Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN; originally called Angry Nintendo Nerd) is an American comedy web series about reviewing old video games. The series was created and starred by James Rolfe. It focuses on Rolfe's character, often called "the Nerd," who is known for being easily angered and using strong language when reviewing old games of low quality. The show began with Rolfe playing games and giving commentary about them, but it later expanded to include sketches with guest characters, reviews of gaming equipment, and lessons about video game history and culture.
Rolfe started as an amateur filmmaker and made the first videos of the character as a private joke for friends and coworkers. In May 2004, with help from a future producer named Mike Matei, Rolfe posted the videos on his website. In 2006, the videos were uploaded to YouTube, a new online video platform, where they became popular. The series gained a large following and became well-known among fans. Rolfe later appeared as the character in movies, games, and public events. The series was renamed The Angry Video Game Nerd to avoid legal issues with Nintendo and to allow Rolfe to review games from other companies. From 2007 to 2011, the series was shared with popular gaming websites like ScrewAttack and GameTrailers. In 2018, the series was briefly available on Amazon Video.
The Angry Video Game Nerd is seen as one of the first creators of online video reviews. The show influenced how many other reviewers present their content and helped make the idea of reviewing games online widely accepted. Many other media reviewers and comedians, such as JonTron, Doug Walker, Egoraptor, Angry Joe, Scott Wozniak, and Joueur du Grenier, have said the show inspired their work.
Premise
The show focuses on a character called "the Nerd," who reviews old video games that he considers to have poor quality, unfair difficulty, or bad design. Rolfe's character, "the Nerd," is a short-tempered video game collector who critiques old games in a style similar to comedy shows that mock bad movies or TV shows, like Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Nerd plays the game while pointing out its technical issues, design problems, and unusual features to warn viewers about its flaws. Other episodes feature reviews of video game consoles, accessories, or games with similar themes. Before each review, the Nerd often gives a short explanation about the game's history or his own childhood memories. These reviews include jokes, sketches, and humorous rants filled with strong language.
Dressed as a typical "nerd" in his basement, the Nerd wears glasses, a white shirt, high khaki pants, and loafers. During reviews, he is sometimes joined by guest characters from video games or pop culture. These guests add their own comments, mock the Nerd's frustration, and act like exaggerated versions of their original characters. The Nerd uses wild, imaginative scenarios, intense anger, and drinks Rolling Rock beer (and later Yuengling) to react to the games. He often expresses frustration with the games, shouting, "What were they thinking?!" when criticizing the designers or marketers. His anger sometimes leads him to destroy game cartridges or pretend to burn, crush, or defecate on the games or consoles.
In many episodes, the Nerd wears costumes of famous characters, such as Batman or Indiana Jones. Other characters in the show include the Nerdy Turd, Shit Pickle, the Guitar Guy, the Game Graphic Glitch Gremlin, and Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C. Version 4.0 Beta. The show also features guest appearances by other video game reviewers, such as Pat the NES Punk. Special guests have included Lloyd Kaufman from Troma Entertainment, Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone, and Gilbert Gottfried, who played a fake game developer and the Nerd's enemy, Fred "Fucks" (Fred Fuchs), during a July 31, 2019, episode where the Nerd reviewed Life of Black Tiger.
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 humorous and exaggerated reactions to critique 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 with the Daily News that the joke showed how upset a dedicated gamer could feel about games that were already 20 years old. Although the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde review was meant to be the last, Rolfe’s friends, who enjoyed the earlier Bad NES Games reviews, encouraged him to make more. A friend named Mike Matei helped produce and share the videos on Cinemassacre, and they were later released as part of a four-tape collection called the Cinemassacre Gold Collection, titled The Quickies.
In 2006, Rolfe began sharing the episodes on YouTube. His first review of The Karate Kid game introduced his character as “The Angry Nintendo Nerd.” He named these videos The Angry Nintendo Nerd Trilogy and posted them on Cinemassacre. The show’s popularity led Rolfe to expand his reviews to other gaming systems, and he later changed the title to The Angry Video Game Nerd to avoid legal issues with Nintendo. Rolfe reviewed games and products from various platforms, including the Atari 2600, Super NES, Master System, and Sega Genesis consoles, as well as the Power Glove and U-Force peripherals. He also reviewed films like The Wizard and Nintendo Power magazine. Over time, he expanded further, reviewing games such as Sonic ‘06 on the Xbox 360 and Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing on PC.
Rolfe’s series gained widespread attention when his review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became popular on YouTube. In an article by Alex Carlson, it was noted that before 2004, video game criticism was mainly done by professional writers and magazines. However, Rolfe’s work showed that anyone with a webcam and video software could now become a critic, sharing their opinions without being censored. The show grew in size, quality, and fan support. Rolfe began adding special effects and storytelling to some episodes. The first of these was a review of the 1989 Friday the 13th game in October 2006, which used dramatic 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 direct game reviews with documentary-style storytelling, where Rolfe shared facts 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 “mostly a retro gamer.”
In late 2007, Rolfe paused the series 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 only one episode was released each month instead of two because of other projects. In late 2011, Rolfe paused the series again to work on the AVGN movie. Production resumed 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 show had over 900,000 YouTube subscribers and 400 million views. By 2014, Cinemassacre had 1.5 million subscribers. Rolfe noted that the show became popular around the same time YouTube grew in popularity.
In January 2013, Rolfe’s YouTube channel was temporarily shut down for breaking YouTube’s rules, but it was later restored. In March 2016, the channel reached 2 million subscribers, 10 years after its creation. Rolfe released a video thanking fans for their support. In June 2019, the channel reached 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 shown in an MTV segment titled "Viral Videos Infect the Mainstream." On November 2, 2008, Rolfe and his work were discussed on a nationally syndicated radio show called Opie and Anthony. The Nerd, Rolfe's character, was also mentioned in an episode of Howard Stern's Sirius XM show, where Stern criticized the format of the show and the gaming community during the TooManyGames 2011 convention in Philadelphia. Rolfe appeared as the Nerd at several gaming and internet events.
On September 24, 2008, Rolfe and fellow reviewer Doug Walker created a fictional conflict between Rolfe's character, the Nerd, and Walker's character, the Nostalgia Critic. The conflict began because the Critic disliked comments from fans that compared him and the Nerd unfairly. The two made a series of humorous videos showing their characters arguing, culminating in a fake fight in Clifton, New Jersey. They also dared each other to review something from the other's work, such as the Nerd reviewing a bad movie and the Critic reviewing a bad game. A final fight happened in the Nerd's basement on October 10, 2008, with scenes parodying 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 other shows, including a review of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie with the Nostalgia Critic.
On July 21, 2014, an independent film titled Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie was released online and in limited theaters. The film's story follows the Nerd trying to prove that over 1 million copies of the game E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial were not buried, as fans had asked him to review it. During his search, the Nerd is chased by federal agents who think he is investigating Area 51 and a UFO crash.
The film was planned in late 2006 after the popularity of the Angry Video Game Nerd web series. Rolfe directed, produced, and co-wrote the movie, playing the Nerd on screen. The script was designed to let the Nerd finally review the E.T. game, but filming required Rolfe to manage his time between the movie and his online work. The screenplay was finished by 2008, and the movie's budget of over $300,000 was raised through crowdfunding. Rolfe asked fans to send webcam videos of themselves reacting to the Nerd's web series, which were used in the film's introduction.
Although Rolfe has not ruled out making a sequel about the "lost Swordquest treasures," he says it is unlikely because of the time spent on the movie and his focus on other projects.
In 2013, a video game called Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures was announced. Developed by FreakZone Games, it was released on September 20, 2013, for Windows via Steam. The game follows the Nerd rescuing friends trapped in his TV, using a NES Zapper as a weapon. The game includes enemies like zombies, Mr. Hyde, and parodies of characters from Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The game was later released for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in 2015. A sequel, Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation, was planned for 2015 but released in March 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 versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Epic Games Store following in 2021. The remaster included new difficulty levels, story changes, and improved level designs.
A new Angry Video Game Nerd game for the original NES and modern platforms is being developed by Mega Cat Studios.
Unofficial fan-made games, such as Angry Video Game Nerd's Angry Video Game and AVGN K.O. Boxing, have also been created. The Nerd mentioned these games in an episode titled AVGN Games and appeared as a playable character in Texting of the Bread, a game made by ScrewAttack.
The show's opening theme song, The Angry Video Game Nerd Theme Song, was written by Kyle Justin and James Rolfe and performed by Justin. Over time, the song had different versions for special episodes. 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 Games. The movie's soundtrack, composed by Bear McCreary, included rock, metal, and music inspired by classic gaming systems like the NES and SNES.
Board James is an internet show created by Rolfe, in which he plays a character named Board James, who is naive but ultimately sinister.
Reception and legacy
The Angry Video Game Nerd show helped James Rolfe become one of the most well-known Internet celebrities even before YouTube existed. The show won the title of Best Online Web Series in 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 way for people to support projects financially. She also said that James Rolfe already had an audience that cared about his earlier work, and when he asked them for support, they were willing to help. Doug Walker, a fellow filmmaker and Internet celebrity, called the Nerd the "Greatest Video Game Critic of All Time." Jacob Rich of Michigan Daily described the Nerd as the "pioneering internet 'gamer' show," noting that many major game review shows online today were influenced 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 trying to bring it into the present. James Rolfe told The Guardian that the show's impact on today's video game industry is still felt, as people today enjoy learning about the past. Reporter Luke Langlands also noted that the show inspired the creation of other independent online shows. The Nerd's success as a celebrity outside of traditional pop culture showed that people could build long-term careers online. A survey by Mediscape found that many people were inspired by the Nerd to create and share their own content on platforms like YouTube, DeviantArt, SourceForge, GameFAQs, and ScrewAttack. This inspired others, such as the Nostalgia Critic and Angry Joe.
Alex Carlson of 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 recognizable figures in gaming culture, noting that most gamers have seen at least a few of the show's videos on YouTube. Nearly ten years after the series began, Rolfe's character with strong language remains influential. As new gaming channels appear on YouTube, many take inspiration from the Nerd. From the start, the Angry Video Game Nerd was a major step forward. Whether Rolfe realized it or not, the rise of the Nerd changed how video games are critiqued and shared online forever.