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Two brothers, Ace and Chet, host a video game show from their suburban basement. Set in the late eighties/early nineties, the show is focused around the Nintendo Entertainment System and its officially licensed gear. The officially licensed and totally AWESOME product that particular episode focuses on will effect the brothers or outright warp the very fabric of reality. The boys' father, Dad, also takes part in the shenanigans; often spouting "fatherly" advice.
Most of the show's humor comes from Ace and Chet's complete lack of knowledge about the video games they are playing, combined with the immense gusto with which they play them. It largely (at least initially) parodies video game magazines and TV shows from The Eighties that took a similar "awesome" approach to reviewing games, most notably Gamepro.
Also hosted at That Guy With The Glasses here.
Let's write some tropes!!
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Dad is as much a fan of alliteration as he is of puns.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In one of the outtakes, Fraser is heard telling Ben to improvise. What does Ben come up with? A handfart.
- Berserk Button: When Dad learns that Ace and Chet don't really take out the trash and just throw it in the broom closet, he goes completely insane.
- Catch Phrase: "TAKE OUT THE TRASH!" and variants thereof.
- Also "Let's beat some games!"
- Christmas Episode
- Cloudcuckoolander: All three main characters but ESPECIALLY DAD.
- Dawson Casting: Of course, Chet and Ace's actors are a little older than they are portrayed as.
- Drugs Are Bad: Parodied, except in this case it's cheating devices which are bad.
- Dutch Angle: To an EXTREEEEME degree. The camera is always in somebody's face, and with each sentence they finish, it swings around to another angle. This show is not for the seasick.
- The Eighties: Plenty of references to things from that decade, not just Nintendo games, mostly seen in the background.
- Freudian Excuse: Dad, as shown in the second part of the Punch Out review. Whereas Dad is only SLIGHTLY abusive to the boys, but still shown to genuinely care about them, his own pop was cruel, and not only had a crowd laugh at him but told him not to be a boxer because he didn't want him to "Sully the Sports good name". Sheesh.
- Greek Chorus: R.O.B., and sometimes the AVG man ("Ace. Feels. Guilty.").
- Halloween Episode: Video games are haunted!!
- Hilarious Outtakes: Present at the end of several episodes. It is taken to ludicrous extremes in some cases where the gag reel is almost as long as the episode itself.
- Hostile Show Takeover: R.O.B. IS AWESOME!
- Jittercam: The cameraman is just as excitable as Ace and Chet, and loves Whip Pans and extreme close ups.
- Keet: Although both are pretty loud and energetic, Ace clearly reigns supreme. "I'm Chet!" "And I'm EXCITED!"
- Large Ham: Just about everyone in the show. Ace and Dad are especially over the top, while Chet is somewhat more restrained by comparison.
- Fraser as Santa. And Dad's Dad.
- Long-Lost Uncle Aesop: Cousin Lester. He is a stereotypical "cool dude" who neither Ace nor Chet know of who appears and gets them both hooked on Game Genie codes, eventually conning them into paying for more with their precious NES games. "It's good getting high scores, huh?"
- Magical Negro: Subverted, as Doc Louis gives Ace worthless advice and apparently plans to steal his bike.
- Musical Episode: Several episodes are music videos to (sometimes remixed) tunes from the games themselves. One Christmas episode has the characters singing a rap about what presents they want.
- No Name Given: Dad is always "Dad" even when Ace and Chet aren't around. Even Cousin Lester refers to him as "Uncle Dad."
- Overly Long Gag: In the commentaries, Fraser mentions how he deliberately broke the Rule of Three with the Mario brothers running into the Goomba.
- "Behind the pillar!"
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Dad blames Ace and Chet for causing the "greatest tragedy in the history of birdhouse-building".
- Parrot Expowhat: Twice in the NES Advantage episode
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Chet: That's right dudes and dudettes. Today, we're looking at the Nintendo power tool, the officially licenced NES Advantage! |
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- Pungeon Master: Dad will rattle off a few puns every now and then, usually to complete silence. Examples include, when reviewing a golf game, he rates it "Three out of fore" and, after doing a rather embarrassing rap about the gift he has gotten Ace and Chet for Christmas, "Now that's what I call gift rapping!"
- Refuge in Audacity: Dad's borderline child abuse (which escalates into outright child abuse in the Punch Out episodes) just wouldn't fly were it not for how overblown the rest of the show is.
- Robot Buddy: ROB, first appearing in the Gyromite episode. His name even stands for "Robot Operating Buddy". Unfortunately he's not very helpful, as he immediately sets out to make Ace and Chet's lives miserable for leaving him in his box for several years. He simmers down in later episodes, but still chimes in every now and then to berate Ace and Chet for their stupidity.
- Running Gag: A couple, such as Dad's obvious disdain for Ace in comparison to his brother Chet and references to Vanilla Ice.
- Schedule Slip: The show is currently on hiatus, as Ace's actor went to school, but the creators insist they will make more episodes in the future.
- Shown Their Work: A ton of Ace and Chet's dialogue is quoted directly from the games' instruction manuals and packaging.
- Spin-Off: Video Games Awesome. An out-of-character riff show with the guys playing modern (and rarely, retro) games.
- Stealth Parody: Some people watching this show don't realize that it's making fun of the video game-related shows of the 80s and early 90s; the episodes are actually as little about the actual product as possible (for example, the episode about the Game Genie became a parody of anti-drug PSAs).
- Too Dumb to Live: Ace, Chet and whoever sets foot in their basement.
- Except R.O.B., who's actually quite sane after calming down from Chet and Ace's previous abandonment.
- Totally Radical: It's even in the title!
- Trapped in TV Land: Happens to Ace and Chet (and Dad) when they turn the turbo up too high on their NES Advantage controller, getting sucked into Super Mario Bros.. They dub it "The Nintenzone".
- Two Gamers on a Couch and their dad.
- The Unfavorite: Dad obviously prefers Chet over Ace, though Ace doesn't seem to notice.
- Very Special Episode: Parodied in an episode about the cheating device Game Genie where Ace and Chet, which also parodied Nintendo's staunch opposition to the device. Remember: "No game is complete, when you cheat!"
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Everything Ace and Chet review. Sure, Nintendo games are great and all, but they take it to a whole new level...