2008
The year begins with IG putting out another video about a great game, Contra. This one got people mad and really showcased Chris’ belief that “difficulty is a flaw”. One infamous moment had him declare that he refuses to read the instruction manual to find the game’s story, then acts surprised when there’s aliens.
The episode introduced another new character, the Wise Sage. Unlike all the other characters, this one isn’t played by Chris. Instead played by his friend Eric Allen. Initially a Star Wars reference, people gravitated to Eric, as fans found his acting and line reads superior to Chris. He was also willing to talk to IG’s critics, and even had his own criticisms of the show.
It’s around this point that the critical videos started to be too much for Bores, and he went on a copyright flagging spree. Abusing the system to take down negative videos. Claiming it infringed on the copyright of Y2B Productions. Even if it didn’t use any of his footage. Entire channels would go down, and several videos were lost. To this day, Chris has never apologized for it, or even admitted to it.
Irate Gamer wasn’t done with Contra, as the next video would be about the other two NES games, Super C and Contra Force. Here he openly admits to using Game Genie to play them. Prior episodes had evidence of cheating (Skipping to the end of Goonies II and Temple of Doom, infinite lives in TMNT III), but this is the first time he admitted to it.
He ended on a cliffhanger, with one more Contra video left.
As a bonus, Chris posted bloopers from the episode. He would do this for some videos throughout the years. They no longer remain on his channel.
Before getting to Contra, he posted some other videos.
A Neo video on WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008. Only thing I really remember from this one was Chris showing old wrestling footage and pointing out when he’s in the crowd. One clip revealing he was an Al Snow fan circa 2000. I’m amazed the WWE didn’t flag the video.
Afterwards, he would start doing movie reviews. Though the first one was a Top 10 list about movies he was looking forward to. Specifically, summer movies (tentpole blockbusters). Chris put multiple comic book adaptations on the list yet kept saying “I never read the comics”.
People mocked this video when Chris gave the #1 spot to Dragonball Evolution (though the name wasn’t finalized at the time). He predicted that Ernie Hudson would be playing Mr. Popo. Make of that what you will.
The video was split into two as this was the era of “views are most important”. However, the first half is no longer on his channel.
Chris would once again dive back into cereal with “Rice Krispanese”, a pseudo-documentary about “the language of Rice Krispies”. Pretty sure George Carlin did that bit a long time ago.
Eventually he released the third Contra video. It was mostly about Contra III: The Alien Wars, with a very brief mention of Contra 4 on DS. No Operation C or Contra Hard Corps or either of the terrible PS1 games.
It was more complaining about difficulty. As well as jokes on how Red Falcon was angry about Contra Force, even though Contra III came out before it.
An IG Neo episode on Battalion Wars II. All I remember is that he drooled all over one of the NPCs, and complained it was too hard. It’s no longer on the channel.
Chris would then dip his toe into another medium, comic books. Releasing a video on Archie Comics’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. I just remember it being very boring, and I’m surprised it’s no longer up. I do recall him saying in the comments he wanted to cover X-Men comics. That did not happen.
He put out an April Fool’s Day video talking about Q*Bert. The “Fool” part is that he gets replaced with Michael Buckley of YouTube’s WhatTheBuck show. The fact his first major collab wasn’t with another creator in the gaming sphere, but a gossip channel about celebrities, showed how he didn’t care for the video game aspect.
Next came Predator. It opened with him in a “jungle” that was literally just close-ups of fake plants in his house. It ended with a Predator fight that… copies the ending of the AVGN’s fight with Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th. A lot of plagiarism accusations were stretches, but this was really blatant.
Speaking of plagiarism, he didn’t just steal from the Nerd. There’s a line about his “Fists of Fury” that’s taken directly from oldschool content creator WizWar100.
Then he talked about the first Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. He called it “Mario vs Sonic” and didn’t like it. But the part that really stuck out is when he opened the episode claiming the Sega Genesis was made to compete with the Super Nintendo, and not the other way around. In the comments, he would double down when someone said Wikipedia says differently, claiming that Wikipedia is wrong. Remember this for 2009.
After that came his first movie review, on Iron Man. It’s short and barely says anything. Expect this to be the tone for movie reviews going forward. Gone from his channel.
He would release a revised version of his MUSCLE episode. Removing the line about “no special moves” (but never acknowledging that they exist), an alternate take of his ending rant, and over-explaining the suggestive sprites of Ring King.
Then came something Chris claims he had been working on for months. A review of R.O.B., the plastic Trojan Horse Nintendo used to bring home consoles back to market.
This one also caused some controversy as shortly before IG put out the teaser, the AVGN released a video on NES Accessories that ended with him teasing that he would get to R.O.B. another day (and he would three years later). Chris defended himself with this argument years later, stating he was already working on it, and you would know if you saw the R.O.B. footage in the theme song.
Starting with this video, Chris attempted to give IG an “iconic outfit”, wearing a blue button-down shirt.
At one point in the video, he cracks a joke about R.O.B. “getting jiggy with it”, with sped-up footage of R.O.B. dancing to Will Smith. It’s very possible he lifted this from FarFromSubtle and their old series “Awesome Video Games”, where the episode on R.O.B. had a sped-up footage of R.O.B. dancing (though to Gyromite’s music).
Despite the alleged months of work, he only put out Part 1, with the follow-up taking a month.
Between that, he put out a review of Super Smash Bros Brawl, which to this day remains his most popular video at 6.4 million views. Despite clear evidence that Chris had no idea what he was talking about.
As well as a review of Superman Doomsday, the first animated adaptation of The Death of Superman.
It was also during this R.O.B. lull that Chris got his first major interview. On the radio show Uncensored Net Noise. Prior to the show, prominent Irate Gamer critic TheArchfiend warned UNN about his plagiarism. The hosts confronted Bores about it live, and he stumbled his way through half-hearted answers and weak excuses. The mockery of Irate Gamer only intensified after that.
Despite the humiliation, Chris would put out the second R.O.B. video. When he was playing Stack-Up, he messed up and R.O.B. knocked over some blocks. Yet he blames the robot for his mistakes.
Like Predator, the video ends in a fight.
Next, he released the start of a new series. The “Chris and Scottie Road Trip”. Partnering with his friend Scott Mitchell, they would stand in front of a green screen and “travel the world”. Chris would provide facts about the location (often inaccurate) while Scottie served as comic relief. Interesting to note, this was made three years prior to release. It’s no longer on the channel.
Next Neo review would be about Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barabros’ Treasure. A highly overlooked Wii title that reveals Chris had no idea what a point & click adventure game was. It’s no longer on the channel.
After that was a review of the second episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Incredible Hulk. No longer on his channel.
Then came the recently filmed second episode of Chris & Scottie Road Trip. On his old Y2B Productions site, he would have a page for Chris & Scottie, implying he planned to make this an on-going series. There were no more episodes. Like the first, it’s no longer on the channel.
But what is still there is his next review. E.T. for the Atari 2600 (as well as E.T. on GBA and E.T. and the Cosmic Garden on GBC). Between this and R.O.B., it felt like Bores was attempting to encroach on a certain reviewer’s territory as, at the time, they were two popular requests.
The video was two parts, but unlike R.O.B. both were released on the same day. The bicycle sequence at the end of part 1 became a small meme.
Part 2 has him flush the GBA game down the toilet, a rare case of legitimate destruction.
Afterwards he posted reviews of the movies Jumper and WALL-E, a review of Harvey Birdman on Wii, and reviews of The Dark Knight and Stepbrothers. All of them are no longer on the channel.
Then there was this odd “Meditation Ritual Gone Wrong” skit where clones of Bores are all mediating and… one of them farts. That’s it. That’s the video. It’s no longer on the channel.
Eventually he would release his next main review. Home Improvement on SNES. He spent the entire video stuck on the first level then rage-quit because the second level is also jungle-themed. Somehow missing that the first level was labeled “Level 1-1”.
The video ended with another case of legitimate destruction when he cut the game in half with a table-saw.
One gag involved Wilson (Tim’s next-door neighbor) showing up in his room with the fence in front of him. Remember this for later.
A video about The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Wow, I forgot that existed. It’s no longer on the channel.
Around this time, DiretTV were running commercials featuring actors in movies breaking the fourth wall to tell the viewer about the benefits of DirecTV. These included Sigourney Weaver in Aliens and Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future. Chris chose to emulate them and make his own version where he promotes DirecTV while fighting R.O.B. It wasn’t a parody.
Then out of nowhere, a review of the DS remake of Final Fantasy III. He very clearly cheated as his footage shows the party having max HP. It’s a long grindy process to get that in FFIII.
He seemed to imply that III was the first of the Japan-only Final Fantasies to get an English release, when II and V came out long before that.
Hidden away on another channel, Chris would do his first gaming crossover. Partnering with Nick Hugget AKA SWAGshow (now going by Aristocards) to talk about RoboCop on NES. If you’re wondering why Nick chose to crossover, they were both part of GottGame. It ended with a skit where Chris orders “RoboCop” (Nick wearing tinfoil) to kill Ocean Software, then to kill Billy Ocean.
As October came in, Chris decided to really start pushing Haunted Investigators on the channel. Posting his episode on the Haunted Hydro, an Ohio amusement park.
Following that came the legendary Monster Party video. It gave us the ever-so-exploitable Bores n’ Doors meme. The premise of the episode involved Chris getting multiple visitors believing it’s the location of a Halloween party. He would go to the door and tell them off. Giving us the quotes “Uh yeah, ya thuink?!” and “Get the fuck off my property!”
The funny thing is that thanks to the meme, the black & white shirt he wore is far more iconic than the button-down blue shirt he pushed.
The episode reintroduced the Evil Gamer, now sporting long hair and a beanie. He was responsible for Monster Party appearing in Irate Gamer’s room.
Afterwards was a Neo episode on Mario Kart Wii, where he spent most of it complaining about the intro.
Then something rather different. A video about a Scrabble DS game that had inappropriate words. Even including “Scandal” in the title. It was a very minor scandal as it didn’t get attention in comparison to Mass Effect having “hardcore orgies”. The video is no longer on the channel.
Following that was IG listing his Top 5 NES games. Just a standard list. Though when he brings up Kid Icarus, he mentions using Game Genie to play it and cusses out all the critics that call him out on his excessive cheating.
Then a bizarre episode of IG Neo where the Evil Gamer takes over to talk about Order Up, a shovelware game on Wii. I’m certain the only reason he did this was to make a joke regarding the developer’s name “Supervillain Studios”.
Irate Gamer would end the year off with another list, Top 5 Nintendo DS games. With some odd choices like Mr Driller Drill Spirits (because Dig Dug is in it) and three Lego games that are better on console. Though the weirdest is when he talked about Castelvania: Portrait of Ruin and claimed it was just like Diablo because, “you travel to new areas and kill enemies to level up your skills”. I am not making this up.
2009:
The year started with one more Top 5 list, his Worst Video Game Movies. It was a strange list as it didn’t include any Uwe Boll. It felt like he just put a bunch of adaptations in a hat and picked them out at random. At least Mortal Kombat Annihilation made it.
There was also a video where he talks about the announcement of a Green Lantern movie and how he’s such a big fan of the comics. I don’t remember if this was 2009 or late 2008. It is no longer on the channel.
Chris started to get desperate for subscribers and began running contests. They were all the same, just subscribe and write “Pick Me” in the comments. He would hold several of these contests over the next few years. Don’t bother looking, they’re all deleted.
Then came another legendary video. The 1-2 punch of this and Monster Party is likely what mortally wounded his channel. Aladdin on SNES.
Chris was hyping this one a lot. Even commissioning an artist to do a title card. At one point it was supposed to be out Holiday 2008 but that didn’t happen.
What makes this video legendary? Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. He bashes a beloved classic with very poor reasons (he spends around 90 seconds complaining about Abu following you), he outright lies about it (he doesn’t mention the cloth used for hovering, and admits in the description that “it was funnier” if he excluded it), badly written dialogue even by his standards (“My rug is double-parked outside”, “Somebody call 911 cause I was ROBbed” [holds up R.O.B.]), an ending involving a CGI snake, and he wasn’t alone in this. He was joined by Eric Allen as the Wise Sage, and his friend Brad Harp as a genie. While Eric worked with what he could, Brad did not have a single care. Giving an amazingly wooden performance that became a meme.
It was basically a microcosm of all his flaws in an 11-and-a-half-minute package. Lead to a lot of lost fans too.
Following that he put out his Top 10 Summer Movies of 2009 list. He still put Dragonball Evolution high on the list, even with trailers and pictures out. Though only at 2 as G.I. Joe took precedent.
Watchmen was also on the list, and he would end up reviewing that. Where he complained about the non-linear storytelling (also complaining about Pulp Fiction doing the same thing) and the movie’s length. It’s no longer on the channel.
That brings us to his Neo review of Sonic Unleashed. He claims to be a big Sonic fan yet has complaints that contradict that. It’s still up on his channel, where the title still reads “Sonic Unleashed – The Hedgehog” like people would be confused about which Sonic. As well as saying it’s a Wii review when he played the Xbox 360 version. I don’t get it either.
After that was a review of the Nicolas Cage movie Knowing. I don’t even remember this one. It’s no longer on the channel.
Chris announced a project that made everyone roll their eyes or let out an exasperated sigh. The Irate Gamer would be going over the History of Video Games. A multi-part series chronologically covering, well, the history of video games.
Remember his doubling down on the Genesis being made to compete with the SNES? A good reason to be worried.
First episode talked about Spacewar and Computer Space, early Arcade games. That’s it. It set the tone for this series, short videos that barely cover anything. He didn’t even mention Bertie the Brain or Tennis for Two.
Chris wanted this to be taken seriously, yet he still littered the video with jokes
The series was announced with a teaser, and it set off another controversy. A week or two prior to the release, the AVGN made a video on the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. One comment pointed it out, and Chris claimed, “I don’t watch him”. Chris would later defend himself complaining that James normally didn’t cover stuff like the Odyssey.
However, the video is no longer on the channel. There is a reason, and we’ll get to it later.
Then came his long-anticipated review of Dragonball Evolution. After hyping it up on two lists, he ended up not liking it. Complaining about aspects that were clear from the trailers or even in the manga (like Bulma having guns), concluding that “it’s for kids”. It’s no longer on the channel.
Next came a review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Though he titled it X-Men Legends. He lavished the movie with praise, despite the common consensus was that it was terrible (killing the planned Origins movie line). I remember people speculating that he saw the leaked workprint cut and not the theatrical movie. I can’t prove it though.
The video is gone, but a small snippet of it remains in RedLetterMedia’s Half in the Bag (Episode 59). RLM even left a sarcastic comment on it, but Chris deleted it.
Another surprise, a review of Resident Evil 5. Likely his first foray into the series as he gets basic details wrong (“the drug that turns people into zombies”), while also complaining about it being too hard (“Why couldn’t the easy setting just be a little more easier?”) He complained about the controls but showed that his Xbox controller wasn’t even on. It’s no longer on the channel.
He also did a review of Star Trek 2009. I don’t remember anything about this one. It’s no longer on the channel.
Then Chris’ critics got a major shock. GottGame took Irate Gamer to E3 and let him create video coverage. Almost all the 2009 coverage is gone, except for a single video about New Super Mario Wii that I imagine only stayed up for the high view count (over a million). But the other videos included obvious statements, weak predictions, and subpar interviews.
Around this time, he put out a review of Boom Blox Bash Party on GottGame, posting it to YouTube months later. Only thing I remember about this was a bad fake text joke where an in-game character tells Bores to make him a sandwich. It’s no longer on the channel.
Now here’s a video I’m surprised he didn’t remove. A review of a portable NES clone from the now defunct thinkgeek.com (before they were absorbed ty GameStop).
Afterwards, his review of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Don’t remember much of this one either, but I guess he liked it? No longer on the channel.
Next was a review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He hated it, so he’s not always a weird contrarian. No longer on the channel.
His output started to slow down a bit around this point. He claimed it was computer issues (though I recall rumors about his GF leaving him).
He released a review of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince where he complained about the lack of battles. No longer on the channel.
Eventually he would release Part 2 of the History of Video Games, covering the Magnavox Odyssey. With a built-in HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The video ended up being two parts, with the second covering the light rifle. I recall one of his fans acting surprised that HAL was evil. Like Part 1, it’s no longer on the channel.
Surprisingly, Odyssey creator Ralph Baer saw the videos, and he did not like them. Saying they were full of misinformation. Chris somehow ignored that and simply cheered at the fact Baer saw them.
Since GottGame fixed their site around this time, I was able to watch Neo reviews when they initially came out. Starting with a video on Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Where Chris was pleased to get some “Irate Gamer clout” because the game wasn’t out yet. Except Activision had an offer that if you bought Guitar Hero 5, they would send you a free copy of GH: VH. It wasn’t as exclusive as he thought.
He also confused Billy Idol with Billy Joel. It’s no longer on the channel.
Going forward, the Neo episodes will be chronicled by their GottGame release.
Remember when he made a revised version of his MUSCLE video? He did it again for Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Only changes I remember were over-explaining another dirty joke and adding a scream to a picture of Aaron Spelling when referring to him as a zombie.
The real Halloween special was the start of another new series, I Rate the 80’s. For a time, a lot of his fans spelled his name as the “iRate Gamer”, under the belief he simply rated games rather than a synonym for anger. It’s possible he picked up on that and went with it.
Though from the start, it felt like a reboot of The Breakfast Rant, as the first episode was about the discontinued General Mills monster cereal Fruity Yummy Mummy. They took it off store shelves because it wasn’t good.
Then he would post a Neo review of DJ Hero. Had some pointless Happy Days references. Amazingly, this one is still up on YouTube.
The year would end with one last Irate Gamer episode. Kool-Aid games. A duo of vintage licensed trash that could only be obtained through mailing in proofs of purchase. This episode felt like an excuse for Chris to show off his Kool-Aid Man costume. With Kool-Aid Man “bursting” through his walls a total of four times. Ending with IG murdering him and drinking his blood.
Next time: 2010-2011
The year begins with IG putting out another video about a great game, Contra. This one got people mad and really showcased Chris’ belief that “difficulty is a flaw”. One infamous moment had him declare that he refuses to read the instruction manual to find the game’s story, then acts surprised when there’s aliens.
The episode introduced another new character, the Wise Sage. Unlike all the other characters, this one isn’t played by Chris. Instead played by his friend Eric Allen. Initially a Star Wars reference, people gravitated to Eric, as fans found his acting and line reads superior to Chris. He was also willing to talk to IG’s critics, and even had his own criticisms of the show.
It’s around this point that the critical videos started to be too much for Bores, and he went on a copyright flagging spree. Abusing the system to take down negative videos. Claiming it infringed on the copyright of Y2B Productions. Even if it didn’t use any of his footage. Entire channels would go down, and several videos were lost. To this day, Chris has never apologized for it, or even admitted to it.
Irate Gamer wasn’t done with Contra, as the next video would be about the other two NES games, Super C and Contra Force. Here he openly admits to using Game Genie to play them. Prior episodes had evidence of cheating (Skipping to the end of Goonies II and Temple of Doom, infinite lives in TMNT III), but this is the first time he admitted to it.
He ended on a cliffhanger, with one more Contra video left.
As a bonus, Chris posted bloopers from the episode. He would do this for some videos throughout the years. They no longer remain on his channel.
Before getting to Contra, he posted some other videos.
A Neo video on WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008. Only thing I really remember from this one was Chris showing old wrestling footage and pointing out when he’s in the crowd. One clip revealing he was an Al Snow fan circa 2000. I’m amazed the WWE didn’t flag the video.
Afterwards, he would start doing movie reviews. Though the first one was a Top 10 list about movies he was looking forward to. Specifically, summer movies (tentpole blockbusters). Chris put multiple comic book adaptations on the list yet kept saying “I never read the comics”.
People mocked this video when Chris gave the #1 spot to Dragonball Evolution (though the name wasn’t finalized at the time). He predicted that Ernie Hudson would be playing Mr. Popo. Make of that what you will.
The video was split into two as this was the era of “views are most important”. However, the first half is no longer on his channel.
Chris would once again dive back into cereal with “Rice Krispanese”, a pseudo-documentary about “the language of Rice Krispies”. Pretty sure George Carlin did that bit a long time ago.
Eventually he released the third Contra video. It was mostly about Contra III: The Alien Wars, with a very brief mention of Contra 4 on DS. No Operation C or Contra Hard Corps or either of the terrible PS1 games.
It was more complaining about difficulty. As well as jokes on how Red Falcon was angry about Contra Force, even though Contra III came out before it.
An IG Neo episode on Battalion Wars II. All I remember is that he drooled all over one of the NPCs, and complained it was too hard. It’s no longer on the channel.
Chris would then dip his toe into another medium, comic books. Releasing a video on Archie Comics’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. I just remember it being very boring, and I’m surprised it’s no longer up. I do recall him saying in the comments he wanted to cover X-Men comics. That did not happen.
He put out an April Fool’s Day video talking about Q*Bert. The “Fool” part is that he gets replaced with Michael Buckley of YouTube’s WhatTheBuck show. The fact his first major collab wasn’t with another creator in the gaming sphere, but a gossip channel about celebrities, showed how he didn’t care for the video game aspect.
Next came Predator. It opened with him in a “jungle” that was literally just close-ups of fake plants in his house. It ended with a Predator fight that… copies the ending of the AVGN’s fight with Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th. A lot of plagiarism accusations were stretches, but this was really blatant.
Speaking of plagiarism, he didn’t just steal from the Nerd. There’s a line about his “Fists of Fury” that’s taken directly from oldschool content creator WizWar100.
Then he talked about the first Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. He called it “Mario vs Sonic” and didn’t like it. But the part that really stuck out is when he opened the episode claiming the Sega Genesis was made to compete with the Super Nintendo, and not the other way around. In the comments, he would double down when someone said Wikipedia says differently, claiming that Wikipedia is wrong. Remember this for 2009.
After that came his first movie review, on Iron Man. It’s short and barely says anything. Expect this to be the tone for movie reviews going forward. Gone from his channel.
He would release a revised version of his MUSCLE episode. Removing the line about “no special moves” (but never acknowledging that they exist), an alternate take of his ending rant, and over-explaining the suggestive sprites of Ring King.
Then came something Chris claims he had been working on for months. A review of R.O.B., the plastic Trojan Horse Nintendo used to bring home consoles back to market.
This one also caused some controversy as shortly before IG put out the teaser, the AVGN released a video on NES Accessories that ended with him teasing that he would get to R.O.B. another day (and he would three years later). Chris defended himself with this argument years later, stating he was already working on it, and you would know if you saw the R.O.B. footage in the theme song.
Starting with this video, Chris attempted to give IG an “iconic outfit”, wearing a blue button-down shirt.
At one point in the video, he cracks a joke about R.O.B. “getting jiggy with it”, with sped-up footage of R.O.B. dancing to Will Smith. It’s very possible he lifted this from FarFromSubtle and their old series “Awesome Video Games”, where the episode on R.O.B. had a sped-up footage of R.O.B. dancing (though to Gyromite’s music).
Despite the alleged months of work, he only put out Part 1, with the follow-up taking a month.
Between that, he put out a review of Super Smash Bros Brawl, which to this day remains his most popular video at 6.4 million views. Despite clear evidence that Chris had no idea what he was talking about.
As well as a review of Superman Doomsday, the first animated adaptation of The Death of Superman.
It was also during this R.O.B. lull that Chris got his first major interview. On the radio show Uncensored Net Noise. Prior to the show, prominent Irate Gamer critic TheArchfiend warned UNN about his plagiarism. The hosts confronted Bores about it live, and he stumbled his way through half-hearted answers and weak excuses. The mockery of Irate Gamer only intensified after that.
Despite the humiliation, Chris would put out the second R.O.B. video. When he was playing Stack-Up, he messed up and R.O.B. knocked over some blocks. Yet he blames the robot for his mistakes.
Like Predator, the video ends in a fight.
Next, he released the start of a new series. The “Chris and Scottie Road Trip”. Partnering with his friend Scott Mitchell, they would stand in front of a green screen and “travel the world”. Chris would provide facts about the location (often inaccurate) while Scottie served as comic relief. Interesting to note, this was made three years prior to release. It’s no longer on the channel.
Next Neo review would be about Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barabros’ Treasure. A highly overlooked Wii title that reveals Chris had no idea what a point & click adventure game was. It’s no longer on the channel.
After that was a review of the second episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Incredible Hulk. No longer on his channel.
Then came the recently filmed second episode of Chris & Scottie Road Trip. On his old Y2B Productions site, he would have a page for Chris & Scottie, implying he planned to make this an on-going series. There were no more episodes. Like the first, it’s no longer on the channel.
But what is still there is his next review. E.T. for the Atari 2600 (as well as E.T. on GBA and E.T. and the Cosmic Garden on GBC). Between this and R.O.B., it felt like Bores was attempting to encroach on a certain reviewer’s territory as, at the time, they were two popular requests.
The video was two parts, but unlike R.O.B. both were released on the same day. The bicycle sequence at the end of part 1 became a small meme.
Part 2 has him flush the GBA game down the toilet, a rare case of legitimate destruction.
Afterwards he posted reviews of the movies Jumper and WALL-E, a review of Harvey Birdman on Wii, and reviews of The Dark Knight and Stepbrothers. All of them are no longer on the channel.
Then there was this odd “Meditation Ritual Gone Wrong” skit where clones of Bores are all mediating and… one of them farts. That’s it. That’s the video. It’s no longer on the channel.
Eventually he would release his next main review. Home Improvement on SNES. He spent the entire video stuck on the first level then rage-quit because the second level is also jungle-themed. Somehow missing that the first level was labeled “Level 1-1”.
The video ended with another case of legitimate destruction when he cut the game in half with a table-saw.
One gag involved Wilson (Tim’s next-door neighbor) showing up in his room with the fence in front of him. Remember this for later.
A video about The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Wow, I forgot that existed. It’s no longer on the channel.
Around this time, DiretTV were running commercials featuring actors in movies breaking the fourth wall to tell the viewer about the benefits of DirecTV. These included Sigourney Weaver in Aliens and Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future. Chris chose to emulate them and make his own version where he promotes DirecTV while fighting R.O.B. It wasn’t a parody.
Then out of nowhere, a review of the DS remake of Final Fantasy III. He very clearly cheated as his footage shows the party having max HP. It’s a long grindy process to get that in FFIII.
He seemed to imply that III was the first of the Japan-only Final Fantasies to get an English release, when II and V came out long before that.
Hidden away on another channel, Chris would do his first gaming crossover. Partnering with Nick Hugget AKA SWAGshow (now going by Aristocards) to talk about RoboCop on NES. If you’re wondering why Nick chose to crossover, they were both part of GottGame. It ended with a skit where Chris orders “RoboCop” (Nick wearing tinfoil) to kill Ocean Software, then to kill Billy Ocean.
As October came in, Chris decided to really start pushing Haunted Investigators on the channel. Posting his episode on the Haunted Hydro, an Ohio amusement park.
Following that came the legendary Monster Party video. It gave us the ever-so-exploitable Bores n’ Doors meme. The premise of the episode involved Chris getting multiple visitors believing it’s the location of a Halloween party. He would go to the door and tell them off. Giving us the quotes “Uh yeah, ya thuink?!” and “Get the fuck off my property!”
The funny thing is that thanks to the meme, the black & white shirt he wore is far more iconic than the button-down blue shirt he pushed.
The episode reintroduced the Evil Gamer, now sporting long hair and a beanie. He was responsible for Monster Party appearing in Irate Gamer’s room.
Afterwards was a Neo episode on Mario Kart Wii, where he spent most of it complaining about the intro.
Then something rather different. A video about a Scrabble DS game that had inappropriate words. Even including “Scandal” in the title. It was a very minor scandal as it didn’t get attention in comparison to Mass Effect having “hardcore orgies”. The video is no longer on the channel.
Following that was IG listing his Top 5 NES games. Just a standard list. Though when he brings up Kid Icarus, he mentions using Game Genie to play it and cusses out all the critics that call him out on his excessive cheating.
Then a bizarre episode of IG Neo where the Evil Gamer takes over to talk about Order Up, a shovelware game on Wii. I’m certain the only reason he did this was to make a joke regarding the developer’s name “Supervillain Studios”.
Irate Gamer would end the year off with another list, Top 5 Nintendo DS games. With some odd choices like Mr Driller Drill Spirits (because Dig Dug is in it) and three Lego games that are better on console. Though the weirdest is when he talked about Castelvania: Portrait of Ruin and claimed it was just like Diablo because, “you travel to new areas and kill enemies to level up your skills”. I am not making this up.
2009:
The year started with one more Top 5 list, his Worst Video Game Movies. It was a strange list as it didn’t include any Uwe Boll. It felt like he just put a bunch of adaptations in a hat and picked them out at random. At least Mortal Kombat Annihilation made it.
There was also a video where he talks about the announcement of a Green Lantern movie and how he’s such a big fan of the comics. I don’t remember if this was 2009 or late 2008. It is no longer on the channel.
Chris started to get desperate for subscribers and began running contests. They were all the same, just subscribe and write “Pick Me” in the comments. He would hold several of these contests over the next few years. Don’t bother looking, they’re all deleted.
Then came another legendary video. The 1-2 punch of this and Monster Party is likely what mortally wounded his channel. Aladdin on SNES.
Chris was hyping this one a lot. Even commissioning an artist to do a title card. At one point it was supposed to be out Holiday 2008 but that didn’t happen.
What makes this video legendary? Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. He bashes a beloved classic with very poor reasons (he spends around 90 seconds complaining about Abu following you), he outright lies about it (he doesn’t mention the cloth used for hovering, and admits in the description that “it was funnier” if he excluded it), badly written dialogue even by his standards (“My rug is double-parked outside”, “Somebody call 911 cause I was ROBbed” [holds up R.O.B.]), an ending involving a CGI snake, and he wasn’t alone in this. He was joined by Eric Allen as the Wise Sage, and his friend Brad Harp as a genie. While Eric worked with what he could, Brad did not have a single care. Giving an amazingly wooden performance that became a meme.
It was basically a microcosm of all his flaws in an 11-and-a-half-minute package. Lead to a lot of lost fans too.
Following that he put out his Top 10 Summer Movies of 2009 list. He still put Dragonball Evolution high on the list, even with trailers and pictures out. Though only at 2 as G.I. Joe took precedent.
Watchmen was also on the list, and he would end up reviewing that. Where he complained about the non-linear storytelling (also complaining about Pulp Fiction doing the same thing) and the movie’s length. It’s no longer on the channel.
That brings us to his Neo review of Sonic Unleashed. He claims to be a big Sonic fan yet has complaints that contradict that. It’s still up on his channel, where the title still reads “Sonic Unleashed – The Hedgehog” like people would be confused about which Sonic. As well as saying it’s a Wii review when he played the Xbox 360 version. I don’t get it either.
After that was a review of the Nicolas Cage movie Knowing. I don’t even remember this one. It’s no longer on the channel.
Chris announced a project that made everyone roll their eyes or let out an exasperated sigh. The Irate Gamer would be going over the History of Video Games. A multi-part series chronologically covering, well, the history of video games.
Remember his doubling down on the Genesis being made to compete with the SNES? A good reason to be worried.
First episode talked about Spacewar and Computer Space, early Arcade games. That’s it. It set the tone for this series, short videos that barely cover anything. He didn’t even mention Bertie the Brain or Tennis for Two.
Chris wanted this to be taken seriously, yet he still littered the video with jokes
The series was announced with a teaser, and it set off another controversy. A week or two prior to the release, the AVGN made a video on the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. One comment pointed it out, and Chris claimed, “I don’t watch him”. Chris would later defend himself complaining that James normally didn’t cover stuff like the Odyssey.
However, the video is no longer on the channel. There is a reason, and we’ll get to it later.
Then came his long-anticipated review of Dragonball Evolution. After hyping it up on two lists, he ended up not liking it. Complaining about aspects that were clear from the trailers or even in the manga (like Bulma having guns), concluding that “it’s for kids”. It’s no longer on the channel.
Next came a review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Though he titled it X-Men Legends. He lavished the movie with praise, despite the common consensus was that it was terrible (killing the planned Origins movie line). I remember people speculating that he saw the leaked workprint cut and not the theatrical movie. I can’t prove it though.
The video is gone, but a small snippet of it remains in RedLetterMedia’s Half in the Bag (Episode 59). RLM even left a sarcastic comment on it, but Chris deleted it.
Another surprise, a review of Resident Evil 5. Likely his first foray into the series as he gets basic details wrong (“the drug that turns people into zombies”), while also complaining about it being too hard (“Why couldn’t the easy setting just be a little more easier?”) He complained about the controls but showed that his Xbox controller wasn’t even on. It’s no longer on the channel.
He also did a review of Star Trek 2009. I don’t remember anything about this one. It’s no longer on the channel.
Then Chris’ critics got a major shock. GottGame took Irate Gamer to E3 and let him create video coverage. Almost all the 2009 coverage is gone, except for a single video about New Super Mario Wii that I imagine only stayed up for the high view count (over a million). But the other videos included obvious statements, weak predictions, and subpar interviews.
Around this time, he put out a review of Boom Blox Bash Party on GottGame, posting it to YouTube months later. Only thing I remember about this was a bad fake text joke where an in-game character tells Bores to make him a sandwich. It’s no longer on the channel.
Now here’s a video I’m surprised he didn’t remove. A review of a portable NES clone from the now defunct thinkgeek.com (before they were absorbed ty GameStop).
Afterwards, his review of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Don’t remember much of this one either, but I guess he liked it? No longer on the channel.
Next was a review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He hated it, so he’s not always a weird contrarian. No longer on the channel.
His output started to slow down a bit around this point. He claimed it was computer issues (though I recall rumors about his GF leaving him).
He released a review of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince where he complained about the lack of battles. No longer on the channel.
Eventually he would release Part 2 of the History of Video Games, covering the Magnavox Odyssey. With a built-in HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The video ended up being two parts, with the second covering the light rifle. I recall one of his fans acting surprised that HAL was evil. Like Part 1, it’s no longer on the channel.
Surprisingly, Odyssey creator Ralph Baer saw the videos, and he did not like them. Saying they were full of misinformation. Chris somehow ignored that and simply cheered at the fact Baer saw them.
Since GottGame fixed their site around this time, I was able to watch Neo reviews when they initially came out. Starting with a video on Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Where Chris was pleased to get some “Irate Gamer clout” because the game wasn’t out yet. Except Activision had an offer that if you bought Guitar Hero 5, they would send you a free copy of GH: VH. It wasn’t as exclusive as he thought.
He also confused Billy Idol with Billy Joel. It’s no longer on the channel.
Going forward, the Neo episodes will be chronicled by their GottGame release.
Remember when he made a revised version of his MUSCLE video? He did it again for Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Only changes I remember were over-explaining another dirty joke and adding a scream to a picture of Aaron Spelling when referring to him as a zombie.
The real Halloween special was the start of another new series, I Rate the 80’s. For a time, a lot of his fans spelled his name as the “iRate Gamer”, under the belief he simply rated games rather than a synonym for anger. It’s possible he picked up on that and went with it.
Though from the start, it felt like a reboot of The Breakfast Rant, as the first episode was about the discontinued General Mills monster cereal Fruity Yummy Mummy. They took it off store shelves because it wasn’t good.
Then he would post a Neo review of DJ Hero. Had some pointless Happy Days references. Amazingly, this one is still up on YouTube.
The year would end with one last Irate Gamer episode. Kool-Aid games. A duo of vintage licensed trash that could only be obtained through mailing in proofs of purchase. This episode felt like an excuse for Chris to show off his Kool-Aid Man costume. With Kool-Aid Man “bursting” through his walls a total of four times. Ending with IG murdering him and drinking his blood.
Next time: 2010-2011
Just a tidbit on the Predator review. Chris boasted that we would see some of his martial arts training in that video. All we got was Chris doing awkward punches. Former commenter Shaolin Dave even noted that Chris's stance and technique wasn't consistent with any martial art disciplines he knew of.
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