Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN; originally called Angry Nintendo Nerd) is an American comedy web series created and performed by James Rolfe. The show follows Rolfe’s character, often called "the Nerd," who gives opinions on old video games that are not well-made. At first, the series only had Rolfe playing games and talking about them. Over time, it expanded to include jokes with other characters, reviews of gaming equipment, and lessons about video game history.
James Rolfe started making videos as a hobby. He originally planned to share them only with friends. In 2004, with help from a future producer named Mike Matei, Rolfe posted the videos online. By 2006, the videos were on YouTube, where they became popular. The series gained a large following, and Rolfe began appearing in other projects, such as movies, games, and public events. To avoid legal problems with Nintendo, the series was renamed to The Angry Video Game Nerd. This change allowed Rolfe to review games from other companies besides Nintendo. From 2007 to 2011, the series was shared on websites like ScrewAttack and GameTrailers. It was also briefly available on Amazon Video in 2018.
The Angry Video Game Nerd is seen as one of the first creators to make review videos on the internet. His style influenced many other reviewers and helped introduce this format to a wider audience. Many other creators, such as JonTron, Doug Walker, Egoraptor, Angry Joe, Scott Wozniak, and Joueur du Grenier, have said that this show inspired their work.
Premise
The show focuses on a character called "the Nerd," who talks about old video games he considers to have poor quality, unfair difficulty, or bad design. Rolfe's character, "the Nerd," is a person who collects video games and reviews them in a style similar to comedy shows where people make fun of things, like Mystery Science Theater 3000. While playing the games, the Nerd points out their technical problems, design flaws, and strange features to warn viewers about their poor quality. Other episodes include the Nerd reviewing video game consoles, accessories, or games with similar themes. His reviews often begin with a short explanation about the game's history or his own childhood experiences, mixed with funny sketches and jokes filled with strong language.
Dressed in typical "nerd" clothing, like glasses, a white shirt, khaki pants, and loafers, the Nerd reviews games in his basement. Sometimes, guest characters from video games and popular culture appear and join him. These guests often comment on the games, laugh at the Nerd's frustration, and act like funny versions of their original characters. The Nerd uses wild and strange imaginary situations, shows anger, and drinks Rolling Rock beer (and later Yuengling) while reviewing games. His frustration with bad games is often expressed with the phrase "What were they thinking?!" and can lead to him breaking game cartridges, pretending to throw them away, burning them, or even crushing them.
The Nerd sometimes dresses as other famous characters, like Batman or Indiana Jones, while reviewing their games. Other characters in the show include the Nerdy Turd and Shit Pickle (earlier characters created by Rolfe), the Guitar Guy (played by Kyle Justin, who also wrote the show's theme song), the Game Graphic Glitch Gremlin, Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C. Version 4.0 Beta, and many others. Occasionally, other video game reviewers, such as Pat the NES Punk, appear. The show has also featured special guests, such as Lloyd Kaufman from Troma Entertainment while the Nerd played Toxic Crusaders-based games, Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone who helped the Nerd play games based on that movie series, and Gilbert Gottfried, who played a fake lead developer of Life of Black Tiger and the Nerd's enemy, Fred "Fucks" (Fred Fuchs), on July 31, 2019, during a review of that game.
Production
James Rolfe's first two episodes were made as a joke and were not meant to be shared publicly. In May 2004, he created his first on-camera game reviews, using exaggerated expressions and insults to comment on two games: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. These reviews became the style of the Nerd character. At the time, the series was quickly named Bad NES Games. Rolfe later explained in an interview that the joke showed how upset a dedicated gamer could be about games that were already 20 years old. Although the review of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was meant to be the last, Rolfe's friends enjoyed the earlier Bad NES Games reviews and encouraged him to make more. A friend named Mike Matei helped produce and publish the videos on Cinemassacre, and they were later released as part of a four-tape collection called the Cinemassacre Gold Collection, with the first two called "The Quickies."
In 2006, Rolfe began sharing the episodes on YouTube. His first review introducing the character as "The Angry Nintendo Nerd" was of The Karate Kid game. He named these videos "The Angry Nintendo Nerd Trilogy" and posted them on Cinemassacre. The show's popularity led Rolfe to review games on other systems, and he later changed the title to The Angry Video Game Nerd to avoid conflicts with Nintendo. He expanded his reviews to include platforms like the Atari 2600, Super NES, Master System, and Sega Genesis, as well as accessories like the Power Glove and U-Force, films such as The Wizard, and the Nintendo Power magazine. Eventually, he reviewed games like Sonic '06 on the Xbox 360 and Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing on PC.
Rolfe's series gained mainstream attention after his review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became popular on YouTube. In an article, writer Alex Carlson noted that before 2004, video game criticism was mostly done by professional writers in magazines and websites. He explained that professional reviews often did not match the opinions of average gamers, and now, anyone with a webcam and recording software could become a critic and express strong opinions without being censored. Since then, the show grew in quantity, quality, and fanbase. Rolfe began adding special effects and storytelling to episodes. The first cinematic episode was a review of the 1989 Friday the 13th game in October 2006, using lighting and camera angles to highlight its horror-themed story, where the Nerd is attacked by Jason Voorhees for disliking the game. Later episodes mixed regular reviews with documentary-style storytelling, where Rolfe shared information about the games or consoles being reviewed. When asked if the Nerd would review modern games, Rolfe said the show focuses on nostalgia and that he is mainly a fan of older games.
In late 2007, Rolfe stopped making episodes after losing his voice. On March 17, 2010, he announced he was taking a break due to stress from his work. The show resumed a month later but slowed to one episode per month instead of two because of other projects. In late 2011, Rolfe paused production again to work on the AVGN movie. The show restarted in late summer 2012. Since then, Rolfe has released Nerd videos on his Cinemassacre website and YouTube account in an irregular schedule to balance his personal life with other projects. By 2013, the YouTube channel had over 900,000 subscribers and 400 million views. By 2014, Cinemassacre had 1.5 million subscribers. Rolfe said the show became popular around the same time YouTube grew in popularity.
In January 2013, the YouTube channel was temporarily shut down for breaking YouTube's rules but was later restored. In March 2016, the channel reached 2 million subscribers, 10 years after its creation. Rolfe made a video thanking fans for their support. In June 2019, the channel hit 3 million subscribers, and Rolfe thanked fans again on the show's 13th anniversary. In December 2020, Rolfe announced that longtime collaborator Mike Matei would leave the channel to focus on his Twitch career.
Other media
James Rolfe's review of the Back to the Future games was shared in an MTV segment titled "Viral Videos Infect the Mainstream." On November 2, 2008, his videos and personality were shown on the nationally syndicated radio show Opie and Anthony. The Nerd became the subject of a discussion on Howard Stern and David Arquette's episode of Stern's Sirius XM show, where Stern criticized the show's format and the gaming community during a TooManyGames 2011 convention in Philadelphia. James Rolfe appeared as the Nerd at various gaming and internet conventions.
On September 24, 2008, Rolfe worked with fellow reviewer Doug Walker to create a fictional feud between his character, the Nostalgia Critic, and the Nerd. The conflict began because the Critic disliked comments from fans that compared him unfairly to the Nerd. The two created a series of humorous videos showing their characters arguing, culminating in a fight in Clifton, New Jersey. They also dared each other to review content from the other's work, such as the Nerd reviewing a bad movie and the Critic reviewing a bad game. A final fight took place in the Nerd's basement on October 10, 2008, featuring parodies of movies like The Matrix Reloaded and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. The videos became very popular. To celebrate the first anniversary of the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses website, Rolfe and Walker made another special video where their characters met again, fought, and eventually made peace. Rolfe later appeared as the Nerd in Channel Awesome shows, including a review of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie with the Nostalgia Critic, where both characters made brief appearances in the anime Unlimited Psychic Squad.
On July 21, 2014, an independent film titled Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie was released online and in limited theaters, with DVD and Blu-ray versions available by the end of the year. The film follows the Nerd trying to prove that over 1 million copies of the game E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 were not buried, as fans had asked him to review the game. During his investigation, the Nerd is chased by federal agents who think he is looking into Area 51 and a UFO crash.
The movie started development in late 2006 after the popularity of the Angry Video Game Nerd web series. James Rolfe directed, produced, and co-wrote the film, and played the Nerd on-screen. The script was designed to have the Nerd finally review E.T., but Rolfe had to balance filming with his other projects. The screenplay was finished by 2008, and the film's budget of over $300,000 was raised through crowdfunding. Rolfe asked fans to send webcam footage of themselves reacting to the Nerd's web series, which was used as an intro to the film.
Although Rolfe has not ruled out making a sequel about the lost Swordquest treasures, he considers it unlikely due to the time spent on the movie and his focus on other projects.
In 2013, a video game titled Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures was announced. Developed by FreakZone Games, it was released on September 20, 2013, for Microsoft Windows via Steam. The game follows the Nerd rescuing friends who were sucked into his television, with gameplay inspired by the Cheetahmen series. The Nerd uses a NES Zapper as his weapon, and a character named Naggi the Patronizing Firefly, a parody of Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, guides him. The game includes enemies like zombies, Mr. Hyde, Custer, The Giant Claw, and parodies of Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, named Bimmy and Jimmy. The game was later released on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in 2015. A sequel, Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation, was announced in 2014 and released in 2016.
A remastered version of the first two games, The Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe, was released in 2020 for Nintendo Switch and Steam, with later versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Epic Games Store. The remaster, developed by FreakZone Games and Cinemassacre, included new difficulty settings, altered story elements, and improved level designs.
A new Angry Video Game Nerd game for the original NES and modern platforms is currently in development by Mega Cat Studios.
Unofficial fan-made games, such as Angry Video Game Nerd's Angry Video Game and AVGN Planet, have also been created. The Nerd mentioned these games in the episode AVGN Games and appeared as a playable character in Texting of the Bread, made by ScrewAttack.
The show's theme song, The Angry Video Game Nerd Theme Song, was written by Kyle Justin and James Rolfe and performed by Justin. Over the years, the song was adapted for specials. A soundtrack album based on the web series was released in 2011 by Lachlan Barclay. Another album, featuring music from the Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures game, was released in 2013 by FreakZone and ScrewAttack Entertainment. The movie's soundtrack, composed by Bear McCreary, included rock-and-roll, heavy metal, and music from classic gaming systems like the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis.
Board James is a show created by Rolfe where he plays a character named Board James, who starts off innocent but becomes evil.
Reception and legacy
The Angry Video Game Nerd show helped James Rolfe become one of the most well-known Internet celebrities even before YouTube became popular. The show won the award for Best Online Web Series at Mashable's 3rd Annual Open Web Awards on December 16, 2009. Peggy Rajski explained that the show's success came from using the Internet correctly and a crowdfunding method. She also said that James Rolfe had already built an audience that supported his earlier work, and when he asked them for help, they were happy to do so. Doug Walker, a filmmaker and Internet celebrity, called the Nerd the "Greatest Video Game Critic of All Time." Jacob Rich from the Michigan Daily described the Nerd as the "pioneering internet 'gamer' show," noting that many popular game review shows online today were inspired by the format of the Angry Video Game Nerd. A French show called Joueur du Grenier was based on the Angry Video Game Nerd.
Zach Whalen said the show's focus on retro gaming helped modern gamers connect with the past by looking back at older times. James Rolfe told The Guardian that the show still helps today's gamers learn about the history of video games. Reporter Luke Langlands also mentioned that the show inspired the creation of other independent online shows. The Nerd's success as a celebrity outside of traditional pop culture showed people that it was possible to build a career online. A survey by Mediscape found that many people were inspired by the Nerd to create and share their own content on websites like YouTube, DeviantArt, SourceForge, GameFAQs, and ScrewAttack. This inspired people like the Nostalgia Critic and Angry Joe.
Alex Carlson from Hardcore Gamer called Rolfe's character "The Nerd Who Changed Gaming Culture Forever." He described the Angry Video Game Nerd as one of the most well-known figures in gaming culture, saying that most gamers have seen at least some of the show's videos on YouTube. Nearly ten years after the show started, Rolfe's character with a strong, colorful personality continues to influence new gaming channels on YouTube. From the beginning, the Angry Video Game Nerd was a major step forward for gaming criticism and entertainment. Whether Rolfe realized it or not, the rise of the Nerd changed how people talk about and enjoy video games forever.