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.)
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.
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.