About 20 years ago a fresh out of college James Rolfe put together a homemade video ranting about Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest on the Nintendo Entertainment System. While this and its follow up videos wouldn’t see the internet until 2006 and it was only then that the character was even named, this profanity laden rant video on a then 17 year old game would be the catalyst for what has been effectively 2 decades of something many of us in the gaming sphere have, generally, loved: The Angry Video Game Nerd.
Yeah, it’s stupid. Yeah, it’s immature. Yeah, it’s sometimes a damned fever dream, but for gamers of a certain age and a certain bit of childishness still living in them, it hits a perfect spot of nostalgia and absurdist humor that often takes my mind off of the otherwise fucked up state of the world I was brought up to live in.
James is now 43, has a family, has done a multitude of other projects and yet he still makes these videos. Why? Well, he says because we watch them. Because we enjoy them. Indeed, he dedicated the most recent episode where he discusses what his favorite Castlevania game really is, to us as a part of the 20 year celebration of the creation of the character, albeit in its prototype form, you could say. I did find it touching and felt it genuine, but maybe I’m gullible like that.
I say this because many, many of the fans have long ago generally given up on James on a whole. The idea of seeing a balding middle aged man in a cramped garage converted to look like his old basement rambling on about mobile games, being managed by a production team of relatively untalented hacks (known in the “Truth” community as The Slobs) is just pathetic. They feel James only does it because it’s his cash cow, after an otherwise failed career. James is stuck doing this because he can’t do anything else, and even then they now treat him as incredibly lazy and debate the level of involvement, if any, he actually has in writing the episodes.
Sure, it was already known that previously Mike Matei provided quite a bit of help, but James was involved, and took joy in creating interesting episodes with original concepts, but post AVGN movie things began to change for the worse. By the late 2010’s it just wasn’t the same, and while I feel things have gotten a little better episode wise, production rates are slow and even to me the show has lost its charm.
That being said, I still enjoy the show. I don’t totally care about all the internal politics. Granted, the way he had treated previous friends is poor, the era where the slobs were heavily in control was certainly a terrible time (and their continued involvement still damages things to this day) but, good or bad, it was still The Angry Video Game Nerd. It’s still comforting to watch, and while I’ve not been in an “OH SHIT NEW NERD GOTTA WATCH NOW” moment in years, I still do watch, and I still enjoy the classic episodes. Hell, I reviewed up to around 120 of them so far, only taking a break the past few years as a part of me blogging less as life has had its ups and downs but, still… I consider myself a fan of the Nerd.
No, I don’t ignore the bullshit, the history, the state of things, the way things are…. but I also don’t let it taint the show. I let it be what it is and if I don’t like an episode, well, then I don’t like it. Maybe the next one will be good, or maybe it will be unwatchable. It’s like any show, really. I just take it for what it is.
It’s not that I find piss and shit jokes funny, or the idea of a man in his 40’s getting this upset by games to be that amusing — no, it’s just the absurdity of it all, and the fact that I’ll always be able to relate to how much a random game from my childhood did annoy me or, alternately, where he’s praised games like Earthbound or Final Fantasy 6, I know exactly how he feels and can appreciate the (seemingly) genuine passion and love for the games he like. Even if it’s Mike writing the majority of things, it’s still the character of The Nerd that I am there to watch. Some of what is said may still be James’ opinions, it might not. It might all be made by another writer, but that isn’t what’s important to me. I just enjoy this man portraying this character and, hopefully, pulling out some absurdism that hits me in just the right place.
You could say I’m just along for the ride and when it stops, well, at least I know since 2009 I was there. I was a part of that aspect of gaming and YouTube history, and I’m glad it was… that it is, something I can still genuinely enjoy. Most of the time, anyway.
