Here we have the last video in the original trilogy of “Bad NES Games” tapes. Well, it’s a little more complex than that: This video is from 2006, 2 years after The first 2 videos – with his friends, especially Mike Matei, liking the videos, James was convinced it needed to be a trilogy, and did one final video on a game from his childhood: The Karate Kid. (See Cinemassacre 200 for some details on the origins of the AVGN.)
A totally sane reaction to a bad video game.
This video combines elements from the first two, showing both the character and proper gameplay footage and narration, while also, most importantly, creating the “nerd” character – in this case, as “The Angry Nintendo Nerd.” James focused on 3 Nintendo games, so why not make the character Nintendo obsessed, just like many of us were as kids, right?
When this video, along with the first 2 episodes were put on YouTube, that’s when things got interesting – the videos took off, becoming wildly popular. James knew at that time he had something great started and he needed to continue.
The not-so-great game in question.
On to the video proper, it’s short, sweet, and to the point. It starts off with quite a bit of random comedy before focusing on the game review itself. It ends with what would become a nerd tradition, destroying the game in whatever way seemed fitting.
Final Rating: 3.0/5
The episode establishes the mood and feel of the early Nerd series, without going overboard. Profanity, a staple of the nerd, becomes more prominent here, the nerd character is actually established, and the general review style, from a film-making standpoint, finally gets established here. With this episode also being the first “new” episode on YouTube, well, that sealed what would become a gaming video staple, AVGN on YouTube.