Ah, here we have one of the best episodes of “The Angry Video Game Nerd;” Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties. The game in question is, as I can best class it, a “storytelling” game for the short lived 3DO platform, an early CD-ROM based 32-bit system, with all the quirks and nuances you would expect of such.
James spends the early part of the episode giving a quick overview of the system, what the gaming environment was like when it was released, and quickly discussing some of its flaws and annoyances (some of which are typical of all early CD-ROM based systems) but also praises it where it needs to be for some quality titles released for it.
Getting to the game itself, oh boy… how to explain this one. It plays like a “choose your own adventure” book and opens with a promising enough full motion video scene where the woman who plays Jane in the game explains the basics of it, with the camera slowly zooming in on her chest. This, of course, peaks the Nerd’s interest. As it will turn out, however, is about the only “video” in the game — the rest of it is all still shots with narration to tell the story. As you can imagine, it’s not that great of an experience.
That’s ignoring the opening, which is… well, just crazy. Like, it makes no sense and James wastes no time getting completely confused by the whole thing. Quite a way to start your game before the annoying parents of the two protagonists call their respective offspring to complain about both of them wanting to be grandparents. Yep, that’s your set piece for what’s to come.
Damn near 20 minutes later the Nerd can finally actually play the game, by selecting an option. That’s it. That’s your “gameplay” here — just selecting single options and seeing what pans out.
This gives him an opportunity to complain about the control as well, since the narration has to end before you can select another option… which plays the narration again, and again, and again.
Anyway, the game goes somewhere strange with all this, eventually giving you the option for the boss of a company Jane is interviewing for to become a stereotypical “pervy boss.” Of course, the Nerd selects that option and things get very.. very.. strange. It doesn’t get too extreme (after all, this wouldn’t be on YouTube were that the case — remember “Atari Porn” is a thing, after all) but between dueling narrators, a comedic run through the city, clapping dogs, and an outtake being used inside the game, well, it goes from weird, to super weird to just what the hell even is this?
When it’s all said and done, James simply has to question why this game exists. Who was it for, what was the point, all of it. It almost crosses quite a few lines, especially for the early 90’s, but at the same time is so absurd as to almost be something one can’t take seriously.
Final Rating: 5/5
This is up there as one of the best AVGN episodes. At the time it was the longest, at 20 minutes, and certainly covered probably the most obscure, at that time, game yet.
James’s reactions during it all are quite appropriate. The episode doesn’t go into his normal fecal-driven rants, he doesn’t destroy the game or go all crazy mad or anything — no, he just plays the game through and comments as he needs to in a “normal” nerd style, shall we say. It just kind of works, and was a bit of a breath of fresh air after the pattern of the previous few episodes.