The Angry Video Game Nerd

In a somewhat related topic what is everyone's opinion on the AVGN? Even though his output has drastically reduced in recent times, and even though he is by no means my favourite internet reviewer I still enjoy his videos. The scatological humour is a bit childish at times but that's always been there so I can't really complain.

I've always enjoyed him, but I've also grown to enjoy him more in his non AVGN stuff. I think after a while the shit jokes just run their course.

I think with the drop in output rate the quality of his episodes has really improved. It feels like he actually enjoys doing these videos now and he puts a lot more work into it whereas before they sometimes seemed kinda rushed. I like his newer stuff a lot better, especially when the review doesn't devolve into a dress-up shit-flinging fest.

guudermann wrote:

I think with the drop in output rate the quality of his episodes has really improved. It feels like he actually enjoys doing these videos now and he puts a lot more work into it whereas before they sometimes seemed kinda rushed. I like his newer stuff a lot better, especially when the review doesn't devolve into a dress-up shit-flinging fest.

Yeah I agree, there's a lot more polish to his recent reviews, tis good.

He's one of my favorites. He was actually the first reviewer of that kind that I ever saw. And that's probably why. He introduced me to all this stuff. His videos are something I look forward to everything. Sometimes he does fall incredibly off mark for me, though... like the episode with Shit Pickle. Ah, how terrible. I also don't like it when he tries to do all these extravagant things. All the Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle type stuff where most of the review is stuff unrelated to the game. I really don't enjoy those episodes much. Honestly, my favorites are the old episodes where he just talked over the gameplay and then there were a few shots of him talking into the camera. It was nice, straight to the point, and efficient.

Loxx O))) wrote:

He's one of my favorites. He was actually the first reviewer of that kind that I ever saw. And that's probably why. He introduced me to all this stuff.

Same deal with me. Had I not been following the Nerd, I would never have heard about his feud with the NC, which is what led me to discover TGWTG.com, and by extension, the Cinema Snob. So without the Nerd, I wouldn't even be here.

The Dude wrote:

Loxx O))) wrote:

He's one of my favorites. He was actually the first reviewer of that kind that I ever saw. And that's probably why. He introduced me to all this stuff.

Same deal with me. Had I not been following the Nerd, I would never have heard about his feud with the NC, which is what led me to discover TGWTG.com, and by extension, the Cinema Snob. So without the Nerd, I wouldn't even be here.

Pretty much the same for me. He introduced me to fun online reviews, and for that he will always be in a special place even if his reviews are changing pace from the originals.

A Cockatrice wrote:

The Dude wrote:

Loxx O))) wrote:

He's one of my favorites. He was actually the first reviewer of that kind that I ever saw. And that's probably why. He introduced me to all this stuff.

Same deal with me. Had I not been following the Nerd, I would never have heard about his feud with the NC, which is what led me to discover TGWTG.com, and by extension, the Cinema Snob. So without the Nerd, I wouldn't even be here.

Pretty much the same for me. He introduced me to fun online reviews, and for that he will always be in a special place even if his reviews are changing pace from the originals.

I think the reduced pace has to do with Raolf's career as a film maker. Based on some remarks he made in some non-nerd videos, he seems to b finding steady work in the business, which I'm sure keeps him plenty busy. But hey, good for him.

Yeah, he's taking the time away from that to do other projects. And that's how I found Critic, as well.

Loxx O))) wrote:

Yeah, he's taking the time away from that to do other projects.

Dude's living that dream.

The Nerd did miracles. To be honest, without him, the current reviewer state wouldn't exist. I mean, he was making these videos back in 2004, so he's had a long time before people started reviewing too. And it seems that all reviewers these days are an extension of the same persona. You know, the "pissed, always reviews crap, swears a lot" group of reviewers. To be honest, The Nerd is the "Die Hard" of internet reviews. Just like how Speed was "Die Hard on a bus", most gimmicks that reviewers have is just an extension of the nerd's.

To be honest, my currently favorite incarnation, and someone who actually brought something I had never seen to the reviewer's table, was Red Letter Media. Anybody a fan of Plinkett? He's a genius, I think.

Plinkett is great, and he clearly actually has some background in film. Unlike most reviewers that go for the obvious jokes, Plinkett can actually completely dismantle a movie when he reviews it.

yakityyakblah wrote:

Plinkett is great, and he clearly actually has some background in film. Unlike most reviewers that go for the obvious jokes, Plinkett can actually completely dismantle a movie when he reviews it.

That's one reason I think that he should start reviewing films that are beloved. He's reviewing a lot of films that everybody already knows are crap films. If he attacked a recent film with a lot of plot holes (like he did with Avatar, but the same case could be made for a LOT of new films), one that is possibly very well loved, but has a ton of flaws, I think that would make for an interesting review. Obviously the Prequels have the most to draw inspiration from, but there's so many movies out there that are just as horrible, but get away with it because audiences honestly don't know better.

He reviewed Star Trek (2010) which was a movie he liked. I don't want him to become Film Brain though where he's just nit picking the fuck out of decent to not very good movies.

Bassbait wrote:

The Nerd did miracles. To be honest, without him, the current reviewer state wouldn't exist. I mean, he was making these videos back in 2004, so he's had a long time before people started reviewing too. And it seems that all reviewers these days are an extension of the same persona. You know, the "pissed, always reviews crap, swears a lot" group of reviewers. To be honest, The Nerd is the "Die Hard" of internet reviews. Just like how Speed was "Die Hard on a bus", most gimmicks that reviewers have is just an extension of the nerd's.

I think the current trend of online reviews has much more to do with the success of MST3000 than the AVGN.

He has a well worn formula but it works and he is still somewhat funny IMHO.

I liked his earlier stuff in 2004/2006 as the "Angry Nintendo Nerd" but he was slowly going downhill in 2007 and throughout but he completely jumped the shark during his Superman 64 review and since then his videos become almost unwatchable due to his over the top rage screaming that he now does.

Even though it was the AVGN who started and pioneered the internet reviewing trend (since I was there during the beginning and witnessed how the trend grew like it is today) and we wouldn't have TGWTG and even Brad Jones doing reviews today if it weren't for him.

The Dude wrote:

Bassbait wrote:

The Nerd did miracles. To be honest, without him, the current reviewer state wouldn't exist. I mean, he was making these videos back in 2004, so he's had a long time before people started reviewing too. And it seems that all reviewers these days are an extension of the same persona. You know, the "pissed, always reviews crap, swears a lot" group of reviewers. To be honest, The Nerd is the "Die Hard" of internet reviews. Just like how Speed was "Die Hard on a bus", most gimmicks that reviewers have is just an extension of the nerd's.

I think the current trend of online reviews has much more to do with the success of MST3000 than the AVGN.

MST3000 was riffing movies not reviewing and I think Bassbait was correct there.

i didn't even know to be honest he even knew Brad & the rest of them until i watched the latest anniversary film.

mainly because he NEVER mentions any of it on anything i've seen on his site. so it took me quite by surprise to be honest. i started to watch 'The Nerd" in December (2009)

because at the time i had broken my arm after i had fallen down the stairs. i was actually sober i just slipped. & i had get some metal put in my left arm. that's fucked up ain't it? anyways i was out of work for awhile so i did A LOT of cruising the internet & i found him on you tube when i was just looking shit up.

& i had seen his review of "TMNT" Part 3 which is NOWHERE NEAR as bad as he says it is. but it's of course a weak film there's no doubt about that. anyways, i'm rambling sorry. i still enjoy his stuff. since he's now working on his film & putting different shit on his site it's pretty good.

he announced he was going to do more AGVN episodes soon, but didn't say when, & that they were going to be like they used to be in like (2006) which is i think he said that they won't be in special effects & shit like that.

though i enjoy those, it really doesn't matter to be if they have special effects or not. i LOVED the spider-man one he did with Kye. the dude who sings the theme songs. that was a great one.

but i'm sure people will bitch & complain about them not being that way & in short you can't please everbody i guess.

from the way you guys & gals talk on here. James Rolfe was the 1st reviewer online. i think that "MSTK3000'

was a LOT of inspiration to a shitload of people. but the AVGN Nerd was prolly the 1st one to come out.

the rest just followed his suit i guess. & though Brad doesn't really do Video games yes he played one as 80's Dan.

which was funny as hell. he mainly sticks to movies. just like james mostly sticks to video games. but James also at times does do movies as well. so he also mixes it up as well. i enjoy his recent stuff, but of course there are episodes better than others. Brad's the same way. he's got episodes that are better than others as well.

i'm sure even he will agree with me on that. but though some episodes are funnier than others we do get a good laugh at nearly every episode even the shitty ones that the various reviewers do.

I'm a fan of the AVGN and have been since pretty much the days he started his show.
He gave me a lot of laughs with his reviews and I began to see old video games in a slightly different light.

I still enjoy his episodes even though he produces less and less episodes but certainly for good reasons (he's making his first big movie and last year he became a father which certainly eats up his time, too).
But I don't really mind because I don't like it when reviewers or entertainers get stressed because of greedy viewers.

I guess he's a generally likeable, funny guy and I enjoyed his crossovers in TGWTG productions as well.
To be honest: I'm also one of the people who enjoy his pal's game reviews (Mike Matei).

i understand that he got burned out after putting out 2 a month. and wanted a clean break to once a month. now he barely puts stuff out. i wonder since he's now a father, when the film is finally finished is he going to go back to doing 1 episode a month? i really doubt he'll do 2 episodes a month again because he's a father now. one question though did he ever say what they named her?

wildhoney66 wrote:

i understand  that he got burned out after putting out 2 a month. and wanted a clean break to once a month. now he barely puts stuff out. i wonder since he's now a father, when the film is finally finished is he going to go back to doing 1 episode a month? i really doubt he'll do 2 episodes a month again because he's a father now. one question though did he ever say what they named her?

Well, a movie, fatherhood and an internet show...somewhere he has to cut down. The movie is a big project, his child is even more important to him...I guess it would be fine if he even would do no episode at all for a couple of months. Until then he can still collect some ideas for episodes.

And no, he and his wife never told in the only blog entry he's made about the child what she's called. She only got the nickname "Little Nerd".

wildhoney66 wrote:

i understand  that he got burned out after putting out 2 a month. and wanted a clean break to once a month. now he barely puts stuff out. i wonder since he's now a father, when the film is finally finished is he going to go back to doing 1 episode a month? i really doubt he'll do 2 episodes a month again because he's a father now. one question though did he ever say what they named her?

I have a feeling that he's going to put the character into some degree of retirement after the movie comes out. Even taking his other time-consuming projects into account, pretty much all of his recent 'AVGN' videos have been low-key, low-effects and mostly unscripted, like he's just making them purely out of obligation. His demeanor has changed as well; most of his commentary is now straightforward and analytical, with a few shoehorned profanities. He's less the "Angry Video Game Nerd" and more the "Slightly Annoyed But Still Generally Rational Video Game Nerd". I can't help but watch something like 'Big Rigs' and feel his heart isn't in the character as much as it was 4-6 years ago.

Then again, maybe he's just burnt out on the character altogether since he's been working on the movie for so long. Either way, it wouldn't surprise me if he announced a long break from the Nerd sometime this year.

Skibz wrote:

Even taking his other time-consuming projects into account, pretty much all of his recent 'AVGN' videos have been low-key, low-effects and mostly unscripted, like he's just making them purely out of obligation. His demeanor has changed as well; most of his commentary is now straightforward and analytical, with a few shoehorned profanities. He's less the "Angry Video Game Nerd" and more the "Slightly Annoyed But Still Generally Rational Video Game Nerd". I can't help but watch something like 'Big Rigs' and feel his heart isn't in the character as much as it was 4-6 years ago.

A good point I agree on.
Not that his last few episodes are crap, they certainly are NOT. Some of them are okay, others are really good. But I can see your point: The way he plays the ANGRY Video Game Nerd has changed with the time. That's not a horrible thing that destroyed the show but that explains while I personally enjoy the older episodes more. And I guess I'm not the only one here.

Well, his last review is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. During the "Golden Years" of AVGN, the episodes were entirely character-driven, hinged on the Nerd's jokes, reactions and occasional interactions with other characters; the actual game being "reviewed" was secondary. Nowadays, the games are the main focus: the episodes are primarily made up of gameplay footage, while the Nerd is generally relegated to voice-over commentary and a handful of quick reaction shots.

I can accept a natural evolution of style, like if he wanted to change from comedy sketches to analytical reviews, but in his latest reviews, I don't find much in humor (occasionally he makes an amusing remark, but his commentary has turned more towards straightforward game reviewing than outright "riffing") or in reviewing (maybe it's because I'm not a huge gamer, but I'm just not that interested in reviews of vintage games).

Like I said, the main impression that I get is that James is probably just tired of the character. He's talked about how he wants to make movies and has dozens of ideas for such, so it doesn't surprise me if he doesn't want to keep doing the same thing over and over again, especially now that, in this post-AVGN world, so many other new and original internet game critics are popping up and starting to surpass him in view counts.

Weirdly I actually found the Big Rigs episode to be the funniest thing he's done in a while. It's certainly noticeable that the AVGN is less of a character now and more a slight exaggeration of James actual personality (classic AVGN would have responded to the "You're Winner" screen with actual rage or disbelief rather than what seemed to be sincere laughter) but I feel it's pretty much just down to James maturing as a writer/performer. I mean I think he IS tired of the character and probably jaded by being made to feel like a one trick pony with the nerd (he seems much more motivated when it comes to stuff like Monster Madness) but he seems to have been going through a kind of metamorphosis of late. His last few episodes have been pretty uninspired and lacklustre but I thought this one really distilled elements of old school AVGN and his actual critical personality into something genuinely funny and entertaining.