Top 10 Angry Video Game Nerd Moments

For Halloween 2010, the Nerd decided to torture himself and revisit one of his biggest enemies – “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” The experience is of course terrible, and the Nerd starts drinking staggering amounts of liquor just to get through it. However, the terrible ordeal seems to give him clarity, and he launches into an academic English essay about the game’s depiction of the duality of the human spirit, physical and mental segregation, and Freud theory. Of course, this is all sarcastic nonsense, and he ends the episode by making his true feelings known. We love when the Nerd gets sarcastic. It adds an extra layer of sass and hilarity.

If there’s two things the Nerd hates, it’s bad controls and cryptic gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, “Batman Forever” on the SNES combines them both. While playing through a frustrating section of the game, the Nerd discovers that you have to press down and R in order to jump through the floor. Not only that, some sections of the floor aren’t clearly defined, making progress a literal guessing game. This causes the Nerd to launch into a tirade about stupid controls, and the fact that he’s wearing a Batman costume throughout the whole thing makes it even funnier. There’s just something really charming about the glasses sitting over the mask’s eye slots.

The NES had some terrible accessories created for it. So much so that the Nerd devoted an entire episode to the worst of the worst. And perhaps the worst of them all is the Konami LaserScope, a ridiculous head-mounted light gun with a microphone and crosshair eyepiece. The Nerd absolutely hates it, and he hilariously states that it “reeks of ass” (which has to be one of his funniest condemnations). And yes, “reeks of ass” just about sums it up. He proceeds to tear into the LaserScope’s annoying voice-activation mechanic, its ridiculous physical design, and its tagline – basically every single thing about it. But it does deserve it. It’s terrible.

And here we have another example of egregious game design infuriating the Nerd to no end. In this episode he plays “Super Pitfall,” and he immediately hits a snag of trouble after falling into a pit of death. No matter what he did, he would die. This causes him to launch into yet another vicious tirade against terrible game design, sarcastically asking for extra obstacles to make the segment even more unfair. These obstacles hilariously include lava sharks, upside down volcanoes, and laser cannons. The Nerd’s derisive rage mixed with his hilarious imagination help make this one of the most memorable segments in “AVGN” history. It would also later be referenced in his video game, “Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures.” A moment that would lead him to get angry … at himself.

Sometimes words fail to convey just how frustrated you are. And when that happens, a screaming montage will suffice. While playing “Predator,” the Nerd accidentally presses “start” instead of “continue” (the result of a terrible bit of menu design). This causes him to launch into a wordless temper tantrum for the ages. The Nerd goes absolutely ballistic - screaming to the heavens, rolling around on the floor, guzzling beer, and even strangling himself with the controller cord. All this is scored to a dramatic piece of music, further emphasizing the Nerd’s rage and the resulting hilarity. It really is something to behold.

Software Creations’ “Silver Surfer” is notorious for its near-impossible difficulty and relentless enemies, and the Nerd experiences said difficulty firsthand in this classic episode. After some general nitpicking, the Nerd launches into a diatribe against the game’s unfair nature while showing us clips of the relentless barrage of enemies and obstacles. He even goes so far as to outline the enemies’ programmed paths to prove just how hard it is to avoid them and their attacks. You know he’s pissed when he breaks out the diagrams! But we don’t blame him. This game looks like an absolute nightmare, and it all leads to one conclusion: (Die Die Die Die)

The Atari 5200 is a unique episode in that the Nerd doesn’t actually review it. Or even play it. Rather, he spends ten minutes simply ragging on its obtuse design. The lack of a review was apparently due to real controller issues, something which James Rolfe incorporated into the video itself. He spends the beginning of the video making fun of the console’s unbelievably massive size, the random door (which he later stores a beer in), the enormous AC adapter, and the stupid power box that shoots off sparks. He then struggles to hook it up and ends the video harping on its awful (and useless) controllers. And they wonder why no one played the Atari 5200…

We couldn’t wait for the Nerd to review “Superman 64.” This is one of the most infamous video games ever, and it was only a matter of time before the Nerd tore into it. And he did not disappoint. As anyone who has played the game knows, even the opening tutorial section is borderline impossible, and the Nerd struggles like the rest of us. He grows increasingly frustrated due to the atrocious controls and unforgiving time limit, and when he finally gets past the opening ring section, he finds even more broken crap waiting for him. He ends the review by throwing the cartridge into the sun, which is something we all wish we could have done back in 1999.

“Deadly Towers” on the NES was notorious for being unfairly difficult back in the day. So in order to convey how much anger this game can cause, the Nerd decided to turn to the greatest cesspool of hate to create the script for this episode; The Internet. What this results in; is a non stop barrage of anger and hate with barely any room to slow down. It’s like the Nerd gathered all the collective hate this game caused from all over the world, compressed it, and exhaled all the worst parts. And this game really pissed a lot of people off, because the amount of hate the game caused broke language barriers. That’s some accomplishment.

In the late 2000s, the Nerd was embroiled in a fictional feud with the Nostalgia Critic, a characterized movie critic who shares many similarities with the Nerd. They have comparable senses of humor (often involving exaggerated yelling, swearing, and creative insults), and they both review horrible pieces of entertainment from the past. Their feud culminated in an epic five-minute-long fight that included many action movie tropes and a barrage of wild insults. In the end, Super Mecha Death Christ had to intervene and put an end to the fight. Or did he? The Nerd has been angry before, but he’s never been “dress up in Nintendo accessories and shoot someone with the Super Scope” angry. That’s a special kind of angry.