1. The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures
This is still one of the absolute hardest indie games I have ever played. They took a lot of classic AVGN jokes to rolled such an amazing difficult game. Yes it was meant to be tough as nails to turn us into tigers man. At the beginning you play as The Nerd going through this shitty game. On the way you can find more playable characters.
Mike has the highest jump as well as the most control while in air. But has the shortest attack range with a light saber wow oh ok. Bullshit Man from his web series has the shortest jump range but could add one more jump if needed. He also can throw his feces at a mid range distance. In my opinion Kyle is still the best character to play as.
Sure The Nerd is the best all around character but he can be tricky at nailing some jumps as well as firing at angles. Kyle plays his guitar that may bypass some enemies. It does help in some of the later portions. He has a good enough jump to go far. At the perfect spots, Kyle can own whatever comes his way easily.
When I originally reviewed this game, I didn't know about the easter egg in Atari Porn level. If you do the trick you can change the graphics to match the rest of the game. I should mention there's a lot of cameos from some famous gaming icons. There is two power ups that can help or possibly screw you over.
Game Game Glitch Gremlin will temporary screw up the image of the graphics. All enemies will be frozen in place similar to his Castlevania 3 complaint. Trust me use this power up wisely. The other one comes from Super Mecha Death Christ. He acts as destroys all enemies on screen. I usually prefer to use this power up more.
As I'm typing all this up, I'm listening to both AVGN game's soundtracks. The bosses are all references to many episodes. I do need to point out a statement I made that quickly got a reply from it's developers. I originally commented on the Christmas ghosts from Season 2. One of them was Handsome Tom who at the time was one of two founders of ScrewAttack.
This person told me they chose to replace him with Nick from the same website. I believe it is mostly due to how Handsome Tom left. They didn't want a problem if they made that ghost look like him in that episode. Regardless this boss is a parody of Dracula's wives boss from Bram Stoker's Dracula. I hate to say there is no easy level in the entire game.
Probably the number one advice is be prepare to die a lot & yes I do mean a lot. Death blocks can kill you instantly as well as other hazards at several areas. Some parts do change up the game play that could throw a lot of people off during the first few runs. There's a lot of difficulties with the harder ones being very unforgiving.
It gets very intense because you have to go through the entire game without taking one hit with no continues as well as no save. Anyone who capable of beating it on the hardest difficulty. You have my respect for all the pain you endured. Of course, the final boss is Fred Fuchs. It is slightly different from the actual person's name but I think it is obvious why they changed it the way they did.
Despite the difficulty, you can score a lot of achievements. I never said it was going to be easy. Trying to find all the cameos without a guide could take awhile. It is much easier to find the other playable characters. I do like how bosses change their attack patterns during each boss fights. I loved the final love plays heavily on LJN.
Seriously for the most part when you see LJN on his show. You think oh boy how terrible is this or those games are going to be right? Of course most of them are not great games. Easily one of the best parts of this game is each time you die. A randomize Nerd quote pops up. I got to be honest this is one of my favorite game over screens ever.
This game has an amazing soundtrack with great sound effects. Every level except the intro one has a boss. The Giant Claw was one of Rolfe's favorite giant monsters and so happens to be in another of FreakZone Games' titles. Thankfully there is check points in easier difficulties. The easier ones also has infinite continues while harder difficulties gets more strict about everything.
2. The Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation
This is one of my absolute favorite indie games ever. This is a follow up to the previous official AVGN game. WOW the rules has changed more than I expected it to. You can only play as The Nerd this time. But Mike & Bullshit Man do cameo. The map itself is similar to many games like Super Mario Brothers 3.
Instead of other playable characters, you get upgraded similar to Mega Man X series. In many episodes he wears classic game accessories like a battle suit. Trust me getting all of these is well worth the trouble. Also I found finding them to be a lot easier. Speaking of that, this game is much easier than than previous AVGN game.
Some levels are actually based on The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie. This covered a lot more of my favorite AVGN jokes. I am not going to lie I had trouble enjoying the boss fights in the previous game. I actually enjoyed most of the bosses this time. You also can collect words spelling out NERD.
Nostalgia Critic appears as most of the in game mini bosses. He does change up slightly in each encounter. Of course this was a joke of their rivalry. Nerdy Turd & Board James in two particular worlds are those respective worlds mini bosses. You can collect classic game cartridges during most of the levels.
Every final level is a boss fight that in their own right gets crazier. I do like one world is based on Board James web show. Maybe in the near future I should review that since it's already finished. There is another world representing Monster Madness. For ten years, James would put out mostly reviews with some other videos on every day in October.
More recently, Monster Madness has been downsized but a lot of good came with that decision. Sadly unlike the previous AVGN game, this wasn't released on consoles. I do love the final boss whose also from the movie. According to it, Death Mwauthzyx is more powerful than God and Satan. How can you top something that epic lol.
I felt this had more clever level designs than the previous game. Despite those levels being much shorter in comparison. I also like similar to Mario, each world has it's own pros & cons. Each one stands out more in a way than the previous game. The final boss is one of the easiest bosses. Oh I love that one boss that kept transforming until The Nerd curses him off.
Death blocks do return but no where near as many as the previous game. I do like the enemies more in this game. I felt there was more variety that appeals more to me. This is a fun game to go for achievements. Some boss fights do have a learning curve. But hey that's better than most of them in the previous game am I right lol.
I also like each upgraded really does spice up the game play. I am very happy how well it plays with my keyboard & controller. I had some trouble with the previous game. Although it was still doable far better than some games I own on Steam. I do felt like the intro level here had better cut scenes. I think playing as The Nerd is a play on another joke about doing one character right.
I love the joke for the movie theme levels. A recurring joke in many episodes lol. Hell the fact they used that crazy guy for that Darth Vader joke was priceless. I really like I can select any level I want after completing them. This makes it much easier to go 100% completion route. Especially some of the icons becomes a golden version.
Probably an easter egg a lot of people didn't notice. There's two slightly songs but in one of them has Hong Kong 97 theme song lol. This is such a great follow up that did the original justice. I still prefer this over that for many reasons stated here. I felt this comes off as the perfect AVGN game. Although I can see why many think the previous game would be that in a nut shell.
3. The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie had a difficult road to be finished. James tried getting a movie company to fund the project but ultimately chose to do it himself. He also started a kick starter for fans to help raise money for the movie. The fact this movie is heavily centered around ET game. I felt it stands out enough on it's own.
One fact not a lot of people know, a documentary called Atari: Game Over was filming around the same time. Howard Scott Warshaw appears in both movies. The guy who made the infamous ET game. Personally despite it's reputation of being what many considered to be the worst game. I can heavily argue many games I found to be much worse in comparison.
Of course, at the time ET was James' biggest request since the beginning. He really went the distance to deliver a great movie. Sure it felt more like his more recent episodes but I found several scenes to be funny. A handful of scenes actually being hilarious. Easily my favorite new character is General Dark Onward.
WOW this guy is very over the top yet at the same time ends up stealing the show in some scenes. I also like how ridiculous some of the later portions gets. If you expected something like this prior than congrats lol. Yes I seen most of his back the screen footage on how this movie was put together. I also like we get to see another side of The Nerd himself.
I actually asked Kevin Finn through twitter about that dream zombie scene. According to him, it represents his anxiety for ET. The Nerd himself knows everyone wants him to review it but really feels like he shouldn't even touch it. Thus the zombies are those people asking him repeatedly. For a low budget movie I felt great after watching it.
To me you really don't need any budget as well as you know how to get the movie done. I felt so many newer movies plays on the wrong parts spending way too much money. There is more people making their own movies. This is easily one of the craziest video game movies I have ever seen. This is very different from the show in many ways.
Usually he reviews games, sometimes he destroys them or do something random that's playing on jokes inspired by poor game designs. He knew doing an entire movie this way wouldn't work. Actually according to Rolfe himself, this is sorta like Wayne's World. Which is interesting in itself since that started as a sketch of Saturday Night Live.
I do like how creative the actual story was. Speaking of that, in real life during the finishing of Atari: Game Over. They discovered the famous myth was in fact true. There actually was several ET Atari 2600 cartridges buried there. Which in a way impacts more reason to go watch this movie. This is one of his biggest projects in both scales & the amount of time put in.
This also had the most people helping him. Mostly on the show he is doing it himself but sometimes he has help. His friend Mike plays a lot of characters with the Cowardly Lion & Bugs Bunny being my favorites. Speaking of him, he does cameo with Pat who also appeared on his show. Black Nerd also cameos earlier in the movie.
I would say for a low budget movie to have this much craziness going on. I strongly felt the way he made it was the perfect choose. He didn't have to limit himself at all going the full distance. The director role is on him & Finn. According to Rolfe, It took several years before the script was finished.
More recently there was a possible AVGN movie hint. We may be getting another movie but at least this time he will be more prepare. The special effects looks great for the most part. I do like how some of the old jokes get referenced in different ways. This is easily one of the craziest Nerd adventures to date.
Death Mwauthzyx is the only character more ridiculous than the general. The Nerd's friend told the story behind him. Of course The Nerd doesn't believe him until he actually sees it for his own eyes. This is inspired by giant monster movies heavily those of Godzilla. I do like at the very end we get the review so many of us waited patiently for.
The show version removed some stuff originally from the movie mostly the ending credits. Personally the movie version is slightly better. It is sorta like the DVD version of Indiana Jones Trilogy episode being better. Overall I do enjoy this movie very much. This is a love letter to all AVGN fans.
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