Introduction
I’ll watch a good movie or TV show once, but I never go back to watch it again. But for some reason, whenever I finish watching something funny like the AVGN, I always want to go back and watch it again from the beginning. The first season of AVGN is especially fun to go through since you can see how much the series improved over time. It’s like going through an old photo album of your family – with each picture you begin to understand more about them, and each picture makes you feel closer to them.
Castlevania 2 – I gave this video a 6/10 because it was still pretty funny, but the jokes were starting to get stale and repetitive.
I gave this video a 6/10 because it was still pretty funny, but the jokes were starting to get stale and repetitive. The AVGN’s tendency to overuse the same jokes in each video was getting obvious by now. At least they had some variety with their R-rated jokes, though I’d say that those are more of a guilty pleasure than anything else.
Top Gun – I gave this video a 7/10 because it’s probably the best AVGN review from season 1. James Rolfe took everything he learned up to that point, and made the perfect AVGN review for one of the worst games ever. This is how an AVGN review should be done.
This is by far the best AVGN video of all time. It’s a perfect 10/10, and it shows how James Rolfe perfected his craft in season 1. While some of these reviews are dated, this one stands out as being timeless and still holds up today as an example of what makes a 5-star review.
If you have never seen an AVGN review before, this would be a good place to start since its premise is simple: Top Gun is stupid, but also kind of fun?
Double Vision sequel – I gave this video a 5/10 because it was just too similar to the original Double Vision video. It also falls flat in comparison to later AVGN videos like Castlevania 3. James Rolfe added almost nothing new from what we had seen in previous episodes.
The AVGN has been nerfed. Not only are the jokes getting stale, but James Rolfe’s writing and acting are also starting to show their age. Even the editing and cinematography seem tired compared to what they were in earlier episodes.
As a result, we’re seeing more short segments like “AVGN Season 1 Review: An album review of the Angry Video Game Nerd’s first season”
Wizards & Warriors – I gave this video a 6/10 because it was really just an excuse to make lots of sword puns, which he could have incorporated better into other reviews with better games, or if his jokes were actually funnier and more clever than what he came up with here. The writing was rushed as well, which forced a lot of awkward pauses (the sword goes in your back).
I gave this video a 6/10 because it was really just an excuse to make lots of sword puns, which he could have incorporated better into other reviews with better games, or if his jokes were actually funnier and more clever than what he came up with here. The writing was rushed as well, which forced a lot of awkward pauses (the sword goes in your back). It’s not very interesting or funny, and you can tell that the writer wasn’t really trying at all.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – I gave this video a 7/10 because this is probably the last great AVGN review from Season 1. Most of what you see here will show up in later episodes (better lighting, more topics covered, more jokes).
In this episode, the Nerd takes a stab at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He has some good points to make about the game, but it’s one of his weaker reviews overall. There are some moments with great jokes (like his intro), but he doesn’t develop any of them as well as he could have. Overall it’s not a bad review and there are certainly worse episodes than this one, but it lacks depth and originality compared to other AVGN videos from Season 1 or later seasons in general. I gave this video a 7/10 because this is probably the last great AVGN review from Season 1. Most of what you see here will show up in later episodes (better lighting, more topics covered, more jokes).
Conclusion
So that wraps up our review of the first season of AVGN. We hope you enjoyed this look back at some of the earliest episodes and also got some insight into what James Rolfe was doing with all those jokes in between Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy reviews over 10 years ago!