Moving on from the relative disaster that is the Deadly Towers review, we get to an Angry Video Game Nerd episode that’s much better – Battletoads.
Battletoads, developed by Rare (the same people who would later create titles like Donkey Kong Country and Goldeneye 007) released this rather well loved game in 1991. It blended various game play styles together into a pretty intense experience that was marred by some critical flaws and a game-breaking bug in a later level when playing with a second player.
So, to the episode, after the intro The Nerd begins talking about the game, complimenting it when Kyle Justin, the artist behind the theme song, sits on the couch with him — the end of the intro is actually part of the episode proper. It’s established here that Kyle “lives behind the couch” (a semi-recurring theme as the series continues) and he wants to be a part of the review, if just this once. We get a sad montage of Kyle behind The Nerd during various moments in the early episodes, some of these moments helping inspire the lyrics to the AVGN Theme.
Yep. World building in a Nerd episode. Damn.
They begin the game, and the complaints start instantly. The Nerd is surprised that the game has a two player mode, but does have some positives to say before behind annoyed by the pause music and the fact that players can hit one another, something that becomes very annoying in level 2. Then comes the “game over” system where if one person loses all their lives, both have to restart the level. Brutal, to say the least.
Then comes level 3 and the Turbo Tunnel. Mein Gott the Turbo Tunnel. I remember as a kid never being able to get past it. The experience here is quite genuine — this is really what playing Battletoads with your friend is like. The game is unforgiving, and by the end of it both The Nerd and Kyle get pissed, with Kyle deciding to “go back behind the couch” to escape the shitty game.
Final Rating: 4.0/5
Ah, this was a refreshing episode. It’s short, but damn is it nice. Much of it seems to be quite genuine, as they did take footage and comments from them actually playing the game together to create the episode. This would happen again much later in the series, but for now, this episode stands out from what we’ve previously looked at as a great case of “natural” comedy coming from James and a friend. If only the episode were longer it would rank higher, but that’s fine. It’s still great as it is.