The Irate Gamer (real name: Chris Bores) is a Video Review Show hosted on YouTube, started in 2007. He plays the game while offering lots of very interesting history on both the game and the console, peppering his reviews with emphasis on the game's flaws, perceived or real, as well as a healthy dose of profanity and audacity. Like many others both before and after him, he also includes a mix of sketch comedy and special effects with at least tangential connections to the subject at hand — often times with a Story Arc between sketches. In short, he was considered one of the most prominent video reviewers to follow in the style codified by The Angry Video Game Nerd.
During his initial run, the Irate Gamer had a significant fanbase but also attracted much disdain for sloppy research, ill-timed humor, and plagiarism. His reputation led to parodies and memes often at his expense. The video series also went through a number of ups and downs, creating large gaps in time between content and a myriad of reboots, along with side series dedicated to newer games under the branding Irate Gamer Neo. In addition, he shot a few comedic rant videos and other material unrelated to video games. Despite his fluctuating release schedule, Bores maintained a fanbase throughout The New '10s.
After a decline in videos for many years, Bores retired the Irate Gamer in 2016 and focused on his other series Puppet Steve, which featured him reviewing toys and games via voiceover. He came back in 2018 as Chris Neo, sporting a retraux look and a more toned-down style, but this too was short-lived and gave way to a podcast titled Geek Time: The Next Generation.
Bores came out of retirement again in 2020. Reverting to the Irate Gamer name, he did a review of the Dick Tracy tie-in game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Said video was done in collaboration with the Angry Video Game Nerd. Received positively by both reviewers' fandoms, this review drew in a myriad of new fans to both shows in the process. With this video, many who previously disliked the Irate Gamer grew to see him in a more positive light.
You can watch his series and other videos here
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Examples:
- Accentuate the Negative: Bores has stated in interviews that: "It doesn't matter if the game is good or bad, I just look for flaws to exploit for comedy".
- Alternate Timeline: His reviews of Mario's Time Machine and Mario Is Missing! feature him reviewing the game throughout several timelines simultaneously.
- Anachronism Stew:
- IG goes back to 1987 to "prevent" the Back to the Future game. Apparently LJN had access to cordless phones and flat-screen monitors in the 80s.
- In a joke, IG claimed one obstacle to dodge in Space Race were Imperial TIE Fighters. Space Race came out in 1973, Star Wars came out in 1977.
- And This Is for...: In his review of Jaws, he repeatedly strikes the final blow on the shark for the movies'
sequelitis, and realized he got carried away when he brought up Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. - Animation Age Ghetto: According to his thoughts on WALL-E and Toy Story 3, Bores heavily believes this.
- Arc Welding: In his Gyromite/Stack-Up review, R.O.B. tried to kill him. In his Predator review, a Predator tried to kill him. The Monster Party review revealed that both incidents are connected to the Evil Gamer.
- Art Evolution: Tony went from being a MapleStory sprite to being hand drawn.
- Ascended Meme: He seems to notice much of the memes associated with him, like "Bores n' Doors" and "Face it, breakfast is ruined!" (a line from a one-off video about breakfast cereal).
- Awkward Collar Pull: In the X-Men episode, after beating up Wolverine, Irate Gamer asks the other X-Men if anybody got a trouble, then the other X-Men pull their collars in fear.
- Big "WHAT?!": The Genie's memetic line from the Aladdin episode.
- Bowdlerization:
- Done in a revision of the TMNT review, where he censored some of the cussing.
- Done again with the remastered version of History of Video Games Part 1 by removing the foul language.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The Evil Gamer. He constantly uses the word "evil", he lives in "The Castle Of Evil", and he asks to do an "evil Aflac Duck" in the Aflac Duck audition sketch.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Evil Gamer in his first appearance is merely around for a few cutaway gags, but would later become one of the main recurring villains.
- Curse Cut Short: Used at the end of his Monster Party review, which is odd given that he cursed fairly regularly throughout the rest of the video.
- Cutaway Gag: Irate Gamer had done a number of these, like the time his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989) review ended with a random scene of him battling Donkey Kong.
- Dem Bones: A recurring character is Ronnie, a chatty skeleton who spoke in a stereotypically Jewish way.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The reviews often contain repetitive sentences.
- His review of the last episode of The Sopranos is called "The Sopranos Final Last Episode review"
- "Super Mario Bros. 2 is only a one-player game. It's totally different from the original in which you can play two players."
- "Now it's time to pop this video game in and play the game."
- "So, joining us live to the Irate Gamer Show, connected by via satellite..."
- "And one annoying thing is these annoying eyeball platforms."
- "Then you get to play two back-to-back Van Halen songs played by Van Halen.
- "I'm going to hit up three games [...] so onto the first. First up, Brutal Legend."
- "When somebody asks you for five of the most difficult games on the NES, I guarantee Ghosts 'n Goblins is probably on your Top Five list."
- "After 18 levels of lackluster levels..."
- He would often say "NES System" when talking about that console, meaning that he's playing the "Nintendo Entertainment System System."
- Difficulty by Acceleration: He attempts to demonstrate this when reviewing Kool-Aid Man for the Atari 2600. However, the gameplay footage is sped up.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- In his review of the Kool-Aid games, he killed the Kool-Aid Man for repeatedly destroying his wall. Yeah, it doesn't sound like much, but the fact that he killed a character for doing what he's practically known for.
- IG couldn't get into Ubisoft's E3 2011 conference, so what's his response? Blow up their office with a fake special effect.
- Don't Explain the Joke
- When he releases remastered versions of old videos, he'll explain the sexually explicit jokes, such as when a masturbation joke went from "Uhh, that doesn't look quite right" to "Way to jack off on the cheerleader, pervert!"
- At the beginning of the Monster Party episode, Chris explains that lots of people have been coming to his door asking for directions to the big Halloween Party that he isn't even invited to, and the whole gag keeps happening throughout the course of the episode.
- The Face Palm running gag from his Kirby's Epic Yarn video. When he does it, he adds a voice and caption to make sure audience knows what he's doing. He does this again in his Marvel vs. Capcom 3 review, but doesn't add the voice and caption.
- After calling R.O.B. "ROB-o-Cop" after RoboCop, he proceeds to show both names in text in case audience didn't get the pun the first time.
- Dull Surprise:
- Every Episode Ending: The Irate Gamer destroying/getting rid of the game in some way or killing the main character.
- Evil Is Petty: The Evil Gamer has nothing better to do than try to steal The Irate Gamer's show.
- Evil Twin: The Evil Gamer.
- Expy: The Evil Gamer's design is recycled from "Past Bores" from the Back to the Future video.
- Face Palm: Has a facepalm related Running Gag in the Kirby's Epic Yarn video.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: The mugs in the Monster Party review are clearly filled with apple juice.
- Gag Dub: Done when he's pissed about the lack of English voice acting in Tekken 6.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: In his Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom review.
- Hostile Show Takeover: One episode Irate Gamer NEO sees The Evil Gamer do a review of Order Up after locking the Irate Gamer out of his house.
- Hypocritical Humor:Irate Gamer: "It’s unclear as to why they copied [Doki Doki Panic], but some speculated that [Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels] was too much like the first game. I guess that’s understandable since having two of the same thing can get stale and repetitive."
Evil Gamer: "Yep, stale and repetitive." - I Am Not Shazam:
- He refers to Pit as Kid Icarus during the Super Smash Bros. Brawl review, even when the game itself announces Pit's name.
- When talking about Robotic Operating Buddy in his R.O.B. video, he keeps calling the main character, Professor Hector, "Professor Gyro".
- In the MUSCLE review, the original cartoon that the game was based on was called Kinnikuman (translates into Muscleman) after the main character, not MUSCLE as he claims.
- It's Easy, So It Sucks!: In-universe, he has criticized Mario Is Missing!, Mario's Time Machine, and Kirby's Epic Yarn for this.
- It's Hard, So It Sucks!:
- One of his complaints against Contra Super C is the cheat code for extra lives doesn't give out as many as the code in the original Contra (whereupon he stops the review to announce he's falling back on his Game Genie).
- He complained that the Resident Evil 5 amateur setting is still too difficult and actually asked "Why couldn't they make the easy setting easier?"
- He also complained when Home Improvement didn't have Game Genie codes.
- Inverted in his review of Ninja Gaiden 3 where he constantly praised the easy gameplay and button-mashing, an issue that almost every other reviewer has with the game.
- Last-Second Word Swap: In Yo! Noid:"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Damn it, this game is the biggest piece of... crap!"
- Manipulative Editing: Occasionally, the video will be edited to make certain games appear worse than they actually are.
- A variation of this is found in his Super Mario Bros 2 review, when complaining the star is too slow. Not only did he do it in the area where it would naturally take the most time, but he actually slowed down the footage.
- In his review of Aladdin for SNES, when Abu ate some apples at the end of a level, he edited it to make it look like the apples were actually deducted from your ammo. He admitted in the comments that he passed the flying carpet stage on his first try, so he purposely killed himself to make the stage look harder than it really is.
- He said that once you get to level fifty in Kool-Aid Man for the Atari 2600, the enemies move impossibly fast, which is portrayed using sped-up footage. In said footage, the Kool-Aid Man is moving exactly as fast as the Thirsties even though he said they get faster, the sound effects get higher pitched, and the timer at the top started moving much faster.
- Nominal Importance:
- Not once did he refer to the main character of Brütal Legend, Eddie Riggs, by name.
- He never referred to Bert by name in Monster Party, just calling him "The Monster".
- "Tetris was created by a guy in Russia" note
- During his Iron Man 2 review, Rhodey was reduced to "Tony's friend".
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Irate's cousin Joey remained a child even in the later seasons.
- Orphaned Series:
- Chris and Scottie Road Trip
- I Rate the 80s and Haunted Investigators were originally considered this, but the former came back in a big way with a multitude of episodes and Bores announced the return of the latter.
- Pac Man Fever:
- Whenever the camera is on IG, he shakes the controller all over the place, similar to TV shows that portray game-playing as "violently shaking the controller without pressing buttons."
- He was button mashing while playing Mario Is Missing. A game where you can't die and nothing hurts you.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Tony is supposed to be a pro wrestler, but he surely doesn't dress like one. The remastered version of the review changed him to a "wrestling fan".
- Product Placement: Parodied in his Yo! Noid review, where after getting an endorsement check, he dons an Adidas hat, eats Doritos, and drinks Dr Pepper while blatantly holding the can toward the camera.
- Revisiting the Roots: The Irate Gamer, since the jump to HD, had an ongoing storyline. Close to the end of the storyline, a non-sequential episode on the Die Hard NES game was released, and it was closer to the earlier videos (the only remnant from the storyline is a cameo appearance of the Gamer's R.O.B. sidekick).
Word of God is that after the storyline is finished, there will be more episodes like this. - Rouge Angles of Satin: "The Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde Princible"
- Rule of Three:
- Played straight in the Tetris review (the Tetrimino, the Thwomp, and the bomb), subverted in the Kool-Aid review (the Kool-Aid Man burst through his wall four times).
- Rule of Three gags are used rather often in Neo videos.
- Self-Deprecation:
- Bores made a joke in which he called for his friends to play the 2-player mode of Contra, and was met with dead silence.
- In the Dick Tracy review, which is a crossover with the Angry Video Game Nerd, both of them make several jokes about how Bores used to be considered a knockoff of him.
- The Micro Machines review opens with him joking about the "breakfast is ruined" meme.
- Sound-Effect Bleep:
- As part of an experiment, the Irate Gamer posted two versions of his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles review where one of them had all the swearing bleeped out.
- In a sketch video, he bleeped out Satan saying "motherfucker".
- In RoboCop Part 2, he lets out a long string of bleeped cursing.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: His theme song, as well as the music he used in his video trailers, are rather serious and "epic" considering they were for a video game review show. A good example is his review Home Improvement review trailer, which has a deadly-serious orchestra and Ominous Latin Chanting.
- Special Edition Title: The title sequence in the Order Up review is played backwards to reflect the Hostile Show Takeover. The Zombies Ate My Neighbors episode also had a special Halloween Theme Tune.
- Spin-Off: Irate Gamer NEO, which reviews more recent games, among others.
- Take That!:
- In his review of TMNT: Turtles in Time ReShelled, he said that when updating something, some elements have to remain the same, or else "they’ll be shitting all over the source material. Right, Michael Bay?" Cut to a photo of Michael Bay photoshopped into his room going, "Uhh..."
- When reviewing Ghosts And Goblins, he asks if the Devil can take The Wicker Man (2006) back to Hell with him.
- He has one towards his detractors in the Top 5 NES Games video. When he mentioned that he liked using Game Genie while playing Kid Icarus, he brought up that "some elite gamers" will likely criticize him for cheating and responded "You know what? Fuck 'em!"
- Similarly, in his Cool Spot review, saying, "These idiots can't even make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without ruining it!"
- It's unclear if it was deliberate, but one of the background characters shown in peril in his RoboCop review appears to be dressed up to look like the Nerd.
- When talking about a Dick Tracy wristwatch toy, he says The Nostalgia Critic shouldn't be let near it, otherwise "he'll probably make another dumb 50-minute-like Pink Floyd tribute video to it" without actually reviewing it, a reference to the Critic's infamous review of The Wall movie adaptation. At the end of the review, the Critic leaves a comment on YouTube advertising a 133 minute video on the wristwatch, calling it his "love letter to Warren Beatty".
- In his Blu-Ray Kickstarter video, he states that he'd get some reviews up soon, but "I've had no time! No time! Muh kids, muh kids!". Also doubles as a Shout-Out to the r/TheCinemassacreTruth Subreddit, who believes James uses his kids and a lack of time as excuses too often.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Frequently. For example, at the end of the Mission: Impossible episode, Chris says he's really pissed off, his head is spinning and he's losing his mind, but his tone of voice does not indicate this.
- The Teaser: The "Temple of Doom" scene in the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom game review is treated as such in the DVD version (the early episodes were produced before the Title Sequence was introduced). Subsequent episodes sometimes have their own teasers.
- Verbal Tic: He used to overuse "pretty much" and "all right" in his earlier videos to the point of this, but toned it down later on.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Complaining in the Mission Impossible (1990) video about his characters being arrested when innocent people are killed by the bombs he's setting off in the street.
- Viewers Are Goldfish:
- The cracked pipe labeled "Gas Line" is shown multiple times throughout the Mario is Missing/Mario's Time Machine episode. Additionally, whenever the episode switched between the two timelines, Chris reminds the viewer what game he's playing, which gives the idea that he's aware there are two timelines going on, which he shouldn't.
- In his video on Microsoft's E3 2011 conference, most of the video is highlights from the conference and the last minute of the video is him recapping said highlights he just showed us.
- Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: He was formerly known for making a lot of grammar mistakes, such as dropping the first R from "frustrated", along with mixing up "predecessor" and "successor" and using double negatives. This became less of an issue from the Chris Neo era onward.
- Wrap Around Background: He noted this in his review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom before throwing the cartridge away in frustration. The cartridge then reappeared on the opposite side of the screen.
