Moving along to episode 7, we have McKids, a game that really served as a promotion for McDonalds, but in its own right is actually a decent game. Still, the game has its flaws and odd quirks and is just crazy enough to have warranted an episode. Clearly this is a game James played as a kid and thought was odd enough to warrant an episode, and indeed, it turned out to be a pretty good episode on a whole.
His comparison to Super Mario Bros 3 is pretty apt, McKids being a classic item-collecting platformer. Nothing wrong with that, hell, I wish more games followed that style back in the day – I would have been a much happier kid in 1991 had that been the case.
Mc Kids is, well, it’s a game. It’s like Super Mario Bros. 3, only not as good.
Anyway, the episode feels a slight bit rushed, and follows the “show the game, not the Nerd” style, but that’s fine. The jokes are pretty good, even though the delivery is a little stressed – it’s like James did this episode after a tough day of work.
Incidentally though, this episode is the first to feature the Angry Video Game Nerd (then Angry Nintendo Nerd) theme. Simple, acoustic, but quite charming (if such a word can be used here) in its use of some of his early jokes as lyrics.
Final Rating: 3.5/5
McKids is an episode that doesn’t seem like it would have lasting charm, but for some reason I always enjoy watching it when it pops up. While James doesn’t seem to have the best energy in this episode, his jokes are quite funny and compared to some earlier episodes, they stay oddly “fresh” sounding, even a decade later.
I don’t know why, but this episode just has a certain charm to me.