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ScrewAttack

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rajbhai87 (talk | contribs) at 06:04, 8 November 2007 (→‎ScrewAttack USA). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack logo.
Type of site
Video game entertainment
HeadquartersDallas, TX
OwnerScrewAttack Entertainment LLC
Created by"Stuttering Craig" Skistimas
Thomas "Handsome Tom" Hanley
URLhttp://www.ScrewAttack.com/
RegistrationNone

ScrewAttack is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Launched in 2006, ScrewAttack originally started with just one program - SideScrollers, an audio podcast hosted by the site's creators Stuttering Craig and Handsome Tom. Over time, additional shows have been added and removed. Current programs on ScrewAttack.com include: The Angry Video Game Nerd, ScrewAttack Europe, Video Game Vault, Top Ten lists, Retro Remix, Captain S!, SideScrollers, and PWNED! In February 2007, MTV Networks acquired rights to some of ScrewAttack's programming (Top 10's, Video Game Vault, and The Angry Video Game Nerd) adding it to their GameTrailers service.[1] Since working with GameTrailers, ScrewAttack's features have been downloaded over 10 million times. [2]

Putting an emphasis on community, ScrewAttack's site's users are referred to as "G1's". All G1's are encouraged to participate in the site by creating their original videos for "G1 Submission Sunday", where user's videos are featured on the main index of ScrewAttack.com.

ScrewAttack USA

The ScrewAttack World Headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. The site's creators "Stuttering" Craig and "Handsome" Tom shoot and edit most of the ScrewAttack videos there.

Recently, they have brought in several interns, including "Perfect" Liz "HighSchool" Ben, Jose "El Mexicano", "NewSchool" Mickey, and "just" Stu(who left to go back to school).

ScrewAttack Europe

The European office of ScrewAttack located in London, UK is being led by Guru Larry (Larry Bundy Jr.) and "UK" Wez (Wesley Lock), both of whom are TV presenters in real life on various video gaming shows and networks in Europe, such as XLeague.tv and the now-defunct Game Network.

Their programs include: Games that Yanks Can't Wank, Hack-Job, Pop-Up Review, and various video game gathering coverage and reviews.

The Iron Man of Gaming

The Iron Man of Gaming is a gaming tournament presented by ScrewAttack and hosted by the Cyberathlete Professional League.[3] The concept was announced on SideScrollers and advertised as "big news" leading up to the final announcement. The starting date of the tournament was August 30th and lasted until September 2nd at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, TX. The winner was advertised to take home 1,000 US dollars and a ScrewAttack championship belt.

The first year of the tournament consisted of six games (three modern games, and three classic games) to be decided on with a points-based system to decide the winner. The contender with the most total points is the winner.

The following games were at the Iron Man of Gaming tournament of 2007:

2007 Tournament Results

First place was awarded to Chris "Kumachine" Delp. Second place was awarded to Louis "Big Lou" Hughes. [4]

Video Game Vault

The Video Game Vault (VGV) is a series of approximately 2-minute-long reviews by either Stuttering Craig or Handsome Tom (with one special featuring the Angry Video Game Nerd). VGVs usually do not follow the typical pattern for a review but serve as a nostalgic, informative and humorous look at older games. They mainly focus on games that were either popular when they were first released but have become forgotten over time or games that never got much attention. These reviews are an extremely popular part of ScrewAttack.

ScrewAttack Top Ten

Proclaimed "Masters of the Top 10" by their G1's, Stuttering Craig and Handsome Tom try to keep their Top 10 lists as fun and non-traditional as possible. Airing on GameTrailers.com, the different Top 10 lists generally receive over 300,000 views and are one of the most popular media on the site. The most popular Top 10 list to date is "Top 10 Boobies in Video Games" which has received over 800,000 views since it's release in February. Other favorites include "Top 10 Douchebags of Gaming", "Best and Worst Gaming Peripherals" and "Top Ten Ninjas".

The Angry Video Game Nerd

File:Avgn2007.jpg
The AVGN title card as of August 22, 2007.

The Angry Video Game Nerd, abbreviated as AVGN (formerly The Angry Nintendo Nerd) is a series of farcical retrogaming reviews by James D. Rolfe (born July 10 1980 [5]), an amateur filmmaker and professional video editor. [citation needed] He ignores the triumphs and memorable works to instead rail against what he deems the worst games in history. The series' theme song is played on guitar by Kyle Justin with lyrics by Rolfe (Justin also performs additional music in some videos). James Rolfe said that he has ADD on the McKids video. [6]

The titular Nerd character is an over-the-top foul-mooded and -mouthed video game fanatic who tends to treat the games he reviews as the lowest possible things in existence. He derives comic appeal from his loud, New Jersey accent, his both excessive and inventive use of profanity, and his heavy drinking of Rolling Rock and Yuengling to "soothe the pain."[1] A particular characteristic are his favorable comparisons of extremely repulsive and/or painful, usually firmly scatological, acts to playing the game (his theme song, for example, specifically states, "He'd rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in his ear/He'd rather eat the rotten asshole of a roadkilled skunk and down it with beer"). The Nerd is not without limits - after touching dead baby comedy at the end of a rant during the video on Bible-based Nintendo games, he called it disgusting and apologized immediatly. Varying amounts of more elaborate, physical comedy is mixed into the verbal abuse, including occasional "special guests" such as Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Spider-Man, "Shit Pickle" (an original character), Bugs Bunny, Leatherface and Michael Myers. These character parts are typically played by Mike Matei who also draws the shows title cards. The characters usually meet with violent ends (with the exception of Shit Pickle and Leatherface, who is stopped by a bicycle), as do the game cartridges being reviewed - typically, this will be at the Nerd's hands, although Spider-Man committed suicide by hanging himself with a game controller, while Michael was beaten up by two kids before disappearing (like in Halloween). [7]

File:Avgn addams family.png
James Rolfe portraying The Addams Family, during a review for Fester's Quest and The Addams Family.

The series began in 2006 under the name of "Angry Nintendo Nerd" (ANN), which was changed to prevent copyright issues before Rolfe sold his official merchandise.[8] The Nerd has also diversified, reviewing games on other platforms and such things as the Atari 2600, Sega Mega Drive, Sega 32X, Sega Mega-CD, PlayStation, and the Power Glove; along with one video that was entirely a tribute to Nintendo Power. His reviews have become increasingly popular and have developed a large fanbase. After his fourth online review on YouTube "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", he joined ScrewAttack and has since been employed by MTV's Gametrailers.com.[9] At the beginning of 2007, ScrewAttack went into a partnership with GameTrailers.com, therefore making all the Nerd's videos GameTrailers exclusives. Any video made starting with the Atari 5200 review is hosted only on GameTrailers.com. However, he also uses his YouTube account to upload videos that do not contain the AVGN character, as well as trailers for his videos on GameTrailers which link to the full length video. This profile has become very popular on YouTube, earning it the #9 Most Subscribed of all time and #6 for Most Subscribed Director of all time awards.[10] The full length videos were originally on this profile. [11] In the more recent AVGN videos, especially with games based on movies or television programs, some part of the video often parodies the related movie or show.

These are the Angry Video Game Nerds Youtube achievements:

  1. 9 - Most Subscribed (All Time).
  2. 6 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Directors.
  3. 49 - Most Viewed (All Time).
  4. 20 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Directors.

On August 8, 2007, Rolfe's character gained mainstream attention when it was featured on the Opie and Anthony radio show.[12] Rolfe also appeared in the Ghostbusters fanfilm, Return of the Ghostbusters.[13]

The Nerd's reviews

As of November 2007, the nerd has reveiwed:

Captain S

Captain S is an online webshow which parodies cartoon and television shows of the 1980s and 1990s, particularly Captain N: The Game Master, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, and Saved by the Bell.[14] Its basic premise is that a Sega gamer named Chad Belmont buys a magical Sega Genesis game, is pulled into his TV and given the responsibility to defend all of Videoland from the clutches of a villain named Game Genie and his minion NES. The action is accomplished by superimposing the actor's image over the sprite of the main character in the game he's entered. The first season has recently ended, but a second season is coming soon, as suggested by the words "NES will return." at the end of the credits, and a shot of Nes holding a Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller in the post-credit shot of the last episode. The show is usually referenced to by the main character's catchphrase, "Everything gets the kick!" which comes from the Altered Beast sequence in the first episode.

Captain S and the Angry Video Game Nerd unite

A special episode of Captain S was released in August 2007. In this episode, Captain S meets the Angry Video Game Nerd to join forces and save Christmas in July. This episode is a one-time special and is non-canonical in both Captain S and the Angry Video Game Nerd shows. Since Captain S is considered a family-friendly show, the AVGN's language is toned down and, at one point, censored.

Toilet Tuesday

A series of shorts created relating to people sitting on the toilet and playing video games. Movies can be submitted by G1's to be featured on the site.

SideScrollers

Handsome Tom and Stuttering Craig host a series of podcasts in a style of a radio show, updating G1's on new game info, weekly occurrences in the ScrewAttack domain and general news around the world. As noted on their program, they are currently seeking out an actual radio show representation of SideScrollers on satellite radio.

G1 Submission Sunday

A segment in which fans of Screwattack submit their own videos to the site. Created by G1 SWAT Doctor,[2] the segment evolved into a standard feature on the site. The videos vary from user created Video Game Vaults, spoofs of the site's characters, Flash animation, and other video game related material.

The Art in Gaming

A series of short videos that focus on visual art in gaming. This show is calm and serious compared to the usual easy-going attitude seen in Screwattack shows. As of 4th of September, three episodes have been released, Rygar, Vigilante 8 and another on Bionic Commando.

RetroRemix

Hosted by DJ Axis, this podcast features remixes of old video game soundtracks, with more modern and "phat" sound and rhythm.

60 Second Spoiler

The Minuteman takes popular titles, such as Bioshock, Halo 1, Halo 2 and Half-Life and spoils the plot in a 60-second video.

References

  1. ^ "MTV Networks' GameTrailers Acquires Exclusive Rights To ScrewAttack Programming". GameTrailers. February 8, 2007. Retrieved June 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ http://www.gametrailers.com/topgames.php
  3. ^ Iron Man of Gaming at CPL event
  4. ^ http://www.screwattack.com
  5. ^ James Rolfe (July 10, 2006). "7/10/06". Retrieved October 8. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ James Rolfe (September 01, 2006). "McKids - The Angry Nintendo Nerd (03:26-03:42)". Retrieved October 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ James Rolfe. "Spiderman - The Angry Nintendo Nerd". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ [Along with his name change, he also began to review games, systems, and accessories other than the NES. http://www.cinemassacre.com/Movies/Nes_Nerd/faq.html "Nerd FAQ"]. The CineMassacre Productions. no date. Retrieved June 11. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ James Rolfe. "James Rolfe resume". Retrieved August 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ As shown on James' channel Retrieved on August 14, 2007
  11. ^ "Angry Video Game Nerd". YouTube. April 6, 2006. Retrieved June 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ James Rolfe (August 8, 2007). "Opie and Anthony". Retrieved August 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ James Rolfe (November 2, 2007). "Nerd News". Retrieved November 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Sega-16.com Interview: PBC Productions
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