Humor, Miscellaneous

The AVGN Has Never Played a Bad Sonic Game

All I can say about Sonic is…it’s awesome! – James Rolfe a.k.a. the Angry Video Game Nerd

Not something you expected to hear from what is possibly the world’s most irate game player. James Rolfe has put out a video of him outside of the role of the Nerd and unscripted describing his memories on playing Sonic the Hedgehog games. Surprise! He states in the video that he has never played a bad Sonic game. If the video is of any indication, he probably stopped playing them after a certain point. The video covers his fond memories of Sonic 1, 2, 3, Spinball (Briefly) and Sonic CD.

Like any enthusiast, one will probably dissect the video and see how his memory stacks up to their own experience with the games. While James recounts his fondest memories from what seems like years that he last played a Sonic game after being introduced to the series by his neighbors, there’s something a bit off from the footage used for the video.

If the red number didn’t throw you off, you’ll notice that the font is taken from…Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It’s not supered over the actual game. It’s running in real time. The Nerd is usually known for using actual hardware to play games. No save states. No modifications. Where did this footage come from? The Nerd is at Game Trailers  and is probably not compiling the video himself. However, running behind him is footage from what is definitely a modified version of Sonic 1 and most likely through an emulator. Not to over analyze the video, as the other games don’t really have anything that any enthusiast here at Retro would find amiss.

Outside of that, the Nerd has some fond memories on Sonic, from the debug mode, the lambasting Tails, up to Sonic CD, using footage from Taxman’s port. (As well as the instrumental version of You Can Do Anything laid for the opening and closing of the video.) Worth a look if you’re into the Angry Video Game Nerd.

[Via Angry Video Game Nerd: Sonic Memories (HD)] 

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19 Comments

  • Reply

    He apparently hasn’t played Sonic 06.

    • Reply

      06 wasn’t as bad as people say it was. It had some nave pacing. And most of the bug were just fun to mess with. Mach speed sucked though. And the plot was so bad it was funny.

  • Reply

    so i guess he hasnt played the awsomeness that is the adventure games. sonic labyrnth review for the win

  • Reply

    There should be more videos of James just chatting about memories. 🙂

  • Reply

    It’s nice to see that he loves Sonic despite the bad games.

  • Reply

    So basically you’re advertising a well known video game critic, even though it isn’t at all necessary.

    I wouldn’t have a problem with you talking about his video, if you actually added something worthwhile to start the conversation.

    All that was said in this post was that the games he was supposedly playing in the background are modified, how is that very informative? Anyone who has an actual interest in James’s videos would already be watching him, and would most likely notice something like that if they cared.

    And before anyone says that it’s a good idea to spread the word about his work, this is the guy who is funding a somewhat big movie(By independent standards), on mainly fan donations ($325,927 at the moment).

    Not to mention how much he makes from ads on every one of his videos, plus reposts on places like Youtube. So I don’t think he needs very much publicity.

    Also, James is in California last time I heard about his movie, so it wouldn’t make sense to bring a Genesis/Mega Drive along. Especially if he wouldn’t have known he was going to make that video.

    The only thing about this post that I can think of that actually was worth being here, is the credits to those who’s content they took without crediting said people. For that I give you credit, however, the rest of it wasn’t exactly necessary.

    Your post reminds me more of an official description for the video, so basically what I feel should have already been there on the video. It’s not exactly the kind of style I’d expect for a news/advertisement kind of post.

    • Reply

      Check’s in the mail.

      Seriously though, I…thought the video was interesting. Even through the inconsistencies, it just seemed odd that they were using what appears to be a rom hack in the first place. It’s not really meant to criticize the Nerd. Through copyright law you’re not supposed to show modified game material. Plus there are some funny moments in the video that I didn’t want to spoil to those who were going to watch it. The fact that he pointed out how Tails seemed rather worthless to the point that he hinders your progress, as made more apparent in the Sonic 3 portion of the video. Of course now I found a typo in the article. It’s supposed to mention that there’s nothing else besides Sonic 1 that appears to be running a modified version of the game. Besides Sonic CD, technically. My bad.

  • Reply

    Why is it so hard for Sonic ans to believe AVGN actually likes Sonic games and assume he didn’t play any game past Sonic 3? seriously is the Sonic fandom that crazy?

  • Reply

    As pointed out on the forums, the hack in question is Sonic 1 Gaslight, one of Esrael’s old Sonic creations from 2001.

    From the days where changing title cards was cutting edge stuff in the ROM hacking scene.

  • Reply

    The red one could mean he is taking the piss for the special day. XD

  • Reply

    I don’t think James was the one who recorded the gameplay himself. It seems like GameTrailers just interviewed him on a green screen then put in the game footage themselves.

  • Reply

    Not like it’s a couple days before April Fools when this was posted. Just saying, might be part of the whole thing. What with the whole “smells like bullshit” parts and all that.

  • Reply

    AVGN , the only good thing in Gametrailers….
    well, death battle too.

  • Reply

    “If you picked Tails, you were getting the shitty end of the deal.”
    Actually, Sonic and Tails go at the same speeds in both games, and in one Tails can FLY, so this isn’t necessarily true.

    • Reply

      I’m pretty sure he meant when you’re playing co-op. Even if Tails can fly, the camera is still centered on Sonic, so if you decide to fly up and to the left, but your friend as Sonic goes to the right and falls down to a lower part of the level, you’re pretty much screwed.

      And who didn’t do the “oh hey Tails you want to land well guess what I’m going to keep on jumping so you can’t” shtick.

  • Reply

    @MetalShadowChaos you’re wrong. ’06 is just as unplayable as the internet makes it out to be.
    Something like Swordless Link or Minus World are fun little programming hiccups, but the whole game throwing a fit for no reason, messing up scripted jumps or not triggering cut scenes and randomly not responding to the jump button, however, is not.
    Also it had the most disorienting hub level ever conceived and >>Now Loading

    I respect your opinion, but you’re wrong.

    Just my 2cc, I like the Nerd best when he’s reviewing obscure stuff rather than doing live sketches.
    Also he has a massive collection, Sonic 1 is probably the cheapest most common MegaDrive game, he probably already owns a legit copy, that was just the video editing crew grabbing the first ROM they could find off the internet and messing up.

  • Reply

    I did that a lot… Except it was more like “I’m going to grab every Super Sneakers I can find, and when you think I’m done, I’m going to turn into Super Sonic”

  • Reply

    That’s weird- after Sonic and Knuckles I’m yet to play a good Sonic game… except for Generations of course- and even then that wasn’t as good as the classics.

  • Reply

    That’s because there isn’t a bad 16-bit Sonic game 🙂

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