The Angry Video Game Nerd
| The Angry Video Game Nerd | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Also known as | Bad NES Games (pilots) The Angry Nintendo Nerd (season 1) AVGN |
| Genre | Insult comedy, review |
| Created by | James Rolfe |
| Developed by | Cinemassacre Productions |
| Written by | James Rolfe |
| Directed by | James Rolfe |
| Starring | James Rolfe Mike Matei Kyle Justin |
| Theme music composer | Kyle Justin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 11 |
| No. of episodes | 145 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | James Rolfe Mike Matei |
| Producer(s) | James Rolfe |
| Location(s) |
Newark, New Jersey (seasons 1–3) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (seasons 3–present) |
| Editor(s) | James Rolfe |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 3–26 min. per episode 35 min. (episode 102) |
| Production company(s) | Cinemassacre Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | Cinemassacre (2004–present) YouTube (2006–present) ScrewAttack (2007–2013) GameTrailers (2007–2013) |
| Picture format |
4:3 480i (original quality: episodes 1-45, 49, 57-58) 4:3 240p (YouTube episodes 1-8) 4:3 360p (YouTube episodes 9-45, 49, 57-58) 4:3 480p (480i remasters, episodes 46-48, 50-56, 59-61, 63-99) 16:9 480p (episodes 100-104) 16:9 720p (episodes 62 & 105) 16:9 1080p (current) |
| Original release | May 16, 2004 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Angry Video Game Nerd (abbreviated as AVGN, and originally known as The Angry Nintendo Nerd) is an American comedy retrogaming web series, created by and starring James Rolfe. The series centers on Rolfe's character "The Nerd", a short-tempered and foul-mouthed video game fanatic who delivers commentary and sketches on retro games he considers to be of poor quality. The show would later encompass reviews of gaming consoles, peripherals, and short lectures about video game history and culture.
Starting out as an independent filmmaker, Rolfe intended for his earliest videos of the Nerd character to be a joke privately shown to his friends. With collaboration from his friend Mike Matei, Rolfe put the Angry Nintendo Nerd videos on his website, Cinemassacre.com, in 2004. In 2006, Matei persuaded Rolfe to put his work on YouTube, where it got popular. In 2007, the series became a program on ScrewAttack and GameTrailers, where it was renamed The Angry Video Game Nerd to prevent trademark issues with Nintendo, and to allow Rolfe to also review games from non-Nintendo consoles.
The Angry Video Game Nerd was a success and has gained a cult following, as well as the character appearing in various other media such as a feature-length film, various video games, and public appearances. Considered as one of the pioneering internet reviewers in its history, the Nerd was highly influential in bringing online video reviews to the mainstream public.
The show revolves around the Nerd's commentary of retro video games which he deems to be of particularly low quality, unfair difficulty, or poor design. Rolfe's character, "the Nerd", is a short-tempered and foul-mouthed video game fanatic who satirically reviews old video games in the form reminiscent of insult comedies such as Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Nerd plays the game while talking about its various problems, technicalities and imperfection, mixed mostly with profanity and bad language volition, in an effort to warn people against playing the game, and sometimes with a short lecture about the gaming era's history.
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Wikipedia