Impact (May 16th, 2024) – The Champions’ Challenge Match

This past Thursday’s edition of Impact was all about the Champions’ Challenge match; a massive 16-person tag-team match pitting all the current TNA champions against their potential or would-be challengers. And wouldn’t you know it? Joe Hendry is one of those potential challengers, which means his lovely mug stays on the banner.

So it’s a big 8-on-8 tag team match, 20 minutes of moves and stuff, and  eventually, Mustafa Ali – your reigning X-Division champ whom nobody likes because nobody tags him – decides to fuck off and leave his fellow champions hanging. Hey, what do you want the guy to do? If you ain’t gonna tag him, why bother sticking around? So, long story short, Joe Hendry scored the winning pinfall for his team because Joe Hendry is amazing and the world believes in Joe Hendry… unless you’re Tony Khan. Otherwise, he would have stolen Joe Hendry from TNA ages ago when he had the chance… and he didn’t. His loss; Joe Hendry would’ve solved AEW’s ratings woes right then and there, but instead, he’s in TNA keeping that company relevant.

And then PCO came and gave Steph De Lander a flower… because sure, why not?

The rest of the show… well, I’ll be honest. I pretty much skimmed through most of it just so I can watch the Champion Challenge match, which I hope they don’t beat into the ground every couple weeks or something. Save it for big occasions. I will note that both this and the last show had a good interview segment with Mike Santana talking about time away from TNA and his family and stuff. It’s touching, endearing stuff that gives Santana some much-needed character work that he probably didn’t get during his last days in AEW. I liked that bit.

Quick note: I’ll be doing one more episode of Impact musings before I put this series to be for a brief bit. Next month has a bunch of other stuff going on and I’d much rather focus on that with what little time I’ve got coming up.

AEW Dynamite (May 15th, 2024) – Jumping Off Point

The saga of All Elite Wrestling being run by the Elite continues with this week’s episode of Dynamite and apparently, news broke that Eddie Kingston may have suffered an injury during a New Japan show last week and his status for the show is as questionable as my waning interest in the current direction of this promotion. This show continues to confound me and… well, you know what? I’ll save my thoughts for after the break, because there’s also a bit of an announcement regarding future content as it relates to the wrestling side of things.

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20 Years Of Nerd

May 2004 is the month that marks the 20th anniversary of James Rolfe’s Bad NES Games: Simon’s Quest video that was produced back in 2004, which pretty much gave birth to the Angry Nintendo/Video Game Nerd. I’ve been trying to nail an exact date on when it first appeared or came to fruition, but have uncovered many conflicting results. Youtube says one thing (though to be fair, they didn’t start up until 2005 and both Bad NES Games videos were uploaded in 2006, so that didn’t help.) The Cinemassacre website says another while the Cinemassacre wiki says something else entirely. So I’ve been trying to nail the exact date and came up empty… so we may as well call this the month of Nerd, even though I’m not going spend a whole month celebrating Nerd… this one post and the subsequent video reviews will have to suffice.

Besides, I’d much rather May be the month of Nerd than the day of Star Wars… because at the very least, the chances of a good Nerd episode these days is more likely than whatever crapshoot comes out of the Disney+ camp.

Case in point, the Nerd did post a new episode earlier this week as he plays other Castlevania titles and ponders if they’re better than Super Castlevania IV. I liked the video, it was more reflective and introspective than the usual Nerd stuff, and makes one of the better Nerd episodes that I’ve seen in years. I will certainly preach to the choir and say that it was a far better outing than the last episode where he was reacting to some weird furry hentai game with a horse… what even the fuck was that crap?

Naturally, as is often the case with these things, his conclusion has brought up a bunch of controversy and questioning of James Rolfe’s Castlevania fandom because he prefers [REDACTED] over this and that, to which I say… kindly fuck off. If Rolfe prefers [REDACTED] over your no. 1 pick for greatest Vania EVAR or some bullshit like that, that doesn’t make him any less of a fan than Joe Schmoe hugging their Alucard inflatables while wetting themselves over someone putting their beloved Symphony or Rondo on the [REDACTED] IGA pedestal. I hate to break it to you, but not everyone is going to agree on which Vania is the best. People can enjoy the same things for different reasons and it doesn’t make them any less of a fan of said things because they don’t meet with your lofty standards of fandom.

If you’re offended over someone saying your favorite game isn’t their favorite game or that your best game isn’t their best game… then maybe the problem is with you and not them. Like what you like and let others like what they like. No need to be a c**t about it.

Same thing with the Nerd himself. I feel that his recent stuff isn’t up to the standards of his first few years’ worth of videos, but others could feel differently. I can question why people enjoy that stuff, but I’m not going to begrudge anyone for still following his stuff. If anything, I applaud the man for still maintaining a strong following after all these years. Sure, he has his ups and downs, but the man is still going today after all these years long after his contemporaries had dropped off the face of the Earth. Regardless of what you think of the content as of late, that kind of longevity is to be commended and I tip my hat off to him for lasting as long as he has.

I know some people are expecting some sort of long, drawn-out commemorative essay on the Nerd and his impact and such, but I honestly don’t have much to say about the guy. I don’t watch his content as much as I used to, I’ve sort of moved on from that whole angry reviewing phase unless I’m revisiting old Armake21 videos because those still hold up, and when it comes to influences, I’m more influenced by the likes of Classic Game Room, Ashens, and a couple others than the Nerd himself. With that said, however, the fact that the guy is still going after all this time… again, not everyone tends to last that long doing the same thing over and over. He’s still doing Nerd. He still has a following. And that’s a feather in his cap that no one can take away.

So yeah… happy 20th, AVGN… even though technically you weren’t called that until eighteen years ago, but now we’re arguing semantics… or maybe we’ll just have another anniversary celebration or something. Who knows? Anyway, here’s to another 20 years of bad games.

NFOMO

No fear of missing out on these programs on the Disney+ app that I’m not subscribed to. I’m sure there’s a minute part of me that regrets having subscribed to Paramount+ instead, but at the very least, I’m getting what may very well be the best season of Discovery yet.

(I say this based entirely on the fact that the show hasn’t turned me off and the overarching storyline is at least somewhat interesting. And while I do consider this to be the best of Discovery’s five seasons, it’s still Discovery when all is said and done and thus there are lots of Discovery tropes that annoy me, but I can willfully put up with to see this season through.)

In any event, I’ve had a couple people (for some reason) wonder about the new Doctor Who as well as the X-Men 97 series that supposedly serves as a continuation of the original 90s X-Men cartoon… and I can answer both with the same answer.

I have not seen them.

With Doctor Who, I wasn’t even aware that the season had started, so chances are I may have to give it a watch when I have the chance. As far as X-Men 97 is concerned, that is simply due to a lack of interest. Mostly because I only saw the first couple seasons of X-Men when it first aired, enjoyed it for the most part, and then gave up on it once Power Rangers became the thing to watch… and also, Batman: The Animated Series was also a thing… and also Spider-Man… and eventually, Superman… and… you get the idea.

Hell, I hadn’t even watched anything from the last couple seasons of the show until a few years afterwards, where I had noticed a drastic drop in the overall quality of the animation and it seemed to have suffered from the Captain Planet syndrome of cheap-as-shit animation in the latter years of its run. That said, I have been keeping up with the plot threads going on in that show and given the direction that it took several characters and some of the stories that it’s been aping as of late, let’s just say that I’m in no hurry to get back on that particular bandwagon anytime soon.

The Knuckles “Event”… Eh.

After two Sonic The Hedgehog movies – that I liked – Paramount put out a Knuckles miniseries… oh wait, it’s not a miniseries. It’s an event. Ooh… aah…

Eh…

This is a show less about Knuckles and more about some guy named Wade and his wacky Jewish family… because that’s what I want to see in my miniseries… er, I mean, event… about a giant red echidna who feels out of place and is trying to adjust to life on Earth. I mean, you get some of that here… but it’s more about Wade and his business and… Wade is not that interesting of a character.

Dude, the CG characters are the interesting critters. Those are the critters you’re building this media franchise around, not some schmuck people are going to forget about in ten years time. I want to see Knuckles in a series called Knuckles doing Knuckles stuff. This stuff… this stuff with Wade, this excuse to play every single licensed song under the sun… the bowling tournament… these other schmucks that are poor stand-ins for Knuckles… what even is this?

I’m not saying this is a bad show nor am I saying this is a good show. I’m saying it’s a show I don’t like because I thought I was getting one thing and instead I got another thing… and, well, why am I watching this?

So… yeah… not a fan…

If you have a free trial, don’t waste it on this. There are better things to watch on Paramount+. There’s a bunch of old Ninja Turtles on there you could want if you want all the 80s and 90s nostalgia you can stuff down the marble zone. All of that is better than this.

Hopefully Sonic 3 will be good.

Forever Burnt – The Latest Limited Run Snake Oil Package

Source: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/05/limited-run-games-apologises-for-shipping-3do-games-on-cd-rs

So… yeah… Limited Run… insert rimshot here.

For those who missed the news, some folks ordered limited edition physical releases of classic 3DO game “D” some time ago. And those who got their physical releases (that they probably paid a premium for in the first place) were shocked to discovered that their limited edition new release of “D” for their vintage 3DO game systems were burnt CD-Rs rather than the proper professionally pressed CDs you’d expect from a physical release, especially that which you’re paying a premium for. Yes, the company that is supposedly about game preservation is content with charging you sixty bucks for a CD-R that you could probably make yourself for pennies. Now add insult to injury, most 3DO systems can’t run CD-Rs, so now these poor people who ordered this limited run of reproductions paid x number of dollars for a burnt CD that you could probably make yourself for pennies that won’t even run on your fucking console.

I’ve only purchased one item from Limited Run… that one experience was enough to tell me that they’re not worth the effort and I’ve never been a fan of their practices. Even so, I figured that they would at least TRY to put out a quality product for the prices they’re charging. In an industry that is bullish about piracy and using copy protection methods that end up being detrimental to the people who actually PURCHASE their products, the last thing I would expect is someone with the legitimate credentials of Limited Run to think that it would be a good idea to charge premium prices for fancy packages and burn the actual software on CD-Rs.

I hear that and I’m laughing my ass off. This comes across a joke. Part of me feels sorry for the folks who bought this thing and expected more, but on the flip side, it’s only a matter of time before Limited Run dives deeper into the garbage merchant handbook with other tricks of the trade that people will complain about and eventually accept as a way of life. And if this is the future of physical media in video games… then maybe we’d all be better off in the digital age.

I keep teasing about having this discussion… I feel like I need to sit down and gather my thoughts on this thing… I’ve got other stuff to do first, but… sooner or later… hopefully sooner…

Impact (May 9th, 2024) – Not Enough Joe Hendry

Yes, we’re keeping Joe Hendry in the banner until he bores the shit out of me… and that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, I think. Unfortunately, Mr. Hendry didn’t make an appearance on this show; the most we get is a video package and… yeah, while I may believe in Joe Hendry, my faith in TNA to do things right… well, it never existed in the first place and it’s a fluke that I’ve been enjoying this show for as long as I have.

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Nintendo Releasing A “Nintendo World Championships” Game

Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/05/nintendo-world-championships-nes-edition-launches-on-switch-in-july

Finally, a non-wrestling post.

So yes, Nintendo is releasing a Nintendo World Championships game, which seems to be a bunch of speedrunner challenges on a variety of NES games. So it’s almost like an NES Remix type of the deal, but more of an emphasis on speed challenges.

I’ve played my share of NES Remix, I liked it, but I don’t need another one like it. I would’ve preferred a release that replicated the experience of those World Championship tournaments, similar to the brief period where reproduction carts of Nintendo World Championships 1990 were a thing, but this is a thing for some folks that will be available for purchase in July.

In the meantime, I’ll hold out hope for Rad Racer to become a thing again… later.