Mike Matei
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Born
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October 5, 1980
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Role
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Executive producer of Cinemassacre projects (2006–2020)
Manager of Cinemassacre YouTube channel (2006-2020) |
Michael "Mike" Matei (born October 5, 1980) is an American writer, video editor, commentator, game reviewer, and former executive producer for Cinemassacre Productions. He worked alongside James Rolfe writing, editing and starring in a wide variety of productions by the company.
Matei is best known for having been co-writer, illustrator and executive producer for the series The Angry Video Game Nerd. He has played many guest characters on the show, and illustrated the title cards that appear in the show's intro (episodes 5-100, 139, 141, 201). He also regularly records gameplay for the episodes, but mostly stopped contributing to the series and other Cinemassacre projects since focusing mostly on his Twitch streaming career in the 2020s, at which point he formally left Cinemassacre as an employee. Since then, he has ocassionally returned to help write and/or record gameplay footage for the series and to help on other occasional Cinemassacre projects.
The fanbase sometimes refers to Matei as Motherfucker Mike, since he plays a character who is a cheating bastard on the Cinemassacre series Board James, and is credited as such in the show. And he's widely known for playing character roles on The Angry Video Game Nerd, such as Bugs Bunny, The Joker and Jason Voorhees.
Matei created the Cinemassacre YouTube channel in 2006. He named it "JamesNintendoNerd", since at that point they were undecided on the show's official title (before the name "Angry Video Game Nerd" was conceived). Matei sometimes does his own game reviews on Cinemassacre.
In June 2013, Matei launched his own channel, simply named after himself. The channel is dedicated to stream archives.[1]
In December 18, 2020, James announced that Mike Matei would be leaving Cinemassacre to focus on his full-time livestreaming on Twitch.[2]
Mike's Game Glitches
On January 14, 2011, Mike Matei did his first solo video for Cinemassacre, "How to Jump Over The Flagpole on Stage 1-1 in Super Mario Bros." which went viral on the web.
In interviews, Matei has stated that this trick was originally going to be featured in a scrapped "Game Glitches 2" episode. However, Matei instead started his own spin-off series called Mike's Game Glitches, where he showed the audience how to perform glitches and tricks in video games. The series ran from February 2011 to February 2012.
Minecraft with Gadget
In 2012, Mike Matei uploaded a video in which he reviewed Minecraft with Inspector Gadget on his iPad.
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Mike Matei's initial role for Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie did not involve production on the film itself. Instead, Matei remained on the East coast to maintain the Cinemassacre website and YouTube channel. He produced a variety of content such as Motherfuckin' Mondays, Top 10's and game reviews.
Rolfe left for California in January 2012 to start pre-production on the AVGN feature film. The filming did not begin until April 2012.
Since Matei began posting his own content, their YouTube channel gained over 500,000 additional subscribers, and Matei earned a significant fanbase of his own doing reviews of obscure games. On March 20th, 2013, the Cinemassacre YouTube channel reached the 1 million subscriber mark, coinciding with the release of Matei's Pandemonium! review for PS1.
Matei has been helping Rolfe write and edit AVGN episodes since 2006, and they have been working on videos together since they met in college. In a Reddit interview it was announced Matei will most likely not appear in the AVGN feature film because Matei does not consider himself an actor. He plans to stick to web content only. However on Friday, November 9, 2012 Rolfe was asked about this at the live premiere of the AVGN Movie trailer at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, to which Rolfe replied: "It's funny, we never even talked about it yet, but I think, like, he's going to end up in the movie accidentally somehow, 'cause that's how it always happens."
AVGN characters played by Mike Matei
- A Nightmare on Elm Street - Freddy Krueger (Krueger was played mainly by James, but during scenes where the Nerd and Krueger were onscreen together, Matei stood in for the part of Krueger.)
- The Wizard of Oz - The Cowardly Lion
- Batman Part 1 and Part 2 - The Joker
- Frankenstein - Franken-Nerd (voiced by James imitating Boris Karloff)
- Lethal Weapon - Unidentified character
- Mega Man Games - Bugs Bunny
- Ernie - The Last Ninja
Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures
Matei appeared as a playable character in 2013's The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures. He wields a red lightsaber and has the ability to see through blocks hiding items that will assist the play such as health. His only quote is "Hey, Nerd! You're here too!" once the player stumbles upon him. When the actual Nerd reviewed such a game in AVGN Games, he didn't know who Mike was. This is because Mike only appears behind the scenes between the Nerd's fictitious world and James Rolfe's real world.
The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures 2: ASSimilation
Matei returns in 2016's The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures 2: ASSimilation who unlike the last game isn't a playable character this time instead is serves as the guide for the tutorial level after being saved by the Nerd after he was defeated in his enemy form. He also appears in the opening & ending cutscenes to the game along side the Bullshit Man & Shit Pickle who are turned into enemies by Death Mwauthzyx in the opening cutscene.
Interviews
NintendoEnthusiast - Interview with Mike Matei
RareGamer - Satlazer talks to AVGN's Mike Matei
Retrospect - An Interview with Mike Matei
MakeUseOf - Interview with Mike Matei