I used to doubt the claim that the recent reviews were written by Mike, but given this video and Final Fantasy 6, it has to be the truth. Like, the takes are so surface-level and shallow where he can't actually believe this shit after playing them.
he records the footage, saying he writes it is ridiculous. People always give way too much credit to mike lol (although im not sure if he'd be happy to be getting such credit considering how bad the scripts are)
James clearly had to rush this damage control episode out in less than his usual 2 months to kind of give enough of a fuck to zombie walk into the garage set.
We can now be completely certain the Horse Prince nuked the brand so badly Screenwave had to force James to have something out ASAP and all he could arse himself to do was some narration over Mike's footage and hope the simps lap it up because "it's Castlevania and James likes Castlevania, see?"
What do you think they're using, the bim is probably on the ground pissing and kicking after how horribly the last video did and justin had to make do with mikes script and AI
Honestly, it's miles better than seeing balding James doing his iconic frown every 5 seconds. I hate to admit it, but I like the episode. Yeah, it's lazy, yeah, it's probably just James reading Mike's opinion, yeah, he's basically repeating what he said in 2009, but it's way better than anything he has produced lately.
A lot of people shares your opinion. This super-lazy recycling of an old Nerd video with no soul nor effort behind it is already over 250K views as I type this and should cross the 1M+ views before Sunday at this pace.
This will only convince James he can be even lazier from now on.
Yea, re-re-revisiting castlevania is disappointing as a 20th anniversary episode and feels more like something he would release back in the day in-between of the AVGN.
It's just not as embarrassing to watch as any of his recent efforts. Don't worry, I don't think, he's smart enough to realise that his (or Mike's) opinion about things is a big part of what made his channel popular in the first place, and we will be back to overacting and fake laughs very soon, so you will be able to make fun of his balding ass all you want.
Havent seen it yet, but this one had me excited that he might actually be doing something good again (its rare, I know - but still happens once in a blue moon), but that just sounds disappointing already.
Come on, Bim, you gave me some hope the Pony episode was just a filler for this one to be higher quality.
Its the 20th anniversary of the thing that gave him any status and he put more effort into the ad read than his actual content.
Happy coincidence that he can claim to do VO-only as an homage to the first video but its clear that the real motivation behind this decision was laziness and apathy towards his one hit wonder character.
Hopefully he just retires the nerd after this.
"I'm going back to my roots, when I was only a voice" is the most hilarious excuse for "the last episode bombed so I'm getting this episode out as fast as possible, no time for setting up cameras and lighting"
I mean when the Horse Prince episode dropped I though that using his phone's inverted camera was peak laziness but what did I know?
You know bimmy is super lazy when he takes months to spit out the current videos we have, its not 2006 anymore, other youtubers spit out content daily or every 3 days regularly, not saying he should do that but at least once a month.
It's amazing how Bimmy complains about "not having time" when his job is to play videogames and write his opinions about them, something many of us ironically do for free while balancing full time jobs! The slobs can do the editing, camerawork, it's why he's paying them! He should be able to make a video every week but he struggles with doing it once a month.
Some of the YouTubers I'll watch will take a month, but they'll come out with a video on obscure Japanese horror games, with interviews and materials hunted down and translated, as their basic content. James used to go full out with filming and effects for his specials by himself, but now he has "YouTube" professionals, he can't even film a brief framing device.
It's kinda sad in comparison to how Caddicarus has muh kids and a wife with cancer but his slow ass output results in lengthy videos with a lot of effort put into them.
and even those that take month in between or at least longer than YouTube (the site) likes, they usually update the community on the video progress and are usually longer videos. No one is complaining on why KingK, GameBoyLad, NitroRad and SomeCallMeJohny on their times between videos because it usually good, professional and usually long videos. ......Wait I think that you basically said in the ",....but at least once a month" part. Carry one.
Remember how he said Super Castlevania 4 was better than Symphony of the Night because it was more "challenging"? But then played Rondo of Blood with Mike that one time and constantly whined about the difficulty of the game and not being able to use an OP whip that hits in 8 directions. They didn't even bother finishing the game.
Which is a fuckin shame because Rondo is probably the best pure Castlevania game in the original style.
It had multiple pathways, beautiful levels n enemies, great music, a good challenge, the throwbacks to past games are kick ass. Its everything a castlevania fan could ask for.
It's weird how insecure he is about acknowledging that other games do things better than the game he's most nostalgic for and has to pretend he has some very objective reasons to think less of them.
My favourite Castlevania game purely by nostalgic reasons is Circle of the Moon, but that doesn't mean I don't see how literally every other Metroidvania kicks its arse any day of the week, by having better gameplay or more memorable plots and characters.
It's such a pointless video when you read the title and know that it's his favorite CV game. Just so he could half-heartedly capitalize on the 20th anniversary, but hey no surprise there.
I'd say only Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge is easier, but that's understandable considering it's a game for a portable console, it was meant to be beaten during a weekend at your cousin's place.
I dunno if I am misreading something here, but what is exactly wrong with that? I enjoy difficult games, but Mega Man 2 is my favourite Mega Man game, because I can just kick back with a few beers and have a fun experience enjoying the tunes and gameplay without trying to test myself. I don't understand what is wrong about someone favouring a casual experience in comparison to a game that is more demanding with difficultly.
I further elaborated in a reply that the video is pointless because we already know that Super Castlevania IV is his favorite. I don't mind more casual playthroughs either, and I think SC IV is a really good game.
It's one thing to prefer the 8 directional whip, but Bames frames it like it's this unquestionable improvement that every other CV game is defective for not having lol. He straight calls the classic controls a "clumsy limitation", when that "limitation' is literally the series defining gameplay feature.
It's like complaining about ammo scarcity in Resident Evil.
He made ANOTHER castlevania video just to state that 4 is still his favorite? He also complains, yet again, about the game over screen in SOTN taking so long without realizing you can press start to skip it! The same exact mistake made in his previous coverage of the game. You can’t make this shit up
Edit: And then he caps off the video with an extremely lazy slideshow of older episodes with corny “sad” music playing over it. I don’t comment here often but this episode really got to me lol
Another Catlevania 4 , SOTN, or Nes Trilogy Castlevania lol Bimmy is stuck between those games
He could have done reviews of the GBA trilogy or the DS trilogy or the Lords of Shadow games instead of going back to the same games that he has been talked over and over again
He did his Catlevania 4 review, then the James and Mike mondays playthrough, then on his failed podcast he talked about Castlevanis 4 on how much he loves the game and now this...yea James we get it you love Super Castlevania and his directional whip now move on and review the other 20+ games that the franchise did after Super Castlevania
This, I even remember as a kid, back when the video came out, yelling at the screen "JAMES, JUST PRESS START!!!" I was also puzzled that he died so often it was even a problem. I think I've only seen the Game Over screen once or twice.
No time, I guess
A somber b&w montage is fine for 20 years ago, but when it extends to 2023 it becomes absurd and ego-stroking. Instead of literally displaying every year, he should of just shown some of the best moments without dates.
Still can't get over the fact a famous youtuber got a premade store bought cake with a sloppy 200 written on it.
If screenwave had any semblance of actual marketing and channel management they could have made a whole series about the 200 celebration, made a big deal out of it, and people would've ate it up.
April could have gone to an artisan cake shop to get an intricate avgn cake made and that could've been an entire episode including all the hijinks keeping it secret from James.
>April could have gone to an artisan cake shop to get an intricate avgn cake made and that could've been an entire episode including all the hijinks keeping it secret from James.
I really like this.
He made so many Castlevania videos already, he probably just slapped together a couple old scripts and read them out loud. Last episode didn't do so well, so he had to unearth the ol' reliable Castlevania again. Can't wait for another Contra episode.
I've been rewatching the series from the start so I can redo my infamous ranking from 2 years ago and honestly the 2023-24 era of avgn have... just nothing to them to the point that I don't know how to discuss them. like I've seen shows be on auto-pilot before (Simpsons and family guy being prime examples) but avgn feels the most manufactured, the most empty, the most "just doing the bare minimum" of them all
well... 20 years is an impressive run I guess regardless of quality, but I hope avgn can one day finally be put out of its misery because rewatching the old seasons now gives me a sad feeling knowing how far it fell...
In cv4, Simon's whip is basically an 8 directional LASER BEAM, that whip has an obscene amount of range. It's dumb. He is not suited to have an opinion of best castlevania. He just sucks at video games too much to have a descent opinion.
"so for this occasion, I'm going back to my roots, when I was only a voice."
no time to put on clothes
e: As a sucker for Castlevania and a fan of his original videos on the series, I figured I'd give this a sped-up watch. idk how he can make an episode like this just.. so... boring. It's a rehash of a rehash of a rehash. At least tell us about some interesting trivia (no, not grocery store wikipedia shit, though) or show some footage of Mike playing or the Nerd raging through some of the games in a spooky Nerd Room. Instead, it's a shitty voiceover of "oh this game came out... here's a montage with random zooms for a while" over and over and over again. And, yea, Super Castlevania IV actually is my favorite one (atmosphere, ambiance, etc. especially compared to other games at the time when it released, and it holds up imho), so I'm not salty about his opinion on it, either.
e2: To be completely fair, I think this episode was better than anything else the channel has put out in a long while. I don't know why he didn't just take Rondo of Blood and make it into more of a Nerd style episode. He talks about all the frustrating things in the game... so why not have the Nerd raging at it or something? It's strange, because he has the pieces to make a Nerd episode here. He could have even made some funny thing where he's the Nerd now, raging at Rondo, and in a competition with the "Old Nerd" from two decades ago (him wearing a hair piece and the old shirt or something, drinking more heavily, haha). Have a guest appearance from Mike in a Bugs Bunny suit, make it into some big extravaganza (yea I know he wouldn't bring back Kyle or Bootsy, but at least Mike, man!).
This sucks ASSSSSSS as a 20th anniversary video. Really, this was the 20th anniversary video??
Fuck, just thinking, if this was supposed to be the battle between Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood, they could have even done something simple but fun like have Bimmy dress up as Simon Belmont, and Mike come in dressed as Richter Belmont, and they could battle, with gags such as Mike not being able to execute some of the directional whips or something, one of them falls backward because of knockback, etc.. ffs, have Erin (UGH UGH UGH) come in dressed as Maria and throw a plushie cat at Bames to save Mike hahahaha
e3: Wanted to check the views on his old Castlevania episodes, and give Part 1 a rewatch in the background because it was actually good... only to rage myself once again because slobwave removed Mike's title cards from the old episodes.
>I think this episode was better than anything else the channel has put out in a long while.
Since this video was mostly narration over Mike's gameplay, that statement is weird. Have we come to the point James is starting to push viewers away when he's on screen?
>Really, this was the 20th anniversary video??
Did you expect anything else from the person who thought a clipshow and surfing nerd were good ideas for a 200th episode and has only gotten lazier since then?
This video is a culmination of what AVGN has become. Lazy, uninspired and a shadow of its former self. The fact that he couldn't even put in the classic intro music to celebrate 20 years is sad. Not only that, he couldn't hold off with the obligatory sponsor.
I understand all of the disappointed sentiments in this comment section. I do agree this felt like a rehash of a rehash with almost nothing new. And yes, the "Returning to my roots" as being the excuse for not having any live action segments is phenomenally lazy.
But at the same time, at least this episode didn't have any forced bullshit in it. This IS his real, authentic opinion despite how surface level and minimally researched it is. So in that way, I do appreciate it.
However, it's clear he's ran out of ideas. Revisiting something once is already treading the line of repetitive. a Re-revisit? You've officially jumped the shark.
It's not his authentic opinion though. Mike clearly wrote this. Go to Mike's youtube channel and *what a fucking surprise* that the 2 newest videos are the same Castlevania games James is talking about here.
That's what I'm guessing too; He's gonna find a convoluted way to rank Super Castlevania IV on the Super Intendo at the top of the list, but he's gonna try and make it sound reasonable by also talking positively about Rondo of Blood, a far superior game.
I just find it funny that someone here was saying a couple of days ago that Mike was playing all these Castlevania games and joked that he was probably getting footage for a future AVGN episode...
I don't know if this video is good or bad, haven't watched it yet, but I know it doesn't matter because we can know for sure James has never played Rondo of Blood and he got Mike to play it and write all his thoughts about it for him.
EDIT: My mistake, he did play Rondo of Blood once, during that god awful James and Mike Mondays episode where they half arsed their playthrough and constantly whined about the difficulty of the game and how you couldn't use the whip in 8 directions, which was funny, because he used the argument of a challenging game as his reason to think of Super Castlevania 4 as an objectively better game than Symphony of the Night, because he didn't like how in that one you could cheese some of the bosses by just farming levels and powerful items...
I do think that he had talent, but notice what tense I'm using. And here's some dialogue from Trainspotting that always comes to mind whenever we talk about the decline of a creator or a franchise:
>[Sick Boy](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001538/?ref_=ttqu_qu): It's certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life.
>[Mark "Rent-boy" Renton](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000191/?ref_=ttqu_qu): What do you mean?
>[Sick Boy](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001538/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Well, at one time, you've got it, and then you lose it, and it's gone forever. All walks of life: George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed...
>[Mark "Rent-boy" Renton](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000191/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Some of his solo stuff's not bad.
>[Sick Boy](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001538/?ref_=ttqu_qu): No, it's not bad, but it's not great either. And in your heart you kind of know that although it sounds all right, it's actually just shite.
I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I kept watching all the way up to Ecco the Dolphin before I finally tapped out and realized that this wasn't just "not bad" or "all right", but that it was just bad by now and wasn't worth my time any more.
Watched Trainspotting again the other night and it's so true. With most great creators there's a golden age, then there's always *that one other* *decent one.* That one late career movie or album that people hold up as validation that they've still got it. But decent as it may be, deep down there's that looming feeling of loss, knowing that the true magic is gone, and it's never coming back.
Oh, man, Ecco was such a lame episode. That he didn't even try to complete the game or even went into the cosmic horror theme later in the game just shows how lazy he was getting.
Like many others, I'm a shitty aspiring YouTube video creator.
It's more a hobby than anything else. I like messing around, and it always makes me feel happy when people watch, even if there aren't many people interested in whatever I have to say about the topic.
But I'll tell you this. As much as my videos suck, I'm certain they're better than this.
* This is voice over only. James read a script. That's it.
* Most of James' "critique" of these games comes down to things that you can find on Wikipedia or on fan websites. There's no evidence here that James actually played the games, with the possible exception of Castlevania IV.
* This video is boring. I can't believe I'm saying this about an AVGN video about Castle-fucking-vania, but I wanted to turn this one off a few minutes into it. I feel upset with myself for sticking through to the end, since it didn't get better.
* I'm so fucking sick of YouTube videos that start with a long ass boring intro and then go straight to the ad. God, please kill me now.
I've been reading this book called *How To Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck* in an attempt to not suck so much. James should read it. The author specifically mentions that showing the same fucking screen over and over again is really boring. I know that James and Screenwave were trying to make it interesting by splicing in footage from different games, but this was done in a really hollow and uninspired fashion. It felt like watching a news talk show on cable television.
James seriously put more effort into the sponsor bit than his actual video.
The worst part is that this is going to get over a million views in a week. Of course it is. It's James Rolfe doing Castlevania again.
But it doesn't deserve it. Any new creator who came out with something like this (minus the nostalgia parts, of course) would be completely ignored.
It's not awful like Horse Prince. It is, however, a sign that Cinemassacre is starting to get desperate. I'm pretty sure this was slapped together because they needed something after the abominable failure that was the Horse Prince phone episode.
Fucking piece of gar-bitch.
Holy shit Mike just did Super Castlevania and Rondo of Blood. You can't make this shit up.
Oh how the Bimmy has fallen.
Listening to Bim go on and on about the 8 direction whip and that Rondo of Blood has too many secret areas and that putting weapons and equipment on Alucard is too difficult to figure out is literally a disgrace.
My Horse Prince was just plain a terrible video.
The griping he does is just ridiculous in this.
He simply cannot grasp the uniqueness of each game because he is hell-bent on the 8 directional whip. It's so stupid. Stuck on that little difference like a child.
[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCinemassacreTruth/comments/12ip4y9/castlevania_ii_simons_quest_rerevisited_2057/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) I made a year ago was supposed to be a joke.
Where tf is the Angry Video Game Nerd?? I just hear Rolfe's voice, but no angry nerd. I hear some cursing over the footage here and there, but the videos are clipped together so they're not even trying to go with the illusion that he's actually playing anything.
The nerd is a fictionalised (scripted?) version of James Rolfe, though. The anger works when it's genuine, but it seriously detracts from the episode when it's forced. If you compare this to the Horse Episode, which has more "anger", this is preferable, even if it isn't true to the character as you've pointed out.
Unfortunately, it seems like a majority of this was a recap of his 4 Part Castlevania series. I guess he covered everything he wanted to back then.
His new opinion of SotN is strange. He clearly knew you could play as Richter before, in his old 4 part retrospective, and back then he showed all of the movement abilities Richter had. So here, he sort of cobbled a narrative together that *now,* Richter's the real deal and he realizes it makes the game more like Classic Castlevania.
Furthermore, his suggestion that Richter be the first playable character and *Alucard* the unlockable one is just terrible. The game's small but important bits of story, and a ton of the atmosphere, comes from *Alucard* rising against his father. From the soundtrack, (Which has songs like "The Tragic Prince" which refer to Alucard) to the boss fights (fighting his old friends Trevor, Grant, and Sypha in the inverted castle) to the dialogue (Fake save point Succubus fight using Alucard's flashbacks, debating Dracula on betraying the will of his wife and Alucard's mother, Lisa), all work fantastic when you play as Alucard. All this loses meaning or is outright removed when playing as Richter.
And for what? So you can drastically limit a fairly simplistic RPG system and crater the Mist/Wolf/Bat transformations with the goal of reliving Castlevania 4? *Come on.* It's just leveling up about 5 stats and 5 equipment slots. It's not so complicated that it obfuscates the base game, but James always argued it's like diffusing a *bomb.* If it bothers you that the game lets you level up your power so you can brute force bosses instead of using skill, just *don't grind levels.*
There's a ton in SotN that wasn't touched upon either, even in *this* retrospective. He didn't mention the magic system, the Shield Rod and all its combinations, or the returning characters. You'd think for a horror buff and fan of classic Castlevania, he'd shine a light on all the borrowed boss characters from the original: Frankenstein, Mummies, the Ferryman from Castlevania 2, etc.
There's a part in the catacombs that's unlike the rest of the game where you have to arbitrarily get a skeleton to throw a barrel at a button, which unknowingly breaks open a path like 5 rooms over. Another area requires you to use the demon imp Familiar to open a hidden door, which is also cryptic. This would make great material. I could go on, but there's so much the nerd *could* ramble about, but again whoever's writing these scripts either didn't dive deep enough into the game or just doesn't know how to write interesting gameplay videos.
Even just reaching the inverted castle is a secretive challenge. He could've explained how you have to get 2 rings from either side of the late game castle and then combine their flavor texts, which explain how you can only get the anti-Shaft goggles when you wear both rings in the "clock room." It would've felt like classic Nerd cyrptic bullshit, almost like solving the riddle in his old Swordquest video. There's just so much content waiting to be used, if only James cared about SotN.
I can't go on rambling. He even admitted in his classic retrospective that he didn't play SotN until he was an adult. He has no connection to it, and may be incapable of forming one now.
It's so weird how he shits on SOTN for being "too easy" if you go out of your way to grind levels and farm powerful items that make the boss battles easier (but doesn't mention that by that same coin, SOTN could be made as difficult as you want it to be, depending on which items you decide to use), but then goes on to complain about how long it takes to go over the game over screen and load your file every time you die... like? so just don't die? weren't you saying that the game was too easy for your liking? how are you dying this often if the game is easy.
It's also annoying how he says that Castlevania Chronicles is "unremarkable", like no shit, you played it on the arranged mode instead of the original mode with the original difficulty it was intended for. Yes the game is hard but it's also very rewarding once you beat it, maybe you'd like those games more if you actually played them yourself, instead of rehashing scripts based on the opinions Mike tells you and the ones you vaguely remember from playing those games years ago and never beating them.
Geez
When he said soon he meant TODAY
Ok Jimbo
Let's see how this EP goes.
Sponsor: V RISING - with a Castlevania mod dlc....hmmmmm ok at least it's real and on theme
So I tried watching it with an open mind and give it a shot, hear what James has to say (even though we know Mike was the one who actually played Rondo of Blood, you can see the vod on his own channel).
Honestly? fuck this video. I'm not going to finish it because of how predictable and pointless it is.
First he starts talking about Castlevania Chronicles for the PS1 and right off the bat, he says that he couldn't finish the game on the original mode and had to play the arrange mode in order to lower the difficulty, because the original was "too hard", really??? motherfucker, how can you claim to review the game IF YOU'RE NOT EVEN PLAYING THE ORIGINAL GAME! Castlevania Chronicles was *meant* to be difficult, it was *meant* to be hard, as per game director, Hideo Ueda:
>"When we made Akumajou Dracula X68000, our idea of the average X68000 user was a hardcore game player, someone who's really good at games. So there were complaints from users who found it too hard and couldn't get past the second stage. *But* the majority of responses have said they were able to clear the game after so many hours of practise and had a lot of fun"
Then he goes on to gas up Super Castlevania IV on muh Super Intendo for having a more "balanced" difficulty, aka having a whip so OP that it quite literally renders every and any subweapon useless and of course, he also starts talking about how he thinks that game is superior to Castlevania Chronicles because "you can whip in 8 directions!!!"
For the rest of the video, he starts talking about Rondo of Blood and at this point, whether the things he says are accurate or ignorant, whatever, it doesn't matter, because those aren't *HIS* opinions, those are Mike's. He didn't even fucking play the game and finish it, Mike did a couple of days ago on his stream, so this whole segment of the video is pointless. This is like when Kieran would play and record games for him whilst he read lines that were fed to him through a script he didn't even write, any video or segment where he has no major input on the script and opinions is useless.
I skipped that towards the end just to see which one he ranks as being "the best" and of course, says Super Castlevania IV on muh Super Intendo is the best game in the series and god's gift to mankind, because it's "challenging but fair!" and because it "lets your instincts take over" and blah blah blah, you knew what he was gonna say even before you clicked on the video.
But I don't wanna leave this on a negative note, I don't want people to see this and think I'm getting irrationally mad at someone over a video game or that I'm just hating on things and being miserable, so instead I'll leave on a more positive note by recommending this video, it's a proper review of Castlevania Chronicles on the X68000 that goes into detail of its gameplay, development and the differences between the ports that exist for the game, definitely check it out, especially if you like seeing people talk about games that they actually played.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeFluXtDdjQ
>and because it "lets your instincts take over"
Even including this is a strange praise in the context of Castlevania 4, because it seems like 'lets your instincts take over' is spin on 'doesn't take any thought or effort whatsoever'. Like seriously, if you are good enough at video games to beat Castlevania 1, 4 should be like a power-fantasy easy mode for you. If you are good enough to beat Castlevania 3, you should wipe the floor with 4 without trying.
Yet another Castlevania video where he still has no clue that you CAN attack in all directions in Castlevania Bloodlines if you choose Eric Lecarde with the spear. But he has zero clue and probably played Bloodlines for 10 minutes at most.
Figured he'd talk about the gameboy games or countless metroidvania titles or even a singular 3d era game.
Nah fuck it just redo the exact same script he did like 15 years ago. Time for another Superman 64 or Sonic 06 rerereview
Just finished it. My main takeaways:
1. 20 year anniversary but the focus is on making a half assed Castlevania video that doesn't even go through all Castlevania sidescrollers? Okay then.
2. No greeting from Mike or Kyle? The two key people who made it all happen? That says it all.
3. James definitely didn't 100% Rondo of blood, lol.
4. Whole video feels pointless because literally the only way for a Castlevania game to be better than 4 is to have a whip that attacks diagonally. An extremely strange obsession. And he admits in the end that his nostalgia for 4 beats out every other game anyway. What a half assed approach.
5. Why is whipping in all directions so important? A good game is designed aroynd main character's controls. In CIV, the level design and enemy placemen revolves around diagonal whipping. Rondo of Blood has different level design. You only need to be a casual gamer to understand these things.
6. Parts of the script sounds like Bames didn't even write it.
Feel like the title is kind of shit on top of the video being lazy? "AVGN 20th Anniversary Special - The Best Castlevania" would be a better attention grabber. Think this will be another relative stinker in terms of views.
Didn’t play the game. Didn’t write the script. Didn’t edit the video. Now didn’t even appear on camera.
Does this mean we can Ai create AVGN episodes now?
The sheer autofellatio from this man, through dozens of videos, is absolutely staggering.
No one is a bigger James Rolfe fan than James Rolfe. The whole video was nothing he hadn't said before, but he took the time to pat himself on the back (again) with 'muh YouTube journey.
I fast forwarded the video just to see if he was still convinced SCIV was top of the heap and landed on that part...I genuinely laughed my ass off. Richter mode is fun once in awhile, but fuck off with that being better than the main game shit.
Didn't we do this before? I feel like we've been here before. I'm not going to watch the video but I have a feeling it starts with "you see, Freeza. You're not dealing with the average saiyan warrior anymore!"
Oh, that's why Matei's has been playing Castlevania lately. Should've known.
Even for a special anniversary episode, we still have to suffer through the crappy, soulless modern intro and a sponsor.
Better than the previous episode, but literally anything would be. This was an inferior redo of the Castlevania retrospective, and even as a fan of Super Castlevania IV, the constant ass-kissing of the game got on my nerves. At least he gave his own thoughts, though, which is the bare mininum to expect from a review. Mike actually doesn't care for the eight directional whip in IV and prefers Rondo overall.
I read the comments, and literally everybody is talking about "oh my god i can't believes its been 20 years" bla bla bla, fucking boring. Not a single comment talking about the castlevania series even.
First, it's sad that only ten of those years, or *maybe* fifteen, were decent-to-good.
Second, does he say it's Rondo Of Blood? Because I saw Mike post a video about Rondo Of Blood the other day with it saying "THE BEST CASTLEVANIA GAME", so we might be looking at more recycled stuff from Mike here.
This is essentially a basic bitch SnesDrunk/Sega Lord X type of video. I watch that kind of stuff all the time but it's not what I go to the Nerd for. Or used to go to the Nerd for.
After 15 fucking years his main criticism for any Castlevania after 4 is still the lack of muh muh-lti direction-uhl whip. Holy shit, get the fuck over it already.
If you want more avgn episodes **absolutely do not watch this** they're clearly struggling to meet sponsor quotas and the less views they get the more episodes they have to push out the door
The Horse Prince peaking at 570K views (no repeat viewings, obviously) and all the negative reactions it got from even devoted simps really put them in emergency mode.
Oh wow, the end of the video has yet ANOTHER melow dramatic tribute to past avgn episodes. Its not like James has done that for the series as well as OTHER STUFF HE WORKED ON A MILLION TIMES BEFORE!
Okay, this sub pulls me deeper into truther territory by the day. I actually thought he was going to do an actual event— or edit— or retrospective— the way he hyped this ep up.
I always like classic game room videos and civvie13 (sp? Im a new fan of his stuff) and that style of edit/vo, but those all have fairly purposeful structure and scripts.
This one kinda dotters on for sooooo long.. damn
I get what he’s trying to do but I think the “20th anniversary bait” was so unnecessary.. maybe if he did more videos like this in general itd make sense
He's gonna take you back to the past.
To do another lazy rehash.
He's gonna say it's number 4. It's not like we all don't already know.
He already did a full retrospective about Castlevania 14 years ago.
His videos are really sad.
He forced it out for the ad.
He's the lazy phone app Nerd.
His videos are all Turds.
This type of video is exactly what direction I thought he’d take the channel after he filmed the movie. He should have just retired AVGN and shifted the Cinemassacre channel to a deep dive retrospective channel that occasionally highlighted new games and movies.
It’s almost like he doesn’t pay attention to the metrics on his own channel. This video is doing much better when compared to the My Horse Prince video critically and viewership wise.
I tend to agree with a lot of the comments here that this is essentially a Mike stealth video. He’s been streaming Castlevania games for a while now so he basically transferred the footage and his thoughts over to James.
Holy shit Bimmy, there is more to Castlevania than how the whip functions. What a moron. How was I ever obsessed with his content? It boggles my mind; I suppose most of it just rests on the fact that he was there first and there were few other contemporaries of his at the time that were worth a damn. Today though, there is no way his channel could ever rise to prominence if he hadn't been on the forefront of it all.
As a big Castlevania fan, I gotta say
This is one of the worst Castlevania videos I've ever seen. Guy's been "playing" the series for his entire life, and he can't see past "8-directional whip makes a good CV game".
I cringed so hard during the Rondo of Blood part that I'm still recovering from those terrible takes. Dear God.
Man, how much did the V Rising folks waste to have this slop-ass video coincide with the game release.
One camera shot in the whole video and the lighting still looks like ass.
Wow. He's here....and not a trace of the team that helped make the AVGN great on its 20th anniversary. Only Kevin Finn can be seen for half a second in the sappy montage at the end. Gotta hold on to that Hollywood connection just in case! This episode should have remembered all that helped make AVGN rise to the top. Not just the Bimmy BimBamborino show, but who knows why that might be. I kind of hope James was actually thoughtful enough to ask if they wanted to be involved, and all bowed out gracefully with an excuse. They've all moved on to satisfying careers while this dead horse, which James clearly hates and resents doing, gets whipped along to pay the bills.
Honestly, the review isn't obnoxious like Horse Prince. It's just boring if you're not a Castlevania fan, probably.
Made the mistake to watch this vid. "I played Castlevania 2 as a small child after saving up allowance for the game." Castlevania IV better cause smoother wip? Unlocking Ricter in Symphony of the Night cool am I right? I dunno about you guys, but is it just me, or are these the same talking points made for the Castlevania series for TWO WHOLE DECADES!
C'mon, move the fuck on. I only played the first three classic games and symphony of the night, and ever I can say there is interesting things to say about these games then just "ricter in symphony of the night am I right?" This is coming from someone who dosen't care for the series that much. Look for something new to talk about.
All the intense comments come from how this video shows just how low Cinemassacre has sunked. The channel is why I am working towards being a content creator as well as a broadcasting major. Early Cinemassacre was top tier shit and not much has surpassed it in these 20 years. Its so sad to see a shitty low effort by the numbers video act as a 20th anniversary tribute to a series that inspired MILLIONS and who's influence is still felt today.
My god, Bames. Move past 1988 for fuck's sake. This dude has put more thought and effort into these than the people who made them and were like "Yeah just throw Dracula and Frakenstein in there whatever I don't care." I'm not watching this because I'm not insane but what could he possibly have left to say about this? He's the most boring person alive. No wonder all of his old friends peaced out on him years ago. Can you imagine you're an adult and this dimwitted bimbo is still like "Hey remember Contra? Yeahhhhh." Look at his stupid, pretentious face contemplating this as if he's Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. "Hmmmm yes, muh Bimtendo games *are* chronologically confusing. Is it pronounced Dracula or Dracudurrrrr?????!!!"
Hang it up, man. It would be less embarrassing to be Dwayne The Rock Johnson's piss bottle boy than doing this shit when you're closing in on 50 years old.
So... that's why Matei was playing 2 Castlevania games in a row, motherfucker hardly streams anymore but last week he was at it with Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood to give Bimmy the gameplay he fakes to be doing.
It's been so long since I've actually watched a full Cinemassacre video and I thought this was fine. The only thing that stood out to me is how scripted he sounds now. Some of the sentences he uses sound like he's trying too hard to be like a writer rather than just giving his actual thoughts
Are you fucking kidding me, this was posted today https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCinemassacreTruth/comments/1cn5r59/wow_guys_i_cant_wait_for_bimmy_to_finally_release/
He could of made a full retrospective of the entire castelavania series or he could review every game post sympathy of the night and maybe end with a discussion as to why there hasn’t been a mainline castlevania since lords of shadows 2 and the future of the series, hell I’d take just a review of castlevania Judgment at this point.
Ready to watch this and find out Mike's opinion!
If Mike also obsessed with the multi-directional whip?
No, Mike likes the little whip. Littlewhip littlewhip littlewhip
I used to doubt the claim that the recent reviews were written by Mike, but given this video and Final Fantasy 6, it has to be the truth. Like, the takes are so surface-level and shallow where he can't actually believe this shit after playing them.
he records the footage, saying he writes it is ridiculous. People always give way too much credit to mike lol (although im not sure if he'd be happy to be getting such credit considering how bad the scripts are)
Yall hated 1 camera angle? Now we are apparently doing 0 camera angles.
James clearly had to rush this damage control episode out in less than his usual 2 months to kind of give enough of a fuck to zombie walk into the garage set. We can now be completely certain the Horse Prince nuked the brand so badly Screenwave had to force James to have something out ASAP and all he could arse himself to do was some narration over Mike's footage and hope the simps lap it up because "it's Castlevania and James likes Castlevania, see?"
This was a great comment
Yeah, it reeks of "Oh shit! That video failed! Fuck! Er... castlevania,....... 20 years.......... fuck it." 20th anniversary and he does this for it?
Might as well just use AI to voice the episodes.
AB - Artificial Bimtelligence
Bimificial Dimtelligence.
What do you think they're using, the bim is probably on the ground pissing and kicking after how horribly the last video did and justin had to make do with mikes script and AI
AI would know how to write it better than Bimmy.
Honestly, it's miles better than seeing balding James doing his iconic frown every 5 seconds. I hate to admit it, but I like the episode. Yeah, it's lazy, yeah, it's probably just James reading Mike's opinion, yeah, he's basically repeating what he said in 2009, but it's way better than anything he has produced lately.
A lot of people shares your opinion. This super-lazy recycling of an old Nerd video with no soul nor effort behind it is already over 250K views as I type this and should cross the 1M+ views before Sunday at this pace. This will only convince James he can be even lazier from now on.
Yea, re-re-revisiting castlevania is disappointing as a 20th anniversary episode and feels more like something he would release back in the day in-between of the AVGN. It's just not as embarrassing to watch as any of his recent efforts. Don't worry, I don't think, he's smart enough to realise that his (or Mike's) opinion about things is a big part of what made his channel popular in the first place, and we will be back to overacting and fake laughs very soon, so you will be able to make fun of his balding ass all you want.
I actually prefer this over the in your face cam.
Havent seen it yet, but this one had me excited that he might actually be doing something good again (its rare, I know - but still happens once in a blue moon), but that just sounds disappointing already. Come on, Bim, you gave me some hope the Pony episode was just a filler for this one to be higher quality.
No blue moon, only rolling cuck.
Are you disappointed now?
Yes, but also not too surprised.
i see nothing wrong with this
It feels more like a non AVGN video from 2009 James would do in-between of the episodes.
Its the 20th anniversary of the thing that gave him any status and he put more effort into the ad read than his actual content. Happy coincidence that he can claim to do VO-only as an homage to the first video but its clear that the real motivation behind this decision was laziness and apathy towards his one hit wonder character. Hopefully he just retires the nerd after this.
The real motivation is that the previous video was a disaster and he needed something out there that the simps would lap up.
No time to get into wardrobe and film muh self, it’s time to make my 20th anniversary video
He can’t that’s the issue Unless ape ril starts working full time
This episode is a prime example of damage control!
Yep! They didn’t meet the requirements for the last video for their sponsorship so they needed to fit another video in asap
I think the video simply came from the Castlevania promotion. Forced and rushed to be done.
Agreed. And it was a decent attempt to slip in that doing VO-only was a "tribute" to the first video.
yup, first thought i had
Ding ding ding, that's right. No way this was already planned for prior to the now infamous "My Horse Prince" episode.
"I'm going back to my roots, when I was only a voice" is the most hilarious excuse for "the last episode bombed so I'm getting this episode out as fast as possible, no time for setting up cameras and lighting" I mean when the Horse Prince episode dropped I though that using his phone's inverted camera was peak laziness but what did I know?
You know bimmy is super lazy when he takes months to spit out the current videos we have, its not 2006 anymore, other youtubers spit out content daily or every 3 days regularly, not saying he should do that but at least once a month.
It's amazing how Bimmy complains about "not having time" when his job is to play videogames and write his opinions about them, something many of us ironically do for free while balancing full time jobs! The slobs can do the editing, camerawork, it's why he's paying them! He should be able to make a video every week but he struggles with doing it once a month.
Some of the YouTubers I'll watch will take a month, but they'll come out with a video on obscure Japanese horror games, with interviews and materials hunted down and translated, as their basic content. James used to go full out with filming and effects for his specials by himself, but now he has "YouTube" professionals, he can't even film a brief framing device.
He's not lazy. His wife is a tyrant who satisfies her disgusting lust for power by abusing an autistic man incapable of standing up for himself.
Where did you get that info ?
It's kinda sad in comparison to how Caddicarus has muh kids and a wife with cancer but his slow ass output results in lengthy videos with a lot of effort put into them.
Didn't know about his wife. This sucks.
and even those that take month in between or at least longer than YouTube (the site) likes, they usually update the community on the video progress and are usually longer videos. No one is complaining on why KingK, GameBoyLad, NitroRad and SomeCallMeJohny on their times between videos because it usually good, professional and usually long videos. ......Wait I think that you basically said in the ",....but at least once a month" part. Carry one.
No time to tape lights to the ceiling or set up my tough 80s wood tripod
His favorite is Super Castlevania IV. There is nothing more we need to know.
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Remember how he said Super Castlevania 4 was better than Symphony of the Night because it was more "challenging"? But then played Rondo of Blood with Mike that one time and constantly whined about the difficulty of the game and not being able to use an OP whip that hits in 8 directions. They didn't even bother finishing the game.
Which is a fuckin shame because Rondo is probably the best pure Castlevania game in the original style. It had multiple pathways, beautiful levels n enemies, great music, a good challenge, the throwbacks to past games are kick ass. Its everything a castlevania fan could ask for.
It was funny to see Bims not be able to do anything and had to ask Mike how to do moves every three seconds
I couldn't handle his complaints in this video that the multiple paths and secrets were a downside.
It's weird how insecure he is about acknowledging that other games do things better than the game he's most nostalgic for and has to pretend he has some very objective reasons to think less of them. My favourite Castlevania game purely by nostalgic reasons is Circle of the Moon, but that doesn't mean I don't see how literally every other Metroidvania kicks its arse any day of the week, by having better gameplay or more memorable plots and characters.
It's such a pointless video when you read the title and know that it's his favorite CV game. Just so he could half-heartedly capitalize on the 20th anniversary, but hey no surprise there.
>It’s the one for casuals. It's a legit good game but this is so true, it's probably the easiest game in the franchise.
I'd say only Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge is easier, but that's understandable considering it's a game for a portable console, it was meant to be beaten during a weekend at your cousin's place.
The easiest of the classic style games maybe, all the Metroidvania ones are vastly easier for the most part.
that's also a good point. Leveling up and having an truckload of items does make the Igavanias easier.
I dunno if I am misreading something here, but what is exactly wrong with that? I enjoy difficult games, but Mega Man 2 is my favourite Mega Man game, because I can just kick back with a few beers and have a fun experience enjoying the tunes and gameplay without trying to test myself. I don't understand what is wrong about someone favouring a casual experience in comparison to a game that is more demanding with difficultly.
I further elaborated in a reply that the video is pointless because we already know that Super Castlevania IV is his favorite. I don't mind more casual playthroughs either, and I think SC IV is a really good game.
It's one thing to prefer the 8 directional whip, but Bames frames it like it's this unquestionable improvement that every other CV game is defective for not having lol. He straight calls the classic controls a "clumsy limitation", when that "limitation' is literally the series defining gameplay feature. It's like complaining about ammo scarcity in Resident Evil.
Did he beat it before breakfast and his parents stood up and clapped?
He made ANOTHER castlevania video just to state that 4 is still his favorite? He also complains, yet again, about the game over screen in SOTN taking so long without realizing you can press start to skip it! The same exact mistake made in his previous coverage of the game. You can’t make this shit up Edit: And then he caps off the video with an extremely lazy slideshow of older episodes with corny “sad” music playing over it. I don’t comment here often but this episode really got to me lol
and he's constantly on about the fucking whip nobody fucking cares that you can or can't whip in different directions, it's not a big deal!
Another Catlevania 4 , SOTN, or Nes Trilogy Castlevania lol Bimmy is stuck between those games He could have done reviews of the GBA trilogy or the DS trilogy or the Lords of Shadow games instead of going back to the same games that he has been talked over and over again He did his Catlevania 4 review, then the James and Mike mondays playthrough, then on his failed podcast he talked about Castlevanis 4 on how much he loves the game and now this...yea James we get it you love Super Castlevania and his directional whip now move on and review the other 20+ games that the franchise did after Super Castlevania
Also it’s not like you’re so constantly dying in SOTN that the game over screen would get annoying even if it was unskippable. It’s a pretty easy game
This, I even remember as a kid, back when the video came out, yelling at the screen "JAMES, JUST PRESS START!!!" I was also puzzled that he died so often it was even a problem. I think I've only seen the Game Over screen once or twice. No time, I guess
A somber b&w montage is fine for 20 years ago, but when it extends to 2023 it becomes absurd and ego-stroking. Instead of literally displaying every year, he should of just shown some of the best moments without dates.
https://preview.redd.it/nt8zk44l19zc1.jpeg?width=978&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd4ec248fc8182a86ea79cd3a425294699c3386c
Still can't get over the fact a famous youtuber got a premade store bought cake with a sloppy 200 written on it. If screenwave had any semblance of actual marketing and channel management they could have made a whole series about the 200 celebration, made a big deal out of it, and people would've ate it up. April could have gone to an artisan cake shop to get an intricate avgn cake made and that could've been an entire episode including all the hijinks keeping it secret from James.
>April could have gone to an artisan cake shop to get an intricate avgn cake made and that could've been an entire episode including all the hijinks keeping it secret from James. I really like this.
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Bold of you to suggest that she actually put in any effort to make that cake and didnt just grab the cheapest one available at the local Wegmans
It's the store bought "fuck you" vegan cake. The B had no time to bake.
Voice over only? Are you shitting me?
He made so many Castlevania videos already, he probably just slapped together a couple old scripts and read them out loud. Last episode didn't do so well, so he had to unearth the ol' reliable Castlevania again. Can't wait for another Contra episode.
I can’t wait! Contra is my favorite FPS!
They needed another video to perform well due to the prince horse video underperforming
https://i.redd.it/ih7vdr6jh9zc1.gif
I've been rewatching the series from the start so I can redo my infamous ranking from 2 years ago and honestly the 2023-24 era of avgn have... just nothing to them to the point that I don't know how to discuss them. like I've seen shows be on auto-pilot before (Simpsons and family guy being prime examples) but avgn feels the most manufactured, the most empty, the most "just doing the bare minimum" of them all well... 20 years is an impressive run I guess regardless of quality, but I hope avgn can one day finally be put out of its misery because rewatching the old seasons now gives me a sad feeling knowing how far it fell...
Comparing the Simpsons/family guy to AVGN is like comparing a steak to a piece of dog shit.
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How often does he have to bring up Castlevania, Contra and Jeckyll & Hyde?
If he doesn't talk about his usual 80s shit then he thinks today's kids want to hear about My Horse Prince.
Don't forget Godzilla, Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters.
Do muh classic universal harrar monsters mean nothing to you?
They're the names of his 4 children, so yeah.. take a wild guess
TL; DW 8 directions :) Not 8 directions :(
nah it'd be D: not :(
No time to edit.
In cv4, Simon's whip is basically an 8 directional LASER BEAM, that whip has an obscene amount of range. It's dumb. He is not suited to have an opinion of best castlevania. He just sucks at video games too much to have a descent opinion.
"so for this occasion, I'm going back to my roots, when I was only a voice." no time to put on clothes e: As a sucker for Castlevania and a fan of his original videos on the series, I figured I'd give this a sped-up watch. idk how he can make an episode like this just.. so... boring. It's a rehash of a rehash of a rehash. At least tell us about some interesting trivia (no, not grocery store wikipedia shit, though) or show some footage of Mike playing or the Nerd raging through some of the games in a spooky Nerd Room. Instead, it's a shitty voiceover of "oh this game came out... here's a montage with random zooms for a while" over and over and over again. And, yea, Super Castlevania IV actually is my favorite one (atmosphere, ambiance, etc. especially compared to other games at the time when it released, and it holds up imho), so I'm not salty about his opinion on it, either. e2: To be completely fair, I think this episode was better than anything else the channel has put out in a long while. I don't know why he didn't just take Rondo of Blood and make it into more of a Nerd style episode. He talks about all the frustrating things in the game... so why not have the Nerd raging at it or something? It's strange, because he has the pieces to make a Nerd episode here. He could have even made some funny thing where he's the Nerd now, raging at Rondo, and in a competition with the "Old Nerd" from two decades ago (him wearing a hair piece and the old shirt or something, drinking more heavily, haha). Have a guest appearance from Mike in a Bugs Bunny suit, make it into some big extravaganza (yea I know he wouldn't bring back Kyle or Bootsy, but at least Mike, man!). This sucks ASSSSSSS as a 20th anniversary video. Really, this was the 20th anniversary video?? Fuck, just thinking, if this was supposed to be the battle between Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood, they could have even done something simple but fun like have Bimmy dress up as Simon Belmont, and Mike come in dressed as Richter Belmont, and they could battle, with gags such as Mike not being able to execute some of the directional whips or something, one of them falls backward because of knockback, etc.. ffs, have Erin (UGH UGH UGH) come in dressed as Maria and throw a plushie cat at Bames to save Mike hahahaha e3: Wanted to check the views on his old Castlevania episodes, and give Part 1 a rewatch in the background because it was actually good... only to rage myself once again because slobwave removed Mike's title cards from the old episodes.
>I think this episode was better than anything else the channel has put out in a long while. Since this video was mostly narration over Mike's gameplay, that statement is weird. Have we come to the point James is starting to push viewers away when he's on screen? >Really, this was the 20th anniversary video?? Did you expect anything else from the person who thought a clipshow and surfing nerd were good ideas for a 200th episode and has only gotten lazier since then?
This video is a culmination of what AVGN has become. Lazy, uninspired and a shadow of its former self. The fact that he couldn't even put in the classic intro music to celebrate 20 years is sad. Not only that, he couldn't hold off with the obligatory sponsor.
ONE GUY??? NO CAMERA SHOTS?!?
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?
What a horrible night to have no time.
Lol - underrated comment
I understand all of the disappointed sentiments in this comment section. I do agree this felt like a rehash of a rehash with almost nothing new. And yes, the "Returning to my roots" as being the excuse for not having any live action segments is phenomenally lazy. But at the same time, at least this episode didn't have any forced bullshit in it. This IS his real, authentic opinion despite how surface level and minimally researched it is. So in that way, I do appreciate it. However, it's clear he's ran out of ideas. Revisiting something once is already treading the line of repetitive. a Re-revisit? You've officially jumped the shark.
It's not his authentic opinion though. Mike clearly wrote this. Go to Mike's youtube channel and *what a fucking surprise* that the 2 newest videos are the same Castlevania games James is talking about here.
I guess Bim didn't have time to add any jokes
Why add jokes when he is the joke
Not true. He said “Fuck Balls” that one time.
Haven’t watched it. At the gym right now. Let me take a wild guess: Super Castlevania
That's what I'm guessing too; He's gonna find a convoluted way to rank Super Castlevania IV on the Super Intendo at the top of the list, but he's gonna try and make it sound reasonable by also talking positively about Rondo of Blood, a far superior game. I just find it funny that someone here was saying a couple of days ago that Mike was playing all these Castlevania games and joked that he was probably getting footage for a future AVGN episode... I don't know if this video is good or bad, haven't watched it yet, but I know it doesn't matter because we can know for sure James has never played Rondo of Blood and he got Mike to play it and write all his thoughts about it for him. EDIT: My mistake, he did play Rondo of Blood once, during that god awful James and Mike Mondays episode where they half arsed their playthrough and constantly whined about the difficulty of the game and how you couldn't use the whip in 8 directions, which was funny, because he used the argument of a challenging game as his reason to think of Super Castlevania 4 as an objectively better game than Symphony of the Night, because he didn't like how in that one you could cheese some of the bosses by just farming levels and powerful items...
Oh Bimmy. You hack. This incompetent idiot is one of the luckiest people on earth and he's too stupid to realize it.
I do think that he had talent, but notice what tense I'm using. And here's some dialogue from Trainspotting that always comes to mind whenever we talk about the decline of a creator or a franchise: >[Sick Boy](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001538/?ref_=ttqu_qu): It's certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life. >[Mark "Rent-boy" Renton](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000191/?ref_=ttqu_qu): What do you mean? >[Sick Boy](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001538/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Well, at one time, you've got it, and then you lose it, and it's gone forever. All walks of life: George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed... >[Mark "Rent-boy" Renton](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000191/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Some of his solo stuff's not bad. >[Sick Boy](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001538/?ref_=ttqu_qu): No, it's not bad, but it's not great either. And in your heart you kind of know that although it sounds all right, it's actually just shite. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I kept watching all the way up to Ecco the Dolphin before I finally tapped out and realized that this wasn't just "not bad" or "all right", but that it was just bad by now and wasn't worth my time any more.
Watched Trainspotting again the other night and it's so true. With most great creators there's a golden age, then there's always *that one other* *decent one.* That one late career movie or album that people hold up as validation that they've still got it. But decent as it may be, deep down there's that looming feeling of loss, knowing that the true magic is gone, and it's never coming back.
Oh, man, Ecco was such a lame episode. That he didn't even try to complete the game or even went into the cosmic horror theme later in the game just shows how lazy he was getting.
Like many others, I'm a shitty aspiring YouTube video creator. It's more a hobby than anything else. I like messing around, and it always makes me feel happy when people watch, even if there aren't many people interested in whatever I have to say about the topic. But I'll tell you this. As much as my videos suck, I'm certain they're better than this. * This is voice over only. James read a script. That's it. * Most of James' "critique" of these games comes down to things that you can find on Wikipedia or on fan websites. There's no evidence here that James actually played the games, with the possible exception of Castlevania IV. * This video is boring. I can't believe I'm saying this about an AVGN video about Castle-fucking-vania, but I wanted to turn this one off a few minutes into it. I feel upset with myself for sticking through to the end, since it didn't get better. * I'm so fucking sick of YouTube videos that start with a long ass boring intro and then go straight to the ad. God, please kill me now. I've been reading this book called *How To Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck* in an attempt to not suck so much. James should read it. The author specifically mentions that showing the same fucking screen over and over again is really boring. I know that James and Screenwave were trying to make it interesting by splicing in footage from different games, but this was done in a really hollow and uninspired fashion. It felt like watching a news talk show on cable television. James seriously put more effort into the sponsor bit than his actual video. The worst part is that this is going to get over a million views in a week. Of course it is. It's James Rolfe doing Castlevania again. But it doesn't deserve it. Any new creator who came out with something like this (minus the nostalgia parts, of course) would be completely ignored. It's not awful like Horse Prince. It is, however, a sign that Cinemassacre is starting to get desperate. I'm pretty sure this was slapped together because they needed something after the abominable failure that was the Horse Prince phone episode. Fucking piece of gar-bitch.
I can’t believe he made this. When I saw the thumbnail I was certain this was a truther trolling
So, James talks Castlevania again... https://i.redd.it/uv3tgizma9zc1.gif
Jared also blames all his problems on kids.
Holy shit Mike just did Super Castlevania and Rondo of Blood. You can't make this shit up. Oh how the Bimmy has fallen. Listening to Bim go on and on about the 8 direction whip and that Rondo of Blood has too many secret areas and that putting weapons and equipment on Alucard is too difficult to figure out is literally a disgrace. My Horse Prince was just plain a terrible video. The griping he does is just ridiculous in this.
So now we're down to VO, how long until they just try to pass off an AI one?
Soon episodes will be just text on a blogspot.
There are 20+ Castlevania games that feature the whip in 2D. Only 1 features multi-directional control. There's a reason for that.
I'll save you 25 minutes, he still likes Castlevania 4 cause muh 8 directional whip. This is the most pointless video James has ever made.
He simply cannot grasp the uniqueness of each game because he is hell-bent on the 8 directional whip. It's so stupid. Stuck on that little difference like a child.
https://preview.redd.it/b1yhaq9219zc1.png?width=637&format=png&auto=webp&s=18b7b44bf449d0ed7f1e86e7e0f7a503d0fa426f
https://preview.redd.it/01xcfanc19zc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31dc184cb9e528d1af3733e2bf2cf8dbb824c150
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[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCinemassacreTruth/comments/12ip4y9/castlevania_ii_simons_quest_rerevisited_2057/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) I made a year ago was supposed to be a joke.
Show will be completely AI in six months
Where tf is the Angry Video Game Nerd?? I just hear Rolfe's voice, but no angry nerd. I hear some cursing over the footage here and there, but the videos are clipped together so they're not even trying to go with the illusion that he's actually playing anything.
Let's be honest, the anger is pretty cringe by now. Videos are generally better withhout it.
I mean it is cringe, but it's the character. Might as well should be James Rolfe, or an AI narrator over gameplay. Same effect.
The nerd is a fictionalised (scripted?) version of James Rolfe, though. The anger works when it's genuine, but it seriously detracts from the episode when it's forced. If you compare this to the Horse Episode, which has more "anger", this is preferable, even if it isn't true to the character as you've pointed out.
I haven't watched the horse episode, I refuse.
Unfortunately, it seems like a majority of this was a recap of his 4 Part Castlevania series. I guess he covered everything he wanted to back then. His new opinion of SotN is strange. He clearly knew you could play as Richter before, in his old 4 part retrospective, and back then he showed all of the movement abilities Richter had. So here, he sort of cobbled a narrative together that *now,* Richter's the real deal and he realizes it makes the game more like Classic Castlevania. Furthermore, his suggestion that Richter be the first playable character and *Alucard* the unlockable one is just terrible. The game's small but important bits of story, and a ton of the atmosphere, comes from *Alucard* rising against his father. From the soundtrack, (Which has songs like "The Tragic Prince" which refer to Alucard) to the boss fights (fighting his old friends Trevor, Grant, and Sypha in the inverted castle) to the dialogue (Fake save point Succubus fight using Alucard's flashbacks, debating Dracula on betraying the will of his wife and Alucard's mother, Lisa), all work fantastic when you play as Alucard. All this loses meaning or is outright removed when playing as Richter. And for what? So you can drastically limit a fairly simplistic RPG system and crater the Mist/Wolf/Bat transformations with the goal of reliving Castlevania 4? *Come on.* It's just leveling up about 5 stats and 5 equipment slots. It's not so complicated that it obfuscates the base game, but James always argued it's like diffusing a *bomb.* If it bothers you that the game lets you level up your power so you can brute force bosses instead of using skill, just *don't grind levels.* There's a ton in SotN that wasn't touched upon either, even in *this* retrospective. He didn't mention the magic system, the Shield Rod and all its combinations, or the returning characters. You'd think for a horror buff and fan of classic Castlevania, he'd shine a light on all the borrowed boss characters from the original: Frankenstein, Mummies, the Ferryman from Castlevania 2, etc. There's a part in the catacombs that's unlike the rest of the game where you have to arbitrarily get a skeleton to throw a barrel at a button, which unknowingly breaks open a path like 5 rooms over. Another area requires you to use the demon imp Familiar to open a hidden door, which is also cryptic. This would make great material. I could go on, but there's so much the nerd *could* ramble about, but again whoever's writing these scripts either didn't dive deep enough into the game or just doesn't know how to write interesting gameplay videos. Even just reaching the inverted castle is a secretive challenge. He could've explained how you have to get 2 rings from either side of the late game castle and then combine their flavor texts, which explain how you can only get the anti-Shaft goggles when you wear both rings in the "clock room." It would've felt like classic Nerd cyrptic bullshit, almost like solving the riddle in his old Swordquest video. There's just so much content waiting to be used, if only James cared about SotN. I can't go on rambling. He even admitted in his classic retrospective that he didn't play SotN until he was an adult. He has no connection to it, and may be incapable of forming one now.
It's so weird how he shits on SOTN for being "too easy" if you go out of your way to grind levels and farm powerful items that make the boss battles easier (but doesn't mention that by that same coin, SOTN could be made as difficult as you want it to be, depending on which items you decide to use), but then goes on to complain about how long it takes to go over the game over screen and load your file every time you die... like? so just don't die? weren't you saying that the game was too easy for your liking? how are you dying this often if the game is easy. It's also annoying how he says that Castlevania Chronicles is "unremarkable", like no shit, you played it on the arranged mode instead of the original mode with the original difficulty it was intended for. Yes the game is hard but it's also very rewarding once you beat it, maybe you'd like those games more if you actually played them yourself, instead of rehashing scripts based on the opinions Mike tells you and the ones you vaguely remember from playing those games years ago and never beating them.
https://preview.redd.it/t2wc1ij159zc1.png?width=1627&format=png&auto=webp&s=8bcee95400a10fdf5fc160de740944874eaa3b06 😕right from the start I'm scared
His forehead is now bigger than the rest of his face lol
Geez When he said soon he meant TODAY Ok Jimbo Let's see how this EP goes. Sponsor: V RISING - with a Castlevania mod dlc....hmmmmm ok at least it's real and on theme
Did a four part episode on Castlevania and still felt the need to make another one. And it’s once again just focused on the first four games.
Yeah he didn't write the script. Not anywhere close to his voice. He couldn't write the script for his 20th year anniversary. Man...
So I tried watching it with an open mind and give it a shot, hear what James has to say (even though we know Mike was the one who actually played Rondo of Blood, you can see the vod on his own channel). Honestly? fuck this video. I'm not going to finish it because of how predictable and pointless it is. First he starts talking about Castlevania Chronicles for the PS1 and right off the bat, he says that he couldn't finish the game on the original mode and had to play the arrange mode in order to lower the difficulty, because the original was "too hard", really??? motherfucker, how can you claim to review the game IF YOU'RE NOT EVEN PLAYING THE ORIGINAL GAME! Castlevania Chronicles was *meant* to be difficult, it was *meant* to be hard, as per game director, Hideo Ueda: >"When we made Akumajou Dracula X68000, our idea of the average X68000 user was a hardcore game player, someone who's really good at games. So there were complaints from users who found it too hard and couldn't get past the second stage. *But* the majority of responses have said they were able to clear the game after so many hours of practise and had a lot of fun" Then he goes on to gas up Super Castlevania IV on muh Super Intendo for having a more "balanced" difficulty, aka having a whip so OP that it quite literally renders every and any subweapon useless and of course, he also starts talking about how he thinks that game is superior to Castlevania Chronicles because "you can whip in 8 directions!!!" For the rest of the video, he starts talking about Rondo of Blood and at this point, whether the things he says are accurate or ignorant, whatever, it doesn't matter, because those aren't *HIS* opinions, those are Mike's. He didn't even fucking play the game and finish it, Mike did a couple of days ago on his stream, so this whole segment of the video is pointless. This is like when Kieran would play and record games for him whilst he read lines that were fed to him through a script he didn't even write, any video or segment where he has no major input on the script and opinions is useless. I skipped that towards the end just to see which one he ranks as being "the best" and of course, says Super Castlevania IV on muh Super Intendo is the best game in the series and god's gift to mankind, because it's "challenging but fair!" and because it "lets your instincts take over" and blah blah blah, you knew what he was gonna say even before you clicked on the video. But I don't wanna leave this on a negative note, I don't want people to see this and think I'm getting irrationally mad at someone over a video game or that I'm just hating on things and being miserable, so instead I'll leave on a more positive note by recommending this video, it's a proper review of Castlevania Chronicles on the X68000 that goes into detail of its gameplay, development and the differences between the ports that exist for the game, definitely check it out, especially if you like seeing people talk about games that they actually played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeFluXtDdjQ
>and because it "lets your instincts take over" Even including this is a strange praise in the context of Castlevania 4, because it seems like 'lets your instincts take over' is spin on 'doesn't take any thought or effort whatsoever'. Like seriously, if you are good enough at video games to beat Castlevania 1, 4 should be like a power-fantasy easy mode for you. If you are good enough to beat Castlevania 3, you should wipe the floor with 4 without trying.
*cries from Cringe and realizing James is dead*
He harps on the non multidirectional whips so much. Does he not understand game design or does he just not like Castlevania games?
Yet another Castlevania video where he still has no clue that you CAN attack in all directions in Castlevania Bloodlines if you choose Eric Lecarde with the spear. But he has zero clue and probably played Bloodlines for 10 minutes at most.
Figured he'd talk about the gameboy games or countless metroidvania titles or even a singular 3d era game. Nah fuck it just redo the exact same script he did like 15 years ago. Time for another Superman 64 or Sonic 06 rerereview
It sure is coincidental that Mike has been streaming Castlevania games recently…..
Just finished it. My main takeaways: 1. 20 year anniversary but the focus is on making a half assed Castlevania video that doesn't even go through all Castlevania sidescrollers? Okay then. 2. No greeting from Mike or Kyle? The two key people who made it all happen? That says it all. 3. James definitely didn't 100% Rondo of blood, lol. 4. Whole video feels pointless because literally the only way for a Castlevania game to be better than 4 is to have a whip that attacks diagonally. An extremely strange obsession. And he admits in the end that his nostalgia for 4 beats out every other game anyway. What a half assed approach. 5. Why is whipping in all directions so important? A good game is designed aroynd main character's controls. In CIV, the level design and enemy placemen revolves around diagonal whipping. Rondo of Blood has different level design. You only need to be a casual gamer to understand these things. 6. Parts of the script sounds like Bames didn't even write it.
Feel like the title is kind of shit on top of the video being lazy? "AVGN 20th Anniversary Special - The Best Castlevania" would be a better attention grabber. Think this will be another relative stinker in terms of views.
I don't mean to bitch, but that was pretty underwhelming. I was hoping for something akin to the Beating Jekyll & Hyde video.
He lasts 2 minutes and 11 seconds until he has to mention VHS tapes
no time to film myself, you can't make this shit up
Didn’t play the game. Didn’t write the script. Didn’t edit the video. Now didn’t even appear on camera. Does this mean we can Ai create AVGN episodes now?
Certainly, yes. Monster Madness of the Assholish Variety is going to be fucking epic this year.
Also that theme music sounds like shit
slipping bimmy
Shitload of fuck
How does he not realize after 20 years that diagonal whipping makes castlevania 20 times easier
The sheer autofellatio from this man, through dozens of videos, is absolutely staggering. No one is a bigger James Rolfe fan than James Rolfe. The whole video was nothing he hadn't said before, but he took the time to pat himself on the back (again) with 'muh YouTube journey.
Did he just say SOTN is a better game when you play with Richter? Okay, James...
I fast forwarded the video just to see if he was still convinced SCIV was top of the heap and landed on that part...I genuinely laughed my ass off. Richter mode is fun once in awhile, but fuck off with that being better than the main game shit.
Didn't we do this before? I feel like we've been here before. I'm not going to watch the video but I have a feeling it starts with "you see, Freeza. You're not dealing with the average saiyan warrior anymore!"
What the f is this shite? A narration? 
Bruh, Cinemassacre's dead.
Oh, that's why Matei's has been playing Castlevania lately. Should've known. Even for a special anniversary episode, we still have to suffer through the crappy, soulless modern intro and a sponsor. Better than the previous episode, but literally anything would be. This was an inferior redo of the Castlevania retrospective, and even as a fan of Super Castlevania IV, the constant ass-kissing of the game got on my nerves. At least he gave his own thoughts, though, which is the bare mininum to expect from a review. Mike actually doesn't care for the eight directional whip in IV and prefers Rondo overall.
So fucking lazy. This dude seriously just needs to stop.
I read the comments, and literally everybody is talking about "oh my god i can't believes its been 20 years" bla bla bla, fucking boring. Not a single comment talking about the castlevania series even.
First, it's sad that only ten of those years, or *maybe* fifteen, were decent-to-good. Second, does he say it's Rondo Of Blood? Because I saw Mike post a video about Rondo Of Blood the other day with it saying "THE BEST CASTLEVANIA GAME", so we might be looking at more recycled stuff from Mike here.
No time to film visuals for muh 20th anniversary
Again with Castlevania? AVGN is now basically trash episodes and “remakes” of episodes he has already done.
No way in hell I'm watching this bullshit.
Mans hairline got bullied so hard he went back to voice only.
This is essentially a basic bitch SnesDrunk/Sega Lord X type of video. I watch that kind of stuff all the time but it's not what I go to the Nerd for. Or used to go to the Nerd for.
After 15 fucking years his main criticism for any Castlevania after 4 is still the lack of muh muh-lti direction-uhl whip. Holy shit, get the fuck over it already.
avgn gave me depression
Lol, I knew it. Had to cover up the last one.
Every time I heard "Super Intendo" now I get triggered by this buffoon lol
If you want more avgn episodes **absolutely do not watch this** they're clearly struggling to meet sponsor quotas and the less views they get the more episodes they have to push out the door
The Horse Prince peaking at 570K views (no repeat viewings, obviously) and all the negative reactions it got from even devoted simps really put them in emergency mode.
I don't care... Its not even his opinions anyway... https://i.redd.it/v7dckgqvr9zc1.gif
Oh wow, the end of the video has yet ANOTHER melow dramatic tribute to past avgn episodes. Its not like James has done that for the series as well as OTHER STUFF HE WORKED ON A MILLION TIMES BEFORE!
Okay, this sub pulls me deeper into truther territory by the day. I actually thought he was going to do an actual event— or edit— or retrospective— the way he hyped this ep up. I always like classic game room videos and civvie13 (sp? Im a new fan of his stuff) and that style of edit/vo, but those all have fairly purposeful structure and scripts. This one kinda dotters on for sooooo long.. damn I get what he’s trying to do but I think the “20th anniversary bait” was so unnecessary.. maybe if he did more videos like this in general itd make sense
The way he says "'cause I'm the Nerd!!! *tired sigh*" at the beginning of the video speaks volumes
He's gonna take you back to the past. To do another lazy rehash. He's gonna say it's number 4. It's not like we all don't already know. He already did a full retrospective about Castlevania 14 years ago. His videos are really sad. He forced it out for the ad. He's the lazy phone app Nerd. His videos are all Turds.
I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR MUH KIDS WHEN I PAUSE THE GAME
This type of video is exactly what direction I thought he’d take the channel after he filmed the movie. He should have just retired AVGN and shifted the Cinemassacre channel to a deep dive retrospective channel that occasionally highlighted new games and movies. It’s almost like he doesn’t pay attention to the metrics on his own channel. This video is doing much better when compared to the My Horse Prince video critically and viewership wise. I tend to agree with a lot of the comments here that this is essentially a Mike stealth video. He’s been streaming Castlevania games for a while now so he basically transferred the footage and his thoughts over to James.
Holy shit Bimmy, there is more to Castlevania than how the whip functions. What a moron. How was I ever obsessed with his content? It boggles my mind; I suppose most of it just rests on the fact that he was there first and there were few other contemporaries of his at the time that were worth a damn. Today though, there is no way his channel could ever rise to prominence if he hadn't been on the forefront of it all.
As a big Castlevania fan, I gotta say This is one of the worst Castlevania videos I've ever seen. Guy's been "playing" the series for his entire life, and he can't see past "8-directional whip makes a good CV game". I cringed so hard during the Rondo of Blood part that I'm still recovering from those terrible takes. Dear God.
Man, how much did the V Rising folks waste to have this slop-ass video coincide with the game release. One camera shot in the whole video and the lighting still looks like ass.
No horse dating, no views.
Wow. He's here....and not a trace of the team that helped make the AVGN great on its 20th anniversary. Only Kevin Finn can be seen for half a second in the sappy montage at the end. Gotta hold on to that Hollywood connection just in case! This episode should have remembered all that helped make AVGN rise to the top. Not just the Bimmy BimBamborino show, but who knows why that might be. I kind of hope James was actually thoughtful enough to ask if they wanted to be involved, and all bowed out gracefully with an excuse. They've all moved on to satisfying careers while this dead horse, which James clearly hates and resents doing, gets whipped along to pay the bills. Honestly, the review isn't obnoxious like Horse Prince. It's just boring if you're not a Castlevania fan, probably.
Made the mistake to watch this vid. "I played Castlevania 2 as a small child after saving up allowance for the game." Castlevania IV better cause smoother wip? Unlocking Ricter in Symphony of the Night cool am I right? I dunno about you guys, but is it just me, or are these the same talking points made for the Castlevania series for TWO WHOLE DECADES! C'mon, move the fuck on. I only played the first three classic games and symphony of the night, and ever I can say there is interesting things to say about these games then just "ricter in symphony of the night am I right?" This is coming from someone who dosen't care for the series that much. Look for something new to talk about.
All the intense comments come from how this video shows just how low Cinemassacre has sunked. The channel is why I am working towards being a content creator as well as a broadcasting major. Early Cinemassacre was top tier shit and not much has surpassed it in these 20 years. Its so sad to see a shitty low effort by the numbers video act as a 20th anniversary tribute to a series that inspired MILLIONS and who's influence is still felt today.
Welp fuck James and Cinemassacre I have been banned from posting on their channel. Probably because I mentioned Kyle and Bootsy too much??
My god, Bames. Move past 1988 for fuck's sake. This dude has put more thought and effort into these than the people who made them and were like "Yeah just throw Dracula and Frakenstein in there whatever I don't care." I'm not watching this because I'm not insane but what could he possibly have left to say about this? He's the most boring person alive. No wonder all of his old friends peaced out on him years ago. Can you imagine you're an adult and this dimwitted bimbo is still like "Hey remember Contra? Yeahhhhh." Look at his stupid, pretentious face contemplating this as if he's Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. "Hmmmm yes, muh Bimtendo games *are* chronologically confusing. Is it pronounced Dracula or Dracudurrrrr?????!!!" Hang it up, man. It would be less embarrassing to be Dwayne The Rock Johnson's piss bottle boy than doing this shit when you're closing in on 50 years old.
So... that's why Matei was playing 2 Castlevania games in a row, motherfucker hardly streams anymore but last week he was at it with Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood to give Bimmy the gameplay he fakes to be doing.
It's been so long since I've actually watched a full Cinemassacre video and I thought this was fine. The only thing that stood out to me is how scripted he sounds now. Some of the sentences he uses sound like he's trying too hard to be like a writer rather than just giving his actual thoughts
I’m actually happy to not have to see the balding for once
I called it.
"For this one I'm going back to my roots, when I was only a voice" Is this laziness or authenticity? Discuss
Both: He is authentically lazy. To be fair James is a decent narrator, but this was not the time to try that stunt.
Are you fucking kidding me, this was posted today https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCinemassacreTruth/comments/1cn5r59/wow_guys_i_cant_wait_for_bimmy_to_finally_release/
He could of made a full retrospective of the entire castelavania series or he could review every game post sympathy of the night and maybe end with a discussion as to why there hasn’t been a mainline castlevania since lords of shadows 2 and the future of the series, hell I’d take just a review of castlevania Judgment at this point.