BoomerKuwanger posted...
The Bugs Bunny one was like the original worst episode for me and I don't think I could even get through the Lloyd Kaufman one.
I never cared for any of the shlockier aspects of AVGN, but it seems like James thinks all that stuff made him popular. I can't really explain what I
did
like about AVGN but I think for a time there was just
something inherently funny about the idea of a guy caring so much about old NES games.
The old episodes also had a
degree of relatability with games that someone as a kid would plausibly buy hoping they were good
, which is why episodes like Big Rigs, Desert Bus, HK97, etc. don't exactly land with me
His anger was exaggerated, but he was channeling his actual childhood frustrations with games like Dick Tracy or Castlevania 2. With videos like Drake and the 99 Dragons, he's an older gamer looking for games to find fault with.
It was funny to see a twenty-something become outraged over an old game, but it was also relatable because we had experiences like that. I don't know what I expected, but I thought Three Stooges on NES would be fun. I thought Super WrestleMania on SNES would be fun. That game is the definition of the word
unfinished
. And we all asked "Who's that?" when fighting enemies in games based off of our favorite movies or cartoon shows.
I like the show at face value. But I understand there's more substance when it has that shared experience quality to it. And, I know I've mentioned this already, but there's a shelf life for that character. A forty-something getting upset rings differently. The anger doesn't feel genuine and, if it did, it would be more sad and pathetic than funny.