Category: Gaming Personalities

So James Rolfe recently started a Rex Viper Youtube channel dedicated to his garage band who do covers of popular and game music. It’s an acquired taste for those who enjoy that sort of stuff, but apparently, none of them are Cinemassacre fans, who treated the news like they were struck with measles. Apparently, some of these fans don’t care for Rex Viper and wish Rolfe had put more energy into AVGN instead.

So, lo and behold, the new AVGN episode is up and I give it a watch. It’s him playing through Dragon’s Lair on NES – a game he had covered previously, but never made it past the first screen. So he played more of the game and also, there’s a sideplot about “younger” Nerd also playing the game. “Younger” Nerd is wearing a bad wig… which I suppose is supposed to be bad and, well, congrats, Jimbo. You got a bad wig. It looks bad. And this whole episode was… BAD.

I realize the guy has a family and kids. He’s got other stuff to do. He’s got other interests he’d rather be doing. I get that AVGN is at the point of “contractual obligation” rather than something that he genuinely wants to continue. But this was bad. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a genuinely good AVGN episode in the 2020s, let alone the past decade. I mean, the production is fine for what it is… but the jokes are lame, the act is tiresome,

People are accusing Rolfe of suffering a midlife crisis and figured it’d be over when he’s done with this Rex Viper thing… except they’re focused on the wrong thing. AVGN is the midlife crisis that needs to be over and done with. The act is old, his heart isn’t in it, the chances of him making another episode as memorable as the early ones – when that shit was genuinely funny and worthwhile – lie somewhere between “jack shit” and “fuck all,” and honestly, given the gaps between episodes, maybe there comes a point where you just need to put it down… or at least give it a nice extended break.

If James Rolfe wants to do this Rex Viper thing, then let him do it. If you like what it does, by all means, support it. But if not, then move on to something else and find something that you will like. There’s bound to be something out there that isn’t just stale, tired, and uninspired. The angry reviewing phase has come and gone. The people who used to do it have either moved on to something else or evolved to something else. UrinatingTree’s a great example; one of the older stock of angry reviewer-types who was genuinely funny until one day, he decided to do sports stuff and the guy’s killing it. The late Emer Prevost was another one – he did a bunch of game and comic reviews before starting up his Reaction & Review series where he watches a movie, reacts to it, and then reviews it on the fly. I’ll go so far to say that as much as I enjoy some of their older games stuff; I dug their later stuff a bit more… and I say this as a guy who’s not a sportsball fan or anything.

Let the guy do different things that he might actually like. If AVGN dies tomorrow, nothing of value will have been lost because AVGN has sucked for years. Honestly, everything after the movie has been kinda trash.

Meh.

May 2004 is the month that marks the 20th anniversary of James Rolfe’s Bad NES Games: Simon’s Quest video that was produced back in 2004, which pretty much gave birth to the Angry Nintendo/Video Game Nerd. I’ve been trying to nail an exact date on when it first appeared or came to fruition, but have uncovered many conflicting results. Youtube says one thing (though to be fair, they didn’t start up until 2005 and both Bad NES Games videos were uploaded in 2006, so that didn’t help.) The Cinemassacre website says another while the Cinemassacre wiki says something else entirely. So I’ve been trying to nail the exact date and came up empty… so we may as well call this the month of Nerd, even though I’m not going spend a whole month celebrating Nerd… this one post and the subsequent video reviews will have to suffice.

Besides, I’d much rather May be the month of Nerd than the day of Star Wars… because at the very least, the chances of a good Nerd episode these days is more likely than whatever crapshoot comes out of the Disney+ camp.

Case in point, the Nerd did post a new episode earlier this week as he plays other Castlevania titles and ponders if they’re better than Super Castlevania IV. I liked the video, it was more reflective and introspective than the usual Nerd stuff, and makes one of the better Nerd episodes that I’ve seen in years. I will certainly preach to the choir and say that it was a far better outing than the last episode where he was reacting to some weird furry hentai game with a horse… what even the fuck was that crap?

Naturally, as is often the case with these things, his conclusion has brought up a bunch of controversy and questioning of James Rolfe’s Castlevania fandom because he prefers [REDACTED] over this and that, to which I say… kindly fuck off. If Rolfe prefers [REDACTED] over your no. 1 pick for greatest Vania EVAR or some bullshit like that, that doesn’t make him any less of a fan than Joe Schmoe hugging their Alucard inflatables while wetting themselves over someone putting their beloved Symphony or Rondo on the [REDACTED] IGA pedestal. I hate to break it to you, but not everyone is going to agree on which Vania is the best. People can enjoy the same things for different reasons and it doesn’t make them any less of a fan of said things because they don’t meet with your lofty standards of fandom.

If you’re offended over someone saying your favorite game isn’t their favorite game or that your best game isn’t their best game… then maybe the problem is with you and not them. Like what you like and let others like what they like. No need to be a c**t about it.

Same thing with the Nerd himself. I feel that his recent stuff isn’t up to the standards of his first few years’ worth of videos, but others could feel differently. I can question why people enjoy that stuff, but I’m not going to begrudge anyone for still following his stuff. If anything, I applaud the man for still maintaining a strong following after all these years. Sure, he has his ups and downs, but the man is still going today after all these years long after his contemporaries had dropped off the face of the Earth. Regardless of what you think of the content as of late, that kind of longevity is to be commended and I tip my hat off to him for lasting as long as he has.

I know some people are expecting some sort of long, drawn-out commemorative essay on the Nerd and his impact and such, but I honestly don’t have much to say about the guy. I don’t watch his content as much as I used to, I’ve sort of moved on from that whole angry reviewing phase unless I’m revisiting old Armake21 videos because those still hold up, and when it comes to influences, I’m more influenced by the likes of Classic Game Room, Ashens, and a couple others than the Nerd himself. With that said, however, the fact that the guy is still going after all this time… again, not everyone tends to last that long doing the same thing over and over. He’s still doing Nerd. He still has a following. And that’s a feather in his cap that no one can take away.

So yeah… happy 20th, AVGN… even though technically you weren’t called that until eighteen years ago, but now we’re arguing semantics… or maybe we’ll just have another anniversary celebration or something. Who knows? Anyway, here’s to another 20 years of bad games.