The Wizard Of Oz episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd is one I consider somewhat pivotal at the very least in my personal experience with the series, as this is actually the first episode of AVGN which I saw when it was new. I recall a friend and his brother watching it in early 2008 and since I was hanging out with them at that time, I saw it, had a laugh, but didn’t think much of it. If you would have told me 10 years later I would still enjoy that series and be (for the sheer absurdity of it) reviewing every single episode, I’d have thought you were crazy, but here we are. That being said, I actually am not as fond of this episode as I am with so many others from Season 3, and in this case, it actually has more to do with the game itself than it does with James’ review.
James sets up the review by referencing the well known “Dark Side Of The Rainbow” phenomenon where Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of The Moon” syncs up with the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” and hints that the same may be true of this video as well, which actually is true and intentional. The original version of the episode didn’t contain this part, but since I try to use the most recent episode version for these reviews it’s worth addressing.
Shut up! Shut up! Shuuuuuttttt up!
Getting into the actual review itself, James is incredibly harsh on this game. I’ve actually not seen him be this thorough in thrashing a game in quite a while. I can’t recall if James, for whatever reason, had this game as a child or what, but he seems to know it very well and has long ago formed opinions which, much like Simon’s Quest, he finally gets to express in this video. The frustration just seems too personal here.
I can’t disagree with him on this one, as the game actually does look pretty terrible on a whole. The game looks to play horribly, and in what is shown in the review both looks and sounds horrible. Quite frankly it is a fine example of the nature of terrible Super NES games – the sound is just bland, the graphics both detailed but unfinished, and the aforementioned gameplay is just awful. From what I can tell, James is pretty accurate with this one, if only scratching the surface of what makes The Wizard of Oz on SNES terrible.
It’s worth noting my friend Prince Watercress did a let’s play of this game some years ago and had quite a bit to say about it on his own. If you’re into Let’s Plays, his content is worth checking out!
This is one of those “tries too hard” kind of games, if you ask me.
The part of the review that really kind of kills it all for me, though, is the Cowardly Lion. Not so much the way Mike Matei portrays the character, but just how it’s wedged into the review to pad it out just a bit (this is a shorter review, at about 10 minutes, after all.) The character does seem to function solely as a vector to put in scatological humor (shit jokes) and excess profanity (for AVGN standards) simply for shock value. Compared to other situations when related characters come into a video which, granted, serve much the same purpose, this just feels oddly forced. I’d call it an idea worth trying that, in retrospect, didn’t pan out.
Final Rating: 3.0/5
This really goes down as a rather average episode to me, and one of the few out there that I actually prefer to skip than watch. Beyond some odd phrasings and a few signs of being rushed, James takes a very direct and solid stance on everything wrong with the game, but this is brought down by the Cowardly Lion segments being used to add comedy to a video which really works fine on its own. We also have an early example of a game that is so bad in so many unique ways that it actually brings down the episode itself – seriously, I can’t stand to look at this game, and to me, that helps kill what enjoyment I can have watching it.
Still, it isn’t all terrible, but by the end of the episode, it feels somewhat lacking. Good for what it is, but I think it could have been better.