James and Mike Mondays - Colecovision - 2 parts

[Oldschool80skid]

 

[ColecoJoe]

I wish they would download PDF manuals before playing the games they play on Monday's .. half the time they don't even know what they are doing

[TPR]

I find these James & Mike Mondays videos to be so cringeworthy because they seem to lack so much knowledge of the games or the systems they are playing. I really do like AVGN but every time I end up watching one of the J&MM videos (which is not often, BTW) I feel like "Wow, James really doesn't know much about video games at all, other than how to present a bad game in a funny and entertaining way." (And that's fine, because he doesn't pretend to be a game expert on AVGN)

 

I mean, they appear to be playing Rocky with a standard controller complaining that it doesn't do much other than one punch even though they are holding a cart in their hand that clearly says SUPER ACTION CONTROLLER on it. 5 minutes of internet browsing would help these videos out so much, but it annoys me how little they seem to put into researching the games that are playing mainly because they probably don't have to because their channel is so big now that even if they post garbage it will still get views.

[Swami]

I wish they would download PDF manuals before playing the games they play on Monday's .. half the time they don't even know what they are doing

There is/was a blog called something like "Who needs a manual" where these two guys would review lesser known Atari 2600 games before reading the manual and then again after reading the manual. Some of those were kinda humorous - I think for Gas Hog, they thought it was about a pig who ate beans a farted. I remember them being way off on Raft Rider, too.

[BassGuitari]

Anytime these guys cover pre-NES stuff, it's a little cringy for me. I mean, they're still entertaining enough, but for two guys who are supposed to be so knowledgeable about classic games, they don't know shit about most of them.

 

I was watching these the other day thinking to myself, "We're officially and irreversibly at the point where videogames of a certain vintage are so alien now that no succeeding generation of people will know how to even approach them." One aspect of that being...sometimes you need to read the manual.

 

I think Mike made some comment during the Tarzan gameplay, to the effect of "they hadn't figured out game design yet." That one made me scream at my phone (my YouTube device of choice) a little bit. And I screamed even more as I knew that from here on out, there will really be no meaningful correcting of that mindset on a wide scale. It's rooted too deeply now.

[Hannacek]

They spend a lot of time and effort on the scripted videos, so they do James and Mike Mondays to get quick easy videos out. They don't want months of nothing in between AVGN videos. Because these are supposed to be quick easy unscripted videos, they choose to not spend any time preparing for these videos.

Although he doesn't read the manual or prepare at all for the AVGN videos, so you would think they would read the manual and select the best and most interesting games to play for the unscripted videos, but they don't.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Hannacek

[ColecoJoe]

They spend a lot of time and effort on the scripted videos, so they do James and Mike Mondays to get quick easy videos out. They don't want months of nothing in between AVGN videos. Because these are supposed to be quick easy unscripted videos, they choose to not spend any time preparing for these videos.

 

Although he doesn't read the manual or prepare at all for the AVGN videos, so you would think they would read the manual and select the best and most interesting games to play for the unscripted videos, but they don't.

 

It's not like the manuals are 40 pages long I enjoy all their output of course but the lack of knowledge is frustrating sometimes I mean, I'm 46 ... they don't seem too far away from that age and never heard of Pepper II, even though AVGN did the double vision series that focused on the INTV and ColecoVision - how did you miss Pepper II?????

 

... that being said, better than any video I never made

[TPR]

It's not like the manuals are 40 pages long

 

Or even just reading the cartridge label would help! Like in Rocky's case. Seriously, doing FIVE MINUTES of research would have greatly improved their knowledge of the system and these games. I don't make videos anywhere close to stuff like this on my channel but when I do game videos of a game I may not be as familiar with, I always look up the game, maybe watch a couple minutes of another video or two, and actually try to have SOME knowledge of the game. It's not hard.

 

Anytime these guys cover pre-NES stuff, it's a little cringy for me.

 

Even when they are doing NES stuff! Like I said, I have not watched that many of the J&MM videos so maybe I've only caught the ones where they are unfamiliar with the games they are playing, but did you ever see the Wrecking Crew video? To me this is a pretty staple NES classic game that anyone who is even somewhat knowledgeable about the NES should know. He seemed pretty clueless about this game for the most part...

[atarilovesyou]

These two guys, while deserving a lot of cred for their early pioneering of retrogaming on youtube, are more movie nerds than anything else. That's their real forte, and why their website isn't called Videogamassacre.

 

So I don't get too bent outta shape when they don't know what their talking about..which happens a lot, consideroig they are also NES kids.

 

There really aren't that many retro channels I watch with REALLY knowledgeable people. Oh, there's lots of opinion people out there..that's the easy money. But when you don't know shit about Coleco yet choose to make a filler video about it, it will make a lot of real fans facepalm hard.

 

Worse out there are the ones who simply chose retro gaming as a topic for their channel simply because it's more popular than it's ever been. These people need to pick something else because it ain't working.

 

Ok, there is one thing worse: the smokin hawt internet babe who reads a nerd-written script about retro gaming. Again, because boobs. But I digress.

[BassGuitari]

I mean, I don't have an inherent problem with them (or anybody) not knowing about the games, and diving in sort of blind and just giving their impressions and such. But, then...they shouldn't act like they know what they're talking about, either.

[Swami]

I mean, I don't have an inherent problem with them (or anybody) not knowing about the games, and diving in sort of blind and just giving their impressions and such. But, then...they shouldn't act like they know what they're talking about, either.

Yes. Its one thing to be clueless on purpose and then examine how clueless you were, its another to just be clueless and waste peoples time.

[Ramses]

You'd think they could at least have one of them quickly look up the manual and skim through while the other is playing.

[PhoenixMoonPatrol]

The problem is theyre hardcore Nintendo nerds and pretty much view anything that came before NES with a frowned upon view of the systems and the software. They can play some of the worst trash software that was on the NES but somehow approach pre Nintendo systems like 95% of the software are unplayable. Sometimes I leave a comment advising them to stick with Nintendo systems since theyre like a fish out of water when play pre cash consoles. They're Jerry Springer material allot of the time when they go back to play anything earlier than NES.

Edited August 9, 2018 by PhoenixMoonPatrol

[Inky]

I was yelling at my screen the whole time.

[Oldschool80skid]

I found it funny how James didn't know how to properly hold the controller. He is so awkward with it.

[Downland1983]

It drives me nuts watching Mike Matei play B.C.'s Quest for Tires and talk about how it was one of his favorite games back in the day. Yet, when he plays it in both the James and Mike Mondays and his ColecoVision live stream videos he is clueless regarding just about every aspect of the game. In his livestream in particular, at the water crossing stage with The Fat Broad, he kept going right into her club and dying without ever figuring out that she is swinging the club at you and that you have to pass her while the club is in the air and not jump right into it when it is at face level. And in neither video did I see them manually accelerate the game speed once, but made a point to comment "how primitive" and "really awkward" the control scheme is because to jump "you have to press up and then over" to clear objects. Which, yes, if you want to play the entire game at the slowest speed, you will have to move forward in mid air to clear jumps. If you actually bother to manually increase your speed, that's not necessary. They actually said it "takes time to get used to" jumping right before or ducking right before you approach an object. When would you think you would need to jump over a log or a rock? 20 feet before you are near it??

 

I'm pretty sure I went a decade or so of separation between playing B.C. Quest for Tires, but I was never that ignorant of it's game mechanics when I went back to it.

[TPR]

The problem is theyre hardcore Nintendo nerds and pretty much view anything that came before NES with a frowned upon view of the systems and the software. They can play some of the worst trash software that was on the NES but somehow approach pre Nintendo systems like 95% of the software are unplayable.

 

It's not even just the NES forward, I really feel the guys just aren't "gamers" as much as they are video production guys. Look at the Wrecking Crew video I posted above and then here is another NES video they posted a few months ago, Snow Bros:

 

I don't feel either one of those games are that uncommon or that hard to figure out to play, yet at 1:01 in this video they say "Neither one of us know exactly what we are doing" and that seems to be the common theme for most of their "gameplay" videos I've seen. I really do like AVGN because it's a "narrative" and being able to play the game is less important than writing involved in making fun of it or trashing the game, but when it comes to them actually sitting down and playing games they just come across as total newbies when it comes to most games they play. Sitting down for 5 minutes with a game or the instructions prior to recording would make them seem more like pros then newbies.

 

Case in point, before I made this video: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279134-risky-rick-in-dangerous-traps-june-25th/page-11?p=4088457&do=findComment&comment=4088457

 

I had never played Risky Rick or Rick Dangerous. I did a quick skim through of the instructions and I did *ONE* playthrough before recording that video. My entire total experience with that game was probably less than ten minutes, yet the video doesn't come across like a newb playing it.

[Nebulon]

I also find it a bit painful to watch them draw conclusions when they haven't read the manuals yet.

 

At the same time though, they really seem to be enjoying playing ColecoVision games.

 

Maybe that enthusiasm will be infectious...

[TPR]

At the same time though, they really seem to be enjoying playing ColecoVision games.

 

Maybe that enthusiasm will be infectious...

 

That is a really good point. Despite their lack of wanting to do any research or knowing much about what they are doing, they at least are having fun, showing that the games are fun, and not trashing the system that much, which is most certainly a GOOD thing!

[mbd30]

There has been a backlash lately when it comes to the gaming abilities of James and Mike. Look at the comments section for their Donkey Kong Country 3 episode.

 

Mike Matei is a pretty good gamer when he actually cares and puts some effort into it. Super Empire Strikes Back, for example, is not easy.

 

 

 

 

 

James isn't really a gamer. He's much more into movies. His best videos besides classic AVGN are movie related.