Cheetahmen II Kickstarter Scam

[Eerpow]

A few days ago a video featuring Internet celebrities Angry Video Game Nerd and Pat the NES Punk emerged promoting a kickstarter for a fixed release of an unlicensed glitched NES game called Cheetahmen II. When the project would meet its $65,000 goal the game would release on reproduction cartridges under the name Cheetahmen II: The Lost Levels, fixing a famous bug that made the original game impossible to beat. However, Greg Pabich the man behind the project have done similar Cheetahmen related projects before and many are now questioning how much such a project would realistically cost funding seeing as there already exists ROM patches for the game online, the sum would probably not even reach half of the money he's asking for. It's likely that Greg is exploiting the AVGN fanbase for his own personal gain.

Now Mike Matei have commented on the situation saying that they are now aware that the kickstarter is a ripoff and that they are currently unable to remove the video and ads due to contractual circumstances.

They're getting into some deep shit if they don't make a video apology addressing the problem and maybe somehow compensate people who blindly donated.
I personally would lose major respect if they didn't acknowledge their mistake, I mean some old dude asking for 65k to release an absolutely terrible game and some merch?
And they're all quiet about it as if nothing happened?

Anyway surprisingly I could not find any articles about this fraud so I thought I'd share here. Please move if this isn't USN worthy news.


Original kickstarter Video:

Spoiler

Video comments are deleted now btw.

Interesting video explanation I found:

Spoiler

Kickstarter

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

http://gbatemp.net/topic/332128-cheetahmen-ii-kickstarter/

 

[chavosaur]

Wow o.o
I'm with you here eerpow, they better have some way of delivering, or returning peoples donations.
Seriously though, people have got to learn to stop blindly donating to things...

 

[Eerpow]

http://gbatemp.net/t...ii-kickstarter/

This is about the comments they've made, they know this is a fraud and are not doing anything about it.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

I don't think they are responsible for compensation, honestly. Just because you blindly followed an Internet celebrity into buying into something completely not worth it, without doing your own research, that doesn't mean the said celebrity is responsible for your ill-researched purchase.

And while we're on the subject...

Scam implies you won't be getting what you pay for. I don't think anywhere in this, that the owner of the kickstarter even hinted that the cartridge wouldn't be released, which is what you are paying towards.

That's not to say it's worth it, because it certainly isn't by any stretch of the imagination. I just dislike the use of the word "scam" when the word doesn't really fit.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

http://gbatemp.net/t...ii-kickstarter/

This is about the comments they've made, they know this is a fraud and are not doing anything about it.

Yeah but I feel as if it would fit more in the original topic. But whatever I guess.

I had a feeling it was, besides not a lot of people have NES's anyways and if they do I don't think they'd buy a game for...I forget, did they set a price? For whatever monies lol.

 

[Eerpow]

I don't think they are responsible for compensation, honestly. Just because you blindly followed an Internet celebrity into buying into something completely not worth it, without doing your own research, that doesn't mean the said celebrity is responsible for your ill-researched purchase.

And while we're on the subject...

Scam implies you won't be getting what you pay for. I don't think anywhere in this, that the owner of the kickstarter even hinted that the cartridge wouldn't be released, which is what you are paying towards.

That's not to say it's worth it, because it certainly isn't by any stretch of the imagination. I just dislike the use of the word "scam" when the word doesn't really fit.

That's a good point, though the money is probably not going to be used funding this, they've already made similar projects before without 65k to fund everything.
I don't think they need to compensate either but if they don't they might lose a lot of fans, they've deleted their comments and they are still supporting this as if nothing happened.
They should at least apologize and say that they've made a mistake, openly.

Yeah but I feel as if it would fit more in the original topic. But whatever I guess.

I had a feeling it was, besides not a lot of people have NES's anyways and if they do I don't think they'd buy a game for...I forget, did they set a price? For whatever monies lol.

You're probably right haha, anyway I just found this to be so ridiculous.

 

[KingVamp]

While I didn't watch the vid yet, I believe from a comment read TheArchfiend had beef with them before, so it is possible that he upping the
situation more than it is.

I believe they have to reach the goal or they didn't get any money at all.

This project will only be funded if at least $65,000 is pledged by Thursday Sep 6, 10:00pm EDT. How Kickstarter works.

I seem like some people are disregarding his comments because they already mention that they are under restraint. Plus they probably wanted
to make sure before coming to a final, best decision. People act like they were meant to be perfect or something.

$60 dollars donation gives you a early copy of the game.
Also, you get more than just the game and even more, depending on how much you donate.
http://www.kickstart...st-levels/posts

 

[Eerpow]

I believe they have to reach the goal or they didn't get any money at all.

This project will only be funded if at least $65,000 is pledged by Thursday Sep 6, 10:00pm EDT. How Kickstarter works.

I really hope this doesn't happen but I have a feeling that it unfortunately will reach that amount.

 

[Phynx]

I'm sorry, but this is not nearly as big of a deal as people (the guy in the video, especially) are making it out to be. Fans of this person or not, they'd be stupid not to read what they were putting their money into before sending over $60+.

 

[Mirby]

Plus, though there are patches online this Kickstarter is more about having a working physical copy as a collector's item than as a scam.

 

[KingVamp]

I'm sorry, but this is not nearly as big of a deal as people (the guy in the video, especially) are making it out to be. Fans of this person or not, they'd be stupid not to read what they were putting their money into before sending over $60+.

2 backers put in $1,000 dollars, I sure hope they know what they getting into.

 

[DarkStriker]

I dont believe the shit at all that their not allowed to take down the video or cant take down the video...... Their all doing it for money...... Greedy arseholes..

 

[Gahars]

The project is dumb, sure, but I think people are a bit quick to throw James and company under the bus. If someone blindly threw money at a project without bothering to do the research... well, they only have themselves to blame.

I dont believe the shit at all that their not allowed to take down the video or cant take down the video...... Their all doing it for money...... Greedy arseholes..

Ah, sure. Alright, buddy.

 

[KingVamp]

The project is dumb, sure, but I think people are a bit quick to throw James and company under the bus. If someone blindly threw money at a project without bothering to do the research... well, they only have themselves to blame.

I dont believe the shit at all that their not allowed to take down the video or cant take down the video...... Their all doing it for money...... Greedy arseholes..

Ah, sure. Alright, buddy.

I'm waiting to see how things plan out before giving a solid judgement,but this is what I mean by disregarding the comments. Doesn't matter what they do or say, it going be that person that says they are lying and they don't mean it with no proof or reason. To these people, saying something and equivalent of saying nothing. I soon as they set their eyes on the video or heard how about it, they thrown James and company under the bus instantly.

 

[duffmmann]

Wow that guy in the video needs to grow up. If people decided to donate to it, then they did so knowingly. I'm a fan of a lot of celebs, but I don't donate to every charity they're apart of just because they talk about it or make a video. Its my opinion that the guy in that video was foolish enough to blindly donate because he was an AVGN fan, and now he feels like a total idiot so he's all butt hurt. I saw the video and enjoyed what I saw, but no way was I gonna donate to the cause, I saw the AVGN reviews of Action 52 and Cheetahmen, no way in hell would I donate to such an awful game. Mike and James have no reason to apologize, they never said you need to donate to this, they just helped make a video for some eccentric Cheetahmen fan, get over it.

 

[shakirmoledina]

seriously? 65K to fix a game that very few have played? if it was something like battletoads for snes then fine but definitely not this game.

i still like your tags.

 

[Fluto]

Maybe James was secretly in on this aswell, I hope not. I hope this dosent affect the AVGN movie progress either.

 

[Fudge]

Interesting. It was my first thought when the video first came out, why would they support something that's a piece of shit anyway?? I'm glad Mike is stepping up, I've always liked him!

 

[KingVamp]

Under the unlisted video.

I'd like to explain: On Cinemassacre, we usually run advertisements for things like Burger King or something like that, so when I was asked to promote a game that I reviewed as AVGN, it sounded like a cool idea. It was something I thought my audience would like. Admittedly, I didn't know much else about the project other than someone was re-releasing Cheetahmen 2. Just someone releasing a game. How could that go wrong? I got the script and filmed my part for the promo, while I had my head buried deep in the Schwarzenegger Games episode which I was working on at the time.

Over the past week, there's been a lot of fuss over the Cheetahmen thing, so I looked at the Kickstarter page for the very first time. I admit, I didn't understand the costs at first and I should have researched it beforehand, but when it was explained to me, it made more sense. Honestly, I've paid $60 for the Nintendo World Champion reproduction cart that you saw in the NWC episode and that game didn't come with a box or comic book. But I don't know a thing about game production. My suggestion is not to listen to internet rumors and jump to conclusions. Make your own judgement and only donate if you want a Cheetahmen game. The choice is yours. I'm truly sorry about any inconvenience.

-James

Link