Ah, Season 4 of The Angry Video Game Nerd. My favorite season by far for a great many reasons.
Firstly, it was the first season I began watching as it was new, and thus marks the point where I was “current” with the series. I do believe the Metal Gear review was the first one I saw when it was new, and ever since that point I watched the show regularly. That gives these episodes more of a connection to that time frame — I can remember going to work after watching the X-Men episode, for example, or coming home from work to discover Godzilla had been released. Hell, I distinctly recall having a nice fever when the Street Fighter 2010 episode premiered, and that being a highlight of what was otherwise a pretty rough couple of days.
Secondly, the season had quality to it. Not only were most of the episodes really good, with far fewer “average” episodes, but the production rate was steady. I quickly got to enjoy every couple of weeks a new episode being released and, as this was a time where entertainment on YouTube produced to such a schedule was still a bit lacking, it was a nice bit of normalcy in an otherwise somewhat bland online entertainment scene, at least for me and what I enjoyed. Now I’d almost rather YouTube be like what it was a decade ago, even for the lack of content by comparison — at least what was there then was good, but that’s another story for another time.
Lastly, the topics of these episodes were just pretty darn good on a whole. The Jaguar console was a great opener, the look at the Odyssey was, amazingly, my first time getting to see what the machine was actually like. Castlevaniathon was an incredible two month long love letter to a gaming series that James truly enjoyed, and then we have Swordquest, a video that just perfectly encapsulates the grand nature of gaming in the Atari era. These episodes just had a lot going for them, and with the mix of strange games like Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties and Little Red Hood we had games from more familiar series like The Terminator and Ninja Gaiden.
Production quality was high, only feeling rushed in a few particular cases like Hydlide. This, however, is contrasted by episodes which clearly were above and beyond the norm for a web video of the time, such as Crazy Castle. Quite a bit went into the 2009 and early 2010 episodes, and it really shows.
Of course, all this effort took its toll. This is the point where James would begin suffering a bit of burnout and would cut back on episode production. I remember waiting a month or more between episodes feeling quite odd at first, and James never really did pick back up the old production rate.
He would soon begin work in earnest on The Angry Video Game Nerd Movie, but that was still a few years away from release. As we would move into Season 5 and later, we would see less of our friend the Nerd, but more of other projects from him, such as Board James.
The best I can call it is this was the beginning of the “growth” of Cinemassacre. A great time, sure, but for those who only wanted to see the Nerd, not the best. Thankfully, I really enjoy James’s work and found myself happily watching much of what was to come.
That all, however, is for another time. For now, we have the contents of Season 4, followed by the “full season” video, as is tradition around here.
Enjoy!
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 65: Atari Jaguar Part I – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 66: Atari Jaguar Part II – 4.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 67: Metal Gear – 3.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 68: Odyssey – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 69: X-Men – 3.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 70: The Terminator – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 71: Terminator 2: Judgment Day – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 72: Transformers – 3.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 73: Mario Is Missing! – 3.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 74: Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties – 5.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 75: Bugs Bunny’s Crazy Castle – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 76: Super Pitfall! – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 77: Godzilla – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 78: Wayne’s World – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 79: Castlevania Part I – 4.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 80: Castlevania Part II – 4.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 81: Castlevania Part III – 4.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 82: Castlevania Part IV – 5.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 83: Little Red Hood – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 84: Winter Games – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 85: Street Fighter 2010 – 4.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 86: Hydlide – 3.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 87: Ninja Gaiden – 3.5
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 88: Swordquest – 5.0
Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 89: Pong Consoles – 4.0
On a final note, can you believe this season was 5 hours total? It’s… kind of wild to think just how much content is here, and how much effort I put into this crazy review project.