History YMMV / TheHappyVideoGameNerd

* EightPointEight: He caught some flak for calling the infamous ''Series/CharliesAngels'' [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames video game]] "not that bad" despite the fact that he stopped playing the game right in the middle of a GameBreakingBug that loops you through the ship level endlessly and renders the game {{Unwinnable}}.
* {{Adorkable}}: Derek, especially when he {{squee}}s over the games he reviews.
-->First up, let's get ''dangerous'', with good ol' [[WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck DW]], the KING of Disney cartoon cool!
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: At the beginning of his ''Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers'' review he sings the theme song to the show in his own style.
* BrokenBase: His ''VideoGame/YookaLaylee'' review. Either you agree with Derek and feel the game wasn't worth all the hype and that it was seriously undermined, or you feel it's overly pessimistic from someone as usually optimistic as him and that he was letting his own disappointment cloud his judgement and that the game is NOWHERE near as bad as he says. This is also not helped that he played it on the [=PS4=], which was seen as PortingDisaster when it was first released.
* CriticalResearchFailure:
** In his second look at ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', he calls Pious Augustus a "badass Spartan dude" when the game directly says that he's a Roman centurion.
** He doubts that the failure of ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' was because of the infamous "Because this game stinks" ads, citing (among other things) "the popularity of ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' (...) at the time". ''[=EarthBound=]'' was released in North America in 1995, but the first ''Captain Underpants'' book didn't come out until 1997.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: "TOP TEN NES [=BooBS=]!!" is stupid, juvenile and possibly even offensive, but still hilarious once it gets to the breast cancer part and goes completely off the rails.
* HeartwarmingInHindsight: His ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' review had Derek bemoaning on how the game may never see a re-release despite vocal fan support for the game due to copyright issues. In 2013 however, ''Earthbound'' was released on the UsefulNotes/WiiU Virtual Console and became the best-selling game at the time. Then in 2015, ''VideoGame/Mother1'' also saw a North American release under "Earthbound Beginnings". Derek himself acknowledged in the comment section how his video has gotten old.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: The first two minutes of his review for ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', all accompanied by the iconic completed melody of the Sound Stone. Also doubles as a TearJerker. If you [[http://retrowaretv.com/happy-video-game-nerd-earthbound/ watch this]], prepare to have a difficult time holding back tears...
--> '''Derek''': Earthbound ''is not just one of the greatest RPG's of all time. And Earthbound is not just one of the greatest games on the Super Nintendo. Earthbound is quite simply'' one of the greatest games ever made.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** His ''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}}'' retrospective ends with him begging for a remake. Guess what came out in 2010?
*** Not just that, in the first game retrospective, he starts asking a few questions about how and what happened in the story, in the 2010 game, most of the questions are actually answered.
** In his review of ''VideoGame/WildGuns'', he says "What's better than cowboys and Indians? Cowboys and ''robots'', that's what!". [[Film/CowboysAndAliens Not too far off from that]]...
** At the end of his review of the Franchise/{{Castlevania}} UsefulNotes/GameBoy Trilogy he expressed doubts about the direction Creator/{{Konami}} was taking the franchise in and proposed that "maybe we don't need Konami", suggesting that perhaps someone could take the series to crowd funding in the same way ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'' tried to take the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series out of Creator/{{Capcom}}'s [[VideoGame/MegaMan11 then-negligent hands]], as well as taking the opportunity to replace the series' rather goofy name with something new. [[VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight It was almost SCARILY prophetic]]...
* SoBadItsGood:
** One of the reasons he likes ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' is because of the {{Retraux}} cover, amongst other things; he even uses the phrase "So Bad It's Good" when talking about the game.
** He also used the phrase in his review of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuest''.
* TearJerker: The first two minutes of his review for ''[[VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} EarthBound]]''. Also doubles as a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}. If you [[http://retrowaretv.com/happy-video-game-nerd-earthbound/ watch this]], prepare to have a difficult time holding back tears...
** The extended version is more heart wrenching in a meta example since he revealed that he released his video 5 days before Starman.net revealed that Earthbound will not be on Virtual Console making his video. Making his more ambitious video void.
** At least it has a happy ending after all, with Earthbound finally making it to the Wii U.
----

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
** The first two minutes of his review for ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', all accompanied by the iconic completed melody of the Sound Stone. Also doubles as a TearJerker. If you [[http://retrowaretv.com/happy-video-game-nerd-earthbound/ watch this]], prepare to have a difficult time holding back tears...

** When he was the Happy Video Game Nerd, the fact that out of all the hundreds of rip-offs and homages to the [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd AVGN]] out there, Creator/JamesRolfe himself subscribed to him on Website/YouTube.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: His ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' review had Derek bemoaning on how the game may never see a re-release despite vocal fan support for the game due to copyright issues. In 2013 however, ''Earthbound'' was released on the UsefulNotes/WiiU Virtual Console and became the best-selling game at the time. Then in 2015, ''VideoGame/Mother1'' also saw a North American release under "Earthbound Beginnings". Derek himself acknowledged in the comment section how his video gotten old.

** He doubts that the failure of ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' was because of the infamous "Because this game stinks" ads, citing (among other things) "the popularity of ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' (...) at the time". ''[=EarthBound=]'' was released in North America in 1994, but the first ''Captain Underpants'' book didn't come out until 1997.

* BrokenBase: His ''VideoGame/YookaLaylee'' review. Either you agree with Derek and feel the game wasn't worth all the hype and that it was seriously undermined, or you feel it's overly pessimistic from someone as usually optimistic as him and that he was letting his own disappointment cloud his judgement and that the game is NOWHERE near as bad as he says. This is also not helped that he played it on the PS4, which was seen as PortingDisaster when it was first released.

* BrokenBase: His ''VideoGame/YookaLaylee'' review. Either you agree with Derek and feel the game wasn't worth all the hype and that it was seriously undermined, or you feel it's overly pessimistic from someone as usually optimistic as him and that he was letting his own disappointment cloud his judgement and that the game is NOWHERE near as bad as he says.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: His ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' review had Derek bemoaning on how the game may never see a re-release despite fan's vocal support for the game due to copyright issues. In 2013 however, ''Earthbound'' was released on the UsefulNotes/WiiU Virtual Console and became the best-selling game at the time. Then in 2015, ''VideoGame/Mother1'' also saw a North American release under "Earthbound Beginnings". Derek himself acknowledged in the comment section how his video gotten old.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: His ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' review had Derek bemoaning on how the game may never see a re-release despite fans strong desires for the game due to copyright issues. In 2013 however, ''Earthbound'' was released on the UsefulNotes/WiiU Virtual Console and became the best-selling game at the time. Then in 2015, ''VideoGame/Mother1'' also saw a North American release under "Earthbound Beginnings". Derek himself acknowledged in the comment section how his video gotten old.