It has been a great pleasure entertaining so many of you with the AVGN series. I’m proud to have made 2 episodes a month consistently for the past few years. However, I’m planning on taking a break soon and then continue the episodes at a more leisurely pace. (Like 1 a month maybe)
Most of you appreciate the hard work. I truly have great fans who send me nice emails all the time. So for all of you, I don’t need to explain the obvious reason. But to make it clear for everyone:
I play the game, write the script, shoot the video, edit the video, and then go straight to the next video. It’s been a constant race to get each video done in time, to keep up with the schedule. On top of that, when I want to put some extra work into a particular video, like Ninja Gaiden for example, I have to virtually invent new hours in the day, which sometimes means sleeping very little.
By producing AVGN videos less frequently, I will be able to keep the quality up, and save the series from becoming a routine and an obligation. I will also be able to put more time into other things such as Board James and other projects that have been on halt.
I don’t know how soon this will take effect, how long, or whatever. Just something to expect in the near future.
That’s what the Worlds of Power novels were like. You gotta love a book with a passage like:
“Guts-Dozer was big. Guts-Dozer was mean. And Guts-Dozer was coming straight for Mega Man.”
Not even Shakespeare could have put it so eloquently.
For a long time, I’ve had this nutty idea of reading the Mega Man 2 book aloud, in its entirety. I don’t know how many people out there would care to listen to the whole thing, but I gave it a go. It’s a cold read, done in one take. I cut out many of the flubs, coughs and page turns, but it’s still far from flawless.
8. Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness: The Giant Claw Cranking out 31 short horror movie reviews in October has become a tradition. Of all the ones last year, I think I’d pick the Giant Claw. It’s the perfect example of a movie that’s “so bad it’s good.”
7. Top 10 Dumbest Indiana Jones Moments My favorite Top 10 of the year, but mostly because of it’s information value. Most people seem to forget what Indiana Jones was all about: a tribute to the classic adventure serials, the good ol’ days when you’d check your brain at the door, sit down and watch a movie.
6. Star Wars (Original trilogy review) At first, I had no clue how what I could say about Star Wars that hasn’t already been said, but then I got to the root of it, and I think it worked out great. Like Indy, everyone seems to think Star Wars was such an original concept. This tells the foundation that spawned the legacy.
5. AVGN: Godzilla The part that makes the video special for me is when the Nerd plays the newer Godzilla games and wishes he had them in his youth. My favorite AVGN moments are when I can use my facial expressions, without having to talk.
4. The History of SMDC2K I didn’t get to spend as much time on it as I wished, but it was the first animated video I’ve done in a while. It expresses a side of my humor that doesn’t get a chance often.
3. AVGN: Crazy Castle I worked on it from February to August, the longest time ever spent on a single Nerd episode and the closest that comes to my true passion of making movies.
2. BOARD JAMES: Weapons and Warriors Board James was a fresh change of pace last year, and while I’m excited to do many more episodes, I’ll always look back at this one as being hard to top.
1. A Trip to Sleepy Hollow Of all the difficult videos last year, this one was my personal escape. It felt leisurely, as if the video just made itself.
Tonight (Friday) is the final Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien as host. He came on as host 7 months ago. It was the only television show I watched on a consistent basis and now it’s coming to an abrupt close.
For anyone who doesn’t know, basically NBC wanted to move the show to a later time slot to make way for Jay Leno. Conan chose not to take the crap and leave.
I salute Conan for the great job he’s done In the 7 months as host, and adding to the legacy of The Tonight Show. Look forward to whatever he does next. I go where Coco go.
Hey, a lot of times, I get interview requests. I’ve been so busy keeping up with all the new videos, whenever I get an email about interviews, I save them in an inbox folder. I look forward to one day having the time to dig in and answer back to some of them.
The following questions are taken from numerous emails I’ve gotten.
When is the next episode of You Know What’s Bullshit?
I don’t know yet. I already filmed generic on-screen bits wearing the bullshit mask which I think is hilarious, so I would like to see newer episodes come to fruition. Whenever I get time to breathe and get a good burst of inspiration.
What are the next plans for Board James?
I’m looking forward to making new episodes with genuine enthusiasm. I have a pile of board games, many of them donated, so I have many options and many requests. The support for Board James has been great, and I’d love to do more. Motherfucker Mike will return from time to time.
Monster Madness this year?
Hopefully. It’s so much work. Last year, I couldn’t even believe I got through it all. I really love doing those because it reminds me of the old movie marathons that sparked my interest in monster movies and hope it does the same to others. There’s plenty of interesting movies out there to talk about.
Thoughts on Ghostbusters 3?
I receive links to the IMDB page all the time! Well, I don’t know what took so long, but I’m glad the movie is getting made, even if it sucks. It’s just going to be a blast of nostalgia to see the 4 Ghostbusters on the screen again. I don’t like the idea of including younger Ghostbusters. It seems like they’re trying to keep it hip and modern and that the popularity of Ghostbusters is being underestimated. I don’t know. It could work. Ask me again when there’s a trailer.
Have you ever studied game programming or tried programming a game?
No, but I messed about with GWbasic programming when I was very young. Using an old crappy IBM computer, I made a Godzilla RPG game. It sucked. So there you have it. I made my own shitty game. Also, there was a progam called Donkey, a real simplistic game made by Bill Gates, I believe. You control a car on a roadway, dodging donkeys. Though it was more fun to hit them. The coding was in GWbasic, so I used to mess with it and change the graphics to try and include more blood and guts. It didn’t work out too well, but I had some fun with it.
Are there any games you’re looking for?
Not really. I have enough to work with, but I appreciate all the donations and kind gestures. As always, you can breeze through my collection here. There’s only a few NES games left, but they’re ridiculously rare and expensive. (such as Hot Slots, Peekaboo Poker, and Bubble Bath Babes) I’m working on my Atari 2600 collection, maybe try to get all the SNES, Genesis games. It’ll always be an ongoing thing.
In your Nintendo Power episode you talked about how disgusting the advertisements were and was wondering if you could reveal the ad you stapled in Volume 82.
I’m not opening that thing. It’s the most foul and disgusting thing ever conceived. You can keep it a mystery and let your imagination take over. Or, if you want to know the anti-climactic answer, you can turn on your temporary dyslexia and read this. (.da lianeot eht tsuj s’tI)
How do you pick which game gets to be reviewed?
I always have a list, based off past experience with the games, or ones that I’ve recently discovered. I pick the ones I think will make the best videos.
Once in a blue moon, you review a good game (SMB3 or Battletoads). How do you decide to review one and is there any particular reason why you wanna review them?
If there’s a new angle or a new spin I can put on a popular game, I’ll do it. It’s nice for me to play some good games here and there, and there’s always something to say that I don’t think has been said before. I discovered the true evil behind SMB3. (So good it’s a sin.)
Aside from E.T., what other review requests are popular? There’s Big Rigs, but that game isn’t even ten years old. WIll you make this an exception?
Action 52 is a huge request also. Big Rigs is the most recent game I’ve considered to review, because it’s so hilariously bad. I don’t have a PC to run it. I own the game itself and tried to run it on my Mac using Parallels and installing Windows on it. It didn’t work out, and even if it did, I don’t know how to record it. I’m a console man.
Out of all the AVGN reviews you’ve done, which ones do you think you’re most proud of? There’s some popular ones, like the Bugs Bunny ones, and that SMB3 video, but which ones were personally your most proud achievments?
I liked the SMB3 video for it’s battle with Jesus against Satan. How epic is that? The video that I spent the most time on was Crazy Castle. I got crapped on, a pie thrown in my face, nearly destroyed my whole room, got knocked half-unconscious for real. That was my biggest production of all! However, the game which I think got the best/most frustrated review was Dick Tracy. Or possibly Ghostbusters. Also, I can’t forget TMNT, which was the early days (the lazy era). I could’ve done much better for it, but regardless it’s considered by everyone as a classic AVGN (or ANN).
Are there any systems you still do NOT own?
I don’t own some of the obscure Pong consoles. Also, I don’t have the original Sega SG-1000. There’s an endless amount of obscure gaming consoles out there, but I have all the basic stuff.
Will you review any of the newer (bad) Sonic the Hedgehog games?
The last Sonic games I played were Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic CD. Those were great. The only ones I can think of that are remotely bad are maybe Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast. Actually, I played Sonic Rush on Nintendo DS and thought it was pretty good. So, when it comes to BAD Sonic games, I don’t think I played any.
Here’s something some of you may find interesting which pre-dates the first Nerd video. Back in college in 2002, Mike Matei had a project where he was supposed to come up with an alternate history for someone in the entertainment field. Mike chose “Mario Segali” who was Shigeru Miyamoto’s landlord at the time he created Donkey Kong. As history recalls, Miyamoto named Mario after his landlord. And this video is supposed to depict Mario Segali as he would be today. A Bitter old man (who has turned to alcohol) because he wasn’t given royalties for one of the biggest mascots of all time. And of course, Mario Segali is played by James Rolfe.
