Angry Video Game (PC)

Everyone knows James Rolfe or also known as Angry Video Gaming Nerd from long time. While i only know about him from several years ago and i start to watch his video from 3 months ago. Yes, i'm so outdated. What i like from his video: 'snarky criticism' part or illustration part where is enchanted by sophisticated photoshop editing. But i dislike his swearing or his talking that is related to excrement or other disgusting things. I know it's his trademark but i just don't like vulgar swearing. I have to admit that he can bend his lips downward much wider than me. Perhaps, that's indication that i'm still positive guy. Anyway, today i will review one of the games based on him. It was Eric Ruth's The Angry Video Game (2008).

Here's the title screen. I reckon the logo is almost correct. Letter's border on 'Nerd' should be black instead of grey and the nerve/vein expression of anger should be in red instead of white. While the nerd's hair should be in red-brown instead of black. There's line more or less like "Who thought about make a game about me? What were they thinking?" by the man himself. Yes. Mr. James voices commentaries in the game according to Readme.txt and end-game credit. The game said "press start". But there's no start button in my keyboard. Luckily pressing enter is considered by the game, fine.     

The stage 1 is Rock 'n' Roll city. What a great name for city. Imagine that the city is filled with Rock n Roll music all day and night. But watch out for occasion rocks that roll around the streets. At least you can have free sweet roll every Sunday morning and 40% discount on 'any drink on the rock (which mean drink with ice cube on it)' on Friday-Saturday night.

 

AVG is platformer game, the most common of basic game. The control is:

·        'W' button for up direction. But during my playthrough it does nothing like make jump higher or something and there's no ladder to climb

·        'A' button to move left and 'D' button to move right

·        'S' button to roll and you must hold it to stay rolling

·        'H' button to throw bottle in low elevation and shallow arc

·        'U' button to throw bottle in bigger arc

·        'I' button to jump

With control keys explained, you should know how the game works. Nerd must moves to the end of stage while dealing with hazards and enemies. As the stage takes place on top of buildings, the chasm between buildings serve as insta-kill pit. Also the enemies in this game will try to "Ninja Gaiden" trick on Nerd. So far the enemies are blimp that drop bombs, and cannon that reminds me of the one in old windows game "BangBang". By the way, you can pause the game by pressing 'Enter' button.

 

If the ground is high enough, nerd can throws bottles at the blimp like this. That exclamation mark icon serves as health refill item. Exclamation mark is often related with anger. And as you all know, nerd is fueled by anger. Therefore the icon is angry boost. That's my theory behind why the icon replenish his health.

 

I mentioned before about rolling and here's what looks like. Nerd become a spinning ball more like Samus Aran can do in Super Metroid, than sensible rolling that ordinary human do. This move makes his hit spot slightly smaller but he can't attack while doing this.

 

Then there's this walking box with red fish on top of it. Strange enemy design. But it's surely trademark staple enemy on this game like Goomba in Mario Bros series or Met in Megaman series.

 

Then here comes the first boss: helicopter guitar. Whether it's manned or automatic no one know except Eric Ruth himself. It relentlessly shoot diagonal left-down so nerd will be safe in right corner. But watch out for 3 bombs that drop in random spots. The boss can takes lots of hit. But again have you try destroy a chopper with beer bottles?

 

Next stage is Magic Shark Land home of the magic sharks. I heard they're extinct due to war between them and walrus-whale force. No one can stop the force of double w of sea!

 

So far no shark. Only this robotic fishes that swim slowly and keep moving their lips as if mumbling "the f word" over and over. Nerd comments that "Lucky that the bottles work on water". I more concern on how Nerd can breathes underwater. Also being in underwater, doesn't make his jump floaty or do it multiple time.

 

Then there's this cannon pillar that reminds me Bone Head in Castlevania only with torpedo instead of fireball.

I didn't know that Akatsuki hates nerd so bad that she opens fire immediately at him.  

The boss stage is a submarine shark that replace the magic sharks to inhabit this place. It shoots 2 torpedoes often in elevation where nerd can't jump over or roll under them. Then there's cannon periodically shoots at him. On top of that, the boss can turns invincible for a moment indicated by thin red aura around it. You can imagine how difficult this boss fight. Here i lost my first life. Speaking of dying.

 

If nerd lose a life, he's immediately buried in shallow grave. I reckon many game do this. But in this game only, the tombstone has "the f word" written on it. I censored it to make this site more family-friendly, you see!    

Luckily, nerd respawns at the mid-level. Checkpoint existence is confirmed. By the way, this is how he plays 'minesweeper'.

The 2nd attempt on the boss is success and i got 2 1ups along the way. Despite of its advantages there, it doesn't have high durability unlike the 1st boss. As victory celebration, nerd drink his beer even underwater! Quite weird.

 

Not graveyard? Good. I very hate graveyard. 

 

This level introduce you to insta-kill pit with constant bone throw. A kin to lava pool with fireball in Super Mario Bros. As you expect from spooky place, there's ghosts. You think with intangible body, beer bottles will pass through them painlessly. But, no. They can be hurt with bottle as well as other enemies in this game.    

 

Then there's the coffee cup. It takes dozens of hits. More durable than cannon or ghost. Nerd commented that the coffee cup is like the one in Genesis's Ghostbuster. There's another relation with the show. 

 

This time the boss stage is bouncing giant skull that wears pink bowtie to make the game more family-friendly or funny. You can try to chase it but there's chance that you will be knocked into these pits. So my solution is: stay on left corner while try hitting it and it works well.

 

I have no idea what's that mean. Are we going to high place?

 

Well, it's high. We're in the sky. Nerd comments about him being Rocketeer. I make a comment related to Rocketeer too on previous article. But here's the twist: i never watch the movie. I just saw its poster picture of it: a soldier wearing strange helmet and jetpack. Since then i keep refer every jetpack soldier as Rocketeer. Anyway the game change to horizontal shooter like my previous article. You can only shoot straight by pressing 'H' button. While other action button become useless.     

 

Here's the 1up icon as simple as you can get: an icon with the protag's head. There's neon bulbs that emits small orbs constantly. They can be hard to dodge especially if there's lots of bulb at one part. And the bulbs can't be destroyed. Great! -_-

The boss stage is 3 cannons with tiger skin pattern. The safest spot to deal with everything in this screen is bottom center just like i demonstrate here. Start defeating the lowest segment of the boss and then move slightly up and so on.   

 

The name of next stage is something-something sewer. Even Nerd is confused about it.

 

Nerd comments that he can survive under sewer's water why teenage mutant ninja turtle in NES game, can't. That makes sense. Oh! And there's roaches with caterpillar track as their leg, scuttle along the walls. Don't ignore that one!

Then Inazuma attacks Nerd which is reasonable as he sunk her sister. Now that i think about it. That makes Nerd: the destroyer of destroyer. Sounds badblood!

 

There's the time when a mechanical mouse pushes Nerd down in sewer tunnel. How unhealthy!

The boss stage is giant spider that have caterpillar track as its back legs. It moves so fast from ceiling and withdraw in random elevation. Quite often it's beyond attack's reach. While moving it throws its spiderlings quickly too. Therefore this boss is difficult to hit and its attack is difficult to dodge. So far, this is the most atrocious boss fight. Luckily it doesn't take lots of hit to defeat.  

 

Underwater drinking is weird enough. Now, Nerd drink inside sewage water. Disgusting! I love the effect on water surface though.

 

Pain and train are rhythmic. Also they remind me of this nice looking violent weapon.

 

This stage introduces you to this pesky flying turret. More often than not, it flies outside of bottle throw and yet able to shoot Nerd as it pleases. Heavy_negativevocalization04.wav

 

Then there's bouncing tire comes at Nerd. It reminds me of the one in Paperboy but Nerd doesn't comment that as he's too busy to throw bottles at the tire even though it can't be destroyed.

I forget to tell you that there's solid sign 'boss' before boss fight screen. Except the sewer level. It's only small scribble on the wall.

 

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...

...plane of course. Bombing one with open cockpit to be more accurate. This is another boss that can be hard to hit. Besides flying fast, it will flies in random height that quite often out of range of bottle throw. Each time it finishes dropping bombs, it flies on background which mean you have to wait before you can hit it again and that's irritating. But on the other hand, it gives you breather before it attacks.

 

That's certainly pun version of 'Castlevania'. I have feeling that this stage will be good.

Well there's walking armor. It tries to pretend to be background decoration. But you can detect it by throwing bottle at it, of course.

 

AARGH! It's another flying turrets! I hate them.

 

Then coffee cups make return too. And the tire. Can't see it? It's camouflaged near armor statue on the right.

 

As you can probably guess that the tire can only be seen by the shiny part. I try make Nerd avoid it by rolling and it works and it's amusing to see.

The boss is the mechanized spider again. But this time, it's faster and has smoke around it. I'll be honest the stage is a let-down. Or at least not fulfill my expectation.

 

Next stage is in space! So it's going to be horizontal shooter again, huh?

 

Yes it is. Moreover it's same thing to deal: green alien on UFO, cannons, and neon bulbs. The only new thing are just the decorations. By the way, Nerd comment that he will get sick if he really goes to outer space.

 

The boss stage is giant purple Krang, according to Nerd's commentary. It attacks Nerd by whipping its tentacle. There's also laser barrier that come from 4 spots and with random pattern. It can only get damaged when the eye is open. With the laser barriers, tentacles, the eye opens up briefly plus it moves up and down. It's very hard to hit the boss.

 

But Nerd will be guaranteed safe if he's in this left part of the screen. His chance to hit the boss, is minimum, But better safe than risk Nerd's life for a slight probability to get hit the boss better. Did i mention this is the final stage because it is. So no wonder the final boss is very hard to hit. At least it didn't need many clear hit to deal with.

 

By finishing the game you got congratulation from the game...

...and then this 19-seconds video plays. Nerd (again) can't believe someone make a game about him. Then he comments that the game is nonsense, ridiculous and he hates it. Did you expect more spectacular ending? Well, too bad.

 

Then credits role. They fit on one screen only. Kind of appreciate that. But not the last line. It consist of short version of words without space. On top of that, the word 'playing' lacks of 'g' letter. Spy_negativevocalization03.wav

 

Oh, hey! There's Kyle Justin, the behind-the-couch guitarman.

Eric Ruth's The Angry Video Game (2008) is 2D platformer game that is quite generic but has distinct feature especially playing as the Nerd but without any further on AVGN theme. My main interest point in this game: choosing between high or low throw on how to deal with lesser enemies. While other platformer game like Megaman (which is the inspiration of this game), grants the player with standard straight shoot. I can tell that the game is kind of bloated with almost repetitive enemies and no new mechanic introduce in further stage for Nerd except changing the genre to horizontal shooter. But it's tolerable as the game is made by one person. The game doesn't have time limit so you can venture the stage carefully. Because of password's or in-game save absence, you can only finish this game in one sitting. But sometime it's fairly generous on 1-up. The graphic is good in retro style. Same goes to music although some part can be either "rough" or "piercing". The game can be finished within an hour and an half.

Lastly i want to conclude the article with Nerd's style kind of but in the opposite way as i like the game: I would rather play this game than throw dozens bottles at giant mechanical spider. Not cool, huh? Anyway, i can recommend you to play this game. While there's not much replayability value, i like to play this game again for likes 3-4 platformer stages for the interesting yet challenging part of the gameplay: bottle throwing. Besides it's illegal to throw away bottles at everything in real life, you know?