I had joked with a friend that reviewing Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit felt like a full-circle moment for my career as a critic. If you’re too young to remember, James Rolfe was one of the OG YouTubers, and his series of The Angry Nintendo Nerd—which later evolved into The Angry Video Game Nerd when he began playing more than just NES games—was arguably the ignition point for the rise of both Let’s Plays and video reviews.
When he started, his videos were scrappy, vulgar and incredibly charming. A filmmaker at heart, James combined some genuinely impressive techniques with an over-the-top character that embodied the feelings so many of us had with the frustrating games of our youth. As someone who grew up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Friday the 13th and Ghostbusters, his videos resonated with me immediately and became the cornerstone of many late-night watch sessions.
We’ve come a long way since 2006, and The Angry Video Game Nerd has become a well-established name in internet culture. There’s been a movie, and now three video games based on the iconic character. Much like its predecessors, Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit is a stellar example of adapting the elements that made old NES games challenging and evolving them to be fun, creative and intensely satisfying.
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit begins when The Nerd decides he’s had enough of playing awful games and decides to play something good for a change. Just before he can, Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C. Version 4.0 Beta bursts into his room and bombards him with rockets and F-bombs. The mechanical messiah has had his programming corrupted, and he transports himself into The Nerd’s NES in order to spread a virus throughout the world—damning everyone to a lifetime of terrible games.
But The Nerd has a trick up his sleeve—using an ancient satanic ritual, he channels the power of the worst games he’s ever played into a cartridge powerful enough to defeat the savage saviour. Together with the player, The Nerd must defeat the game’s bosses in order to destroy Super Mecha Death Christ’s programming and save the world.
While its story isn’t that far from the previous Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures games—or the typical higher-concept AVGN episode—it exceeds its predecessors by having Full Motion Video cutscenes, which not only feels like a fun callback to classic Sega CD games, but also makes the game feel like you’re playing an episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd.
And because Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit is a game and not bound by the whims of the YouTube algorithm, so many of the cutscenes feel much more in the spirit of classic AVGN and maintain the character’s foul-mouthed charm. You can tell there’s a genuine love put into making each cutscene campy and fun in a way only the AVGN can be.
“The game Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit is probably most inspired by Mega Man 2…”
Gameplay is similar to its retro predecessors, albeit a much less punishing experience this time around. The game Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit is probably most inspired by Mega Man 2, with a similar level select screen, as well as movement and attacking. Unlike its predecessors, which had levels that were themed around the tropes of the terrible games The Nerd has reviewed in the past, this game’s levels are themed a bit more around the terrible games themselves.
Speziman—based on the infamous Pepsiman—has The Nerd blasting his way through a soda factory, fighting crazed robots. Festerdrome is a bit of a mix of several horror tropes, but most notably the Castlevania, culminating in a boss fight with a horrifying mix of Uncle Fester and the Technodrome. And while each level isn’t particularly long, they are fairly robust, giving players alternative paths to progress through each one and keep things interesting.
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit has some interesting ideas, namely with how it handles power-ups. The Nerd can increase the firepower of his NES Zapper by collecting temporary power-ups found throughout the level or gained randomly from killing enemies. Every power-up will increase the damage and shot pattern of the Zapper; however, if The Nerd takes damage, he’ll drop one power point and need to pick it up before it disappears.
It creates an interesting dynamic in how you approach both gaining upgrades throughout each level and how you take damage. Dropping a point in an unsafe location may not be worth the added risk of regaining the firepower, but taking the chance might spell the difference between victory and defeat during a boss fight. Of course, The Nerd can find sub-weapons throughout each level, like a screen-clearing F-Bomb, empty beer bottles to throw like Simon Belmont’s Axes, or a rage-inducing middle finger.
“Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit has some interesting ideas, namely with how it handles power-ups.”
Like I alluded to above, Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit is far less punishing than its predecessors. While both Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures were certainly playable, it definitely felt like causing players to react like The Nerd was part of the design philosophy—particularly where insta-kill death blocks were concerned. Here, levels feel much more balanced and completeable.
They’ve got that retro challenge, but in the fun way that games like Mega Man 2 or Contra used to have. Plus, similar to Super Mario 3D Land, if players die on a stage multiple times, they’re given an optional Golden Sh*t Pickle sub-weapon which summons The Nerd’s pooey pal for the rest of the stage—clearing enemies and making the experience more manageable.
Visually, Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit looks incredible. It captures the aesthetic of the NES impeccably with its limited colour palette and block pixelated characters. It might be debatable if this is a true 8-bit, because it certainly feels like an upgrade from what the NES was capable of, but the fact that this game is releasing as an actual NES cartridge means it needed to nail the look and feel of an old-school game—and it does.
In the audio department, Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit has an absolutely rockin’ soundtrack. Retroware and Programancer absolutely crushed it with chunky 8-bit tracks that perfectly fit the mood and theme of each level while maintaining an intense and exciting atmosphere. The sound effects mirror those of classic NES games, and more than a few had me thinking, “Wait, is that from Ghosts and Goblins?” Also, hearing The Nerd’s compressed, bitcrushed scream of “ASS!” will never not be charming as heck.
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit is both a loving tribute to The Angry Video Game Nerd—as a character and a series—and an incredibly well-made, incredibly fun game. This game is liquid gold comin’ out of a cartridge! This game is as appealing as an effin’ chocolate cake covered with rainbow sprinkles! I’ve had more fun playing with this than with any other game! It freaking rules, it reaking fules, it’s a great game…and I like it.
