Recent reviews by Ryannumber1gamer

A brilliant remaster and upgrading of a fun platformer of the PS2 era.

As an AVGN fan for years, I really wish I could recommend this game. I really do. The game was clearly created with AVGN fans in mind, and is so filled with references to episodes that you'll really like how many cool touches they are to the game. From The Nerd's death trap from Super Pitfall, to the three spirits of Christmas from the Home Alone episode, you really wouldn't believe the amount of in jokes have been added to the game.

But I have to look at this from a gamer perspective, and honestly? It's one of my least favourite 2D Platformers to date. The developers fell into the Mega Man 9 pittrap of flanderizing Nintendo Difficulty by thinking "throwing down as much ♥♥♥♥ as possible" is all fair game. Unfortunately, it isn't. It isn't good level design, it isn't good difficulty balancing, it's simply fustrating, simple as.

And I know the joke of the game is meant to parody the silly things in bad games, but that's the problem right there. The game can lampshade the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ design, and cheap layouts as much as they want, but it doesn't change the fact they're present in the game, and they're unbelievably annoying to deal with. From rooms filled with Death Blocks, that are in unbelivably idiotic layouts and locations, to the point where it feels like flat out luck to get past them.

And if you have to play this game on a keyboard, get ready for even more pain, because the keyboard controls are even more of a pain to deal with, and unusally glitchy. For example, I tried to switch the layout to use W,A,S,D as the arrow controls, but as soon as I started the level Future F**kballs, The A button wasn't letting me walk left, instead just turning the character in that direction.

There are also four playable characters in the game, these including AVGN himself, Couch Guy, Mike, and Bullsh*t Man. Unfortunately, I only found myself playing as Mike, and Couch Guy for most of the game.

AVGN isn't a bad character, and he's useful for situations where you need balanced jumping, but Mike has a very powerful ranged attack, and an extremely high jump, which makes platforming slightly easier, while Couch Guy has a very good long range weapon that arcs, and goes through walls, and he has the fastest speed of the characters in the game.

The worst character by far however is Bullsh*t Man. He has a double jump, but his speed is so terrible, his weapon is so useless because it isn't long range or very powerful, and his normal jump is terrible, with his double jump just giving him a very slight boost to make him have the normal jump of maybe Couch Guy (The third worst jumper in the game).

The cameos in this game are also kind of cool as well. Seeing Angry Joe, The Completionist, and Jim Sterling in the game was certainly a cool little surprise. That said however, there was some really glaring obmissions, and I'll give you AVGN fans one guess as to who it is.

THE NOSTALIGA CRITIC THATS WHO.

I mean seriously, even if Nostalgia Critic hasn't done many game reviews, he's still done Blues Brothers, and Babe's Kids, and he's done a ton of video game movies/tv shows, and that doesn't even talk about the fact that NC is Angry Video Game Nerd's rival. They had a battle that the internet still remembers to this day.

James Rolfe himself has cameoed in NC's movies, as well as Doug Walker (The person behind The NC) cameoing in the AVGN Movie, so I was incredibly disappointed that he didn't even get a mention in the game, when other Youtubers like Egoraptor did get a cameo (Personally, I'm not a fan of Game Grumps, but that's more personal opinion more than anything.

On top of that, the extremely fustrating level design of the game also ends up ruining some of the jokes. For example, it seems very clear they created the game with a death toll in mind, like Super Meat Boy did, but where Super Meat Boy was a fast paced platformer with extremely short levels, AVGN Adventures takes more of a Mega Man style, which really doesn't suit the style. Mega Man levels are generally very long for a death toll kind of idea, and when the player is getting killed over and over by cheap layouts, rather than their own fault, then it only ends up fustrating them.

It doesn't help that when the player dies, they get a random quote from the AVGN talking about how the game is a pile of ♥♥♥♥. The problem is there's only about 10 to 20 of these in the game, and so, by the time you hit maybe the end of the first level, depending on which level you start on, you'll be so sick of these quotes. What makes it even worse is you can't skip past them until you've seen the text written out, meaning you have to wait about 5 to 10 seconds each time before you respawn.

If there's any positives to the game, the graphics are pretty good, and inspired by SNES games, and the music is surprisingly really awesome, and as I said, the injokes, references, and cameos are pretty cool to see, but in general, AVGN Adventures is a completely disappointing mess of a 2D platformer that falls into almost every pitfall that the Nerd has pointed out in bad games over the last 9 years.

South Park: The Stick of Truth, to be honest is a milestone in gaming in my eyes. Not only is this licensed game functioning and playable, it's actually good. No, it's more than good. It's brilliant. The gameplay and world fits the South Park license so well and as a long time fan of the series, I've nothing but praise for this game.

When I first heard about Stick of Truth, I wasn't too excited. Licensed Games weren't exactly high art and I wasn't a fan of the Lord of the Rings setting because the only South Park episode with that setting I really liked was Return of the Fellowship of The Ring. But when more information came out about it, it slowly began to win me over. This wasn't this setting. It was a parody. It was still the characters and universe that we knew and loved, but using the LoTR settings as a tounge and cheek joke and it honestly worked in my eyes.

The gameplay really does fit the South Park setting with it being totally in 2D and it also helps brings fun to the turn based fighting in the game. In most RPGs you just hit your attack, and then wait to dodge your enemies attack. In Stick of Truth, they've added a mechanic where you need to time your attack to get maximum damage out of it as well as other variables, such as archers, multiple hit enemies, shields, and more. It really works to help keep the game out of repetive areas in my opinion.

The graphical style is of course the same that's been featured in the show. Normally, you'd be thinking "lol how could a 2013 game have these graphics". But considering the art style and joke about the South Park style, I find the graphics very charming, and helping add to the feel of the SP universe.

On top of that the game is absolutely filled to the brim with nothing but in-jokes, references, and more to the most popular and even the least popular episodes of the series. Little things like finding the Gamesphere from Towelie's episode, or finding Butters' The Poop That Took a Pee book, or even finding a certain character inside Stan's closet who refuses to come out. This game is a love letter to South Park fans everywhere, and if you are a South Park fan, this game is an absolute must buy. There is so much love put into this game to make it a game that caters to the South Park fans.

As for non-fans, I would suggest maybe watching a few episodes of the series before deciding to jump onto the game because the humor is very much like South Park's actual series, so unless you think you'll really love the gameplay element, I think you should see if the show's humor interests you beforehand before you decide to get this game. But in my own opinion, South Park The Stick of Truth is a excellent game, and shows that when developers put actual effort in, they can make a truly special game for TV Shows.