History Heartwarming / TheAngryVideoGameNerd

* The 100th Episode ends with him [[spoiler:hugging all his shitty games, having fought for them beforehand. To top it off, the last shot of the review is that of ''Simon's Quest'', which reminds us where it all began.]]
** To elaborate, ROB [[spoiler: tells him that he aims to destroy every bad game, except for Gyromite and Stack Up. The Nerd realizes that all his troubles will be over...but he decides to stop ROB anyway.]]
** On top of this, [[spoiler: the memory to suddenly snap him back to life and make him realize he doesn't want the shitty games to be gone is his first ever on-screen appearance when first reviewing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a game he's repeatedly said is among the absolute worst ever made and had driven him to Hyde-esque madness upon reviewing it a second time.]]

* The Schwarzenegger games review has a genuinely sad moment near the end of the video when you see for a brief second [[spoiler:the skeleton of the Guitar Guy behind the Nerd's couch]]. While sad in itself, if you examine the shot close enough, [[spoiler:You'll see that the guitar that he is holding is intact, and is also located behind the Nerd's ''new'' futon, both previous ones who were broken during his last appearance. This implies that the Nerd actually went ahead and bought new ones for him before he died]].
* His absolute glee after beating Ghosts and Goblins, the very first NES game he ever played, and in turn, the one he had been trying to beat the longest. [[spoiler:[[MoodWhiplash Then he finds out]] [[NotSoFast you have to beat the game twice in a row]] [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle to complete it.]]]]

* From ''Ikari Warriors.'' The Nerd revives the [[spoiler: Guitar Guy]] so he has a second player. He starts out in a pretty bad mood, but it doesn't take long for him and the Nerd to be cracking jokes and just hanging out like best friends. The best part would have to be the Nerd struggling to not crack up when [[spoiler: Guitar Guy starts obsessively singing about the 'Scrotum Guns.']]
** Also TheStinger, which takes the form of a {{Blooper}} in which [[spoiler:Guitar Guy sings the "Scrotum Guns" song. The Nerd [[{{Corpsing}} corpses]] and loses his shit. You can also hear [[WebVideo/JamesAndMikeMondays Mike Matei]] laughing in the background! It's genuinely nice to see some old friends just having fun and laughing at a stupid game.]]

* The Nerd [[spoiler:announces his retirement from making videos, believing his mission to warn the world about shitty games to be a failure]] due to the fact that the ''Desert Bus'' exists, people are playing it, and someone even made an Atari 2600 version of it. The entire episode is [[TearJerker heartrending]] until he then plays a romhack of ''Simon's Quest'' that for the most part fixes all of his complaints with the original game, which is enough to [[spoiler:lift his spirits and [[TenMinuteRetirement cancel his retirement]]]] since he did make a difference after all. It cheers him up so much in fact, that he declares he has to do something [[BigDamnMovie bigger than he's ever done before]].

* The short scene with James and Kyle watching and laughing at all the nerd theme song remixes at the end of the TheWizard review intro.

* Episode 156 had the Nerd play VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} and unlike the times where he's raging or fuming, he's actually ''surprisingly calm'' and spent most of the time praising the game's quirky nature and innovations, but still presented genuine arguments about certain mechanics that were frustrating. Considering the amount of torture the Nerd goes through, it's pretty endearing to see him ''enjoy a game''.
** Add to that, he also rips into the argument that the game flopped due to the infamous Nintendo Power ads, stating how is it ''that'' ruined whatever success ''Earthbound'' would have had if the [=90s=] were ''all about gross-out humor''.
** His theory that Buzz Buzz [[ExtyYearsFromNow arriving in Onett from ten years in the future]] represents the spirit of the players who discovered ''Earthbound'' a decade after it had [[AcclaimedFlop flopped in North America.]]

* The ''Franchise/MegaMan'' episode has the talk between 2004 Nerd and his present self. The past Nerd claims that the indefinite hiatus of the ''Mega Man'' games is actually a good thing because [[FranchiseZombie just making games for the sake of consumer demand only leads to shit.]] Still, Present Nerd misses ''Mega Man'', and asks what Past Nerd would do if he had a series. He replies by saying you can't do the same thing or else it gets stale, "but sometimes, it's good to bring it back." What makes it heartwarming is that this is clearly James Rolfe addressing the audience regarding his ScheduleSlip and accusations of a perceived drop in quality or his lack of interest in the series.

* The Scwarzenegger games review has a genuinely sad moment near the end of the video when you see for a brief second [[spoiler:the skeleton of the Guitar Guy behind the Nerd's couch]]. While sad in itself, if you examine the shot close enough, [[spoiler:You'll see that the guitar that he is holding is intact, and is also located behind the Nerd's ''new'' futon, both previous ones who were broken during his last appearance. This implies that the Nerd actually went ahead and bought new ones for him before he died]].

* When the Nerd finally plays BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing, one of the most notoriously bad games of all time...he actually has the time of his life, driving through buildings and up walls, and discovering a new glitch every few seconds. He's dumbfounded at how the game managed to get released, but he actually manages to have a good time with one of the worst games ever made.

* The moment in the Independence Day episode where the Nerd admits that he would rather be playing Top Gun on the NES, and that at least that game had nostalgia value.
-->'''Nerd''': Top Gun may be a piece of shit, but it's a piece of shit I might just have some affection for.

** And a Heartwarming in Hindsight moment: one of the games that he's seen hugging at the end is ''GhostsAndGoblins'', the ''very first NES game James ever played.''

* The outtakes for the Atari Jaguar episode has thirty seconds dedicated to Boo the Death Kitty just doings his thing and being the cute and adorable kitty he is.

* After the passing of Jack Friedman, the founder of LJN, James posted a brief but sincere tribute thanking him for the games that made so many AVGN episodes possible, revealing that there were never any hard feelings towards the company behind-the-scenes despite all the insults the Nerd hurls at it on camera.

* The Scwarzenegger games review has a genuinely sad moment near the end of the video when you see for a brief second [[spoiler:the skeleton of the Guitar Guy behind the Nerd's couch]]. While sad in itself, if you examine the shot close enough, [[spoiler:You'll see that the guitar that he is holding is intact, and is also located behind the Nerd's ''new'' futon, both previous ones who were broken during his last appearance. This implies that the Nerd atually went ahead and bought new ones for him before he died]].

* At the end of his "Seaman" review, he includes a "Dedicated to Leonard Nimoy" title, who provided the narration for the game, and passed away months earlier.

* After reviewing the LJN Video Art in his ''Twelve Days of SHITSMas'', The Nerd gives a speech about how the stuff we hate we end up giving worth, and even says he hopes the fans are having a good holiday, and even if they aren't, he hopes they had a good laugh or chuckle. It feels as if it's James giving the speech.

* His absolute glee after beating Ghosts and Goblins, the very first NES game he ever played, and in turn, the one he had been trying to beat the longest. [[spoiler:[[MoodWhiplash Then he finds out you have to beat the game twice in a row to complete it.]]]]

* The "Contra Memories" review, where James speaks independently of his "Nerd" character and tells the story of his first time he beat ''{{Contra}}''. He talks about how the ending of any game was a lot more special back then due to [[NintendoHard games in general being harder]], not being able to look up the ending on the internet, and [[NothingIsScarier not even knowing what the game's villain and/or last boss]] ''[[NothingIsScarier is]]'' [[NothingIsScarier exactly]]. He actually finished the game in the morning before school one day, with his parents watching, and he apparently still tells people [[BadassBoast "I beat Contra before breakfast!"]] Seeing James do a nice, positive review praising a game and seeing him fondly look back on his childhood like this is not exactly funny like the other reviews, but definitely adorable and "aww"-inducing.

* From ''Ikari Warriors.'' The Nerd revives the [[spoiler: Guitar Guy]] so he has a second player. He starts out in a pretty bad mood, but it doesn't take long for him and the Nerd to be cracking jokes and just hanging out like best friends. The best part would have to be the Nerd struggling to to crack up when [[spoiler: Guitar Guy starts obsessively singing about the 'Scrotum Guns.']]