Channel Larry (EDIT: Channel Awesome renamed to just Nostalgia Critic)

[Daxdiv]

I'm curious, did anyone else watch Spoony's commentary on To Boldly Flee? He goes into detail about why he parted ways with TGWTG. Turns out there is a lot more details than the Twitter nonsense. The tl;dw is that Spoony believes the site is too cluttered with way too many reviewers, isn't a fan of the site's layout, finding it difficult to keep up with everyone on the site because of those 2 factors, people getting into arguments about who gets top billing in the feature videos, and Didn't like the idea of having everyone move to Chicago. That and he believes that he has done all he can with them and that having a relationship with them isn't working for both sides.

[Avaitor]

Huh, no.

They really want everyone to move to Chicago? I know that the Channel Awesome crew is kind of like family to each other, but that's kinda pushing it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's also a website where talent is filtered out all the time. It's not really something reliable enough to plan a life around.

[Avaitor]

Some of them already seem to realize this, too, like how Lindsay is in grad school. I really doubt that she'd relocate from LA to Chicago while we may very well likely see her own films in the big screen before long.

[Daxdiv]

I think Spoony might have mentioned something like that in his commentary. He did say something about how this reviewer bubble is going to burst soon. I mean this is a fad after all.


Also, where were my manners? Here's the link I forgot to put in for ya.

[Avaitor]

When you think about it, Doug retiring the Nostalgic Critic character is a really good idea, since he can't rely on his video reviews forever. He's already been losing viewers as the years went by- that's why they added commercial breaks into the videos beyond just playing them at the beginning or end.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think it was a good idea too, but the fad has been around since James started yet it has noticeably dipped in popularity in the last two years.

I'm gathering that people are growing bored with it, so they can either retire or move to more legitimate "straight" reviews but playing to shrinking audiences isn't exactly an ego-boost.

[Nel_Annette]

Completely joking, as I don't want to see anyone fail, but the thought of a final video where Doug has to go back to that factory job he quit while his friend filmed it and basically get it back would be the funniest thing ever.

[Rynnec]

Really, I think the fad started dying when most people saw RedLetterMedia's more in-depth negative reviews. RML's humour isn't for everyone, but no one can deny Mr.Plinkett raises a lot of good point in his reviews.

[Goldstar]

Yeah, I think I'm out of my "angry reviewer" phase and am more interested in legitimate reviews.

Though that is becoming harder and harder to find these days with people writing contrary reviews just to get on RT or something.

I have to agree that the "angry reviewer" thing has been kind of played out for a while now. One thing that I dislike about James Rolfe's Angry Video Game Nerd character is that he spawned a legion of imitators, most of whom seemed to believe that all one has to do is rant about a bad game and curse like sailors on shore leave and it's comedy gold. Although I do understand that vice is funnier than virtue; most reviewers take the angry route because it's easier to be entertaining while ranting about a bad video game than it is to praise a good video and be entertaining. It's not impossible, mind you, but more work and effort is required. There's another online reviewer named Derrick Alexander, aka The Happy Video Game Nerd. He's basically trying to be the flip side of the AVGN; doing positive reviews on games that he likes instead of ranting about shitty games. While I can appreciate and respect what the HVGN is trying to do, unfortunately, his reviews are boring and are hard to sit through. Not because he's positive, but because Derrick has no real charisma and reviews are so detailed and straight forward that they're hard to sit through. For me, at least.

One video game reviewer that I've recently discovered that I do like, however, is JonTron. His reviews are pretty fun and he does both positive and negative reviews. JonTron hasn't made any new game reviews lately because he doing another video series with another reviewer (Ergoraptor) called The Game Grumps.

Another personality that I enjoy is Screw Attack's Bob Chipman, aka Movie Bob, aka The Game Overthinker,. GO doesn't review video games. Rather he does commentaries on video game trends and video gaming culture. His commentaries are thoughtful and entertaining without being too boring or long winded. While the GO does indeed have skits and stories along with his videos, which is I don't think are really needed, but the skits aren't overly long and they don't really get in the way.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

There's another online reviewer named Derrick Alexander, aka The Happy Video Game Nerd. He's basically trying to be the flip side of the AVGN; doing positive reviews on games that he likes instead of ranting about shitty games. While I can appreciate and respect what the HVGN is trying to do, unfortunately, his reviews are boring and are hard to sit through. Not because he's positive, but because Derrick has no real charisma and reviews are so detailed and straight forward that they're hard to sit through. For me, at least.

Sorry, but I have to completely disagree with you on HVGN. His reviews are entertaining if you are someone who has an appreciation for classic games and are genuinely interested in finding out about great games that you may have missed out on back in the older generations. Maybe that's just me, but I love the detail that he puts into his reviews, and the clear effort he puts into trying to sell the idea of the games that he reviews and why they are unique and work so well. In fact, if it weren't for him, I never would have sought out Rocket Knight Adventures, which is easily one of the greatest Genesis games that I have ever had the pleasure of playing. I do disagree with his points sometimes, and as a reviewer he can be clearly biased a bit too much for my liking, but I personally find him to be much better than just a "reverse AVGN" as some people might put it. At any rate, being the opposite of AVGN isn't really the point of the HVGN, aside from being a gimmick to draw some attention to himself. Its always been about pointing out classic gems that were either overlooked or completely forgotten about.

That's at least my opinion on HVGN, though, either way, I don't think that he's done any reviews in a while.

[talonmalon333]

I'd even say that the gimmick (of him being a reverse AVGN) died out. But anyway, I too believe that the HVGN is really good. Actually, he might be my #2 favorite out of these internet guys, after James Rolfe/AVGN.

[Goldstar]

Admittedly, the HVGN does put a lot of detail and research into the games that he reviews, but I would personally prefer it if Derrick were to put a little more panache into his presentation.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Admittedly, the HVGN does put a lot of detail and research into the games that he reviews, but I would personally prefer it if Derrick were to put a little more panache into his presentation.

Well, I suppose that aspect just comes down to personal preference, then. Personally I think that he has a fine style of presentation with most of his videos, but its really subjective as to what you get out of it.

[Avaitor]

Oh wow, NC's Reefer Madness review is up.

I've always wanted to see this, but never wanted to waste money on the DVD. I'm glad it's here.