Current Events > Controversial Opinion: James Rolfe doesn't make good shows anymore

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sure I love the AVGN and still love the old episodes but even that has taken a hit these days with a new episode coming out very rarely and are usually poor or just plain dumb compared to his older episodes. I used to enjoy James & Mike Mondays when it first started, but after discovering Game Grumps after, J&MM just feels too tame and bland in comparison.

Sure, I get that he has a family now so he can't spend as long on making videos as he used to do. That's a good valid reason. But it does mean the overall quality of his new shows has gone down a lot.
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That doesn't seem all that controversial. AVGN obviously just isn't the same these days. I still like James and Mike Mondays but yeah, it's not the greatest show.
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Well what were you expecting? He has to be a family man now.
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Hes gone down a bit in recent years. You can tell hes reading from a script now...which I guess he always kind of was but he makes it really obvious now. His acting isnt the best. Especially when hes acting exasperated or reasoning his voice in anger or disbelief. You can really hear it then.
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They're not as good, but I still find him entertaining. His best videos are the ones where he's talking about old school horror films and the random stuff in them because that's what he's really interested in and knowledgeable about. He's probably the only guy who could make a video about a piece of cardboard on a lamp in a movie entertaining.
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Mike's live streams are usually ok except for his Link to the Past randomizer run. He's mentioned several times about how great he is at Link to the Past, how he's played through it countless times, etc.

He starts the randomizer without even understanding what it is or how it works, complains how it doesn't randomize the dungeons and it sucks compared to the first zelda game randomizer (it does have that option, btw), then proceeds to play like crap. He constantly walks past chests or areas he should venture into. It's infuriating to watch.

J&MM are hit and miss. If it's good, it's really entertaining like when both of them are into a game. When it misses, it's horrible to watch. I remember one of the episodes had Mike select the Dungeons and Dragons arcade game for James to try out. It was a two part episode with about 3 minutes spend on actually talking about the game. James was bored out of his mind so the two BS for the 57 minutes. Mike tries to explain the game concept at one point, but James seems to fall asleep so he stops.
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At least he isnt spoony amirite
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Bring back Bootsy!

He just goes through the motions. You can only take a character like Angry Video Game Nerd so far. In truth, it'd be better for the property to just end it.

Rolfe put out a full length motion picture. Very few YouTubers can touch him on that one.
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Honestly I don't think I've watched an AVGN video in about 10 years.

One of the last ones I recall watching was the one with "Super Mecha Death Christ" or whatever.

I just remember thinking "this is getting too overproduced for my liking"
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speaking of Mike Matei, this is pretty pathetic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHsxCjuKfoY" data-time="

Some of his best AVGN episodes came out last year. He just does it few and far between now.
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TheVipaGTS posted...

Hes gone down a bit in recent years. You can tell hes reading from a script now...which I guess he always kind of was but he makes it really obvious now. His acting isnt the best. Especially when hes acting exasperated or reasoning his voice in anger or disbelief. You can really hear it then.

This. Also something about the production quality, if that makes sense. It feels like it is overproduced, like a whole production team working on it rather than just him and a camera.
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I can't fucking stand Mike. The guy always feels the need to remind you how great/knowledgeable he is. I can't watch any of his videos where he is just being himself. I watched a couple Monday's but good lord the guy is annoying as fuck.
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TheBiggerWiggle posted...

I can't fucking stand Mike. The guy always feels the need to remind you how great/knowledgeable he is. I can't watch any of his videos where he is just being himself. I watched a couple Monday's but good lord the guy is annoying as fuck.

You can tell even James is annoyed with him half the time, it's like he simply tolerates him these days.
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His recent episode about the legend of Polybius is his most creative to date. Then there's the creative Beranstaein Bears episode which played on the alternate dimension theory. His earlier episodes were much more amateurish by comparison. So on the contrary, the nerd is still strong in him.

voldothegr8 posted...

TheBiggerWiggle posted...

I can't fucking stand Mike. The guy always feels the need to remind you how great/knowledgeable he is. I can't watch any of his videos where he is just being himself. I watched a couple Monday's but good lord the guy is annoying as fuck.

You can tell even James is annoyed with him half the time, it's like he simply tolerates him these days.

I agree with this. Mike is very annoying when he's not reading from a script.

His script based reviews are fine though.

If you are talking AVGN, he has basically run through the best stuff he could do.
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voldothegr8 posted...

Some of his best AVGN episodes came out last year. He just does it few and far between now.

Yep.

His two best episodes to date -- Polybius and Beranstaein Bears.

Ammonitida posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

TheBiggerWiggle posted...

I can't fucking stand Mike. The guy always feels the need to remind you how great/knowledgeable he is. I can't watch any of his videos where he is just being himself. I watched a couple Monday's but good lord the guy is annoying as fuck.

You can tell even James is annoyed with him half the time, it's like he simply tolerates him these days.

I agree with this. Mike is very annoying when he's not reading from a script.

His script based reviews are fine though.

Ah yes, who can forget the greatest review ever written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgIr9ZLV_wk" data-time="
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MetalGearRiki posted...

At least he isnt spoony amirite

Well James still exists.
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I feel like ever since the fucking terrible movie, every other episode is just... really boring, unfortunately.
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Godnorgosh posted...

MetalGearRiki posted...

At least he isnt spoony amirite

Spoony's kind of a shitty person but no one will convince me that his Final Fantasy reviews aren't fucking hilarious.

His videos Eight for were brilliant but his final fantasy X videos was so horrible I couldn't watch his videos anymore.
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Hes never made anything remotely entertaining

#facts

AVGN shod start doing more newer games to keep things fresh. He recently reviewed Sonic 06 and some GameCube game and I enjoyed it a lot
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I think he has some good modern avgn reviews, and honestly I like his just normal videos as James Rolfe.

Compared to Nostalgia Critic though, he's doing better.
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Chaze_the_chat posted...

Ammonitida posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

TheBiggerWiggle posted...

I can't fucking stand Mike. The guy always feels the need to remind you how great/knowledgeable he is. I can't watch any of his videos where he is just being himself. I watched a couple Monday's but good lord the guy is annoying as fuck.

You can tell even James is annoyed with him half the time, it's like he simply tolerates him these days.

I agree with this. Mike is very annoying when he's not reading from a script.

His script based reviews are fine though.

Ah yes, who can forget the greatest review ever written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgIr9ZLV_wk" data-time="

To be fair to Mike, as bad as that video is, the fans went nuts over his Inspector Gadget impression during a couple earlier videos, so he just took something a little too far.

As for James, he's hit or miss. J&MM are a great thing to watch while I'm eating, but it often depends on the game more then the friends.

AVGN is up and down. His Power Rangers episode is one of my favorite of his more recent videos.
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eh i never liked his videos
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Avgn was the first channel I subscribed to.
He's about the only one I enjoy besides rage quit (dead) and nostalgia critic.

He does have a family now. So his time is devoted to that.

Besides he has played alot of shitty games. Dude is on GameCube and arcade games now. He might be running out of material.

And fuck Mike. He's an motherfucking asshole
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Big_Nabendu posted...

He might be running out of material

Arcade games have always been a thing, the dude has both Neo Geo's.

Have you seen his game's room? There's over 800 games for the NES and more than half are either flawed, or complete trash. He's missing about ten.

In his own words "Look at all these fucking games. I've got plenty to work with."

And that's just NES, as a former SNES collector he's barely scratched the surface of some of the poop on that system.
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AVGN was a time and place thing. He sort of captured lightning in a bottle but he fizzled out after just a couple of years.

creativerealms posted...

Godnorgosh posted...

MetalGearRiki posted...

At least he isnt spoony amirite

Spoony's kind of a shitty person but no one will convince me that his Final Fantasy reviews aren't fucking hilarious.

His videos Eight for were brilliant but his final fantasy X videos was so horrible I couldn't watch his videos anymore.

I feel spoony peaked with his Phantasmagoria 2 lets play and everything after it was lesser quality and he went downhill fast.
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He should bring back board James and bootsy.
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electricbugs2 posted...

Big_Nabendu posted...

He might be running out of material

Arcade games have always been a thing, the dude has both Neo Geo's.

Have you seen his game's room? There's over 800 games for the NES and more than half are either flawed, or complete trash. He's missing about ten.

In his own words "Look at all these fucking games. I've got plenty to work with."

And that's just NES, as a former SNES collector he's barely scratched the surface of some of the poop on that system.

There's plenty of garbage on the 32-bit Playstation too. Iron and Blood is arguably the worst fighting game ever designed, where knockdowns often result in you facing the opposite direction of your opponent once you get up, forcing you to side step immediately to avoid an infinite (the side step is the only quick way to turn around and face your opponent). Even then, a player with good reflexes should be able to trap you in the infinite. It doesn't help that the game runs at like 20fps either.

There's also Perfect Weapon -- an awful beat em up with prerendered backgrounds and Resident Evil tank controls.

Board James was consistently good IMO. And so was Monster Madness.
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His latest avgn videos are quite entertaining, tbh
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AVGN was kind of in the decline, but the quality has gone back up recently IMO.

Probably not up to the level of his first videos though, but still, I'll take any rise of quality.
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His Power Rangers episode was pretty funny.

It's probably because he never watched the show. It was something new to him and so he was able to have a lot of fun with it.

Big_Nabendu posted...

He should bring back board James and bootsy.

I think Bootsy moved out of the state.
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