I like to think, in my more ponderous moments (read: stoned), that gods are born constantly. It was probably the steady diet of British fantasy I consumed while being an ornery Catholic school student during my formative years that led to this continuing line of speculation. Working on the internet every day, I’ve started to spot the reigning deities of the Web 2.0 pantheon. The Angry Video Game Nerd is one of them. I’m not wholly convinced James D. Rolfe was ever a human being at all; he was born straight from the net, a spiritual conjuring made of Youtube users, fandom, and nostalgia addictions. His followers are legion too. Just look at the sheer number of blatant imitators sacrificing their dignity at his altar, the numerous acolytes playing his theme song across Myspace and Facebook. The Nerd’s latest is a look at the myriad licensed peripherals for the original Nintendo Entertainment System and while his acerbic wit takes recognizable oldies like the NES Zapper and Power Pad, he mentions a few that are truly obscure. The Roll & Rocker? The Speedboard? I’d never heard of them either. But as the Nerd reminds us, they certainly do suck.
And since this is filed under Periphery, 61 Frames Per Second’s regular look at gaming peripherals, you should know that Nintendo’s track record of terrible add-ons continues to this day. That Mario Kart wheel is, as the man would say, ass.
Head over to the AVGN’s homepage at Cinemassacre Productions and his home away from home with Screwattack on Gametrailers.com.