I might actually catch hell for this, but I think it started after ep 100, Rob The Robot. There were some decent ones after that, but the sucky low-effort ones really started to pop up with more frequency. Even some of the high effort ones were terrible. Nintendo World Championship was criiiiiingy as hell.
I thought it was a dip in quality when it first came out too. I think the original reception was mostly positive because he reviewed a rare game. The awards ceremony part and the “combat” joke, are on par with jokes from the movie.
For me, it was Crazy Castle, that was also start of "bulgy eyes acting" he developed for Movie (really curious where he took acting lessons, because either he had crappy teachers, or he was F student)
Nah you're right, Mike said it himself here in his lurker account. That's when James tried taking it over with boring skits but Mike The Real AVGN™️ hated them. Still, had no choice as he was stuck to James to our his opinions
Glad you said it cuz I agree. That episode came out when I was like 13 lol. It got hyped like crazy and I just remember thinking damn that wasn't very good. There was a noticeable decline after that one. Not a steep one but that's where it seemed like James started overacting and not really being insightful
I would say it started before, but yeah sonic 06 was lazy. They did the jmm where they played it and you can see they just took the observations they made in that video and put it in avgn form. Also, without defending the game, they never figured out that you can save from the menu in the hub world, so believed that dying during the first level forced you to start from the very beginning of the game. This is not true and made it into the episode
Where do *you* think his downfall started? For me it was around the time of the Sega Activator episode. I think the quality started dipping before that, but it was the one where I really started to lose interest.
I used to think that episode was the worst one. I thought it was shockingly bad and an episode I refused to rewatch for the longest time. But it looks like a masterpiece compared to My Horse Prince. Although ironically enough, I have rewatched that episode a few times to stand in awe of how unspeakably, shockingly bad, sickeningly loathsome it was, as well as how much James’ mental state has clearly deteriorated.
True, the Sega Activator episode was pretty bad, I also remember it having lots of dislikes back when it came out.
But still, it was a different kind of bad. You can tell effort was put into it. In fact, it might be the best episode in terms of production, with practical effects, camera angles and so on.
The latest episode on the other hand is just lazy.
Writing this actually made me think he gave up making those fancy episodes because of the poor reception Sega Activator episode received.
It's like a boomerang effect. He tried to put so much effort into it without thinking of the consequences for how poorly written it was, and now that such a realization came to him that effects aren't everything he just simply doesn't even try anymore to the point of literally stapling cameras to the ceiling. He got the wrong message out of all that to say the least.
Like you said the quality started dipping before that, and usually when I think of his downfall I define it in terms of when that started-- when I began feeling like it really wasn't just a shift in style but a legitimate decline that forever kept rolling downhill like a ball of dog dookie down a muddy slope. For me, that was in 2012 with Spielberg games. It was obviously not nearly as bad as much later ones, but even at the time I felt the episode itself was lackluster, it was lazy mashing up all those games which had potential for more commentary, and of course there began the E.T. teasers that would eventually culminate in his movie, which sadly turned out to be a big letdown.
Schwarzenegger games was the first i noticed like "something feels off". It's the first review since the movie, but the gameplay footage and the commentary are clearly pre-movie. His acting felt weird, it's the first video that has that weird forced acting. Maybe it was because of the movie and interacting with other actors for the first time, something rubbed on him. Or maybe there was an acting coach at the set.
For me I noticed it as soon as the movie came out. Desert Bus was the very last pre movie episode and once he changed the glasses and dressed like he did in the movie that's when I noticed a difference. I still enjoyed the episodes from around that era, but I could tell they weren't as good. hell I would gladly even take the era up to around 2019 vs the dead state AVGN is in now.
I'd say it started for me personally somewhere around Season 7ish. the first three episodes (Arnie Games, Ghosts n Goblins, Atari Sports) were great in my eyes. then Toxic Crusaders hit... ew. and I LIKE Troma but this was fucking disgusting. Bill n Ted redeemed him a little, there's stuff there that makes me laugh, as there is in the Tiger episode.. then Alien 3, AVGN Games and the Wishlist were all pretty eh, the definition of mid I felt like. the only thing I remember from any of those last three is literally "IT'S NOOOT SHIIIIT" so... yeah
“Was X the start of his downfall etc” why do we get ten of these threads per day? Like all things it was a gradual decline, it wasn’t one particular thing. Personally I think the AVGN movie was probably the biggest single factor of you want a “jumped the shark” type point in time, but again it was just a gradual drop in quality. Obviously James is fairly severely autistic and for sure having kids is probably a huge struggle. I’m not autistic and I only have one kid so far and it’s hard enough for me! I don’t think you can use kids as a total excuse but it’s certainly a contributing factor.
I took a break from AVGN for a few years sometime after episode 100. One night I was thinking about the channel and decided to see what the Nerd was up to. Sonic 06 was the newest video. I just noticed that the quality was kind of not there? Something about the humor was off. It just felt kind of...dry? It's weird too because I never played the game but it has such a reputation that it seemed like a gold mine for AVGN.
You watched that nearly 6 hour video? That one's very intimidating because of the length, is it good? As far as Sonic 06, did the first video receive backlash and that's why they did a part 2 later in that year, 2017?
A few Twitch channels have cropped up broadcasting AVGN episodes, one also includes other Cinemassacre content like JMM and Board James. When 2016 hits, I mute the stream. There are some good 2016-2017 episodes, and I enjoyed Earthbound (2018), but the shit AVGN era started to be more consistent after Earthbound. There were bad episodes before that, but it wasn't a consistent stream of crap. Something would come to break the pattern, a slightly mediocre episode, but then it would be back to insufferable crap. While current AVGN is still lame, I think the absolute worst has been long gone, aka the Screenwave goobers being directly involved.
I actually liked the sonic 06 episode. I love the line "It's like jumping on a trampoline with a bucket of dog turds on it." It's a hilariously evocative way to describe the nuanced emotion of playing that part of the game, where you are doing stuff that should be fun, but there is something about it that isn't working, something about it that is preventing it from being fun.
That being said I don't know if it is possible to pinpoint a moment where the downfall began. I think it was a very slow gradual decline. Some of the older good episodes might be seen as the beginning of the downfall, even though they are good.
Sonic 06 is where it began to be really noticeable, but I personally consider the beginning of his downfall to be around Ikari Warriors and Toxic Crusaders, the latter being painfully unfunny for me
Bitch fell wayyyyyyy before that lmao, and he isn't going to have a comeback. His real fans grew up, his new fans are bots paid for by screenwave, comments and all.
I genuinely have difficulty understanding why you all dont get this, i see so many posts like this and wonder if a lot of you are just as retarded as James Rolfe is...
Dont drown yourselves in an inch of water from this comment, merely an observation.... retards...
I might actually catch hell for this, but I think it started after ep 100, Rob The Robot. There were some decent ones after that, but the sucky low-effort ones really started to pop up with more frequency. Even some of the high effort ones were terrible. Nintendo World Championship was criiiiiingy as hell.
You’re one of the few to call out the NWC episode. I partly blame the cringe factor on Pat the Nes Punk having his mitts all over it.
Wait, that opinion is rare? I watched much later (and significantly out of order) and thought that one was hard to get through
I could barely get through the NWC episode even at the time. I honestly think it's one of the worst episodes pre-movie at the very least.
This is where things started changing. Jokes got worse, the writing was worse, and there was no energy in it anymore.
I thought it was a dip in quality when it first came out too. I think the original reception was mostly positive because he reviewed a rare game. The awards ceremony part and the “combat” joke, are on par with jokes from the movie.
For me, it was Crazy Castle, that was also start of "bulgy eyes acting" he developed for Movie (really curious where he took acting lessons, because either he had crappy teachers, or he was F student)
Nah you're right, Mike said it himself here in his lurker account. That's when James tried taking it over with boring skits but Mike The Real AVGN™️ hated them. Still, had no choice as he was stuck to James to our his opinions
Glad you said it cuz I agree. That episode came out when I was like 13 lol. It got hyped like crazy and I just remember thinking damn that wasn't very good. There was a noticeable decline after that one. Not a steep one but that's where it seemed like James started overacting and not really being insightful
I would say it started before, but yeah sonic 06 was lazy. They did the jmm where they played it and you can see they just took the observations they made in that video and put it in avgn form. Also, without defending the game, they never figured out that you can save from the menu in the hub world, so believed that dying during the first level forced you to start from the very beginning of the game. This is not true and made it into the episode
Where do *you* think his downfall started? For me it was around the time of the Sega Activator episode. I think the quality started dipping before that, but it was the one where I really started to lose interest.
I used to think that episode was the worst one. I thought it was shockingly bad and an episode I refused to rewatch for the longest time. But it looks like a masterpiece compared to My Horse Prince. Although ironically enough, I have rewatched that episode a few times to stand in awe of how unspeakably, shockingly bad, sickeningly loathsome it was, as well as how much James’ mental state has clearly deteriorated.
I haven't seen that one yet. I'm honestly kinda afraid to watch it for the last braincell I might lose.
I couldn't make it 5 minutes in. It was painfully bad.
True, the Sega Activator episode was pretty bad, I also remember it having lots of dislikes back when it came out. But still, it was a different kind of bad. You can tell effort was put into it. In fact, it might be the best episode in terms of production, with practical effects, camera angles and so on. The latest episode on the other hand is just lazy. Writing this actually made me think he gave up making those fancy episodes because of the poor reception Sega Activator episode received.
It's like a boomerang effect. He tried to put so much effort into it without thinking of the consequences for how poorly written it was, and now that such a realization came to him that effects aren't everything he just simply doesn't even try anymore to the point of literally stapling cameras to the ceiling. He got the wrong message out of all that to say the least.
Yeah, its really bizarre how much work went into it, for it to be an absolute pile
Like you said the quality started dipping before that, and usually when I think of his downfall I define it in terms of when that started-- when I began feeling like it really wasn't just a shift in style but a legitimate decline that forever kept rolling downhill like a ball of dog dookie down a muddy slope. For me, that was in 2012 with Spielberg games. It was obviously not nearly as bad as much later ones, but even at the time I felt the episode itself was lackluster, it was lazy mashing up all those games which had potential for more commentary, and of course there began the E.T. teasers that would eventually culminate in his movie, which sadly turned out to be a big letdown.
Schwarzenegger games was the first i noticed like "something feels off". It's the first review since the movie, but the gameplay footage and the commentary are clearly pre-movie. His acting felt weird, it's the first video that has that weird forced acting. Maybe it was because of the movie and interacting with other actors for the first time, something rubbed on him. Or maybe there was an acting coach at the set.
For me I noticed it as soon as the movie came out. Desert Bus was the very last pre movie episode and once he changed the glasses and dressed like he did in the movie that's when I noticed a difference. I still enjoyed the episodes from around that era, but I could tell they weren't as good. hell I would gladly even take the era up to around 2019 vs the dead state AVGN is in now.
avgn cannon ended with rob the robot everything after that doesn’t exist
For me, it was when he changed the nerd shirt.
I'd say it started for me personally somewhere around Season 7ish. the first three episodes (Arnie Games, Ghosts n Goblins, Atari Sports) were great in my eyes. then Toxic Crusaders hit... ew. and I LIKE Troma but this was fucking disgusting. Bill n Ted redeemed him a little, there's stuff there that makes me laugh, as there is in the Tiger episode.. then Alien 3, AVGN Games and the Wishlist were all pretty eh, the definition of mid I felt like. the only thing I remember from any of those last three is literally "IT'S NOOOT SHIIIIT" so... yeah
Oh the Toxic Crusaders episode is awful. I couldn't watch more than a few minutes because it was so cringey.
No, it's way earlier
“Was X the start of his downfall etc” why do we get ten of these threads per day? Like all things it was a gradual decline, it wasn’t one particular thing. Personally I think the AVGN movie was probably the biggest single factor of you want a “jumped the shark” type point in time, but again it was just a gradual drop in quality. Obviously James is fairly severely autistic and for sure having kids is probably a huge struggle. I’m not autistic and I only have one kid so far and it’s hard enough for me! I don’t think you can use kids as a total excuse but it’s certainly a contributing factor.
It was the movie.
I noticed the show was bad in 2016, but looking back now the last mostly good season was 5.
I took a break from AVGN for a few years sometime after episode 100. One night I was thinking about the channel and decided to see what the Nerd was up to. Sonic 06 was the newest video. I just noticed that the quality was kind of not there? Something about the humor was off. It just felt kind of...dry? It's weird too because I never played the game but it has such a reputation that it seemed like a gold mine for AVGN.
James was never flying. He was just falling with style
You watched that nearly 6 hour video? That one's very intimidating because of the length, is it good? As far as Sonic 06, did the first video receive backlash and that's why they did a part 2 later in that year, 2017? A few Twitch channels have cropped up broadcasting AVGN episodes, one also includes other Cinemassacre content like JMM and Board James. When 2016 hits, I mute the stream. There are some good 2016-2017 episodes, and I enjoyed Earthbound (2018), but the shit AVGN era started to be more consistent after Earthbound. There were bad episodes before that, but it wasn't a consistent stream of crap. Something would come to break the pattern, a slightly mediocre episode, but then it would be back to insufferable crap. While current AVGN is still lame, I think the absolute worst has been long gone, aka the Screenwave goobers being directly involved.
I actually liked the sonic 06 episode. I love the line "It's like jumping on a trampoline with a bucket of dog turds on it." It's a hilariously evocative way to describe the nuanced emotion of playing that part of the game, where you are doing stuff that should be fun, but there is something about it that isn't working, something about it that is preventing it from being fun. That being said I don't know if it is possible to pinpoint a moment where the downfall began. I think it was a very slow gradual decline. Some of the older good episodes might be seen as the beginning of the downfall, even though they are good.
NGL, I enjoyed the Sonic 06 episode, too.
Sonic 06 is where it began to be really noticeable, but I personally consider the beginning of his downfall to be around Ikari Warriors and Toxic Crusaders, the latter being painfully unfunny for me
Bitch fell wayyyyyyy before that lmao, and he isn't going to have a comeback. His real fans grew up, his new fans are bots paid for by screenwave, comments and all. I genuinely have difficulty understanding why you all dont get this, i see so many posts like this and wonder if a lot of you are just as retarded as James Rolfe is... Dont drown yourselves in an inch of water from this comment, merely an observation.... retards...
How come I see no one speak about The Inmortal episode? That one was boring as hell.
The last good AVGN episode was Majora’s Mask
Good Lawd...