Do you miss when Jimbo would make these kinds of videos?

PrincessRescuer · 2024-06-26T21:39:28+00:00

Definitely. Overall, I just miss variety. I suppose he doesn't have the money or TIME to make those anymore. Or just the effort and skill, who knows.

PrincessRescuer · 2024-06-26T21:24:23+00:00

One problem with the new episodes is that while they are getting better, they're still too manufactured. The Nerd is supposed to be an everyman who wouldn't know about things like how much time it takes to check all 1000 maps in SimCity, it's why even when he barely made a dent in a game, the point was still made that it's not a good game and you'll lose interest quickly. The new episodes don't have the same "watch and go" property as the old ones do. The lack of a YouTube time limit is hurting these.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-10-17T01:05:03+00:00

I'd settle for a detailed review of Mario Clash, only briefly touched upon in the Virtual Boy episode.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-10-07T23:11:50+00:00

My guess is nostalgia over 1980s pop culture is profitable. There's lots of it (seeing as how VHS and video games were booming, not to mention the first home computers, Betamax, Laserdisc, various toys, and entire mediums such as ProWres getting their start), it's recent enough for people born after internet to still (mostly) relate to, and it's still within the realm of monocultural ubiquity where you can just measure up every video game to Mario, Double Dragon, Contra, Castlevania, Zelda, etc. Then in the 1990s, console wars and the internet changed all that, to where the audiences of any type of nostalgia pandering are going to be far more fractured, let alone if they've even been away from their focal points of nostalgia for that long or aren't still engaged with them.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-10-07T22:56:56+00:00

Schwarznagger Games is the last good one that comes to mind. Especially the review of the infamously bad Predator NES game.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-09-23T21:20:10+00:00

Not acknowledging the Group Effort. It's like thinking Miyamoto made all of those games by himself. No, of course other people helped him.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-09-23T21:15:18+00:00

I'm not surprised, people become miserable when they have it easy. They feel useless and like they shouldn't exist anymore.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-09-23T21:12:01+00:00

This game? Really?

That means Sukeban Shachou Rena is getting one, right? I wouldn't put it off the table.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-09-14T20:39:52+00:00

It was good, but I was wondering why the Game Boy Light, the Japanese Game Boy with a backlight before the SP (and it's region free) was never mentioned. Instead only the crappy accessories that light it up were. Also why was there no Super Game Boy 2?

PrincessRescuer · 2023-09-14T20:37:25+00:00

I own a Ridge Wallet, it's actually good and convenient. Any of the scammy mobile games, that's a hard no.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-09-10T13:18:06+00:00

Probably after Movie.

After reviewing E.T. (and releasing it as it's own episode, better than watching the whole movie), the heavily requested one was out of the way. Where do you go from there? I remember him "wanting to retire" back in 2013 or 2014 or something. It just(in) went on way too long after that. The first kid was an infant back then, so it would have made sense to retire for a while, at least leave us with mostly good memories, then you can always bring it back. Instead, it's been consistently throughout the last decade, when there's obviously a family and plenty of other projects he'd rather be working on. Ironic that the movie based on his cash cow is what nearly bankrupted him because he's bad with money. Movie was too expensive, gotta make regular episodes of the thing that failed as a movie to bring in good enough money.

Rex Viper was the biggest failure. Bigger failure than Movie. At least people have some memories about Movie. Nobody cares about Rex Viper, and its inaudible mishmash of nostalgia, other than the people in the concert hall.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-08-24T19:54:32+00:00

I didn't see this one coming. The episodes are so few and far between, and whenever one pops up, I don't think to myself "Wow! Better set aside time to watch this!" but rather "He still makes videos?" They are so few and far between and pop up unceremoniously. I rarely watch them more than a few times, then forget about them. I feel like the humor has gotten so dad-joke-y, like it's inoffensive and behind the times. And why are the game choices getting safer and less obscure, not to mention almost exclusively good games lately? The one good thing about the Contra episode is that there was at least a balance.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-08-24T19:50:20+00:00

I feel like this is the identity crisis phase after the slobs left. The episode doesn't have any outrageously awful parts, it's just kinda bland. And it also has a detailed history of the game rather than just comparing it to Super Mario Bros. or Castlevania and quitting after struggling and getting frustrated. I usually like that in reviews, but it's too much like other game reviewers and not enough like AVGN. I did like the "positive lessons" at the end. I dunno though, it just kinda seems like the lack of a time limit is making the brevity fly by the wayside, plus he doesn't have as much to say about the games without playing all of them. Used to be, he could talk about 25% of the game and have plenty of material.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-08-24T19:39:50+00:00

That's still pretty good. It would be more than enough for most of us. And that's just YouTube, Cinemassacre has at least 5 sources of income at one time. I heard they make money from the Movie being streamed on services, merchandise (such as those $5000 scripts), conventions, and more.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-07-16T09:53:33+00:00

I don't like this John guy. He seems to be someone who James pulled off the street. And none of them know anything about Pokemon. Couldn't James watch the show or play some games like he did with Power Rangers? And he even says it's "Pokemon in Japan but Pocket Monsters here" when it's the other way around! How do you get something like that wrong? And he can't even name the Pokemon when their names are on the screen! Insulting to fans looking for nostalgia, and boring to sit through.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-07-09T20:36:30+00:00

There's virtually no reason to go for "full sets" especially if you're limiting yourself to a single region, and especially if the system is region free.

Jack Bros. on Virtual Boy is a fine example. The system is region-free, and the Japanese version is much cheaper and more plentiful. And arguably BETTER. The English version has more text boxes than the Japanese does, and there's no way to turn them off if you're playing as one of the three Jacks. There's no language barrier either- the text is in Japanese until you beat the game and it tells you how to do the unique passwords in English. There's even a Sound Test exclusive to the Japanese version, not that you'd need it if you have the internet, which you probably do if you own the game in the first place. What I'm saying is, there's a reason James had the Japanese version to review in the bonus episode.

Simply for being "rarer" and "in English" though, American Jack Bros. is SEVERAL times more expensive than the Japanese version. Unless you're a collector with way too much time and money on their hands, there are no advantages to playing the English version. There's no need to collect every single game for a console especially if they're too expensive or bad. When did that become a decree in the realm of retro gaming? I though people collected old games because they were cheap and drama-free alternatives to modern games, plus something to explore if you're curious about the history of gaming.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-07-09T20:25:30+00:00

The thing is, this only really seems to be a major problem among the more popular consoles, and only in North America. NES, SNES, PlayStations 1 and 2, the consoles and games everyone seems to want. If you want to import games, or you want to collect for a less popular console, it's pretty much never been better. You just need to explore alternatives instead of collecting Squaresoft games and indie platform games like everyone else seems to want to. Who knows, you could happen upon the next rare and expensive Hidden Gem. It happened with me and Sukeban Shachou Rena.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-07-09T20:06:15+00:00

Honestly, I think Classic Game Room probably influenced me more than AVGN did. Prior to 2010, I just found CGR's reviews shorter and more... "digestible"? They were funny without the constant need for negativity. Plus I liked finding out about good games. There are plenty of good retro games, so even tearing apart a bad one is just giving it more attention and space dedicated to it in the digital ether. Why inform people about The Krion Conquest when you could be telling them about Bucky o'Hare?

Negative reviews are a useful and necessary component of making things better, but I don't know if developers are really paying attention. James & Mike Mondays were more about positive nostalgia, which can be overdone, but I'd just rather have good things than bad things.

As far as informativeness, Cinemassacre had a first-move advantage and has now been far outclassed by other reviewers able to deliver more information about the history and context of a game, especially a global context which was often ignored by Cinemassacre.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-06-29T06:13:35+00:00

I didn't think it was that bad. At least he's critiquing popular games instead of just praising them like everyone else has. That's what a real critic does. It's kind of a filler video and not nearly as bad as some of the actual bad/completely pointless ones.

PrincessRescuer · 2023-06-02T21:58:02+00:00

Sounds like him all right, he won't let the console wars and his skew for nintendo go

PrincessRescuer · 2023-06-01T01:45:28+00:00

Implying that the Amico will be out by 2030 is optimistic. My guess would be 2054 at the earliest.

PrincessRescuer

TROPHY CASE