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.

[Tism the Return]

Chalk another one up for the Milquetoast Video Game Show. The episode didn't drag despite not being funny and that's about it for positives.

 

[Pissmaster]

I think this has been said like a million times now, but it's so clear that James is not a gamer. He really is only into film, and even then films from before the 90s. Every review he does on newer movies can be summed up as "yeah its cool *insert scene description* and um... this actor was in it. Go see it". And with games its just as bad. If its anything past like 1995 then he could not care even if you paid him.

Atleast with mike they had someone who kept up with anything past the 90s and could actually bring something to the table or keep the conversation going.

I think he does enjoy the occasional NES game, or at least anything he grew up with, but he never had the same passion for them as he did film. Still though, there were like 850ish NES games in the US alone, there’s a lot that he could still cover. Forcing himself to try and move on with the times and cover stuff from beyond the 90s just doesn’t work well.

Speaking of which, I think his cutoff date is around 1997. I remember an interview he did a long time ago where someone asked him about Banjo-Kazooie, and he had no idea that was a popular game. There was another time where he and Mike were discussing when exactly the cutoff for retro games was, and James said he considered N64 to be modern. I think this was around 2012, with the Wii U on the horizon, too.

James was born in 1980, right? Like, I get that he was hitting college age and starting to get busier in life, but man, that means his knowledge of pop culture, and most of technology, cut off at age 17. He became a boomer quick.

If James was born in 2004, he’d right now be deciding that for the rest of his life, he’d only listen to Avicii and Lady Gaga, and come the year 2037, be surprised that the Nintendo Switch is now considered retro.

Well, at least he timelocked himself during a peaceful time in the world.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Also, kinda got SJW-y kinda vibes when he was talking about the maid.

I'm no SJW, but it seemed pretty ridiculous because the hotel chain is basically condoning sexual harassment of their maids. This was in the 90s, the same era that all the "stop sexually harassing your coworkers" training videos started getting made. Like if you were a maid who worked at that hotel chain and got sexually harassed, you'd have a pretty good claim for a lawsuit based on that scene from the video.

 

[Jeff Boomhauer]

I wanted to ask but what do you guys think is the first actual bad episode of AVGN? I know that even now James is still probably of putting out surprisingly good episodes, I remember all the way back with Paper Boy and people being shocked that it was as good as it was for the time it came out. But what about the inverse? What episode back in the golden age just wasn't good?

The Independence Day review is probably the most forgettable, but I won't blame him because IIRC that was when he was partnered with Screw Attack and they wanted two episodes every month. It wasn't flat out awful, but it seems kind of like the black sheep of his earlier work.

As far as, "Well, that sucked!" levels of bad, I think the Nintendo World Championships episode with Pat the NES Punk is one of the first truly skippable episodes. It's nothing but a long skit, and Pat just isn't funny.

 

[Stardust]

I think he does enjoy the occasional NES game, or at least anything he grew up with, but he never had the same passion for them as he did film. Still though, there were like 850ish NES games in the US alone, there’s a lot that he could still cover. Forcing himself to try and move on with the times and cover stuff from beyond the 90s just doesn’t work well.

Speaking of which, I think his cutoff date is around 1997. I remember an interview he did a long time ago where someone asked him about Banjo-Kazooie, and he had no idea that was a popular game. There was another time where he and Mike were discussing when exactly the cutoff for retro games was, and James said he considered N64 to be modern. I think this was around 2012, with the Wii U on the horizon, too.

James was born in 1980, right? Like, I get that he was hitting college age and starting to get busier in life, but man, that means his knowledge of pop culture, and most of technology, cut off at age 17. He became a boomer quick.

James played Ocarina of Time, which released late 1998 in the west. I'd say his cutoff is 1998, possibly 1999 via Castlevania 64. Likely, he just didn't care for Banjo-Kazooie, and neither did anyone around him, so James presumes that equates to unpopular. He has some attachment to the Nintendo 64, but not as much to that generation when compared to the previous (NES, SNES).

Somehow, he missed out on Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars 64, for some markets), which may be the greatest tragedy.




Edit: Typo.

 

[Clark_Ashton]

Isn't that what he does already? That's why he has the fat guys from Screenwave doing pretty much everything.

I'm sure Screenwave is taking some of the workload off his shoulders with the editing, the writing and the recording of game footage, but according to James himself (Update videos, the recent email leak...) most of his time right now goes to filming his parts of the videos. Or rather struggling with his equipement while trying to record his parts. That's what makes me say he needs to improve his current workflow.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I'm no SJW, but it seemed pretty ridiculous because the hotel chain is basically condoning sexual harassment of their maids. This was in the 90s, the same era that all the "stop sexually harassing your coworkers" training videos started getting made. Like if you were a maid who worked at that hotel chain and got sexually harassed, you'd have a pretty good claim for a lawsuit based on that scene from the video.

It was not really condoning anything, it was clearly just comedy. Joking doesn't constitute acceptance of the subject matter.

 

[Ensok]

The Independence Day review is probably the most forgettable, but I won't blame him because IIRC that was when he was partnered with Screw Attack and they wanted two episodes every month. It wasn't flat out awful, but it seems kind of like the black sheep of his earlier work.

As far as, "Well, that sucked!" levels of bad, I think the Nintendo World Championships episode with Pat the NES Punk is one of the first truly skippable episodes. It's nothing but a long skit, and Pat just isn't funny.

Yeah Nintendo World Championships wasn't great. It does have one joke I like though where we see Jame's fantasy of what he would do with the games, and they're just quietly sitting on his shelf with him admiring them.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I threw the Pac-Man 2 episode on for Movie Night. It's too short and pretty mediocre.

 

[Pickle Dick]

I threw the Pac-Man 2 episode on for Movie Night. It's too short and pretty mediocre.

He's working on another nerd episode now. Let's hope it at least stays mediocre, and not turn itself into another Sega Tapes episode.

 

[I Love Beef]

The Independence Day review is probably the most forgettable, but I won't blame him because IIRC that was when he was partnered with Screw Attack and they wanted two episodes every month. It wasn't flat out awful, but it seems kind of like the black sheep of his earlier work.

As far as, "Well, that sucked!" levels of bad, I think the Nintendo World Championships episode with Pat the NES Punk is one of the first truly skippable episodes. It's nothing but a long skit, and Pat just isn't funny.

I'm probably steeped in nostalgia, but even I felt in those days, he actually tried and gave a shit about his work. Sure, I do agree, Independence Day isn't exactly like, all that great compared to Super Mario Brothers 3 and Nintendo Power or Sega CD and 32X, but it was holiday themed, and the fact I can recite a quote from him from this episode (Celebrate your independence by not playing shitty fuckin' games!) and remember the end gag (literally My Final Heavens the fucking shit out of that disk by tossing it around the world before having it blow up back in his house in full rage, that was good shit), I can say this was a good episode.

Nowadays, it's absolutely fucking painful to try and hear him rant and rave. It's so fucking forced. I fucking gave up on the series midway through Darkman. All of those analogies about shit and feces felt so artificial, it's like he never played the game or he's reading off of a fucking cue card. Nowadays episodes, you can tell they don't have the heart they used to.

 

[ExtremeZap]

I'm probably steeped in nostalgia, but even I felt in those days, he actually tried and gave a shit about his work. Sure, I do agree, Independence Day isn't exactly like, all that great compared to Super Mario Brothers 3 and Nintendo Power or Sega CD and 32X, but it was holiday themed, and the fact I can recite a quote from him from this episode (Celebrate your independence by not playing shitty fuckin' games!) and remember the end gag (literally My Final Heavens the fucking shit out of that disk by tossing it around the world before having it blow up back in his house in full rage, that was good shit), I can say this was a good episode.

Nowadays, it's absolutely fucking painful to try and hear him rant and rave. It's so fucking forced. I fucking gave up on the series midway through Darkman. All of those analogies about shit and feces felt so artificial, it's like he never played the game or he's reading off of a fucking cue card. Nowadays episodes, you can tell they don't have the heart they used to.

He doesn’t play the games and he is reading off a teleprompter.

The Slobs write everything, they record all the game footage, they do all the editing and run all the social media for the channel. James films himself reading the lines and holding the right controller a few times.

it’s part of why the “no time” meme is so strong, what is he doing all day when his contributions to a months worth of the channel could be done in a weekend?

 

[BrunoMattei]

He doesn’t play the games and he is reading off a teleprompter.

The Slobs write everything, they record all the game footage, they do all the editing and run all the social media for the channel. James films himself reading the lines and holding the right controller a few times.

it’s part of why the “no time” meme is so strong, what is he doing all day when his contributions to a months worth of the channel could be done in a weekend?

He doesn't even do Monster Madness anymore which is pathetic. I assume he at the very least selects the movies.

The Independence Day review is probably the most forgettable, but I won't blame him because IIRC that was when he was partnered with Screw Attack and they wanted two episodes every month. It wasn't flat out awful, but it seems kind of like the black sheep of his earlier work.

Really? I liked that episode. It has one of his best lines: "I'd rather get a tattoo on my face of a goat holding up a baby and snorting cocaine off its penis!"

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

He doesn’t play the games and he is reading off a teleprompter.

The Slobs write everything, they record all the game footage, they do all the editing and run all the social media for the channel. James films himself reading the lines and holding the right controller a few times.

it’s part of why the “no time” meme is so strong, what is he doing all day when his contributions to a months worth of the channel could be done in a weekend?

So is that a confirmed fact that James has zero creative input at all, ever? Or is it just speculation with good evidence?

 

[ExtremeZap]

So is that a confirmed fact that James has zero creative input at all, ever? Or is it just speculation with good evidence?

Most of it’s all confirmed in an AMA Slob Justin did on Reddit.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Most of it’s all confirmed in an AMA Slob Justin did on Reddit.

That's really unfortunate then, and it's a miracle they're still entertaining at all. Just shows the strength of the concept and character.

Do you mind linking to that?

 

[ExtremeZap]

That's really unfortunate then, and it's a miracle they're still entertaining at all. Just shows the strength of the concept and character.

Do you mind linking to that?

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCinemas...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCinemas...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

After reading that and then the AMA, it seems like it's mostly speculation, I didn't see much evidence (no sources or anything outside of referencing the AMA), and even the choice of wording for assertions are often prefaced with something such as "likely" and "as far as we know".

Slobs deny having "any creative control", which could easily be a lie, and probably is, but it doesn't necessarily mean James literally just reads what's handed to him and holds a controller for the videos. I don't doubt that's the case for some, maybe even most episodes, but maybe the better episodes have more of his involvement.

They said James is doing episode 200 mostly by himself, something I'm inclined to believe at the very least. He's probably still got some attachment to his creations, even ones he's lost passion for. A milestone episode like that seems like he'd be significantly involved.

I don't know though, I only read two threads right now so it's not like I'm actually informed on the matter.

 

[Tronathon242]

He doesn't even do Monster Madness anymore which is pathetic. I assume he at the very least selects the movies.



Really? I liked that episode. It has one of his best lines: "I'd rather get a tattoo on my face of a goat holding up a baby and snorting cocaine off its penis!"

His delivery on "Here's Washington D.C. which looks like shit," is another good part.

Even at their worst they had good chemistry and you could tell they were friends. Every other video with the slobs and James/mike felt like them wanting screentime and forcing their way in.

That chemistry came with years of interactions and probably boozing until the early hours, something that the new guys have not and cannot build up with James.

Felt like less of a review and just James talking about the summary of the game but far less. Really forgettable.

It just meandered about. It went from point to point for ten minutes and then finished. It was really odd as it had no logical flow or even explained much of anything. It felt very much like a middle school student speech that was written half-heartedly to reach a time limit.

I wanted to ask but what do you guys think is the first actual bad episode of AVGN? I know that even now James is still probably of putting out surprisingly good episodes, I remember all the way back with Paper Boy and people being shocked that it was as good as it was for the time it came out. But what about the inverse? What episode back in the golden age just wasn't good?

I remember the Darkwing Duck one being the first substandard episode, but that's just me.

As for the golden era? Can't really think of anything that's bad.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I remember the Darkwing Duck one being the first substandard episode, but that's just me.

I really like that one too. Him going over trying to get that power up or bonus thing or whatever it was at the start of the first level is gold.

His last really good video I'd say is the Majora's Mask review despite the opening sketch being AIDS.