1/28/2008 - Spider-Man : One More Day Review

If you have an ongoing comicbook series that has run for over 40 years, eventually you are going to run out of stories to tell or the storylines will tend to repeat themselves or they will just become mediocre. You may ask how that can be with only one issue coming out a month and a whole army of writers over a period of years. Well, in the case of Spider-Man comic, its popularity led to various spin-off series such as Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man, etcetera, etcetera. In the course of one month, there can be as many as 4 Spider-Man issues coming out each with a different writer, but each having to maintain continuity with each other!

Over the years Peter Parker has been through it all and matured through real-life trials and crises. He's made it through high school, college, fallen in love with different women, and eventually married Mary Jane Watson. There have been many "ground-breaking" changes and revelations involving Spider-Man, such as the "true nature" of his powers, the possibility that he was just a clone, and his unmasking before the world. Each of these plot twists were met with great resistance from the readers, with much criticism that the changes to Peter were out of character. I can't blame the writers to much, because as I've stated above, it's hard to be original when writing stories that fit within a 40 year history.

I do have to side with the detractors of the current storyline, though. Most comic book fans know about Marvel's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada's distaste for the marriage between Peter and Mary Jane. He claims it limits the kind of stories that can be told about Spider-Man. So with one fell swoop, he dissolves the marriage. But how does he do it? Do they get divorced? Does Mary Jane die? No. Instead, the marriage is erased from existence because Peter makes a deal with the devil. Okay, so Peter does it to save Aunt May from death, but still... a superhero making a deal with the devil? What kind of example does that make for kids? When does a deal with the devil ever go well? Didn't they watch the Ghost Rider movie?

This development has made a lot of fans angry. And you wouldn't like it when comic book readers are angry. :) The Angry Video Game Nerd has made a living out of geeky rants about bad video games, but we all know it's just an act. If you want to see a real angry nerd, there is no better example than this review of the Spider-Man: One More Day storyline.

11/21/2007 - Past Favorite: Dragon's Lair

I state in my profile that I got addicted to YouTube after watching the videos of the Angry Video Game Nerd. What really got the ball rolling was this video review of the game Dragon's Lair for the NES. It was made by a prolific video blogger (who calls himself Jedite) at a time when video game reviews on YouTube exploded in popularity. Jedite now produces a regular feature on his YouTube page called "Q & A" where he answers any question you pose to him about video games. He is such a dedicated gamer that these Q & A's are almost always spot-on factually, and they're entertaining as well... for some reason it's fun to watch a geek rant about his favorite subject.

Jedite's most popular video, however, remains this one, and it's easy to see why. Dragon's Lair for the NES is notorious for it's frustrating difficulty -- and it's not a kind of difficulty that is rewarding like Contra. Jedite spends the entirety of this nearly 5-minute video trying to get past the first level. Needless to say he does not make it, but his attempts and profanity-laced reaction is worth the price of admission. When I first watched this video, I laughed so hard that I had stomach cramps the next day.



Because of the popularity of this video, numerous requests have been made to James Rolfe for his take on the NES game. Just yesterday, The Angry Video Game Nerd finally released his review of Dragon's Lair. It has truly come full circle.

10/17/2007 - TRAILER - "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" - Angry Video Game Nerd

October is definitely my favorite month of the year. The summer heat in Arizona begins to dissipate. The year is winding down. And it's Halloween time! That's right, it's the time of year when I can watch horror movies all month and not be considered weird. It's not that horror is my favorite genre, but as a guilty pleasure, it can't be beat! I've become so desensitized, that I watch horror movies now to appreciate it as an art form, rather than as an attempt to get grossed out.

James Rolfe, AKA the Angry Video Game Nerd, is also a horror movie buff and it shows... from his side projects with Cinemassacre.com to his reviews of two horror related games last year at this time: Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street for the NES. They were great game reviews that displayed James' talent as a filmmaker. They even included Freddy and Jason!

Well, this October, James is back with two more horror games: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween for the Atari 2600. Even the trailer for his TCM review is great (this is the Angry Video Game Nerd, so be warned for some harsh language):



The opening narration is a parody of the narration from the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie... an unforgettable beginning to a great horror movie. The game review even includes a parody of the Chop Top character from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2! Boy, I can't wait to see his review of Halloween. I hope he has an authentic Michael Myers mask.

Horror movies; video games based on horror movies; reviews of video games based on horror movies; reviews of video games based on horror movies by a nerd; reviews of video games based on horror movies by a nerd who is also a fan of the genre... it doesn't get much better than this.

4/25/2007 - Fun Stuff

Yes, indeed I became addicted to YouTube mainly due to the videos of James Rolfe, AKA the Angry Video Game Nerd. He struck a chord with retro gamers everywhere with his video reviews of horrible old games. Sure, his "nerd" character is a created persona, and he's not an expert gamer, but his complaints about these games are almost always deserved. His videos are slickly produced (he's a Mac user) and they're some of the most hilarious creations you'll ever see in any medium.

A couple of weeks ago, some group of idiots massively flooded YouTube with complaints about his videos, and they started to pull them. In response, James started posting his Cinemassacre videos. You see, James is an aspiring director of genre movies and the AVGN movies were somewhat of a hobby. It's surprising that Hollywood hasn't found James yet, because his work is just brilliant. I can only imagine what he can do with a big budget and 100% of his concentration.

For example, this video was just him goofing around with a camera effect:



James, don't forget your roots, man.