I wouldn't be here today without them

ScrewAttack was an innovator in online content creation. Before YouTube was mega-popular and gaming personalities became a thing, ScrewAttack was promoting community-made content and shining a light on a different side of the internet. This was a place where being a big nerd wasn't looked down on and where loving video g??ames was just the norm. If you knew the meaning behind the name, you ??were part of the G1's and family.

Just yesterday, Craig Skistimas (one of the co-founders of the website), Tweeted out the news that ScrewAttack would be rebranding itself as the "Death Battle Channel" and shifting all of its legacy conte??nt to Rooster Teeth's portal. A show that started in 2010, Death Battle became the dominant program on the channel and changed the direction of the brand forever. No longer were there random clips of the week or personality focused content, but a bunch of guys worki??ng their asses off to produce a pretty high-quality show about fan debates. Say what you will about Death Battle, but it’s the only show of its type on the internet and it often rocks.

When I heard the news, I was pretty shocked. It's not that I don't agree with the change, but I never thought I'd see the day where ScrewAttack disappeared. I was first introduce??d to the website from The Angry Video Game Nerd in 2007, but I eventually migrated over to their website in 2008. From there, I began blogging on a near weekly basis and it launched my love for writing, talking about video games and wanting to get more involved in journalism and games media.

There was a time in my life where I wasn't so sure about my love of gaming. I thought I had seen it all and was beginning to lose interest in the new consoles and gaming trends of the era. ??I didn’t know if I could continue gaming and was scared that my cynicism was getting the better of me. When I saw a video of Craig and the ScrewAttack crew listing off their favorite SNES games, I realized that there was more to this hobby. Even if I fell out of the modern scene, I could always talk about my love of retro gaming and express that love to others on the internet.

From that moment on, I ded??icated myself to becoming a member of games media. That may be a stupid dream, but it was something I wanted. I liked writing, I loved games and I was damn good at putting my thoughts into writing. Maybe it wouldn't earn me enough money to live, but I wanted my voice to be heard. I wanted to be like the guys at ScrewAttack.

After a month or s?o, I ended up finding out about ScrewAttack's personal convention, SGC and attended the first one in 2009. I volunteered my time and got a fre??e pass, which is still a wonderful memory for me. Here were these people I had been admiring for a full year standing right in front of me and I was contributing to their success. I was able to help realize their dreams and it was bringing me one step closer to making connections in the industry.

I continued blogging, attending their conventions and getting more involved with the crew. After many years, I basically became friends with them on a name basis. Craig knew me from my face alone, ?and was able to spot me in the middle of a crowd. The very first PAX I attended, I ran into Craig and was dumbfounded on how he could recall specific moments we had together. The amount of love ScrewAttack had for their community was beyond compare.

I may be a bit biased towards them, but some of the best memori??es of my life come from this website and their live events. My twenties were not the best period of my life. I've long suffered from depression and often felt like giving up. When I had the lowest of lows, ScrewAttack was there to lift me back up.

I would have never discovered Destructoid without them, either. Years back, Destin Legarie of IGN fame not only produced Hard News on ScrewAttack but did freelance reviews for Dtoid. D?ue to the relationship that both sites had with each other, I migrated over to Dtoid for my gaming news and continued blogging here. After years of blogging, a chance moment led to me eventually making the jump to staff and now I've earned my shot at having my voice heard.

While Craig still lives on through Game Attack, it's hard to finally accept that ScrewAttack is gone. I d??idn't write this earlier as I had a mixture of anger and sadness clouding my judgment. I wanted to shout about corporate acquisitions and cry about how a part of my youth had died out. After reflecting on it, though, I realized something. The reason I was so worked up was that ScrewAttack meant so much to me.

This likely isn't a good enough memorial to the guys, but I'm happy that I was able to be even a small part of the legacy that ScrewAttack left in this world.  They defined not only ??my direction in life but the lives of countless others. ScrewAttack may ?be gone, but it will never be forgotten by the people it touched.

The post ScrewAttack may be gone, but it will never?? ??be forgotten appeared first on Destructoid.

A digital bundle of ASS

FreakZone Games has announced that it will be porting both of its Angry Video Game Nerd titles to consoles in the near future. Coming in a bundle titled Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe, the compilation will feature a completely rebuilt original game on the AVGN2 engine. FreakZone is teasing some ??p?ossible additions to each title, the extent of which is unknown.

In fact, the specific consoles are also unknown. I think it is a safe bet to assume a Switch port is happening (especially with some of the cheeky responses given to fans), but we'll learn more as we get closer to release. If you are p??resent at PAX South this weekend, you can give the re-release a whirl at FreakZone's booth.

FreakZone Games [Twitter]

The post Both AVGN Adventure games will be hitt?ing consoles in a?n enhanced form soon appeared first on Destructoid.

Man was shot and killed by police

A few days ago, YouTube personalities Gavin Free and Meg Turney were targeted in their Austin, Texas home by a disturbed fan. Both Free and Turney? hid in a closet and called 911 after the man entered their house. Police arrived within 10 minutes and the man was fatally shot in the couple's d??riveway.

Christopher Giles was the name of the perpetrator and his intent (as gathered from evidence on his phone) was to kill Free. One of the many messages recovered stated?, "I want Gavin Free to die alone, with no children." Giles had become enamored with Turney after watching various vlogs of hers. When police had arrived on the scene, the man was backing out of the driveway where he was told to stop. A gunshot was heard from the car and police returned fire.

Both victims recall hearing a gunshot and glass shattering around 3:40 am while they were sleeping. They then took to hiding and waited for the police? to arrive. Giles searched the home and couldn't find the victims, so he decided to leave. Security footage from the house shows Giles carrying a .45 caliber firearm.

Free and Turney are most famous for their roles at Rooster Teeth productions, where they've worked on various different shows over the last decade. Most of you may know Free for his work on Red Vs. Blue, while Turney is most prominent for The Know (a show about current events in pop culture).

ABQ man targeted YouTube celebrities [Albuquerque Journal]
Home invasion suspect shot and killed by AP?D officer identified [KXAN]

The post A deranged fan targeted ????YouTube personalities Gavin Free and Meg Turney in their home appeared first on Destructoid.

How can you breathe?!

??Change and the internet are two things that don’t g??et along very well.

There could be any number of reasons why, but the biggest is typically fear. As creatures of habit, humans have a hard time reacting to brand new stimuli once we get settled into a routine. We become accustomed to something that we enjoy and get scared that, eventually, it m?ay leave us behind.

Destructoid has recently been subjected to quite a big change. Our acquisition by Enthusiast Gaming has some of our long time commun??ity members afraid that we’ll never be the same.

Coincidentally, there is another fairly large gaming website that has recently gone through a similar shift in ownership. Screwattack.com, founded in the same year as Destructoid, was acquired by Rooster Teeth in 2015. Just a few months ago, the company was turned over by its founder, Stuttering Craig, to a longtime employee (Chad James) so that Craig could create an independent streaming channel, called Game Attack, with his best friend???????????????????????????? Shaun Bolen.

It&rsquo?;s safe to say that longtime fans of Screwattack were a bit upset. The website had shifted away from the content that made it popular a decade ago and now even the father was leaving the company, which seems to be signaling the end. While I don’t believe that thought process, it’s not hard to see why some people are scared that their home for the last 10 years might be changing dramatically.

At RTX I had the chance to interview Stuttering Craig and Shaun Bolen, the tag team streaming duo of the world that makes up Game Attack. I? asked them what they believe causes fan outrage to change, what they think is the recipe for staying relevant online and what the future may hold for them.

_{[Disclosure: I have previously supported Screwattack by buying merchandise from them and funding a Kickstarter for their convention in 2012. I have volunteered at nearly all of their conventions along with sponsoring Game Attack on YouTube.]}

Craig started off by saying, “I’m going to a use a word that sounds harsh, but it’s not;?? Ignorance. It just means you don’t have knowledge on an issue. When you’re ignorant towards something, that’s okay! It’s not bad! A lot of times, peo??ple get upset about things they don’t know or that can’t be said correctly. That’s okay! It’s okay to be upset about things.”

Bolen then followed that up with, “immaturity in the audience.” I can definitely see that, as I’ve noticed similar reactions to seemingly pointless things. When developers break news that a game is being “censored,” people tend to react like the apoca??lypse is coming??.

“I think Mass Effect 3 is my biggest thing when it comes to fan outrage,” Bolen continues. “Not only did fans force the creators to change the ending because they didn’t like it, but they forced two RPG icons out of the entire gaming space. I honestly think [the controversy around] Mass Effect 3 is a disgrace to all gamers everywhere.”

Relatin??g this back to one of Screwattack’s productions, Death Battle (a show which sees two famous pop culture characters fight to the death), Bolen then proclaimed, “People forget that these are not real characters worth sending death threats o?ver.”

Craig concurred with Bolen and added, “People are passionate about products, passionate about things. Anytime there is something they don’t like, just look at De??ath Battle. You take the??se icons that have massive fan bases and guess what? One of them dies. All of a sudden, you are the bad guy because you created this.”

“People hate change. They do! Nobody likes change,” Craig says. “You go to Pizza Hut for years and you like their thick crust pizza and when they don’t have that on the menu anymore, you’re going to be pissed! It’s just one ??of those things where, there is change on so many different levels and you just got to deal with it.”

“Change happens every day in life. G??ood; Bad; Indifferent. For us, w?e’ve dealt with a lot of change between our brands. We’re in the middle of one of the biggest changes right now. We created Game Attack in October and just two months ago we split away from our parent company. That is a lot of change in just eight months.”

It mostly comes down to the way the internet has evolved over the years. Craig even began explaining how social media has given rise to the ability for literally anyone to sound off on a subject. “The idea of having a voice is reall??y great,” Craig says, “and I think it’s really fun. Unfortunately, you get really shitty voices sometimes. You take the equation of everyone having a voice, plus passion, plus ignorance and you get fan outrage.”

What is the best way to deal with said outrage, though? Do you try to hide the truth and keep everyone ignorant, or do you pull back the curtain and reveal the inner workings of your operation? Craig is more into the latter. “For me, personally,” Craig begins?, “I try to be as honest as I possibly can about the situation.”

Bolen nods in agreement before adding, “You try to listen and be transparent about the change. There are some people that you are never going to appease. There is nothing you can do about t??hat except for hope that they trust you.”

“Someone people won’t understand,” Craig follows up, “and some will. It’s similar with Destructoid; you guys have had an audience for a long time you’ve developed a relationship with them. There are going to be freak out moments from your most passionate fans and even fans you’ve never heard of. I think that as long as you’re transparent and you try to be as upfr??ont and realistic as you can, that eventually your fans will see.&??ldquo;

What for the fans that just refuse to accept change? Does their feedback become meaningless? Do they offer nothing to the creative process, apart from a slight distraction? &ldqu?o;I read the mad feedback,” Bolen says. “I take it to heart??. But I also try to take whatever positive feedback I can out of it. I honestly ignore angry feedback that isn’t genuine.”

With all of that stated, what, then, becomes the recipe for success? How does a website remain relevant on the internet, a beast where even a day without an update can cause you to fade into obscu?rity? With specific regards to the? past of Screwattack, Craig believes that never settling is what truly helps retain an audience.

“Whenever an idea came about for a show at Screwattack,” Craig says, “our thought process was ‘let’s do it! Let’s try!’ It was chaos! It was always chaos! But we ended up getting a show done and putting it out there. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, but we alwa?ys tried.”

Game Attack had originally started in a similar manner to Screwattack. Almost everything they put out on YouTube was pre-recorded and edited for maximum quality. It took a lot of man hours and hard work to create a fifteen minute video, but the fruits of that labor were never really present. One of the most popular videos on the channel, a ridiculous and hysterical spoof of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, only earned Game Attack $53.

Clearly stayin?g the course was not going to work. As Bolen put, they could work 120 hour weeks to make maybe $250??-$500, or they needed to switch formats into the quickly evolving livestreaming community. Screwattack has a history with such endeavors, having launched one of the earliest livestream shows with “Out of the Box” in 2008, so they weren’t opposed to the idea.

“One of our community members,” Bolen recounts, “had sta??ted that YouTube’s VOD (video on demand) content is stagnating just as fast as livestreaming is innovating. I thought that was really, really, really true. You look at not?? even just gaming channels, but vlog channels and stuff similar to that; I think once bloggers and lifestyle channels figure out that they can have one-to-one interaction with their audience, you’re going to see VOD content evaporate.”

Craig then interjects, “That’s just part of innovation. Now you can buy these programs wh??ere you’re streaming 10 minutes after installing it to your PC. It is so easy to stream right now.”

“I’ve always been interested in building a really intimate community,” Bolen states. “Screw??attack wasn’t the right platform for that. Craig and I had livestreamed five days a week for 16 months trying to build that audience and it wasn’t really there. That’s okay, too.”

“At that time,” Craig mentions, “we were around three million subscribers [for Screwattack] on YouTube. Just from a sheer subscriber number, when you reach a size that big, it’s hard to have that intimacy. For us, we saw the audience shif?ting. I felt there was a hardcore audience in there that was longing for something ?different. Something more intimate with the kind of interaction that Screwattack was originally known for.”

Along with the direct fan interaction, it was simply a matter of YouTube giving more power to creators. Ad revenue might be getting slashed, but there are now ways that fans can directly support the creators they love. Craig even mentioned how they lean heavily on YouTube sponsors (where fans pay a small fe??e to get content), direct donations through PayPal and YouTube’s “Super Chat” system (which allows viewers to pay to have a message broadcast to the entire channel).

“It was just kind of a natural step,” Craig states. “I feel like, with Screwattack, it was?? a compilation of everything I had done with my life up to that point. With Game Attack, I feel like this is what I’m here to do.”

Before leavi??ng my chat with Craig, he wanted to shar??e a message to everyone on Destructoid and the internet:

The post Talking change and fan outrage with Game Attack’s Craig and Bolen appeared first on Destructoid.

More games, silly!

Rooster Teeth may be best known for its productions on YouTube, the most famous being Red vs. Blue (which actually started before YouTube), but not a lot of people realize that they are making a big push to enter game publishing. Just last year, RWBY: Grimm Eclipse hit steam during RTX and marked the first attempt that the company made for finding indie talent and m?aking dreams come true.

This past weekend, I got a chance to speak with Michael Hadwin, the director of games for Rooster Teeth, about how they got started with publishing and w?hat some of their ?plans are for the future.

One of the founding members of the company, Burnie Burns, has been a huge fan of games for a while and was kicking the idea around for at least 10 years. Michael told me that Burnie would constantly run into him and say things like, “One of these days, we want to make games,” but the stars never properly aligned for that to happen. It takes a lot of money to start publishing, so coming fr??om nothing wasn’t the best way to go about fulfilling that goal.

What really set things in motion was when a fan had created a game based around the popular RWBY series a few years back. While the demo was pretty rough and obviously needed a bigger budget, it still had a solid gameplay loop that could really blossom into something great with the proper care. The creator of RWBY, the late Monty ??Oum, took notice of the title and reached out to the fan to acquire their code.

Rooster Teeth seized an opportunity with a product that none of the RT staff could really make themselves. If they weren?’t learning game development, why not get people on board who did know and let them use their properties? As Michael said himself, “What if we just brought in a team of game developers to?? help this guy make this game into something special?”

That bold move has now led to a successful game with future DLC and expansions being planned. At PAX South earlier this year, RT Games unveiled Battlesloths 2025 to the world. So with two games now ?under their belt, the company is set on working on an entirely?? new IP.

I couldn’t quite get details out of Michael, but he has a lot of faith in the game, even going so far as to say it might put the company on the map. RT Games is waiting for just the right time to reveal this mystery title to the public, possibly at anot?her conventio?n or conference in the future.

The biggest shocker for the company is that David Eddings had been fired Gearbox a few months ago. Eddings had worked as the vice president of licensing at Gearbox for 12 years (and even provided the voice of CL4P-TP in Borderlands). It certainly seems odd that he would want to join a much smaller company a??fter having attained so much success. Michael’s response to my? questioning why he joined: “He lost a bet.”

As for the real reason why, Michael told me, “David and I are old colleagues. We worked together at the old publishing company called Gathering of Developers. We&r??squo;ve just kind of kept up with each other ever since.” Since Rooster Teeth has seen a lot of expansion in the last year, it seems David was intrigued by the prospects that were opening up within the company.

“I told him what we were planning to do with publishing,” Micha?el iterates, “and he said, ‘Man! That sounds really exciting to me! It sounds like I can get involved on the ground floor to help building something really cool for indie developers!’” Perhaps David just wanted to get more involved with the process of selecting whom he works with.

“David Eddings actually joined us so he could help spearhead and push us into the right direction,” Michael stated. RT Games definitely wants to get into more publishing, possibly actin?g like another Devolver Digital to the world of YouTube creators.

Another tidbit many might not know is that Rooster Teeth acquired ScrewAttack.com in 2015. Since ScrewAttack had their own publishing company going on for indie games, I was curious about whether or not RT Games now gained control of th?at initiative. Michael confirmed that the?y do have majority control over ScrewAttack Games and have begun bringing their back catalog of titles under the RT Games umbrella.

“So those guys are huge game fans, as you know, and they wanted to help indies just like us,” Michael stated, “and started publishing indie games. We've since brought their old catalog of games ??into Rooster Teeth games and there have been some talks of wanting to do sequels for some of their titles.” For the mome??nt, though, ScrewAttack will be focusing more on their own productions instead of the game side of things.

Whether o?r not RT Games can make lightning strike twice is yet ??to be seen, but they aren’t going anywhere. Having been a big name in the gaming sphere for nearly 15 years, I’m mostly surprised they didn’t get into publishing sooner. However hard the struggle may have been, they are here now. Big things are in store for them and I’m certainly intrigued to see what happens.

The post What lies in store for the fu??ture of Rooste??r Teeth Games? appeared first on Destructoid.

Rip and Tear!

2016 wasn’t the best year for gaming, at least in my opinion. We definitely saw some solid titles come out (along with the end of a decade-long wait for two games!), but a lot of the major releases this year were retreads of tired themes and genres that haven’t seen a mix-up since the last console generation. While I typically don’t play a lot of games released in a particular year until the following year, I can’t even make a top 10 list for 2016 as I just didn’t play enough quali??ty titles.

Still, I want to honor the games that really did wow me with something, so I’ve opted for a top five games of 2016. To me, these represent some of the best games from this tumultuous year that I played, even if others are “objectively”?? better.

Honorable Mention – Super Rad Raygun

I don’t have much more to say about this title over what my review did, but I want to throw this into the list as it barely missed making the top five. The game is a love letter to the classic Game Boy along with containing a really well-thought-out plotline. The character of Rad is super adora??ble and his evolution into a wiser machine echoes a lot of what I’ve gone through in my own life.

There is also the fact that Capcom has failed to make a Mega Man game for six years now and Super Rad Raygun nearly fits the bill. It may not have the copy ability that Mega Man does, but the open-ended world map and basic gameplay design strongly mirror the seminal Capcom series. Super Rad Raygun is a must-play for old-??school fans and a pretty solid title?? in its own right.

5. Watch Dogs 2

Quite honestly, I’m surprised I enjoyed this game as much as I did. While I hadn’t played the first Watch Dogs until after getting this (as a friend thought it was necessary), I was quite taken with how unrestricted your arsenal of tools was. I suppose you could go in guns blazing and solve every mission with several magazines of ammo, but the true joy of Watch Dogs 2 is how no one answer is the correct one.

You can melee all of the guards, fly your quadcopter through some air vents, jump from camera to camera and hack computers, or some comb??ination of everything. The only way this game let me down was in the general sto??ry, which lacks any kind of motivation or central villainous character. I appreciate Ubisoft trying to make a more realistic tale of script kiddies causing havoc, but it becomes super difficult to remain invested when every mission is mostly a “fuck the man!” type message.

That is made up for with how strongly the characters are written, including a transgende?r politician and a pudgy, bald lady with an unconventional style. No one is called out for their looks or their gender, but on how their actions are hurting the society around them. Basically, this game puts the “don’t judge a book by its cover” idiom into practice. It makes for a remarkably grounded and joyous game that is easy to get sucked into, as long as you ignore the basic narrative.

Also, you can call cop?s on random people, then call gang members on the cops, and then call cops on the gang members you ordered in. That is just awesome.

4. Clustertruck

This is one of the few titles that came out of nowhere for me. I had never heard of it until TinyBuild sent us an e-mail with a review code and it just looked crazy to me. Usually first-person platform games have problems with identifying depth, making jumps feel almost impossible due to the perspective. Somehow, Clustertruck nails the idea of movement and creates some truly awesome scenarios that feel straight ??????????????????????????out of Ho?llywood action film.

Clustertruck also follows the winning pattern of Braid by introducing a simple, core concept and then building upon it with varying level designs. While there are special abilities you can unlock, the entire game is possi?ble with just your starting skills. As you get better at the game, you learn to think on your feet and identify patterns with lightning speed, making for some narrow escapes and death-defying jumps that will have your butt clenching in fear.

The final boss kind of throws all of that out the window, but the game includes Steam Workshop support and has more then enough levels before the final confrontation to remain enjoyable for the four or so hours it takes to beat. I highly recommend this if you were a fan of Mirror’s Edge, but hated how the combat mechanics took center stag?e in some levels.

3. Alone With You

Point-and-click adventure games have definitely made a resurgence ever since Telltale Games signed on to revive Sam & Max. Its early portfolio is loaded wit??h some really good retro-style adventure titles, but its more recent work has taken a step towards cinem?atic narratives. While I can’t fault them for changing up the formula, I missed the quality titles they were making in the vein of LucasArts.

While Alone With You isn’t exactly an adventure game, it contains a lot of the same gameplay loops that the classic LucasArts titles did. Y??ou get s??ent on a quest to discover the downfall of scientific research base that was looking for life on another planet. At the same time, your discoveries lead to your AI companion being able to temporarily bring back the memories of some of the key staff that perished along with the outpost you’re stationed at.

What really makes this game work is how well-written everything is, but I was mostly taken with h??ow beautiful the “love” story at the center of the title is. There ar?e multiple paths and endings to this game, allowing for unique stories between playthroughs and players, but opting to stick with the AI and watching as it grows a personality and becomes concerned for your safety nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Sure, there may not be the most in-depth or original gameplay, but puzzles that require logic and memorization are always a plus in my book. The wonderful music and fantastic art style also make this a joy to be engaged with, even if you get a?? bit lost?.

2. Doom

Growing up in the '90s, I was a pretty big fan of shooters. The genre had started to take hold of the gaming landscape with the release of GoldenEye 007 and it hasn’t let up since. While I don’t care for the majority of shooters released in the last five or so years, Doom had my attention due to the nostalgia factor. T?hat it ended up being a solid, fast-paced, and bloody throwback to simpler times was as big a surprise to me as it was to anyone.

While Doom isn’t exactly “classic” in the sense of level design or progression, the gunplay that drives each encounter feels like a natural evolution of the original game’s concept. You’re given an extremely varied and?? chaotic arsenal of guns to dispatch enemies with and the game speed is cranked to 150% to keep you moving. If you stand still, you will die!

What initially stopped me from truly loving the title was the emphasis on collecting secrets to power-up your guns. The original Doom handled secrets by giving you temporary boosts to your health or armor, but this new game throws a bunch of random tasks at you to improve the damage output of your guns or permanently increase your health and then bombards you with pop-ups about new weapons, hidden collectibles, and “rune” abilities that grant you passive bonuses. Aren’t I the Doom guy?? I’m suppos?ed to be a badass without any help.

Thankfully, an “Arcade” mode? update was released that does away with any secret finding and just gives you everything from the start. Now, you get to experience the game in a manner that feels truer to the original title while also allowing you to unload with ultimate dominance at every moment. Sure, the main campaign is solid enough, but there is too much in the way of downtime if you opt to scour each inch of every level for all of the secrets. It doesn’t help that there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn off those pop-up boxes that lead you to the dry and pointless flavor text.

Also, the boss battles are too damned easy. While I finishe??d the campaign on “Ultra-Violence,” my biggest hurdl?es were with the larger rooms loaded with dozens of enemies. Every time you get to a boss, you basically dodge a super telegraphed pattern and unload on him. It is boring and kind of anticlimactic. Isn’t the Spider Mastermind supposed to be the toughest bastard in hell?

1. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

I’m not exactly the biggest fan of real-time strategy games, seeing as how I somehow lack the ability to micromanage my troops or think about actions a few steps ahead of the competition. Without the ability to stop and think, I tend to make gut-reaction moves that cost me precious units and time. For that reason alone, I’ve always loved the pacing and style of the Civilization series. I also like how carefree the game treats history, allowing you to feel smart for having studied Western/Eastern Civ in school while also manipulating the past to make ??your own perfect empire.

What Civilization VI brings to the table after five prequels is a lot more strategic depth. I can’t deny that I like just plopping a city dow??n and calling it a day, but having to strongly consider where you put certain districts or even found your cities makes every small decision feel a lot more impactful to the game. You can no longer settle wherever you want and make weird designs on the map, since certain areas are going to leave your city desolate and vapid.

The reintroduction of religion with a stronger emphasis on making it a core part of the gameplay is also great. While I know Gods & Kings for Civilization V did bring back theology to the series, it never felt as realized as what Civilization IV attempted to do. N??ow, though, you can actually win a game with an entirely pacifist route by simply converting all of your neighbors to ??your faith.

Not everything about VI works as well as its fully expanded predecessors, but this is basically the strongest base Civilization game the series has ever seen. What you get already feels like a well-thought-out and deve??loped game that could realistically see one expansion?? before being perfect. Being a fan of the series for a little over a decade now, I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve gotten.

The post Peter Glagowski’s personal picks for Game of the Year 2016 appeared first on Destructoid.

Tear down this wall!

Super Rad Raygun is a game I’ve been following for a little while. I first saw it as plain old Rad Raygun at SGC 2013. It was sporting a Game Boy aesthetic and had gameplay reminiscent of Mega Man.?? It was a fun little title that wasn’t too ambitious.

The following year, it adopted the Super moniker and had a massive upgrade. Now there were special moves?, an energy meter, ??and some wild plotline about overthrowing communism. I was blown away and couldn’t wait to try the full version.

Maybe the long wait dulled my enthusiasm for the final product, but Super Rad Raygun is definitely a fun, ??goofy and surprisingly poignant g??ame.

Super Rad Raygun (PC)
Developer: TRU FUN Entertainment
Publisher: Rooster Teeth Games, ScrewAttack Games
Released: November 8, 2016
MSRP: $9.99

The plotline of Super Rad Raygun sees you playing as a Game Boy-looking robot named Rad. Set during the height o??f the Cold War, Rad is sent by the President of the United States to end communism in Russia. The very first level ??has you defending the White House from invading Russian robots and some weird spoof of Madonna.

From the outset, the humor comes shining out. Rad is a naïve little guy, so he ends up rationalizing his actions with weird logic. The President tells him this is all to conquer the USSR a?nd Rad has some goofy catchphrase to go along with it ("Let's smash some sovi??ets!").

Upon beating the first level, you are treated to a world map that allows you to tackle levels in whatever order you like. It isn’t the most open-ended system around, but it?? helps keep you from getting stuck on any difficult levels. The game has a fairly straightforward and simple leveling system that lets you upgrade Rad with new equipment.

Killing ??enemies will eventually drop bits, a form of currency that Rad can use to upgrade his skills. The skills you have allow you to power up your default blaster, increase your ??max HP, and unlock different moves like a ground slide. These are all governed by an energy meter, including doing a basic double jump.

Along with simply buying new levels for each of your stats comes a battery system. You can find batteries lying around in each level that let you power-up your abilities. These batteries can be s?wapped between your abilities on the fly, allowing you to ??temporarily remove a point from you agility and put it into your max HP or blaster.

It makes for a system that requires a bit of strategy. You have to remain stationary for your energy to recharge (which can eventually be upgraded to refilling almost immediately), so you can’t just spam charge-shots or your arc cannon and hope to win. Running out of energy will leave you temporarily vulnerable to massive damage with a lack o??f retaliation.

You can also decide? on a per-level basis what upgrades you want to take with the battery system. Some areas are darkened, so you’ll need to invest in the backlight to see the entire area. Others are more focused on combat, so you might want to power-up your shield or take a stronger blaster.

That is truly the most nuanced thing about the game. Everything else feels exactly like any old-school classic platformer you may have played in your life. The levels typically scroll to the right and you often just jump and shoot. The platforming challenges are fun, don’t get me wrong, but Super Rad Raygun isn’t setting out to ignite the ?world with innovation.

There are also a tremendous amount of references to classic action games at various points. Some enemies look like Met from Mega Man and one of the boss fights is against the duo from Contra. They even fall over after each hit, as if losing a life. The enemy design isn’t entirely consistent (some of the artwork clashes with Rad), but it is filled with a reverence for the past th?at evokes a nostalgic feeling.

Along with that love of the past comes some frustrations. The contro?ls can feel slightly laggy at times. Rad likes to slide around and that can lead to you missing jumps or walking straight into an enemy. None of the levels are unforgiving (they all have liberal usage of checkpoints), but it sucks ?to feel like your death came at the hands of sloppy controls.

One of your abilities allows you to aim from a stationary position, but if you happen to be standing near a ladder, Rad often climbs up or down the ladder instead of aiming his gun. Maybe that was due to me pressing the buttons in the wrong order, but it reminds me of the original Castlevania and its?? issue with stairs. I can’t forget to mention the quirk with water, either. For some reason, Rad gets damaged by being in w??ater, despite a few sections requiring you to swim. Your upgrades will mitigate damage, but having such a strange limitation is irritating.

The difficulty curve is uneven, as well. Like I said, nothing in the game is impossible to beat, but certain sections are ridiculously tougher than previous areas which then get follo??wed by a segment that feels too easy. It leads to awkward pacing for some levels that makes them drag on.

The game eventually becomes too easy, though. Your upgrades to the arc cannon make it unstoppable to the point where I no longer used my default blaster. Sure, Rad needed to cease moving to shoot, but taking out enemies in two hits was worth the risk. A lot of the bosses beco?me cakewalks when you’re dealing out 30 damage in a single attack.

I could se?e a lot of people losing interest if the soundtrack wasn’t so good. Each level has a kickass tune by Fantomenk and BubblePipe Media. A lot of the standout tracks don’t happen until the later levels, as well, so the soundtrack remains an incredible high point for the entire duration.

The stor?y also takes a wild turn that I didn’t expect. I had some initial feelings of confusion with how gung-ho Rad was, but he eventually grows a conscious and decides to follow his own course. Being a robot programmed without color, I guess he was only able to see two shades with every con??flict, despite the world being shades of gray.

In the end, I fo??rgave a lot of the initial problems. I wasn’t impressed at the start, but I grew to love the childlike wonder of Rad’s personality. The plotline almost plays out like a coming-of-age story and it makes the whole ordeal endearing. The action is based on a tried-and-true formula, so it is easy to adapt to, as well.

You might get ticked off at some of the boss fights and maybe the life system is an antiq?ue of a bygone era, but the game is fun and charming. The length is also pretty good, sitting at around five hours for a first playthrough. For $10, I’m not sure what more you could ask for.

Maybe a little bit of polish on the controls or some fine tuning with the difficulty curve, but Super Rad Raygun is definitely worth a playthrough. As a love letter to the Game Boy era and classic games, in general, you’d be ??hard pressed to find another game made with such passion and style.

_{[This review is bas?ed on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Super Rad Raygun appeared first on Destructoid.

Not a shitload of fuck

I may not be the biggest fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd, but I've seen enough of the web series to get a good idea of what the Nerd is all about. I enjoy some aspects of it, such as his wild facial expressions and his critiques of older game mechanics. He makes many interesting observations about the games I used to?? play, and showcases many others I??'m glad I missed out on. The jokes are usually hit-or-miss, however.

With a video game version of his sh??ow, I would expect a nice mix of everything the Nerd stands for, and that's sort of what we get. James Rolfe as a sprite walks around with his signature exaggerated grimace, there's a bit of observational humor regarding the habits of retro video games, and tons of references to the show itself and the types of games he's often found playing. But in this case, the jokes missed a bit too often.

Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation (PC)
Developer: FreakZone Games
Publisher: ScrewAttack Games
Released: March 29, 2016
MSRP: $14.99

There's a conundrum with making a game based on a show that points out bad design choices in other games. Do you make it fun to play while discussing the things that other titles do wrong? Or do you make it poorly designed on purpose in order to highlight those issues for the player? With AVGN Adventures and its sequel, they sort of took the middle ground with an a?dequately designed platformer that also purposely throws in problematic elements, and I'm not s??ure how effective it is.

Enemy placement is meant to be frustrating, powerups are placed in unfortunate areas rendering them virtually usele??ss, and blocks and traps that can kill in one hit are used in overabundance. These things were no doubt done on purpose to emulate the games that the Nerd likes to yell about, but they're still not particularly fun. Most levels are reduced to a frenzied race to the next checkpoint in order to stay alive.

The plot is simple enough. Alien forces turn everyone in the world into pixelated monsters. Only the Nerd is spared, who wakes up in his room and embarks on a quest to collect the six pieces of the Sexforce (perhaps a cleverer joke than I first thought). Along the way,?? he'll constantly be running into his nemesis, the Nostalgia Critic, along with familiar faces from the web series like Board James and the Nerdy Turd.

The map is laid out like the Super Mario Bros. 3 overworld. The player can visit one of five areas, each containing three levels plus a boss fight. These include a Japanese-themed shoot 'em up stage, an homage to the electric seaweed level from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a Ghouls 'n Ghosts-ish horror area, a board game world, and an area inspired by Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie. There's also a bonus Virtual Boy level before the final boss. Overall, it will take most players about two t??o three hours to complete.

Individual stages try to vary up the gameplay with new mechanics, like shoot 'em up sections, driving segments, Portal-esque warping, and more. But for the most part, it's a s?tandard platformer, often with hordes of enemies ready to strike from every direction and one-hit-kill death blocks aplenty. The death blocks seemed to be a common complaint abou?t the first game, and the trailer promises there are less of them this time around, but I'm not so sure that's an accurate statement. They are everywhere.

Once again, the Nerd is armed with his trusty NES Zapper to fight off enemies?, who explode in a mess of blood and guts when killed. This time around, there are no unlockable characters. Instead, the Nerd can collect his stuff which has been scattered all over the place, like the Power Glove and the Super Scope. These act as upgrades to make him more powerful and grant new abilities.

There are als??o a few temporary powerup items, but they're mostly useless. The bouncy balls are basically a joke item, and the badge that upgrades the Zapper is really only useful in a few situations. The f-bombs are handy for taking out powerful foes, but the weird placement of f-bombs within each stage meant th?at I very rarely was able to actually use them. The only reliable powerup is the beer keg, which fully restores health.

Some of the boss fights were interesting, like the one at the end of Monster Madness (the Ghouls 'n Ghosts inspired area) which had multiple forms covering the gamut of stereotypical Halloween monsters. Others were simply an exercise in frustration, particularly the boss of the Japanese area that takes place upon treadmills. The mid-bosses, which include the Nostalgia Critic, Board James, and Nerdy Turd, all play out exactly the same. They're essentially the Protoman fights from Mega Man, just running back and forth shooting at?? each other until someone wins. The final boss was also surprisingly e??asy.

As far as ??the jokes go, they got a couple chuckles out of me. Standout goofs included the introdu?ction of the tanuki (giant tanuki balls will get me every time!) and the end of the Monster Madness boss fight, which was probably my favorite moment. Other than that, the humor mostly revolved around excessive swearing and poop jokes, with the occasional mocking of terrible mechanics, so if that kind of stuff is your jam then you'll probably get a kick out of it.

For the sequel, they decided to forgo the elaborate curse word generator after ever??y death in favor of an expletive-rich one-liner spouted by the Nerd at the end of each level. This means reloading after dying happens much quicker, which is nice. The one-liners are often rather predictable though (the sewer levels are literally shitty, we get it). Interestingly, the only levels he didn't have one-liners for were som??e of the Monster Madness stages, probably because they were actually great and he knew it.

The critique of retro mechanics is the thing I was anticipating the most as I started playing, since the web series hinges on that very concept. There were a few clever moments, like when he points out a block-sized pit that he can simply run over, quest??ioning why it's even there at all. I would have enjoyed seeing more stuff like this.

Other such moments fall flat when he decides to mock mechanics that are actually pretty cool. For example, the Monster Madness area starts out entirely in black and white with a grainy filter, with later levels incorporating a color-changing mechanic to reveal new platforms. I thought it was a neat idea, but the Nerd firmly disagreed, exclaiming, “What kind of stupid game has a color button?” There's also a level with gravity-flipping mechanics that seem to be taken directly from VVVVVV, to which he complains, “The gravity flips every time I jump? What is this bullshit?” Well, Nerd, it's called VVVVVV and it's awesome! Maybe th?ese were references to oth?er games of lesser quality that I never played, but I kept wondering why they weren't making fun of actually bad design decisions and instead chose to mock things that worked.

While I've talked extensively about the things that didn't quite do it for me, I will say this: if you enjoyed the first game, or if you're a diehard fan of the web series or the movie, you will more than likely appreciate this sequel. For everyone else, including those like me with only a passing interest in the web series, it's a very hit-or-miss experience. If you enjoy potty humor and language filled with more “fucks” and “shits” than you can shake a stick at, then Angry Video Game Nerd II is definitely for you. If not, then I might suggest looking elsewhere to get your platforming fix, because while the actual gameplay is decent once all the humor has been removed from the equation, i?t's?? still not the greatest.

At least it??'s not a sh??itload of fuck. The trailer got that part right anyway.

The post Review: Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation appeared first on Destructoid.

Thank Joy for him

ScrewAttack Gaming Convention is going on right now, and some news relevant to longtime Destructoid readers has come out of it. Our old pal Jim Sterling put on Jimquisition Live there, and he made a few announcements during the panel. For those who missed it, Sterling put out an informative tweet to get people up to speed.

Chief among the announcements is his involvement with Compulsion Games' We Happy Few. He will be joining the voice cast in a currently unknown role. Sterling has done voice work in the past, but Compulsion's open-world survival title might be the high??est ?profile game he has been involved with.

Coupled with the We Happy Few news is the announcement that an original game is being developed for mobile devices called Jim Sterling's Licensed Game Adventure. The full panel should be available to view online soon at The Jimquisition.

The post Jim Sterling doing voice work for Compulsion’s We Happy Few appeared first on Destructoid.

Something, something, Egoraptor reference

Four Christmases ago, I joined the smartphone brigade when I found an iPhone 4S nestled under the tree. Oh boy! I thought. Now I can grab all those iOS games that? ??people can't shut up about! And for a couple of years, I was an eager mobile beaver.

These days, I'm still rockin' that 4S because upgrading for the sake of upgrading is for chumps. But t??he magic of mobile gaming ha??s faded. I've grown so jaded. It's the complete lack of honesty among the most prominent mobile publishers that really busts my bojangles.

Now here is FreakZone Games, the studio behind Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, hoping to deliver a similarly challenging retro experience to the mobile space. FreakZone empathizes with folks who despise the freemium model and lament the deficiencies of virtual buttons, and presents Jump'N'Shoot Attack as an answer to our woes.

Jump'N'Shoot Attack (Android, iOS [reviewed], Windows Phone)
Developer: FreakZone Games
Publisher: ScrewAttack Games
Released: March 26, 2015 (Android, iOS) / TBA (Windows Phone)
MSRP: $2.59

You are Louise Lightfoot. The President has been captured by mutants. In order to save him, you must follow these specifi?c instructions:

Jump.

Shoot.

Every so often, jump and shoot at the same time.

So... Mega Man? Yeah, kinda! Only the commands are more explicit here, since the only two actions at your disposal are?? jumping and ?shooting.

Jump'N'Shoot Attack is an auto-runner, only less Canabalt and more Rayman Jungle Run and Fiesta Run. ?There are four worlds split into four stages apiece, and Louise will hoof through each without a care. To jump, tap anywhere on the left half of the screen; to shoot??, tap anywhere on the right half. Simple and responsive!

Your gun can be upgraded twice by collecting power-ups -- the first upgrade grants a double shot, while the second bestows the mighty spread shot. Raising the stakes even further is a jetpack item found in certain stages which transforms the action into a deadlier version of Jetpack Joyride.

The 16 stages are rather short, so to compensate, they've been packed with enough enemies and obstacles to give your thumbs a proper workout. Between adjusting the height of your jumps to cross narrow platforms ?and h??ammering the trigger because your gun is not rapid-fire, you'll be feeling the burn before long! One small mercy is that Louise stops running if she hits a wall, so use the break to regain composure before hopping over and storming onward.

For completionists, three gems can be found in each level. As expected, collecting these gems often requires you to skirt closer to death than you'd prefer. Case in point, you may reach a fork in the path, with one branch leading to a gem and the other to a power-up that would make the rest of the level less stressf??ul.

As concentrated as the challenge is, however, the overall length is still on the tragically low end -- on my first run, collecting the gems in all but two levels, I finished in just over an hour. There's even an achievement for clearing the game in under 10 minutes! Unless you are a serious achievement or high-score hunter, it's unlikely that you'll return to Jump'N'Shoot Attack once the credits roll.

There's a solid foundation that I hope FreakZone will expand upon. Rayman Jungle Run got a free update that added more levels, so perhaps that's a possibility here as well. Could we maybe get some boss battles too? It's a shame to have a game that so clearly draws inspiration from Mega Man and Contra but skimps out on the meaty encounters tha??t ??highlight those series.

So will Jump'N'Shoot Attack spark a mobile renaissance and win over the hardcore masses? ?Pr??obably not. Is it a solid runner that delivers a tough but responsive platforming experience as promised? Absolutely. Gold star for effort.

The post Review: Jump’N’Shoot Attack appeared first on Destructoid.

A new game from ScrewAttack about clinical depression

All art, or indeed even all communication, is a process of connecting with others? through shared experience. Whether we’re trying to express a specific experience, or conversely, revelin?g in the knowledge that there's at least one other person out there who Gets Us, art can be as therapeutic to consume as it is to create.

The more ambiguous and less concrete the subject of the art in question, the more difficult a process this becomes. This is why love songs comprise about 99.9% of all popular music - we’ve all, at some point, been in love or, at very least, infatuated with someone, so the otherwise mawkish lyrics and saccharine melodies turn into our jam, because it hits us where we ?live.

The most difficult part of the human experience to capture externally is also one of the most essential: what goes on in our minds. We take our minds, and everything they bring along with them -- emotion, thoughts, memories -- completely for granted. It’s 2015 and ?while we’ve managed to successfully land a satellite on a comet and multiple robots on a planet 140 million miles awa?y, we still have yet to crack what makes us tick.

In his 1974 essay What It’s Like to Be a Bat, Thomas Nagel summed this up perfectly. It’s basically impossible to ever really understand what another person is going through on an internal level. The b??est we can do is derive a close approximation as filtered through our own experiences. This is why, some four decades after thei?r rise in popularity, pretty much the only subject videogames haven’t been able to adequately address is mental health.

Depression is nefarious in that it’s insidiously difficult to describe it to someone who hasn’t had that experience themselves. Through a cultural history of failure to u?nderstand mental illness, the accident of our own common lexicon, and the private nature of personal health, we tend to collectively conflate depression with being "really sad." This fundamental misunderstanding, almost more than the illness itself, can serve as the biggest obstacle to people living with depression. Thus it makes sense that we try and comm?unicate this essential experience through the more abstract means of art.

Disorder (Swagabyte Games, 2015) is far from the first game to explore issues of mental illness. In fact, videogames as a medium have historically had a field day with depictions of mental illness and all the? subdued and horrific forms it can take. Up until about five to ten years ago, mental illness was a topic mostly left to horror games, and some problematic tropes came with it. It is only recently that depression has been explored for what it truly i??s; an utterly mundane if completely pervasive aspect of life.

Explaining the effects of depression can be as frustrating as it is fruitless. Rather than trying to overcome this expository hurdle, Disorder attempts to convey the feelings brought on by mental illness visually. Depression is an invisible illness; those afflicted appear normal to the uninformed observer while simultaneously roiling internally from a miasma of chemical imbalances. Thus the world of Disorder is itself set in two ostensibly similar yet fund?amentally di??fferent “worlds.”

This metaphor extends to the game’s very design. Disorder takes the form of a platformer; perhaps the most mundane, nonthreatening, and common type of videogame there is. It’s only when the player comes up against a (literal) wall, unable to move forward, that the hidden world of Disorder shines through.

In order to solve puzzles and progress through levels, players have to switch between the “n??ormal” and “disordered” worlds - the former represents the perception of a mentally healthy person, and t??he latter being a visualization of what the world can look like through the eyes of someone living with depression. The disordered world (I refuse to call it a “dark world”) is drained of color, the lush landscapes repainted a bloated and bruised purple. Formerly innocuous platforms and bounce pads turn into malicious fanged crawling insects, and pathways that were previously available close off.

Players complete platforming puzzles by switching back and forth between worlds, in later puzzles often during mid-jump, and grabbing “marbles,” the ga?me’s collectible. (The protagonis?t explains the marbles’ presence by stating they were a favorite toy of his younger brother, though the temptation to view it as a “lost marbles” reference is as prominent as it is inappropriate.)

There is a narrative to Disorder, but it’s as obtuse as it is insignificant. While the developers have designed a devilish series of dynamic platforming challenges, the plot, not to mention its primary deli??very method, is anything but. Players labor through multiple jumps, only to reach an area where the??y are drip-fed bits of narrative through on-screen text. While the story being conveyed is tragic and personal for the person who wrote it, it’s hard to get invested since it runs so contrary to the pace of the rest of the game that it becomes difficult to emotionally invest.

That’s not to say that Disorder is a bad game. Far from it. It’s clear it was made with an incredible amoun??t of care and a genuine desire to bridge the gap between those who have experienced depressio??n and those who have not. Its biggest issue is the same as that shared by the majority of other games that have attempted to tackle the subject: it wraps itself up in too many layers of metaphor, either too afraid or unconcerned to deal with the subject matter it  presents directly.

It’s clear that Disorder is an important game for the developers. Like all art, it exists as an attempt to process difficult events or feelings as much as it does to entertain. But it would be difficult to play through the game and come away with a genuinely in-depth understanding of what depression is about. It rubs up against that age-old conundrum: how can you describe what a strictly internal phenomenon is like through solely external means? Games have been heralded as the new medium of our generation due to the inherent “show-not-tell” capacity mechanical systems can evoke. While Disorder&nb??sp;embraces thi??s strength of the medium in some capacities, when it comes to delivering the narrative in a way that players can latch onto and identify with, it sets this goal aside.

As a personal statement, Disorder is a beautiful and obviously hea??rtfelt game about loss and coping with understanding.?? As a piece of art with an intention to communicate nebulous and difficult feelings, it falls flat.

The post Depression Quest co-creator looks for what’s hidden in Disorder appeared first on Destructoid.

He's gonna take you back to the past...

For years, James "Angry Video Game Nerd" Rolfe has suffered the worst that retro gaming could toss at him for the sake of your amusement. Why does he do it? Is he a masochist? Does the rage that burns inside with every sudden death and game-breaking bug fill him with purpose? Why does?? the pain give him so much po?wer?

To know the Nerd, you have to become the Nerd. You can't just film yourself playing any ol' NES game, spout a few curse words, post the ??poorly edited footage onto YouTube, then call it a day. It's not th??at simple. No, we must dive into the deepest corners of his psyche.

There was once a Z-grade movie of sinister renown called MANOS: The Hands of Fate, which was recently translated into videogame form by FreakZone Games. AVGN show partner ScrewAttack knew that the?? only way to do a Nerd game justice would be to assign development to a team with experience making palatable the most unpalatable of media dreck. Only by folding pai??n over pleasure could we truly begin to understand.

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures (3DS, PC [reviewed], Wii U)
Developer: FreakZone Games
Publisher: ScrewAttack Games
Released: September 20, 2013 (PC) / 2014 (3DS, Wii U)
MSRP: $14.99
Rig: Intel Core i3-380M, 6GB of RAM, GeForce GT 425M, Windows 7 64-bit

The games that the Nerd typically plays fall under one of three categories: otherwise decent games that feature relentless difficulty, average games with a number of very curious or backwards design choices, and outright festering ass. The last group is his main claim to fame, but for an off??icial Nerd game to work, it would have to draw inspiration from all three categories while at the same time being enjoyable enough to play over prolonged periods.

In other words, FreakZone had to take shit and simultaneously make it not shit. Quite the paradox, but one that FreakZone ??achieved quite handily.

On the surface, Adventures is both an homage to and parody of the AVGN web series. The Nerd and his friends are sucked into the television and transported to Game Land, divided into eight levels inspired by the show's many themes. There is "Assholevania," a send-up of James Rolfe's own love for the Castlevania franchsie; "Beat It & Eat It," a puerile domain filled with the sights and sounds of Atari porn software like Custer's Revenge; "Blizzard of Balls," a wintry hell born out of the AVGN Christmas specials; and others.

Long-time Nerd fans will note many nods and Easter eggs to the show's history in everything from the enemies and items to the obstacles and backgrounds. You consume Rolling Rock to refill health and acquire tokens to summon the Glitch Gremlin or Super Mecha Death Christ. You fly atop the board from Silver Surfer, go toe-to-toe with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and fin??d Shit Pickle hiding in various locations. Then there's the final stage, a foul monument to one of the Nerd's most despised g?ame companies.

Several classic Nintendo games are also paid tribute. In the introductory level, you get instructed by Naggi, the green-hued cousin of Ocarina of Time's Navi, much to the Nerd's displeasure. The disappearing blocks from Mega Man and the giant goblin heads from Air Man's stage in Mega Man 2 feature prominently, as does Doom's Cacodemon, remade out of feces and appropriately dubbed "Cacademon." Even FreakZone's own MANOS i?s acknowledged with a boss battle pulled straight from that title.

But what really gives Adventures the AVGN touch is the running commentary. Every so often, the Nerd will make some kind of rant or observation, although the fact that it's text-based makes it difficult to read during particularly harrowing platforming segments. Whenever you die, the Nerd will spout one of his famous curse-laden analogies (e.g. "This game is rotten fungus coming out of a badger's sphincter!") with keywords randomly generated from a pool of submissions from the game's Facebook page. The current pool isn't a?ll that big, thus many phrases are repeated; perhaps ScrewAttack will continue to update the game with expanded word banks.

All the references and potty humor in the world wouldn't be enough if the core game wasn't compelling. Thankfully, there is a solid quest beneath t??he surface ?dressing that even those completely unfamiliar with the Nerd's exploits would be able to enjoy.

If you happened to have played MANOS, you'll notice that Adventures feels like an extension of that, with many shared elements and environmental hazards -- I wouldn't consider that a knock against this game, though. There's a classic "Nintendo hard" degree of challenge, but it's tempered by very solid controls and enough checkpoints and beer bottles to carry you towards the boss. Oh, an??d it's got a pretty bangin' soundtrack to keep your fighting spirit high!

You begin the game as the Nerd with a multi-direct?ional NES Zapper for a weapon, and careful searching will lead you to three additional party members -- Guitar Guy, who can run fast and shoot wave beams through walls; Mike, with a super high jump and the ability to spot destructible walls and invisible platforms; and Bullshit Man, who can double jump and lob extra powerful lumps of poo. Only by swapping characters on the fly and using their abilities can you reach formerly inaccessible areas filled with 1-ups, health, and weapon upgrades. You may even spot a few NPC cameos, like brentalfloss, Egoraptor, and our very own Jim Sterling and Mr. Destructoid!

Every obstacle in the game operates on very simple patterns that can be observed from a distance before being approached. Spikes that emerge from the floor? Fire pillars or laser turrets that trigger at regular inte??rvals? Maces that circle the bricks they are chained to? Just count the seconds and time your progress. Your mistakes are entirely your own.

Naturally, the last level throws everything plus the kitchen s?ink at you at once, but that's what last levels are supposed to do.

However, there is one persistent obstacle -- a skull-faced block that causes instant death upon touching -- that caused me great grief. Such blocks appear in clusters and typically blink in and out with the same rhythm as the disappearing blocks. They are everywhere, in every single level without fail, yet they always feel completely out of place. I mean, de?ath blocks that kill you wit?h a mere graze? What's up with that?

In a way, death blo?cks are a quick and easy way to bump up a stage's difficulty without the need to create unique environmental hazards. Sounds rather creatively bereft, no? But if you were the Nerd, wouldn't such an obstacle become the focus of your rage and frustration, the breaking point after which righteous obscenities start flowing like wine? If the designers' goal was to put you in the Nerd's shoes, such an evil element would be necessary to trigger that transformation.

Adventures is no insurmountable wall, but neither is it a welcome wagon. On Normal mode, you are given 30 lives and unlimited continues, which should allow anyone with enough drive to at least make it to the final boss within a couple of hours -- whether you can actually beat the final boss is another matter, the god??-modding bastard. Beyond that are even tougher difficulty modes that prevent saving between levels and reduce your amount or health and retries.

As a pseudo NES-era throwback, it nails the careful balance between cruel and inviting. As a tribute to the Nerd, it does a decent job covering his entire career, ?although repetitive dialog lessens the hum??orous impact on repeated playthroughs. As an authentic Nerd "experience"... well... your mileage may vary, but I'd like to think it is.

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is not ??a cowa-fucking-piece-of-dog-shit, that's for certain!

The post Review: Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures appeared first on Destructoid.

Console versions will have to wait until next year

I got to play an improved build of Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures at PAX this year, and I can reaffirm that it's going to be one hell of a challenge for those in dire need of ??classic "Nintendo hard" platforming. It's pure entertainment, and I can't wait to play more.

Thankfully, the wait is almost over! ScrewAttack has announced the Steam release date for next Monday, September 23. I hope some of you pre-ordered the game a while back for that shot at becoming an NPC in the game! Don't want J?im Sterling to be lonely!

But what about the Wii U and 3DS versions? ScrewAttack's Stuttering Craig ?Skist??imas tells me that we'll have to wait until 2014 before those or any other potential console ports materialize. For now, just enjoy the new screenshots in the gallery.

The post AVGN Advent?ures diarrhea dumps on Steam on September 23 appeared first on Destructoid.

You know what's NOT buuuuuuuullllllsh*t?

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is up for pre-order on Steam, so if you're jonesin' for some turd blastin' on the PC rather than on the Wii U or 3DS, that's a thing you should do. In fact, do it before 1:00 PM EST on September 5 if you want to win a chance to actually be in the game!

One person will be selected to be an NPC in the upcoming game. Who knows? You might even get to rub shoulders with a very "sprite-ly" Jim Sterling! The contest is only open to US residents excludin?g territories, so sucks if you live anywhere else.

And if you happen to be attending PAX, swing on by the Symbiote Studios booth (Booth 6118) to play a demo of AVGN Adventures.

The post Pre-??order AVGN Adventures for a c?hance to be an NPC appeared first on Destructoid.

... along with a bunch of other people

There was a special booth at E3 where you could sing the DuckTales theme. Capcom edited the footage into an entertaining montage proving that ??E3 attendees are all children in adult bodies.

ScrewAttack's Stuttering Craig and I teamed up to rock the sh*t out of that song. We're? hanging around the 15-second mark -- you can't miss that freakish mountain of a man.

Also, surprise Smooth McGroove sighting at 0:43.

Sing Along with DuckTales! [YouTube]

I'm disappointed that Capcom didn't use any footage from I-Mockery's Roger Barr's session. I guess they realized RoG made everyone else loo??k pat??hetic:

The post ScrewAttack’s Craig and I sing DuckTales… appeared first on Destructoid.

The least stealthy ninjas of all time cross blades

Videogame ninjas are s??eriously the worst ninjas of all time. It's kind of hard to keep hidden in the shadows when there is a trail of blood and limbs running right up to your present location. Still pretty badass, though.

Two weeks ago, ScrewAttack aired the latest episode of the DEATH BATTLE dream fight show. In one corner is Ryu Hayabusa from Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden series, and in the other is Strider Hiryu from Capcom's Strider?? series. Joe Musashi sadly could not attend. SEGA sits in the corner weeping tears of shame.

DEATH BATTLE! - Ryu Hayabusa VS Strider Hiryu [ScrewAttack]

The post Shinobi clash! Ryu Hayabusa vs. Strider Hiryu appeared first on Destructoid.

"This game is ______ ______ coming from a ______'s ______!"

In my E3 preview of the upcoming comedy platformer Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, I noted that each time you die a random Nerd phrase appears on screen. Fans of the Nerd's foul-mouthed escapades are quite familiar with the colorful insults he hurls at less than optimal games. You know, like "I'd rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in my ear! or "I'd rather press my face against a hippopotamus' butt while it muck spreads!"

I also mentioned that fans would be able to suggest their own death phrases and have them included in the game. Sam Beddoes of FreakZone Games, developer of AVGN Adventures, has begun accepting suggestions on the game's Facebook page. It's sort of like a Mad Lib in that there are two phrase templates a?nd you must fill in the blanks with anything you can think of -- barring copyrighted names, real people, or racial / sexist language, of c??ourse.

The phrases are "I'd rather ______ a ______ than continue this ______ game!" or "This game is ______ ______ coming from a ______'s ______!" Think you guys can come up with some clever gems? Be sure to comment directly on the Facebook post.

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures [Facebook]

The post Add your own colorful phrases to AVGN Adventures appeared first on Destructoid.

Closest thing to Mortal Kombat X Street Fighter we'll ever get

We're never going to get that Mortal Kombat / Street Fighter crossover, so what are we to do? Harness our "Imagination," that's what!

ScrewAttack's DEATH BATTLE! pits the big bosses of the MK and SF universes against one another to see who's got the nuts and who will spill his guts. M. "Tuesday" Bison surges with the vile energies of Psycho Pow??er, while Shao Kahn has... a big hammer.

Okay, it's no Goku vs. Superman, but what is, honestly?

DEATH BATTLE! - Shao Kahn VS M. Bison [ScrewAttack]

The post Who would win: Shao Kahn or M. Bison? appeared first on Destructoid.

"What is Chungus?"

This past weekend, your ol' pal Jim Sterling was in attendance at SGC 2013, and Adam Sessler was there too, representing our friends at Rev3 Games. Naturally??, these two titans of games media had to clash and h?ammer out the big issues of the moment. 

The Sessler & Sterling panel was great fun, as we drew random controversies from a hat, railing on everythi??ng from DRM to David Ca??ge to Chungus. The event is available to watch on the above video (skip to about 6:45 to avoid a blank screen).

Anyway, great little ??panel, especially as Adam and I had only just met! It shall not be the last time we collaborate, though.

The post Sessler & Sterling at ScrewAttack Gaming Convention 2013 appeared first on Destructoid.

But it will make you curse your mother

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is a game that wants you to curse at it. It wants you to flip out and go ballistic and yell at small children. It wants to gi??ve you the experience of being the Nerd in more ways than one.

AVGN Adventures is all about "Nintendo hard," a level of difficulty so obscene that getting through a stage is its own achievement. But you can't have difficulty without balance, thus it tries to find company among games like Super Meat Boy and the NES homebrew Battle Kid.

All the while, the Nerd curses like a sailor.

Though published by and receiving input from ScrewAttack, AVGN Adventures is being developed by FreakZone Games, previously known for the game adaptation of Manos: The Hands of Fate. These guys ?definitely have a knack for honoring the source material in digital form.

Each level of the game is based on a particular AVGN episode or theme. For the demo, I was thrust into a futuristic world with nods to Mega Man, Silver Surfer, and others. Armed wi??th an NES Zapper that can be fired up, to the side, or at a 45-d?egree angle, the Nerd hopped over "death tiles" on the ground and insta-kill lasers shooting horizontally and vertically.

The images in the gallery appear to be from an old build, because in the demo the Nerd's health was represented by three bottles of Rolling ?Rock beer. ScrewAttack's Craig Skistimas tells m??e one potential idea they have is, should you collect another beer bottle when health is full, that the Nerd will get drunk and the screen will get all hazy. But like I said, this is just an idea and might not happen.

You can also collect special items like the Glit??ch Gremli??n, who can glitch the screen and cause all enemies to freeze temporarily, and Super Mecha Death Christ, the cyborg tank incarnation of ol' JC who can clear enemies in a room with his heavy artillery.

You'll also be able to recruit other playable characters: collaborator Mike Matei, theme song creator Kyle Justin, and Bullshit Man of the You Know What's Bullshit? video series. For the demo, only Kyle -- referred to as "Guitar Guy" -- was available, and he was of course found hiding behind the Nerd's couch. He is able to shoot wave beams from his guitar, which can pass through walls whereas the Nerd's Zapper be??ams cannot.

Every so often, a text block will appear at the bottom of the screen with commentary from the Nerd. When you approach the Mega Man disappearing blocks, he'll say something along the lines of, "Not these fuckers again!" But even better are the randomly generated quotes he spews wheneve??r he dies, which liken his torment to various body fluids from animals and such.

Since you will be dying a lot, it's nice to have something to look forward to on the death screen. ScrewAttack actually plans to keep updating the list of quotes through the life of the game, and you will even be able to suggest some of your own on the game's Facebook page. That will ensure the Nerd never runs out of mat???erial.

For the final segment of the demo, you hop on the Silver Surfer's board and fly through the sky, avoiding penis rockets and weird alien creatures. Then you reach the boss, the floating head from the Atari Jaguar game Cybermorph, which was covered in the Jaguar episode of the AVGN show. Before it can attack, the demo ends.

There were so many secrets and references packed in such? a short playthrough, and Craig hopes to have so many secrets that people will not be able to find them for years. But the biggest takeaway is how the game literally puts you in the shoes of the Nerd. You are playing the kind of game that would give the real Nerd a hell of a time.

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is slated for a Steam release this year, with Wii U and 3DS versions also on the way. If you want some Nerd act??ion on the PS3 and 360, know that ScrewAttack is trying to make that happen as well.

The post Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures ISN’T a sh*tload of f*ck appeared first on Destructoid.

Unfortunately, plans for an NES port fell through

James Rolfe's retrotastic digital quest, Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, recently passed through Greenlight, securing a spot on Steam's virtual storefront. According to a post on the game's Facebook page, developer ScrewAttack Games will a?lso be bringing the nerd rage to Nintendo plat??forms. Time to bust out the Advantage and set up the ol' CRT in mom's basement!

Slow it down, son! AVGN Adventures is just slated for modern Nintendo consoles, i.e. 3DS and Wii U?? eShops,?? as "the retro consoles can't handle the game's power." Shame. I would have loved for the Nerd's visage to grace the label of an NES game pak!

It's only fitting that the artist formerly known as the Angry Nintendo Nerd would grace Nintendo platforms in his first official videogame debut. Will Sony and Microsoft's machines get some loving in the future as?? well?? Who knows!

AVGNGame [Facebook via oprainfall] (Thanks, alucardsquest!)

The post Angry Video Game Nerd ??Adventures bound for 3DS, Wii U appeared first on Destructoid.

The parodic platformer has passed through Greenlight and will release on Steam

The Angry Video Game Nerd's assault on all things sh*tty and retro will soon break from the confines of live-action footage and into the digital world. Following last week's teaser trailer, here comes pre-alpha gameplay of Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, submitted for your dissection.

With NES Zapper in hand, the pixelated Nerd races through levels modeled after the highest and lowest points of old-school gaming, from Mega Man 2 and Castlevania to the ball-busting Silver Surfer. He even confronts a Cacodemon from Doom made entirely out of feces and dodges a?? sw?arm of cock-and-ball missiles. Subtle and reserved, this game is not.

AVGN Adventures is still on track for PCs later this year, and it looks like Steam users will also be served. It has passed through Greenlight in less than two weeks, a testament to the Nerd's ravenous fanb??ase. The game certainly looks decent thus?? far, and considering this footage is from a pre-alpha build, it's bound to look even snazzier down the line.

AVGN Adventures - Gameplay Trailer [Cinemassacre]

The post Check out Angr??y Video Game Nerd Adventures in action appeared first on Destructoid.

You're s**tting me! This game is s**tting me!

Internet personality, classic game reviewer, and alter-ego of filmmaker James Rolfe, The Angry Video Game Nerd will get his own retro 2D platformer, courtesy of ScrewAttack Games. Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures will come ??to PC later this year, but the publisher stated inte??rest in a console release in the future.

AVGN Adventures will contain ten levels that reference the online review series -- homages to Castlevania and Super Mario can be found in th??e screenshots -- and will put players in the shoes of the Nerd as he attempts to save his friends from?? "shitty games once and for all." 

In addition to being a game debut for the Nerd, this is also ScrewAttack Games' first attempt at development after years of game blogging. "We're making a game that not just fans of the AVGN but all fans of video games will enjoy."

In other news, Destructoid is considering a first-person romance adventure starring Jim Sterling?? and Jonathan Holmes. We're currently working out ??the kinks in our Oculus Rift support. We hope it will be shitty enough that Rolfe considers reviewing it in a future episode. Ok, I just made that last part up. I hope you're not too disappointed.

The post The Angry Video Game Nerd gets his own game appeared first on Destructoid.

Yep, this is the real deal, no lie

While the rest of the world awaits the proper Xbox 720 reveal, ScrewAttack managed to learn all the juicy details and spoil the whole mess. Behold, Microsoft's grand master plan to edge out the PlayStation 4 juuuuuuuuuust slightly!

This won't be surprising coming from a guy who hasn't even fully entered the current generation yet, but I don't have high hopes for the new Xbox. I've got this gut feeling that Microsoft will do everything monumentally wrong, pissing off c?onsumers and devs in droves. I guess we'll know for sure once the company actually does unveil the machine, whenever that may be?.

If you want to catch more vids like this one, check out ScrewAttack's new Real Trailers series, which cuts through the bullsh*t and sows the seeds of truth about games like New Super Mario Bros. U and Final Fantasy: All the Bravest.

Real Trailers - Xbox 720 [ScrewAttack]

The post ScrewAttack TOTALLY has the skinny on Xbox 720 appeared first on Destructoid.

brentalfloss sings "The Total Destruction"

The enigmatic Q from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is a freak. That we know. His Total Destruction technique certainly doesn't leave much room for ambigu??ity. You do have to wonder what must be goi??ng on through his / hers / its mind.

ScrewAttack put themselves in Q's shoes with a musical parody of Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection," performed by none other than brentalfloss. But this is one rainbow connection I'd rather not find. ?It better stay the f*ck hidden.

?The Clip - The Total Destruction (?feat. brentalfloss) [ScrewAttack]

The post Street Fighter III’s Q is a sexual Kermit the Frog appeared first on Destructoid.

Uh oh.

The latest episode of ScrewAttack's dream fight series, Death Battle, has just been uploaded. Today's combatants are Link from the Zelda series and Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. It's all in good fun, but given the participants this time around... well??... I don't expect it to end well.

FFVII can be a touchy subject, God damn.

DEATH BATTLE! - Link VS Cloud [ScrewAttack]

The post Here come the fanboys! Link ??vs. Cloud in a Death Battle appeared first on Destructoid.

The latest in ScrewAttack's "who would win?" series beefs up the manliness following the last episode's flower party. We've got Marvel's Thor locked in mortal combat against Raiden from... Mortal Kombat. Which of th??ese lightning gods of legend can ma??ke the other his bitch?

This is only a spoiler if you've literally never heard of either of these characters, but everyone knows that there is simply no way Thor would lose this battle. Still, the action is quite intense. The fights in Death Battle are becoming more elaborate and amazing, a far cry from the Boba Fett versus Samus premier episode. That makes the wait for the eventual Goku an??d Superman match-up all the more difficult.

DEATH BATTLE! - Thor VS Raiden [ScrewAttack]

The post ??The lightning gods: Death Battle ??pits Thor against Raiden appeared first on Destructoid.

[Update: I've asked Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade for comment, but he's already commented elsewhere, and is apparently all out of comments at the moment. I also just erased the word "didn't" from a joke in the second paragraph because it was supposed to appear crossed out, but it isn't showing up that way in some browsers, which makes the joke just look like a typo. Sorry abou?t that folks!]

We just wrapped the second day of PAX East 2012, and we've got a lot of video content on it's way, from both the to??p notch video teams at Revision3 and my humble little two man production team. 

Before we get to that though, we have very special interview with Keith Apicary, the star of Talking Classics on ScrewAttack and rising star in the world of popular dancing (as proven by the +2 million views on his last video). Despite having throngs of fans and adding nothing but character and excitement to every event he attends, Keith was asked to leave PAX East... forever. Lifetime ban. For a crime that he did commit. 

It's not really a question of if he did it or not, it's the fact that PAX is taking this hard of a stance on a guy that has?? only ??worked to make every event he attends more worth attending. The powers at PAX have the right to kick him out, but I think it was the wrong thing to do. It'll only work to make their shows feel less like a party and more like more like dinner with your in-laws (assuming your in-laws don't like seeing you in their underwear).

On top of that, right before shooting a very special episode of Talking to Women about Videogames, Jessica Nigri (of Lollipop Chainsaw fame) was asked to leave the show. The way I heard it, she was initially asked to leave the show floor until she had changed out of this particularly revealing outfit. Then after she changed back to her regular Juliet Starling clothes (which she had been wearing for the entirety of day one of the show without issue) she was asked to either change again, or leave the show entirely. Rumor has it that PAX officials suggested that she wear a sweatshirt for the rest of the event, which would make it pretty hard for her to do her job (which is to look exactly like Juilet Starling from Lollipop Chainsaw).

Both of these fine people did nothing "wrong" other than show a PG-13 amount of skin in the midst of a show filled with half naked cosplayers and and robot bodybuilders. Is the human body really that awful? What's worse, seeing a man dance in his underwear or having to pay $8 for a small cheeseburger? Why was Jessica's outfit OK on day one, only to have the same outfit considered unacceptable on day 2? Were these two doing anything other than making PAX East?? a more fun place to be?

To that I say, Free Keith Apicary 2012. Free Jessi??ca Nigri 2012. Retake ??PAX Effect. Otherwise, I guess I'll see you at KAX 2013.

The post Two fun people were asked to leave PAX East appeared first on Destructoid.

The last episode of ScrewAttack's Death Battle released on Christmas Day. Three months see?ms like plenty of time for Ben and Chad to organize another match, don't you think? Thankfully, future episodes will be arriving at a steadier clip.

As the header suggests, this episode pits Zelda against Peach, princess against princess. While both girls have played the damsel-in-distress role quite often, both have also demonstrated that they can hold their own in a weapons duel or a round of good ol' fisticuffs. If watching that kind of thing?? gets?? you off, click on the link below or watch above.

DEATH BATTLE! - Zelda VS Peach [ScrewAttack]

The post Death B??attle returns wi??th some hot Zelda-on-Peach action appeared first on Destructoid.

"I'm so hungry, I could eat an Octorok!"

VIGIDEN, the ScrewAttack partner show dedicated to Onion-style fake news stories, has taken a taken a break from hardcore journalism to demonstrate culinary magic. Of course, you can't actually prepare the meal demonstrated in the video linked below, but I'm sure someone could concoct a close approximation.

Something about purple food just looks so gosh darn appealing. When was the last time you ate something purple, huh? Or blue for that matter? And can????dy doesn't count. Maybe Octorok tastes like Starburst. It could! Who's to say?

VIGI?DEN - BYTE TO EAT: ZELDA'S LEGENDARY ROASTED OCTOROK [ScrewAttack]

The post MY BOI! Roasted Octorok is a meal fit for a hero appeared first on Destructoid.