This show is another creation of James Rolfe, better known as The Angry Video Game Nerd. This show, like that one, started out simply enough as Board James showed us the game Mouse Trap. As it has gone on it has basically kept this formula of James showing us a game, trying to discuss the rules and from time to time he invites Mike to come over to play. There are some shows that do things differently as the Mr. Bucket episode is completely out there and he also did one at a video game convention inviting others to play a simple board game in the midst of all the technology. It also introduced another character in Bad Luck Bootsy in later episodes, but he has not been in all that many episodes.
The first thing are the characters. All three characters seem to be like real life kids playing a game. You have Board James who hosts the show and appears in all the episodes. He is the friend who takes his game playing seriously, learns the rules and abides by all the rules. Then there is Motherf----r Mike. He is the guy that just wants to play, constantly cheats and is not as caring about the rules. Then Bad Luck Bootsy is the kid that wants attention and usually ends up getting hurt. I remember playing games and it did fall this way as I was basically like James, trying to play the games like they were meant too, and I tried playing with a Mike type character and the Bootsy character was the kid that always got forced on my friends and I. The one we did not want to play with, but the parents made us and we got in trouble when the dork got hurt usually by doing something stupid. So I think James did a really good job at recreating the typical 80's and 90's game playing session.
The games Board James reviews differ. The main thing they usually share is the fact that they are the type that have multiple pieces and a more 3-D environment. A lot of them also fall in a Dungeons and Dragons type category involving wizards and dungeons. A couple of these looked very fun to play such as Key to the Kingdom and Dragonstrike (though the accompanying video is extremely laughable). Though he does go off the beaten path a couple of times such as the Mr. Bucket episode where they basically make fun of the commercial where it states the balls come out of his mouth. Hilarity ensues, my favorite part when James is being attacked and he turns the things attention to poor Mike who only came over to help. There is also one where James shares with us a game of his own design that is insanely hard because nearly every square is a death square. Then Bootsy is introduced in the Tornado Rex edition and we find out why one should not wind the toy up more than three times. I do hope that once James is done with his Angry Video Game Nerd movie that he will make some more episodes of Board James, because it is almost as good and some of the episodes are better than AVGN.
In conclusion, this is a great show from our friends at Cinemassacre. It is a different beast than is AVGN, but that just makes it stand on its own. James and company do another show called, "You Know What's Bulls--t?" that is okay too, but it is a bit to much like AVGN and the episodes way to short. James Rolfe and Mike Matei though have a good thing going with this show. I would like to see more of it, and more with Bootsy as it is funny watching him get hurt. And it is also fun seeing some of the more obscure board games from earlier times.
