Here we have a much more traditional Angry Video Game Nerd episode. This time, James takes a look at an SNES game that I had never heard of up until this point called “Lester the Unlikely.”
Picking the game “at random” the Nerd right off the bat doubts the game is going to be good at all, and the opening seems to confirm this – not only does the story make the character seem pathetic, but he doesn’t even play in the style you’d expect. In some ways the game actually plays like Prince of Persia, but it just isn’t the same; Lester can’t jump from high spaces without taking damage, has an almost pathetic walking animation, and seems scared of or actively runs away from virtually every enemy he comes across!
The game seems a bit non-intuitive as well, with small puzzles that the Nerd seems to have trouble with. I’d say a minor complaint, but given this is The Nerd we’re talking about, well, it doesn’t take much to set him off. Combine that with birds that take you back to the beginning parts of the level (similar to Frankenstein, oddly) he’s not having a good time.
He finally makes it to level 2, and things aren’t any better. After being harassed by bats constantly and falling to his death at blind jumps, he decides he’d rather play a CD-i game — in this case, “The Flowers of Robert Maplethorp.”
Yeah… We’re not getting into this subject, or his other photography projects. Nope. Not here, not now. You can look them up if you want, we’re moving on.
Back to Lester, James discovers you can pick up a rock and use that as a weapon. This is fine, until he finds a locked door and learns you need a ruby to open this door. A ruby you can’t hold while also holding the rock, even though there are separate slots for “Weapon” and “Item.”
Still, he makes it to level 3, only to be met with a graveyard that seems like Hell come to Earth and Lester standing on collapsing platforms without even trying to escape — it’s as if he begs for his own death.
Of course, The Nerd doesn’t expect much from a character who behaves like Lester does and comes to to the conclusion the game was some kind of sick experiment to make the worst game character ever. This leads to a monologue where The Nerd talks about what the sequels would probably be like, each one being progressively worse in the most absurd ways possible.
In the end, he says his usual “fuck this game” and decides he should watch some TV. He turns on the old set he’s had since he was a kid (the one he first played NES on, used early in the Nerd series, and did the Odyssey and Pong console videos with) only to discover there’s nothing on. This episode was released late in 2010, over a year after the end of Analog TV in the United States. Of course, since the Nerd is so out of touch with the modern world, he knows nothing of this; let alone does he have a TV with a Digital Tuner!
Final Rating: 4.0/5
This really does have a “classic” Nerd feel. It’s styled almost more like an episode from Season 3 or so, and that gives it a bit of a unique feeling compared to the past few episodes. It’s funny, it has a nice mix of serious criticism with jokes and absurdity, but keeps itself short and to the point. Honestly it feels like a longer episode than it is, which is a plus.
This is one, however, that many fans found a bit of issue with — apparently later in the game Lester actually becomes a capable character, thus contrasting his “wimpy” nature early on. James never got this far in covering the game and thus some people who found Lester the Unlikely to be an enjoyable game in the end felt this was unfair.
I understand this fully, but at the same rate if you look at the game and consider how far the Nerd, were he a real person, would actually get, well, it kind of works for the sake of the episode. Still, I feel maybe he should revisit this one sometime. It’s unlikely, but not impossible.