History AVGN / Tropes0ToG

* BilingualBonus: The Nerd discusses in one ''Transformers'' episode that the game's title (''VideoGame/TransformersConvoyNoNazo'') "translates to 'Mystery of Optimus Prime'", which kind of makes sense, given that Prime's Japanese name is referred to in the title as "Convoy", and the Japanese game's box cover title is also referred to in English as ''The Transformers: Mystery of Convoy'' (Or "Co'''m'''voy" as it's actually spelled, due to a now-archaic quirk of Japanese that 'm' and 'n' are interchangeable at the end of syllables)[[note]]The titular ''Mystery'' refers to the identity of Prime's murderer, as the 1986 [[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie Transformers film]] didn't see a Japanese release for another four years[[/note]].

** The Aladdin Deck Enhancer video has the Nerd watching a video by WebVideo/TheGamingHistorian on the device while trying to figure out how to get it working. At the end of the review as the Nerd wishes for all Deck Enhancers to explode, we get even more cameos including the likes of Rerez, [[WebVideo/TheHappyVideoGameNerd Stop Skeletons From Fighting]] and of course, Gaming Historian himself as their respective Deck Enhancers go boom.

* CausticCritic: Note that this is very much just the Nerd's exaggerated persona - when James reviews media as himself, he's actually more generous than most Internet critics. He is apparently rather soft-spoken, which comes as a shock to people used to him as the AVGN. Contrast with WebVideo/TheHappyVideoGameNerd, who inverts James' concept and even has gotten James' seal of approval -- by subscribing to Happy's Website/YouTube account.

--->'''Nerd:''' Anyone who wants to get far in this game, my rules are: Number one: Get the knife. Number two: Get the knife. Number three: '''Get''' the knife!

--->'''Nerd:''' Anyone who wants to get far in this game, my rules are: number one: get the knife, number two: get the knife, number three: [[PunctuatedForEmphasis ''get'' the knife]]!

** {{Subverted|Trope}} when it comes to Atari 2600 games. The Nerd is a lot more lenient towards covering Atari games considering the lack of of technological resources and the inexperience of most designers making video games at the time. That means that there's not really much to say other than if a game sucks or not so he usually doesn't devote whole episodes to it unless there's a specific reason to it like in his ''Halloween'' and ''Atari Sports'' videos.

** In ''Halloween'' The Frankenstein Monster comes to life and grows in size until it exits the TV screen and enters the room, leading the Nerd to use a Super Scope to blast it.

** Mentions of "the Poopie Man" in the ''Halloween'' review.

* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: Discussed and parodied in his Atari 2600 ''Halloween'' episode wherein he plays ''Haunted House'', an Atari game where a character is a person wandering a dark house with only their eyes visible.

* MediaNotes/ConsoleWars: Discussed at great length in "SNES VS. Sega Genesis," including a video of himself as an 11-year-old fighting for the Nintendo side.

* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: In his review of ''VideoGame/{{Polybius}}'', he mentions how 90% of anything posted on the internet is complete bullshit.

** An inadvertent one: in the "Wii Salute" video, which portrays a silly re-enactment of the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars using the real consoles as props, a simple picture of a Sega Saturn is used instead of a real one, with an accompanying caption explaining that the Nerd (and by extension, James) doesn't own a Saturn. The opening sequence of the next episode has a quick bit showing that, in between episodes, ''four different people'' sent him a Saturn!

* UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars: Discussed at great length in "SNES VS. Sega Genesis," including a video of himself as an 11-year-old fighting for the Nintendo side.

* GagSub: In the ''VideoGame/{{Polybius}}'' review, if subtitles are turned on during the [[spoiler:JumpScare at the end of the video]], a bunch of numbers appears in the subtitles despite nobody speaking. They can be translated to the following using a Polybius square:

* AnAesop: Making games is hard; a game's poor quality may not have been due to developer incompetence, but external factors that they may have no control over, such as strict deadlines or developer crunch. You may never know what the game designers may have been going through at the time.
** Mentioned briefly in the Franchise/StarTrek episode, where the Nerd spares the game from his usual destruction when he thinks about how the developers behind it must've did the best they could under their given circumstances.
** {{Deconstructed}} in the Episode 200 LJN marathon. As the Nerd attempts to direct a remake of their NES adaptation of Film/BackToTheFuture1, putting himself in the developers' shoes by working under the same restraints, he slowly finds out just how hard it is to make a fully polished game. After [[ItMakesSenseInContext spiraling down the LJN rainbow of despair and hallucinating a clone of himself lambasting his own game]], he soon comes to realize that perhaps he's been too harsh on the games that he's covered, walking up to his shelf and forgiving them individually (except for [[VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES Jekyll and Hyde]].)
** In his review of ''The Last Ninja'', he briefly mentions how each game is made under certain circumstances, and that one may never know what the game designers were experiencing during development.

* AchievementsInIgnorance: He somehow manages to get ''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing'' to run on a UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}.

** In ''DOOM'' he says he already reviewed ''DOOM'' on UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar during his Atari Jaguar (Part 2) episode. He proceeds to insert a clip from that episode.

** The Nerd parodied the commercials for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis in his "Sega Genesis Vs. [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]]" video. In his commercial, the Nerd is playing a SNES until an announcer says, "Hey, kid! You still playing Super Nintendo? Look what Sega Genesis has got!" After a montage of Sega Genesis games is shown to rock music, the announcer says "And Super Nintendo has got this." and shows a clip of Baby Mario crying in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland''.
** The UsefulNotes/SegaCD review opens with a parody of a real ad for the system, in which a black man appears on a dimwitted kid's TV and says "Hey! You ''still'' don't own a Sega CD? What are you waiting for, ''Nintendo'' [[UsefulNotes/{{SNESCDROM}} to make one]]? You ''have'' seen the games, ''right''?" before blasting the kid with fast-paced clips from the Sega CD's library. In the parody, both characters are played by the Nerd (with the black man receiving a RaceLift as a result).

* ContinuityPorn: The dream sequence in the ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' review is fueled by this. [[spoiler:The Nerd finds himself in his own version of Magicant where he comes face-to-face with the destroyed copy of ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIII'', [[VideoGame/DoubleDragon Bimmy]], the trucker from the fake ''[[VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing Big Rigs]]'' commercial, and even the cluster of shit from his ''UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar'' review. Other brief character cameos include the Glitch Gremlin, [[Franchise/{{Batman}} the Joker]] and [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Cowardly Lion]] (as played by Mike Matei), [[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]], Shit Pickle, [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]], and the ninja from the ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' review, to name a few]].

* CoverVersion: His ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' review features Kyle Justin performing a cover of the Nintendo Power jingle and the beginning of his "Double Vision" (UsefulNotes/{{Colecovision}} & UsefulNotes/{{Intellivision}}) review, Kyle does a cover of Music/{{Foreigner|Band}}'s "Double Vision." The Angry Video Game Nerd's theme has also been covered and remixed by fans of the series countless times in nearly every single genre of music.

--->"It's another 2D shooter. You know what? This would be okay... for UsefulNotes/Atari2600. The only two controls are move and shoot. This game was made in 1991, the same year UsefulNotes/SuperNES came out. Not to mention, if you wanna play a good 2D side-scroller game on the UsefulNotes/{{NES}}, try fucking ''VideoGame/LifeForce''."

** Then he gets to the Tiger Wrist Games, which he is incredulous to even existing. And then he gets to the Tiger R-Zone, which he says with utter seriousness that it is a shitty version of the UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy.

** When the Nerd couldn't get his UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar CD add-on to work, he sent it to Richard Daluz, the guy who invented the Nintoaster[[note]]An NES inside a toaster housing[[/note]] and the Super Genintari[[note]]A composite system that plays NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and Atari 2600 games[[/note]]. Even '''''HE''''' couldn't get it to work. This was his report:

---> "To play the game, you need the ''UsefulNotes/GameBoy''. Here's the game, that's the boy, this is the Game Boy."

** ''Film/{{Waterworld}}''? He's not a fan of it. Finding out that there's a ''Waterworld'' game on UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy, which he already hates? Once again, "it's like puking on a pile of shit!"

** {{Inverted|Trope}} and played straight in the 2013 Wish List episode: when the fans asked him to review the bad ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games, his response was simply: "What bad Sonic games?" Still, he did take a look at some less-than-favorable Sonic games, like ''VideoGame/SonicBlast'', ''VideoGame/SonicLabyrinth'', ''VideoGame/SonicR'', ''VideoGame/SonicShuffle'', and ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog''. In reality, James Rolfe said the last Sonic game he played was ''VideoGame/SonicRush'', which he enjoyed.

** In ''Commodore 64'' he is impressed by how the Commodore 64 port of ''VideoGame/StreetFighter2'' has the same graphics as the arcade version since that is what is pictured on the box. He later finds that the game is [[PortingDisaster a horribly made port]] and that they used screenshots grabbed from the arcade version to hide that fact.