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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Sept 30, 2020 2:42:41 GMT -5
That's true. Being informed that I need the torch to light the fireplaces would have thrown everyone for a loop. Even worse than the cryptic information in Castlevania II.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 1, 2020 0:25:34 GMT -5
Hopefully James & Mike have practiced their surfing skills when they take on Silver Surfer for the NES: -And we are joined by Bootsy again. We also learn from James's blatant admission at the beginning that this video will be mostly them watching Bootsy beat the game.
-While never playing the game, I find the game to be among my favorite AVGN episodes. For some reason, the Nerd going "Looks so stupid! What the hell is wrong with him?!" at the title screen makes me lose it every time.
-Well, James and Mike give it a shot for one section each but they cannot even finish one section. They also mention one of the difficulties in the game that you have to continually tap the attack button to shoot which they are getting tired of after five minutes of playing (though they admit that they could use a turbo controller for that). Bootsy actually does something unique in that regard using his index finger for tapping which I have never seen before (and James gives this method a shot but using his...middle finger instead).
-Now we get to see how Bootsy casually finishes the section in one go that James could not do. But it should be mentioned that even Bootsy dies several times over the course of the video.
-James cannot even look at the wave pattern in the second section of Reptyl's stage without getting nauseous.
-Somehow comparing an enemy looking to them like a frog doing jumping jacks encourages them to think of famous frog characters (and finding out that there are not many real life famous frogs in fiction since most of the famous ones are in animation).
-The discussion eventually leads to the hardest games in the NES library. While they consider Silver Surfer to be a top contender, the consensus among them is that Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde as well as Battletoads and Battletoads/Double Dragon are probably the hardest ones.
-Going into a bit of a comic discussion as well with Mike explaining the backstory of Silver Surfer to James (with James finding the whole surfing idea kinda ridiculous) and what kinds of comics they read. I am just glad that I read mostly manga because those I can easily catch up on at least.
-Bootsy getting into a pickle in the first section of the final stage when he loses his power-ups as even he has trouble sometimes.
-But ultimately, he pulls it off and beats the game (though James feels disappointed about the ending of it).
-While not much of James & Mike playing, this was still an entertaining video to watch.
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Paul
Vegeta
Posts: 9,242
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Post by Paul on Oct 1, 2020 1:46:41 GMT -5
I've noticed that Mike often wears nice button-up shirts instead of just t-shirts all the time.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 2, 2020 0:35:55 GMT -5
After a while, another 2-for-1 special!
First up, something different as James & Mike present the Top 10 Most Intense Moments from their Mondays so far: -Well, after about 85 episodes, one can do something like this in a while. No frame narration or anything, just the chosen clips by James & Mike.
-And the Top 10 are: 10. Beating Dracula in Super Castlevania IV for the SNES (and watching Mike go insane after finishing Dracula) 9. Watching Bootsy beat the first stage in Back To The Future Part III for the Sega Genesis 8. Trying (and failing, duh duh duh) to beat the double chainsaw wielding boss in Splatterhouse for the TurboGrafx-16 7. Beating the two Abobos within the time limit in Double Dragon for the NES 6. Beating Boba Fett's ship, Slave-1, in Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire for the Nintendo 64 5. Watching Bootsy beat the final boss in Silver Surfer for the NES 4. Fighting the robot boss in Contra for the NES (giving us Mike's angry reaction...the poor couches that have lived through him) 3. James beating the Joker in Batman for the NES 2. Mike beating Mike Tyson (though only by decision) in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for the NES 1. James finishing the Turbo Tunnel in Battletoads for the NES
-A nice different sort of video letting us relive some moments from the show up to this point.
Next up, it's time for some wacky races in the future when James & Mike play F-Zero for the SNES: -A game that I rented a few times as a kid and had fun playing it, but not on the same level as James & Mike enjoy it.
-Playing this game also makes them reminisce about how the SNES had an awesome array of launch titles (Super Mario World, Pilotwings among others). I also learned from this video that Shigeru Miyamoto was the creative force behind F-Zero and Pilotwings which is interesting when you mainly know him as the Super Mario and Zelda creator.
-Nice bit of unintentional foreshadowing here when they talk about wanting to do the first three Metroid titles as well as hitting some Game Boy games down the line.
-Always choosing Samurai Goroh as their vehicle of choice (the only character I can still remember besides Captain Falcon. While I know that there is a rather snobbish elite racer in a mostly purple racing suit and a green Piccolo-like alien, I cannot remember their names) with them mentioning later that he is pretty good at acceleration compared to the other cars.
-James is basically gushing over the graphics, the speed, the controls etc. and readily admits later that this is probably his favorite racing game of all time, even better than Mario Kart. Mike, meanwhile, is Mario Kart all the way (I just hope that I am correct in deducing that they refer to the original Super Mario Kart when referring to Mario Kart).
-Love how a racing track named just "Silence" takes Mike to asking James whether he has seen "Silence Of The Lambs" and James to ask Mike whether he has seen a Twilight Zone Episode named "The Silence" (hearing about the ending of that episode made me cringe a little bit actually).
-I can really feel James when he mentions how he pronounced Grand Prix as a child (the same as me before learning that the x is supposed to be silent).
-Both doing really well (Mike on the Knight League and James on the Queen Leage on Standard difficulty), but things start hitting the fan when they just f**k around in the King League on Expert mode.
-Overall, another entertaining episode from them.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 3, 2020 1:00:15 GMT -5
3-for-1! 3-for-1! 3-for-1! First up, let's blow up some stuff by seeing James & Mike play Bomberman II for the NES: -A new guest has arrived and it's...JonTron. Now to be fair, this episode was still two years away from the controversial tweet that showed JonTron's political views so I don't hold it against James & Mike at that point for inviting him. And since that tweet came out, I cannot remember any further collab between James & Mike and JonTron so I like to think that the two don't want to work any further with him. Besides, I am completely honest when I say that I have never been interested in JonTron so I wasn't too touched by the controversy since I haven't watched virtually any of his videos. -As for Bomberman, I never played it on the NES but I liked playing the similar Dyna Blaster on the Game Boy as well as possessing and enjoying Bomberman 64 for the Nintendo 64 which I had. -Via the Four Score (which has some connection to Abraham Lincoln apparently), they play a 3-Way-Dance against each other and having lots of fun bombing each other. -They do nag a bit about Pat The NES Punk (in a joking manner, of course) due to him messing with James when James & Mike played Bomberman with Pat together (i.e. James not knowing how to play Bomberman and Pat gleefully kicking his ass while James was trying to figure out how to play the game). We do actually get a small scene from the recording for that (which was apparently done, going by the clothes, at the same visit where they played the two racing games), making me wonder on why that episode was left unfinished. I mean, James & Mike Mondays hardly seems like the heavily produced show where they don't want to release something unless it is perfect so it strikes me as odd why they never (to this day if I remember correctly) released the Bomberman episode with Pat The NES Punk. Mysteries, mysteries... -Watching this episode, it makes me a bit sad actually what came out about him because JonTron appears to be a pretty nice guy having a good time playing with James & Mike. Especially love about how they get into internet speak, questioning why "pwned" had seemingly died out by that point while "lol" was still going strong (with it being mentioned that James doesn't like "lol" at all) with JonTron actually giving a good reason for why "lol" is still useful today. -Overall, a good episode of James & Mike that was fun to watch. Next up, let's hit outer space and watch James & Mike play Life Force for the NES: -A game that they really liked playing together in college due to it being a 2-player co-op game (of which they think there are too few of them on the NES). -OMG, James's face when Mike tells him that Krang is gonna be in the next Turtles movie (that one being TMNT: Out Of The Shadows at that point). Though both kinda wish for a movie that was based off of the 1987 cartoon. -While Mike commends the level design, the bosses etc., he does criticize the weak weapon selection compared to other shooters. I cannot comment on that given that the only thing we see is the pea shooter all the time. Also some of the obstacles do appear to come out of nowhere giving you no time to react to them at all which I would find sucky. -I really love them talking about how comedians should incorporate video games into their routine and thinking about how some comedians of past and present would react to video games (especially like them imagining The Three Stooges playing Life Force ). -Apparently there is a game named Bonk's Adventure (of which they show a clip) where you exit a level through somebeing's rectum...interesting. -I agree with them that it is dumb that you don't get an indication whether your hitting a boss counts because there is no blinking or anything signalling you that your hit counts. -They actually finish the game which is surprising to them because they didn't remember the game being this short (and it appears that the game has unlimited continues?). Overall, it is not as good as they remember it from playing it in college but it is still an entertaining game. -As for this episode, it was very good and was thoroughly funny to watch. Finally for today, we run, run, we better run run as we watch James & Mike play 3-D WorldRunner for the NES: -Another episode having JonTron as a guest. -A game that James liked to rent as a kid of which Mike and JonTron never heard and are flabbergasted at James rocking out to the happy music in this game. -Have to say that the sight of all three of them doing a happy dance to the happy music is hilarious to watch. -Now we know why Nintendo at that time was doing not so good (as a reminder, this episode was about 2 years away from the Nintendo Switch release): they didn't have the Game Over Worm in any of their games! -A short but still fun video.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 3, 2020 23:41:13 GMT -5
A special occasion to see this time when James & Mike go live at PAX East 2015: -Apparently from what I gathered, PAX East is a Philadelphia gaming culture event where James & Mike got to have a panel and actually play James & Mike Mondays live with members from the audience.
-I don't exactly get how they play the game since I doubt they had the original NES console up there. I guess from one picture I saw during the vid they are using an emulator of some kind where they have a large variety of games to play?
-Love this exchange right at the beginning: Audience Member: "Play Cheetahmen!", Mike: "No way, I hate that game!"
-Only NES games played during this panel with the following games: Ring King, Chip'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2, Castle Of Deceit, Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat and A Nightmare On Elm Street.
-Have to say that Ring King has some...interesting animation sequences. Luckily, Chip'n Dale is a better game to play for the lucky audience member (who actually has that NES accessory that James used to fire by saying f**k a lot on his head).
-I feel sorry for the poor schmuck having to play Castle Of Deceit that might make for a good Nerd episode someday. As James sums this game up: "Bad controls for you, smart A.I. for the game."
-Of course, whenever there's a racing game having an actual racer in its title, Pat The NES Punk is not far away. Love Mike's reaction to him again reminding him of the name of the Off-Road game they once played.
-The highlight though is all three of them (+ a member from the audience) playing A Nightmare On Elm Street via the Four Score and jumping and stumbling all over each over.
-Overall, a nice change of pace for one video and interesting to see a live reaction to James & Mike.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 5, 2020 0:42:53 GMT -5
We got another 2-for-1 sale coming up!
First, we make a new acquaintance while paying respect to the past by seeing James & Mike play both Probotector and Contra for the NES: -We have another guest this time...Doug Walker. Now unlike JonTron, I actually felt pretty sad when "Change The Channel" hit in 2018 and the truth came out because I loved his videos during the first Nerd phase from 2007-2012 and was such a big fan I watched every type of content by him, even the big crossover movies. Since 2018, I have never watched neither a new video of his even when it was about something I was curious about nor any of his old videos. All I did watch were the outtakes from his videos because I guess during a pandemic, one is desperate about any content to cheer one up. I am unsure regarding James & Doug though whether they have done any collaborations since "Change The Channel" hit because I remember somebody in another thread here mention something regarding a recent collab. Otherwise, I would hope that the "The Mummy (2017)" crossover review they did at the end of 2017 was their last collab together before James decided to break ties because I certainly would lose a bit of respect for James when he continued to work with Doug past that.
-This episode is still noteworthy do because they are doing an experiment: James & Doug are in a barren room (probably at Doug's house) due to James filming the crossover review with Doug about the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with him while Mike is in one of the Nerd rooms so they are doing a video from two remote locations. This is certainly kind of eerie in hindsight knowing that the knowledge they gained from this experiment would probably help them in how they do the current Covid-19 episodes of James & Mike Mondays (though how they split the screen certainly improved in the current episodes).
-What they do here is that James & Doug play a 2-player game of Probotector while Mike plays a 1-player game of Contra just to see if there are any major differences between them. Unlike their earlier go at Contra, they will use the 30 lives code this time.
-I wonder who is there with James & Doug in the room, talking off screen? Probably Rob Walker but I don't know.
-As I mentioned in the Contra vid post a while ago, there are no major differences between the games except they changed all the human looking characters into robots (including the protagonists) in Probotector...and also made the robot boss in Stage 5 look a bit more awesome.
-They actually manage to both keep a steady pace with no one of the two parties being able to move that far ahead until the fifth level. Also, Doug loses all his lives by Level 4 so from that point on, it is only a one-on-one race between Mike & Doug.
-I love one comment by Doug noting that Probotector kinda sounds like the name for a contraceptive...that the robot maid from The Jetsons would use.
-Another interesting observation is that the "ping" sound effects in these games kinda sound like the sounds in other games that would indicate that you don't hit the right spot (first example I could think of was the Mega Man games).
-Also like how they mess with Mike by telling him that the final boss in Probotector looks like big hairy balls....Oh, and unlike the original Contra video they actually manage to beat the games this time.
-Overall, it was still decent though I am not that thrilled to see Doug in those videos
Next up, let us go back to medieval times and watch James & Mike play Golden Axe II for the Sega Genesis: -Interesting note from them about how this is a Genesis-only sequel to the original Golden Axe that was available as both an arcade and a Genesis game.
-First though, they have to check out the Duel mode of the game which is just a Vs. mode. It does make them note that one-on-one fighting games got significantly better when they were made on a 2-D plane.
-We also learn that as they go through these games that they always seem to notice controllers that have something broken with them and that James has a lot of broken controllers in a box that he doesn't know what to do with (isn't there something like electronics recycling in the US he could do?).
-Have to say that the game looks kinda ugly to me or at least not as pleasent as some other beat-em-up games I know.
-Of course, it has their pet peeve: friendly fire mode that you cannot turn off like in Battletoads. Can't say that they are too pleased about that.
-Love their observations that every dying enemy sounds the same (making the same "Beh!" sound effect) and how the super attacks are apparently useless.
-OK this is really poopy. Apparently in 2-player mode when one player loses all his lives (or continues?) the game ends and you have to start over even though the other player still has lives and energy. I can fully understand James and Mike not wanting to continue this game after learning that.
-Overall, a decent-to-good video from them.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 6, 2020 0:36:34 GMT -5
2 times the fun, wrapped up and rolled into 1!
First up, let's kick some shell when we watch James & Mike play TMNT III: The Manhattan Project for the NES: -Doug Walker is again a guest with James and him being in that barren room while Mike is live via satellite from one of the nerd rooms.
-This time they play the same game with James & Doug doing the 2-player mode (obviously) while Mike is doing the 1-player mode.
-But first, let's watch James & Doug hit each other for fun because apparently the game makers thought that Game Mode A should be the friendly fire one while Game Mode B is the one where you cannot hit each other. Were the developers having a brain fart at that time?
-Ah, the naive dreams of them thinking that the actual Turtles III movie would be similar to this game and how awesome it would be...only to be severely disappointed when it came out. Mike even relates a story about how pissed off about the movie he was that he actually...pissed on the screen during the movie...wait, what? Sadly, we don't get any follow-up on this (like whether his parents grounded him for a month or something) but that is certainly...an interesting choice of action to take.
-Indeed, the Turtles at the beach without anybody batting an eye (and drinking martinis) is certainly a sight to see.
-I would so play a Turtles Side Character Tournament Fighter where you can play as April O'Neill, Irma, Vernon, Mr. Thompson etc. (especially if one of Irma's versions is her giant form).
-They get into a problem with this game that it just happened to come out at the wrong time because while it was better than the second Turtles game on NES, it got overshadowed soon after its release by Turtles In Time so everyone forgot about that. Even the three mention how they would rather be able to throw foot clan soldiers around than what they are able to in this game.
-Of course, Groundchuck! Who doesn't remember that character? Makes me wonder though if Doug ever took up the suggestion of doing that 1987 Turtles TV special for the Nostalgia Critic.
-Overall, another good video.
Next up, let's rank up some flawless victories by seeing James & Mike play Mortal Kombat X for the Sony Playstation 4: -A premiere on James & Mike mondays with their first PS4 game (and apparently the first time ever for James playing a PS4 game).
-They have chosen...wrong in going with calling it Mortal Kombat "Ex" (since it is actually the tenth main title of the series so Mortal Kombat Ten would be the correct name of referring to it).
-The last MK game James played before this was Mortal Kombat for the XBox 360, leading to them always having to point out that they mean the XBox game and not the 16-bit era game when talking about Mortal Kombat. Also, James's statement that you cannot go wrong with Mortal Kombat is wrong considering that that Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero game exists.
-Love hearing about some of James & Mike's adventures in the arcade trying to play Mortal Kombat.
-Of course, they have a blast playing this game and watching all those splatterific and gory fatalities with them liking Cassie Cage's selfie one the most.
-They are also befuddled by the Skeletor-like dude standing naked in a tub in the background during one stage.
-James & Mike enjoying themselves always makes for a fun video with this being no exception.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 7, 2020 0:27:22 GMT -5
2 for the money, 1 for the show, here we go!
First up, let's see James & Mike meet one of Mario's pals when they play Yoshi for the NES: -Another episode gueststarring Doug Walker. They really seemed to have a lot of downtime doing that crossover review.
-We learn that for James the holy trifecta of puzzle games are Tetris, Dr. Mario and Yoshi while Doug actually mentions that Yoshi is his favorite puzzle game.
-As always, James & Doug play 2-player against each other while Mike plays alone (likening it to sitting in a corner somewhere).
-Huh, Doug is actually really good at that game, far better than James & Mike are.
-They are getting really confusing about what constitutes a win in their little tournament (though I guess it is mostly Mike going into Motherf****r Mike mode and just wanting to mess with stuff).
-Bloodyteers...a grimdark version of the Planeteers. That sounds interesting actually.
-We also get a guest appearance by Yoshi! Yay!
-What can I say, it is another fun video and as much as I hate to say it but Doug was actually a pretty good guest on those three vids.
Next up, it's time to get groovy by seeing James & Mike daddle with Earthworm Jim for the Sega Genesis: -I rented the Super Nintendo version quite a bit as a child (though I liked the sequel a bit more for being a bit easier) and I also loved to watch the cartoon. Too bad I recently learned what a piece of s**t in real life the creator of these games is.
-Main reason why they chose the Genesis version to play is because in this case, they like the soundtrack actually a bit better here than the Super Nintendo version due to the Genesis's capabilities (like fake electric guitars).
-Liking a lot of the crazy ideas that this game had like the first level boss, the fact that Jim uses his head as a whip, the screams in the hell stage etc.. Too bad they have to start over one time due to Mike fudging up and pressing No on the Continue screen.
-They actually have an interesting discussion about how some people might rate the Sega Genesis better than the SNES due to the former having much more sports games than the latter. This is a world that James and Mike cannot follow due to them not being into sports games at all and even being befuddled about why the companies bring a new game out every year (like Madden 95, 96, 97, 98 etc.) when it's essentially the same game every time. They also feel that having it compared to series like Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 & 3 is not a fair comparison because those are actually different games every time. In essence, they personally like the SNES better than the Sega Genesis due to it having more classics that they like.
-Having a lot of trouble with the hell stage which they never had as kids.
-The water level leads them into a discussion about the worst part of "The Phantom Menace" when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan visit the Gungan underwater city with the spitting head of the Gungans (and even asking themselves why exactly Jar-Jar went with them for the rest of the movie, if there was any reason).
-Overall, a very good video due to some of the interesting discussions they had on here.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 8, 2020 0:38:43 GMT -5
2-for-1! 2-for-1! 2-for-1! First, we have James & Mike find the way of the twin dragons by playing Double Dragon for the Neo Geo CD: -Unlike the previous Double Dragon games, this is actually a Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat-esque fighting game based off of the movie...though since I don't recognize any of the characters besides Billy and Jimmy (and I have seen the movie one time), I have to say I don't believe that. -I was gonna call out James & Mike for taking a look at the instructions...only to realize that it was a punchline for a joke since the instruction manual is in Japanese. -Things they don't like about fighting games: having a time limit (which is why they prefer to use the option menu to set it to "Unlimited Time") and the arcade style of competition where the winner is stuck with the same character until he gets beaten himself and not being allowed to immediately use a new character. Cannot say that I have encountered the latter problem in any fighting game I've played but as this game showed, it does exist. -They are doing it arcade-style with the joystick controllers despite the cords being too short (luckily, an insert tells us that they eventually got extensions) and James admitting that he prefers the normal controllers instead of the joystick controllers. -Mike: "Burnov...he looks like he should burnov some calories." -Apparently, when the game is too intense, the console out of self-preservation resets itself. That sucks majorly I would think. -Some neat insight about both of them kinda wanting to have an arcade machine of some sort sometimes and also mentioning how much they prefer playing the real games on the original consoles instead of doing mods or emulation or something. -To conclude, another funny video from them both. Moving on, James & Mike need to put all their ducks in a row when they play Krazy Kreatures for the NES: -Joined by Bootsy and, for the first time, the AVGN theme composer Kyle Justin. Embarrassing fact: Until the Ikari Warriors episode, I always thought that Kyle was African-American. I guess it might have been to do with him wearing a hat, obsuring his face a bit, and having a darker tan at the time of the earlier videos, but it really surprised me when I saw that he was white this whole time. -Similar to the Bible Games and Wally Bear And The No Gang, this is an unlicensed NES game without the seal of approval by Nintendo. That being said, it is actually perhaps the best unlicensed NES game in James & Mike's eyes (even getting a favorable mention in Mike's Top 10 Obscure NES Games video). -Things I learned from James & Mike Mondays: there exists a store selling animal dildos (leading to the wonderful alliteration "dolphin dick dildo") and a dork is evidently a term to refer to a whale penis (and not a geek as James falsely assumes). As they mention that is probably the reason why James didn't call himself the Angry Video Game Geek/Dork. Also, apparently this game has things that resemble vaginas as well. -While Kyle and James do not get very far, Mike and Bootsy actually work really well together making it all the way to the end of the game. Especially love the part where things get so intense that all four are completely silent watching Mike and Bootsy in action. -Who would have thought that a game like this actually had a story (being an intergalactic immigration officer having to order all the creatures immigrating to Earth)? And despite what Mike says, I think that the ending is really hilarious. -Kinda makes me sad though to see Mike and Bootsy do so well and actually congratulating themselves with a handshake, knowing what will happen in the future. -Still, a very good and exciting episode of that there Mondays.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 9, 2020 0:34:50 GMT -5
*sings* "Cause today is the day, when 2 become 1..."
First, let's race some karts and watch James & Mike play Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 64: -Joined by Bootsy and Kyle again. Due to this game only allowing two players for the GP racing, they only do the Battle Mode for this video.
-They mention that due to them being NES and SNES kids mostly, they are more familiar with the SNES version of Mario Kart (which James at least considers one of the best games of all times). I am the opposite here, being five years younger than them, so I remember enjoying playing the N64 version the most with friends.
-I liked seeing that what they see as the essential titles for the N64 are games that I had with the exception of Super Smash Bros. which I only rented.
-Of the four Battle Mode courses, they like the Block Fort the most. The donut one is OK, the deck one is also acceptable after they get used to the confusing layout and they hate the skyscraper one due to not being able to see the holes in the ground that good.
-Apparently to them, this Mario Kart game was the last one to feature a good Battle Mode one. All the others up to that point (May 2015) set the Battle Mode on the regular race tracks instead of using specialized arenas like here which took a lot of the fun out of it.
-Gotta love that they get into a Golden Girls discussion at some point and thinking about how Elvis would have sung the Golden Girls theme.
-Otherwise, it is just a very fun video seeing them battle each other which reminds me so much of my days as a youngin' playing that game. Definitely a very nostalgic video for me.
Following this, we need to help Mario rescue one of his other girlfriends by watching James & Mike play Super Mario Land for the Game Boy: -From the screen, I can already see that they are using the Super Game Boy to play this which is probably the best way because how else are you gonna record a playthrough of it? However, it kinda makes me think that looking at the list of episodes, they did comparably very few episodes on Game Boy games despite it being one of Nintendo's classic consoles. Is it because they have to use an accessory like the Super Game Boy to make it work and they don't like doing it that way (since other portable consoles don't offer that kind of feature)? Don't they have as much affection for the Game Boy as for the home consoles? I guess we will never know.
-What I do know is that I got nostalgic feelings again hearing them talk about playing the Game Boy on long car trips, hoping the battery power would last etc. because that is totally what I went through as a child (though my parents had something neat: some kind of rechargeable batteries so we didn't have to use new packs of batteries every time).
-Damn, they really get into the intricacies of Mario's relationships with Princess Toadstool/Peach, Princess Daisy and Pauline into here. Also, given his look, I assume that Mike hears here for the first time that Princess Toadstool and Princess Peach are the same person.
-They lament the fact here that they forgot to put on those red & blue 3-D glasses while they were playing 3-D WorldRunner with JonTron so they missed out on the 3-D effects. Well, we as viewers wouldn't have seen it anyway so it's no loss for us at least.
-Actually, those are not jumping vampires but rather jumping Chinese robots given the manual (though it is strange that this game feels probably more Eastern culture-inspired than any other Mario game). Still love how the jumping vampires bit leads them into talking about "The Monster Squad".
-Doesn't get old seeing them rock out to video game music (in this case, the pipe music).
-Another short but entertaining episode by James & Mike.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 10, 2020 0:32:04 GMT -5
Another 2 vids in 1 post coming right up!
First up, Link needs to rescue Zelda with the help of James & Mike as they play The Legend Of Zelda for the Famicom: -Yep, you read that right. They are actually playing the original version of The Legend Of Zelda for the original Japanese version of the NES by using an original Famicom system.
-But first, we need to get through some technobabble and why it is not easy to use the Famicom in the US (very few TVs going up to channel 95 being the major reason) and some other problems with the console itself (the hard-wired controller and its short cable which they ascertain to Japanese players being used to sitting closer to the TV than others). We also get another hint that they do prefer to play the games on the consoles itself because James has a Retron 5 thingy that actually would have allowed for him to play Famicom games without any problems but they wouldn't do that.
-The main reason they chose The Legend Of Zelda this way is to use the special feature on the second controller which they immediately put to good use: using the microphone to kill Pols Voice by making a loud sound (though in their case saying f**k, p***y etc.). Luckily the old save states of the previous owner are still on there so they used those to get to Level 5 quickly where Pols Voice first appears.
-Not only that but they also use it to talk to Link in the game and tell him about the future events in his life which is kinda funny to watch.
-And then they stop playing because the main reason for this video was doing this Pols Voice thing which they have now done. It is kinda poopy that this is the only Legend Of Zelda for Famicom/NES we got from them because I certainly would have liked to them tackling this the same way they did with Super Castlevania IV or other 2-part videos.
-Though we do get some nice remembrances from them about playing the game as a child (including a hilarious story about a classmate involving him doing the shooting sword thing while a teacher was watching) and reconfirming that The Legend Of Zelda is Mike's favorite game of all time due to it making him from a video game fan to a full-fledged gamer (while James is more partial to A Link To The Past being his favorite game of all time).
-To conclude, a decent video that featured too little gaming to make it a good video.
Next up, it is time for Naruto's favorite pastime when he goes to old age as James & Mike do Ninja Golf for the Atari 7800: -Joined by Bootsy and Kyle again.
-OK, it is as the title suggests, you are a ninja playing golf...while inbetween hitting the ball, you do sidescrolling action and fighting other ninjas, giant frogs, birds, gophers, birds that poop on you, sharks etc. and eventually fighitng a giant fire-spewing dragon when you reach the hole. That certainly makes it more interesting than if it was just another golf game.
-The only thing that sucks for them playing this game is the Atari 7800 controller where Atari still stuck to the design of the original Atari 2600 controller instead of going with the times and do controllers in the style that the NES, Master System etc. had (with Mike eventually having to secure the controller between his legs).
-I have to agree with them: the dragon moves like a typewriter.
-Gotta love that at one point James & Bootsy get into a discussion about paste and glue while Kyle and Mike play the game with the latter being dumbfounded at the conversation they hear. Also apparently paste doesn't exist anymore (was never an arts and crafts person so I wouldn't know)?
-Overall, it is a good game for them except that it could use more music.
-All in all, another entertaining four-person video.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 11, 2020 0:12:45 GMT -5
The last 2-for-1 for a bit!
First up, we see familiar lands in a different way when we see James & Mike play Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom Disk System: -Well, I won't reiterate the story how Doki Doki Panic became the second Super Mario Bros. game in the US because James & Mike already do that job for me. I miss though that they don't go into any detail on this Famicom Disk System since I am sure most viewers have never heard of that system. Still, their revisiting history makes them reminisce about the very first James & Mike Monday that they did and how they should revisit that someday (spoiler: they never did).
-Don't you just hate it when you start a game and you have to immediately have to switch disks to Side B?
-So, besides there being different main characters, the game also got through some cosmetic changes when it became Super Mario Bros. 2 in the US (turning genie lamps into potion bottles, turning creepy clown faces into blocks, turning Phanto from a more creepy looking face into a villainous face etc.). Those changes are interesting but what I find most outstanding is how much better the slot machine minigame looks in SMB 2 (which is a rather bleak looking screen here). On the other hand, Doki Doki Panic has apparently a safe feature (which, I think, SMB 2 doesn't have? You had to beat that in one sitting?) which James & Mike use to jump to World 7.
-Boy, how James made it through that waterfall part without looking away is certainly commendable. That can really mess with your eyes (and it also leads to an interesting definition of noise that I haven't heard before).
-Also learned about a mistake in SMB 2 where Birdo's and Ostro's names got switched around.
-Of course, they reminisce about how much stuff from SMB 2 still remained in the Mario franchise to this day like Birdo and the Shyguys for example.
-And we end on having technical difficulties with the Disk System. Will they fix it? We have to see.
-A decent video though not having that much in the way of interesting discussions.
Next up, we continue our voyage into dreamland by watching James & Mike play Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom Disk System: -Wondering if this is the first time ever that I managed to fit a 2-parter into one of these posts?
-As it turns out, the technical difficulty is solved pretty fast so nothing to see here in that regard.
-A detriment in this game is that it has no run function so you have to go the same tempo all the time (this is kinda frustrating for them because eventually they come to a part where running would be very helpful).
-Love their angry confusion when they come across a glitch where a second Birdo appears for no reason after they already defeated one (though according to James, that might have been in the SMB 2 version, too).
-Yep, nothing says more about young boys' minds when they mention imagining some enemies looking up Princess Peach's skirt when she rides them up to higher areas. Speaking of that, I love that we get a glimpse of a young James playing SMB 2 in February 1989.
-Apparently, this is also the game that introduced Bob-Ombs into the Mario universe, it seems.
-And they finish the game...but what a piece of BS that you have to flip the disk one final time to see the ending.
-Another decent episode but overall the weakest of the 2-parters so far with not much in the ways of funny trains of thought or interesting discussions.
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Paul
Vegeta
Posts: 9,242
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Post by Paul on Oct 11, 2020 2:13:23 GMT -5
I love the colors and graphics in Doki Doki Panic/Super Mario Bros. 2. They look really good upscaled to HD on the NES Classic.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 12, 2020 0:18:11 GMT -5
Suddenly, I feel like climbing a tall building and wacking some planes when I see James & Mike play King Kong 2 for the Famicom: -But first, a bit of set-up with the original Famicom that they own now having been modded by a fan called Martin (hope he got some compensation for it) with an AV set-up and longer controller cables (as well as the discovery beforehand that the Famicom actually has a hidden port for a second controller). Furthermore, they got word of there being a Famicom Model 2 which they purchased which looks like the Top Loader version of the NES. Fun fact: the AVGN videos were the first time I ever saw the Top Loader NES since I believe it never came out in Europe (at least I don't remember it being in stores).
-Now, this game is not so much a sequel to any first King Kong game for the Famicom but rather has its name due to it being based off of the movie "King Kong Lives" from 1986 which was a sequel to the 1976 remake of King Kong. Hopefully, it is better than the movie.
-An interesting looking game: the same perspective as The Legend Of Zelda, going around as Kong punching and throwing rocks at enemies, finding the right way and also fighting bosses. James & Mike certainly like it.
-They also mention an interesting factoid about Universal trying to sue Nintendo over Donkey Kong but being unsuccessful in that regard.
-Of course, the animation of Kong punching when facing us gives Mike certain implications.
-Of course, they get to talking about Kong movies in general, lamenting the fact that most Kong movies (except the Japanese ones) didn't have more fights with other giant creatures and also the strange thing that seemingly every original Kong movie got a sequel be it the 1933 original, the 1976 remake, the 1962 one where he fights Godzilla.... Only difference was Peter Jackson's movie (at least, I think that Skull Island was a reboot instead of a sequel?).
-Nice foreshadowing with Mike mentioning that Bootsy recently came over and beat Battletoads.
-I guess we have the first repeated story on this show where they again tell about the "The Invisible Man/An Invisible Man" story for "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (though to be fair, they also get to talking about Sean Connery in his final movie there a bit).
-Overall, an entertaining video again with a game that they admit they would have loved having as children and it definitely helps giving this video a joyful vibe.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 13, 2020 0:05:45 GMT -5
Let's burn some rubber, baby, when we watch James & Mike play Burnout 3: Takedown for the Sony Playstation 2: -The graphics look really nice (I would assume this was a late PS2 game?) and it certainly looks like a racing game that I could have enjoyed being equally focused on winning but also getting points for causing various types of vehicular mayhem. James & Mike definitely enjoy it a lot.
-OMG, that multiple pile car crash that James did definitely has to be some kind of record (especially since it nets him almost $150,000).
-They actually get into a discussion about graphics considering that today's 4K graphics might look even better than real life (though James is personally kinda numb to that fact since he cares probably more about gameplay rather than graphics).
-Yeah Mike, it's one or the other: trying to win or driving recklessly. You can't have both...or not since James seems to do well at both.
-I don't know: being able to do these kinds of crashes in real life doesn't sound that appealing even if you and the other participants were invincible (mostly because I am not that keen on riding roller coasters and those crashes would probably feel like some type of rollercoasters).
-Love the discussion about the ludicrous speeds the Big Rigs truck goes to and how it isn't scientifically possible to go that fast.
-Overall, a very enjoyable video due in part to James & Mike having a blast with this game and laughing quite a bit (though it is nothing compared to the heights when we hit my personal favorite James & Mike Mondays video).
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 14, 2020 0:07:06 GMT -5
It is time to determine who the true king of the monsters is when James & Mike play Godzilla for the Sony Playstation 4: -One cannot get as current a game as the one they are playing since they are actually playing it on the day it was launched. -The way to play Godzilla is laid with annoyances as they complain about the updates and installation they had to make (as James puts it: "Remember the days when you could just plug in a game and play it?") and coming across the ultimate death knell: that apparently you must have a Playstation Plus account to do the Vs. Mode and that you can only play with other people online...but not with people actually in the room with you. Now I don't know if James & Mike missed that option anywhere or if this game really doesn't allow to do Vs. mode against a person in the room with you but if the latter is true...then that definitely sucks. -Being out of options, they go into the story mode where they get annoyed with so much text on the screen at once during the tutorial (which actually leads to a funny self-deprecating moment where they complain about modern games not coming with instruction manuals...despite the fact that they never read them. -Yaaay, so much fun battling giant alkaline batteries with Godzilla...though they eventually fight other monsters which is at least a bit fun. -Love how they go from how the kaiju monsters sexually reproduce to talking about the TV show Dinosaurs somehow. -Apparently Ghidorah once appeared on Pee-Wee's Playhouse? -After dying in the story mode, they try the King Of Kaiju mode...only to get annoyed at Godzilla and 1964 Godzilla being the only monsters available to select and all the others having to be unlocked. And they are only able to beat Mothra in its larvae form while getting their asses kicked by Battra and never making it past Stage 2. -Yeah, unlike the game yesterday, this one they definitely didn't have almost no fun with while they do like the graphics and style of this game. -Overall, a decent episode where one could definitely feel the annoyingness they felt with the game.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 15, 2020 1:27:54 GMT -5
Once more they join the other nerds from Oxnard when James & Mike play Battletoads for the NES: -Joined by Bootsy once again and again this is more of a "James & Mike watch Bootsy play" than them actually doing the playing. We also take a look at the game proper instead of focusing on just one level like in the previous episode where Mike taught James how to beat the Turbo Tunnel.
-It is also up to that point the longest James & Mike video yet, clocking in at almost exactly 1 hour.
-Some thoughts about this video: Rewatching this series, it actually surprised me that this episode came up this relatively early. For the past years, I had it in my head that this vid (and the related videos which we'll get into) was Bootsy's swan song for Cinemassacre before the relationship fell apart. Yet with this episode coming up in July 2015, it is still half a year away from Mike & Bootsy debuting which in turn means that Bootsy was still on board Cinemassacre for about 1 1/2 years before he left on ugly terms. I can only imagine that this video was the final time he appeared on James & Mike Mondays which is why I am misremembering it (with him doing his own thing with Mike later that year) but I wouldn't be surprised to see Bootsy again several times on this show just to prove me wrong.
-Nice to see that James & Mike are still hung up about that whole "2 players only online and not with persons actually in the room with you" from yesterday's episode. I can understand them though because that really sounds like a BS move.
-Gotta love how the first level boss has a kind of SNES vibe to it with the same style as it was with fighting Shredder in the Technodrome in Turtles In Time.
-Overall, it is just insane how much variety and batshit insane difficulty the levels past the Turbo Tunnel have. Especially since you have about three more Turbo Tunnel-esque levels ahead of you.
-What is it with these very hard games having rubber duckies (or "Steelbeaks" as the Battletoads manual calls them) as regular enemies? Luckily, the three also notice this conundrum.
-Personally, I found memorizing where the cogwheels stop and the safe zone you have to be at the most challenging thing as a casual watcher. Those look like things that you really have to memorize to get through that.
-I dunno, I personally like "Sentry Drones" better as a name than "Tits".
-Just to show that Bootsy is not a god, he doesn't get through the game on the first run before running out of continues, so he does a second run which goes much better (since he didn't have to use Continues on that second run). Also, they don't go into as much detail as the first run (to compare, first run goes about 38 minutes while the remaining 22 minutes are for the second run).
-It kinda makes me sad watching them get along and enjoying themselves knowing that it will come to a bad end down the line. Especially since James & Mike are clearly in awe at Bootsy's playing prowess.
-I also learned that James does sometimes beat games for the Nerd episodes (like Street Fighter 2010, for example) mostly because when he comes up with the script and he has an ending in mind where for it to work he needs to have the game's ending, he actually plays the game through. That is some dedication.
-Love how apparently the most pissed off James got at a game was the oyster minigame in The Three Stooges for the NES. Just seems like such an outthere title to get pissed about.
-Yep, the Dark Queen may be one of the sexiest characters in video game history as far as originating in video games goes (unlike April O'Neill who originated in the comics and not in the Turtles video games).
-So, Bootsy beats the game...which segues into a bit of an advertisement for a new show called "Bootsy Beats" where he will give tips and tricks on how to beat those difficult games like Silver Surfer, Battletoads etc. that were covered on James & Mike Mondays. While an interesting concept, sadly, there was only one episode in four parts covering Battletoads released shortly after that. Again, it is strange since he was still a part for about 1 1/2 years on Cinemassacre so one would assume more episodes would have been done. Perhaps it is just as simple that he lost interest after doing this so it was abandoned which I can understand, considering I had my fair share of stuff I wanted to do before losing interest.
-Overall, a very good video mostly for getting a good luck at the wholeness of Battletoads and seeing how good Bootsy was at those kinds of games.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 16, 2020 0:43:08 GMT -5
After a while, it is time for another 2-for-1 sale!
First up, let's join the army now by seeing James & Mike play Explosive Fighter Patton for the Famicom Disk System: -Well, there's only one sentence that sums up this whole video: "Turn To Side-B And Insert Into F**king Box!". Safe to say that this totally gets the attention of James & Mike and leads to great befuddlement and amusement as well as the admission that this would have totally blown their mind as kids if that game got released in the US.
-Sadly, there's not much else to say here since the game cannot follow up from that revelation and turns out to be just a generic combat game with tanks (where the tanks move really slow though the human characters look funny, kinda like, as James said, Mr. Game And Watch) that doesn't elicit much of a reaction from them.
-Yeah, while the swearing part is funny, it cannot hold up for a whole video so this was a pretty meh episode.
Next up, we have to blow up alien invaders on a smaller scale as we watch James & Mike play Operation C for the Game Boy: -This video reveals why James & Mike haven't done so much in regards to the Game Boy on Cinemassacre in general. For Mike, it was mostly that he preferred the Game Gear for being in color and having backlighting (featuring a rather cute story about 10 year-old Mike approaching his parents to return the Game Boy). As for James, it was mostly a cost factor since Game Boy games at that time were as expensive as NES or SNES games and most of them were ports so he figured that he rather invests that money into buying NES or SNES games than Game Boy games. That's certainly ways to look at it that I understand even though the Game Boy played as much part of my childhood as the two home consoles did.
-They definitely enjoy this game and until the end they can never figure out why people told them that this is a bad game. I could imagine getting only 3 continues and then having to start all over again without passwords or save games might be a point (something that kinda annoyed me when playing Talespin on the Disney Afternoon Collection a few days ago), but James & Mike don't have a problem with that at all. They are really glad to play a Contra game that passed them by when it was originally released and have fun with it.
-A heat-seeking spread weapon? Now that's right up both of their alleys (and the fire weapon is good in this game, too).
-They also get a bit into why there hasn't been a single AVGN episode focused on one single Game Boy game (due to a mistake in their convo, they correct it via text that they did have some Game Boy games as part of multiple game AVGN episodes). Basically, for James, that game would have to be Game Boy exclusive (i.e. not a port of a pre-existing NES/SNES game) and, of course, would have to be terrible. He mentions that they do get many requests for Shaq-Fu on Game Boy. I cannot remember off the top of my head if they ever did an episode on a single Game Boy game past the release of this episode (August 2015) but perhaps somebody remembers better.
-This is also kind of an historic episode in that the series' official slogan is born during a discussion between James & Mike about games that they have to cover: "Many more Mondays, many more games!"
-An interesting thought about the Super Game Boy accessory they bring up. While that accessory helped around the problems with the Game Boy (batteries and backlighting), it kinda destroys the appeal of those games being portable and makes the Game Boy obsolete. Also, since many of those games are ports, why would you then want to play an "inferior" port instead of just playing the NES/SNES version?
-This episode also gets into a bit of talk about the problems of making recordings of portable consoles. James could get around it in the AVGN episode on the Virtual Boy since the controls are separate from the screen but for other portable consoles, you might end up with a shaky video. While I have checked and seen that there are, for example, Game Gear longplays on YT, I immediately thought that those might have been made via ROMs and Emulators. And since James is really steadfast in that, I can imagine that he doesn't want to do recordings this way and he will continue to search for a way to do, for example, Nintendo DS games (though Mike mentions that something like the Game Boy Advance Player exists for the Game Boy Advance games).
-Lastly, I like the story about watching somebody play Super Mario Bros. 3 in a bar and finishing a level while having a small Goomba crawling all over Mario.
-Overall, I really liked this video for all the interesting topics they talked about and the fun they had in playing this game.
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Post by Mandarin Dessert Version 0 on Oct 17, 2020 0:38:39 GMT -5
We are on a run here and have to keep shooting up aliens when we see James & Mike play Contra Force for the Famicom: -OK, this is again a bit complicated. They are playing this on a hacked/pirated Famicom cartridge named Contra 3-in-1 but the title screen says Super Contra 6, so you would think that you can play either 3 or 6 different games on it, but apparently all you can play on it is Contra Force. After reading up a bit on Wiki, this game was only released in North America, so this being a Famicom hack kinda makes sense since otherwise Japanese players wouldn't have a chance to play it otherwise. -A eclectic selection of characters for this game where you get to play either as Rambo, Guile, Ryu...or Bill (though James & Mike both assume that it is meant to be Billy from Double Dragon). -They do get a bit into the history that this is basically a game that was not originally planned as a Contra title but Konami decided to name it that way to profit off the popularity of Contra and Super C. Main difference being that you fight human terrorists instead of alien invaders. Though it turned out to be not as popular as the other two due to many other problems. -Gotta love Mike's comparison of Contra/Super C and Contra Force to various trips to the toilets, leading to a discussion about appropriate comparisons with Mike going hilariously over the top how he should react when he gets killed in a game. -Don't you just hate it when an elevator goes up and doesn't come down and you have to ask the audience to push a button for the elevator to come down? But yeah, those elevators really get on their nerves. -Yeah, they finally got past that annoying second elevator part with the shooting enemies...and let's see whether they will encounter any more annoying parts tomorrow. -Overall, another decent episode. Nothing that noteworthy but interesting due to them playing a rather bad NES Contra game.
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