BEST OF THE WORST

James Rolfe picks the AVGN’S definitive episodes

ROB THE ROBOT EPISODE 100, RELEASED 2011

■ The AVGN celebrates his 100th episode with a Kaiju-style battle against the NES accessory that only had two Nintendo-licensed games to its rotten name. “This one was a bit of a change of heart for the Nerd character, because he defends the existence of the bad games from the robot, realising there must exist both bad and good,” James says.

EARTHBOUND EPISODE 156, RELEASED 2018

■ James’ years of filmmaking experience culminates in this complex episode that digs deep into the cult SNES game and the AVGN’S strengths and flaws as he dives deep into his subconscious just like Ness and his friends. James says, “It has more emotional depth than usual, and analyses a more complex game.”

BUGS BUNNY’S CRAZY CASTLE EPISODE 75, RELEASED 2009

■ The AVGN ramps up his talent for physical comedy as he gets into a Looney Tunes-style brawl with the wascally wabbit over this yawn-inducing sequel to Bugs Bunny’s Birthday Blowout on the NES. “This episode has some of the best slapstick and physical comedy in the series,” James tells us.

GAME BOY ACCESSORIES EPISODE 147, RELEASED 2017

■ Nintendo’s iconic portable game console produced a bunch of licensed and third-party accessories like the Light Boy spotlight and screen magnifier and the Game Boy Camera with its own printer. James feels that this episode has more of “a show and tell aspect, critiquing some of the bizarre peripherals that existed for the Game Boy”.

HOME ALONE EPISODE 164, RELEASED 2018

■ A big chunk of the games the AVGN has endured over 200 episodes cover games based on movies. This THQ clunker attracted the attention of Macaulay Culkin who joins the Nerd in his basement to roast this multi-console title. “This is a good example of a co-op episode, with guest star Macaulay Culkin and some ad-libbed dialogue,” James says.