Angry Videogame Nerd: Ready 4 Revenge

Cinemassacre’s latest home video collection of Angry Videogame Nerd (AVGN) episodes has a perplexing title, Ready 4 Revenge. After nine DVD collections, Cinemassacre started re-releasing their entire AVGN library on BluRay. They were titled AVGN X1-X3. Since Ready 4 Revenge only has a BluRay release, I am puzzled why they did not simply title it X4, but they did feel compelled to include a four in the title and thus we have Ready 4 Revenge. I have covered several of the past AVGN home video collections you can check out by clicking right here.

As in past entries, I feel obligated to mention you can check out all the AVGN episodes for free on the Cinemassacre YouTube channel. I do not back any Patreons, but if an online artist/influencer/content creator/etc. I follow releases a physical media product I will almost always buy it to support them, and thus here I am reliving AVGN episodes from 2016 into early 2017. For those unaware, James Rolfe portrays the Angry Videogame Nerd character that goes on to pick apart and rage over the worst games, systems and accessories of gaming’s past. Going by the listing on the back of the case, Ready 4 Revenge appears to be the slimmest pickings of episodes available of all AVGN collections to date with only seven episodes and just over an hour of extra features.

Of the seven episodes, I only had a lot of experience with the awful 16-bit Beavis and Butthead games, and related with many of the Nerd’s many gripes with that dreadful platformer. I am well aware of the legacy of the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog, but never saw much of it in action before so to see it ripped apart in detail by Rolfe’s character was an eye opener. My two favorite episodes here are for GameBoy accessories and another covering Bernstain Bears games. After breaking down several of the ridiculous accessories to grace Nintendo’s handheld over the years, I went on to be shocked by several more outrageous obscurities that Rolfe unearthed from the depths of eBay. The Bernstain Bears games episode I dug not really because of the ho-hum games they cover, but more for the Nerd’s shocking revelation of learning the proper spelling of ‘Bernstain’ all these years later and going on to have a time travel sketch to re-write history.

The only episode I was not a fan of was the Sega Menacer and other odd Genesis accessories episodes. He has a special guest with him in one Keith Apicary. I only knew of him before as another character-type content creator specializing in goofball humor and running into things. This episode is mostly the Nerd and Apicary bumping into objects and colliding with each other while trying out the Menacer and other Genesis peripherals I had no idea about until this. It just felt too forced and out there and it did not gel with me compared to other AVGN episodes. James Rolfe did do a commentary track for this whole episode and for what it is worth I did find the commentary more entertaining than the episode itself where he details how it was the AVGN episode with the highest budget at that point and defended the episode by stating how he wanted to mix things up and go outside the box every once in awhile.

Other extras is a making of commentary track montage for the rest of the episodes that I am always a fan of where Rolfe breaks down other behind-the-scenes facts and insight into the production. There is a bonus mini AVGN episode that Rolfe contributes to Pat Contri each year for his annual NES marathon charity stream. This year it was dedicated to Gilligan’s Island on the NES. I really dug Rolfe ranking his 10 favorite AVGN episodes in another bonus feature. After that though, the rest of the extras are short film projects from Rolfe that were kind of hit and miss for me. Rolfe stated before his love for old school sci-fi and monster movies, and I understand a lot of other people who love that stuff who grew up with it, so if that is you, then you will probably dig the extra short films included. If not, well, you have been warned!

I know Rolfe does not produce as many AVGN episodes as he did in his earlier years with the franchise, but still releases several episodes a year which is why I was not too stunned to see a collection released with only seven episodes. There is a fair amount of extra features, but it is noticeable how overall the total content is a bit less compared to other releases. If Cinemassacre releases another AVGN collection, I got a feeling it will be bigger, because it has now been over two years since Ready 4 Revenge, and according to their YouTube channel, there has been 19 episodes since the last one featured on this disc. If you are pick and choosing which collections to get, you may be better holding off on this one for now, but there is still a fair amount of quality AVGN material to consume in Ready 4 Revenge…just less than before.

Past TV/Web Series Blogs

2013-14 TV Season Recap
2014-15 TV Season Recap
2015-16 TV Season Recap
2016-17 TV Season Recap
2017-18 TV Season Recap
Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series
Baseball: A Ken Burns series
Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections
Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2
OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30
RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13
Roseanne – Seasons 1-9
Seinfeld Final Season
Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Superheroes: Pioneers of Television
The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series
X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5