Grumble, Grumble #1 - The Irate Gamer's Super Mario Bros. 2 episode

Something a little new that I want to try and this is partly inspired by another blog that I've recently come across a month or so ago. Now you're most likely aware of the concept of the angry video game reviewer; a guy who takes an old game or whatnot and swear constantly while "reviewing" the game. It's a concept that was popularized by James Rolfe a.k.a. the Angry Nintendo Nerd, now known as the Angry Video Game Nerd.

Now, as with any popular fad, many others would jump on the bandwagon and do the same thing the Nerd did. Some did well and made their own name, while others didn't. Of all of these Me-Too reviews, one of these have earned a certain amount of infamy for his content and that person is the subject of today's initial project.

Chris Bores. Also known as the Irate Gamer.

Now I'm not going to dwell on the whole plagiarism deal. Most people have already made up their minds and I'm not going to throw my two cents in there. It's beating a dead horse and that horse is really starting to stink up the joint. Putting aside the alleged copying, when you get right down to it, Irate Gamer episodes tend to be inaccurate in regards to certain details. The most evident of this would be his recent "History of Video Games" in which a great deal of his information is flat out wrong.

Now this is not going to be one of those Anti-Irate Gamer summaries (there's already a good blog serving that role) and it isn't going to be an overview for the most part. This is just some thoughts I've had while watching his videos, along with any additional information I can provide, either through my own personal experiences or from other notable sites with significant information on a particular subject matter.

So without further delay, today's dissociative post will be concerning IG's "review" of Super Mario Bros. 2 for NES. SMB2 was originally released in Japan as a very different game called Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom Disk System, featuring different characters and a couple other elements. Japan did get a real SMB2, which was essentially Super Mario Bros. with a couple minor additions and rock-hard difficulty. When it came time to bring SMB2 over to North America, a decision was then made to convert that Doki Doki game into the SMB2 we all know and love... or loathe in some cases.

Now I'm going to go on a record and say that SMB2 isn't exactly a favorite of mine. In fact, there was a time when I absolutely hated this game. I don't know why; maybe it was the gameplay, maybe it was the letdown I got after playing the wonderful SMB3... I don't know, but for a time, I didn't really like this game. However, playing it recently, most of that hate seemed to have been forgotten, and I consider this to be a great game considering its unique history.

One thing is certain: my brief hatred for this game had nothing to do with the Irate Gamer's video, which was just wrong on a number of levels. So without further adue, here're my thoughts when watching the Irate episode.

21 - Banned PSN user sues Microsoft and Nintendo... thanks Joystiq for killing my brain.

Yes, this seems entirely appropriate...

20 - Hogan draws low quarter-ratings, Vince's reaction: OUCH!

For the first time anyone can remember, TNA's television ratings were discussed at WWE TV this past week. Michael Hayes reportedly noted the lowest-rated quarter hour of last week's episode of iMPACT being the one where Hulk Hogan appeared.

In response, Vince McMahon said, "Ouch."


(source: rajah.com, Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

Oh, by the way, for those wondering, here's the ratings breakdown of the amazing IMPACT episode featuring the Hulk Hogan announcement (source: rajah.com)


Q1: 1.21 - Desmond Wolfe/Angle promo; AJ Styles/Samoa Joe promo
Q2: 1.27 - Tara vs. Alyssa Flash; Team 3D promo
Q3: 1.26 - Motor City Machine Guns vs. Team 3D; Scott Steiner promo; Bobby Lashley vs. Eric Young
Q4: 1.30 - Bobby Lashley vs. Eric Young; Scott Steiner run-in; Kevin Nash promo; AJ Styles/Daniels promo
Q5: 1.24 - The Beautiful People vs. Christy Hemme, ODB and Hamada
Q6: 1.19 - Abyss vs. Dr Stevie; Matt Morgan vs. Rhino
Q7: 1.24 - Samoa Joe/Daniels promo; Homicide attacks Don West; Kurt Angle promo
Q8: 1.18 - Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe; Hulk Hogan press conference

Oh yeah, Hogan is definitely a step in the right direction.

SPEED OF LIGHT!

19 - PPV Predictions - WWE Bragging Rights... nothing to brag about

I'm trying to figure out whether this is a decent trade-off.

Last year and years prior, WWE held a PPV called Cyber-Sunday - originally called Taboo Tuesday - where WWE fans would have their say on what happens in certain matches... i.e. who does the champion face, what stipulation between two men are there, what silly costume do the Divas wear in order for us to care about them, and so on and so forth. It was a novel concept, but for some reason - possibly something to do with sales being shit - WWE decided to drop that PPV in favor of Bragging Rights, which is touted as a Smackdown vs Raw encounter, but only ends up being one match billed as such... and a Divas match.

In any case, it's another generic PPV. So let's get this over with... UPDATED WITH RESULTS

18 - First Video Log expected to be posted this week

I recorded some audio for the inaugural Video Log to be posted on my YouTube channel this week. Mostly I discuss the results on the recent TNA PPV as well as some thoughts on the upcoming Castlevania Rebirth game. When said video is posted, I'll update this post with an embedded video for you guys to watch.

17 - Shane McMahon leaves WWE... wait, what?

Here's the link to Shane McMahon's statement on WWE.com.
I honestly don't know what to make of this, as to whether this is legit or not. But whatever the case... it shows Shane has more balls to step down than the senile old man running the company. Oh well.

16 - Captain Lou RIP

So I've recently heard about the untimely passing of Captain Lou Albano. The cause of death is still unknown at the time of writing. You could read the article I read here.

Captain Lou was primarily known for his success as a wrestling manager, leading several tag-teams to WWF championship gold. I first knew of Captain Lou not as a wrestling manager, but for his efforts on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, where he played Mario in both the cartoon and live-action sketches. Yes, this is the guy who did the Mario... and we all loved him for it.

My condolences to the Albano family.

15 - Internet issues be damned...

Maybe you haven't noticed, but I've been having issues with the Internet as of late - specifically, problems with our seemingly-obsolete router has resulted in piss-poor performance in terms of service. So Bell sent one of their guys - a nice chap, too - to swap routers and I'm happy to report that I can now browse YouTube videos from the comfort of my own home instead of someone else's - whose computer I was able to use to make the couple posts here this past couple days or so.

Nothing too serious, but hopefully this won't happen again for a long time.

14 - Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth To Hit Japan October 27th

...which begs the question of what goofy Japanese name it's being referred to as.

According to Kotaku and obtained "crappy cell phone" pictures of a Japanese magazine, the game will boast new enemies, new traps, and... yes, STAIRS! That's right... forget the return to old-school Castlevania - STAIRS make their grand return to a Castlevania game after a long, LONG period of absence... and no, the Dracula X PSP remake doesn't count.

You can check out the article here for further details, primarily the picture in question.

13 - Thanksgiving...

To the folks living in the US, you only get your turkey next month. But to the folks on home Canadian soil, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend... I had a mildly enjoyable weekend, comprised of clean-up work around the house and a couple errands here and there. Most importantly, it was a purely, relaxing three-days, so I can't really complain.