MrCunningham
Member
James, Mike and Ryan play Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for the N64.
The game looks truly awful.
The game looks truly awful.
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Angry Video Game Nerd
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A Black Falcon
Member
No, it's an average to above-average game. It's a fine Tomb Raider clone, and the N64 version looks great (Factor 5 did the port and they did a really good job with the graphics!) and has better controls than the original PC version, too. James and Mike are just bashing it because it's complex (it's an action-adventure game which requires exploration), requires you to actually learn the controls (something they don't bother attempting to do), etc... and they don't want to bother actually learning how to play, so they insult it instead. This is a REALLY bad video; there are other videos on their channel as bad as this one, but not many. And of course the graphics look quite good on a CRT, they only think they look bad because they're playing on an HDTV.
The game got average reviews from people who actually learned how to play it: http://www.gamerankings.com/n64/914232-indiana-jones-and-the-infernal-machine/index.html
chalkitdown1
Member
That was infuriating to watch. How can three people who've been playing games their whole lives not think to use a health item or read the manual.
Compared to the Tomb Raider Revelations on ps1 released the same year?, this looks like a muddy mess. (edit : they probably both look pretty dated actually..)
I think its a funny video, cause i've played games myself being this frustrated, then someone told me afterwards something simple like "Why didnt you just push b-button", and you were like WTF
I think its a funny video, cause i've played games myself being this frustrated, then someone told me afterwards something simple like "Why didnt you just push b-button", and you were like WTF
They never play "well" unless it's a known game, it's part of the show...
KainXVIII
Member
I hope they don't use composite cable for connection.
James said he couldn't get past the beginning of Conker. The tutorial area. Now it's starting to get sad. That's like what I would expect to happen if I give my grandpa the controller.
MrCunningham
Member
Well I was halfway through the video when I wrote that. I have never played this game before, so just by watching them I was confused by the draining health as well. But yeah, it was because of a snake bite, and there is antivenom in the inventory menu. They probably could've learned that by looking through the instruction manual, if they had one.
The game does also look worse because they did crank the brightness way up, so the colours do look really washed out. I didn't even notice that the game was suppose to be dark until they started complaining about the games gamma.
The game does look like a cross between Tomb Raider and Zelda OoT, but the jumping controls do look kinda clunky, even more so than the original Tomb Raider, it seems. Their attempt at jumping out of holes looked so painful, but they seemed to have gotten the hang of it. Too bad they couldn't figure out the antivenom in the option menu.
Do you mind listing which ones? I think you know why I want to know, it's because you are A Black Falcon and I've seen you're posts here and there, which is why I value your opinion.
Dictator93
Member
Interesting, this game is usually known for being great on the 64 (better than the PC version in some ways).
No, it's more like their playing is awful, how the hell do they not realize they were poisoned for all that time???
A Black Falcon
Member
That's often true, but not always -- consider that they actually did a complete playthrough of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on James & Mike Mondays... yeah, it's Star Wars, but it's not exactly one of the more-loved Star Wars games.
The two that immediately come to mind are, first, that old AVGN episode where the bashes Castlevania for N64 for that part where you have to carry a bomb, and he makes it look really hard and it's exploding constantly and then he says how bad the game is and quits, or something like that; it's been a while. In reality, you basically need to be INTENTIONALLY messing up for what's happening in that episode to happen. He either was hopelessly clueless or misrepresented the game on purpose, either way making the game look a lot worse than it is -- it's actually a good game, or at least I think so!
The other one is that not-too-long-ago James & Mike video about 3-D WorldRunner, where they don't know how to properly play the game and so don't get very far while avoiding all the powerups -- you have to run into the green pillars to get powerups, but they avoid all pillars so they never get any. They also don't get far enough to see the Space Harrier-style boss battles -- it's not only a platformer-style game like you see there. The result was painful to watch for anyone who knows how to play the game. It's not an amazing game or something, but there is more to it than you see in their video.
There are also FAQs for the game online, for those without a manual,. which is probably a lot of people considering that the game was only available online or in Blockbuster (as a rental at first, only sold off later by the stores) and was not sold at retail. (They didn't know this, obviously, with how they talk about saving up your money for this game...)
Good point.
The movement controls do take some getting used to, but the original PC version was even harder to control by all accounts, so the N64 version is improved there in comparison... but sure, it'll take a bit of practice to get used to whipping, jumping, etc. That is the case in Tomb Raider games too though, the controls aren't immediately intuitive. I'm not a Tomb Raider fan so I don't love Infernal Machine either, but it's certainly not a bad game.
Secret Fawful
Member
No, they're fucking idiots in this video. There are antidotes for poison, and how could they not understand that the first enemy, a rattlesnake, is poisonous? They actually thought the game was just killing them for no reason? This video soured me on the whole James and Mike series. I get that they're just wanting to do fun buddy videos and that it's funny to trash things that look bad at first glance, but this was one of the first I've seen where it was so obvious they were being dumb. They actually said this game was worse than the Atari one? They fucking waited for a snake to poison them near the end!
It's obvious even if you've not played it. Snakes are kinda known for venom, and the mechanic of venom draining health wasn't new at the time the game came out. And yes, the platforming can be clunky, and imperfect, but for the time, it's pretty great. And they complain about Indy's voice actor, but it's the same VA from Fate of Atlantis, and even though he's not a perfect Ford sound-alike, he's always done a good job in the role.
IdreamofHIME
Member
Because they are genuinely idiots. I mean they signed up for PlayStation+ so they could play offline Godzilla multiplayer...before checking to see if there was any.
They just steam ahead.
Bootsy shone a light into how they play games when he was playing battletoads and he said he skips all non play sections and never read the manual and those two agreed.
Noisepurge
Member
it's not that obvious in videogame logic
the "you have been poisoned!" status effect should be told better and have a separate icon on screen like in Final Fantasy games and whatnot before this.
A Black Falcon
Member
... What? Your healthbar immediately starts blinking with a skull, symbol of poison, as soon as you get poisoned, and then you start losing health as your healthbar continues to blink a skull on it! It couldn't be much more clear what happened, to anyone actually paying attention.it's not that obvious in videogame logic
He couldn't beat the yellow devil and he complained the whole time. He even tried to cheat with the pause trick but couldn't do it.
Shame on him for trying to cheat. He loses some old school points for that.
So does L1 or LB or whatever everyone in the chat was spamming actually work?
they've been putting them here
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNatApsEKldRcy_sOrRSlmdU1e7MGOWhB
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNatApsEKldRcy_sOrRSlmdU1e7MGOWhB
I think so but they have to be processed first?
James and Mike fail quite regularly at games in their attempt to paint games as "shit" for their audience. It's just that not every game they do this with is a hidden gem that hardcore fans are familiar with, so it goes unnoticed.
A great example of this is their jaguar CD review when they play battlemorph. Their entire "review" is them bitching that someone actually made a sequel to cybermorph, then ramming into walls saying "It's not like starfox!" before turning it off.
No shit it's not like starfox. It's more like descent. They had absolutely no idea how to play. It's like a series of small rooms connected with tunnels, and each of those rooms have objectives leading to the bigger, overall level. Keys in one room, doors in another. It's mission based, too, kind of like goldeneye, with side missions they can optionally do.
Absolutely all of that beyond them. They turned their ship's engine to full (you can control how much thrust you have - both forwards and backwards) and then rammed into walls and were like "why can't I keep going forward??"
The show is funny, but they suck at video games and they do quite a few interesting games a huge disservice. Thats not to say everything they play is great, but they're not a very good barometer of these games.
Another really, really good example of this, which was an actual AVGN episode, is the Lester the Unlikely episode. That's a game that plays more like Flashback, Oddworld, Another World, Heart of Darkness, etc. Instead he tries to play the game like super mario bros and bitches the whole time about how it's not like that.
A great example of this is their jaguar CD review when they play battlemorph. Their entire "review" is them bitching that someone actually made a sequel to cybermorph, then ramming into walls saying "It's not like starfox!" before turning it off.
No shit it's not like starfox. It's more like descent. They had absolutely no idea how to play. It's like a series of small rooms connected with tunnels, and each of those rooms have objectives leading to the bigger, overall level. Keys in one room, doors in another. It's mission based, too, kind of like goldeneye, with side missions they can optionally do.
Absolutely all of that beyond them. They turned their ship's engine to full (you can control how much thrust you have - both forwards and backwards) and then rammed into walls and were like "why can't I keep going forward??"
The show is funny, but they suck at video games and they do quite a few interesting games a huge disservice. Thats not to say everything they play is great, but they're not a very good barometer of these games.
Another really, really good example of this, which was an actual AVGN episode, is the Lester the Unlikely episode. That's a game that plays more like Flashback, Oddworld, Another World, Heart of Darkness, etc. Instead he tries to play the game like super mario bros and bitches the whole time about how it's not like that.
brianmcdoogle
Member
It's been this way for almost a decade, so I don't understand why people still get up in arms about it (unless they really like the Indiana Jones game and want to protect it from undo ridicule or something).
I had Top Gun as a kid, loved playing it, and never really had trouble landing or doing mid-fueling. That's one of his earlier episodes. Or, take something from a few years ago like Metal Gear or Zelda II. I mean, is it something that people haven't seen his older stuff, or they're just new to it and are surprised by how they play? Or, how they like to just start and play a game and not read up on it prior to start (because they used to rent games as a kid that didn't come with manuals so that's what they are accustomed to doing)?
It just seems strange to me that people still get riled up over something they've been doing since the start of AVGN and will probably continue doing until they stop.
NoFaceNico
Member
Ugh. Is anyone else getting tired of Mike's constant stream uploads? I'm unsubscribing already, I'll keep an eye on this thread for whenever the next AVGN episode drops.
Mike needs to stop leeching off James' channel and make his own already so he can realize how unpopular he actually is.
Mike needs to stop leeching off James' channel and make his own already so he can realize how unpopular he actually is.
I wish he really was unpopular. Then his spur of the moment livestreams wouldn't have thousands of people in them and he would be able to see and answer my questions.
To be fair, he may make mistakes when it comes to playing certain games (though many games are quite crappy), but the fact he didn't realize that they were bitten by a snake and didn't notice their health draining down due to it until later in the episode shows that they aren't even paying attention to what's happening, which is what you would want to do when playing a game(definitely for the 1st time). At least in most episodes he has his full attention on the game(though wanders off at times), but not for that N64 Indiana Jones game. They didn't test the controls like you would normally do when you play a game you haven't played before(which is what he usually does in AVGN episodes as often he explains what the controls are).
Nope.
GustyGardens
Banned
Last night Mike streamed Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse, but I couldn't watch it live, so I'm watching the archived stream. It's a good play-through, but what irks me most are the caliber of questions some of these people consistently ask.
"Where's James?!"
"Play ET for Atari!" "Play Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde!"
The games in this quote can be switched out with any game that was featured on AVGN.
"What's your favorite NES game?"
"Where's James?!"
"Play ET for Atari!" "Play Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde!"
The games in this quote can be switched out with any game that was featured on AVGN.
"What's your favorite NES game?"
The livestream of Bootsy and Mike was pretty fun. Bootsy has never played a Mega Man before. Motherfucker Mike hands him the controller at the beginning of Quick Man. (With no Flash weapon) Most of the time they ignore the chat and just talk to each other about their memories of the NES.
Someone asked Bootsy what his favorite relaxing game was. Bootsy said he doesn't like relaxing games.
https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=vuLIvv97Wck
Someone asked Bootsy what his favorite relaxing game was. Bootsy said he doesn't like relaxing games.
https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=vuLIvv97Wck
Where the game fails is in persisting this state past death. That's ridiculous, and I can't think of any action-ish other game that persists a state like that. I was paying attention to the video of the game, possibly more than they were paying attention to the game themselves, and I was still confused why they kept starting off already dying.
It shouldn't *matter* that they didn't notice that they were poisoned until it was too late. What matters is that what happened after that was incredibly confusing and frustrating.
A Black Falcon
Member
That's only partially true. When you die, you get a selection of options. If you choose Continue Level, you continue from where you died with a refilled health bar, and yes, states such as poison carry over. Think of it as being like a checkpoint system, and a forgiving one because you aren't sent back much at all and can keep trying. If you choose Restart Level, you restart the stage, so no poison but you start from the beginning again. If you choose Restore Game, you can load your savegame -- you can save anywhere in this game, you know. There's only one save slot per file, but you can save and load the file at any time. You can also save and quit, or quit without saving.
Save anywhere is a pretty awesome feature for a console game like this, none of the contemporary Tomb Raider games have it, yes?
NinjamicWZ
Banned
Mike giving Adventures of Pip Boy the "y cant metroid crawl" treatment right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR-7fRIZZn4
"I don't want to play games I've never played on the livestream before 'cause I don't know what I'm doing. That's why I was playing Mega Man. They need to put more classics on Steam."
"I don't want to play games I've never played on the livestream before 'cause I don't know what I'm doing. That's why I was playing Mega Man. They need to put more classics on Steam."
NinjamicWZ
Banned
Pip Boy's ehhhh but it's funny watching Mike just losing it trying to wall jump and saying he hates everything about it, then handing the controller to the other guy who just breezes through it and is all just chill like "I kinda like it"
Lol people still use the pause trick on him?
PezDispenser
Banned
Truth, I loved that game and your comparisons are spot on. At one point in the review he even notes it's more like Prince of Persia, but that doesn't stop him from shitting on it for being different anyway.
The fact that he does mention that it's like prince of persia and still shits on it MAY be because the game controls like shit.
Make the same fuck up and yell at the game for it...
Triforce141
Member
At least his complaints about Dark Castle were slightly justified as both the Genesis and CDi versions were panned at release for not controlling well, or being as responsive as the original version on mac. Doesn't change the fact that he tried to play this and Lester like an action platformer though, rather than a cinematic platformer.
I'm getting real giddy right about now because people are starting to criticize this James & Mike series, I was just afraid of getting swarmed so I was waiting for someone else to say it first.
Look at the comment section on the Indiana Jones video, hilarious.
"It's like watching my granddad trying to play a video game."
Look at the comment section on the Indiana Jones video, hilarious.
"It's like watching my granddad trying to play a video game."
Cinemassacre IS Mike's channel.
Alex_Mexico
Member
He's not leeching since he's as much owner of that as James is but that doesn't mean we can't critizice him and yes I agree, I'm growing tired of his stream uploads.
It's extra irritating to hear him complain about everything while failing at the most basic of things that are a quick Google search away.
Like on his Megaman streams he repeatedly and abnoxiously complained "just give me an NES controller" while he struggle to play a difficult 2D sidescrolling platformer like Megaman with a motherfucking Xbox 360 controller. I mean, NO SHIT! The only first party controller from the past 15 years that could be worse than the 360 for these type of games would be the OG Xbox's Duke. I'm not even sure if he was using the thumbstick or the Dpad for Megaman but either way he chose poorly. And I need to point out he was playing the Steam version so the possibilities for controllers were endless (and he owns and Xbox One so why he didn't play with one of those is beyond me!).
The whole pause trick thing in his MM1 stream was nerve wrecking to see. It took him a second stream to realize that pause was actually mapped to the LB button and not to BACK and he continued to struggle to wrap his head around having to use LB crying "just give me an NES controller!" And it only made it worse when every time he accidentally pressed BACK the Legacy Collection's menu would pop up and there it was staring at his face the words "BUTTON CONFIGURATION". He would've saved us a lot of whining if he didn't suck at looking at the Options to learn he could've remapped the whole controller to his liking.
I've accepted that James & Mike just suck at modern games but him sucking at Megaman because he failed to take a quick look at the options menu is beyond my threshold of tolerance. I've given up on his streams. Christ.
Yeah no shit. When they're not playing it for laughs (i.e. AVGN) and it's a serious playthrough it gets very very frustrating. Seriously, his whining about the button config of MM Legacy was so difficult to swallow when you know he could've changed it but since I didn't saw his stream Live I can't tell him he's being a clueless asshole.
/rant
Dictator93
Member
Mike playing doom made me feel bad for people who know so little about games / play games I enjoy so poorly.