The premise, like most good comedy, is absurd. Jason voorhees, Man Behind The Mask who punishes weed-smoking sexhavers... gives a shit about what a nostalgic Nintendo nerd says about his tie-in NES game. There's an inherent humor in the Nerd forcing himself to say only positive things about the Friday the 13th NES game, despite all of his remarks about "interesting" game mechanics dripping with sarcasm. What's interesting are the ties to Castlevania II; we've already done it here, but do keep in mind that it was the game which launched the Nerd into popularity. Eventually he'd do a four-part Castlevania marathon if only because he compared games to Castlevania almost every episode. Still, it's not hard to see the comparison. A day/night cycle sidescroller with obtuseness abound. Much like Simon's Quest though, Friday the 13th seems to be a game that mystifies with its strange ruleset and cryptic nature, but has some neat ideas at its core if you know how the hell to play it. I'm not going so far as to say I like it, as I don't know how it works myself. Even though he criticizes the repetitive overworld music, I have to say that I like the cabin theme. Very spooky stuff. Of course, there are other elements which would go on to become reference fodder... namely that made-up game over screen he trots out. We can hardly blame him for that, but what I find interesting is future continuity that seeps in. Stuff that wasn't planned at all in October 2006, like reference to Tiger electronic wrist games or the phrase "get the knife". Both would be in later episodes, yes. As for Jason himself, he's quite determined to menace this Nintendo nerd and make him say nice things about the game... and it's that subdued rage which allows the Nerd to beat Jason's face in with a Nintendo controller and blow his head off with a Zapper, Final Girl trope be damned. Passing out from drinking himself into a stupor, the pain isn't over yet. Another slasher beast immediately wants to play, in the land of nightmares...
This makes a little more sense. I forget if it's actually James Rolfe in the Freddy costume until the end, but it's definitely his voice. Freddy torturing our sleeping Nerd by making him play the Nightmare On Elm Street NES game is an ironic pain akin to later entries in the franchise. The only thing that doesn't make sense is that the Nerd is by no means a teen, but ehhhh. Again, the similarity between this and Simon's Quest is laid out. He really can't stop thinking about that game, and it's a compulsion at this point. I know I've played this one briefly for the Nintendo Project Resumed, but I couldn't tell you anything about it now. It certainly doesn't actually look all that bad. A bit of a chore to try and find what house is the right house, but nothing in it looks awful. The control looks solid enough and the objectives are simple in their own right. Yet, here we are, trapped in the confines of a nightmare. Even one Nerd is not enough to deal with this, and so we have four of them at once bitching about the thing... and then shitting all over it. Trust me, this was preferable to Scary Movie. All of the video effects of an indie filmmaker in 2006 are used to kill three of the Nerds, leaving the final showdown... and Freddy's almost right, in a sense. It is the Nerd making himself play all the detritus of video gaming, which means he is his own nightmare... but then, he does it because the fandom eats it up. In a sense, we are his nightmare as well. Either way, the Nerd has his secret weapon. The one bridge between Freddy's world and the Nerd's, other than the game itself. The Power Glove. That would get looked at in his next episode (and was the first I ever saw of his, so here's where I came in!) but it's not spooky so here is where we leave this particular saga to jump a year ahead. Well, it's more like 9 years, 50 weeks behind...
Ah, the Atari age! That cart just has that homemade feel to it, doesn't it? That, plus the woodgrain aesthetic of the 2600... it just screams with a sort of rustic feel, doesn't it? Halloween on Atari looks decent enough, if not simple. We can cut it some slack for the era, I feel. The Nerd goes to town on it a bit, but recall that he's supposed to be exaggerated parody. This is not gospel for why Halloween on Atari sucks; it is not shit because the walls keep changing color and Laurie Strode's sprite is bigger than Michael Myers'. Its crude violence is something to behold, an attempt to create gore with what limited power they had back then. Michael himself is lurking about the narrative of this video as well, since the Nerd has been relegated to babysitting a bunch of kids just like Laurie Strode was. Unlike Freddy and Jason, he's not forcing the Nerd to play his shit game. He just... stalks. We even get some bonus fun with Haunted House and Frankenstein's Monster on the Atari. The scene where the Monster stomps out of the TV is terrifying if you think on it too much... but then comes more of Halloween seeping in. A dark house, a Nerd in the basement supplanting the usual cannon fodder girl. Michael's attack is somewhat limp this time, and he's taken down by Atari joysticks to the eyes and boxing children. Still, Rolfe gets the mood right. Halloween's role as the uber-slasher means he's not a threatening menace or a wisecracker. He's the Boogeyman, stalking and following and waiting to kill. The video nails this, and it's good. Hell, all three of this videos are pretty fun throwbacks for me, a fan of the AVGN. Yes. I like this shit. I may not like the games made based on it, but I like this shit. It's the same with James Rolfe and the films he draws inspiration on for these videos. He has a love for horror, a disappointment with these games, and he channels that through the Nerd. Good work. Good work. We're out.
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