Angry Video Game Nerd

Some people are pretty enthusiastic about their video games, but very few have the same level of energy as the Angry Video Game Nerd. Through your journeys on the Internet, you may have encountered this guy who expresses a fair bit of anger toward a number of video games. Should you be paying attention to this mad fellow?

The Angry Video Game Nerd is the name of a series of video reviews by James D. Rolfe. It is also the name of the title character, who is portrayed by Rolfe.

In general, most of these video reviews revolve around Rolfe providing an extended rant against a low-quality or poorly designed video game, particularly old video games. He will rant about features, the poor visuals, the overall gameplay, the bad story, or any number of other characteristics which he feels have been poorly executed in that particular title.

When the series first started, Rolfe focused primarily on titles from the classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This 8-bit console had many different games in its day, so Rolfe had a massive library from which to draw.

Early on in the retrogaming video game review series, James D. Rolfe was better known as The Angry Nintendo Nerd. The show's name changed its title to avoid any legal issues due to the Nintendo trademark and also to expand the series reach into non-Nintendo video games. For example, the name change provided the opportunity to review games from the Sega Genesis and Sega Game Gear as well.

In this way, while he may have once been known as the Angry Nintendo Nerd, Rolfe has grown to be better known as The Angry Video Game Nerd. The series and the title character are also commonly abbreviated as AVGN or shortened to The Nerd.

The focus for the online show, which started out on YouTube before being acquired by ScrewAttack Entertainment and GameTrailers, has always been with nostalgic and retro gaming. This means that it usually focuses on games prior to the Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto era where sex and violence in video games had become more heavily scrutinized.

Even so, this does not mean that The Angry Video Game Nerd is family-friendly fare. James D. Rolfe is incredibly ill-tempered and foul-mouthed as his on-screen video game fanatic. He uses an excessive amount of profanity, participates in a lot of physical comedy, displays many explicit gestures, and heavily consumes alcohol on camera.

In this way, the online video game show is not appropriate for younger audiences. Just as parents should be mindful of what their children watch on television and what games they play, they should also be mindful of what their children are watching on the Internet. This is true even if the program in question is a seemingly harmless video game review show.

Not surprisingly, this popular online video game review show largely appeals to people who grew up playing video games in the 1980s and 1990s. It is during this time that characters like Mario rose to fame. As a result, the pop culture references and the titles featured in the program will be more familiar with people who were playing the video games of the day.

There are a lot of reasons why people play video games. Some people use video games as a distraction or diversion from everyday life. Others use it to improve hand-eye coordination. For The Angry Video Game Nerd, retro video games may provide a source of entertainment, but they're also a source of frustration and material for extended rants on how horrible they are.

Just be sure to take Rolfe's views with a serious grain of salt. Well, not that serious.

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