It’s been nearly four years since Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit was teased in an episode of the short-lived Cinemassacre Podcast. Likewise, over twelve years have passed since the Nerd made his first official gaming appearances in AVGN Adventures and its 2016 sequel. Considering AVGN’s 20th YouTube Anniversary arrives next April, it feels very fitting that the site’s early years icon has finally made his return for his latest game.
As a longtime AVGN fan, I was excited when this game was finally announced earlier this year, and how fans reacted to early builds showcased at this year’s MAG Fest. As I kept my eye out for the game’s release date announcement, I could only wonder what James Rolfe and the devs at Mega Cat Studios had in mind for the fans. Would this game be easier than the previous Nerd installments, or be another challenging grind intentionally programmed to piss off the Nerd himself? The short answer: it’s a surprising/unexpected mix of both modern gaming’s relative accessibility and retro-inspired difficulty levels. But, let’s now dive in to the longer answer…
The Angriest Gamer You’ve Ever Heard…
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit starts off with a live action intro, which actually reminds me of Jack Black’s live action intro from the 2009 game Brutal Legend. Mankind has evolved over the course of millions of years to the point where everyone, including the titular foul-mouthed Nerd, plays video games worldwide. But the latest threat to gaming comes when Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 BC 4.0 Beta (SMDC2K 4.0! Beta B*tch) crashes the Nerd room out of nowhere, mysteriously infected with an unstable upgrade and poised to infect game consoles worldwide. And already, AVGN 8-bit is filled with plenty (but not too much) fan service, as the most eagle-eyed fans can spot references to past Nerd episodes. For the game intro itself, it’s a bit drawn out in terms of length (roughly six minutes) and maybe a bit corny, but it still looks like something out of an actual AVGN episode. Props to that infected NES console, looking like an abomination created by Superman villain Brainiac.
AVGN 8-bit does also come packed with some nice extra features for the presentation. There’s options to toggle a CRT filter for a more old-school look, adjusting the aspect ratio, as well as a welcome option to turn on/off the border graphics. I find it best to keep the border graphics on though. They actually are reminiscent of the border graphics when playing old Nintendo Game Boy games on TV using the SNES’s Super Game Boy accessory.
After choosing your difficulty level (a little more on this later), another live action cutscene plays where the Nerd gives a rundown on the game’s structure. From the get go, the player is already free to choose which level to play first. There’s six levels with one boss each, and they can be completed in any order you want before the final stage for the final boss gets unlocked. I happened to play Speziman/Soda Factory first, working through the game map clockwise.
Through each stage, the game offers a variety of enemies to encounter. Some enemies take multiple hits in order to take down, such as certain “piders/skullpiders” hanging from webs in Castle Spankenstein, the Terminator-looking robots from the Soda Factory, and the “Kicka Roo” in Turdo Tunnel. On the other hand, there are enemies like the “Sh*t Fly” also from the same stage, that die in one hit… but these flies in particular can get really annoying, especially when they auto respawn. Ah yes, the classic respawning enemies, and even certain enemies explode after defeating them. Keep on your toes and your eyes peeled for these guys.
You also have the ability to improve your zapper’s firepower by picking up more gun power, as well as pick up certain Nerd powerups along the way… like beer bottles to throw (and others to replenish your health) and the F-bomb to destroy all enemies on screen. In my gameplay though, I found it slightly disappointing that these powerups are not so frequently used, except for a middle finger powerup that gives you limited invincibility, but even that was used more more towards the middle/end of the game. Not to mention, there was one time where I shot down an enemy to get an extra life, but then it happened to get stuck inside a wall. Don’t you just love those *expletive* moments?
The Difficulty
Recalling that there’s a set of difficulty levels to choose from, it makes gauging the overall… difficulty of the game a bit trickier (no pun intended). I initially started off with the Normal difficulty, and was getting my rear end handed to me more frequently. If you’re a retro game enthusiast or raised during the old days, chances are, you may fair much better than me. Going down to the Chill as Hell difficulty, the game became tons easier to play through. For one thing, you take less damage from enemies. This is also true for if you fall down bottomless pits… but that’s not to say the easiest difficulty makes the game a complete cakewalk.
Even on the easiest difficulty, the boss fights in each stage can still take a few tries to clear. It still doesn’t help matters either when bosses like the Festerdrome keep throwing projectiles everywhere at certain times and making it feel nearly unavoidable to take damage. When it comes to areas before each boss, AVGN 8-bit still throws some frustrating obstacles. There’s this rainbow waterfall section in Airworld that really requires precise timing to get through. More precising platforming will be required to pass sections with bouncing and disappearing platforms.
Overall, your platforming skills and the difficulty level you choose will also affect how long it takes to complete each stage. It took me roughly 15-20 minutes to get through each stage, making the game fairly short in this regard. Needless to say, do expect the final boss to be the longest stage yet. I kind of wish the game had some more length, but the plus side of having a relatively short game is that AVGN 8-bit doesn’t necessarily need to be a Final Fantasy-caliber epic that takes weeks or months to complete. Also looking back to when I started AVGN 8-bit on Normal before going to Chill as Hell, I can’t imagine how much of a grindfest the game would be, had I played on Hard as Balls.
It’s also unexpected that regardless of difficulty, the player gets help from Sh*t Pickle if you’re on your last life, with him providing more health, powerups, and automatically homing down enemies including the bosses themselves. I would’ve thought this form of assistance would just be relegated to the easiest difficulty, but it’s still helpful for players exceptionally down on their luck.
AVGN Fan Service
One of the brightest aspects to Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit is all the fan service and playful references to the series the game makes. Longtime AVGN fans are most likely to appreciate all the Nerd references. Each stage is themed after a game or two that the Nerd has reviewed throughout the 20+ years of being on the internet (James Rolfe created the first Nerd episode in 2004, pre-dating YouTube). It’s somewhat weird that each stage on the select screen is named after their respective main boss, with the stage’s actual name revealed only after selecting it.
Speziman and the robots in Soda Factory are not only referencing the Terminator, but Speziman himself is a parody of the Japanese PS1 title Pepsi Man. The Festerdrome/Castle Spankenstein combines the Technodrome from the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game and Fester’s Quest. Airworld is a likely reference to the Atari 2600 Swordquest series and Top Gun. Even one of the the most infamous games that is owed to AVGN’s existence: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, has a stage themed after it and features a section mirroring the evil “Mr. Hyde” phase from the 1988 Nintendo title. Back to Airworld, it’s not only a unique stage where you ride a vehicle in the boss battle as opposed to standard on-the-ground platforming, but that F-14 Tomcat battle earned some delightful laughs from me after seeing that defeating the boss reenacts the many times the Nerd failed to land the plane on the aircraft carrier. Be sure to also pay attention to the dialogue preceding each stage… and that death screen though…
However, compared to AVGN Adventures, it’s a little disappointing that there’s no more Mike Matei as well as Kyle Justin’s Guitar Man. This is because of how both guys from the old “Cinemassacre Trio” as I like to call them, went their separate ways for various reasons. Still, just like in the actual web series, it’s something legitimate to imagine what AVGN 8-bit would be like if Mike and Kyle were still around. Though at least Mike Matei is listed in the end credits.
Wanna Listen To Some Tunes?
Outside of the OST being catchy 8-bit retro game music, I couldn’t find too much to comment about in regards to AVGN 8-bit’s soundtrack. This is in contrast to other video game soundtracks such as Astro Bot… or even Spyro the Dragon. Though it’s been five years since I played AVGN Adventures, I do find that Nerd game’s soundtrack a tad more memorable… but I do prefer AVGN 8-bit’s rendition of the Angry Video Game Nerd theme at the start menu. Even the stage selection music is an earworm. It was already running through my head as I wrote this review.
Although, a glaring aspect I did notice about the game’s soundtrack is one that continues the stream of AVGN fan service. No wonder why a certain melody in the F-14 Tomcat stage sounds familiar. I don’t know if it’s just me or if it was intentional over at Mega Cat… but a sample of F-14 Tomcat’s level theme kept reminding me of the music from the “ALF (Sega Master System)” AVGN episode. Kudos if this similarity is intentional. I would never think that ALF of all games would be a source of game music inspiration.
I also would like to quickly skip over and touch the end credits music. Boy is it a funky-sounding version of the Angry Video Game Nerd theme. Funky, but positive and uplifting nonetheless. It’s one thing that the Nerd once complained about Hydelide’s music being a rip-off of the Indiana Jones theme. It was another Nerd complaint that Superman 64’s menu used stock music instead of the actual Superman theme. But would AVGN 8-bit’s end credits theme be what you’d get if another game studio made their own Angry Video Game Nerd video game but couldn’t get the license for the actual theme (especially if done 40-something years ago)?
The Word of The Nerd (Conclusion)
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit is undeniably made for the fans. In fact, I’d go as far to say that it’s a must play if you’ve kept up with the Nerd over the years. The live action cutscenes and the action sequences look like they’re pulled straight from an AVGN episode on YouTube (or any of the series’ DVD/Blu-ray releases). There’s plenty of playful references to the long-running web series that especially longtimers will catch and enjoy, without the references being overdone. Even if you’re not a classically trained gamer who’s age make up the average gamer demographics, there’s still plenty of fun to have without the game being made too easy. Likewise, gamers who crave the heightened difficulty of retro games (compared to the more accessible modern gaming) still have that option to select.
Even if you happen to be not so familiar with AVGN, I still urge you not to gloss over Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit as another retro-inspired title in a lake of retro-inspired games like Shovel Knight or Undertale. After considering how long it’s been since both previous AVGN games AND a peculiar post-credits tease, there’s at the very least potential for another Nerd game to showcase callbacks to more AVGN-reviewed games, iconic moments, and other characters featured on the web series over the years.
AVGN 16-bit? AVGN 4-bit? AVGN The Wrist Game? How about a future title featuring some of the celebrity guests that’s been on the show, like the Pizza Boy? Alright, I may be overstretching with the last part. Bottom line: go add AVGN 8-bit to your own Nerd room/digital library. This game proves that the Nerd is still a lasting force on YouTube, aside from reaching 200+ episodes (228 to be exact).
The Review
Great
