If you grew up in the 1980s and early 1990s, you were part of a pioneering generation. No, it's not because you witnessed the end of the Cold War or had awesome cartoons, it's because of your being alive during the golden age of video gaming. I'm talking about NES, SNES, Genesis and other consoles prior to the advent of FMV and true 3D graphics. Video gaming was not as mainstream as it is now, and the games had real heart. Because this was really the beginning of modern gaming, quality control was not as stringent as it is now. In addition, there was no Internet to widely disseminate information about games or game reviews. You just bought a game through word-of-mouth or took a chance with your 60 bucks. Hence, lots of real shit was released. Outside of a few developers like Nintendo or Capcom, you were taking a big risk. For every Zelda there were a million Pit Fighters.
So it behooves me to see the army of retro game reviewers online willingly choosing to subject themselves to "shitbombs" like ET and Total Recall. It's amazing how saturated the internet is with these sorts of reviewers until you consider the popularity of James Rolfe aka "The Angry Video Game Nerd". The AVGN phenomena started with a video lambasting "Castlevania II" for the NES. A few videos later and suddenly the guy is an internet celebrity. What started as a youtube thing has grown into a franchise hawking DVDs, shirts, and special features on spike tv. I started watching rather late, around the time of the Atari review, but I'd like to think I'm a fan of Rolfe's work. I don't agree with all of the character's gripes about the games being reviewed, but I find his combination of cogent scriptwriting and sickeningly scatological remarks entertaining. I can appreciate the amount of time and work he puts into his videos, and he strikes me as a guy proficient in all forms of media, from tv to movies to video games. The character himself is memorable and Rolfe, though not a Brando by any means, is a good actor for an online serial.
Given his massive popularity, it's only natural that there will be a slew of imitators. Just search "video game reviews" on youtube and I guarantee most of them will be atleast somewhat inspired by a profanity-laced AVGN rant. One reviewer, in particular, stands out as an AVGN doppelganger: a guy named Chris Bores aka "The Irate Gamer". It's not a new assertion to say that Chris Bores, who came well after Rolfe, is a blatant plagiarist of the AVGN. That goes without saying and anyone who believes otherwise is either completely naive or does not know the definition of plagiarism. There's a difference between inspiration and ripping someone off, and Chris Bores errs towards the latter hard. Though that's a compelling enough reason to dislike the Irate Gamer, I think there are a number of reasons to hate his show based on its own merits (or lack thereof):
1) Chris Bores cannot act
The definition of irate is mad beyond belief, or should I say angry. However, the Irate Gamer is more like the "Mildly Perturbed Gamer" in his serial. You don't believe that the guy is genuinely mad because he's a very, very poor actor. He consistently overacts and it's obvious that he's forcing it. You don't need theatre acting chops to do an online serial, but you should atleast be able to convey anger believably when the entire premise of your show is that you're a pissed-off gamer masochistically tormenting himself with crappy games.
2) His "humor" is not funny at all, unless you find the title of this post hilarious
Chris has a unique concept of humor, one that curiously lacks the ability to even make one elicit a chortle here or there. Much of the over-the-top scatological remarks a la AVGN that he attempts just fall flat because he lacks either the delivery or the acting chops as discussed above. Imagine you had a friend who tried to curse you out but was just too awkward to pull it off and ended up just humiliating himself. That's what listening to Chris is like. Plus, his jokes are lame and repetitive, if they didn't work the first time then they won't work the sixth or seventh, man. The rest of his humor is derived from repeating AVGN expressions like "shitload of fuck" over and over. Sorry Chris, why would I settle for your cover band act when I can see the real thing?
3) The script is piss-poor
Many of the phrasing is just plain awkward to listen to. There are serious syntactical errors and mispronunciations abound. You know there's a problem when the person who penned the script has difficulty reading his own words. I think Chris knows his analysis of the games and the writing are weak points so he overuses effects to compensate. Ask George Lucas how that strategy worked out for the new Star Wars movies (but then again he made boatloads of money so I guess the joke's on me).
In fact, the errors in the script are exacerbated by his gratingly annoying voice. I know this isn't really his fault, but I think there's a reason certain people go into voice-acting or narration and others don't. He has this cringe-inducing Clevelander accent that even a native Clevelander like myself finds irritating.
4) You doubt he's a gamer at all
This really is the most serious offense of Chris Bores. Quite simply, it's difficult to believe that this guy is a gamer at all. First, the guy makes frequent errors when he's researching information for his reviews. I first noticed this with the SMB2 review of his and, since then, I've read that there have been research errors in many other episodes. This really is inexcusable if you posit yourself as a retro gamer.
Second, he slams classic games that just happen to be difficult. Sure, Contra and Ghosts n' Goblins are hard games. but they're classics because they have addictive gameplay and adept controls. Hence, the challenge spurs you on, and who doesn't like a little challenge? Slamming Contra solely for being too hard shows a lack of respect for the beginning of gaming. It would be different if he critiqued it because of graphics or gameplay (ie - somewhat legitimate reasons to dislike a game), but after someone forwarded the Contra review to me; I lost any respect I had for Bores' work.
None of these points are really new; these are sentiments echoed by everyone who was a gamer in the 1980s reliving their memories and frustrations vicariously through the Angry Video Game Nerd character. It's unfortunate that a parade of subpar imitators has flooded the internets, led by the grand jester jackass IG.
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