerd says is just the controls and replayability.

The skits are hit and miss. Shrek costume is awful and the photoshop effects where the Nerd is burned at the end is awful, but I'll admit the effort to build up the straw statue whatever that is does deserve some a bit of dedication and apparently the cult leader is the one behind Shrek Retold.

Overall, just another typical Irate Gamer episode out of 10.

 

[Inflatable Julay]

Pretty mediocre episode. Also maybe it's me but the sound quality can be off at times (in the ad for instance) like there's no quality control.

He should've just at least detailed about his opinion about the Shrek movie but nah, he didn't and ranted on about the Game Boy Advance player which is fine, but at least give your review of it, instead of just saying it's overrated without even saying your opinion at all.

The game you can clearly see there's really nothing he can talk about to begin with and he should've just stick to all the Shrek games. The GBC one has really nothing special and the only bad things the Nerd says is just the controls and replayability.

The skits are hit and miss. Shrek costume is awful and the photoshop effects where the Nerd is burned at the end is awful, but I'll admit the effort to build up the straw statue whatever that is does deserve some a bit of dedication and apparently the cult leader is the one behind Shrek Retold.

Overall, just another typical Irate Gamer episode out of 10.

Shrek Extra Large for the Gamecube could have filled up the entire episode. Hell, the GBA video paks could have made up a whole episode if wanted to. It's like he doesn't even want to talk about the subject of the video.

 

[Tism the Return]

I do find it incredible how out of a 15 minutes video at least half of it is devoted to a really unfunny skit that has little to nothing to do with the topic at hand. People hate when Channel Autism does it and James had managed to escape them but here we are. How sad.

 

[I.B. Niggin]

AVGN might be more unwatchable than Nostalgia Critic at this point. At least I was able to finish the T2 review.

 

[Preferred Penne]

Why would he rant about how easy it is to lose a GameCube disc when the GBA cartridges were just as small and didn't even have a case in which to keep them?

 

[StarkRavingMad]

My husband just discovered AVGN over the past week, haha. He's only watched some of the older episodes though. I watched a few with him. Even as recently as 5 years ago, James was making more compelling videos as AVGN.

It's clear to me that there's burnout and that he's phoning it in at this point ... He's been doing the character for almost 20 years though, so I can understand the burnout. However, just let it go, man. It's pretty sad that the AVGN, a pioneer in internet culture, is not going to end on a high note.

I would still say that he's more watchable than the Nostalgia Critic though. The Nostalgia Critic still tries and fails. James is just phoning it the hell in. No matter how boring the AVGN episodes get, nothing will ever be as bad as the NC's review of The Wall. Nothing.

On a more positive note, I really want an AVGN video of the NES Godzilla Creepypasta fan-made game. Even with the current state of AVGN, I still think that James would make a really good video with this one. I mean, the video would have to do with topics that James actually cares about: Godzilla and horror. I think he'd put some effort into that episode, and I see the potential in it being great.

 

[Maamtis]

Wow, really not his best work. Didn't even go for a "Not the bees!" joke.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Is it a rule that everything he reviews now has to have some dumb conspiracy/cult tied to it? It was humorous the first few times but now it's just getting repetitive.

Honestly, this whole episode feels like it's 7 years late. The references to stuff like "Shrek is love, Shrek is life" and the ogre puns were more cringe than funny.

Plus the Shrek cult thing was more a few years ago too.

I get that it's a Game Boy Color game, so there's not much to it, but if that were the case then he the fatsos could've made this a Shrek games episode. There's tons of them of varying quality that James the slobs could've covered like the not very good OG Xbox one that had character designs by Todd McFarlane of all people, and the surprisingly decent Shrek SuperSlam and Shrek 2 game, and that's just scratching the surface.

It sucks too since there were a lot of Shrek games and this episode is clearly Screenwave trying to hit that early 00s nostalgia (Shrek is 20 years old, goddamn). I mean I smiled when I saw the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance start up screen and the Game Boy Player (always wanted one but never had one as a kid) since it's been quite a while since I've seen any of that, but you have to do more than that. James obviously tapped into nostalgia with the classic Nerd episodes with shit like Nintendo Power and NES/SNES stuff, and a competent writer could have him do the same for early 00s stuff. Lord knows there were a lot of shit movie tie-ins back then, like this game. I vaguely recall a friend who had it, but I remember a few other lame Shrek games.

There's potential here, but absolutely none of it used. It's really too bad.

It's clear to me that there's burnout and that he's phoning it in at this point ... He's been doing the character for almost 20 years though, so I can understand the burnout. However, just let it go, man. It's pretty sad that the AVGN, a pioneer in internet culture, is not going to end on a high note.

I won't say Screenwave is terrible since they can bring some laughs, it's just not up to AVGN's standards. I think with a good team behind him James could sit back and just act and we can have the illusion we're watching some classic AVGN, but Screenwave just isn't it.

 

[Foltest]

this episode was really bad. Not enough focus on shitty Shrek games. I do however, smiled when the shrek medallion was shown.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

Maybe I'm just missing something, but what is the connection between Shrek and The Wicker Man? Usually I find the newer episodes at least watchable, but this one was straight up bad.

 

[Tronathon242]

I found that more...amusing at parts. The Shrek cult/Wicker Man parody wasn't that bad and I really did find the Shrekker Man at the end and the scenery to be nice to look at. The green screen was shit, though, even by the intentionally cheesey Cinemassacre standard.

But the game review was...bland. Disappointingly bland. He had nothing to work with and needed more Shrek games to review. It's not as bad as the Legend of Kage video, but it's not that far off. There're supposed to be two more down the pipe, but the current crop of quality makes me think they'll be duds.

Maybe I'm just missing something, but what is the connection between Shrek and The Wicker Man? Usually I find the newer episodes at least watchable, but this one was straight up bad.

There shouldn't have been a connection between Majora's Mask and the Twilight Zone, but that worked out just fine. This was blatantly a nostalgia attention grabber mixed in with something James was probably dying to a parody of for some time. It's strange, though, because his Monster Madness on the Wicker Man made it seem like he wasn't enthusiastic about it.

 

[Raging Capybara]

I realized that I haven't watched the last 12 videos uploaded by them, and I don't have any plans to do so. That's basically all videos from 2021 so far.

I think I should just unsub already. This channel is dead for me.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

Had a quick look on the subreddit and surprisingly most of them hated it as well, and apparently it isn't even James in the outdoor scenes.

 

[Sonic Sez]

apparently it isn't even James in the outdoor scenes.

Oh yeah, you can tell because there's no tattoo on the arm in the outdoor scenes:

 

[Clark_Ashton]

The last AVGN video was made in collaboration with a Milwaukee-based group named 3GI. They are the guys behind the Shrekfest. James Rolfe who doesn't even leave his house anymore to record the AVGN and works from his garage in front of a green screen (source: Justin Silverman's AMA on /r/TheCinemassacreTruth) was not going to fly to Minnesota just to shoot a 10min clip.

 

[General Tug Boat]

James should at this point retire the character after he is done with the screenwave jokers and get into the type of films he wants to create now. AVGN hasn't really been funny in years, but I still watch time to time, just because I have followed his content since 2007. I can respect the work, kind of like when I watch an old vintage Simpsons episode. If anything the older episodes get better for me as time goes on. Though these new ones just feel flat for why I followed his page. He clearly wants to do other things and should be able to grow beyond AVGN now.

There are just a lot of better channels doing that type of content now, unlike even ten years ago. When James signed on with ScreenWave, that is when the nerd ended for me, and I'm happy for that. When he does a movie review those are still decent and I still enjoy watching those. I am not talking about Rental Reviews because I don't care about any of the other personalities. When he does a solo review of a film it's still a good video.

James doesn't fall in the Doug Walker trap only purely because he is actually likable. Along side that, he has an entire library of content. Time and time again in the modern day James also has a good video, but again his page evolved different. I'd be interested to see what he does with his new horror film, because he clearly wants to do that type of stuff now.

The Shrek episode was fucking awful though, very phoned in, and he really should of diverted from trying to make it into a fucking skit. There was just a lot of meta that I missed and that is not why I follow his page. The ScreenWave guys are fucking trash and clearly miss the point entirely. It just felt like the black tiger review, just with majority of the actual "review" cut out. The Shrek review felt super forced. He is probably only familiar of it because of his kids probably and doesn't really care for it. It just didn't seem like an appropriate video for James, he should stick with broken messes like Big Rigs, because at least there are things for the character to say about it. Beyond repeating the same joke, just the writing needs work on that front. It just felt like a Channel Awesome video, not a James video.

 

[Exbein]

Snip

He can't. No time to retire AVGN.

But seriously, like I said earlier, James really can't afford to retire AVGN. Not even remotely because its his bread and butter.
It's because without AVGN, James is nothing.

He tries to make short horror films, but he's not really good at it, his ideas really sucks or plainfully average. Remember that the lights out guy started way after James, but he got to be a director of films way faster.

his film production knowledge and skill is extremely very, very, very poor. I dunno if he is the one that add effects or not on the videos, but post production effects have come along way, but James is still stuck doing it crappily. The green-screen are too obvious because he didn't color blend/grading properly. I think he didn't even bother learning or evolve his knowledge on effects other than the rudimentary knowledge taught in school.

He may say its cheesy effects for the sake of B-movieness, but I think its laziness and James' poor film and post film effects knowledge.

So, yeah, James can't quit AVGN, its his only claim to fame.

 

[BrunoMattei]

He can't. No time to retire AVGN.

But seriously, like I said earlier, James really can't afford to retire AVGN. Not even remotely because its his bread and butter.
It's because without AVGN, James is nothing.

He tries to make short horror films, but he's not really good at it, his ideas really sucks or plainfully average. Remember that the lights out guy started way after James, but he got to be a director of films way faster.

his film production knowledge and skill is extremely very, very, very poor. I dunno if he is the one that add effects or not on the videos, but post production effects have come along way, but James is still stuck doing it crappily. The green-screen are too obvious because he didn't color blend/grading properly. I think he didn't even bother learning or evolve his knowledge on effects other than the rudimentary knowledge taught in school.

He may say its cheesy effects for the sake of B-movieness, but I think its laziness and James' poor film and post film effects knowledge.

So, yeah, James can't quit AVGN, its his only claim to fame.

'Plainfully' I like that.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

I don't get why he doesn't go back to reviewing classic horror. He clearly has a passion for it, would be easier to produce, and there is so much material out there for him to work with.

 

[PeriodicTrouble]

I don't get why he doesn't go back to reviewing classic horror. He clearly has a passion for it, would be easier to produce, and there is so much material out there for him to work with.

There were times where he didn't watch the movie for Rental Reviews, so it's clear that he just burned out completely on making videos.