2010:
The year launched with the sophomore outing of I Rate the 80’s. It was about discontinued Kool-Aid flavors, trying to establish some synergy with the last IG video. The idea that I Rate the 80’s was a retooled Breakfast Rant became stronger when Chris ended the video with “beverages are ruined”.
Despite his computer issues getting solved, Chris would not post anything until March.
Next video was another two-parter, covering the maligned Mario educational games. Mario is Missing and Mario’s Time Machine.
Chris chose to format this review like the movie Sliding Doors, a romantic comedy that uses the “nail”, as in the concept where a single decision can have massive consequences. Showcasing two different timelines. See also the Frasier episode Sliding Frasiers, and the Malcolm in the Middle episode Bowling.
Chris’ nail was deciding if he wanted to review Mario is Missing or Mario’s Time Machine. However, the intent of stories like this is to spot all the big differences between the timelines. Here, the only change is when Ronnie shows up, Chris either tells him off or lets him stay. The first part ends with him throwing a cartridge and breaking an exposed gas pipe in both timelines. Making it obvious what’s going to happen in the second part (Ronnie saves him in one, IG blows himself up in the other).
By the way, the video opens with him saying he only has time to review one of the games, and yet Part 2 has him looking at the SNES versions. It feels like he didn’t think this through.
Then he reviewed the 2009 Ghostbusters game. He liked it. It’s no longer on the channel.
I should mention that the Educational Mario video had a gag with Luigi urinating on the street. I bring this up because he would post a blooper video with an “alternate take” of that gag where Chris parodies the old MasterCard “priceless” commercials. Ending on Luigi urinating in the streets. It’s no longer on the channel.
The 2010 summer movie list. He put The Last Airbender at #3. Nuff said.
A Neo review of Dante’s Inferno. You know, the 2010 action game from Visceral? A company gone too soon…
He “warned parents” that the game has nudity. Seemingly unaware of the concept of the ESRB and the game being Rated M.
It ended with a Grapes of Wrath joke where grapes flood a city.
History of Video Games Part 3 dropped after that, and this one was a doozy.
He referred to the creator of Pong, Al Alcorn as “Al Acorn”, and claimed that Nolan Bushnell seeing the Magnavox Odyssey at a trade show was an “urban legend” (it wasn’t, both Bushnell and Baer confirmed this).
What made this one stand out was prior to release, Chris bragged that he got footage of old games that exists nowhere else on the internet. In the video itself, he pasted a watermark in the corner to ensure nobody takes it. However, people managed to find footage of four of the games, with the others animated by Chris himself. He never admitted to this.
Like Parts 1 & 2, it is no longer on the channel.
Following that was another video that lost him a lot of fans.
Due to his request backlog, Chris decided to review three games in one video. Brutal Legend, Tekken 6, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled.
He admitted to only playing an hour of Brutal Legend, and his only issue with Turtles in Time is that the enemies were different (comparing them to the SNES version when Re-Shelled is based on the Arcade version. Once again showing he didn’t know it was an Arcade game first).
But the part that really angered people was his look at Tekken 6. More specifically, the scenario mode. Not the fighting game that everyone loves, but the tacked-on story mode that plays like a beat-em-up. Calling the controls bad and ending the review saying, “Tekken 6 sucks”.
He reads the back of the box and complains about the quotes praising the game.
There was a rather tone-deaf complaint about the lack of English voices, including his attempt to dub the game (with fake lines). Not knowing that Tekken operates by having characters speak their native language (Japanese characters speak Japanese, American and British characters speak English, Korean characters speak Korean etc etc)
The heat towards this one was immense, to the point that GottGame mods shut down comments. When Chris eventually uploaded the video to YouTube, he altered the end of the Tekken segment to comment on the backlash and look at the Arcade mode. Blaming it on the developers “burying it in the menu”. Though he said it was fun, he still didn’t like it because “I prefer Mortal Kombat”. Likely saying that so he wouldn’t have to remove the “Tekken 6 sucks” line. This did not smooth things over.
Alas, the video is no longer on the channel, but there should be plenty of commentary/reaction videos out there (it was that bad). Many of them wondering how he didn’t know Tekken was a fighting game.
Despite all that, Chris marched on with a review of Iron Man 2. No longer on the channel.
Then an 80’s video about Garbage Pail Kids. It was boring.
Then a video on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time the movie. Oh right, that exists, but the video no longer does.
Before going into E3, Chris released a new video promoting a site called DealDash. It was a giant scam. That video is no longer on the channel.
Onto E3.2010. Four videos from the event still live on his channel. One for Yoostar 2 featuring Leonard Nimoy, one for Bonk: Brink of Extinction (a cancelled game and likely one of the only videos to have footage of it), one on Sonic 4, and one on the Nintendo 3DS. I get why the first two stayed up but not the last two. Views perhaps?
Reminding myself of the missing videos, there wasn’t that much. In a segment on Lego Harry Potter, he mispronounced Hermione’s name. It would be justifiable if he only read the books, but he didn’t, he only saw the movies.
He also planted the seeds for his hate of Kirby’s Epic Yarn. We’ll get to that later.
It was around here that a strange IG defender showed up. A user called LsdyBuggin777. They claimed to be Chris’ own mother. Now that’s lame, isn’t it? Needing your own mother to defend you from online criticism. Except there’s a lot of evidence to indicate that it isn’t his mother, it’s Chris pretending to be her. Incidents like forgetting what account he was on and replying with the wrong one, or how they use the exact same insults (one they love is “daddy issues”).
Around this time, GottGame officially changed to GotGame. Bores “celebrated” with a review of God of War III. It was less than two minutes long, barely said anything, and just felt like an excuse to have a joke about the game’s sex scenes. It’s no longer on his channel.
Prior to the next video, Chris was heavily hyping it up. Saying it will be a new direction, the show would be in HD, and it would reach new heights.
It’s a storyline. Because it was popular at the time, Chris added an on-going story where he’s the hero with many supporting characters.
It opens by revealing the Evil Gamer works for someone called the Shadow Overlord and they want to take over the world, and to do that they need Irate Gamer’s “special” Magnavox Odyssey. Because it has the HAL 9000 in it. The rest of the video is Evil Gamer trying to get it while IG plays three different 7-Up Spot games as various side-characters bother him. Also, Goro from Mortal Kombat lives next door to him now.
There’s a line where Evil Gamer refers to the “haters and trolls” he sent after Irate Gamer as “so stupid, they couldn’t make a peanut butt & jelly sandwich”. Chris’ critics saw that as a weak insult.
Remember the Wilson gag from Home Improvement? He returns in a scene where Chris goes outside (obvious green screen) and talks to him. Only now he’s “Wilkins”. When asked why he changed it, Chris claimed it was to “make him an original character”. The exact same mindset as Sonic OC creators.
The video ends with HAL going into a “robot” body (Chris wearing nothing but black all over).
Despite being a storyline, it would be several months before the next installment. Instead, a video where Chris compares the original Xbox 360 and the 360 S. He didn’t go into any major changes, and at one point says, “What a bunch of BS”. Between this and 7-Up Spot, it felt like he was trying to tone down his cursing (years before the Ad-Pocalypse). It’s no longer on his channel.
Then his review of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, where he complains that there’s no Simon Belmont. They eventually did add him as DLC, but he never followed up on that. It’s no longer on his channel.
One review that is still on his channel is Donkey Kong Country Returns. It was mostly an excuse to have a dumb joke where bananas fall on him, and bash Kirby’s Epic Yarn again.
He also admitted in the comments that he only played for half an hour, but he deleted it. He said too much.
2010 ended with Chris pushing out trailer reactions just to have content. They are no longer on his channel.
2011:
The year started off with History Part 4, going over “Atari vs Magnavox”. I only remember an overly long gag where Bores imitates a horse race. It just kept going….
This one is still up, and we’ll get to the reason the first three parts were deleted soon.
After some more filler videos, he gave in to viewer demand and reviewed Kirby’s Epic Yarn. People really wanted to know why he hated it.
Turns out he thought it was too easy. Ironic, don’t you think?
When he posted it on YouTube, he added a scene of an angry Kirby sucking him up. Without taking his legs (seriously, it’s just his torso). Maybe he hated how Epic Yarn removed his ability to eat enemies? It’s no longer on the channel.
More pointless videos before a video on Marvel vs Capcom 3. This one was bland, had a few moments where Chris didn’t know what he was talking about, it wasn’t interesting. When he posted it on YouTube, he added Satan when bringing up Arthur from GnG.
He also posted a gameplay video and trailer reactions. I think he referred to Crimson Viper as Jean Grey at one point. All MvC3 content on his channel is gone.
We have arrived at the point where Chris chose to delete the first three History episodes. For some reason he decided to remaster the first three episodes. Only delaying the already slow series. The only change in the first episode I recall is that he toned down the cursing.
A Neo episode on Sonic Colors. Not much there. YouTube version added Sonic sprites that run across his table. It’s no longer on his channel.
Turns out the reason Chris remastered the early History episodes was so he could put out a DVD. It wouldn’t come out for a while though. To tempt viewers into buying it, he posted a “Making-of” video.
Around April Fool’s Day, he posted an entry to the YouTube NextUp contest. Partners could win $35k and a trip to “YouTube Creator’s Camp”. Considering he never followed up on it and the entry is no longer on his channel, I can assume he didn’t win.
Afterwards was his Top 10 Summer Movies. Listing them in order of release date after he kept getting mocked for putting crap at the top. It’s on longer on his channel.
Then came a milestone. 200 Irate Gamer videos. This one is notable as it’s the first time he voluntarily mentioned the AVGN.
Interestingly, he also mentioned that his ghost hunting was going nowhere. Hmm… surely that won’t come back to bite him.
No surprise, this one is gone too. Funny enough, the mass deletion reduced the channel to far less than 200 videos.
In March 2011, the late Gilbert Gottfried made several tasteless jokes about the Tohoku Japan earthquake and tsunami that left hundreds dead. These jokee resulted in the insurance company Aflac to fire him as the voice of their duck mascot.
Why am I bringing this up? Because Chris decided to do something really bizarre.
Chris put out a video where he and his various characters audition to be the new Aflac duck. Ronnie, Satan, Shadow Overlord, Cousin Joey (now sporting overalls), Evil Gamer, “Wilkins”, Wise Sage, and Tony (now sporting a new non-Maplestory look) give it a shot, but they all fail. Irate Gamer tries, gets praised, then knocks over the mic when he learns it’s just an audition and didn’t get the job.
After this, he didn’t upload anything for a month. Only following up with a “deleted scene” from this skit where the Kool-Aid Man auditions. It’s no longer on the channel.
Then a review of LittleBigPlanet 2.I forgot he did that. It’s no longer on the channel.
After it seemed like Chris abandoned the storyline, it came back. With a review of RoboCop on NES. Even though he already talked about it with SWAGshow. Some of the jokes were even repeated from the first review.
R.O.B. returns but now he’s good because Tony reprogrammed him. Evil Gamer sends robots into “the city” and Irate Gamer sends R.O.B. to take care of them. Ending on a cliffhanger.
It’s E3 time again! Only three videos left from that year. A Skylanders one (keep this in mind) some bloopers, and Chris’ audio edit of the Legend of Zelda Wii U tech demo. For those that don’t remember, Nintendo released a Zelda demo meant to show the power of the Wii U, but it didn’t have sound. Chris decided to add his own. The video went slightly viral. No wonder it’s still up.
Deleted videos inclu- oh jeez, this is the year with Ubisoft. Due to a scheduling mishap, Chris couldn’t get into the Ubisoft press conference. Considering this was the year with Mr. Caffeine, he should consider himself lucky.
In retaliation, the Irate Gamer blows up Ubisoft’s HQ. No, it’s not funny to do that. I’m amazed he never got in trouble.
Looking through my posts, he claimed to have a lot of “exclusives” that weren’t exclusive. Did he believe that E3 was private and that nobody else would talk about the games?
He also released some Top 5 lists. Praising Kinect Star Wars in one of them.
As E3 videos dripped out, someone going by “Cry Wolf Productions” was flagging YouTube videos critical of the Irate Gamer. Though Chris (through his mom account) claimed it was his other company, there isn’t anything to support that.
After a year, I Rate the 80’s returned. To talk about TMNT Cereal. It ends with Chris eating it and spitting it out in disgust. No duh, it was 20 years old at that point.
The video features another one of Chirs’ friends, Tim Warner. I bring him up because he’ll be playing a role muuuuch later.
He also got around to looking at Mortal Kombat (2011). Not a lot to say there… It’s no longer on the channel.
Followed by another 80’s video on Micro Machines. I remember people saying this one wasn’t too bad. I don’t really remember anything about it.
Then out of nowhere, Volumes 2 and 3 of the Irate Gamer DVDs. Felt like he forgot about them.
Reading my post about it, the Scrabble DS “Scandal” video is on Volume 3. You know what to do lost media hunters.
The announcement video is no longer on the channel.
Around this point, Chris stopped giving a crap and put out a video with FOUR game reviews in one.
Known as either Video Game Roundup or Rundown, he quickly rushes out reviews of Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters (he barely played it but liked it), Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (said it had new stuff… that’s it), Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions (adored it) and Mario Sports Mix (hated it).
This one is no longer on the channel.
After three months, the conclusion to the RoboCop video arrived. IG looks at RoboCop 2 and 3 on NES, while R.O.B. goes around killing the robots with zero resistance.
Sometime later, he would change Y2B Productions into Irate Entertainment. With the new site promoting Irate Gamer, I Rate the 80’s, and Haunted Investigators. Waaait I thought he was done with that?
Then a new 80’s video on the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toy-line. It had cringy jokes, and a bit where Chris dressed up as Skeletor. People praising the Micro Machines video took back a lot of it.
He would do a reverse of what he did with Kool-Aid and the follow-up video would be about He-Man video games. The ones on the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. Nothing much about the reviews…
As for the storyline, the genre changes from being about robots to being about magic and swords. With Irate Gamer being the “chosen one” as he’s granted a sword that gives him the “Power of Inferno”.
Then another Neo episode focusing on Mortal Kombat. Specifically, the Arcade Kollection. Barely remember anything about this one. It’s no longer on the channel.
For Halloween, he did an 80’s video about Madballs, a gross-out toy. I only remember the ending where he ends up in the video for A-ha’s Take On Me for no reason.
For Thanksgiving, he reviewed Batman Arkham City. Wow, I forgot he did a video on this. It goes to show how forgettable a lot of his videos are. It’s no longer on the channel.
Following that was an 80’s video on M.U.S.C.L.E., or rather, Kinnikuman. This was an annoying one. A gag involving a Kinnikuman toy falling on him multiple times, using footage of China when talking about Japan, complaining that the original show wasn’t dubbed in English. Is reading really that hard? The anime was too violent for American broadcast, and they didn’t have airbrushing technology.
He also kept mispronouncing Kinnikuman, saying it more like “Kenny-Kooman”.
He did hint that he was going to cover the sequel series, Ultimate Muscle, in a future video. That never happened.
Ending the year with… Ronnie the Skeleton sings Deck the Halls? It’s even weirder knowing Ronnie uses a Woody Allen voice, and Allen is very Jewish.
Saturday, April 23, 2022
The Irate Gamer Timeline Part 3: 2010-2011
Next time: 2012-2013
Friday, April 22, 2022
The Irate Gamer Timeline Part 2: 2008-2009
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
Thursday, April 21, 2022
The Irate Gamer Timeline Part 1: Pre-YouTube to 2007
Pre-YouTube:
Born and raised in the Sandusky, Ohio area, Christopher Bores attended Ashland University gunning for a degree in Creative Writing. Hoping to release his fantasy novel, The Dark Chapters. Chris would drop out before finishing his degree, pursuing a career in video production.
He produced multiple episodes of Haunted Investigators, his take on a Ghost Hunters style series. He partnered with his friend Alan Cicco and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Schippel. The series aired on Sandusky public access TV.
2006:
Chris would join the up & coming video sharing site, YouTube, under the account “y2b2006” in January. Y2B being the name of his production company.
He would use the channel to promote Haunted Investigators DVDs with self-made commercials, along with showcasing some of his other original content. Including a Mythbusters parody that was less a parody and more a low budget knock-off, and his original time travel film Back to the Past.
Over in New Jersey, fresh-out-of-film-school James Rolfe, on the advice of his college friend Mike Matei, created the YouTube account “JamesNintendoNerd” in April. The sole purpose was to showcase a trilogy of satirical video game reviews about NES games he disliked as a kid. While putting all his other content on “Cinemassacre”. These NES videos ended up being popular, and once again on Mike’s advice, James would turn it into a regular series known as “The Angry Nintendo Nerd”, later renamed “The Angry Video Game Nerd”.
Rolfe’s series would inspire a multitude of gaming enthusiasts into doing their own “rage-induced retro reviews”. Including Marcus “Armake21” Sparacio and UrinatingTree, among many others.
2007:
When Y2B2006 wasn’t blowing up like Chris wanted, he searched out what was popular. Finding the “angry game reviewing” scene, Chris decided to do something similar. Buying up various game lots on eBay, he opened the “Irategamer” channel in April, with his first video on Back to the Future coming a few days later.
Highlights included the only theater in 2007 to show Back to the Future, the line “Now it’s time to pop in this video game and play the game”, some other oddly familiar lines, comparing the number of enemies you need to kill in the soda shop to levels in Mario, weapons in Zelda, and bosses in Mega Man, and an ending where the Irate Gamer goes back in time and murders the CEO of LJN. With jelly blood.
Over the next few months, he would release multiple Irate Gamer videos.
Where’s Waldo, looking at games on NES and SNES. He referred to Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country as “NES games”. It was also the first video with game “destruction”, putting the games into a paper shredder.
Goonies II. Most of the video was spent wondering about the title and comparing it to Donkey Kong and its sequels Jr. and 3. It was oddly familiar. This video revealed his obsession with game endings, and how he gets upset when he doesn’t get a satisfactory one.
Mission Impossible. Chris would claim this was the video where he came into his own. However, it set the tone that many of his videos would complain more about difficulty rather than poor design choices. The video is infamous for his utterance of the phrase “what a shitload of fuck”.
A video about The Sopranos series finale where he talks about TV finales in general. Deleted, and got an entry on the Lost Media Wiki (it has been found).
Ghosts n’ Goblins. Chris struggled with the NES version so much, that he silently switched to the Arcade version and activated invincibility. The only acknowledgement was in the description where he claims to have done it because he needed to show off the ending.
This episode began his trend of recurring side characters with Satan (Chris in a devil mask putting on a deep voice) and Cousin Joey (Chris pitching up his voice, wearing a baseball cap, and making himself look smaller).
Jaws, a video remembered for how Chris suddenly stops talking about Jaws to talk about another NES game, then goes back to Jaws like nothing happened. As well as an out-of-nowhere ending where he shoots the Duck Hunt dog.
Hotel Gaming, a short video where Chris decides to look at games offered at the hotel he’s staying in. But he learns they cost money and ends the video.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In the original description, Chris stated that doing the “shoulder angel & devil” gag was one of the hardest things he’s ever done, claiming he “literally put his blood, sweat, and tears into it”.
On August 7th, the Irate Gamer would post the video that would get him noticed by the gaming community. Super Mario Bros. 2. It acted like the fact it wasn’t originally a Mario game was a big secret and he was exposing this “scandal” to the world (even using “scandal” in the title). Not helped by him claiming Mario 2 was a bad game (it has “ass” written all over it) or showing some real questionable English ([Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels] is the perfect predecessor to the first Mario game). The episode introduced another recurring character, the Evil Gamer. It’s Irate Gamer, but evil.
It was also the first video with his theme song. It wasn’t something he created or paid someone to create, but a royalty-free track taken from Digital Juice’s now defunct StackTraxx program.
Shortly after the Mario 2 video went up, YouTube found it and featured it on the front page. For those unaware, YouTube used to feature videos they deemed acceptable on the front page to boost their views and drive subscribers to them. It’s been speculated by creators from the time that YouTube wanted a “less sweary AVGN”, and while IG did drop f-bombs, he wasn’t as vulgar (Though he still made a lot of toilet jokes).
Chris’ views began to skyrocket.
The next IG episode would go up only 10 days later, talking about MUSCLE (or Kinnikuman). It gave us the now immortal line “What the fuck is a muscle?” As well as claiming the game did not have “special moves” (it did). He also talked about Ring King even though that’s a boxing game. I imagine it was for the suggestive looking sprites.
It would introduce another recurring character, Tony, a Maplestory sprite designed to resemble the Irate Gamer. He ends most of his sentences with “Bang-a-lang”. No, I don’t know what it means, and it’s never explained why he says it.
MUSCLE would also end up getting featured on the front page, and more viewers piled in. However, not all of them were positive. People were quick to point out how he’s far too similar to the Angry Video Game Nerd. From the mannerisms to the game destruction, to even outright using lines he said.
Outside of the unoriginality, people noticed that Chris didn’t seem to know anything about video games. Often complaining about aspects that were commonplace in games from the NES and SNES era, making extremely obvious mistakes, or nonsensical comparisons. Though these were all overshadowed by the “plagiarism” accusations. Chris would ignore all these problems, never addressing them, sometimes blocking people that bring them up.
Rather, he would put up a (now deleted) “Thank you” video where he would tell all his new viewers and subscribers how grateful he is. It gave us the notorious quote, “I’ve been playing these games for 20 years; I know all the ins & outs of these games.” A line that would haunt him forever.
Behind the scenes though, Chris was feeling the heat of the accusations. Rather than address them publicly, he chose to send a private e-mail to James Rolfe. Praising him and noting how he was a big influence, while also apologizing for “supposedly” using some of his lines, and he won’t do it again. That… did not last.
On September 10th, the Irate Gamer would upload an episode on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It would cover five games. The first Arcade game, the first NES game, the NES port of the Arcade game (where he showed a lack of understanding on console limitations) and very brief looks at The Manhattan Project and Turtles in Time (incorrectly referring to it as a Super Nintendo exclusive).
The episode attracted a firestorm of controversy as people noticed his review of the first NES title was very similar to the AVGN’s notable video. Right down to using the same spotlight effect when pointing out an impossible to reach pizza.
Annoyed by this, James forwarded the letter to Mike, who chose to post it on the ScrewAttack forum for all to see. The internet increased their mockery of him after that, with more people taking notice. Chris was silently very upset about this, and for the longest time refused to acknowledge the AVGN.
It was also this point where videos critical of the Irate Gamer began to pop up. Most were about the lack of originality, but some did point out the incorrect information (including BigAl2k6 calling out his MUSCLE review). Remember this for 2008.
He also put out a censored version of the TMNT video because “parents asked him”. That has since been deleted.
Chris pressed on, releasing an episode on Yo! Noid. Despite the Mario 2 video, he didn’t make this a “scandal expose” even though Yo! Noid is a reskin of Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru.
It ended with him promoting the Irate Gamer t-shirt.
According to the internet archive, he uploaded a Haunted Investigators episode around this time. He has deleted it, only to upload it later.
For Halloween he talked about Zombies Ate My Neighbors, another beloved title. People started to notice that Chris may not understand the idea of “angry reviews.” They’re normally reserved for bad games, or games with glaring issues. Irate Gamer covering whatever game he wanted completely missed the point. It makes people think Chris has terrible taste if he claims Zombies Ate My Neighbors is bad.
The episode also introduced fan-favorite Ronnie the Skeleton (Chris in a skull mask and robe sporting a Woody Allen-esque accent).
Shortly after Halloween, Chris surprised everyone when he announced the first Irate Gamer DVD. Containing everything from Back to the Future to Yo! Noid; labeled as “Season 1.” The announcement video is gone though.
While fans were excited, critics pointed out how quickly this came out. Not even a year into his YouTube show and he’s already trying to push DVDs. With a few believing he released it to “compete” with the AVGN Season 1 DVD coming out around the same time.
People that got their hands on the DVD noted the slipshod quality of the package. The disc was a burned DVD-R, the cover art was cheap paper, and some copies didn’t work. The blurb on the back compares his show to Family Guy and Penn & Teller’s Bullshit, while erroneously stating that the latter was on HBO instead of Showtime. On top of that, it contained copyrighted material that could have gotten him in legal trouble. But he managed to evade it.
Following ZAMN, Chris chose to expand out a little and talk about something near & dear to him. Breakfast cereal.
Titled “The Breakfast Rant”, the video had Chris complaining about Lucky Charms having different marshmallows from when he was a kid. Ending with the over-dramatic “Face it, breakfast is ruined!” The video was heavily mocked and even turned into a meme for a brief period.
Despite all the controversies, Chris would end up in a partnership with small gaming site GottGame to produce Irate Gamer Neo. A “spin-off” where IG looks over modern games. The first episode covering The Simpsons Game from 2007. It was notably shorter than his retro reviews and was clearly done in a hurry as he admits to only reaching Level 3 (out of 16). This would be a trend.
He did promise to review the three Simpsons NES titles, but he never did.
I should note that the first couple years of Neo videos premiered on GottGame first before hitting YouTube. As their website was poorly put together and hard to use, I went by the YouTube uploads until the end of 2009.
Afterwards, he would put out a video about Tetris. A baffling choice as Tetris is beloved and wasn’t worth an “angry review”. It mostly felt like Chris’ excuse to compare puzzle game addiction to drug addiction. This became clear when he talked about Dr. Mario, a game fundamentally different from Tetris.
Chris ended 2007 with the second (and last) Breakfast Rant, talking about Cinnamon Toast Crunch having only one baker mascot instead of three. This one didn’t catch on as much as the Lucky Charms video. Oddly enough, this has been removed.
Next time: 2008-2009
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
The Irate Gamer Timeline: Introduction
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I imagine you have been curious on what I’ve been working on.
This week is the Irate Gamer’s 15th anniversary on YouTube. A monumental occasion that he will ignore as he’s basically done… again.
I was looking through what I’ve written, and a lot of it just hasn’t aged well at all. But besides that, it’s a large quantity of writing. So I figured, why not compile it into a timeline?
Going through my posts and his channel, I put together what I believe is a comprehensive timeline of events. I wanted to do it in one post, but it ended up being way too long. It will be split over 7 posts cover 2-3 years each. One per day until we get to the present.
I believe this would also be useful for anyone that does “Rise and Fall of YouTube stars” videos (like Fredrick Knudsen or InternetAjay or wavywebsurf) to have something concise and not insanely long to read. As well as give the Lost Media community a treasure trove of videos to hunt down.
Part 1 will go up tomorrow.
This week is the Irate Gamer’s 15th anniversary on YouTube. A monumental occasion that he will ignore as he’s basically done… again.
I was looking through what I’ve written, and a lot of it just hasn’t aged well at all. But besides that, it’s a large quantity of writing. So I figured, why not compile it into a timeline?
Going through my posts and his channel, I put together what I believe is a comprehensive timeline of events. I wanted to do it in one post, but it ended up being way too long. It will be split over 7 posts cover 2-3 years each. One per day until we get to the present.
I believe this would also be useful for anyone that does “Rise and Fall of YouTube stars” videos (like Fredrick Knudsen or InternetAjay or wavywebsurf) to have something concise and not insanely long to read. As well as give the Lost Media community a treasure trove of videos to hunt down.
Part 1 will go up tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
It's the gaming industry's fault that my channel failed!
I've been working on a big project for the blog. I'll try to post it some time next month.
But now, we have more "tinfoil Chris".
Posted on Facebook.
Wow. That is a lot to take in.
Chris once again blaming someone other than himself for his channel going downhill. So that's James Rolfe, Machinima, YouTube being different, and now the entire gaming industry. What next? The NWO?
Let's break this down.
"The media taking money from the government to talk about what they want". Do you have a source for this? Are you talking about Russia or the US?
It's obvious that billionaires control the media along with the government. This isn't a shock.
"Video game world just as guilty" ... No shit. Have you not been paying attention to the news for the last several years?
Employees are subjected to horrid work conditions (months of crunch), incomplete games are shipped out in a broken state to appease shareholders, live service games taking over to the detriment of quality, racism is rampant, sexual misconduct is rampant, reviewers are bribed, etc etc.
There is so much wrong with the industry. You are not surprising anyone.
"One of the main reasons I stopped going to E3" Bullshit. The likely reason is that GotGame didn't have the money to fly you out. Your E3 coverage wasn't even that popular outside of a couple videos. They probably weighed the costs vs the benefits.
"ultimately hung up the Irate Gamer" I guess this is admission that he's done again? Even though a few days ago he asked his fans if they want another episode. Who knows...
"I could write a book about what I saw" This again? Just write the fucking book already! Expose all those dirty secrets you've hidden away. Or post them on social media, I feel that would get more eyes on it.
"Look at my career around 2010 and see I was heading to the top" No you were not. You stagnated around that point. Making mistakes that were your own fault. A combination of poor quality reviews (notably Tekken 6 and God of War III) along with a slower upload schedule resulted in subscribers jumping off. When a review would come out, fans would state it was not worth the long wait.
I know you like to think this, but there was no larger conspiracy to end your career.
"There are reasons why that path didn't continue" Can I get you a mirror?
"The entire video game industry is tainted, and if you choose not to believe me, here's a small nugget to start making you think that you can research yourself" DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! Never a good sign when someone says this.
His evidence? E3 manipulates the attendance numbers. ... All events do that. There's never an exact number of how many people attend. This isn't a big deal.
"Why do you think they let regular people in..." Because the people wanted it.
"..top game developers decided to pull out" Because year after year, it becomes apparent that E3 is getting obsolete. Why put together a massive trade show when you can put out a 40 minute video and generate way more hype. If anything showed us that E3 is pointless, just look at the 2021 event. Everyone was digital, and we got the news anyway.
"Ask why hundreds of media outlets would suddenly stop covering an event" I'm sorry, what? Do you have names of these media outlets? If anyone stopped, it was due to the site shutting down, not thinking it's "morally wrong" or whatever. E3 is covered every year by every major outlet. What are you even talking about?
Once again, Chris takes a scandal he likely read on a far-right Facebook page and made it about himself. It's just like during the pandemic when E3 was cancelled, and he called out GameSpot for "taking over the show" and pushing him out. It still doesn't make sense.
Please Chris, tell us what you know. Gaming enthusiasts are willing to listen. There's no need for a book.
Update: Chris explains why he never came forward, and why he still won't.
So he didn't come forward because they are "so very powerful" as shown by his revenue stream suddenly cutting in half. I find that very hard to believe. I'm wondering who "they" is referring to.
Update 2: More responses, and Chris tries to backpedal.
Let me get this straight. You claim to have this Earth-shattering information that could blow open YouTube and the gaming industry, but you won't share it because you "moved on" and claim God will sort it out. That is cowardly. Assuming he does have incriminating info and he's not just talking out of his ass.
For those curious, here's Steven's full statement that Chris is responding to (that I doubt he read)
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Chris Has a New Book Out
*emerges from hole* Ugh, winter is the worst...
Hm? No, he hasn't put out a new Irate Gamer video. I think he quit again. Nothing in four months.
Puppet Steve has been the same shit. Algorithm chasing with Squid Game (again, not suitable for kids), along with Roblox and Sonic. Meh...
Instead, I'll bring up something that was shown to me last week. Chris has a new book!
No, it's not the long awaited sequel to Ghost Hunting 2.0 (would that make it Ghost Hunting 3.0?)
Instead it's a photo book about the Sandusky Ohio mall. ... Huh.
I mean, it's pretty harmless. Just pictures of an old mall from Chris' home city. The reviews on Amazon seem to like it. Though I have to wonder where they came from as Chris hasn't promoted the book on any of his main social feeds (according to my informant at least). Maybe he has a private account?
The Amazon page says it was published November 2021, so somehow he managed to avoid promoting it.
Otherwise, there isn't much to say without reading it, and no way in hell am I going to pay $21 to get it.
However, Chris just can't help himself in the description.
The first paragraph is just Bores waxing nostalgic about various shops in the mall.
The second though, this one is a doozy.
Gathering more than 200 images, the original floor map, and the
history of every store at every location, author Chris Bores delivers a
trip down memory lane as well as never-before-told stories of the
scandals and struggles--and the triumphs--that made the Sandusky Mall
the place to be.
Scandals?! What scandals?
I actually tried searching "Sandusky Mall scandals", and all I got was articles about Jerry Sandusky (the Penn State football coach that sexually assaulted a multitude of young boys throughout the 90's and 00's), and... links directly to Chris' book.
So either these aren't really scandals, or Chris' idea of a scandal is really minute and pointless. Then again, you could have figured that out when he called Super Mario Bros 2 a "scandal".
But hey, I'm sure this book appeals to the 75k people that live in Erie County. Maybe the people in the surrounding ones too.
... Yep. That's about it.
Saturday, December 18, 2021
No List This Year
Wow, the year is almost over. Where did the time go?
As the title said, there will not be a Year End List. I just feel there's not enough to talk about.
Like all his previous comebacks, this one ended in failure. He may have gotten a view boost from working with James Rolfe, but clearly people didn't stick around as his views cratered. Hard.
Following up the big crossover with a video on cereal was a massive mistake.
This year showed he still had no idea what to do. Following up a video on Godzilla vs Kong (his highest viewed video of the year) with a retread on Kool-Aid flavors just screams "I don't have much knowledge of anything. Please let me keep doing the same shit over and over".
It's been three months since he posted a video, and he has given zero indication that he's going to keep going. Other than a Facebook post about a "custom Arcade cabinet" that hasn't been followed up on. Maybe someone convinced him that this midlife crisis shit isn't worth the hundreds of dollars he's spending?
He's still doing Puppet Steve, and the views have cratered there too. Though a video he posted earlier this week managed to score a lot of views. A video on... Squid Game toys. Oh yeah, that very child-friendly Netflix phenomenon. The series that opens on a brutal game of Red Light Green Light where over 200 people are gunned down all for a chance to pay off their crippling debt. Fun for the whole family!
Yes I know that a lot of channels are talking Squid Game, and kids know about it through cultural osmosis, basically the same way as kids in the 80's and 90's knew about Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger or Rambo or Mortal Kombat, despite all of that not being appropriate. Still though, if Chris is trying to make this a channel for kids, shouldn't he stick with stuff for kids?
And to those wondering if there are actual Squid Game toys? No. He bought them off Etsy, meaning they're fan-made. I doubt Squid Game would actually get toys as it would go against the show's scathing criticism of capitalism. ... *remembers The Lorax movie* Fuck...
Anywho, I think that's enough. Who knows if we'll even be back next year. Chris seems content just vanishing off the internet, hiding behind his puppets and his eBay store where he makes money off bootleg Letter People DVDs and CDs. While also lying about the toys he's selling as "Brand New" when they're clearly out of the box (and somehow more expensive than legitimate new toys).
Oh yeah, go see Spider-Man No Way Home. It is that good.
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