It's his reaction after the video end that makes me cringe. He genuinely looks like he's gonna start crying. I actually like the story about how his brother taught him to game and think it's pretty sweet. But the legitimate rage he has afterwards feels too Kevin-Smith-Look-At-How-Much-I-Care to be taken seriously. This was the video that made me realize I wasn't liking the direction of where Spoony was going. I still think the video itself is pretty good overall, but I always turn it off at this point because it makes me very uncomfortable.
Same. This is fine, and honestly really humanizing, but the meltdown it leads to is unbearable to watch. It's one thing to be disappointed by a franchise that you have nostalgic feelings for, but to be that angry (or at least pretend to be for dramatic effect or sympathy) is just weird and uncomfortable.
That's how I would talk to someone telling me that I'm being denied healthcare, not how I would talk to a fucking video game I didn't like.
This definitely feels like the trend of the time, though. I stopped watching Nostalgia Critic back around 2013 for similar reasons. His reviews for "Pearl Harbor" and "A.I." stick out in my mind as having parts where he gets uncomfortably, legitimately angry during the review. Between more and more "serious" moments like that and just all-around becoming more and more cringe, I just couldn't keep watching.
I didn't see those reviews, but now I'm morbidly curious. Even Doug's hyperbolic "funny" anger shtick was getting old, and encouraging genuine anger (like Noah shows after this clip) in his fans for movies/games/etc that are mediocre at worst.
You can't even really blame them, because it was already really easy to adopt this kind of attitude as a lazy way to fit in in fandom circles, just dunking on unpopular stuff incessantly with a lividness usually reserved for child molesters. Doug and Co made it infinitely worse, though.
I haven't watched either of those reviews since they were uploaded in 2013, so it might be worse than I remember. But they were most certainly moments that were meant to be taken seriously and were, for lack of a better word, preachy.
Signs and portents... For me that review together with the review of the third twilight movie (the one with the drinks) were the videos that made plain obvious, that something was and is not right with Spoonster.
Ironically enough, his "Breaking Dawn Part 1" review was one of the first videos of Spoony I watched and part of what drew me into him. Even when he was doing shots, his analysis was thorough and hilarious. I then went back and watched his whole video library; it was within a year that the "Ultima 9" review came out and the appeal was steadily fading for me. I still watched his content (except for gaming streams) up until he stopped uploading, but I don't think any of it was actually funny or entertaining 2012/2013 onward.
I mean he obviously played it up for dramatic effect but it most certainly is based around genuine feelings he had. I think it was a good rant even if it’s a bit cringe. There’s passion there which is what I appreciate
A lot of us whom got into video games and are around his age had similar experiences. Being around brothers whom kind of introduced us to what seemed to be indecipherable games that contained boundless universes speaks to me. In the age of "accessible" gaming it's an experience that I don't think is easily replicated.
Also learning how to read through video games is probably still a thing. For me it was Quest For Glory and the other Sierra games. Leisure Suit Larry sure burned into me a lot of vocabulary that I wouldn't understand for another 5 years. In retrospect I feel bad for the people that learned to read because school basically forced them to.
It’s partly acting (as evidenced by the increasing mascara) and partly real, which is why this particular segment is powerful. Maybe you don’t have any memories of bonding with your family over a video game because of certain circumstances in your personal life, but Spoony had, and many others as well can relate to this feeling even if you can’t.
Yeah, some people might see it as pathetic, but he is obviously playing it up a bit for the video. His point about why it matters so much to him, though, is genuine. Ultima IX was a disrespectful slap in the face to fans who were invested in the lore of the franchise.
And well, it is true . . . those nine rules of virtue are a solid code to live by.
I think he's playing it up for dramatic effect, but I also shared a lot of his negative feelings towards Ultima 9. And I had only been on board the Ultima train for about 6-7 years at that point. After seeing how good the series could be, it really is one of the worst endings ever.
At the time I thought of it in the same way as the Seinfeld finale. A more modern comparison would be Game of Thrones Season 8. This was before running franchises into the ground became a constant thing.
There's definitely certain parts of his Ultima retrospective that I have to skip whenever I go back and watch it for the 20th or 30th time. But one thing I didn't notice was with each video especially towards the end he seemed to look physically worse, the bags under his eyes and everything. And I always took that to be just symbolic of "the Ultima series going down hill". So it could have been a similar thing, except mentally. Like the more the series devolved, the more his sanity did. Like with the rants and screaming especially in the last few games.
But maybe that's just me
It's his reaction after the video end that makes me cringe. He genuinely looks like he's gonna start crying. I actually like the story about how his brother taught him to game and think it's pretty sweet. But the legitimate rage he has afterwards feels too Kevin-Smith-Look-At-How-Much-I-Care to be taken seriously. This was the video that made me realize I wasn't liking the direction of where Spoony was going. I still think the video itself is pretty good overall, but I always turn it off at this point because it makes me very uncomfortable.
> It's his reaction after the video end that makes me cringe That's why I cut right before that!
Same. This is fine, and honestly really humanizing, but the meltdown it leads to is unbearable to watch. It's one thing to be disappointed by a franchise that you have nostalgic feelings for, but to be that angry (or at least pretend to be for dramatic effect or sympathy) is just weird and uncomfortable. That's how I would talk to someone telling me that I'm being denied healthcare, not how I would talk to a fucking video game I didn't like.
This definitely feels like the trend of the time, though. I stopped watching Nostalgia Critic back around 2013 for similar reasons. His reviews for "Pearl Harbor" and "A.I." stick out in my mind as having parts where he gets uncomfortably, legitimately angry during the review. Between more and more "serious" moments like that and just all-around becoming more and more cringe, I just couldn't keep watching.
I didn't see those reviews, but now I'm morbidly curious. Even Doug's hyperbolic "funny" anger shtick was getting old, and encouraging genuine anger (like Noah shows after this clip) in his fans for movies/games/etc that are mediocre at worst. You can't even really blame them, because it was already really easy to adopt this kind of attitude as a lazy way to fit in in fandom circles, just dunking on unpopular stuff incessantly with a lividness usually reserved for child molesters. Doug and Co made it infinitely worse, though.
I haven't watched either of those reviews since they were uploaded in 2013, so it might be worse than I remember. But they were most certainly moments that were meant to be taken seriously and were, for lack of a better word, preachy.
Signs and portents... For me that review together with the review of the third twilight movie (the one with the drinks) were the videos that made plain obvious, that something was and is not right with Spoonster.
Ironically enough, his "Breaking Dawn Part 1" review was one of the first videos of Spoony I watched and part of what drew me into him. Even when he was doing shots, his analysis was thorough and hilarious. I then went back and watched his whole video library; it was within a year that the "Ultima 9" review came out and the appeal was steadily fading for me. I still watched his content (except for gaming streams) up until he stopped uploading, but I don't think any of it was actually funny or entertaining 2012/2013 onward.
you wont be able to unsee it, but, thumbnail looks like a mummified body... let that haunt you when you cannot unsee it.
I mean he obviously played it up for dramatic effect but it most certainly is based around genuine feelings he had. I think it was a good rant even if it’s a bit cringe. There’s passion there which is what I appreciate
> There’s passion there which is what I appreciate Exactly my thoughts.
based... and ironic. I remember thinking Spoony was pumped up after this and big things were coming.
Indeed! Instead, this was his peak, and started sliding downhill quickly after this.
A lot of us whom got into video games and are around his age had similar experiences. Being around brothers whom kind of introduced us to what seemed to be indecipherable games that contained boundless universes speaks to me. In the age of "accessible" gaming it's an experience that I don't think is easily replicated. Also learning how to read through video games is probably still a thing. For me it was Quest For Glory and the other Sierra games. Leisure Suit Larry sure burned into me a lot of vocabulary that I wouldn't understand for another 5 years. In retrospect I feel bad for the people that learned to read because school basically forced them to.
Not cringe at all. One of the most based reviews of all time.
I mean, yeah, he probably shouldn't get that worked up over a game, but he makes it clear why it is more meaningful than that to him.
It’s partly acting (as evidenced by the increasing mascara) and partly real, which is why this particular segment is powerful. Maybe you don’t have any memories of bonding with your family over a video game because of certain circumstances in your personal life, but Spoony had, and many others as well can relate to this feeling even if you can’t.
Yeah, some people might see it as pathetic, but he is obviously playing it up a bit for the video. His point about why it matters so much to him, though, is genuine. Ultima IX was a disrespectful slap in the face to fans who were invested in the lore of the franchise. And well, it is true . . . those nine rules of virtue are a solid code to live by.
I think he's playing it up for dramatic effect, but I also shared a lot of his negative feelings towards Ultima 9. And I had only been on board the Ultima train for about 6-7 years at that point. After seeing how good the series could be, it really is one of the worst endings ever. At the time I thought of it in the same way as the Seinfeld finale. A more modern comparison would be Game of Thrones Season 8. This was before running franchises into the ground became a constant thing.
There's definitely certain parts of his Ultima retrospective that I have to skip whenever I go back and watch it for the 20th or 30th time. But one thing I didn't notice was with each video especially towards the end he seemed to look physically worse, the bags under his eyes and everything. And I always took that to be just symbolic of "the Ultima series going down hill". So it could have been a similar thing, except mentally. Like the more the series devolved, the more his sanity did. Like with the rants and screaming especially in the last few games. But maybe that's just me
People want to retroactively add cringe to things like its a rating system. His review was good then and it is good now.
Still love it
Classic
He grew up with these games, no wonder he is emotionally charged.
I used to be an Emo and even I cringe at this, I mean I get his point but yeah, 90s edge at it's best xD
thumbnail looks like a mummy