YMMV / The Irate Gamer

• Arc Fatigue:
  • His E3 2010 and 2011 videos started a week after the expo ended, and went on for an entire month. Most of it was released in July, when many other sites already had plenty of good coverage. What makes this worse is that most of the games he previewed were already on retail shelves at the time.
  • The "Shadow Overlord" story arc ran for a long three and a half years (October 2010-April 2014).
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Many of his reviews feature appearances from characters that have nothing to do with the subject of the video.
  • IG going into the world of Donkey Kong at the end of his review of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
  • IG shooting the dog from Duck Hunt at the end of the Jaws review.
  • Most of Satan's appearances qualify as BLAM, notably in the Odyssey Light Rifle video where he offered a light rifle for his soul (only to get turned down since he already had one).
  • The scene with the zombie in the Zombies Ate My Neighbors review. He tried to get rid of it using a Proton Pack, failed, then said he's "gonna need a bigger gun." Afterward, the actual review starts but the zombie is never seen again. In that same video, he listed off the ways of dying. When he gets to electrocution, for no explanation whatsoever, he gets hit with electricity.
  • The two separate Galaga sprites randomly appearing in the Contra review attacking Chris. They only appeared twice and were never mentioned again.
  • Two from the second part of his Robocop review: The Hamburglar popping up in the bonus game and Megatron appearing at another point.
  • The ending to the Madballs video. He gets beaten up by the Madballs and suddenly he's in the music video for "Take On Me" by A-Ha, which was most likely a reference to Family Guy which had a very similar joke with the same video.
  • The first part of his Robocop review starts with him watching a television show starting Ronnie the Skeleton before he complains he's already seen it and starts the review, then later on interrupts it to reminisce about his college days. Neither are commented upon or mentioned again.
  • In his Colorforms Video, he tries to show off the ThunderCats Colorforms box in 3D only to have Snarf leap out. He is then promptly swatted away and is never mentioned again.
  • During his Muscle review, a Piranha Plant sprite pops out of a pot in the background. This is never explained or even acknowledged during the video.
  • In the first part of his review of Contra, when he learns about a spray gun weapon, he is then seen shooting at someone off-screen and shouting, "Take that, you bitches!" This is never given any kind of explanation, nor is it ever brought up again.
• Bizarro Episode: In the Order Up video, the Evil Gamer hosted the review. Then he vanished for a while. When he reappeared, the Order Up review was never mentioned.
• Creator's Pet: Ronnie the Skeleton. He is either a Jewish stereotype or a parody of Woody Allen. He was hated by many from his first appearance, where he was given an extremely long gag regarding his non-stop talking on the telephone. It seems not too many people like him, yet Bores is attached to him so much that he'll put him in any possible place. Bores even has this already-hated character do things like host a Christmas Special and save his life.
• Designated Hero: The Irate Gamer himself:
  • In his Back to the Future review, he goes back in time and murders the LJN executive who secured the adaptation rights in order to erase the game from time.
  • In his Kool Aid Man review, he murders the Kool Aid Man for doing what he does... ON CHRISTMAS.
  • In his E.T review, he blows up a U.F.O taking back the games because of how bad they were.
  • In his X-Men review, he kills Wolverine for talking back to him, Cyclops for revealing there is a bonus level, and Iceman for saying the bonus level could be considered a cool easter egg.
  • In his G.I. Joe review, he kills the creator of the game.
  • In one video, he blows up Ubisoft because he couldn't get in.
  • This would be one thing if he were just an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist like most Caustic Critics, except that he has an Evil Twin called The Evil Gamer who hasn't killed anyone and is generally nowhere near as bad a person.
• Designated Villain: The Evil Gamer and Shadow Overlord, though the Evil Gamer in particular. The worst he does is threaten the Irate Gamer, who is hardly innocent himself. Although they are trying to Take Over the World, it's undermined by how utterly incompetent they are at it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The Sage is a popular character even to non-fans of the show. One reason people like him is because his acting's slightly better than Bores and he even acknowledges Bores' mistakes.
  • Tony to some. Several fans of the show have been known to quote his saying "bang a lang" in the comments. When his new design was shown, several fans stated that they preferred the old one.
• Growing the Beard: The very first seasons were for the most part just like the AVGN, but season 4 and 5 show that he found his own style with skits and editing jokes. This has increased since his return from retirement, as most people enjoy his new direction. He has also started making videos much more frequently.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Meta example. Depending on who you ask the "Irate Gamer's 10th Anniversary!" tribute video, which could be considered a send off to the show, becomes a lot more heartwarming when several years later in 2020 Chris Bores announced that the series would make a comeback after retiring the show back in 2016.
  • Also, as of 2020, the Irate Gamer and The Angry Video Game Nerd are now friends and collaborated in a video together.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One review from the "Third Rate Gamer" was of the game Cool Spot, parodying IG's abuse of auxiliary characters that have no relevance to the review by having a Spot sprite appear at random times. Bores later reviewed that exact game, and the exact same thing happened.
  • In the Third Rate Gamer's Rocket Knight Adventures review, he comments that the video game industry must be running out of animal mascots "after such crappy games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Spiral (sic) the Dragon". Years later, Chris Bores would continue churning video after video about Skylanders.
  • In his Q-bert review, he states that if he doesn't post a video a month, Youtube would fire him. This was before Chris started suffering Schedule Slip.
  • He said in his Super Smash Bros. Brawl review that he hoped Mega Man would be in the next game. Come 2013, and he got his wish. In the same video, he also hoped Simon Belmont would be Smash. While it's not exactly the next game, he became a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • During his review of the Turtles in Time remake, Chris said that when updating something, some elements have to remain the same, and then made a Take That! against Michael Bay. Bay would later go on to produce a Ninja Turtles movie.
  • The Isuck Gamer made a review of Silver Surfer (1990) before the Irate Gamer did.
  • The Irate Gamer had a character named Cousin Joey, which was infamous for just being Chris himself digitally superimposed onto the screen to look shorter and his voice made higher-pitched. The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of EarthBound would later have a strikingly similar younger counterpart of the Nerd appear in one skit. Though this actually makes sense in context as it references a scene in the game where Ness talks to his younger self.
  • In his Irate the 80's video about Fruity Yummy Mummy, he states that he hopes it will one day be brought back. It was, along with Frute Brute, in 2014.
  • A lot of people rip into him for stealing from the AVGN. Ironically, in a music video featuring the AVGN, we see the Nerd going back in time to destroy LJN for making Back to the Future (1989), exactly what the Irate Gamer did in his review.
  • The moment where Irate Gamer blows up a UFO intending to take the E.T. games back home precisely mirrors the ending of No More Heroes III. After Travis defeats the Final Boss, a jerkass parody of E.T. named FU, he reverts to a childlike form that tries to escape to his home planet, only for his childhood friend and the Post-Final Boss to similarly reminisce about how much he used to love him, and then tell him to fuck off while pressing the button to blow up his ship.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Irate Gamer getting visitors during his Monster Party review (GET THE FUCK OFF MAH PROPERTY).
  • The scream from History of Video Games Part 1 (covering Spacewar!)
  • Bores needs more fiber in his diet.^ExplanationMany of his detractors point out that his 'angry' expressions make him look constipated.
  • "Face it, ______ is ruined!"^ExplanationSigning-Off Catchphrase from his Breakfast Rant videos, as "Face it, breakfast is ruined!" When it evolved into iRate the 80s, he continued the gag by saying "beverages are ruined."
  • "WHAT THE FUCK IS A MUSCLE?" ^ExplanationA line from his review of M.U.S.C.L.E, an NES game based on Kinnikuman. Though intended as a joke, detractors enjoyed making fun of it regardless.
  • "These games are fustrating as hell!"
  • "After doing some research..."
  • The Genie: "What?!"
  • Cousin Joey: "Hey Chris, what are you playing?"^ExplanationLine from his Monster Party review, starting a whole series of fan/detractor videos with Joey reacting to anything disturbing, weird, or just bad.
  • "Welcome!" (His nonsensical greeting upon being introduced in the "Real Real Gaming" sketch video)
• Narm:
  • "GET DAH FUCK OFF MAH PROPERTY!"
  • His attempted Take That! to his hatedom, where he said they couldn't make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without ruining it in his review of Cool Spot. Very few people thought that this was a good comeback.
  • "Yo, mothership? I got your games here. You better pick these up or I blow 'em up!"
• Padding: Lots of it. Chris has stated in an interview with a French gaming website that he tries to make fun of the games "at least 10 times".
  • One recurring example is to name and show every single enemy in a game, even if there's nothing especially outlandish about them.
  • If he isn't listing enemies, he'll do a montage, even for games that don't require one. Including Tetris, Dr. Mario, Q*bert, and Cool Spot.
  • There's also his use of side-characters, even if they have nothing to do with the game.
  • In the Contra episode, before starting the game, he speculates what the story is and creates an entire imaginary scenario, then attempts to show an 8-bit rendition, despite the game having an established plot.
  • In his History of Video Games Part 4, there was a section over the game Steeple Chase. He spent ten seconds covering all the information we need over it (what its about and how to play it). What then followed was a minute long skit (out of an eleven minute video) of a reenactment of the gameplay with the Irate Gamer as the horses.
  • In Aladdin, Chris spends over 90 seconds (in a video that's only 11:35 long) complaining about the fact that Abu follows Aladdin around, something that has zero impact on the overall game.
  • His Goonies II review is even worse. He starts off by complaining about the "II" in the title and how it apparently doesn't make any sense. He goes on to theorize about it and compare it to Castlevania and Donkey Kong, only to conclude by revealing that there was indeed a first Goonies game, thus rendering all his hypothetical explanations moot. It isn't until 2:40 (of a 7:40 video) that he finally starts to review the game itself.
  • The complaints about RoboCop not using his gun.
  • All the E3 videos where he shows an entire trailer. This wouldn't be so bad if he didn't record it using his camcorder. It feels like watching a bad Let's Play.
  • His Punch-Out!! review has a montage of him training himself in boxing after being beaten in a match, lasting an entire one minute and forty seconds. Exacerbating it is the anticlimatic payoff, where he then just ends up getting beaten again by the same character.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The Irate Gamer Game was torn apart for its buggy controls, dull level design, and overall lazy design.
• Seasonal Rot: Season 5, from 2015 to 2016. After coming back from a short-lived "retirement", the began focusing on tearing apart games that are generally well received, such as DuckTales, Punch-Out!!, Kid Icarus.
• Shallow Parody:
  • Many episodes have random references that don't really make much sense.
  • The Kool-Aid Man can't seem to speak in full sentences; all he says is "Oh yeah!" or similar sounding words... Whereas he spoke in full sentences in the commercials and comic books.
• Special Effect Failure: Has its own page.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: Having done this for nearly 10 years, Chris' review style has naturally improved and gotten less like James', but people will still compare them until the end of time. Even as late as 2018, there are still some interesting similarities between the two that keep popping up, such as the fact that "Ghosts N' Goblins was apparently the first NES game for both of them.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some fans disliked Tony's hand-drawn redesign compared to his original MapleStory sprite.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: He is one of the most well-known examples when it comes to YouTube videos, having a long-standing history of being accused of copying the style and content of The Angry Video Game Nerd.
• Unexpected Character: In 2020, the trailer for the Irate Gamer's Dick Tracy review revealed that it was a crossover with The Angry Video Game Nerd, which very few people saw coming.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The stop motion for every scene that involves ROB the Robot is quite an achievement. It looks fluent without feeling too much like jump cuts, which is quite hard for any average person trying to make it look right, knowing how sometimes the camera angles can change on inconsistent levels.
• Vindicated by History: Some of Irate Gamer's former haters have since warmed up to him, or at least respect him, due to him gradually Growing the Beard over the years. Among these are Asalieri, The Archfriend, Big Al, the late Hellsing920, and even Mike Matei. The fact that he and The Angry Video Game Nerd have collaborated on a video together certainly helps. In general, the hate for the Irate Gamer isn't nearly as prevalent as 10 years or so ago.
• Win Back the Crowd: After years of inconsistent videos, his Dick Tracy episode with the AVGN seemed to revitalize his channel, and cause even those who previously hated him to see his content in a better light.

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