Angry Video Game Nerd

The Angry Video Game Nerd is the reviewer character created by James Rolfe and is considered by many Internet fans to be the original pioneer of the snarky, caustic Internet reviewer that would eventually blossom in online videos. He was originally called the Angry Nintendo Nerd but changed it to avoid trademark issues and subsequently began reviewing games from other video consoles. The Nerd's videos have been published on multiple sites, including cinemassacre.com, screwattack.com and gametrailers.com.

James Rolfe had been making videos and movies since his youth in the late 1980s, but it was the viral release of his reviews of bad NES games the catapulted his stardom. The first AVGN review covered Castlevania II for the original NES, where the Nerd pointed out the multiple flaws in the game, mainly due to the poor translation from the original Japanese game. His next video, reviewing the NES game adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was expected to be his last because it was the worst game Rolfe had ever played. However, he continued to make more videos and posted them on his website, cinemassacre.com. Mike Matai created a YouTube channel for Rolfe's videos in 2006; in the following months, videos like his review of the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game had gone viral and been mentioned on MTV and the Opie and Anthony radio show. The increased popularity drove him to make subsequent videos longer and more detailed, complete with an opening title sequence and theme song created by Kyle Justin.

Some time after his fourth YouTube posting, Rolfe's show was given a spot on ScrewAttack's website, and Rolfe got a job making the videos for MTV's GameTrailers.

The Angry Video Game Nerd's most notable characteristics have been dressing in stereotypical Poindexter clothing with white button-down shirts and horn-rimmed glasses, drinking Rolling Rock beer and lashing out extreme profanity laced tirades toward the bad games he reviews. Many of the games he has reviewed have been those published by LJN Toys, whose video game became infamous among gamers for poor play and other flaws (although the games were actually developed by Rare).