Category: Commentaries

The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game was one of four NES games that I got for my 10th birthday, the others being Super Mario Bros. 3, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, and The Punisher. And although the game was crazy difficult – the damn dam had me for a good long while before I stopped being stupid – I always enjoyed the heck out of that game. Even in more recent years when I re-purchased the game at a flea market, I still think that despite some of its flaws, it’s still a solid action game with a nice attempt at non-linear explorational gameplay. I also like the ability to swap between the four Turtles, as each play somewhat differently and have their uses… although admittedly, you’ll mostly be using Leonardo and Donatello due to their long-range weapons. But still, it’s a fun little game and I enjoyed this more than the two arcade-inspired sequels on the same system.

I never understood the hate towards the game recently. Wasn’t this high on the Nintendo Power charts for a good long while when the game was relatively new? What could have happened between then and now that has caused the game to garner such unnecessary and unwarranted hatred?

Oh right. The Angry Video Game Nerd said it was bad and people are basically sheep and agreed with him. And while I’ll admit that I found some of his videos funny and somewhat informative, the first time I saw this “review” back in 2006, I was pretty pissed off that he would trash a pretty good game. Some of the complaints he conveyed require suspension of ignorance (a term coined by former Yt reviewer Undercoverfilmer that was used in regards to his SF2010 video). And there are a couple points that, while are admittedly good points, can also be applied to a number of other games that can be considered good. But I guess because those games are more popular, those “flaws” can be overlooked, right?

Since this is essentially a response to what is laughingly called a review, I guess I can call this a counter-review; commenting on certain points while providing some additional points on the game. And you know what? I’ll even bring up some points from a “review” of the same game by Chris “The Irate Gamer” Bores… a review that most have noted to be suspiciously equavalent to the AVGN’s review, but has a couple points that can also be considered pretty stupid as well.

Oh… before anyone gets any ideas on starting the usual fanboy wars in the comments, don’t bother. I’ll be watching the comments like a hawk. There are many other places to fan that shit out – this isn’t one of them. With that said…

*For the sake of this posting, I will only be focusing on IG’s TMNT1 review and not the mini-reviews of the TMNT sequels. Those aren’t relevant to this posting.

Continue reading “A Double Dose of TMNT (NES) Angry Reviews + A Bonus Rant”

“Why? Why Tetris? I’m not kidding when I say everyone and their grandmother have played this game. How can you even review Tetris?”

I should probably note that I was going to hold this off until much later, but since this was the only grumble grumble that was remotely finished. I figured that I post this one. Hopefully, the next one will not be a Chris Bores-related diatribe, because he’s not the only person whose reviews I have issues with. In fact, there’s another one that involves a game that both he and some other guy (rhymes with wolfe) has done… but that’s another story.

So yeah, we’re looking at IG’s Tetris review.

Tetris is perhaps one of the most popular casual games ever made and we have Soviet Russia to thank for such a thing (and this isn’t a knock on its creator, Alexey Pajitnov, who really is Russian. The game was once called the Soviet Mind Game by Tengen.) What is there to complain about in Tetris? Well, Irate Gamer is going to guide us through this and I’m going to inquire about some stuff and ignore the pointless skits… all except two. You’ll know it when I see it.

Continue reading “Why Are We Doing The Irate Gamer’s Tetris episode?”